You could put two names that sound good, but what does it sound like? Do they have the songs? I’m a DJ first, I come from being a DJ, so I know what goes together... Right now, we got one that’s on the table that sounded cool in the beginning, but when we start listening to the songs and the energy, we’re like, 'Man, we got to tell them we can’t do that.' | | Sadie Dupuis playing with Speedy Ortiz in Birmingham, Ala., Sept. 7, 2018. Her second Sad13 album, "Haunted Painted," is out now on Wax Nine. (David A. Smith/Getty Images) | | | | “You could put two names that sound good, but what does it sound like? Do they have the songs? I’m a DJ first, I come from being a DJ, so I know what goes together... Right now, we got one that’s on the table that sounded cool in the beginning, but when we start listening to the songs and the energy, we’re like, 'Man, we got to tell them we can’t do that.'” |
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| rantnrave:// Optimistic or pessimistic? You decide. Just over half of 1,350 live-event professionals surveyed by POLLSTAR and VENUESNOW think the industry will be "back at full capacity" sometime in 2021. But most of them mean the second half of 2021 and nearly a third of the respondents say it won't happen until 2022. And it's hard to say exactly what full capacity will mean, whenever that may be: Pollstar's ANDY GENSLER reports that "44.2% say larger festival gatherings and stadium events are over; another 42% believe large indoor shows are done; and 41.7% of the fans will be afraid of all gatherings." That's the bad news. The good news: Nearly 60% of live event professionals *aren't* worried about that. So here, perhaps, is the question: If COACHELLA 2021 tickets were stock futures, would you be buying? What about Coachella 2022? For what it's worth, the pros don't appear to be afraid of large gatherings: 43% say they'd be ready to work a show or a tour today as long as safety protocols were in place, and another 18 percent say they'd sign on even if they weren't. (Hey, Florida is calling out to you, 18 percenters.) The full "2020 State of the Industry" survey is subscription-only at the two sites; for those without, there's lots to be gleaned from this overview... As for what live music looks and sounds like, in case you forgot, here's the entirety of PRINCE's Dec. 31, 1987 show at PAISLEY PARK, which the Prince estate premiered on YOUTUBE on Friday and which is still there, right down to the MILES DAVIS jam, and, um, wow (it's also available on the astonishing SIGN O' THE TIMES: SPECIAL DELUXE EDITION mega-box, about which I may have a wee bit more to say sometime soon)... KANYE WEST, for anyone who wasn't clear on this, isn't at war with UNIVERSAL MUSIC; he's at war with all labels, on behalf of all artists. Can one rapper with a savior complex and a very loud Twitter account change the music industry? Does he have a case? MusicSET: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Record Deal"... Team BILL MURRAY has responded to team DOOBIE BROTHERS in the great golf-shirt music licensing caper, and we have reached peak dad joke *and* peak yacht rock: "We appreciate your firm’s choice of 'TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS', rather than to the courts, which are already overburdened 'MINUTE BY MINUTE' with real problems," the attorney for WILLIAM MURRAY GOLF writes in response to the attorney for the DOOBIE BROTHERS. The former doesn't explain why his client would be using the latter's client's music in an ad without paying for it, as the latter alleges, but I'm nitpicking... I am very very here for alt-rock MARIAH CAREY... TIKTOK gets a court-ordered reprieve... Birds are singing different tunes in the pandemic... RIP GUADALUPE "SHORTY" ORTIZ, BRENT YOUNG, SEAN "SOMEONE ELSE" O'NEAL, MARK STONE and MICHAEL ZUCKER... A programming note: I'll be out for a couple days observing YOM KIPPUR and my first pandemic birthday. MusicREDEF will be back in your inbox Thursday morning. | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | should 5 percent appear too small |
| A transformational moment. | |
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A conversation with the mastermind producers on their streaming-battle sensation and why everyone from LeBron James to Kamala Harris is tuning in. | |
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One of the greatest albums of all time is the subject of a massive new box set full of material that’s never been heard before. | |
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Kanye West isn't at war with his label; he's at war with all labels, on behalf of all artists. Can one rapper with a savior complex and a very loud Twitter account change the music industry? Does we have a case? | |
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TikTok's fate in the U.S. is unclear, but one thing is: the video-sharing app has been good for emerging artists. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with LA Times pop music critic Mikael Wood. | |
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For much of the past two decades, Heidecker has engineered a comedic multiverse with ridiculous friends, their orbit teeming with so many in-jokes, origin myths and recurring characters that tracking them would require a field guide. | |
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A look back at the band’s 15-year-old debut, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” a commercial success that simultaneously satirized and celebrated staged spectacles. | |
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The once maligned instrument of '80s cheese doesn't deserve its ill reputation, as evident in a burst of creative new uses. | |
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We chatted with Garcia over Skype about pigeon-holing, collaboration, appropriation, and whether jazz’s recent popularity is a positive thing. | |
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Lou Holtzman opened the original EastSide Sound, on New York's Lower East Side, in 1972. It became a favorite of jazz and avant-garde artists intent on doing their own thing, and some 48 years later its reputation continues to grow. Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, the late producer Hal Willner, and countless others have made monumental recordings within its walls. | |
| | be thankful i don't take it all |
| In December of 1980, two exiled artists and freedom fighters attempted return to their home in South Africa for a concert. Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba performed inside South Africa against the government’s wishes in Lesotho. | |
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Spotify spin counts are the holy grail in the music industry right now. But manipulating these numbers can be the death of an independent musician's career. | |
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Hot take: the era of DJ livestreaming could be in decline. The "renaissance", we'll call it, that happened at the start of COVID-19's shelter-in-place orders burned bright. In this editorial, I'll talk through why that level of streaming from DJs might be in the past. | |
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On Friday (September 25), Public Enemy, Paris, Arrested Development and Nappy Roots were among the many 'classic' Hip Hop artists who dropped a new album, begging the question - does 2020 mark the beginning of a return to more conscious rap? | |
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20 years after "The Teaches of Peaches," the world is still catching up with the artist’s brash, irreverent, and sexually self-assured life philosophy. | |
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Two-stage Covid-19 testing is being piloted as a strategy to safely reopen the live events sector. | |
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It started in 1976 when Eric Clapton made a bold, drunken declaration of support for Conservative MP Enoch Powell's infamous, anti-immigration "Rivers of Blood" speech. | |
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Over three decades, artists like David Bowie, Madonna and George Michael all gave their names, and music, to a project that aimed to shine a light for those who needed it most. | |
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"Mr. Rogers" is widely regarded, and I'm sure would still hold a title for the purest form of media that has ever been on television. | |
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They arose from the Jesus movement in the early 70s and went on to help the modern Christian music industry break into MTV. | |
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