As independent venues around the coutry close or face severe economic headwinds, @ptoon.bsky.social examines SF's Noise Pop Festival as a model of DIY spirit, community, and resistance to the prevailing trends. A must-read for anyone who cares about live music. www.passionweiss.com/2026/02/26/w...

Lapgan and Baalti announce new psychedelic dance album 'Threads'; check out "Lime Tikka" and its accompanying short film

The Best Rap Singles of 2025 www.passionweiss.com/2025/12/26/t...

The Best Live Performances of 2025 For the year's final "We Outside" column, @ptoon.bsky.social breaks down transcendent performances from Floating Points, DARKSIDE, Mannequin Pussy, Charli XCX, billy woods, and more. www.passionweiss.com/2025/12/23/w...

The second edition of the POW Book Club is on Such Great Heights by @chrisdeville.bsky.social, who I spoke with for a lovely interview about “indie”: the pros and cons of your favorite bands hitting it big, the fading trust between artists and critics, and where the genre goes from here

So grateful to @ptoon.bsky.social and @passionweiss.bsky.social for featuring me and my book

@chrisdeville.bsky.social’s excellent new book was as fun to write about as it was to read. Shared some reflections in the Spoonerism newsletter (with more reflections to come)

Few groundbreaking cultural institutions survive 2 full decades intact. Philly's Making Time ∞ is a rare exception, remaining experimental at its core In advance of this year's festival, @ptoon.bsky.social spoke to founder Dave P about how he's made it work www.passionweiss.com/2025/09/18/w...

In a festival world that has become homogenized and interchangeable, @ptoon.bsky.social attends Outside Lands and offers three lessons that its competition can take from the Bay's premier three-day music festival. www.passionweiss.com/2025/08/17/t...

Writing for Passion of the Weiss has been one of the most magical experiences of my career, so it’s insane to see its lens rotated towards me. Had a brilliant chat about Words for My Comrades with @ptoon.bsky.social, who wrote it up with the fire you’d expect from the site

2Pac's legacy & the circumstances of his murder have been endlessly dissected, but his politics have rarely received the same attention @ptoon.bsky.social interviewed @deanvannguyen.bsky.social about his excellent new book that explores 'Pac radical philosophy. www.passionweiss.com/2025/08/13/p...

Do co-headlining tours give fans a chance to experience 2 distinct solo shows a& see double the music? Or does it dilute the experience and shatter the momentum of a traditional stadium show? @ptoon.bsky.social reports from the Kendrick/SZA tour for We Outside www.passionweiss.com/2025/06/25/w...

The Top 20 Performances of Coachella The endless Brat summer beats on ceaselessly, The LA Phil concocts a desert orchestral fever dream, Kraftwerk illustrate the sustained power of German engineering. Green Day lives on. @ptoon.bsky.social was there. www.passionweiss.com/2025/04/23/w...

Part II of my Coachella roundup for @passionweiss.bsky.social is up! Read my thoughts on Arca, Kraftwerk, Kneecap, Hope Tala, Lady Gaga, and 15 others (was a good year)

Part One of my two part column this month ranking everything I saw at Coachella this year, for @passionweiss.bsky.social

POW Radio is going live now on @dublab.bsky.social with a guest mix from the 404 master and found sound manipulator Kartik Mixing everything from Yacht Rock to Ras G, Quelle Chris to Boards of Canada, late 00s UK dubstep, Quasimoto and more. 12-2 PST. Lock in www.dublab.com

An ode to the concert film, an art form that has become popular again, despite the proliferation of short-form video & iPhone footage And how they offer a more immersive way to understand another subculture's followers, language & norms By @ptoon.bsky.social www.passionweiss.com/2025/03/31/w...

Almost ten years ago I landed my first @stereogum.bsky.social byline, and now I’m being mentioned in the text as a manager. Full circle moment!

The second edition of the Spoonerism newsletter is live! Featuring words on Liz Pelly’s “Mood Machine”, the false promise of AI-generated music, and Baalti’s incredible EP Mela + the new MIKE and Venturing albums

Wrote for this month’s We Outside about Noise Pop, San Francisco’s homegrown music festival keeping the spirit of independent music alive (for @passionweiss.bsky.social)

Launched the newsletter, in which I take stock of the death of platforms, the joy of physical media, and the lesson Arooj Aftab can teach us about stretching beyond a monolingual mindset

Examined the state of the 2025 festival economy, and ultimately found hope in spite of the many red flags littered across these lineups.

I’m helming the Spoonerism newsletter, which launches this week. I think it’s some of my best writing yet, if you’d like to tap in: spoonerismllc.substack.com?r=a3sy&utm_c...

So in addition to music writing, I manage a few artists (Lapgan, Sparklmami, Kartik), and just launched an entity to cover that work: Spoonerism. We focus on music informed by mixed cultural upbringings. Keep up with us! www.instagram.com/spoonerismll...

Baalti dropped one of my favorite dance floor fillers of the last year, and Molly wrote one of my favorite sentences of music writing about it: “I started getting phantom lower back pains from dropping it too low in my mind”

Wrote about Jessica Pratt’s Here In The Pitch, my favorite album of 2024, for the year’s best blog. It’s the age of what’s to come, happy new year. www.passionweiss.com/2024/12/31/t...

Wrote about the breakthrough moments from Banditdamack and Doechii for the best end-of-year list in the game @passionweiss.bsky.social

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself do a 10 year anniversary tour

Made a starter pack of some of my fav voices in music writing 🙂 go.bsky.app/F5YFs8C

🚨 New Lapgan Alert 🚨 Five piping hot History remixes courtesy of some of the best artists from the global underground

Closing out We Outside for 2024 with a roundup of the best shows I saw this year, the ones that made still participating in our broken concert economy still unquestionably worthwhile

Can I manifest the return of BUMBER for 2025? What a blissful project, from the music to the art design

I’m not great with casually sharing what I’m listening to on social media, but I update my version of a “heavy rotation” playlist often – follow for good stuff new, old, or that I’m writing about/working on open.spotify.com/playlist/252...

The latest Sparklmami single is like the Soulquarians by way of International Anthem. Highly suggest everyone on here buy her stock early.

Took my turn paying respects to Ka – the legend, the myth, the man – for @passionweiss.bsky.social