| Rescuing records is the noblest thing you can do. If you’re driving home, if you see someone putting records out on the street, a box of records, take them home. |
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| Bottom line: The National Symphony Orchestra's double bassists rehearsing at the Kennedy Center, Washington, Jan. 19, 2022. |
| (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
Paved Paradise, Put Up a Parking Lotify
Since we last talked... JONI MITCHELL has joined NEIL YOUNG in his Spexit... SPOTIFY has promised to attach a note to every podcast episode in which Covid-19 is discussed directing listeners to a "Covid-19 Guide" featuring news and explainers about the virus and, perhaps most pointedly, a collection of podcasts labeled "From the doctors"... JOE ROGAN has adamantly denied spreading "dangerous misinformation" but says he doesn't always get things right and could do a better job having "more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones" (also, he wants everyone to know he's a Neil Young fan)... Neil Young has trumpeted AMAZON MUSIC as a good alternative to Spotify, to the chagrin of some of his peers... Spotify stock has continued tumbling but there's no reason to believe that has anything to do with any of this... And here we are. MusicSET: "Neil Young Takes on the Spotify-Rogan Podcast Complex"... But this really isn't about Neil Young anymore. He was the instigator who took it upon himself to push a button that no one else with a similar platform had pushed. It's hard to take the first step. Sometimes it's hard to know if taking the first step is, in fact, taking a first step. Did anyone expect this to blow up like it did, and as fast as it did? Young deserves a lot of credit. He saw something and said something... But it's about Spotify and the music industry now. Do musicians and, more importantly, the music business see it as their job to hold streaming companies accountable for their non-music content, which their music largely made possible? Do they believe they have the leverage to do that? Do they think it's in their interest to do that? Do they think it will make a difference?... Do streaming companies have an obligation to police the contents of their content? Is the answer different if the content is exclusive to them? Is the answer different if they're paying to produce that content?... What obligation do struggling musicians have, the ones who aren’t making more than a few pennies from streaming and who may need those few pennies?... So many good discussions happening on Twitter, where it was possible this weekend to think nothing else was happening. Honest, smart people disagreeing on the finer points and some of the not-so-finer points. That's healthy... Spotify is clearly rattled, and presumably alarmed that the actual Spexit movement could spread beyond Laurel Canyon. I have no idea if suggesting podcast listeners navigate themselves to a central hub where they have to listen to more podcasts if they want to get any information is going to make a tangible difference—call me skeptical—but if I were an interested party I might take it as a sign that the "We're Listening" sign was at least flickering and to start talking harder... Do Neil and Joni come back now? Do they come back ever?
Etc Etc Etc
"All the Black producers before me, I’m in awe and have studied you. I am you," says INFLO, who on Thursday was named Producer of the Year by the BRIT AWARDS. He's (I'm not making this up) the first non-white winner of the award in the show's 45-year history. The producer award is voted on by a select panel of record executives, in case you're wondering who's responsible for that bizarre history, and announced in advance of the awards ceremony, which is on Feb. 8 this year. In the past year, Inflo has worked with artists including LITTLE SIMZ and ADELE, who are both nominated for Album of the Year, and SAULT, the acclaimed and prolific R&B act that works largely in anonymity and with which he's been associated from the start... A fantastic Twitter thread on straight time, swing time and Dilla time, from author DAN CHARNAS, whose J DILLA epic DILLA TIME comes out Tuesday... CBS tried to broadcast its halftime show during the BENGALS–CHIEFS AFC championship game a little too close to where country singer WALKER HAYES was performing a halftime show of his own. The country singer won (as did the Bengals, whose next game will feature a halftime show by DR. DRE, KENDRICK LAMAR, EMINEM, MARY J. BLIGE and SNOOP DOGG).
Rest in Peace
Nashville session pianist HARGUS "PIG" ROBBINS, a member of the city's legendary A-Team who played on thousands of records starting in the 1950s by Dolly Parton, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers, Charlie Rich and basically you can fill in the name of almost any country singer you can think of, straight through to the likes of Miranda Lambert and Sturgill Simpson in the 2010s. And plenty of non-country records, too. His instantly recognizable licks are all over Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde"... JERRY WEBER, longtime proprietor of Pittsburgh vinyl mecca Jerry's Records. "No one ever accused Jerry Weber of being a shrewd businessman," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in its obituary. "He loved records too much." He sold them for below market value, and if you brought a large stack of LPs to the counter, he'd sell them for even less. There'd be a jazz or blues record playing on the store stereo while you did so... TITO MATOS, a Puerto Rican percussion virtuoso who championed plena music, most notably in the group Viento de Agua... Popular Argentine singer DIEGO VERDAGUER... Metal guitarist FREDRIK JOHANSSON of Dark Tranquility... And actor HOWARD HESSEMAN, who worked as an actual underground rock DJ in San Francisco a decade before he took on the iconic role of rock DJ Dr. Johnny Fever on "WKRP in Cincinnati." He also had a memorable cameo as a rival rock manager in "This Is Spinal Tap."
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| The Blur guy insulted a pop star. The reaction? Swift |
| By Gustavo Arellano, Mikael Wood and Suzy Exposito |
| The drama between Taylor Swift and Damon Albarn got real. But it also hit on something really interesting — songwriting, and who gets the credit for it, is a thing... now more than ever. |
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Okayplayer |
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| ‘Ozark’ Has Turned Ruth Langmore Into TV’s Most Likable White Hip-Hop Head |
| By Elijah C. Watson |
| "Ozark" frequently uses hip-hop '90s hip-hop to define Ruth Langmore, one of its most popular characters. The end result is a character whose relationship to the music doesn't feel forced or comes across as an insincere schtick, often the case with white TV characters who listen to rap music. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “On & On” |
| Amber Mark |
| From "Three Dimensions Deep," her debut album, out now on PMR/Interscope. |
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| Video of the day |
| “In Concert” |
| WKRP in Cincinnati |
| A February 1980 episode based on the tragic Who concert at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum where 11 fans were killed in a crowd crush, which had happened just two months earlier. RIP Howard Hesseman. |
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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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