A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all. The First Amendment does not entrust that power to the government’s benevolence. Instead, our reliance must be on the substantial safeguards of free and open discussion in a democratic society.
As he stepped off the American Airlines flight at JFK (Whole Foods doesn’t own a jet, and Mackey flies coach), his phone lit up with urgent text messages and voice mails. A hedge fund in New York called Jana Partners had snatched up almost 9 percent of Whole Foods’ stock and announced that it would pressure the company to either overhaul its business or sell itself—perhaps to another grocery giant, such as Kroger, or to a less traditional player, such as Amazon. Mackey and other leaders might have to be replaced. A media frenzy ensued, and the PR team who had carefully staged what should have been a traveling celebration of their boss as a thought leader shifted into immediate crisis mode.
“From that moment on, I was drowning in it,” Mackey says.
This whole story reads like an episode of Billions. Fascinating stuff.
Morrissey is mad that HMV put “one per customer” stickers on The Smiths’ “The Queen Is Dead” vinyl single:
This sticker was not requested by the Smiths, and cannot be found on any other HMV stock, and therefore exists for “The Queen Is Dead” only.
But why is it there?
An attempt to freeze sales is, of course, an overwhelming insult to the Smiths … as if artistic freedom must struggle in our current culture of banality … as if only counterfeit emotions may apply.
Or maybe it’s so someone doesn’t buy a bunch and put them on eBay and fans can’t get them in stores? I dunno, just a guess.
Jay-Z will release his new album, 4:44, next week. The album will debut with a Tidal exclusive film for the same name.
Haim’s new song “Little of Your Love” is streaming on Apple Music.
LCD Soundsystem will release their new album American Dream on September 1st. There’s also a bunch of new tour dates, and you can find those below.
Read More “LCD Soundsystem Announce New Album and Tour Dates”
Father John Misty was profiled for The New Yorker:
“If you can’t hold two ideas in your head at the same time, you’re not going to get what I do,” he said in April. He’d picked me up on Second Avenue in a livery cab, for a trip out of town. He had on black stovepipe jeans with a small hole in one knee, brown suède pointy zip-up boots, a black T-shirt, and a gray Lemaire overcoat. (“I don’t like sports, I don’t fix cars, so I just buy clothes,” he said.) He was pretzeled in back, a tall man in a small car. From time to time, he cracked his knuckles. “I try to avoid talking about the perception of me in the press,” he told me. “It creates this feedback loop.”
Katy Perry has the number one album in the country this week:
Katy Perry claims her third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as her latest release, Witness, debuts atop the list. The set, which was released on June 9 through Capitol Records, earned 180,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 162,000 are in traditional album sales.
Rise Against came in at number nine:
Rock band Rise Against clocks the fourth and final debut in the top 10, as its new album Wolves arrives at No. 9 with 29,000 units (27,000 in traditional album sales).
Every Time I Die have canceled three upcoming shows (Trier, Stuttgart, and Hannover). Keith Buckley had to travel home to be with his daughter after an emergency. Thankfully, she is ok.
Odesza have released their video for “Line of Sight.”
Cameron Boucher has released his new song “Hell is Warm” on Bandcamp.
Manchester Orchestra are doing an exclusive listening session for their fucking-awesome new album, A Black Mile to the Surface, in New York on June 27th.
Lorde sat down with The Spinoff to go track-by-track through her latest album, Melodrama.
I wanted to [give the feeling of] just like the big sun-soaked dumbness of falling in love and it’s like your whole head is like glue, it’s amazing. It is like drugs. It’s like ‘I just want to be by you all the time, I just want to listen to you talk and look at your face do all those dumb things that it does when you talk. It’s just like this big dumb joy and it’s intense – and I feel like the instrumentation in that song kind of helped it get there.
Paramore covered Drake’s “Passionfruit” for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. The band also performed “Hard Times.” Great performance and I love those headphones.
Foo Fighters debuted their new song “Lah Di Dah” live over the weekend. A fan-shot video has made it’s way to YouTube.