What is kill Yr Idols?
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
If you know about that line, Kill Yr Idols is for you.
And if you don’t know about that line, Kill Yr Idols is for you.
Kill Yr Idols is an irreverent, iconoclastic, and even insolent look at American culture from a long-time and truly independent critic and journalist with unmatched experience from punk clubs to the Metropolitan Opera. I’m part of many worlds but always outside the herd. No patience for blandishments and bullshit.
Kil Yr Idols is beholden to no one and no ideology. In the words of Jack Spicer, I’m a “free fucking agent.”
Kill Yr Idols is about criticism, and that starts with values. We keep them, and we look for them around us. And we have no patience for culture that doesn’t live up to them. Like the man said:
We’re here to make sure you don’t. No hot takes, no reverence for status, money, or privilege, just the real deal.
Why subscribe?
Subscribers receive:
One, sometimes more, weekly newsletter (with time off once in very great while for good behavior)—some newsletters will need paid access.
Paid subscribers have access to all posts, full archives, and commenting
Paid subscribers get occasional non-web items too, like a hard copy ‘zine (in the works!) and more.
Who Am I?
I’m a musician and composer who started writing freelance about music, and more, in the late ‘80s. I’ve played jazz, classical, theater music, rock, hard core, funk, and free improvisation from CBGB to Weill Recital Hall; I’ve composed sonatas and songs, electronic music and pieces for modern dance, and more. I launched the Big City blog in the winter of 2008, fueled by passion, anger, and a little insanity. Since then I've contributed to The Wire, Financial Times, Bandcamp Daily, New York Classical Review, Signal to Noise, The Strad, The Grove Dictionary of American Music, Library of Congress, VAN, Music & Literature, New Music Box, WQXR, Time Out New York, wrote Miles Davis' Bitches Brew for the 33-1/3 series and Minimalist Music (coming in 2026). Since 2013, I've been the music editor for The Brooklyn Rail.
