One thing I love about Oakland is how you can come across some of the most unexpected types of events. This Saturday, a group of retirees who live at the Piedmont Gardens community in Oakland will host a jewelry sale. This is the perfect opportunity to shop local, and find some one-of-a-kind gifts. One other event I'm excited to
Building on the spirit of DIY mutual aid, Vital Arts leads several programs, including a paid fellowship and free legal cafes, that work to address artists' material needs in the expensive Bay Area. As many advocates have pointed out over the years, the untenable cost of living and lack of available creative spaces is what pushed people to live and perform in unsafe venues like Ghost Ship.
Even after all these years, it's hard not to think about Guitar Hero when hearing songs like Living Colour's "Cult of Personality," Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon," or Heart's "Barracuda." Though the early editions featured covers of these popular songs rather than the originals, they honored the spirit of playing a real rock gig while giving us a selection of songs new and old to obsess over.
I was in a band in Hull called Akrylykz. When the Beat came to play at the Welly club we gave them a demo tape. Then they invited us to tour with them. Later, after they split up, Andy Cox and David Steele were looking for a singer for a new band and they remembered me. Fine Young Cannibals felt right straight away. After The Tube filmed us doing Johnny Come Home, we just took off.
Before anything else, I think I need to clear something up. Last week I told you that I went up to DC and mixed some tracks with Ian MacKaye at Inner Ear Studios in beautiful Arlington, VA. The tracks we mixed were not a collaborative effort, besides the mixing itself. I am not on the tape. Ian is not on the tape. Neither of us are on the tape. What we were working on was a demo, recorded in 1979,
Breaking Rust, an AI "band" that appeared on the internet in the middle of October based on its presence on Instagram, topped the chart last week with a song called Walk My Walk. Look at Breaking Rust's social media pages and you'll find nothing to indicate there's an actual human involved in the music-making portion of the band's songs - just a chiseled-jawed, clearly AI-generated cowboy, and video clips featuring folksy people doing folksy things or slow-walking away from the camera.
Who better to release obscure UK drum juggler Ship Sket's first album than legendary UK electronic music outpost Planet Mu? Since its founding by Mike Paradinas (aka μ-Ziq) in 1995, the label has established itself as a pillar for some of the UK's most deranged dance music: It codified Aphex Twin and μ-Ziq's Chuckle Brothers fuckery, typeset Luke Vibert's acid-sodden liner notes, and unleashed Venetian Snares' miasmic orchestral breakbeat.
Max B walked free from prison yesterday (November 9) after serving 16 years behind bars. The Harlem rapper received a 75-year sentence in 2009 for helping orchestrate an armed robbery that went awry, resulting in a man's death. Max B, who was in another state at the time of the robbery, eventually had his sentence reduced to 20 years on account of a conflict of interest in the original case and a subsequent plea deal on an aggravated manslaughter charge.
Cobb's post comes after the official Wendy's account wrote, "Can we send her back?" in response to a Pop Crave post about Perry's return from space. In another post, the company joked, "I kissed the ground and i liked it" while captioning a photo of Perry kissing the ground after landing. It's worth noting that the corporate team at Wendy's later issued an apology for the tweets in an attempt to get back in Perry's good graces. "We always bring a little spice to our socials, but Wendy's has a ton of respect for Katy Perry and her out-of-this-world-talent," the company said.
Sublime will perform their 1996 self-titled album in its entirety at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre on April 17th in celebration of the multiplatinum LP's 30th anniversary. The concert will be the first of a two-night stand at the Morrison, Colorado venue, where they'll also play a greatest-hits show on April 18th. Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 14th via AXS.
The Moldy Peaches will reunite for a special one-off acoustic concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 26th, 2026. The intimate performance from Adam Green and Kimya Dawson will mark the duo's first performance together in over three years. They'll be performing songs from across their catalog, with support from fellow New York antifolk artist Paleface. Tickets will go on-sale first via an artist pre-sale running on Wednesday.
The first leg kicks off on February 21st in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and runs through May 11th in St. John's, Newfoundland - one of 12 Canadian dates on the opening run. I Prevail, The Funeral Portrait, and Sleep Theory will provide support. Meanwhile, the second leg launches on October 23rd in Biloxi, Mississippi, and wraps up on November 22nd in Los Angeles. I Prevail and The Funeral Portrait will reprise their support roles.
Founding Yes singer Jon Anderson has announced a Spring 2026 US tour with his backing group, the Band Geeks. The trek kicks off with a two-night stand on April 17th and 19th in Ridgefield, Connecticut. From there, Anderson and company will move along the East Coast before wrapping up the 10-date outing on May 7th in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, Michigan.
Some of the music videos have captured the trophies of genres, like Tego Calderón's "Abayarde" and Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina," both essentials on any reggaetón playlist. Other visuals were works of activism - like Bad Bunny's "El Apagón - Aquí Vive Gente," the 22-minute music video and investigative short that shed light on the economic crisis that Puerto Ricans continued to face after Hurricane Maria.
Just this idea that, I think sometimes when you're involved in so many different things and your hands are in so many different parts of the process, you kind of can lose sight of the fact that recording is an art in itself. And I think also in the age of hype-nonchalance and also a lot of AutoTune and a lot of aesthetic-based music, you forget that at the end of the day, your job is to bring humanness to songs.
I used to have this ritual. Every Tuesday, I would get off the train at 8th Street on my way home from work. I would pop into Other Music, buy a new CD (or three...) and then walk the rest of the way to the Staten Island Ferry listening to my new CD. Even if there wasn't a new record out that week that I was looking forward to, I would buy something.
Music drifts through our daily lives the way light slips through blinds. Quiet, constant, and easy to overlook. It hums in grocery stores, pulses in elevators, fills the space between us on the subway. Most of the time, we barely notice. But when we stop, when we choose one song, silence the noise, and really listen, music transforms. A breath slows. A memory surfaces. A question arises that we did not know we were carrying.
Arturia's KeyStep is one of the most popular MIDI controllers ever made, especially with modular synth users and the DAWless crowd. It's small, cheap, has an easy-to-use sequencer, and offers decent connectivity.
