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  • Watch Mariah Carey Perform at Milan 2026 Olympics Opening Ceremony

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    Mariah Carey took part in the opening ceremony at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan, Italy. She sang a medley of Domenico Modugno’s Italian standard “Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu,” commonly known as “Volare,” and “Nothing Is Impossible,” from her own 2025 album Here for It All. Watch clips of her performance on YouTube and TikTok.

    Legendary Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli also took take the stage during today’s ceremony, singing the aria “Nessun Dorma”. Carey has recently been honored with both the Video Vanguard Award at the 2025 MTV VMAs and MusiCares’ Person of the Year at the 2026 Grammys. In December, her modern Christmas staple “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became the longest-running No. 1 song in U.S. chart history.

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    Walden Green

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  • Bethany Cosentino Calls on Wasserman CEO to Step Down Over Epstein Emails

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    Note: This article contains descriptions of alleged sexual misconduct.

    Bethany Cosentino has shared an open letter calling on Casey Wasserman—the founder and CEO of her agency, Wasserman—to step down after his name and old emails appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files. The documents, released by the Justice Department on January 30, contain intimate messages exchanged by Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime companion, throughout 2003, per The New York Times. In 2021, a New York court convicted Maxwell of conspiring with Epstein to recruit and sexually traffic minor girls; she is currently serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

    Wasserman Music has represented Cosentino and her band Best Coast since 2021. In her statement, Cosentino demanded Wasserman change its name, and said she has requested to remove both her and Best Coast’s names from the agency’s website. “Ghislaine Maxwell is not a neutral character in a messy story—she is a convicted sex trafficker who helped facilitate the abuse of minors,” Cosentino wrote. “I did not consent to having my name or my career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation.” (Pitchfork has reached out to Wasserman, his agency, and Cosentino for comment.)

    Cosentino described her statement as a “refusal to continue lining the pockets of people so closely tied to shady business and toxic, deeply harmful people.” She added: “Artists are not interchangeable assets. We are people. Many of us are women. Many of us, myself included, are survivors. We deserve systems that let us work without asking us to compromise our values in exchange for opportunity.”

    In his own statement to the press, shared on February 1, Wasserman said: “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light. I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”

    Per Variety, Wasserman’s communication with Maxwell included an email where Maxwell offers to give Wasserman a massage, and another where Wasserman writes to her: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” The files indicate that Wasserman and Maxwell remained in contact after a September 2002 flight to Africa, which former president Bill Clinton reportedly organized to conduct HIV research. A 2003 Vanity Fair report noted that Epstein, Maxwell, Wasserman, billionaire Ron Burkle, Kevin Spacey, and Chris Tucker were among those on board.

    Wasserman founded his eponymous talent management company in 2002, and launched Wasserman Music in 2021. Wasserman Group oversees hundreds of high-profile musicians and sports players; artists currently on the roster include Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, Skrillex, Chappell Roan, Animal Collective, Wet Leg, the Knife, and Geese. Wasserman is also the chairman of the planned 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. During a press conference on February 4, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry said she had “nothing to add” to Wasserman’s statement on the files, per the Los Angeles Times.

    In 2024, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas left Wasserman Music for WME shortly after a Daily Mail report alleged Wasserman had engaged in inappropriate relationships with multiple female subordinates. Wasserman and his company did not comment on the allegations at the time.

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    Hattie Lindert

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  • RCA Relaunches Jive Records

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    RCA is reviving Jive Records as a standalone label, the company announced today (February 3). Former UnitedMasters executives Mike Weiss and David Melhado will serve as co-presidents of the revamped imprint. They’ll run operations from Sony Music’s New York City headquarters.

    The announcement comes more than a decade after RCA shut down Jive, along with Arista Records and J Records. All three labels were dissolved into RCA’s roster in the wake of Sony’s 2008 merger with BMG, RCA’s parent company. RCA relaunched Arista as a standalone imprint in 2018.

    Founded in 1981 by Clive Calder, Jive was run by Barry Weiss—Mike Weiss’ father—from 1995 through 2011. The younger Weiss, who joined the imprint in 1982, helped build Jive into an incubator for prominent 1990s rap acts like A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Boogie Down Productions. Jive also went on to make a name in the pop space. During its peak commercial years in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, it was home to artists including Britney Spears, Aaliyah, *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys and Usher. BMG bought Jive in 2002.

    “JIVE Records is deeply personal to me–it shaped entire generations and the way I learned this business,” Mike Weiss shared in a statement. “Relaunching this iconic label with David allows us to carry forward JIVE’s legacy of creative and operational excellence while proving that major labels can deliver both innovation and fairness for artists.”

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    Hattie Lindert

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  • Grammys 2026 Highlights: Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar Make History

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    On Sunday, February 1, the Grammys 2026 celebrated achievements in music by honoring musicians, producers, songwriters, and more. Broadcast live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Trevor Noah hosted the annual awards show, which at times felt more like a concert than a ceremony, as the biggest names in music came together to perform their hits, riff on classics, and pay tribute to artists who paved the way for them. This year, Addison Rae, Alex Warren, Bruno Mars, Clipse, Justin Bieber, Katseye, Lady Gaga, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, Pharrell Williams, Sabrina Carpenter, Sombr, and The Marías were among the many acts that took the stage to perform.

    Bad Bunny (who was just a week away from his Super Bowl halftime show performance) won album of the year for Debí Tirar Más Fotos. He was nominated for the award alongside Justin Bieber’s Swag, Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Clipse’s (Pusha T and Malice) Let God Sort Em Out, Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, Leon Thomas’s Mutt, and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.

    Relive the Grammys 2026 via analysis and commentary from the Vanity Fair team from who ruled the Grammys 2026 red carpet to the last award of the night.

    Our Essential Guides

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  • Watch Cardi B Perform “Bodega Baddie” and “ErrTime” on Saturday Night Live

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    Cardi B was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live last night (January 31), performing “Bodega Baddie” and “ErrTime” off her 2025 album Am I the Drama? On “Bodega Baddie,” the Bronx rapper was joined by renown Dominican accordionist El Prodigio. It was Cardi’s first time performing on SNL since 2018. You can watch both performances below, as well as a Cardi cameo in a sketch alongside Marcello Hernandez and host Alexander Skarsgård.

    “It’s such a honor for me to perform on one of the most prestigious stages in America…SNL with THEE @elprodigiord !” she wrote on Instagram following her performance. “Bringing real Dominican sound, real Dominican culture, infused with the sounds and culture of the Bronx!”

    Cardi will spend the next two months on the Little Miss Drama arena tour, her first since 2019. It kicks off February 11 in Palm Desert, California.

    The musical guests on Saturday Night Live’s 51st season so far have included Geese, A$AP Rocky, Doja Cat, Sabrina Carpenter, Brandi Carlile, Olivia Dean, Dijon, Lily Allen, and Cher. Bad Bunny also hosted an episode. Mumford & Sons are the musical guest on the next episode, airing February 28, with Connor Storrie set to host.

    Read more about Cardi B in Pitchfork’s the 100 Best Songs of the 2020s So Far.

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    Alex Suskind

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  • Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Founder, Steps Down

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    Wynton Marsalis is leaving Jazz at Lincoln Center after over 30 years as its artistic and managing director.

    The organization announced Marsalis’ departure today (January 27), confirming that the influential musician, composer, and bandleader will stay on as artistic director through 2027, then serve in an advisory role through June 2028. He will remain on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s board as a founder “in perpetuity,” and will continue to perform with the ensemble on occasion.

    Marsalis established Jazz at Lincoln Center as a summer concert series in 1987, and oversaw the organization’s move to a dedicated venue, Frederick P. Rose Hall, in 2004. During his tenure, he also helped expand its educational offerings, which include the Essentially Ellington high school band competition and the Let Freedom Swing program for elementary school students. Outside his work with Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has released over 110 jazz and classical albums and won nine Grammy Awards. In 1997, his oratorio Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

    Ahead of Marsalis’ departure, Jazz at Lincoln Center has established two committees to focus on the transition. One will work with him to identify “the next generation of artistic leadership,” and another will spearhead the search for a new executive director, who will replace Greg Scholl when he leaves this June.

    In a statement, Marsalis said: “When we established Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1987, our goal was to build an enduring jazz institution that would both entertain and educate by exposing multi-generational audiences to an often-overlooked aspect of American culture, and I am proud of the tremendous progress we’ve made. Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have always been my main artistic priority as a musician and a citizen.”

    “It is time for new leadership to take the institution to even higher ground,” he concluded. “We are rich in emerging, extremely talented, capable, and inspired musicians and advocates. I’m very confident about the future.”

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    Hattie Lindert

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  • Everything That Happened at the Sundance Film Festival 2026

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    When I received an email invite for a “blindfolded chess match” against Alec Baldwin, I immediately hit reply. “I would love to go”—SEND

    I pulled up to the privately-emailed address earlier tonight, a spacious, very-Utah house sitting at the end of a long driveway. (Ubers were confused, but that’s nothing new this weekend. Uber chaos.)

    After signing in, I was ushered into a living room, where match-goers were enjoying drinks and light bites. Then, it started.

    With his drink sitting next to him, Alec readied himself for the match against the star of Netflix’s ‘Queen of Chess’—premiering here at Sundance later this week—Judit Polgár. Before blindfolding Polgár (to even the playing field), Baldwin quipped: “If I win, I get to buy Warner Brothers. If you win, you get to buy Warner Brothers,” and “I have a whole Hungarian strategy.”

    Then, with a Chess.com emcee on the mic that seemed to get on Baldwin’s nerves (a hand gesture was made at one point), the match began. Baldwin bantered throughout, saying, “to be awarded the point, to make it more even…you must answer a movie trivia question…’Who directed Casablanca?’”

    He put up a good fight, but the match was over before it begun. Polgár, as we’re all soon to learn in the forthcoming doc, is a chess legend. (Chess Queen!)

    After the match ended, the two took questions. Baldwin talked the entertainment business: “The great thing about this business…is the people you get to meet.”

    And Sundance: “I’m a huge fan of Sundance. I can’t believe Bob [Redford] is gone, he was always so kind to me.”

    And later talked about his kids having a penchant for chess: “My three older boys, they play…They don’t hesitate, they give it to me…if I play chess with them…but I usually win.” Then joked: “My kids can be very cruel…We go shopping the other day, and my kids are all born and raised in Manhattan…I said, ‘I think you should get this coat in this color.’ And my third oldest son looked at me and goes, ‘What do you know, you’re from Long Island.’”

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  • The Mayor of an Occupied City

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    Frey drove to the state Senate building, across the Mississippi River in St. Paul, where Democratic members of Congress were hosting a shadow hearing about ICE activity in Minnesota. Frey was set to testify. Sitting outside, he learned that the hearing would begin only after several speeches, and the speeches wouldn’t begin for another thirty minutes. He became agitated at the thought of spending so long in St. Paul, ten miles from his city. “I don’t know, man,” he told an aide. “I don’t want to not be there. In Minneapolis.” The street outside was quiet. His team hadn’t yet heard of any ICE activity in the city that morning. “But yeah,” Frey said. “It’s happening. Right now. I’m certain.”

    The latest version of Trump’s immigration enforcement began seven months ago, when he sent ICE into Los Angeles. Home Depots were raided, and people were disappeared off the streets. By the time agents arrived in Chicago, three months later, the country was accustomed to seeing images of protesters wearing gas masks. ICE actions began to take on more overt elements of stagecraft. Gregory Bovino, a commander-at-large of the Border Patrol, has toured cities on foot, followed by cameras and surrounded by masked agents. The operations were given names: Operation Midway Blitz, in Chicago; Operation Catahoula Crunch, in New Orleans; Operation Charlotte’s Web, in Charlotte. In Minneapolis, it’s Operation Metro Surge. D.H.S. routinely publishes the mug shots and names of those charged with a crime—“the worst of the worst.” The threat now hangs over other Democratic officials that Trump might, at any time, turn their cities into war zones. “It’s a blue state with a blue mayor, and a blue governor,” Frey told me. “It’s a performance. It’s a very dangerous performance.”

    Frey grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C. His parents were professional ballet dancers who later ran a chiropractor’s office together. Frey went to law school and became an employment and civil-rights attorney. He also spent time as a professional runner, and when he visited Minneapolis, in 2006, for a marathon, he has recalled thinking, “Yeah, I could live here.” He became the mayor in 2018, at thirty-six. Two and a half years later, a police officer killed George Floyd, prompting nationwide protests. “Then you had a global pandemic, and people had cabin fever, and everybody had masks, and so there’s the whole anonymity associated with that, and you had a hundred years in the making reckoning around social justice,” Frey said. Buildings burned to the ground; businesses were looted.

    Frey found himself at the center of a fraught conversation about how to be a good white ally. In June, 2020, at Floyd’s memorial service, he knelt before the casket and wept. Two days later, at an outdoor rally, he was asked to commit to abolishing the police department. With hundreds of people standing around him, many filming on their phones, he said no. Video of the moment went viral. Frey, wearing a face mask printed with the words “I CAN’T BREATHE,” was booed out of the event. “Go home, Jacob. Go home,” people chanted as he walked out. “Shame.” In the weeks and months that followed, Frey found himself speaking from a place of fear. “I was very scripted, because I was worried I was gonna step on a land mine,” he told me. “You lose who you are. It’s literally not your words.”

    Frey’s theory of how the operation in Minneapolis began goes like this: “I think somebody from pretty high up in the federal Administration said, ‘Go to Minneapolis and get a bunch of Somalis and deport them,’ and then nobody really pushed back, and then they get here only to figure out, They’re all citizens,” Frey said. “They’ve been here for longer than I’ve been here.” Trump became fixated on Minnesota after investigations into alleged social-services fraud in the state. Members of the Somali community have been charged as a result of the investigations. In December, Trump referred to the Somali community as “garbage.” Days later, D.H.S. announced a surge of agents to the city. But the vast majority of Somali people in Minnesota are citizens. Frey believes that agents have now diverted their attention to the Latino community. Minnesota’s estimated undocumented population, according to the latest available data from the Pew Research Center, ranks behind that of twenty-three other states, making it a small target for such a large operation.

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    Ruby Cramer

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  • Geordie Greep Honors Black Midi Co-Founder Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin

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    Geordie Greep has shared a tribute to his former bandmate and fellow Black Midi co-founder Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, who died on January 12 following “a long battle with his mental health,” according to a statement shared by Kwasniewski-Kelvin’s family. He was 26 years old.

    “He changed my life in more ways than I can ever explain or repay,” Greep wrote in an Instagram post. “Thank you Matt, thank you so much for being my friend. Thank you for helping me in so many ways. Thank you for being brave and courageous enough to believe in the dream we had together, and brave and courageous enough to battle through the awful thing you had to for as long as you did.” You can read Greep’s full statement below.

    Kwasniewski-Kelvin met his future Black Midi bandmates—Greep, Cameron Picton, and Morgan Simpson—as teenagers while attending the a London performing arts institution the BRIT School. The group released their debut album, Schlagenheim, in 2019 on Rough Trade Records.

    Hi all.

    It goes without saying that it’s been a really tricky week. Really, really sad and shit. But I think that it’s important I say something here just to have some record of this time and these feelings.

    I want to say thank you, so, so much, to all of my friends, to everyone we have worked with in music, and to all of the fans for being supportive and kind and thoughtful and gentle. Really thank you all so much, it means more than anything and has really helped. It has been so moving and powerful to see all the tributes and memories shared by all those who know him and all those he inspired. I want to extend all of the warmest thoughts to all of Matt’s family and hope all of you are doing ok.

    It’s really such a sad thing that’s happened. But I have been trying to focus on what a great person he was, what a force for positivity and goodwill, and how much better he made the lives of everyone who knew him. We all loved him so much, we really did. And he will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Even though I haven’t seen him in some years, I thought about him very often, and I always wished and hoped I would one day see him again. There is so much I wish I could say to him. I wish I could say how sorry I am for everything that happened, how sorry I am that he was unlucky enough to be battling such a cruel, unforgiving and persistent illness, how much I miss him and will miss him always, and how thankful I am for everything he did for me.

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    Alex Suskind

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  • Peso Pluma Sets 2026 Dinastía Tour

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    Peso Pluma is gearing up for a Stateside trek this spring. Kicking off in Seattle on March 1, the Dinastía by Peso Pluma & Friends Tour—named for Pluma and Tito Double P’s 2025 collab album—will hit 30 venues across the country. No word yet on which friends will be in attendance, only a promise of a “rotating lineup of special guest appearances…in select cities,” per the announcement.

    Pluma last toured in 2024, in support of his Grammy-winning 2023 album Génesis and its follow-up, ÉXODO. Check out the full list of Dinastía Tour arena and amphitheater dates below.

    You can read more about Peso Pluma in our 2023 column How Regional Mexican Music Became the Year’s Most Refreshing Pop Breakthrough

    Dinastía by Peso Pluma & Friends Tour

    Dinastía by Peso Pluma & Friends Tour:

    03-01 Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
    03-03 San Francisco, CA – Chase Center
    03-04 Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
    03-06 Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
    03-08 San Bernardino, CA – Glen Helen Amphitheater
    03-10 Fresno, CA – Save Mart Center at Fresno State
    03-11 Anaheim, CA – Honda Center
    03-13 Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
    03-14 Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
    03-15 Palm Desert, CA – Acrisure Arena
    03-18 San Jose, CA – SAP Center
    03-20 Inglewood, CA – Intuit Dome
    03-24 Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater
    03-26 Denver, CO – Ball Arena
    03-28 Salt Lake City, UT – Maverik Center
    04-02 Houston, TX – Toyota Center
    04-03 San Antonio, TX – Frost Bank Center
    04-05 Laredo, TX – Sames Auto Arena
    04-07 Austin, TX – Moody Center
    04-10 Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion 
    04-12 Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP
    04-18 Tampa, FL – Benchmark International Arena
    04-24 Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre
    04-25 Charlotte, NC – Truliant Amphitheater
    04-26 Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park
    04-28 Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
    04-30 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
    05-01 Belmont Park, NY – UBS Arena
    05-02 Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
    05-05 Reading, PA – Santander Arena
    05-07 Chicago, IL – United Center

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    Alex Suskind

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  • Oneohtrix Point Never Unveils 2026 Tour Dates

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    Oneohtrix Point Never has added some New York stops to a tour behind Tranquilizer. The shows at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works form part of the contemporary classical organization Bang on a Can’s May festival Long Play 2026. A tour of East Asia and Europe will precede the shows in March and April. All of Daniel Lopatin’s Tranquilizer concerts will feature his latest original live presentation, developed with the multidisciplinary artist Freeka Tet.

    Lopatin has also announced a month-long online workshop at School of Song. The course, a press release notes, will offer “a rare insight into his creative process, spanning electronic music history, collage-based composition, sampling as sonic recycling and approaches to film scoring and collaboration.” Check out the tour dates below.

    Oneohtrix Point Never:

    03-28 Shanghai, China – Bandai Namco Dream Hall
    03-29 Seoul, South Korea – 1975 Theater
    03-30 Taipei, Taiwan – SUB LIVE
    04-01 Osaka, Japan – Gorilla Hall
    04-02 Tokyo, Japan – Zepp DiverCity
    04-10 The Hague, Netherlands – Rewire Festival
    04-11 Oslo, Norway – Munch Festival
    04-12 Warsaw, Poland – Stodoła
    04-13 Brussels, Belgium – Bozar
    04-14 Lisbon, Portugal – Culturgest
    04-17 London, England – The Barbican
    04-18 Bern, Switzerland – Dampfzentrale
    04-29 New York, NY – Pioneer Works
    04-30 New York, NY – Pioneer Works
    05-09 Krems, Austria – Donaufestival

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    Jazz Monroe

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  • How to Rate Albums Using Pitchfork Scores

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    There is a new Pitchfork subscription—only costs $5 a month—that gives readers the ability to score albums, comment on our reviews, and chop it up with our writers, editors, and one another. With the power to score albums now firmly in your hands, it’s only fitting that we try to give you a better understanding of how we rate albums.

    We have a saying here at the office: “6.8, good not great.” However, if you would like a more detailed breakdown on how to use the Pitchfork rating system, here is a scoring rubric we use to help guide our thinking behind scoring albums on a 101-point scale.

    10

    A masterpiece, one of the best albums of all time. Will be culturally and aesthetically important many years from now in some way.

    9.1 – 9.9

    A monument, an instant classic. Sounds ahead of its time, sounds timeless, immediately belongs in the canon. Entire genres could be created in its wake.

    8.6 – 9.0

    A major statement, worthy of your time and energy, no matter your taste. Transcends genre, claims new ground, a total and intentional work of art, possesses an aura that makes it vital to its genre, its era, or the artist’s career.

    8.0 – 8.5

    Essential listening, among the best records of the year. Shows a mastery of craft or taps into the sublime, feels a part of the zeitgeist, steps out of its genre, takes big risks that pay off.

    7.6 – 7.9

    Excellent record, highly recommended. “Best in class” for its genre. Not a bad song on it.

    7.0 – 7.5

    Very good record, recommend checking it out. Hardly a dull moment, a great hang, maybe plays it safe but executes everything very well, maybe takes some risks but doesn’t land everything perfectly.

    6.6 – 6.9

    Good record, a few issues, but worth your attention if you’re into the band or genre. Maybe starts strong and fades a little by the end, includes a few songs that don’t move the needle, but also has a handful of outstanding moments.

    6.0 – 6.5

    Pretty good, not great, some unavoidable issues, but interesting. Fans of the band or genre will get the most out of it.

    5.6 – 5.9

    Decent record, a few things going for it, but a handful of major issues overwhelm the experience.

    5.0 – 5.5

    Not very good, but not a total disaster.

    4.0 – 4.9

    Pretty bad.

    3.0 – 3.9

    Really bad. Incompetent and thoughtless.

    2.0 – 2.9

    Terrible.

    1.0 – 1.9

    Terrible and symptomatic of some kind of larger problem in music or the world.

    0.0 – 0.9

    Worthless.

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    Pitchfork

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  • Watch Gwar Play “Pink Pony Club”

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    I wasn’t expecting the year to start off with Gwar’s take on “Pink Pony Club” yet here we are. The blood-spewing metal band recently performed Chappell Roan’s mega-hit for A.V. Club series A.V. Undercover. (Gwar has a history of irreverent covers like this; in 2024, they played an equally committed version of “I’m Just Ken” for the same series.) You can watch the full performance below.

    “‘Pink Pony Club’ is about embracing exile from a boring, shitty world and remaking yourself into whatever you want,” vocalist Berzerker Blöthar said in a statement. “Be who you are, be who you aren’t, piss people off, we don’t care!” Right on, brother. Gwar will hit the road later this year for their Gor Gor Strikes Back Tour.

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    Alex Suskind

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  • xaviersobased Is Running Back His Riverside Tour

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    xaviersobased’s 2025 Riverside Tour is getting a sequel. The Riverside 2.0 Tour, featuring support from ksuuvi and 1c’s Backend, will hit American cities the New York rapper missed on his initial run. The tour kicks off in March before heading to Europe the following month. Riverside 2.0 marks xavier’s first international headlining trek. Check out the full list of stops below.

    In November, xaviersobased dropped the once more EP, featuring the breakout OsamaSon single “uncomfy.”

    The Riverside Tour Dates:

    03/06 FT Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live
    03/08 Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
    03/10 Phoenix, AZ – tbd
    03/11 Houston, TX – House of Blues Houston
    03/13 Richmond, VA – The National
    03/15 Charlotte NC -The Underground
    04/02 London, UK – EartH Hall
    04/03 Paris, FR – tbd
    04/05 Amsterdam, NL – Tolhuistuin
    04/07 Cologne, DE – Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld
    04/08 Berlin, DE – Hole44
    04/10 Prague, CZ – MeetFactory
    04/12 Warsaw, PL – Klub Proxima

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    Alex Suskind

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  • The Sauna Wars Are Heating Up

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    When it first opened, Bathhouse was jokingly called the Bitcoin bathhouse, as they use the heat generated from mining to warm the tubs. “The comments were like, ‘Oh they’re laundering money through Bitcoin,’” says Talmadge. “But it’s just a fancy pool heater.” Those jabs did not prepare them for what happened earlier this year, when someone posted on Reddit: “I noticed the hot tub and body temp tub were looking kinda dirty and gross. I thought it would be fine, but then I ended up with a UTI.” The poster added that a friend got a UTI at another location.

    “A UTI doesn’t walk across the river. If it was a problem it would be a pool at a single location at one given day,” says Talmadge. “There is 24-hour computer monitoring, and they are manually logged five times per day, and we keep the logs. We are adjusting the PH and chlorine at all times. Every drop of water at every pool turns over every 30 minutes. All the vessels have their own independent systems so they don’t mix. The water goes through a sand filter that takes out any particles up to two microns, like a receipt in their pocket or a tag that falls off, or a piece of lint. Then it goes through a UV filter, a big tank with three-foot-long light bulbs of pure UV light that will kill all bacteria and viruses. They’re basically sterile.”

    Talmadge and Goodman’s biggest mistake was they didn’t think much of it. “Knowing it wasn’t true, our first reaction was, This isn’t going to go anywhere. Boy, were we wrong,” says Talmadge. What followed was a pile-on, with a former employee alleging on TikTok that Bathhouse had mold issues. (Goodman says it was a photo of a 100-year-old discolored brick wall.) The website Curbed picked up the story in late March, claiming that a former employee shared videos with the publication that seemed to show insects on the floors. The article included a dismissal from Bathhouse.

    “The next morning, NY mag put on their Instagram that they got a video of us cleaning our sewer lines,” Talmage says, noting the post was viewed upwards of 3.5 million times. (“We power jet them out and sometimes nasty stuff comes out—we clean out grease traps; we clean the sand filter.”) Various Substacks and YouTubers picked up the story. “It did affect business,” says Talmadge. “The timing was suspect because we were closing a capital raise the day the article hit.”

    Goodman says the former employee was someone “who had a big beef with an HR person who had left by then…. It could have been handled better. She had a lot of anger. She ended up sending us a written apology.” (A spokesperson for Bathhouse says the situation was resolved amicably.)

    By now things seem normal enough. Talmadge is back to occasionally and anonymously leading aufguss, a German sauna ritual Bathhouse offers hourly that involves a series of snowballs doused in essential oils (one crowded night in November was rosemary and clementine; another chamomile; and the last linseed, vetiver, and spearmint) that melt over hot stones that waft into the air via a towel he twirls around the room spinning it like, well, a helicopter. They’re also expanding across the country, with new locations “in various stages of construction” (and largely funded as built to suit by landlords), including downtown Brooklyn; Philadelphia; suburban New Jersey; Chicago; Nashville; Stamford, CT; Minneapolis; and Hollywood.

    “We get the wellness crowd, but also people who work in finance and other high-stress jobs like doctors and lawyers who are burnt out and overwhelmed,” says Bent, who is one of five cofounders of Othership, including her husband Robbie Bent, who was working for the blockchain Ethereum Foundation when they started to think of the concept.

    Bent says, “Robbie was navigating some addiction issues with drugs and alcohol his whole life, and he went on an ayahuasca retreat and we met after. We would go to whatever local bath place when we traveled because they were open late, especially being sober. It gives you the sensation of an altered state and dopamine with the hot and the cold and brings you out of your shell.” (Which must be working; they have started to host singles nights and can take credit for at least one engagement from people who met while sauna-ing.)

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    Marisa Meltzer

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  • Charlotte Cornfield Signs to Merge, Announces Hurts Like Hell

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    Charlotte Cornfield has signed to Merge Records, the Toronto singer-songwriter announced on Tuesday, January 13. Hurts Like Hell, her sixth album and first on the label, arrives March 27. Check out the artwork and Scott Jacobson-directed video for the title track—which features vocals by Big Thief’s Buck Meek—below.

    In addition to Meek, Cornfield recruited Feist, Christian Lee Hutson, and Maia Friedman to sing backup across the follow-up to her 2023 alt-folk project Could Have Done Anything. Hurts Like Hell was produced by Phillip Weinrobe.

    In 2025, Secretly Group—the group behind Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, Saddest Factory, and Secretly Canadian—acquired a 50 percent stake in Merge.

    Hurts Like Hell:

    01 Before
    02 Hurts Like Hell
    03 Lost Leader
    04 Lucky
    05 Living With It
    06 Number
    07 Squiddd
    08 Kitchen
    09 Long Game
    10 Bloody and Alive

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    Alex Suskind

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  • Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor Returns With New Album Paris In The Spring

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    Since 2008, Alexis Taylor has managed a steady solo career outside his work in the electro-pop outfit Hot Chip. Now Taylor’s back with Paris in the Spring, his seventh album under his own name. The record drops March 13 via Night Time Stories. Check out the artwork—and watch Taylor, Lola Kirke, and a bunch of mannequins perform in the music video for lead single “Out of Phase”—below.

    Paris includes contributions from the Avalanches, Étienne de Crécy, Pierre Rousseau of Paradis, Ewan Pearson, Elizabeth White of Pale Blue, and Green Gartside of Scritti Politti. Fittingly, Taylor recorded most of the album at Nicolas Godin’s studio in Paris.

    In a statement, he says the project is ultimately about “freedom—from constraints, from preconceptions, and from genre.” “Sometimes an audience wants to be told, what is this?” he added. “And I’m refusing to do that. You can find great things in music when you open up to real listening. No one needs to be told ‘what something is’, otherwise why would we be making something so straightforward?”

    Read our review of Taylor’s 2021 album Silence.

    Paris in the Spring:

    01 Your Only Life
    02 Out of Phase [ft. Lola Kirke]
    03 Wild Horses
    04 Colombia
    05 For a Toy
    06 On a Whim [ft. Green Gartside]
    07 Faiting by Numbers
    08 mp3s Can Make You Cry
    09 Black Lodge in the Sky       

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    Alex Suskind

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  • All the Highlights From the 2026 Golden Globes

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    Happy Golden Globes to all who observe!

    Before we get into all the red carpet fashion, nominees, predictions and up-to-the-minute analysis, relive all the fun from Vanity Fair and Amazon MGM Studios’s annual awards season kick off party, which was held at Bar Marmont last night.

    Hudson Williams and Conor Storrie

    Photographer Krista Schlueter.

    Image may contain Clothing Coat Jacket Adult Person Cap Hat Head Face Photography and Portrait

    Kareem Rahma

    Photographer Krista Schlueter.

    Image may contain Mary Jo Markey Saoirse Ronan Person Photobombing Adult Wedding Urban Face Head Fun and Party

    Janelle James

    Photographer Krista Schlueter.

    Outside, crowds lined Sunset Boulevard in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite stars. When Connor Storrie from Heated Rivalry—the steamy surprise streaming hit—arrived, screams from the crowd outside could be heard from inside the party. “I woke up at 6 a.m., did a full day of shooting, drove back, got dressed, and came here. Now I just want to dance,” Storrie told our reporter Rachel Marlowe, who captured all the fun in her scene report.

    Image may contain: Sammi Hanratty, Clothing, Formal Wear, Suit, Face, Happy, Head, Laughing, Person, and Photography

    SCENE REPORT

    Jennifer Lopez, Michael B. Jordan, Connor Storrie, and More Celebrate Awards Season with Vanity Fair and Amazon MGM Studios

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  • ICE Recruitment Ads No Longer on Spotify

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    Recruitment advertisements for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are no longer running on Spotify, the streaming service has confirmed. Variety was the first outlet to report the news.

    Last October, Spotify held firm in its decision to air immigration-enforcement ads between songs for users on the company’s free tier. “This advertisement is part of a broad campaign the US government is running across television, streaming, and online channels,” the company said in a statement. “The content does not violate our advertising policies.”

    Spotify now says the ICE ads stopped running at the end of 2025—meaning Wednesday’s fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by an ICE agent did not play a factor in the ads’ disappearance. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a U.S. government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Pitchfork, adding that the ads “ended on most platforms and channels, including Spotify, at the end of last year.”

    The campaign—which also included streamers Amazon and YouTube, among others—was part of the Trump administration’s $30 billion investment to hire more than 10,000 deportation officers by the end of 2025. News that Spotify was airing ICE ads was met with widespread criticism from fans and artists, leading to a general boycott of the streamer by grassroots political organization Indivisible. In 2019, musicians launched a separate boycott called No Music for ICE aimed at Amazon over its own ICE contracts.

    Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated when No Music for ICE launched; it was in 2019, not 2025.

    King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Leave Spotify

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    Alex Suskind

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  • New Music Releases and Upcoming Albums in 2026

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    Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore: Tragic Magic [InFiné]

    Peaer: Doppelgänger [Danger Collective]

    Xiu Xiu: Xiu Mutha F****n’ Xiu: Vol. 1 [Polyvinyl]

    January 21

    Maria Somerville: Luster Remixes EP [4AD]

    January 23

    Alan Vega: Alan Vega (Deluxe Remastered Edition) [Sacred Bones]

    Alan Vega: Collision Drive (Remastered) [Sacred Bones]

    Cat Power: Redux EP [Domino]

    Gesaffelstein: Enter The Gamma [Columbia]

    Lucinda Williams: World’s Gone Wrong [Highway 20]

    Megadeth: Megadeth [Tradecraft]

    January 30

    Blackwater Holylight: Not Here Not Gone [Suicide Squeeze]

    Geologist: Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? [Drag City]

    Joyce Manor: I Used to Go to This Bar [Epitaph]

    The Soft Pink Truth: Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? [Thrill Jockey]

    February 6

    Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Laughter in Summer [Transgressive]

    Daphni: Butterfly [Jiaolong]

    Mandy, Indiana: Urgh [Sacred Bones]

    Ratboys: Singin’ to an Empty Chair [New West]

    February 13

    Angel Du$t: Cold 2 the Touch [Run for Cover]

    Charli XCX: Wuthering Heights [Atlantic]

    Converge: Love Is Not Enough [Epitaph]

    Danny L Harle: Cerulean [XL]

    Jill Scott: To Whom This May Concern [The Orchard]

    New music releases for Friday, February 13, 2026, include: Charli XCX: Wuthering Heights [Atlantic]

    February 20

    Peaches: No Lube So Rude [Kill Rock Stars]

    February 27

    Bill Callahan: My Days of 58 [Drag City]

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    Pitchfork

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