Alex Koenig is not alone, because the TV’s on. On his posthumous LP Life After Death, which was released in the spring of 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. rapped, “Stay far from timid, only make moves when your heart’s in it, and live the phrase ‘sky’s the limit.’” Consider this mixtape to foster the late Christopher […]

Alex Koenig doesn’t point fingers when they’re in someone else’s pockets The coming of age story has become so popular in art that it risks becoming trite. It survives because of the simple maxim that the journey is more important than the destination. Consider noir-hop project No Vacation For Murder by Zilla Rocca and the […]

Alex Koenig gave Julian Casablancas his first vocal filter. The easiest thing to believe about the Strokes’ style is that it’s effortless, as if the New York quintet wakes up from a night of booze-fueled debauchery and improvises their outfits. But the easiest thing to believe would be false: the boys’ off-the-cuff posturizing is as […]

Alex Koenig collects spores, molds, and fungus. Among the many nadirs of Ghostbusters star and co-writer Harold Ramis’ (AKA the film’s Egon Spengler) recent passing was that he didn’t live to see his comedy turn 30 years old. Used by the eccentric parapsychologist characters of Ramis, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, the supernatural-suctioning equipment deserves […]

Alex Koenig apologizes for the lack of ska.  Last October I dated a girl, who let’s call Chelsea. I was initially drawn to her hazelnut hair, broad smile, and petite figure, but what made me want to stick around was our kindred enthusiasm for music, films, literature, and art. That connection fostered priceless moments and […]

Alex Koenig is good to your earhole. “Well I am your crazy driver, honey I’m sure to steer you wrong / I am dying in a story. I’m only living to sing this song.” Iggy Pop uttered those words during the opening couplet of “I Need Somebody,” a doomsday ballad from the Stooges’ 1973 proto-punk […]

Alex Koenig: no relation to Ezra. A film soundtrack serves one simple but instrumental purpose: capture the mood of what’s on screen. A particularly scary scene in a film may need a foreboding bass line. A more poignant setting may bring the work of a brimming brass ensemble to the forefront. At its least effective, […]

Alex Koenig needs no hair of the dog. It has been a strange and sad year for the Strokes. The band released their fifth album Comedown Machine, a record with many inspired moments, but not enough to distract fans from the quintet’s motive: to fulfill a contractual obligation with RCA. Frontman Julian Casablancas lost his […]

Alex Koenig invented leather jogging jackets. In 2001, restless indie-rock fans wondered who would revitalize rock and roll. There’s a reason why the title of the Strokes’s debut, Is This It, wasn’t punctuated with a question mark– the music was the answer. Without that record, the Arctic Monkeys would have delved into a deluge of […]

Alex Koenig set the controls for the heart of the sun. Like a vintage, blurry black-and-white Polaroid picture you discover in your cobwebbed attic, the enigmatic songcraft of Nicolas Jaar conjures a thousand words, memories, and inflections. Pitchfork’s Mike Powell qualified it as “Purring, spectral music with shades of R&B and an exquisite attention to […]