American singer Dr John has died at the age of 77 - the New Orleans musician was famous for blending black and white musical styles (blues, pop, jazz, boogie woogie, rock and roll), with a hoodoo-infused stage persona and gravelly bayou drawl. Alexis Petridis says Dr. John will be remembered "as visionary artist who took […]
"It’s the sound of borders breaking, of traditions mingling, of a utopian closeness that so often seems so far away" Pitchfork says in review of Jai Paul's album 'Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)'. It has leaked online six years ago ("looking back, it’s sad to think about what could have been, but it is what it […]
Consequence of Sound covered pop punk with a selection of 100 best bands in the genre. Green Day is at No. 1. Surprised? Of course not. The fun lies in exploring the remaining 99...
Maryland rapper Chad Focus was given an American Express credit card for business expenses by his company - he was working as Search Engine Optimization Specialist, but he allegedly embezzled over $4 million from the unnamed company to fund his music career. Focus - while working as SEOS people knew him as Chad Arrington - […]
"Mariee Sioux is, perhaps, one of the more underrated of the great Nevada City artists, a singer-songwriter with a voice at once like sand, wind, and waves and a knack for conjuring up emotional enchantments in her often nature-inspired lyrics" - PopMatters goes convincingly about the folk artist in general, and then delivers sweet words […]
Guardian's Fiona Sturges writes about the issue of age of musicians, specifically - with men it's not an issue, unlike women where it becomes an obstacle: "Older men, with their silver hair and laughter lines, are seen as stately and wise. Women of the same age are past it and embarrassing. Today, Iggy Pop (72) […]
There's Tyler, the Creator, Solange, Better Oblivion Community Center, Lizzo, Broken Social Scene, Future, Justin Townes Earle, Say Anything, Toro Y Moi... Songs, albums, Vulture's choice.
Dan Snaith of Caribou fame will put out a new EP this summer with his project Daphni, and is leading off with its title track, 'Sizzling'. Here, he uses Paradise’s 1981 song 'Sizzlin' Hot' and spins it into a balmy dance track, Stereogum says. Check it out below.
Although it kind of lives on in another form, iTunes as we know it is a thing of the past... iTunes was exciting during its inception, and even beyond its heyday, in the late noughties and early noughteens, when streaming services weren’t widely available on mobiles, so it still seemed novel to be able to […]
Chicago journalist Jim DeRogatis published a new book 'Soulless' about R. Kelly and his, to put it mildly, problematic relationship with girls. He details not just the accusations of sexual abuse, but Kelly's complex history of out-of-court settlements, the music industry's complicity in his actions, and law enforcement's failure to bring him to justice, BBC […]
18 Minidiscs billed as the entire 'OK Computer' sessions have leaked online, as a user on the Radiohead subreddit points out. Fans in that community created a Google Doc indexing what’s included on each of the discs, Exclaim reports. Among others, there's a previously unreleased version of 'Lift', a song Radiohead refused to publish, fearing it was a 'Creep'-like hit that […]
New Black Mirror episode 'Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too', with Miley Cyrus dropped on Netflix, with pop/country princess singing a reworked version of Nine Inch Nails‘ 'Head Like A Hole'. iNews reports that showrunner Charlie Brooker wrote new, peppier lyrics “Hey there, whoah-ho, I’m on a roll / Riding so high, achieving my goals / I’m […]
"'Black Friday' accepts happiness as something that we’re entitled to, that everyone should feel regardless of their situation" - Stereogum says of their latest choice for Album of the Week, third album by American indie-rockers Palehound. Sonically, 'Black Friday' features "pillowy arrangements that sound like something you could fall back on to keep warm".
Miley Cyrus has responded angrily online after a fan in Barcelona grabbed her by the neck before trying to kiss her, People reports. On Twitter Cyrus wrote: "She can be wearing what she wants. She can be a virgin. She can be sleeping with five different people. She can be with her husband. She can […]
Rihanna has been named the world’s richest female musician by Forbes magazine - her wealth is estimated at $600m (£472m), coming from her music career, her fashion and beauty lines. Forbes’s list of the top five richest female musicians finds Madonna in second place ($570m), Céline Dion in third ($450m), Beyoncé and Barbra Streisand tying […]
London alter-rock band Hey Colossus have a new album 'Four Bibles', mainstream media mostly didn't cover it, unlike alternative, who mostly like it: "To come from their Fudgetunnel-channelling inception to something this alive and expansive – and for it to somehow still make sense – is pretty unique" - Narc Magazine. "Hey Colossus cover a […]
Psychedelic rock legend and 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson died last week, and Chelsea Wolfe is one of many who paid a tribute to him. She shared a haunting acoustic cover of 'Night of the Vampire'.
"David Berman became a cult hero singer-songwriter largely because he never said much, making his public expiation all the more startling. Silver Jews did not tour. He did not grant interviews. He didn't even let his record label take out ads to promote Silver Jews albums. It was as a lyricist that Berman attained his […]
'Western Stars' is Bruce Springsteen's first solo album in 14 years, and PopMatters had the chance to listen to it prior to it's release (June 14): "The primary influences are the borrowed elements of country, folk, and baroque pop that interlaced in the late 1960s and early 1970s rock... 'Western Stars' will take its place among […]
“If you’re a sensual being, all of your senses need stimulation. A lot of it was based around pleasure… let’s face it” - Kylie Minogue is heard to say in new documentary 'Mystify' about Michael Hutchence, troubled INXS star, coming to BBC2, NME reports. Docu-movie examines the story of the Australian music icon, the events […]
Pixies have a new album, 'Beneath the Eyrie', it comes out on September 13th, and it's where “tales of witches, Daniel Boone, misfits and other characters fit utterly into the band’s inherent weirdness”, Consequence of Sound reports. The album’s title is a reference to an eagles nest outside their recording studio. Before the album comes […]
Boy band BTS have made history on Saturday by becoming the first South Korean group to headline Wembley Stadium, in front of 60,000 screaming fans (CBS). BTS in London paid tribute to Freddie Mercury - singer Jin led the crowd in a version of the Queen frontman's "ay-oh" chant, with his band-mate naming other bands […]
"She has, at 60, produced her most natural-feeling, progressive and original record since Confessions. It’s also one of her most bizarre and sprawling, and features some of her worst ever music" - Guardian reviews Madonna's new album 'Madame X' (out 14 June). They gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Doctors in Wales are increasingly giving referrals for mental health support assessments - the number increased by 47% between 2014 and 2018. Some patients have started break-dancing as a method of treatment. BBC has a nice video-report about it.
Kesha's new song, 'Rich, White, Straight Men' envisions a world without our current political leaders - "What if rich, white, straight men Didn't rule the world anymore?", she says in the song (and convinces us that god is a woman, she met her!), Billboard reports. The bridge takes melody from the childhood favorite, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little […]
"There’s drug money, and speedboats, and ass shaking, and the U swagger. You can hear and come to appreciate his love for this place and its music. The album is so rich with the subtext of Florida, and local rap history, it feels lived in" - Pitchfork says about Denzel Curry's album 'ZUU', giving it […]
Apart from tracks we already picked out (Slowthai, JARV IS..., Skepta, Tyler, the Creator...), Guardian makes a colourful choice of June's 50 best new tracks. There's summer-bangers in the making ('Why Don't You Just Call Me' Antony & Cleopatra), pop-rock ('Playground' Steve Lazy), metal bangers (Slipknot and Employed to Serve), although the London paper thinks […]
'What Nature Gives… Nature Takes Away' is about "rooks, starlings, death, classical myth, Victorian gothic, prog, flowers, cunning women, Japanese monkeys, the North Sea, and West Lancashire", sonically, it's somewhere between prog, psych and punk - the Quietus likes UK's post-punkers The Membranes new album a lot.
Bon Iver debuted two new songs at London’s All Points East Festival on Sunday - 'Hey, Ma' and 'U (Man Like)', and showed a link to a new website, icommai.com, on which an extensive list of collaborators are listed - Bruce Hornsby, Mosey Sumney, The National’s Bryce Dessner, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, and more. Consequence […]
Jay-Z's wealth is worth 1 billion dollars, and that's a conservative estimate, Forbes reports. They added his entire media empire, from Roc Nation to Rocawear to Tidal and D’Ussé cognac and got the 10-figure sum. Diddy and Dr. Dre rank as the second and third wealthiest rappers, with a net worth of $820 and $770 […]
Beyoncé was robbed two times in the last month - three separate storage units holding expensive bags and clothing were hit once, and then within a week burglars came back to the same facility, making off with handbags, kids toys, and photos belonging to one of Beyoncé’s stylists, TMZ reports. Stolen goods are estimated to value $1 million.
Ja Rule sold a non-fungible token, or NFT, of a painting of the ill-fated Fyre Festival logo for $122,000. The rapper told Forbes (via Complex) that he decided to sell the oil painting of the doomed festival's logo - which had been hanging in the festival's New York office while it was being planned - because he "just wanted that energy out". The artwork was accompanied by a handwritten note from Ja Rule which read "F**k this painting".
Dubliner David Balfe shared an artistic punk band with a best friend who killed himself, and now says his farewell with a project For Those I Love. Alexis Petridis chose it for his Album of the Week describing it as "bedroom dance music and spoken-word vocals" and "eerie post-dubstep". NME gives it perfect 5 stars arguing it's "a testament to the power of catharsis", whereas Independent hears "a staggering album". 'For Those I Love', however, goes beyond Balfe's story of love, as the Line of Best Fit points out - "his creation of such an overt sense of nostalgia, grief, loss and mourning, whilst also making time to make statements on social justice issues is impressive".
'Promises' is a collaborative project by producer Floating Points, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra, but the one holding it together is - "Sanders, his warm tone and fluid technique undiminished even at 80 years old, listening to his surroundings and finding brilliant patterns to stitch the work together and thus elevate it", as Pitchfork hears it (tagged it Best new music also). The New York Times appreciates the unity of it: "When [Sanders] plays his final notes of the album... he does not so much disappear as become one with Shepherd’s web of humming synthesizers".
90 percent of women in music had experienced "unconscious bias", 63 percent felt excluded from songwriting and production gigs - the new Be the Change report, which included 401 female artists, songwriters, producers and DJs, shows. A huge 82 percent of women said they had experienced harassment themselves, with 27 percent saying it happens frequently.
Critics really like the new Tina Turner documentary by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, a "must see", because, as The List says - "whether you're a fan or not, it's hard not to get swept up in the sheer strength of her story". Vulture sees the broader picture: "Frames itself as the final word on this music legend, strongly implying in its closing moments that this two-hour movie is essentially Turner’s farewell to the wider world".
The New Cue very highly recommends a mix by Heavenly Records supremo Jeff Barrett on his Mixcloud. The one you can listen to here "is an absolute cracker, filled with gems from around the globe, particularly Africa".
Vijay Iyer Trio share some groovy piano virtuosity with 'UnEasy'; Paul McCartney seems much younger in a Beck remix of 'Find My Way' - the younger musician got the idea for the mix remembering seeing McCartney dance; supergroup Satanic Planet (featuring members of Slayer, Locust and Planet B) share their first song - a, obviously, satanic industrial electro 'Baphomet'; Mysie shares an R'n'B velvet 'Keep Up With Your Heart'; Luminous Kid shares an emotional same-sex song 'Mountain Crystals’ featuring spoken word by Phoebe Bridgers; U.N.K.L.E. just go dancing on 'If We Don't Make It'.
“I grew up listening to Edith Piaf, Barbara, Jacques Brel, Lara Fabian, Patricia Kaas. The pared-down French classicism of their songs was what I always wanted my own music to be about” - 26-year-old Parisian singer Yseult tells the Guardian about her musical background. And about her intentions: “I want all the previously invisible minorities in France to become visible in the cultural landscape. Not for the sake of representation, but for what we can bring to the table. We want to be present in culture because we are present in society. We want to have our contributions credited.”
Movie director Andrew Dominik is making a new documentary about Nick Cave and Warren Ellis "attempting to play 'Carnage' and 'Ghosteen' live", Cave has announced in his Red Hand Files blog. Cave also describes how he and Ellis recorded 'Carnage' while not really trying to make a record - "I had been sitting at my desk — suddenly and shockingly not travelling — writing lyrics and poems into a void, with no real objective other than to make sense of this stationary moment. The world felt weird. My body felt weird. I had been jet-lagged for forty-five years. Now my inner clock had begun to tick regularly. Some nights I even slept. I think Warren’s experience was not dissimilar. I think we both felt the enforced stasis, not just unnerving, but also strangely and fitfully energizing, and so, when we began working in the studio, Carnage came out fast and necessary, as proof of life".
