More than a third of festival-goers have sex while in attendance and half of all attendees are willing to have sex while there - an interesting information people at TickPick found out after talking to 1.000 people. It differs from one festival to another - 30 percent of Electric Forest attendees had sex while at the […]
Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar were the biggest winners at the 2018 Billboard music awards, with six wins each - Sheeran got the awards in the top artist and top male artist categories, while Lamar won three rap award categories – rap artist, male rap artist and rap album. Janet Jackson made a notable speech, which alluded […]
"You could argue that [a musician] who is an artist and producer is the modern-day singer-songwriter. You used to be there with a guitar singing and strumming, and that would be it. That's a whole record, that's everything you need, that's Bob Dylan. That occurred to me about these [grime] guys - they do everything. The […]
"It’s a film principally and poignantly focused on the absence of Whitney, an aching void felt as much in life as in death. Many of us missed Whitney even before she left; this imperfect documentary preys calmly and effectively on that longing" - Guardian writes about a new documentary, Kevin Macdonald’s 'Whitney' newly premiered at Cannes. And […]
Nine Inch Nail previewed their upcoming ninth LP 'Bat Witch' with a new song, electro-jazzy 'God Break Down the Door'. Trent Reznor croons menacing lines over a dizzying mix of synths, a moaning saxophone solo and drums - "God break down the door/ You won't find the answers here – not the ones you came looking […]
Nine Inch Nails go on tour this fall with The Jesus And Mary Chain, and fans who wish to go and see them have to visit venues to purchase their tickets in person. The "physical world presale" will be held on May 19 in most cities, with the Denver date taking place on May 20. Trent […]
One fan called the new Arctic Monkeys album 'Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’ “perfection” on Twitter, describing it as a “calm, sexy, red wine with a cigarette kind of album”. Pointless‘ Richard Osman tweeted that ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’ was “a very pleasant surprise” and that it was “great that they’re not just treading […]
For black millennials in urban areas, he might be the definitive spokesperson. His success, and the wider success of grime, represents empowerment and equality in a way that established, mainstream – and yes, white – pop never can... Stormzy is far from an archetypal politician, but his influence is far-reaching. Ultimately, his support is testament […]
Andre 3000 has dropped a pair of songs in honor of mothers all over. The Mother's Day Anthems are called 'Me&My (To Bury Your Parents)' and 'Look Ma No Hands'. 'Me&My (To Bury Your Parents)' has a very Elton John-esque vibe, with the former OutKast rhymester singing a somber tune. 'Look Ma No Hands' is […]
Stereogum picks 5 best songs of the week, and 5 best videos of the week.
Britney Spears overcomes her painful shyness by cutting loose and putting on fierce performances onstage. "I'm very sensitive and sometimes I just want to run away because I'm a very shy person... I think it's healthy to be able to put on the persona of being confident," the singer said. "I think it's an escape because honestly […]
Thrash-metal titans Slayer kicked of their farewell tour at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California, with support from Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Behemoth and Testament. "If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here. I wanted to thank you for everything," Tom Araya told San Diego moshpitting crowd (Loudwire). On the European leg of […]
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/13/the-last-poets-understand-what-black-is-review
Neil Young says he will be leaving Facebook to focus on expanding Neil Young Archives, where he has offered access to nearly all of his recorded music. Now in a new post - on Facebook - he says he will be leaving the platform, to focus on his “giant time machine cabinet” filled with “albums […]
Sigur Ros have launched a new project titled ‘Liminal’, a constantly evolving “endless” playlist which “will be built over linear time into a never-finished project of ceaseless invention.” The hour long ‘Liminal’ will reportedly be “added to frequently and endlessly", and will continue to be altered indefinitely beyond its release. "We play and sing sparsely […]
John Legend will be among six new voices coming to Google Assistant. The voices were created using WaveNet, which analyzes speech patterns and uses raw audio to generate speech that mimics typical humans delivery. Naturally, as they are apt to doing, Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen had some fun with the announcement on Twitter. Upon hearing […]
Live Nation is flirting with the idea of employing facial recognition technology to speed up admission into concerts. The entertainment company would “acquire a face image and match it against a large database in half a second.” Ostensibly, people can just enter a venue without presenting a paper ticket or a digital ticket on a cellphone. Conversely, […]
Hip-hop icon and headphone impresario Dr. Dre has lost a trademark dispute with Pennsylvania gynecologist Dr. Draion M. Burch over Burch’s attempt to trademark the name Dr. Drai. The case has been ongoing since 2015, when Dre (real name Andre Young) claimed the similarity between the names Dr. Dre and Dr. Drai could cause “confusion.” […]
On April 30, two young Native American men wearing metal band shirts were pulled from a Colorado State University campus tour and questioned by the school’s police, following a call from a mother on the tour. The two teenagers—brothers Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17—were late to the tour after driving seven […]
Guns N' Roses excluded their song One In A Million from their upcoming box-set reissue of their classic album 'Appetite For Destruction' that will feature five discs, seven LP’s, seven 7″, with 73 tracks long, 49 of them being previously unreleased songs, but not the 'One...’. That song drew heavy criticism for featuring the lyrics “Police […]
Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold is offering his co-writing services to fans. “I will help you finish your song, send it to /Robin-Pecknold on SoundCloud, one a week for foreseeable future,” he posted on Instagram. “This is so fun everyone is great and music is the best” he continued, “This is a much more engaging […]
"When a US blighted by racial unrest found itself needing to win a global propaganda war, a team of musical ambassadors was assembled. The result was anything but straightforward" - Guardian writes about “cultural presentations program – the effort to export American culture as a weapon in the fight against Soviet communism". A strange idea, a […]
Father John Misty has a new video 'Mr Tillman'. Kind of strange, in a Truman Show-ish kinda way, only slightly creepier. Nice, anyhow...
Swedish pop-gigants ABBA announced their reunion 35 years after their farewell single 'Thank You for the Music'. The original four - Agnetha Faeltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjoern Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad - have recorded two new songs, first of which, 'I Still Have Faith in You' comes out in december, they announced on Instagram. They plan a […]
Tool have posted a video on their Facebook page that features new instrumental music. It comes ahead of brief six-city tour guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey, and bass player Justin Chancellor will embark on. In February, frontman Maynard James Keenan said this about new album: “Words & Melodies 100% DONE on all but 1. Someday we’ll […]
"Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker" - that's how Janelle Monáe described herself in Rolling Stone interview. On her sexuality: "I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify […]
Who's them: modern-rock quintet from Australia, stormy guitar anthems with spiritual-crisis, warrior-soul vocals, a singer with "a deep desire to learn shit, to find out what is absolute spirit, and how to navigate that through the lens of art". Rolling Stone
Pitchfork chose 10 "essential" tracks from Gost Zvuk, Russia's electronic label: "Most releases are connected by their lo-fi ambient haze (...) those who dare to explore their own identity in specific ways often produce the most interesting results".
Paying more for the streaming of music could have a“potentially devastating” effect on the income of artists and songwriters - YouTube has warned the UK music industry following their efforts to force the video streaming giant to raise the amount it pays, Guardian reports. The Charlatans‘ Tim Burgess has written a piece in the Guardian as well speaking out against purported inequalities in streaming payments: "I’m not averse to the idea of a musical reset: using the pandemic as an opportunity to look again at how things are working in the industry. To take this moment and this strange landscape we find ourselves in, and just switch things off and back on again".
'The Sparks Brothers' documentary about avant-garde pop duo Sparks made its world premiere at the virtual edition of Sundance, and the trailer is out now. The film features rare and archival footage of Sparks' 50 years of weird, wonderful pop, extensive interviews with the duo of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, as well as interviews with collaborators and fans, including Flea, Todd Rundgren, Mike Myers, Neil Gaiman, Tony Visconti, Jane Wiedlin, Amy Sherman Palladino, Giorgio Moroder, Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones, Weird Al Yankovic, Duran Duran, Jason Schwartzman, and more...
The colorful ensembles BTS wore in their "Dynamite" music video sold for a total of $162,500 at Julien's Auctions, bringing in more than eight times the amount they were estimated to bring in. Japanese art collector Yusaku Maezawa and YouTuber HIKAKIN bought it, Broadway World reports. A painting of Snoop Dogg’s self-portrait dog wearing a 'Doggy Style 25' gold chain signed by Snoop was the next top seller at $96,000, sixty-four times its original estimate of $1,500. All proceeds from the items sold at auction - numerous others were also offered - will go to MusiCares, providing aid to artists and music community professionals in times of need.
The electronic art-pop duo The KLF are a subject of a new documentary 'Welcome To The Dark Ages', which shows them in the midst of their current project - 'The People’s Pyramid’, a monument built out of 34,952 bricks forged from the ashes of the dead. Filmmaker Paul Duane made a documentary about the project, and shared his thoughts about it with the Quietus: "It struck me as the most remarkable thing an ageing pop group could do. A lot of the things Bill and Jimmy do are incredibly funny. The idea of monetising their ageing fanbase by selling them a memorial of their own deaths is kind of hilarious. Their fans are all in their 50s now, so you’re thinking about death and the disposal of your remains. So building a pyramid and selling them a brick for £99 each that they will be memorialised in in the people’s pyramid, on one level is a hilarious ploy on an ageing fanbase". The KLF are no strangers to excess - they became the top-selling singles act in the world ('America: What Time Is Love', 'Justified & Ancient') and then left the music business, burned £1 million of their own money and signed a contract agreeing to a 23-year silence.
Republic Records had taken the top four spots on Billboard 200 this week, the first time in 24 years, Billboard reports. Morgan Wallen’s 'Dangerous: The Double Album' (released via Big Loud/Republic) is No. 1 for a third week, Pop Smoke’s 'Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon' (Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic) is steady at No. 2, Taylor Swift’s 'Evermore' (Republic) rises 4-3 and The Weeknd’s 'After Hours' (XO/Republic) climbs 8-4. The last time a label held the top four spots was in December 1996 when Bush, Snoop Dogg, No Doubt and 2Pac ruled the world.
Mikau release an interesting metal/hyper-pop song, or as they describe it - mallcore 'At The Edge of Fading Consciousness'; Irish singer/rapper Denise Chaila flaunts an impressive flow in 'Anseo'; hardcore band Stick To Your Guns share an acoustic version of their song 'Amber'; Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle are on the verge of bursting in 'Anhedonia'.
The oldest person in Wales and quite possibly the oldest person on TikTok, the 110-year-old Amy Hawkins has become an overnight singing sensation on TikTok, The Sun reports. Her rendition of the popular World War One song 'It's A Long Way to Tipperary' was captured by her great-grandson on her milestone birthday., and since then the video has clocked up 100,000 views on TikTok. Ms. Hawkins, aged seven at the end of the war, has sung songs from that era ever since, and she was also a performer as a teenager and toured the UK - but her mother banned her from the stage, as it was not "respectable".
Electronic and experimental pop great Sophie, one of the most important figures in the last decade of underground pop and dance music, has died aged 34 after a "terrible accident" in Athens, Greece, where the artist had been living. The statement read - "true to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell", the New York Times reports.
The English National Opera has successfully tested its singing, breathing and wellbeing program for recovering coronavirus patients, and it has now rolled it out around the country. The program -- described as the first of its kind - uses singing techniques by singing experts to help patients who are experiencing breathlessness and anxiety.
Hilton Valentine, a guitarist in one of the most famous pop-rock bands of the 1960s - the Animals, has died at the age of 77, Rolling Stone reports. The most famous Animals song by far is 'The House of The Rising Sun', but the band scored other hits such as 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' and 'We Gotta Get Out of This Place'.
