“And soon I’ll the neon shining moon/ And I’ll break you up just like the stars/ I’ll be the Earth without disease/ And you the human inside of me,” Shamir sings at the opening of “I Wonder,” his new single. … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Shamir, “I Wonder”

Years ago, I received a piece of advice that I assumed was worldly wise: Whatever other professionals you might work with in management of your day-to-day affairs, make sure you have a mechanic you can trust. I suppose there’s truth … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bully, “Every Tradition”

Ganser sounds the way I want a Chicago band to sound. On their new single, “Emergency Equipment & Exits,” the music is thick, muscular. It moves along with the beat of rushing traffic, guitar like bending metal and a keyboard … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Ganser, “Emergency Equipment & Exits”

I barely follow it, and even I know it’s been a helluva week for country music. I’m sure there are still plenty of practitioners of the form still relying on pickup truck cliches and jingoistic garbage to propel their creativity, … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Eric Church, “Stick That in Your Country Song”

I cede the floor to some individuals who’ve been explaining the real deal for thirty-five years. Continue reading This Week’s Model — Public Enemy, “State of the Union (STFU)”

It’s probably unnecessarily reductive and comparative to note that “Sweeter” represents a sign that Leon Bridges is about to move into the What’s Going On phase of his career. But that’s what I finding myself thinking as I listen to … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Leon Bridges, “Sweeter”

Of all the enduring figures of college rock’s heyday in the nineteen-eighties and early nineteen-nineties, no one mines their own history more effectively than Bob Mould. Across his last several albums, Mould has drawn upon most of the sounds that … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bob Mould, “American Crisis”

In deeply unsettled days such as these, there might be no better and timelier message than the proclamation of endurance found in “I Will Try,” the new track from Painted Zeros. The chief creative outlet of singer-songwriter Katie Lau, Painted … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Painted Zeros, “I Will Try”

For our household, it started at the Hideout. Looking for concert stops to make on a road trip a couple years back, we went to a little club in Chicago and bought our tickets for a performer we’d never heard … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Shilpa Ray, “Manic Pixie Dream Cunt”

Buzzy guitars, a relentless beat, keening vocals racing through intricate lyrics, an irresistible hook that somehow gives was to another hook and maybe yet another hook, a squalling guitar solo, a false ending, and it’s all over in just over … Continue reading This Week’s Model — The Beths, “I’m Not Getting Excited”