Coffee runs are among the most hum-drum, beautifully predictable parts of the day. Any hint of surprise or excitement comes only when the line is unexpectedly long, or they’ve run out of your favorite drink. Singer and current BUST covergirl Kehlani certainly expected nothing more as they waited in the Starbucks drive-thru—that is, until conservative influencer and self-described “free-speech radicalist” Christian Walker, armed with a phone camera, approached their car, howling into the rolled-down window. “You don’t need to tell baristas that I’m an asshole because...

  Hotbed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism By Joanna Scutts (Seal Press)   Among the stories left untold from the women’s rights movement is the history of Heterodoxy, a secret club that helped shape first-wave feminism. Marie Jenney Howe, a Unitarian minister, formed Heterodoxy in 1912 when she came to Greenwich Village, in N.Y.C., as part of her suffrage activism. Most of the club’s members were involved in the suffrage movement but believed that achieving the right to vote would not be enough liberation for...

   Before the Bikini Kill show in NYC on June 7, one question rang in my head — what does a Bikini Kill show look like in a post-Roe v. Wade world?   The answer? Not much different from what regularly would have gone down, save for some slightly bleaker between-song banter. The band appeared to be in good spirits as they played to an appreciative crowd, with a tight setlist sticking to classics like “DemiRep,” “Feels Blind,” and “Carnival.” When I first saw the band live in 2019,...

SHARON VAN ETTEN We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong(Jagjaguwar) Sharon Van Etten is one of the best songwriters working today, and she’s also a fierce proponent of the old-school album—no skipping around, just listening straight through in the order she intended. Nowhere is that more apparent than on her sixth record, which Van Etten meticulously tracked and released without any advance singles. It’s not exactly a concept album, but all 10 songs taken together present a gorgeous meditation on love, loss, motherhood, and the grief of surviving a...

On June 8, 2010, Pretty Little Liars premiered on ABC Family. It featured 4 teens, Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer, being stalked by an anonymous figure going by “A”, who appeared after their 5th member, Alison, mysteriously disappears. The show ran for 7 seasons and spun off into 3 series based on the characters and plots of PLL. Most recently, HBO announced that Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin will be launching on the streaming platform on July 28. Original Sin will feature a new generation...

There is no actor who portrays the cutting sadness and hope of being in love quite like Juliette Binoche, and it’s a talent she puts to great use in Claire Denis’ high-stakes romantic drama Both Sides of the Blade. Co-written with Christine Angot (who adapted her own novel for the screenplay), Both Sides reunites Binoche with Denis and Angot for the first time since 2017’s Let the Sunshine In, a more effervescent, if meandering, love story. Sara (Binoche) and Jean (Vincent Lindon, from last year’s Titane)...

Bad-ass Americana music sensation and activist, Margo Price, is, like many Americans, enraged and outraged by the recent SOCTUS decision to overturn Roe v Wade. Ms. Price and husband, Jeremy Ivy, have written a song, “Fight To Make It,” affirming the perseverance and solidarity for those whose human rights continue to be taken. This stellar track includes vocal contributions from singer-songwriter, Adia Victoria, and Gospel music legend Mavis Staples. Margo declares that “Every day I see more of our rights stripped away in America. The right...

Mika in Real Life: A Novel By Emiko Jean (William Morrow) At 35, Mika Suzuki is nowhere near where her younger self had hoped she would be. Single, recently fired, living with her best friend slash possible hoarder, and an ongoing disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents, Mika can’t seem to put out one fire before another begins. When Penny, the daughter she placed for adoption 16 years ago, reaches out, Mika believes that the only path forward is a semi-fictionalized one, giving the facade of her life...

SUN’S SIGNATURE  Self-titled (Partisan Records) The latest release from dream-pop and trip-hop legends Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Damon Reece (Lupine Howl, Massive Attack) may have been years in the making, but it was worth the wait. Partners in both life and music, the duo meticulously crafted and collaborated on every intricate arrangement of this five-track EP. Some of the songs (“Golden Air,” “Make Lovely the Day”) materialized when Fraser did a rare live performance in 2012, while traces of others (“Underwater”) have been floating around since 2000. Pretty...

Netta Barzilai, better known by her one-word rockstar moniker Netta, is an Israeli pop singer, songwriter, and looping artist who rocketed to international fame in 2018 when she won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Toy." Since then, she has released two albums, “Goody Bag” and “The Best of Netta’s Office Volume One.” And her new single “I Love My Nails” has been racking up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube since the official video debuted May 12. She has a very busy...