| I don't go into my sessions intentionally trying to say, 'Yo, I'm going to break the rules of pop today.' I just go in and write a song. |
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Young Thug at Life Is Beatiful, Las Vegas, Sept. 19, 2021.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
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“I don't go into my sessions intentionally trying to say, 'Yo, I'm going to break the rules of pop today.' I just go in and write a song.”
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Time After Time After Time
Instead of 7 million new (and old) singles and albums showing up on the internet as a massive midnight data dump, as usually happens on new music Fridays, ADELE's single "EASY ON ME" arrived on American streaming services early, at 7pm ET/4pm PT Thursday (in sync with its midnight release in England). About 6.98 million other records followed exactly five hours later, but not YOUNG THUG's eagerly awaited PUNK, which straggled in at 3am New York time. For someone trying to keep with all this stuff, this felt civilized, a chance to luxuriate in a variety of new music offerings one at a time, and I'm wondering if this might be a better model for release days in general. There are so many hours in a day. Why not stagger releases instead of everyone trying to cram through the same door at the same time? Make it like an old-school TV schedule. Just a thought for a Friday morning.
Did Someone Say It's Friday?
Yes they did, and that means YOUNG THUG has officially gone PUNK, not quite in the GREEN DAY sense, although there are plenty of guitars on the Atlanta rapper's second album, but more (or less) in the SOUNDCLOUD rap sense, and also in the sense of wanting to tell, in his words, "real life stories. The whole album is purified. It's just real." JOEY RAMONE understands... Brooklyn's XENIA RUBINOS digs deeper into her electronic impulses and her Cuban and Puerto Rican roots on UNA ROSA, an ambitious third album that doesn't defy genre so much as it seems to swim through all of them... FINNEAS, best known as Billie Eilish's producer/brother, lets his inner pop/rock singer/songwriter take a stroll in the spotlight on OPTIMIST, which includes that song about buying tickets to a concert six months hence, which is either a pandemic song disguised as a love song or the reverse; you choose... REMI WOLF has been a ski racer and an "American Idol" contestant and "you never quite know what’s going to come out of Wolf’s mouth next and whether it will be rapped, crooned or belted to the rafters," writes LINDSAY ZOLADZ. JUNO is her full-length debut... The WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG ALL STARS is a stellar group of New Orleans jazz players, including Wycliffe Gordon and Nicholas Payton, who pay tribute to Satchmo on A GIFT TO POPS (with cameos by Wynton Marsalis and Common)... JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT make good on the bandleader's promise to record an album of songs by Georgia artists if the state went blue in the 2020 elections. Among the artists covered on GEORGIA BLUE are REM, James Brown, Cat Power, the Allman Brothers and Vic Chesnutt... In the catalog department, the BEATLES drop their massive LET IT BE (SUPER DELUXE) box set, featuring remixes, alternate mixes, outtakes, jams, etc., and MAC MILLER's 2014 mixtape FACES arrives on streaming for the first time.
Plus new music from COLDPLAY, PINK PANTHERESS, JOY CROOKES, PAYROLL GIOVANNI, the NEW 1017 (compilation from Gucci Mane's label feat. Pooh Shiesty, Foogiano and more), GRAFH (album title of the month: "Stop Calling Art Content"), the ZAC BROWN BAND, FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES, TOM MORELLO, DOS SANTOS, CIMAFUNK, JULIA SHAPIRO, TERRY RILEY (with Julian Wachner, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Novus NY), SANTANA, RYAN HURD, TOBY KEITH, DILLON CARMICHAEL, CASSADEE POPE, ZACK FOX, SURFBORT, DEAN WAREHAM, WHIT DICKEY/WILLIAM PARKER/MATTHEW SHIPP, FIRE-TOOLZ, KACY HILL, AVENUE BEAT, CHELSEA CUTLER, DISCLOSURE (DJ-Kicks mix), LE REN, BLACKSTARKIDS, DARK MARK VS. SKELETON JOE (Mark Lanegan and Joe Cardamone), the MELVINS (go acoustic), VANISHING TWIN, ANGÉLICA GARCIA, SIR WAS, MOUNT LIBERATION UNLIMITED, KATELYN TARVER, STEPHAN MOCCIO, POKEY LAFARGE, BAKER BOY, LILLY HIATT, JOHNNY MARR, the GEORGIA THUNDERBOLTS and HANK MAY.
And, right, the ADELE single.
Etc Etc Etc
TED GIOIA peers into an unusual crystal ball that apparently can see six or seven hours into the future and makes 12 eerie predictions for the future of music, from "Record labels will gradually lose both the ability and desire to develop new artists" to "listeners will have favorite new songs, but not know (or care) about the name of the artist" to "A huge portion of 'music profits' will actually go to tech companies," and the whole thing is deliciously dry, but there's an implicit, unasked question floating just below the surface of each and every prediction, which is that if you could have seen all this coming six of seven *years* ago, would you have been happy? Would you have tried to do something about it?... Another secret GRAMMY committee says no to another album. This time, the comedy committee has deemed BO BURNHAM's INSIDE (THE SONGS) ineligible for a comedy nomination because it officially isn't funny, it's officially a "compilation soundtrack for visual media" (which, admittedly, doesn't sound funny), and if you're wondering why it can't be both, that's not a funny question and we'll have to deem that ineligible, too... In what may be the most creative application of the Copyright Act of 1976 ever attempted, SONNY BONO's widow, MARY BONO, has been trying to reclaim the copyrights to his SONNY & CHER songs from various music publishers, but also from CHER, who received a 50 percent stake in the songs in their 1978 divorce settlement. That's according to Cher, who's suing Mary Bono for $1 million in damages and asking a judge to enforce the divorce agreement. "The Copyright Act allows Sonny’s widow and children to reclaim Sonny’s copyrights from publishers, which is what they did," Mary Bono's lawyer told the LA Times. I got questions, babe.
Rest in Peace
Up-and-coming R&B singer EMANI 22, killed in an accident at age 22... Longtime Metropolitan Opera Orchestra concertmaster RAYMOND GNIEWEK.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Complex |
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| Being Young Thug |
| by Eric Skelton |
| This is what Young Thug’s life is like at the age of 30. Any idea that pops into his head, no matter how unrealistic it might seem to the average person, feels attainable to him. |
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Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
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| 12 Predictions for the Future of Music |
| by Ted Gioia |
| Let me peer into my crystal ball, and predict the next decade in the music world. I’m brave (or foolhardy) enough to tell you what I see-but you may want to sit down first, especially if you earn your living from songs. |
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The New York Times |
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| Concert Halls Are Back. But Visa Backlogs Are Keeping Musicians Out. |
| by Javier C. Hernández |
| Visa delays are causing tumult in the classical music industry, leading to a wave of cancellations just as live performances are finally returning. |
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NPR Music |
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| Remi Wolf's rule-breaking pop pushes her closer to superstar status |
| by LaTesha Harris |
| The colorful singer behind viral hit "Photo ID" is releasing her debut album, "Juno." Using music to navigate struggles with sobriety, Wolf talks about vulnerability and creating to release feelings. |
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Sodajerker |
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| Sodajerker on Songwriting: Giles Martin on Remixing The Beatles |
| by Simon Barber, Brian O'Connor and Giles Martin |
| October 15 sees the release of a remixed special edition of "Let It Be." To celebrate the occasion, Simon and Brian sat down with the excellent Giles Martin to talk about his work remixing The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios, the songwriting of Lennon & McCartney, his work on Peter Jackson’s forthcoming documentary series "The Beatles: Get Back," and more. |
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Guitar World |
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| James Jamerson or Carol Kaye: who played what? Uncovering the truth behind the Motown mystery |
| by Joel McIver |
| Academic and bassist Brian F. Wright details his research into Motown's contested history. |
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Reuters |
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| Music streamers turn to telcos to make Africa pay |
| by Nqobile Dludla and Supantha Mukherjee |
| Africa, with its internationally recognised musical talent - and growing mobile phone use -- is central to Swedish music streamer Spotify's plans to extend its reach to a billion customers. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| What do Blackstone’s billions mean for Merck Mercuriadis’ mission for songwriters? |
| by Tim Ingham |
| Merck Mercuriadis now has a platinum-plated reputation for irritating some of the most powerful players in the modern music business. He wouldn’t have it any other way. |
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Audacy |
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| Breaking Waves: Seattle, Ep. 1 -- Touch Me, I’m Sick |
| by Ryan Castle |
| The series premiere of Breaking Waves: Seattle begins with the untimely death of a Seattle music legend, and takes us back to the very beginnings of the grunge movement, documenting the rise of bands like The Sonics, Green River, Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden, as well as describing the community that nurtured the music in the early days. |
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Bandcamp Daily |
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| Djembe Master Weedie Braimah On the History of the Instrument |
| by John Morrison |
| Known for his work with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, the djembefola discusses the significance of his instrument. |
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GQ |
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| Skyrockets In Flight: The Strange Story of the Dirtiest Number One Ever |
| by Rob Tannenbaum |
| How ‘Afternoon Delight,’ a song about daytime boning, snuck into 70's America’s Wonder Bread mainstream and became an unlikely cultural touchstone. |
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The Sydney Morning Herald |
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| ‘They will go into different careers’: Fears for lost generation of musos |
| by Linda Morris |
| Ninety per cent of 1000 festivals scheduled this year have been cancelled or postponed. |
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Tape Op |
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| Tape Op Podcast: Xenia Rubinos |
| by Geoff Stanfield and Xenia Rubinos |
| Xenia Rubinos could just as easily be on a bill with Flying Lotus and The Boredoms as she could with Eryka Badu and Esperanza Spalding. Her unique genre mixing of soul, punk, jazz, pop and latin music grooves planted her firmly in a musical space all her own. |
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D Magazine |
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| Joshua Ray Walker’s Granada Album Release Was His Dallas Victory Lap |
| by Jonny Auping |
| The performance showcased the country musician’s potential as a star outside of Dallas. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| In stunning new documentary, Todd Haynes makes the Velvet Underground come impossibly alive |
| by Randall Roberts |
| Director Todd Haynes talks about his visually stunning, musically mind-blowing documentary on the band’s origins, influences and work, which premieres in theaters and on Apple TV+ on Oct. 15. |
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Pitchfork |
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| Kelefa Sanneh on Rockism, Disappearing Genres, and His New Book 'Major Labels' |
| by Mark Richardson |
| The New Yorker writer wrestles with the forces that divide and unite us as he charts the evolution of popular music. |
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The Independent |
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| ‘Jesy Nelson’s solo career launch is one of the most disastrous in recent memory’ |
| by Roisin O'Connor |
| The former Little Mix star’s debut solo single has been met with derision and allegations of blackfishing. Roisin O’Connor explains why Nelson should have brushed up on her history before going it alone. |
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The Guardian |
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| Sacked Sony Music boss Denis Handlin stripped of honorary award in wake of allegations of toxic workplace |
| by Kelly Burke |
| Handlin’s lawyers complain over ABC Four Corners program that followed a Guardian Australia investigation into allegedly unhealthy work environment. |
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DJ Mag |
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| The LGBTQ+ club nights fighting for diversity in drum & bass |
| by Jack Ramage |
| The UK drum & bass and jungle scene lacks queer visibility. While issues like gender diversity and whitewashing have, in recent years, become the focus of much conversation and action within dance music, drum & bass can still present a hostile environment to the LGBTQ+ community. |
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Please Kill Me |
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| You’ve Got Mumps: The Return Of Lance Loud & Kristian Hoffman |
| by Michael Shelley |
| Kristian Hoffman and Lance Loud were best pals at Santa Barbara High School, bonding over a shared love of the Stooges, Velvets, Kinks and Sparks. They played music together in the Louds’ garage. And then the PBS docu-series An American Family was aired in 1973, changing everything. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Insure My Wrist" |
| Young Thug (with Gunna) |
| From "Punk," out today on YSL/300 Entertainment/Atlantic |
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YouTube |
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From "Punk," out today on YSL/300 Entertainment/Atlantic
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Todd Haynes' documentary, out today on Apple TV+.
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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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