Went on a walk with MARTYN to talk about music as something we can step into. His new album, “Music for Existing,” is truly fantastic open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Here’s where you’ll find me at the WOLF EYES show open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

The Sleeves album on @12xurecs.bsky.social is so good and so unlike anything else rn. Great chat btwn them and @chrisrichards.bsky.social here. thefutureisourstomake.substack.com/p/open-to-an...

I asked THE SLEEVES about the perimeters of their fabulous new album — close, delicate music that invites us to wonder about the borders of existence and/or which string is best open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Mina is elite

Jonathan Williger has improved my scene-world-life and his rising experimental music label OUTSIDE TIME can improve yours open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

D.C. peeps, I'll be in conversation with @bushmeatsound.bsky.social this Wed:

Today is my birthday and you can help me celebrate by subscribing to my newsletter THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE where I just wrote about a life-changing bday present given to me at age sixteen — a vinyl copy of “Personal Best” by TEAM DRESCH open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Every Sunday morning I send a little thank-you to the paid subscribers of THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE and today’s is one of the most exquisite songs I’ve ever heard open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

MM on MN HC !

I asked LANDOWNER for advice on surviving tour vis-à-vis surviving America open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Thanks to the Musicscope podcast for inviting me to go deep on Q and Not U lore www.buzzsprout.com/2011780/epis...

Took a walk with ANALOG TARA and learned so much about the teachings of Pauline Oliveros, the boundaries between rhythm and noise, the long path of electronic musicking and more Tara’s fabulous new recording, Life of the Mother, is out today open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

I drove to NYC to catch the CRAZY SPIRIT reunion and had the kind of transformative experience that I didn’t expect open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

New album from STATION MODEL VIOLENCE is straight-up inspiring and so was this correspondence with the great punk mind Daniel Stewart open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Introducing a new Sunday morning mini-column for the paid subscribers of THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE Thank you for making this work happen xo xo open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

I asked KATIE ALICE GREER about music as place-channeling and her answer really floored me open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

I went on a walk with Mac Kennedy of POISON RUÏN in the rain, through the mud, into the future open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

This is tremendous

Proof of listening, proof of life: I reviewed 100 recordings for THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE Thank you for reading, for subscribing, for telling a friend open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Honored by the laughs-tears-joys-fears that cellist JANEL LEPPIN shared in this interview which felt as broad as her music open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

I saw GUTTERED on Saturday night and felt gratitude for our scene and hope for the young thefutureisourstomake.substack.com/p/when-the-s...

Didn’t intend for this to become movie week with my newsletter but my friends in BLACK EYES invited me to see ‘Undertone,’ a horror movie about sounds (and podcasts) thefutureisourstomake.substack.com/p/at-the-mov...

If the best thing about awards season is arguing for the snubbed, here’s one last shout for NALA SINEPHRO’s exquisite soundtrack to ‘The Smashing Machine’ open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

You, an adult, don’t have to like the music of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Glad this story is being told but I’m extremely disappointed that it fails to mention that The Washington Post has laid off nearly all of its arts critics A decades-deep legacy of arts coverage has been destroyed here and it hurts our city and our world www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b...

I asked the NYHC lifers in SHINING SEA about their most vivid New York noise memories and was transported by their answers open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

I owe so much of my sense of self to FUGAZI and I tried to explain why thefutureisourstomake.substack.com/p/i-will-not...

The jazz of KELAN PHIL COHRAN keeps passing my life like a comet open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

I’d like to be dancing when the world ends, just not to this new STURGILL SIMPSON record open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Haunted by JUSTIN BIEBER singing to himself thefutureisourstomake.substack.com/p/man-in-the...

Everyone calls HEAVENLY “twee” but I wondered if they like harsh music substack.com/home/post/p-...

New writing about new D.C. MUSIC open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

At the movies with CHARLI XCX substack.com/@thefutureis...

The message I took from last night’s BAD BUNNY performance: we continue open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

If it clarifies what was lost this week: Philip Kennicott and Monica Hesse remain as arts critics at The Washington Post Eliminated: art critic arts editor arts/film editor classical critic pop critic television critic theater critic all editors/reporters in Book World including two book critics

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

When the world outside THE GRAMMYS is too loud to ignore: wapo.st/4qcNw7q

BREAKING: Trump plans to close Kennedy Center for about two years, starting in July Follow @janaykingsberry.bsky.social 's and my coverage here. The piece will be continually updated: www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

A new record by NICE BREEZE is stuck on my turntable for the following reasons wapo.st/3YL6VkF

“Keep Your Ear to the Ground,” the amazing new history of D.C. punk zines by our comrade John Davis, is now available direct through Dischord dischord.com/band/john-da...

I write for readers and will email you anything I write for the newspaper, just ask

I don’t listen AI-GENERATED POP MUSIC because I have control over what I listen to wapo.st/49eOEAP

New NIONTAY reminds us that December is when the best rappers don’t care about making the year’s best rap album wapo.st/4pRuyUh

In THE D.C. SCENE, yesterday’s music still sounds like tomorrow Here are five amazing records that got remastered, resurfaced and/or reissued in 2025 wapo.st/4aWEGXh

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

1:02:57 “We gotta feed Ross a snack”

It feels better to wonder if GEESE are important than to know it wapo.st/3XdmAsc

In his recently anthologized DESCENES and DISCORDS fanzines, Howard Wuelfing captured the harDCore scene in its predawn light wapo.st/4obgyTD

Last night, PLAYBOI CARTI gave one of the greatest arena performances I’ve ever seen — even if I could barely see it wapo.st/43vhET0