Matt Pryor, frontman of the punk band Smoking Popes-adjacent circles, shares personal essays about touring life, road mishaps from the late nineties, sobriety and managing type one diabetes, alongside music and merchandise promotion. Readers get candid, anecdotal tour writing mixed with occasional store plugs and album art posts.
Website: https://mattpryor.substack.com
Greil Marcus publishes a recurring Real Life Rock Top 10 of music, video and cultural oddities, plus an Ask Greil column answering reader questions about music and culture. Each issue is a personal, essayistic take on concerts, songs and found objects.
Michael Angelo's newsletter reviews DJ mixes and sets in roundups, with close listening notes on specific timestamps, tracklists and time slots. It also republishes older music journalism, such as a piece on the 2016 Prince tribute concert.
Mikal Gilmore's reader-supported Substack series revisits his long-form interviews and essays about musicians and writers, currently covering Anne Rice and Leonard Cohen. Readers get literary-musical portraits built on Gilmore's reporting, personal reflection and close reading of the work.
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