Francesco Schettino was at the helm of the cruise ship Costa Concordia when it struck a rock off the coast of Tuscany in 2012. He abandoned ship – he claimed he accidentally fell into a lifeboat, oops! – and then he hid in a hotel while a massive rescue operation took place. 32 people died,…
“‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” – David Bowie
We lost David Bowie on January 10, 2016. It would have been less of a shock if we’d lost him years earlier. After a series of middling records and ambitious tours throughout the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Bowie suffered a heart attack in Germany, then quietly receded from public life for most of the following…
“Fixture Picture” – Aldous Harding
Like I said, there’s some great music coming out of New Zealand lately. But last week’s The Beths don’t have much in common with this week’s Aldous Harding. To the same degree the former are loud and upbeat, the latter is restrained and maxes out at what I’d call barely midtempo. Where the former present…
“Pienso en tu mirá” – Rosalía
Sometimes I worry every viable blend of genres has been explored, and that there’s only so much innovation that can still happen in pop music without fundamentally changing what pop music is. Other times: flamenco R&B! This is suddenly a thing now! And it’s really good! Rosalía Vila Tobella is a Catalan singer, formally trained…
“Crescent” – The Wrens
I had the opportunity to listen to The Wrens’ new LP in November 2016. If you’ve heard it too, it was almost certainly in the same place I did: Charles Bissell’s basement. The Wrens are one of rock’s great hard luck stories, an energetic band from New Jersey armed with memorable hooks, furious guitars and…