Month: September 2025

Review: Ray and Paul – Fading EP

Ray and Paul - Fading EP
Adam Grundy

An indie band, comprised of the San Francisco-area brothers of Ray and Paul, have released their latest taste of music called Fading. The EP is brimming with the stylistic choices of surfer rock, paired with garage rock, all shimmering under the careful eyes of producer John Goodmanson (Weezer, Pavement), with additional tracks produced by Jarvis Taveniere. “These six songs reflect the past five years of our lives—love, heartbreak, sadness, doubt, confusion, and pain,” the duo of Ray and Paul shared. “They’ve shaped who we are and changed how we see the world and our music. We’re so grateful to finally share this with you and excited for what’s ahead.” With a slick sound that fits well in the same realm as Phantom Planet, Ash and Rooney, Ray and Paul showcase why they’re turning so many heads in 2025 and beyond.

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Halsey Talks With Zane Lowe

Halsey
Jason Tate

Halsey sat down for a new interview with Zane Lowe. She talks about why she’s not releasing new music yet:

And that’s the hardest part, I think, of having been a pop star once. Is because I’m not one anymore, but I’m being compared to numbers and to other people I don’t consider lateral to me! You know what I mean? I mean, a couple years ago, yeah, it was me and Ariana quote-unquote fighting for #1 on the Billboard chart. And we weren’t fighting. We were texting. We loved it. It was like the best time ever, that era. The “Without Me,” “thank u, next,” “7 Rings” era, that was amazing. It was an amazing time. But if my record comes out and sells 100,000 copies first week with no radio play, no real support, and the comparison is, “Well why isn’t she doing Taylor Swift numbers?” Are you fucking kidding me? I made an experimental concept album about how I almost fucking died. I’m not gonna do those numbers. But I’m doing pretty damn good! Those are strong numbers! I’m still in the top 10 of female artists’ first weeks. But it’s not good enough because it’s not, you know, “the pop star I once was.” Even though I’m actively making the choice to not be.

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More Than 400 Artists Announce “No Music For Genocide” Boycott

Spidey-Protest
Jason Tate

Over 400 artists have signed on to the “No Music for Genocide” project:

No Music For Genocide is a cultural boycott of Israel. Over 400 initial artists and labels have geo-blocked and removed their music from that territory in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank; apartheid within Israel / ’48; political repression of Pro-Palestine efforts wherever we live; and the music industry’s own ties to weapons and crimes against humanity. 

Last.fm Top 9 Shell Script

Terminal
Jason Tate

I’ve been posting up my “Top 9” (a grid of my most played albums of the week) to my blog, in the forums, and on Instagram for a very long time now. It’s a fun weekly tradition that I (and others in the forum) participate in to share the music that’s been prominent in our weeks. The quick easy way to make a grid is using something like TapMusic.

However, I finally wrote a simple shell script that uses the Last.fm API to do this as well. Now I can just run the script, and it will create the graphic, save it to my Desktop, calculate the “stats” for the last week, and copy those to my clipboard.

Automation is fun.