Carl Wilson

@carlzoilus

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.

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Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· 10d

I'm on CBC's Commotion this morning talking about that old construct, "song of the summer." It's "Choosing Texas" ofc, but what else? Why so many of the contenders are gloomy, but why that's maybe a hopeful thing for commiseration and solidarity! 11 a.m. in most time zones or later on the podcast

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· 10d

Today in "Crritic!", show listings for Aug to early Sept, including Zoh Amba at Sound Garage on Friday, pictured. carlwilson.substack.com/p/lust-for-l...

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jul 14

Reminder to #Toronto folks that I'll be at TYPE Books in the Junction tonight (2887 Dundas St. West) at 7 pm, talking with @danwerb.bsky.social about his new book Our Wild Familiars: How Animals are Adapting to Cities & Reshaping the Natural World. Plus music (?) by Rob Gordon. Come join us!

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jun 21

I'm part of the very specific fragment of the population for whom this image is the best joke of the week.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jun 8

Wed Jun 10, 5:30pm ET, UK historian Will Kaufman and his fellow Woody head, our own Gus Stadler, talk Will's forthcoming book, AMERICAN SONG & STRUGGLE FROM WORLD WAR II TO MAGA. Join us for a replenishing end to the Popular Music Books series' season: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jun 5

Becca Rothfeld deploys the P-word at Leslie Fiedler in the NYer. To quote Diego Montoya: "You keep using that word ...." slate.com/culture/2025...

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jun 4

Ontario is So. Freakin'. Embarrassing. These "don't get all excited about legal weed" posters aimed at FIFA visitors are plastered all over Bathurst Station and I assume everywhere else en route to the stadium.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jun 1

I only noticed that one the second time I saw it! (The first was on a screener at home, the second on the big screen.) However, there is also this - note the lower left quarter of the pic.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· May 28

Ira and Georgia dj’ing at Don Pyle’s book launch in Toronto right now ….

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· May 23

Suck it, dorks!

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· May 13

Stevie Wonder is 76 today - in his words, happy birthday to ya! - but what stuns me each year is how *young he is. Eight years younger than Paul Simon or Carole King, 10 than Smokey Robinson. "Little" Stevie was 13 when he had his first hit. "Superstition"? He was feelin' 22.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· May 2

In order not to overthink it, I had to go to 20:

In order by decade (not year): Sesame Street,  Monty Python’s Flying Circus,  All in the Family,  Columbo , The Mary Tyler Moore Show,  Brideshead Revisited,  Cracker,  Night Music,  The Kids in the Hall,  Twin Peaks (incl. The Return),  My So-Called Life,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  Freaks & Geeks,  The Wire,  The Colbert Report , Mad Men , The Americans , Better Call Saul,  Taskmaster , Reservation Dogs

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Apr 27

10 years after, it's Prince & Bowie week in the music book series Wed, 5:30 ET w/ Daphne Brooks on star-studded anthology Blackstar Rising & The Purple Reign (ft Greg Tate, Greil Marcus, Ann Powers etc), & Griffin Woodworth on his own new Prince book. Come! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The purple cover of Duke University Press's Black Star Rising and the Purple Reign: The Sonic Afterlives of David Bowie and Prince, edited by Daphne A. Brooks, w/ contributors including Greg Tate, Ann Powers, Greil Marcus, Jack Halberstam, Jason King, Emily Lordi, Eric Lott, Maureen Mahon, Michaelangelo Matos, Tavia Nyong'o, and many many more.

Purple paisleys writhe around the cover of Prince, Musical Genre, and the Construction of Racial Identity by Griffin Woodworth.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Apr 20

Wed Apr 22 in the Popular Music Books online series, we're honored to host the great trumpeter-composer Wadada Leo Smith discussing his musical philosophy w/ his co-author & the designer of his book in progress, Nina Sun Eidsheim & Juliette Bellocq. Join us! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

Wadada Leo Smith holding his trumpet in one hand, arms outstretched, head down and eyes closed, wearing blue and white, dreadlocks hanging free, in a stage picture by the photographer Michael Jackson.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Apr 14

I mean, it's a *kind of achievement to come up with a stupidly obscure and yet vaguely valid guess.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Apr 13

This Wed 5:30 pm ET in the pop music books series: Charles L. Granata and Dana Polan on their work-in-prog, "Hoboken to Hollywood: The American Places of Frank Sinatra" - how the crooner was made by & in turn remade the myths of American cities. To join us: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

Nancy Sinatra, Frank, and Yul Brynner in Vegas, 1965, photo by John Dominis.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Mar 31

Tomorrow (Wed Apr 1, no fooling) it's the CLUBLANDS edition of the Popular Music Books online series, w/ Maren Hancock & Charity Marsh on Canadian DJ culture and Al Shipley on Baltimore club music. Get out on the floor w/ us at 5:30 pm! Here's how: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music by Al Shipley shows a DJ's hands operating a turntable and fader.

Maren Hancock, Lecturer in Popular Music at the University of Wolverhampton who researches and writes about DJ culture, seen here holding headphones to one ear.

Dr. Charity Marsh, director of the Humanities Research Institute, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, poses in front of shelves of books.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Mar 27

The point is that ICE is sufficiently funded that blocking further requests won't stop it. Don't listen to me, listen to John Thune.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Mar 17

Tomorrow (Wed) in the Popular Music Books online series: the "place" of jazz in American life w/ authors Andrew Berish on his Hating Jazz: A History... and John Gennari on The Jazz Barn w/ moderator Benjamin Cawthra. Join us! 5:30 pm ET, Mar 18, info here: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of Andrew S. Berish's Hating Jazz: A History of its Disparagement, Mockery, and Other Forms of Abuse.

The cover of The Jazz Barn: Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life by John Gennari, showing a figure playing a saxophone standing out on a path in between two trees.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Mar 3

We're now entering the era of Freedom Tapas.

New York Time headline: "Trump threatens to end trade with Spain in fight over support for Iran attacks."

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Feb 17

It's R&B WEEK in the Popular Music Books online series w/ Amani Roberts on classic R&B groups & @brandontensley.bsky.social on his 33 1/3 book on Whitney Houston, in conversation w/ Emily Lordi, whose own Whitney bio is due this fall. Join us Wed, 5:30pm ET! iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of "The Quiet Storm: A historical and cultural analysis of the power, passion, and pain of R&B groups" by Amani Roberts

The cover of I'm Your Baby Tonight by Brandon Tensley, a book in the 33 1/3 series about the classic Whitney Houston album of the same name

The cover of Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston, by Emily Lordi

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Feb 10

I was on CBC radio's Commotion this morning talking about protest music with pal @vishkhanna.bsky.social and guest host @justsayrad.bsky.social. (My @slate.com piece on the same subject is coming out later today.) Listen here: www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

A winter-coated protestor in Minnesota holds a sign that says "All your favorite bands hate fascism!" From the cover of Billy Bragg's single "City of Heroes."

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Feb 2

This week in the Popular Music Books online series, it's "Cowpunks and Country Labor" with Jonathan Bernstein on his new book on Justin Townes Earle and Robert Morast previewing his novel in progress, COWPUNK. Wed, 5:30 pm ET on Zoom, see here to join: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of Robert Bernstein's What Do You Do When You're Lonesome? The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle, with a B&W picture of a young Earle in a fedora with an acoustic guitar.

A black-and-white pic of L.A. "cowpunk" band X in 1980 with, left to right, DJ Bonebrake (in shades and black leather jacket), John Doe, Exene Cervenka holding a cat, and Billy Zoom (also in shades and shinier leather jacket).

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jan 30

Much too soon, Catherine O'Hara. Toronto aches for you, for your brilliant family, for your fellow SCTV geniuses, for everyone whose work and lives you made better and weirder across the decades. As your sister Mary Margaret sang, truly something to cry about.

Catherine O'Hara with her sister Mary Margaret O'Hara

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jan 20

Hey beautiful losers, this week the books series has ed David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social talking new collection THE WORLD OF LEONARD COHEN w/ contribs @touchofallright.bsky.social, @eweisbard.bsky.social & Sarah Hill. Wed 5:30 pm ET, achieve satori here: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of Cambridge University Press's The World of Leonard Cohen edited by David R. Shumway features a young Cohen in a black turtleneck writing with a ballpoint pen in a small notebook in his lap.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jan 13

Tomorrow! (Wed) in the music books online series, it's BAD BUNNY week, w/ Petra Rivera-Rideau & Vanessa Díaz discussing their new "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance" with Anamaria Sayre of NPR. Join us, 5:30 pm ET: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance (Duke University Press), by Vanessa Díaz & Petra R. Rivera-Rideau, with the colours of the PR flag and an illustration of Bad Bunny in a straw hat and yellow shirt holding a microphone sparking with little bolts of electricity.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jan 11

Bonus round:

Rob Delaney & Michelle Williams in Dying for Sex

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jan 11

Jimmy McGill & Kim Wexler from Better Call Saul (a story about the redeeming power of love, how it fails, and how it still might succeed)

Graham and Patty Chase, My So-Called Life (whose chemistry was a hundred times stronger than the show's unshakable intention to break them up)

Angela and Rayanne, My So-Called Life (unofficial, probably one-sided, but come on)

Luke & Lorelai from Gilmore Girls (arguably better during the profound yearning stages)

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Jan 5

Our online books series returns Wed Jan 7 at 5:30 pm ET w/ Stereogum's Chris DeVille @chrisdeville.bsky.social discussing his book on the 2000s "indie rock explosion," Such Great Heights, with Grace Robins-Somerville @graceroso.bsky.social. Join us! See here: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of Chris DeVille's SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion is sky-blue, with an image of a microphone, a disco ball, a vinyl LP, and a black guitar rising like balloons, with strings attached that are carrying a white silhouette of a person into the air. Small text under the heading of "Featuring" lists artists covered, from Iron & Wine and Pavement to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the 1975, and Bon Iver and MGMT to LCD Soundsystem and Mitski.

Carl Wilson@carlzoilus· Dec 10

Damn, *just found out Ben Feldman from Superstore (+ voice on Long Story Short) was Ginsberg on Mad Men. His affect is so different on the two that it never occurred to me, even tho his looks weren't radically changed. It ridiculously makes me feel, "Oh, Ginsberg turned to be okay!" (Sob.)