'Christmas' can instantly transform a holiday that might be feeling fraught and melancholic into something theatrical and borderline absurd. I am grateful for its audacity and the way it makes me desperately want to karate-chop a glazed ham. | | | | Brotherly love: Jodeci in St. Louis, January 1992.
(Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “'Christmas' can instantly transform a holiday that might be feeling fraught and melancholic into something theatrical and borderline absurd. I am grateful for its audacity and the way it makes me desperately want to karate-chop a glazed ham.”
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| | rantnrave:// If you could bring any dead musician back to life for one day so you could see them perform—which seems a rather selfish reason to bring someone back from the dead but, hey, we're dealing in fantasy here, and if you're fantasies aren't at least a little selfish you might have to up your fantasy game, so anyway—who would you pick? My friend/boss/curation-co-conspirator (and BARRY JUDD wannabe) JASON HIRSCHHORN asked his TWITTER followers for their top five, and among the MARLEYs, HENDRIXes, COLTRANEs, COBAINs and QUEENs, one frequent answer stood out to me. PRINCE. Because every single person who now regrets having not seen him had ample opportunity to see him until a mere two and a half years ago. He was not shy about performing. He toured widely. I feel terrible for anyone who didn't get the chance to see him, because he was one of the most generous, open, spiritual and insane live performers of any of our lifetimes and because he played like he would give his life for the cause, which he literally did in the end. I wish you had seen him. And so I want to flip the question and ask: Who IS alive who you'll regret not seeing if they die tomorrow? And what are you going to do about it? Do you want/need to see BEYONCÉ? Then see Beyoncé. Have you been meaning to check out ALABAMA SHAKES? Then check out Alabama Shakes. Are the ROLLING STONES on your bucket list? Pre-sales are happening now for their spring US tour and regular sales start Friday. Reach into that bucket, whether it means finding a few hundred bucks for the Stones or 40 bucks for JUICE WRLD or 20 bucks for MAKAYA MCCRAVEN. Support live music. Support your own soul. Put off other stuff. Don't put off that... My answer to Jason's question was DAVID BOWIE, who I wish I could bring back so I could see the 2016 tour that he never had the chance to do... I love NOISEY's Blind Spots series, in which musicians listen to classic albums they've never heard all the way through and react in real time. "I just didn't listen to a lot of rock music back then," says—wait for it—LINKIN PARK's MIKE SHINODA, who hears SLAYER's REIGN IN BLOOD for the first time in the newest entry. Random response to random song: "There’s nothing to let me know that they’re having fun with these lyrics. I know there’s a humor or lightness or satire to the genre. But then I remember that there are actual horrible people who listen to this and yelling 'F*** yeah, dude. Murder!' Like, what the f***?"... Hi-res streaming and download service QOBUZ will launch in the US in early 2019... Where did hip-hop's squeaking-bed sample come from?... What about the chipmunk vocal effect?... A flurry of moves at the US COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD... DIPSET v. DIPSET... ABBEY ROAD hackathon... AMY SHARK and the late GURRUMUL among top winners at Australia's ARIA AWARDS. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Logic Magazine |
| In the 1980s, musicians in Chicago built a new genre out of obsolete machinery. Listeners lost their minds. | | |
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 | Anil Dash |
| Prince was an astoundingly prolific artist, releasing nearly 40 albums under his own name(s), and thousands of songs for himself and others. His concerts were legendary, spellbinding from arenas to intimate clubs, flooring audiences around the world. But videos? Prince was a lot more ambivalent about videos. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Apple’s music-streaming rivals have been among the most vocal critics of the fee. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Following the release of her latest record, "Caution," the pop legend discusses her life and art in this career-spanning interview. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Francesca Caccini’s 1625 opera “La Liberazione di Ruggiero Dall’Isola d’Alcina” received a rare, humble staging by the Boston Early Music Festival. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Two major global hits this year, Exo’s “Tempo” and Karol G’s “Mi Cama,” rely on a salacious bed-spring noise with a colorful history. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| The British rock band the 1975 are about to release their third album, and it's their best yet - but how do they keep going and how do they stay interesting? Front man Matty Healy talks drug addiction, Kanye, and what's next. | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| The Manchester quartet answers this oft-posed question on the sprawling "A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships." | | |
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 | Chicago Tribune |
| In "Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story," Iglauer revels in artistic triumphs, unsparingly confesses his mistakes and oversights and tries to convince everyone – including himself – that there’s a future for both Alligator Records and the blues. | | |
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 | Record Union |
| We want independent music creators to have the ability to tag their music in your product – just as you tag explicit content. This would help independent music creators to stand out in a crowd full of major label backed artists and it would also help consumers to actively choose to listen to independent music. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| What is it about ‘Astral Weeks’ that inspires this kind of hallowed tone? And even more puzzlingly, why does it keep regenerating its own fan base? | | |
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 | Forbes |
| What started as a YouTube monetization company, collecting revenue on behalf of artists and labels, now monetizes more than nine billion streams per month. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| The stars of "Bodied" on their Eminem-approved, no holds barred battle rap movie about free speech and the politics of wokeness. | | |
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| Vulture |
| In an interview, the rapper Earl Sweatshirt discusses his new album, "Some Rap Songs," the death of his father and his good friend Mac Miller, and how he is able to fight off bad vibes and insert himself into hip-hop's lineage. | | |
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 | Lefsetz Letter |
| Students of the game know that Jeffrey interviewed Irving at the "Billboard" touring conference. I was in Iceland, but I just watched the tape, and a number of things stood out. | | |
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 | Wired |
| Yanny and Laurel and yodeling and more appear in Spotify's annual celebration of quirky playlists and music streaming. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| In the 1990s, Tommy Wright III stood at the vanguard of his city’s dark and brooding rap scene. After years in the wilderness, his legacy is finally being truly appreciated and his career is undergoing a hard-earned resurgence. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| Lizzo's self-love anthem works by turning a mirror to the listener. Every moment, from the hair-tossing hook to the rapturous call and response, is about you -- the best, most impossible you. | | |
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 | Mr Eazi |
| The story behind the cultural evolution of music from Lagos to London through the eyes of trailblazers from both cities. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| The dorky but hugely glorious band slots neatly alongside “Game of Thrones” and Dungeons & Dragons: at first, it requires some intellectual acrobatics to enjoy, but its pleasures are deep, weird, and pure. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | Earl Sweatshirt feat. Navy Blue |
| | From "Some Rap Songs," out Friday on Tan Cressida/Columbia. |
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