American musician John Vanderslice described to Consequence how he managed to make a “middle-class living" from touring. It was a 12-date tour of the American west coast when he used a hotel scam to get discounts, didn't use any drugs or alcohol, made his own food, and had a lot of merch in his car. All in all, he made $8064 from concerts and $9220 from the merchandise. His costs were $1795, which means he made $15,500 in two weeks. Vanderslice owns a studio and works as a record producer.

"The more [musicians] get the acclaim, the more they start needing it. You might think that after all the big paychecks and standing ovations, they would eventually have reached some sense of self-satisfaction that would allow for an easy retirement. But that’s not true. In fact, the opposite is the more typical case. The more the artists are rewarded, the more they still want" - music writer Ted Gioia looks into the possibility of ending a career as a musician. "Sometimes it’s better to walk away when you’re still riding high. I greatly admire performers such as Audrey Hepburn or Shirley Temple, who happily launched second careers doing charitable works and good deeds. They used their fame for something different, something perhaps better. My view is that Madonna would have a much more powerful and positive legacy if she did something like that."

"I haven’t really thought about all that [scandalous stuff] that much recently. But now that you mention it, most of everything that [Guns N’ Roses] did would’ve gotten us canceled in this day and age" - G'N'R's guitarist Slash says in a new interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. He added: “We would not have fared well in this environment, for sure… on so many different levels. But I mean, a lot of things from back then would not be what you consider acceptable at this moment in time. … I’m just glad that we didn’t have the internet bac

Bandcamp Daily presents the experimental electronic music scene from Amman, the capital of Jordan, one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the Levant.  It’s long been a hub for businesses and NGOs, which has had a liberalizing effect on the city, and made for the environment that created producers such as Toumba, Taymour, DJ ODDZ, and Idreesi, selected by Bandcamp. Crack Magazine recently interviewed Toumba who shared his insight of the music: “If I showed my recent stuff to someone in London, they wouldn’t recognise it as folkloric – they’d just recognise some swung drums that sound a bit left field, But someone from Jordan would be like, ‘Ah, I know this.’ That’s what I want to make.”

Terrestrial radio accounted for 17% of listener engagement in 2022, compared to subscription audio streaming, which accounted for 24%, according to IFPI’s 2022 Engaging with Music Report. Plus, 73% of those surveyed stated that when they do listen to the radio, they listen to it mainly for the purpose of listening to music, MBW reports. Tom Rose, Managing Director at pan-European PR and radio plugging agency Propeller Communications, believes radio will maintain its position as the essential platform for new music discovery - "people want to be recommended music by people they trust, as well as algorithms. That’s why public radio stations are able to increase in listenership when they get it right. There are less and less media outlets out there with the demise of blogs and print media, but fans still want to be recommended music by tastemakers that they trust."

“People want positive energy in their lives. Trance music offers just that” - Dutch curator, writer, and label owner Arjan Rietveld says to Pitchfork about the current revival of trance. Rietveld sees trance as a natural corrective to the omnipresent darkness of styles like techno and more experimental styles of club music, not to mention real-world woes like climate change and the pandemic, The P points out. Musicians at the crest of that new trance wave are TDJ, Young Marco, DJ Courtesy, among others.

Award-winning ballet director Marco Goecke from the Hanover State Opera has been suspended after smearing dog faeces on a critic's face, Daily Mail reports. Goecke, apparently furious about a review of one of his shows by journalist Wiebke Hüster, allegedly confronted the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung critic during the half-time break of another show and smeared a paper bag filled with dog excrement on her face. Ms Hüster described Mr Goecke's show, 'In The Dutch Mountains' opened recently at the Nederlands Dans Theatre in The Hague, like being "alternately driven mad and killed by boredom". When the director attacked her, she said she couldn't defend herself, as she was in panic, she told NDR.

"There is melancholy here but wonder too. Love, death, family, home, religion, and even the enormity of the universe... appear more personally realized, revealing vulnerabilities and emotionality that are at once recognizable, stirring, and occasionally profound" - PopMatters reviews 'All Of This Is Chance' by singer-songwriter Lisa O'Neill, adding - "raw yet arresting, it can pull at the heart and transport one to different worlds, sounding both timeless yet contemporary and unmistakably Irish, not only by accent but by power and depth of feeling". Uncut highly recommends these "songs of love, loss, wonder and despair", whereas Hot Press describes it as "a breathtaking and incredible record". Guardian is equally decisive: "transcendent and original – a triumph."

Algiers are about to release their new album 'SHOOK' next week, with Backwash being one of the featured artists. The Quietus took the opportunity and invited them to interview one another about metal, rap, gospel, cage fighting, cocktails and more. An amusing read.

Oleh Shpudeiko bought himself a handheld digital tape recorder in 2012 and started to record sounds around his city - rail stations, the sound of traffic and birdsong, the dripping of water in a tunnel, the rumbling of trains on a track, the babble of voices in a shopping mall – all sliced up, manipulated, accompanied by synthesisers and transformed into a piece of compelling ambient music. The city in question is his hometown of Kyiv. The album, 'Kyiv Eternal', was completed after the Russian invasion and is coming out next week under the name Heinali. Guardian presents the album and the composer.

"True suckiness — like true greatness — is a subjective quality" - Rolling Stone goes presenting their selection of horrible albums by otherwise brilliant artists. Plenty of greats are there - Outkast, Bob Dylan, The Clash, R.E.M., The Who, David Bowie, John Lennon, Black Sabbath, Kanye West... "Did we rank them? We sure did. Beginning with least-worst and counting down to the most historic flop."

Producer and musician Pharrell Williams will take on the role of creative director for the luxury fashion brand’s menswear line, GQ reports. His first collection for LV will be released during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris in June. Pharrell follows in the footsteps of Virgil Abloh, who served as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection from 2018 until his death in 2021 due to cardiac angiosarcoma. Abloh was the first Black American to be appointed to the role.

Music writer Ted Gioia shares a fresh chapter from his new book 'Music to Raise the Dead' - the results of many years of research into the most famous story in the history of the blues, namely guitarist Robert Johnson’s legendary deal with the Devil. Gioia goes deep into history and religious practices, as well as into the meaning of crossroads, and how it all provided an environment for Johnson's experience and music.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have launched a special website dedicated to marking the 10th anniversary of their album 'Push The Sky Away', featuring video, audio, imagery, lyrics and exclusive merchandise related to the record. A February 2013 performance of 'Push The Sky Away' in full, followed by a set of other classic songs, captured at Los Angeles' Fonda Theatre, has also debuted online and will be available for a limited amount of time. In a new statement about the album, Cave said: "'Push The Sky Away' was the start of a new, wild adventure for The Bad Seeds. The record opened up a whole different approach to the way we created our music. It was the beginning of a way of writing – a kind of controlled improvisation. Because of this shift, the record was to some extent divisive – but it was the necessary reinvention that the Bad Seeds desperately needed".

"Feelings of loneliness, anger, and, perhaps most potently, loss seem like they’ll never end. The experience is utterly overwhelming, and it’s frankly not healthy to keep all of those emotions bottled up. The best way to get them out? The tried-and-true breakup album" - Consequence introduces their list of 20 best break-up albums. The interesting selection includes Adele, Bright Eyes, Converge, The Cure, and Taylor Swift, among others.

LA-based house music producer Channel Tres is about to drop his debut LP 'Real Cultural Shit', but the voyage to accepting himself as a house musician in LA's Compton wasn't easy. “At the time you had to be ‘hard’ and a certain type of way. I knew I wasn’t like that. I liked to dance, and that wasn’t always cool. When I saw Moodymann and how gangster he was with house music, I was like: ‘Oh, I could do this! I don’t have to give up my whole hood energy” - he says to the Guardian. He studied music theory at university where he discovered the electronic sounds - “It was kind of like a coming-to-Jesus moment. I started seeing like, ‘Oh, there’s these Black people creating this type of music? People from London came to Chicago and got this music, and now it’s popular over there?’”. His next step is to try and reach big venues such as stadiums, and to continue exploring choreography - “​​I see creativity in everything. In architecture, cooking, administration work. You have to be creative to problem-solve.”

s me with a kind of professional pride to be a part of the sometimes contentious business of songwriting. It’s cool. I like it" - Nick Cave answered on his Red Hand Files blog to fans' questions about Tom Jones' 'Delilah ' being banned in Wales. Cave doesn't really like that particular murder ballad - "'Delilah’, despite the fact that it was awarded the Ivor Novello in 1968, just sort of sucks. As someone who knows a thing or two about murder ballads, for my taste, it’s all too waltzy and strident and hammy and mariachi and triumphant. And the words are ugly – 'I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.' Really?".

Despite the fact that the '20s were ruled by segregation and racist sentiments, the most popular music of the era in the US was heavily influenced by the work of black performers who created and defined ragtime, jazz, and blues - All Music introduces their selection of songs of 1923. The themes come out quite modern - 'Beside a Babbling Brook' is about a man who feels climbing the ladder of life "isn't worth the worry and strife" and he would rather spend his time "beside a babbling brook" in the midst of nature. Check out the full list here.

"'Raven' isn’t a magpie record, and the shifts between sounds are never jarring or overwhelming. Kelela has too much command over her own sound for that... Tracks flow into and out of each other, speeding up or slowing down at their conclusions" - Stereogum goes reviewing the newest album by the American singer (tagged it their Album of the Week). Pitchfork hears a "masterful display of tension and release, centering queer Black womanhood through blasts of heated dance music and ambient comedowns" (tagged it best Best new music, score 8.4). Telegraph says the "Ethiopian-American artist Kelela Mizanekristos has blessed us with a sexy, sultry masterclass in RnB".

U2 are launching their long-rumored Las Vegas residency 'U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At The Sphere' at the high-tech MSG Sphere this fall, Rolling Stone reports. The shows will celebrate their 1991 album 'Achtung Baby' in a multi-show residency, but without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who will be recuperating from surgery. Bram van den Berg will replace him. U2 said that their "audience was always the fifth member of the band. Bottom line, U2 hasn’t played live since December 2019 and we need to get back on stage and see the faces of our fans again".

Playboi Carti allegedly choked his pregnant girlfriend, leaving visible injuries on her neck, chest, and back, during an argument on December 20, TMZ reports. Carti’s girlfriend, who was 14 weeks pregnant at the time, told police that she and Carti were arguing about a paternity test when he grabbed her throat, pushed her into some bushes, and held her neck until she could barely breathe. She went to her car and tried to call police, but Carti attacked her again.

"The labels are in a constant tug of war with digital streaming providers, who would rather their users listen to tracks that are cheaper to license, or podcasts with zero marginal costs. Artists feel like they can’t break through. Everyone feels squeezed" - Trapital's Dan Runcie points out in his latest memo as he's thinking about the music industry’s business model. "Music is always the first tech medium to be disrupted, but its companies are often the last to adapt to the changes. It could be time to flip that narrative, and it’s better late than never... Any significant change starts with the record labels" - Runcie believes, and offers a few ideas.

James Brown's 'Funky Drummer' beat was sampled over 1,700 times, yet its originator, drummer Clyde Stubblefield never got a penny for it. He didn't really like his beat either, unlike Brown who heard "a mother" in it. Arthur "LA" Buckner and Linda Diaz delve into the history of it, tracing its impact on Hip Hop music and the cultural significance of this iconic rhythm.

"Why does it take at least five songwriters to write a chart-topper today when it used to take one or two? Are musicians just less talented?... If it’s not talent, then what is it? In my opinion, it comes down to three factors: money, the computer, and the changing definition of what songwriting is" - musician Chris Dalla Riva goes into the issue on Tedium.

David Jolicoeur, a founding member of De La Soul, has died at the age of 54, with the cause of death still unknown, All Hip Hop reports. The musician has commonly performed under the stage name Trugoy the Dove, and later in his career as Dave. On De La Soul's debut - '3 Feet High and Rising', the band's most commercially successful record, and widely considered a masterpiece - they differentiated themselves from their contemporaries with their eccentric wordplay and eclectic jazz and funk samples.

Quite a few funny little posts on Composers Doing Normal Shit Twitter profile lately, the latest being composer Burt Bacharach having cheese and crackers. Previously seen - Leonard Cohen playing pinball, Franz Liszt having miserable time with his students, Miles Davis having fun, and many more.

Rock and metal music YouTube channel has shared a video about gatekeeping, what it is, why it’s hurting heavy music, what can be done about it, and why it had increased over the last few years. The key point is to make the heavy metal environment as inclusive as it once was.

Rihanna performed last night at the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show singing a medley of her biggest hits. She sang on a floating stage wearing an all-red ensemble, with her dancers all in white. Yahoo describes her show as a "historic, glass-ceiling-shattering". Rihanna also showed her baby bump during the performance. Watch her performance here.

"Tracks in dance music have not only gotten shorter, but significantly so - average track lengths appear to have dropped by at least a minute or two during the past decade, and that drop seems to have accelerated during the latter half of the 2010s" - First Floor points out. The reasons? "Streaming services provide not only seemingly infinite content, but also remove virtually all costs for engaging with that content. There’s literally zero consequence for quickly pressing the skip button and moving on to something else. For consumers, the benefits of this system are obvious, but it’s also given rise to a listening public with little patience and an urgent need to be entertained as quickly as possible, lest they move on to the next thing... At this point, the idea of laying back and 'getting lost in the music' seems almost quaint; most listeners, especially young ones, simply want their favorite songs to hurry up and deliver a dopamine hit as quickly as possible".

"What we really need is a robust indie environment—in which many arts and culture business flourish and present their diverse offerings. Let a thousand flowers blossom... That’s where the future is happening right now. By alt culture, I’m referring to things like podcasts, Bandcamp albums, YouTube channels, Substacks, and various other emerging platforms. Some of these aren’t just growing, they are growing exponentially" - music writer Ted Gioia points out in his State of the Culture address. There's also a place for major record labels or movie studios or non-profits in this new environment - "If they start helping out in our project to build an audience and infrastructure for bold creative work, we have a golden age of artistry and culture ahead of us." Let's go!