Some years later, after I was married, the guy 'Linger' is about wrote me a long letter, saying: 'I know the song’s about me. I never meant to hurt your feelings. Can we meet?' I thought: 'It’s too late. You dumped me!' I didn’t reply. | | | | The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan at Jones Beach, Wantagh, N.Y., Aug. 12, 1995
(Al Pereira/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Some years later, after I was married, the guy 'Linger' is about wrote me a long letter, saying: 'I know the song’s about me. I never meant to hurt your feelings. Can we meet?' I thought: 'It’s too late. You dumped me!' I didn’t reply.”
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| | rantnrave:// Listening to the CRANBERRIES Monday night, their sometimes shoegazey, sometimes-folky dream-pop songs fronted by DOLORES O'RIORDAN's piercing but pillowy voice, I was reminded how rare it is, and always has been, to hear strong female voices, or any female voices, on rock radio. Arriving smack in the middle of the grunge explosion, songs like "DREAMS," "LINGER" and "ZOMBIE" were implicit arguments that there were other voices and points of view worth hearing; they were also great pop songs, which is what allowed them to make that argument in the first place. They were incredibly dense and detailed songs, too, fussed over by O'Riordan and her band and open to in-depth study by a particular generation of pop fans. Here's BILLBOARD's ANDREW UNTERBERGER on the "stunning strength (and) exquisite fragility" of "Dreams." And the RINGER's ROB HARVILLA on the "slow-motion punch" of "Zombie." To be fair, the Cranberries' peak was short, and not every song rewarded the attention (cough cough, "I JUST SHOT JOHN LENNON"). But they continued making good pop songs in later years, and there was a musical lushness and emotional resonance to their best '90s moments that have lost nothing over the decades. In later years, O'Riordan opened up about childhood sexual abuse and was frank about health issues and her misgivings with her fame. "Success," the IRISH TIMES' TONY CLAYTON-LEA wrote, "rested uneasily on her slim shoulders." Her sudden death at 46 is as startling as it as sad, and robs us of a unique and powerful voice. RIP... The first place I went to hear the CRANBERRIES on Monday was on SPOTIFY's "This Is: The Cranberries" playlist, which ALLISON HAGENDORF, an old colleague of mine who is now Spotify's global head of rock, trumpeted on her social media. Spotify didn't seem to be promoting it anywhere else, like, say, its own app. TIDAL likewise had nothing. APPLE MUSIC did add a Cranberries playlist to the front of the playlist module on its "Browse" page. Why can't, or don't, the streaming services react more quickly to moments?... Solid live sessions: LA soul singer SUDAN ARCHIVES for RESIDENT ADVISOR'S RA Live. Texan Thai-funk band KHRUANGBIN for KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. Memphis singer-songwriter JULIEN BAKER for NPR MUSIC's Tiny Desk... FACEBOOK continues to ink major licensing deals... Well at least someone was admitting to racism heading into MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY... I have no idea what to make of this, but for some reason the CIA asking MOBY to share information about PRESIDENT TRUMP and RUSSIA via his social media doesn't sound nearly as preposterous in 2018 as it should... RIP also: "OH HAPPY DAY" singer EDWIN HAWKINS. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Like the dot-com bust it presaged, the feeding frenzy that took place in the wake of Nirvana's success was an ill-advised search that led, in a way, to Hootie and The Blowfish. Is there a lesson here? | | |
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| The Grammy Awards have discovered what the rest of the entertainment industry noticed back in the flip-phone era: Hip-hop, once an outlier, is now the status quo. | | |
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| The Cranberries’ singer faced down tremendous darkness, but her vocal lines could still have the lightest of touches - and she powered the band past their grunge and Britpop rivals. | | |
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| Legado 7 is carving out its own genre in the corrido scene. Frontman Alex Guerra calls it “corridos verdes,” or weed corridos. Basically his band is doing corrido music for what our grandmothers or parents call the “marijuano” set. | | |
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| Suddenly, a business that has spent the last decade making it more convenient to pay for its products is experimenting with digital cryptocurrencies that are technologically innovative, mathematically secure, and actually fairly inconvenient to use. What is to be done? | | |
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| A queer Christian from the heart of deep-red America, Julien Baker is now indie’s most heartbreaking songwriter. We spoke about her rapid success and staying true to her roots. | | |
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| Primary Wave, a boutique New York company that aggressively markets “icons and legends,” bought the rights to Marley’s songs in a $50 million deal. | | |
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| In October 2016, Carl Chery, head of artist curation for Apple Music, went on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show to premiere a record for the first time. He had selected Daniel Caesar's "Get You," a soft R&B ballad with Kali Uchis, but Chery was nervous that the record wouldn't connect in the modern R&B climate. | | |
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| Time to expose the truths behind one of capitalism’s most opaque activities, starting with the bots. | | |
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| The improbable rise of Ireland's biggest musical export since U2. (Originally published March 23, 1995.) | | |
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| The 2018 Bonnaroo, Firefly and Governors Ball lineups are more male-dominated than ever. Change is necessary. | | |
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| Unless you’re a veteran like Vera Lynn, a career spanning compilation is unlikely to happen - and it’s all thanks to streaming. | | |
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| The twenty-three-year-old musician knows what makes a memorable story: a blend of the everyday and the unexpected, relatable situations told with perfect timing. | | |
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| In 2002, when "Lady Bird" is set, the Dave Matthews Band’s erotic ballad “Crash Into Me” had been out for some six years. It was not cool. To be clear, the Dave Matthews Band had never been cool, but “Crash Into Me” is the band at their least cool, at once generically romantic and creepily specific in its sexual yearnings. | | |
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| An increasing number of A-list acts are experimenting with releasing two singles simultaneously instead of one -- both to give existing fans more content and choice and to test potential new audiences in an organic manner. | | |
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| As we predicted as streaming consumption grows, the per stream rate will continue to drop, every year, year to year. | | |
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| "Street Livin'" presents a stark departure for the Top 40 hip-hop group. | | |
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| 'How to Be a Rock Critic,' an off-Broadway play about the pioneering rock critic, is a great reminder of how much the role has changed. | | |
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| We highlight a few early favorites to start with. | | |
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| Why am I writing about Sammy Hagar? The answer is simple: because he has been a very successful business founder in addition to being a rock and roll star. To become an effective learning machine you will benefit from acquiring knowledge from as many sources as possible, including unconventional sources. | | |
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