Doctors in Wales are increasingly giving referrals for mental health support assessments - the number increased by 47% between 2014 and 2018. Some patients have started break-dancing as a method of treatment. BBC has a nice video-report about it.
Kesha's new song, 'Rich, White, Straight Men' envisions a world without our current political leaders - "What if rich, white, straight men Didn't rule the world anymore?", she says in the song (and convinces us that god is a woman, she met her!), Billboard reports. The bridge takes melody from the childhood favorite, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little […]
Apart from tracks we already picked out (Slowthai, JARV IS..., Skepta, Tyler, the Creator...), Guardian makes a colourful choice of June's 50 best new tracks. There's summer-bangers in the making ('Why Don't You Just Call Me' Antony & Cleopatra), pop-rock ('Playground' Steve Lazy), metal bangers (Slipknot and Employed to Serve), although the London paper thinks […]
Bon Iver debuted two new songs at London’s All Points East Festival on Sunday - 'Hey, Ma' and 'U (Man Like)', and showed a link to a new website, icommai.com, on which an extensive list of collaborators are listed - Bruce Hornsby, Mosey Sumney, The National’s Bryce Dessner, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, and more. Consequence […]
Jay-Z's wealth is worth 1 billion dollars, and that's a conservative estimate, Forbes reports. They added his entire media empire, from Roc Nation to Rocawear to Tidal and D’Ussé cognac and got the 10-figure sum. Diddy and Dr. Dre rank as the second and third wealthiest rappers, with a net worth of $820 and $770 […]
This song brings to question the process in which economic value is prescribed to cultural artifacts, how that value is exploited through storing them in high security storage facilities (like the Geneva Freeport) to avoid paying taxes, and how it all seems so antithetical to why most artists create their work in the first place […]
British punk band Killdren have been kicked out of Glastonbury after criticism of their song 'Kill Tory Scum', which includes the lyric: "Tory genocide is the perfect outcome". The two-piece rave-punk band defended the song as a "crude" satire, and have accused Glastonbury of "buckling under pressure from the right-wing media". The band explains the […]
German industrials Rammstein's new album debuted at No. 1 in 14 different countries, and sold 270,000 units. The band's seventh studio album 'Rammstein' reached the top of the charts in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Austria and Canada. Loudwire...
Primavera Sound has officially announced that its first ever US event will be taking place in Los Angeles next year. Co-produced by Live Nation, Primavera Sound Los Angeles will be held 9/19-20 at the Los Angeles State Historic Park, and it’ll coincide with the 20th anniversary of the original Barcelona fest, Stereogum reports. Pavement are […]
From golden locks to curls, Loudwire chose 15 rockers with the greatest hair, with variety of hair-dos, except of - no hair (they opted out of the hair party 🙂 ).
Stereogum made a big job for us - they went through metal albums published in May and picked out 10 that stand out the most. What they recommend is: Chicago atmospheric dark metal Varaha, New York noise-math metal The Austerity Program, post-metal Sleepwalker, death metal Nocturnus AD, Canadian death-metal Tomb Mold, atmospheric black metal Falls […]
The Beastie Boys‘ fourth album, 'Ill Communication', was released 25 years ago, with singles such as 'Sabotage' and 'Sure Shot'. Music writer Nathan Brackett made a documentary short, 'Still Ill', showing the evolution of the band to that point, about how Beastie Boys made it, and what did owning their studio mean to making the album (watch […]
"The 'Soul Explosion' compilation is a sheer delight, capturing a revitalized label both free of a parent company and effortlessly moving with the times. [It] is the sound of Memphis soul on the cusp of a new age" - PopMatters loves Stax Records' new two-LP compilation detailing "that daring, exhilarating period in soul music".
A pop song should come in at between two and three minutes - 'We Will Rock You' comes in at a stupendously slender 2min 2sec. It leaves you wanting more, and that’s precisely what the perfect number is supposed to do, Guardian writers says, and gives a few other examples.
A recent study showed how different types of music - metal, classical, pop and hip-hop - affect drivers, with the results suggesting that metal could push motorists to the extremes (they tried with Slipknot's '(sic)'). Classical music was no better - it relaxes the driver to the point of sleepiness (it was Bach). Meanwhile, pop […]
The young adult book 'Me & Mr. Cigar' arrives on January 14, 2020 via Soho Teen, and it tells the story of 17-year-old Oscar Lester and his dog, Mr. Cigar. The synopsis explains: “As for Oscar's older sister, Rachel...she fled Texas after Mr. Cigar bit off her left hand. Oscar was 12. But he alone […]
“I’m ashamed of my country for what it has done. It’s torn people apart" Elton John said on his concert in Verona on his last ever world tour. He continued: “I’m sick to death of politicians, especially British politicians. I am sick to death of Brexit. I am a European. I am not a stupid, […]
Rob Halford, frontman of power metalers Judas Priest, kicked a cellphone out of fan's hand at a recent concert, saying later on: "The facts are we love our fans and you can film us all you like and watch our show on your phone rather than in the flesh. However if you physically interfere with […]
the enigmatic and anachronistic singer-songwriter Leon Redbone has died, aged 127 or 69, depending on whether you believe his family's press release or Entertainment Weekly. Redbone purposefully obfuscated his personal biography, trying to seem like a figure stuck out of time. Redbone has released 13 studio albums and five live albums, he was a fixture […]
Apple is to replace its iTunes download service - the tech company will announce that three separate apps for music, TV and podcasts will take place of iTunes, Bloomberg reported ahead of Apple's conference on Monday. iTunes has been the way Apple users listen to music, watch movies and TV shows, hear podcasts, and manage […]
"Our focus is teamwork. We meet with the producers and songwriters, and we create daily content, selecting the best material" - Fabrizio Moreira, the head of Secret Hits, tells Billboard about their new project - a platform that combines the intuition of new talent and producers with songwriters. Launched in August 2018, within Brooklyn-based record […]
Guardian has a great article about Morrissey, and his transformation from a hero to misfits and outsiders to far-right supporter - "What a tragedy it is that a man who once seemed so uniquely placed to offer solace to people during their loneliest and most difficult moments has turned into this – a supporter of […]
Loudwire makes a very good point with an article about metal musicians playing very different music from their metal origins. Examples are funnily convincing: Adam 'Nergal' Darski from death-metal band Behemoth has a country side-project, Jonathan Davis on Korn has a world-music solo career, Anders Bjorler from At The Gates and Dick Lovgren from Meshuggah […]
Blondie's frontwoman Debbie Harry on October 1 will publish her new autobiography 'Face It' that will recount Blondie’s rise in New York, when the band found a pop spot somewhere between punk and disco. The biography features Harry's essays, interviews with rock journalist Sylvie Simmons, rare photos, original illustrations, and an introduction from Harry’s bandmate […]
Brooklyn Vegas has the best selection of new songs this week. They've assembled quite a diverse bunch, there are: Metronomy with a spacey-rock song, lo-fi rock Palehound, Damon Albarn's funk collective Africa Express, Cross Record with ambient-rock song, indie-rockers Crumb, garage punks Plague Vendor, singer-songwriter Daughter of Swords, goth-metalheads Pinkish Black, psychedelic rock by Psychedelic […]
Sacha Gervasi is writing and producing a forthcoming feature film based on Boy George’s life, from growing up in an Irish a working-class family and eventually rising to stardom with the ’80s band Culture Club. Gervasi tells Deadline that Boy George is “a trailblazer and a true original. George’s life story is wickedly entertaining, yet […]
The reunited Jawbox on Saturday played a show in Baltimore, a warm-up to their comeback tour that kicks off next month. It was their first show in 22 years - the last was in 1997, in the meantime the alter-band played at Jimmy Fallon's show in 2009. Brooklyn Vegan collected videos from the Baltimore show.
Guardian spoke to eight disabled festival-goers about the joys and challenges they encounter at music fests. One Lexi Porter had a troublesome experience - she uses a wheelchair full-time and in 2016, while she was watching Young Thug in a tent on a viewing platform a non-disabled festival-goers climbed on top to get a better […]
It's vocoder, lasers, dancing, some noise - it's kinda ridiculous, but given The Voidz image, it suits them. Maybe not that great, but still interesting. Listen to the song at YouTube.
Stereolab yesterday played their first live show in Ramsgate, England, in over a decade, with a setlist that was a mix of favourites. Brooklyn Vegan reports. They play in Ramsgate again today, but they officially kick off their comeback tour on Thursday in Brussels. The band is now Laetitia Sadier, Tim Gane, Andy Ramsay, Joe Watson and […]
