When you're young, playing drums is immediately satisfying 'cause whether or not you know how to play anything, the bottom line is that you're pounding on something, so you're happy about it. | | | | Drummer Sam Shepard (2nd from left) with the Holy Modal Rounders, late 1960s.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | | “When you're young, playing drums is immediately satisfying 'cause whether or not you know how to play anything, the bottom line is that you're pounding on something, so you're happy about it.”
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| | rantnrave:// Was RICK ROSS' astonishingly ugly explanation of why no women are signed to MAYBACH MUSIC GROUP more horrifying because he outed himself as a big part of the problem, or because he inadvertently gave away an industry secret—that women aren't always welcome and any explanation will do? This is, it should be noted, not specifically a hip-hop problem. Pick a category, any category. Country? DJs? SPAIN? Check check check. But Ross all but invited the appointment of a hip-hop special counsel, so here's MASS APPEAL's KIANA KONDERS adding up Ross, A$AP BARI, R. KELLY and XXXTENTACION, asking where and when someone will draw the line, and pleading, "we must be the better example." One way to keep women at bay is to simply not offer them record deals. Another is to create an environment where they can never feel welcome or safe. Where they find themselves, in Konders' words, "rapping along to lyrics that are blatantly degrading my own kind." There *are* better examples, of course. Konders offers JAY-Z, who on his new album "opens up to us about his journey to becoming a man." Who else will take that journey? Country singers, we're talking about you, too. And then, yes, there's the simple, straightahead, not-offering-record-deals approach. PITCHFORK's SHELDON PEARCE charts hip-hop labels by number of woman signed, and the across-the-board results are worse than DEANDRE JORDAN's free-throw percentage. Random example, TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT: Nine artists, one female. But guess which label does the best? Jay-Z's ROC NATION, with a roster that's 36 percent female. Are we seeing a pattern here? A certain rapper's vulnerable moment? Rick Ross, learn from your elders... SESAC wins landmark radio rate at arbitration, sort of. If anyone who did better than I did at advanced placement calculus wants to take a crack at breaking this down, I'm all ears... As if writing BURIED CHILD, CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS, TRUE WEST and FOOL FOR LOVE and shooting THE RIGHT STUFF and DAYS OF HEAVEN—all within five years—wasn't enough of a life's work, SAM SHEPARD left behind a long, weird, wonderful musical legacy that ranged from the HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS to PATTI SMITH to BOB DYLAN and beyond. He was a drummer at heart, and the rhythm of that heart informed one of the great bodies of work of the American 20th century. RIP... RIP also TYLER HEDSTROM. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Lyric annotations on Genius divorce meaning from black sound. | | |
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| On the seventh floor of a half-completed high rise in 1992, I stood with the O'Brien brothers, looking out over the lit city--Moscow's cathedrals and smokestacks and apartment blocks flickering beneath a great dome of clouds. | | |
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| At what point do we draw the line? | | |
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| The B-Girls opened for The Clash, and counted Debbie Harry as fans -- so how come they didn't make it? | | |
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| A new series on Viceland and another on ABC give a sense of how drastically today’s pop culture has split from its recent past. | | |
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| From dogs that screen hundreds at once to invisible anti-drone walls: How venues are trying to stay safe | | |
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| Liam Gallagher talks about getting carded for cigarettes, how he ruined his brother Noel's sound system as a child, living a Rock N' Roll lifestyle, the possibility of an Oasis reunion, and performs. | | |
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| Sparked by Ross’ disturbing comments about not signing female rappers, we ran the numbers on the gender disparity among rap’s leading labels. | | |
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| He was Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor. To fans of underground music, however, Shepard served a lesser-known role as the drummer for seminal New York avant-garde folk band the Holy Modal Rounders. | | |
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| Known for such groundbreaking plays as 'Buried Child,' for which he won a Pulitzer, playwright and actor has helped shape American aesthetic. (Originally published Dec. 18, 1986.) | | |
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| It would be the largest ever transaction of its kind. | | |
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| After Gawker was sued and went bankrupt, self-censorship permeates the media. | | |
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| The new documentary “Rumble” brings to light often overlooked contributions, starting with the guitarist who invented the power chord. | | |
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| A new compilation album, "Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa," is shining a light on little-known music from Somalia. | | |
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| Radio without Bruce Springsteen is unthinkable for Philadelphia rock fans, but stations there could lose him as well as Prince, the Eagles, John Lennon and more as the result of a legal battle between Irving Azoff's Global Music Rights and the Radio Music Licensing Committee. | | |
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| There is a bill in Congress backed by the mega lobbying juggernaut called the MIC Coalition that would force songwriters and artists to “register” with the government in order to protect their rights from the biggest corporations in the world. | | |
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| Russia’s biggest rock star paved the way for Putinism, but has now become an obstacle to the regime. Arkady Ostrovsky joins the band. | | |
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| “I think this decision will protect all royalty holders,” says lead counsel Mike McKool. | | |
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| The ’90s blues-pop crooner has posted Forrest Rutherford’s name and address, along with aerial photos of his house, to his followers--and now his fans are joining. | | |
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