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Chaos & Mayhem

In 1965, Maxwell Smart, played by Don Adams, worked for the secret government agency CONTROL and battled the evil organization KAOS, foiling their schemes to take over the world. The juxtaposition of the two opposite states in the satirical spy series Get Smart probably had no bearing on Mutemath’s songs on their debut album, “Chaos”…

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Just add salt: Have we entered the post-K-pop scene?

Twelve years ago, Korean-American singer Eric Nam’s debut EP Cloud Nine was released.After appearing on the music survival show Star Audition: Birth of a Great Star 2, Nam kickstarted his career as a K-pop solo act. Nam, knowing very little Korean at the beginning of his career, has talked about his dream to be a…

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Black mascara & Women’s History Month

Black mascara & Women’s History Month It’s International Women’s History Month, the first month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the month of St. Patrick’s Day, the Ides of March, and Pi Day. I tried to cram all of that into this month’s 1.0 version of the playlist. This month, I wanted to highlight…

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A picture is worth a thousand words. 

But a photo of a band tells us almost nothing. You may get the vibe or an idea about the style of music they play, but you can only make a guess. A studio album should give us a clue about the band’s live performances. A professional studio recording can use all kinds of enhancements—overdubbing,…

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No Scrubs on This List: Black History Month Playlist

No Scrubs on This List: Black History Month Playlist I want to celebrate Black History Month this year, especially when words like diversity, equity, and inclusion are under attack from America’s highest office. As I talked about in my blog posts this year, I’ve taken things like Black History Month for granted. Some scoff and…

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Abracadabra: A reset, but not really.

I wasn’t excited about the GRAMMYs this year. They’ve been a documented mess for as long as I can remember, but something about Project 2025 threatening the future of free expression and the wildfires ravaging the largest bastion of liberal dissent didn’t have me in the mood to sigh at the poor choices the music…

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The Promise of a new wave of new wave

I started watching Lisa Frankensteinon the plane a couple of weeks ago. It was a quirky movie that came out last year about a weird teen girl, Lisa Swallows, played by Kathryn Newton, who is an outcast in her school and her own family, composed of her father, stepmother, and step-sister. Lisa is a nerdy girl…

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It’s like déjà vu, but even worse.

If we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it. It’s an adage I didn’t believe when I was in school. My childhood was in the optimistic ‘90s. America’s greatest threat had become an ally. I took installations like Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a nice day off of school in February and…

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