It’s just us here, Noisey readers. We can admit this to each other: It’s nice to see our families around the holidays and all, but how long does this feeling last? After a couple of hours of awkward dinner conversation, carefully avoiding discussions about politics, you start checking the time. And by the end of it, you consider whether or not the gravy dish is deep enough to drown yourself in. We care about you, and don’t want you to drown in gravy. So, in case you are taking an extra few minutes in the bathroom, flipping through your phone as a distraction from Uncle Frank’s thoughts on how Donald Trump can make America great again, we are here to help. Here are some of our favorite longreads from this year so that you can bury your nose into your phone this long weekend, successfully avoiding any interactions with your loved ones, god bless ’em.
Ready to Die: Three Days of Drugs and Disintegration with The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead performed their last shows this past summer in Chicago at what was called the Fare Thee Well tour. To celebrate the band’s 50 years of existence, writer Jeff Weiss spent three days immersed in Deadhead culture. What resulted was a long strange trip down Shakedown Street.
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You’ll Fall in Love Again: The Story of School of Seven Bells
In late 2013 Benjamin Curtis, one half of School of Seven Bells, passed away after a ten-month battle with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. He was 35. This February, Alejandra Deheza will release their final album SVIIB. This is a story that stretched a decade and although there are moments of sadness, this is mostly about love.
In Dillinger Four We Trust
Dillinger Four is one of punk’s most influential bands despite the fact that they don’t tour, they don’t put out albums, and they generally don’t care. But despite being unmotivated and unproductive, they still have a lasting effect on their genre. They let us tail them for three days on a rare East Coast trip to find out how the hell they stay so relevant.
Kentucky Country Queen Angaleena Presley Is a Loretta Lynn for the Weed Generation
Angaleena Presley talks to us about weed legalization, her other band Pistol Annies, and the desperate wave of pain pill addition that’s devastating her Appalachian hometown. Country’s good ol’ boys ain’t got nothin’ on Holler Annie (or her excellent solo album, American Middle Class).
Up and Down, All the Time: Kurt Vile’s Victory
On the cusp of the release of Kurt Vile’s latest record b’lieve i’m goin’ down, Noisey’s Eric Sundermann spends a day with the singer-songwriter helping him move a giant piano. After spending the day sweating, they descend on a bar to talk about the Philly-based musician’s expectations, how he’s growing up, and the best way to navigate this strange life.
You Say You Want to Get Out: A Day in the Park with Autre Ne Veut
Brooklyn’s Arthur Ashin, a.k.a. Autre Ne Veut, made one of the most weirdly satisfying albums of the year, all about how we express ourselves in the digital era. As your aunts and uncles grill you about Snapchat this Thanksgiving, maybe you’d prefer to tune them out and think about this instead. There are also cool pictures, and the music is good.
A Review of the Movie ‘Whiplash’ by Someone Who Watched It on a Plane with No Headphones
The headline sort of says it all.
What a Time to be Disclosure: Dance Music’s Pop Tipping Point
We attended Disclosure’s first-ever arena gig on the week of their new album release to try to answer the question: At a time when dance music in the US has become synonymous with fist-pumping at festivals, can the genre escape Millennial clubland for a permanent home in pop?
We Want the Airwaves: An Oral History of Indie 103.1, Commercial Radio’s Greatest Failed Experiment
A decade after its heyday, the legacy of an unlikely LA radio station stands as a last-ditch effort to revive commercial alternative radio.
Tom Araya Sold His Soul to Slayer, But Was It Worth It?
Slayer’s Tom Araya opened up in his most personal, revealing interview ever. The iconic frontman talked about death, sacrifice, retirement, and missing his old friend, the late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman.
This Is Who Shamir Is
This Las Vegas Kid released one of the most exciting and unique debuts of 2015. Here’s where he came from and why it happened.
The D.O.C. Speaks About Getting His Voice Back
In 1989, The D.O.C., a close collaborator of Dr. Dre’s and N.W.A.’s, severed his vocal cords in a car accident, cutting short a promising rap career. Earlier this year, the incident was widely remembered after being portrayed in the movie Straight Outta Compton. Around the same time as that movie came out, The D.O.C. suddenly regained his voice, and I had the pleasure of being one of the first people to interview him about it.
Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson Wants to Die with His Boots on
Polymath, gentleman, and heavy metal legend Bruce Dickinson has flown a jet, conquered cancer, and released one of the best records of his band Iron Maiden’s storied career in this year’s Book of Souls. We called up the affable Brit to find out what makes him tick.
First Dates
In our First Dates column, we somehow convince artists to go out with us in a semi-romantic context. Here are some times we thoroughly humiliated ourselves in the name of love.
I Went on a Date with Ty Dolla $ign and We Had Afternoon Tea
My (Third Eye) Blind Date with Stephan Jenkins
I Went on a Date with Everyone’s Crush, Natalie Imbruglia
A First Date with Halsey, the New Queen of the Tumblr Generation
I Went on a First Date with Andrew W.K., the Party God, and We Mostly Talked About Depression
Rank Your Records
The title is pretty self-explanatory but this is a column where we force artists to go through their catalogs and put them in order from least to most favorite. Here are some of the best ones this year:
Blur
Ben Folds
Fat Mike
Scene Reports
Writers from undercovered cities report on what music scenes are like around the world, giving you the artists you need to know. These are a few of the places we hit this year.
Dallas Has the Best Rap Scene in the Country That You’re Not Paying Attention to
Sacramento’s Metal Scene Is Keeping It Dark in the Golden State
No Silver Spoon: Philadelphia’s Unforgiving New Wave of Rap Music Embraces the City’s Ethos
