Being 21, rising New York rapper Azealia Banks tweets a lot. Banks, known for the 2011 viral hit “212,” is openly bi — new terrain for hip-hop. The gay world brings its ...

Last month’s Hurricane Sandy Relief/”SNL” Nirvana + Paul McCartney Frankenreunion was odd: These men invented and reinvented rock ’n’ roll, and their path led …...

To me, Christmastime is a pan-denominational opportunity to hope for things — peace on earth, a better new year, seeing people I miss. Here, I made you a mixtape about it: "...

I was walking toward 14th and U last month wearing a dead relative’s fur stole and dangling off the arm of my girlfriend, who looks like Johnny Cash crossed with a circus be...

Patti Smith’s music has been with me since my teens, when I also dutifully consumed Camus and Rimbaud in the classic moody-teen-girl search for meaning. Until Saturday, I’...

I recently Tumbld toward Downed City Rise, where John Davis of Title Tracks (and sundry other great bands) lets you root through his personal shoebox of D.C.-scene memorabilia...

When we left R. Kelly’s sprawling, 22-chapter hip-hopera “Trapped in the Closet,” it was 2007. Main man Sylvester (Kelly) and a dozen other shady characters were trackin...

November is Gratitude Month, and this year I’m thankful for: Growing up in the Detroit area and having so many amazing radio stations form my ecumenical musical interests. T...

Though it’s the opposite of quiet time, heavy metal is like meditation in that it forces you to think about things you might otherwise ignore. Two new full-lengths from D.C....

After poet T.S. Eliot saw Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” in 1921, he wrote a letter saying the avant-garde ballet took “the barbaric cries of modern life” ...

You have to be a dedicated cinephile to watch silent movies and a hardcore movie nut to go to the theater to watch them. But you can’t touch the Alloy Orchestra’s celluloi...

Scientists think Neanderthals went extinct around 30,000 years ago. But cavemen DNA has survived in the humans making pummeling music for D.C.’s Windian Records. In the endl...

When my uncle died nearly a decade ago, we tried to donate his music collection to a university or library. His was an enormous, well-organized assemblage of jazz items — LP...

The Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery plunges three stories beneath the National Mall. But to celebrate its 25th anniversary, the museum looked to the sky for one of i...

A virus ripped through our family late last week and caused “Exorcist”-like vomit followed by catatonic whimpering. After my visit with Mr. Creosote — the barf machine f...