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The only time I feel like a prisoner is when I think too much and can’t sleep from just having so many things on my mind. You know, stuff like ‘I could do this, I could do that. I could work with this band. When am I gonna do this show or that show?’ There’s so many things. There’s women. Do I have to eat? I wish I didn’t have to eat.
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Prince at Wembley Arena, London, August 1986.
(Michael Putland/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Tuesday - April 21, 2020 Tue - 04/21/20
rantnrave:// He left us four years ago today and sometimes it still snows in April and the guitar he tossed up to the heavens after playing the greatest solo in television history has still never come down and I'm still somehow coming across songs I could swear I've never heard before and I've still never been able to process any of this and maybe I never will. The first time I was aware of him was when I heard the title song from "1999," which means the first voice I ever heard on a PRINCE record was LISA COLEMAN's and the second voice I ever heard on a Prince record was DEZ DICKERSON's and the third voice I ever heard on a Prince record was the man whose name was on the album cover informing me that the sky was all purple. It was some time before I knew which of the three voices was his; as far as I knew, it could have been any of them. I love that even when he was playing pretty much everything by himself, he was still working as part of a band. It was a great band and he was a hell of a bandleader, notoriously tough but also generous. He had an ego the size of that purple sky and a heart that was bigger. And though his public image suggested he didn't quite live on the same earthly sphere as the rest of us, he did. His vision was remarkably clear. He sang often of destruction—it was there in that first song I heard—and despair, and just as often of redemption. And sometimes of butterscotch clouds and tangerines. He was spiritual and very much grounded and we could use him right now... Also, I lied up there in the first sentence. That guitar did come down. His guitar tech caught it and gave it OPRAH WINFREY, who gave it back. Everything, even that, was a collaboration. You were listening to him but he was listening to you. I like to think he still is... GARY CLARK JR., BECK, USHER, the FOO FIGHTERS and SUSANNA HOFFS & CHRIS MARTIN are among the performers paying tribute in LET'S GO CRAZY: THE GRAMMY SALUTE TO PRINCE, which airs at 9pm ET tonight on CBS... Speaking of Prince and guitars... MusicSETS: "Remembering Prince: The Musician and the Music." "Remembering Prince: The Man"... With its entire staff furloughed and its only business coming via mail order ("It represents probably, at the most, 10% of our [usual] business in Hollywood," co-founder MARC WEINSTEIN says), AMOEBA MUSIC has launched a GOFUNDME in the hopes of raising $400,000. The West Coast chain is still covering health insurance for its staff of nearly 400, as is the East Coast chain NEWBURY COMICS, which has also furloughed its entire staff while shuttering its stores and its warehouse. But Newbury's DUNCAN BROWNE says the chain is in decent financial shape and is making plans for eventually reopening. In the digital retail space, meanwhile, BANDCAMP will once again waive its fees for everything sold on the site May 1, meaning 100 percent of revenues that day go to artists and labels. The last time Bandcamp waived its fees, on March 20, the site registered an astonishing $4.3 million in sales through 800,000 transactions—nearly 20 times the volume of a normal day on Bandcamp... Gamesmanship: TRAVIS SCOTT will premiere his next single during a performance experience that will happen five times between Thursday and Saturday in FORTNITE. And 100 GECS is raising money for FEEDING AMERICA, a nationwide network of food banks, with a festival in MINECRAFT on Saturday that will also feature CHARLI XCX and several other artists... RIP PAUL ALADE and HORACIO FONTOVA.
- Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
i wish u heaven
Star Tribune
RETRO READ: Oral history: Prince's life, as told by the people who knew him best
An oral history compiled by the Star Tribune staff in 2004, when the man behind the "Minneapolis sound" was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Variety
Amoeba Music Co-Founder Discusses Store’s GoFundMe Drive: ‘We’re Trying to Keep the Culture Alive’
by Chris Willman
With a staff of close to 400 furloughed, high rents on a current location and big costs to move to the new one, the physical media mecca is asking for help — even as Marc Weinstein explains how the vinyl boom kept them going this long.
Dazed Digital
100 gecs are ready for the age of the virtual music festival
by Dean Mayo Davies
Are you? Captured together on a rare real world meeting, meet the controversial pop-metal duo living their best lives online.
Bloomberg Businessweek
Musicians Turn to Streaming Concerts From Home to Pay the Bills
by Lucas Shaw
Covid-19 has left an estimated multibillion-dollar hole in the ticket sales that account for most of performers’ income.
Pitchfork
How Musicians Are Fighting Coronavirus by Turning Merch Into Masks
by Noah Yoo
With stockpiles of T-shirts and no shows where they can sell them, bands are using their DIY instincts to help flatten the curve.
A.V. Music
Three nights with 311 in the waning moments of free American life
by Marty Sartini Garner
Our writer went into the desert on the even of a pandemic to meet the superfans of America's most positive band, and to figure out why he stopped loving them.
Stereogum
Rina Sawayama Is A British-Japanese Nu-Metal Pop Star In The Making
by Chris DeVille
Shut the f*** up! Do I have your attention? This is one of many reasons "STFU!" was a perfect lead single. Right there in the title, Rina Sawayama reels you in, gives you a taste of her attitude, piques your interest. It gets much more startling once you actually hear the music.
Billboard
Awards Shows Need to Come Up With a New Plan, Not Wait for Permission to Return to the Old Plan
by Paul Grein
Awards show organizers seemed unsure of how to respond when Billboard reached out to them late last week for comment on what contingency plans they're drawing up in the event that large gatherings are not allowed for the next year.
Music Business Worldwide
Big Radio Consolidation Spotlights The Need to Update Songwriters’ Rights
by David Israelite
David Israelite, CEO of the National Music Publishers' Association, on Liberty Media, iHeart and the US consent decrees.
Harper's Magazine
RETRO READ: I Am Your Conscious, I Am Love
by Hilton Als
A paean 2 Prince.
a place in heaven
Rolling Stone
Are Concert Organizers Giving Ticket Refunds?
by Samantha Hissong
How to get your money back from America’s biggest live-entertainment companies, as COVID-19 continues to keep music lovers out of venues and away from gatherings.
The New Yorker
The Homemade Insight of Fiona Apple's 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters'
by Carrie Battan
The musician’s ferociously individual new album is the culmination of a long and steady rejection of formal recording processes.
Guitar World
Fender will no longer use ash bodies for production-line guitars -- we found out why, and what woods will be used instead
by Amit Sharma
Executive VP of Fender Product Justin Norvell reveals what spec changes we can expect, and the fate of its Summer NAMM releases.
Billboard
How Is ‘American Idol’ Going to Go Live During the Pandemic? The Producers Say They Have a Plan For That
by Gil Kaufman
How Is ‘American Idol’ Going to Go Live During the Pandemic? The Producers Say They Have a Plan For That
Music Business Worldwide
‘The current situation is going to dramatically change the music business, as a huge accelerator of user behavior on the digital side’
by Denis Ladegaillerie
Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie discusses the prospects for physical music amid COVID-19 lockdown.
Partners
Partners: Tegan Quin & Sara Quin
by Hrishikesh Hirway, Tegan Quin and Sara Quin
Having a twin is already a special kind of relationship-how does it work when your twin is also your creative collaborator and business partner? For their entire lives, Tegan and Sara have been learning how to co-exist in a way that’s inextricably linked but still allows them to define themselves as individuals.
Innovating Music
Innovating Music: Public Policy & Music: Innovation Bringing Cities Together
by Gigi Johnson and Shain Shapiro
This week on the Innovating Music Podcast, we discuss innovation in public policy with Shain Shapiro, the founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy, which works with a wide range of clientele from city councils to property developers and more, in order to help music in cities thrive. We discuss music communities in cities as ecosystems and how public policy can support and protect them.
Splice Today
Listening to All of John Prine
by Crispin Sartwell
One of the great bodies of work in American art.
gal-dem
‘I’d sing and dance in the street’ -- how I found my talent as a musician with a learning disability
by Lizzie Emeh
When she was born, singer-songwriter Lizzie Emeh's parents were told she wouldn't walk, talk or sit up. But, she's turned into a successful musician.
Slate
RETRO READ: The Time I Went Roller-Skating With Prince
by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson
I got a text from Prince’s assistant. That’s how things go in the Prince universe: You get a pre‑message saying that a phone message is coming later. But this time, the message said something different.
MUSIC OF THE DAY
YouTube
"Comeback"
Prince
"If you ever lose someone dear to you / Never say the words they're gone / They'll come back, yeah."
“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’”
@JasonHirschhorn


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