Michael Tedder
Culture Writer And Editor
Art, Film, Music, Television And Long-Form Feature Writing, Online News Writing. Say hello at mtedder at gmail.
PROJECTS
Stereogum
Ted Leo Is Like You
"I wrote this song 14 years ago,” says Ted Leo, gazing at his tiny audience. “There would be nights that I would look at the setlist and think, ‘I can’t believe I have to do this fucking song again.'” He grimaces. “And then I do, and I think, ‘I’m glad I kept it on the set list.'”
Esquire
Elisabeth Moss: I'd Be a "Fucking Idiot" To Turn Down 'The ...
On November 9, while you were nursing your Election Day hangover, Elisabeth Moss was up at 6:00 a.m. to shoot an episode of The Handmaid's Tale, Hulu's dystopian—and eerily prescient—fable of patriarchy run rampant, and one of the most anticipated TV events of the year.
The Daily Beast
David Byrne Has a Message in the Trump Era: It’s Not All Bad
In the summer of 2015, a few days after the Supreme Court made legal same-sex marriage the law of the land, the ever-progressive David Byrne hosted an event called “Contemporary Color” at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Stereogum
Super-Connected: Belly, Buffalo Tom, Juliana Hatfield, Letters To Cleo, And The Boston Scene Then And Now
It’s a frigid Saturday night in mid-March, and some of the most popular and beloved figures to ever emerge from the Boston alternative rock music scene — including Belly, Juliana Hatfield, Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando, and Buffalo Tom’s Bill Janovitz — are all under the same roof for the first time in decades to play a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Esquire
Chris Gethard Is About to Get Shoved Into the Locker of Success
What happens when comedy's biggest loser finally starts winning?
Variety
Stan Lee Celebrates a Marvelous Career in Comics and Film
Stan Lee, legendary comic writer and co-creator of iconic Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, is a spry 94 years old, and he’s still trying to outdo himself career-wise.
Stereogum
Holding Court With Stephen Malkmus
For a very brief moment, Stephen Malkmus is spooning me.
Stereogum
Patrick Stickles, Creator Of Universes, Learns To Make Do In This One
Spend any amount of time with Patrick Stickles, and you will often feel like you are in a movie where the voice-over narration, provided by Patrick Stickles, and the commentary track, also provided by Patrick Stickles, are playing at the same time.
It’s a gray January afternoon, and I’ve “crossed the threshold,” in his words, into the Queens apartment of the Titus Andronicus singer, guitarist, and creative force. Before I sit on his makeshift couch (which once served as the backseat of his fi...
Stereogum
A Brutally Candid Conversation With Lily Allen
Lily Allen didn’t like her last album. She says this and squeaks out a burst of nervous rat-a-tat-tat laughter.
uproxx.com
When It Began: The Birth Of The Alternative Grammys And The Commodification Of The Underground
At the beginning of 1991, the Replacements were in a bad place. The beloved Midwestern punks were weathering a mixed reception for their most recent album All Shook Down, they had recently fired drummer Chris Mars and were in the protracted process of breaking up.
The Daily Beast
The National Learn to Cope With the Trump Era
Though they spent the later half of the ’00s as one of the archetypical examples of, as it were, “the Brooklyn Scene,” the members of the National all originally hail from Cincinnati, Ohio, and have always carried themselves as Midwestern underdogs, relative to their buzz...
The Ringer
The First Noël (Wells Movie)
Getty Images/Ringer illustration
In an early scene in her new movie, Mr. Roosevelt, Noël Wells’s frustrated comedian, Emily Martin, auditions for a gig with a Holly Hunter impression. The pantomime is meant to be broad and a bit awkward, as Wells’s character is still finding her comedic voice. But Wells captures Hunter’s wildfire, Southern pugnaciousness with an eerie precision. It’s a callback to Wells’s past professional life: On her debut episode of Saturday Night Live, she introduced hers...
Stereogum
Holding Out For That Teenage Feeling
In the lobby of Philadelphia’s Hilton Garden Inn, Charlie Lowe, Beach Slang’s tour manager, leans over and adjusts frontman James Alex’s bowtie.
Stereogum
Streets Of Philadelphia: How The Former “Sixth Borough” Became Rock’s First City
There's a small plastic turtle on the dashboard of Cayetana's old blue van. Her name is Tracy. She wears red glasses and does a little side-to-side dance. The van's name is "Fast Car," after the Tracy Chapman hit that the band cranks every time they head out to the next...
BuzzFeed
W. Kamau Bell Is Trying To Become A Thing
A few years ago, sick of performing for San Francisco audiences who didn't want to hear about race or politics, he was ready to quit comedy completely. Now he's the host of TV's most di......