| I played my viola for five minutes yesterday. Just so that my instrument knows it's OK. My viola was very out of tune; instruments feel. My viola is at home, under my bed. It's very important to me. It might get damaged, because rockets have been hitting the higher floors of buildings. |
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| Singer Julia Sanina of Ukrainian rock band the Hardkiss at Stereo Plaza, Kyiv, Oct. 21, 2016. |
| (Alexandr Gusev/LightRocket/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
Fortnite Friday
It's Friday, the first Bandcamp Friday since Bandcamp was acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games, and though the future of the best record store on the internet is very much a matter of speculation at this point (which means skepticism and sadness laced with a tinge of hope), Bandcamp remains, for now, exactly what Bandcamp has always been. And today, like the first Monday of most months, the site is waiving its share of revenues, which means almost every penny you spend goes directly to the artists and/or labels. Many of these new releases can be found there.
THE WORLD IS GOING TO RUIN YOU is the title—and the vibe—of the second album by Boston hardcore powerhouse VEIN.FM (formerly just Vein). Singer Anthony DiDio describes the album as "a boarded-up house that’s much more expansive than you thought—this nightmarish world inside of a house." There's sonic catharsis inside, too... After several albums of "archive trolling" (nicely put, Giovanni Russonello) through "the unsavory history of American popular song," jazz singer and MacArthur fellow CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT flips the balance toward her own songwriting on GHOST SONG—while still making room for tunes by Kate Bush, Sting and Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill... In the seven years since he dropped his debut single, British rapper KOJEY RADICAL has collaborated with the likes of jazz group Sons of Kemet and actress/writer Michaela Coel, dabbled in documentary filmmaking, released a string of EPs and funded music education programs for kids from underrepresented communities. But he waited till today to drop his debut album, REASON TO SMILE, which mixes "bouncy grime, smooth R&B and skittering P-Funk"... PAINLESS is the second album from British singer/songwriter NILÜFER YANYA, whose songs sound "like someone’s private stream-of-consciousness externalized in the legible grammar of well-crafted melodies"...Canadian songwriter Tamara Lindeman, aka the WEATHER STATION, follows up her much-talked-about 2021 climate disaster album, "Ignorance," with what's basically an album of leftovers. Accordingly, the Green New Deal is still very much on her mind on HOW IS THAT I SHOULD LOOK AT THE STARS, and if you can actually call this gorgeous ballad a leftover, you have tougher ears than I do... DOLLY PARTON's 48th (!) album is the soundtrack to RUN ROSE RUN, the novel she co-wrote with James Patterson about a country singer with a dark past, which comes out Monday. That means 12 Parton originals "delivered with Parton’s weapons’ grade grit and propulsion" and, if I'm reading my notes correctly, no input whatsoever from James Patterson (not unlike most of his books, if you are to believe his critics)... SATURDAY AFTERNOON KUNG FU THEATER is RZA's first solo album in 14 years. Technically it's also his fourth album under his BOBBY DIGITAL pseudonym, though he tells Cabbages' Gary Suarez, "Some people wanted me to come on some RZA, some said come on Bobby. And I was like, 'I got the power to do both'"... Lil Durk, Polo G, 21 Savage and Moneybagg Yo are among the guests on WHAT IT MEANS TO BE KING, the first KING VON album released since the Chicago drill rapper was shot to death in Atlanta in 2020.
And this demands a paragraph of its own. Quietus and writer Miloš Hroch have helpfully provided a list of 11 compilations available at Bandcamp whose purchase will aid Ukraine or Ukrainian artists.
Plus new music from STROMAE, DABABY & YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN, KAINA, BABYTRON, the COOL KIDS (released Thursday), YOUR OLD DROOG, BAND OF HORSES, BENEE, BOB MOSES, MELISSA ALDANA, SOMI, ILHAN ERSAHIN/DAVE HARRINGTON/KENNY WOLLESEN, MAYLEE TODD, CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY & BOLIS PUPUL, CRUEL SANTINO, LEYA, KRISTINE LESCHPER, SCOTT HARDWARE, VLAD DOBROVOLSKI, SPRING SILVER, DIPLO, KREWELLA, PEACH PIT, SUGARAY RAYFORD, CERAMIC ANIMAL, JACK BARKSDALE, the NASHVILLAINS, CMAT, STEREOPHONICS, MIKE CAMPBELL & THE DIRTY KNOBS, MATISYAHU, BABEHOVEN, CY DUNE, SABATON, CROWBAR, WOUNDED TOUCH, OH HIROSHIMA, EL TEN ELEVEN, SUPERNOWHERE, GUIDED BY VOICES and MILES FRANCIS.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| the world is going to ruin you |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| What does Bandcamp's sale to Epic Games mean for independent music? |
| By Randall Roberts |
| Despite the companies’ assurances, artists-rights activists nervously pondered the repercussions of the sale, which comes on the heels of criticisms of audio streaming leader Spotify over its affiliation with podcaster Joe Rogan and its payment rates to artists and songwriters. |
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Love is the Message |
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| Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture -- The Version, Dub pt.1 |
| By Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert |
| In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy dive headlong into Dub. They discuss the changing meaning of the term, the difficulties in charting the history of the music, and explore the work of two of the pioneers of the sound, Lee 'Scratch' Perry and King Tubby. |
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Music Industry Blog |
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| Epic Games, Bandcamp, and fandom for the ‘me’ generation |
| By Mark Mulligan |
| Epic Games, Bandcamp, and TME, the music subsidiary of Tencent (40% owner of Epic Games), all have one thing in common: they are fandom machines. All of them enable their respective userbases to communicate their identities and tribes via fan products, from badges to Fortnite skins, through to t-shirts and vinyl. |
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Time Magazine |
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| Kacey Musgraves Is Putting Heartbreak in the Rear View |
| By Lucy Feldman |
| Kacey Musgraves isn't afraid to go there. She'll say the thing you might be thinking but would never voice out loud: sometimes marriage means insecurity; it's easier to get high than to talk through conflict; life would be better if we could go back to being kids. |
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Passion of the Weiss |
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| A Requiem for DOOM |
| By Son Raw |
| A year after the villain’s passing, Son Raw is still thinking about how to think about DOOM, the artist and the human being. |
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Variety |
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| Why A&R Needs a History Lesson, by Atlantic Records’ Pete Ganbarg |
| By Pete Ganbarg |
| I’ve always believed that you can’t set a path for the future without understanding the past. So I dusted off my dormant teaching degree from college and started a class for our crew at Atlantic Records: "This is Chuck Berry. These are the Everly Brothers. Have you ever really heard James Brown?" And, it turns out they actually wanted to know this stuff. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Hammer” |
| The Hardkiss |
| From "Perfection Is a Lie" (2017). |
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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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