Have you all gotten the new Twisted Teens album yet? jazzlife.bandcamp.com/album/blame-...

“The perpetrator was a product of the parallel order that rewarded loyalty, blurred legality and collapsed the line between Afghan and American command. When that world imploded in 2021, Lakanwal carried its ruins with him to the United States.” | @tamhussein.bsky.social shorturl.at/Z0PaX

*still* working on my 250 Rock & Folk albums of 2000-2025 list and its slightly driving me mad (I didn’t intend it to be 50 pages and I keep going back on whether “stadium crust” needs a hyphen). On the plus side, it’s resulted in my remembering Visqueen. visqueenvaxxine.bandcamp.com/album/messag...

2800 words on modern rock devoid of Black influence, global citizens swapping notes and beats, proto-fascists playing hard rock, "Don't Stop Believin'" presaging "Running Up That Hill," what makes a good or bad hip-hop or r&b year, superstars fleeing major labels, & my 150 favorite albums of 2007.

Were The Standard well-ish known in the Aughts and I just missed them entirely? Cos if I’d heard this in 2004, I would have flipped. thestandard.bandcamp.com/album/wire-p...

Newest Soho Radio show is up on Mixcloud! All the biggest post-punk hits of now and yesteryears! Feat. Adult, Elucid, Radio 4, Twisted Teens, teen suicide, Azar Swan, Landowner, Maryam Saleh, Prostitute, Geese, Juana Molina, Subsonics, Dalek, and more!!! www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/ab...

I want to do the best writing I’ve ever done and I’d be honored to have you as my reader First proper electronic missive goes out Monday, February 9 Subscribe here: thefutureisourstomake.substack.com THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE

Graceless pivot to survival: I’m launching THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE A music newsletter of reccos, rants, illumination, shade, endangered forms (concert/album reviews, human interviews), formless dangers (trash talk, love lore, bespoke illos) — an expansion of my work as your critic + co-listener

I’ve been laid off by The Washington Post Serving as this newspaper’s pop music critic for the past 16-plus years has been my privilege, my joy Endless solidarity to my righteous colleagues, endless gratitude to our faithful readers

A new Moonscape album came out last year and nobody told me. I had to find out from MRR Best of 2025. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me. moonscapejhc.bandcamp.com/album/-

I’m honestly too sad about Catherine O’Hara to go through clips and find one to post so, since I’m a music writer anyway, here’s her sister’s perfect album from 1988 in case you don’t know about it. marymargaretohara.bandcamp.com/album/miss-a...

A Japanese d-beat band I’m reviewing mentioned MacArthur and I wanted to make a joke about him being “discharge”-d for a second time so I did an hour of research on the general’s history with Japan/Truman before realizing the lyric was about a manga character (and also name was spelled differently)

Nick Cave and the Deep States

Reviewed the Sex Pistols album for CREEM (full review in current issue)

Budgie pays tribute to Kenny Morris in special piece for LTW louderthanwar.com/budgie-pays-... via @louderthanwar

As some here know, every year, on the week of her birthday and our anniversary, I write a poem for Zohra. (Been doing this for for 15 years and still can’t format worth a damn)

Found out today that I played a benefit show with Das Racist and Japanther in 2010. (a lot of this time period is blurry. Just looked up photos from it on Nicky Digital, and I look like *hell*.)

First soho radio show of 2026 is up on MixCloud. Zohra and I play the hottest tracks of the 20th/21st Century! Smash hits by Suede, Nothing People, Namir Blade, Postcards, Fishbone, Azar Swan, Chrome, Tomorrow Kings, Clint Ruin & Lydia Lunch, Henry’s Dress + more! www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/ab...

Posting for accountability: newsletter of top 250 rock/rock-adjacent albums of last 25 years will be out by Jan 1st. zacharylipez.ghost.io

If you thought I believed some batshit stuff in 2024… fasten yr seatbelts!

Alex CF from Fall of Efrafa/Morrow/1,000,000 other crustalicious bands has a new peace punk band and it’s fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun (till the pigs come around)! ancientlightspunx.bandcamp.com/album/reclam...

I've heard maybe 5 of these tracks before, and none of them were among my favs on this show. Exactly what I want from radio tbh.

Most recent @sohoradio show is now on Mixcloud if you’re on the market for two hours of the biggest smash hits of post-punk, occasionally interrupted by the wheezy and off-putting mutterings of an aging dilettante! Discover the stars of today… today! www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/ab...

It was Zohra and mine’s wedding anniversary yesterday so we stayed up all night + started tracking what’s going to be our album of conspiracy ballads. Now I just need to convince her to keep Djinn Blossoms as our duo name and that the album should def be called “Murder Bananas.”

Ah man I’ve been hoping that Fishbone would release their excellent Alice In Chains cover for purchase, and they have! fishbone.bandcamp.com/track/them-b...

Since I'm in the Baltics, we're pretty late with the whole Geese discourse. But seeing multiple Geese memes in the last few days (plus P.T.A. filming frontman's Carnagey Hall concert, for some reason), I went to my go-to music critic to find out what the deal is, and boy, it did not disappoint.

Sorry to hear about Peter Greene. Besides the obvious Pulp Fiction stuff, his opening scene for Justified was a classic. Also, in my cosmology, we do apply extra credit for being a Beauty Bar regular, being generally “around,” and for being a good tipper.

Dan Crenshaw’s bday will be deejayed by Steve Aoki. Second stage is Dim Mak showcase featuring performances by Lion Fever, Dance Disaster Movement, and Die Monitr Bats. (The “country music legends” is The Starvations 🙁)

love an End of The Year album ranking from Zach

Zach always has the best lists… …but now I gotta redo mine. Real monkeys paw shit

Well, this is a tremendous list

We got some list’nin to do, amigos.

I look forward to reading two year end lists each year: @thequietus.com and Zach’s

Oh my God this list talks about Surgery, I am all in.

Saw Mdou Moctar mentioned, heard ten seconds of a song off Noura Mint Seymali's Yenbett then stopped it to prepare for a full listen. Lunch break is gonna rip. Can't wait to dive in to the rest of this later.

Any year-end list with Milkweed and an L'Trimm reference is the list for me. Psyched to dive-in later. Guessing I have approx. 37 new albums to check out this week.

Never let it be said I haven’t earned my on-the-list-plus-ones. Here are 50 Albums of 2025! zacharylipez.ghost.io/playing-my-p...

Here are my TOP TEN ALBUMS of 2025 wapo.st/4a2eWIL

ICYMI: The Paranoid Style on NPR's 'Great American Folk Show' is a celebration of my heroes Warren Zevon and Linda Ronstadt, and the debut of the never previously released PS track "Still Creepy After All These Years." Moving episode and a terrific experience. news.prairiepublic.org/the-great-am...

I feel sorry for all you who left Twitter entirely. The complete absence of any moral grounding there is so freeing. It’s like a bathroom stall in a bar in an afterhours in a bordello in the LES in the ‘80s, a week after the Rapture.

Wasn’t going to do an EOY list but I guess I’ll be forced to as the critical intelligentsia’s morally repulsive erasure of what’s inarguably the best album of the year (80HD’s “Orc Party”) will not stand. Do better, scribes, or i’ll do better for you. ironlungrecords.bandcamp.com/album/orc-pa...

At first I was happy to read the P4K list and see albums I love (Cleo Reed, woods, geese, etc). And doubly happy to not see any artists I personally despise. Then I realized the latter just means I’ve aged out of knowing first hand which artists are scum, so now I feel old + sad. 🙂

Mr Zach gets it!

Another great list (with more than half being stuff I’m excited to explore) by the freak scenesters at Quietus. Extra credit given for going w/ the troo false black metal of Agriculture over the false troo black metal of Deafheaven. A sign of real discernment.

@zacharylipez.bsky.social is my favorite music writer and CREEM is my music mag of choice. Do yourself and favor and get this big ol’ beautiful thing sent to your home!

If you’d like to support music writing, print media, America (good parts), God (pick yr poison), Geese, the other bands, rock AND roll, and a future where I don’t go back to tending bar or substack, subscribe to CREEM Magazine! Black Friday sale now! www.creem.com

God is good.

New Maryam Saleh single! With new album coming in March of next year! maryamsaleh.bandcamp.com/album/syrr

Syrr سِرّ by Maryam Saleh maryamsaleh.bandcamp.com/album/syrr