Alex Rawls
New Orleans-based journalist & podcaster covering music & culture. I can be found at MySpiltMilk.com and TwelveSongsOfChristmas.com
- On Thurs, singer/songwriter @amyrigby.bsky.social will be at NOLA 'Nacular in New Orleans, singing & reading from her recent memoir, Girl to Country, which focuses on her Nashville years. Her storytelling and songwriting share impeccable balance. www.myspiltmilk.com/articles/amy...
- On Saturday night, #LasCafeteras finished their set at #FolkAlliance by revving up and updating Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" for 2026. Nervy, but I'm there for anyone who adds, "How many people do you have to deport / before you feel safe in your bed?"
- I’m a big fan of comic artist #PeterBagge & am glad I got a chance to talk to him about “Hate” & his historical comics before he appears this weekend at #FanExpoNewOrleans. www.myspiltmilk.com/articles/com...
- Am I understanding Rubio correctly & Trump plans to passive/aggressively control Venezuela, not telling it what to do but blocking oil exports until it does the “right” thing?
- This email from Bari Weiss couldn't sound more condescending. It's like she's never actually been in a newsroom, covered the news, or watched any TV shows or movies about newsrooms or people covering the news.
- Tired of Mariah, Wham!, Brenda Lee, etc.? Here's my #ChristmasMusic playlist - 100 percent listenable but definitely not overplayed. www.mixcloud.com/MySpiltMilk/... @knpknpknpknp.bsky.social @blackmarketdub.bsky.social @coleminerecords.bsky.social
- My 2025 Xmas song: “Breaking a Sweat for Christmas”
- Tis the season for my Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast, this week with comic artist #PeterBagge, indie pop artist #Hibou and singer/pilot/psychotherapist #JudyWhitmore, who flies the flag for old school Christmas music. #ChristmasMusic twelvesongsofchristmas.podbean.com/e/the-2025-c...
- Tis the season for conversations about #xmasmusic. Chris from #Sloan on how a band grows up, becoming a cult band, and their Christmas music. www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/sloan
- Tis the season. Fans of #YachtRock will want to hear guitar hero #SteveLukather on Eddie Van Halen, Sammy Davis Jr, Ringo and #ChristmasMusic when we talk about his 2003 album "Santamental." Here or wherever your get yr podcasts. www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/stev...
- Tis the season for more talk about #ChristmasMusic. This week, Roland Gift, Americana lifers #OldCrowMedicineShow and Lorin from #TheKlezmatics visit the pod to talk about their new holiday music. www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/rola...
- Tis the season for more conversations about #ChristmasMusic. Last season I talked to #MidgeUre about "Do They Know it's Christmas" 40 years later. www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/do-t...
- Tis the season for conversations about #ChristmasMusic. This week on "Twelve Songs of Christmas," I talk to #WilliamShatner, #JaneMonheit and retro soul singer #KellyFinnigan. Three fun, very different conversations! @janemonheit.bsky.social @janemonheitfans.bsky.social
- I want “narco-terrorists” to wrap my Xmas gifts for shipping. They were so blown up that Hegseth thought there was nothing to see, but the “drugs” were so watertight, flame resistant and bombproof that Cotton saw the survivors gathering them up.
- I love that the #DriveByTruckers & #JasonIsbell used their time on Colbert to play “Hell No I Ain’t Happy.” It needs to said every day of this presidency, ideally fueled by 3 electric guitars every time.
- Tis the season for a conversation about #ChristmasMusic with Kristian Noel Pedersen, one of the OGs of Xmas indie rock. @knpknpknpknp.bsky.social www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/kris...
- Tis the season for my conversation w #BlackMarketDub on dub #ChristmasMusic on their “Black Market Christmas.” www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/dub-...
- This would have prompted the spittake of all spittakes.
- A good start to the #ChristmasMusic season: the 1st 2 songs I hear in a Paris Baguette are Amanda Shires’ “Real Tree for Christmas” and Connie Francis’ “Baby’s First Christmas.”
- The #ChristmasMusic podcast remembers #BrianWilson this week w Probyn Gregory on Brian onstage & in the studio in the 2000s. Good stuff for Brian fans. www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/reme...
- AI and I are not going to get along. I hate the passive voice summaries of email messages generated by Apple’s mail app.
- Funky songs with cool -often retro- textures make my day. Versions of #XmasSongs like that make me even happier, whether they're actually old or made to sound that way. This week's episode features #ShawnLee talking about the influence of samples & #librarymusic. www.podbean.com/ew/pb-kmkqi-...
- "We've taken a 'really unique action' and made your life worse. We'll make it even worse if we have to if that what it takes to make you realize that the Democrats are at fault."
- Think you're safe from AI in your musical subculture? DJ #HunterKing recounts his efforts to find the source of AI-generated surf music released under the names of existing groups.
- Halloween 2025.
- Trying to decide what to do tonight or this weekend in #NewOrleans? condensedmilk.substack.com/p/condensed-...
- Need a spacer? Try this: How does someone make indie #ChristmasMusic the focus of their musical output? You don't need a holiday to be engaged by #KristianNoelPedersen's body of work or our conversation about it. @knpknpknpknp.bsky.social www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/kris...
- New Orleans' #LPO has broadened its outreach by partnering with indie artists including rapper #AlfredBanks (Oct 29), #LilliLewis (Nov 19) and DJ #MannieFresh (Nov 21). I dug into that relationship in this month's @antigravitymag.bsky.social & as usual, Lilli had cool insights.
- Do I really want a 180g 45 rpm 2 lp audiophile version of The Stooges' debut album? If any album was made to be listened to on a 8-track, it's that one.
- Doing the all-Xmas radio transition right, and 2 Xmas songs you 100 percent will not forget. www.twelvesongsofchristmas.com/content/doin...
- What am I missing in #RainbowKittenSurprise? I just hear Kings of Leon on the new album.
- What’s wrong with me that I want to know what #Autechre Xmas music sounds like?
- Keep an eye on this. I’m worried that Trump will try to force Americans who need assistance to work these jobs.
- So this is funny. The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."
- I’m usually for more exposure, but I’d love for committee hearings to move off of television. Trump’s drones are playing to him and the legislators are playing to the people at home. No one’s talking to each other and it’s a bad look for everybody.
- At Vaughan’s for #LosGuiros & just realized this is my first time here this century.
- Tonight Morning 40 Federation rides again and makes a rare trip Uptown to play the back patio of Snake & Jake’s at 7p.
- One thing I like about the new #TaylorSwift is that she doesn’t pretend her life is like everybody else’s.
- Tonight looks like a good night to get out & see live music in #NewOrleans. It’s not miserable so we can look kinda cool, and #NOLAxNOLA means there are a lot of shows worth seeing. Here are my picks for the weekend. www.myspiltmilk.com/articles/the...
- Oooooooh, Trump’s threatening to send ICE to the Super Bowl since #BadBunny was announced for the halftime show. That should strike fear in the hearts of the millions of undocumented workers that can afford Super Bowl tickets.
- What’s going on w the #NewOrleansJazzMarket has been answered: the New Orleans Jazz and Blues Market, which opens Weds w #BillFrisell and #BobJames on Thurs & Fri. www.myspiltmilk.com/articles/the...
- Watching #Pell at The Chloe as part of #NOLAxNOLA & I love how his songs change depending on who he’s playing with. Live bass & keys bring out chill R&B. Loved him taking Dollar Store apart. (Here with co-conspirator Alfred Banks)
- It’s #NOLAxNOLA in New Orleans. Here are my highlights for this week. Tonight’s got a ton going on. www.myspiltmilk.com/articles/the...
- If Nexstar purchases Tegna, it will own the ABC and CBS stations in New Orleans. We can’t be the only city facing this possibility.
- Listening to Trump talk about childhood vaccines, it’s clear who didn’t take the kids to the pediatrician.
- I’m not sure what was better: #MdouMoctar’s encore or the way Tipitina’s signaled the show was over by playing Van Halen’s “Jump” as Moctar waved goodbye.
