American rapper Rapsody just released her third album 'Eve', with each song dedicated to one of her heroes -Michelle Obama, Oprah, Egyptian queen Hatshepsut etc. (there's no 'Eve' on the album). Guardian really likes her lyricism and skill - "With a delivery cut from the same cloth as Jay-Z or Lauryn Hill, she’s a storyteller, and counterbalances […]
"Suzi sings a lot about dysfunctional relationships, I sing a lot about fucked up cultural things, and usually there’s humor - a little bit of humor - to it. We all crack each other up too" - L7’s Donita Sparks says in a Spin interview about band's lyrics. The "not-grunge" band started playing in the […]
Compton artist Channel Tres dropped his debut EP, sonically "somewhere between underground dance beats and a totally warped vision of hip hop", with his voice "somewhere between rapping, singing, and speaking, and it’s as bass-y and subdued as the production". His lyrics are "powerful", and "tackle race and sexuality and challenge stereotypes and the status […]
PopMatters has an interesting essay on goth punk beginnings, and how it still makes sense today: "While traditional goth punks tout the virtues of old school bands like the Banshees and Bauhaus, or of successors like the Horrors, Pale Waves, and Plastique Noir, younger goths are more likely to head to the dance floor where […]
Canadian producer Yu Su has a new vinyl release ‘Watermelon Woman' on Ninja Tune sister label Technicolour - four versions of the "ridiculously funky" title track, which is itself a riff on Herbie Hancock’s impossibly smooth and delightfully kooky classic jazz composition, as Fact Magazine puts it. She explains that "The whole idea of ‘Watermelon Woman’ […]
"When I decided to open up that facet of my life, why not give people a deeper understanding of not only why they should listen, but why they should take heed to some of the lessons" American rapper Stam Goody says in an All Hip Hop interview about a new 6-part docu-series called 'If Anything […]
Influential French post-metalers Alcest have shared new single, a six-minute stunner 'Protection', with a video to go with it (watch below). It announces band's sixth album, 'Spiritual Instinct', out in October.
Dave Grohl played a concert in London with Rick Astley, an unusual pairing, but Mark, My Words thinks there should be more of it: "Simon had Garfunkel. Bowie had Iggy. The Beatles had Ringo... Primal Scream had Kate Moss, Oasis had Paul Weller, I’m pretty sure Radiohead had Stephen Hawking... Dave Grohl’s Astley bromance feels […]
New York trio Skull Practitioners have been together since 2013, have only released a 2014 cassette so far, and today they are releasing their first EP 'Death Buy', "four ripping, ripped-up tracks". Listen to it here.
NASA's InSight robotic lander on Mars captured a little stone rolling across the surface of the red planet. The first thing they did, of course, they gave it a name - Rolling Stones Rock. Robert Downey Jr. took the stage just before the Stones at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on Thursday night to […]
BBC asks whether Pride events have lost their original purpose, and have became marketing tools to attract big crowds to commercial events. This weekend it's Manchester Pride Live, in a new site, Mayfield, with Ariana Grande as a headliner, that costs £70 (last year it was £28). Brighton Pride was similar, it was headlined by […]
Tom Waits is turning 70 in December, so women of the world got together (well, not all women, chosen ones), and sang his songs. 'Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits' features Phoebe Bridgers, Aimee Mann, Iris Dement, Corinne Bailey Rae, Courtney Marie Andrews, Joseph, Rosanne Cash, Kat Edmonson, Patty Griffin (listen to her […]
Missy Elliott came through with a new project today (Aug. 23) titled 'Iconology', containing 5 new songs, 14 years after her last album 'The Cook Book'. She also dropped a music video for one of the project's tracks, 'Throw It Back' (watch here). Missy announced it yesterday as a "collection of songs", writing "Let’s #ThrowItBack to a […]
Physically, they're in Chicago, sonically, on their debut album, somewhere in between Black Sabbath and Fairport Convention, a sort of heavy psychedelic rock. "The title 'All Is Lost' is a message that we can all relate to at the moment. A sense of impending doom" - guitarist Tony Wold explains the album title in an PopMatters interview (listen […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that iconic film composer Ennio Morricone may reclaim the copyrights to six of his film scores from the late ’70s and early ’80s. In another copyright case, Eminem' publishing company Eight Mile Style filed a massive copyright infringement lawsuit against Spotify. The lawsuit claims that Spotify has no […]
A project that was supposed to be once and never again, turned into an indie super-group. Fitted features Wire members Graham Lewis and Matthew Sims, Minutemen’s Mike Watt and Fearless Leader drummer Bob Lee, with their debut album 'First Fits' coming out in November. Listen to their first single 'Training Pitbulls for the Navy' on […]
"Trends come and go in the music world, but then there are enduring pioneers who become icons due to their influential style and timeless tunes. The Sun Ra Arkestra is such an outfit, bringing their futuristic sounds to Planet Earth since the 1950s" - PopMatters writes after band's four-night run at the SFJazz Center. "The […]
"I bought over 500 albums from 2016... and if I list my favourite albums now, most of them were released in 2016" - British comedian James Acaster writes in his new book 'Perfect Sound Whatever', and names Beyonce's 'Lemonade', Frank Ocean's critically-acclaimed 'Blonde', Kanye West, Radiohead, David Bowie's final studio album 'Blackstar', and some much […]
Universal Music Group is claiming neither Steve Earle nor Tom Petty nor Tupac Shakur did not lose original master recordings in a 2008 fire on the Universal Studios backlot, Variety reports. An investigation into the loss of material by Soundgarden, the only other current plaintiff, is ongoing. Hole has dropped out of the lawsuit because […]
Jim Marshall was an American photographer, who created iconic images of rock 'n' roll stars, jazz greats, and civil rights leaders. Published nearly ten years after his death, new book 'Jim Marshall: Show Me the Picture' is a career-spanning volume that showcases hundreds of photographs: intimate portraits, heady crowd scenes, and haunting street shots evoking […]
"Operating as Jay Som’s sole songwriter, engineer, and producer, Melina Duterte has once again come away with a diverse set of songs held together more by her own intangible presence than by stylistic similarities" - Stereogum says in review of second album by Los Angeles indie-pop singer Jay Som. Referencing her family in the album […]
"We don't have a problem with streaming. We don't have a problem with people listening to our music. What we have a problem with is these streaming services basically treating it like we owe them" - Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor told Rock Feed. What bands can do, he says is "they can start by all […]
Sturgill Simpson will release his new album 'Sound & Fury' on September 27, as a soundtrack to an anime film of the same name, coming out on the same day, on Netflix, Billboard reports. The lead single from the project, 'Sing Along' has been dropped, a deviation from Simpson's usual country sound, sonically much more […]
Los Angeles "death disco" band Death Valley High is releasing a new EP, 'Duel', and each song sees them in a “duel” with a different guest artist, including Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks), Hanin Elias (Atari Teenage Riot), and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, who’s on the just-released cover of Christian Death‘s 'Cavity – First Communion' (watch below). They found out about their […]
Kim Gordon has announced her first-ever solo album, 'No Home Record', coming out October 13 via Matador. The album’s new single ‘Sketch Artist’ "projects a certain restlessness of spirit", ac Fact Magazine hears it. Why a solo record, and why now? - "living in L.A. the last few years it feels like home, but the […]
The Prodigy songwriter and producer Liam Howlett has confirmed the band has been back in the studio recently, Music News reports. Alongside a studio snap posted on the band's official Facebook page on Tuesday, Liam - who is joined by Maxim in the group - wrote: "Back in the studio making noise .. brand new […]
"He’s able to wield the madness with ease, satisfying in many modes... At the core, he’s rapping as good as anyone, like he always has. After years of rappers trying to be the next Young Thug, there’s still only one" - Pitchfork gives a verdict on Atlanta rapper's seventh album 'So Much Fun' (grade 8,4 […]
Women-only festivals have started to happen this year, as a reaction to male-dominated festival scene. KT Tunstall has launched a festival HearHer with female solo artists or women-fronted bands, and women will run the behind-the-scenes production. On the west coast of the US, there’s California Women’s Music and Women Sound Off. Brandi Carlile, the Americana star who won […]
“It’s easy to lose yourself, or never find yourself” - Bruce Springsteen narrates in the trailer to the companion movie to his latest album, ‘Western Stars’, Vulture reports. He shares some thoughts, and is quite honest- “The older you get, the heavier that baggage becomes that you haven’t sorted through, so you run. I’ve done […]
Jay-Z will produce the Super Bowl halftime show, as part of the new, multi-year deal with the National Football League, and many people are surprised at best; betrayed at worst. The Guardian reminds Jay-Z how he name-checked Fred Hampton, a Black Panther party leader murdered by the police, who insisted: “We say you don’t fight […]
An amazing read in the CBS about Prince and his legacy, remembering him five years after his untimely death in an accidental overdose of painkillers. In July, 'Welcome 2 America', the first full previously-unreleased studio album of Prince material is to be released posthumously. It will be the tenth posthumous Prince album release overall (all the other albums were a mix of re-releases and newly mined gems). 'W2A' is an album about racial inequality and social injustice, recorded more than a decade ago just outside Minneapolis, crackling with relevance today. This album is just a small part of what Prince has recorded and stashed in his vault, which he couldn't come into since he has - forgotten the password. There's roughly 8,000 Prince's recording left unreleased, which means we could get a Prince album every year for the rest of the millennium.
An interesting interview in the Rolling Stone with Bob Dylan manager Jonathan Kaplan, who releases his new book ‘The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life’ May 4. The part about drugs says plenty about his rock years: "Robbie called Eric [Clapton] a 'chicken junkie' because Eric snorted it. He didn’t shoot it in his veins. But he was definitely at loose ends in a way that I hadn’t seen". Kaplan refused to manage Rolling Stones because of drugs: "I had just dealt with Eric, and just the nervousness of trying to get somebody onstage who was wrestling with heroin didn’t seem like it was worth it. Life was too short. I reached that point where I thought, maybe there’s a way to make a living where you don’t have to worry about a call at 3 a.m. because Richard has driven his car into a tree. The only person they call is the tour manager, right?". Slightly better experience with the Band: "Everybody was pretty well behaved from, say, June of ‘69 until June of ’70. Richard [Manuel] wasn’t drinking that much. Levon [Helm] liked sleeping pills, but it didn’t get to the bad spot. Rick [Danko] would snort anything that was put in front of him, but quite frankly, cocaine was not an issue in the late Sixties, and neither was heroin". George Harrison, on the other hand, liked to speed-drive and - meditate!
Primary Wave Music has bought the catalog of songwriter and producer Patrick Leonard, in a “multi-million-dollar deal”, Music Business Worldwide reports. Included in that acquisition is Leonard’s share of a number of hits from Leonard Cohen such as 'You Want It Darker', 'It Seemed the Better Way', and 'If I Didn’t Have Your Love', as well as his share of songwriter royalties from his work with Madonna - 'La Isla Bonita', 'Frozen', and the classic 'Like A Prayer'. MBW also reports about the first acquisition by the Influence Media Partners - a portfolio of select copyrights from the catalog of multi-platinum songwriter Ali Tamposi: 'Havana' by Camila Cabello, 'It Ain’t Me' by Selena Gomez, Shawn Mendes' 'Señorita' with Camila Cabello, Justin Bieber' 'Let Me Love You', Beyoncé's 'Save The Hero' and others.
A great text in the Quietus about the movie 'Sound of Metal' about a metal drummer losing his hearing. "Yet this film asserts the beauty of silence. The sound design immerses us in the surf of Ruben’s [main character] ears, forcing the undeaf onto [director]Marder’s subtitles, or leaving hearing suspended, making us question how we use noise to avoid life" - Soma Ghosh writes, adding "our worship of the physicality of rock has silenced the deafness in our midst, though deaf artists have shaped Romantic music since Beethoven".
Jim Steinman, the composer, lyricist and record producer behind many rock and pop hits has died at the age of 73, Deadline reports. His roster of hit records began with Meat Loaf’s smash 1977 debut album 'Bat Out of Hell' (among the 35 best-selling albums in U.S. history, racking up 14 million units sold), only to be continued by Bonnie Tyler hits 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and 'Holding Out For A Hero', Barry Manilow’s 'Read ‘Em and Weep', Celine Dion’s 'It’s All Coming Back to Me Now' and many more.
"I write sad music. It’s how I process and it makes me feel good" - Pom Pom Squad's frontwoman Mia Berrin says in a Stereogum interview about their debut album 'Death Of A Cheerleader', out June 25. It's not that sad-sounding at all, the album is "bigger and brighter than Pom Pom Squad ever has, spanning Misfits-style punk bursts, longer grunge ballads, and a lot of pop".
"Formed in 1980, Rudimentary Peni shuffled awkwardly at the edges of the anarcho-punk scene, their breathless pace and sheer oddity marking them as something else entirely" - the Guardian looks back at the history of the UK punk band. The Quietus also goes on to explore "the curious case of Rudimentary Peni, a transcendent punk band". Band's first new album in 26 years, 'Great War', is out this week.
Rolling Stone brings an overview of marijuana's legal status in the US. The minority of 13 states have not legalized THC for either medicinal or recreational purposes by now. 17 of the federal states have given their residents a green light to smoke up at their leisure. The rest of the 20 states have it legalized for medical use only.
"Such high-profile homages to a band long under-appreciated beyond these shores... cut far deeper than any barbs in the script. They don’t just lift The Smiths into the revered echelons of your Beatles, Rolling Stones, Whos and U2s; they remind us how special a band we’ve come to define by their differences really were as a unit" - NME's Mark Beaumont writes about a recent 'The Simpsons' episode (as well as the recent movie 'Shoplifters of The World'), and what it means for the band (Morrissey didn't like The Simpsons, said he would sue, if it weren't so costly). The columnist believes "here’s our chance to rescue The Smiths from the pyre, unshackle them from the conversation around them and let their music settle back into its rightful place, just below the heart of the human condition".
UK music stars young and old - including Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Robert Plant, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Roger Daltrey, Chris Martin, Kano, Noel Gallagher, Mike Skinner, Damon Albarn, Wolf Alice, and around 150 others - have called on the UK government to reform the way musicians are paid when their songs are streamed online, NME reports. They point out that "songwriters earn 50% of radio revenues, but only 15% in streaming". On streaming services, labels retain the majority of the money - with the artist receiving about 13% on average, and session musicians receiving nothing.
