| Is is really hard to balance trying to get music done and get my homework done on time. It’s a battle. |
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Trendsetter: A masked-up Kali Uchis at the ACL Music Festival, Austin, Texas, Oct. 5, 2019.
(Tim Mosenfelder/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
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“Is is really hard to balance trying to get music done and get my homework done on time. It’s a battle.”
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Hello, Stockholm!
Are the tour announcements and ticket offers pouring into your inbox, too, this week? It's like April showers in mine. Presales start today for IDLES' fall US tour. Presales started Tuesday for MACHINE GUN KELLY's fall shows. MALUMA in the US starting in September. MARC ANTHONY in August. SOCCER MOMMY in September. JUDAS PRIEST headbanging into my town in October. JAPANESE BREAKFAST. PRIMUS. BEACH BUNNY. SQUID. The MOON CRUSH festival, headlined by JASON ISBELL and SHERYL CROW, happening right now in Miramar Beach, Fla. Concert season is nigh, it would appear. Some, like Moon Crush, are, or will be, carefully socially distanced. Some aren't quite clear yet. This NYC hardcore show over the past weekend in Tompkins Square Park, which was officially permitted as a September 11 memorial gathering and political rally, drew 2,000 largely un-masked and un-distanced fans to hear bands including MADBALL and MURPHY'S LAW perform and rant against Covid rules. It also drew the ire of the New York City Parks Department, which has since canceled several months of events by the same organizers. With all due respect: Don't be idiots, people. Do have a little patience. Someone asked me the other day what I most want to do when this global nightmare ends. High on my wishlist: an overcrowded concert in a small club with strangers' flailing elbows constantly hitting my head, dancing shoes stepping on my feet, loud conversations coming at me from three directions while I'm trying to hear the band. This is not a sensation I've ever particularly liked. But damn do I miss it now. All of it. But I can wait, whether till July or September or next January. Safety first, strangers' elbows second. Tuesday's easing of the Centers for Disease Control's outdoor mask recommendations is a good sign, right? Each step like that brings us one or two rows closer to the stage. But it doesn't mean we should all throw away our masks and bum-rush the stage en masse, not yet. And it doesn't mean we should listen to SPOTIFY podcaster JOE ROGAN, who's less enthusiastic about the Covid vaccines than, say, most people with medical degrees, and who's using his Spotify platform to spew anti-vax nonsense. Every name in capital letters at the top of this paragraph is on Spotify, too. Their music built Spotify. They want to get back out on tour. They need to get back out on tour, much more than I need to be hit by flailing elbows. Joe Rogan, and everyone who heeds his advice and refuses a vaccine, is standing in their way. Musicians have been nervous for some time about Spotify turning its focus away from them and toward its army of podcasters, and about the possibility of podcasts cutting into their listening hours and their income. But they never before had to worry about podcasters blocking their paths to club and arena stages. And they shouldn't have to. Spotify, listen to the music. And the science.
Mix Master
What do HENRY MANCINI's original recording of "MOON RIVER," SAM COOKE's AT THE COPA, NEIL YOUNG's ON THE BEACH, STEELY DAN's AJA, TOTO's "AFRICA," NATALIE COLE's UNFORGETTABLE and RAY CHARLES' GENIUS LOVES COMPANY have in common? They were all recorded, in whole or in part, by 20-time GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer/mixer AL SCHMITT, whose work spanned eight (!!!) decades and traced a pretty good history of 20th and 21st century music along the way. Schmitt died Monday at age 91, only two months after the release of WILLIE NELSON's FRANK SINATRA tribute THAT'S LIFE, which he mixed. "A true genius of sound," ALAN PARSONS tweeted. "Uber Mensch," read the headline in Hits Daily Double. Here he is telling his life story, and sharing many of his greatest hits, with the help of my friend MAUREEN DRONEY, who collaborated with Schmitt on his memoir. He'll be missed, but he also, in a way, won't, because his work will remain in our lives, and our ears, for a very long time to come. RIP.
Etc Etc Etc
QUESTLOVE's OSCARS playlist... HASBRO sells EONE MUSIC (DEATH ROW included) to BLACKSTONE... TIKTOK launches a radio station via IHEARTRADIO in Australia... He absolutely did not want to be in a boy band. Reality-show producers and viewers had other ideas... BRITNEY getting her day in court.
Rest in Peace
THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS guitarist BOB PETRIC... Country songwriter CHARLIE BLACK, best known for the hits he wrote for ANNE MURRAY... Contemporary classical composer ANDREW VIOLETTE... BAR-KAYS keyboardist MARK BUBBA BYNUM.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Newlines Magazine |
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| 'Shut Up and Play Your Guitar' |
| by Alex Skolnick |
| Alex Skolnick is a virtuoso musician best known as the lead guitarist for thrash legends Testament and his own jazz trio. When he started weighing in on politics, he was told to “shut up and play your guitar.” In an essay for Newlines, he writes about the responsibility of artists in a time of political turmoil. |
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Genius |
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| How 16-Year-Old Jai Beats Landed Production Credits On No. 1 Albums From Young Thug & Rod Wave |
| by shy ink |
| The producer talked about balancing homework and producing songs like Rod Wave’s “Tombstone” and Young Thug’s “Real.” |
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Variety |
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| Al Schmitt, Engineer-Mixer Who Won a Record 20 Grammys, Dies at 91 |
| by Chris Willman |
| He was one of the most revered engineers and producers in the annals of the music business. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘If not hope, then what?’: the musicians finding optimism in dark times |
| by Christine Ochefu |
| Against a backdrop of Covid, a striking number of musicians, from hard rock to jazz, made music rich with positivity. In the first of a two-part series, they tell their stories. |
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Music x |
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| Why YouTube is the music streaming service to watch |
| by Bas Grasmayer |
| The intensity of the debate between the benefits of Spotify's streaming royalties vs. Bandcamp's sales model has moved all eyes from the actual one-to-watch, which is not Spotify, but YouTube – a service with a billion monthly active music listeners and 30 million subscribers. |
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Music Industry Blog |
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| Spotify pushes prices up, but do not expect dramatic effects |
| by Mark Mulligan |
| Price increases are a must, not an option. |
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VICE |
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| Gen Z Are Resurrecting Shoegaze for Their 'Bleak, Post-COVID World' |
| by Paul Toner |
| Thirty years later, the reverb-drenched late 80s genre is still going strong on TikTok. |
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KCRW |
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| From Nirvana to Guns N’ Roses, how 1991 changed music forever |
| by Andrea Domanick |
| In 1991, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Metallica released albums that remain some of the most influential rock records of all time. |
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Literary Hub |
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| Chillnobyl: Throwing a Rave Deep in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone |
| by Darmon Richter |
| “When they closed the Zone it became a dead end. It’s good to see young people here!” |
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Towards Data Science |
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| Analyzing Music Taste |
| by Justin Spitzer |
| Using Spotify’s API’s music attributes to review my music taste and predict if I’ll like a song. |
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| del amor y otros demonios |
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Pitchfork |
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| What Does Secretly Group’s Union Mean for the Indie Music Industry? |
| by Marc Hogan |
| The organizing drive by workers at the influential independent music company has the potential to set a progressive new standard. |
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Variety |
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| Joe Rogan Anti-Vax Comments Create New Headache for Spotify |
| by Todd Spangler |
| Joe Rogan draws big audiences for Spotify. But the hugely popular podcaster's habit of making controversial remarks and courting right-wing figures and ideologies keeps generating a backlash - both inside and outside of the audio giant. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘Time to shake things up’: music industry confronts climate crisis as gigs resume |
| by Adam Corner |
| Huge concerts and nonstop touring mean the music business is in dire need of reform. Performers have begun to lead - but can their industry reshape itself as the world reopens? |
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Billboard |
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| How Blackpink’s Rose Found Her Voice as a Solo Artist With ‘On the Ground’ |
| by Nolan Feeney |
| The K-pop superstar talks to Billboard about discovering her sound, getting support from her bandmates and finding out she has a fan in Britney Spears. |
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Okayplayer |
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| 6 Female Producers on What Fans Can Do to Support Women in the Music Industry |
| by DeMicia Inman |
| The music industry is male-dominated but that doesn't mean women aren't flourishing. Meet six Black female producers pushing creative boundaries. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| We told you Warner Music Group was becoming a media company -- now it’s launched an advertising division. |
| by Murray Stassen |
| New digital advertising and creative content department will bring together the company's 'digital advertising firepower under one unit.' |
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MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY |
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| Honesty in Our Favor: HFA Loses Attempt to Exit Eight Mile Style Case--What implications for MLC? |
| by Chris Castle |
| The Uniform Commercial Code defines "good faith" as "honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing." Spotify was sued by Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated, two publishers that control rights in some of the early Eminem repertoire, including "Lose Yourself." |
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Toronto Star |
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| In 1976 the Star ran a dismissive review of The Bay City Rollers. Then the ‘Tartan Terrors’ showed up |
| by Nick Krewen |
| Fans vs. rock critic in the 1970s. |
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Recorded by Al Schmitt in 1962.
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| Video of the day |
| "The Art of Recording a Big Band" |
| Rack Pack Productions / Hal Leonard |
| A documentary of the late Al Schmitt at work at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. |
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YouTube |
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A documentary of the late Al Schmitt at work at Capitol Studios in Hollywood.
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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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