All the jokes about 'if you remember the '60s you weren't there,' that's not really true. I remember almost all of it. | | | | Benjamin Booker at Afropunk Atlanta, Oct. 13, 2018.
(Paras Griffin/Getty Images) | | | | | | “All the jokes about 'if you remember the '60s you weren't there,' that's not really true. I remember almost all of it.”
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| | rantnrave:// I love the story of how RAY CHARLES—the real one—asked JAMIE FOXX to jam with him the first time they met, shortly after Foxx had been cast to play him in the movie RAY. The master led the student, who was somewhat of an accomplished pianist himself, through some blues standards, and the student had no problem keeping up. He was feeling good. Then Charles upped the ante. He started playing THELONIOUS MONK. Foxx, who wasn't *that* accomplished, was flummoxed. Completely lost. Charles showed him no mercy. He taunted, yelled, let Foxx flail. Until eventually Foxx had an emotional breakthrough. "Ray's not just testing him as a piano player, he's testing him as a man," is how director TAYLOR HACKFORD put it in this telling. The lesson in this other telling is that Foxx gets "that Ray’s whole life is sound. When his sound is out of whack, his life is out of whack.” Pick your lesson. There are plenty of other ways to read the moment. I like to think that it's partly the musician telling the actor, "This is my craft, this is my soul. You can play me, but don't even begin to think you can be me." Or maybe the actor's saying, "Reach for this. I've been reaching my whole life. And you can never, ever quite grab it." The early reviews of BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, which open next week, are high on RAMI MALEK as FREDDIE MERCURY, not so high on the movie itself. Which isn't so uncommon in the genre. It's hard to get a biopic right, to stay true to the heart of a story that's already deeply meaningful to a lot of the people paying to see it, while also staying true to Hollywood conventions. (I'm guessing. Movie criticism is not my expertise.) But there's something about playing a musician that has inspired scores of actors to deliver one of the performances of their lives. Music is a mysterious art, and I imagine there's an irresistible attraction to peering behind the wild eyes of the artists who make it happen. Maybe that's what drives those great performances. The mystery. My favorite film in the genre might be MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM's 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, which is more about a music businessman than about musicians, and which takes a fanciful, crooked path to discovering his truths. It lets you know right away that this isn't someone's life, per se; this is merely a film. And then, having freed itself and you from the burden of reality, it tells its epic story. MusicSET: "I Read the Lines: Actors Who Have Rocked You"... SPOTIFY opens its playlist pitching tool to all artists, FACEBOOK expands its music features, DASH RADIO has 10 million monthly listeners and raises almost as much money, and PANDORA, having played the field for a little while, comes home to SIRIUSXM... CAETANO VELOSO warns of "dark times" in a NEW YORK TIMES op-ed on Brazil's presidential election... KODAK BLACK's "ZEZE" is the zee-est song of all time, BILLBOARD reports in what might be my favorite chart news story ever... CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA fires concertmaster and principal trombonist after investigation of sexual misconduct... I've heard the song. It's objectively terrible...SONIC YOUTH gear for sale. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| An acid trip sparked a song that set the tone for her genre-bending album “Golden Hour.” Using FaceTime interviews, demos and doodles, we show you how the track "Slow Burn" came together. | | |
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| A steady decline in circulation of the music press, epitomised by the closure of "NME" this year, has created new opportunities for stalwarts and niche titles alike. | | |
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| Before there was RapCaviar, there was ‘Now.’ The best-selling compilation series celebrates two decades in the U.S. this week with the release of a new edition and a retrospective collection. But what did ‘Now’ mean in the CD era? And what’s its place in a curation-dominated future? | | |
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| Despite his reputation as a loose cannon, Lil Wayne has proven himself to be an extraordinary commercial actor. | | |
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| History has chosen to remember him simply as a flaming frontman or as a gay man, bisexuality erased and deeper looks into his life left in the shadows. “Bohemian Rhapsody” reinforces these things in its revisionism, a problem that stems from both its PG-13 rating and the fact that the surviving straight members of Queen had too much of a hand in telling a dead queer man’s tale. | | |
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| "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Rocketman" are directed by the same man. Only one of them is a damn good time. | | |
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| We meet the pop star at her home in Sweden to talk about the future of artificial intelligence, translating loss into song, and the eclectic influences that went into her long-awaited record. | | |
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| If you want to quickly know if you’re going to like Giles Martin’s The Beatles remixes start with “Long, Long, Long”. If you don’t like that one, you’re probably not going to like the rest, but for me, that remix in particular is far superior to the one on the two original “Top Loader” U.K. pressings I have. | | |
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| As Brian Eno prepares to reissue his influential 'ambient' albums, William Doyle asks what significance the genre still has in a world of Spotify playlists designed for wellness pursuits and making admin bearable. | | |
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| Chris Vrenna has also worked with Marilyn Manson, Guns N' Roses, U2, Gnarls Barkley and Smashing Pumpkins. | | |
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| Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock) and Mike Diamond (Mike D) of the hip-hop group Beastie Boys talk about their new book, which is largely a love letter to their late band mate, Adam "MCA" Yauch. Plus they reflect on growing up in 1980s New York City and how they gained respect in hip-hop. | | |
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| When Tipper Gore and the PMRC called rock and rap stars to testify in front of Congress about explicit lyrics, did this affect college radio? How could it not? Prof. Kate Jewell is examining the relationship between college stations and the culture wars as part of a new book project. | | |
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| Though Nicki hasn’t formally released “Sorry,” which interpolates Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You,” her generous usage and accompanying paper trail leaves her vulnerable. | | |
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| "All the jokes about 'if you remember the '60s you weren't there,' that's not really true. I remember almost all of it." | | |
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| A young Twitter user caused consternation when she revealed she didn’t know how to burn songs on to a CD. It’s another moment where technology announces one’s mortality. | | |
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| Sampling is still a vital part of hip-hop. A new online service called Tracklib has made the process easier than ever. Is this a good thing? | | |
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| "Goners," Laura Gibson’s fifth record is an incessantly beautiful reverie on grief and the fragility of human connection. | | |
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| Sufjan Stevens is so many people. Compiling this list, and hopping from holiday jams to S&M-club electronica to acoustic musings on death, was a complete and utter joy. Let’s get into it! Pace yourself! | | |
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| Desperate times for YouTube. CEO Susan Wojcicki is currently organizing a Childrens Crusade, against EU MEPs by urging YouTubers (mostly US teens) to “take action” to protect her $772 billion dollar company’s swollen profits. You see the EU just proposed guidelines (article 13) requiring platforms like YouTube to stop hiding behind its users and pay musicians fairly. | | |
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| Billboard asked 17 musicians and celebrities where they look for hope in this dark political climate and one theme rang true: the community is resilient. | | |
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| | | | | | | From "Pieces of a Man," out Friday on Cinematic Music Group. |
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