KC Rae did a track-by-track breakdown of her latest album:
This was the track that made me realize I wanted to release my own music. It didn’t feel like anyone else’s, it felt like it was mine. I had never had that feeling before. It sits in that sweet spot for me of a hopeful melancholy. Sonically and lyrically. Things not turning out how you expected them to, but knowing it couldn’t and shouldn’t have gone any other way. And the release as a result of that.
A woman is filing a lawsuit against music executive Jimmy Iovine, alleging the Interscope Records co-founder sexually abused her and forcibly touched her, according to court documents. Iovine tells Rolling Stone he’s “shocked and baffled” by the claim.
A Jane Doe plaintiff filed a summons and notice on Wednesday in New York and alleges Iovine, 70, engaged in “multiple instances of sexual abuse and forcible touching of her, including a specific incident of sexual misconduct” that occurred in New York City in August 2007. The legal filing contained little additional information regarding the woman’s specific claims, but a lawsuit is expected by the end of the year. The woman also alleges that she faced sexual harassment and retaliation, and is seeking an unspecified amount of damages. Doe’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, declined to comment further on the case.
Anti-Flag’s Justin Sane has been sued in New York:
A statement from Sarhadi reads, in part, “Justin Geever used his platform as a celebrated, self-proclaimed ‘punk rockstar’ to groom and lure vulnerable girls into feeling safe in his presence. While he sang about protecting women and standing up to abusers, it appears he was hiding an addiction to power and control, harming countless women who have been unable to speak up before now. Today I hope to encourage his survivors, and survivors of other predators in the music industry, to feel hope again. What sexual predators take from us cannot be restored, but we are no longer the silent victims they want us to be.”
Spotify has officially announced their new royalty system:
However, as the royalty pool and catalog on Spotify have surged, three particular drains on the royalty pool have now reached a tipping point. So, we’re working in close collaboration with industry partners — artist distributors, independent labels, major labels, label distributors, and artists and their teams — to introduce new policies to (1) further deter artificial streaming, (2) better distribute small payments that aren’t reaching artists, and (3) rein in those attempting to game the system with noise.
Yahoo! UK is reporting that Blink-182 will be headlining next year’s Reading and Leeds:
The ‘All The Small Things’ rockers have reportedly left a gap in their touring schedule to accommodate the gigs, which take place over the August Bank Holiday weekend, and will receive a cool £1 million for the shows.
A source told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “Blink-182 is a huge get for Reading and Leeds, given the band’s recent surge in popularity.
Travis Barker of Blink-182 talks about the band, and life, in a recent interview:
Not only does Barker consider it their most personal record yet, but he also feels that the time they spent apart has resulted in them making some of their strongest work to date. “We had a lot to say, to write about and to experiment with after not being in the same band for however many years,” he says. “It was really exciting.”
“Everything has just been really organic,” he affirms. “If you’re just doing album cycle after album cycle, you do lose inspiration. For me, I’ve got to get out and live and experience something. I need some ups and downs. I need some of the best days of my life, and I need some tragedy.”
The grainy recording, just 17 seconds long, captures what indeed sounds like the catchy hook to an upbeat 1980s New Wave tune, though most of the words are hard to make out. It didn’t attract much interest at first. Yet as the months passed without an identification, each proposal of a potential artist being ruled out one after another, a cultish fascination began to take hold. Two years later, it’s the most-commented thread in WatZatSong history, and there’s a 5,000-strong subreddit devoted to theories about the song. Fans have recorded remixes and covers imagining the missing verses, generated longer versions with AI, and perpetrated successful hoaxes about where the original came from. But the fact remains: no one knows the band behind “Everyone Knows That.”
SAG-AFTRA negotiators have approved a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history.
In an announcement Wednesday, the union said the 118-day strike would officially end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.
The union’s negotiating committee approved the deal on a unanimous vote. The agreement next goes to the SAG-AFTRA national board for approval on Friday.
Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria has announced the next installment of The Amory Wars graphic novels, No World for Tomorrow, are now up for pre-order.
Clandestine Industries has released some new clothes.
Hayley Williams talked with Dolly Parton for a new Consequence feature:
Because I have so many friends in the rock business that would die to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – people that really spend their whole life doing that.
I’ll take anything you give me in country music because I feel like I will have earned it, because I’ve worked my whole life in it. But I felt like this was something they voted on and I did not want to take votes away from anybody, like a Pat Benatar. You know, the girls that were in the business.
I just said I did not want to do it. It caused a bit of a controversy, and I did not want to stir up controversy. I’m always trying to keep things as calm as I can.
So anyway, they went ahead and put me in it anyhow. [Laughs] They explained why they do it – it’s people’s music that had influenced other people’s music, or whatever. So I said, “If they put me in, I’ll accept it gracefully,” but I still didn’t feel like I’d earned it. And I had often talked about doing a rock album, and well, I’m also not one to miss timing. So I thought, if I’m ever gonna do it, I’m doing it now, so I can feel I earned it.
Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem helped review all of the band’s albums:
Here’s something that nobody knows: Brendan was going to do that record. What happened was our label and the band was like, “No, we’re not going to do another record with Brendan.” Especially the label. They were like, “No, fuck Brendan, you can’t work with him again.” They had some beef with Brendan. And my band was like, “He didn’t listen to us. He only listened to you.” I was like, “Yeah, but I’m listening to you, so whatever I’m saying, he’s getting it from you, too.” There was a little divide there. I didn’t make the call that I probably should have made, which is to put my foot down and say, “No, we’re going to go with Brendan.” Instead I said, “All right, we’re going to fire Brendan.” And that was the biggest mistake, because Brendan is still pissed at me about that. That ended my friendship with Brendan. I don’t think he ever got over that. But I was like, “Dude, I want to make a record with you, but my band doesn’t. What am I supposed to do? I’m in a band, man.” At the same time, I was going through a divorce. I had just gotten a house and now I’m giving the house away. That shit is weird. It’s like you get to the mountain top and then your life falls apart.
Steve Knopper, writing for Billboard:
The major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, have recently overhauled contracts for new signees, according to top music attorneys, some demanding artists wait an unprecedented 10, 15 or even 30 years to re-record releases after departing their record companies. “The first time I saw it, I tried to get rid of it entirely,” says Josh Karp, a veteran attorney, who has viewed the new restrictions in UMG contracts. “I was just like, ‘What is this? This is strange. Why would we agree to further restrictions than we’ve agreed to in the past with the same label?’”
And:
Adds Dina LaPolt, a music attorney with a long history of grappling with labels over contracts: “Now, because of all this Taylor Swift stuff, we have an even new negotiation. It’s awful. We’re seeing a lot of ‘perpetuity.’ When we were negotiating deals with lawyers, before we would get the proposal, we’d get the phone call from the head of business affairs. We literally would say, ‘If you send that to me, it will be on Twitter in 10 minutes.’ It never showed up.”
Blink-182 have the number one album in the country.
Blink-182’s One More Time bows atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Nov. 4), securing the rock trio its third chart-topping set. The new full-length studio album begins with 125,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 26, according to Luminate, largely powered by traditional album sales.
One More Time is Blink-182’s first album with the group’s longtime lineup of drummer Travis Barker, vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge since DeLonge departed the group in 2015 for seven years, and the first studio effort from that trio since 2012’s Dogs Eating Dogs EP.
You love to see it.
Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 talked with Polygon:
So the spirit of Monsters of California is that ghosts are real, Bigfoot is real, UFOs are real, demonic possession is real, orbs of light are real — it’s all happening. And it’s not weird or unique or rare; it is a part of the fabric of existence. So if you go into the ocean, you’re gonna see a jellyfish, you’re gonna see a dolphin, you’re gonna see a whale, then you’re gonna see a boat. And then you’re gonna see a Coke can and some banana peels float by, and you’re gonna realize there’s an island somewhere.
You’d have no idea the ocean is a lot bigger than the jellyfish. It’s got everything in it, and things in it that make no sense that are left over from somewhere else. That’s kind of the point, is that “paranormal” just means “more than normal.” But pretty soon, it will be just normal. Frequencies of life are intersecting, and in certain locations in certain places, we will see the echoes of that. And we will interact with that. And we will understand that. We won’t call it weird. We are at a point now where it’s an inflection point on our understanding of consciousness.
And:
No, Blink is gonna continue. This thing’s a monster. I mean, the band’s bigger than it’s ever been, by miles. On paper, I guess it makes sense, but in my heart, it doesn’t, because I feel like a skateboarder from East County, San Diego. I don’t know how I got this position. Looking at old videos of us, I’m like, Have I really been doing this shit for, like, 27 years? But it’s bigger than it’s ever been. Somehow it’s relevant.
I get it on paper — the songs are catchy, there’s a lot of energy, so it’s fun. The humor and friendship and brotherhood, everyone can relate to. Maybe that’s all you need. But I know that exists in other bands, too, so I’m not quite sure why it’s all working the way it is. But I am so grateful. It’s weird, because for so long, people were annoyed by these dumb skateboarder kids that would tell dick jokes on stage, singing pop songs. They would say we were like the Beach Boys on meth. But, fuck, the Beach Boys are fucking good — I wish I was that good! But here we are still doing it