Michael Lovito
editor@thepostrider.com
Vampire Weekend and Billie Eilish Are Welcome Outliers. Can They Become Revolutionaries Too?
(Photo on the left by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, Right by Ross Gillmore/WireImage) The other day, a coworker of mine posted this preview of Vampire Weekend’s new album Father of the Bride by Mikael Wood in a slack channel, and I gave ...
I’d Like To Thank You All For Nothing At All: A Jeff Tweedy Live Review
There’s a part in Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), Jeff Tweedy’s excellent memoir released last year, where he discusses Wilco’s collaboration with Billy Bragg on the Mermaid Avenue albums, a trilogy of records featuring the two artists playing ...
Jenny Lewis’s On the Line Satisfies Even When It Stretches
It’s probably not fair to think of Jenny Lewis as a “child star turned musician” anymore. After all, she made that pivot over twenty years ago when she formed Rilo Kiley, a perennially underrated indie band responsible for one of ...
Sherrod Brown Could’ve Been the Perfect Democrat for 2020, But He Waited Too Long to Make a Move
Sherrod Brown will not be running for president. The Ohio Senator announced yesterday through surrogates that he was content with his role in the Senate and lacks the “consuming drive” to seek the highest office in the land. This announcement ...
The Postrider’s 2019 Oscars Preview
They haven’t aired yet, but the 91st Academy Awards are already a huge mess. Last year’s ceremony pulled the smallest audience ever, prompting ABC to press the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make changes to the broadcast ...
The Transcendental Experience of Seeing Sharon Van Etten Live
I know that there’s supposed to be an infinite number of universes containing an infinite number of possibilities, but I refuse to believe that there is any timeline in which Sharon Van Etten is not a rock star. There’s no ...
2019 Grammys Preview: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
As is the case with most live televised events these days, last year’s Grammys were met with a combination of disappointment and outrage. The disappointment came from the generally underwhelming nature of the night, which featured too many performances by ...
The Top 25 Albums of 2018
I know what you’re thinking: it’s almost February, isn’t it a little late for another best of 2018 list? And you’re right! Pitchfork, Stereogum, and all of those other big outlets beat me to the punch by almost three months. ...
The Top 30 Songs of 2018
Looking back at my top 30 songs of 2017, I was reminded that there were several songs that could’ve taken the top spot. But, in 2018, there were really only a few select releases that dominated my year and that ...
Searching for God and Community at a Mitski show
I’ve been to 17 shows this year, and I’ve realized that, for most of them, especially the ones at the 9:30 Club, I’ve taken one of two positions. I either post up as close to the stage as possible to ...
Rockism and Poptimism in A Star Is Born
A Star is Born opens with Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine, a drunk and ragged rock star who sells out arenas, discovering Lady Gaga’s Ally as she sings “La Vie en Rose” in a drag bar. After being dragged backstage by ...
Venom is an Entertaining Misfire that Reminds Us of the Absurdity of Comic Books
A few days ago, the first bits of “footage”(if you could call it that) from the Todd Phillips-directed, Joaquin Phoenix-starring Joker movie were shared on Twitter. It was the first bit of proof that what feels like a terrible idea ...
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Brighten Up the Black Cat
The first time I saw Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever live was at DC9. It was a hot, sticky May night in Washington and the band put in an appropriately workmanlike performance. It was a good show, but Rolling Blackouts still ...
Mitski Explores the Many Sounds of Loneliness on Be the Cowboy
You probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Be the Cowboy, the latest album from singer/songwriter Mitski, is dark and focused on the failings and downswings of a person’s inner life. This is, after all, the same artist whose catalogue ...