Of all the singular sounds made by the Beatles, George Harrison’s lead guitar might be the most elusive. Revisit our piece "Notes You Never Hear: The Metaphysical Loneliness of George Harrison" → Link in bio — 📷courtesy of the Harrison Family @pitchfork
This week, staff writer @Alphonseeee found himself wondering if he liked Miles Bridges' tape because of how unexpected it was to hear an NBA player venture into such niche rap territory or because it’s a legitimately good Michigan tape. He came up with a few questions to figure this out: Is Miles Bridges good at basketball? Are the punchlines funny? Do the beats work? Is he outshined by the guests? Would he listen to Up the Score if Bridges was not in the NBA? Find out the answers at the link in our bio. 🎨 by @drewknowitz #MilesBridges #Rap #RapMusic #RapRoundup #NBA
Phoebe Bridgers (@_fake_nudes_) has been announced as one of the first musical guests of the next season of Saturday Night Live. She’ll perform on February 6, with host Dan Levy (Schitts Creek). Find out more at the link in our bio. 📷 By Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images #PhoebeBridgers #SNL #SaturdayNightLive #Pitchfork
Happy Birthday, @angelolsenmusic. 🎈 On a rainy morning last August, we spoke with the singer-songwriter about her raw fifth album Whole New Mess, her process, and the age-old quandary of art versus commerce. Read more at the link in our bio. 📷 By Kylie Coutts #AngelOlsen #Pitchfork
Remembering Daniel Johnston, the Godfather of Bedroom pop, on what would have been his 60th birthday. Take a look back at the relentlessly creative singer-songwriter’s overflowing body of work at the link in our bio. 📷 By Frank Mullen / Getty Images #DanielJohnston #Pitchfork
Did someone say new music? See the 7 new albums you should listen to now at the link in our bio. 📷 By Michael Putland / Getty Images #NewMusicFriday #NewMusic #Pitchfork
🏆Best New Track: In the elegant and kaleidoscopic “Hard Drive,” New York songwriter @cassandrajenkins lets us in on a series of conversations. There’s a security guard with a Queens accent, a bookkeeper at an inn in California, a driving instructor named Darryl, and a psychic with gemstone eyes at a friend’s birthday party. They all seem to want Jenkins to relax her mind and open her heart to the world around her—which is, of course, easier said than done. Playing the song is like listening in on Jenkins’ private voice memos, recorded for no one but herself. Plenty of songwriters can present with confidence the hard lessons they’ve learned; it is rare to hear someone so masterfully document the long, lonely journey of trying to get there. Listen to the track at the link in our bio. #BestNewTrack #NewMusic #TrackReview #CassandraJenkins
For generations, the archetypal NYC weed transaction was represented in movies and TV by a college kid meeting an unkempt dude in a poncho in Washington Square Park. The student would exchange a greasy bill for a stale dime bag and then listen to Dead or Phish or Dave with his roommates while gazing at the Bob Marley tapestry on their wall. Pop culture is re-imagining this exchange thanks in part to “High Maintenance,” a big-hearted HBO dramedy about a weed delivery man. His customers are social media influencers, lesbian activists, immigrant parents, and countless other New Yorkers of all identities. The show’s music is just as diverse, avoiding stoner clichés like jam bands in favor of tracks that nod towards psychedelia or represent a cross-section of the city’s residents. Read more about the magic of the show's soundtrack at the link in our bio. 📷 of The Guy in “Derech” by David Russell/HBO @helpingyoumaintain #HighMaintenance @HBO
Screamers, the influential but under-documented L.A. punks, are finally get a proper release. The five demos here reveal an adventurous band pushing the boundaries of punk orthodoxy. Read more at the link in our bio. #Screamers #Punk #AlbumReview
While @BigThiefmusic guitarist @BuckMeek's solo work makes more room for American country music than his main band, it offers much of the same warmth and whispery intimacy. Read our review of Two Saviors at the link in our bio. #TwoSaviors #BuckMeek #AlbumReview #BigThief
@puptheband are the latest guests on NPR’s “Tiny Desk (Home) Concert” series. From frontperson Stefan Babcock’s Toronto living room, the group played a career-spanning suite of “Rot,” “Kids,” “Reservoir,” and “Scorpion Hill.” Watch the set at the link in our bio. 📷 PUP, photo courtesy of NPR #PUP #NPR #TinyDesk
@playboicarti was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night. Carti performed his Whole Lotta Red track “Slay3r” with a full band. The episode also happened to fall on Questlove’s 50th birthday. See what the Roots' Black Thought gifted him, and watch Carti's performance, at the link in our bio. 📷 Playboi Carti on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, January 2021 (NBC) #PlayboiCarti #QuestLove #TheRoots #Fallon #JimmyFallon
@billieeilish and @rosalia.vt have shared their new song “Lo Vas a Olvidar.” The track, produced by FINNEAS, appears on the upcoming special episode of HBO’s Euphoria, “Part 2: Jules.” Watch the music video for “Lo Vas a Olvidar,” directed by Nabil, at the link in our bio. 📷 By Matty Vogel & Zhamak Fullad #BillieEilish #Rosalia #Pitchfork #NewMusic
Inauguration Day closed with a primetime celebration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. It featured performances from John Legend, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, and more. Watch Bruce Springsteen perform “Land of Hope and Dreams” at the link in our bio. 📷 Handout/Biden Inaugural Committee via Getty Images #brucespringsteen #inauguration
The primetime celebration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ inauguration ended with Katy Perry, her song “Firework,” and of course, an enormous fireworks display. Watch it happen at the link in our bio. 📷 by Joshua Roberts/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images #katyperry #inauguration
As promised, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ Inauguration Day celebration included a virtual parade that featured the reunited New Radicals (and return of the bucket hat). Remotely, the band delivered a one-time performance 22 years after breaking up in 1999. Watch them perform their 1998 hit “You Get What You Give” at the link in our bio. 📷 New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander, January 2021. By Handout/Biden Inaugural Committee via Getty Images #NewRadicals #Pitchfork
When David Lynch couldn't get This Mortal Coil’s ethereal masterpiece “Song to the Siren” for the soundtrack of his film Blue Velvet, he asked Angelo Badalamenti to create a replacement. It “should be a song that floats on the sea of time,” Lynch told him. And that’s exactly what Badalamenti came up with in “Mysteries of Love.” His score for the film—the first of many he would compose for Lynch—is perfectly suited to the director’s sneaky visual style. It unleashes unimaginable darkness as it burrows deep into the subconscious. Read more about the best movie scores of all time at the link in our bio. #Filmscores #DavidLynch #BlueVelvet #AngeloBadalamenti
@DanielleDurack thrives in the middle ground between lite FM and modern college rock, the space where Phoebe Bridgers makes a pop song or Sara Bareilles experiments with trip-hop. What her influences share is an emphasis on craft, clever wordplay, and storytelling. Read more about her new record, No Place, at the link in our bio. #AlbumReview #NewMusic #Pop #Rock
Happy birthday @Questlove! Spend your afternoon reading about Things Fall Apart. The album was a turning point for @TheRoots, the record where they figured out what kind of band they could be. If their first three albums mastered the meeting point between jazz and rap, this was the first time the band went psychedelic, opening up new possibilities sonically and lyrically. Read more at the link in our bio. #Questlove #ThingsFallApart #TheRoots #Questo50
Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered his inaugural address today after being sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. Near the end of his speech, President Biden quoted lyrics from the Gene Scheer composition “American Anthem,” which he called his “favorite song:” Written by Scheer in 1998, “American Anthem” was first performed by Denyce Graves that year at the Smithsonian Institution during an event to launch Bill and Hillary Clinton’s “Save America’s Treasures” initiative. Graves performed the song again for George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005. Later, Norah Jones further popularized “American Anthem” by covering it for Ken Burns’ WWII documentary series The War. Learn more at the link in our bio. 📷 Alex Wong / Getty Images
@LadyGaga and Jennifer Lopez (@JLo) just performed at the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Watch Gaga sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Lopez sing “This Land Is Your Land” at the link in our bio. 📷 of Lady Gaga by Alex Wong/Getty Images 📷 of Jennifer Lopez by Rob Carr/Getty Images #InaugurationDay #InaugurationDay2020 #LadyGaga #JLo
Last night, celebrations began for the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President–Elect Kamala Harris, who will be officially sworn into office today. Japanese Breakfast was among the musicians to perform. She played “Everybody Wants to Love You!” from her 2016 record Psychopomp. Watch Michelle Zauner play with a full band at the link in our bio. 📷 By Ethan Miller / Getty Images #JapaneseBreakfast #Pitchfork
Happy Birthday, Kevin Parker. 🎈 “I feel like everybody has that riff they just play when you pick up a guitar… it’s like muscle memory. That beat is the one I do when I jump on drums now, because it sounds the coolest.” Find out which beat Kevin is referring to, and watch him break down his favorite drum sounds in music history in “Under the Influences” at the link in our bio. 📷 By Kevin Winter / Getty Images #TameImpala #KevinParker #Pitchfork
Happy Birthday, David Lynch. 🎈 The visionary director has not only changed how we see movies across the last four decades, he’s changed how we hear them too. At the link in our bio, collaborators —including Trent Reznor and composer Angelo Badalamenti —along with the man himself, talk about the secrets to unsettling soundtrack success. 📷 By Chris Weeks / Getty Images #DavidLynch #TwinPeaks #Pitchfork #Soundtracks
"Our pink outfits show we’re not just cute: This is what cool women wear. The reason the outfits have the belly button [cut out] is, in Japan, people tend to be reserved, and they don’t show their skin. And we want to do the opposite, like: We don’t care. We’re free." At the link in our bio, get to know CHAI (@chaiofficialjpn), the rock band redefining what it means to be cute. 📷 by Ebru Yildiz #Chai #ChaiJapan #Rock #Interview
TRZTN —the moniker of Tristan Bechet— has shared a new song from his forthcoming album Royal Dagger Ballet. The track, “Hieroglyphs,” features Karen O and arrives with a visual directed by Barnaby Roper and starring dancer Victoria Dauberville. Discussing the new collaboration with @ko, Bechet said: "I re-shaped her voice, deformed the structure, and resampled her own vocals creating the main staccato vocal theme. The track disintegrates and falls back together like the push and pull of a rubber band stretching." Listen at the link in our bio. 📷 By K to the O #KarenO #TRZTN #TristanBechet
@fleetfoxes have shared a new video for “I’m Not My Season,” from their 2020 LP Shore. The live performance video, directed by @robinpecknold’s brother Sean, was shot at Brooklyn’s St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, where he played his Very Lonely Solstice Livestream. Watch the video at the link in our bio. 📷 By Shervin Lainez #FleetFoxes #RobinPecknold #MusicVideo #Pitchfork
@GriseldaRecords has earned a reputation for flooding every market they touch. The Buffalo collective’s six active members released a combined seven projects in 2020 and have also exerted their influence in the worlds of fashion, sports, and wrestling. It’s no surprise, then, to see them extend their brand of gutter rap to the world of movies. Conflicted, the debut feature from the newly formed Griselda Films, is an earnest and heartfelt portrayal of life on and off the streets of Buffalo, the kind of DIY project you’d proudly buy in an unmarked case for around $10 from the corner-store bootleg rack. Read more about it at the link in our bio. #AlbumReview #NewMusic #Griselda #GriseldaRecords #Rap
@hand.habits—the moniker of Meg Duffy—has released a new song "4th of july". It’s the first taste of the singer-songwriter’s forthcoming solo EP, dirt, which Duffy co-produced with Sasami Ashworth and Kyle Thomas (aka King Tuff); the EP also features a Neil Young cover called “i believe in you”. Listen at the link in our bio. 📷 By Kovi Konowiecki #HandHabits #MegDuffy #NewMusic #Pitchfork
Nilüfer Yanya has shared a new video for her Feeling Lucky? song “Day 7.5093.” Directed and edited by Yanya’s sister Molly Daniel, the video compiles footage from Yanya’s touring days, before the coronavirus put a hold on live performances. She reflected: “It’s hard to know what you’ve got until it’s gone which is why I’m trying to enjoy this moment too, but traveling and playing shows is something I’ll never take for granted again! I’ll be back touring new music as soon as it’s possible, and next time we’ll film more." Watch the video at the link in our bio. 📷 By Molly Daniel #NilüferYanya #MusicVideo #Pitchfork
Even if your music listening can't be quite this exciting right now, there's a lot to gain from hearing music communally. Start a virtual listening club—it’ll change your life. Read more about how at the link in our bio. 📷 of two teens in the 80s listening to music by Pino Grossetti\Mondadori via Getty Images #ListeningClub #NewMusic
"And it was those dreams back there on that little porch, on that little cabin, with that tobacco stick, and that crack in the floor, and a tin can for a microphone, that I dreamed of all this." Happy Birthday, @dollyparton! 🎈 Watch her break down some of her most iconic records at the link in our bio. #DollyParton #Pitchfork
All five seasons of “The Muppet Show” are coming to Disney Plus next month. @JohnDenverMusic’s 1979 appearance spawned a lifelong friendship with Jim Henson, and @TheRitaMoreno's performance on the show would go on to win an Emmy. Take a moment to revisit some of the Muppet Show's most iconic musical performances and guests at the link in our bio. 📷 by KPA/United Archives via Getty Images #TheMuppetShow #RitaMoreno #JohnDenver #JimHenson #Muppets
New Radicals broke up in 1999—just months after the release of their 1998 single “You Get What You Give.” On Wednesday, January 20, the band will reunite for the first time in 22 years to perform their hit single as part of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ virtual “Parade Across America” inauguration event, Rolling Stone reports. New Radicals will close the parade that takes place after the swearing-in ceremony. Find out more at the link in our bio. 📷 Gregg Alexander in 1999. By Mick Hutson / Getty Images #NewRadicals #Pitchfork
@chaiofficialjpn have announced their next album: WINK arrives May 21. Bassist-lyricist YUUKI said: “A person who winks is a person with a pure heart, who lives with flexibility, who does what they want. A person who winks is a person who is free. With this album, we’re winking at you. We’re living freely and we hope that when you listen, you can wink and live freely, too.” The announcement comes with the music video for a new song, “ACTION,” which the band directed. Watch at the link in our bio. 📷 By Yoshio Nakaiso #CHAI #SubPop #Pitchfork
In search of new music this week? Listen to the new tracks we've given the thumbs up and added to the Pitchfork Selects Playlist — find it at the link in our bio. 📷 1st February 1968: Beatle Paul McCartney gives the thumbs up during production of the new Beatles film, a feature length cartoon called 'Yellow Submarine'. By Keystone / Getty Images #Pitchfork #P4kSelects #NewMusic
From the archive: On the phone from France, Françoise Hardy discusses her personal soundtrack through the years, the songs that have moved her beyond words. Read the interview at the link in our bio. 📷of 22-year-old Hardy in 1966 by Jean Adda/INA via Getty Images. #françoisehardy
“Songs are mysterious. Where the fuck do they come from?” asks @jefftweedy in the opening lines of his second book How To Write One Song. The @Wilco frontman elucidates his process in this compact collection of anecdotes and advice, with the humble goal of shepherding a single tune to completion. On the hunt for your next book? Learn more about Jeff's book, and see our favorite music books from 2020 at the link in our bio. 📷 By Mark Horton / Getty Images #JeffTweedy #Wilco #MusicBooks #P4k2020 #Pitchfork
OIL OF EVERY PEARL’s UN-INSIDES speaks to a conception of gender, being, and selfhood that feels increasingly resonant. By complicating the naturalness of the human voice and corrupting established pop structures, SOPHIE also complicates the supposed naturalness of gender. When, on “Whole New World,” the distorted, feminized voices that have become her trademark shout out the song’s title one syllable at a time—”whole! new! world!”—it sounds almost like a manifesto, a political demand. It is the kind of phrase you’d shout in a crowd while clamoring for the freedom to be whatever it is you already are. Revisit our review of this Best New Music at the link in our bio. #BestNewMusic #Oilofeverypearlsuninsides #Sophie
"She’s always been one of those writers that I’ve really admired. She has such a voice; you can hear her so much. The question I was asking on both A Brief Inquiry and this new album is: Can the center hold?" @The1975's Matty Healy explains how Joan Didion influences his writing, and breaks down the 9 things that inspired Notes on a Conditional Form at the link in our bio. 📷 Joan Didion in Malibu, California, October 1972. By Henry Clarke / Getty Images. #JoanDidion #The1975 #MattyHealy #Pitchfork
🌞 The Sunday Review: With Jailbreak, @thinlizzy managed to capture everything that’s beautiful and good about rock’n’roll, and none of its ugly truth. Read our Sunday Review of this focused, confident album at the link in our bio. 📷 Thin Lizzy performing live onstage at the Hammersmith Odeon, London UK. By Erica Echenberg / Getty Images. #thinlizzy #sundayreview #jailbreak
🏆 Best New Music: @JazmineSullivan's new album is expansive and inclusive, embodying as many women’s insights into love and sex as 32 minutes could reasonably allow. Across eight songs connected by spoken-word interludes from different women, Heaux Tales unfurls a patchwork of origins, outcomes, thrills, and disasters of coital indulgence in her most cohesive work to date. She is in full command of her spectacular voice and totally delivers on an ambitious concept. Read our review at the link in our bio. 📷 by 2020 Soul Train Awards/via Getty Images #BestNewMusic #BNM #JazmineSullivan #HeauxTales
During an era of deepening economic inequality, pop stars are trying to be working-class heroes. But seeing a rich musician like Justin Bieber dress up as a laborer isn't relatable—it's insulting. Read more at the link in our bio.
"Whenever I hear it now I feel at home, you know? I just feel safe, I feel loved." Find out which record The National's Matt Berninger is talking about, and read more about the music that made him, at the link in our bio. 📷 By Frank Hoensch / Getty Images #TheNational #MattBerninger #Pitchfork
Phil Spector, the “wall of sound” producer famous for his work in 1960s pop and rock music, has died. He was 81 years old. Spector was serving a 19-year sentence for murder at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where he had resided since 2009. 📷 Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
🌞Sunday Review: Today, we revisit @thinlizzy’s greatest album, one that embodies the myth and grandeur of classic rock. Read our review of Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy at the link in our bio. #Pitchfork #ThinLizzy #ClassicRock
"People can’t really fuck with her. She’s gonna do her thing and it’s gonna be awesome to witness. I just love her so much. There are very few people you meet in life that change you: I remember my life before I met her and after." @conoroberst explains the impact Phoebe Bridgers (@_fake_nudes_) has had on his life. Read more about the music that made him at the link in our bio. 📷 By Scott Dudelson / Getty Images #ConorOberst #BrightEyes #PhoebeBridgers #Pitchfork
Since releasing her breakout Ctrl in 2017, @SZA has kept to collaboration, working with a roster that’s included Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, the Weeknd, and more. But, in September, she returned with “Hit Different,” a Neptunes-produced track featuring Ty Dolla $ign, along with a video she directed herself. The video teased another new song, which turned out to be “Good Days,” released on Christmas. While we don't know when, it seems like more music will get released this year, one way or the other. See the full list of albums we're most looking forward to in 2021 at the link in our bio. 📷 by Brian Ach / Getty Images #SZA #NewMusic #Pitchfork
@Lomelda sings like no one else in indie rock, as though she is guided by a golden energy from within. Read about why her album Hannah is one of the best rock albums from last year at the link in our bio. 📷 by Michelle Groskopf #Lomelda #RockMusic #Bestof2020 #P4k2020
"There wasn’t a ton of music in the house because both my parents are writers and they needed it to be very quiet. But every once in a while, out of the blue, my dad would play records. That was always really startling, because he played them really loud. You would be in your room and suddenly there’d be a record on, and that’s how you knew it was record night." Read about the music that made @mirandajuly at the link in our bio. 📷 By Larry Busacca / Getty Images #MirandaJuly #Pitchfork