I have nightmares about [playing Coachella], and it’s a dream come true.
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Friday April 14, 2023
REDEF
Bad Bunny at the last pre-Covid Coachella, April 14, 2019. He returns in a headline slot tonight.
(Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
quote of the day
I have nightmares about [playing Coachella], and it’s a dream come true.
- Julien Baker, of boygenius, who play Saturday night at Coachella's Outdoor Theater
rantnrave://
Mood Indio

Is the festival that begins today in the Southern California desert the first truly post-Covid COACHELLA and the beginning of the first truly post-Covid festival season? It certainly feels different this year. The virus is still in the air and people will continue to get sick and it may take years to recover from the economic toll of three years of disruption in the live music business, but it feels like this is the first spring where we can listen to the music and think about that path ahead, rocky as it may be, without the weight of the entire industry being caught in a pause button. The tape is rolling again. It feels like... spring.

It's also the first Coachella to be headlined entirely by nonwhite artists: BAD BUNNY, the first Spanish-language musician to get a headlining spot; BLACKPINK, the first K-pop act; and FRANK OCEAN, back in Indio for the first time since 2012 (and making his first festival appearance anywhere since 2017). Behind those big-font artists, there are Latin artists on the rise, lots of hip-hop, the dance acts announced for the Sahara Tent and the ones *not* announced in the Do LaB, “the festival’s coolest and biggest open secret.” And the return of JAI PAUL.

And lots more. Here's the full weekend schedule. YOUTUBE will livestream everything from six stages here. FORTNITE won’t have that but will launch something called Coachella Island today.

It will be warm.

It’s Friday

And here's a paragraph of new-release catnip for fans of real people making real music with real instruments on real magnetic tape... GLORIOUS GAME is a collaborative album by BLACK THOUGHT, of the Roots, and EL MICHELS AFFAIR, led by producer/multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels, whose legacy stretches from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (and other Daptone Records projects) to the Black Keys to Norah Jones. They got together and did this: Michels, according to Black Thought, “would record a full-on original composition with live instrumentation, sample a small section of it, and play more live instrumentation over that section.” And then Black Thought would tell a story over that. “I made a conscious decision,” the rapper told the Fader. “It’s gonna be all narrative, and it’s all gonna come from a personal place.” The results are this and that... METALLICA’s 11th studio album, 72 SEASONS, was born out of long-distance collaborations among the quartet to keep busy during the pandemi. It opens with the seven-minute title track, in which James Hetfield sings of starting out with “no chance before this life began,” and ends with the 11 minutes of “Inamorata,” which Consequence’s Katherine Turman describes as “a love song to misery.” In between, she writes, are “powerful glimmers of hope.” Guitars, bass, drums, hope and misery... (And lest you think Metallica is the only early ’80s thrash band that got its start on Megaforce Records that has a new album out today, let it be known it is not)... DINNER PARTY is the supergroup of jazz youngish lions Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington and Terrace Martin, and they’ve regrouped for their second album, ENIGMATIC SOCIETY, as well as a performance Saturday afternoon in Coachella’s Gobi Tent. This is an unmistakable groove.

Also today: New music from NLE Choppa, Young Bleu, Skilla Baby & Tee Grizzley, Natural Information Society, Feist, Angel Olsen, Caitlyn Smith, Kara Jackson (debut album from singer/songwriter who was the US National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019-20), the late Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Shygirl (deluxe version of 2022’s “Nymph,” called “Nymph_o”), MC Yallah, Petite Noir, Kid Koala (whose “Creatures of the Late Afternoon” comes with a board game), Jesus Piece, Initiate, Poison Ruïn, Deathgrave, Temples, Trouble in the Streets, Jason Bieler & the Baron Von Bielski Orchestra, Patrick Wolf (British singer/songwriter’s first album in a decade), Ozmotic & Fennesz, Patten, Proc Fiskal, Wayne Escoffery, GoGo Penguin, JaRon Marshall & the collective, Mathew V, Temple Jazz Sextet, Dave Okumu & the 7 Generations, defprez, Pi’erre Bourne, Elijah Kessler, Natalie Merchant, John Vanderslice, Robert Earl Keen, Bodywash, Terry, Fenne Lily, Xylouris White, the Tallest Man on Earth, Shannon Lay, Acantha Lang, Frost Children, Eloise, the Wood Brothers ,Chris Duarte, Brian Dunne, Fruit Bats, Mike Viola, William Prince, Grandbrothers, Jonathan Bree, Pynch, Waterparks and—eat your heart out, Conrad Birdie—Ann-Margret.

Etc Etc Etc

HARDY and LAINEY WILSON are the top nominees for the ACM AWARDS, to be handed out May 11 in Frisco, Texas... ED SHEERAN scored a viral moment for his new single, “EYES CLOSED,” by singing it with New York busker MIKE YUNG Monday afternoon in a Brooklyn subway station. The moment was staged, but apparently Yung wasn’t in on it... MARTIN SCORSESE’s DAVID JOHANSEN documentary, PERSONALITY CRISIS: ONE NIGHT ONLY, based around a 70th birthday concert at New York’s CAFÉ CARLYLE, premieres today on Showtime... JILL FURMANOVSKY's photos of rock legends... CHRIS BETHELL's photos of punk bands and their punk vans.

- Matty Karas, curator
born pink
Majuscule
Delia's Gone: On the Trail of a Folk-Song Ghost
By Courtney E. Smith
All the songs about Delia get her story wrong.
Music Ally
The first step to artist-centric streaming? Start listening to artists
By David Martin
The biggest rights holder of them all, Universal Music Group, appears to have set course towards a new kind of “artist-centric” approach. But the most immediate quirk of UMG’s “artist-centric” vision is the lack of discussion with artists – or with their representative bodies. Or, for that matter, with the rest of the industry.
Billboard
Is Kid Rock, Travis Tritt’s Bud Boycott All Froth?
By Gil Kaufman
Experts say the artists' brew-ha-ha over the brand's collaboration with a trans influencer will have little longterm effect on fans' buying habits.
Variety
How Coachella’s Do LaB Tent, With Its Unpublished Lineups, Became the Festival’s Coolest and Biggest Open Secret
By Lily Moayeri
There is hope for music lovers looking for a non-mainstream experience in the blistering desert.
Complex
If You Think Coachella Abandoned Rap, You’re Not Paying Attention
By Peter A. Berry
Yes, the Kendrick Lamars, Lil Babys and the Cardi Bs of the space aren’t headlining this year, but rap gems remain an active part of the space.
Trapital
The Business Behind Coachella
By Dan Runcie and Tatiana Cirisano
Unlike other trends and even other festivals, Coachella developed a brand that can sell itself. Dan Runcie and Tatiana Cirisano discuss untapped opportunities for Coachella, how the rise of concert ticket prices impacts the festival, and the increasing homogeneity of festival lineups.
The FADER
Black Thought plays the long game
By Timmhotep Aku
Black Thought talks to Timmhotep Aku about "Glorious Game," his new album with El Michels Affair, on this week’s episode of The FADER Interview.
GQ
Luh Tyler Is the Feel-Good Story in Rap Right Now
By John Norris
The 17-year-old Florida rapper is making some of the freshest music in hip-hop.
Billboard
ACM Awards Nominations 2023 Snubs & Surprises
By Melinda Newman
The final nominees for the May 11 ACM Awards were announced Thursday and there were a handful of headscratchers.
The Guardian
Will AI ruin music as we know it? Pop Culture with Chanté Joseph
By Chanté Joseph
From David Guetta using an AI Eminem in a set, to an entire AI-generated Kanye West verse going viral. Is artificial intelligence making music better or is the industry under threat?
pink venom
Complex
Lil Pump in 2023
By Eric Skelton
What happens half a decade after a controversial teenage rapper goes viral and makes millions? We spent two days in Miami with Lil Pump to find out.
Nashville Scene
Hannibal Lokumbe's ‘The Jonah People’ Chronicles the Full Spectrum of African American History
By Ron Wynn
Talking with Hannibal Lokumbe and others before the Nashville Symphony’s world premiere of his opus.
The Guardian
German band may have been refused UK entry ‘because they have day jobs’
By Helen Pidd
Post-Brexit rules on touring under fire as it emerges Trigger Cut may have been turned away due to not being full-time musicians.
VICE
Pop Songs Really Are Shorter Than Ever Now
By Danny Wright
From shorter verses to frontloading the chorus, chart toppers sound dramatically different these days.
Music Ally
Former Spotify economist Will Page causes a stir with equitable remuneration report
By Stuart Dredge
Music industry economist Will Page has been ruffling feathers with his latest report: an examination of equitable remuneration (ER) models.
Hollywood Reporter
Spotify Courts Broadcasters to Convert Radio Shows Into Podcasts
By J. Clara Chan
Converting radio programming into podcasts could give radio broadcasters a better chance at expanding their reach to Gen-Z listeners.
Rave New World
Who Is ‘Raving’ For?
By Michelle Lhooq
Real freak hours with rave theorist McKenzie Wark.
Rolling Stone
Coachella Wants Fans All Year Round. Is Fortnite the Answer?
By Ethan Millman
As companies look - with varying success - for answers for their own metaverses, the festival wants to make a world inside the popular video game.
mirror.xyz
World’s First Web3 Music Patent for Capital Distribution
By Jason Meinzer
As a fan, you should be able to stake capital into a music artist that gives them a new way to raise it by sharing success with you.
AARP
Willie Nelson Hits the Road (Again) at 90
By Edna Gundersen
The age-proof musical legend tells AARP about his new album, tour and all-star Hollywood Bowl birthday concert.
what we're into
Music of the day
“I'm Still Somehow”
El Michels Affair & Black Thought
"Vibin' on psilocybin / Phil Collins or Phyllis Hyman." From "Glorious Game," out today on Big Crown Records.
Video of the day
“Personality Crisis: One Night Only”
Martin Scorsese
Scorsese's David Johansen doc, premiering today on Showtime.
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