“From a certain height, the problem becomes one of knowledge itself: Do you believe what you hear, or do you hear what you believe?”
music
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Extraordinary Untold Story of Freddie Mercury: Mary Austin on Her Best Friend–and Love of Her Life
“He was Queen’s flamboyant frontman. She was his shy girlfriend, dreaming of marriage until they both realised he preferred men.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: Bad medicine, imperfect sound forever, know when to fold ’em, brainiacs, and a call of the wild.
Posted inFeature
Ladies of the ’80s
How Madonna, Grace Jones, Joan Jett, Whitney Houston, and their contemporaries broke the stodgy musical mold of the ’60s and ’70s to inspire generations of women to pick up an instrument and learn to play music.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Sound of Your Voice
“The fact that I had song ideas, let alone a place where I was saving them, was significant. It had been 15 years since I’d last released an album.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Beastie Boy Returns to the Mic, With Some Help
“Thanks to an assist from his sons, Mike D is set to release “Thank You,” the first new music from a member of the pioneering rap trio in 15 years.”
Posted inFeature
Vinyl in the Veins
Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: Every record is made of oil.
Posted inReading List
Daylight Savings Time: A (Beach) Reading List for the Lighthearted
I hear that there are people in the world who prefer lighthearted stories. Lovely meet-cutes where no one gets hurt and people even fall in love, where there is serendipity like there used to be before the internet, where good things happen to good people. Cozy mysteries that involve a cat—or possibly, as in one […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Inside Story of the Athens Music Scene
“How did the college football town spawn the B-52s, R.E.M., and Widespread Panic, to name just a few? The maestros and misfits who led Athens’s rise to one of the world’s most influential and improbable music towns tell all.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Ever New
“In Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music, the present moment is an astonishing, improbable gift.”