Sacha Gervasi is writing and producing a forthcoming feature film based on Boy George’s life, from growing up in an Irish a working-class family and eventually rising to stardom with the ’80s band Culture Club. Gervasi tells Deadline that Boy George is “a trailblazer and a true original. George’s life story is wickedly entertaining, yet […]
Singer-songwriter Nils Lofgren is a Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young collaborator, and his latest album is partly made off songs he co-wrote with Lou Reed. So, it's relaxing in an old-school rock'n'roll way, middle-of-the-road kind of music. PopMatters says "the album serves not only as a fitting tribute to his late friend and collaborator but […]
NME is thrilled by FKA Twigs' performance at Alexandra Palace Theatre in London (they gave it 5 of 5 stars): "Nothing short of a masterwork of genius, a moving, shifting, visually stunning wrecking ball of emotion – and a marriage of venue, artist, material and occasion that’s all too rarely experienced by us mere mortals". […]
NME likes Australian pub-punkers' Amyl and The Sniffers debut album - "Loud and aggressive, for sure, but it’s singer Amy Taylor’s insightful yet chant-worthy lyrics that make this more than just a ear-bleeding exercising... It’s not big, it’s not clever, but it’s a bloody hoot". Atwood Magazine likes it even more - "A ridiculously flawless […]
The reunited Jawbox on Saturday played a show in Baltimore, a warm-up to their comeback tour that kicks off next month. It was their first show in 22 years - the last was in 1997, in the meantime the alter-band played at Jimmy Fallon's show in 2009. Brooklyn Vegan collected videos from the Baltimore show.
Guardian spoke to eight disabled festival-goers about the joys and challenges they encounter at music fests. One Lexi Porter had a troublesome experience - she uses a wheelchair full-time and in 2016, while she was watching Young Thug in a tent on a viewing platform a non-disabled festival-goers climbed on top to get a better […]
It's vocoder, lasers, dancing, some noise - it's kinda ridiculous, but given The Voidz image, it suits them. Maybe not that great, but still interesting. Listen to the song at YouTube.
Stereolab yesterday played their first live show in Ramsgate, England, in over a decade, with a setlist that was a mix of favourites. Brooklyn Vegan reports. They play in Ramsgate again today, but they officially kick off their comeback tour on Thursday in Brussels. The band is now Laetitia Sadier, Tim Gane, Andy Ramsay, Joe Watson and […]
Loudwire has a witty list - 11 places every metalhead should visits. The list goes from "gates of hell" in Karakum desert in Turkmenistan - a whole that has been burning for 50 years now, to festivals, metal bars all over the world, and a church in Czech Republic full of human bones.
The Quietus combed through underground music published this May in Britain, and found all sorts of stuff. There's Brit-Italian industrial hip hop by Kinlaw & Franco Franco, very political and very french project Harrga, electro-folk by EBU, very rhythm-based techno by Harpoon, ambient music by Sean Addicott, jazzy blues by Adam Coney, tender-electro by LOFT, […]
"You sample a song, you get it cleared. The music industry has always been a wild west of rip-off artists, snake oil salesmen and manipulative profiteers but the plagiarism lawyers have beaten some sort of gentlemanly practices into it over the decades. Talent borrows, genius steals, previous genius sends legal letter outlining their cut. There’s […]
Kanye West talked to David Letterman in his series 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction' (Netflix, May 31), where he talked about his career, health and family. “I had the confidence, this delusional confidence, to think I could rap as good as JAY-Z—even to the point of not playing him beats and saving them for […]
So, this is exactly what he had to say: "What it’s NOT going to be is your ‘fav member lineup’ playing their ‘classic records’ in full etc. Maybe we’ll play old shit, who knows how we feel. Just remember our past campaigns never relied on playing requests or going fully backwards …it’s new shit, new […]
Los Angeles street gang the Crips, that Nipsey Hussle was a member of, have made a move to register Hussle's program “The Marathon Continues” in a variety of matters, primarily in youth sports programs. The company that registered it is Crips LLC, and they are are “developing educational manuals for others in the field of […]
Fans have complained of lousy sound at Spice Girls concerts for the second time, and some are demanding a refund. Fans first complained about sound issues at band's opening gig at Dublin's Croke Park on Friday, and again Cardiff's Principality Stadium on Monday night, some claiming they could not hear the music properly. “What we […]
Tyler, the Creator’s new LP 'IGOR' has topped the Billboard 200 albums chart - the record earned 165,000 equivalent album units, with 74,000 albums in sales and 122 million song streams. DJ Khaled’s 'Father of Asahd' is second on Billboard's 200, with 136,000 equivalent units sold. 'IGOR' is Tyler, the Creator’s first No. 1 album, […]
Flying Lotus is a "master at shifting tone, and knows how to take listeners on an exhilarating journey that unites both calm and chaos" - NME says in it's review of sixth album by experimental producer-rapper (they gave it five out of five stars). The album includes guest appearances by Solange, George Clinton, Thundercat, Toro y […]
Daniel Higgs it the former frontman of legendary post-hardcore band Lungfish, coming from the same time and place as Fugazi, with Lungfish always rendered weirder and more exploratory. Ahead of an appearance at Terraforma, an "experimental and sustainable music festival" happening in Milano, Italy, in July, the Quietus made an interview where Higgs presents his […]
The Cure are in the middle of their Disintegration 30th Anniversary tour, and on weekend they played at the Sydney Opera House. In addition to the classics from that album, they also played a second set of b-sides and outtakes from the era - songs 'Babble', 'Out of Mind', 'Fear of Ghosts', 'Delirious Night', 'Esten' and […]
Drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott and his brother Dimebag Darrell, who famously played together in power-metal band Pantera, are buried next to each other, as band's social pages revealed grave marker installed last week, Blabbermouth reports. Metal musicians are buried at Moore Memorial Gardens cemetery in Arlington, Texas, and Abbott's grave marker is engraved with quote: […]
American scientists have created an underwater sound so loud that it instantly boils water and could even rupture person's heart and lungs, if heard outside of an aquatic surrounding. Stanford scientists directed small blasts of water at powerful X-rays that instantly vaporized the surrounding water, resulting in a shockwave. A train of shockwaves followed and once the threshold for how […]
This weekend Spice Girls began their reunion tour with a string of dates, including three nights at Wembley already sold out. UK and Ireland tour features Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Geri Horner and Melanie Chisholm, better known as Scary, Baby, Ginger and Sporty Spice, without Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham. BBC questions "how can we explain […]
The Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala hinted that the band's reunion is "happening" in a response to a fan. Earlier in the week he also seemed to insinuate that The Mars Volta were in the studio: “We are in the kitchen finding new ways to through curve balls”. Earlier in the month Bixler-Zavala revealed he was […]
Puma are to release a collection that Nipsey Hussle worked on before his death in an effort to provide for his children – daughter Emani, 10, with ex Tanisha Foster, and two-year-old son Kross with girlfriend Lauren London. Weeks before his death, Hussle shared a video on Instagram announcing that a collaboration between Puma and his […]
Elton John wrote a lovely article for the Observer, about his childhood, parents, bringing up, his own family, and how he doesn't really like seeing himself on the screen. He describes how the movie producers wanted a watered-down version of his life - "Some studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the […]
It's titled 'Giant Baby' and it it is a kind of a lullaby, slightly psychedelic. It's mostly Wayne Coyne singing with an acoustic guitar in the background. A nice song actually, not that weird at all, it features The Clash guitarist Mick Jones, narrating a story about a - giant boy. Listen to it below. […]
Beast Coast is the largest collective of New York rappers, taking three members of Flatbush Zombies, all two members of The Underachievers, and Pro Era’s Joey Bada$$, Kirk Knight, Nyck Caution, CJ Fly, and Powers Pleasant, and this week they released their long awaited debut album 'Escape From New York'. All Hip Hop says it's […]
The Quietus went searching for underground Irish music, and found experimental pop, punk, avant-garde electronics, folk, club sounds and hip hop – not to mention what’s in between. Their article is rich with names, and music, check it out - here.
His grandfather was from Bolivia, and his parents liked early jazz and Motown, he looks like an accountant, but instead he sings heartfelt, smooth soul music. He's got a debut album out, 'This Love', and a new video, 'Lonely Girl', with a - girl, mostly naked, getting out of focus. Listen to his album at […]
Guardian asks why all the movies with/about musicians this year, and last. It's been a handful: 'A Star Is Born' about fictional Ally, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' about pretty much real Freddie Mercury, 'Will Rose' about a woman out of prison and in the country music, 'Vox Lux' about a fictional star Celeste, 'Beats' about stupid law […]
The European independent music companies’ association proposed a 10-point plan to reform the streaming economy. IMPALA has some good ideas: higher payouts for longer songs; higher payouts for tracks that users specifically search for (as opposed to encountering them via playlists or radio); assuring there will be no features that recreate elements of payola; boost local repertoire and languages.
John Grant shares Cate Le Bon-produced atmospheric Americana 'Boy From Michigan'; Svalbard vocalist Serena Cherry shares a dark metal song 'Labyrinthian' from her Noctule project; just some classic hip-hop - a new video of 'Nutshell Pt. 2' by the late A Tribe Called Quest MC Phife Dawg, featuring Busta Rhymes and Redman, produced by J Dilla; members of Vex, Obsequiae, Panopticon, and Horrendous form black-death project Aduanten, share 'The Drowning Tide'.
The experimental UK rock band Black Midi has announced its second album 'Cavalcade' with a music video for the lead single, 'John L'. The peculiar video was directed by choreographer and creative director Nina McNeely, whose previous projects include Rihanna’s 'Sledgehammer' visual and Gaspar Noé’s 'Climax'. According to Pitchfork, half of the album was written by individual members of the band at home before they brought it to one another during rehearsals. Also, guitarist/founding member Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin stepped away from the group to tend to his mental health, and was substituted by saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi and keyboardist Seth Evans. Black Midi also released another new song 'Despair', the b-side to 'John L'; it won't be a part of the new album.
This year's documentries 'Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil', 'The World’s a Little Blurry' (about Billie Eilish), 'Framing Britney Spears', and 'Alone Together' (Charlie XCX project) are a part of "a larger reconsideration of how female stars are discussed, hounded, anointed and denigrated – and thus how we judge and value women in public, how we consider ourselves", Guardian writes comparing the four. "As Lovato’s story attests, the appearance of power under the impossible binds of marketable public womanhood, especially for young women – be sexy but sexless, confident but not threatening, empowered but desirable – is a ruse" the G's writer concludes.
Taylor Swift and her mom Andrea donated $50,000 to Vickie Quarles, the mother of five daughters whose husband, Theodis Ray Quarles, died of COVID-19, according to Yahoo News. Their donation through GoFundMe fundraiser raised the total amount to over $62,000. Previously, in December, the singer donated $13,000 to two mothers who were struggling to pay their bills during the pandemic. In March of last year, Swift sent checks to her longtime fans who had lost their jobs during the ongoing crisis. She also donated money to Nashville record store Grimey's New and Preloved Music to pay and provide healthcare for each of the retailer's employees for three months.
Today is the launch date of Here In The Room, an interactive digital portrait by Nile Rodgers. The superstar hitmaker was answering 350 questions for two days, in realtime, about working with David Bowie, Madonna, and Lady Gaga, about why he chose to play in bands rather than pursue a solo career, about a kind of breakfast he eats, etc. A taste of the experience is available In the Room for free, while an online pass to access the full content costs £20, Guardian reports. This project is an extension of the National Holocaust Centre and Museum to make survivors’ testimonies interactive and lasting, and it is now branching out into the arts.
"Covid has definitely humbled me. You realise nothing is set in stone... I’ve learned to never push anything back in life. Do it while you have the chance" - Darkoo, British-Nigerian vocalist, tells the Guardian about his lockdown experience. Oli James, tour manager for singer-songwriter Sam Fender, who took a job on a fishing trawler, says "it’s been great seeing more of the family and I’ve enjoyed woodland walks to keep my brain active". Jack Cochrane of the Snuts describes how they got through thanks to being close - "we’ve been friends since we were kids – three of the band met in nursery – and have played together since we were 12 or 13, which helps you pull together. It was just another thing to go through as a group of friends".
Billboard believes cassettes are gonna have a revival, similar to the vinyl. In 2018, only 219,000 cassette albums were sold, while in 2020, on Discogs alone, cassette album sales were up a third, totaling 282,798. Big French cassette manufacturer RecordingTheMasters in 2019 was manufacturing around 9,000 cassette tapes a month. Now, they are at 30,000 a month. Apart from being cheaper and more practical, cassettes are produced at half the time it takes for vinyl.
South Korean companies are using artificial intelligence to make new music by dead pop stars, Korean or global. AI is being used to learn and then extrapolate the style of certain musicians, like Kim Kwang Seok, who died 25 years ago, and Freddie Mercury who is dead for 30 years now. It is part of the Korean government's push to harness the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, using technology to transform the way we live and work.
280 upcoming bands - including Indigo Sparke, Shannen James, Chubby and the Gang, and Black Country, New Road - performed last week at the online edition of South by Southwest. The bands performed from their living rooms and backyards. Paste Magazine was at the (web)site to witness a "smooth, yet strange virtual event that, by streamlining the festival experience, necessarily sapped it of all the chaotic energy and excitement that makes live music (let alone festivals) so irreplaceable". The New York Times says SXSW "came back with a genuine joy".
