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Month: May 2017

Review: John Moreland – Big Bad Luv

Craig Manning

A former punk, hardcore, and metalcore singer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, John Moreland made one of the greatest and most pervasively sad country records of the decade so far with 2015’s High on Tulsa Heat. “I’m so damn good at sorrow,” he sang in one of the LP’s key tracks, and he was right. Most of the songs were driven by little more than acoustic guitar and voice, and the lyrics were so heavy and despairing that the record was tough to listen to more than once in a multi-day span. If you were hurting for just about any reason, though, that album could be your best friend.

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An Act of Monstrous Cruelty

Jason Tate

Paul Weldman:

Here at the Plum Line, we write a lot about the mechanics of politics — the processes of governing, the interplay of political forces, the back-and-forth between citizens and lawmakers, and so on. We do that because it’s interesting and because it winds up affecting all our lives. But there are moments when you have to set aside the mechanics and focus intently on the substance of what government does — or in this case, what government is trying to do.

I won’t mince words. The health-care bill that the House of Representatives passed this afternoon, in an incredibly narrow 217-to-213 vote, is not just wrong, or misguided, or problematic or foolish. It is an abomination. If there has been a piece of legislation in our lifetimes that boiled over with as much malice and indifference to human suffering, I can’t recall what it might have been. And every member of the House who voted for it must be held accountable.

The Secret Hit-Making Power of the Spotify Playlist

Jason Tate

David Pierce, writing for Wired:

Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services have fundamentally changed how people listen to music. In the process, they’ve changed how artists and songs break. Radio may remain the most popular way of discovering music among casual fans, but unless you’re Drake or Rihanna, it’s hard to get any play. Plus, real fans—the people who go to concerts and buy merch and actually pay for music—use streaming services like Spotify.

“Spotify playlists, and Spotify charts, and Spotify plays, have become the number one tool that labels and artists and managers are using in order to break artists and measure success,” says industry analyst Mark Mulligan. Facebook has more users, YouTube has more views, but Spotify represents more important real estate. “If you get things working on Spotify,” Mulligan says, “that’s going to crank the wheel.”

I’ve heard from labels and managers that specifically target certain regions in the world to boost Spotify plays and hit charts because it may lead to getting onto a featured playlist.

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Tried to Warn You This Guy Sucked

Jason Tate

Shaant Hacikyan of Cute is What We Aim For, on Twitter:

Hey, most claims of sexism/racism are total bullshit. This isn’t the 1960’s. Please get a grip.

And:

Ok, CIS is akin to BAE. Both may be amongst the popular vernacular but they aren’t real. They’re superficial labels.

Yeah, fuck right off. I once heard he cried when his band locked him out of the studio during a recording session for one of their shitty albums because even they couldn’t stand him.

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