The goal is to find that moment to connect with people. It could be something as simple as the weather, or it could be that we’re coming out of NPR news coverage or a press conference and some politics of the day. I remember coming out of the Trump inauguration with Bowie’s 'The Man Who Sold the World.' I don’t have to say anything—I just have to play a song and everyone can go from there. | | | | Hi, we're back, won't you let us in? It's Tool.
(Travis Shinn/RCA Records) | | | | | | “The goal is to find that moment to connect with people. It could be something as simple as the weather, or it could be that we’re coming out of NPR news coverage or a press conference and some politics of the day. I remember coming out of the Trump inauguration with Bowie’s 'The Man Who Sold the World.' I don’t have to say anything—I just have to play a song and everyone can go from there.”
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| | rantnrave:// I've never believed in the concept of one song being ordained Song of the Summer, as if every pop fan everywhere has spent the past three months carrying around the same mixtape or listening to the same playlist no matter who they are and where they're going. My summer and your summer? Two different things. But I believe in pop and I believe in underdogs and I believe in magic and I believe it's possible to hear almost anything you want in the two and a half minutes that constitute the most familiar version of "OLD TOWN ROAD," the very obvious Song of the Summer of 2019 (at least in the US; it's a very American song, a star-spangled frontier banner waving freely o'er our collective radio dial). I believe you can hear irony or sincerity, humor or wanderlust, the mall or the Wild West, hip-hop or country, a goof or a statement of purpose, a cosmic dream or a strange nightmare. And I believe, therefore, that maybe there were 50 different Songs of the Summer of 2019 and maybe they all happened to be the same song. As another summer season comes to an end, let's pay one final tribute, and give one final listen, to the horses and tractors and black boots and GUCCI cowboy hats and banjos and the 20-year-old gay black man and the 57-year-old white country curiosity turned pop patriarch, two denizens of different parts of the American South that aren't, in the end, all that different. May they keep riding long after—well, not after we've forgotten, because we'll never forget—but after we've moved on to other, newer pop and hip-hop and country pleasures, some of which will be as ephemeral as a bull ride and some of which will prove as timeless as an old dusty road... Meanwhile, away from the radar of the summer sun, RAPHAEL SAADIQ last week quietly released one of the year's best albums, JIMMY LEE, a soul-drenched and gospel-washed song cycle about addiction, full of emotional gut punches like this one featuring 30 voices that are all Saadiq... After 11 years, JASON BENTLEY signs off this morning as host of KCRW's MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC, and as the influential NPR station's music director. KCRW staffers ANNE LITT, GARTH TRINIDAD, AARON BYRD and RAUL CAMPOS will share hosting duties for the rest of the year while the station continues its search for a replacement... It's FRIDAY (and the last week of eligibility for the 2020 GRAMMYS) and that means new music from TOOL, LANA DEL REY, BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT, SHERYL CROW, LIL TECCA, SIR, COMMON, EZRA FURMAN, PHARMAKON, TRISHA YEARWOOD, !!! (CHK CHK CHK), KANO, JOAN SHELLEY, NINA KEITH, YACHT, VELVET NEGRONI, NATASHA BEDINGFIELD, WHITNEY, PARANOID LONDON, BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY/BRYCE DESSNER/EIGHTH BLACKBIRD, GROSS NET, CARTER TUTTI VOID, ASTRID S, the ALCHEMIST, the FUTUREHEADS, JESSE MALIN, BIG WRECK, JOELL ORTIZ, the GRASCALS, the CHUCK WAGON GANG, JAMES CARTER ORGAN TRIO, ELIANE ELIAS, VERONICA SWIFT, JUSTINE SKYE and AKON... RIP MARIO DAVIDOVSKY... Monday is Labor Day in the US. MusicREDEF will be back in your inbox Tuesday morning. Have a great weekend! | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Apple's digital masters, Qobuz, Idagio, Primephonic: New services finally have improved the streaming experience for classical music lovers. | | |
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| What was once a large canvas for grand statements is now a tiny digital mark. | | |
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| Little did I know just how exciting growing up as Sharona’s daughter would be. | | |
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| Yola Dia was chock full of women and nonbinary folks on stage, in the crowd, and behind the scenes. Will more events like it help fix the gender disparities that plague major music festivals? | | |
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| Ahead of the singer-songwriter's latest full-length, diehard fans describe what it's like piecing together the string of clues she unveils prior to each project. | | |
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| Rapper discusses his new track "Coming Home," his new criminal justice reform initiative, and teaching Kanye West what "charcuterie" means. | | |
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| A familiar pattern that’s happened at Pandora and Spotify kept entering my mind: a company finds an audience, isn’t sure how to make money, and begins a decade-long scramble to make the math work. Deezer’s lower profile and unique place within other the European streaming platforms might’ve presented a different narrative, but I quickly started seeing the same tropes. | | |
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| I was trapped in the prison of being the token girl in a band, and the whole time I was proud of not being like other girls. And here’s the absolute worst part: I assimilated. I kept quiet, I thought this was the way it was supposed to be. | | |
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| Drömfakulteten is a music collective of female-identified artists based around a shared studio space in Stockholm. Though its 12 members explore different sounds, the works they produce are some of the most unique releases in electronic dance music today. | | |
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| In conversation with CAD Management CEO Clayton Durant, NUE Agency’s CEO Jesse Kirshbaum discusses why brands need a chief music officer, and how the music industry can better communicate its value to advertisers and brands. | | |
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| Geoff Ogunlesi has known Young Thug for over five years, and he spoke to us about working with the misunderstood star at the peak of his career (so far). | | |
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| The suit speculates that if the company failed to pay royalties for a song like the chart-topping "Lose Yourself," then smaller publishers probably weren't paid properly either. | | |
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| Meg Huskin examines the success of "Old Town Road" as a musical meme and suggests what Classical music can learn from this approach to borrowing/imitation. | | |
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| Only three people have access to the vault, where the pianos start at $250,000. | | |
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| Five performers to know -- including Odunsi (The Engine) and Teni the Entertainer -- who are making their mark in a crowded field. | | |
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| Tom Freston has a rare skill: the ability to pair raw, creative visionaries with the establishment to create bigger and bolder ventures than either could dream up on their own. | | |
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| Copyright issues only temporarily derailed Deadman 死人's viral hit. | | |
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| Yolanda Barton loves Seattle's music history -- the history that starts decades before Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden came screaming onto the scene and Macklemore took fans thrift store shopping. | | |
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| Advances in technology have made formerly impossible ideas come to life for disabled musicians, but are they truly accessible and meaningful? | | |
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| Considering his origin story, his longevity is remarkable. | | |
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| | | | | | | Title song from Tool's fifth album, out today on Volcano/RCA. |
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