Twenty-five years after Harry Nilsson died from a heart attack, a new posthumous album, Losst and Founnd, has been assembled from material he recorded in the latter stages of his career. Amazingly, it’s the first time the public has heard new material from the singer-songwriter since the release of his …
Read More »Musicians on Musicians: David Byrne & Tierra Whack
D avid Byrne is busy preparing for one of his most ambitious undertakings ever — a Broadway show in which he’ll perform songs from his entire career. But today he ended rehearsals early to ride his bicycle into Brooklyn and catch Tierra Whack at the Afropunk fest. The former Talking …
Read More »Musicians on Musicians: Diddy & DJ Khaled
I n a suite at the Ritz Carlton in downtown Atlanta, Sean “Diddy” Combs instructs DJ Khaled to walk through a cloud of cologne. He’s creating a vibe, one that will carry the pair of hip-hop mega-producers into a 2 Chainz birthday party later. “I love being a rapper!” Diddy …
Read More »Yola's New Road Town
It was hard to miss Yola at July’s Newport Folk Festival. The brightly dressed, earthy-voiced singer appeared on multiple stages at the legendary Rhode Island event, dropping in on sets by the Highwomen — where she got the biggest cheers of the -supergroup’s show — and Dolly Parton, who welcomed …
Read More »'I Totally Went Off': How Randy Newman Ended Up on a Chance the Rapper Song
It’s been a while since Randy Newman has been on the charts. But with his spoken-word cameo on “5 Year Plan,” a tender highlight from Chance the Rapper’s new album, The Big Day, the 75 year-old singer-songwriter has suddenly found himself brushing with the pop mainstream for non-film soundtrack work …
Read More »Song You Need to Know: Jon Pardi, 'Heartache Medication'
California country singer Jon Pardi was something of an anomaly when he broke into the country mainstream in 2017: His songs were steeped in classic instrumentation and songcraft that recalled George Strait or Dwight Yoakam, but unlike other throwback performers of his moment, those songs sounded entirely fresh thanks to …
Read More »Diversity in Radio Is Vanishing. The Trump Administration Could Make It Worse
The radio industry is staggeringly uniform. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently reported that only 7% of FM stations are owned by women and less than 3% of FM licenses belong to minority broadcasters. Estimates suggest that the number of stations black-owned radio stations has been cut in half since …
Read More »Billie Eilish Sampled 'The Office.' The Show's Creators Are Excited, and Confused
“Threat Level Midnight” is an underrated half-hour of The Office. The episode, which aired in February 2011, is one of the show’s highest-concept narratives: a meta-exercise in which the characters watch a fake movie they made themselves, from a script that they discovered five seasons earlier. It’s about a fictional …
Read More »Fricke's Picks: Long Ryders, Motorpsycho, Ace of Cups
Here are three of the best albums of 2019 so far. Two of them are surprising and heartening resurrections by American bands who deserved better in their first lifetimes but haven’t given up. The third is bold prog-rock violence from Norway by a band with nearly three decades of mayhem …
Read More »Flashback: Chris Cornell Writes 'Spoonman' Based on a Fake 'Singles' Tape
In a deleted scene from Cameron Crowe‘s grunge-steeped 1992 rom com Singles, Matt Dillon’s character, Cliff Poncier, busks on a Seattle street. A friend walks by and asks him what happened to his band, Citizen Dick. “They didn’t get it; they weren’t with the program,” the dudely, long-haired singer-songwriter says. …
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