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Deryck Whibley Alleges Sexual Abuse by Former Manager

Sum 41
Jason Tate

Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 alleges he was sexually abused by the band’s former manager Greg Nori:

Whibley has talked about these challenges in interviews before. But there are key details about his life he’d shared only with a few people, revelations that he poured into the book. “I don’t know how to tell the real story without getting into some of this stuff, because it’s all intertwined with my life, intertwined with the music and in the band,” says Whibley. “It’s just such a big part of it.”

Throughout the pages of “Walking Disaster,” Whibley describes a fraught and frightening relationship with Sum 41’s first manager, Greig Nori, whom the singer alleges groomed and sexually and verbally abused him for years, starting when he was 16 and Nori was 34.

Green Day Banned by Las Vegas Radio

Green Day
Jason Tate

LOL. Green Day got banned by two Las Vegas radio stations:

Billie Joe Armstrong is from Oakland, California, the former home of the Oakland A’s. The MLB team is now moving to Las Vegas, and Armstrong does not like that. During a Green Day concert in San Francisco on Sept. 20, the frontman took a few shots at the team’s owner John Fisher, as well as Sin City as a whole: “We don’t take shit from people like fucking John Fisher…I hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst shithole in America.” Though a good chunk of the Bay Area audience probably agreed with those sentiments, a couple of Las Vegas radio stations took it personally.

Vegas rock station KOMP 92.3 announced in a recent Instagram post that they’d be banning Green Day’s music.

The Lasting Power of “All The Small Things”

Enema of the State
Jason Tate

Spin did a profile on Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” as it turns 25:

Blink didn’t jump at the idea. “I remember Mark saying, ‘I don’t think this is funny,’” recalls Siega. “And when I told Tom, ‘You’re gonna run down the beach with a dog chasing you’ [parodying Britney Spears’ “Sometimes” video], he went, ‘I don’t get it.’ The biggest challenge was getting them to understand what they were making fun of. They were hesitant. We had to really rehearse those dance sequences.”

Japandroids Detail the End of the Band

Japandroids
Jason Tate

An excellent feature on everything surrounding the final Japandroids’ album is up over at Stereogum:

These are standard talking points for a 41-year-old who has spent nearly half his life in a rock band. I imagine a glimpse into King’s personal life would endear fans who might otherwise be skeptical about a Japandroids album with a song called “Upon Sober Reflection.” But early sobriety and new fatherhood are special, fragile things of which anyone would be protective. Especially for someone like King, who is described by anyone who truly knows him with some variation of “intensely private.” If alcohol and lust were the lifeblood of Japandroids, it only stands to reason that serenity would be the death of them. But if anyone cops a resentment over King’s healthier, happier life, just know: You’ve been grieving a version of Japandroids that hasn’t existed for over a decade. Fate & Alcohol is the stage of acceptance

An Argument for Streaming Services to Label AI Music

Technology
Jason Tate

Ed Newton-Rex, writing for Music Business Worldwide:

First up, it’s worth saying that I don’t think DSPs should ban all AI music. There are clearly good use-cases for AI in music creation; if training data is licensed, these use-cases are worth supporting, at least in my book. (I do think a music streaming service will emerge that does explicitly reject all AI music, as Cara has done in the image space. And it will probably do well. But there are good reasons for most DSPs not to take such a blanket approach.)

As table stakes, DSPs should follow the example of other media platforms – Instagramand TikTok, for example – and label content that is generated by AI.

That way, music fans can at least choose what they listen to, and, therefore, what they support. Require uploaders to label AI music they upload, and introduce a post-upload moderation process for tracks that slip through the cracks. This is perfectly feasible. You hope that most uploaders will be honest – in general, people tend to prefer to be – and, for those who aren’t, there are a number of third-party systems that can detect AI music with a high degree of accuracy.

Tom DeLonge Talks With Spin

Blink-182
Jason Tate

Tom DeLonge talked with Spin:

“That said, Blink will be the priority forever,” he continues, his eyes lighting up. “Look at this dressing room. How do I go back from this fucking dressing room? We have to play stadiums, because I need a ping pong table in my dressing room. Honestly, I think this is a whole new beginning for the band. With what we’re planning on doing, who we’ve become, and how we’re doing it now I think it’s really, really exciting.”

Butch Walker Done Making Solo Albums

Butch Walker
Jason Tate

Butch Walker talked with Rolling Stone about the anniversary of Letters and how he’s done with solo albums:

“I don’t want to be that cliché of an aging artist that puts out new shit that nobody cares about,” Walker tells Rolling Stone. “And when you write so many records doing a certain thing, you start to worry about recycling and repeating yourself. I would rather celebrate a record that has an anniversary — and I have a lot of them. By the time I get through that cycle, I’m going to be like 900 years old.” […]

So, if Walker is serious about calling his solo career quits, would that make 2022’s Butch Walker as…Glenn, his excellent piano-man LP in the vein of Elton John and Billy Joel, his final album?

“Glenn was the swan song,” he confirms. “And I thought that when I did it. I just really needed to process it over a year or two and see if my theory held up.”

Instagram Lets Users Add Song to Profile

Instagram
Jason Tate

The Verge:

A new feature announced by Instagram today will allow users to add a song on their profile — much like Myspace in the early 2000s.

The music added to a user’s profile shows up in the bio area, according to screenshots shared by Instagram. A song will be featured on a profile until the user removes or replaces it. But unlike Myspace, songs won’t autoplay — people viewing a profile with a song can play and pause the track. 

Rocky Votolato Launches Kickstarter

Rocky Votolato
Jason Tate

Rocky Votolato has a Kickstarter up for a new band project.

I started a new band called Suzzallo!  Our debut album is called “The Quiet Year” and this record is deeply meaningful to me.  I absolutely can’t wait to share these songs with you guys. We are in the final stages of making the album now and could use your support to get it finished and released into the world!

StubHub Sued for Inflating Ticket Prices

Legal
Jason Tate

ABC News:

The attorney general for Washington, D.C., sued StubHub on Wednesday, accusing the ticket resale platform of advertising deceptively low prices and then ramping up prices with extra fees.

The practice known as “drip pricing” violates consumer protection laws in the nation’s capital, Attorney General Brian Schwalb said.

“StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost profits at its customers’ expense,” he said in a statement. 

The company said it is disappointed to be targeted, maintaining its practices are consistent with the law and competing companies as well as broader industry norms. “We strongly support federal and state solutions that enhance existing laws to empower consumers, such as requiring all-in pricing uniformly across platforms,” the company said in a statement.