The freedom to be beyond category, to explore and express, through music and dance, is our human responsibility. | | | | Dancing, totally legally: James Brown at the TAMI Show, Santa Monica, Calif., Dec. 29, 1964.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “The freedom to be beyond category, to explore and express, through music and dance, is our human responsibility.”
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| | rantnrave:// It's 2017—or 5778 by the Jewish calendar whose new year starts today—and you can talk to your stereo speakers and your phone can recognize your face and your car will soon be driving itself, but you still can't legally dance in a NEW YORK CITY bar or club or any establishment that doesn't have a license. A so-called cabaret license. A literal license to dance. This, as my friend JANE LERNER reports for NPR MUSIC, "has long been a running, if not especially funny, joke" in one of the world's great capitals of, um, dance music. But the cabaret law, whose racist (and absurd) history dates to the Prohibition era, and which continued to be enforced into the 21st century, may soon be no more. The city has established an Office of Nightlife, is about to appoint a Night Mayor, and the day mayor, BILL DE BLASIO, has given his blessing to a repeal bill that may soon show up on his desk. In 2017, in 5778, in whatever year you choose it to be, that's a beat I believe we all can dance to... (And here's EZRA MARCUS on the impressively diverse music, from BJÖRK and UNDERWORLD to MIJA and JOSH PAN, currently being played under the big tents at major dance festivals, where dancing is most definitely encouraged)... The Jewish new year also has me thinking about the great jazz critic and civil libertarian NAT HENTOFF, who died in January. It was his writing on the beauty of Jewish cantorial singing in his native ROXBURY, MASS., that first opened my eyes and ears to the musical wonders of my own religion—wonders that are easy to miss when you're 12 years old and trying to figure out the best way to sneak out of high holiday services. Hentoff made me understand, years later, that I had effectively been trying to sneak out of a music festival... MUSICREDEF is off for the rest of this week in honor of ROSH HASHANAH. There will be no newsletter Friday; we'll be back Monday morning... But Friday is still FRIDAY, and that will mean new music from MACKLEMORE, FERGIE, THE CLIENTELE, HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, MOSES SUMNEY, VAN MORRISON, THE KILLERS, CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE BIG BAND, RAPSODY, MIDLAND, METZ, LECRAE, GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, CRADLE OF FILTH, CHRIS JANSON, TRICKY, ROADCASE ROYALE, STEVE MARTIN & STEEP CANYON RANGERS, LEDISI, CHELSEA WOLFE, CUT COPY, MARC ALMOND and, in a throwback to a certain time and place, I think you'll know the one I'm talking about, albums from STEPHEN STILLS & JUDY COLLINS, the late LEON RUSSELL, CHRIS HILLMAN and LINDA PERHACS... Also Friday, the LADY GAGA doc GAGA: FIVE FOOT TWO premieres on NETFLIX... RIP MARK SELBY. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | NPR Music |
| A 90-plus-year-old law used to crack down on "fringe" music scenes in the country's cultural capital is on the verge of being removed from the books - joining its repeal will be a new Nightlife Mayor. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| After Skrillex helped bring EDM to the pop charts, a whole new wave of artists are taking the genre in surprising new directions. | | |
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 | City Pages |
| Everyone in the Twin Cities has a Grant Hart story, but this is the worst. | | |
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 | The Future of What |
| Recently, a bill was introduced by Republican congressman Jim Sensenbrenner which calls for the creation of a comprehensive database of compositions and recordings. The “Transparency in Music Licensing and Ownership Act” claims to make things easier for coffee shops, bars and restaurants who want to license music to play in their establishments. | | |
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 | DJBooth |
| If the net effect of an artist's music is positive, why are we often so quick to be snarky about it? | | |
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 | The Daily Beast |
| ‘Spin’ founder Bob Guccione Jr., who competed head to head with Jann Wenner’s journal for a dozen years, sees plenty of reasons for optimism concerning Rolling Stone’s future. | | |
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| Vulture |
| “For this album, I wanted to make something that was uplifting, had a lot of energy, and made you want to sing along.” | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| An increasing number of music therapists are now treating people touched by traumas both big and small, highlighting humanity’s deepest connections with music in the process. | | |
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 | Tablet Magazine |
| I’m not much of a shul-goer, but the High Priestess of Song got me thinking and feeling my way into Rosh Hashanah. | | |
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 | The Vinyl Factory |
| Where almost everything is borrowable. | | |
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 | Out Magazine |
| The bisexual singer is redefining girl power. | | |
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 | Quartz |
| There's a reason that Denver's iconic music has been heavily featured in Hollywood this year. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| If, at twelve, I was the perfect age to experience “Star Wars” as a moviegoer, I was also the perfect age to experience it as a composer. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| The animation block’s left-of-center singles series stemmed from DeMarco buying beats from Danger Mouse and Flying Lotus for on-air promos. | | |
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 | The Conversation |
| Ahead of International Peace Day celebrity musicians like Yoko Ono have released music for peace. But the same qualities that bring us together around music can also inflame conflict, from the Yugoslav civil wars to Northern Ireland. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Bono explains why U2 took so long to release 'Songs of Experience' and why he's decided to speak out against Donald Trump. | | |
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 | SB Nation |
| Kid Rock opened Little Caesar's Arena on Sept. 12, 2017. It was the first of six shows he was contracted to do for the new home of the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings. He was also allowed to build his "Made in Detroit" restaurant on the northeast side of the stadium, facing out towards Woodward Avenue, a road known as Detroit's main street. | | |
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| The Daily Beast |
| The celebrated hip-hop MC opens up about his thriving solo career, the rise of Cardi B, and that hilarious ‘Key & Peele’ Outkast sketch. | | |
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 | BuzzFeed |
| Cher is still making headlines, after more than five decades in the spotlight, because she’s never stopped finding and mastering new outlets for her creative expression. | | |
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 | The Howard Stern Show |
| Marilyn Manson talks about working with producer Tyler Bates, his renewed friendship with Trent Reznor, and lets Howard read his texts from Justin Bieber. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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