"I don’t use Spotify. I think all those streaming services are… the new MTV, the new gatekeepers... they’re all just ripping everyone off. You can have your online existence, but trying to suck on Spotify’s sweet sweetness is just a waste of time for me" Julian Casablancas says in a Billboard interview. The way he […]
Who knew that a band mostly known for singing in a quasi-fictional language had over $6.5 million lying around - Vulture writes about Sigur Rós' tax evasion charges in an article where they listed artists over popular music’s history who have been nabbed for, accused of, or attempted to beat tax-evasion charges. The biggest here […]
The Quietus made a selection of new French music for the month of April. In tQ's vein, it's heavily electronic and alternative, so you couldn't get these so easily and that much somewhere else. It goes from diasporic subway system rai to industrial electroclash via North African influenced hip hop.
Madonna will perform at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, and she is expected to take the stage at the halfway mark of the final night singing a back-catalogue favorite and a new song from her upcoming album. Billboard argues that Madonna, who is managed by Guy Oseary, an Israeli-American businessman, is a […]
Los Angeles City council announced on Tuesday that the intersection of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, near where the rapper Nipsey Hussle grew up, will be renamed Ermias 'Nipsey Hussle' Asghedom Square. Fans of the tragic rap star signed an online petition to rename the intersection in South Central in the days following their hero's […]
Coachella will stream performances by 69 musicians this incoming weekend on YouTube. Concerts are starting Friday afternoon 4.15 PM (Pacific Standard Time, add 9 hours for Central European Time), and, apart from the ones in the headline, highlights include The 1975, Janelle Monáe, Mac DeMarco, Khruangbin, Maggie Rogers, JPEGMAFIA, Pusha-T, Lizzo, Kid Cudi, CHVRCHES, Blood […]
"There's a sense of humanity that make 'Safety' a deeply relatable and instantly lovable album... The intimacy of these songs seems inextricably linked to home recording. That's one of the many things that make the album such a beautiful, irresistible piece of work" - PopMatters picks out the newest album by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Sotto Voce. […]
"We want to cash in on each other’s ambitions, not shoot them down,” Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family tells in an interview with the Quietus about their new album 'Serfs Up!' coming out April 19. tQ calls it "a tremendous album, a sonic volte-face into driving, luxurious pop". Listen to their new song 'Feet' […]
Mexican classical acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela covered Pink Floyd's epic, even grandiose song 'Echoes' with only two acoustic guitars, giving it humbleness for a marvelous contrast. It's 19 minutes long - "the idea is for people to get lost as they listen. Nowadays we need more music like that, music that can make […]
Calypso Rose is the oldest artist - 79 soon - and the first calypsonian to be booked for a full set at Coachella. Rose will perform on the Gobi Stage on both weekends (April 12 and 19) of the Indio, California festival, backed by an eight-piece band comprised of African, American, Caribbean and French musicians. […]
Bob Dylan’s first acting role, in a 1963 television play called 'Madhouse on Castle Street', is gone. Early Beatles performances on Top of the Pops too. Most of the BBC’s Apollo 11 moon landing coverage is gone - Guardian is questioning what emo band might we mourn after MySpace lost everything uploaded between 2003 and […]
"Talking about yourself is hard, but on 'Even in the Tremor', Lady Lamb succeeds and then some. The record’s highs validate Spaltro’s position as one of indie’s storytellers to watch..." - Consequence of Sound really likes third album by the American indie-rock singer-songwriter. Watch her new video 'Even in the Tremor' here.
Former 'NSync member Lance Bass, along with director Aaron Kunkel created the YouTube documentary 'The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story' about this extraordinary music manager became a pop kingmaker and eventually lost everything, cataloguing in unflinching detail the damage he caused, the people he ripped off and the lives he ruined. It is […]
Greenhouse gas emissions caused by music consumption have reached an unprecedented high, a new study from the University of Glasgow shows. Storing and processing music online uses a tremendous amount of resources and energy—which has a high impact on the environment. While 140 million kilograms of GHGs were generated in 1977, 136 million kilograms in […]
Madonna will perform at next month's (May 19) Eurovision Song Contest in Israel where she'll perform two songs. Tel Aviv businessman Sylvan Adams is reportedly covering the singer's expenses and $1 million fee. The musical spectacular isn't really exclusively Euro-vision - it sees European nations, some Asian nations and Australia compete for best song. Music […]
PJ Harvey has shared two new songs she composed for the soundtrack of the stage production 'All About Eve' in London’s West End with Gillian Anderson and Lily James in the lead roles. 'The Moth' features vocals from Lily James, 'Descending' is an instrumental track. Listen to the songs on Rolling Stone.
Consequence of Sound picked out Los Angeles indie punk Sego as their April's Artist of The Month (isn't "indie punk" supposed to be an oxymoron?), so they made an interview with the band about coming from Utah, living in California, making a band, listening to Primus, etc. "It’s ultimately when Sego are at their most […]
Prince's former sound engineer George Ian Boxill has been ordered to pay the late musician's estate nearly $4 million for releasing an unauthorized EP of songs by Prince. Boxill released the 'Deliverance' EP to streaming services in April 2017 in violation of a contract with the late singer. Boxill claimed the recordings on the EP […]
Campaigners and promoters have affirmed that sexual harassment remains a persistent problem at live music events, after the duo Sleaford Mods said a female fan had been assaulted during one of their shows. Campaigners and promoters are calling for venues to do more to train staff on how to deal with such incidents. Guardian...
Australian psycho-rockers released a new video 'Planet B' and it begging with the members of the band - barking. They are dressed in orange suits, prison escapees, it seems, on the run. The song itself is quite metaly, and it doesn't appear on the original tracklist for their new album 'Fishing for Fishies', Stereogum reports. […]
After decades of closeted artists and coded lyrics, a new generation of gender and sexually-fluid pop stars are challenging stereotypes and celebrating their identity through music. In the last few years, artists like Miley Cyrus, Janelle Monae, Ariana Grande, Anne-Marie, Troye Sivan, Harry Styles, Christine and the Queens and Demi Lovato have all talked about […]
Since January 2019, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are hosting 'Sunday Service', private weekly concerts featuring impromptu choral arrangements of West's music. Artists like Kaye Fox, 070 Shake, and Kid Cudi were guests at Sunday Service, and the artists are usually backed up by an impressive choir. The first Sunday Service was on January 6, […]
"This is music that sounds like Dublin feels. Chatten’s heavily accented vocals play a part; there are references to specific areas, pubs and landmarks, plus a cast of characters who populate the songs. But there is something more than just portraits. The rough production and rickety rhythms conjure familiar Dublin moods: bustling markets, rain-streaked cobblestones […]
American pop singer Halsey spoke of her experience of being homeless revealing that there was a time she had to consider prostitution to get money for food. She gave her speech Saturday night at the annual Ending Youth Homelessness: A Benefit For My Friend’s Place in Hollywood, where she was an honoree as a teen […]
Kacey Musgraves won the award for Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2019 Academy of Country Music Awards, breaking Miranda Lambert's nine-year winning streak for Female Vocalist. Musgraves' Grammy-winning 'Golden Hour' also earned her Album of the Year. Keith Urban snagged the prestigious Entertainer of the Year honour, while Dan + Shay were triple […]
Grimes has recently changed her name to "c", because of her relationship with Elon Musk, saying “you just have to totally untether your personality from your public persona”. C, real name Claire Boucher, told Cultured magazine "I don’t want to use that name anymore. I don’t want to use that face anymore. Because it now […]
Last night Thom Yorke had first in a series of live shows in support of a new classical composition called 'Don't Fear the Light'. The premiere staging took place at the Philharmonie de Paris, and featured Yorke alongside piano duo Katia and Marielle Labèque and The National’s Bryce Dessner. Along with the premier of 'Don't […]
Billie Eilish comes to the top of Billboard 200 chart with her debut LP 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' with 313,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4. It is the second-largest week of 2019 for any album, only Ariana Grande sold more, Billboard reports. […]
Newly-married Justin Bieber published a pregnancy-themed April Fool's joke, which many found funny, others branded the star "shameful" and "disgusting". Bieber apologised clarifying that he "didn't mean at all to be insensitive to people who can't have children", and that it was "'APRIL FOOLS'". Dr Pamela Rutledge, director of the US-based Media Psychology Research Center, […]
At only 22 Duki sold out a show at Luna Park -- one of Argentina's most prominent venues, he was headliner of Buenos Aires Trap, the biggest Latin trap festival, he is the first El Quinto Escalón freestyler to reach 1 million views with his own song, and also the first Argentine trapper to do […]
Among artists 21.6% are women, 12.6% are songwriters, and 2.6% are producers - a new report on women inclusion in music by Annenberg shows (plenty of stats and graphs). Looking only at women of color, numbers go way lower - 9 of 1,291 producing credits went of to women of color.
This past January and February, New Zealand pop-rock band SIX60 held a Saturdays Tour, on consecutive weekends, playing to, all summed up, 125,000 people, Pollstar reports. Their tour began at Waitangi Sports Ground in Waitangi (Jan. 16) when they played to 20,000 people, as well as at Tomoana Showgrounds in Hastings (Jan. 23). The TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth (Jan.30) attracted 15,000, Hagley Park in Christchurch (Feb. 6) had 23,000, The Wellington show was on Feb. 13 with 32,000, and the final date at Claudelands Oval in Hamilton was to 25,000 on Feb. 27. All this was possible thanks to New Zealand’s successful response to COVID-19. With no social distancing restrictions or bans on mass gatherings, no other act in the world has played to an audience that size in 2021 as well as for most of 2020.
The music industry has risen to meet the challenges of the pandemic, and Variety chose several women - artists and executives - who are leading the charge. They are UK pop star Dua Lipa, Natascha Augustin, Senior creative director in Warner Chappell Germany, K-pop stars Blackpink, Vanessa Craft, Director of content partnerships in TikTok Canada, and others...
Is it really a sale of a rent? Does the buyer get something special or just random? Are NFTs here to save the music industry or are they this year's credit default swaps? Who's selling, who's buying and what the hell are they? - MusicREDEF tries to explain Non-Fungible tokens in its latest thread.
Scottish duo Arab Strap released their first album in 16 years, and critics really like it. "With lyrics that encompass the reality of ageing with all its wisdom and regrets, and with music that employs the deftness of touch that can only come with long-term honing, Arab Strap have delivered their defining record" - NME argues. Guardian likes the wittiness of it: "Coming on like a union between Sleaford Mods and Leonard Cohen consummated in a Glasgow pub toilet, 'As Days Get Dark' serves up bleakness and gallows humour multiple ways: 'dejected, deserted and drunk'". PopMatters likes it the most - "This is a record as rare as hens' teeth: a comeback that not only beats expectations but has an excellent claim to be the band's crowning achievement". Band's members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton turn back on their career for the Quietus - they chose 10 key points from their discography.
Foxing share a grand indie-rock/emo song 'Speak With The Dead' of near-epic proportions; Yerba Mansa shares violin noise in supremely-titled 'Jesus Christ Motorbike II'; Japanese screamos Lang share an easy-flowing 'Night Reeds'; Lyon-based Sathönay plays saz, an instrument similar to lute, on eastern Europe-influenced 'Doppio Picchio Verde'; Rachika Nayar shares ambient and noisy 'Losing Too Is Still Ours'; Greek black-metallers share a proggy 'The Sorcereer Above The Clouds'.
A beautiful story in BBC about ballerina Ilmira Bagrautinova from the world-renowned Mariinsky Theatre who, dressed in full costume, performs scenes from Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' - on the frozen Gulf of Finland. It's her eco-protest against the construction of a port in Batareinaya Bay, a popular beach about 100 km west of St Petersburg. Bagrautinova told the BBC "we are hoping that nature, beauty and harmony will triumph".
A growing body of research more directly links air and road-traffic noise to heightened risks for a number of cardiovascular ailments, the Atlantic points out. Estimates suggest that roughly a third of Americans are regularly exposed to unhealthy levels of noise, typically defined as starting around 70 to 80 decibels. People living near the Frankfurt airport, for example, have as much as a 7 percent higher risk of stroke than those living in similar but quieter neighborhoods. An analysis of nearly 25,000 cardiovascular deaths between 2000 and 2015 among people living near Zurich’s airport saw significant increases in nighttime mortality after airplane flyovers, especially among women.
Popular digital audio workstations like Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, and Cubase were built primarily to facilitate music-making in a Western mode, according to the principles of European classical music. Recently, Khyam Allami, an Iraqi born in Syria and living in London, introduced Leimma and Apotome, two pieces of free software that aim to offer possibilities outside the Europan music canon. Leimma allows users to explore tuning systems from around the world or create their own, while Apotome offers generative music creation using these diverse tuning systems. They intend to give musicians a blank musical slate, rather than nudging them towards any specific musical tradition. Pitchfork presents both.
Lars-Göran “L-G” Petrov of the Swedish death-metal pioneers Entombed sadly passed away on Sunday, after a battle with cancer, at the age of 49, Louder reports. Entombed formed in 1989 out of the ashes of their previous band Nihilist, to release their groundbreaking debut LP 'Left Hand Path' in 1990. They changed the trajectory of the genre once again with their third album, 1993's 'Wolverine Blues', which helped pioneer the subgenre of death 'n' roll. Petrov left the band in 2014 and formed the offshoot band Entombed A.D., who went on to release three albums.
