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 […]
R. Kelly has been arrested in Chicago on sex trafficking charges, and is being held in custody. There are said to be 13 charges against the singer, including child abuse images and obstruction of justice. He's already pleaded not guilty to more than 20 sexual offences. R. Kelly began paying thousands of dollars in 2001 […]
British musician Haxan Cloak, aka Bobby Krlic, made the soundtrack for Ari Aster's 'Midsommar', a horror movie about five young Americans who are visiting Sweden to take part in a 90-year-old solstice festival, and it doesn't really end well for them. The plot might be well known, but Haxan Cloak's take on creepy folk music […]
American singer and poet Lydia Lunch has a new book So Real It Hurts, about everything from violent feminist revenge fantasies to diatribes on pollution and politics. The anthology “was rejected by 26 American publishers – and I’m quite happy to say that. I wanted that stamped on the front cover, actually”, she told Guardian. When […]
Pitchfork gave Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire's new album high grade of 7,8 (out of 10). Why? - "his lyrics have always offered savvy political commentary and catharsis for those prepared to hear it".
The latest work from experimental electronic composer Keith Fullerton Whitman 'STS' is 15 years in the making, with the eight-channel installation work being made up of recordings made on differing Serge Modular systems, Fact Magazine reports. The sound experiment is the result of the “mapping of the frequency spectra of time-aligned formants to a catalog […]
Taylor Swift is the world’s highest-paid celebrity - according to Forbes, this year she had a pretax income of $185 million. It mostly comes from her Reputation Stadium Tour, that made $345 million overall. Other musicians in the upper echelons of the Celebrity 100 rankings are Kanye West (#3), Ed Sheeran (#5), and the Eagles […]
It's an illustrated children's book, covering band's history, "from, duh, A to Z!", as Metallica says. Well, maybe not exactly to "Z", maybe to "M" - it goes from "Garage Days", their early demo, "to Master of Puppets", their seminal album from 1996. If so, then there's a wrong guy on the cover, since in that […]
Malian musician Oumou Sangaré, the "Songbird of Wassoulou music" made a list of her 13 favourite albums for the Quietus. It's a list made mostly of relatively unknown African music, and interesting, worth checking out, and some well known names. It goes from Miriam Makeba ("exemplary, a woman fighting to change things that were unjust […]
"'Purple Mountains' is both a breakup album in the traditional sense and also a breakup album if all of life was one big, long breakup" - Consequence of Sound reviews the debut album by Purple Mountains, new band by David Berman, Silver Jews' frontman. "How can music be so sad and so catchy at the same […]
The secret to thwarting facial recognition has been unintentionally unlocked by Juggalos, Insane Clown Posse's biggest fans. Juggalos face makeup cannot be accurately read by many facial recognition technologies - the black bands frequently used in Juggalo makeup obscure the mouth and cover the chin, totally redefining a person’s key features, which makes facial recognition […]
"Throughout 'Mechanical Flirtations', Saint Abdullah deal in weaponized compassion and empathy, tuning their boundless music to start fires. Theirs is a sound of protest and resistance, of warmth and reconciliation... Uncovers thoughts and truths that we try to suppress, leaving it to us to act" - PopMatters has nice words for Iranian band Saint Abdullah's new […]
Billionaire rapper Jay-Z joined California company Caliva as a "chief brand strategist" in which he will focus on outreach and the creative direction of the company. “We want to create something amazing, have fun in the process, do good and bring people along the way,” the rapper said in a statement, CNN reports.
Atlanta country band Confederate Railroad were supposed to perform at the Du Quoin State Fair in Illinois, as part of “90s Country ReLoaded Day,” but after people started to question their name they were removed from the lineup, Brooklyn Vegan reports. Du Quoin State Fair manager Josh Gross said - "While every artist has a right to […]
Two members of Iranian metal band Confess have been sentenced to 14 1/2 years in prison and 74 lashes for the crime of playing metal, by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Tehran. While waiting for the Tribunal's decision frontman Nikan Khosravi and Arash Ilkhani fled to Turkey, and were eventually granted asylum in Norway, where the […]
'Misora' from 1972 is the only album thus far from Japanese singer-songwriter Sachiko Kanenobu - she left Japan and professional music in just before album's initial release. On 'Misora' (meaning 'Beautiful Sky') "she paints romantic portraits of nature, taps into wells of human emotion, and often ties the two together in beautiful ways", PopMatters says […]
Slayer announced their very last tour, that goes down across US this autumn, with a very good choice of support bands - Primus, Ministry, and Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals, groups that don't sound similar to one another or to the headliner. “The last leg of its farewell world tour" ends in Los Angeles, […]
Beyonce curated and produced a new album, 'The Lion King: The Gift', which is "steeped in the sounds of Africa", and it includes new Beyonce song 'Spirit' (watch the lyric video below). The album and the film's soundtrack will feature a number of global recording artists, but it isn't just "a collection of songs" inspired by the film […]
Menzi Mngoma is a 27 year old musicology graduate, who was full time Uber driver and loved singing opera tunes to his passengers, when a Kim Davey, who was on a business trip from Johannesburg filmed him and posted a clip on Facebook (here). The video of Mngoma singing Verdi's 'La donna è mobile' in […]
Rapper Nicki Minaj has cancelled a scheduled performance in Saudi Arabia next week - "after careful reflection I have decided to no longer move forward with my scheduled concert at Jeddah World Fest" the singer said in a statement. She added: "While I want nothing more than to bring my show to fans in Saudi […]
Including: most left-brained new MC TisaKorean with his 'Double Dare', a gay anthem for summer 2019 'On A Roll' by Ashley O (Miley Cyrus, for un-Black Mirror fans), joyous sound of someone finally coming into his own in 'Let You Know by Flume, trademark agitated beauty by Hiss Golden Messenger in 'I Need A Teacher', unexpectedly […]
Feminist music collective NÓTT based in Medellín, Colombia, has announced its first label compilation 'Austral', and it features contributions from “Latin American women producers, who are opening a gap in the exploration and sound composition of electronic music”, Fact Magazine reports. Compi includes NÓTT founders Marea, Julianna and Andrea Arias, as well as Valesuchi, Sol Ortega, […]
Outkast's Andre 3000 and Lizzo made the flute a star of the year. "They might be one of the world’s oldest-known pieces of kit for bashing out a tune on but their time is now", Guardian says in their humorous article about flute in pop music. They aren't the first - Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson […]
Marilyn Manson has a role in CBS' forthcoming miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s 'The Stand', as Manson tells Revolver. Apart from that, Shooter Jennings and Manson did a cover of ‘The End’ by the Doors for 'The Stand'. The series, based on King's novel, takes place in a world ravaged by an unstoppable plague, where […]
"I have a girlfriend, our singer I actually met through my best friend, they were dating at the time. My co-producer, he's a coder in his day job. Our guitar player's a teacher" - Emo of the Californian band Emotional Oranges tells BBC about their hidden identities. It's not like their faces are hidden, like […]
The Quietus really likes third album by London funky/post punk band Trash Kit: "'Horizon' is a verdant late June day, green grass and green leaves buzzing and hissing with activity, before the hot mid-July sun burns everything golden. It sings to the seeming boundlessness of days like these - so limited in number, but so full of potential. […]
"If critics were harder on the musicians that they love, there would be better songs. But as they grow older and they lose their talent, critics refuse to let them know that and protect them" David Berman says in a rare interview with Aquarium Drunkard. "It must be very strange to live in the world […]
Common Notions in October is to publish a new book 'An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels', written by Josh MacPhee, and which traces the parallel rise of social movements in the second half of the twentieth century and the vinyl record as the dominant form of music distribution. PopMatters brings excerpts from the book.
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready hosted the first-ever Peak to Sky Music Festival in Big Sky, Montana this last weekend, and two-day fest led up to all-star super jam consisting of McCready, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, […]
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".
"I didn't have a note. I didn't have an idea. I didn't have anything to write about. I didn't know what to write about. I just didn't see myself as someone that did that. The muscles in my brain had grown over the years to be something else. It was strange to learn how to do it" - singer-songwriter Stephen Fretwell tells in The New Cue interview how he tried to start making music again, after a decade-long break. "When I actually sat down, I noticed there were a few lines that sounded like they were telling a story that I didn't really know existed. And then as that started to come out of the lyrics, then my marriage fell apart" - he says, adding "It was so much work, I put so much work into it". That was the hard part - "the day that we recorded it in Dean Street Studios, we recorded it in one take all the way through". His new album 'Busy Guy' is out July 16.
“Above all I want all of this art, all of these songs, all my words to lead to there being a law that would protect women and children from domestic violence” - Russian singer Manizha, who is about to present her country at the Eurovision contest, says to the Guardian. She adds that the times they are indeed changing in Russia: "There was a time when you couldn’t go outside, there were skinheads, there were Ku Klux Klans. That’s already become far less. You have to agree. And it will continue layer by layer”.
Glass Animals wrote 'Heat Waves' in desperation at the end of a long and unproductive day in the recording studio in the summer of 2018, and it took almost 3 years for the song to break the waves, BBC reports. When they demoed it, frontman Dave Bayley saw there was somebody else in the studio, playing piano, totally in key, realizing it was - Johnny Depp. However, things didn't go smooth from there - the band had to delay their third album after drummer Joe Seaward suffered devastating injuries in a cycling accident. By the time he'd recuperated, the pandemic had derailed the band's comeback, and they were told to "write off" their album until they could tour again. The band decided to give it a chance. The video for the song, taped during the pandemic, was made with the help of Bayley's neighbors. Once released, last summer, the song didn't make it to the charts until it appeared on the multi-million-selling video game Fifa 21, only to reach the top of the charts this year.
New York art collective MSCHF which made "Satan Shoes" that purportedly contain a drop of human blood in the soles, has agreed to issue a voluntary recall as part of a legal settlement with Nike, the New York Times reports. The $1,018 trainers are modified Nike Air Max 97s, with only 666 pairs made and all but one, which Lil Nas X, who collaborated in the creation of the shoe, held so he could choose the recipient, have been shipped. MSCHF will offer full refunds to customers in order to remove the shoes from circulation. However, limited edition shoes can fetch higher prices among collectors so it is not clear how many - if any - customers will return the products.
While waiting for concerts to start all over again, Pitchfork had a number of artists, such as Bartees Cox Jr. of Bartees Strange, Jamila Woods, Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood, Buck Meek of Big Thief, Angel Bat Dawid, KeiyaA and others chose and describe their favorite independent music venues in the US. Cassandra Jenkins' favorite is Chicago's Hideout: "Part of the Hideout’s charm is that it just barely works. It’s pretty out of the way, and it’s small and disarmingly quirky, with a skinny shotgun space that feels familiar even if it’s your first time there. The stage is just deep enough to fit a band, and the bar is just wide enough for people to hang out. The size of the venue lends itself to acts that can play when they’re still figuring themselves out, and to nights that feel really special when the entire space is packed full of people".
Coleman Williams, aka IV, the son of Hank Williams III and the fourth generation of the Hank Williams’ line, shared his hard rock country debut 'Son of Sin', singed as IV and the Strange Band; Darkside - the duo of Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington - shared 'The Limit', a laid-back noisey dark-club tune; Assertion share an emo/post-hardcore song 'Deeper in the Shallow'.
"'Sound of Metal' is a painful, thoughtful, sombre film that telescopes a long story into just a few months" - Guardian's critic writes reviewing a movie about a metal band drummer going deaf. Bradshaw believes the movie is trying too much, with the main actor (and musician) Riz Ahmed giving a "typically fierce and focused performance" which "clarifies the drama and delivers the meaning of Ruben’s final epiphany. He gives the film energy and point". So, worth watching thanks to the musician, right Mr. Bradshaw?
10-year-old multi-instrumentalist Nandi Bushell had earned kudos from the Pixies for her loop version of the band’s classic song 'Where Is My Mind?'. YouTube sensation, who’s a skilled guitarist, bassist, and drummer, plays various guitar portions, and shifts over to drums, combining them all together into one cohesive version of the Pixies tune. The pre-teen also sings the song and listens to the finished song at the video's end, although she seems much more comfortable playing. Pixies tweeted "great work".
