| I’ve always been a songwriter first. And I’m a campfire singer-songwriter at heart. |
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Miranda Lambert at the ACM Awards, Nashville, April 2021.
(Ryan Musick/CBS/Getty Images)
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“I’ve always been a songwriter first. And I’m a campfire singer-songwriter at heart.”
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Rock the Vax
Does the world in which a bunch of pop and rock stars, Hollywood celebrities and a duke and duchess can get on TV for an hour and unite the world for a common cause still exist? Did it ever? I have my doubts, but I'll readily applaud the spirit of those who are compelled to try. Which, this weekend, means JENNIFER LOPEZ singing "SWEET CAROLINE" to 20,000 people at SOFI STADIUM in Inglewood, Calif., H.E.R. performing with 125 middle-school students in the stadium parking lot and J BALVIN grilling business leaders behind the scenes before performing on set shaped like the moon.
VAX LIVE: THE CONCERT TO REUNITE THE WORLD, which also features FOO FIGHTERS and EDDIE VEDDER, was taped last weekend but will air across multiple TV networks Saturday night as a one-hour special (an extended 90-minute version will be available exclusively on YOUTUBE). The goal is to raise money (mostly from corporations) to send vaccine doses to India, Africa and other places in dire need and to pressure world leaders to follow through and make it happen. It's also aimed at persuading hesitant Americans to get the Covid vaccine, while showing them one tangible reason why they should: the return of concerts like this, which was staged for about 20,00 invited, vaccinated first responders. It was the biggest concert staged in Los Angeles since the pandemic started.
"It ain’t LIVE AID or WOODSTOCK," KEN EHRLICH, one of the producers of the broadcast, told Variety (good, thorough roundup of how the event came together). "But in 2021, to have that many people in one place to listen to music, and get a message through about why we haven’t seen this for over a year, is historic.” Using plainer language, DAVE GROHL told the crowd, "Let’s work as hard as we can to make sure that we can do this every f***ing night for the rest of our lives."
Court Docket
CHRIS CORNELL's widow and children have settled out of court with a Beverly Hills doctor they accused of overprescribing drugs to in the months before his suicide in 2017... DON EVERLY is the sole author of the EVERLY BROTHERS' 1960 #1 single "CATHY'S CLOWN," according to a federal judge in Nashville, ruling in a decades-old dispute between Don and his late brother PHIL EVERLY and Phil's heirs over a song the brothers had long claimed they wrote together.
It's Friday
Has anyone written a song called "BANDCAMP FRIDAY" yet? A search on SPOTIFY says no, a search on Bandcamp yields this and this, both of which have their charms, but two seems insufficient, anyway today is that and you know what to do... There's new music from JACK INGRAM, MIRANDA LAMBERT and JON RANDALL, who went to Texas to cut an album of campfire songs called THE MARFA TAPES with acoustic guitars and a handful of microphones, and it may be the best album that doesn't get played on country radio this year. It also may be good Grammy-bait, or maybe that's wishful thinking on my part... MF DOOM's first posthumous album is his second collaboration with hip-hop trio CZARFACE, aka 7L, ESOTERIC and INSPECTAH DECK. SUPER WHAT? was originally intended for release a year ago, when he was still alive, but it was pushed back until now because of the pandemic... Ever-evolving Danish punks ICEAGE flirt with classic rock and power balladry on their fifth album, SEEK SHELTER... British rockers SQUID, who debut with BRIGHT GREEN FIELD, are part of the Post-Brexit New Wave... British YouTube star DODIE makes her full-length debut with BUILD A PROBLEM... Jazz tenor saxophonist JAMES BRANDON LEWIS pays tribute to GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER... Somehow pop singer/songwriter BEBE REXHA is only now releasing her second album, which unfortunately doesn't include a metal song because "everybody was very against it"... YOU AND ME is HEART guitarist NANCY WILSON's first solo album... The only way to hear MITSKI's soundtrack to the graphic novel THIS IS WHERE WE FALL is to buy the hardcover or deluxe edition of the book here.
There's also new music today from the late TONY ALLEN (which I mistakenly told you was coming out last Friday; apologies), LIL POPPA, QUANDO RONDO, ALLBLACK, NASIMIYU, MONSTA X (released Wednesday), WEEZER, PILE, ANGEL OLSEN (box set with bonus LP of rarities), SOUND PRINTS (Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Lawrence Fields, Linda May Han Oh and Joey Baron), ULYSSES OWENS JR. BIG BAND, MANDY BARNETT (tribute to Billie Holiday's album "Lady in Satin"), NOAH HAIDU (tribute to Keith Jarrett), RAG'N'BONE MAN, SARAH JAROSZ, TRAVIS TRITT, AMERICAN AQUARIUM ('90s country covers), JUDY COLLINS, CHLOE MORIONDO, ASHE, FIVER WITH THE ATLANTIC SCHOOL OF SPONTANEOUS COMPOSITION, SUFJAN STEVENS, INDIA JORDAN, MONTRÉAL SCRATCH ORCHESTRA, A CERTAIN RATIO, GREY AURA, SUMO CYCO, MAN ON MAN (Roddy Bottum and Joey Holman), MEPHITIC GRAVE, ILAN BLUESTONE, SOPHIA KENNEDY, L'ORANGE & NAMIR BLADE, TEE GRIZZLEY, COCHISE, TOOSII, GLENN CLOSE & TED NASH (yes, that Glenn Close; it's a spoken-word jazz album), HOT KNIVES, AXIS SOVA, TEKE::TEKE, the MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES, ANNIE HART, ALY & AJ and, last and least, LATEST RECORD PROJECT VOL. 1 is a good album title, but unfortunately it's a 2021 VAN MORRISON album, which contains, in "THEY OWN THE MEDIA," the most offensive song I've heard from a major artist in a very long time, and it isn't an aberration. Shabbat shalom, Mr. Morrison.
Rest in Peace
Composer and electronic music pioneer JOEL CHADABE... Pittsburgh rapper FLATLINE NIZZY, at least the eighth American rapper murdered this year; it's May.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| hit me with your best shot |
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The Muse |
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| How Starbucks Suburbanized Music and Almost Got Away With It |
| by Rich Juzwiak |
| In the beginning, there was jazz. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| A homeless L.A. musician helped create a Daft Punk classic. So why hasn't he seen a dime? |
| by August Brown |
| Daft Punk sampled Eddie Johns' "More Spell on You" on their hit "One More Time." Johns, who has struggled with homelessness, was never paid or credited. |
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Variety |
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| Behind ‘Vax Live’: How Jennifer Lopez, Foo Fighters, H.E.R., Selena Gomez and Others United to Rock and Repel COVID |
| by Chris Willman |
| As COVID-19 wanes in the United States, symptoms like loss of taste and smell are on the outs too. Imminently returning to the “in” list, though: hearing loss. |
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Texas Monthly |
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| Miranda Lambert on the Most Unapologetically Texas Album of Her Career |
| by Andy Langer |
| ‘The Marfa Tapes,’ the musician’s new collaboration with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, finds the arena-rockin’ country star taking on campfire folk songs. |
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The New York Times |
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| We, Tina |
| by Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris |
| How Tina Turner reclaimed her voice, her image and her spirituality. |
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NPR Music |
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| The Post-Brexit New Wave |
| by Matthew Perpetua |
| On thrilling debut albums by Squid, Dry Cleaning and Black Country, New Road, the aftershocks of '80s post-punk tremble against stark new realities in British and Irish life. |
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Lefsetz Letter |
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| The Bob Lefsetz Podcast: Tom Freston |
| by Bob Lefsetz and Tom Freston |
| Tom Freston was CEO of MTV Networks and then Viacom and is presently Chairman of the One Campaign, as well as an advisor to Vice and other companies. Tom is a fount of knowledge and insight, and he's down to earth and friendly. We cover Africa, Afghanistan, Tom's upbringing, his clothing company in Asia and, of course, we go in-depth into MTV. |
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| rave:// An amazing and amusing dissertation on late '80s and 'early '90s rock |
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The Melt |
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| That Wolfgang Puck Sound |
| by Jason Diamond |
| Mike Pace explains Spago Rock. |
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VICE |
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| How a Viral Rap Song Extended the Legacy of Natasha Bedingfield’s ‘Unwritten’ |
| by Kristin Corry |
| “I was just so excited to see this new response to my song and also a reinterpretation of it-and something that made it feel extra alive," Natasha Bedingfield told VICE. |
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Variety |
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| Power of Women: The New York-Based Music Executives Making an Impact |
| by Brooke Mazurek, Lily Moayeri, Kristin Robinson... |
| The women leading the charge. |
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| i am not throwin' away my shot |
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Vulture |
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| The Oral History of Madonna’s 'Truth or Dare' |
| by Matthew Jacobs |
| The groundbreaking pop documentary’s participants look back, 30 years later. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| J Balvin faces a crisis of conscience in bio doc 'The Boy From Medellín' |
| by Robert Abele |
| A documentary from Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Matthew Heineman, "The Boy From Medellín" profiles Latin music star J Balvin. |
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The Guardian |
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| Rock that body: how the Mugler catsuit is shaping pop |
| by Priya Elan |
| The Mugler outfit, whose wearers range from Billie Eilish to Beyoncé, has become the natural successor to Madonna’s bustier. |
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Afropop Worldwide |
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| The Money Show |
| by Marlon Bishop |
| Every day, money changes hands in Ghanaian cedi, South African rand, and Brazilian real as music is created, traded, performed, purchased and pirated. In this episode we look at the business side of African music, through a series of vignettes from around the continent and diaspora that illuminate the deep connections between musical creation and the economies that sustain it. |
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The Trichordist |
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| Will the Copyright Royalty Board Leave Songwriters In the Deep Freeze? |
| In case you haven't noticed, songwriter mechanical royalty rates are about to be set again at a faraway Congressional operation called the Copyright Royalty Board. You may say, hold on-I thought that mechanical royalties were being appealed?! True, but that's just for the ha'penny streaming rates. |
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| rant:// A mesmerizing album |
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Pitchfork |
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| Get to Know Arooj Aftab, the Defiant Singer Who’s Reimagining Traditional South Asian Music for Today |
| by Vrinda Jagota |
| The boundary-breaking artist talks about growing up on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Jeff Buckley, accepting grief as part of life, and her stunning new album, "Vulture Prince." |
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The FADER |
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| Isaiah Rashad, After the Fire |
| by Jeff Weiss |
| Five years ago, poised to cement his place as one of the most revered artists of his generation, Isaiah Rashad ghosted, winding up broke and in rehab. Now he’s ready to return, with Hell in his rearview mirror. |
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InsideHook |
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| How to Avoid Being a Jerk at a Concert, According to Industry Professionals |
| by Bonnie Stiernberg |
| It's been over a year since you've been to a show. Do you remember the etiquette? |
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The New York Times |
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| Chloe Moriondo and girl in red, Maestros of Growing Pains |
| by Jon Caramanica |
| Moriondo cited Marie Ulven (who records as girl in red) as an early influence. Both are releasing new albums that showcase frank emotions and more ambitious productions. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Music financing doesn’t have to lead to seller’s remorse |
| by Jack MacDonald |
| The outright sale of rights may very well work for some, but it doesn’t sit well with others. |
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The Ringer |
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| The Case Against the Eagles |
| by Elizabeth Nelson |
| Fifty years after their first release, the country-rock titans led by Don Henley and the late Glenn Frey still loom large in American music. Their hits still get play and their sound is a precursor to modern Nashville. But has this biggest of bands aged well? A panel of experts weigh the case. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Geraldene (live on 'Ellen')" |
| Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall |
| "You're trailer-park pretty but you're never gonna be Jolene." |
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YouTube |
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"You're trailer-park pretty but you're never gonna be Jolene."
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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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