I wanna hear myself everywhere. I would do f***ing elevator music. | | | | Rest in Punk: The late Fred Cole plays with Dead Moon at Bumbershoot in Seattle, Sept. 6, 2015.
(Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I wanna hear myself everywhere. I would do f***ing elevator music.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// Note to rock stars: Sexually manipulating 15-year-old girls, asking them to send you nude pics and making them watch you masturbate on SKYPE is not cool, has never been cool and never will be cool. It doesn't matter what you might have learned from the 1960s and '70s. It just doesn't. The newest rock star to be accused of horrible behavior—that's the nicest way I can put it—is singer JESSE LACEY, who has now made sure that his band BRAND NEW's grass-roots rise to the top of the BILLBOARD charts in 2017 is not what it will be remembered for. Adventurous aesthetic vision? Nope, not that either. Lacey was publicly accused of sexual predation by a former fan who posted at length on FACEBOOK, using her name, in response to one of the band's former guitar techs publicly asking, "So while we are on the topic of outing famous and semi-famous creeps, anyone want to speak up about Jesse Lacey?" Supplemental note to rock stars: That is not the reputation you want to cultivate. Lacey apologized in a lengthy post of his own in which he didn't respond to the specific accusation but acknowledged he had "caused pain and harm to a number of people" and "I need to earn forgiveness." There will be more to come, soon, and I don't mean from Brand New or Jesse Lacey. This is a reckoning, a long time coming. Quote of the week, from CECILY STRONG, playing a new character, CLAIRE FROM H.R., on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. "I'm sure I'll be back next week and the week after that forever and ever, because all of this isn't just a scandal. It didn't just start this week. It's just actual reality for half of the population"... If you're ELVIS COSTELLO singing in a HOLLYWOOD lounge 30 feet away from me on a random Sunday afternoon, this Sunday afternoon for example, I am really happy you're not lip-syncing. That would be weird. Also, that song, "YOU SHOULDN'T LOOK AT ME THAT WAY," written for PAUL MCGUIGAN's true-life tearjerker FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL, is fantastic. If, on the other hand, you're TAYLOR SWIFT (did she or didn't she?) or GARTH BROOKS (he did) doing a set piece on national television, I'm a little less concerned with the authenticity of the liveness of the performance. Did Swift's backing-track-aided "...READY FOR IT" on SNL undercut what that L stands for, or was it a postmodern comment on the idea that in any given pop or rock or hip-hop or whatever performance, there's always a chance that something isn't completely live? Maybe part of the vocal, maybe a drum track, maybe a keyboard bit, maybe everything, who knows. If you wanted live and raw Taylor Swift, she came back a few commercials later with an acoustic performance of "CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT." No faking that one, right? Which did you prefer? Brooks lost his voice before last week's CMAs, owned up immediately to his lip-sync and quickly had MIRANDA LAMBERT and BLAKE SHELTON choosing sides. Is lip-syncing a bigger crime in the country-music heartland? Is it more forgivable coming from one of country's undisputed kings? What happens when artificial intelligence starts taking over? What will the L mean then?... RIP FRED COLE of DEAD MOON and PIERCED ARROWS; CHUCK MOSLEY of FAITH NO MORE (and, briefly, BAD BRAINS); ROBERT DE CORMIER, and KATIE LEE. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
|
|
 | Broken Record |
| In the first episode of their new podcast, Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell talk with Eminem about his new single with Beyonce, "Walk on Water." | | |
|
 | The Cut |
| Only in 2017 could this particular strip-club, reality-television, rap-fame fairy tale have come true. And maybe only for Cardi B. | | |
|
 | Nautilus |
| What characterizes us as a species is not a particular aesthetic preference, but the multiple, meandering paths of creativity itself. | | |
|
 | The Stranger |
| A Vancouver music company tried to release new music from Prince. They didn’t get very far. | | |
|
 | Music Industry Blog |
| News has just emerged that lip synching app Musical.ly is to be sold for between $800 million and $1 billion to Chinese company Jinri Toutiao, which also bought Musical.ly predecessor Flipagram. I’ve long held the belief that Musical.ly and competitor companies like Dubsmash represent some of the only genuinely needle moving user experience innovation in music of recent years. | | |
|
 | NPR Music |
| On “Reputation,” the pop star employs new sounds to explore old obsessions. | | |
|
 | The Guardian |
| The idea of good singing has gone from Céline-style belting to Selena-esque hushed tones. We explore the muted sounds of the mainstream. | | |
|
| Music Industry Blog |
| There is a gender divide in the upper echelons of popular music. In the US, Taylor Swift is the first woman to top the Hot 100 in 2017, with hits by women accounting for just 14% of all top 10 hits over the course of the year. | | |
|
 | Billboard |
| Since Zach Katz ascended to president of repertoire and marketing at BMG U.S. in July 2016, the company has scored a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Blink-182, made its largest label acquisition with the $103 million purchase of BBR Music Group, partnered with Facebook, signed Pitbull to a publishing agreement and more. | | |
|
 | Electronic Beats |
| In the 1990s, the R.A.N.D. vinyl plant and Dubplates & Mastering created a crucial platform for emerging underground scenes. | | |
|
 | The Daily Beast |
| The African-American singer and dancer was the toast of Paris when French intelligence asked her to spy on the Axis. It became one of her greatest performances. (Excerpted from "Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II" by Meredith Hindley.) | | |
|
 | NPR |
| Country star Keith Urban debuted his song "Female" at the Country Music Awards last week to praise and criticism. Co-writer of the song Nicolle Galyon explains the inspiration to Lulu Garcia-Navarro. | | |
|
 | Toronto Star |
| YouTube sensation Taryn Southern’s album composed entirely on artificial-intelligence platforms sparks a conversation about music’s future. | | |
|
 | Mendel Illness |
| I woke up this morning feeling pretty certain that the greatest record of all time is Norman Greenbaum's 1970 hit "Spirit In the Sky," which no one doesn't love. How not, before you've heard him sing or play a single note, to love a pop star who uses his real name when his real name is as ethnic and nebbishy as our hero's? | | |
|
| Billboard |
| Korean television networks are moving into K-pop production through a variety of television shows, and its causing dissent among Korea's music industry. | | |
|
 | Vulture |
| In this business, there are two subjects that will boost your page views like nothing else: "Game of Thrones" and Taylor Swift. One of them is a massive, multi-million-dollar enterprise filled with violence and betrayal, and the other airs on HBO. | | |
|
 | The Morning News |
| Here is the only surviving footage from John Coltrane's first and only live performance of "A Love Supreme" on July 26, 1965. | | |
|
 | KQED Arts |
| Falconi signed up for the army at 17 and went to Vietnam. When he came back to the Bay Area, he dedicated his life to art. | | |
|
 | No Effects |
| Atlanta's Curtis Harding shares his journey from playing drums in church to touring with Cee-Lo to touring the DIY circuit to where he has landed on his new album "Face Your Fear." | | |
|
| The Daily Beast |
| The musician is at ease in the kitchen as he is on stage. | | |
|
 | YouTube |
| | | | | | For the great Warren Olney, who broadcast his last KCRW show on Friday. Listen to his podcast, goddammit. |
| | |
|
|
| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
|
|
