music essay

This past weekend, every news feed had the story about some urban vigilante who buffed off the beloved Philadelphia mural of the cover art for...

Before I became a critic, I made small, gutless films in which nothing really happened, most of which no one will ever see...

Whenever I talk about my childhood, I feel like most people don't fully grasp the implications of growing up in the Pentecostal church. That's why...

A sea of 20,000 hands wave in unison like tendrils in a kelp bed when the waves force them to dance. But it's music, not the Pacific Ocean, driving...

Analysis: Fender Twin amplifier emits same frequencies as a .50-caliber WWII anti-aircraft gun. Hearing chart shows a menacing sinkhole at 4k Hz.

A couple of weeks ago I paid $2,000 to see the XX play for forty people at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. They're not one of my favorite bands or...

I feel lucky to say that the first concert I ever went to was a DIY affair held in the basement of a church. It was the summer of 1994, I was about...

My song “I Hear the Bells” was on the soundtrack of the original series of Veronica Mars. It’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Mistaken for Strangers is a documentary about the National, but not really. When he invited me to write about this movie, Talkhouse editor...

“Never meet your heroes” is a useful mantra. It keeps illusions intact and prevents precious chunks of your record collection from being rendered...

One freezing November afternoon in 2007, I was getting ready for a show in Williamsville, New York with a band I was in at the time when I learned...

In my late 20s, I started noticing that I didn’t listen to music in the way I used to. Specifically, nothing about music felt satisfying to me...