| I say ‘f***’ in the album a lot. I know. It’s because I give a f***. I give several f***s about our future. |
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| Working the crowd: Janelle Monáe at Coachella, Indio, Calif., April 13, 2013. |
| (Karl Walter/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
Discovery Channel
A good argument for why old school radio is better than almost all other discovery platforms (a thousand or so caveats notwithstanding, including #payola and #corporateconsolidation and #theyfiredalltheDJs and it’s #2023): the glaring and glorious lack of a skip button.
You hear a song, chosen by somebody who isn’t you, over and over, and your only choice is listen to it or change the channel, where you might just run into the same song on another station. It starts growing on you. It becomes your favorite song. “If I had the option of going ‘next,’” this guy (caveat: he’s 59) told a roomful of radio programmers earlier this week, “I would never have heard the song. That’s a gift you have. Do not take it lightly.”
SPOTIFY and AMAZON and everyone else on the internet lack that feature, or, to be more accurate, they lack the lack of features that makes that possible. Embrace that distinction, GARTH BROOKS said to programmers at the COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR in Nashville (while throwing in some unkind words for ALEXA and the internet in general—and some distinctly not unkind ones for Amazon and artificial intelligence). “You guys,” he said, “will forever be discovery.”
I don’t know if people in the business are inclined to take advice from Garth Brooks, nor do I know if they should. I also don’t know if there wasn’t some kind of hidden subtext in Brooks' remarks, like, say, “cut it out with the robot DJs." But the thunder still rolls and he’s at least partly right on the creative merits. It's an argument, at heart, for community, for shared avenues of discovery. And sometimes there's nothing I'd rather have from a streaming service than fewer hyper-personalized experiences and more communal ones. With no skipping allowed.
Etc Etc Etc
The CURE’s anti-scalper, anti-VIP North American tour went on sale (via TICKETMASTER) Wednesday, and there were plenty of happy Cure fans who scored relatively cheap tickets without trouble, some frustrated ones who spent too much time stuck in online queues, and a few who took note of the still very much intact service fees. The singer of the band was frustrated, too... METALLICA, which has sold at least 300,000 vinyl albums in the US alone in each of the past two years, now has its own pressing plant. The band is the new owner of FURNACE RECORD PRESSING in Alexandria, Va. Metallica promise the plant will continue to produce vinyl for other artists. But with an ongoing shortage of vinyl materials and pressing capacity worldwide, the sale was met with some raised eyebrows from people wondering why the metal monsters didn’t instead invest in building a new facility... Every artist who plays in Tennessee going forward should do so in drag. Prurient songs encouraged, too... SUZAN LORI-PARKS’ stage adaptation of the classic reggae film THE HARDER THEY COME opened Wednesday at New York’s PUBLIC THEATER, to lukewarm reviews... The song commercials that have helped soundtrack Ramadan in Egypt over the years.
Rest in Peace
JIM GORDON was one of the most celebrated drummers of the 1960s and ‘70s, with a staggering list of credits ranging from Eric Clapton, George Harrison and the Beach Boys to “You’re So Vain,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and (probably) the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache,” source of one of the most sampled drum breaks in hip-hop history. He’s credited with writing the piano coda to Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla,” though he was accused—by his own bandmates—of stealing it from his then-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge. He also had what his publicist described as a “lifelong battle with mental illness.” In 1983, tormented by what he said were voices in his head, Gordon brutally murdered his mother. He was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent the last 40 years of his life in prison... R&B and smooth jazz crooner BOBBY CALDWELL was best known for his 1978 hit “What You Won’t Do for Love,” a spectacular example of what’s known as blue-eyed soul. (I’m not a big meme guy, but this is hilarious and spot-on.) He was also an accomplished songwriter, writing for the likes of Boz Scaggs, Roy Ayers and Al Jarreau, and he, too, was heavily sampled in hip-hop... Justice Edwards, aka TERR9R, was a Los Angeles rapper who plied his trade largely on SoundCloud.
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| - Matty Karas, curator |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Why is Spotify copying TikTok? To cling on to power |
| By Tim Ingham |
| Why is Spotify pursuing a new design that borrows heavily from time-sucking short-form video services like TikTok? That’s the question on the mind of Music Business Worldwide founder, Tim Ingham, on MBW’s latest Talking Trends podcast. |
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No Bells |
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| SoundCloud failed Terr9r |
| By Zazie Bae |
| A remembrance of the late underground artist Terr9r, and a critique of the platform through which he found his scene. |
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Stereogum |
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| Soul Glo, Masters Of Cathartic Chaos |
| By Tom Breihan |
| There’s not a whole wave of splattery, angular, word-dense basement punk about the experience of being Black and broke and chemically unbalanced in America. Soul Glo are a singular band, and they’ve managed to reach the level of critical acclaim and festival bookings without adjusting their style or fitting into any particular mold. |
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Bustle |
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| Janelle Monáe Is Creating A Space For All Young Women To Break The Rules |
| By Jessica Hopper |
| Janelle Monáe is utterly composed as she tromps through the mud in many lengths of banana-hued silk organza and a pair of rain boots from Lowe's. Handlers and helpers hold her hem high, their umbrellas lofted to protect the Mongolian lamb fluff on the David Ferreira overcoat dress and Monáe’s flawless face. |
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Dazed Digital |
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| The A-to-Z of Azealia |
| By Connor Garel |
| It’s been over a decade since Azealia Banks blew up as the most provocative rapper of her generation. But her unfiltered approach to fame revealed hypocrisies on both sides of the argument. Can the Harlem-born rapper ever outrun the past? |
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DownBeat |
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| Delfeayo Marsalis: Soooo New Orleans! |
| By Allen Morrison |
| The most famous brothers in jazz are scattered. Wynton lives in Manhattan. Branford settled in North Carolina. Jason moved to France for a while, then returned to New Orleans. Only Delfeayo Marsalis never left New Orleans. And he is “so New Orleans.” |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Dance or Die” |
| Janelle Monáe feat. Saul Williams |
| From "The ArchAndroid" (2010). |
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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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