Carpool Tunnel’s growing audience and cosmic shows Alice Markman and Tovah Popilsky April 30, 2019 Columns and Opinions, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Reviews Up-and-coming NorCal-based indie rock band Carpool Tunnel don’t like to think of themselves as conventional. Instead, they describe themselves on Spotify as “an idea of what it means to be human, and to sha...
Where culture, genre, and time converge: Polo & Pan Sophie Turovsky April 30, 2019 Columns and Opinions, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews I have never connected with electronic dance music. The beats overwhelm me, the melodies bore me, the unpleasantly pleasant mood irritates me, and the buildups, particularly the ones with vortical reverberation...
Chicago Transit Authority: 50 years later Everett Williams April 28, 2019 Album Review, Columns and Opinions Debut albums usually take one of two forms — a stepping stone in the development of an artist, or a creative stroke of genius that is impossible to follow up. Chicago’s debut Chicago Transit Authority is un...
Negativland and Chumbawumba: 20 years of anarchy Clementine Zimmer April 27, 2019 Columns and Opinions If I were to list off my favorite bands based solely on their onstage antics, gimmicks, and overall performance of hijinks, Negativland would easily be in my top three. In 1991 they released their EP U2, contai...
Editorial team: Who sparked our love for music? Joshua Hauser April 25, 2019 Columns and Opinions, Staff Pick The editorial team of The B-Side has been working on a new column idea: a journal-wide collaboration to let readers know more about us and why we love music. For this week, I posed the all-telling question ...
50 years of The Velvet Underground Erika Badalyan April 23, 2019 Album Review, Columns and Opinions The Velvet Underground was an American rock band from New York City consisting of singer Lou Reed, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Moe Tucker. The band was notably managed by pop artist Andy Warhol for...
Eat, rave, love with Viv & Leka (feat. Excision) Leka Gopal and Vivian Chen April 22, 2019 Columns and Opinions, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Multimedia, Reviews First thing you need to know — we are not ravers. As much as we like to think of ourselves with “diverse music tastes,” it seems to generally hover around the “My mom used to play me Led Zeppelin a...
“She’s the one” was written about me: first musical crushes Madeline Rohner April 18, 2019 Columns and Opinions “I’m on Fire” by Bruce Springsteen is quite frankly the sexiest song ever written, and if you don't agree I fundamentally don’t understand you. Bruce Springsteen has, as long as I can remember, remained...
Argentina underground: a tribute to Argentine culture through underground music Sophie Turovsky April 18, 2019 Columns and Opinions, Multimedia The other day, I watched the “Buenos Aires” episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown in which Bourdain traverses the capital of Argentina and explores its culture. To get a sense of the place and the peop...
Nashville Skyline turns 50 Joshua Hauser April 14, 2019 Columns and Opinions, News, Staff Pick 1 Comment Whenever I introduce a friend to Bob Dylan’s music, I start with a safe album, something like The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963). It’s accessible, and like many of his other iconic albums, can appeal to an...
The Cobain case: reopening music’s most controversial conspiracy on Kurt Cobain’s 25th deathiversary Shayan Shirkhodai April 14, 2019 Columns and Opinions 4 Comments Twenty-five years ago, on April 5, 1994, the artistic world lost one of its most unique figures, Kurt Cobain. At only 27 years old, the Nirvana frontman’s death has left as much of a void today as it did in t...
Searching to Destroy: Song covers are hateful, evil, horrific (except for this one) Natalie Silver April 9, 2019 Columns and Opinions 1 Comment I lived in Maui nomadically for a summer to surf, shave ice, camp and repeat in an epic attempt to find myself and escape my biggest fear: committing to a career. During this super indulgent phase of my life, I...
Back together and better than ever: finally, a third Raconteurs album Shayan Shirkhodai April 7, 2019 Columns and Opinions, News, Previews 1 Comment After more than 10 long years of waiting, fans of the Raconteurs can finally rejoice. Two singles, “Sunday Driver” and “Now That You’re Gone,” were dropped on December 19, 2018, and the band has final...
Removing Lil Nas X from Billboard’s country chart is unjustified and racialized Sunny Sangha April 5, 2019 Columns and Opinions, News 𝒾 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔰𝔢 𝔱𝔞𝔠𝔨 𝔦𝔰 𝔞𝔱𝔱𝔞𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔡 At this point, you’ve probabl...
Sheik Yerbouti: forty years old and raunchy as ever, for better or for worse Clementine Zimmer April 1, 2019 Album Review, Columns and Opinions, Reviews March 2019 sees the 40th anniversary of one of the most controversial records by the free-thinking guitar virtuoso Frank Zappa, Sheik Yerbouti (1979). The double disc, part-studio, and part-live record was the ...