The Quietus made a selection of best psychedelic rock for the month of July. It's quite a rich month: there's Sicilian outfit Uzeda's new album recorded by Steve Albini; Some Became Hollow Tubes - with members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and thisquietarmy - is something of a masterclass in drums/guitar/FX/synth improvisation; Nebula are back […]
Grimes shared her workout regimen with Adidas, and, well, it's so crazy it might actually be true. Here it is in it's full and bizarre beauty (Instagram original): "My training is a 360 approach. I first maintain a healthy cellular routine where I maximize the function of my mitochondria with supplements such as NAD+, Acetyl […]
The Polaris Music Prize honors the best album out of Canada and this year hip-hop is most heavily represented with Shad, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, and Haviah Mighty all getting a nod. The list also includes Toronto punk favorites PUP, electronic producer Marie Davidson, and funk-punk ensemble FET.NAT. Full shortlist of 10 albums looks like […]
Chris Kläfford is a regular guy, a no-nonsense musician who plays in his own lane, Billboard says, and on his latest appearance at 'America's Got Talent' he left quite an impression. He performed his original song 'Something Like Me', with Brad Paisley saying enthusiastically "You’re something else", and Simon Cowell admitting he had revisited the […]
The lovestruck ballad never reached number one in the UK, but remained on the charts for more than three years, and it took up a similar residency on the airwaves. Gary Lightbody told the BBC how they wrote the song "in the shed of his [producer's] garden" where they "went down with a couple of bottles […]
New court documents show Nipsey Hussle, real name Ermias Joseph Asghedom, left an $8 million estate, and his 2-year old son Kross Asghedom will inherit $1 million from the sum, The Blast reports. The news comes out as Hussle's long-time partner Lauren London has filed new court papers to protect their toddler son’s inheritance - […]
One of South Africa's most celebrated musicians, known as the "white Zulu", was a vocal critic of the apartheid government which ruled until 1994. The British-born musician uniquely blended western and Zulu music, and his best known hit 'Asimbonanga', released in 1987, was dedicated to Nelson Mandela. Independent...
LA musician Erin Birgy published her fifth album 'Dolphine' as Mega Bog - "a 36 minutes and 36 seconds of shimmering dirges which could just as easily soundtrack ancient woodland or the night sky as the deepest imaginable depths of the sea". The Quietus compares her album to Julia Holter, Cate Le Bon and Aldous […]
Funny and to the point, NME's Mark Beaumont in his latest column wants the 1980s revival to end: "The ‘80s revival has lasted far longer than the original decade itself. And that wasn’t even worth the ten years it hung about... It’s a source of unending frustration to those of us that lived through the […]
BBC has a nice article about LA band the Wallows, whose lead singer Dylan Minnette is in one of the most popular shows on Netflix, '13 Reasons Why', and the guitarist Braeden Lemasters played comedian Ray Romano's son in a comedy-drama 'Men of a Certain Age' for two series. They've been playing together since they […]
A very good selection of best songs of the week by the Brooklyn Vegan (or maybe a good week in general). LA trio Automatic will publish their first album for Stones Throw in September and 'Too Much Money' presents them as pop kraut-rock band, Ezra Furman goes in modern punk direction with 'Evening Prayer', Working […]
"I feel like an elephant mama. An elephant gestation period is around 18 months—I feel like I’ve been carrying this baby for a long time" - rapper Olu from Atlanta duo EarthGang tells Pitchfork in an interview about their first major label album 'Mirrorland', out later this year. They have released several independent records and […]
Catalan pop star Rosalía used Catalan-Spanish words in 'Milionària', her first single in Catalan, upsetting language purists who say she dilutes the language, Guardian reports. In her new single she uses the word "cumpleanys", a corruption of the Spanish "cumpleaños", to mean birthday, instead of the Catalan "aniversari", she also uses "escoltada" (accompanied) when in Catalan the word is "escortada". She was […]
Austin Butler has won the coveted lead role in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming biopic of Elvis Presley, beating out Harry Styles, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who were also reportedly in the running. The film will be shot early next year in Queensland, Australia and it will trace Presley’s elevation to a level of […]
Glitchy folktronica and crunching beats by Bon Iver in 'Faith', total thumper in 'I Drive' by Lower Dens, hazy, summer evening by Boy Pablo & Jimi Somewhere in ‘Never Cared’, stonking chunk of psychedelic-flecked rock in 'Black Finch' by Goon, catchy R&B tune 'Simmer' by Mahalia, total sugar rush in 'Hey' by Oscar Lang, festival-ready […]
"'Les étoiles vagabondes' is a masterclass in poetic devices and through exceptionally crafted efforts... Nekfeu makes a compelling case for his pen being the finest in la Métropole... Multifaceted, exhilarating and ultimately inspired body of hip-hop" - PopMatters totally likes new album by Parisian rapper Nekfeu.
"Part of what makes the score work the way it does is the sharp contrast it has with the pop music" - composer Ben Frost tells the Quietus about the soundtrack he wrote for the German series 'Dark'. "Part of the reason the series is so effective in its handling of a narrative that could […]
"It was my body and mind telling me I shouldn’t go anywhere, that I couldn’t do anything. It was telling me to just wait, so I literally just sat and waited. I was agoraphobic from around 2006 to 2009. Those years were just spent wearing a cashmere kaftan, eating Kettle Chips, growing a beard and […]
"Music should reflect the pain and happiness of your culture", the aim is to be “authentic and original" - Turkish psych-folk-rock singer and songwriter Gaye Su Akyol tells in the Guardian interview, as she takes London's journalist through the streets of Istanbul. Her music image may be pop, but the music veers from dark, brooding […]
Korean boy-band BTS has added a Saudi Arabia date to their world tour schedule - they will play at King Fahd International Stadium in the capital city of Riyadh on Oct. 11. BTS are poised to become the first foreign act to play a headline stadium show in the kingdom, but not all fans are happy, […]
The second day of the Scottish TRNSMT festival was dubbed by many as "Snuts day" after the local band attracted the biggest crowd on the festival's second stage last year and made the progression to the main stage this year - BBC says of the biggest Scottish fest, held last weekend, and it's influence. Similar […]
"It was ludicrous, and in hindsight, I'd go through it all over again" - India-born Brooklyn based artist Vandana told PopMatters about her experience of filming her new video 'Ahsa' on ruins of Petra in Jordan. "Apparently, my shadows on the ruins, which were magnified because of a light we were using, looked ghostly and […]
"Gay culture isn’t just one sliver of humanity – it’s a huge cross-section of people" - british singer kd Lang tells the Guardian about her influence on others to live openly who they really are. “I grew up with the adage that there is a wealth of purpose in being mysterious. And I feel like […]
Loudwire has an educational article about 10 less known subgenres of metal. Post-metal established a name for itself with bands like Neurosis or Isis, but then there is porno grind - a type of metal that features ridiculously sexual band names and song titles such as Gut’s 'Let Me Be Your Sperm Factory' from 'The Cumback' (and […]
Canadian festival Roxodus - a four-day event that was to be held at the Edenvale Airport in Clearview Township, ON, and feature the likes of Aerosmith, Kid Rock and Nickelback - was canceled due to weak ticket sales. Then the police came in - with organizers now warring over the loss of millions of dollars. […]
“I wasn’t into the things girls were into, but I hated sports, or playing with GI Joe. I always identified with the word kid more than girl or boy” - pop performer Dorian Electra says in Guardian interview (liberal London paper call Electra "they"). Electra was born as a girl (Dorian Electra are real names, […]
'Vain coeur' combines soft, euphoric synths with metallic percussion and searing noise, and it is Parisian producer's Chams debut on Shanghai-based label Genome 6.66Mbp, Fact Magazine reports. It comes with a new four-track EP, out July 14. Listen to the EP at SoundCloud.
The choice: Rosalia's 'F*cking Money Man' because it defies"the notion that effortlessly fun pop music must be shallow by default", Bon Iver and 'Faith' for sounding "exultant", Jenny Hval with 'Ashes to Ashes' - "a bit of dark synth-pop that is far more fun to dance to than dissect", Pharmakon with 'Self-Regulating System' because "self-cannibalism", […]
Nothing in pop-culture is outrageous and everything makes sense, right?, so a David Bowie inspired Barbie doll is just fine. Toymakers Mattel have announced a new collectable doll inspired by his signature Ziggy Stardust fashion. Dubbed Barbie as Bowie, the doll is dressed as the late singer's glam-rock alter ego, complete with a pair of […]
Nas' dad Olu Dara is a jazz cornetist, he also played on several Nas' songs, so jazz is a thing in his music. His song 'Jarreau Of Rap (Skatt Attack)' reflects this jazz background - it's a collaboration with the late, great jazz singer Al Jarreau, who died in 2017, and a jazz trumpeter Keyon […]
Deaf actor and dancer Mervin Primeaux-O’Bryant and hearing dancer and choreographer Brandon Kazen-Maddox have started a new project producing sign language covers of 10 seminal musical works recorded by Black female artists. The two men sing with their hands, giving the song a special structure, as the New York Times notes: "A good A.S.L. performance prioritizes dynamics, phrasing and flow. The parameters of sign language — hand shape, movement, location, palm orientation and facial expression — can be combined with elements of visual vernacular, a body of codified gestures, allowing a skilled A.S.L. speaker to engage in the kind of sound painting that composers use to enrich a text".
Music journalist Greg Cochrane and Savages drummer Fay Milton have launched a new podcast Sounds Like a Plan which aims to shine a light on the music community’s fight against the climate crisis, NME reports. Launched this month, SLAP will feature an “inspiring climate advocate from the music community" like The 1975’s manager Jamie Oborne, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, and Melvin Benn, director of Festival Republic, which includes Reading + Leeds, Latitude...
Independent touches the sensitive issue of doxxing, searching for and publishing private or identifying information about someone on the internet, typically with malicious intent. Pop critic Ann Powers endured a series of verbal attacks after an essay around Lana Del Rey's album 'Norman F***ing Rockwell!'. Pitchfork writer Jillian Mapes published a mostly positive review of Taylor Swift’s 'Folklore' only to be faced with threats, which included pictures of her home. Ariana Grande fans went after culture critic Roslyn Talusan in 2019 with the singer refusing to tell them to back off. So, journalism stays one of the few professions where the professional is too often expected to do their job not professionally.
"I don’t have any right to complain.. When you look at the 8 billion people on the planet, a reasonably affluent caucasian cis-gendered male public figure musician is not necessarily the first person you think of as having valid criticisms about how they’re being treated” - Moby says in a Guardian interview. He is about to release a new album next month - orchestral reworkings of his old hits - as well as a new documentary about his life going from "out of control, utterly entitled, self-involved drink and drug addict" who missed his own mother's funeral because he got drunk, to the producer of philharmonic pieces.
"The premature loss of Earl 'DMX' Simmons labors as a frightening reminder that we, Black men, do not grow old, at least not nearly enough of us. Chadwick Boseman, Charlie Murphy, Bernie Mac, Nipsey Hussle, Prince, Heavy D, George Floyd, Gerald LeVert, Tupac Shakur, Notorious BIG, Prodigy (of Mobb Deep), J Dilla, Bernard Tyson, Fred the Godson. MF DOOM" - Consequence's Kahron Spearman writes on the sensitive issue, going into the wider societal and private contexts of the problem.
Kid Cudi quietly paid homage to Kurt Cobain with his wardrobe choices on the last Saturday Night Live. During his performance of 'Sad People', Cudi sported a long, floral dress, a nod to the dress Cobain wore during a 1993 photo shoot with UK music magazine The Face (watch the video below). Cudi also performed 'Tequila Shots' sporting a green cardigan reminiscent of Cobain’s famous MTV Unplugged sweater. Cudi has long-admired Cobain and last year got a photorealistic black and white tattoo of the grunge icon wearing a Daniel Johnston t-shirt. April 5 marked the 27th anniversary of the Nirvana frontman’s death.
Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross won the Original score award at this year BAFTAs, for their work on the animated movie 'Soul', the Variety reports. Music movie 'Sound of Metal', about a metal drummer who goes deaf, has won the Editing and the Sound awards. 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', about the influential blues singer Ma Rainey has won the Costume design award. Check out all the nominees - here.
An encouraging story in BetterHumans about going from a “screeching cat” to "opera singer" in singing skills. What it took to step over that gap, was the transformation of the physical component of singing, perfecting sight-reading, and getting better at auditioning.
A commanding presence on the mic... effortlessly balancing raw charisma with hit-making savvy, DMX had a major impact on the sound and direction of an era in hip-hop - Rolling Stone writes presenting their selection on 16 essential DMX songs. The iconic hip-hop artist has died at the age of 50 after suffering “catastrophic cardiac arrest”. Rolling Stone expands the story on DMX with revisited articles about his debut and his identity.
"'Dope Game Stupid' turns his life details and a never-ending stream of metaphors into some of the most engaging raps of the year so far" - Pitchfork writes reviewing the debut album by the Detroit rapper Bruiser Wolf, adding that "compact metaphors and similes are Wolf’s weapon of choice". Producer Raphy, on the other hand, "provides a batch of pristine loops that crackle with dust and melancholy".
