"'Safe And Also No Fear' is like a good short story collection, where you can glean enough personal details about the writer to get an idea of their point-of-view, but the focus is on other people and how they can be reflective of the world as a whole. Ewald has become a master of character sketches, […]
"And while the idea of Segall working without a guitar sounds akin to robbing an infant of its blanket, 'First Taste' is still quintessential Segall: shaggy, tripped out, and all over the sonic map" - Consequence of Sound really likes the 13th album the American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. "Segall once again makes the various ideas and […]
Quentin Tarantino handpicked a total of 70 songs pulled from his iconic filmography in a specially curated four-hour playlist. Among his favorites are Nancy Sinatra’s 'Bang Bang' from the opening scene of 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1', 'Jungle Boogie' by Kool & The Gang from 'Pulp Fiction', and The White Stripes’ 'Apple Blossom' from 'The Hateful Eight'. Louder Sound reports […]
"Burna’s compositions are all based in something he’s dubbed Afro-fusion—blending pop, American hip-hop and R&B, Jamaican dancehall, and hard UK rap with Nigerian music—and he puts Africa at the root of that expanding lineage while also pushing the more traditional sounds forward. The album is a splendid hour of jams, both personal and political, that […]
Among the immigrants spread across Europe there's people that feel they don't belong neither in the immigrant community nor the one they came into. Guardian reports about a small community of queer refugees in Netherlands who face racism, homophobia and transphobia so they started Sehaq, a club in Amsterdam that is not only about dancing […]
There's plenty of it obviously, since the Quietus makes a selection every month, and a big one at that. "Weird" is a relative word here, actually, depending on the listener. Well, there's nothing like Cardi B here, but still it's far away from hard-core avantguarde or hard-to-listen-to music. Take Kandodo - atmospheric and mellow, imagine […]
Grand Canyon moved from their classic rock roots to psychedelic rock on their newest EP ('Yesterday's News, out August 2), with the leading track being '21st Century American Man' (listen below). A nearly seven-minute-long epic about self-liberation that sheds societal expectations was actually 25 minutes long in original take, which the California band insisted on […]
Beyoncé is now selling the diet she followed to prepare for her 2018 Coachella set - for $14 a month, or $99 a year, all this can be yours. Except it can’t, because Beyoncé is selling a lie, the Guardian writes about Beyoncé's latest venture. Why is it to impossible? "The performance of physical perfection […]
Big US event to celebrate 50 years since the Woodstock festival has been cancelled just two weeks before it was due to start. The proposed venue had already been changed and various artists had dropped out. Woodstock 50 originally had Jay-Z, The Killers, Miley Cyrus and many others on the bill. Organisers blamed a series […]
After Deftones announced the very diverse lineup for their second annual festival Dia De Los Deftones with CHVRCHES, Gojira, JPEGMAFIA, Hum, Youth Code, and Brutus, Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta took some issue with the order of the billing. “Who is churches with a v and why the fuck are they playing over Gojira... God the music industry suckkkkks sometimes,” he tweeted. CHVRCHES […]
The Quietus made a selection of best albums and songs from the month of July. They chose: "the miraculous" 'Dolphine' by Californian folk singer Mega Bog, sludge punk 'No You' by Rainbow Grawe, the electro folk horror soundtrack for 'Midsommar' by The Haxan Cloak, the intense record 'Caligula' by Lingua Ignota, Berlin house-meister Barker, grime's new girl Nadia […]
Paul McCartney admitted that he can’t remember how to play all the Beatles songs - "I have to re-learn everything. I’ve written an awful lot, you can’t retain them all", he told The Mirror. He says he has to rely on bandmates and listen to some of the deeper cuts that he hasn’t played in […]
Florida healthcare worker Christina Settanni talked a man out from commiting a suicide using Linkin Park lyrics, WKMG-TV reports. Settanni was driving along a state road when she noticed a man sitting on a ledge, when she stopped, sat next to him and recited a lyric from the Linkin Park song 'One More Light' - "Who […]
Guardian writes how jazz is having a moment in the UK lately. The signs? Streaming sites are reporting a growth in young listeners, mainstream artists are collaborating with jazz stars and big music festivals are signing up more jazz acts than ever. The names deserving credit the most - Sons of Kemet and The Comet […]
French musician, poet, and visual artist Félicia Atkinson made her new album 'The Flower and the Vessel' while awaiting a child - “not about being pregnant but a record made with pregnancy", trying "to reassert her connection to the world". It is an album placed "in the intimate, unruly liminal space between comfort and discomfort, quiet […]
Guardian reviews new Bruce Springsteen biopic 'Blinded By the Light': "Another crowd-pleasing but emotionally sincere tale of teenage multicultural strife, but it is also yet another movie celebrating the power of classic, white-guy rock. It is beginning to feel like a conspiracy: repackaging the 20th-century rock canon to a generation who don’t really listen to […]
LA producer Maral made a new mixtape 'Mahur Club' where she combined Iranian folk, pop and classical music with reggaeton, dub and Jersey Club. As it turns out it's not just interesting, it's actually quite good. Worth a few listens. Listen to it here. Fact Magazine found it out.
Nick Cave received quite a nasty question from one of his fans, George from Alabama who asked him: “Do you ever get tired of all the pretentious fat lesbians who enjoy your music? Personally I enjoy a lot of your music, but I find most of your fans insufferable". Cave told him he was being […]
"I never would have thought I'd be in this heavy of a musical situation. But what I continue to be drawn to is high drama, I'm interested in the process of creating high drama with music" - the former Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum tells in an interview with All Music about his new […]
American DJ Seth Troxler first arrived in Ibiza 10 years ago and since then the Spanish party island has "changed drastically", he says in Billboard interview. "The tourist board here in Ibiza has made a conscious decision to change the image of the island and shift the demographic towards families and holistic living... Ibiza before was […]
Ed Sheeran’s star-studded 'No. 6 Collaborations Project' rules the Billboard 200 list for a second week, with 78,000 equivalent album units sold; in it's first week it sold 173,000 units. Beyoncé has a third Top 10 album this year - 'The Lion King: The Gift' debuted at No. 2 with 54,000 equivalent album units earned […]
An interesting point made by Rolling Stone about Woodstock 99, and in a good moment since Woodstock 19 had died, it seems, before even being born: "It was, in all, a weird pre-echo of the future, maybe: hot and dry and violent and desperate. It hinted at the WTO riots that November, and a century […]
London-based 6-piece Black Country, New Road has a new single out (digitally), a powerful noise-rock song 'Sunglasses' with plenty of sax (watch below). On September 6 whey will issue 500 copies of single on 7'', each copy with different Polaroid images on each cover taken by the band; it comes out on Blank Editions.
They are a British duo consisting of delicate vocal lines that float over intricate electronic textures. Kieran Brunt stands behind those choral vocals, while filmic beats are product of heart and craft of Matt Huxley. Strange Boy's latest single 'Suburbia' comes from their latest EP of the same name, listen to the song at SoundCloud here, […]
Recorded during his two-night stay at London’s Alexandra Palace this May, the 'Live at Alexandra Palace, London 8th and 9th May 2019' was uploaded to Four Tet's Bandcamp page - here. The mixed release is broken up into seven tracks spanning from the minute-and-a-half introduction 'Starting' to two-minutes-and-a-half finale 'Ending'. A good set actually...
Loudwire made our metal year so far much easier by compiling what they hear are best metal songs. It's not all, not everything is that great, but it's a start. So, they've got "an instant Amon Amarth classic" Raven's Flight, Born Of Osiris who "teeter between glitchy palm-muted chugs and atmospheric textures" in Cycles of […]
British alt-rock singer-songwriter Annabel Allum's new single 'When the Wind Stopped' finds her "blossoming as a songwriter", PopMatters says. "It's not a song that goes for the quick knockout. Rather it takes its time to penetrate the defenses with razor-sharp lyrical jabs and deftly constructed alt-pop hooks". The video is just as simple as it […]
English video artist and Turner Prize-winner Jeremy Deller made a documentary 'Everybody in The Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992' about cultural significance of rave and acid house on ’80s Britain (trailer below). The documentary includes rare and unseen archive materials and draws lines between protest movements, illegal warehouse raves, ’80s hedonism, Thatcherite politics, […]
Miami city commissioners voted 3-2 Thursday to approve an agreement with Ultra Music Festival, which allows the big three-day electronic dance music event to return to Bayfront Park in March 2020, Miami Herald reports. Last fall the contract was not renewed, after complaints from downtown residents who oppose the event’s large crowds and heavy traffic. […]
"Group draws on the tradition established by other fine Chicago jazz-inflected exports over the years (Rotary Connection, Tortoise, Earth, Wind & Fire) while also pushing beyond categorical boundaries to create a debut that is soulful and ear-catching" - Pitchfork says in it's review of Resavoir's eponymous album (grade 8,2 out of 10). Simply put, Resavoir […]
A hilarious article by Tracy Clark-Flory for Jezebel about men displaying their power with air-sex: "When I think of stage humping, I think of a man thrusting against the floor in a modified pushup, an enactment of missionary screwing that presupposes a very long, and soon to be broken, dick... Recently, I came across similar moves on TikTok and was reminded, once again, of men making love to the floor. And I thought: From whence the floor grind? It was time to investigate this important topic".
"If the Internet existed back when Slayer released their very first album, we would have been destroyed" - speed-metal icons' drummer Dave Lombardo says to Pit's MoshTalks Cover Stories (via Loudwire). "So, today, these days, you have to go with the approach of how we did it back then — we didn't care. We thought it was heavy, we thought it was brutal and evil. It was dark. It had a certain feel to it. And it made all of us happy. It had our stamp of approval" - the drummer continued. Lombardo urges bands to listen to themselves only - "and another thing is bands that feel, 'Oh, no. Our fans won't go for that, because our fans only like us to do this style'. Well, then there's no growth. You're gonna grow stagnant. It's just not gonna evolve if you don't venture out and try new things".
YouTube star Chris Crocker, who shot to online infamy for their ‘Leave Britney Alone’ viral video, has sold the original clip as an NFT (non-fungible token) for 18.69 ether, which is roughly equivalent to around $41,000. Crocker explained to Business Insider that selling the video was their way of reclaiming the clip after years of relentless mockery and abuse. The money made from the sale would go primarily towards helping their grandmother, and their gender transition surgery.
London based rapper Berwyn shares a smooth '100,000,000', following in the rich British lyrical tradition; Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley share a psychotic jazz groove 'Broken Mirror (A Selfie Reflection) /Composition 9'; José González announces his new album with gentle and personal 'Visions'; 'Instrumental' is the highpoint of Samba Touré's latest album.
The political right-wing has a history of using songs of leftist or rebellious nature for its cause, starting with Ronald Reagan who used Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA', to Boris Johnson who co-opted Clash, and Donald Trump who saw it fit to connect himself with Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World'. The latest example comes from anti-lockdown protesters who, positioning themselves as oppressed, have contorted Twisted Sister’s 'We’re Not Gonna Take It' into an anti-mask anthem. Guardian makes a step in trying to explain it. "Co-opting is part of an effort to link conservatism to rebellion and the idea that to be conservative is to be rebellious. This crops up in younger conservatives" - says Jack Hamilton, a professor at University of Virginia. There is a way for the real freedom fighters to reclaim their culture - "what we can do is educate, empower and encourage people to listen with a critical ear” - says Kevin Fellezs, associate professor at Columbia University, who is researching “freedom musics”.
'Xeno' examines a brief yet intimate encounter between two strangers, against the backdrop of a barren hillside in Montreal (watch it below). It is a part of Films.Dance series, which also features original music by Berlin-based artists Alice Phoebe Lou and Thor Rixon. 'Xeno' is a part of a series of 15 free films shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, which have involved the participation of more than 150 artists from 25 countries. All of the Films.Dance programme so far can be seen at the project’s website.
24-year old Grammy-nominated rapper CHIKA has announced her retirement from the music industry due to the impact it was having on her mental health. In a statement, she told fans that “the mental toll being in the industry has taken on me is not something you bounce back from easily”. CHIKA is known for being vocal about political and societal issues and was detained by police at a Los Angeles protest over the police killing of George Floyd last year.
Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl directed a new movie about touring vans and life on the road called 'What Drives Us', featuring interviews with Lars Ulrich, Slash, the Edge, Flea, Steven Tyler, St. Vincent, and many others. “This film is my love letter to every musician that has ever jumped in an old van with their friends and left it all behind for the simple reward of playing music” - Grohl said.
"Big companies going forward will just be managers of catalog. I don’t see the need for a record company [beyond that] to exist... Their ownership in artists’ intellectual property will diminish" - UnitedMasters founder Steve Stoute tells MBW. Last month, his independent artist distribution platform has secured a $50 million investment by Apple, Alphabet, and Andreessen Horowitz supporting his mission to become "a full-service music company in your pocket”.
"Right now, when you get songwriters in the room, they're trying to write a radio hit, because that's the only way you make money. If we create an environment where songwriters are not worried about this, if they're not freaking out about paying their rent, and they're just able to focus on being creative, there will be a musical renaissance" - US writer Emily Warren tells BBC about her initiative The Pact, a group of the world's biggest songwriters who got together to stop the practice of pop-stars taking credit for songs they didn't write any part of. It used to be rare, but in recent years, artists have started demanding a share of the publishing "ninety-nine per cent of the time", says Tayla Parx, another Pact member, whose credits include Ariana Grande's 'Thank U Next' and 'High Hopes' by Panic! At The Disco. Warren, who recently received a Grammy nomination for her work on Dua Lipa's 'Don't Start Now', says that demands for co-writing credit start with a 1% share, rising as high as 20%, with an average of about 15%. Since The Pact launched two weeks ago, more than 1,000 people have signed the open letter.
