From director Michael Showalter and producers Judd Apatow and Barry Mendel, The Big Sick is based on the real courtship of actor ... More

The Big Sick

Film by Michael Showalter

The Big Sick

Film by Michael Showalter

From director Michael Showalter and producers Judd Apatow and Barry Mendel, The Big Sick is based on the real courtship of actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani and writer and producer Emily V. Gordon. Kumail plays himself, a Pakistan-born aspiring comedian who connects with grad student Emily (played by Zoe Kazan) after one of his standup performances. When their one-night develops into a serious relationship, Kumail finds himself caught between love and the expectations of his traditional Muslim parents. To further complicate matters, Emily is beset with a mystery illness, compelling Kumail to navigate the crisis with her parents, Beth (Holly Hunter) and Terry (Ray Romano) while coping with the ongoing tug-of-war between his family and his heart. (Amazon Studios / Lionsgate)

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Born in Aleppo, Syria, and raised in Saudi Arabia, Azniv Korkejian took the stage name Bedouine as a nod to the nomadic ... More

Bedouine

Album by Bedouine

Bedouine

Album by Bedouine

Born in Aleppo, Syria, and raised in Saudi Arabia, Azniv Korkejian took the stage name Bedouine as a nod to the nomadic tribes of Bedouin people, who live in Middle Eastern and North African deserts, travelling by camel and setting up camps for home. Korkejian is a lifelong nomad herself, who immigrated to the United States with her family and lived in Boston, Houston and throughout the South before moving to Los Angeles, where she began spontaneously writing music. It was never the plan to be a performer—Korkejian works in Hollywood editing dialogue and music. But sitting in her room above Sunset Boulevard with “a guitar in my lap and red wine or bourbon at my side,” she wrote and performed for herself until it felt inevitable to start recording. Bedouine’s self-titled debut layers her striking, soft voice over folk-inspired, finger-picked guitar. (Spacebomb Records)

›› ISSUE Feature: Live performance and interview with Bedouine

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Kevin Morby’s fourth album, City Music, works as a counterpart to his acclaimed 2016 release Singing Saw, an autobiographical set that reflected ... More

City Music

Album by Kevin Morby

City Music

Album by Kevin Morby

Kevin Morby’s fourth album, City Music, works as a counterpart to his acclaimed 2016 release Singing Saw, an autobiographical set that reflected the solitude and landscape in which it was recorded. Saw was imagined as “an old bookshelf with a young Bob and Joni staring back at me, blank and timeless. As Morby puts it: “[City Music] is a mix-tape, a fever dream, a love letter dedicated to those cities that I cannot get rid of, to those cities that are all inside of me.” (Dead Oceans)

›› ISSUE Feature: Live performance and interview with Kevin Morby

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When writer and curator Susan Bright set out to write the first ever book on the history of food photography, she did ... More

Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography

Book by Susan Bright

Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography

Book by Susan Bright

When writer and curator Susan Bright set out to write the first ever book on the history of food photography, she did so with an appreciation food’s essentiality as well as its greater meanings. In her own words, “Ultimately, food is not only about literal taste, but also Taste with a capital T—both the lifestyles we aspire to and the building blocks of culture itself.” Certainly this idea is present in every page of Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography, which spans the colorful progression of this photo genre from the late 19th century to present day Instagram. Featuring artists from each era—Roger Fenton to Irving Penn to Laura Letinsky—Feast for the Eyes highlights food in fine art photography as well as commercial and scientific photography and photojournalism. Bright’s introduction and commentary accompany the photographs, bringing insight and appreciation to the history, aesthetic and rituals behind them. (Aperture)

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Last summer, Sharon Van Etten released “Not Myself” in memory of the victims of Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and to support the ... More

Not Myself

Song by Sharon Van Etten (Hercules & Love Affair Remix)

Not Myself

Song by Sharon Van Etten (Hercules & Love Affair Remix)

Last summer, Sharon Van Etten released “Not Myself” in memory of the victims of Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and to support the work of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. One year since the Pulse nightclub tragedy, Van Etten releases the Hercules & Love Affair Remix of the song. She remarks, “During the journey of making this song and finding the best way to share it with the world, a fellow musician recommended I reach out to someone to remix the song to share with the club community. In this way, a version can exist where even more people can connect to this song in a more positive and healing light.” (Jagjaguwar)

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and the means to reduce it – by conducting groundbreaking original research, developing evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge to the American public. Learn more at Everytown Research.

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Salma Hayek plays opposite John Lithgow in Beatriz at Dinner, the newest film from the award-winning minds of director Miguel Arteta and ... More

Beatriz at Dinner

Film by Miguel Arteta

Beatriz at Dinner

Film by Miguel Arteta

Salma Hayek plays opposite John Lithgow in Beatriz at Dinner, the newest film from the award-winning minds of director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White. Hayek portrays Beatriz, an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico who has built a life as a health practitioner and whose path crosses with the self-made billionaire Doug (Lithgow) at a swanky dinner party in the hills of Los Angeles. Exploring the widening gulf between the world’s haves and have-nots, Beatriz at Dinner offers shrewd insight into contemporary controversies, from economic polarities to the necessities of human kindness. The film garnered praise following its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah and went on to launch the following Sundance festival in London.
(Film Nation Entertainment) (Roadside Attractions)

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The trails that Brooklyn’s Big Thief — Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals), Buck Meek (guitar), Max Oleartchik (bass), and James Krivchenia (drums) — ... More

Capacity

Album by Big Thief

Capacity

Album by Big Thief

The trails that Brooklyn’s Big Thief — Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals), Buck Meek (guitar), Max Oleartchik (bass), and James Krivchenia (drums) — take us down on Capacity, the band’s highly anticipated second record, are overgrown with the wilderness of pumping souls. After last year’s stunning Masterpiece, Capacity was recorded in a snowy winter nest in upstate New York at Outlier Studio with producer Andrew Sarlo.

The album jumps right into lives marked up and nipped in surprisingly swift fashion. Lenker’s songs introduce us to a gallery of multifaceted women and deal with the complicated matters of identity — at once dangerous and curious, though never unbelievable. Lenker shows us the gentle side of being ripped open. Tricked into love, done in and then witnessing the second act of pulling oneself back together to prepare for it to all happen again, but this time to a sturdier soul, one who is going to take the punches better than ever before and deal some jabs and roundhouses of their own. (Saddle Creek)

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American musician, singer, author and talk show host Ian Svenonius came to attention in 1990 with his highly influential punk band, Nation ... More

Best of Crime Rock

Album by Chain and The Gang

Best of Crime Rock

Album by Chain and The Gang

American musician, singer, author and talk show host Ian Svenonius came to attention in 1990 with his highly influential punk band, Nation of Ulysses. Svenonius went on to lead the likewise significant group The Make-Up, then Weird War, as well as other lesser-known side projects. This summer’s Best of Crime Rock is a collection of newly recorded hits from Chain and the Gang—Sveononius’ latest and current band with bassist Anan Nasty, guitarist Francy Graham and drummer Mark Cisneros. The album includes two brand new songs and is easily the band’s best record since their 2006 birth, unleashing an arrow-sharp passion and accuracy that hits at the heart of who Chain and the Gang is. In their own words, “Chain & the Gang don’t care about grades, likes, traffic or hits… They want total destruction of the insipid rock ’n’ roll status quo and the foul system it purports to offer relief from—but in fact keeps afloat.” (In The Red Records)

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English singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Marika Hackman has been making waves since she and Cara Delevingne briefly but enthusiastically formed a band as ... More

I’m Not Your Man

Album by Marika Hackman

I’m Not Your Man

Album by Marika Hackman

English singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Marika Hackman has been making waves since she and Cara Delevingne briefly but enthusiastically formed a band as teenagers. Backed by her former schoolmate, folk artist Johnny Flynn, Hackman signed to Transgressive in 2012 and has opened for the likes of Laura Marling. I’m Not Your Man, Hackman’s second and latest album, delves into issues of sexual identity, millennial ennui, social media and being young in the creative industry and is meeting with rave reviews. The album is Hackman’s third project with award-winning producer Charlie Andrew, in addition to her EP and debut album. “The record’s all about female relationships, romance and breakdowns,” says Hackman, “but there’s also a dim worldview going on. I’m Not Your Man can either mean ‘I’m not your man, I’m your woman,’ or it can mean ‘I’m not a part of this.’ ” (Sub Pop)

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