I remember seeing Azealia Banks play at Coachella right after her early fame hit. One of her first real shows, I think. She was playing one of the little tents, and her set was at least 20 minutes shorter than it was supposed to be — she clearly didn't have enough material to fill it yet — but she just killed.…

There was a time in my life when I was waiting earnestly for Azealia Banks and Jay Electronica to drop their sure-to-be-instant-classic-debuts any minute now.

Have you read "Feast of the Goat" by Mario Vargas Llosa? Really interesting fictionalized account of the end of the Trujillo regime, spends a lot of time talking about his obsession with maintaining his public appearance even as his body was rapidly failing, which definitely has parallels with Trump. (No idea how…

You know, I never really managed to get that into the Hold Steady, at least on record. I would always listen when they put out a new album, and they were all cool enough, but the songs always seemed so under-developed: like they were all still a hook or a cool riff or a bridge away from being even a satisfying bar…

Like a lot of image-obsessed (aspiring) tyrants, all of his physical movements feel weirdly unnatural and abnormal, but somehow intentionally so. His hand gestures are what always strike me: the way he'll make the "ok" gesture and hold it for forever, or illustrate a point with his hands clenched together like he's…

"I used to say, 'sex, drugs and rock and roll.' But as long as there's the sex and the rock and roll, I could do without the drugs, I think."

I was into Guns 'n' Roses *before* "The Spaghetti Incident" came out, and now we've got all these Johnny-come-latelys.

It would be interesting. I'm guessing that probably 9 out of 10 random people would just name whatever the most overplayed pop song of the moment was, but then the 10th guy would come up with something absolutely bizarre that he hates. Like, "Hissing of Summer Lawns" or "Trans-Europe Express" or something. I'd love to…

Song at my high school graduation was Oasis' "Don't Go Away." Remarkably poor choice. To start, it's one of their droopiest, most unremarkable songs, and Oasis was several years past their prime by the time I graduated. The lyrics didn't apply at all, from "damn my education" to the opening line, "On a cold and frosty…

"It's also weird that they wrote this musical about teenagers." How on earth is that weird? A pretty enormous amount of American pop culture from the 1950s-the present day consists of adults writing songs/movies/TV shows/novels/musicals about teenagers. Is this now problematic?

This is something I've genuinely puzzled over. Can Drake rap? Most people seem to agree he can, so I honestly wonder what I'm missing. It's not even a matter of being a 30-something out-of-touch dude who wants to judge everything on a Nas-and-Rakim scale (which I am, admittedly) — even with newer poppier rappers whose…

Plus, if you forget for a second the fact that she's one of the most beautiful women alive, can you imagine how exhausting it must be to be married to Beyonce? The hours of daily workout time, the long nights in the studio, the touring, the rehearsals, the (presumably) exotic diet and beauty regimen, the security…

I feel like the first-day reaction to "Lemonade" has been the internet in a nutshell.

I mean, he literally answers the phone that way. In the film's universe, that's how Pryor says "hello, Richard speaking."

The title alone seems engineered to ensure the film is forgotten as quickly as possible. "Quick, we need an ungoogleable title — preferably a single word — with tangential connections to the movie's plot that no one can recall five minutes after they see it."

Weirdly true. It's almost a relief when going to a show isn't a whole long night out, what with meeting for drinks beforehand and catching all the openers and dealing with your buddy who got into a fight in the beer line and then shooting the shit in the parking lot for an hour afterward. You just show up at around 9,…

Am I the only one who thinks an AC/DC fronted by Axl Rose has the potential to be incredible? (Assuming he shows up within three hours of scheduled start time, of course.) It's true his range isn't what it used to be, but it's better than a lot of people seem to assume, and I'd think he could thread the line between…

Anyone who could somehow make "Coma" sexy is way too talented to be dancing in a Houston strip club. That's Bolshoi Ballet caliber.

Bizarrely, I can remember having a conversation pitting Slash against Van Halen with my high school girlfriend back in the day. Her take:

Honestly, if this had been someone with more cool points than Steve Miller, everyone would be calling for his immediate sainthood. In addition to calling for more inclusion of women, he went off to a Rolling Stone reporter backstage, noting that the head of his label was in the front row, and how he wanted to "pull…