Meg Myers’ performance of “Motel” on Conan is now online.
Meg Myers Performs “Motel” on Conan
Tom DeLonge Talks With Rolling Stone, Says He’s Still in Blink-182
Tom DeLonge has given a new interview with Rolling Stone about aliens, UFOs, and stuff like that. You’d think that would be the strangest part of the interview. It’s not. When discussing Blink-182, Tom says (emphasis added):
“I love those guys,” he continues, “The only thing I think about is, I want them to be happy. [But] I don’t want the legacy of the band to get fucked with. I do care about that. I don’t want an incredible legacy to be ruined.” Still, he says, he’s not closing the door on playing with them again. “I’m not opposed to it. I still would be interested, if people would just pick up the phone and call.” (Confusingly, DeLonge gets in touch with Rolling Stone a few weeks later saying, “I am currently in the band.” He maintains that he has never officially quit or been fired.)
Netflix to Release ‘Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later”
Lesley Goldberg, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, on the news that Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later is confirmed for a Netflix release:
The Wet Hot: Ten marks the second Netflix follow-up to the movie. The streaming giant last year released the eight-episode Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, a prequel series featuring the movie’s original stars. The new incarnation will again be written by Showalter and Wain, with the latter on board to direct. Showalter, Wain, Peter Principato, Jonathan Stern and Howard Bernstein are set to exec produce.
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Inside “Emojigeddon”
Charlie Warzel, writing for BuzzFeed News, with an oddly fascinating tale of trouble and political infighting at the Unicode Consortium (the people that get to define what gets to be an emoji or not):
The series of frustrated messages show a deepening rift between those who adhere to the organization’s original mission to code old and obscure and minority languages and those who are investing time and resources toward Unicode’s newer and most popular character sets: emojis, a quirky periodic table of ideograms and smiley faces that cover everything from bemused laughter to swirling, smiling piles of poop. The correspondence offers a peek behind the scenes of the peculiar and little-known organization that’s unexpectedly been tasked with building what some see as the first digital universal language.
Bring on stuffed flatbread!
Dustin Kensrue Talks Lyric Themes of New Album
Dustin Kensrue of Thrice talked with BaebleMusic about the band’s upcoming album and some of the themes expressed throughout:
I would definitely say that we’ve drawn a lot of our influence from the current state of politics, but I also like to personalize things when I write, and I’ve always written that way. I’d say on the new album that half of the songs are like ‘Blood on the Sand,’ and bring out that much more hard-hitting political dialogue, especially given that it’s an election year, but I’d also say that we try to write beyond the politics of issues. Maybe it’s more that we’re writing about something broader, like society…culture even. I feel that my writing is about the way I take in what’s going on within society, and the importance I feel about certain issues leads me to doing my own personal research on them, which often translates into a song. One of the political issues we talk about in this album is the song ‘Whistleblower,’ which is about Edward Snowden, and then there’s the song ‘Black Honey,’ which delves into the political as well.
The Classic Crime Launch Kickstarter
The Classic Crime have launched a Kickstarter for their new album.
We are recording brand new music and we need your help to finish it (mixing, mastering, manufacturing, marketing, any other m-words that require the m-word, etc). By backing this project you will not only receive some phantasmagorical rewards, you will also ensure that our next album is the best sounding music we can possibly create, making you an integral part of the whole thing. We are thankful to have the most loyal supporters in the world, and we are hopeful we will reach and exceed our goal. There’s no more middle man. It’s just you and us.
Your Media Business Will Not Be Saved
Joshua Topolsky, writing on Medium, about the struggles the media industry now faces:
A second thing happened alongside those foundational publishing challenges: this industry which had controlled its ability to reach a populace through ownership of things like printing presses began to cede its power in the delivery and distribution process to other people. People who didn’t care about or understand the media business. People who told them the answer wasn’t the best of something, it was the most of something.
Partially this was done out of fear, but mostly it was done out of ignorance.
Obviously this is a topic near and dear to my heart. It’s why I’m trying something different with this website. And, well, this first month has been a rollercoaster. So far we’ve had one of the biggest unique visitor months a website I’ve run has seen in quite a while, we’re going to go past 4.5 million pageviews, our time on site and retention numbers have been fantastic, and a few hundred have already signed up to support this website, the content we are putting out, and the community we’ve been building. I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from our sponsors and advertisers about the new model we’re trying out and they seem to be loving the exposure they’re seeing. I’ve heard from a lot of members that love how fast the site loads, love how quickly they can find what they are looking for, and have enjoyed our features, community, and even the advertisements themselves. But mostly they seem as excited as I am about the course we’re headed down.
Is this going to work long-term? I’m still not sure. But it’s a start. I hope we’re making the “good shit” that Topolsky writes about here. I think we are. There’s still a very long road to self-sustainability, but this time I at least feel like we’re in the right vehicle and it’s pointed in the right direction.
Last Call for AbsolutePunk Pin Pre-Orders
This is the last week we’re going to have pre-orders up for the AbsolutePunk.net commemorative logo pin through Hard Rock’s Online Rock Shop. So, if you want one of these little guys, now is the time to make sure you get your order in. This entire thing has been a lot of fun and introduced me into the world of pin collecting. I didn’t even know this was a thing until we put this together. Now I’m seeing them everywhere, and if my favorite bands start putting these out my wallet may be in trouble. I mean, I already saw the limited edition Portland Timbers one and kinda want it. If Blink put out one of their logo? Or a little floating Brand New spaceman? Yeah, I’d have no idea where I’d even store them and I’d want all the pins. But I digress.
Last call for pre-orders on Hard Rock’s Online Rock Shop.
Prince Tops Billboard Charts (Week Ending April 21st)
Prince’s albums The Very Best of Prince and Purple Rain are the top two albums on the Billboard 200 this week.
The Very Best of Prince earned 179,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 21 (up 10,872 percent compared to the previous week). Of that sum, 100,000 were in traditional album sales (up 11,232 percent). As for Purple Rain, it shifted 69,000 units (63,000 in pure album sales; up 3,101 percent).
Prince died on April 21, the final day of the latest tracking week for the new chart, meaning that fans rushed to purchase his music in the roughly half-day left in the tracking week (after the news broke around 10 a.m. PT), enough to send him to Nos. 1 and 2. We will see continued impact from the icon’s passing on the following week’s chart, dated May 14 (reflecting activity in the week ending April 28).
Morrissey Blogs About Prince
Morrissey, writing on True to You:
Although a long-serving vegan and a strong advocate of the abolition of the abattoir, neither of these points was mentioned in the one hundred television reports that I witnessed yesterday as they covered the enchanted life and sad death of Prince. The points were not mentioned because they are identified as expressions against e$tabli$hment interests, therefore we, mere galley slaves, aren’t allowed to know. Prince has influenced the world more than is suspected, and somehow the life of his music is just beginning, and he would be thanked not only by humans but also animals for living his lyrical life as he did. Humans, you see, are not the world.
MTV to Bring Back “Unplugged”
Steven Zeitchik, writing for the LA Times:
“Unplugged,” which could be on the air in coming months, will stoke the interest of those who came of age with artists such as Nirvana, Eric Clapton and Arrested Development breaking down their music to its acoustic basics, often with some added atmosphere.
“It won’t be carpets and candles,” Erik Flannigan, executive vice president of music and multiplatform strategy, said of the new show. “And it won’t be rock legends playing their catalog. “What we want to do,” he said, “is take the attributes that made ‘Unplugged’ such a success for so many years and reimagine them for 2016.”
The Lack of Diversity at Bled Fest
Bled Fest have posted a blog on their website discussing, kind of, why they don’t have more diverse roster at this year’s festival:
Is there a responsibility on us or other event producers like us to even pay any attention to races, genders, etc.? Is there a quota? Let’s just roll with an estimate of 10%. If 10% of applications represent minorities, should I book 10% of acts featuring minorities? 15%? 20%? Should we specifically attempt to go outside of who submitted and the agents we work with (defined earlier as almost entirely white males) to make sure that there’s a fair % of minorities represented? and what’s fair? Do we focus more on race and gender than we do on skill, promotional value, achievement, professionalism, etc.?
I think this is a false choice. I don’t think looking at the reasons for why certain music scenes lack diversity means you need to ignore other metrics. Using phrases like “affirmative action” and “quotas” misses the entire damn point: do better than you’re doing right now. Let’s start there.
Dr. Drew Is Ending ‘Loveline’
Dr. Drew has announced he’s resigning from Loveline and ending the show.
On Thursday, April 28th, Loveline will air its final broadcast with special co-host Adam Carolla. The two will continue on together with the Adam and Dr. Drew Podcast, with more details to be announced.
Time’s 100 Most Influential of 2016
Kendrick Lamar, Adele, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and 96 others have been named to Time’s 100 Most Influential of 2016 list.
Kendrick should be applauded for inviting us to face things that are uncomfortable, for celebrating our will to survive and for being audacious enough to grapple with the questions that we all need to answer if we ever hope to get free.
I was surprised to not see Taylor Swift on this list.
Study Says Dyson Hand Dryers Spread More Germs
Beth Mole, writing for Ars Technica, on how Dyson hand dryers spread viruses in bathrooms:
Researchers have long known that warm air hand dryers can launch bacteria into the air—compared to dabbing with paper towels, which unleashes virtually none. But new jet air dryers, made by Dyson, are significantly more problematic—they launch far more viruses into the air, which linger for longer periods of time and reach much farther distances, researchers recently reported in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. This is particularly concerning because viruses, unlike many infectious bacteria, can easily maintain their infectiousness in the air and on surfaces, and just a few viral particles can spark an infection.