Leah Mandel

1 month ago | nyra.nyc | Leah Mandel

I was greeted by the disembodied voice of Robert Moses, proclaiming his intent to bring visitors “together in our shrinking globe.” “I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE,” proclaims a pin in the permanent collection of the Queens Museum, designed by Norman Bel Geddes for General Motors’ Futurama Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair.

Sep 25, 2024 | i-d.co | Leah Mandel

Cross-legged in the grass of Central Park’s Great Lawn, Bailey Wollowitz is playing Mastodon’s “Megalodon” on their phone. The song is from the prog metal band’s 2004 Moby Dick-themed concept album, Leviathan; Wollowitz got hip to the megalodon – an ancient species of shark that went extinct during the Pliocene and grew to almost 70 feet long – by way of this epic ode to oceanic legends and giant jaws.

Apr 28, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Leah Mandel

LustSickPuppy—who makes a madcap meld of punk, digital hardcore, rave, and rap—typically exerts a hyper-confident lusty indignation. It’s not that Tommy Hayes, the mind behind LustSickPuppy (LSP to the heads), doesn’t ever mention romance or melancholy within the turbulence of their mostly self-produced discography, which now totals 27 songs and a tad over 45 minutes, all counted.

Mar 14, 2024 | van-magazine.com | Leah Mandel

He’d never been to the opera, and I’d never been to the opera alone. Actually, I had never been to the opera without my father, and I was pretending to still be in love with my boyfriend even though I knew that I wasn’t, so I took him as my date. We’d almost broken up, taken a break, ended the break, broken up, and gotten back together within the span of two months, our ups-and-downs near-Verdian in their melodrama.

Mar 5, 2024 | hmc.chartmetric.com | Leah Mandel |Michelle Kim |Colin Joyce |Jaelani Turner-Williams

By Leah Mandel, Michelle Hyun Kim, Colin Joyce, and Jaelani Turner-Williams of Third Bridge CreativeIn this edition of our Trending Track Report, we’re exploring a Stranger Things actor-turned-musician, an Italian pop star with global appeal, a country-pop star dominating California and TikTok, a 2000s Atlanta club classic, and British indie-pop.