Julien Bakerʼs latest album is one that I keep imploring people to check out, today she’s released a cover of Elliott Smith’s “Ballad of Big Nothing.” This track comes from the upcoming tribute album, Say Yes!.
Read More “Julien Baker Covers Elliot Smith’s “Ballad of Big Nothing””
The first trailer for Swiss Army Man was released today. This is the movie scored by Manchester Orchestra and the one apparently about a farting corpse.
Read More “Trailer for ‘Swiss Army Man’; Scored by Andy Hull & Robert McDowell”
Leading up to the release of Carry the Ghost, the second full-length album from Noah Gundersen, I was a little bit nervous. I loved Noah’s first LP, last year’s Ledges, so much that I couldn’t imagine the follow-up living up to my impossibly high expectations. If I had to pick a favorite record of the decade so far, Ledges would be it, so the thought of Gundersen making an album as good (or even better) was hardly something that I was even daring to hope for. Furthermore, the first track released from Carry the Ghost—the piano-led album opener “Slow Dancer”—showed that Noah was looking to flesh out his sound significantly on this record. Even on first listen, I really did love the song, but by the time an anguished electric guitar came ripping through the arrangement, I was worried that Carry the Ghost might fall victim to the pitfalls that singer/songwriters often encounter when they trade acoustic bedroom folk for lusher full-band textures. After all, we hadn’t heard a lick of electric guitar on Ledges.
We’ve teamed up with our friends over at the Hard Rock Online Rock Shop to put together an exclusive and limited edition pin as a way of commemorating and kind of saying goodbye to the AbsolutePunk.net logo. There are only going to be 200 of these made and once they’re gone, they’re gone. So, if you’d like one, definitely grab it. I wrote more about the history of the logo and its creation after the jump.
Josh Constine, writing for TechCrunch, looks at Spotify’s latest move of raising $1 billion in convertible debt to fight Apple Music.
What the debt does provide Spotify is opportunities to make acquisitions. With SoundCloud and Pandora in the dumps, Spotify could potentially make a play to bring more independent music or radio listeners into its music empire.]
Why would Spotify agree to these aggressive terms? Because it’s competing with the most well funded company in history: Apple.
A teaser for the upcoming animated feature for Batman: The Killing Joke was posted today on YouTube.
Victoria Asher, formerly of Cobra Starship, has released her new single as Vicky-T. The video for “Protect This Love” can be found on YouTube or by hitting read more.
Read More “Vicky-T, Formerly of Cobra Starship, Releases New Single”
Kesha has posted on Instagram that she has been offered “freedom” from Sony if she issues a public apology.
so. I got offered my freedom IF i were to lie. I would have to APOLOGIZE publicly and say that I never got raped. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS behind closed doors. I will not take back the TRUTH. I would rather let the truth ruin my career than lie for a monster ever again.
I know that the “six degrees of separation” is commonly linked to actor Kevin Bacon, but I think it’s time we made an exception to the theory and include Evan Weiss. Whether it’s through the seemingly hundreds of side projects he’s a part of (most recently Pet Symmetry and Their/They’re/There) or the handful of records he’s produced (ranging from bands like You Blew It! to Xerxes), it’s no wonder someone who’s definitely not me nicknamed the Into It. Over It. mastermind “the emo mayor” (consider this review my official apology for that, Evan). But a funny thing happened during the writing and recording sessions for his third album – turns out Standards isn’t an emo record after all.
I had a chance to chat on the phone with Americana star, Jason Isbell, about his album release, Something More Than Free. We talked about his philosophy on songwriting, the challenge of following up his magnum opus (2013’s Southeastern), the prospect of him becoming a father, his opinion on why women make better artists than men, the role producer Dave Cobb plays in creating his records, and the idea of blending fiction and non-fiction for songs that always strike a chord.
Cory Doctorow, writing at BoingBoing, talks about how Reddit’s “warrant canary” just died.
In early 2015, Reddit published a transparency report that contained heading for National Security Requests, noting, “As of January 29, 2015, reddit has never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information.”
Five hours ago, Reddit published its 2015 edition, which contains no mention of classified requests for user information.
“Warrant canaries” are a response to the practice by governments of serving warrants on service providers that include gag orders forbidding the service from disclosing the warrant’s existence.
Bon Iverʼs Justin Vernon introduced Bernie Sanders at a really this morning at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. You can find that at on YouTube or by hitting read more.
Read More “Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon Introduces Bernie Sanders”
Half Hearted Hero are streaming their new single “All Of Me” on AltPress, it’s also on SoundCloud or by hitting read more.
@frozenreeds: “Forever my favourite latter-day Bowie pic.”
All Time Low have posted a teaser for their “Missing You” video on YouTube, the full thing will be released on April 5th.