| You can have all the tracks to play... But without a concept to tie them together—even if that concept has been reduced to the minimum, like a thumbnail image—they remain just tracks. |
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| The orchestra of the Odessa National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet performs at a "Free Sky" anti-war concert in Odessa, Ukraine, March 12, 2022. |
| (Nina Lyashonok/Future Publishing/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“You can have all the tracks to play... But without a concept to tie them together—even if that concept has been reduced to the minimum, like a thumbnail image—they remain just tracks.”
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- Damon Krukowski, "The Idea of the Album"
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| rantnrave:// |
Win the Lottery, Die the Next Day
The irony of the GRAMMY AWARDS expanding the field of nominees in the top categories at the last minute to accommodate KANYE WEST (and a handful of other artists), only to tell him four months later he wouldn't exactly be welcome on the Grammy stage. This is a good overview, from the NY Times' BEN SISARIO, on the yays and nays of Ye at the Grammys. For my money, telling Ye he can't perform this year is a reasonable call—the chances of him staying on script seem rather low—while nominating DONDA for Album of the Year, as I argued here, for reasons have nothing to do with the quality of the album, was not... The irony of the ACADEMY AWARDS moving the performances of this year's nominated songs back onto the main stage a year after consigning them to lesser, pre-show slots, while simultaneously booting the presentation of the Oscar for Original Score (along with several others) off the main show and into a lesser, pre-show slot. Music is to be celebrated and also not celebrated. I wouldn't have minded if the Original Song people boycotted the whole thing in solidarity with the Original Score people, but instead BEYONCÉ, BILLIE EILISH & FINNEAS, REBA MCENTIRE and SEBASTIÁN YATRA (and possibly a second singer from ENCANTO) will perform on this Sunday's show. Which, it should be noted, is a very good lineup. VAN MORRISON, nominated for "DOWN TO JOY" from the film BELFAST, declined the invitation, citing his touring schedule but not mentioning the potential of being booed off the stage for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the song.
Dot Dot Dot
I'm sympathetic to the movement to de-list, or at least de-emphasize, violent diss songs, but shoutout PUSHA-T and ARBY'S for their brutal (and funny and catchy) takedown of MCDONALD'S' Filet-O-Fish sandwich, which is both an ad and a response to another ad from 19 years ago, and which has a back story worthy of two or three "ROXANNE ROXANNE"s, complete with competing claims of authorship, complaints about remuneration and royalties, and a critique of tartar sauce... Global recorded music revenues were really, really good in 2021, according to the IFPI, led by big gains in streaming, physical sales and performance rights (i.e. income from radio play and bars, restaurants and other places where music is played in public). Total global revenues were $25.9 billion, up 18.5% over 2020. Even where severe lockdowns remained in place, units shifted with little interruption, according to a separate report from the AUSTRALIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION... Not a bad time to ask your local major label to invest in vinyl manufacturing infrastructure. For example... New York police Tuesday charged a 26-year-old woman with manslaughter in the death of revered vocal coach BARBARA MEIER GUSTERN, who was violently pushed to the ground outside her New York apartment three weeks ago. Gustern, whose students included DEBBIE HARRY, DIAMANDA GALAS and several Broadway singers, was well known in New York music circles, and security photos and video of her alleged killer had been circulating on music Twitter and other social media for the past couple weeks. Police said one of those videos led them to LAUREN PAZIENZA, who turned herself in Tuesday.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Dada Drummer Almanach |
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| The Idea of the Album |
| By Damon Krukowski |
| A Prediction: The album will survive into the future. And the album of the future will look just like the album today. |
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Broken Record |
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| Broken Record: Patti Smith |
| By Malcolm Gladwell and Patti Smith |
| Patti Smith talks to Malcolm Gladwell at Electric Lady Studios about Jimi Hendrix, writing lyrics for Janis Joplin, and a failed attempt to cover Adele. |
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KEXP |
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| From Homeless to Starting Band of Horses |
| By Larry Mizell Jr., Emily Fox and Ben Bridwell |
| Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell talks about how the new album, "Things Are Great," was inspired by heartache and breakups. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Oh, The Dear Land” |
| Kryachyvka Village Folk Band |
| From the compilation "Traditional Lyric Songs of the Poltava Region." Poltava is in central Ukraine, about 200 miles southeast of Kyiv. H/T Jim Macnie. |
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| Video of the day |
| “Ukraine Is Not Yet Lost (Ukrainian National Anthem)” |
| Amelia Anisovych |
| 7-year-old Ukrainian refugee sings the national anthem at a charity concert in Lodz, Poland. Three weeks earlier, a video of her singing "Let It Go" in a Kyiv bomb shelter had gone viral. |
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| Music | Media |
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Suggest a link  |
| “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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