| We still have two rows of laserdiscs. We’re still gonna have some 8-tracks. |
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The late Malcolm Cecil (right) and Robert Margouleff with their massive and massively influential analog synthesizer TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra) circa 1974.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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“We still have two rows of laserdiscs. We’re still gonna have some 8-tracks.”
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Not Enough Notes
Just because MOZART didn't finish that sonata, doesn't mean you can't. Finish Mozart's sonata, that is. In the classical world, that's called a completion. Example: Mozart scholar TIMOTHY JONES' just-released album of thoroughly researched completions of snippets left behind when the composer died 230 years ago. Thoroughly researched in the sense that, for example, Jones dated the works based on the paper Mozart wrote them on and then tried to finish them in the style of that exact year. Jones added a twist to the form, as the New York Times' ZACHARY WOOLFE reports, by completing each snippet in a number of different ways, suggesting different paths the original composer might have taken. A "choose-your-own-adventure approach," Woolfe writes.
Of course you don't always have to wait a couple centuries. Sometimes a composer will leave snippets behind on social media, like the six and a half bars JOHN MAYER posted a week ago to TIKTOK (he says eight bars but the last one and a half are merely implied). In his case, we have reason to believe the work isn't so much unfinished as not-yet-released, but that might not stop you if you're a young British singer/songwriter and amateur John Mayer scholar with some time on your hands. To wit, this truly adorable—and impressive—video of singer/songwriter MARY SPENDER rushing to complete Mayer's unfinished work while it's still unfinished. If I'm reading my calendar correctly, it took her three days to turn those six and a half bars into a song, record and mix her version and record and edit a video showing us in detail how she came up with this particular different path the original composer might have taken. (And then, within a day of her posting her video, my favorite YouTube musicologist, jazz bassist ADAM NEELY, chimed in to say he's going to reharmonize her song. God bless the internet sometimes.)
Amateur and not-so-amateur songwriters have been doing this sort of thing for years in one form or another. What is sampling if not reverting a finished song into its unfinished form and then refinishing it? What's this BEYONCÉ song if not a YEAH YEAH YEAHS completion on top of an ANDY WILLIAMS completion? But it's only been in the past few years that artists have been willfully putting song snippets out into the world via social media and it hasn't been that much longer that aspiring songwriters have had access to the same tools to produce their revisions and completions and post them to the same world. "Walls coming down," as my boss noted when he forwarded Spender's video to me. One of Spender's hopes is that her YouTube video will be de-monetized, by Mayer himself or by TOTO. She notes a resemblance between the former's snippet and the latter's "AFRICA," as if Mayer's song is its own kind of completion. I hope she properly releases her version, sharing the songwriting credit a la BEYONCÉ et. al., and I hope Mayer figures out a way to take something back from it for himself. Those backing vocals of hers are catchy as hell.
Plus Also Too
There's no defending artists who demand a piece of the publishing of songs they didn't write, and this is a persuasive Instagram making that point from a new account calling itself THE PACT which claims the practice is happening more and more often (nice followup here)... BOB DYLAN makes his case against the estate of onetime songwriting collaborator JACQUES LEVY, which is suing for a piece of his recent $400 million (estimated) catalog sale... After 10 weeks, MORGAN WALLEN has been knocked off his perch atop the BILLBOARD 200 by JUSTIN BIEBER, who's working on a streak of his own. JUSTICE is his seventh straight album or EP to debut at #1 in the US... Co-sign (Call Me By Your Name)... BELARUS has been disqualified from this year's EUROVISION for putting "the nonpolitical nature of the contest in question" with a song that seems to endorse President ALEKSANDR LUKASHENKO's violent crackdown on protesters.
Rest in Peace
Jazz musician, electronic music pioneer and synthesizer designer MALCOLM CECIL, who was half of TONTO's EXPANDING HEAD BAND in the early 1970s and who, among many other accomplishments, co-produced four classic STEVIE WONDER albums. Cecil and his partner, ROBERT MARGOULEFF, had a lot to do with why songs like "SUPERSTITION" and "LIVING FOR THE CITY" sound the way they do... OSO OSO guitarist TAVISH MALONEY... KALEB STEWART, former bassist for Gainesville, Fla, punk band AS FRIENDS RUST... Washington, D.C., jazz saxophonist AARON MARTIN JR.... San Diego rapper OG YD, at least the seventh rapper murdered this year; it's March.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| rantnrave:// Consider this a provocation |
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The Week |
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| The case for music.gov |
| by Ryan Cooper |
| How to fix musicians' streaming woes? Nationalize Spotify. |
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Components |
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| The Chaos Bazaar |
| An analysis of Bandcamp sales, 9/1/2020 -- 12/31/2020. |
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KQED |
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| Evangeline Elder, Brand Whisperer and Festival Co-Founder, is Demystifying the Music Industry |
| by Nastia Voynovskaya |
| She didn't see many women on the business side of music, so she charted a path that led her to EMPIRE and Women Sound Off. |
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WIRED |
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| How Audio Pros ‘Upmix’ Vintage Tracks and Give Them New Life |
| by Jesse Jarnow |
| Experts are using AI to pick apart classic recordings from the 50s and 60s, isolate the instruments, and stitch them back together in crisp, bold ways. |
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Variety |
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| Amoeba Music’s Co-Owner Answers All Your Reopening FAQs About the New Hollywood Store and What Physical Media Means in 2021 |
| by Chris Willman |
| Got questions about parking? Ventilation? Stock reallocations? In-stores? The trade counter? The very future of hard copies as we knew and loved them? Marc Weinstein has answers. |
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The Atlantic |
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| The Final Word on Tina Turner |
| by Hannah Giorgis |
| The HBO documentary "Tina" gives the singer the last say on a life that was, for long periods, out of her own hands. |
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Slate |
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| Why It Took the Grammys to Send Cardi B Back to No. 1 |
| by Chris Molanphy |
| “Up” is the rapper’s fifth chart topper, but this time it took a Grammy Bump to put her back on top. |
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Narratively |
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| The Lost Prince of Yacht Rock |
| by Keith Barry |
| In 1978 he was music’s next big thing. Then his album bombed, he began a long slide into obscurity, and a bizarre fraud sent him to prison. Will Dane Donohue finally get his encore? |
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The Guardian |
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| Music festivals return but lineups still lack women |
| by Laura Snapes |
| Guardian analysis of 31 events reveals many still falling short on equal gender representation. |
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The FADER |
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| Is Spotify really listening to artists 'Loud & Clear?' |
| by Jordan Darville |
| Damon Krukowski, a musician and organizer with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers , gave us his response to Spotify’s new initiative. |
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Pitchfork |
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| Why Did Live Nation’s Stock Price Hit an All-Time High Without Live Music? |
| by Marc Hogan |
| A recent rally for the sprawling entertainment conglomerate is good for investors, but it may spell troubling news for independent venues and the fans who love them. |
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The New York Times |
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| The Unstoppable Merry Clayton |
| by Jim Farber |
| One of music’s greatest backup singers is releasing “Beautiful Scars,” her first new album in over 25 years, after surviving an accident that proved that her incredible strength isn’t only in her voice. |
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The Ringer |
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| How One Ex-Scammer Became Bay Area Rap Royalty |
| by Logan Murdock |
| Guapdad 4000’s ‘1176’ is a deeply personal work that tackles mental strife and the gentrification of his city while still showing off the trademark personality that endeared him to fans. And it’s one of the year’s best albums. |
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AMETHYST |
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| Rollout Roundup: The Best Marketing Rollouts of This Week's Releases |
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| You’ve heard of music critics, but let me be the first to introduce you to rollout critics. |
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Red Bull Music Academy |
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| RETRO WATCH: Malcolm Cecil Lecture (New York 2013) |
| by Malcolm Cecil |
| Although he initially made his name in the British jazz scene, Malcolm Cecil was a key figure in the development of the synthesizer and his best-known work was made in collaboration with soul legends. |
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Electronic Beats |
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| We Need to Address Anti-Asian Racism In the Music Industry |
| by Whitney Wei |
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Office Hours |
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| Brands to Watch 2021: Roon Labs |
| by Ernest Wilkins |
| How do you make being an audiophile cool? |
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The Guardian |
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| And the brand played on: Bob Dylan at 80 |
| by Neil Spencer |
| With a slew of books to mark the songwriter’s birthday due, we look at the industry that has grown up around the man who forced academia to take pop seriously |
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Vulture |
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| Why the Oscars Should Revert to Two Best Original Score Categories |
| by Bobby Finger |
| 25 years ago, the Oscars tried to thwart Disney and split their Original Score category in two. They should go back. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| #FreeBritney movement prompts lawmakers to consider changing conservatorship laws |
| by Melody Gutierrez |
| Proposals in the California Legislature, spurred by the high-profile case of Britney Spears, aim to strengthen requirements of conservatorships. |
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Cosmopolitan |
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| A Very Juicy Oral History of “Lady Marmalade” |
| by Brennan Carley |
| Including and especially its iconic music video, which debuted 20 freaking years ago. |
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Recorded live in 1984 and originally released as the B-side to "Show Some Respect."
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| Video of the day |
| "Tina" |
| HBO |
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YouTube |
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“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?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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