Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Rolling Stone

“I thought, ‘There’s a world out there and I’m not part of it. But I might like to be.”—SIA THE FIRST “ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW” to make an impression on me was a wild, combative encounter writer Kurt Loder had with Bob Dylan in 1984. As a Dylan fan hunting for clues to his mysterious, mercurial persona (and an aspiring journalist hunting for clues on how to translate my fandom into a career), I devoured that electric conversation, in which Dylan bizarrely denied (contrary to a string of albums with clear Christian themes, and his own past statements) that he’d ever become born-again; declared that there was no difference between JFK and Nixon (“politics is the instrument of the devil”); and generally let loose in a way he hadn’t in…

GROWING UP IN a family that relocated often because of her parents’ jobs — from Japan to Turkey, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries — Mitski Miyawaki spent much of her teens lost in a dream. “I was in cars a lot, looking out the window,” Mitski says as she winds through rush-hour gridlock in Los Angeles. “I entertain myself, make up stories in my mind. That’s where probably a lot of mishaps and misunderstandings came about as a teenager.” One of the most insidious of those had to do with her ambition to break into the music industry. Like many adolescent girls, she became obsessed with dieting and exercising. “If I’m beautiful, then I will be discovered and get to sing,” she remembers thinking. Fortunately…

The Foster the People frontman, who will tour this fall supporting the band’s 2017 LP, Sacred Hearts Club, is a big fan of “downtempo disco.” UNITS “High Pressure Days” This is from 1980. I can hear what would later be an influence for bands like LCD Soundsystem. THE BEACH BOYS ”Here Comes the Night” It’s not hard for me to picture Mike Love and Bruce Johnston wearing polyester bell-bottom suits underneath a giant disco ball. GIORGIO MORODER “Knights in White Satin (Part 2)” I first heard “Knights in White Satin” through my friend Jena. There are very few artists that even attempt to make dark disco like this. MINISTRY “Work for Love” The days when Al Jourgensen was kind of a heartthrob – like 21 Jump Street-era Johnny Depp meets…

THE FIRST TWO YEARS after Prince’s death were chaotic: No will was found, leaving the courts to determine who his official heirs were, and his estate owed millions in taxes. Now, those issues are resolved, and his six siblings and half-siblings have gone to work monetizing the Purple One. His famously giant recording vault of unheard music is being cataloged for future releases, and clothing and TV licensing deals are in the works. Would Prince, who was notoriously picky about how his image was used, object? Troy Carter, the ex-Spotify executive helping to oversee the estate, admits that’s a difficult question: “If we went by everything [following] exactly how Prince would do things…you can’t really do that and run an estate at the same time.” DAVID BROWNE A MUSICAL…

“I’ve got a really dirty mouth. I love swearing. I wear these socks with skirts or shorts so you can really see what they say.” RISING BRITISH pop star Anne-Marie has spent the past year and a half opening shows for her friend Ed Sheeran. But she probably won’t be a warm-up act for long; her nostalgic stomper “2002” — which quotes classic lyrics by Britney Spears, ’NSync and Jay-Z — has earned more than 166 million Spotify streams. And her debut LP, Speak Your Mind, packed with sensitively swagged-out dance pop, is a Top 40 hit. Like “2002,” Anne-Marie’s wardrobe also romanticizes the pre-social-media era, favoring colorful Nineties baggy outfits, plus accessories like fanny packs and bucket hats that she hunts down herself on Etsy and eBay. “It’s a…

By Andy Kroll ONE EVENING LAST November, Don McGahn, the top lawyer in the Trump White House, walked onstage in an opulent ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. He looked out at the audience of several hundred judges, lawyers, clerks and law students seated under a pair of glittering chandeliers that hung from a ceiling accented in gold. McGahn, who rarely gives interviews or speeches, had come to speak at the annual conference of the Federalist Society, the powerful network of conservative lawyers, and the occasion felt like a homecoming and a victory lap. Over the past two decades — including five years serving on the Federal Election Commission — McGahn has become an ideological warrior battling what he sees as the tyranny of the federal government. He…

OVER THE PAST year, Lena Dunham has been through a lot: an elective hysterectomy following a decade of suffering from endometriosis, and two big breakups — one with longtime boyfriend Jack Antonoff, the other with Jenni Konner, her writing partner on Girls and the new HBO show Camping (October 14th). Centered on Walt and Kathryn (David Tennant and Jennifer Garner, who lauds Dunham’s “freedom and openness”), a married couple spending an uncomfortable desert weekend with friends, the series seems to be her first foray into non-autobiographical work. But appearances are deceiving. “I’ve essentially been married and divorced, and been through menopause, so it was not a wild leap,” Dunham says. “It was a very soothing use of my own experience.” Camping was originally a British show. Why remake it? [I]…

Paul McCartney Egypt Station CAPITOL HHHH MAKE A list of all the songwriters who were composing great tunes in 1958. Now make an overlapping list of the ones who are still writing brilliant songs in 2018. Your lists read: Paul McCartney. Fifty-five years after “Love Me Do,” his legend already inviolable, Macca keeps adding new gems to his songbook, with nothing to prove except he’s the only genius who can do this. Egypt Station, his first LP in five years, is a deeply eccentric song cycle in the mode of his 1971 solo LP, Ram, made with pop savant Greg Kurstin. The past 15 years have been a glorious time to be a Paul fanatic — the man has been on a songwriting roll, ever since the 2005 Nigel Godrich…

“Church should run for president in 2024. Why doesn’t he throw his baseball cap in the ring? He could be the moderate this country needs.”—Howard Jay Meyer, via e-mail Eric Church Risks It All In our August issue, Nashville renegade Eric Church went where most country stars never go, discussing everything from his disdain for the National Rifle Association to his love of Bernie Sanders [“The Defiant One,” RS 1318]. His beliefs even caught the attention of NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who called out his comments on the Las Vegas shooting on NRATV: “He’s blaming an organization of millions of members. These are people who are his fans. Or at least were his fans.” Fox commentator Tomi Lahren also joined the conversation, tweeting, “I really like Eric Church and…

“IF I AIN’T THE GREATEST, then I’m headed for it,” Drake rapped in 2014. Four years later, he’s made good on his word, in one way: With his double album Scorpion reigning over airwaves and headphones this summer, he now has 187 appearances on Billboard’s Hot 100 — more than any other artist in the 60-year history of the chart. Thirty-one of those songs have cracked the Top 10; all of them are plotted on this graph. Drake has been aided by the streaming revolution, which makes vastly more songs eligible for the Hot 100. But still: impressive.…

SHEEP…sheep…Axl. You can see some amazing things out the window of this mansion-turned-hotel in rural England, where Slash is currently hanging out in a backward Thrasher cap and talking up his new album, Living the Dream, with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. But he and his other bandmates have traveled to this vast green estate because he’s playing the nearby Download Festival tomorrow with Guns N’ Roses — and he hasn’t, until this interview, talked much about their fantastically successful reunion. He doesn’t want to detail exactly how he and Rose mended their relationship after two decades of estrangement, and he snaps when I mention how punctual Guns N’ Roses have become. “All right,” he says, “I’m getting sick and tired of talking about this shit.” But he keeps talking.…

“Time to stand,” says Stephen Colbert, responding to a cue from his Apple Watch. He duly gets up from his desk and stretches. “Ahh,” says Colbert. “Now I’ll never die!” That, plus an interlude during which he grooves in silence to Sting’s melancholy 1991 jam “All This Time,” and a 10-minute pause to eat “tuna with some sort of sesame thing drizzled on it,” are Colbert’s only breaks on this show day in July. Colbert’s mammoth office is several floors above the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, formerly home to David Letterman, who probably didn’t have a Lord of the Rings blanket on his couch. As writers and producers stream in and out, Colbert sits behind his desk, making decisions. Should today’s show open with a laughing German newscaster,…

SIA FURLER IS LOOKING for love. This being 2018, that means using apps like Tinder and Bumble. She doesn’t use her real name, but she does post real photos of herself on the apps. Not that anyone recognizes her; although she’s scored hits like “Chandelier” (1.9 billion YouTube views and counting) and “Cheap Thrills” (which made her one of only a handful of women in their forties to have a Number One hit), she has for years obscured her face with an oversize blond wig whenever she performs. When a potential date asks what she does for a living, she’ll say she’s a writer. Eventually, she might say, “I’m actually also a pop star called Sia.” “I went on a couple of dates, and they were nice,” says Sia, who…

Travis Scott Astroworld EPIC HHH½ OUTSIZE AMBITIONS have never been a problem for Travis Scott. The Houston rapper’s album covers come courtesy of fashion icons like Nick Knight and David LaChapelle. His last tour featured a giant robotic bird. The guest list on his third studio album, Astroworld, includes Drake, Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, Pharrell Williams, two-thirds of Migos, John Mayer, James Blake, Tame Impala, Stevie Wonder and more. But what makes Astroworld worth caring about isn’t the boldfaced names, it’s the music inside. This is the first time his sound has come close to living up to his art-crunk bluster and rock-star self-image. Over the years, Scott has fallen into a signature-but-samey template, a regionless mix of Kanye West’s prestige textures, the boom of Atlanta trap and the slurred…

What’s the best advice you ever received? When I was a young reporter, a smart journalist said to me, “Don’t be afraid to be a fool in the room.” As I got further into reporting I understood what he meant, which was there are no stupid questions, and there is nothing that you shouldn’t be willing to do to convince people to talk to you and explain their world. And if you’re the butt of the joke, that’s fine, as long as you get the story. Were you ever in danger as a reporter? Working on The Corner, I got robbed at gunpoint, but it was fairly routine. I used to resent the reporters who made a big show about how they thought they were risking their lives by traveling…

The influence of Jamaican pop can be felt everywhere, from Drake’s “Controlla” to Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” — but modern Jamaican reggae artists have had a hard time breaking into today’s charts. Enter Protoje, 37, who’s part of a new generation of artists blending traditional roots reggae with hip-hop, pop and rock influences. “[Reggae] is not some resort music that people drink piña coladas to,” says the Jamaican singer. “I don’t want to be pigeonholed.” Take “Bout Noon,” a smooth groove that’s a highlight of his fourth album, A Matter of Time: “It doesn’t have any of the traditional reggae stuff, no che-ke with the guitar, no bang on the piano, no organ bubble,” Protoje says. “But still it has the reggae feel. We want to make this…

When Travis Scott played Lollapalooza in 2015, he was arrested after inciting a riot. This year, the rapper made a triumphant return the same night he released his excellent LP Astroworld. “This is where my mind is at,” Scott, pictured backstage at Lolla, said recently. “I feel like I’m pushing music 100 billion steps forward.” Pop’s Biggest Block Party Lights Up Over the years, Lollapalooza has evolved from a traveling alt-rock circus to a weekend-long party that reflects the entire pop universe. Among this year’s highlights in Chicago: Lil Pump leading thousands in a “Fuck Trump” chant; Bruno Mars channeling Prince and James Brown under a blazing fireworks display; and the Weeknd turning it up at one of his only U.S. shows this year. “Sucks we have to play against…

WHEN TOM ARNOLD opens the big wooden door of his house in Beverly Hills on a Tuesday in late spring, he’s wearing a blue T-shirt with a Superman “S” logo on it. On the floor behind him is a pink, toddler-size Minnie Mouse car, property of his two-year-old daughter, Quinn. “Hey, buddy,” he says, out of breath from his flight down the stairs, and still sweaty, post-shower, from his morning cardio. He lost 90 pounds five years ago, when his son, Jax, was born, aiming to stick around for the family he’s built with his very patient fourth wife, Ashley. Since then, he’s gained enough back to land at a football-coach burliness — still not bad for a 59-year-old who once blew a $10 million Jenny Craig sponsorship by gaining…

IN HIS WHITE SWEATSHIRT and hot-pink Nikes, the man sitting on a park bench in front of the cathedral in Orizaba looks like an ordinary 32-year-old, but he’s talking about murdering people. He tells me he’s done it eight times and explains the sort of thing that, in his line of work, gets a person killed. “Being a wiseguy,” he says. “Acting tough. Going around like a badass. That obligates you to break them.” He details his methods: “First, you give them an ass-kicking,” he says. “Then, you finish them with a head shot. Or you torture them, so they sing what they know, who they’ve been talking to. You use knives, an ax, whatever you have at hand. A machete. This business we’re in obligates you to do that.…

Carrie Underwood Cry Pretty HHH½ Ruston Kelly Dying Star HHHH Various Artists King of the Road HHH CARRIE UNDERWOOD is arena country’s mightiest voice, as Cry Pretty reaffirms. The architecture is often R&B at its core — listen to the slow-jam showpiece “Drinking Alone.” Most striking, though, are “The Bullet” and “Love Wins,” both addressing gun violence. She doesn’t advocate reforming our laws, but at least Underwood has the guts to engage the subject in the Nashville mainstream. A Southern singer-songwriter who owes a debt to outlaw icon Kris Kristofferson, Ruston Kelly deserves to be known as more than “Kacey Musgraves’ husband.” Dying Star should fix that. He projects a beautiful-loser vibe, as song titles like “Faceplant” and “Blackout” suggest, while his writing is…