Singing While Rome Burns (A Selection of Music for the Apocalypse)

I’ve found a catharsis in musicians’ emotional responses to the strife in the world right now, and in their visions of what might spring from the ashes.

Selections, MusicAmrita ChakrabortyJuly 30, 2019Hozier, Mavis Staples, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, James Brown, Janelle Monáe, Cage the Elephant, Sufjan Stevens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bastille, Florence + the Machine, the 1975, Donald Trump, St. Vincent, Leonard Cohen, Richard Siken

That Summer Feeling (a selection, a remembering)

The summer of 2016 belongs to “Self Control,” white brick walls, the rumble of the MARTA train—to the warmth and the horror of being alone in a city.

Selections, MusicLexi CovalsenJuly 15, 2019Richard Ayoade, Matt Berninger, Alex Turner, the National, St. Vincent, Sylvia Plath, the Front Bottoms, Frank Ocean, Lorde, Rostam

"When music comes to you as pure catharsis, it’s very dark, very beautiful." (An Interview With Taylor Robert Hawkins of Western Daughter)

Music can reveal itself as simply escapism or enjoyment, but it can also be something much deeper, more abstract and substantial.

Music, InterviewsKate WilsonJuly 8, 2019Taylor Robert Hawkins, Western Daughter, mewithoutYou, Joyce Manor, American Football, Big Thief, Hop Along, The Sidekicks, The Menzingers, The Book, Songs Ohia, Yo La Tengo, Animal Collective, Fugazi, The Spirit of The Beehive, Frank Ocean

The Art of Letting Go

When I recommend a song to someone else, I am sharing multiple variations of myself.

Music, Personal EssayHana WidermanJuly 2, 2019Rush

Cinematic Spring (a selection)

For this languid, near-summer day, a selection of standout songs to ease you into the world of Bengali musical cinema.

Film, Music, SelectionsAmrita ChakrabortyJune 25, 2019Bishwajeet Chatterjee, Lata Mangeshkar, Tanuja, Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Rabindranath Tagore, Sandhya Mukherjee

Introducing Sforzando, Hag, & Open Call For Staff Members

Issue VIII will sing to the theme of sforzando (the car-struck bolt of dissonance; the backslide into wreckage; the single note of shattering).

Announcements, MusicTopaz WintersJune 17, 2019Tamara Jobe, Alina Stefanescu, Lynsey Morandin, Haley Wooning

From the Editor: the Aubade Issue

My first memory is the most beautiful song I ever heard. An act of peace. An intake of breath. A space suffused with hymn.

The Aubade Letters (a selection)

I have chosen to submit to Half Mystic because it is the only press that has thought to ask what music means to me.

Music, SelectionsTopaz WintersJune 2, 2019Lester Bangs, Mary Oliver, Joyanna M., Frederic Chopin, The Deftones, Saint-Saens, MILCK, love letters

VII: Aubade | Searchlight Song: "Catching Fire"

Even from the beginning the stage never felt like home. Every second spent gazing into the faces of hundreds I wasted fazed, flaming.

Columns, Theatre, Music, Personal EssayElizabeth Ruth DeyroMay 25, 2019searchlight song

“There’s a sense of peace that comes with soft sunlight in the early mornings.” (An Interview with Lynn Werner)

When combined, the arts create redemption, gratitude, connections we’d never have bridged on our own.

Art, Interviews, MusicKate WilsonMay 18, 2019Lynn Werner, Conan Gray, Hozier