The Bad Brains had guitar solos, and they were musical, but it was not like Hendrix. It was like, ‘Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.’ They were apocalyptically passionate and created a field of energy that you were either pulled into or repulsed by. It was pulverizing music in that way. | | | | Face to face: Bad Brains singer H.R. at the Roseland Ballroom, New York, June 13, 1993.
(David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “The Bad Brains had guitar solos, and they were musical, but it was not like Hendrix. It was like, ‘Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.’ They were apocalyptically passionate and created a field of energy that you were either pulled into or repulsed by. It was pulverizing music in that way.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// "In the spirit of sustainability," comedian JACK WHITEHALL joked while presenting at the BRIT AWARDS Tuesday night, "the Brits have been recycling all sorts of excuses for why there were so few women nominated.” It's funny because it's true. The only female nominated as the featured performer in any category that didn't have the word "Female" in it was singer-songwriter MABEL. She didn't win. LEWIS CAPALDI bested her for both BEST NEW ARTIST and BEST SONG, while British rapper DAVE, whose performance during the ceremony prompted the BBC to call BORIS JOHNSON's office for comment (the request was declined), scored best album for his acclaimed PSYCHODRAMA. The Brits couldn't think of any women to even nominate for that last category, or for Best British Group. The Brit Awards, of course, don't have a monopoly on allowing men to monopolize everything. In a blog post earlier Tuesday, VICK BAIN, former chief executive of the BRITISH ACADEMY OF SONGWRITERS, COMPOSERS AND AUTHORS, noted women's struggles to get recognized for any number of awards, get booked at festivals or simply find work. Bain recently researched the rosters of British music publishing organizations and found that "only 14% of songwriters/composers are female and that only 20% of artists on the label rosters are female." "One issue," she wrote Tuesday, "compounds the next." This is what women on the other side of the Atlantic have been saying for years about the absence of a level playing field for women at the GRAMMY AWARDS, on festival bills and on country radio, to take three of the most obvious examples. Radio play. Live bookings. Awards. One issue does indeed compound the next. MELINDA NEWMAN offered some "encouraging signs" on the country radio front in a lengthy BILLBOARD report that relied on anecdotal evidence of recent successes, in contrast to the hard data revealed a day earlier by researcher JADA W. WATSON, which suggested the picture remains bleak. Some country label executives told Newman that radio programmers are consciously trying to find more space for women, while one, WARNER MUSIC NASHVILLE CEO JOHN ESPOSITO, said performers like INGRID ANDRESS are finding their way to radio programmers strictly on the strength of their songs and voices. "I don't believe for a second that they added her because she was a female," Esposito said. You get the sense that execs feel compelled to stress that bullet point. Left unsaid is that country radio programmers for years have been giving shots to male singers because they're men. The best—and most simple—way to level the playing field is to stop doing that... Jack Whitehall's Brits joke was funny, also, because it played on the music industry's growing interest in recycling and other environmental issues. The spirit of sustainability is strong indeed. In a very good longread for the NEW YORKER on how touring musicians are rethinking their routines, from how they tour to how extensively they tour to how frequently they tour, AMANDA PETRUSICH tabulates the environmental damage that can be done by short-haul flights, buses that run nearly 24 hours a day and other staples of the live music world. (She compares this with the not inconsiderable damage done by the recorded music industry, where streaming music is generating far more greenhouse gases than the industry was generating at the height of the CD era). One culprit that seems of particular interest as summer festival season nears: radius clauses and other exclusivity demands, which sometimes seem almost comical, but which can extract environmental consequences by forcing artists to route tours inefficiently. Maybe festival promoters could give up some exclusivity in exchange for a few more minutes of life on the planet. In the same vein: Going out to see local bands isn't just good for supporting your town's culture; it's good for Mother Earth. MusicSET: "Green Days: The Music Biz Tackles the Environment." | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | The New Yorker | | Musicians rely heavily on touring to generate revenue. That spells trouble for the climate. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | “We’ve been saying we need to fix this for years,” one vinyl-pressing executive says. “Now we actually need to fix this.” | | | |  | Billboard | | Within the last year-and-a-half, artists on labels like Domino, Polyvinyl, Sup Pop, Barsuk, Saddle Creek, Matador and many other rock-oriented indies within that world have been putting out music at a more-frequent rate. | | | |  | Dazed Digital | | When you picture Dave and Stormzy recording their biggest hits, you probably don’t imagine them with a 49-year-old dad from Buckinghamshire. | | | |  | The Verge | |  | The Guardian | | Lewis Capaldi predictably took home more than one award at a Brits night that nevertheless rewarded innovative talent, from Billie Eilish to Dave and Tyler, the Creator. | | | |  | vbain consulting | | One issue compounds the next. | | | |  | 8Sided Blog | | The intersection of music and podcasts is more like a collision. Shows are accused of copyright infringement and legitimate licenses may not matter. | | | |  | SonicScoop | | Grammy-nominated mastering engineer Alan Silverman shows how music streaming services have turned the world of mastering for loudness upside down. | | | |  | The Root | | "If they're actually selected, it would be pretty startling." Those were the of punk music stalwart Ian MacKaye, who during his decades in the music industry spearheaded bands such as The Teen Idles and Minor Threat, before eventually co-founding Dischord Records in 1980. | | | |  | CANADALAND | | The history of Canada’s weirdest and most prolific interviewer. | | | | | Billboard | | Why there are encouraging signs amid a still troubling imbalance. | | | |  | Econsultancy | | Having worked at a major city law firm, Polygram and the BBC, Samatha Sawyer now sits on the senior leadership team at 7digital, a B2B music services company. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | The acid-house pioneer helped shape the course of British pop, one contrarian move at a time. | | | |  | NME | | Writing under the pen name Audrey Witherspoon, the iconic DJ and producer was an occasional contributor to NME in the 1980s. | | | |  | Longreads | | Every now and then, in one of her music videos or during a heady, live performance, singer Carly Rae Jepsen will close her eyes, raise her hands above her head, and sway her hips. | | | |  | CNN | | Behind that teenage TikTok star, there's probably a very confused parent | | | |  | Light Sleeper | | Toddy Tee's OG "Batterram Tape." | | | |  | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | | Record albums have been teetering on the brink of extinction for decades, but Vince Bomba, the Turntable Doctor, keeps the tables turning. | | | |  | Electronic Beats | | "My main m.o. is the laissez faire, Balearic notion of having a feel-good attitude." | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | Dave Grohl pretty much ripped off the drum intro on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Earl Hudson's drum intro here. Ask Dave. He'll tell you. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
