I was a Tidal subscriber and was very happy with it - I only switched to Qobuz because they gave me a free year's subscription.

I don't know yet how I feel about the new Boy Harsher song. This melancholy electropop direction is less appealing to me than their previous chainsmoking-in-vinyl-pants stuff. The video is fine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYz-...

Tomorrow's BA newsletter will feature our Half-Year Roundup, a list of the 50 best albums of the first half of 2026. Subscribe now, so you don't miss out! burningambulance.substack.com

It's been raining for three days and it's gonna keep raining till Thursday. So in lieu of sticking my face in a sun lamp or swallowing half a bottle of vitamin D, I'm listening to Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians (a 2015 recording I've never heard before, being reissued in August).

Starting work on the next two Burning Ambulance Music releases. All I’ll say for now is that they are both trumpet-focused, and one is our first-ever physical double CD.

This is an interesting thread. I remember her initial ascent well; I saw the Blond Ambition tour; but I have never heard a whole Madonna album. Some of these I didn't even know existed.

There are two possible responses to people like this. 1) Move on with your life; other people's ignorance of art and culture is their problem, and life is short. 2) Share something with them that makes them say, "Holy fuck! I had no idea such things were even possible!" GOTO 1

Ehhh... not exactly. The first Sonic Youth EP is danceable Downtown postpunk, more like the Rapture than Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Then Richard Edson (their first drummer) quit and they went all clangy and arty (Confusion Is Sex through Bad Moon Rising/Evol/Sister).

I am halfway through season 3 of DARK WINDS (it's on Netflix now) and I am coming to the conclusion that Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police may not actually be very good at his job.

There's been a lot of social media discourse about the state of music criticism. If you think there is a future for music writing please consider supporting independent music media: stereogum.com/products Here are our latest genre columns available exclusively to subscribers… 👇

There's a new Paul Simon concert film on Hulu and I have to say "The Quiet Celebration Concert" may be the least enticing title for a concert film I have ever seen. Kudos to whoever came up with that.

StonesCorp is pushing the new Rolling Stones album REALLY hard. Two music videos, a "visualizer," lyric videos, behind-the-scenes footage, a podcast... it's starting to feel like a final sprint (for them, obviously, but also for their version of rock stardom). www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IOL...

I. Do. Not. Trust. This. Guy. His actual positions read like Romney Republicanism to me. The actual Democrat running, Alani Bankhead, gives off a nutty vibe and almost certainly can't win, but Seth Bodnar seems very weaselly to me.

I took a silly online political quiz! britmonkey.com/2020s-politi...

In today's newsletter, I have some thoughts on Clive Davis, corporate patron of avant-garde jazz, and a bunch of links to interesting articles for paying subscribers. You should become a paying subscriber. burningambulance.substack.com/p/links-n-st...

I'm a white man in my 50s (who's been writing about music for money since 1996). Should I be upset that I wasn't asked to pontificate about music criticism's vital role in contemporary society?

Ethan Hawke is a great actor because he never condescends to the material. Whether he's in a vampire movie or a time travel movie or a Depression-era take on THE WAGES OF FEAR, he commits 100%. This looks really good. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ypu...

Hard to imagine a track listing that would get me to delete a promo email faster. (The album in question is described as "a poignant and timely reflection on American identity — one that acknowledges the beauty of its musical past while confronting the complexities of its present." Fuuuuuck off.)

Metallica have released another one of their giant box sets, this one devoted to 1997's Reload. I wrote about that album (which I guarantee you was millions of people's first Metallica album) for @stereogum.com when it turned 20: stereogum.com/1972157/relo...

It's very difficult to be completely up one's own ass and completely full of shit at the same time, but Robert Eggers manages. www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

I wrote about John Coltrane's Africa/Brass, an album that continues to captivate me almost 40 years after first hearing it: www.everythingjazz.com/story/john-c...

Super excited about the mammoth Joy Division live box (16 shows on 14 CDs), which will expose a new generation to the wild, unpredictable improvisations that radically transformed their songs from night to night.

Read this interview yesterday and now I'm reading Wolven's first collection of stories, CONTROLLED BURN. It's amazing. It's like Jim Thompson crossed with Thom Jones; absolute poetry.

Just a quick reminder that James Carville's greatest political achievement was getting Bill Clinton 43% of the vote in a three-way race, 34 years ago. And that since then he has not run *one* successful national campaign.

Afternoon listening: Illinois Jacquet, Swing's The Thing (Clev/Verve, 1956). With Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Jimmy Jones on piano, Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass and Jo Jones on drums.

The Zwan album is the only Billy Corgan thing I actually like. Kinda excited about this TBH.

I'll tell you what's magnificent, is those type treatments. (I've barely dipped a toe into the Roach corpus, but will check this out.)

TFW you delete a promo email because it's the announcement of a band's new single, which is called "Tusk of the Yeti," and your immediate mental response is that yetis don't have tusks, they have *fangs*.

Buying cherries is fun because you'll see a display of bags of cherries with a sign saying, like, "SAVE $5 PER LB!" and you'll think, "Oh, on sale," and grab a modestly sized bag and then at checkout you'll learn that you've just paid $983.44 for a fucking bag of cherries.

"If you like [literally any record by anyone], you should definitely check out Miles Davis's On The Corner. Also, Lou Reed sucks."

My latest Stereogum column is out; I interviewed James Brandon Lewis about his amazing new record Omni, and reviewed a bunch of other great new music from Nduduzo Makhathini, Lakecia Benjamin, and more. It's paywalled for subscribers, so subscribe, dammit! stereogum.com/2503033/jame...

Listened to Quicksilver Messenger Service's Happy Trails earlier today and had two simultaneous reactions: 1) I don't understand how this band didn't break out, leaving the Grateful Dead languishing in obscurity; 2) I never want to hear this music again as long as I live.

This is a great set of classic-feeling hip hop instrumentals (big drums, sample-montage, tasteful scratches) in the late-90s tradition of DJ Shadow’s Entroducing crossed with the Return of the DJ compilation series. #newmusic belowsystem.bandcamp.com/album/moorth...

That Criterion Kubrick box looks like the kind of thing you buy and display on a table, so visitors know you're the kind of person who owns a thing like that.

And only $500! Who could possibly say no? www.criterion.com/boxsets/9000...

Was startled by this freakishly large moth on my front railing this morning. It's a Western Eyed Sphinx Moth and it's quite impressive up close. Apparently they're nocturnal, so I don't know what it's doing out in the daytime.

No one has ever been, or will ever be, more "music *business*" than this guy. And there'll never be another, because the era of hit records that actually *sell physical copies* is over. (But hey, he signed Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor to Arista, too.) www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-...

There's a site, intheweights dot com, that scans the biggest LLM models and can tell you how present your name, work, biographical details, etc. are in them. Fortunately, I share a name with a professor of ancient history who's written a fuckton of books, so I'm largely invisible.

For me this is hot dogs. When I buy hot dogs and hot dog buns it is because I want hot dogs NOW/TODAY. Expiration date? Irrelevant.

Things I learned about from my dad: - Laurel & Hardy (the steps in The Music Box actually led to my great-grandparents’ house, or so I’m told) - doo-wop (his favorite song was “The Ten Commandments of Love”) - Richard Brautigan

There's a bunch of new writing up at the Shfl! I reviewed albums by the Blasters, the Cramps, and the Lazy Cowgirls. news.theshfl.com/p/new-on-shf...

Morning listening: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Way Down In The Rust Bucket. The Weld tour as club gig. 2 1/2 hours of amp-frying, mind-roasting guitar jams. Fully 1/3 of these tracks are more than 10 minutes long. Essential.

I say about Greg Tate what Dizzy Gillespie said about Louis Armstrong: "No him, no me." And yeah, he was incredibly nice in person, which you really wouldn't expect from someone who was so obviously the coolest person in the room. (Every room, every time.)

My high school had an outdoor smoking section for students (not official, but sanctioned).

It's Juneteenth. Post your favorite Black fictional character. (It's a tie.)

I keep forgetting to promote my art and design work (this includes a “booklet”) and although the official release date is July 3, you can now stream and purchase the entire Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane set AT IRIDIUM 2004. ceciltaylor-bam.bandcamp.com/album/at-iri...

This is one of the funniest things I've ever read. BRB gonna go listen to a bunch of Mozart operas. (Not really.) www.criticaldrift.org/p/dirtbag-mo...

Official release date is July 3, but you can now stream and purchase the entire Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane set AT IRIDIUM 2004. 14 full performances recorded over 6 days - *16 hours of music!* ceciltaylor-bam.bandcamp.com/album/at-iri...

This list made me laugh and laugh. I genuinely love this kind of thing when it's done without a single note of smugness. He just really likes to watch movies 99% of humanity will never even know exist! And that's fine! vintageviolence.substack.com/p/the-best-f...