B-Side
Elvis Costello Shares New Song “Phonographic Memory”: Stream
Elvis Costello has shared a new song called “Phonographic Memory”. It’s the B-side to previously-released single “We Are All Cowards Now”. “Phonographic Memory” is unusual within Costello’s discography, and perhaps even unprecedented. Over an open-tuned guitar, the veteran songwriter recites a short story in which someone called “President Swift” conducts a ceremony while the voice of Orson Welles (played by Costello, of course) is heard on an archive recording. The prose is knotty and poetical, full of observations like, “After the peace was negotiated and the internet switched off, knowledge returned to its medieval cloister, in this and that illuminated volume, the jealous possession of the pious and the superstitious, who might once again wield ignorance like a scythe.” Check out “Phon...
Sufjan Stevens Unveils New Song “My Rajneesh”: Stream
Last week, Sufjan Stevens shared a magnificent 12-minute epic called “America”. Now he’s back with the B-side, and it’s a gorgeous song about a strange moment in American history: “My Rajneesh”. The Rajneesh movement was a cult in the 1970s and ’80s led by the Indian mystic Baghwan Shree Rajneesh. He founded a controversial sect of Hinduism that emphasized materialism and fornication. After getting run out of India, Rajneesh established a utopian community in the American state of Oregon. Thousands of followers flocked to the compound, and the Rajneesh community took over entire Oregon towns, which they then renamed after their charismatic leader. They also patrolled their territory with Uzis, which did not sit well with the Oregonian government. As tension escalated, Rajneesh cultists gre...
The Streets Demands to Know “Where the F*ck Did April Go” on New Single: Stream
The winter holidays tend to whiz by like a blur, and yet Januarys always seem to last forever. Because of this pandemic, the concept of time is again eluding those of us in lockdown, including The Streets mastermind Mike Skinner. Today, he voices his quarantine frustrations on the aptly titled “Where the F*ck Did April Go”. Skinner here takes a more ambient approach to his catharsis, his reflections quietly unfurled over cool and soft keyboard chords. In addition to tensions with a loved one, he laments the ruining of summer and how his “10,000 steps” have to all be done inside his flat. “I wrote this last week. It’s a weird time isn’t it,” The Streets rapper remarked in a statement. We were looking forward to the Summer just like everyone else, festivals and gigs all there, new music, new...
