Violence Girl By Longreads Feature How a young bilingual Latina became one of punk’s enduring icons and helped create a new musical universe.
Longreads Best of 2019: Music Writing By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in music writing.
Wonderful Things: The Kid Creole and the Coconuts Story By Michael Gonzales Feature Combining island sounds with stylish clothes and an unforgettable stage presence, one of New York City’s most original bands helped influence 1980s pop culture, and they never sacrificed their unclassifiable artistic vision.
The Story of Salvador’s Banda Didá By Tari Ngangura Feature In a country with violent history and violent politics, Brazil’s first all-female, Afro-Brazilian percussion group drums and dances and changes lives.
In Praise of Del Amitri’s Album Waking Hours By Longreads Feature Some albums make it hard to separate the music from the experience of listening to it.
Stumbling Into Joy By Kate Hopper Feature The electric bass chose her, but it took 44 years to heed the call.
Why Lhasa de Sela Matters By Longreads Feature Raised in a school bus by itinerant hippie parents, with one foot in Mexico and one in the US, the singer blossomed into her true multicultural self in bilingual Montreal.
A Fresh Look at The Smashing Pumpkins’ 1998 Album Adore By Longreads Feature Loved and loathed in equal measure, one thing critics can’t take from this influential 90s band is their willingness to evolve musically.
Why Karen Carpenter Matters By Longreads Feature For one brown, queer Filipino-American, Karen Carpenters’ music anchored her to her musical family’s past while helping chart her path in their adopted Southern California.
Shelved: The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s “Brain Opera” By Tom Maxwell Feature What happens when you’re not different just for the sake of being different.
Remembering Daniel Johnston By Tom Maxwell Feature This outsider musician made music sound new again to everyone who listened.
The Story of Country Music’s Great Songwriting Duo By Longreads Feature Before they released “Wichita Lineman,” the greatest unfinished song of all time, Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb lived surprisingly parallel lives.
Shelved: Van Morrison’s Contractual Obligation Album By Tom Maxwell Feature This is the sound of not really trying.
Searching for The Sundays By David Obuchowski Feature When music writers are also music fans, they can walk a line between appreciative and intrusive.
Shelved: Jimi Hendrix’s Black Gold Suite By Tom Maxwell Feature The genius guitarist’s autobiographical, multi-song fantasy album sat in his drummer’s apartment for twenty years. Now in the care of the Hendrix estate, will it ever see the light of day?
Remembering João Gilberto By Tom Maxwell Feature Eccentricity was inseperable from this musical innovator’s artistic vision.
Tom Petty’s Problematic Album Southern Accents By Michael Washburn Feature In 1985, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most beloved songwriters made a regrettable misstep with a narrow conception of Southern identity.
Shelved: Lee Hazlewood’s Cruisin’ For Surf Bunnies By Tom Maxwell Feature It’s no surprise that the legendary songwriter and producer dabbled in surf music. What’s surprising is why music this good remained unreleased for 50 years.
Manic Street Preachers’ Album The Holy Bible By Longreads Feature How a band seemingly out of step with its times outlasted so many of its indulgent, in-step contemporaries.
Those Limits Were Not Hindrances: An Interview with Megan Pugh By Aaron Gilbreath Feature How a writer worked hard to understand one of American music’s most mysterious performers while protecting his past, and art.
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll By Longreads Feature From Bob Dylan to David Bowie to The Beatles, the legendary Beat writer’s influence reached beyond literature into music in surprising ways.
It’s Like That: The Makings of a Hip-Hop Writer By Michael Gonzales Feature Hip-hop was a different kind of music that needed a different kind of writer to cover it. This is how Michael A. Gonzales came of age in a time when Black writers began breaking the white ceiling.
Remembering Roky Erickson By Tom Maxwell Feature Despite ongoing personal struggle, the psychedelic rock pioneer left a singular body of work that continues to influence musicians and challenge listeners.
Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand By Longreads Feature The singular singer released her groundbreaking album in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington, and used her art and appearance as weapons in the Civil Rights struggle.
Shelved: Tupac and MC Hammer’s Promising Collaboration By Tom Maxwell Feature Sometimes the most fertile creative relationships are the most unlikely.
The Enduring Myth of a Lost Live Iggy and the Stooges Album By Aaron Gilbreath and Tom Maxwell Feature In 1973, Columbia Records professionally recorded the infamous band for a planned concert record. Columbia never released it. Maybe they never recorded it.
Remembering Scott Walker By Tom Maxwell Feature When the pop singer went avant garde, he traded narrative meaning for emotional truth to explore those things that lay beyond language.
The Manhandling of Rock ‘N’ Roll History By Evelyn McDonnell Feature Less than 8 percent of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s inductees are women. Time for it to step up and induct an all-female class in 2020.
Remembering Mark Hollis of Talk Talk By Tom Maxwell Feature The singer of “It’s My Life” left us a brilliant solo album, then chose to be a family man.
