Music
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks agoA Holiday Gift Guide: Presents for Music Lovers
Tactile, old-fashioned physical music gifts—record-shop subscriptions, curated mixtapes, and vinyl purchases—honor sound and connect listeners intimately.
The burnt-rubber scent of Pelle Pelle jackets in the air can mean only one thing: Max B is free. Inside of his welcome home party at Harbor, one of those Midtown Manhattan money-suck nightclubs that tries to get you and your friends to pony up your rent money on a section, I was surrounded by so many Uptown dudes draped in heavy leather that I flashed back to the black-and-red joint Max rocked in a classic interview he did with Mazi O.
Yet for as many 99-cent songs as were purchased in the 2000s, anyone who spent time on that era's file-sharing networks can verify that the LP was still the most important unit for music obsessives. And it has remained so-albums are the venue for the most niche and audacious creative projects; they remain the organizing principle for press cycles and stadium tours; no one has gold mp3s hanging on their studio walls.