An excerpt from Rotten, a book dealing with issues of consent & millennial sexual politics in the context of DIY music and arts communities, written by Mandy Brownholtz.

Jacob Allen, also known as Puma Blue, tells me over Zoom that he wears his heart on his sleeve. "I've always been someone who would cry at anything, like an advert on TV— I'm just a very teary Pisces type," he jokes. And his music can be equally as lachrymose. Affectionately dubbed "voicemail ballads" due to their lo-fi and intimate nature, Puma Blue reached cult-like acclaim with his nocturnal, soul-bearing tunes.

Australian duo Good Morning talks us through their growth as teenagers, friends, and musicians.

Madge, gender-bending DIY pop producer, and May Daniels, editorial photographer and model exploring queer and intersectional feminine space, catch up and talk about the creation of their 2000s socialite inspired photo series.

Terra Lopez, musical artist Rituals of Mine and publicist at Terrorbird Media, speaks with Alphabet Rockers, a Grammy nominated intergenerational hip hop group. Together, Terra and the Alphabet Rockers speak to being an activist through music, the current education system and most importantly, why adults should be listening to the youth. This is the fourth conversation in an ongoing series in partnership with NYC Nightlife United highlighting the status of the music industry.

Packed in a space reminiscent of an old pirate ship's belly, I watched awe morph the composure of those around me. Candles stuffed in dusty wine bottles illuminated dropped jaws and sparkling eyes. The bartenders, who usually clamber about, were motionless, and the smell of beer-saturated wood was, for the moment, undetectable.

I spent the first thirty days of quarantine devouring Lizzy Goodman’s tell-all about New York City’s music scene in the early 2000’s, Meet Me in the Bathroom. I picked it up the week before the city shut down after a year of meaning to read it. From James Murphy’s self-centered comments to Ryan Adam’s now disturbing remarks, Karen O, one of the few female leads of 2000s alternative rock and one of the few female voices in the book, stood out like a diamond in the rough…

Danny Miller and Max Harwood, better known as Lewis Del Mar, describe themselves as an “audiovisual partnership.” The pair released their self-titled debut album back in 2016 draped in a collage of wintery Rockaway imagery. Four years later, they are releasing their follow up LP, AUGUST, out appropriately, next month on FADER label.

When I Facetime Loyal Lobos (otherwise known as 26-year-old Colombian-born artist Andrea Silva) on a sticky end-of-July night from my Brooklyn apartment, we both find ourselves in a state of flux…

Yasmine Panah, Project Manager at FADER label, and Kïa Tavernier, Content Strategy at Ilegal Mezcal & Creative Director for City of the Sun, dissect how through their experiences as women of color working in music, the industry, while diverse in its artistry, is still struggling to reflect that in the workplace. This is the second conversation in an ongoing series in partnership with NYC Nightlife United highlighting the status of the music industry.

Upon first watching Chicago band Slow Pulp’s music video for “Falling Apart”, your first reaction is awe, the second is questioning how in the world it was made. Director Jake Lazovick and Matthew Melchionne teamed up to create the meticulously animated dreamscape over a span of three weeks.

Arpan Somani, previously at SoundCloud and The FADER, and Matthew Schonfeld, founder of music discovery podcast Not 97, discuss how the act of music discovery has changed and how we can support artists as a result. This is the first conversation in an ongoing series in partnership with NYC Nightlife United highlighting the status of the music industry in light of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.

Diana Mora, founder of venue Friends and Lovers and the founding partner of NYC Nightlife United, talks with Tracy Adams, known as Monday Blue, DJ and founder of Doyennes of Disc, a monthly vinyl party featuring all women DJs. Together, Diana and Tracy discuss the importance of community, the past and future of venues, and their experiences as women in nightlife. This is the third conversation in an ongoing series in partnership with NYC Nightlife United highlighting the status of the music industry.

Chicago based artist Caitlin McCann shares photos of longing, yearning, sorrow, and joy while on tour with indie rock band Vundabar this past summer.

Three years ago, artist Sophie Parens set out to direct her first documentary on her grandfather, Henri Parens. At age 12, Henri escaped from the Holocaust and went on to become a globally recognized psychoanalyst, dedicating his life's work to the prevention of prejudice. With her documentary Zaida, Sophie reframes one of the 20th century’s most horrific incidents while simultaneously celebrating her grandfather's legacy.

Sitting outside, drinking coffee on a ‘six-more-weeks-of-winter’ afternoon with the band Mamalarky, I’m hit with a wave of nostalgia. It’s a Proustian madeleine moment where I’m brought back to a memory’s feeling of being eleven or twelve, on some Sunday outing with a friend and their family, totally amazed by the ease in which they all move through social interactions…

We were lying on the trimmed grass of the Heath, the sun heating our skin. It was a beautiful afternoon on a Wednesday, and Hampstead Heath was empty except for a few clumps of people. As Molly Payton, an eighteen-year-old singer/ songwriter, basked in the sun in a summer dress and cowboy boots— her most treasured possession and an ode to Jim Morrison— I noticed a group of middle-aged men jesting and glancing over at us.

Kachi Ebiringah talks with friend and former bandmate Nick Gresens about music as a healing process, the meditation and medication it offers, and making music for yourself first.

Shawn Marom, Hunter Martinez, and Jeremy McLennan make up shoegaze Los Angeles three-piece Cryogeyser. Sitting on their porch in the hot El Sereno sun, they talk inception, intimacy, and relationships.

Holden Jaffe, frontman of Del Water Gap, talks making music full-time, the ups and downs that come along with it, and keeping a level head.

Toast premieres their self-titled debut EP. We talk about their year, moving to NYC, and being the relatable queer role model we’ve all been waiting for.

You see someone walk up to a band to chat after a set and the gender suddenly becomes very important for reading the scene. Do you guess they are a guy going up to express admiration, or a girl going up with the hopes of slipping back stage?

Toronto based director Mashie Alam never intended for an international pandemic to reinvent the meaning behind her short film, “Boredom”. Along with cinematographer Thomas Van Der Zaag, the crew set out to make a piece that spoke to the anxieties of social isolation and interaction pre quarantine.

Inspired by their collaborative film, Dream Girl, creatives Bryan Villalobos and Martine Gutierrez talk relationships, dating apps, and fitting and breaking societal ideals in twenty first century New York City.

The last time we spoke with Major Murphy in 2018, our topics included The Beatles, their recently released debut album, No. 1 (which took three years in the making), and Benji, Jacki and Jacob’s one year old son. Now, another three years later, the band has found themselves amidst upheaval, like many of us have, an obstacle that inspired their second record, Access, out April 2nd, 2021 on Winspear.