This week’s Critic’s Notebook is on Sondre Lerche, the delightful Norwegian musician whose new album, “Heartbeat Radio,” is just out. (He plays Tuesday, September 8th at the Bowery Ballroom and Wednesday, September 9th, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.) I visited Lerche at his home in Williamsburg, and we spoke in his backyard about Norwegian death metal, Prefab Sprout, and other areas of common interest. Watch below to see Lerche talk and perform an acoustic version of “Heartbeat Radio” and part of Scritti Politti’s “The Word Girl.”
Sasha Frere-Jones worked at The New Yorker as a staff writer and pop-music critic for ten years, beginning in 2004.
More:Williamsburg
Goings On
What we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week, online, in N.Y.C., and beyond. Paid subscribers also receive book picks.
Our Local Correspondents
Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
By Adam Iscoe
Profiles
Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar
Since leaving “Top Chef,” Lakshmi has found herself in a period of professional uncertainty. What better time to try standup comedy?
By Helen Rosner
Annals of Gastronomy
A Martini Tour of New York City
My month of vermouth-rinsing and fat-washing.
By Gary Shteyngart
Our Local Correspondents
Donald Trump Is Being Ritually Humiliated in Court
At his criminal trial, the ex-President has to sit there while potential jurors, prosecutors, the judge, witnesses, and even his own lawyers talk about him as a defective, impossible person.
By Eric Lach