@sterlewine
Music writer and journalist, a founding editor of Allmusic now freelancer for hire. Bylines at Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Mojo Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and more. Subscribe to my Newsletter: sterlewine.substack.com
My tribute to Augie Meyers, the Texas legend who co-founded Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados with Doug Sahm. Includes a recommended discography which happens to include some of my all-time favorite records.
Trying to imagine the radio format that would find space for Make-Up Is A Lie in 2026.
Thanks so much! There is a lot of great music in the extended SDQ universe.
I enjoyed talking to Billboard about our grand ambitions for Tapedeck.
My tribute to Augie Meyers, the Texas legend who co-founded Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados with Doug Sahm. Includes a recommended discography which happens to include some of my all-time favorite records.
The playful, prolific use of hyperlinks in online journalism (eg Slate, Pitchfork) didn’t anticipate link-rot. Now so many articles are pock-marked with cryptic allusions that some long-dead link once explained. Weird how quickly a new style comes to feel more archaic than the traditional format
On Saturday, March 7th Jello Biafra suffered a hemorrhagic stroke caused by high blood pressure.
As per Jello:
Farewell to the great Augie Meyers, founding member and keyboardist for both the Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornadoes and a genuine Lone Star legend.
Country Joe and the Fish, Electric Music For The Mins and Body
way sharper, weirder, & more outwardly psychedelic (& original) than the debut LPs by the dead, airplane, quicksilver, etc. going by first albums only, country joe & the fish might've seemed like the bay area's freak champs in '67 (though, to be fair, "surrealistic pillow" came out just before).
Stop literally everything.
Steve Albini's Fugazi sessions, widely bootlegged and full of lore, now available officially for the first time.
fugazi.bandcamp.com/album/albini...
Catching up with new albums by Gorillaz, Bruno Mars, Megan Moroney, Bill Callahan, Crooked Fingers, and a new Clifton Chenier box in my latest newsletter.
Catching up with new albums by Gorillaz, Bruno Mars, Megan Moroney, Bill Callahan, Crooked Fingers, and a new Clifton Chenier box in my latest newsletter.
The day the news broke, I got in the car to run an errand, turned on the radio to find “The Magnificent Seven” playing. Only time that song has ever made me cry.
RIP Mike Vernon, producer of Bowie's first album, among many (& more successful) others: www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...
Hope you’ve had a very good birthday my friend.
Over at @pitchfork.com, I review Hen's Teeth, the warm, comforting new album from Iron & Wine.
!!
The new Johnny Blue Skies/Sturgill Simpson album Mutiny After Midnight is now up on YouTube, sounding like an LP rip from 78, right down to the runout groove at the end.
(My take after one spin: it's a lot of fun.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKHG...
I'm gonna take my time with my Sturgill thoughts, as anyone should, but the amount of folks already missing how sex - in country music, in a world hell bent on controlling women's bodies and honestly what anyone is doing in the bedroom if it ain't for making babies - is a fuckin act of protest
Over at @pitchfork.com, I review Hen's Teeth, the warm, comforting new album from Iron & Wine.
Happy to help! Hope it works out.
I’d say it’s worth a shot then—they look good and feel good, and I do think ours was short lived due to user error.
I liked the one we had for about a month or two then it cracked. Could be the household just had too much traffic for it (and was ill equipped to care for it properly).
I interviewed the great Neil Sedaka 10 yrs ago. He was fun. He said Barry Gibb encouraged him to smoke weed to 'open up my mind creatively and take away my inhibitions'. He gamely gave it go but a joint wasn't Neil's speed. 'I'm a boozer. Give me a vodka and a glass of wine at dinner and I'm fine.'
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told “my body, my choice” when trying to get the kids into the bath.
I selected 14 essential Neil Sedaka songs for the New York Times, balancing his effervescent early hits with his lush '70s comeback.
I did have “Little Brother” on my shortlist!
I try not to complain about the exclusion of favorite songs from lists like this, especially when they’re assembled by someone as thoughtful and knowledgeable as Tom. And this is a terrific list, but really: you need to hear “Little Brother” sometime, because that is some sublimely messed-up shit.
It’s an absolute classic.
It’s not one of those lyrics I’ve analyzed too much, but it sometimes plays to me like all the colloquial “little girl” lyrics of the 50s-60s