About

Eastside Feedback started as a reaction to how boring music writing has become.

Somewhere along the way, criticism got replaced by content, access replaced opinion, and enthusiasm replaced judgment. Everything is either promo copy, stan culture, or SEO sludge. Nobody wants to say anything that might cost them a backstage pass.

This publication is a return to classic music journalism — the kind that treated music as culture, not lifestyle branding. Think Creem before it became a historical reference. Think regional papers, underground mags, barroom arguments that accidentally turn into theory. Writing that assumes music is inseparable from power, class, geography, money, mythology — and the people who make it.

I write about songs, scenes, and institutions. About why certain artists get canonized and others disappear. About Nashville, New York, the industry machinery in between, and the myths we keep telling ourselves about authenticity. Sometimes that means praise. Often it means skepticism. It always means taking the music seriously enough to argue with it.

This isn’t nostalgia. It’s insistence.

Why subscribe?

Subscribe because good criticism sharpens your ears, your taste, and your bullshit detector. Subscribers get access to weekly essays and full publication archives.

Join the movement

Be part of a community of people who share your interests. Pull up a booth. Stay a while.