I love the fact that you never know how a song is gonna come together. I love the anxiety that you feel when you're like, 'There's a pretty likely chance that I'm not gonna find the right words and I'm not gonna find the right melody.' And then there's another chance this might be the day that you write that thing that you never knew you had in you. | | | | Alicia Keys plays, Song Exploder's Hrishikesh Hirway listens.
(Matt Sayles/Netflix) | | | | | | “I love the fact that you never know how a song is gonna come together. I love the anxiety that you feel when you're like, 'There's a pretty likely chance that I'm not gonna find the right words and I'm not gonna find the right melody.' And then there's another chance this might be the day that you write that thing that you never knew you had in you.”
| - | Alicia Keys, in Netflix's "Song Exploder" |
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| | rantnrave:// SONG EXPLODER, the long-running podcast that made the leap to NETFLIX this month, is such a simple concept that, on the one hand, it's hard to believe anyone thought it was a good idea for a TV show; on the other hand, it's so simple and obvious it's kind of impossible to believe no one thought of it before. (Note to my former colleagues at MTV and VH1: We f***ed up.) At heart, it's a televised version of the PRO TOOLS stems of noteworthy songs, one song per 25-ish minute show. Perfect for a podcast—and it's a very, very good podcast. But host/creator HRISHIKESH HIRWAY and his production partners, MORGAN NEVILLE and CAITRIN ROGERS, figured out if you put the artists in a studio, film them listening to and talking about those stems and prompt them with the right questions, then, boom, you might just have the most compelling collection of mini documentaries ever made about the process of songwriting. There's an element of surprise, for both viewer and artist, in the initial four-episode run, which covers songs by TY DOLLA $IGN, REM, ALICIA KEYS and LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA. For starters, it's the show's smart and curious host, rather than the artists, who's in possession of, and control of, those stems. REM's MICHAEL STIPE to Hirway, as the host is about to hit play on the isolated lead vocal from "LOSING MY RELIGION": "Solo? God. Is there reverb on it?" Ty Dolla $ign to Hirway: "Wait man, how did you get my f***ing files?" Hirway: "From the label." TDS: "Somebody's getting fired, man. Nobody's supposed to have my files." Hirway: "That's the secret sauce of this show." Neither artist need worry. The show is a love letter to songwriting, and these are all good songs made from good stems. The four episodes present four takes on both the songwriting process and the turning-a-podcast-into-a-TV-show process. The REM episode, which is fantastic, serves as a kind of mini-biography of the band that explains how and why a guitar-bass-drums rock band came to write a song featuring a mandolin and strings, while demonstrating in some detail how a democratic four-piece band creates music together (it helps that all four bandmembers are unusually forthcoming about that process; there are some genuine wows for longtime fans). By contrast, the Alicia Keys episode, which focuses on "3 HOUR DRIVE," a track from an album that's been out less than a month, offers no biography and little context. It's a microscopic look at a songwriting/production session, with collaborators JAMES NAPIER and SAMPHA, that basically takes place entirely within that session, from inspiration to piano chords to topline to MPC percussion track (played by hi-hat-hating Keys) to figuring out what the song is about. It's the series' bottle episode. Ty Dolla $ign, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist himself, worked with a handful of producers and session players while recording the lead song on an album inspired by his incarcerated brother. His episode bounces around among those contributors while zooming in on production and arrangement choices that will leave you knowing a little more about the talk box and the flexatone than you did before. With LIN MANUEL-MIRANDA and HAMILTON collaborators ALEX LACAMOIRE and THOMAS KAIL, "Song Exploder" offers a master class in composing for a musical—and in the random, sudden moments of inspiration that every songwriter lives for. Miranda's aha moment in writing "WAIT FOR IT" came while riding the subway to a friend's party in Brooklyn. He got off the train, sang the chorus into his iPhone Voice Memo app (you will, of course, hear that original voice memo on the show), had half a beer and left the party so he could get back on the train and finish the song. For as all the artists—and Hirway, himself a musician—know, nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than the song. As with the podcast, each episode ends with the song. But not with the video. Just, literally, the song. An unusual, and perfect, choice... Dear giant concert arena, giant ticketing company and giant rock band: I know the economy sucks right now for all of you, but somebody give this TOOL fan the $356.70 you owe her and then figure out among yourselves and that Russian billionaire which one of you needs to cover the loss. She's the one person who definitely doesn't need to cover it. If you want fans to ever come out and see live music again, you'll find that this will have been a helpful gesture toward that end... JOAN ARMATRADING, JEFF LYNNE, DIZZEE RASCAL and LADY LESHURR—in order of their new official status in the British Empire—are among the musicians on this year's Queens Birthday Honours list. Armatrading can now add Commander of the Order of the British Empire to her letterhead... I'm personally naming PAUL HEATON Mensch of the Order of the British Empire. The BEAUTIFUL SOUTH and HOUSEMARTINS singer/songwriter donated "a large sum" to the former staff of the recently shuttered Q MAGAZINE, enough to be shared among 40 staffers and freelancers, according to the mag's last editor, TAD KESSLER. "For some," Kessler wrote, "it meant a bill could be paid"... Agent BRENT SMITH, whose clients include DRAKE, KENDRICK LAMAR and JOHN LEGEND, is out at WME following an investigation of "bullying behavior"... RIP PIERRE KEZDY and ERIN WALL. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | | the lengths that i will go to |
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| I pray to God Prince was dead by the time he hit the floor. I pray Prince wasn't cognizant, even for a mite of a moment, that he was dying alone in a nondescript elevator, in a Wonder Bread suburb ... | | |
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| When New Orleans rap phenom Mac Phipps signed with Master P's No Limit Records, he knew his dream of hip-hop stardom was within reach. But in February 2000, Mac was accused of murder and the dream became a nightmare. | | |
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| How a small, family-owned electronics company came to control 97% of the ice cream truck music market. | | |
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| When concerts and sporting events return, venues are planning for intensive safety protocols, increased costs and crowded calendars. | | |
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| Hundreds of clubs have already gone out of business while politicians debate a new coronavirus recovery package. | | |
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| As fans await money for called-off shows at the Nassau Coliseum, officials say they are the responsibility of the company run by a Russian oligarch who had operated the venue. | | |
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| The artist talks us through his second album with TDE. | | |
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| Why is this trend making it so that the No. 1 debut, once very much a rarity on the Hot 100, is now seemingly more rule than exception? | | |
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| Organizers of HeadCount, Rock the Vote, and other youth-empowering voter education groups-and some of the artists they work with-share how music continues to push for democracy. | | |
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| Find another job, says the chancellor. But our sector provides hope -- and billions for his own exchequer, says Tim Burgess of the Charlatans. | | |
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| | | the distance in your eyes |
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| A-ha’s “Take On Me” and Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” illustrate two vastly different yet equally groundbreaking animation styles. | | |
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| The rapper and activist on transforming fear into power. | | |
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| A remembrance of Eddie Van Halen from someone on the ground during their ascension to superstardom. | | |
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| The rapper has likened record labels to slave ships and is seeking to regain ownership of his music. It’s a struggle across the industry, with new players giving power back to artists. | | |
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| Host Hunter Kelly interviews guests like Brandy Clark and Waylon Payne amid a playlist that ranges from Kacey Musgraves to up-and-coming gay Americana artists to Reba's dance remixes. | | |
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| Nathan Apodaca, 37, of Idaho Falls, recorded a laid-back video while riding a skateboard downhill and drinking Cran-Raspberry juice. The Internet went wild and streamed Fleetwood Mac. | | |
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| Sade haven’t toured for nine years, and in that time, demand has only grown. GQ Editor Dylan Jones looks back over how they marshalled their talents to create a truly original type of modern British soul, a sound that has continued to mutate over the 36 years since that first record. | | |
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| Speakers at one of the UK’s biggest music conferences expose how digital opportunities are being missed by both musicians and their distributors. | | |
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| “I am very hard on myself when I’m working because it’s inch by inch.” | | |
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| © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group |
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