Stevie Chick

Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and Patrick Wilson discuss the band’s conceptual 20th album, informally known as the Gold Album, and its deliberate return to the guitar-driven sound associated with their 1994 debut. After streaming data showed declining interest in the SZNZ project, Cuomo adopted a more strategic, audience-focused approach while retaining his methodical songwriting process and love of spreadsheets. The interview revisits the failure of Pinkerton, Cuomo’s resulting isolation and self-doubt, and the fans whose renewed support helped revive the band’s career. Cuomo and Wilson also reflect on fame, loneliness, creative obsession, personal conflict and the durability of their relationships, concluding that despite earlier attempts to leave music, Cuomo remains unable to escape Weezer.

Greg Dulli discusses the Afghan Whigs’ formation, rise through the post-Nirvana grunge boom, major-label years and 1999 breakup before their 2012 reunion. He reflects on how albums such as Gentlemen confronted male ego, infidelity, chauvinism and his own hypocrisy, prompting him to reject the misogynistic persona associated with songs such as “Be Sweet.” Dulli credits an energizing performance backing Usher at SXSW with helping revive the band, which has continued recording and touring, including the new album Soft Control. He also speaks about the influence of women in his upbringing, his lifelong relationship with music, acceptance of mortality and the continuing pain of Mark Lanegan’s death.

System of a Down’s London performance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium delivered intense, chaotic and highly melodic metal despite the band having released little new material since reforming in 2010. The review praises the musicians’ theatrical performances and the enduring power of songs such as “BYOB,” “Chop Suey!” and “Suite Pee.” Their anti-war themes and critiques of capitalism and American decline feel especially prescient, turning the band’s anger into a powerful, life-affirming form of catharsis.

Kim Thayil discusses Soundgarden’s outsider identity, Indian heritage and role in creating Seattle’s grunge sound while rejecting hair metal’s sexism and machismo. He recalls the band’s formation, Chris Cornell’s exceptional voice, the breakthrough of “Black Hole Sun” and the commercial success of Superunknown. Thayil describes how Kurt Cobain’s suicide shattered the scene’s belief that its musicians were immune to addiction and tragedy, and reflects on Soundgarden’s breakup, reunion and Cornell’s 2017 suicide. He is now working on nine unfinished Soundgarden songs featuring Cornell’s completed vocals while continuing to preserve the band’s legacy through his memoir and other musical projects.

Musician Azniv Korkejian, who performs as Bedouine, discusses how her Armenian, Syrian and Saudi Arabian roots shape her fourth album, Neon Summer Skin. The record explores safety, displacement, identity and the lingering grief of escaping conflict, drawing on her family’s relocations from Saudi Arabia to the United States and Armenia. Korkejian also reflects on her mother’s childhood trauma, the Armenian genocide, separation from relatives and the difficulty of returning to places tied to her past. Through the album and an exhibition of family photographs, she hopes to humanise Middle Eastern people often represented only through violence or pity.

A newly recovered archive is reviving interest in Gordon Stevenson, a Georgia-born artist who became a major but underrecognized figure in late-1970s New York’s no wave scene. Stevenson designed punk jewellery with Mirielle Cervenka, played bass in Lydia Lunch’s Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, collaborated with artists including Ray Johnson, and made the disturbing underground film Ecstatic Stigmatic. After Cervenka’s death in a 1980 car crash, Stevenson continued working while battling AIDS and died in 1983 aged 29. His family and researchers have since located thousands of letters, jewellery, film materials and mail art, while MoMA and New York University consider acquiring the archive. A reconstruction of Ecstatic Stigmatic is planned for release by Factory 25, potentially bringing wider recognition to Stevenson’s work.

Bob Mould discusses Sugar’s origins, the critical and commercial breakthrough of Copper Blue, and the pressures that accompanied the band’s rise during the grunge era. He recalls how being forced to confront his sexuality, the media’s interest in outing him, the AIDS crisis and conservative US politics contributed to the loss of the scene’s innocence. After Kurt Cobain’s suicide disrupted Sugar’s recording sessions, Mould abandoned the band’s initial second-album tapes; Sugar later completed File Under: Easy Listening before breaking up in 1995. Mould, David Barbe and Malcolm Travis have now reunited for a European and US tour and recorded two new songs, although Mould remains uncertain about making further Sugar music.

Wendy Eisenberg’s forthcoming self-titled album grew out of a breakup, a period of intense anxiety and a transformative process of embracing their queerness and nonbinary identity. After an all-day walk they described as an “exorcism,” Eisenberg began writing songs that move away from their earlier avant-garde experimentation toward intricate, graceful 1970s folk-rock and singer-songwriter influences. Their partner and co-producer Mari Rubio shaped the album’s orchestration, while the lyrics address heartbreak, self-acceptance, trauma and recovery. The relationship with Rubio, which began after both had experienced difficult breakups, became part of Eisenberg’s emotional and creative renewal.

Kim Gordon discusses the accidental, intuitive development of her career from visual art and Sonic Youth to her solo album Play Me and acting in Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water. She reflects on shyness, perseverance, self-doubt, Jean-Michel Basquiat and New York’s experimental music scene, arguing that punk’s anti-corporate spirit and women’s outsider status were central to her artistic identity. Gordon is wary of AI-generated music because of its lack of human frailty, supports the growing presence of women in music, backs Zohran Mamdani, and says making art remains a way to find control and optimism in a turbulent world.

The Black Crowes’ tenth album, A Pound of Feathers, continues the revival begun by 2024’s Happiness Bastards. Recorded with the same producer and in the same Nashville studio, it embraces vintage Rolling Stones- and Led Zeppelin-influenced riffs, swaggering rock’n’roll mythology and stories of touring excess. The album’s strongest songs balance debauchery and bravado with melancholy, especially the drug- and aging-focused “Pharmacy Chronicles,” revealing the emotional costs behind the band’s outlaw persona. Although some of the thrills depend on buying into that mythology, the review argues that the Robinson brothers’ conviction, wit and pathos transform retro pastiche into vital, enduring rock music.

Birmingham rapper Tony Bontana discusses how music helped him process his mother’s death and express grief, vulnerability and anger. He describes his genre-fluid work across hip-hop, grungegaze and hardcore punk, his independent label Everything Is Perfect, and the challenges of building a career from Birmingham rather than London. His new album My Name explores identity and grief while addressing the genocide in Gaza, reflecting his belief that artists should engage with injustice and promote conversations about peace.