Brandon Flowers of The Killers talked with The UK Times:
“This is the crisis I’m in,” he says, sighing. “The Killers are my identity and our songs fill the seats, but I’m more fulfilled making music likePressure Machine. I found a side of myself writing it that was strong. This was the guy I’d been looking for! I’m as proud of Hot Fuss as you can be for something you did when you were 20, but I’m not 20. So I’m thinking about the next phase of my life.”
MxPx talked about their new album with Alternative Press:
The songs were chosen based on what fit together. There are some great songs that we didn’t end up putting on the record or recording. But we try to get to having a theme, having something people can parse into themes without actually saying it out loud because then you really make your whole thing about that. And really it’s about whatever people want it to be. The songs will find people in their lives in different places. So I don’t know if we really overthink it to that degree or if I’m just thinking about it now. Like with the artwork, Find a Way Home, all of that. We could tell a deeper story, and I think we will, but just put some images out there. Is he in space, or is he on Earth? Honestly, it could be both. You just don’t know exactly. Sure, it’s in space or a spaceship or something. But maybe he’s going back to Earth, [or] maybe he’s coming from Earth.
The New York Times sits down with Ben Gibbard to talk about Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service:
I felt very self-conscious. I was already dealing with the weight of expectations on “Transatlanticism.” My ability to write both of those albums concurrently was predicated by a year-ish long break Death Cab took from touring. We had almost broken up, and we had a meeting where we decided to take some time away. During that break, there wasn’t nearly the same sense of expectation to the songs I was writing. Yes, there were fans of Death Cab who I’m sure were anticipating a new record, but in 2001 and 2002, the band still felt very small. But by the time that “Give Up” was out and had gone gold, and we’re touring “Transatlanticism” with Pearl Jam — we literally signed with Atlantic Records backstage at a Pearl Jam show — I was feeling a ton of pressure from my main gig.
Eventually Jimmy and I had a conversation where we were like, “Hey, this isn’t happening, is it?” He was the perfect partner. Jimmy is the most easygoing dude in the world. If I had made “Give Up”with someone who was a little more success-oriented, or career-oriented, it would’ve gone very poorly.
Los Angeles Magazine talked with Hayley Williams:
“It feels like a crazy victory lap and she’s not even close to the end of her career,” Williams says of the stadium trek. “It’s just so historic to be a part of it. Both [Taylor and I] started really young and we’ve grown up alongside our fan bases, and that makes both of our stories really unique in a way that we get to come together from two different sides of the industry. Paramore isn’t quite mainstream, but people know our band, and we’ve had a really lucky, long career thus far. For both of us to be feeling like we’re in our prime now in our early thirties, career-wise, that’s just so special, and we don’t take it for granted. I’m so grateful that all these years later, we’ve stayed connected.”
Williams’ favorite Swift era? “Speak Now — since it came out it’s been my favorite Taylor record ever,” she enthuses. “The fact that I got to be on Taylor’s version of a vault track [“Castles Crumbling”] was just like kismet. I really got to know her when she was writing that record and I was so enamored. … She is the epitome of a songwriter, you know, just someone that will stop in the middle of your conversation and say, I have to write this down, or I have to record this. I was so in love with how passionate and present she always was.”
Ian Watkins was stabbed multiple times in prison over the weekend:
Former Lostprophets singer and convicted pedophile Ian Watkins sustained multiple stab wounds after being held hostage by other inmates in the British prison where he is currently serving a 29-year sentence on sex offenses involving young children.
Following the incident, Watkins was hospitalized with injuries the Sky News reported were “not life-threatening.” According to their report, Watkins was taken hostage by three fellow prisoners Saturday morning, leading to a six-hour standoff with corrections officers during which Watkins was repeatedly stabbed and beaten by the inmates.
Sinéad O’Connor has passed away. She was 56.
An excerpt from Geoff Rickly of Thursday’s book has been shared on The Ringer:
Huddling behind a parked car across the street from our apartment, I watch our front door, waiting for Liza to leave. She has a work event tonight. I’ve kept track of them in my calendar so I know which nights I’ll be able to use openly in the comfort of my own home. When she finally steps out, she looks incredible—armored in a lightweight, thigh-length, chain mail dress, shoulders draped in a chic, black trench coat, makeup sophisticated and smoky.
It burns, seeing her like that. I tell myself, Sometimes appearances are all we have. She probably feels worse than you do. Taking stock of myself—a man hiding behind an old Toyota Corolla with a garbage bag in his hands—I know it isn’t true. She doesn’t feel worse than I do. No one does.
Taylor Swift has broken the record for most number one albums by a female artist:
Taylor Swift’s third re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated July 22), launching with the year’s biggest week for any album, and gives Swift her 12th No. 1, surpassing Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1 albums among women.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) bows with 716,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 13, according to Luminate, of which 507,000 are in traditional album sales. Both figures represent the largest week for any album in 2023 and the best since Swift’s last studio album, Midnights, debuted with 1.58 million units, of which 1.14 million were in album sales, last year (week ending Oct. 27, 2022; as reflected on the Nov. 5-dated Billboard 200).
Fall Out Boy reaches the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead act for the first time since 2016, as its update of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” debuts at No. 94 on the July 15-dated tally.
The reimagination bows with 4.7 million official U.S. streams, 767,000 radio audience impressions and 9,000 downloads in the June 30-July 6 tracking period, according to Luminate.
Linn worked with Jony Ive to create the Sondek LP12-50 turntable. It’s only $60,000 and there are only 250 in existence.
LoveFrom has applied their design expertise to the new, precision-machined power/speed control button and hinges – providing delightful and precise interaction with the turntable. Further aesthetic refinements to the classic Sondek LP12 form have been made with deep respect for the quality and integrity of the product.
The combination of performance, usability, and aesthetic improvements result in an historic piece with unrivalled sonic quality and beauty. Only 250 of these limited edition Sondek LP12-50s will ever be produced – with each bearing an embossed aluminium plaque celebrating this landmark collaboration with individual numbering.
Ethan Millman, writing at Rolling Stone:
Over 100 artists including Rage Against the Machine co-founders Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha, along with Boots Riley and Speedy Ortiz, have announced that they are boycotting any concert venue that uses facial recognition technology, citing concerns that the tech infringes on privacy and increases discrimination.
The boycott, organized by the digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, calls for the ban of face-scanning technology at all live events. Several smaller independent concert venues across the country, including the House of Yes in Brooklyn, the Lyric Hyperion in Los Angeles, and Black Cat in D.C., also pledged to not use facial recognition tech for their shows. Other artists who said they would boycott include Anti-Flag, Wheatus, Downtown Boys, and over 80 additional artists. The full list of signatories is available here.
Spotify is reportedly planning to include lossless audio streaming in a new, more expensive subscription tier codenamed “Supremium” internally, according to Bloomberg. The lossless streaming feature was first announced in February 2021 as “Spotify HiFi,” but is still yet to release over two years later. Bloomberg reports that the new more expensive plan could release later this year, initially in non-US markets.
The pricing of Spotify HiFi has been a source of much speculation in the years since its announcement, especially after competitors Amazon Music and Apple Music started offering lossless streaming as part of their standard plans at no additional charge. Bloomberg reports that Spotify delayed the release of HiFi after Amazon and Apple’s announcements.
Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance is selling some stuff on Reverb.
On June 19 (from midnight (PT) June 19 to midnight (PT) June 20), we’ll hold our annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where we donate 100% of our share of sales* to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to support their ongoing efforts to promote racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education.
Mia Sato, writing for The Verge:
[Jennifer] Dziura still updates her personal blog — these are words for people.
The shop blog, meanwhile, is the opposite. Packed with SEO keywords and phrases and generated using artificial intelligence tools, the Get Bullish store blog posts act as a funnel for consumers coming from Google Search, looking for things like Mother’s Day gifts, items with swear words, or gnome decor. On one hand, shoppers can peruse a list of products for sale — traffic picks up especially around holidays — but the words on the page, Dziura says, are not being read by people. These blogs are for Google Search.
Nick Heer comments:
The sharp divergence between writing for real people and creating material for Google’s use has become so obvious over the past few years that it has managed to worsen both Google’s own results and the web at large. The small business owners profiled by Sato are in an exhausting fight with automated chum machines generating supposedly “authoritative” articles. When a measure becomes a target — well, you know.
Amen. Pieced together with this article talking about just how badly Reddit (and Twitter) fucked up really puts a point on just how much worse the internet has become:
We are living through the end of the useful internet. The future is informed discussion behind locked doors, in Discords and private fora, with the public-facing web increasingly filled with detritus generated by LLMs, bearing only a stylistic resemblance to useful information. Finding unbiased and independent product reviews, expert tech support, and all manner of helpful advice will now resemble the process by which one now searches for illegal sports streams or pirated journal articles. The decades of real human conversation hosted at places like Reddit will prove useful training material for the mindless bots and deceptive marketers that replace it.
I guess there’s a reason I’m nostalgic for, and still run, a blog that’s about stuff I want to write about. But I’d be lying if I don’t feel like a dying breed. A dinosaur watching the astroid from my bedroom window.