| I feel an immense amount of pressure to make sure that I’m only putting out stuff that I’m willing to stand by for years and years. I want to treat my music with seriousness knowing that it’s being inducted into this huge archive of amazing work. I can’t take that for granted. |
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| Sebastián Yatra in Miami, Oct. 22, 2021. "Dharma" is out today on Universal Latino. |
| (John Parra/WireImage/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“I feel an immense amount of pressure to make sure that I’m only putting out stuff that I’m willing to stand by for years and years. I want to treat my music with seriousness knowing that it’s being inducted into this huge archive of amazing work. I can’t take that for granted.”
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- Immanuel Wilkins, whose second album, "The 7th Hand," is out today on Blue Note
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| rantnrave:// |
Out of the Blue, Into the Black
Music Twitter is rocking this week with the intensity of a 10-minute CRAZY HORSE guitar jam, and I'm dying to know how a couple days of loud and sustained SPOTIFY bashing and NEIL YOUNG stanning will translate into actual numbers. Will a meaningful number or Spotify subscribers follow Young out the door, or is this just the Twitterati Twitterati'ing? Will Spotify let them leave? Will someone take their place? (I'd link to that one U.S. senator's attempt to write a Neil Young parody lyric, but I don't want to link to that one U.S. senator, plus I re-read his attempt five or six times to see if it would start making sense and it never did. Find better interns, Senator.) Will this seed of a movement turn into an actual movement? Is this genuine anger or an internet trending cycle?
In either case, Spotify's competitors have been rockin' in the free world since Spotify chose comedian and podcast host JOE ROGAN over rock legend Young. APPLE MUSIC declared itself "the home of Neil Young" and started actively promoting his catalog, including its Spatial Audio version of his new album, BARN. TIDAL needled Spotify with this A-plus tweet. Young himself, who's always had beef with Spotify's audio quality, put in a good word for AMAZON, Apple and QOBUZ.
SIRIUSXM revived a channel called Neil Young Radio for a seven-day run on its radio platform and a monthlong stint on its app, after having "reached out to Mr. Young's camp Wednesday," according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall). The Journal's source didn't say if Mr. Young's camp picked up the phone or answered the text. Since it operates under a radio license, Sirius wouldn't need Young's permission anyway. But one wonders how that convo would have gone. From JEM ASWAD in Variety: "SiriusXM hosts multiple conservative radio shows that espouse views similar to or more outspoken than Rogan's—particularly on SiriusXM Patriot channel, which features SEAN HANNITY, BREITBART NEWS, ANDREW WILKOW and others." Who would Sirius pick if Young said you can have me or them but not both? How serious is Sirius with its love?
While you ponder that, here are helpful explainers from Billboard and Variety on how an artist goes about pulling catalog from Spotify—having a lot of leverage with your label helps—and some speculation from analyst MARK MULLIGAN on how Spotify's "platform-to-media-company transition" could lead to regulatory headaches sooner rather than later. Subscriber headaches, too: "It is really hard (perhaps impossible) to simultaneously appeal to both sides of the political divide," Mulligan writes. "If you want to pursue the middle path, that means removing much of the sort of content that drives streams. There is no Joe Rogan in the middle path."
It's Friday
And that means THE 7TH HAND, the second album by Brooklyn-via-Philadelphia alto saxophonist IMMANUEL WILKINS, is here. Following up an acclaimed debut, 2020's "Omega," steeped in political turbulence, there's still "enough sonic clamor and dissonance to suggest disturbance, yet the focus is more squarely on evocations of spiritual salvation, even serenity," the Wall Street Journal's Larry Blumenfeld writes. The album ends with a torrential 26-minute track, "Lift," full of "terrorized reactions and ecstatic exclamations"... Twenty-six, schmenty-six. The title track of EARTHLESS' NIGHT PARADE OF ONE HUNDRED DEMONS is a two-part, 41-minute, melodic instrumental jam in which "the influence of Black Sabbath pervades each lurch and metallic gesture." So, basically, return to form... Colombian cantante y compositor SEBASTIÁN YATRA, who has ganado corazones con su dramatic performance of "Dos Oruguitas" in Disney's "Encanto," releases his third album, DHARMA... The mesmerizing Tuareg band IMARHAN gets assists from members of Tinariwen and Super Furry Animals on ABOOGI... War co-founder LEE OSKAR's NEVER FORGET is an instrumental album inspired by the stories of his mother and aunt, both Holocaust survivors. Thursday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day... The TEMPTATIONS, led by their one surviving original member, 80-year-old Otis Williams, celebrate six decades in the biz on TEMPTATIONS 60, with a little help from their friend Smokey Robinson.
Today also brings the soundtrack to the best music film of 2021, QUESTLOVE's SUMMER OF SOUL, featuring NINA SIMONE, SLY & THE FAMILY STONE, MAHALIA JACKSON and the STAPLES SINGERS—but not that amazing STEVIE WONDER performance. Clearance issues. Hopefully on the deluxe version, the director says... And, speaking of 1969, a streaming audio version of THE BEATLES: GET BACK—THE ROOFTOP PERFORMANCE. (On Sunday, the 53rd anniversary of the concert, the film version will be screened for one night only in Imax theaters. And while we're on the subject, the four-part JANET JACKSON documentary starts tonight and continues Saturday night, on both Lifetime and A&E.)
Plus new music from NLE CHOPPA, CLOAKROOM, KRALLICE, STEVE GUNN (EP released earlier this week), AMBER MARK, LADY WRAY (aka Nicole Wray), ANAÏS MITCHELL ("Hadestown" creator) ,PINK PANTHERESS (remixes), MADDIE & TAE, ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO & JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND, ERIC GALES, TYLER MITCHELL & MARSHALL ALLEN (of the Sun Ra Arkestra), CHRISTIANE KARAM, MATHIS PICARD, BABYFACE RAY, DRO KENJI, KYLE, DOE BOY, EELS, SIMONE FELICE, PINK SWEAT$, JOSEPHINE FOSTER, IMAAD WASIF, ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES, NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS, GRADY SPENCER & THE WORK, AARON LEWIS, RYAN CULWELL, PINEGROVE, MØ, MAYA SHENFELD, KATIE DEY, BEIRUT (rarities album), DEATHCRASH, BIG BIG TRAIN, MILQUETOAST, BAD SUNS, JANN ARDEN, JOHN MAYALL, STEVE VAI and JETHRO TULL.
Rest in Peace
LUCY ROWAN MANN, classical music patron and mentor who administered the influential Naumburg Competition.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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MTV News |
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| Anaïs Mitchell’s Watershed Moment |
| By Grant Sharples |
| The prolific indie-folk artist and 'Hadestown' creator returns to a 'circular' pattern of songwriting for her first solo album in a decade. |
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Complex |
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| A Conversation With The Alchemist, 2021's Best Hip-Hop Producer Alive |
| By Andre Gee |
| Sometime around the turn of the 2010s, The Alchemist moved back to his native Los Angeles in hopes of starting a new musical chapter. He was already a well-regarded producer, thanks to his work with east coast rap royalty like Mobb Deep and Dilated Peoples and classic hits like "We Gonna Make It" and "Hold U Down." |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Lift” |
| Immanuel Wilkins |
| From "The 7th Hand." |
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| Video of the day |
| “Janet Jackson” |
| Lifetime |
| Premiering tonight on Lifetime and A&E. |
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| Music | Media |
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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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