| There's a lot to say for being a rat bag on the outskirts of show business because show business has always sucked and always will. I'm kind of happy being in the prairie on the outside. |
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 | | Crossroads: Jimmie Allen and Monica (3rd and 4th from left) and Little Big Town at the CMT Music Awards, Nashville, April 11, 2022. | | (Theo Wargo/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
How Many Times Did We Give Up?
Reminders that it isn't over: "CMT MUSIC AWARDS Co-Host KELSEA BALLERINI Tests Positive for Covid." (She ended up hosting a handful of segments on Monday's show by video from her living room and performing a new song live from her backyard, separated from her band by a curtain). "Madison! Our show tonight was cancelled due to positive Covid tests in both bands." (Long-running Minneapolis rock duo LOW and Australian instrumental metal band DIVIDE & DISSOLVE, that is.) "SUPERCHUNK postpone shows with TORRES after JON WURSTER tests positive for Covid." "The [BOSTON SYMPHONY] said 31 onstage musicians have been affected by the recent surge in COVID-19 cases." "MAMMOTH WVH Cancel Dates After Band + Crew Test Positive for COVID-19." "CIRCLE JERKS postpone 3 East Coast shows (KEITH MORRIS got Covid)." "Covid has now found The [MERCURY REV] camp and out of abundance of caution we will not be performing any shows through Minneapolis."
Random news stories and social media posts, all from the past six days. "Touring sucks right now," Superchunk tweeted Monday. "This is not sustainable," chimed in longtime indie label exec (and musician) MAGGIE VAIL. "Are musicians just supposed to get covid over and over again now to make a living?"
The answer to that last question, according to the observable music universe, appears to be yes. Musicians, having already lost the better part of two years of touring income, which for a lot of them means two years of income, period, are by and large being thrown back into the wild with little or no protection. It ain't over 'til it's over, a wise man once said, but that was back when we all seemed to agree what "over" means. I went out Sunday night to see a friend perform at the MERCURY LOUNGE in New York, a blue singer/songwriter singing for a blue-ish crowd in one of the bluest cities in the US, which has already been pummeled hard by Covid and where case numbers are rising again. The club's stated policy was "Proof of Covid-19 vaccination required for entry. Masks are strongly recommended." No one was checking vaccination records and I counted exactly four masks in the room, including mine.
And that's what music fans on the political left are doing. Multiple that by dozens of clubs x scores of bands x scores of cities—blue, red and in between—and this is how we end up with a barrage of headlines like those in the first paragraph above.
Is there an over/under on how many acts cancel on Coachella because of positive tests? Is there any space to be found between everyone wear masks all the time and no one wear masks ever? Is there a world where, if only out of the desire to keep our favorite performers on the road and give them a chance to make a decent living, we freely go out and drink and dance and listen and sing along but also have a mask in our pocket to put on whenever we can? Is there an audience for that? Is there the will for that? Because it isn't only about catching a virus, which could prove devastating for some people and no big deal for others. It's also about touring artists' livelihoods. The road is their office, and one positive test shuts the entire office down. As fans, and as friends, what's our responsibility when we step into that office? Is it our job, at least in part, to help make touring suck a little less?
Etc Etc Etc
A look at the curious (or maybe not so curious) allegiances and rifts between labels, publishers and songwriters as the US COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD considers mechanical royalty rates for vinyl and CDs. Nice work from Music Business Worldwide's TIM INGHAM... SONOS buys MAYHT, an innovative Dutch speaker startup, for $100 million (and I start wondering when the Sonos app and my Sonos hardware are going to become incompatible again)...Comparing first-year sales and streams of FEARLESS (TAYLOR'S VERSION) and FEARLESS (Taylor's former version)... BRITNEY SPEARS announcing her pregnancy four months after a judge dissolved the conservatorship that, among other things, Spears said had blocked her from having a child, is a particularly sobering reminder of how cruel that conservatorship was.
Rest in Peace
DANIEL SAHAD, lead singer of Austin funk-rock band Nané... PASTELLE LEBLANC, singer and multi-instumentalist in Vishtèn, an Acadian folk band group from Prince Edward Island... FRAN LA MAINA, longtime president of Dick Clark Productions.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | Billboard |
| | Why Are There So Few New Hits in 2022? | | By Andrew Unterberger | | Prior to Harry Styles' "As It Was" hitting the Billboard Hot 100, only a handful of songs released this year have made a major impact on the chart. | | |
 | | Charlamagne Tha God |
| | A Conversation with Pusha T | | By Charlamagne Tha God and Pusha T | | As Pusha T prepares to release "It's Almost Dry," he sits with Charlamagne Tha God to discuss grieving the loss of his parents, fatherhood, being married and the evolution of an era of rap music. | | |
 | | Pitchfork |
| | Sharon Van Etten Is an Institution Now | | By Madison Bloom | | After more than a decade as an indie-rock fixture, and with her sixth album on the way, the singer-songwriter is resolute amid a world spiraling into chaos. | | |
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 | | Trapital |
| | How Summer Walker's Experience Will Help Future Artists | | By Dan Runcie | | Summer Walker is in a select group of artists whose true popularity outweighs their perceived popularity to casual music fans. They have plenty of die-hard fans who love their music, but fewer casual fans. Their songs don't get played on pop radio and they have yet to perform at the Grammys. Their artist funnel is narrower than most artists at their level. | | |
 | | Music In Africa |
| | Afrobeats deserved a Grammy this year | | By Gabriel Myers Hansen | | For all of its intentions to reward outstanding musical work regardless of commercial acclaim, it appears that the Grammys will continue to be criticised as a scheme that simply doesn't get it. | | |
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 | | HipHopMadness |
| | How New York Hip Hop Lost Its Cool | | Little by little, New York's position as the point of origin for hip-hop seemed to hold less and less weight as it was overshadowed by other regional scenes that'd dispossess them of their crown. | | |
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 | | Los Angeles Times |
| | Putting Yoko Ono back in the frame | | By Jessica Ferri | | In 'Yoko Ono: An Artful Life,' Donald Brackett works to correct the record on an influential artist -- not just the woman who 'broke up the Beatles.' | | |
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| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "Can't Be Us" | | Fivio Foreign | | "I keep my feelings to myself / I do this music, though." From "B.I.B.L.E.," out now on RichFish/Columbia. | | |
| | | | Video of the day | | "Who Killed the KLF?" | | Chris Atkins | | Made without the provocative British duo's cooperation and against its wishes. But the KLF has since come around, at least according to the filmmaker. Widely available on streaming services. | | |
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| 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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