Happy DRAKE day. Or, if you're so inclined, happy JOHN COLTRANE day. We need distractions. These are good distractions... The MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT, which may be the last federal legislation we'll ever see that creates a new government entity and has bipartisan support, moved one step closer to reality on Thursday. The complicated, omnibus act has its supporters and its detractors, but maybe just maybe it will bring tangible financial rewards to artists who depend almost completely on streaming, like, say, Drake, as well as artists who did the bulk of their work before 1972, like, say, Coltrane. We can disagree on a million things but not this: Musicians should be paid more. MusicSET: "Money for Something: Debating the Music Modernization Act." And how about a bipartisan congressional playlist for the occasion?... Words in defense of JOE JACKSON, by writers and thinkers I deeply admire. QUESTLOVE: "to raise/navigate the lives of 9 kids in Gary Indiana in the early 60s PRE civil rights to just merely 'survive and thrive'—-nevermind rule the world—was BEYOND an achievement. He raised 9 superheroes without a manual." GREG TATE: "Wrestling with the masculinites of classic R&B's most patriarchal demi-urges means wrangling with the Jim Crow America that made their enormous successes possible and problematic in the same breath"... KANYE WEST idea of the day: Record 52 albums in 52 weeks (48:45 mark of this podcast)... Might one of these people replace NEIL PORTNOW?... Instragram + music... Welcome back PITCH, my favorite music podcast, which has returned from a lengthy sabbatical by dropping nine new episodes on AUDIBLE. One is about the music of ISIS. One is about the music of cats. There are seven more... Couch-potato specials: 13 movies on NETFLIX every music lover should watch. 10 films about dance music culture that we actually like. Or, if you're up for leaving the apartment on a hot sticky weekend: BOBBITO GARCÍA's self-documentary (is that a genre?) ROCK RUBBER 45S opens in New York this weekend... Runner-up prize for classic bands who haven't made it into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME: making it into this JEOPARDY! category... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from Drake, John Coltrane, FLORENCE & THE MACHINE, GORILLAZ, RAY DAVIES, CHARLES LLOYD & THE MARVELS & LUCINDA WILLIAMS, LET'S EAT GRANDMA, JIM JAMES, CASANOVA, PROTOJE, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, WILD FEATHERS, STANLEY CLARKE BAND, MILK CARTON KIDS, KITTLE & CO., the INTERRUPTERS and the ESSEX GREEN... Rest in punk peace, STEVE SOTO of the ADOLESCENTS and AGENT ORANGE.