Tag Archives: music-features

J.S. Ondara can trace his entire career back to a bad bet. As a teenager in Nairobi, Kenya, Ondara once swore to a friend that “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was written by his favorite band, Guns N’ Roses, and not by someone named Bob Dylan. “What are you talking about?” …

Lil Peep enjoyed a devoted following on SoundCloud and YouTube during his lifetime, but he was not the type of artist whose music was beamed out to millions over the radio. That all changed with “Falling Down,” a posthumously released collaboration with XXXTentacion. This single was not just a radio …

To start the new year right: classic English punk and a shot of what’s next; the definitive account of the greatest British white-R&B band of the Sixties that you still don’t know; and experimental vigor from Norway, vintage and immediate. The Buzzcocks,Another Music in a Different Kitchen; Love Bites (Domino) …

Last year, St. Vincent (a.k.a Annie Clark) releasedMasseduction, the noise-pop masterpiece that had her firing on all cylinders. WithMassEducation, Clark reimagines every song on Masseduction as a piano ballad, stripping them down to an emotionally raw core and even flipping the LP’s running order. “Hang On Me” originally led offMasseduction: …

Around the time Dave Davies scored a hit in 1967 with “Death of a Clown,” he had a spiritual awakening and began questioning mortality. The lyrics of the song, which he co-wrote with his brother and Kinks bandmate Ray Davies, tells of a performer who has lost his spark but …

Before the summer 2016 release of Telefone, the debut album that launched her to a quiet kind of stardom, Noname considered quitting rap. “I used to care-give, so I probably would’ve went back to doing that,” she says. “Maybe would’ve got my nursing degree, and just become a nurse. That …

Aretha Franklin waived her fee to headline the Sam Cooke tribute I produced some years ago. It was the 2005 American Music Masters series, held at the Cleveland Playhouse and hosted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In Aretha’s case, waiving the fee didn’t mean it was cheap. …

This is the second in aRolling Stoneseries exploring the new business models of music’s streaming-dominated era. Here is the firston the gold rush to sign the next rap superstar. In 2016, an Italian millionaire namedGianluca Vacchi – middle-aged with tanned abs and a wardrobe full of skimpy speedos –posted a …

Julia Michaels has co-written some of this decade’s most indelible hits, exploring every angle of intimacy, from first flush of lust (Selena Gomez‘s “Hands to Myself”) to loss and regret (Justin Bieber‘s “Sorry”) to erotic solo sessions (Hailee Steinfeld’s “Love Myself”). Now the 24-year-old songwriter wants to bring something new …

Steve Earle calls from his hotel in Portland, Maine, on his day off. But he’s not out sightseeing today – instead, he’s doing his own laundry. “I don’t mind,” says Earle, 63. “I kinda like it.” Nearly four decades into his career, the songwriter keeps his operation small and lean, …