Talib Kweli, Yasiin Bey, and comedian Dave Chappelle have launched a new podcast, 'The Midnight Miracle', on the subscription podcast network Luminary, Complex reports. The first episode, titled “How to Inspire,” is available for free via YouTube. The hosts spoke about life between clips of the late Amy Winehouse. The second episode features Bey and Kweli’s first music as Black Star in over 20 years.
The 82-year-old folk artist Peter Stampfel has just released '20th Century', a 100-song album, featuring a cover of one pop song from each year within the 20th century, beginning in 1901 with 'I Love You Truly' and closing on Coldplay’s 'Yellow'. Punk gets its place with The Buzzcock’s 1978 single 'Ever Fallen in Love', disco got its place with 'Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive', whereas the 1990s are represented by The Spice Girls’ hit 'Wannabe' (1996), Beck’s 'Loser', Pulp's 'Common People' and others. The project took nearly 20 years to complete. American Songwriter talked to the cool old man.
A funny interview in Van Magazine with John Colan about his hilarious blog Composers Doing Normal Shit, where he publishes pictures of composers doing normal stuff. There's John Cage drinking beer, Claude Debussy on a picnic with his daughter looking really bored, Igor Stravinsky trying on shoes and plenty more stuff like that.
Instrumental startup flagged Arizona Zervas nearly two years before Columbia signed the American rapper, Lil Nas X was on its radar months before Columbia came calling, while Tones and I was recognized by the tool long before the Australian-born artist signed to Elektra Records. Instrumental has built-in a new approach to finding musical talent looking only at data – from social media and streaming numbers. Wired presents the tool.
"It’s a wonderful way to say goodbye, a celebration of Tony Allen doing the thing he loved and doing it as brilliantly and as unassailably as ever" - the Quietus wrote reviewing the posthumous album 'There Is No End', by the afrobeat drummer. It's Guardian's choice for their Global album of the month as it "plays as a cohesive record because of Allen’s capacity to slot into place behind seemingly any collaborator without diluting his innate sense of rhythmic style" (collaborators include Sampa the Great, Skepta, Ben Okri, and Danny Brown). Pitchfork argues "'There Is No End' is Allen as his most copacetic, polished self. It doesn’t feel like the finish line, but rather a passing of the baton".
Amazing Pakistani band Jaubi share a very groovy South Asian-jazzy 'Raga Gujri'; produced by David Lynch, Donovan's 'I Am The Shaman' is very minimal, with only acoustic guitar and voice, and atmospheric; Mina Tindle shares angelic, gentle, beautiful 'Indigo'; Backxwash expands on her rap-meets-metal energy on 'I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses'.
“That’s me now. Fake head of hair, fake eyebrows, fake teeth, fake hip. I’m the biggest fucking fake going!” - Shaun Ryder says in Guardian interview. It's a funny read (maybe not 100% scientific) - "I was a heroin addict for 20-odd years, but there’s been no damage off that", or maybe not entirely - "Yes, my teeth went from the crystal meth and crack cocaine".
Six strands of Kurt Cobain's hair are being auctioned as part of Iconic Auctions' 'The Amazing Music Auction', Loudwire reports. This one-of-a-kind artifact is "accompanied by an impeccable lineage of provenance including photos of Kurt posing with the woman who cut this hair, scissors in hand, and a fantastic shot of the hair actually being cut! The lucky friend who trimmed the Nirvana frontman's iconic blond locks was an early confidant, Tessa Osbourne, who cut his hair in 1989 — well prior to his 'Nevermind' breakthrough — while on the 'Bleach' tour", the press statement reads. The bidding started at $2,500.
Co-founder and namesake of Vans shoe company, Paul Van Doren has passed away at age 90, NBC reports. Van Doren launched Vans in 1966 and has since built the Anaheim, California-based company into a global sneaker and streetwear brand. Last month, Van Doren released his memoir 'Authentic'.
At the Brit Awards on Tuesday, Taylor Swift is to become the first female winner of the Global Icon award, CNN reports. She will also become the first non-British recipient of the prize, which the Brits characterise as their highest honour. Only three other artists have been named Brits Icons - Sir Elton John, David Bowie and Robbie Williams.
DJ Khaled nabbed his third No. 1 album on Billboard 200 chart this week, Billboard reports. Rappers and producer's 12th studio album, 'Khaled Khaled', recorded 93,000 equivalent album sales during its first week out, including 76,000 in SEA units (equaling 106.87 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks), 14,000 in album sales. and 3,000 in TEA units.
Nine Inch Nails + Health share an interesting bit of industro-pop called 'Isn't Everyone'; English Teacher combine post-punk and talky vocals on 'R&B'; The Limiñanas go electro garage psychedelic on 'Saul'.
NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has recorded audio of the Ingenuity helicopter in action, making it the first spacecraft to record the sounds of another spacecraft on another planet. The recording was taken during Ingenuity’s fourth test flight on April 30, C-Net reports. In the video, a low rumble caused by the wind on Mars can be heard as it blows past the rover. From that rumble comes a hum of the helicopter’s blade whipping through the thin atmosphere.
"If you choose to be a musician, you have to understand that it's only worth it if you become the best musician you can be" - parents of classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglić told their son when he set off from Montenegro to Royal Academy of Music in London. He mastered the classical guitar, only to face a new problem - there aren't so many famous guitar concertos. He asked for new compositions for classical guitar - from British film and TV composer Joby Talbot, and 'Lord of the Rings' composer Howard Shore - and got them. NPR tells the pretty story of the Montenegrin.
The US chart authority, Billboard has created a ranking of the most popular songs in the U.S. based on Twitter conversations, Bloomberg reports. The chart, called “the Billboard Hot Trending Powered by Twitter”, is unusual for Billboard in that it’s not measuring what people are listening to, but what they talk about.
A quintessential blog post at The Melt about "Spago Rock", defined by Mike Pace of Oxford Collapse: "A style of music that could be loosely defined as organic soul with synthetic instrumentation. If the yacht rock sound encompassed the mid-’70s to early ‘80s and centered around good times n' vibes, Spago Rock takes place from roughly 1986-1992, when many legacy artists matured and mellowed into their 40s, yet still wanted to be seen as contemporary and relevant. Artists who cut their teeth woodshedding in the analog days were now embracing the latest in digital studio technology, crafting immaculate electronic-based sophisti-pop while never truly abandoning their rock roots". Pace's new project Simmons & Matteo is the new phase of that genre.
Pearl Jam have launched Deep, a digital collection of their official site which allows visitors access to 186 bootlegs and 5,404 tracks spanning from 2000 to 2013. Each gig is accompanied by show descriptions written by members of the band’s Ten Club fan club. Fans will also be able to create gigs via the Custom Setlist Generator with the dream setlist turned into a streamable playlist. Pearl Jam are planning to start European tour in June.
“What is heritage?. It is the culture you inherit. So if you’re moving to different societies, you’re inheriting these things that become your heritage, become what your music sounds like, become what you move around like” - Pakistan-raised Brooklyn-based musician Arooj Aftab says in a Pitchfork interview about her latest, great album 'Vulture Prince'. She compares singing in Urdu versus English - "it lives in a different place in your mouth, in your entire body. Everything changes a little bit—the intonation and inflection, the accent, the diction". She also touches the sensitive issue of her late brother - “you accept your losses as part of your life, instead of pointing at them”.
“I’d like to have something to give to my daughter" - says a homeless LA man. Eddie Johns, however, could, however, have something for his daughter to inherit. Daft Punk have namely sampled Johns' 'More Spell on You' on their breakout hit 'One More Time'. The author was never credited or paid a dime. LA Times brings the sad story.
20,000 fans stood shoulder to shoulder for their first star-studded concert in over a year on May 2nd at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Foo Fighters, Jennifer Lopez, J Balvin, and Eddie Vedder performed for Global Citizen’s Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite The World, at the first large-scale music event for a Covid-compliant audience in the US. It wasn't exactly like before - the show’s attendance was far lower than the 70,000 the L.A. stadium can seat, attendees had to show proof of vaccination, they were masked and alcohol and concessions weren’t available. The goal of the concert was to raise money to send vaccine doses to India, Africa and other places. Rolling Stone is happy to report from it.
"Despite all the restrictions and prohibitions, I will complete the album. Maybe that will lead to a return to prison, but it really does not matter to me. I am doomed to produce music" - Iranian artist Mehdi Rajabian (31) says in a Rolling Stone interview from a solitary confinement in a basement. He is about to release his new album 'Coup of Gods', where he mixes classical strings, Middle Eastern instruments, and gorgeous vocalizations, as well as female voices which could bring him back to jail.
Burial shares a powerful statement with 'Dark Gethsemane'; it's just lovingly cozy with Kings of Convenience on 'Rocky Trail'; Mitski goes gothy and dark on 'The End'; Liars offer some syncopated punk-noise with 'Sekwar'; metallic-hardcore Englishmen Cruelty share mighty and ambient 'There Is No God Where I Am'.
Spinal Tap were a fake band constructed for a movie ('This Is Spinal Tap'), yet not being real didn't prevent them from recording two albums and going on a tour. Others followed, like Stillwater from Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous', 'That Thing You Do!’s the Wonders, 'Under the Silver Lake’s Jesus and the Brides of Dracula, and MTV's 2gether. The Ringer discusses the nature of fake bands with the people behind some of them - including Crowe, Zooey Deschanel, Andy Samberg, and Emily Haines.
Bands from all corners of metal are creating ferocious music that offers new perspectives on discrimination, race, gender and sexuality - Guardian reports on the changing face of the world's most controversial genre. The change is being fronted by podcasts On Wednesdays We Wear Black and Hell Bent for Metal, online communities like Alt Together, and fanzines such as Blkgrlswurld and Tear It Down, as well as by bands such as Nova Twins (dealing with misogyny and racial microaggressions), Life Of Agony (fronted by a transwoman), Tetrarch (fronted by African-American female metal guitarist), Pupil Slicer (discussing issues such as transgender healthcare) etc.
The desktop version of Spotify now contains play counts for every track on every album available. InsideHook took a chance to find songs with a small number of plays, which deserve to be played much more, like Joni Mitchell's 'The Last Time I Saw Richard' and Metallica's 'The Struggle Within'.
In the past year, pop-punk has made its comeback with the help of hip-hop crossovers by 4kGoldn and iann, Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker, MOD SUN, Trippie Red etc. Also, TikTok, good at nostalgia and promoting subcultures, also helped out bringing pop-punk back. Consequence gets a closer look.
Author Oli Freke released his news book 'Synthesizer Evolution: From Analogue to Digital (and Back)', a written celebration of the impact of synths on music and culture. Freke offers a comprehensive and meticulously researched directory of every major synthesizer, drum machine and sampler made between 1963 and 1995. For Mix Mag, he chose the 10 most influential synthesizers.
Michael Jackson’s image was worth just $4 million at the time of his death in 2009, a U.S. tax court judge ruled, far below the $161 million valuation sought by the IRS. the AP reports. The Jackson estate, however, filled out a tax return in which it pegged the value of his image at $2,105 - roughly the same, the judge noted, as a “heavily used 20-year-old Honda Civic". Judge Mark Holmes sided with the government on the value of Jackson's music catalog, pegging it at $107 million.
The Atlantic follows the unusual life story of the song 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' by the American folk singer John Denver. The magazine calls it "an ode to an uncomplicated vision of the United States", which, however, found fertile ground in China and South Korea.
"I am convinced the labels won the war against piracy when they stopped fighting it... Record companies spent 10 years making a dog’s dinner of trying to solve piracy, and then spent 10 years letting go of the old vine and reaching out to the new vine of streaming" - Will Page, Spotify’s former chief economist, says in Rolling Stone interview. The history is repeating, Page believes - "now, because of Covid, everyone is staring at their Napster moment". Page has published a book 'Tarzan Economics' where he lays out eight principles for entrepreneurship in the rapid-fire digital era.
"I’m sorry to break the first cardinal rule of Berlin nightlife—you don’t talk about Berghain—but when I pull up to the club and see a factory line of black silhouettes wearing the exact same BDSM harnesses from Amazon.com … biiiiiitch! I cannot resist going in. I mean, come on. That shit looks like a meme" - clubs&drugs lover Michelle Lhooq writes in her latest Instagram about the famous club. "I hit the Berg three times during my trip, and every occasion felt like a hollow simulation, like taking a soulless ride through techno Disneyland. It was as if a meta-level of self-consciousness was hanging over the club - an acute awareness that THIS IS BERGHAIN. Half the dancefloor looked like they stepped off the Balenciaga runway, and the bug-eyed models stomping around on designer amphetamines were actually terrifying. Dabauchery didn't look like an act of debasement but a way of fitting into a proscribed lifestyle".
“Just having money in general, especially when you’re showcasing cars or things on your body, you’re obviously a target. Hip-hop often tries to sell wealth and success on social media. But at some point, you’re just giving somebody a list of potential victims” - Rapper Glasses Malone says to LA Times after the recent killing of PnB Rock. He's just the last one in a string of the city’s black music community losses over the last couple of years. The LA daily sees a change - more security and less public flamboyance among local rappers.
Jamaica's broadcasting agency has banned music that "glorifies illegal activity" - such as drug and gun use, the BBC reports. The ban covers TV and radio and lists specific topics that are off-limits - scamming, drug abuse and the illegal use of firearms. Swearing or "near-sounding" replacements are also banned. Some artists who argue music is a reflection of life have criticized the ban.
Party and drugs specialist Michelle Lhooq discusses the changing landscape of drugs in the New Models podcast - from legalization grifts to “spectrum sobriety”, They also discuss nü party paradigms, emergent synthetics, and the gentrification of club drugs like K, MDMA, and 3-MMC. Additionally, Lil Internet fills in some context with fascinating explainers on Berlin’s Telegram drug delivery services. Listen to the podcast - https://ravenewworld.substack.com/p/techno-disneyland.
"The scripts are sharp, pacy, funny and cleverly structured to provide each key player in the story with a voice. The performances are great without straying into bluster or scenery chewing, and there's a constant motion in the narrative that keeps you utterly captivated". TechRadar reviews the new Netflix series about Spotify. Guardian says it's worth watching: "A worthy exercise about how much the tech industry loves to corrupt good intentions".
WRTI shares a lovely text about "viral jazz" describing it as "aesthetic rather than a set of quantifiable viewer metrics". DOMi & JD Beck, and Louis Cole are two of the acts from the new movement, which The New York Times Magazine has described as "both radically sophisticated and full of jokes, a combination of qualities you find in both the 20th century's jazz greats and the 21st century's extremely online teenagers".
An American artist or an academic can't get nominated for MacArthur Fellows award, and the pool of candidates is a tightly-held secret. It's also a sweet cash prize. This year's 25 Fellows will each receive $800,000, a "no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential". This year's class of so-called 'geniuses' includes three musicians:
Martha Gonzalez of Scripps College is a musician, scholar and artist/activist "strengthening cross-border ties and advancing participatory methods of artistic knowledge production in the service of social justice"
Ikue Mori of New York, N.Y., is an electronic music composer and performer "transforming the use of percussion in improvisation and expanding the boundaries of machine-based music.
Tomeka Reid of Chicago, Ill, is a jazz cellist and composer "forging a unique jazz sound that draws from a range of musical traditions and expanding the expressive possibilities of the cello in improvised music"
"An entire history of innovations in recorded music could be told through the lens of so-called musical mistakes. Do they even exist? At the level of intention, are errors ever actually errors?" - Piotr Orlov writes in a beautiful essay about 'Dilla Time', the new biography of legendary Detroit hip-hop producer James Dewitt Yancey, Jr. (aka J Dilla or Jay Dee) by journalist and NYU professor Dan Charnas. "What might the musical future look like when its supposed mistakes and proficiencies are based primarily on sets of data? ... Aren’t what previous generations’ power brokers dictated as errors turning out to be some pretty decent guides to a mindful development of th
WeTransfer presents artists who have put down roots in the deserts of the world – including Tinariwen, Cate Le Bon, Mdou Moctar, Imarhan, and Itasca – to find out how the landscape has shaped their sound and altered their perspective. Algerian desert rock quintet Imarhan's frontman Sadam has an interesting perspective: "In the nostalgia there is hope because you would always hope to find again what you miss. The space in the desert gives a lot of room for nostalgia. The wind specifically is an element that brings nostalgia. It makes you travel in your mind. You will feel carried by the wind, even if you are surrounded by people.”
Country superstar Kane Brown's manager Martha Earls shares some interesting thoughts in an MBW interview about signing musicians based on their viral TikTok videos. "People are signing moments – 15 seconds of a song being popular — without a plan to develop a long-term career for the artist they’re signing. That’s troublesome to me because that implies these artists are disposable people. ‘Oh, you had a hit, we’ll sign you. You don’t have another one? Whatever, we’ve moved on.’ Are you really giving them everything they need to have the most successful career possible? I do have some concerns with that".
