AIMEE MANN Queens of the Summer Hotel (SuperEgo Records) In 2018, Aimee Mann set out to write the music for a theatrical adaptation of Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen’s bestselling memoir about her time in a psychiatric hospital. While the pandemic put plans for the musical on hold, many of those songs landed on Queens of the Summer Hotel, sung from the perspectives of different characters. Mann paints these portraits with her signature wry wit and reflective wisdom, touching on such serious topics as suicide (“Suicide Is Murder”) and...

  When you think of seminal all-female rock and roll bands, the chances of The Go-Go’s being the first group to come to mind are high. Their 1981 album Beauty and the Beat, featuring iconic tracks “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat”, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard charts and resides comfortably on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Drummer Gina Schock left Baltimore for LA to make it big, joining The Go-Go’s in 1979. Almost forty years...

It is difficult, if not impossible, to pin down exactly who Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent, truly is. That’s because, with each new album, she transforms into a new version of herself. At the time of her 2017 Grammy-winning record Masseduction, for instance, St. Vincent was a neon-hot, futuristic dominatrix, dressed in pink latex and fixated on power. Now, as she tours in support of the glittery, gritty, glam-rock Daddy’s Home, she sports leather jackets, bell-bottomed jumpsuits, and a bad wig, creating a...

A Norah Jones Christmas album: it’s such an obvious idea that it’s hard to believe it hasn’t happened until now! But Jones just released her first-ever holiday disc, I Dream of Christmas, last month. Her voice is uniquely suited to Christmas songs; indeed, the press release that accompanied the album aptly described her as “a steady voice of warmth and reassurance for nearly 20 years.” And who couldn’t use a little warmth and reassurance during the holiday season? Norah Jones burst onto the popular music scene...

While the late Karen Black is known more for her acclaimed 1960s/1970s acting career in films including Five Easy Pieces and Nashville, she was also a prolific singer/songwriter. Several of Black’s studio recordings and demos are now seeing the light of day thanks to Cass McCombs, who compiled and co-produced this collection over the course of three years. The 17 tracks display Black’s high, clear vocal range (think early Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell) as well as her penchant for storytelling, often about love, relationships,...

Zooey Deschanel and Ingrid Michaelson have cast their votes in the great “When Is It Too Early to Listen to Christmas Music” debate with a new song and adorable music video featuring animated, felted bunnies full of holiday cheer and cozy vibes. The song, “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year” was written by Ingrid Michaelson and features Zooey Deschanel in a sweet and festive duet about being in love in winter and beyond. Both singers are no strangers to holiday music, Deschanel recorded A Very She &...

Boyfriend, the New Orleans-based multi-hyphenate musician who has written with Big Freedia, Charli XCX, and Pussy Riot, is notorious for her theatrical live shows. Decked out in rollers and vintage lingerie, Boyfriend coined the term "rap-cabaret" to best describe the vibe. Burlesque, aerial silk performers, drinking Monster Energy out of martini glasses, set pieces, crowdsurfing -- what could be a more natural step for such an interactive performer than... radio? Boyfriend partnered with Amazing Radio, a British radio station founded in 2007, dedicated to exposure for...

Avril Lavigne was the princess of 2000s pop-punk, and now, with her latest single, “Bite Me,” she’s right back on the throne. Released on Wednesday under Travis Barker’s label, DTA Records, “Bite Me” is the first taste of Lavigne’s upcoming, currently untitled seventh album, and it marks a triumphant return to her angsty rock roots. Every line of “Bite Me” packs the same powerful punch as Lavigne’s early hits like “Girlfriend” and “Complicated,” using playful phrases like “I bet you taste me on the tip of...

Joni Mitchell is a creative genius and musical innovator who has inspired many musicians such as Elvis Costello, Chrissie Hynde, Kate Bush, Cat Power, Patty Griffin, Rufus Wainwright, Joanna Newsom, Anhoni, Brandi Carlisle, and Margo Price to name a few. Joni’s catalogue of recordings are classics and her influence on pop culture is wide reaching. The second installment of Joni Mitchell’s archives is being released in a 4-CD, 4-LP, and digital versions set on Rhino records. Like its predecessor, Archives Volume 1, Archives Volume 2 includes a...

NO GUITARS, NO drums, no synths.The nine tracks on the self-titled Les Sewing Sisters LP were made entirely with vocals and samples of sounds made by sewing machines. Though a listener probably wouldn’t immediately recognize the singular source, the result is a collection of industrial musique concrete/electronic-pop songs about sewing, fabric, and dressmaking delivered via repetitive, steely vocals. Formed in 2016 by Japanese born, L.A.-based costume designer Saori Mitome and conceptual artist Lun*na Menoh, Les Sewing Sisters uses music as only one aspect of the...