Music Features

Phil Elverum spent nine months adrift in 2018, living in his now–ex-wife Michelle Williams’ swank Brooklyn townhouse — and he didn’t write a thing. Instead, he filled his hours playing two chords on loop on a $5 guitar: D and F sharp minor, over and over again, the only music …

Before the late-night show and the household fame, the Roots were the pride of Philadelphia’s underground hip-hop scene. The quiet heart of that version of the Roots — an unforgettable part of the lineup that put them on the map, won countless devoted fans, and enabled all the success to …

It starts with a fake TV-show intro, a shootout, a getaway, and a couple of outlaws hitting the road like they were the Thelma and Louise of hardcore agit-pop rap. It goes out not with a bang, but with grown men laying their souls bare while flipping the bird to …

It’s difficult to decide whether Idles frontman Joe Talbot’s angry vituperation or the band’s slamming, vertigo-inducing guitar riffs sound heavier on “Grounds,” the latest song the Bristol, U.K. group has released from its upcoming Ultra Mono album. For a band that titled its first album Brutalism, Idles sound more bellicose, …

Their names are familiar to anyone who grew up on SoCal rock. In various combinations, guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel contributed to countless albums by James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, and Don Henley, among many others. What they’ve never …

Each month, the editors and critics at Rolling Stone compile a list of must-hear new albums. Our picks for May include Lady Gaga’s return to the dancefloor, Bad Bunny’s quarantine quickie and Steve Earle’s tribute to coal country Lady Gaga, Chromatica Chromaticais a return to form, and a return to …

Not long after Eric Abercrombie, who raps as Maserati E, arrived in San Quentin state prison in 2017, he witnessed a performance by another inmate named David Jassy. “His stage presence and delivery were nuts,” Abercrombie recalls. “I couldn’t understand one verse because it was in Swedish, but it was …

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and millions remain quarantined around the globe, more and more musicians have joined the streaming trend — performing live from their couches, kitchens, and even bathrooms — while consoling fans. Even classic bands like the Grateful Dead are streaming archival concerts, reminding listeners of a …

When Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood stepped into New York’s tiny Mercury Lounge in November 1994 to play an acoustic duo show, their band was known for a single song that they’d already grown weary of playing: “Creep.” They’d been on tour for two solid years in support of …

“What a lie-lie-lie-lie,” Natalie Maines sings in “Gaslighter,” the long-awaited first piece of new music that the Dixie Chicks have released since the George W. Bush administration. Maines has hinted that the group’s upcoming album will chronicle her 2019 divorce, and the new single clears up any ambiguity. The thinly-veiled …