Parliament have released their first studio album in 38 years - a new 23-track, near-two-hour album from the seminal George-Clinton-led funk unit entitled 'Medicaid Fraud Dogg' unexpectedly surfaced on streaming services yesterday. The release of the sprawling album was preceded by the band’s January comeback single 'I'M Gon Make U Sick O'Me' which features Scarface. Clinton […]
Kanye West urged his fans to reconsider how much they invest in using their phones - "Look at your phone as tool not an obligation. Would you walk around with a hammer in your pocket? You would pick up a hammer when you needed it you would never be addicted or obligated to it. Use your […]
Neurosurgeons have described in detail how Michael Jackson achieved biomechanically impossible dance moves in his music video Smooth Criminal. In the 1987 routine, Jackson leans from the ankle at a 45 degree angle, while keeping his body straight as a rod. The illusion, which many have tried to copy, was thanks to specially designed shoes […]
Ed Sheeran has taken an aggressive stance against touts by cancelling more than 10,000 tickets for his upcoming stadium tour. After the tour went on sale, the star's team identified purchases by known touts and revoked their tickets.Any tickets listed for re-sale on sites like Viagogo were also cancelled. Fans who'd bought from those sites […]
Arctic Monkeys' new album 'Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino' sold 24,500 vinyl copies in its first week, which makes it the fastest-selling vinyl LP of the past 25 years. The record was previously held by Liam Gallagher’s 'As You Were', which sold 16,000 in its first week. Like their previous five records, it has now reached No. […]
“We didn’t necessarily go to the nice school, we didn’t get to read the cool newspaper. For me, bands like you [Metallica] told me that there is this other world that is more closely aligned with the experience that you’re having, than the one you’re being told about” - Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan told Beats1 […]
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...
"But frankly, the whole list made me wonder what the hell the Hall Of Fame has been doing all these years, getting a bowling alley fitted? I mean, Iron Maiden? Chaka Khan? Todd Rundgren? Fela Kuti? All still in the queue? What is this, The Great Escape for pop legends?" - NME columnist Mark Beaumont comments on this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. How it's set-up now - "it’s just making successful rock’n’roll look like a thing of the increasingly distant past".
Guardian jazz music critic combs through "one of the most garlanded and wide-ranging catalogues in the genre’s history" to present Chick Corea's 10 best recordings, from "showboating and sensitive", as the pianist "traversed the distance between experimentation and accessibility".
The radio has pretty much cancelled Morgan Wallen due to his racial slur scandal, but his album sales have seen an uptick, Billboard reports. His latest record 'Dangerous: The Double Album' continues to rule the Billboard 200 chart for a fifth straight week - it earned 150,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 11 (up 1%). Wallen’s previous set, 2018’s 'If I Know Me', reaches the top 10 for the first time with 29,000 equivalent album units earned, which also marks the album’s best weeks, in terms of units earned.
Mogwai share a 'Pat Stains' featuring sax-magician Colin Stetson who adds tension to the calming song; Anika Pyle goes simple and comforting on 'Blame'; So Badly turn to dream pop on 'Harley Davidson'.
"Rollins' body, fortified with heavy weights and tattooed totems, became a vessel for the message of his music, which is that there is nothing glorious about being broken but there is dignity to be found in the bearing of it and consolation in the knowledge that it's not borne alone" - the Quietus writes in the lovely birthday card for the punk icon who turned 60 this weekend. The Q chooses 10 songs as points of entry to Henry Rollins' music.
"Very few people can claim to have changed the way we hear music. @Rupert_Neve was one of them" - Guitar Center tweeted following the news of audio equipment pioneer Rupert Neve's death at age 94, Ultimate Classic Rock reports. Neve was one of the leading pioneers in creating the analog recording equipment that many rock bands used to record their albums over the years. Neve pursued a career that he continued to enjoy for over 80 years, and at 94 he remained engaged and passionate about his work, spending most days on a perpetual series of audio electronics projects and continuing to mentor on numerous projects.
An amazing and heartwarming segment from the Howard Stern Show with the Foo Fighters this week when former Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Pat Smear reminisced about Nirvana. Stern asked Smear whether he still listens to old Nirvana stuff to which he responded he doesn't need to because - "every once in a while, me and Krist and Dave get together and we do play as if we're Nirvana, so I don't have to miss it - we do it". Grohl added they even recorded some stuff. Foo Fighters frontman also talked about how his 11-year-old daughter had asked him about Nirvana for the first time, and how they listened to it together also for the first time. She wanted to know whether Kurt Cobain was shy.
Manchester Orchestra have just premiered 'A Black Mile To The Surface: The Global Concert Film' which saw the band perform their most recent album - 2017's 'A Black Mile to the Surface' - live in its entirety in Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville, NC, the same location that they recorded the album. The sound is great, as well as the band and the songs (from their, probably, best album).
Rapper-entrepreneur Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, have joined to form a new Bitcoin fund, focused on developing the cryptocurrency’s adoption initially in Africa and India, CNet reports. The duo are investing 500 Bitcoin, worth about $24 million, in the project, according to Dorsey, with the mission of making Bitcoin “the internet’s currency".
Justin Timberlake on Friday apologized to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson amid criticism he has received in the wake of a new documentary about his former girlfriend, the LA Times reports. The 'Framing Britney Spears' docu includes a discussion of the high-profile relationship between Spears and Timberlake and suggests Spears was shamed in the media for her behavior when the relationship ended while Timberlake boasted about having slept with her. Timberlake apologizes to both Spears and Janet Jackson, his fellow Super Bowl halftime performer during the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" incident - "because I know and respect these women and I know I failed". Timberlake was in a relationship with Spears for three years before the couple broke up in 2002, when he was 21 years old and she was 20.
