Carl Wilson
@carlzoilus.bsky.social
Music critic for Slate, freelance writer/editor/etc in Toronto (and available for work!), author of Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, founding associate of Trampoline Hall.
My Toronto show listings for Nov-Dec are up now in my Substack. (Along with a short list of top picks, which I'll put in the replies.) carlwilson.substack.com/p/lust-for-l...
Lust for Live, Nov-Dec
Selected shows for the final weeks of 2025
carlwilson.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:42 PM
My Toronto show listings for Nov-Dec are up now in my Substack. (Along with a short list of top picks, which I'll put in the replies.) carlwilson.substack.com/p/lust-for-l...
As part of Hilobrow's "Skank Your Enthusiasm" series on ska, I wrote a short piece about my conflicted history with the genre's post-punk revival waves, via Madness's 1979 signature cover of Prince Buster's 1964 "One Step Beyond." www.hilobrow.com/2025/11/04/s...
November 5, 2025 at 7:34 PM
As part of Hilobrow's "Skank Your Enthusiasm" series on ska, I wrote a short piece about my conflicted history with the genre's post-punk revival waves, via Madness's 1979 signature cover of Prince Buster's 1964 "One Step Beyond." www.hilobrow.com/2025/11/04/s...
Reminder - today at 5:30 eastern!
LIVING THROUGH HISTORY: Wed Nov 5, 5:30 pm ET in the Popular Music Books series, blues harpist Jerry Portnoy (Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton) & label exec Dan Beck (Michael Jackson) discuss their new memoirs w/ Lauren Onkey (GWU, NPR). Come! Bring your questions! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...
November 5, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reminder - today at 5:30 eastern!
LIVING THROUGH HISTORY: Wed Nov 5, 5:30 pm ET in the Popular Music Books series, blues harpist Jerry Portnoy (Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton) & label exec Dan Beck (Michael Jackson) discuss their new memoirs w/ Lauren Onkey (GWU, NPR). Come! Bring your questions! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...
November 3, 2025 at 9:54 PM
LIVING THROUGH HISTORY: Wed Nov 5, 5:30 pm ET in the Popular Music Books series, blues harpist Jerry Portnoy (Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton) & label exec Dan Beck (Michael Jackson) discuss their new memoirs w/ Lauren Onkey (GWU, NPR). Come! Bring your questions! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...
You guys following this? What a game! Hancock out there setting records for most cosmic jazz batted in!
just saw Herbie Hancock at the Strathmore. played almost exclusively progressive jazz, went ~1 hour over time, much of the overage stemming from a nearly 40m lecture on evolution, compassion, & futurism done entirely via vocoder, and saved almost all the accessible fusion for post-lecture. the GOAT!
November 2, 2025 at 3:24 AM
You guys following this? What a game! Hancock out there setting records for most cosmic jazz batted in!
Reposted by Carl Wilson
geddy lee claps for the blue jays in 7/4 time
November 2, 2025 at 1:55 AM
geddy lee claps for the blue jays in 7/4 time
The new Crutchfield sisters project, Snocaps, might be the most hit-you-in-your-90s-feelings record I've ever heard. I wanted to start crying 30 seconds in and I don't even know what this song is about.
November 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
The new Crutchfield sisters project, Snocaps, might be the most hit-you-in-your-90s-feelings record I've ever heard. I wanted to start crying 30 seconds in and I don't even know what this song is about.
This isn’t just a horrible but policy neutral “civil war” now, if it ever was - there are international sponsors and suppliers who should be pressured and censured by the rest of the world.
A horrific mass murder is unfolding in Sudan, where no one can see it. The RSF are murdering civilians in El Fasher, having finally defeated the Sudanese army forces holding out in the city. The BBC has managed to speak to some who escaped
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fC...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fC...
Sudanese survivors of el-Fasher siege tell the BBC about RSF brutality | BBC News
YouTube video by BBC News
www.youtube.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:23 PM
This isn’t just a horrible but policy neutral “civil war” now, if it ever was - there are international sponsors and suppliers who should be pressured and censured by the rest of the world.
This week's "Portrait Mode" series at @slate.com squares off w/ the oft-cursed biopic genre, incl me on the Springsteen movie (which Dana @thehighsign.bsky.social links below) and her fine piece on Linklater's new Godard and Rodgers films. The whole thing is here: slate.com/tag/portrait...
October 31, 2025 at 5:55 PM
This week's "Portrait Mode" series at @slate.com squares off w/ the oft-cursed biopic genre, incl me on the Springsteen movie (which Dana @thehighsign.bsky.social links below) and her fine piece on Linklater's new Godard and Rodgers films. The whole thing is here: slate.com/tag/portrait...
Apparently some people think that columnists, editorialists, critics, and multiple other professions were just invented by Substack.
Has anyone ever had a successful Substack and not gone completely crazy? Having people pay you for your opinions seems to be a quick path to complete madness.
October 31, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Apparently some people think that columnists, editorialists, critics, and multiple other professions were just invented by Substack.
This mook has never heard of women dying in childbirth. Which his anti-abortion policies make much more likely.
JD Vance: "When settlers came to the new world they found widespread child sacrifice. If you go to historical sites where there are brothels and you dig up the bones of women, you will find a lot of children buried with them. Christian civilization ended the practice of child sacrifice."
October 30, 2025 at 3:38 AM
This mook has never heard of women dying in childbirth. Which his anti-abortion policies make much more likely.
If there is any justice the Springsteen movie should produce a whole new generation of Suicide heads. (It makes that album seem more interesting than it does Nebraska.)
Had an enjoyable afternoon listening to the first Suicide album (one of the greatest albums in the history of music) and I was reminded of a late night DJ on 95BFM that played Frankie Teardrop every Monday night for a year.
October 30, 2025 at 3:36 AM
If there is any justice the Springsteen movie should produce a whole new generation of Suicide heads. (It makes that album seem more interesting than it does Nebraska.)
Tomorrow (Wed), 5:30 pm, in the online Popular Music Books series: Masha Salazkina & Usha Iyer on "The Global Phenomenon of BONEY M," the group whose Eurodisco-Caribbean sound went worldwide in the 1970s-80s, except in the U.S.! To join the discussion: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...
October 28, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Tomorrow (Wed), 5:30 pm, in the online Popular Music Books series: Masha Salazkina & Usha Iyer on "The Global Phenomenon of BONEY M," the group whose Eurodisco-Caribbean sound went worldwide in the 1970s-80s, except in the U.S.! To join the discussion: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...
Reposted by Carl Wilson
Text all your too-cool-for school friends and tell them to get out and vote if they don't want the world's most vindictive and Trump-collaborationist Cuomo mayorship
i hate to be that bitch, but my sources are telling me this early voting data has gotten Zohran's people rightly spooked and y'all better stop assuming this one's in the bag. GOTV
Voter turnout surges in NYC mayor’s race, with Boomers and Gen X leading the charge
The data so far is good news for independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, a political scientist said.
gothamist.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Text all your too-cool-for school friends and tell them to get out and vote if they don't want the world's most vindictive and Trump-collaborationist Cuomo mayorship
Goodnight, maestro
October 27, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Goodnight, maestro
On the Springsteen/Nebraska pic, in @slate.com: "It’s daring to make a movie that’s mostly about a guy making a tape in a room ... [But] despite its best intentions it inevitably betrays the thing it was meant to honor." In form, but also by leaving out the politics. slate.com/culture/2025...
The Springsteen Movie Shows the Problem With Today’s Music Biopics
Deliver Me From Nowhere tries to tell the story behind the Boss’s most daring album while itself playing it safe.
slate.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:43 PM
On the Springsteen/Nebraska pic, in @slate.com: "It’s daring to make a movie that’s mostly about a guy making a tape in a room ... [But] despite its best intentions it inevitably betrays the thing it was meant to honor." In form, but also by leaving out the politics. slate.com/culture/2025...
What are your favourite TELEPHONE SONGS thru pop history? About 100 of mine on two playlists in this post: carlwilson.substack.com/p/cure-your-...
Cure all hangups
... via a two-part playlist of telephone songs through the decades
carlwilson.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 11:58 PM
What are your favourite TELEPHONE SONGS thru pop history? About 100 of mine on two playlists in this post: carlwilson.substack.com/p/cure-your-...
Today in "Crritic!" it's a PLAYLIST day, with more than a century's worth of songs about telephones split between two sets. Plus a few other morsels. Special thanks to @estey13.bsky.social for the inspiration. carlwilson.substack.com/p/cure-your-...
Cure all hangups
... via a two-part playlist of telephone songs through the decades
carlwilson.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Today in "Crritic!" it's a PLAYLIST day, with more than a century's worth of songs about telephones split between two sets. Plus a few other morsels. Special thanks to @estey13.bsky.social for the inspiration. carlwilson.substack.com/p/cure-your-...
Sorry, Seattle pals. Blame the tariffs!
October 21, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Sorry, Seattle pals. Blame the tariffs!
I'm not watching the game, just checking the news, and don't really care about baseball - and even I am all worked up now. I can't imagine what it feels like in the skydome.
October 21, 2025 at 2:36 AM
I'm not watching the game, just checking the news, and don't really care about baseball - and even I am all worked up now. I can't imagine what it feels like in the skydome.
Even if he never comes back this season, Peter Dinklage 100% for best supporting actor Emmys for this week's ep of The Lowdown. (And that's a crowded field on this show.)
October 20, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Even if he never comes back this season, Peter Dinklage 100% for best supporting actor Emmys for this week's ep of The Lowdown. (And that's a crowded field on this show.)
Reposted by Carl Wilson
This week in "Crritic!" - celebrating Meredith Monk, Toronto's indie smoothies at the Tranzac (Shabason, Gill, et al) via @zachschonfeld.bsky.social, and kinda Spinal Tap - and mourning D'Angelo and Diane Keaton. carlwilson.substack.com/p/seems-like...
Seems like old times
On the new Meredith Monk doc, D'Angelo, Spinal Tap, 'Kaputt-core' and Diane Keaton
carlwilson.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 1:29 PM
This week in "Crritic!" - celebrating Meredith Monk, Toronto's indie smoothies at the Tranzac (Shabason, Gill, et al) via @zachschonfeld.bsky.social, and kinda Spinal Tap - and mourning D'Angelo and Diane Keaton. carlwilson.substack.com/p/seems-like...
This week in "Crritic!" - celebrating Meredith Monk, Toronto's indie smoothies at the Tranzac (Shabason, Gill, et al) via @zachschonfeld.bsky.social, and kinda Spinal Tap - and mourning D'Angelo and Diane Keaton. carlwilson.substack.com/p/seems-like...
Seems like old times
On the new Meredith Monk doc, D'Angelo, Spinal Tap, 'Kaputt-core' and Diane Keaton
carlwilson.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 1:29 PM
This week in "Crritic!" - celebrating Meredith Monk, Toronto's indie smoothies at the Tranzac (Shabason, Gill, et al) via @zachschonfeld.bsky.social, and kinda Spinal Tap - and mourning D'Angelo and Diane Keaton. carlwilson.substack.com/p/seems-like...
Reposted by Carl Wilson
In 1969, the Wayne State University president told the printer of the student newspaper to cease publication. Its editor, 19-year-old Cheryl McCall, held a fiery press conference, and two local underground newspapers pitched in to transform rough copy into a 24-page issue.
October 15, 2025 at 5:14 AM
In 1969, the Wayne State University president told the printer of the student newspaper to cease publication. Its editor, 19-year-old Cheryl McCall, held a fiery press conference, and two local underground newspapers pitched in to transform rough copy into a 24-page issue.
"[Neo-soul] was never just about melody or groove, but it was about community, collaboration, and communion. These were artists who... turned vulnerability into power ... intellectual and sensual, political and personal, sacred and messy all at once."
It’s hard to put into words what it means to lose D’Angelo. Not just the man, but the sound, the feeling, the very essence of soul that he embodied.
Remembering D’Angelo and the Eternal Rhythm of Neo-Soul | Black Girl Nerds
It’s hard to put into words what it means to lose D’Angelo. Not just the man, but the sound, the feeling, the very essence of the man
blackgirlnerds.com
October 14, 2025 at 7:06 PM
"[Neo-soul] was never just about melody or groove, but it was about community, collaboration, and communion. These were artists who... turned vulnerability into power ... intellectual and sensual, political and personal, sacred and messy all at once."