Song Exploder has teamed up with Google to present “Inside Music.” The concept allows you to explore a few select songs by peeling back their musical layers and turning them on or off to see how the song is constructed. It’s quite cool.
Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, Dave Matthews Band, and more, have organized a benefit concert in Charlottesville, VA.
While tickets are free, attendees are encouraged to make a donation to the “Concert for Charlottesville Fund” at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. Beneficiaries of the fund will include victims of the events in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12, their families, first responders, and organizations devoted to the promotion of healing, unity and justice locally and nationwide.
The James Bond sweepstakes has taken an unexpected turn. While Warner Bros. remains in the lead to land film distribution rights to the megafranchise — whose deal with Sony expired after 2015’s Spectre — a couple of unlikely suitors have emerged that also are in hot pursuit: Apple and Amazon.
The tech giants are willing to spend in the same ballpark as Warners, if not much more, for the rights, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. MGM has been looking for a deal for more than two years, and Sony, Universal and Fox also had been pursuing the property, with Warners and Sony the most aggressive.
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters recently sat down with Rolling Stone, he mentions that Justin Timberlake sings on the band’s upcoming album:
Then there was the day Justin Timberlake dropped by. He listened to what the Foos were doing and liked what he heard, and pretty soon he and Grohl were hanging out regularly. “We’d drink whiskey in the parking lot,” Grohl says. “He was really, really cool. Then the night before his last day, he says, ‘Can I sing on your record? I don’t want to push it, but – I just want to be able to tell my friends.’ ” So the band had him add some “la la la’s” to one track. “He nailed it,” Grohl says. “I’m telling you – the guy’s going somewhere.”
Colin Trevorrow will no longer be directing Star Wars: Episode IX. A statement has been released from Lucasfilm:
Lucasfilm and Colin Trevorrow have mutually chosen to part ways on Star Wars: Episode IX. Colin has been a wonderful collaborator throughout the development process but we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ. We wish Colin the best and will be sharing more information about the film soon.
My first vote is to let Rian Johnson direct another. If that’s a no, I’d love to see Ava Duvernay behind the lens.
Facebook Inc. is offering major record labels and music publishers hundreds of millions of dollars so the users of its social network can legally include songs in videos they upload, according to people familiar with the matter.
The posting and viewing of video on Facebook has exploded in recent years, and many of the videos feature music to which Facebook doesn’t have the rights. Under current law, rights holders must ask Facebook to take down videos with infringing material.
Dara Lind, writing for Vox:
The Trump administration’s announcement Tuesday, that it will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — removing deportation protection and work permits from nearly 800,000 young unauthorized immigrants — unless Congress passes a bill in the next six months to protect DACA recipients, isn’t a punt or a reprieve. It’s an opportunity to deflect, or share, the responsibility for what would be an unprecedented act in US history.
There’s never really been a time when a generation of people, raised and rooted in the United States, has been stripped of official recognition and pushed back into the precarity of unauthorized-immigrant life.
Beats have announced their new, over the ear, Studio3 wireless headphones:
Beats Studio3 Wireless headphones deliver a premium listening experience with Pure Adaptive Noise Cancelling (Pure ANC) to actively block external noise, and real-time audio calibration to preserve clarity, range and emotion. It continuously pinpoints external sounds to block while automatically responding to individual fit in real-time, optimising sound output to preserve a premium listening experience the way artists intended.
Taylor Swift’s new single “Look What You Made Me Do” has climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts:
Swift has now officially climbed to the top — the top of the Billboard Hot 100, that is. With her new single “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift has hit No. 1 on the chart, knocking Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” down from its 16-week reign.
Jon Blistein, writing for Rolling Stone:
Metallica, Logic, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and pop singer Halsey are among the various musicians set to participate in a new mental health awareness and suicide prevention campaign, “I’m Listening.” The broadcast company Entercom organized the initiative, which will include a two-hour radio special airing live from Seattle on World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, at 10 a.m. ET on all Entercom platforms. […]
Other musicians set to participate include Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, Alice in Chains’ William DuVall, Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff, Khalid, Disturbed’s David Draiman, country star Gary Allan and Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel. Seattle-based radio DJ, BJ Shea of KISW FM, will host the show.
The annual Apple Music Festival will end after ten years:
However, the cancellation of the festival doesn’t signal a move away from live events by Apple Music completely.
The brand was recently a partner of shows by Haim and Skepta in London and Arcade Fire in Brooklyn and it had a heavy presence at SXSW in Texas earlier this year – where it backed shows from Lana Del Rey, Vince Staples and DJ Khaled.
In addition, Apple Music also sponsored Drake’s 32-date Summer Sixteen Tour in 2016 and it supports regular live sessions from its ‘Up Next’ artists.
The closure of the Apple Music Festival is likely because Apple is concentrating its resources on one-off events like these, in addition to its original content efforts in video – which have recently included a Carpool Karaoke spin-off series and a behind-the-scenes documentary on Harry Styles.
Today is Labor Day, so we’ll be on a more relaxed posting schedule. I’ve always enjoyed this Ezra Klein piece, from 2014, on Labor Day:
Labor Day is a day of rest that commemorates years of war. Congress inaugurated the holiday just days after President Grover Cleveland sent 12,000 federal troops to break the Pullman strike. The tactics were bloody; US deputy marshals killed two men and wounded many more.
That was 1894, an election year. Cleveland needed a way to win workers back to his side. He saw an opportunity in a federal holiday honoring workers — as well as organized labor.
And this from Tim Goulet:
In reality, however, Labor Day started twelve years earlier — even before the 1886 Haymarket events that inspired May Day — with a mass rally in New York. On September 5, 1882, socialists, the Knights of Labor, and various left organizations associated with the Central Labor Union (CLU) organized a march calling for shorter hours, higher pay, safer working conditions — and a labor holiday. That year, New York had been the scene of spirited labor struggles. On January 30, thousands of workers thronged Cooper Union to support Irish tenants protesting their British landlords.
Lil Uzi Vert has the number one album in the country this week:
Rapper Lil Uzi Vert bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with his debut studio album, Luv Is Rage 2, starting with 135,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 31, according to Nielsen Music. The album was released on Aug. 25 through Generation Now/Atlantic Records, and follows two earlier charting efforts for the artist.
It looks like PVRIS sold around 11k copies in their first week. Brand New did another 4k (a 94% drop from their chart-topping first week).
A new EP from Petal called Comfort is “coming soon.”
Walter Becker, co-founder of Steely Dan, has passed away. He was 67.