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In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.  » Read More

A few days ago, surveillance video was released by CNN that showed Sean “Diddy” Combs physically assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016. Last year, Cassie sued Diddy for rape and repeated physical abuse. While that lawsuit was settled within a couple days, numerous other allegations about Diddy’s abuse and misconduct came to light.  » Read More

When the Chicago punk band Sludgeworth started in 1989, they were a Screeching Weasel side project. At the time, Sludgeworth singer Dan Schafer played bass and guitar in Screeching Weasel, and drummer Brian McQuaid was also in both bands. (Back then, Dan Schafer was known as Dan Vapid, and Brian McQuaid was Brian Vermin.) Pretty soon,  » Read More

My favorite song on A Grand Don’t Come For Free is “Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way.” Over a skittery percussion loop hinting at drums and bass and a keyboard line that refuses to develop into a phrase, Mike Skinner depicts the experience of kicking it at his girlfriend’s house.  » Read More

Two days ago, Wales’ much loved, anxiously ecstatic emo/indie-pop combo Los Campesinos! announced their first album in seven years, All Hell. With the announcement, they shared lead single “Feast Of Tongues,” which rules. Today they’ve shocked the world by releasing a second single from the new LP just 48 hours later.  » Read More

In 1968, Neil Young, fresh off of the breakup of his band the Buffalo Springfield, started playing shows with the Rockets, a Los Angeles rock band. At first, he simply played guitar in an already-established group, but then he brought in members of the Rockets to work on his 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and to tour with him.  » Read More

Ask That God, the Australian duo’s first studio full-length since 2016, arrives in the summer  » Read More

The track opens the new compilation Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, also featuring contributions from the National, Paramore, Lorde, and others  » Read More

God Said No, the musician’s second studio LP, is out in the summer  » Read More