Tones And I set a new Australian chart record, with her single 'Dance Monkey' spending 10 consecutive weeks atop Australia's singles chart. Apart from her homeland, Tones And I is now No. 1 in 13 countries; globally, the tune has raked in more than 250 million streams, Billboard reports. 'Dance Monkey' is just the second […]
The 50th anniversary edition of the Beatles' 'Abbey Road' returns to the UK album chart at No. 1, breaking Beatles' own longevity record. 'Abbey Road' has the longest-ever span between runs at the summit, at 49 years and 252 days since its original 17-week at No. 1 ended on Jan. 31, 1970. The Beatles held the […]
The media are making selections of best performances by Ginger Baker, a famous drummer who changed rock drumming raising it to another level. It goes from his rock staple Cream, collaboration with world-music great Fela Kuti, his works with Blind Faith, Public Image Ltd, Hawkwind, stoner rock pioneers Masters of Reality, to jazzers Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell. Louder […]
Pat Thomas, the 72 year-old “Golden Voice of Africa”, has published new album 'Obiaaa!' (meaning "everybody"), this week, a "living, breathing testament to a music that is very much still alive and being championed by those who have spent their lives perfecting its craft", Guardian says in review. Overall feel of the album - "joyous […]
Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller and filmmaker Nicholas Abrahams made a documentary about Depeche Mode fans from around the world - Moscow, Tehran, Cambridge... "If it’s wrong to get goosebumps watching a marching band play 'Personal Jesus', then we don’t want to be right" - the LA Times said about it. Watch it below.
It's Detroit rapper's fifth album, with appearances from Blood Orange, JPEGMAFIA, Obongjayar, and Run The Jewels. Kind words from critics: "Masterfully produced and exquisitely executed" - Clash Music; "As a presentation of Brown as an exceptional rapper, it ticks all the right boxes" - The Line of Best Fit; "It's Brown's pen game and ear […]
American punk-rockers Anti-Flag have returned with a new single 'Christian Nationalist', which takes on modern-day fascism and white supremacy. It comes with a lyric video that uses images of politicians who take money from the NRA, and perpetrators behind recent mass shootings.
Manchester producer Medulasa has released an EP 'Typhoid Mary' in memory of a friend that has passed away recently. The short album was “Written in the aftermath of the passing of a dear friend", Medulasa says - "in part to celebrate their impeccable tastes, in part to process the tragedy of their death, and in […]
UK bands could be badly hit by the need for visas, carnets and documents if UK leaves the EU without an exit-agreement. Bands would face extra issues with documentation, travel and the transport and sale of goods as they go to the EU. Guardian goes into details: European health insurance cards may not be valid […]
Guardian's music critic totally likes the new Cave&Seeds album: "The most straightforwardly beautiful set of songs that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have ever recorded". In comparison, "Ghosteen occasionally feels like an infinitely warmer, sweeter sibling of 2016’s 'Skeleton Tree'", and Cave, getting older, of course, but his voice "sounds rich". The album is composed of […]
"We fall in love again and again because a little self-sabotage never stopped anyone" - Pitchfork says about Angel Olsen's new album 'All Mirror' (gave it their "Best New Music" tag, grade 8,9 of 10). "Olsen suggests that nihilism and optimism are closer than you think, that what feels like knowing yourself is almost always […]
'Death Stranding' is a highly anticipated new PS4 game from Hideo Kojima, author of 'Metal Gear Solid', and the game will arrive alongside an album of original music, Polygon reports. Scottish pop group CHVRCHES has written the game’s end song - "thinking of the themes of the game and what it is trying to say to […]
Australian singer Jason Donovan was a hero of the day in his neighborhood Notting Hill in London when he helped tackle a fire at his neighbour's house. 51-year old actor and singer and actor, who lives across the road spotted the flames from his home, went out wearing only his dad-underpants, and tackled the fire […]
Philadelphia-based indie pop/rock singer-songwriter's 'The Feel Is Now' is a "warm, inviting album that combines rich melodies with arrangements that seem comforting but also contain plenty of unexpected edges", PopMatters says. Gianmarco Cilli recorded it with the help of a small but mighty collection of musicians (members of War on Drugs, Dr. Dog, Spinto Band […]
Berghain is probably the most famous club in the world today. It all began in 1989 with gay sex club Snax - the same people went on to create Berghain. A new book No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989 - Today and an exhibition of the same name capture the period from those […]
In two days of May Yasiin Bey, YBN Cordae, Rapsody, Herbie Hancock, Andra Day, Terrace Martin, Bilal, Buddy, Denzel Curry, Mick Jenkins, SiR, and other artists stopped by the studio where the acclaimed instrumentalist Robert Glasper was recording his 'Fuck Yo Feelings'. They all added to the mixtape, creating concert-like atmosphere. It's out this week, All Hip Hop reports. Judging […]
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 1994 single 'Red Right Hand' is the theme song of British crime drama 'Peaky Blinders', and for the show's debut the series’ creators commissioned artists like PJ Harvey, Laura Marling, Iggy Pop, and Jarvis Cocker to each record their own interpretation of the song for the show. Now, Snoop […]
"When we wrote the album Hail to the Thief, that seemed pretty bad, that period of time when Bush Jr. got in. And now we’re here” - Thom Yorke said in a rare late-night appearance as a guest on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where the Radiohead singer talked about Brexit, American politics, his new […]
Year of the Monkey is a new memoir by Patti Smith, where dreams mix with reality and shows the singer and poet "most at ease when... close to death", as PopMatters put it (a good part of the book is about Sam Shepard). So, worth a read? - "It is satisfying to catch-up with her […]
"A polished, wide-screen rock record full of hooks, heart, and melodies" - PopMatters says about The Menzingers' new album (gave it 8 of 10 stars). The album deals with issues of "loss, decaying relationships, the redemptive power of friendship... in a way that few modern rock bands can". "These are 12 more songs to sing […]
English indie-rock singer-songwriter Emmy the Great kept an on-tour diary on her latest tour while having a small baby touring with her. At her first concert "We are incredibly late for soundcheck. Then we are late getting to the hotel for the bedtime routine. Then I am late getting on stage because I was laundering […]
'Deleter' is their first new album in four years, it will arrive on January 17, and it finds the band exploring the increasingly merging worlds of technology and humanity, as they said in a statement - "The robots are smarter than ever, and the algorithm knows more and more what we like as individuals, but […]
Since kicking off their farewell tour on March 10, 2018, thrash-metal legends Slayer have sold $10 million of merchandise, the industry magazine Pollstar reports. They've still got one final tour leg left to go and by the end of the run, Slayer will have played nearly 150 farewell shows around the globe. Those shows are great moneymakers […]
Damon Albarn is turning to classical music as well, like some of his peers from the Brit-pop era - next year he is launching an entirely new project called The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows. In May 2020, over the course of 12 shows in Europe, Albarn will perform a “new, very personal […]
Donald Trump tweeted out a corny video that depicts the president as a pencil-drawn animation having his hair tussled, dancing and hugging the U.S. flag, resembling A-ha's iconic video for Take On Me. Magne Furuholmen, founding member and keyboardist with the Norwegian pop trio who wrote the famous 'Take On Me' riff, had this to say to Rolling […]
The latest edition of NME's The Big Read is about the newest sequel of Josh Homme's Desert Sessions Vol 11/12 , a collaborative album by influential musicians, making music that's just bizarre enough not to be taken seriously, and just good enough not to be taken stupid. This time around, guests in Homme's desert studio […]
At last night's show in San Francisco, Tegan and Sara offered their "real fans" pay-what-you-can tickets, after hundreds of tickets ended up on secondary platforms, Billboard reported. "We never ask our fans to go to secondary sites, this will likely result in empty seats tonight in the Sydney Goldstein Theater” - the band said, so […]
German producer Apparat published his latest album 'LP5' this year, and 'Heroist' is his latest video - black&white, with wolves, nudity and fear (watch below). Just Mustard are a noisy and electronic band from Ireland, their new single 'Seven' - with some cool guitar and powerful vocals - is out now, listen here. 'King for […]
‘Glory to Hong Kong’ was written by a local musician named Thomas in his mid-20s, a producer known only as K mixed the track after answering Thomas’ online call for extra volunteers. Thomas told the BBC he hoped the song would "unite Hong Kongers and boost public morale". The song began spreading in August, thanks […]
"With this batch of songs, they’ve figured out how to infuse a new-school Wilco record with old-school Wilco’s dynamism and grandeur. The result is their most stunning body of work since 'A Ghost Is Born'" - Stereogum writes about the new album by the American alt-country band. A pretty thing, Stereogum argues - "Tweedy breathes gorgeous […]
The Pudding asks an intriguing question, and offers, for a start, two graphs that compare the success and popularity of solo artists compared to their original bands. The two metrics The Pudding uses are the number of Spotify followers, and their ranking on Billboard Hot 100.
To celebrate his 88th birthday, Willie Nelson has shared his 10 rules for life:
An informative yet fun documentary 'Why Am I Doing This? (A Film ABout Touring)', about underground bands playing small clubs. Steve Albini and members of Bottomless Pit, Helms Alee, Wimps, the Bismarck, Nudity, Conan Neutron, Sun 0))), and Melvins talk about what really is there on tour, beyond the 1-hour pleasure they do get every day.
Billie Eilish has announced her new album with her new song 'Your Power', with a video she self-directed. On the intimate and delicate track, Eilish sings above acoustic guitar riff about power dynamics in relationships, giving a warning to “try not to abuse your power”. The video sees her alone on a mountain. Her new album 'Happier Than Ever', out July 30, was written by Eilish and her brother Finneas.
"If the music industry can get its own house in order, maybe it can set the tone for a journey out of the climate crisis" - Guardian argues in an article about the possible transition of the music industry - everything from recorded to live music - from carbon-exhausting to green, and in doing so, set an example for the society as a whole. Some have already started - British independent label Ninja Tune is divesting its funds and pensions from fossil fuels, it is installing renewable energy systems in its London headquarters and it is encouraging the pressing plants that supply its vinyl to switch to green energy. Brian Eno's Earth Percent is aiming to raise $100m (£72m) by 2030 from the industry itself to transition towards sustainability. Beggars Group also announced major new carbon reduction commitments. The dance music scene is taking steps too - Last Night a DJ Took a Flight report argued that tours could be routed more efficiently, local scenes and artists could be better nurtured to reduce the pull of foreign superstars, and exclusivity clauses (where artists can’t play more than one show locally) could be challenged.
"Everyone wanted to work with her but it was like trying to trap lightning in a bottle" - Nick Cave writes on his Red Hand Files blog about his Birthday Party and Bad Seeds colleague Anita Lane, after the news of her death was published. Cave describes Lane as “the smartest and most talented of all of us, by far”, and chooses 'Stranger Than Kindness' as his favourite Seeds song. Cave describes how "at my kitchen table drawing things, she had a quickness of touch and a clear, light line full of humour, throwing each drawing away and starting another, charged with a rampant, unstable, fatal energy that would follow her all her life. My line, amateur and ponderous... It was both easy and terrifying to love her. Leaves a big crying space".
"It’s like the Kyiv rave scene, taking over the Zone. I thought it was strange at first, when they asked me to play here. But then I thought, why not? Chernobyl is ours, it’s our history" - a DJ who played at Chillnobil, an illegal rave deep in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, told Literary Hub about bringing life back into the heart of the nuclear disaster. The organizers call themselves AVO, Anarkho-Vandalskyy Otryad, a “performance art theatre” whose aim is to "transform Pripyat - not destroy it as some are saying, but to use performance to bring attention to it".
A 27-year-old part-time model and translator Vladislav Ivanov from Vladivostok has been finally voted out of the Chinese reality TV show Produce Camp 2021, after he tried hard to give lousy performances, but the fans still voted for him, Guardian reports. He joined the show because he got bored on the island where it was filmed - he worked as a translator for two Japanese contestants - but soon changed his mind, only, he couldn't get out without paying a fine. Ivanov gave poor performances, but his clear reluctance was winning him fans, viral social media emoji and unwanted votes that have carried him into the final of the boy band competition. He was eventually voted out in the final episode.
Oscar music host Questlove shared his 2021 Oscar Playlist, 144 songs he played before, during, after the show, about 10 hours of music. Plenty of music there - Kendrick Lamar, Rolling Stones, Prince, Donna Summer, Phil Collins, a bit more Prince, Talib Kweli, Beastie Boys, some more Prince...
California-based producer and high school student Jai Beats has recently had hits with Rod Wave and Young Thug. Genius talked to him about his beginnings. He started producing at probably 13, using Instagram to connect with people - "I would hit up producers, artists, engineers, they were the ones who could really get my beats and loops to these artists". His first break was "a PnB Rock placement. I had a whole thing where someone scammed me out of my melody. I made a post about it, people in the industry were sharing it, and I gained a lot of exposure just from getting my loop stolen which was funny". He's 16 now - "a lot of it is really hard to balance trying to get music done and get my homework done on time. It’s a battle". Jai Beats' goal in the next five years - to be a millionaire.
