Bonnie Stiernberg

There are a lot of buzzwords that get tossed around by fans and critics whenever an artist pulls heavily from classic pop and rock sounds of yesteryear: “Nostalgic.” “Retro.” “Throwback.” These all imply, however, that the musician in question is nothing more than pastiche, rooted firmly in the past — or worse, lacking their own point-of-view, aping someone else’s sound with precision if not originality. What, then, do we call the rare few who manage to draw inspiration from 20th century AM radi…

Sinéad O’Connor, the Irish singer best known for her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” has reportedly died at the age of 56. No official cause of death has been released yet, though O’Connor had been open about her struggles with mental health issues over the years, and her final tweet, posted on July 17, mentioned that she has been “living as an undead night creature” since her 17-year-old son Shane died by suicide 18 months ago. O’Connor released 10 studio albums throughout the cour…

These days, Bill Maher can be found spending large chunks of his precious airtime comparing the “woke revolution” to communism, so it shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise that he didn’t enjoy the Barbie movie’s take on feminism and the ways in which we all suffer under patriarchy, regardless of our gender. But the comedian’s main reason for disliking the movie is perhaps a little more unexpected: he simply doesn’t think patriarchy exists anymore. On Monday, after taking in the Greta Gerwig fi…

Robbie Robertson, the guitarist and co-founder of The Band who penned timeless classics like “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and “Up on Cripple Creek,” has reportedly passed away at the age of 80. No specific cause of death has been announced, though the musician’s longtime manager Jared Levine said Robertson died after “a long illness.” “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas,…

Classic rock fans may be grappling with the mortality of their heroes a little more strongly in recent weeks after Mick Jagger celebrated his 80th birthday and Robbie Robertson passed away (at that same age) after “a long illness.” The most iconic artists of the ’60s and ’70s are getting old, and in the next few years, we’re going to have to get used to mourning more and more of them as they enter their twilight years. That’s why a recent Independent column by Ed Power titled “Why Bruce Spri…

We can laugh at the wealthy influencers who paid $12,000 apiece to attend Fyre Festival back in 2017 and the infamous cheese sandwiches they were greeted with, but no one would argue that they could have foreseen what a disaster the event would turn out to be. The blame for that lies squarely with festival organizer/convicted con man Billy McFarland, who was sentenced to six years in prison back in 2018 after pleading guilty to charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and making false statements to fed…

After muddy roads trapped roughly 72,000 Burning Man attendees in Black Rock City for days with limited food and water, exodus operations finally began earlier this week, with festivalgoers swapping their desert hellscape for a 12-hour bottleneck on the single two-lane road leading to the nearest highway. Naturally, the whole fiasco has earned comparisons to Fyre Festival, and while it’s easy to laugh at a bunch of wealthy people who paid outrageous amounts of money to attend being stranded in i…

After muddy roads trapped roughly 72,000 Burning Man attendees in Black Rock City for days with limited food and water, exodus operations finally began earlier this week, with festivalgoers swapping their desert hellscape for a 12-hour bottleneck on the single two-lane road leading to the nearest highway. Naturally, the whole fiasco has earned comparisons to Fyre Festival, and while it’s easy to laugh at a bunch of wealthy people who paid outrageous amounts of money to attend being stranded in i…

When Fleet Foxes announced last year that the surprise release of Shore, their fourth studio album, would be timed to the autumnal equinox, dropping at the exact moment summer officially gave way to fall, it seemed like a no-brainer. In a lot of ways, the record is the band’s way of leaning in to the flannel-clad image many already have of them. “Summer is over” are the first words you hear on opening track “Wading in Waist-High Water,” and to drive home the seasonal shift, the album wraps up wi…

It’s finally fall, which means you’re now free to bust out your 12-foot Home Depot skeleton, stream your favorite scary movies and listen to “The Monster Mash” on repeat sans judgement. And of course, it means beer aisles nationwide are currently stocked to the gills with a truly spooky number of pumpkin beers. Pumpkin beer is an extremely divisive style, however. Some folks who clamor for pumpkin-spiced everything this time of year will stock up on as much of it as they can (often as early a…