The Verve's Richard Ashcroft has got the rights to song 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' after a legal battle od 22 years. The Rolling Stones' duo Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have now relinquished all publishing rights to Ashcroft. He acknowledged that it was the Stones' late manager, Allen Klein, who had been responsible for the situation, […]
"For a band who did so well to combine heavy metal thunder with academic minimalism, who would have thought they could produce something so lovely? Every note sounds thoroughly gorgeous" - the Quietus reviews 'Full Upon Her Moving Lips', new album by drone metal pioneers Earth. Listen to the album at BandCamp.
"It’s old, it’s finished, and it really has nothing more to say. Guys in rock bands dress like they’ve come to fix your electrics” - Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie said The Daily Telegraph in an interview. "There’s not one sex symbol in white rock anymore, cause there’s no sex in it. It’s very solipsistic, […]
The Guardian has an article about an unexpected phenomena - Inuit music. They say it is booming, as artists blend modern pop with throat singing. Musicians representing the Inuit scene are - drummer and singer Kelly Fraser, rapper Mister, electropop vocalist Riit, throat singers Cynthia Pitsiulak and Charlotte Qamaniq.
By 2021 Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, will eliminate single-use plastics at its venues and festivals. It's part of a push to achieve zero waste at Live Nation's clubs, concert halls and venues by 2030, the Spoon reports. Live Nation says it will start trialling plant-based water bottles across Europe in 2019. Live […]
"Faye Webster’s understated, self-deprecating persona almost dares you not to take her seriously... Flanked by mellow electric piano and silky horns and drowsy steel guitar, she applies her gently pleading voice to tales of soul-wrenching pain" - Consequence of Sounds reviews 'Atlanta Millionaires Club' by Atlanta indie-folk singer-songwriter. Paste Magazine talked to her about how […]
Posters promoting Morrissey's latest album have been removed from Merseyrail stations in Liverpool after a commuter complained. Morrissey has previously expressed support for the far-right For Britain party and earlier this month wore a badge with its logo on during a TV show, but he denies he is a racist, Liverpool Echo reports. Earlier this […]
The 1975 won songwriters of the year for their album, 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships' and best contemporary song for 'Love It If We Made It', at the 2019 Ivor Novello songwriting awards, Independent reports. The organizers praised The 1975's efforts as "a bold, inspirational and original statement, bringing together an awareness of contemporary […]
Consequence of Sound gives Tyler, the Creator A- for his new album 'IGOR' - "Tyler has become more focused, honing his production skills and discovering that the art of crafting albums is more rewarding than shock value and banger clout... While the harmonic soulfulness expressed on 'IGOR' is among the best in hip-hop, Tyler’s choice to manipulate […]
BBC remembers some of Elton John movie moments, in light of his new biopic, no big roles, but memorable scenes. First he played the character Pinball Wizard in The Who's film, Tommy, dressed in seven foot high boots, in the movie adaptation of the band's 1969 rock opera. Then in 1995 he sang Can You […]
"The sound of the band is a clearly defined one, characterized by a flair for using subtle, minimalist electronics and delicate organic instrumentation to frame soft... A wonderfully accomplished and understated album which sees the band furthering their own, distinctive sound" - PopMatters gives 8 points (od 10), to Drinker's debut album 'Fragments'. The band […]
French fashion label Vetements is selling an “Oversized Printed Cotton-Jersey T-Shirt” that rips off the “Corporate magazines still suck” shirt that Kurt Cobain famously wore on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1992. They sell it for $550! The shirt reads “CORPORATE MAGAZINES STILL SUCK A LOT!” The “A LOT!” is a new addition to […]
The world’s oldest record store, Spillers Records in Cardiff, banned Morrissey records from its store, as Wales Online reports. The store in Wales capital will not stock his releases because of the singer’s fervent support for the far-right.
The 1960s counterculture had a great impact on society that lasts to this day, and some remnants are felt this year, literally. Eliot Curtis, the Broadcast Operations Manager for KPIX Television, felt that. He was recently tasked with the restoration of a vintage Buchla Model 100 modular synthesizer - an instrument that had been sitting […]
Decades long love between Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen is the subject of 'Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love', a documentary by Nick Broomfield, who also worked on 'Kurt & Courtney', 'Biggie & Tupac', 'Whitney: Can I Be Me', and other films, Brooklyn Vegan reports. 'Marianne & Leonard' premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and it’s set for release in […]
"'Reward' goes down smooth, languidly hypnotic like a meditative zen state. It’s starkly beautiful, with a patience that was no doubt derived from the long, arduous hours she spent making furniture" - Stereogum writes about their latest choice for Album of the Week, folk-rock singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon and her fifth album 'Reward', which she made […]
PopMatters made a selection of best metal records published this month - 12 top metal albums. It's Bewitcher with their "finest work to date in 'Under the Witching Cross'", Spirit Adrift "further opened up their doom metal to its current, wondrous state with 'Divided By Darkness'", Vale "produced one of the finest debut records imaginable with 'Burden of […]
Dancer Mona Berntsen was interrogated by airport security in Tel Aviv for hour and a half, after wearing a Palestinian flag during Madonna's performance at Eurovision. She says she was questioned about "my whole life story, my reasons for having travelled to Arabic countries throughout my life, my religious relations, my family matters, showing my […]
Three documents were discovered by Aretha Franklin’s niece Sabrina Owens - two handwritten wills from 2010 were found in a locked cabinet, and another from 2014 was found in a notebook underneath some couch cushions, the Associated Press reports. Franklin’s 2014 document requests that her son Kecalf Franklin serve as the estate’s personal representative - a […]
A supergroup featuring Muse‘s Matt Bellamy, Blur‘s Graham Coxon, Miles Kane, and members of Jet and The Zutons will play an intimate London show at London’s 100 Club on June 3. The Jaded Hearts Club Band are expected to form an eclectic selection of Beatles covers and rock classics. The all-star supergroup began performing as […]
Carly Rae Jepsen's new album 'Dedicated', released last week, now has the highest Metacritic user score of all time, 9,4, putting it ahead of albums like Kendrick Lamar’s 'To Pimp A Butterfly' (9,1) and Radiohead’s 'In Rainbows' (9,0), Stereogum reports. SG says it's - very much just a collection of pop songs, some of which are pretty good, but most […]
New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio talked to CNN about his potential Democratic 2020 presidential run, but the end of the conversation turned to music. De Blasio told the anchors his favorite band is The Clash and, in particular, recommends London Calling (“There’s many good hits on that one”). He also went on to say he […]
A grand jury has indicted 29-year-old Eric Holder Jr for murder of Nipsey Hussle, and two counts of attempted murder, after two other men were injured when the rapper was shot dead in March. Earlier this month, Holder's high-profile lawyer, Christopher Darden, filed a motion to withdraw from the case, citing death threats. Holder will now […]
American experimental sludge-doom band SubRosa are breaking apart, after 13 years together and four albums, Pitchfork reports. SubRosa announced that band members Rebecca Vernon, Sarah Pendelton, Kim Pack, Levi Hanna, and Andy Patterson are focusing on different projects going forward - Teleprom (Pack and her partner), the Keening (Vernon's solo project), DØNE (Patterson), and Asphodel Wine (Pendelton and […]
"It’s music for a nightclub in a moon colony. It’s music for a retro-futuristic recreation of an Eastern Europe metropolis that never quite existed. It’s music for an encroaching dystopia... It bursts forth with confidence, dancing between strange textural details and bold melodies effortlessly" - Stereogum writes about their latest choice for Album of the […]
NME has a nice piece about new Liverpool scene, "terrific collection of misfits" united by label Eggy Records. "What unites these bands is a philosophy. Their collective is based simply on mutual creative admiration, a sense of humour and an outlet for anxiety. It’s finding the right amount of light and dark. The right amount […]
New York based Ensemble Signal, a classical group dedicated to performing contemporary and diverse works, performed Jonny Greenwood's two classical pieces 'Three Miniatures from Water' and '88 (No. 1)', Pitchfork reports. “It’s good to see musicians in the raw, away from stage lighting and backing tracks—as if they've just stopped by an office to play […]
American billionaire investor Robert Frederick Smith stunned the class of 2019 at historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta with his pledge to wipe out their debt, thought to be worth up to $40m. Mr Smith, 56, is the founder of the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners and one of the nation's most prominent African-American […]
Composer Harold Arlen's estate filed a 148-page lawsuit against Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, alleging they have committed widespread piracy, accusing them of running a "massive piracy operation for the purpose of generating profits from their sales and streams of pirated recordings". The lawsuit claims that technology allowed increased bootlegging by musical pirates, and because of this […]
The Brits call him "a 16-year-old music prodigy with a recording contract and a bright future", Alfie Templeman got a guitar from his father when he was just a kid, and wrote his first song - about sirens in World War One - when he was just seven or eight. Templeman is signed to Chess […]
Northern California singer-songwriter Jenna Mammina began hosting twice-daily webcast/livestreaming events on March 23, 2020, and hasn’t missed a single day since she started, which amounts to 730 unique shows in one year. She calls these live-streams “11:11 with Jenna” - with a new episode debuting daily at 11:11 a.m. and a totally different one following at 11:11 p.m. (those are New York Times, meaning that's 4:11 PM and 4:11 AM in Rome, and in Singapore the 11:11 AM episode is at 11:11 PM and the 11:11 PM is at 11:11 AM). She hosts these shows via Zoom and people can join in by visiting Facebook.com/Jenna.Mammina. She plans to continue indefinitely, as she's told the Mercury News - "I never want to stop. I love the community that we have created, the inner connectivity with people all over the world. I’m ready to keep going for as long as it stays in line with my life".
Lemmy Kilmister's ashes were placed in bullets and delivered to his closest friends and associates, per the legendary Motörhead frontman’s request. The revelation comes courtesy of Riki Rachtman, the onetime host of the MTV show 'Headbangers Ball', who shared a photo of a bullet with “LEMMY” engraved on it, writing - “Before his death #Lemmy asked for his ashes to be put in some bullets & handed out to his closest friends. Today, I received a bullet & was literally brought to tears. Thank you, @myMotorhead”.
Tokyo events and advertising company Hiroro gives its employees up to 10 paid days off when their idol is retiring, Vice reports. They’re also entitled to 10 days of bereavement leave, which is usually taken to mourn a relative’s death if their favorite idol is getting married. If one’s second, or even third favorite is stepping off the stage, employees can take up to three days off. Corporate Japan has a notoriously strict work culture and no national sick leave system.
A coalition of advocacy groups representing musicians and entertainers voiced their support for a new California state bill that seeks to limit the length of contracts for recording artists to seven years, Billboard reports. The FAIR Act would remove a damages provision that commonly discourages artists from leaving record deals after seven years if they have undelivered albums, even though they are legally permitted.
In 2019, music copyright was worth $31.6bn, up by 7%, or $2.1bn from the previous year, and the third consecutive year that the growth was more than $2bn. These record-breaking copyright valuations are due to streaming - its contribution to labels, publishers and CMOs has gone from 14% in 2015 to almost 47% in 2019. Tarzan Economics predicts that 2020 will be another record-breaking year.
When Lady Gaga fired him, Troy Carter turned to Silicon Valley where he invested in Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, Warby Parker, Spotify, Gimlet, and Slack, Trapital reminds.
An interesting interview with dr. Stephanie Doktor, music professor, with MJI about John Powell, who liked Black music but was a racist. To summarize it: "Powell was an American composer who initially based much of his music on ragtime, spirituals, minstrel tunes, and jazz in the 1900s and 1910s. But in the early 1920s, he became a politically active white supremacist... He continued to perform his Black-based music at the same time he was collaborating with Marcus Garvey to have Black Americans removed from the nation. Instead of interpreting his pre- and post-war agendas as radically oppositional or his musical and political careers as antithetical to one another, I consider how they are actually imbricated. Doing so helps problematize the structure of modernist concert music. Put differently, Powell was not an outlier but rather a product of American modernism".
"It offers up metalcore and mathcore at its harshest, interspersed with ambient/noise interludes and flirtations with black & death metal and other heavy subgenres, and it covers a lot of ground within that realm. It's chaotic and discordant at times, bone-crushingly heavy at others, and atmospheric at others, and it remains dark and intense throughout" - Brooklyn Vegan writes in praise of London trio's debut album. The Quietus likes Kate Davies’ vocals and how "there’s an element of playfulness here too, which actually helps these bizarre, head-spinning song structures feel even more abrasive and derange... Believe the hype, this thing will tear your head clean off".
A funny and intelligent interview by Music Journalism Insider with music critic and editor Kevin Williams from several Chicago newspapers; here's a snippet: "I reviewed everything from Kid Rock to Diana Krall, Cafe Tacuba to Wu-Tang, and was a constant annoyance for the copy desk. One review of Incubus was simply, 'Incubus? No, succubus'. Rewrite. I described Wu-Tang as like being at the 95th Street Red Line stop, just a bunch of smart brothas taking turns yelling at you. Rewrite. I had so much fun".
"Is it ever a good idea to put on performances that depict police brutality, jail, and other facets of Black oppression, especially on the stages of white institutions? There’s the chance that these displays enlighten some viewers to the gravity of American oppression, but there is also the reality that they come off as pandering and upset people directly impacted by state violence" - Complex discusses the value, or harm, of these performances.
