‘Sun Ra says, “the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that—someone made that; it’s written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more than black tradition.” On the other, Sun Ra named himself for the sun itself, that roiling […]
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Posted inNonfiction
The Story of Salvador’s Banda Didá
In a country with violent history and violent politics, Brazil’s first all-female, Afro-Brazilian percussion group drums and dances and changes lives.
Posted inStory
A Lover’s Blues: The Unforgettable Voice of Margie Hendrix
Remembering the woman who outsang Ray Charles.
Posted inCommentary, Current Events, Discussions, Podcasts
Editor’s Roundtable: Climate of the Future, Music of the Past
Longreads editors discuss stories in Miami New Times, The New Yorker, 5280 Magazine, and The Believer.
Posted inStory
The Many Decades of Bond
“How has someone who is a borderline rapist, murderer, and potential sociopath, endured through all these decades?”
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
What I Did for (Strange) Love
As a teen, Laura Bond went all out to meet Depeche Mode — and to hang onto her best friend.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Neil Young’s Lonely Quest to Save Music
“It’s strange to imagine that Young might be a prophet of sorts — but maybe not. His lesson is that everything human is shot through with imperfection. Filtering that out doesn’t make us more perfect; it is making us sick. He’s a great artist, which means that he sees and hears more, which may make […]
Posted inStory
Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2022
Longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj read and shared 276 short stories on the #longreads Twitter hashtag in 2021. Here are his favorites.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Pitch Perfect: The History and Influence of the Pitchfork 10.0
What does it mean for an album to receive a perfect score from the internet’s most contentious music publication?
Posted inEditor's Pick
Life Without Live
Now that pandemic has temporarily ended live musical performance, how do music fans deal with its absence?
