Country trio Dixie Chicks is dropping the "Dixie" part from their name, so they will go forward as The Chicks (their website has already adjusted to the new reality). Dixie is a nickname for the Southern United States, especially those states that composed the Confederate States of America.
AccorHotels Arena in Paris on June 18-19 hosted the first big crowd concert in France since the country went on lockdown in March, welcoming 1,000 and 2,000 guests, respectively, Pollstar reports. Tickets for the TV production, recorded at the arena as part of the annual Fête de la Musique celebrations, were free, and the lineup was mostly French artists - Patrick Bruel, Catherine Ringer, Christine and the Queens, Crystal Murray... To ensure physical distancing, people were only allowed to come in groups of two and inside the arena, there was at least one empty set in-between the paired guests, which was easy since it is a 20,000 capacity venue. Wearing a mask was mandatory inside the building, and hand sanitisers were placed at strategic locations.
No longer slave to the hustle and bustle of racing to airports, intermittent sleep, adrenalin-driven late nights, criminally early mornings and forced time away from loved ones for weeks if not months, some musician are finding time a commodity that is rich in discovery - The Star wrote about life in lockdown for some artists (the ones who can afford it, probably). “I’ve been in one place longer than I have since 1989. The pace and the motion of my life has downshifted and … it’s nice!” - Barenaked Ladies co-founder Ed Robertson said.
In the wake of #BlackLivesMatter protests, a #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag appeared on Twitter, but it was successfully trolled by American K-pop fans. Soon after, they humiliated Donald Trump - a large number of TikTok users and K-pop fans, it transpired, had registered for tickets to attend the US president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend, but they had no intention of attending. Trump ended up speaking in front of about 6,200 supporters and organisers in the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena, Guardian reports. New York Times tries to explain why K-pop fans are turning into political activism.
Zora made an unprecedented collection created to honor artists and artworks whose contributions to American culture have not previously been recognized this way, in order to give proper due to Black American women whose monumental influence not only shapes music but is foundational to its past, present, and future. The list goes from 'Ella Sings Gershwin' by Ella Fitzgerald (1950) to 'Jaime' by Brittany Howard (2019). Check out the full list here.
Anthony Garcia melts folk-rock and classical together on 'The Wind'; 'Hard Life' by Sault is a protest song, yet a very beautiful one; The Streets has shared his latest single 'Falling Down', featuring self-proclaimed "G-folk" singer Hak Baker; Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi has released his new single 'Swill', industrial and noisy, with a strong video; Jordan Lawlor of the M83 is set to make his solo debut as J. Laser, 'Waves & Blades' is an up-beat taste from his EP; Fenne Lily's 'Alapathy' is an upbeat indie rock about starting to smoke weed as a means to switch off your brain; math-rock meets noise-rock on 'Worship House' by Sprain; 'Money' by Widowspeak deals with seeing everything in terms of value; Gordi's 'Extraordinary Love', on the other hand, is about making someone feel exceptional.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello surprised 10-year-old Nandi Bushell with his signature Fender Stratocaster guitar following her viral performance of 'Guerrilla Radio' - she performed guitar, bass and drums in the clip, supporting Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd. “I’d like you to have this guitar as a gift from me to you because you rock so great, and to see someone rocking so great who is so young, it really gives me hope for the future” - Morello told her. “Wow, from the actual Tom Morello!” she reacted. “Thank you so, so, so much for this beautiful guitar. I can’t wait to jam with you!”.
"It's not often that a film leaves you totally envious of the people who were there, but this is one of them" - Brooklyn Vegan writes in a review of new documentary 'Desolation Center', a series of DIY shows put on in the California desert in the 1980s. Desolation Center shows were the brainchild of Stuart Swezey who has now made a documentary about the concerts and the time. Those desert shows were highly influential, BV argues - among those in attendance at least one of the Desolation Center shows were Perry Farrell who would go on to found Lollapalooza, and Gary Tovar who would go on to found Coachella.
Live Nation has announced its first drive-in concert tour, headlined by country star Brad Paisley, rapper Nelly, Darius Rucker, Jon Pardi, and more, Variety reports. The shows, dubbed Live From The Drive-In, will take place in parking lots at stadiums in St. Louis, Nashville, and Indianapolis July 10-12. Concertgoers will be arriving in their cars and have a designated parking lot space that includes an area to set up chairs outside; mingling between spaces is not allowed. Guests are allowed to bring their own food, drinks, and alcohol. The sound will function much like a regular outdoor concert with very loud speakers. Tickets start at $125 per car, with each vehicle limited to four people.
The Soundflowers is the new musical project of Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson and her partner Gabriel Glenn, and this week they released their self-titled debut EP. The duo plays acoustic rock and indie folk. The band has shared the video for single 'Your Look (Glorious)', produced by King’s Son Productions, the company run by Paris’ brother, Michael “Prince” Jackson Jr.
Next month the world will see the first post-corona festival, a nu-metal fest pointedly named Herd Immunity Festival, Metal Injection reports. It's taking place in Q&Z Expo Center in Ringle, Wisconsin, July 16-18, with tickets going for $105.50. No big names there, really, just the seemingly bravest - Static-X, Nonpoint, Dope, a reunited Bobaflex, Blacktop Mojo, Royal Bliss, Flaw, Kaleido, SAUL, Versus Me, a Metallica tribute band called ONE, an AC/DC tribute band called Thunderstruck. It appears the promoter Ardent Entertainment is intending to carry on as if everything will be fine - there is no mention of social distancing practices or any assurance of sanitary precautions above and beyond the norm. However, as CoS reports, soon after the festival was announced Nonpoint dropped out, because of the name, and the festival organizers dropped the "herd" part from the fest's name.
Reaper is a digital audio workstation for computers, offering a full multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset. It's very good for working with faraway songwriting collaborators, and it covers nearly all of the bases of a Pro Tools workstation at a fraction of the price.
Queens are already there, but for the Queen it is a first one - the rock band are to feature on a series of UK postage stamps over the summer, Ultimate Classic Rock reports. The 13 stamp designs, going on sale from 9 July, feature a posed studio shot of the group, plus four live images of each of Brian May, Roger Taylor, frontman Freddie Mercury and bassist John Deacon, and album covers of 'Queen II', 'Sheer Heart Attack', 'A Night at the Opera', 'News of the World', 'The Game', 'Greatest Hits', 'The Works', and 'Innuendo'. They become only the third band to be honoured by Royal Mail, following the Beatles in 2007 and Pink Floyd in 2016. Drummer Roger Taylor said: “We must be really part of the furniture now”.
Spain authorities announced new rules pertaining to nightclubs and outdoor venues of Ibiza in the context of COVID-19, with the intention, it seems, to change the tourist profile of Ibiza to be less of a party island. For indoor spaces, the rules state that only venues with a stated capacity of 300 or less are allowed to open for the season and will only be allowed to open at one-third capacity, and the people inside will have to be seated. The decree approved by the Balearic government - which will last for five years - outlaws pub crawling, party boats and "perilous practices" such as jumping from balconies. Establishments in the zones that sell alcohol will need to close between 9:30 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Seal told a story about his classic 'Kiss From a Rose' which was a chart-flop, before director Joel Schumacher, who died on Monday, helped turn it into a hit, according to The Hollywood Reporter. When Seal released the song in 1994 "it went into the charts at No. 60 and dropped to No. 80-something the next week and that was the end of it. It was over". However, Schumacher liked it, used it in 'Batman Forever' in 1995. The song went on win the 1996 Grammy for record of the year, song of the year and best male pop vocal performance. Seal also sold 8 million albums. "Subsequently, kids thought I was Batman because the song was so big."
System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian tweeted shortly “simply awesome” responding to a viral video of Nigerian wedding guests rocking out to the band’s 2001 hit ‘Toxicity’. The short clip features revellers headbanging and singing along to the track, to which Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello said "there's hope".
The retro acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E guitar played by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in a rare acoustic concert has sold for a record $6 million, CNN reports. Cobain played the guitar during a legendary MTV Unplugged performance in 1993, just five months before he died. At $6.01m after fees, the guitar is the most expensive ever sold at auction. It was bought by Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman who said "I didn't even buy it for me. I paid for it but I'm going to use it to highlight the plight of artists worldwide by touring it around and then I'm going to sell it and use the dough for that as well, later".
Lil Baby’s 'My Turn' spends a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with 72,000 equivalent album units earned last week - just under 71,000 are SEA units (equating to 110 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), while TEA units and album sales total a little less than 1,000 each. According to Billboard, a slight increase in sales (12%) was thanks in part to buzz generated by the release of Lil Baby’s new non-album single 'The Bigger Picture' - the track is not on album, but the set likely found increased streams and sales thanks to it.
UK music venues need an immediate cash injection of £50 million from the government to prevent a wave of permanent venue closures across the summer, Music Venue Trust has warned. MVT has launched its #saveourvenues campaign in April, raising £2 million which saved 140 cultural spaces so far, but the Trust warns that the government must provide the injection to prevent lasting damage to the live sector, Music Week reports. Trade body UK Music predicts that the coronavirus shutdown will destroy a staggering £900 million of the estimated £1.1 billion that the UK’s live industry contributes to the economy each year.
Anderson 'Paak's 'Lockdown' deals with protests, the long history of racism and unjust police killings; Kaleida announced her new album with a mighty pop single 'Other Side'; R'n'B singer Orion Sun suffered violence from the police, but responded gently with 'Mama's Baby', a victory!; Norwegian pop-singer Annie has a new synth pearl 'American Cars', cold and pretty; 'Epistrophy' comes from one of Thelonious Monk's best performances - from a high school in Palo Alto, CA in 1968, recorded by the school's janitor; acoustic version of 'Heatwave' by Mereba is tender and strong; Tee Grizzley goes fast and furious on 'Lions & Eagles', with Meek Mill borrowing a verse; 'Fight On' by the Harlem Gospel Travelers is a groovy gospel song; Derrick Hodge's 'Heartbeats' is like a jazz flying carpet; Misery Signals combine post hardcore and post-rock on 'River King'.
Rihanna's nonprofit The Clara Lionel Foundation has partnered with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to donate $15 million (£12 million) towards mental health services amid the ongoing social unrest and the coronavirus pandemic, People. It's the latest in a series of donations from the pop superstar and tech leader, with Rihanna's foundation alone donating more than $36 million towards coronavirus relief to date.
Loudwire presents a new band that likes to keep their identities secret - Sleep Token keep their masks on, because “our identities are unimportant. Music is marketed on who is or isn’t in a band; it’s pushed. prodded and moulded into something it isn’t". Well, actually, they transfer that focus from themselves to Sleep, a divine entity that the band follows - "since no modern tongue can properly express its name. This being once held great power, bestowing ancient civilisations with the gift of dreams, and the curse of nightmares". Sleep Token released their debut album 'Sundowning' this past November.
Liam Gallagher’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ album has become the first release in the series to hit the top of the Uk album charts since Nirvana in 1994. Gallagher’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ record is also the first live album to top the charts since George Michael’s ‘Symphonica’ in 2014, according to the Official UK Albums Chart. It is the biggest selling vinyl release of 2020 so far, with 10,000 of its 21,000 first-week sales comprised of vinyl purchases. By now, Gallagher has spent a combined total of nearly six months at Number One with 11 chart-topping albums from his solo career and as a part of Oasis.
Rage Against the Machine music was streamed over 11 million times in the last week, a 62% increase, caused by the renewed interest for their music amid the protests in the U.S., Billboard reports. The band’s 1992 single 'Killing in the Name' accounts for 2.4 million of those streams alone, which places the song at No. 3 on Hard Rock Digital Songs Chart and No. 21 on the Hard Rock Streaming Songs Chart. 'Bulls on Parade', meanwhile, has been streamed 1.4 million times in the last week. The band’s catalog, which features four studio albums released between 1992 and 2000, earned 11,000 equivalent album units in the June 5-11 tracking week, a boost of 24%.
Dave Grohl, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Mavis Staples, Willie Nelson, Coldplay, André 3000, Trent Reznor, St. Vincent, Kamasi Washington, Leon Bridges, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Brittany Howard, Bon Iver, Mitski, Leon Bridges, Vampire Weekend, David Byrne, Aaron Nevill are among 600 musicians and comedians who have signed an open letter to US Congress asking federal assistance to independent music venues and promoters across the United States, according to Billboard. The letter urges Congress to “remember we are the nation that gave the world jazz, country, rock & roll, bluegrass, hip hop, metal, blues, and R&B”, adding that “entertainment is America’s largest economic export, with songs written and produced by American artists sung in every place on the globe”. The signees emphasize that if the shutdown lasts six months and there’s no federal assistance, 90% of independent venues will never reopen again.
The likes of Ash, Dizzee Rascal, The Streets, The Lightning Seeds, Gary Numan, Kaiser Chiefs, Tony Hadley, and others will play at the "Live From The Drive-In" - a series of drive-in concerts set to take place across the UK from mid-July until September, iNews. Outdoor spaces in Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Edinburgh, Bristol and beyond will play host. The 300-car gigs have been designed to provide a safe environment - concert-goers will be able to stand outside their vehicles in allocated spaces, or sit in their own fold-out chairs.
A 12-year-old black boy Keedron Bryant whose song 'I Just Wanna Live' about the fears of being a young African American went viral has been signed by Warner Records, Complex reports. The young gospel singer's original Instagram post has attracted over 3m likes and has drawn praise from former President Barack Obama, basketball legend LeBron James, singer Janet Jackson and actress Lupita Nyong'o. Warner Records timed the release to coincide with Juneteenth, which marks the end of centuries of US slavery. The soulful track was written by Keedron's mother Johnnetta Bryant, it is sung a cappella by him, and it includes the lyrics: "I'm a young black man, doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around, and I see what's being done to my kind".
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce selection panel announced the members of the next Walk Of Fame class, coming from the music world they are: rapper/singer/producer Missy Elliott; jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker (posthumous); female rap pioneers Salt-N-Pepa; pop-rock singer Kelly Clarkson; opera singer Luciano Pavarotti (posthumous); longtime radio deejay Big Boy; mellow-soul band The Chi-Lites; classical singer Sarah Brightman.
Live Nation has set up a plan for concert season 2021 that would see artists taking more risk and financial burden, as Billboard reports. Live Nation wants to reduce artist fees by 20 percent from 2020 levels. If a festival is canceled because of poor ticket sales, the giant promoter wants the artist to get 25 percent of the guarantee (now it's a full guarantee). If an artist pulls out of a fest without good reason, Live Nation wants the artist to pay a penalty of double that guarantee (now, artists owe the promoter nothing in that case).
Dame Vera Lynn, the endearingly popular “Forces’ Sweetheart” who serenaded British troops abroad during World War II, has died at 103, BBC reports. During the war and long after, Lynn got crowds singing, smiling and crying with sentimental favorites such as 'We’ll Meet Again', and 'The White Cliffs of Dover'. She hosted a wildly popular BBC radio show during the war called 'Sincerely Yours' in which she sent messages to British troops abroad and performed the songs they requested. The half-hour program came on during the highly coveted slot following the Sunday night news. “Winston Churchill was my opening act”, she once said. The NME emphasizes "the most punk thing she ever did" - in 1985 she played an anti-heroin gig at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl with space-rockers and famed psychedelics fans Hawkwind.
