New Year’s Day also marks Public Domain Day, when the copyrights for thousands of published works expire, allowing anyone to freely record, perform, or interpolate them. This time around that means musical compositions (music and lyrics, not recordings) copyrighted in 1930, and the list includes classics like “Georgia On My Mind” (music: Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics: […]
Asake Issues Statement On Crowd Crush Death At His Nairobi Stadium Show
Afrobeats star Asake has issued a statement after a woman died in a crowd crush at his concert in Kenya, the second such incident at one of his shows. Karen Lojore died Saturday night as a result of a crowd crush during Asake’s show at Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium, the BBC reports. On his Instagram story, […]
Legendary Unreleased D’Angelo Song “Bitch” Unearthed
One of the most mythologized unreleased D’Angelo tracks has made its way to the internet. When D’Angelo sat for a lengthy Red Bull Music Academy interview in 2014, Questlove popped in to chat a couple times. Near the end of the talk, the Roots bandleader talked up an unreleased song called “Bitch,” recorded in 1996 […]
Gracie Abrams – “Sold Out” (Feat. Bon Iver & Aaron Dessner)
Like her inspiration, benefactor, and collaborator Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams has enmeshed herself within the Eaux Claires extended universe. Abrams, the hit-making folk-pop singer-songwriter, is multiple albums deep into a recording relationship with the National’s Aaron Dessner, a big-deal indie producer who became a big-deal pop producer when Swift recruited him to produce her 2020 […]
Bob Dylan Explains Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson is the subject of a new profile in The New Yorker today. Writer Alex Abramovich followed Nelson, 92, on tour this year, to get a window into this final phase of his legendary life. There’s a lot of noteworthy info in the story. For instance, COVID-19 made Nelson so sick he wanted to […]
Bad History Month – “The Fighters” (Dust From 1000 Years Cover)
Every few months you can count on Bad History Month’s Bandcamp page to update with some high-quality artisanal small-batch indie rock. Recently, that has involved a lot of covers of the same band. On his PIGWORLD series, Sean Sprecher has been recording songs by Dust From 1000 Years, the longstanding alias of Ben Rector, who […]
Bad Bunny Brings Out J Balvin At Mexico City Tour Finale, Marking End Of Feud
During Bad Bunny’s rise to global superstardom, J Balvin was right there alongside him. In 2016, when Bad Bunny was just getting started and Balvin was already flying high, the Puerto Rican guested on the Colombian’s single “Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola.” Balvin popped up on several Bad Bunny singles in 2017. The two […]
Refused Play Farewell Show In Their Swedish Hometown
Say it with me now: Refused are fucking dead. Again. The veteran Swedish post-hardcore wreckers played their final concert Sunday at Väven in their hometown, Umeå, concluding a protracted farewell that made them just barely eligible for this year’s In Memoriam video. It’s been almost two years since the band announced their final Swedish festival […]
The Number Ones: Taylor Swift’s “Willow”
December 26, 2020 STAYED AT #1:1 Week In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. The column is now biweekly, alternating with The Alternative Number Ones on Mondays. Book Bonus […]
Nicki Minaj’s MAGA Turn Culminates In Appearance With Erika Kirk At Turning Point Festival
It’s not necessarily surprising that rapper Nicki Minaj has been cuddling up to MAGA, but that doesn’t make it any less unsettling. She’s become more and more vocally supportive of the current White House administration. Today, she was the surprise guest at Turning Points USA’s AmericaFest in Arizona, where she was interviewed by Charlie Kirk’s […]