A Thief at My Door

Karen Elson named her album The Ghost Who Walks after herself. Or rather, after an unkind schoolyard nickname she earned for being “tall, pale and little bit haunted.” Of course, in a fairytale-worthy reversal of fortune, the same attributes that inspired childhood bullying turned out …

Tell ‘Em

I don’t listen to noise pop – because what even is that? – but the noise pop of Sleigh Bells was a real brain-melter for me. I haven’t heard any other album than Treats (2010) that offers quite such a delirious mix of industrial-attack style …

Teenage Dream

I would not have been caught dead listening to a Katy Perry album in 2010, but times have changed, and 12 years feels more like 20. Nostalgia for the spirit of 2010 feels like a valid response to the dumpster fire we’re living in. Katy …

Talk Too Much

Catch a glimpse of Skunk Anansie singer Skin in all of her glory. The only thing that stood between Skin and major rock star status was being a queer black woman with a shaved head playing in a rock band and writing confrontational and confessional …

Take Over Control

This is apex Eurotrash electronic dance music, from 2010, an apex year for EDM. I haven’t listened to, or thought about, EDM in years, but between 2010 and 2012, it was all anyone was listening to. If it sounds like it was produced by robots, …

The Sweetest Thing

If you’re thirsty for queer black woman-fronted punk rock, you may feel like you’re shit outta luck, but I have good news for you. I have for you – 30 years too late to the party, as usual – Skunk Anansie, who rose to prominence …

Super Bass

We are living in a real golden age for outrageous young female rappers right now, which is destroying our culture if you’re of the older, more conservative persuasion, and thorst-quenching if you support creative young Black women being their sexiest, most empowered selves and going …

Sun Is On My Side

No one goes to a Gogol Bordello show expecting to sit and weep into their beer and herring. But Gogol Bordello provides other services besides whipping the crowd into a manic froth. They know that one of the things that Gipsy music is good for, …

Summer Well

I don’t remember the exact moment that triggered me to fall in love with Interpol (though if I wanted to look, it’s probably on this blog somewhere), but it may have been during a time when I was a little depressed. I certainly don’t listen …

Success

Whatever ‘success’ constitutes on Interpol’s world, I don’t know, but I think that they use the word with irony. They are, clearly, too cool to care about success in the conventional sense. Despite, of course, being wildly successful. Their popularity is based on an audience …