Madonna has released a music video for 'Medellín', the lead single for her new album 'Madame X', and with it comes her new eye-patched alter-ego (watch the video here). It all started with her moving to Lisbon: "My son wants to be a professional soccer player and he was never going to have the highest […]
"The simplest songs are often the best, the most relatable and reachable" - PopMatters says about 'Love Lies Bleeding', a song by Rose of the West, Wisconsin-based outfit that released its self-titled debut on 5 April (listen to it here). "The song challenges our basic notions about pop music while giving us hope for the […]
Laurel Canyon was a centre of counterculture activity in the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s - it was home to Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Eagles, Love, Neil Young, The Monkees - and it is the subject of new documentary 'Echo in the Canyon'. It features in-depth interviews with many of […]
Stereogum has some strong words about Kanye West's VIP Sunday Service shows that he has been doing since January, and which he has now brought to Coachella: "If he can convince people to buy $50 socks, maybe he can also convince enough to pay tithes to his church, where his cult of fans can become […]
Prince's estate is about to release a new 15 track album, featuring the original versions of the iconic hits that he wrote for other artists. The 'Originals' spans the period from 1981 and 1991 and includes his original takes on Sheila E.’s ‘The Glamorous Life’, the Bangles’ ‘Manic Monday’, Kenny Rogers’ ‘You’re My Love’, and […]
Lost live recordings of a Bob Marley gig have been found in a London hotel basement and are now heading to auction. The 10 analog tapes, which were found by chance after spending 40 years in a damp hotel cellar in a hotel in Little Venice, west London, suffered water damage and mold. However, they […]
'Defying Gravity' is a new memoir by Sex Pistols' friend Jordan Mooney, and it follows punk’s rapid rise and fall, as well as Jordan's own evolution from keen ballet student to the Boudicca of new wave to a veterinary nurse. But, in 1976, as she tells the Guardian - “Men were confused by me. They […]
Sony Pictures has won a bidding war for the movie rights to a new Broadway musical featuring Britney Spears' hit songs, Deadline reports. The stage version of 'Once Upon a One More Time' premiers in autumn, but the hype surrounding the show has already piqued the interests of movie executives. The fantasy musical imagines Cinderella, […]
Guardian visited California prison in Lancaster to speak to inmates about "healing and justice", and, in the wake of Nipsey Hussle's murder, about gang violence. Recently, rival gang members in LA and inside prisons appeared to have united around Hussle’s death and discussed whether the tragedy could lead to a long-term “ceasefire”, an end to […]
The indie bands of the Chinese capital have their own raw, distinctive sound, partly because they are so isolated from the rest of the rock'n'roll world - BBC reports from Beijing. Like Sydney's music scene in the 1980s, Beijing's creativity has been accentuated by being further away and less visited. The sound itself is raw, […]
"'Oh My God' is an album of seeking and discovering, of affirming and negating, loss and redemption, of musical and spiritual exploration, tribute and invention, and often of running to stand still in an act of extended meditation. This ambition is both exhilarating and enervating and not everything works, but it is impossible not to […]
There’s a subtle movement in songwriting now, expressed by Kacey Musgraves and Sharon van Etten and even Taylor Swift: writing from a place of happiness is more creative than mining the classic bad guy motif - Guardian says in their interview with liberal-country singer who won a Grammy for her latest album 'Golden Hour'. Musgraves […]
If an album isn't that good, there's no point in singling out text about it... unless the text itself is so good, and it makes a good point. That's the case with NME's review of Beyonce's live album 'Lemonade'. They think it isn't really much, but reading their review is a pleasure. Here's a snippet: […]
827,000 vinyl albums were sold in the U.S. in the week of Record Store Day, a record for the Record Store Day week and the third-largest sales week for vinyl albums since Nielsen Music started tracking sales in 1991. The only two larger weeks for vinyl album sales overall were logged during the Christmas season […]
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary added Eminem's definition of the word "stan", a derivative of his 2000 song, Pitchfork reports. In Webster it appears as both a noun - "an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan”, and a verb - “to exhibit fandom to an extreme or excessive degree” or “to be an extremely devoted and […]
Shortparis is a Russian indie band with members from Siberia and St. Petersburg, and, according to the Quietus, they are following in Sergey Kuryokhin's legacy of provocative performance art - "ambitious, bombastic, incredibly pretentious, erotic, thrilling, impossible to pin down, vaguely deviant, fun to dance to and full of revolutionary potential". In tQ interview the […]
Filmmaker and photographer Jerry Schatzberg published a handsome new photography book, 'Dylan By Schatzberg', which inspired Stereogum to reach out to a number of photographers who have worked with Dylan over the years to ask for the stories behind the images, from the iconic blurry one, to the unusual one where Dylan is - a-smiling...
"Michael O’Neill has pretty much been a ‘those who know, know’ sorta figure, but word of mouth isn’t enough for an album this good" - the Quietus reviews debut album by Mancunian alt-rapper Michael O’Neill. "Sam Weaver, O’Neill himself and electroacoustic musician Danny Saul have combined for something that’ll likely need several listens before you […]
“Blink182″ is among the most commonly used passwords, and thus most easily guessed by hackers, according to the first study of that kind conducted by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. The most popular password is “123456,” followed by “123456789”, “qwerty”, “password”, “111111” and “12345678”, and the “blink182″ is the most common music-based password, perhaps […]
It’s a sound somewhere between Haim and Belle And Sebastian - Sterogum says about new song by Barrie, a new band from New York, with their debut album 'Happy To Be Here' coming out on May. Listen to that one, and a couple of other songs by Barrie Lindsay and her band at Bandcamp.
Brazilian trach-metal band Sepultura have been barred from performing in Beirut next week - officials called the Brazilian metal band "devil worshippers" intent on "insulting Christianity", al Bawaba reports. Apart from that, authorities said the band had previously played in Israel and filmed a video clip showing their support of Israel (their well known music […]
Kanye West made his Sunday Service public at Coachella on Sunday morning, featuring gospel versions of cover songs and his own original tracks. West set up a merchandise booth to sell his special Sunday Service “church clothes” - hoodies and t-shirts were emblazoned with religious words and phrases, such as “Holy Spirit”, “Trust God”, and […]
Guardian picked out the book Moon Shine by American photographer Rachel Boillot, where this Nashville professor explores musical heritage in America’s Appalachian region. It's an "underexplored music scene informed by tradition and religion", coming from "the mountain roads between Signal Mountain and Cumberland Gap, tracing Tennessee’s Cumberland Trail corridor".
It’s now necessary that artists take more political stances in their music, Damon Albarn said on BBC 6 Music, adding that's it's especially important now when it comes to Brexit, a landmark decision that Albarn considers “so depressing”. In opposition to political music he see "selfie music" which he considers "not sustainable". An important thing […]
Korean boy-band BTS captures its third No. 1 album in less than 12 months on the Billboard 200 chart, as 'Map of the Soul: Persona', debuts atop the list with 230,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. It's their third No. 1 album on Billboard in 11 months - 'Love Yourself: Tear' was on […]
Prince’s unfinished memoir, 'The Beautiful Ones', will be released in October, three years after his death. It covers his life from his childhood to his final days and it will contain Prince’s unfinished manuscript alongside photos from his personal collection, scrapbooks and lyrics, including his original handwritten treatment for his 1984 hit 'Purple Rain'. When […]
" The Yawpers are a great American rock and roll band and 'Human Question' is one of this year's most accomplished releases" - PopMatters. Enough said? Listen to their song 'No Going Back' here.
Studiocanal is releasing 'Amazing Grace' – the concert film of Aretha Franklin’s gospel album of the same name – on 10 May. That follows Taylor Swift’s 'Reputation', which came out on New Year’s Day, and the December 2018 release of Bruce Springsteen’s 'Springsteen on Broadway'. In January Netflix announced Martin Scorsese would direct a documentary […]
Stereogum picked out five songs that stand out this week. It's songs by hard-core band Fury, from Hit-Boy’s new surprise album with SOB X RBE, new song by Barcelona producer NOIA, Texan rapper Kevin Abstract, and Beyonce's remake of Frankie Beverly and Maze’s original 'Baby Boy'.
"An intelligent approach to their blend of mellow pop and upbeat hip-hop", PopMatters reviews new album by Patagonian vocal trio Fémina, 'Perlas & Conchas'. Judging by the album cover and video for their song 'Resist' (here), they're into (their own) nudity, for now, at least. And in the future "for Fémina, creative possibilities may be […]
The Ringer points out to the fact that makes it seem like the last 20 years hadn't ever happened, according to the Grammys at least. So, Beyonce hasn't won Album of the Year Grammy, Kendrick Lamar hasn't won album of the year, and Kanye West hasn't. The Ringer wants us to ignore the Grammys. Why not repair it?!?
The UK is one of the countries in the world with the fastest-growing number of people vaccinated against Covid-19, with 10 million extra vaccinations currently available in the UK which will start to be given out this week. It's predicted that all over 50s could receive their second jab by the end of March, with all over 40s receiving a vaccination in April and the 30-39 age group beginning to receive their jabs by the end of that month. The 18-29 bracket will receive doses from May. MixMag says rightfully this is all good news for clubs that can currently reopen from June 21, as well as for the festival season in the UK and abroad.
Six Degrees Records is releasing today 'I’ve Forgotten Now Who I Used to Be', an album of field recordings from Ghana "witch" camps - in reality, refugee camps for women accused of witchcraft. It was produced by Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project).
"Ostensibly the story of Nick Cave’s formative years, it is so beautifully constructed that one is not just delivered besides the young Cave, but also next to the modern version" - The New Cue says recommending Mark Mordue's new book 'Boy on Fire'. The writer also describes the difficult path he took while writing it - "basically the project just got bigger and bigger as the range and the depth of Nick Cave’s output kept rolling on. I ended up in a situation where I had long ago spent my advance. If I was working on the book, I was not earning money to live and support a family. If I was doing freelance journalism and teaching writing at uni, I was not working on the book. So nothing was right with anyone anywhere. Eventually my former publisher got tired of me. My relationship collapsed. I had nowhere stable to live. Depression, chaos, drinking … it was the full disaster as I tried to hang on to myself and put it all back together again. That is the other side to the book when people say it took me ten years. Well, really, five years to write it, yeah, and another five years to learn how to live again". Nick Cave also likes it.
Routenote brings the numbers in - lists the ten largest music streaming services by number of tracks in their catalogue. The undisputable No. 1 is SoundCloud with 200 million songs, Deezer follows with 72 million songs, while the next five - Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify, Amazon, Qobuz - host around 70 million songs each. Napster follows with 60 million, while YouTube Music and KKBOX round up the Top 10 with 50 million songs each.
"Atmospheric techno, ‘00s R&B, sampled orchestras and cut-up beats all at once" - The New Cue describes Smerz, their new favourite artist of the week. The Norvegian duo takes their name from the German phrase for heartbreak - “herzschmerz”, and have released their debut album 'Believer' on XL Recordings last month. Pitchfork has described it quite accurately: "There’s a creeping insistence to this music, thriving off a dual sense of unease and temptation, and the best songs blur the line between hedonism and anxiety". The band says it's "a record about love and friendship".
American president Joe Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package legislation known as the American Rescue Plan, which adds $1.25 billion to Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, NBC reports. This will allow struggling music venues across the US to receive an added lifeline. It also allows venue owners to apply for Paycheck Protection Loans. Music venues owners will be allowed to apply for both a loan and a grant.
Pussy Riot have shared a new video 'Panic Attack' filmed on 106 cameras for an immersive AR experience rendered through a video game engine (watch it below). The video was directed by Asad J. Malik, and the song comes from a three-song Pussy Riot EP called 'Panic Attack', featuring singles 'TOXIC' with Dorian Electra and produced by 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady and 'Sexist' featuring Hofmannita.
"Twitter shaman Jack Dorsey’s recent acquisition of Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal, by his company, Square points to something that is bubbling up in the business right now that is still early, but ultimately will build into a huge, new movement of massively monetizing direct artist-fan connection and engagement" - Peter Csathy writes in his CoS editorial, adding - "Just think of the virtual/tangible 'combo package' possibilities – where passionate superfans happily pay premium prices to support and get ever-closer to the artists they love in all modes of engagement".
Fast Company chooses 10 companies that are changing the face of the music industry. They are: Neon16 - a talent incubator and music label for Latin music, BeatStars - an online marketplace for producers to sell their beats to artists, Royalty Exchange - a marketplace allowing artists who are earning royalties to sell them to investors during online auctions, Audiomack - a music streaming and discovering platform aiming at Africa, Stem - a music distribution platform making it easier to artists, as well as Verzuz, Parkwood Entertainment, Harmonix, Bandcamp, and Dolby.
