PopMatters

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Ana Clara Ribeiro

Hodari is “Iradoh” spelled backwards – a wordplay on “irado”, Brazilian slang for something dope or badass, though it literally means “angry”. This duality of naughty playfulness and raw emotion runs through Hodari’s music. Based in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, Hodari is a singer, songwriter, musician, and model whose music lies at the intersection of R&B, pop, and MPB, grounded in sex appeal and introspection.

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Marty Lipp

Cancionera Sony As she entered her 40s, Natalia Lafourcade encountered a new facet of herself—La Cancionera, the songstress. Now, with a new album of the same name and a worldwide solo tour, the Mexican singer-songwriter is using this alter ego as a lens through which she can examine herself and her musical career. This character, La Cancionera, represents a distillation of Lafourcade‘s relationship with music-making, which began long before she became a teenage pop star.

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Greg Schwartz

Memorial Day weekend in Napa, California, means it’s time for “the first taste of summer” with the ever-popular BottleRock Festival featuring three days of sensational music, tasty beverages, and good food. The Napa County Fairgrounds transforms into a musical playground, offering something for everyone in an ever-diverse lineup that spans rock, pop, alternative, hip-hop, blues, funk, Americana, and more.

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz

Best of Compass Rose Singer-songwriter Steve Gillette is best known for writing the folk ballad “Darcy Yarrow”, first recorded by the Canadian duo Ian & Sylvia in 1965 and later popularized by John Denver on his 1972 album Rocky Mountain High. The song has been covered by more than 300 artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Waylon Jennings, and Nanci Griffith. Therefore, it would make sense that Gillette would highlight the song on his recent ‘Best of’collection. Nope.

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Adriane Pontecorvo

Let All That We Imagine Be the Light STUNVOLUME Among the central pillars of the Garbage approach to music is an unflinching resolve. It comes through in music and lyrics alike, in songs about love, hate, sorrow, and struggle. Throughout the highs and lows of the last band’s three decades, it has been their hallmark, providing them with a structural integrity that has endured through all manner of sonic experiments.