May I start by saying how thrilled we are to have you here. We are such fans of your music and all of your records. I'm not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll. | | | | Car Seat Headbang: The band Mirai performs a drive-in concert in Ostrava, Czech Republic, May 15, 2020.
(Lukas Kabon/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) | | | | | | “May I start by saying how thrilled we are to have you here. We are such fans of your music and all of your records. I'm not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll.”
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| | rantnrave:// Everything has to start somewhere and for the post-pandemic American live music industry it will start, in a way, tonight, with the pandemic still raging, with a concert that the state of Arkansas refused to let happen on Friday, when it would have been in violation of state health directives, but which it has given the OK to go ahead tonight. Today is the first day indoor venues can legally operate in Arkansas, and TEMPLELIVE, a Fort Smith theater whose liquor license was temporarily suspended when it tried to open three days early, is back in the state's good graces. Tonight's TRAVIS MCCREADY concert will happen in front of a reduced-capacity crowd seated in "pods" that will keep strangers at least six feet apart, with the musicians at least 12 feet away from fans and everyone over age 10 wearing a mask. The mask requirement was added over the weekend at the state's insistence. Fans will also have their temperature checked at the door. So this is the present of live music in the US, and it's not markedly different anywhere else. The photo at the top of this newsletter is of a drive-in show Friday night in the Czech Republic at which no one was allowed to leave their cars and they cheered for the band, MIRAI, with horns, turn signals and lights. It's widely understood that any kind of more recognizable live music business—touring, large venues, clubs—remains a long way off. Some things we used to take for granted, like standing shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds or thousands of other fans in small, sweaty spaces, or having the chance to see TAYLOR SWIFT in a football stadium or NCT 127 in a hockey arena, may be much further away. What's in store, if anything, for the rest of 2020? What's coming in 2021? More drive-in shows? More virtual shows in video games and other digital locales? Disinfection booths? Drastically reduced seating arrangements? Will anyone feel safe? Will anyone show up? Which venues will survive? Which bands will survive? MusicSET: "Future of Live Music"... JOY DIVISION singer IAN CURTIS took his life 40 years ago today. His bandmates are staging two online tributes, and here's the band's entire song catalog as ranked by CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND... Harlem subway singer JUST SAM has won the first at-home version of AMERICAN IDOL, beating out Nepalese singer-songwriter ARTHUR GUNN... DEVO has won the pandemic merch branding competition, and there's zero chance anyone else will come close... RIP PRETTY THINGS singer PHIL MAY, LUCKY PETERSON, ASTRID KIRCHHERR, JORGE SANTANA, DAVE BOOTH and PAUL SHELDEN. And a special farewell to LT BOB HOOKSTRATTEN, aka FRED WILLARD, who had the unenviable task of informing SPINAL TAP they were due onstage in 50 hours, or 120 hours, or possibly 30 minutes. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| When will the concert business return and what will it look like? Drive-in concerts? Virtual concerts? Disinfection booths? Socially distanced seating? Will anyone show up? Venues and promoters, fighting for their lives, are making plans. | | |
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| Jack in the Box's virtual prom needed DJs. Enter Diplo and Dillon Francis, two of the artists hoping livestream paychecks can replace concert revenue. | | |
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| While the likes of Lady Gaga and Dixie Chicks delayed their albums, others like Jason Isbell and Hayley Williams forge ahead. | | |
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| In this excerpt from his new memoir, the Warner Bros producer recalls the thrills and terrors of recording Van Halen’s debut. | | |
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| She’s written mega hits for Lizzo and Rita Ora, plus a string of her own. Next up: an album she wrote with fans while on lockdown in LA. | | |
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| Andy Malt and Chris Cooke again examine the debate around the fairness of streaming royalties for artists and songwriters, which has been growing during the COVID-19 shutdown. | | |
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| Everyone from Tekashi 6ix9ine to Lil Tjay is claiming the throne right now. The Complex staff debates: Who is the King of New York? | | |
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| Two drug dealers, eight boxes and a music legend add up to a mystery. What's on these decades-old reel-to-reel recordings? | | |
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| Five albums that demonstrate the myriad ways jazz sounds are currently percolating through hip-hop. | | |
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| Spotify, YouTube and streaming services in general: It's time to step up. For way, way too long — Spotify, it’s been 14 years for you and 15 for YouTube — you have ridden on the backs of recording artists, musicians and songwriters that have provided you with content and, in turn, billions of dollars in profits, without offering them much in return. | | |
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| The man David Bowie listed as God in his address book stuck two fingers up at rules about music, sex and itself - and made the most glorious noise doing it. | | |
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| The stark black-and-white photographs she took of the group in Hamburg, Germany, before the musicians were famous captured both their toughness and their sensitivity. | | |
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| The Chinese music industry saw 16% growth in its recorded music revenues in 2019, but it was also the first country to be affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Music Ally spoke to a number of Chinese market experts to understand what happened, how the industry responded, and what the lessons might be for the music business elsewhere in the world. | | |
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| “I thought, ‘If Michelle was going to write a song, what would it sound like?’ ” saxophonist says of music he wrote for new ‘Becoming’ doc. | | |
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| This is the story of New York’s original Knitting Factory, a jazz club that defined "downtown," as told by its owners and the musicians who played there. | | |
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| Hear singers perform excerpts from productions that were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. | | |
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| Reflecting on artists and collaborators who have passed away since the start of the Coronavirus crisis, David Toop explores how the transmission of music between disparate cultures can be a tool against populism and prejudice. | | |
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| "The Locked-Down Blues: Canadians, Live Music and the Pandemic" sets the gold standard for the kind of data-driven serious national opinion study that policy makers can actually use to plan how to get out of this corner. | | |
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| Throughout his career, Dylan has borrowed from other great American writers. On his new album, it's Whitman's turn. | | |
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| Peter Guralnick recalls two encounters with the rock & roll legend. | | |
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| © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group |
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