The New Yorker is welcoming people back to the office with an introduction of brand-new album 'Now, That’s What We Call . . . an Office!' comprised of eight one-hour songs. The funny album includes song titles such as 'Water-Cooler Chatter', 'Loud Work Call' and 'Printer Percussion'.
Britney Spears’ father Jamie Spears has filed a petition to end his daughter’s conservatorship after more than a decade in charge of it. Jamie Spears’ attorney Vivian Thoreen offered an explanation for the petition in the filing: "Ms. Spears has told this Court that she wants control of her life back without the safety rails of a conservatorship. She wants to be able to make decisions regarding her own medical care, deciding when, where and how often to get therapy. She wants to control the money she has made from her career and spend it without supervision or oversight. She wants to be able to get married and have a baby, if she so chooses. In short, she wants to live her life as she chooses without the constraints of a conservator or court proceeding. As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter. If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance". In a statement to Rolling Stone, Britney Spears’ attorney Mathew S. Rosengart said that Jamie Spears’ new filing “represents a massive legal victory for Britney Spears, as well as vindication”.
Lil Uzi Vert had his $24 million diamond implant ripped right off his forehead after he jumped into the crowd at Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival, CNN reports. He was fortunately able to hold onto the diamond and still has it in his possession. The pink diamond is reportedly worth $24 million and was surgically implanted in the rapper's face earlier this year.
Massive Attack have released their climate plan aiming to restructure the music industry, in order to combat the climate crisis, Guardian reports. Years in the making, the findings of their partnership with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the plan is proposing a course of action for the “urgent and significant reassembly” of the music industry. Required actions include the immediate elimination of private jet use, a switch to electric transportation for concerts and festivals, and, by 2025, phasing out diesel generators at festivals.
Kanye West’s 'Donda' has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the biggest week for any album released this year with 309,000 equivalent album units, Billboard reports. With 'Donda', Kanye West has once again tied Eminem for the record of most No. 1 debuts in a row on the albums chart, too. Eminem broke the tie in early 2020 with 'Music to Be Murdered By'. West has become one of only seven artists in chart history to release 10 chart-topping albums, alongside the Beatles, JAY-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Eminem, and Elvis Presley.
Shortly after the military coup in Myanmar at the beginning of the year, four musicians recorded a protest song 'Headshot' about security forces shooting to kill. Within hours of releasing the song, the rockers scattered. Three of them were later placed on a wanted list for sedition, their names and photos shown on the military-run TV channel. By June, they’d be irreparably separated. Kyar Pauk has since fled the country. Han Nay Tar, lead singer of Eternal Gosh, an alternative and pop rock band established in 2013, has gone deep into hiding and couldn’t be reached. Novem Htoo, among the country’s most famous metal vocalists, has sought shelter with an ethnic armed organization. Raymond, lead singer of the band The Idiots and among Myanmar’s most influential rock musicians of this generation, had been staying in the jungle with Novem Htoo, but on June 23rd, the 32-year-old, who had long suffered from gastrointestinal problems, was found dead. Rolling Stone tells the story in full.
English rap meets afrobeat with a touch of Balkan brass sound on Che Lingo’s ‘Eyes on the Prize’; Bobby Shmurda has put out his first single since being released from prison, a big song 'No Time For Sleep'; Jerry Cantrell goes country-grunge on ‘Atone’; Madi Diaz is fully emotional on 'Think of Me'.
Anghami is a music streaming service based in the Middle East, namely Abu Dhabi, serving mostly the Middle East. "It has 70 million registered users and nearly 60 million songs in its library. It’s also set to be the first Arab tech startup to go public on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange. Anghami’s trajectory has also been something of a case study in how the global music industry is being slowly transformed from outside its core centers of New York, Los Angeles, and London". Rest of the World brings the whole story.
ABBA have released two songs, their first new music in 40 years - 'I Still Have Faith In You' is a big nostalgic ballad, whereas 'Don't Shot Me Down' is a dancey song. Both of these will be released on their new album 'Voyage' on November 5, NPR reports. ABBA has also announced a virtual tour Abba Voyage, which will open next year in a specially-built arena in east London. Playing six nights a week, it will feature digital versions of Abba's band members, accompanied by a 10-piece live band performing 22 of their greatest hits. The digital Abba show will initially be staged in London, but could tour the world. The so-called "Abba-tars" were designed by Industrial Light and Magic - the visual effects company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas. More than 850 people worked on recreating Abba "in their prime" using motion capture technology to scan "every mannerism and every motion" of the musicians, who are now in their 70s, as they performed.
Dogpatch is a podcast with two funny hosts Dante Carfagna and Jon Kirby talking about music, and playing music on a theme in each episode. The last episode was about music recorded in prison, by prisoners, the big chunk of it from the 1970s. Maximum Security Prism episode features music by Location Service, Walls, Reality Index, Public-Use Guitar, Pando, Cashbox Directory, All-State Band, Bids, Culture Gaps, Concrete Reflection, Cupcake, Winston Moore, Studio Guns, Isolated Not Isolation, Rodeos, Stateville Merch Booth, and Heartsongs.
'The Velvet Underground' documentary features in-depth interviews with the band’s surviving members and other key figures from the era, as well as never-before-seen performances, studio recordings, experimental art, and films by their one-time manager Andy Warhol. It is the first documentary for Todd Haynes, director of 'Velvet Goldmine' and Bob Dylan biopic 'I’m Not There'. Haynes also helped curate the movie’s accompanying soundtrack, featuring classic and rare tracks. Rolling Stone reports...
Jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington has released his cover version of Metallica's 'My Friend Of Misery', Blabbermouth reports. This version sounds nothing like metal - Kamasi Washington has turned 'My Friend Of Misery' into an astral jazz song, insisting on virtuosity, common to the original. This cover is one of more than 50 songs which are included on Metallica's massive new covers compilation called 'The Metallica Blacklist', which features artists' takes on 'Black Album' songs.
Olivia Rodrigo returns to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart for a fifth week with her debut album 'Sour', following its vinyl LP release on Aug. 20 (the album originally came out in May). In the week ending Aug. 26, 'Sour' earned 133,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. (up 133%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 84,000 (up 1,201%), with vinyl LP sales equaling 76,000 of that figure - the second-largest sales week for a vinyl album since MRC Data began electronically tracking sales in 1991. The only larger week was by Taylor Swift’s 'Evermore', when it sold 102,000 on vinyl in the week ending June 3, Billboard reports.
Legendary Jamaican producer and a pioneer of dub, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, whose pioneering accomplishments made him of of reggae's most eccentric producer-vocalist, has died aged 85 in Jamaica, Jamaica Observer reports. State Prime Minister Andrew Holness confirmed the news in a tweet on Sunday, adding that Perry has "worked with and produced for various artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Congos, Adrian Sherwood, the Beastie Boys, and many others. Undoubtedly, Lee Scratch Perry will always be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music fraternity".
Marisa Anderson & William Tyler released their new album with the haunting ‘Haunted By Water’ closing the LP; house producer Ross From Friends shares 'The Daisy', accompanied by a funny and amazing Rubic-cube-themed video; Eddie Vedder’s daughter Olivia Vedder shares a song ‘My Father’s Daughter', written by her dad and Irish songwriter Glen Hansard for the new Sean Penn movie ‘Flag Day’; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are back in collaborative action with ‘Can’t Let Go’; Esperanza Spalding shares ‘Formwela 10’, song created “for grieving the consequences of, becoming more alert to, and dissolving one’s own romantic-entitlement tendencies”; Berlin-based saxophonist Bendik Giske shares a minimalist and atmospheric 'Flutter'.
AIR Montserrat was one of the most legendary recording studios in the world – it was built by the Beatles’ producer George Martin in 1979 and destroyed by two cataclysmic natural disasters a decade later. Situated on the island in the Caribbean, where the harbour was too shallow for cruise ships and the runway too short for jets, it served as a safe haven for musicians trying to "get away". Elton John arrived in 1982 with no songs and in the middle of a career slump following his 1970s heyday, and recorded three albums back to back, including hits 'I’m Still Standing' and 'I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues'. The Police recorded 'Ghost In The Machine' (1981) and 'Synchronicity' (1983) there, albums that catapulted them to superstar status; the video for 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' was recorded in the AIR Montserrat studio and the island itself. Dire Straits recorded their magnum opus'Brothers In Arms' at AIR Montserrat in 1984 and 1985. Following a period of estrangement between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones regrouped and healed old wounds to record their 1989 comeback album 'Steel Wheels', the final recording session at AIR Montserrat. On September 17, 1989, Hurricane Hugo damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the structures on the island, leaving AIR Montserrat in ruins. Then, between 1995 and 1997, Montserrat’s volcano erupted, burying the capital, Plymouth... Producer Cody Greenwood, whose parents lived on the island and befriended Martin at the time, has produced a documentary about the studio called 'Under the Volcano', available on all major digital platforms from September 1. The Sidney Morning Herald tells the lovely story of the island, the studio and the producer's family.
Spencer Elden, the baby from Nirvana's 'Nevermind' front cover, now a 30-year-old, just like the album, filed a lawsuit alleging that the cover constitutes child pornography. Legally speaking, however, experts who talked to Rolling Stone, say Elden does not have much of a case on his hands. At the core of this knotted web is one thing: Elden’s legal guardian agreed to let a buzzing punk band take photos of him as a baby for 200 bucks. The band’s team asked, and the guardian said yes. “The case is likely going to be dismissed” - says criminal defense attorney Matthew Matejcek of Beles & Beles, pointing to the Department of Justice’s definition of child pornography. “It has to appeal to the viewer’s prurient interest. What’s going to be at issue here is whether this album cover incites the lustful interest, sexual stimulation, or gratification of the viewer. And I think it’s pretty clear that’s not the purpose”. Anne Higonnet in Slate puts some sense into the unpleasant story: "We desperately want to alter the past according to what we sincerely believe right now. I am among those who believe we have a more just vision of society today than we had in 1991. But that doesn’t make me think we can retroactively redo the past. Elden’s feelings about his infant fame in 2021 can’t change what Kurt Cobain meant back in 1991. Let’s change the future instead".
The Rolling Stones will proceed with their planned tour of the U.S. this fall, the band’s promoter confirmed after the band's drummer Charlie Watts died this week. Longtime Stones associate Steve Jordan is taking his place behind the drum kit, Loudwire reports.
Inge Ginsberg has composed songs for Nat King Cole, Doris Day and Dean Martin, and in her 90s she decided to reinvent herself as a death metal singer. In a documentary, she said she had turned to death metal because she wanted to be heard. She has died at age 99, the New York Times reports
11-year-old music prodigy Nandi Bushell made a surprise appearance during Foo Fighters' sold-out concert at the Forum in Los Angeles, sitting in for their closing performance of 'Everlong'. Their lovely relationship started when Bushell dared Grohl for a drum battle. After the show Bushell wrote on Instagram “It Happened!!! It was #EPIC!!! Tonight I jammed with the @foofighters live @theforum!!! Wow!!! What an INCREDIBLE night!".
Free-jazz band Irreversible Entanglements has shared 'Open the Gates' from their upcoming new album, a short and energetic, groovy-jazz song. Polyrhythmic percussion is expanded by alto sax and trumpet, as vocalist Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother) adds a sinister touch to the freedom song.
Joni Mitchell has been named the 2022 Person of the Year by the Recording Academy’s MusiCares organization, Variety reports. Mitchel is being honored "for breaking down barriers for women in the music industry; for tenacity in creating and following her own voice and for her ability to bring comfort, joy and inspiration to countless listeners and artists alike".
Spencer Elden, who was the baby featured on the cover of Nirvana’s 'Nevermind' reaching for a dollar in a swimming pool, now a 30-year-old, is suing Nirvana, its individual surviving members, Kurt Cobain’s estate, photographer Kirk Weddle, and the labels involved in releasing the album, alleging that the 'Nevermind' cover is child pornography. According to Elden’s lawsuit, neither his legal guardians nor he (obviously, as he was four months old at the time) consented to his naked genitalia appearing on the 'Nevermind' cover. He alleges that the band promised to cover his genitals with a sticker, which was never incorporated into the album art, and that Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl failed to protect him from being sexually exploited. He is hoping to receive $150,000 from each party named in the lawsuit, TMZ reports.
Charlie Watts, longtime drummer of The Rolling Stones, has “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family” at the age od 80, NME reports. Watts joined The Rolling Stones shortly after their formation in January 1963. He was the only member of the band other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to have been featured on all of their studio albums, and also never missed a gig.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has banned any music that breaches a fresh set of government rules from being played within the country’s near-50,000 karaoke venues. Among other rules, tracks deemed “contrary to public morality”, and/or content “that which insults or defames others” will be banned from October 1. The new set of rules are most likely to target domestic Chinese music and, in particular, Chinese hip-hop.
"Don Everly, half of one of rock and roll's pioneering groups, The Everly Brothers, has died. The musician, known for singing close harmonies with his brother, was 84" - NPR reports. They left behind hits such as 'All I Have To Do Is Dream', 'Wake Up Little Susie', 'Bye Bye Love' and 'Cathy's Clown', influencing the likes of music giants the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel and many others.
Music teacher Sakira Ventura has created an excellent new tool that encompasses more than 500 women who are often forgotten in the classical music world, from Mozart's sister to Byzantine abbess Kassia born in 810. The tool is "pushing back against the sexism, stigmatisation and societal norms that have long rendered them invisible", the Guardian insists. Great stuff!
The New Yorker shares a profile on NY City underground rapper Ka, who has just released his new album 'A Martyr’s Reward' (the only official way to listen to it online is to purchase a zip of the wav files on his Web site). "Ka has preserved a certain strain of bars-first New York City rap that prioritizes its stark, ascetic music-making practice as much as its hardscrabble tone and acerbic lyricism. Ka’s voice is gruff, yet he raps discreetly, as if recounting secrets under his breath. The verses themselves are almost like incantations muttered in code; it takes intent listening to puzzle them out. His wordplay is its own sort of quicksand, shiftily multisyllabic and crowded by entendre. But he is a philosopher above all: his lyrical feats are performed in pursuit of wisdom".
“When I’m gone please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public” - new Anderson.Paak's tattoo says. He also posted a photo of it to Instagram, making a key part of his last testament perfectly clear, XXL reports. Luckily, .Paak is known for being fairly prolific in life.
The two biggest American concert promoters, Live Nation and AEG, have imposed vaccine mandates on all their venues and festivals. New York City began requiring proof of vaccination for entry to all indoor performances. Plenty of artists have canceled shows and tours, others are demanding proof of vaccination to attend a show - Music REDEF publishes a thread on the rules of attending a show.
