Friday, October 17 I arrived as the sun set. Erika De Casier’s “Two Thieves” rang out softly as I rushed past the guards toward the Mind Melt stage. A small crowd of alt-kids was gathered as close to the front as possible. Erika swayed to a gentle trip-hop drone. “Is Nick León present,” she asks,…
For a lot of years, Vera Brandes couldn’t listen. Not once had she heard the bestselling solo jazz album of all time—Keith Jarrett’s passionate and sublime The Köln Concert—though she’d been essential to making it happen in 1975 as an 18-year-old music promoter in Cologne, West Germany. It wasn’t the first show organized by the…
With their first proper tour in 17 years now underway, the reunited Shudder to Think are also unveiling some new music for the first time since Bill Clinton’s second term as president. Per an Instagram post, the group is selling a seven-inch vinyl single with the songs “Thirst Walk” and “Playback” at the shows, which…
Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series. Bruce Springsteen’s sixth album Nebraska was a pivot away from the spotlight, released in between two hit-filled blockbuster albums, 1980’s The River and 1984’s Born in the U.S.A. Living in relative seclusion…
Name Slim Jim Phantom Best known for Drummer for the Stray Cats, DJ “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” Owner of the Cat Club at 8911 Sunset Blvd., and providing a place to play for 5,000 bands you’ve never heard of. Current City Los Angeles, CA. Really want to be in Jamaica At Goldeneye with my beautiful and rocking wife Jennie Vee….
Rafael Toral’s most recent album, 2024’s Spectral Evolution, consisted of a single 42-minute track, divided into loose, flowing movements, but based on the chord changes of the Gershwin chestnut “I Got Rhythm.” On his follow-up, Traveling Light (October 24), the Portuguese guitarist works smaller, refashioning six jazz standards using his “space instruments”— electronic contraptions of…
“Music can heal, if life is put into it.” Those are the words of a holy man named Inayat Khan, plucked from his treatise, The Mysticism of Sound and Music. A renowned musicologist, philosopher and singer, he is largely credited with bringing Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, to the West during his travels through…
While in the midst of a world tour in support of their spring album RUSHMERE, Mumford & Sons have treated fans to a new song, “Rubber Band Man,” which features a first-time studio collaboration with Hozier. The track was produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner at this Long Pond Studio in Hudson, N.Y. Mumford recorded…
Instrumental music is not for everyone. Still, lots of creative people enjoy it when they seek a vibe but not a vocal that might distract from thought or focused actions–like writing music reviews. I’m writing this one while listening to guitar virtuoso John 5’s latest, Ghost, and while it’s not exactly haunting, it is a…
Australian singer/songwriter Nick Murphy will return early next year with his first album in nearly five years under his Chet Faker moniker. A Love for Strangers will arrive Feb. 13 from BMG and includes new single “This Time for Real,” a Josh Wehle-directed video for which is out now. Murphy’s last full-length at Chet Faker…
