| Ever since I heard Mary J. Blige put 'percolate' in a song, I was like, my life goal now is just to put really large words into songs and people be like, What is that? |
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The late Tony Allen in London, July 17, 2019, with the Good, the Bad & the Queen.
(Chiaki Nozu/WireImage/Getty Images)
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“Ever since I heard Mary J. Blige put 'percolate' in a song, I was like, my life goal now is just to put really large words into songs and people be like, What is that?”
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Radiation Vibes
It wouldn't be accurate to say ADAM SCHLESINGER's death 13 months ago, on April Fools' Day 2020, was the moment when Covid-19 became real to me. I have specific memories from January, February and March of that year when I could feel the clouds gathering, and by April 1, several notable musicians had already succumbed to the disease. The jazz world had been hit especially hard. But that was the day my pandemic anger and sadness finally met. When, for the first time, I sat in the dark and cried. When it became personal. As I wrote the next day: "We're a similar age, we're both northeastern, suburban, regular-dude Jews, and he had spent the past quarter-century not quite singing my life with his words—he wasn't the lead singer in any of his bands—but, let's say, composing my life with his words and melodies." Many others—way too many—have died in the year since, but Adam Schlesinger's songs, written for FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE and IVY and TINTED WINDOWS and "THAT THING YOU DO" and "CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND" and yadda yadda yadda, an extraordinary oeuvre of songs about ordinary people, are the ones that are always going to carry Covid's genetic code for me. The virus will sound, in my memory, like this. Or this. Or this. Even after my anger and sadness subside, if they ever do. Tonight, a sprawling collection of artists including COURTNEY LOVE, RACHEL BLOOM, CHRIS CARRABBA, PATRICK CARNEY, JAMES IHA, PETER BUCK and dozens of others (BRIAN WILSON, too, I'm told), will toast the memory of Schlesinger and his songs in a livestream organized by Fountains of Wayne guitarist JODY PORTER. It's happening here at 8 pm ET ($20 tickets on sale at the same link). "The one thing we wanted to make sure of," Porter told writer GARY GRAFF, "is we weren't going to do a proper Fountains of Wayne reunion without Adam. That wouldn't feel right. You're just gonna get the songs." Which does, in fact, feel right. MusicSET: "Songs of Adam Schlesinger."
Rainbow Disconnection
Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives on Tuesday blocked a bill to honor country singer TJ OSBORNE of BROTHERS OSBORNE, who came out as gay in February, because, well, they didn't quite come out and say this, but it appears they blocked it because TJ Osborne came out as gay in February. The bill, which passed unanimously in the state Senate, sought to recognize Osborne as "a trailblazer and a symbol of hope for those country music artists and fans alike who may have become ostracized from a genre they hold dear." Via tweet, the Osborne brothers responded by inviting Republican chair JEREMY FAISON to lunch, because they have class, and he said yes, because he probably thinks he has class.
Big Audio, Dynamite
This is an amazing collection of digitized audio from three decades' worth of interviews with musicians from BOB MARLEY and DAVID BOWIE to PRINCE and MARIAH CAREY and beyond, conducted by Boston writer LARRY KATZ. And this is the story of how Katz—a mensch who briefly edited me a million years ago when I was an intern at the Boston Herald—archived his work, which now lives at Northeastern University... This is the story of "How LEGO made the experimental album of 2021, with the soothing noise of its bricks clicking against one another." Or, one might say, Everything Is Awesomely Ambient.
Rest in Peace
Rock critic and historian ED WARD, who left an unforgettable mark on Rolling Stone, Creem, the Austin American-Statesman, the Austin Chronicle and NPR, and who was one of the founding employees of SXSW... JIM CROCE co-producer TOMMY WEST, who also co-wrote several PARTRIDGE FAMILY songs... New York disco DJ TONY SMITH... Classical TV and radio presenter MARTIN BOOKSPAN, best known for "Live From Lincoln Center"... Time Life Records producer and writer CHARLES MCCARDELL.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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ADWEEK |
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| Travis Scott Doesn't Like 'Branding' or 'Marketing' |
| by Shannon Miller |
| But Adweek's Creator Visionary of the Year is so damn good at both. |
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| rant:// Rock Hall of Fame voting is closed; hopefully at least some of you did the right thing! |
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The Ringer |
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| 'We Can't Die, We’re With Fela': The Revolutionary Greatness of the Black President |
| by Lex Pryor |
| Remembering the legacy of Fela Kuti, the Afrobeat pioneer and political firebrand who could make the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. |
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The Atlantic |
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| The Song That Sold America to a Generation of Asian Immigrants |
| by Jason Jeong |
| John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” had an unlikely resonance across Asia 50 years ago. Today his ode to West Virginia conjures a different type of longing. |
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Entertainment Weekly |
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| Lil Nas X is here to prove you wrong |
| by Ira Madison III |
| The 22-year-old artist is still breaking barriers -- one song (and several clapbacks) at a time. |
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Mixmag |
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| The 10 most influential synths of all time |
| by Oli Freke |
| Oli Freke, author of "Synthesizer Evolution: From Analogue to Digital (and Back)," presents a synthesizer timeline. |
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Billboard |
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| The Revolution Will Be Digitized: How RAC Is Using NFTs to Empower Artists |
| by Tatiana Cirisano |
| With RAC's new NFT agency, the Grammy-winning producer aims to use the buzzy new art form to "challenge this notion that music is worth 0.000-whatever cents." |
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Austin 360 |
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| 'One of the greatest': Austin rock 'n' roll critic and historian Ed Ward has died at age 72 |
| by Michael Barnes |
| Ward worked for Rolling Stone, Creem and the Austin American-Statesman Ward and wrote or cowrote four books, including two volumes of a comprehensive history of rock music. He was in Austin working on a third volume. |
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W Magazine |
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| Is There Anything Bad Bunny Can't Do? |
| by Abby Aguirre |
| The reggaeton star discusses his concert tour, wrestling career, and working with Brad Pitt in 'Bullet Train.' |
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The Baffler |
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| Lush Life |
| by Elias Rodriques |
| Thulani Davis’s poetry conjures a lost era of jazz. |
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The New Yorker |
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| 'Cocaine & Rhinestones' Returns, to Dazzle Again |
| by Sarah Larson |
| In its second season, the one-man show argues that the story of George Jones is the story of country music itself. |
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VICE |
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| 'Stardew Valley' Creator Collaborating With 'Metal Gear' Composer to Help You Sleep |
| by Patrick Klepek |
| A game about chilling, vibing, and farming meets a composer who wants you to chill. |
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Billboard |
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| Spotify & Fellow Streamers Soared in 2020, But Expect Growth to Slow |
| by Glenn Peoples |
| Streaming services from Spotify to Netflix did gangbusters during the pandemic, but investors shouldn't be turned off when growth slows in 2021. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Is a reckoning coming to the way collection societies spend songwriters’ money? |
| by Tim Ingham |
| Stat Of The Week: Why new data from PRS For Music and GEMA may raise alarm on Wall Street. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘Anything could happen’: inside the world’s first virtual reality opera |
| by Stuart Jeffries |
| Current, Rising at the Royal Opera House, London, takes its audience on a dizzying journey through strange realms. Could this be the future? |
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Consequence |
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| Hip-Hop and TikTok Are Bringing Pop-Punk Back in a Big Way |
| by Aliya Chaudhry |
| Pop-punk is back, creeping onto the charts with the help the unlikely embracing of TikTok sample culture and hip-hop. |
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Vulture |
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| You Know a Julia Michaels Song When You Hear One -- Call It Her Superpower |
| by Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan |
| Where many songwriters might turn to the simplest, almost nursery-rhyme-level lyrics to get the message across, Julia Michaels does the opposite. She crams as many words as possible into each phrase. On this week’s episode of Switched on Pop, she talks about how the vagaries of the heart inspire an endless stream of songs. |
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Talkhouse |
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| I Fell In Love With the Drummer |
| by Jessica Dobson |
| Jessica Dobson (Deep Sea Diver) on what it’s really like to be in a band with your partner. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| The sublime sadness of Mexican indie star Ed Maverick |
| by Suzy Exposito |
| With his new album, 'Eduardo,' 20-year-old Ed Maverick leads Mexico’s new generation of indie-rock romantics. |
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iHeartRadio |
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| Here's The Thing: Hans Zimmer Scores |
| by Alec Baldwin, Hans Zimmer and Here's The Thing |
| Hans Zimmer has scored more than 150 movies including "Gladiator," "Hannibal," "Sherlock Holmes" and "The Last Samurai." He tells Alec Baldwin, whether he’s working on animated films or live-action ones, his scores enrich a film’s emotional journey. |
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Dazed Digital |
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| Behind the scenes with Houston rap royalty, the Prince family |
| by Miss Rosen |
| A self-made music mogul with strong ties to his community, J. Prince has left an indelible mark on the hip hop canon. Now, his children are continuing his legacy. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Cosmosis" |
| Tony Allen ft. Skepta and Ben Okri |
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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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