"Don Everly, half of one of rock and roll's pioneering groups, The Everly Brothers, has died. The musician, known for singing close harmonies with his brother, was 84" - NPR reports. They left behind hits such as 'All I Have To Do Is Dream', 'Wake Up Little Susie', 'Bye Bye Love' and 'Cathy's Clown', influencing the likes of music giants the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel and many others.

Music teacher Sakira Ventura has created an excellent new tool that encompasses more than 500 women who are often forgotten in the classical music world, from Mozart's sister to Byzantine abbess Kassia born in 810. The tool is "pushing back against the sexism, stigmatisation and societal norms that have long rendered them invisible", the Guardian insists. Great stuff!

At the first point, the debate about the new album by Deafheaven will be about the band's change from metal to post-punk/shoegaze. Ian Cohen shares his contribution to the debate in the Ringer: "I’m reflexively inclined to say that 'Infinite Granite' is the most polarizing metal album in recent memory, even though it hardly sounds like a metal album at all. Or, it’s the most polarizing metal album in recent memory because it hardly sounds like a metal album at all". That leaves us with the question of whether it's good music, be it metal or any other genre.

Music YouTuber David Bennett released an interesting video describing 8 elements in music that are quite common now, and that were pioneered by the Beatles. They were the first to play concerts on a sports stadium, the first to play live music on TV, the first to introduce loops and guitar feedback, the first to use sitar in popular western music etc.

Geeez!!! - music theorist Adam Neely goes sooo far with fixing some well-known songs with autotune, you can't even call it sarcasm, the word just isn't strong enough. So, the songs fixed are Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love', Frank Sinatra's 'Fly Me To The Moon', Aretha Franklin's 'Respect', Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here', and Bill Withers' 'Ain’t No Sunshine'. The point: perfection destroys expression. A monster of a video!

At its best, moshing is a visceral and collective experience, a physical way to match the energy of the music you’re witnessing with the feeling it gives you. When done right (and safely), there is a willful exchange of bodily autonomy in the mosh pit — it’s a relinquishing of a certain amount of control of where your body goes and moves, a step into chaos, a pushing and pulling motion that mirrors the intensity of what’s happening on stage. At its best, there should be a feeling of respect in the pit; everyone is there for a similar reason: to enjoy live music in a visceral and cathartic way" - Consequence points out in an essay about the art of dancing in a punk show.

“It was like, ‘I can be comfortable and out and gay, or I can do country music, but I definitely can’t do both’” - one gay country artist told Rolling Stone about the dichotomy that now appears to be falling apart. There are several that have come out recently - Brooke Eden, T.J. Osborne, Lily Rose, Shelly Fairchild - without jeopardizing their careers.

Consequence continues their punk week with a list of artists who "have succeeded in the genre despite the circumstances being stacked against them". The list includes several black, queer, and feminist artists that helped revolutionize punk at some point.

The New Yorker shares a profile on NY City underground rapper Ka, who has just released his new album 'A Martyr’s Reward' (the only official way to listen to it online is to purchase a zip of the wav files on his Web site). "Ka has preserved a certain strain of bars-first New York City rap that prioritizes its stark, ascetic music-making practice as much as its hardscrabble tone and acerbic lyricism. Ka’s voice is gruff, yet he raps discreetly, as if recounting secrets under his breath. The verses themselves are almost like incantations muttered in code; it takes intent listening to puzzle them out. His wordplay is its own sort of quicksand, shiftily multisyllabic and crowded by entendre. But he is a philosopher above all: his lyrical feats are performed in pursuit of wisdom".

“When I’m gone please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public” - new Anderson.Paak's tattoo says. He also posted a photo of it to Instagram, making a key part of his last testament perfectly clear, XXL reports. Luckily, .Paak is known for being fairly prolific in life.

"Most amps sound better at volumes loud enough to fray the edge of notes with the subtle distortion that is to electric guitars what makeup is to a drag queen of a certain age... We seem to love broken voices in general: vocal cords eroded by whiskey and screaming, the junked-out weakness of certain horn players, distortion which signifies surpassing the capabilities of a tube or a speaker—voices that distort, damage, but (at least in performance) don’t actually die" - guitarist Marc Ribot makes the case for loud music in the Literary Hub.

The two biggest American concert promoters, Live Nation and AEG, have imposed vaccine mandates on all their venues and festivals. New York City began requiring proof of vaccination for entry to all indoor performances. Plenty of artists have canceled shows and tours, others are demanding proof of vaccination to attend a show - Music REDEF publishes a thread on the rules of attending a show.

“I can only imagine it’s like having a nine-month pregnancy, and you know this baby has to come out of your vagina. But you know you’re ready to be a mum” - Little Simz says in Vice interview about waiting on her new album  'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert' to come out. While creating it, she listened to the "classics" like Michael Jackson, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Biggie Smalls: “I was studying why people connected with these artists – why is their music so timeless? I want to make a staple album. I want you listening in ten years and you’re like, ‘Rah, remember when that came out and what that done?’”.

"Jazz has somehow rediscovered its roots as populist music, embarking on a new and unscripted dialogue with mainstream culture. To some extent, jazz has even turned into a kind of talisman for forward-looking sounds in commercial music" - jazz music writer Ted Gioia writes in the third edition of his great book 'The History of Jazz', out now. "Artists as different from each other as Kamasi Washington, Esperanza Spalding, Shabaka Hutchings, and Robert Glasper have shown that they can draw on the full range of current-day song styles without losing their jazz roots, and attract a young crossover audience who are energized and excited by this give-and-take".

"It is impossible not to consider the entangled nature of race and drugs. Despite efforts to rectify the War on Drugs’ disproportionate harm to marginalised groups, the legal cannabis industry has become overwhelmingly white-controlled, while drug law enforcement still disproportionately hurts Black communities... Getting stoned no longer holds any countercultural bite when your weed comes from a SPAC owned by a vertically-integrated cannabis conglomerate, and legal ketamine clinics are a privilege reserved for the most wealthy" - gonzo journalist Michelle Lhooq writes in her new essay. She will try to answer three essential questions: "Is substance use still subversive and emancipatory? Do drugs have any place at protests or in organizing? How can we reimagine nightlife spaces for sober experiences?".

"Luxury world leader LVMH has acquired a stake in Virgil Abloh's Off-White LLC. It bought 50% of Jay-Z's Ace of Spades. A few months ago, Travis Scott collaborated with LVMH's Dior on its 2022 Men's collection. LVMH backed Fenty Beauty and launched the unsuccessful Fenty Maison. Beyonce and Jay Z were named brand ambassadors for Tiffany & Co. LVMH is a hip-hop company. LVMH may not position itself that way, but now it's too reliant on the culture not to be. European fashion houses looked down on the early 2000s hip-hop fashion brands like Enyce. Now hip-hop is the driving force behind European brands" - Trapital's Dan Runcie makes a relevant point about the European fashion powerhouse.

The Weeknd's 'Blinding Lights' has spent a record-breaking 88th week on the Billboard Hot 100 (on the chart dated Aug. 21). It passes Imagine Dragons' 'Radioactive', which spent 87 weeks on the survey in 2012-14. Billboard talked to Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds about their song and passing the torch to The Weeknd.

“We can’t afford to sit out shows, we have to vaccinate and mask up or everything we’ve worked our entire lives for will be gone. And it’s so upsetting to work so long on a craft and lose opportunities left and right, because people would rather believe vaccine conspiracy theories than at least try these precautions out” - Austin songwriter Cari Hutson says to Guardian about the need to vaccinate. The London paper is exploring differences within country music community about vaccinating - "exposing an age-old political divide".

Consequence celebrates punk this week with "thoughtful interviews, essays, guides, big ass staff lists, and even super special merchandise". By now, they've taken into the genre with a list of 10 essential punk songs (from 1973 The Stooges to 20212 The Linda Lindas), as well as with a list of 10 best punk debut albums.

George Harrison has returned to the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart for the first time since 1971, following the launch of a new reissue of his former No. 1 album 'All Things Must Pass', Billboard reports. The album, now at No. 7 on Billboard, was newly mixed and reissued in a variety of formats. At the top Billboard spot for the second week in a row, it's Billie Eilish’s 'Happier Than Ever', as the set earns 85,000 equivalent album units in the U.S.

“With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure! Good luck to them all” - Simon Gallup, longtime bassist for the Cure, says in a public Facebook post, the Rolling Stone reports. When asked in the comments if his departure was health-related, Gallup responded - “I’m ok… just got fed up of betrayal".

The most popular band to sport on a T-shirt is AC/DC, as 21.4 percent of the participants in Rush Order Tees survey of 1,017 people say they own at least one of their shirts. Aerosmith, Queen, Pink Floyd and Green Day were the other contenders in the Top 5. Heavy metal fans own the most band T-shirts with a whopping 17 on average.

Norwegian Eera became a musician although her grandfather, a conductor, told her not to, luckily she did - she shared a mighty guitar-pop song 'Ladder' from her debut album; Denzel Curry hits a bull-eye with “You don’t need to brag or dress up when all your shit flame” on ‘The Game’; EarthGang flip Erykah Baud’s ‘Window Seat’ on ‘Erykah’; Bouquet share atmospheric hardcore song ‘Southpaw’; IDHAZ goes into pop’s leftfield on ‘If I Am Afraid’; Boldy James delivers some great raps on The Alchemist produced ‘Turpentine’; just a lovely guitar-and-strings song ‘Lake Superior’ by Tasha; Carcass mix death-metal and hard-rock (death-rock?!?) on their first new song in eight years 'Dance of Ixtab'; Brooklyn rapper Ka shares a moody song 'I Notice'.

Rave New World's Michelle Lhooq makes a great point in her latest newsletter about partying getting its long over-due recognition: "Suddenly, club culture was front-page news, rather than relegated to tabloid gossip or society pages; everyone poking out of their quarantine hovels now obsessed with knowing where the party’s at... Now, rave culture is going mainstream, Gen Z is arriving on the scene, and city officials are finally recognizing the economic value of nightlife—thanks in part to grassroots activism that kept beloved music venues afloat during pandemic shutdowns. Could all of this mainstream media attention finally destigmatize nightlife—a culture long associated with antisocial escapism and frivolous peacocking—and finally convince the gentry that partying is, in fact, an essential activity?".

Mabel, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Glastonbury’s Emily Eavis are backing the new Safe Spaces Now music industry initiative calling for change to end the harassment and abuse of women at gigs and festivals, the Guardian reports. Organisers of the initiative say more than 40% of women under 40 have experienced sexual harassment at a live music event. Claire Barnett, the executive director of UN Women UK, said recently released data revealed just 3% of 18 to 24-year-old women had not been harassed in a public space.

This weekend, a new Aretha Franklin biopic 'Respect', starring Jennifer Hudson, comes to theaters. To mark the occasion, Billboard selects 11 times the Queen of Soul made awards show history. In 2015, Franklin, then 73, made American President Barack Obama teary-eyed and honoree Carole King ecstatic when she performed her 1967 classic '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' (which King co-wrote) at the Kennedy Center Honors.

The New Cue talked to the "psychedelia-lovin' Texans" about putting their last album 'Mordechai' in the middle of the pandemic and not being able to play it in front of people: "It was really hard. We had to do it. We had the music ready and there was no reason not to put it out. It 100% should have gone out. But it was really hard not to be together. It was hard not to know how people were really feeling about it and digesting it. And it was hard to have so much time to read [people talking about it on] the internet". They have a 'Mordechai' remixes album out. They really liked what they got back from the remixers: "I really appreciate freedom when I create. I think it works better when you give artists permission to do whatever they want. They're going to end up doing their best work".

Nanci Griffith, a Texas-born singer-songwriter celebrated in folk and country-music circles for her crystalline voice and storytelling skill, died Friday in Nashville at age 68, Tennessean reports. Throughout her career, Griffith cornered a self-described "folkabilly" sound that merged elements of country music with her empathetic folk sensibilities.

Richard Dawson and his Hen Ogledd bandmate Sally Pilkington have released sixty-three albums (!) during the thick of the pandemic with their Bulbils project. They are now releasing a compilation of that great mass of music, which they have condensed into a compilation of - threes songs. The Quietus is impressed by both their last year's feat, as well as this year's collection: "I have learned something quite valuable from this release. Or at least, it’s made me think enough to realise it. None of us knows how to act at the moment. We’re free, sort of, but we’re either trying to not loudly perform that freedom, or we’re being belligerent and aggressive about it. We can go to pubs, gigs, theatres, but we don’t know what it is to be in them again yet, or its consequence. Fear of nature’s chaos has made conspiracy rife. But here in the gesture of these two people we find that yes, things are unusual and scary, but doing things together, small, human things, like making music or anything creative and shared, is the answer".

The YouTube music theorist delivers yet another funny and clever educational video, this time about bass, the instrument he himself plays (and believes it to be the superior one). Neely tries to explain why you can't really play melodies on bass. He also translates "hmmm" into notes. Funny stuff!