The new Death Cab for Cutie album is streaming over at NPR.
Death Cab for Cutie Stream New Album
GoFundMe Started for Warped Tour Medic
A GoFundMe for Warped Tour’s medic, Travis, has been started:
In the course of his job as a music tour medic, Travis is usually the one to be helping others, keeping them safe and healthy while they are away from home. While on tour in Spring of 2018, he went to the nearest hospital because he was not feeling right. That hospital sent him on his way, telling him he was fine. Unfortunately they missed the cancer that had developed and Travis wasn’t diagnosed until he returned home in the summer. Because of this, he missed valuable treatment time.
It will never not depress me that we live in the richest nation in the history of the world … and people have to crowd fund for medical expenses.
Foxing Talk With Brooklyn Vegan
Brooklyn Vegan talked with Foxing about their new album:
I think finishing the initial version of “Slapstick” was the first time that I realized we could make something that sounded that way. That was one of the early songs that we had written. Eric and I had put together the truly initial version of the song before anybody got involved with it, before we had live drums on it or Ricky’s guitar parts or anything like that, or even the final lyrics. It was all just temporary parts — we kind of put those little vocal samples in there, and we had put some synths and some electronic drums, and Eric did the original guitar part that starts the song — and just having that skeleton of the song, it was the first time that I was like “hey this is actually something that I would listen to if I wasn’t in our band,” and that’s a feeling that I don’t think I ever had with the songs that we had made on our other two records.
Alkaline Trio Talk With Rolling Stone
Alkaline Trio talked with Rolling Stone about their upcoming album:
Now, there’s a bit of a rebirth of the band. Again, we don’t really know what’s going to happen — we’re just really excited about these songs. I think there’s a sort of freedom to not making a record in five years and coming back to it and just writing in the studio. There was no talk of a single. There was no “What song are we going to work on to push on the radio?” That’s not something we really focus on ever, but it is something that gets brought up by the producer, or the record label. People want to sell records and that’s 100 percent understandable. But this time, it just didn’t come up. We just made a record.
Ben Gibbard Ranks Death Cab for Cutie Albums
Ben Gibbard sat down with Noisey to rank Death Cab for Cutie albums:
In writing this album, we had this big blowout with Chris in October of 2001 and we got home from that tour and realized we needed a break. We needed to take time and do some other stuff, and we did. I had a lot of time to write. I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003. The Postal Service record came out, Transatlanticism came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year, and the proof is in the pudding.
We Use Sports Terms All the Time. But Where Do They Come From?
Victor Mather, writing for The New York Times:
More Shakespearean sport: When Hamlet says “To sleep — perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!” by rub, he meant difficulty. The term comes from lawn bowling, of all sports.
The “rub” is an unevenness in the playing surface that can cause the ball to slow or alter course. A sticky wicket indeed!
Rules Won’t Save Twitter. Values Will.
Kara Swisher, writing for The New York Times:
But by that measure, the rest of us plebes, including Mr. Jones, should probably get no protection if we err, no matter how much we rant that tweeting is a right under the First Amendment. It’s not, because Twitter is not the government and it can decide what and what not to host on its service. In any case, if you get kicked off Twitter, you can always unload your twisted mind on your very own website. And it cannot be said too many times that freedom of speech does not guarantee freedom from consequence.
All this is not to say that fixing Twitter will be easy; in fact, I think at this point it is nearly impossible. Add to that the fact that this is a global issue, making it hard to have any consistent rules that address the complexity of the world and, really, its deep and abiding ugliness.
It’s time for Jack to leave as CEO. He failed at the most important tests for his company, time, and time again.
Billboard Interview With PVRIS
Lynn Gunn of PVRIS sat down with Billboard to talk about what the band’s currently working on:
The touring experience is “the number one thing,” as Gunn tells Billboard, but now she’s ready to go home to Brooklyn for a bit, lay low and… get to work on PVRIS’ third album.
Report: Musicians Receive 12% of Music Industry Revenue
According to a new report from Citigroup, the music industry made $43 billion in revenue in 2017 while only 12% of that actually went to the artists.
Artists’ share of music revenues is small. In 2017, artists captured just 12% of music revenue with most of the value leakage driven by the costs of running a myriad of distribution platforms — AM/FM radio, satellite radio, Internet distributors — augmented by the costs (and profits) of the record labels.
The proportion captured by artists is, however, on the rise (it was just 7% of industry revenues in 2000). The bulk of the improvement is not driven by the growth in music subscription services. Rather, it’s driven by the strength in the concert business.
New Changes Coming to The Oscars
To address the concerns of those who find the show to be too long and boring (thanks largely to the current existence of 24 competitive awards, of which the general public only cares about a few), Bailey and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in a letter to members that the board has “committed to producing an entertaining show in three hours.” They explain that this will be achieved partly by “present[ing] select categories live, in the Dolby Theatre, during commercial breaks (categories to be determined).” Those categories will not be removed from the telecast; instead, “the winning moments will then be edited and aired later in the broadcast.”
And:
At least as important, in terms of improving the ratings of the Oscars telecast for ABC, the Academy also said in its letter that it “will create a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film,” adding that “[e]ligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming.”
So, is this just “the Marvel movie” category?
Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah” Is Being Adapted for TV
Lesley Goldberg, writing for The Hollywood Reporter:
The Plain White T’s No. 1 hit “Hey There Delilah” is being adapted into a scripted TV series.
The Grammy- and Tony-nominated band is teaming with Lively McCabe Entertainment and Primary Wave to develop a scripted romantic dramedy based on its chart-topping single about a long-distance relationship.
I’ve got nothing.
The Aquabats Launch Kickstarter
The Aquabats have started a Kickstarter:
We hear you loud and clear: It’s time for The Aquabats to get to work, making more music and bringing back the Super Show! But the truth is we can’t make ANYTHING without you… and since we’re doing this for you, we wouldn’t want to do it without you!
With YOUR SUPPORT, we can record The Aquabats’ first NEW ALBUM since 2011, and shoot our first NEW TV SPECIAL since 2014. Not only will you get new music and television, you’ll be helping introduce The Aquabats to a whole new generation of Righteous Comrades and future Aquacadets!
Warped Tour is over. Will the culture it created reckon with its demons?
Taylor Telford, writing at The Washington Post:
Overlooking the sins of powerful artists has felt intolerable in the era of #MeToo, but at Warped, taste is tethered to identity, and what comes next for its audience is complicated. The tour has flourished because much of its music is confessional and intimate. It fosters a devotion in the young, marginalized and vulnerable that rarely fades with age. Now fans are wrestling with whether the culture can adapt and evolve, or whether its worst roots run too deep. […]
Until I got to college, I actively disliked female musicians. I was enamored with the myth of the tortured artist; I chased it not only in my taste but also in my personal relationships. Now I wonder if some of these failures can be traced back to the music that shaped me. In part, I want to scrub myself of its influence. The problem is that I wouldn’t know myself without it.
This entire piece is really good. I hope this music scene can learn from the mistakes of the past. Sometimes I see signs of progress, and sometimes I am at a loss for words.
Johnny Depp’s Notorious B.I.G. Movie Pulled From Theater Release
Johnny Depp’s Notorious B.I.G. thriller City of Lies has been pulled from the schedule a month before it was set to hit theaters.
The movie, formerly known as LAbyrinth, was slated to open Sept. 7 in North America by Global Road Entertainment. No new date has been set for the film.
The move comes amid a series of woes for the actor, including a damaging Rolling Stone profile in June, that make any publicity campaign tough.
A Quick Pitch for Becoming a Supporting Member
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your account and becoming a supporting member of this website, I’d love to encourage you to do so during the month of August. As we start moving toward fall, and the end of the year (holy-shit-time-goes-fast), it’s that time where I start thinking about finances and the sustainability of the website. I’ve run some of the math, and basically, if everyone reading this signed up for just one year, this website would be sustainable basically immediately for multiple years. If only a small fraction of the people reading this right now signed up, this website is viable for me to keep running as my full-time job for another year. And, that’s the ultimate goal.
When you upgrade your forum account you gain access to exclusive content, Dark Mode, an ad-free browsing experience, and the supporter forum.
Even if you don’t have a forum account but want access to Dark Mode and an ad-free experience on the main website, you can become a patron for only $3 per month (or $25 annually) and you’ll get the perks while also helping us maintain our independence as a publisher.
I’m making plans for next year right now and the goal is to re-launch Encore, continue improving and adding new features to the forums, and start writing even more long-form reviews/pieces here on the website. Thank you to everyone that’s continued to help make this dream a reality every single day.