| I don’t want to be the center [of attention]. I want to be with the Highwomen, I want to be with Tanya, I want to be with the Secret Sisters, I want to be with the twins. Center of anything is alone. I don’t want to be alone. |
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Joke's on them: Brandi Carlile in Louisville, Kentucky, July 17, 2016.
(Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)
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“I don’t want to be the center [of attention]. I want to be with the Highwomen, I want to be with Tanya, I want to be with the Secret Sisters, I want to be with the twins. Center of anything is alone. I don’t want to be alone.”
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On the Road Again
My soundtrack for today's curating and writing is the POLLSTAR LIVE! conference, which is happening in the more or less reopened Los Angeles and which I'm watching via livestream from the more or less reopened New York. It's surreal watching agents, promoters, managers, etc., having discussions they couldn't have had as recently as three or four weeks ago about a summer, fall and beyond touring landscape that they still can't make any guarantees about. It's like everyone's trying to jump on a tour bus that's moving at 30 or 40 miles per hour, and calculating, in real time, how it's going to work. But at least that tour bus is moving. Here's agent LARRY WEBMAN of WASSERMAN MUSIC, talking about his upcoming DROPKICK MURPHYS and RANCID tour on a panel about the specific issues of doing general admission shows in the barely-post-Covid landscape: "It's the middle of June and the tour doesn't start till the beginning of August, so in the next six weeks things are gonna change... By September 1st, things could be completely different [again]." But for now anyway, for example: absolutely no guests backstage, and the bands will leave all merch sales to the venues, "to limit points of contact," even though punk bands as a rule prefer to do it themselves. Also for now anyway: The tour, like many many others, is in fact going to happen. Here's agent TOM WINDISH, echoing what nearly everyone in the business has been saying since about a day and a half after the first lockdowns kicked in 15 months ago: "I'm really uncertain what's gonna happen when there's a zillion bands touring at the same time. Right now, everything's great, but at some point every venue's gonna have a show on every night of the year, and consumers...are gonna have to make choices" (topic of Thursday's first panel: "Untangling the Most Massive Rescheduling Campaign in the History of Earth"). And so on and so forth in a day filled with discussions about vaccinated-only shows (can promoters legally do that? No clear consensus); the logistics of touring through states and countries that all have different rules; the ongoing struggle to secure long-promised federal relief funds for struggling venues (AUDREY FIX SCHAEFER of Washington D.C. area venue group I.M.P. PRODUCTIONS: "My New Year's resolution of less tequila consumption has not come true yet"); diversity and inclusion issues (the conference falls between one major industry report that came out Tuesday and another scheduled to drop Friday); etc. There are up-and-coming bands who've grown fan bases from scratch in the past year but have no idea what their live audience is, or what it's like to play in front of them. There are fans holding tickets for long-postponed concerts that they never even considered asking for a refund on. There will be health and security changes that one panelist likened to those implemented after 9/11, meaning they'll probably still be in effect 20 years from now. Assuming, of course, there's still a live music industry 20 years from now. The word to remember through it all, per POST MALONE manager DRE LONDON: "Appreciation."
One More Round Etc Etc Etc
XXL has announced its 2021 Freshman Class, which, as Okayplayer's TORRY THREADCRAFT notes, features four women, more than any other freshman class in the 14 years XXL has been doing this. Welcome to hip-hop school, FLO MILLI, COI LERAY, RUBI ROSE and LAKEYAH... The mysterious, prolific, fantastic UK soul project SAULT's fifth album "will only exist for ninety nine days," Sault says in an Instagram message that internet sleuths believe is also telling us that the first of those 99 days will be June 25. I'm not a big fan of artificial scarcity but I'm here for elegant art projects, especially from artists with a track record as good as this. NINE will be Sault's fifth album in just over two years, assuming it is in fact an album, and you will buy it, not stream it, even though the latter option will be available for those 99 days... Congrats to my friend (and sometime MusicREDEF contributor) COURTNEY E. SMITH, who launches her murder ballad podcast, SONGS IN THE KEY OF DEATH, with an episode about "DELIA'S GONE," a more than century old folk standard famously tackled by JOHNNY CASH in 1994. Reclaiming the song from Cash and other famous men who've sung it, Smith tells its history from the POV of the real-life 14-year-old girl whose murder, on Christmas day 1900, inspired it... BEYONCÉ was crowned Touring Artist of the Decade and BILLY STRINGS was named Breakthrough Artist of the Pandemic at Wednesday's 2021 POLLSTAR AWARDS.
Rest in Peace
Ambrosia keyboardist DAVID CUTLER LEWIS... Scottish label exec ASHLEY FORBES.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Variety |
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| Becoming H.E.R.: How a 23-Year-Old Music Prodigy Grew Into an EGOT-Bound Voice for Her Generation |
| by Jem Aswad and Jazz Tangcay |
| In a way, it's fitting that "I Can't Breathe" - H.E.R.'s Grammy-winning song that, as much as any other, has become an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement - was written and performed by a woman who declares that she is "equally Filipino as I am Black." |
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The Ringer |
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| The Oral History of ‘Juice,’ Tupac’s Breakout Role |
| by Sheldon Pearce |
| In an excerpt from his new book, ‘Changes: An Oral History of Tupac,’ Sheldon Pearce dives into how the rapper transformed himself into Bishop for the big screen. |
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Spotify |
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| Black Girl Songbook: The Tupac You Didn't Know, but I Did |
| by Danyel Smith |
| On this special episode of ‘Black Girl Songbook,’ Danyel Smith celebrates what would have been the 50th birthday of rap icon Tupac. She reveals moments from her close friendship with Tupac, then is joined by her best friends and sister to recall their own stories about their friendship with Tupac. |
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The New York Times |
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| They Won Eurovision. Can They Conquer the World? |
| by Elisabetta Povoledo |
| The Italian rock band Maneskin is a hit in the charts, and its members want to become a rare long-term Eurovision success story. |
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Billboard |
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| The Challenges (And Thrills) of Returning Hundreds of Tour Buses to Road Duty |
| by Steve Knopper |
| After 15 months of inactivity throughout the pandemic, hundreds of tour buses are suddenly being pressed back into action as touring bands return to American highways. |
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Toronto Star |
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| Canadian musicians are getting noticed on TikTok and music labels are scrambling to keep up |
| by Nick Krewen |
| "Holy cow patties and a side of pickles!" That was the reaction of Robyn Ottolini to the fan frenzy that ensued following her first use of TikTok, the Beijing-based mobile app that allows users to create short videos lasting anywhere from 15 seconds to three minutes. |
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Hollywood Reporter |
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| TikTok Isn’t ‘Out of the Woods’ With Biden’s Executive Order, But Creators Are Prepared This Time |
| by J. Clara Chan |
| Even as the Trump ban gets revoked, the app faces regulatory review under the new administration. |
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Songs in the Key of Death |
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| Delia |
| by Courtney E. Smith |
| A 14-year-old girl named Delia Green was shot to death on Christmas night in 1900 by a boy who thought she was being mean to him. How did that turn into a song about a “lowdown” and “trifling” woman who was cheating on her man — and a song that would save Johnny Cash’s career? |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘We could lose it all’: UK jazz tries to get its groove back after Covid |
| by Ammar Kalia |
| The world-class British jazz scene was hit hard by the pandemic. As live shows and in-person collaboration resume, Steam Down, Soweto Kinch and more discuss the future. |
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GQ |
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| How the Rolls-Royce Cullinan Took Over Hip-Hop |
| by Damien Scott |
| The luxury SUV is one of the most referenced cars in rap right now. Here's why. |
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Billboard |
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| How Sparks and Edgar Wright Made a Rock Doc Like None Other With ‘The Sparks Brothers’ |
| by Gary Graff |
| Sparks and Edgar Wright talk teaming up for an inventive rock documentary about the band's 50-year career. |
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Song Exploder |
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| Song Exploder: Sparks – 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us'' |
| by Hrishikesh Hirway and Sparks |
| Sparks are the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, a legendary duo from Los Angeles. In this episode, Ron and Russell break down their hit song, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us,” which came out in 1974. |
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The New Yorker |
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| Migos Would Like to Be on Rap’s Mt. Rushmore |
| by Sheldon Pearce |
| The new album “Culture III” is the group’s latest bid to secure its legacy. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Opulous just raised $6.5 million. Now it wants more artists to sell NFTs through its platform. |
| by Tim Ingham |
| Artists can sell both copyright NFTs and non-copyright NFTS through platform, thanks to recent Binance partnership. |
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The Seattle Times |
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| Soundgarden to regain control of social media accounts in deal with Vicky Cornell |
| by Michael Rietmulder |
| The temporary deal marks a rare sign of progress in what's been a bitter legal dispute between Soundgarden's surviving members and the wife of the band's late singer. However, the crux of the lawsuit remains unsettled. |
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HUCK Magazine |
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| The K-pop stans fighting for a free Palestine |
| by Chloé Meley |
| After emerging as a powerful force for social justice during the BLM protests last summer, K-pop fans are now mobilising around another issue: Palestinian liberation. |
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VICE |
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| Dublin’s Underground Dance Scene Is Battling the City’s Gentrification |
| by Michael Lanigan |
| From digital radio to dressing up as grannies and busking out of shopping trolleys, Dublin's electronic artists are innovating around gentrification. |
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Stuff |
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| 'How music grooms teens is sickening'. Garbage singer Shirley Manson on pop's sexism problem |
| by Neil McCormick |
| Shirley Manson says the music industry is “an absolute nest of abuse of power and sexual violence” and time's up for it. |
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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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