I used to think that Eddie Vedder looked ... really calm and collected [in Pearl Jam's 'MTV Unplugged'], and I watched it back this morning and he did seem a little bit nervous, which was a very calming feeling for me. | | | | Someday you will unplug like I unplug: Hole in "MTV Unplugged" in 1995.
(Frank Micelotta/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I used to think that Eddie Vedder looked ... really calm and collected [in Pearl Jam's 'MTV Unplugged'], and I watched it back this morning and he did seem a little bit nervous, which was a very calming feeling for me.”
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| | rantnrave:// MTV unplugs again tonight, with SHAWN MENDES wielding the acoustic guitar for the latest relaunch of MTV UNPLUGGED. The original show was nine years into its run and already a little tired when Mendes was born in 1998. Ponder that, all you fellow oldies, while wondering how a show originally intended as an escape from the rest of MTV—"It was meant to be a Sunday morning, cup of coffee, just something different than the MILLI VANILLI world that we were living in," longtime showrunner ALEX COLETTI says—will work in a world where stripping down to steel strings is an everyday thing for pop stars like Mendes, ED SHEERAN and TAYLOR SWIFT. Who is their foil in 2017? And hey, MTV, when are you booking KENDRICK LAMAR? Or DRAKE?... ROB HARVILLA's otherwise great "Unplugged" history in THE RINGER, linked above, neglects to mention my fellow lefty guitarist JULES SHEAR, who hosted the weird/great first season in 1989 and says he came up with the original idea. But original producers JIM BURNS and BOB SMALL say it was their idea. And MTV initially said the inspiration was BON JOVI's acoustic performance at the 1989 VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS (though most everyone now admits that was fiction). So pick your own origin story, while asking yourself if this ridiculously great RIHANNA/KANYE/MACCA moment would ehave happened in a world where "Unplugged" didn't exist... Not-so-humblebrag: I was in the studio the amazing day they taped LL COOL J, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, DE LA SOUL and MC LYTE in the afternoon and REM at night. That was a damn good seven or eight hours... JAY-Z's fantastic two-part video interview with ELLIOTT WILSON and BRIAN "B.DOT" MILLER, originally available only to TIDAL subscribers, is now on YOUTUBE... Wait, aren't all songs about sex?... Why yes, they are... College students in the US can subscribe to a SPOTIFY-plus-HULU bundle for $4.99, which is a) an awesome deal and b) perhaps a sign of wider bundling deals to come?... Speaking of unplugging, NEIL YOUNG walks into a MALIBU studio one day in 1976 and, in a single session between breaks for weed, beer and coke, knocks out solo acoustic versions of 10 of the greatest songs he'll ever write. His label says the resulting album sounds like a demo and rejects it. Neil will re-record and release most of the songs over his next several albums, but the original album, HITCHHIKER, will sit on the shelf for more than 40 years. Until today... It's FRIDAY and that means there's also new music from ALVVAYS, THE NATIONAL, the late GREGG ALLMAN, CHUCHO VALDÉS & ARTURO O'FARRILL, TONY ALLEN, MOUNT KIMBIE, ANNA OF THE NORTH, SYD, YANDEL, SPARKS, ODESZA, TORI AMOS, KIP MOORE, ZOLA JESUS, THOMAS RHETT, MIKE STERN, DEERHOOF, DUSTIN LYNCH, TOBY KEITH, JACK JOHNSON, ROSTAM BATMANGLIJ, LIVING COLOUR, MAYDAY!, TED LEO and the DREAM SYNDICATE. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Watt |
| Can a single company really break down the complexities of royalties and rights ownership and take an idea this involved to a mainstream audience of millions? I gotta admit: I’m a little skeptical here. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| As MTV reboots the ’90s concert series, some of its original producers share the stories behind now-classic ‘Unplugged’ performances. | | |
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 | WTF with Marc Maron |
| Not every global pop superstar would feel at home in Marc's garage, but Lorde isn't your average global pop superstar. The singer-songwriter takes some time before kicking off her worldwide "Melodrama" tour to talk with Marc about her life in New Zealand, her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, and the math of making pop music. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| In the new era of music festivals that cater to niche interests, you get out of a festival experience what you give -- and it's possible to give a little too much. | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| The guy behind the board of indie and punk masterpieces gives a glimpse into his work. | | |
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 | Music Industry Blog |
| Western appetite for the Chinese market has long been based upon accessing the 1.4 billion consumers. This has in turn impacted valuations of Chinese companies, particularly when eager western investors are involved. However, there is a growing realisation that market potential does not always translate to [performance]. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| The man behind Joshua Light Show, whose trippy visuals backed Sixties rock royalty, and other liquid light show artists discuss their hands-on craft. | | |
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 | The Daily Beast |
| The indie-rock darlings talk with The Daily Beast about their urgent, adventurous new album, ‘Sleep Well Beast,’ and how they’ve handled the Trump election. | | |
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 | Vice |
| Mark Beasley, Curator of Performance and Media Art at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., has deep roots in his native UK's alternative music scenes. How has he brought his onstage chops to bear on an exhibition about miscommunication? | | |
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 | MTV |
| Gaby Wilson talks with Shawn Mendes about his season premiere of MTV Unplugged and his career as a whole. | | |
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 | LA Weekly |
| Next time you hear Hootie's cover of 54-40's "I Go Blind" at your drugstore, listen closely and you'll hear a single D note played on a Hammond B3 organ. Yeah, that was me. | | |
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 | Quartz |
| It's the great paradox of music streaming: Great for fans, terrible for everyone else. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| Mikael Wood on how the boys of One Direction -- including Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik -- are venturing out on their own this fall with albums, singles and tours. | | |
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 | Highsnobiety |
| Finding your zen to Kendrick Lamar isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Yoga, but Russell Simmons is on a mission to change that. | | |
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 | Twang Nation |
| It's a new day in country music, that's what some might have you believe. The Country Music Association revealed its nominees for the 51st CMA Awards on Monday on, fittingly, a morning variety show. I say fittingly because I'm certain that the CMA know full-well their demographic is shared by ABC's Good Morning America. | | |
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 | Techdirt |
| Hold on tight: we're going to get down into the weeds a bit on a copyright issue. In early 2016, we wrote about the "insanity of music licensing" as it related to streaming music, and Spotify in particular. This was in response to a series of class action lawsuits filed against Spotify by songwriters, claiming a failure to properly license so-called "mechanical rights." | | |
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 | The Brooklyn Rail |
| Although she passed away last November, Pauline remains very present for me, and I find that her spirit and words come to mind a few times each week. I’m not alone: her work continues in the Center for Deep Listening, through her publications, and in the lives of many musicians and Deep Listening practitioners around the world. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| Meet the long-time radio host, DJ, party promoter and musicologist keeping rare groove alive in the city's nightlife scene | | |
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 | Paper |
| A free-wheeling discussion on tour life, from over-the-top riders to fighting with Anthrax. | | |
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 | NewMusicBox |
| The perpetuation of Orientalism is alive and well in U.S. classical music circles, and it needs to stop. The more conscious we are of our words and actions, the more likely we are to replace them with more humanizing gestures, in hopes of a kinder, more tolerant world. | | |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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