| When people would ask her about her music, she would say, 'Oh, these kids and rock and roll—this is just sped up rhythm and blues. I've been doing that forever.' | |  |  | | Sister Rosetta Tharpe circa 1944. | | (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) | | | | quote of the day | | "When people would ask her about her music, she would say, 'Oh, these kids and rock and roll—this is just sped up rhythm and blues. I've been doing that forever.'" | | - Gayle Wald, Sister Rosetta Tharpe biographer | |
| | rantnrave:// | Double and/or Nothing
Financial stat of the week: The New York Times reports that SPOTIFY's deal with JOE ROGAN, long believed to be in the $100 million range, was actually for "at least $200 million." That wallet-popping number, which pretty much every music site on the web re-reported within a matter of hours, showed up in a long piece on the continuing fallout from Rogan's podcast, which included the further news that AVA DUVERNAY, who signed a podcast deal of her own with Spotify in 2021, has joined NEIL YOUNG and JONI MITCHELL in walking away. Follow that money. Artists certainly are. Every new account of an expenditure in the hundreds of millions of dollars—Spotify also made recent headlines for a reported deal to sponsor the soccer club FC BARCELONA for $320 million—aggravates an optics problem for the company. If the reason for Spotify's pivot to podcasting was because it was losing money on streaming music, where did it get the $200 million to pay Rogan in the first place? And the $200 million-ish each to buy Gimlet Media and the Ringer? I'm not asking the accounting question. I'm asking the optics question. How does the company message those millions do musicians who are fighting for pennies? How does it square its royalty statements with its sporting interests? And is it possible the current wave of anger at Spotify is as much about the financing of those podcasts as it is about the content? Would Neil Young have raised his voice if he was happier with his royalty statements? Would INDIA.ARIE, or anybody else, have followed? Is this an existential crisis about (alleged) Covid misinformation and racism, or fair pay, or both?
I Wanna Be Your Quad
From STOOGES to CRUELLA soundtrack to silver medal figure skating routine.
It's Friday
And BEACH HOUSE completes ONCE TWICE MELODY, the double album the dream-pop band has been releasing in monthly chapters since November. "Not saying we're like these bands, but it's like 'Tusk' or 'The White Album' or that ELO double record," guitarist/keyboardist Alex Scally says. "There's a real joy in the expanse"... Texas soul meets Texas psychedelia on TEXAS MOON, the second collaboration between LEON BRIDGES and KHRUANGBIN. "If Erykah Badu can do her thing, and Megan Thee Stallion can do her thing, this is our contribution to Texas music, in a way," explains Leon Bridges. This is a nice groove... ACTS OF GOD is the pandemic album you've been waiting for from IMMOLATION, the veteran New York band that owns "one of the most consistently great discographies in death metal." "There's no happy tracks," says bassist/singer ROSS DOLAN. "It has an overall sense of hopelessness"... ETRAN DE L'AÏR, a band of brothers and cousins from rural Niger, plays "reverb-soaked psychedelia" that reflects a different record collection than some of its Tuareg brethren. I could obsess on this... Hardcore country rockers SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS, who've long deserved a wider audience, veer toward pop-punk and maybe even actual pop on NIGHTROAMER, which they made with "older straight white dude and music industry guy" (credit: Sarah) Pete Anderson in the producer's chair... "We all knew that it would cast us into hell for having made it and that it was going to deprive us of any kind of meaningful musical opportunities," says Patrick Haggerty of his pioneering gay-pride country band LAVENDER COUNTRY's 1973 debut, which features the "Cryin' These C***sucking Tears." He was correct. Album #2 arrives 49 years later... Singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra describes HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF's seventh album, LIFE ON EARTH, as "nature punk." There are songs about immigration and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing and, writes Rolling Stone's Jonathan Bernstein, "New Age astrology pop and free-associative odes to flowers sit comfortably alongside hair-raising depictions of trauma."
Plus new music from CURREN$Y & THE ALCHEMIST, BIG K.R.I.T., YEAT, ROKIA KONÉ (of Les Amazones d'Afrique), ALICE GLASS (released earlier this week), BOBBY WEIR & WOLF BROS., DEL MCCOURY, SHOVELS & ROPE, MIDNIGHT OIL, DEBIT, BLXCKIE, NICK CANNON, BOB STROGER & THE HEADCUTTERS, MATT PIKE (of High on Fire and Sleep), STEVE POLTZ, BLACK DRESSES (released earlier this week), METRONOMY, SALLY SHAPIRO, WHITE LIES, GREG BARNETT (of the Menzingers), SWAMI JOHN REIS (of Drive Like Jehu and Rocket From the Crypt), SPACE PANTHER, GOODBYE JUNE, MAITA, OLIVER TREE, BLUE HAWAII, METHYL ETHEL, SHOUT OUT LOUDS, BIG NOTHING, LIAM BENZVI... And "OCEAN CHILD: SONGS OF YOKO ONO," curated by BEN GIBBARD and featuring JAPANESE BREAKFAST, SHARON VAN ETTEN, DAVID BYRNE, YO LA TENGO and others.
Rest in Peace
Ghanaian funeral singer MBABILA "SMALL" BATOH, whose band, fra fra, was in demand at services around northern Ghana. "Small and his group," reports Ian Brennan, who produced fra fra's only album, "would often play and sing from midday to long past dawn, ending only when the family felt that their loved one had been sung onward from this world and into the afterlife. The 74-year-old had been scheduled to perform outside Ghana for the first time later this year... Classical cellist LESLIE PARNAS... Soul singer DAVID TYSON, who joined the Manhattans after their heyday but stayed with them for 30 years... Music publishing exec BARRY MCKEE, longtime head of UK administration for Warner Chappell.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
| | strange things happening every day |
|  | | The New York Times |
| | Spotify Bet Big on Joe Rogan. It Got More Than It Counted On | | By Katherine Rosman, Ben Sisario, Mike Isaac... | | The deal that brought his podcast to Spotify is said to be worth over $200 million, more than was previously known. Accusations that he spreads misinformation have roiled the company. | | | | |  | | The Seattle Times |
| | Pioneering gay country band Lavender Country releases first new album in 50 years | | By Michael Rietmulder | | It's been a long time coming. Then again, nothing in Patrick Haggerty's history-making music career has come fast or easy. As the 78-year-old artist and activist tells it, having an actual career in music seemed doomed from the second he and his band Lavender Country released what's now considered the first gay-themed country album in 1973. | | |  | | Complex |
| | The Unknowable Life of $not | | By Jordan Rose | | $not is growing from a SoundCloud phenom to a bonafide rap star, and the mysterious man under the hoodie is making the best, most ambitious music of his life. | | | | |  | | VAN Magazine |
| | The Pitch of Living | | By Hugh Morris | | Can listening to music at 432 Hz make everything better? | | | | | | |  | | The New Yorker |
| | Stephen Sondheim's Lasting Wisdom | | By D. T. Max | | As he worked on his final musical, the legendary composer discussed the ideas he'd abandoned, the minutiae of his technique, and the lesson that any artist must learn. | | | | | | |  | | Ellie Huxtable |
| | Building an iPod for 2022 | | By Ellie Huxtable | | I modified an old iPod Video with more storage, a new casing, and more battery life. Also some fancy software :) | | |  | | Spotify |
| | The Big Hit Show: Hello Kendrick | | By Alex Pappademas | | Hot off the critical and commercial supernova that was "good kid, m.A.A.d. city," Kendrick Lamar faces loss and confusion, and prepares to make an unexpected, groundbreaking next move. | | | |  | | Chicago Reader |
| | A tribute to Syl and Jimmy Johnson | | By Aaron Cohen | | The oft-sampled soul star and his blues-playing big brother died within days of each other, reminding us of what their divergent careers had in common. | | | | what we're into | | | Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" |
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