This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of a spate of butsukari otoko bumping man shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender dynamics and the stresses of modern life.
I was too embarrassed to sing in my apartment, he says on a video call. But my roommate at the time was dating the preacher's daughter, and had keys to the church across the street. In the dead of night, the madcap bassist and singer took his recording equipment to the empty church, set up on the podium, and first sang his anti-war song Too Many Puppies.
After playing an invite-only show at the venue last week, Mitski officially began her six-show residency at The Shed on Monday night (3/2). She played a lot of her fantastic new album Nothing's About to Happen to Me and a bunch of older songs, including one from her 2012 debut Lush, "Pearl Diver."
I think, even though she's world famous with millions of fans, I still think she's underrated, because yes, she's the greatest singer in the world, but also, she doesn't get enough credit for her songwriting. She's written amazing songs over many years consistently and she's really innovated in recorded music and I don't know, I just think she's a genius and people don't realize that she is a genius.
Intense listening capabilities from these exquisite players which required, more than anything else, a great deal of trust. They posited about thematic structures, which somehow got agreed upon, live in the moment through a collective groupthink. Right there on stage. No words spoken, just an exchange of bizarrely intense looks. Ranging from 'we're almost there' to 'don't you dare.' That's trust, people.
The Mosswood date marks the first Bay Area show in four years for Pavement. Founded in Stockton but now spread all over the country, the indie-rock stalwarts staunchly, if obtusely, reflected their Northern California roots in ragged-but-right aesthetics and songs like "Two States" and "Unfair." (In 2022, during the band's three-night run at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, singer Stephen Malkmus changed the lyrics during "Fillmore Jive" to take a jovial swipe at Mill Valley.)
Masayoshi Takanaka, the Japanese king of spangly, summery jazz fusion, is headlining a massive festival in London this summer. The legendary Tokyo-born guitarist, composer and producer is set to headline the London instalment of a global festival series called City Pop Waves at Crystal Palace Bowl in August.
'Cool Job' pulls from meme culture pastiche and 'Temporary Secretary' trope to skewer the fantasy that the right job will save your life. Written mid-burnout, it's an anti-work anthem about corporate rot, identity collapse, and trying to care about meetings that could have been emails while everything else is falling apart.
Inner Magic is the duo of former Chromatics guitarist Adam Miller and former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder. They met in 2024 and bonded over their love of '80s UK indie legends Felt, krautrock and the Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and then decided they should make music together.
On any given day our writers, editors, and contributors go through an imposing number of new releases, giving recommendations to each other and discovering new favorites along the way. Each Monday, with our Pitchfork Selects playlist, we're sharing what our writers are playing obsessively and highlighting some of the Pitchfork staff's favorite new music.
January is the month where music is moving underneath the surface, feeling out the venues, plotting and planning for those great days under the sun, at a festival. If you are a globe-trotting DJ or band, January is the month you're finishing up those FaceTime calls with managers and bookers, and plotting out which month you'll be on the road playing the Empty Bottle in Chicago, the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA, or the Continental Club in Austin, TX.
Japanese hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts, featuring rapper R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga, are playing Coachella this year, and they've announced announced a few shows surrounding it, their first North American headlining run. They'll stop in NYC ( Hammerstein Ballroom on 4/13), Chicago ( The Auditorium on 4/15), and Mexico City ( Pabellón del Palacio de los Deportes on 4/19) around Coachella's two weekends in April.
The 2026 edition of NYC Winter Jazzfest wrapped up on Tuesday (1/12) with a special reimagining of Miles Davis' classic 1970 album Bitches Brew at Le Poisson Rouge, to celebrate Davis' centennial year. The evening, which was also dedicated to the late Bob Weir, began with a discussion of the album between Adam O'Farrill and Lenny White, who drummed on the original recording at age 19. He mentioned how Davis liked to cook, and directed White to be the "salt."
KAVARI's music sears like a controlled fire, destroying the underbrush to make room for the new. That was literally true of the Glasgow-based producer's 2025 EP Only Pleasure in Flame, a collection of slash-and-burn field recordings that sucked the air right out of your ears. The Scottish sea air has produced a number of maverick electronic musicians- Rustie, SOPHIE, Hudson Mohawke, Proc Fiskal-and in recent years, KAVARI's prolific, sound design-forward work is arguing the case for her induction into the pantheon.
Bikini Kill are hitting the road again. Kathleen Hanna and her band, who've toured consistently since reuniting in 2017, will play shows across the United States in September. They're also set to headline Oakland's Mosswood Meltdown on July 19. Check out all of Bikini Kill's 2026 dates below.
It's a true dream to put out a single on Sub Pop, and our new song 'Masks' hopefully honors the spirit of the mythical, sometimes mystical, city of Seattle. Thanks in part to the movie Hype, we have long been obsessed with Seattle, the American underground of the late '80s, and Sub Pop and their tools of world domination. Everything we learned about packaging Chat Pile, we learned from Sub Pop co-founders Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt.