Craig’s Brother have launched a campaign to raise funds for a new EP.
Craig’s Brother Raising Money for a New EP
Mark and Matt Talks Next Blink-182 Album
NME sat down with Mark Hoppus and Matt Skiba of Blink-182:
I think this album took Blink back to its roots and what it’s all about, and I think on the next record, we want to push that boundary again. We’ll keep the core of Blink 182 but we’ll get a little more experimental. Kind of like what we did on the untitled record, which we’re all really proud of. It still sounded like Blink and had that Blink feeling, but it was different and a little more thought out.
Music to my ears.
Geoff Rickly on Bro Culture in the Music Scene
Here’s a great thread on Twitter from Geoff Rickly of Thursday talking about toxic masculinity in the music scene:
There are so many idiotic and arrogant statements made by members of both bands in this article. A lot of muddling of issues and bro culture. There’s a recurring idea that sexual assault, misogyny & worse are all “just rock & roll”- maybe that’s why it’s on the decline? Mocking safe spaces at giant fests while courting an audience comprised of a significant number of minors is fucking gross. Pretending that “dangerous” in the context of punk means degrading women or using the stage to bully someone shows you don’t “get it.” The idea of “danger” in punk has had many meanings. All of them subversive: People of different class, race, gender and orientation infiltrating the R&R boys club is dangerous. Being DIY and going against corporate control of music is dangerous. Even playing with such intensity and abandon that you put the moment over your own physical well being is dangerous. The Clash, Nirvana, Black Flag, Bikini Kill, Fugazi… all dangerous. This nonsense on the other hand. This is a fucking frat party. Gross. Unsafe. But not “dangerous” in the context of punk.
Brian Fallon on No Plus Ones Podcast
Brian Fallon is the guest on the latest episode of the No Plus Ones Podcast.
Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem joins us to kick off our second series, Critical Acclaim. Here, we explore how musicians, critics, and the people who fall into both cambs deal with music journalists, harsh reviews, and constant online criticism.
I really enjoyed this episode. If you’re a fan of The Gaslight Anthem, it’s definitely worth a listen.
Lynn Gvnn and Tegan Quin Interview Each Other
Lynn Gvnn of PVRIS and Tegan Quinn of Tegan and Sara interviewed each other for Nylon:
I think there were genuine fears and concerns that being “out” would hinder our success within our team or the label, but, for us, we saw no future in the mainstream, so once we were embraced by alternative music, we just pushed forward full steam ahead and accepted that we were going to be seen as a “lesbian band.” And we were okay with that. I think being women held us back much more often than being gay. We worked in alternative music for 10 years before we moved to pop. And that’s a man’s world. Us being gay may have helped us there rather than hurt us.
SoundCloud is in Trouble
SoundCloud Ltd. is cutting about 40 percent of its staff in a cost-cutting move the digital music service says will give it a better financial footing to compete against larger rivals Spotify Ltd. and Apple Inc.
SoundCloud, which in January said it was at risk of running out of money, informed staff on Thursday that 173 jobs would be eliminated. It had 420 employees. The company’s operations will be consolidated at its headquarters in Berlin and another office in New York. Offices in San Francisco and London will be shut.
Guess I should start giving serious thought to where I’d host the podcast if they go under.
Boyz II Men Feature on New Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters talked a little about what to expect on their new album on BBC Radio 1. NME reports:
Speaking to BBC 6 Music about the ‘weirdest moment’ of recording the album, Grohl replied: “The guy from Boyz II Men walking through the parking lot and me saying ‘would you sing on our record?’ And he does – on the heaviest song on the entire record.”
Behind the Scenes of the MTV News
Jordan Sargent, writing at Spin, with a detailed look at the what happened over at MTV News:
It was a fairly gentle critique of a band who, pretty much anyone would agree, is no longer putting out its best music. Still, the article became an immediate source of trouble for MTV and it was quietly deleted after the band raised concerns with executives at the network. […] Hopper called a staff meeting two days later to discuss the situation. According to an ex-staff member who attended the meeting, Hopper explained that the band became aware of the article and threatened to remove itself from the MTV Europe Music Awards.
And:
Conversations between senior staff and artist representatives on the topic of what would be accepted on the site happened with some regularity. On July 5, 2016, Hopper told the staff that MTV was attempting to book DJ Khaled for various unknown projects, telling the staff that they might have to “nix” any writing on the producer “unless it’s like, KHALED IS GREAT.” Elsewhere, interference from artist reps was so pervasive that some MTV News editors spent part of this past New Year’s Eve haggling line-by-line with a chart-topping, platinum-selling, Grammy-winning female pop star’s publicist over a post in which MTV’s editors eventually agreed to cut one sentence.
What a complete shit-show.
DJ Khaled Tops the Charts
DJ Khaled has the number one album this week:
The set — which was released on June 23 through We the Best/Epic Records — earned 149,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 29, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 50,000 were in traditional album sales.
New York Times Interviews Producer No I.D.
Joe Coscarelli, at The New York Times, sat down with producer No I.D. to talk about working with Jay-Z on his latest album:
He went home, wakes up at 4:44 [a.m.] and calls Guru over [to record]. I was blown away. I just walked out of the studio and wanted to go find my wife and hug her. I told him that’s the best song he’s ever written. Everything it covers about being a man, being in a relationship, being a father, how you affect your kids. These things don’t really get touched on in music, especially in hip-hop.
PVRIS Talk With Billboard
PVRIS’ Lynn Gunn spoke with Billboard about the band’s upcoming album:
I think one of the biggest things, though, is just I’m a complete perfectionist and control freak and you have to let go of control at some point or to some extent in this career and in this industry. It’s just like you need to let go and give up your power a little bit, and so the biggest thing from me was stress from that and then also just pressure to do well and pressure to, like, stay true and be a good person and perform well. You always have to have your game face on, so at some point, I just started suppressing every emotion and bottled it up and swept it under the carpet and never went back to it, and it just created this ongoing snowball of just feeling empty and numb and not really absorbing emotions or experiences for what they were — being in situations, but not being there. This record is just mostly about that and learning to let go and be vulnerable again — be in your emotions and actually feel them without suppressing them or avoiding them.
Women in Tech Speak Frankly on Culture of Harassment
Katie Benner, writing for The New York Times:
Their stories came out slowly, even hesitantly, at first. Then in a rush.
One female entrepreneur recounted how she had been propositioned by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist while seeking a job with him, which she did not land after rebuffing him. Another showed the increasingly suggestive messages she had received from a start-up investor. And one chief executive described how she had faced numerous sexist comments from an investor while raising money for her online community website.
Reports: Kanye Leaves Tidal
TMZ is reporting that Kanye West has ended his relationship with the music service Tidal:
Our sources say a month ago Kanye’s lawyer sent a letter to Tidal, saying the company was in breach and the contract was terminated. Over the next 2 weeks lawyers for both sides tried to resolve the conflict but failed. We’re told 2 weeks ago Kanye’s lawyer fired off a second letter declaring again the contract was over.
Fall Out Boy Appear on ‘Teen Titans Go’
Fall Out Boy made a guest appearance on a recent episode of Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go.
Let’s Not Mistake The Dickies’ Onstage Warped Tour Rant for Anything but Misogyny
Shawna Potter, writing at Noisey:
I wish I could laugh it off with some clever joke, like “the Dickies are just boys who are as immature as their name,” but they’re not boys, they’re not immature; they are grown men. And the grown-man lead singer of the Dickies had such a problem with one single woman holding a protest sign during their set (not a group of friends, as he reported), that he threw a tantrum about it.
The anger that erupted in Phillips is always under the surface of men like this, even beneath their onstage characters. They do not like being challenged in any way, especially by women. And they definitely don’t equate their right to free speech with anyone else’s. In fact, they see others’ right to free speech as an affront to their own, and in this case, one to be met with anger and hate. That’s not punk.
And:
This incident highlights one of the often overlooked problems the music industry in general has been plagued with. While recent controversies at Warped have typically revolved around young male performers in their early 20s engaging in predatory behavior, there is a subset of older men, waving the “punk/rock/metal means free speech” flag as an excuse to put others at risk. This seems to always get shrugged off because they’re elder statesmen of the genre and are connected to the right people. But how do you suppose they got that far? At one point they were all young men pushing the limits of what they could get away with, a cycle that repeats itself each time their friends turn a blind eye and victims are silenced or belittled because someone really liked that one song they wrote.
That’s why it’s so important that we call out bad behavior when it happens, especially with our friends, no matter what band they’re in.