| There is so much music to be found in the sounds of the city. Recently when it was raining, there was an incredibly squeaky bus windshield wiper that was screeching out a determined three against the four of an Iranian rapper emanating from the car in front of it. I recorded it and still listen to it in awe. |
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Kendrick Lamar (in white) at the Day N Vegas fest, Las Vegas, Nov. 12, 2021.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
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“There is so much music to be found in the sounds of the city. Recently when it was raining, there was an incredibly squeaky bus windshield wiper that was screeching out a determined three against the four of an Iranian rapper emanating from the car in front of it. I recorded it and still listen to it in awe.”
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Machine Against the Rage
In a world where for every MICHAEL BUBLÉ canceling shows in states that won't allow vaccination requirements there's a TRAVIS TRITT canceling shows in states that do, it's no surprise that for every RICO NASTY making extra sure her fans were safe at this past weekend's DAY N VEGAS fest there was a LIL UZI VERT who just wanted to rage. There's a both sides to everything. Though, to be fair, it may not have been quite that even-steven at the first major US festival following the disastrous, deadly ASTROWORLD. A survey of reports out of Las Vegas suggests promoters and artists alike may have absorbed some lessons. "You, in the red hat," Rico Nasty, who's no stranger to mosh pits, called out to one fan as she paused mid-set Friday night. "You look like you’re getting crushed, bro. You can come sit up here." DON TOLIVER, who had performed at Astroworld in his hometown of Houston a week earlier, stopped his set to ask a fan, "You need to come out? You good?," after which, the LA Times reported, "The crowd erupted in cheers, some of the loudest of the night, for a simple act of caretaking." Music, hip-hop in particular, is on high alert right now. According to Rolling Stone, video screens displayed messages between sets including "Take note of emergency exits" and “Please take a few steps back to give our festival-goers up front some room"—the exact kind of messages safety experts have been asking for. Okayplayer noted that on the opening day of the fest, which was promoted by GOLDENVOICE, the VIP pathway to one stage was so crowded that fans taking in ISAIAH RASHAD's set found themselves blocked in. The next day, the site reported, the VIP area was gone. On social media, video clips have been flying around of artists taking extra precautions seemingly everywhere—here's SZA in Salt Lake City—some to the point of exaggeration. Good. Keep on exaggerating and keep on amplifying the message. The test, of course, will be how artists, venues and promoters are behaving a month or a year from now. Will the lessons from Astroworld slip past the industry's surfaces and into its heart? And will someone—a promoter, a manager, a fan, anyone—stand up to the Lil Uzi Verts and Flatbush Zombies of the world? I'm all for rocking and raging and making noise and blowing off steam and sometimes even blowing s*** up, but telling your audience, "I gotta be safe tonight...I want to be reckless and do backflips in the crowd, but that’s not allowed anymore" (Flatbush Zombies) is petulant, childish. Telling them, "If it’s getting bad, leave. If you ain’t gon’ leave, stay" (Lil Uzi Vert) one week after Astroworld is so callous and heartless I don't even know where to start. But Day N Vegas, it turns out, knew where to stop. “I want to lose my mind," Uzi continued. "I want to have a headache after this s***. I want to pass out." One song later, Goldenvoice cut the stage power and ended his set.
Etc Etc Etc
SUMMER WALKER's album-length ode to the art of breaking up, STILL OVER IT, is the first R&B album by a woman to top the BILLBOARD 200 since SOLANGE's A SEAT AT THE TABLE in 2016. And the first R&B album by anyone, the magazine notes, to top the albums chart in more than a year... WARNER MUSIC joined UNIVERSAL and SONY in reporting big, streaming-fueled quarterly revenue gains—but not enough to meet analysts' expectations. The label's stock took a hit Monday as a result. The label group, which is an investor in ROBLOX, said in its earning call that it sees growth potential in both the future (the metaverse) and the past (catalog acquisitions)... ANTHONY TOMMASINI is stepping down as chief classical critic of the New York Times after 21 years. Longtime LINCOLN CENTER president REYNOLD LEVY once criticized Tommasini for being "consumed by the artistic properties he wished to see performed in New York, whatever the costs, whatever the risks." "I couldn’t have put it better," Tommasini wrote.
Rest in Peace
ROBERT "LUCIAN" CHIARELLO, co-founder of '80s New York punk/electro band Mode/IQ... Hip-hop tour manager MICHAEL JOLICOEUR.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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GQ |
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| Lil Nas X Is In the Right Place at the Right Time |
| by Jeremy O. Harris |
| How the young rapper conquered one-hit-wonderdom to become a master of attention. |
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NME |
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| Idles: 'I wanted to be more than what we were becoming' |
| by Will Richards |
| After killing off a “caricature” of themselves, Idles’ fourth album ‘Crawler’, and a long-overdue US tour, sees the band aim to become a new beast entirely. |
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Billboard |
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| Streaming Is Reliable Revenue, So What’s Next for Warner Music and Other Labels? |
| by Glenn Peoples |
| Music companies are thrilled that streaming has become reliable revenue. Now, they're considering what comes next - including the metaverse. |
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Music Tectonics |
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| Music Tectonics: The Dawn of the Artist-Driven Future with Jack Spallone of HIFI Labs |
| by Dmitri Vietze and Jack Spallone |
| Jack Spallone, Head of Crypto at HIFI Labs and major player in music+crypto's early days, maps how Web3 has emerged from past attempts to deal with music assets using blockchain, and how the whole ecosystem has been guided by artists and collectives taking control. |
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Kaiser Health News |
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| Live Performers Find Red State Rules a Tough Act to Follow |
| by Bruce Alpert |
| Some big-name performers, like Michael Bublé, are canceling shows over vaccine or mask bans. Others. like Travis Tritt, have canceled because of mask and vaccine mandates. Local troupes and performers don’t have that luxury. They must work with — or around — their state’s rules if they want to work at all. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Adele's interview with Oprah was a snooze. Luckily her music did the talking |
| by Lorraine Ali |
| After the talk-show icon pried royal revelations from Harry and Meghan, Sunday's sit-down interview/concert special felt frustratingly shallow. |
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Vulture |
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| 'Adele One Night Only' Was Too Much and Also Just Right |
| by Jen Chaney |
| As tempted as I was to roll my eyes or recoil at the sight of yet another famous person — is Gordon Ramsay someone Adele knows and loves or someone she has met a few times? — I also found myself moved by her heartfelt performances and the soaring sound of her voice. |
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Okayplayer |
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| Day N Vegas 2021 Tries Stitching Together a New Normal in the Shadow of Astroworld |
| by Keith Nelson Jr. |
| A week removed from the tragic events of Astroworld, Day N Vegas unmistakably reshaped its festival, prioritizing safety first. |
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KQED |
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| 'Jagged' Captures a Young Alanis Morissette Turning Pain Into Power |
| by Rae Alexandra |
| Alanis Morissette disavowed the HBO doc as 'salacious.' It's really a snapshot of what happened to women in the '90s music industry. |
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SPIN |
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| Where Is America’s Oldest Record Store? |
| by Jolie Lash |
| Depending who you ask, America's oldest record store is in either western Pennsylvania or in northern New Jersey. Both places matter. |
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The Atlantic |
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| I Performed a Career-Highlight Show. Then Delta Hit |
| by Ryan Miller |
| A touring musician reflects on the crumbling, momentary resurgence, and near-instantaneous re-crumbling of live music. |
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L.A. Taco |
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| For L.A.’s Latinx Punks, Rude Boys, and Metalheads, Moshing Is Ceremony and a Form of Healing |
| by Francisco Aviles Pino |
| Here, in what is currently Los Angeles County and the historic land of the Tongva people, is a wounded history full of energy to be released, which makes this land the perfect place for desmadre, which is to say, the perfect place for putazos, that are consented of course. |
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Pitchfork |
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| Who Will Be Held Responsible for the Astroworld Disaster? |
| by Andy Cush |
| Examining the legal cases against Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation, and other parties sued over the deaths at the Houston festival. |
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The New Yorker |
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| Petey’s Earnest Songs and Absurd TikToks |
| by Kelefa Sanneh |
| He has become famous online for silly and sweet comedy videos. Now fans are discovering his music. |
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The Quietus |
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| Peer Reviewed: Dave Okumu Interviews Joan As Police Woman... And Vice Versa |
| by Dave Okumu and Joan Wasser |
| Following the release of their collaborative album with the late Tony Allen, Joan As Police Woman and Dave Okumu take part in a two-way interview that covers the former's love of New York, the latter's impeccable sense of style, obsessions from Grace Jones to Julian Barratt, artistic process, dream collaborations and much, much more. |
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Trapital |
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| The Bored Ape Yacht Club Enters the Music Industry |
| by Dan Runcie |
| Last week, the music industry made two big swings with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Universal Music Group and Timbaland's new company Ape-In Productions have each started new music groups comprised of cartoon ape characters from the Bored Ape Yacht Club digital art collective. UMG's group is called KINGSHIP, and Timbaland's group is TheZoo. |
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GEN |
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| Britney Spears, #FreeBritney, and the Underdog Problem |
| by Jude Ellison Sady Doyle |
| Our culture hates successful women -- unless it can see them as victims. Now that Britney’s free, will we turn on her? |
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The New York Times |
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| Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well’ and the Weaponization of Memory |
| by Lindsay Zoladz |
| The new 10-minute version of a bitter breakup song from 2012 luxuriates in its details and its supersize length, correcting a power imbalance in the relationship it describes. |
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CBS News |
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| Half-century old, unseen footage shows Beatles writing and recording in new documentary 'Get Back' |
| by Jon Wertheim and 60 Minutes |
| Hours of unseen footage of the Beatles' writing and recording are being released after 50 years, part of Peter Jackson's new documentary, "Get Back." Jon Wertheim reports. |
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Money 4 Nothing |
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| How the iPod Changed Everything with Eamonn Forde |
| by Saxon Baird, Sam Backer and Eamonn Forde |
| It’s been 20 years since Apple launched the iPod and a lot has changed in the music industry…as in everything. The mp3, iTunes, Spotify, penny fractions for streams, UMG's recent IPO, music catalogs as attractive asset class, 360 deals and the list goes on. |
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The FADER |
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| Big Boi on putting the south on the map, staying inspired, and his Kate Bush collaboration |
| by Mark Ronson and Big Boi |
| On the latest episode of The Fader Uncovered, host Mark Ronson sits down with Outkast rapper Big Boi. |
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| Music of the day |
| "A Healing Inside" |
| Lilli Lewis (with Lady A, Arnae Batson, Vienna Carroll, Angelique Francis and Kim Richardson) |
| That's the original, Seattle Lady A, by the way. From Lilli Lewis' "Americana," out now on Louisiana Red Hot Records. |
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YouTube |
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That's the original, Seattle Lady A, by the way. From Lilli Lewis' "Americana," out now on Louisiana Red Hot Records.
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Documentary on the making of Petty's 1994 solo album, "Wildflowers."
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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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