Big Thief, arguably the best band in the world right now, are coming to a city near you. The group has shared the first leg of the Somersault Slide 360 Tour, which kicks off in September and has them on the road until November. The run of shows includes stops in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Philadelphia, New York City, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Austin.
Tickets for the Somersault Slide 360 Tour go on sale Friday, May 9, at 10 a.m. local time. You can find more information here.
The full tour dates can be found below.
Big Thief’s 2025 Tour Dates: The Somersault Slide 360 Tour
09/17 — Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24
09/19 — Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield
09/21 — Boise, ID @ Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical
09/22 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Twilight Concert Series
09/25 — Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre
09/27 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
09/28 — San Diego, CA @ Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
10/01 — Mexico City, MX @ Teatro Metropolitan
10/20 — Portland, ME @ State Theatre
10/21 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall
10/22 — Philadelphia, PA @The Met
10/24 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
10/25 — Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium
10/29 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater
10/30 — Atlanta, GA @ The Fox Theatre
10/31 — New Orleans, LA @ Saenger Theatre
11/03 — Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
11/04 — Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory
11/05 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
11/07 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Lawn
The Primavera Sound 2025 lineup is a strong one, headlined by Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charli XCX. For those who won’t be making the trip out to Barcelona, Spain from June 4 to 8, though, there’s another option: The festival will be livestreamed exclusively via Amazon Music.
This is the fourth year that Primavera Sound has partnered with Amazon Music to livestream the festival. Previous livestreams treated fans to behind-the-scenes content like interviews and more, so keep an eye on Amazon Music’s Primavera coverage to see what sorts of other goodies are offered this year.
As for attending the festival in person, tickets appear to have long been sold out, but there is a waitlist on the event website.
Other lineup highlights include FKA Twigs, Haim, LCD Soundsystem, Jamie xx, Fontaines DC, Central Cee, Beach House, Idles, Clairo, Beabadoobee, Turnstile, TV On The Radio, Wet Leg, The Dare, Floating Points, Stereolab, Yaosobi, Kelly Lee Owens, Paul Kalkbrenner, Hinds, Sturgill Simpson, Glass Beams, Black County New Roads, Kim Deal, Denzel Curry, Chat Pile, Cat Power Plays Dylan, Waxahatchee, and MJ Lenderman.
In 2024, Grandaddy released their first album in seven years, Blu Wav. Now the indie-rock favorites are going on a North American tour for the first time in two decades to celebrate the 25th anniversary of arguably their most beloved work, The Sophtware Slump.
Grandaddy — composed of Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, and Tim Dryden; bassist Kevin Garcia passed away in 2017 — will play the album in its eternity, with support from Pedro The Lion and Greg Freeman in select cities.
Tickets for the anniversary tour go on sale on Friday, May 9, at 10 a.m. local time. You can find more information here.
Check out Grandaddy’s complete tour dates below.
Grandaddy’s 2025 Tour Dates: The Sophtware Slump 25th Anniversary Tour
09/11 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park #
09/12 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre #
09/13 — Pomona, CA @ The Glass House #
09/14 — Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy + Harriet’s #
09/16 — San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom #
09/18 — Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
09/20 — Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall #
10/08 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue *
10/09 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
10/10 — Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall *
10/11 — Toronto, ON @ The Danforth Music Hall *
10/13 — Montreal, QC @ Le Studio TD *
10/14 — Boston, MA @ Royale *
10/15 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel *
10/17 — Washington, DC @ The Howard Theatre
10/18 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
Earlier this week, the trailer for Spike Lee’s upcoming A24 film Highest 2 Lowest gave fans the first glimpse of ASAP Rocky acting alongside the legend Denzel Washington. They’re playing a rapper and a music exec, respectively, so at least one of them is well inside his comfort zone, and in a new interview with Variety, Rocky said he wasn’t even nervous to be performing with the iconic actor.
Rocky also revealed a surprising detail about his veteran co-star. “Denzel plays more Memphis rap than anybody I know,” he gushed. “He’s just like, ‘Alright, so what you f*ck with, kid?’ [I’m like,] ‘Pardon me?’ I tried to sound all old school and sh*t like, ‘I like Slick Rick…’ and he’s like, ‘Oh, I fuck with Rick, of course. Rick the Ruler.’ Then, he started saying Nas lyrics out of nowhere. Then Pac, then DMX, and then he starts talking about the young cats — Moneybagg Yo, NLE Choppa, NBA YoungBoy, and these guys. I’m like, ‘What is this man doing?!’ But I’m here for it, like I f*ck with it. I was shocked. He’s an OG. You would expect him to listen to Miles Davis all day. Nah, he said, ‘Throw on NLE Choppa,’ [then Washington rapped] ‘I don’t do drive-bys no more, I walk ’em down’ That’s verbatim. I was like, ‘This is gonna be lit. It’s on now.’”
Although Rocky insisted he was “born for this,” regarding acting opposite his hero, he did admit, “it was difficult to not fan the f*ck out every millisecond of the f*cking duration.”
In addition to starring in Highest 2 Lowest, Rocky’s busy 2025 still includes releasing the long-awaitedDon’t Be Dumb, as well as becoming the father of a third child with Rihanna — a secret that, now that it’s out in the open, the couple admits they were tired of keeping.
It’s safe to say that the masses showed up for director Gareth Evan’s Havoc with Tom Hardy. Following the action movie’s first week of release, Netflix placed it atop their weekly chart with 29.8 million views and 53.1 million total hours streamed. No other film on the platform came close (oddly enough, 2002’s Life or Something Like It starring Angelina Jolie came in a distant second at 5.5 million views and 9.6 million hours streamed), and streaming services don’t often leave wildly successful stones unturned.
Of course, Havoc‘s popularity is not shocking. The Raid franchise helmer had secured an exclusive deal with the streamer, and Tom Hardy’s casting removed any doubts that people would tune in with Timothy Olyphant as a dirty cop being a bonus. The movie also didn’t close doors the story of Hardy’s jaded detective character, Walker, after the “drug deal gone wrong” set up went even more wrong.
Will There Be A Havoc 2 On Netflix With Tom Hardy?
Maybe? Gareth Evans has spoken with Entertainment Weekly about how he has carried forth with the “one-and-done” plan for this movie, yet he now admits that “there’s definitely a hell of a lot of intrigue about what happens next with Walker’s journey.” Also, Evans confirmed to Netflix that Walker does not kick the bucket, “Nope! He’s alive.”
As viewers know, the bloodshed-filled film ended with Walker telling his partner, Ellie (Jessica Mei Li), to arrest him, therefore setting the stage for ambiguity. Will he be incarcerated or let off the hook amid a sea of corruption, and could we actually receive an answer to that question? That ball is now in Netflix’s court, and although the streaming platform appears to have cut back on their original movie supply in favor of TV, saying no to more Tom Hardy and Gareth Evans as a team might be difficult. In either event, it shouldn’t be long before we receive an answer to the inquiry at hand.
The Met Gala may have a “no phones” policy, but Megan Thee Stallion didn’t let that stop her from accumulating an impressive record of her night out. Not only did the “Whenever” rapper flout the policy, she uploaded her stylish celebrity interactions to social media for the world to see. Megan captured some selfie footage walking in with Cardi B, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Olympian Gabby Douglas while joking “we not supposed to have our phone!” then captured shots during the dinner with Angel Reese, Angela Davis, Ciara, Cynthia Erivo, Tessa Thompson, Venus Williams, and more. You can check out a compilation of clips here.
As sneaker collector culture has expanded over the past two decades, brands have likewise expanded their inspirations for the ostensible athletic shoes, drawing in high-profile figures from across the worlds of fashion and music. While the latter usually encompasses singers and rappers, a new music icon is soon to get his own sneaker from Nike: Nardwuar, the Canadian journalist whose artist interviews have fascinated and entertained fans for years with their impossibly granular research and Nardwuar’s delightfully dorky persona.
The Nardwuar x Nike SB Dunk Low is due this holiday season, and fittingly look exactly like his daily style, with all-over plaid print inspired by his Scottish bonnet and insoles bearing his signature signoff: “Doot doot-a-loo-doo, doot, doo!”
The shoes are expected to retail for $135 a pair (although Donnie’s tariffs could have an effect on that); you can find more info about the sneakers here.
While it’s unusual that someone like Nardwuar, who is better known for interviewing artists than for his own music (he’s the lead singer and keyboardist for long-running garage band The Evaporators), to get his own shoe from Nike, the fact he is getting one is a testament to his stature in the music industry. His interviews have gone viral for the depth of his research, which has even prompted some artists to beat a hasty retreat after being told the names of old teachers and friends. Perhaps there will be some detail of NIke’s SB Dunk that digs deep into Nardwuar’s past, to bring things full circle.
Soccer Mommy unveiled her latest album, Evergreen, in October 2024, but she still had some more she wanted to do with it: Today (May 6), she announced Evergreen (Stripped), featuring more bare-bones versions of some of the album tracks. There’s even a new one, “She Is,” which she also shared today.
She also added a bunch of North American dates to her ongoing tour. The new shows all go down during September and take her across the US. More information on tickets can be found on the Soccer Mommy website.
Listen to “She Is (Stripped)” above and find the Evergreen (Stripped) cover art and tracklist, and the upcoming tour dates, below.
Soccer Mommy’s Evergreen (Stripped) Album Cover Artwork
Loma Vista
Soccer Mommy’s Evergreen (Stripped) Tracklist
1. “Abigail (Stripped)”
2. “She Is (Stripped)”
3. “Driver (Stripped)”
4. “Some Sunny Day (Stripped)”
5. “Thinking Of You (Stripped)”
6. “M (Stripped)”
Soccer Mommy’s 2025 Tour Dates
05/03 — Munich, DE @ Ampere ~
05/04 — Cologne, DE @ Artheater ~
05/06 — Brighton, UK @ Chalk ~
05/07 — Bristol, UK @ Electric Bristol ~
05/08 — London, UK @ Hackney Church ~
05/09 — Leeds, UK @ Project House ~
05/11 — Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street ~
05/13 — Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 TV Studio ~
05/14 — Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall ~
05/16 — Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo ~
05/17 — Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso @ London Calling
05/18 — Brussels, BE @ Les Nuits Botanique
05/20 — Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher ~
05/21 — Berlin, DE @ Lido ~
05/22 — Warszawa, PL @ Klub Hybrydy ~
06/12 — Sydney, NSW @ City Recital Hall
06/13 — Melbourne, VIC @ Forum
06/14 — Torquay, VIC @ Torquay Hotel
06/15 — Castlemaine, VIC @ Theatre Royal
06/18 — Brisbane, QLD @ The Princess Theatre
06/20 — Perth, WA @ Rosemount Hotel
09/05 — Lexington, KY @ The Burl Outdoors ^
09/06 — Bloomington, IL @ Castle Theatre ^
09/07 — Chicago, IL @ Beach Bunny Fest @ The Salt Shed *
09/09 — Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Beer Garden ^
09/10 — Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s ^
09/12 — Richmond, VA @ The National ^
09/13 — Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Sound Stage ^
09/16 — New York, NY @ SummerStage in Central Park %
09/18 — Norwalk, CT @ District Music Hall ^
09/19 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues ^
09/20 — Camden, NJ @ XPoNential Music Festival @ Wiggins Park
09/23 — Millvale, PA @ Mr. Small’s Theatre ^
09/24 — Buffalo, NY @ Electric City ^
09/25 — Cleveland, OH @ Globe Iron ^
09/26 — Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall ^
09/27 — Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue ^
12/02 — Osaka, JP @ Anima
12/03 — Tokyo, JP @ Liquidroom
~ with Bored At My Grandmas House
^ with Dummy
* with Beach Bunny, Sidney Gish, and Great Grandpa
% with Hurray For The Riff Raff and Dummy
Evergreen (Stripped) is out 6/6 via Loma Vista. Find more information here.
I don’t remember the first time I saw an Anthony Fantano video. Also known as “The Needle Drop” and “The Internet’s Busiest Music Nerd,” Fantano just showed up one day, about a decade or so ago, in my YouTube feed. (If you listen to music or search out music-related topics on the platform, he has surely shown up in yours, too.) I did not deliberately seek Fantano out. He simply appeared. And he stayed. I feel like I have been watching this 39-year-old bespectacled individual review albums constantly ever since.
Fantano is one of the most-followed music critics on YouTube, and unquestionably the most famous. This can be proven with several different metrics, including number of subscribers to his channel (more than 3 million), media coverage (The New York Times dubbed him “The Only Music Critic Who Matters (If You’re Under 25),” a nod to his young and extremely online audience), and quality of trolls (Drake once admitted to sending Fantano private messages in which he gave the critic a “light 1,” a reference to his oft-triggering scoring system).
Among his fellow critics, Fantano can be a lightning rod. In a 2016 Spin profile, writer Jeremy Gordon claimed that “every writer we spoke to is at least aware of Fantano’s work — some of them find it dumb, and at any rate, don’t want to talk about it on the record.” His on-the-record detractors, meanwhile, have dinged him for multiple offenses, including his overwhelmingly male viewership, his fraught position as a white critic in his late 30s who sometimes criticizes young and Black hip-hop artists, and his rather basic (but clearly popular) reviewing style, which eschews the cultural context that print critics (like me) tend to care about in favor of “just describe the music, man”-style directness.
I don’t always, or often, agree with Fantano’s approach or his opinions. (Giving MJ Lenderman’s instant-classic Manning Fireworks a “light 3” is a capital crime against music criticism in my own personal court of law.) But I respect what he does and the audience he’s built. Given the thousands — if not tens of thousands — of videos he’s created since starting his YouTube channel in 2009, virtually none of his haters can claim to have as strong of a work ethic. Also, it must be acknowledged that talking about music on camera in a manner that feels natural and engaging (as opposed to stiff and pedantic) is very difficult — way harder than Fantano makes it look in his otherwise breezy clips.
Above all, I genuinely admire how this guy says what he thinks despite knowing that no matter the opinion, a good part of the Internet is going to be pissed off. Every critic with a platform has to deal with hostility from readers and artists on occasion. It’s part of the job, and it’s the price you pay for having a big mouth in public. But no working music critic right now takes more guff than Fantano, in ways that aren’t always fair.
This is a strange time for music criticism. There’s more of it than ever, especially if you count (as I do) the millions of amateur critics sharing their takes online every second of the day. At the same time, making a living from those takes is more challenging than ever. Given that Fantano is still thriving in this tough environment — and his status as an unwitting symbol of the online trends undermining traditional websites and publications — I was very curious to talk to him about this. On a whim, I sent him a DM on Twitter and asked if he wanted to have a “state of music criticism” talk. (We briefly exchanged messages a few times in the past but otherwise have no relationship.) Luckily for me, he agreed to talk.
A lot of what he said aligns with what I and many others believe — the algorithm and various other market forces are working against anyone trying to do something even moderately smart or thoughtful online right now. What surprised me, however, was Fantano’s genuine alarm at how established media institutions — in music journalism and elsewhere — have been diminished, even as that decline has inadvertently bolstered his own brand.
Let’s start with some big-picture questions and go from there. What are your feelings about the future of music criticism? Where do you see this thing that we do for a living in five years?
There is a lot of complaining about the current state of music criticism that is very centered around individual choices, either by fans or journalists, and a drop in overall quality and curation. And I do think that is a thing. For the most part, the drop in quality is there. However, a lot of that comes more down to market incentives, and the ways that the Internet and the music industry is working. You’re seeing an increase in uninspired, polarizing takes and opinions, and not a whole lot of in-depth discussion and analysis. You might end up investing a lot of time and thought into writing something that maybe nobody is even going to see, because it’s not the sort of thing that’s going to elicit a strong negative, angry reaction. The algorithm isn’t incentivizing it.
I’m not going to deny that I’ve written quite a few negative reviews in my day. I’m not afraid to give negative reviews of things when I don’t like them. It’s not anything I hesitate to do. Unless it’s a super negative take on a super obscure artist, which I don’t really feel serves any purpose to anybody.
I agree.
But the negative reviews that I do don’t even make up half of my content. The majority is stuff I’m passionate about in a positive way. But that is often not the perception that people have. With the way the Internet currently works, it’s controversy and polarization, and negativity is really what sells and keeps people engaged on these platforms. And, as a result, I think a lot of music discourse and coverage skews very surface level, and in very controversial or basic terms, because anything that might actually cause the audience to really sit there and think and digest is not as monetizable.
Right. I think everyone would agree that what you’ve just said accurately describes social media. In terms of traditional “old media” websites — it’s weird to call something like Pitchfork “old media,” but it is in terms of the Internet — there’s a lot of angst in my corner of the world about whether those platforms will exist much longer. I’m curious to hear your perspective on that.
In a lot of respects, social media platforms have phased out the website model. If you’re trying to get out there in the music world and build your own brand around music commentary, you’re more likely to start a TikTok than you are your own website at this point.
For sure. It’s hard to imagine a 20-year-old deciding to start their own version of Pitchfork in 2025.
That replacement has happened or is slowly happening. But that has been more forced upon us more than agreed upon. The reason I say that is because search engines have turned to complete crap, especially Google. When you search for any given thing on Google, what you find are essentially ads that were paid to pop up at the top of the page. If you’re finding things in these Google searches that aren’t ads, they’re often just AI slop. So, you’re confronted with a bunch of shit that’s maybe not true, maybe not real, or even if it is real, it’s not written by a person.
The other way this change has been forced upon us is the money-making business models that at one time made a website like Pitchfork make sense, have been pulled out from under all these websites. I think there’s a demand for the kind of discourse and culture and community that platforms like Pitchfork or Stereogum serve or try to create. It’s not that the community or the audience isn’t there, but the ability to monetize it and effectively keep the lights on is being pulled away.
You made some of these same points in a video you posted a few weeks ago, about how online music discourse has declined in the past 10 years. And while you talked about the flaws of traditional “old” media — the insularity, the overly narrow coverage of certain artists and genres, the general “out of touch”-ness — you were also lamenting the decline of those platforms. And I was a little surprised by that. Because when personalities from the alt-media world — I’m referring to people like you who are on YouTube or Substack, among other platforms — talk about this, they usually have an “us vs. them” attitude, where the business woes of “old” media are cheered along as a victory for “new” media. But you seem genuinely alarmed by the potential demise of your “competition,” so to speak.
I love what I do. I mean, not to suck my own dick, but I revolutionized the music review. But simultaneously, there are genuinely things about music discourse that can’t be most efficiently conveyed in a YouTube video. My content has a certain appeal and success that is owed to the format. But to be honest, there’s a lot of time and resources and effort with each review that is put into just the fact that we’re generating a piece of video content. Time and effort and money that, if you’re writing an article, could go into other things. Like maybe more research and reaching out to people, and getting more background information, doing more of a deep dive. Because you can really take your time writing an article and also reading an article. Which is where I started, by the way. I started writing about music primarily, and that’s where I first started consuming a lot of music discourse, through forums and text-based posts. There’s a lot of great stuff that can be better conveyed in that format and more efficiently.
Obviously, again, I love doing what I do. But I don’t necessarily believe in my heart that this is the best way of doing it. “If you’re not doing it this way, you suck.” I don’t think that. I just do it my own particular way that works for me. And honestly, I feel like if everybody tried to do music commentary in the same format I did, it would make the discourse worse. That would be terrible. There’s a variety of ways that these points and ideas can be shared and gotten across, and some of those modes are being underutilized and underfunded.
I noticed that you have been doing more print stuff on your website lately. News items, commentaries, and so on.
I work with some guys over at Lamb Goat, who approached me with this idea of doing a text-based site not only for my own pieces, but also to open the opportunity for other writers. Just an opportunity to get your foot in the door, get your ball rolling, kind of cut your teeth in the world of music writing, and see where it could go from there. When I started, I was writing for the NPR Music Song Of The Day column and doing some pieces for weeklies here and there, and I was running my own music blog. It obviously ended up going to a very different place, but it was still a valuable way of starting out.
Is that a recent thing?
Yeah, we’ve started going in this direction in the past year. It caused a lot of concern for some of my viewers, like, “Oh, is Anthony retiring or something? Is he quitting reviews?” One of the inadvertent issues that I have is how singular my voice has become for a lot of music fans. And I want to provide a reminder that other music opinions are valid, too. My opinion on things is not the end all, be all on everything. There are people in this space who are also doing cool stuff, curating and celebrating artists, with music that maybe I don’t gravitate toward. I’m trying to give an opportunity for some different voices to shine through.
I’ve worked in media for 25 years. And for all kinds of media, from daily newspapers and alt-weeklies to websites and podcasts. And I would say the overarching narrative of that time involves the decline of institutions and the rise of some — not all, but some — individual voices. Audiences have moved gradually away from publications and websites and toward individual personalities they feel they know and trust. That’s happened in every corner of media, including music journalism and criticism. And in that specific corner, you are maybe the most visible one-man brand. And I wanted to get your take on that. I think it’s fair to say that the average 20-year-old who’s interested in music criticism probably isn’t thinking, “I’m going to get a staff job at a music website.” That person is thinking about doing what you do. As I see it, the good thing about that shift is that it empowers some people to be their own brands, which means they’re not beholden to some boss who might decide to fire them on a whim. The bad thing is that a lot of smart people who aren’t necessarily “personality” driven — editors, copy editors, designers, etc. — don’t really have a place in that model. And those people help to make the “good” discourse you and I value. As the most well-known one-man brand in this music criticism world, how do you feel about this?
The way you’re characterizing it is true, in that that’s how people perceive it. But I feel like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok — whatever poison it is that you’re picking, at this point — these places are institutions. A lot of people perceive them as these bastions of creative content freedom, where you can just do whatever you want. But the thing is, if you’re ingrained in these platforms long enough, you know and understand that certain topics and trends aren’t going to fly. Nobody from YouTube is going to come and be like, “Hey, don’t talk about this.” You’re allowed to talk about whatever topic you want. But if the algorithm has decided that what you’re talking about is irrelevant, it’s not going to share it. Like what’s going on in Palestine right now, for example. If you engage in that topic in a certain way or talk about it too much, you’re getting shadow-banned on certain videos. Because it would look bad for advertisers. So, you’re still experiencing some kind of rejection. It’s not rejection before you’ve written the article from an editor who tells you maybe this is a bad direction to go in and don’t do it. It’s more of a rejection after you’ve made the thing and the website, essentially, is telling you, “Oh, sorry, it turns out we don’t give a fuck about that.”
I wish people — younger people, specifically — looked at these platforms with the same skepticism that they have for CNN or Fox News. Like, “Oh, that’s an old traditional media space, where you’re getting controlled opinions and perspectives from a corporation that has decided this is or this isn’t what you can hear or see.” YouTube is making those same decisions. Maybe it’s not as obvious to you, because you’re feeling a sense of freedom as you go onto YouTube and you search for specific things that you’re interested in. But even when you’re doing that, there’s so much content on these platforms right now, you can’t go into them blindly without presuming that this content is being chosen for me.
How does this affect what you do?
When I was building the channel, there was more consistency in terms of engagement for all my videos, regardless of what I posted about. Whether it was a Rick Ross album or some underground punk band. There was definitely a gap in terms of engagement between those two types of videos, but there was still more consistency. And things got to the point where I was starting to feel very comfortable with the money I was making, and I was like, “Maybe I can pass on some mainstream, big-name releases here and there, if I’m not interested in them.” But the way that the algorithm is currently going, there’s more of a gap these days than ever in terms of me reviewing the most relevant, popular albums of the week and the more obscure, underground records. I’ve seen that when it comes to something like the new Weeknd album, for example, where the views will just get juiced through the roof and it’ll just be crazy, intense engagement.
But when it comes to more obscure, underground stuff, it’s like I might as well not even be making the video. The views are just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the more popular artists of the week. It’s starting to look like that’s probably not going to be a viable option if I want to continue doing what I do in any way, shape or form. The way the algorithm is currently working, I have to be engaging with mainstream music, at least somewhat, in order to bring any eyes and ears to the channel.
That’s not to say all mainstream music is bad and reviewing it is a chore. It’s certainly not. I enjoy doing what I do. And these days I find that there are a lot of mainstream artists who I think are doing really cool stuff. I enjoy reviewing Tyler The Creator. I enjoy listening to and reviewing something like the new Beyoncé album. But there should be as much attention going to the album that Deerhoof just dropped. They’re making some of the best music of their career on this new LP. But unfortunately, that’s going underappreciated.
You feel that a Deerhoof review is being intentionally buried by the YouTube algorithm?
I wouldn’t say intentionally buried as much as they’re just being intentionally not endorsed. Now more than ever, when I’m on YouTube and I’m just looking at stuff, the content that I see recommended to me feels more like television. If you look at any given Mr. Beast video, aesthetically and conceptually, what is different about that than some kind of, I don’t know, weird X Factor-type game show that you would’ve watched back in the late ’90s or 2000s? Maybe the stakes are higher and there’s crazier cash prizes, but it’s essentially the same slop.
Pivoting back to music criticism, one thing I genuinely admire about you is your ability to withstand hostility online, from your disgruntled viewers and your non-viewing haters to even the artists themselves. Every critic with a platform has to deal with some measure of hostility, but I think it’s fair to say that you deal with higher and more extreme levels of hatred than any working music critic right now. How do you deal with that, just from a pure mental-health perspective?
It definitely doesn’t feel as bad now as it did at one point. I’m such an established voice and figure now that, for the most part, even people who don’t really watch me or follow me closely know what I’m about. There’s more of a general understanding that going on the Internet and just freaking out about me is not the most rational or flattering move for an artist. But with that being said, sometimes it can get to me in terms of people talking about me where it doesn’t really feel like they’re talking about me. I feel like they’re talking about more of a character based on a perception that’s like, “Oh, he just hates everything.”
People know that if they post a certain take of mine on their anonymous music fan account, it’ll get tons of engagement and they’ll get at least some money in their pocket. So, they’ll just post a score or a certain controversial clip, just to get people reacting to it. And while I stand by anything that could potentially be clipped out of a video, it’s not a complete picture of my passion and viewpoints as a music fan.
In my world, there’s some wariness when it comes to reviewing a new album by an artist with a big stan army. It’s not even about writing a negative review. Some of these lunatics will get mad if you don’t love an album enough. For a lot of writers, it’s not worth the aggravation. Do you ever have any trepidation about that?
No. Because at the end of the day, I’m doing it for myself, for my own brand. I understand why a writer would have a hesitation there, because in a lot of cases, you’re being underpaid and undervalued to begin with. And then you’re being asked to personally take heat for a widely exposed opinion on another person’s platform that you don’t even own. In some cases, the writer doesn’t even have final say on what the score on the album is. When I first started writing for websites, before I was on YouTube, I had that same experience, and it was enough for me to be like, “Well, this just fucking sucks.” Because I put all my heart and thoughts into writing this particular thing, but then the way it was headlined was in complete misalignment to what I was trying to get across in the article. And now people are just seeing the headline and coming away with a certain perception of what I tried to say, when I had no control over the headline to begin with.
This is kind of an inside-baseball question, but I am curious about your engagement with publicists. I imagine that getting a Fantano review is a big deal for an artist. Has attention from publicists intensified as some of these other music criticism platforms have receded?
Obviously, I’m not subject to convos about me. But the vast majority of emails that I get are just kind of general chain emails, like I’m sure you get, where it’s like, “Oh, this artist dropped this album,” so on and so forth, “There’s a new single out,” yada, yada, yada. With that being said, there are a lot of publicists who will reach out personally if I have gone out of my way to review something and they’re like, “Would you want to talk to them?”
Outside of the publicist space, there’s a lot of direct emails that I’ve gotten from labels who are just like, “Hey, we’re trying to get this new artist out there and build a name for them. Could we pay you to do a reaction on your channel?” It’s a growing problem in my field. I say no, but I know for a fact there are a lot of people who are saying yes. There’s quite a few creators in the YouTube music reaction space, if you want to call it that, who are taking those offers. And when they do so, they’re not coming out and saying, “Oh, hey, by the way, we’re being paid to talk about this.”
Not accepting money for a review is a core ethic of “old” media, though it seems like that doesn’t always carry over for younger critics who are native to YouTube.
It has not carried over, because none of them have been to journalism schools.
One last question. You said earlier — and I agree with you — that you have revolutionized the online video album review. For a long time, you were an upstart in the music criticism world. But do you think of yourself now as the establishment?
I think in my own way, yeah. YouTube more than ever is heavily programmed in the same way that your favorite television station might have been back in the day. And I’ve covered so many different artists over the years, and that often is the through line of exposure that a lot of people have to me. They’re looking up a lot of music content on YouTube, and they’re stumbling upon my Tyler The Creator Flower Boy review or my Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly review.
Again, that’s almost as heavily programmed as television. I’m effectively the music channel on YouTube. If YouTube was TV, I’d be the MTV.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival 2025 lineup is here! This year’s headliners for the Texas-based music festival, held in Zilker Park from October 3 to 5 and October 10 to 13, are Sabrina Carpenter, Hozier, Doja Cat, Luke Combs, The Strokes, John Summit, and Doechii.
The lineup also features Feid, Cage The Elephant, T-Pain, Empire Of The Sun, Djo, Mk.gee, Sammy Virji, Polo & Pan, Role Model, Wet Leg, Japanese Breakfast, MJ Lenderman, Latin Mafia, Magdalena Bay, Dr. Dog, King Princess, Marina, Gigi Perez, Passion Pit, The Dare, Jensen McRae, Hotline TNT, and Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers, who need to cover “Turn The Other Cheek” by Teenjus.
The weekend 1-only acts include Maren Morris, Modest Mouse, The Backseat Lovers, and Riize, while weekend 2 will feature Pierce The Veil, Rilo Kiley, Zeds Dead, Car Seat Headrest, and Fujii Kaze.
Once again, ACL Fest 2025 will stream on Hulu with select live performances, interviews, and more during weekend 1. The full broadcast lineup and schedule will be announced later this summer.
Three-day general admission, GA+, VIP, and Platinum tickets for ACL Fest 2025 go on sale today, May 6, at 12 p.m. CT. Kids ages 8 and under are welcome free of charge to all general admission areas with a ticketed adult. You can find more information here, and check out the poster below.
Austin City Limits Music Festival 2025 Lineup Poster
acl fest
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