Lonely Road
I was unfamiliar with Natalie Bergman and discovered her new material while combing through this post by Jason Morehead about some of his favorite songs of 2025. This track leads off Bergman's 2025 release, My Home Is Not In This World. It's got a Brill Building
120 Minutes That Saved My Life
When I was starting to explore the scope of music in what used to be called the “alternative” scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the MTV show 120 Minutes was an effective teacher. The label described a loosely knit category—if you can even call it that—in
Streaming Cassettes
Jason Koelber tells the story of how he moved from streaming music to buying cassettes for 404 Media. When I came to Tokyo, a friend took me to a store that sold cheap portable cassette players, and I knew it wouldn’t be a huge leap to take my music
Magnum Mars
The subject of Christian masculinity has been hot these last few years and the NYT piece on Orthodoxy and the influx of young men to the faith have reignited interest in the Orthodox world. Religion professor Phil Dorroll writes about what masculinity looks like within the Orthodox Christian context. In
A Cutting Egress
About a week ago, many bloggers were writing about the nightmare scenario of getting locked out of your iCloud account. Indeed, what could terrify a geek more? There was sense of panic at the realization this could occur. Nick Heer writes at Pixel Envy: What I am stunned by is
Free The Bluebird
Cyrus Farivar writes for Ars Technica about a startup company that wants to reclaim the Twitter brand from the clutches of Elon Musk. Called Operation Bluebird, the company has filed a formal petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office on the premise that X Corporation has abandoned it. Elon
The Demise of a Newsletter
Another Substack writer jettisons the platform.
No Carbon Copies
Damon Krukowski from Galaxie 500 writes about the vitality of live music — not just music experienced in person, but also live albums. I started collecting live albums— bootlegs in particular — because they helped me hear how musicians actually play their instruments. Growing up in the heyday of 1960s and ’70s
Let Me Take You Out
Listening to “Let Me Take You Out” by Class Actress in 2025 feels like hearing the sound of promise unfulfilled. When the single from their first EP, Journal of Ardency came out in 2010, it seemed like the start of a band destined to make a mark. The song was