RIP Ralph Towner, who has helped me get some rest and internal peace through his music for decades now. This is the composition that I've returned to the most through the years. youtu.be/A48MEhnGKUU?...

We're like three weeks away from RFK declaring that the lack of lead in paint and drinking water is what's been keeping America down.

Heartbroken for Brahim Diaz, who's been amazing throughout the tournament, except today. #AFCON

Because of the internet and phone blackout it’s impossible to know, but it seems that the regime massacres etc have ended the protests in Iran for now. Don’t forget them please.

The First Amendment protects journalists who receive and report information of public concern even if the source broke the law. Raiding a reporter’s home is an extraordinary step that raises serious press-freedom concerns. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Jon Dekel tells the great story of how a Vancouver record-shop owner chose not to profit on his discovery of the Beatles' long-lost Decca audition tape - and gained an unforgettable experience instead. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/musi...

Reminder this is today! Elevate yr Bunny Quotient before the Superb Owl comes.

Tomorrow! (Wed) in the music books online series, it's BAD BUNNY week, w/ Petra Rivera-Rideau & Vanessa Díaz discussing their new "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance" with Anamaria Sayre of NPR. Join us, 5:30 pm ET: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

Never took the Golden Globes remotely seriously but I will take Rhea Seehorn and Michelle Williams winning awards the same night as a sweeping victory for my tribe, which has no real definition but is roughly the heterosexual gays.

💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Prompt from @seantcollins.com: Post four TV couples you love (both actual relationships and profound yearning are acceptable)

It's the day to post this again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPPu...

David Byrne's "Driver's License" cover makes me want to renounce poptimism. stereogum.com/2484566/davi...

Today!

Does Gen Z have hipsters, as in people who are called that by other Gen Zs? Or is the term just dead

Tomorrow!

Well, this seems effed up. Tho it looks like they had no good choices. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/b...

Our online books series returns Wed Jan 7 at 5:30 pm ET w/ Stereogum's Chris DeVille @chrisdeville.bsky.social discussing his book on the 2000s "indie rock explosion," Such Great Heights, with Grace Robins-Somerville @graceroso.bsky.social. Join us! See here: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

Written by @annienocenti.bsky.social in Daredevil 283, 1990, "The American Nightmare."

Weeping over here. And to an Omnichord!

For your New Year's Day browse, in "Crritic!" today - a special last list of 2025: the best Toronto albums, from a year when I really reconnected with the local scene for the first time in a long while. carlwilson.substack.com/p/where-the-...

Pour one out. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ihi...

Reminder that I made you a soundtrack for today. (Not a party-dance mix.)

It's from Odetta Sings Dylan, from March 1965, where she absolutely kills it on a dozen Dylan songs - and her version of "Tambourine Man" came out a month before Dylan's own.

Okay, this is a combination I never imagined. (And I like Oregon!)

In case you missed it!

A friend added this great one from the POV of Bardot's character from "Le Mépris": skwm.bandcamp.com/track/contempt

Cool list of name-checks in song of that hot fascist mess Bardot from Maria Sherman here - I think there are a couple dozen more out there. "We Love You" by the Psychedelic Furs, for instance. apnews.com/article/brig...

I've got 99 New Years songs, and "Auld Lang Syne" ain't one carlwilson.substack.com/p/what-are-y...

Slate Music Club was a written roundtable for many years and has now become an annual podcast - join me, Chris M, Lindsay Z from the NYT, and Julianne ES from Hearing Things to go beyond lists (tho we have those) and talk about 2025's music trends and ideas, and look ahead to 2026.

A certain small coterie of writers and academics spent decades from at least the 70s to the 2000s arguing to dismissive skeptics that fandom activity was significant at all. And then it became a really weird "be careful what you wish for" scenario.

Sick of Xmas songs? Smart cookies are switching over to New Year's songs! I've just made you a 99-track playlist. carlwilson.substack.com/p/what-are-y...

See my Best #Music #Journalism of 2025 round-up for Rock & Roll Globe, including articles from @carlzoilus.bsky.social @marysiroky.bsky.social @lizpelly.bsky.social @bobmehr.bsky.social @gabrielkahane.bsky.social @ericdharvey.com @chavighurst.bsky.social & more rockandrollglobe.com/music-journa...

This just-posted Canadian 1974 TV special w/ Steve Martin (his first!) is pretty entertaining if you remember Toronto or Montreal pre-1980s, or else if you're very into seeing a young Steve Martin. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Leb8...

Today we call this "the news."

Happy bday to both Brother Bragg and Brother Watt!

I seldom see it mentioned that Pluribus is partly about society's collective-action failure on climate change, probably because the show is so low key about it, but it's a notable part of the thought experiment.

A YT channel posted this Kirsty MacColl live Toronto clip yesterday, for the 25th anniversary of her tragic death. She's about 34 here, and was 41 when she was killed saving her son from a speedboat in Mexico. Listen to this song - "Free World" - she was so brilliant. (Thanks, Shawn.)

My semi-annual weirdo-holiday playlist - 99 songs, 5+ hours, links to multiple platforms today on "Crritic!" carlwilson.substack.com/p/the-most-w...

This is today, 5:30 pm ET - DM for the link if you're interested!

This will be a blast!

Today in "Crritic!", I share some of the faves bubbling under my 2025 lists last week, and pay brief tribute to the great Joe Ely, gone to the mystery honky-tonk beyond the blue horizon. Plus, completing the Destroyer-David Berman-Sr. Chinarro circle. carlwilson.substack.com/p/twenty-mor...

RIP Joe Ely, keep those fingernails clickin' in the great beyond.

jfc, I was scrolling through thinking, "Oh, that's sad, it seems that Rob Reiner has died," but no idea that it was this way (if true). holy crap.

Today in "Crritic!": my best-of-the-year lists, with an exclusive streaming playlist: carlwilson.substack.com/p/the-2025-h...

Damn, *just found out Ben Feldman from Superstore (+ voice on Long Story Short) was Ginsberg on Mad Men. His affect is so different on the two that it never occurred to me, even tho his looks weren't radically changed. It ridiculously makes me feel, "Oh, Ginsberg turned to be okay!" (Sob.)

Yes! Kanopy also has some stuff that you can only otherwise see on Criterion and other specialty services.

Extremely sad to hear Raul Malo has passed, though I was aware he was unwell. A great figure. www.npr.org/2025/12/09/n...

My Slate music-year-in-review is up! Tried to celebrate the humanity of music makers vs. AI slop, those who value autonomy in a time of corporate concentration, & those who speak up about the state of the world in a time of suppression, brutality, and enshittification. slate.com/culture/2025...