| I do art, man. It doesn't lose value. It doesn't depreciate. |
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| Future at Rolling Loud, San Bernardino, Calif., Dec. 12, 2021. |
| (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
Festiv(al)us
So the spring/summer festival season appears to be actually happening, and I'm imagining a lot of sighs of relief and champagne bottles popping every time one of them actually makes it through day one. The first NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FEST since 2019 begins today, with a little less food than usual but with music intact. The first weekend's highlights include LIONEL RICHIE, ARTURO SANDOVAL, LITTLE FREDDIE KING, the WHO and the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS. And STAGECOACH is back in its rightful place in Indio, Calif., keeping the COACHELLA vibes going for one more weekend but with cowboy hats and line dancing. THOMAS RHETT, CARRIE UNDERWOOD and LUKE COMBS are in the headline slots (and did someone say DIPLO?). For the first time, YOUTUBE will be streaming much of it. If you're there, show those Coachella kids what real men and women do: They wear masks. And leave their Confederate flags at home.
It's Friday
And FUTURE, a decade and nine solo albums into his career, says he's finally come around to the idea that he doesn't have to prove himself to anybody. "If there was doubt, there's no more doubt. I'm here to stay," the introspective rap genius recently told Tidal's Elliott Wilson. Album #9, I NEVER LIKED YOU, which Wilson described as relying "less on hooks and more on aggression" when Future previewed it for him a month ago, is just the rapper transcribing the vulnerability he's always felt onto 16 tracks: "Sharing my pain with the world. Sharing my ups, sharing my downs with the entire universe." Drake drops by for two tracks, Kanye West for one and Gunna and Young Thug for another... MIRANDA LAMBERT, on the other hand, set out to share *other* people's pain and joy on her character-driven PALOMINO, which she envisioned as "a travel record while we can't travel" when she began working on it with songwriters Luke Dick and Natalie Hemby early in the pandemic. "I kind of learned after 'Weight of These Wings' that I don’t want to live everything I write about,” Lambert told the LA Times, referring to her acclaimed 2016 divorce album. "That’s too much life—and too much heartbreak too"...
Eighty-year-old Brazilian jazz singer FLORA PURIM's first album in 17 years—she says it will be her last—comes at a time when, NPR's Ann Powers writes, "music's mood... is realigning with Purim's legacy." The album, IF YOU WILL, "sounds like the unfettered jazz-rock-Latin-whatever that's moving ears and feet on playlists and in clubs in London, New York and Los Angeles now." Powers' beautiful piece, which is both an interview and a lengthy overview/reconsideration of a career that was groundbreaking yet weirdly underappreciated, is essential reading... TROMBONE SHORTY celebrates the opening of Jazz Fest with LIFTED, an album he says "bleeds out in lots of directions," like the music of his hometown. "My music," he tells Tidal, "is New Orleans music. It’s my interpretation of what I grew up playing and my different influences—sharing stages with the Neville Brothers and Dr. John, playing with brass bands. And it has to do with working with people like Mannie Fresh and Juvenile." A week from Sunday, Trombone Shorty will close the festival's main stage, as he's been doing since 2013, when he took over a coveted slot whose previous tenants were Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers... FRONTPERSON is my new favorite Google-proof bandname. It belongs to the duo of Kathryn Calder (of the New Pornographers) and Mark Andrew Hamilton (of Woodpigeon). They began, Stereogum informs me, with "a musical meet-cute in a studio hallway," and their second album, PARADE, sounds exactly like a meet-cute in a studio hallway...
Plus new music from KEHLANI, TORO Y MOI, LET'S EAT GRANDMA, OUMOU SANGARÉ, CONGOTRONICS INTERNATIONAL (members of Konono Nº1 and Kasai Allstars joined by Deerhoof, Juana Molina and others), PSY, WILLIE NELSON, CHRIS JANSON, SAVIII 3RD, RANSOM, ACTION BRONSON, SOFI TUKKER, LOUIE VEGA, VICTOR MANUELLE, GLORIA TREVI, CARLA MORRISON, CAROLINE SPENCE, TOMBERLIN, ERI YAMAMOTO/WILLIAM PARKER/CHAD FOWLER/STEVE HIRSH, MILES OKAZAKI, TIGRAN HAMASYAN, KELLY LEE OWENS, KMRU & AHO SSAN, WILLIAM BASINSKI & JANEK SCHAEFER, OCKHAM BLAZER, V.C.R., MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER, GIRLPOOL, ANN WILSON, BLOC PARTY, SCALPING, DÄLEK, EBI SODA, RÖYKSOPP, the KNOCKS, ORGAN TAPES, HARVEY SUTHERLAND, PIERRE KWENDERS, ELI PAPERBOY REED (Merle Haggard tribute album), KITCHEN DWELLERS, CORB LUND, RAMMSTEIN, NEGATIVE PLANE, DEVIL MASTER, NO/MÀS, SATAN'S HOST, TED NUGENT, LOLA KIRKE, KAREN ELSON, JULIE DOIRON & DANY PLACARD, CORY WONG, the HEAD AND THE HEART, FAYE WEBSTER (EP of orchestral remakes), FROG EYES, GOVERNMENT CHEESE, HEY ILY, HELMS ALEE, PJ MORTON, SHILPA RAY, HONEYGLAZE, ALEX ROSE, DANA GAVANSKI and MR. CRAWFORD.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Music Tomorrow |
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| Is the Spotify Editorial Playlist Landscape Fair to Emerging Artists? |
| By Julie Knibbe, Parth Sinha and Pavel Telica |
| Editorial playlists across major streaming services like Spotify are some of the most valuable real estate in the music business. But how fair is the editorial landscape when it comes to showcasing independent, emerging artists? |
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Esquire |
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| Creed Bratton Has a Story to Tell |
| By John Tyler Allen |
| He left The Grass Roots in ’69 and showed up on 'The Office' in ’05. What the hell happened in between? Some highs, some lows, a little music, and a lot of pain. |
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The Culture Journalist |
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| Coachella Vibes: A Serious Investigation |
| By Emilie Friedlander and Andrea Domanick |
| What America's premiere megafest tells us about the state of culture, society and ourselves, with Katie Bain. |
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The New York Times |
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| Machine Gun Kelly’s Pop-Punk Pivot |
| By Jon Caramanica, Meaghan Garvey and Arielle Gordon |
| After decreasing returns in the hip-hop world, the musician and actor stepped into a revival that had roots in SoundCloud rap, and a champion in Travis Barker. |
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WTF with Marc Maron |
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| WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 1326 -- Trombone Shorty |
| By Marc Maron and Trombone Shorty |
| It’s normal for everyone to call Troy Andrews by his stage name, Trombone Shorty, because he’s been playing the trombone since he was a tiny, four-year-old boy. Troy and Marc talk about the musical culture of New Orleans, growing up in the Treme, touring with Lenny Kravitz right out of high school, making the trombone a featured instrument, and more. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “I'm on One” |
| Future ft. Drake |
| From "I Never Liked You." |
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| Video of the day |
| “Live 1982” |
| Flora Purim |
| With Airto Moreira on drums, Larry Nass on guitar, Kei Akagi on keyboards, Keith Jones on bass and Laudir de Oliveira on percussion. |
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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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