Christopher R. Weingarten

2 months ago | pitchfork.com | Christopher R. Weingarten

Perpetually glazed drone trio Bitchin Bajas and minimalist polyrhythm factory Natural Information Society have once again burbled up from the neon miasma where the cosmos meets your Discogs want list. Totality, an expansive, blissful 43-minute slow boat of nü-kosmische and minimalist rock, comes nearly 10 years after their last full-length collaboration, 2015’s Autoimaginary.

2 months ago | stereogum.com | Christopher R. Weingarten

After the abrupt retirement of beloved drum rocktopus Tim “Herb” Alexander, veteran alt-metal oddballs Primus held open auditions for a new sticksman, combing through more than 6,000 videos and an untold number of dudes attempting the triple-bounce kick pattern from “John The Fisherman.” In February, the winner of the “Interstellar Drum Derby” was revealed to be 45-year-old John Hoffman, a tall, skinny, affable, preternaturally chill dude from Shreveport, Louisiana who just happens to plays...

Mar 7, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Christopher R. Weingarten

As incongruous as the concept of an “influential harsh noise record” might sound, Kevin Drumm’s 2002 album Sheer Hellish Miasma is the most influential harsh noise record of the 21st century. When scumfuckers like Wolf Eyes and Hair Police were painting America’s bloody noise underground with the rotted hues of VHS horror in the early ’00s, Chicago’s Drumm, a fellow traveler and seasoned sound artist, emerged with something sleeker and sharper.

Feb 26, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Christopher R. Weingarten

Tim Hecker would like to show you his reel. During the 2020 pandemic, the veteran power-ambient iconoclast began ramping up his film scoring work. His amorphous combination of distended dronework and analog orchestration began to infect horror films and TV dramas like a haunted Hans Zimmer.

Jan 25, 2025 | nytimes.com | Christopher R. Weingarten

From the age of the 8-track to the time of TikTok, the "Saturday Night Live" stage has adapted to (and subsequently outlived) every musical trend in the last half-century. From its early days as an extension of a young creative team's edgy tastes (Sun Ra, Tom Waits, Ornette Coleman) to its current station as a state-of-the-pop-union address, "S.N.L." can break a musical guest or destroy them, providing no shortage of in-studio tensions, national controversies and unforgettable magic.