Rich Wilhelm

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Rich Wilhelm

Audience with the Queen Tchuop-Zilla Records Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”, has teamed up with that city’s beloved funk band, Galactic, to deliver a joyful and life-affirming new album, Audience with the Queen. While acknowledging that some things aren’t great right now, the LP brims over with love and hope, and fabulous music. Audience with the Queen is the perfect fusion of classic soul and 21st-century funk that many of us could use right now.

3 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Rich Wilhelm

Dance Therapy Mute Nora Schjelderup is one of Norway’s leading DJs, and is also the creative force behind Ora the Molecule, who have just released Dance Therapy, which might be the most accessible avant-garde disco pop concept album you’ll hear this year. Ora the Molecule has existed since around 2015, releasing a series of singles that were compiled on Human Safari in 2021.

1 month ago | astm.org | Rich Wilhelm

Baseball and softball season is back for much of the world, which makes this the perfect moment for the latest episode of ASTM International’s Standard Impact podcast. Host Dave Walsh is joined by Lloyd Smith, deputy director, School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University; and Nick Smith, lab manager with the Sports Science Laboratory at Washington State.

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Rich Wilhelm

Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams ATO In the wake of seeing Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood play his entire 2024 album, Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams, at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, I wondered how many complete albums I’ve seen performed live during one concert. In more than 45 years of concert-going, I can only think of two; technically, I didn’t make it through one of them.

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Rich Wilhelm

Matter Does Not Define Modern Sky The Lathums, among the latest practitioners of the guitar-based pop music style, often referred to as “Britpop”, originally came together as part of a school project in their hometown of Wigan, England, in 2018. Within months of their initial formation, the Lathums released their first single, “Crying Out”, an urgent but elegant rock ballad.