Is cumbia the new punk? How Son Rompe Pera gets crowds moshing to marimbas

A group of five punk men pose by a fence with barbed wire

Kacho, Kilos and Mongo Gama grew up performing in cemeteries. Along with their father, José (a.k.a. Batuco), the brothers would play next to the mariachi and Norteño groups performing for families visiting their relatives during […]

Tom G Warrior of Celtic Frost: ‘Metal was so limited. We were anarchists’ | Music

Celtic Frost photographed for Morbid Tales in July 1984.

Back in the 80s, the 4AD record label was synonymous with a certain ineffable otherness. Its albums had beautiful covers, designed by Vaughan Oliver, and inside those covers was music routinely described as “ethereal”. 4AD […]

Review: Jonathan Abrams’ hip-hop oral history ‘The Come Up’

Book cover in comic book style for "The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop" by Jonathan Abrams

On the Shelf The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop By Jonathan AbramsCrown: 544 pages, $35 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from […]

When We Were Young Compared To Fyre Fest After Alkaline Trio Leak

Mark Hoppus and Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio

Getty Image / Scott Dudelson / WireImage For anyone who lived through the Emo and Pop Punk era of the late 90s and early 2000s, the When We Were Young festival lineup seemed too good […]

Franz Ferdinand review – fierce fun from precision-drilled 00s survivors | Culture

‘Locked in, intuitive, fun, fierce’: Franz Ferdinand.

“Take it right down to the sweet Mancunian ground,” instructs Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos. Telling the audience to drop before rocketing them back up like a firework by restarting the music is an old […]