Category: Music
How Folk and Country Became the Hottest Sounds in Indie Rock
One of the reasons I like seeing bands play live, outside of the fact that it gives me a reason to leave the house, is that it also gives me a way to develop a deeper connection with the music ...
Jess Williamson Brings Her Mix of Indie and Country to the Bowery Ballroom
Over the past three years or so, I’ve found myself listening to a lot more country and country-influenced music, both voluntarily and involuntarily. The involuntarily piece should be familiar to anyone who’s currently living in the United States: country’s chart ...
The Postrider’s 2024 Grammys Preview
The first time I ever wrote about the Grammys was when I was in high school, when I had a dinky little Blogger site that has apparently been wiped from the Internet. The year was 2011, and it would turn ...
The Postrider’s Top 15 Albums of 2023, Part 2
As I mentioned in my intro blurb for my songs of the year list, my listening habits weren’t exactly expansive this year. I tended to lean on a lot of the same albums and genres throughout the past 12 months, ...
The Postrider’s Top 15 Albums of 2023, Part 1
As I mentioned in my intro blurb for my songs of the year list, my listening habits weren’t exactly expansive this year. I tended to lean on a lot of the same albums and genres throughout the past 12 months, ...
The Postrider’s Top 20 Songs of the Year, Part 2
For whatever reason, this 2023 list was the most difficult I’ve ever put together. And yet, it was also the easiest list for me to write. That might be because it’s also not a very adventurous list – it mainly ...
The Postrider’s Top 20 Songs of 2023, Part 1
I’ve been compiling lists of my favorite songs of the year since at least 2013. For whatever reason, this 2023 list was the most difficult I’ve ever put together. Part of that is that my relationship to music has changed ...
Terrace Martin Created Two of the Best Albums of the Year
The evolution of Terrace Martin is anchored and centered around one consistent element and that’s simply musicality. From the blog era of rap to the multi-hyphenate music culture of 2023, there are two elements that make him stand out from ...
Sometimes When I’m Alone, I Go Out At Night: A Ratboys Live Review
I go to a lot of shows alone. The short version as to why is that one, I no longer live near the people I would usually go to concerts with in the past; and two, I listen to more ...
The Hottest New Name in Mainstream Rock is… Olivia Rodrigo?
In “all-american bitch,” the dynamic opening track of twenty-year-old pop phenom Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album GUTS, the former Disney Channel sneers to the listener that “I know my age, and I act like it.” It’s a line that sums up ...
Did Utopia Fulfill Its Promise?
The Houston rapper's followup to Astroworld is ambitious, if a little inconsistent
My Musings on the BET Awards
Rant: I purposefully waited to publish this article a week later to see the responses of the BET awards from cultural critics and how the audience responded. One of the criticisms I saw again and again was that people were ...
Wednesday Reach a New Height at Music Hall of Williamsburg
Despite what the Grammys and Twitter stan armies would have you believe, music is not a competition. Sure, it’s competitive in the sense that every industry is competitive, but there are no win/loss records, no championship titles, and no playoffs. ...
My Favorite Songs from Mac DeMarco’s 199 Song Album
A couple weeks ago, Mac DeMarco informed everyone that he would be releasing One Wayne G, a 199 song album. Like, 199 in one album. Not broken up into smaller versions, not spread out over a year. One whole shebang. ...
Mo Troper and The Mo Troper Band Bring Their Perfectly Craft Pop to The Sultan Room
I have to admit that I don’t always understand what Mo Troper is going for. The prolific Portland, Oregon songwriter’s cracked, sometimes crude take on power-pop straddles the line between earnestness and irony, delivering otherwise sweet lyrics with a warped, ...
boygenius and Wednesday Represent Indie Rock’s Stale Past and Exciting Future
Earlier this year, I covered the announcement of the release of Wednesday’s Rat Saw God and boygenius’ the record in the same article. I did so because both announcements were made on the same day, and because both albums figured ...
2nd Grade Fight Through the Hiccups to Rock Berlin NYC
Midway through “Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider,” the second song of 2nd Grade’s Saturday night gig opening for Kiwi jr. at Berlin NYC, Peter Gill’s microphone fell out of its stand. This might not have been a problem at most ...
Kiwi jr Electrify Berlin NYC
“To really get it, you’ve got to see them live” may be a music fan cliche as tired as yelling “Free Bird,” but, what can I say – I feel that I can never truly understand a band or artist ...
Hoodie Allen Grieves and Grows on “bub”
Last year we checked in on Hoodie Allen, who was just beginning to emerge from a three year hiatus. Be it for personal or public reasons, Hoodie went underground and emerged different. He had struggled with infidelity, a breakup, a ...
Lana Del Rey’s Latest Album Feels Like a Landmark. But How Long Can She Keep It Up?
Lana Del Rey has always existed in an awkward in-between state. By most metrics, she’s a pop star – she has multiple platinum and gold records, has been nominated for six Grammys (including Album of the Year), and worked with ...
Praise a Lord Who Chews Finds Yves Tumor in a Moodier, More Reflective Mood
Yves Tumor’s rise to indie rock stardom has felt both obvious and unlikely. Beginning as an experimental noise artist, Tumor (birth name Sean Bowie) didn’t really start writing melodic music until 2018’s Safe in the Hands of Love, which merged ...
The Top 20 Albums of 2022, Part 5
After what I considered to be a pretty down year for music in 2021, 2022 felt like it bounced back in a big way, with releases from some of my favorite artists, some new discoveries, and even releases from old ...