Kane Brown has the number one album in the country this week.
Country singer-songwriter Kane Brown earns his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his second full-length studio effort, Experiment, bows in the top slot. The set, which was released on Nov. 9 via Zone 4/RCA Nashville, starts with 124,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 105,000 were in album sales.
Bridgers: People will talk endlessly about five white dudes playing shoegaze and how different it is, and like, literally war each other about which one you’re allowed to like and the differences between the two bands, and then women literally play guitar and whisper sometimes and scream sometimes and they’re like, “Same!”
Baker: I hate those articles—this is a pet peeve of mine—like move over X, here’s the new Y. And it’s just like, X didn’t become obsolete because there’s a person doing a similar thing. You also don’t have to be like the new old-thing, you’re just the current you-thing.
The Killers have announced a 10th anniversary reissue for Day & Age.
Pranav Trewn, writing at Stereogum:
But what the Offspring popularized is a far more noxious strain of punk music, and especially punk ideals. The band did not revolt against systems perpetuating economic inequality or authoritarianism, but instead expressed a middle-class teenage resentment that comes from already getting everything you want at home but still being forced to go to school. “The Kids Aren’t Alright” and “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” depict the struggles of people with implied choices, who ultimately squander opportunities as they burn out. Because Holland keeps the details that led to those “choices” vague, it’s easy to read the characters in these songs as unsympathetic. You focus on the absence of ambition, not on the factors that eroded it in the first place.
Interesting argument.
Julien Baker, writing at Oxford American:
As she muses aloud about whether it’s better to raise a child to be compassionate but naive, or shrewd but callous, I think of my own tendency toward the willful naivety of a bleeding heart, the way it has been ironically challenging to the people I love most. I think of my partner’s concern when I would pick up hitchhikers, loan money I might never get back, miss important personal obligations because I felt I was morally moved to attend a march or demonstration protesting one of this administration’s innumerable injustices. I think of my mother negotiating the line between insulation and exposure, of the times when my fragile adolescent ego was wounded by the brass tacks she considered a vital part of education.
Mike Ness of Social Distortion recently sat down with Consequence of Sound:
You tour so much, you take a little bit of time off, and then you gotta earn some money, so you just tour more. I’ve been writing songs along the way. But this [recent fall trek was] the last tour. In December, January, February, March, I’ll be in pre-production, getting ready to do the next record. [A 2019 release date] would be nice, for sure, but I don’t want to just rush a record to meet a deadline. This record is really important for our career. I want to make a fuckin’ statement. I want to write the record of my career.
Tim Ingham, writing at Rolling Stone, makes the argument that the LP as we know it, is in trouble:
Sure, hits on streaming services make a lot of people a lot of money. But as the death knell rings for the album — and the music industry returns to the pre-Beatles era of track-led consumption — are fans being encouraged to develop a less-committed relationship with new artists? […]
The music industry is facing a bit of an existential crisis, then: How can something (streaming) be considered the “equivalent” of something else (an album sale) when, by your own measure, the former now completely dominates the latter?
In 2018, “streaming-equivalent albums” seems like daft phrasing. It is e-mail-equivalent faxes. It is car-equivalent steeds. It is Netflix-equivalent Betamax.
Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes” has hit number one on the Billboard alternative charts:
“High Hopes” spends a second week at No. 1 on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-driven Hot Rock Songs chart, where it’s Panic’s first leader. The track becomes the band’s first top five hit on Adult Pop Songs (6-5) and second top 10 on Pop Songs (12-9), after “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” which reached No. 2 in 2006
Pre-orders for Taking Back Sunday’s 20 year anniversary release, Twenty, are now available.
The merch guy for IDKHOW and Waterparks was caught allegedly trying to steal money from the bands:
Police say that the band members then started searching their trailer and found the cardboard box with the money wrapped up in the suspect’s sweater with other merchandise boxes.
The suspect again denied involvement but then allegedly finally admitted to taking the money once he realized that the band was firing him and that he wouldn’t be allowed back on the tour bus.
He also told police that he was tired of the band members leaving money all over the bus and wanted to prove a point but was going to return the money later.
Metro Boomin has the number one album in the country this week.
The surprise set, which was announced Oct. 31 and released Nov. 2 via Boominati/Republic Records, earned 99,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Nov. 8, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 5,000 were in album sales, as the album was largely driven by streaming activity.
Tom DeLonge will be releasing a new children’s book called Who Here Knows Who Took My Clothes on November 30th. Some limited edition pre-orders are now up.
Sam Moore, writing at NME:
Firefighters continue to tackle the blaze across the state, with people now stepping in to aid and assist the fire personnel as they work long hours – with Grohl playing his part by cooking BBQ for firefighters in Calabasas, Los Angeles County. Fire Station 88 were one of the recipients of the free BBQ last night (November 12), which was provided by Grohl’s recently launched Backbeat BBQ.
Disney announced Thursday development on another live-action Star Wars TV series, this one centered around Diego Luna’s doomed Rogue One character Cassian Andor.
The company says the drama is in the works for Disney’s new streaming service and follows the adventures of the rebel spy during the formative years of the Rebellion. Naturally, the drama takes place before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
John Nolan on the latest podcast episode of Lead Singer Syndrome.