Critic's Corner
Joni Mitchell and Neil Young Are Back on Spotify
In January 2022, Neil Young left the crappy streaming service Spotify for two reasons. First, because of its despicable music-destroying streaming quality, and second, because the platform hosted Joe Rogan's podcast, which Young believed had spread misinformation during the pandemic. Joni Mitchell, Neil’s longtime friend, followed suit, departing the platform soon after he did. Now, both singers have abandoned their vows and returned to Spotify, somewhat unexpectedly.
Neil explained that because Rogan’s podcast had since been added to Amazon and iTunes, “I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did with Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all, so I have returned to Spotify.” While Joni Mitchell hasn't said much about the situation, we can assume she is rejoining the platform for …
How Coachella Froze Over
High-level insider spills some Coca tea
How the best live music festival in America became a desert freakshow of cringe content from Elon Musk’s baby mamas
Y’all can blame Frank Ocean
For almost two decades, I have joined the pilgrimage of devoted patrons convening in the heart of the California desert. While the faithful are drawn for a weekend of music, hedonism, and flaunting their indulgences (at least as of late), I make the annual trek for a month of pay and an increased chance of skin cancer. Like a master mason of a Gothic cathedral, I have physically built the worship site per the specs of its corporate master’s divine plan. Officially named the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, colloquially “Coachella,” a Freudian slip of my fingers on the keyboard reveals an apt name for the Faustian bargain of attendance — Coca hell.
The event began as a few days of music for alternatively attuned audiophiles, being far enough away from the City of Angels to be considered an “escape.” Early on, its promoter Goldenvoice didn’t have enough coin in the coffers to compete with its more …
The Front Porch
The experience of living in modern times is defined by the pace of change being faster than human beings can process in the moment. While we are looking in one place, the reality that we took for granted a little bit to the left or the right has become unrecognizable. In fact, too many things are changing at rates too various for us to take them in all at once, let alone to imagine how all these changes going on around us might all fit together. We search for familiar landmarks like statues, hills, or streams to guide us, and when we find that they are still the same we breathe a sigh of relief, even though everything around them has changed, and continues changing.
One of the main differences between human beings and dogs and horses is that we live inside of notions of the past, the present, and the future. My dog knows the difference between day and night, but she has no idea whether I’ve been gone for …
