BJ the Chicago Kid just trying to live his best life, and so far so good
Many South Side singers and rappers start out the same way: They discover their talent early on — often from singing in church — and use music as a way...
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Weezer’s biggest hit in a very long time is a Toto ‘Africa’ cover. Go figure
It started on Twitter, as these things often do. A then-14-year-old Weezer fan named Mary (@weezerafrica) began a public campaign to persuade the alt-rock band to cover the 1982 Toto...
Bishop Briggs came about, broadly, because of Sarah McLachlan
Not too long ago, 25-year-old singer-songwriter Sarah McLaughlin realized that performing under her own name had become unwise. Worried that people might confuse her with famed Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan,...
Andrew Bazzi went from Vine to viral
Six months ago, you probably hadn’t heard of Andrew Bazzi, a pop singer and songwriter from Dearborn, Michigan. Six months ago, Bazzi, who goes only by his last name, was...
David Blaine is going to go himself one better, which is saying something
David Blaine has entombed himself in a plexiglass cube over the Thames in London, in a plastic box at one of Donald Trump’s Manhattan properties, in a giant ball of...
Hey, hey, it’s the Monkees, coming to this town
Being a Monkee was always more complicated than it looked from the outside. The Monkees were history’s most famous made-for-TV band, a virtuous counter to ’60s counterculture. They broke up...
Eels are back, which isn’t as gross as that might sound
Four years ago, Mark Everett, the mainstay of beloved indie rock band EELS, decided to take a break. During his hiatus, Everett (who goes by “E”) got married, had his...
The Mountain Goats keep right on climbing that popularity hill
By a certain point in their careers, beloved cult bands usually become a closed circle; everyone who might like them already does. But the Durham, N.C.-based group the Mountain Goats,...
Buddy is a rapper on the verge, after spending time on the edge
Simmie Sims III was a teenage budding rapper from Compton when he met Pharrell Williams through a mutual friend. Pharrell hadn’t yet released “Happy,” wasn’t yet at the height of...
Andrew W.K. finds motivation in a good, noisy party
Sometime in the mid '00s, Andrew W.K.'s career as a rock star began to stall, for reasons that have never really been made clear. W.K. (born Andrew Wilkes-Krier) had released...