Our business model is that someone has touched everything we have. | | | | Waxahatchee at the Nick in Birmingham, Ala., Dec. 26, 2015.
(David A. Smith/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “Our business model is that someone has touched everything we have.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// Well that went South fast, and I mean South both literally and figuratively. The country band that was known as LADY ANTEBELLUM until a month ago is suing the blues singer who's been known as LADY A for two decades, for having the audacity to have the name that the band wanted for itself, having discovered, a month ago, that the word Antebellum raises a statue-sized red flag in much of America. The original Lady A, whose legal name is ANITA WHITE, is Black, which is not insignificant considering where the new Lady A's A comes from and also considering *why* the band decided to drop the other nine letters. Suing a Black singer over a name you chose in response to Black Lives Matter may not be the best way to follow through with the gesture. There's also, to be fair, a pile of caveats here. For starters, the world is full of artists who share names without anyone making too loud a fuss. When the American post-hardcore band SLAVES announced last month that it, too, was changing its name, it had to be pointed out that this wasn't the arguably better known British punk band SLAVES, which is still calling itself that. The K-pop band TWICE is one of at least a dozen artists in SPOTIFY who had the same idea for a name, and while most are pretty far down Spotify's long tail, one is a Peruvian Christian pop band with a quarter million monthly listeners. Even Lady A of the blues, whose Spotify page Lady A of the country somehow missed (or ignored) when it was rechristening itself, is sharing that page with what appear to be two *other* Lady A's, a gospel singer and a pop singer who both released albums in 2014. Spotify's back end can't tell them apart, a not uncommon problem at digital services. So there's that. There's also that country Lady A isn't seeking any money from blues Lady A in its suit. It's asking, rather, for an official declaration that both artists can continue calling themselves Lady A without any legal consequences. Then again, that kind of *is* asking for money, because such a declaration would erase the other Lady A's leverage to negotiate a financial settlement over the name. Country Lady A says blues Lady A, after a few days of friendly discussion (they had even, apparently, discussed collaborating), asked for $10 million, and that's why it decided to sue. Blues Lady A, who expressed anger about the direction the talks were taking a few weeks ago ("their side is trying to erase me"), hasn't commented since the suit was filed. Country Lady A stressed in a statement Wednesday that it still wants an amicable conclusion and it wants blues Lady A to keep using her name and "We're still committed to educating ourselves." Is the band open, one wonders, to simply calling itself something else instead of fighting in court for a name it's had for exactly four weeks? Lady AB, anyone?... Could BRAD PITT have been the lead guitarist of STILLWATER? In the first episode of the ORIGINS podcast's five-part deep dive into the making of ALMOST FAMOUS, writer/director CAMERON CROWE tells host JIM MILLER that Pitt spent four months meeting with him and prepping for the role of guitarist RUSSELL HAMMOND before backing out. Part of the reason, Crowe says, may have been Pitt's discomfort with the age difference between Hammond and teenage groupie PENNY LANE (a role that almost went to NATALIE PORTMAN, by the way). All five parts are online now; congrats to our friends at CADENCE 13... This year's ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME induction ceremony, which had been pushed back to November, has now been canceled. HBO will instead air a Nov. 7 special on the inductees, including WHITNEY HOUSTON, DEPECHE MODE and T. REX... It costs $862,000 to be smuggled out of Japan inside an upright bass case, in case you were wondering... SPOTIFY is launching in Russia next week... If there's a better twee pop chorus for this current moment than "Low-key f*** 2020," please let me know... Today's rantnrave was written by candlelight during a power outage, and I already miss those three hours of almost total silence inside my house. It may have been the first time in four months my house has been in sync with my isolation mood. Alas, an orchestra of white noise has returned along with my lights and my internet, and it's deafening. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | The Washington Post | | The question simmering below the surface is as simple as it is bleak: Is live music worth the risk? | | | |  | Indy Week | | “Our business model is that someone has touched everything we have,” says Enoch Marchant, co-owner of Raleigh’s Nice Price Books & Records. | | | |  | The New York Times | | He was one of the great composers, period. An appraisal by John Zorn. | | | |  | GQ | | Alex Pappademas enters the dizzying universe of Dylan Brady and Laura Les, the possibly not-joking duo behind the Gecs. | | | |  | Origins with James Andrew Miller | | “Almost Famous” was almost a very different movie. Can you imagine the film with Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, and Natalie Portman? Here’s the full story of the casting saga that took place before filming ever started. | | | |  | Variety | | One of the largest – and most accessible – music festivals to date, with over 900 artists and 85 stages — entirely within the video game Minecraft. Rave Family Block Fest takes place this weekend (July 9-13). | | | |  | Forbes | | "The question is, how do we bring the relevance of a live concert into somebody’s workout program?" says Peloton's Gwen Bethel Riley. | | | |  | The New Yorker | | Katie Crutchfield, who records music under the name Waxahatchee, released "Saint Cloud," her fifth solo album, in late March, just as the country went under coronavirus lockdown. In the long months since, the album has become a talisman of the self-isolation era. | | | |  | Slate | | A performance art project turned into a cult band turned into a lesson in what alternative music could be. | | | |  | VBain Consulting | | The statistics prove the music industry is still run by men and rewards them considerably more. | | | | | GQ | | How Michael Render-a rapper from Atlanta who also happens to be a Second Amendment-loving, Bernie Sanders-boosting, unapologetically pro-Black businessman-became one of the loudest and most original political voices in the country. | | | |  | GEN | | Not too long ago, he would have been voted Most Likely to Go Full Wingnut. And yet… | | | | | Variety | | Metallica and longtime co-manager Cliff Burnstein are among the parties involved in an intellectual-property acquisition venture that is being headed up by former longtime Morgan Stanley investment banker Paul Donahue, two sources close to the situation confirm to Variety. | | | | | The New York Times | | The trio formerly known as the Dixie Chicks is returning with its first album in 14 years, at peace with an industry that’s never made nice. | | | |  | Twenty Thousand Hertz | | In this special episode, we have re-voiced, remixed, and remastered one of our shows about our favorite broadway musical! Featuring Nevin Steinberg, Hamilton’s Tony-nominated sound designer, Benny Reiner, Grammy-winning Hamilton percussionist, Anna-Lee Craig, Hamilton on Broadway A2, and Broadway sound design legend Abe Jacob. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | How a glam rocker from the Midwest went from losing a record deal to making Number One songs with superstars, defying odds and fighting for parity on the way. | | | |  | The Moment with Brian Koppelman | | Shane McAnally, American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. | | | |  | Austin 360 | | Monday's announcement that the annual "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame concert will not happen this year because of the coronavirus pandemic was no surprise. But what about the TV show's bread-and-butter - its weekly episodes broadcast on PBS stations nationwide? | | | |  | Highsnobiety | | Aminé delves into the very literal inspiration of his new album 'Limbo' and the pressure of putting Portland rap on the map. | | | |  | Bottom of the Map | | In the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks, we revisit a past episode that investigates how Hip-Hop has influenced the world as a platform for Civil Rights, and how Southern Hip-Hop artists create space for Civil Rights messages in their music. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Three-song single out now on Creative Mysteries Arts. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
