| At Super Bowl XXV, it's like Whitney Houston broke down the national anthem and put it back together as something we could all unite under. And here we are now, at another Super Bowl, we're in the middle of a pandemic... and we are trying as a country to unite again. But there's no Whitney. There's just us. | | |
| |  | Archie Shepp in Turin, Italy, April 26, 2018.
(Giorgio Perottino/Getty Images) |
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| | | “At Super Bowl XXV, it's like Whitney Houston broke down the national anthem and put it back together as something we could all unite under. And here we are now, at another Super Bowl, we're in the middle of a pandemic... and we are trying as a country to unite again. But there's no Whitney. There's just us.” | |
| | I Feel Halftime Coming
There's nothing like a new greatest-hits album to remind you that people don't make greatest-hits albums anymore. This morning the WEEKND released THE HIGHLIGHTS, an 18-track overview of his first decade in the business, which culminates with his headlining performance at Sunday's SUPER BOWL halftime show, where presumably several of the same tracks will make it into the setlist. But it's a strange Super Bowl for a strange year in which they can't build a stage on the field in 4 or 5 minutes during a commercial break so instead "we built a stage within the stadium," whatever that means. He's always been fond of mysteries. Maybe he'll play 12 minutes of obscurities or new unreleased tracks instead, or maybe he'll cover DIANA ROSS' 1996 halftime show in its entirety. (Don't bet on that; it's not a prediction.) We'll see.
There was a theory that the reason the GRAMMYS didn't nominate the Weeknd's single "BLINDING LIGHTS" or his album AFTER HOURS for anything this year—not even "Best Progressive R&B"—was because the awards were originally scheduled for last weekend and the powers-that-be thought a Super Bowl performance seven days later would present a TV conflict. The theory never made any sense and the powers-that-be convincingly denied it, but it also never made any sense that there were no nominations. "After Hours," released a week after the US started shutting down for the pandemic—after some difficult discussions that ended with the Weeknd saying "You know what? F*** it"—is one of the most dominant pop albums of the past year, with synth-pop anthems for nonexistent dancefloors and a strange video storyline involving a character covered in blood and wrapped in bandages that captured at least a piece of the 2020 pandemic zeitgeist. He sort of explained the story, finally, this week. It might have been better left unexplained. Let the mystery be.
Also, he claims to have spent $7 million on the halftime show production, even though performers aren't responsible for the production costs. That can buy a lot of bandages. Or CGI. Or surprise features.
Thirty years after WHITNEY HOUSTON sang the most celebrated national anthem ever sung, in the same city, Tampa, JAZMINE SULLIVAN and ERIC CHURCH will do it together on Sunday. Church told the LA Times earlier this week that he said yes to a song that presets a performer with "more to lose than to gain" only because of the political moment: "An important time for unity. The fact that I’m a Caucasian country singer and she’s an African American R&B singer—I think the country needs that." And that was before MORGAN WALLEN happened. Country *and* the country, so to speak, may both need it.
Dot Dot Dot
Disgraced country star Wallen has been deplatformed at radio and de-emphasized by streaming services but you can still buy his albums and tracks and, perhaps not surprisingly, people are doing exactly that in big numbers. If I were his label, BIG LOUD, which suspended but didn't drop Wallen earlier this week—what exactly that means is another of this week's mysteries—I might consider donating that windfall to an appropriate charity. But that's just me, performatively spending someone else's money... The 100 CLUB in London and the EXCHANGE in Bristol are planning to test an app next month that connects concert tickets to Covid test results. A so-called health passport. It's unclear if the YOU CHECK app will also incorporate vaccine records, though it's hard to imagine that isn't in the pipeline, too. Two-drink, two-dose minimum... The NEW YORK TIMES-produced documentary FRAMING BRITNEY SPEARS premieres today on FX and HULU... Bands reimagined as vintage cartoon characters.
It's Friday
And that means new music from ARCHIE SHEPP & JASON MORAN, two generations of jazz masters recording together for the first time; the debut mixtape from much-hyped Memphis rapper POOH SHIESTY; a dance move from FOO FIGHTERS; separate albums from FELA's son and grandson, FEMI & MADE KUTI, packaged together; the first full-length from Slint-y London post-rockers BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD; a surprise album from suddenly prolific HAYLEY WILLIAMS, and albums from SLOWTHAI, TV PRIEST, the STAVES, MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND, the WEATHER STATION, CONWAY THE MACHINE & BIG GHOST LTD, VANJESS, PUMA BLUE, CHUCK JOHNSON, DANNY KROHA, CURTIS MCMURTRY, AARON LEE TASJAN, LONGSTOCKING, EDITRIX, JANE BIRKIN, MISS GRIT, PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS, CULT OF LUNA, KORPIKLAANI, the RUINS OF BEVERAST, ANGELUS APATRIDA, JOHN CARPENTER, NANA YAMATO, PAUL CARDALL, SMITH & BURROWS and a tribute to ALLEN GINSBERG featuring ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO, ANDREW BIRD, YO LA TENGO, BILL FRISELL and others.
And a new CARDI B single.
Rest in Peace
Music publishing pioneer CHUCK KAYE, one of the prime forces behind the creation of WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC... Folk singer and activist ANNE FEENEY... EVA COUTAZ, a classical music tastemaker and influential executive who spent more than 40 years at HARMONIA MUNDI.
| | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| |  | REDEF |
| | REDEF MusicSET: Northern Blinding Lights: The Weeknd's Daring—And Deliberate—Rise to the Top of the Pops | | by Matty Karas | | From not showing his face at all in the beginning, to swaddling it with bandages of late, the Weeknd has always surrounded himself with mystery, while seeming to know exactly where he was headed. In 2021, that means the Super Bowl. | |
 | Spotify |
| | Black Girl Songbook: Whitney Houston’s Super Bowl | | by Danyel Smith and Deborah Cox | | On the inaugural episode of 'Black Girl Songbook,' Danyel Smith dives deep on one of the greatest performances of all time while uncovering the mystery behind the pressing question: Did Whitney pretape her performance? | |
 | Los Angeles Times |
| | Nashville has punished Morgan Wallen. But country music's reckoning with racism awaits | | by Marissa R. Moss | | Radio companies and streaming services swiftly rebuked Morgan Wallen for using a racial slur, but Wallen is just a symptom of a larger problem in country music. | |
 | Vulture |
| | Morgan Wallen Is a Problem of Country Music’s Own Making | | by Andrea Williams | | If Wallen is going to be packaged and pushed aside as an abhorrent anomaly, a false narrative gets to go unchecked. | |
 | Water & Music |
| | In a “genre-fluid” world, why is genre categorization still such a high-stakes business? | | by Denisha Kuhlor | | The goal of this piece is to understand not only the current state of music taxonomy — from traditional industry gatekeepers to the evolving role of data — but also the commercial implications an artist may endure if they are inaccurately categorized. | |
 | MusicAlly |
| | Independents day at the UK’s music streaming inquiry | | by Stuart Dredge | | Having recently grilled the major labels, yesterday it was time for the MPs on the UK's inquiry into music streaming to hear from the independent sector. | |
| rave:// Wishing you continued good health, Matt. Rock and roll needs you. | |
|  | Variety |
| | In a Lonely Place: Radio’s Matt Pinfield Recounts His Relapse Amid the Turmoil of the Pandemic | | by Matt Pinfield | | Fortunately, my friends reached out and said, look, we’re going to do something about it. | |
 | The Daily Beast |
| | The #FreeBritney Movement Is About to Become a War | | by Kevin Fallon | | “Framing Britney Spears” provides a much-needed crash course in the saga of Spears’ controversial conservatorship. So effective, it could also be a #FreeBritney recruitment tool. | |
| Los Angeles Times |
| | 'Tapestry' at 50: How Carole King 'bet on herself' to record a singer-songwriter classic | | by Mikael Wood | | Carole King left her life in New York for L.A., and with the support of friends like James Taylor wrote "Tapestry," one of the best-loved albums ever. | |
| rantnrave:// A world where Spotify and Apple probably aren't your first choices. | |
|  | Bachtrack |
| | Six of the best classical music streaming services in 2021 | | by David Karlin | | We take you through the available audio streaming services for classical music. Our choices may surprise you. | |
|  | Complex |
| | Complex's Best Hip-Hop Producer Alive, Every Year Since 1979 | | by Shawn Setaro, Lucas Wisenthal, Kiana Fitzgerald... | | Hip-hop has evolved each year since its birth, not only lyrically, but sonically. Here are the best hip-hop producers, from the genre's beginnings to today. | |
 | The Ringer |
| | 'Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang' and Creating the Myth of Dr. Dre | | by Rob Harvilla and Sheldon Pearce | | On the latest episode ‘60 Songs,’ Rob breaks down ‘The Chronic’ and the sometimes-complicated legacy of Dr. Dre and with help from Sheldon Pearce. | |
 | Music x |
| | Music is the creator economy catalyst | | by Maarten Walraven-Freeling | | Music is at the core of the the crowdfunding model underlying these platforms. | |
| Variety |
| | This 10-Year-Old Drummer Stole Dave Grohl’s Heart -- and Ours, Too | | by Niall Doherty | | It was one Saturday morning making pancakes with her family that Nandi Bushell first became transfixed by the drums. | |
 | WAFB |
| | Live music allowed in New Orleans again with heavy restrictions | | by Kaitlin Rust | | There’s been little federal help for an industry that spans from musicians to technicians. | |
 | The New York Times |
| | Eva Coutaz, a Record Label Force for Quality, Dies at 77 | | by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim | | An executive with the respected label Harmonia Mundi, she shaped classical music careers and public tastes in turning out incomparable recordings from a French farmhouse. | |
 | Texas Monthly |
| | Trumpeter Rob Mazurek May Have Made Marfa’s Great Cosmic Jazz Album | | by Andy Beta | | As one of the genre’s most prolific players, the West Texas musician brings an experimental approach to his work. | |
 | The Guardian |
| | Disco pioneer Tom Moulton: 'People thought I was from another planet!' | | by Jazz Monroe | | He invented the 12in single and introduced Grace Jones to the world - and at 80 years old is busy pumping out new remixes from quarantine. | |
 | The Independent |
| | The Marilyn Manson accusations are disturbing -- but they are a grimly familiar story for the music industry | | by Fiona Sturges | | Actor Evan Rachel Wood’s recent allegations against her ex-partner make for disturbing reading. Fiona Sturges examines the culture of silence that pervades the music industry. | |
| Complex |
| | Colonizing the Colonizer: John Orpheus’ Sprawling Immigrant Rap Saga | | by Kyle Mullin | | Antonio Michael Downing, a.k.a. John Orpheus, talks about colonial education and African roots, and working on 'Saga Boy' the book and album. | |
 | i-D Magazine |
| | My friend SOPHIE | | by Faris Badwan | | The Horrors' Faris Badwan first met SOPHIE when they were 12. In this letter, he retraces the life they spent making art and what she meant to him. | |
| | From "Let My People Go," out today on Archieball. | "Contrary to rumor, I'd like to take a few questions right now..." |
| | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | “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?’” | |  | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator |
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