The Zoom interview has just begun when 24kGoldn, more or less unprompted, calls himself “the Steve Jobs of the music industry right now.” It’s the kind of braggadocious claim that only a 20-year-old with one of the biggest songs of the past year can say without a hint of irony. …
Read More »Black Pumas: Rise of a Psychedelic-Soul Force
Black Pumas’ journey to the Grammys began with a potentially awkward phone call. In late 2017, long-standing Austin-based guitarist and producer Adrian Quesada needed a singer for some new instrumentals he’d been recording. On the recommendation of a mutual friend, he left a message for a local talent, Eric Burton, …
Read More »Makaya McCraven Isn't Interested in Saving Jazz
“‘Is jazz dead?’ is a stupid question,” says drummer and bandleader Makaya McCraven over beers at a Lower East Side bar that is, fittingly, playing a selection of 1930s and ’40s-era jazz cuts. “If you have to ask the same question for 50 years, it becomes a rhetorical question. When …
Read More »Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's Aussie Jangle Takes America
“I don’t ever look at Twitter,” saysAustralian indie rock crew Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s bassist, Joe Russo, 28. “But from what I gather we’ve become much bigger in the States than in New Zealand and Australia.” He’s not kidding: The Melbourne group’s fusion of 1970s power pop, 1980s college rock …
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