Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:
Has AI coding reached a tipping point? That seems to be the case for Spotify at least, which shared this week during its fourth-quarter earnings call that the best developers at the company “have not written a single line of code since December.” That statement, from Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström, came alongside other comments about how the company is using AI to accelerate development.
Frank Turner recently say down with PunkNews:
At the actual start of my solo career I really didn’t fit anywhere: I didn’t really want to be the token acoustic guy in the British punk scene. At the time all of my friends were part of the kind of Libertines thing, bands like the Holloways and the Pidgeon Detectors. And then there was the folk thing with Munford & Sons and Laura Marlin. I was on the edge of three different scenes: I did shows with Munford & Sons, with Gallows, with Baby Shambles but I didn’t quite fit in any of these worlds. There were days when that was pretty frustrating to me because, if you fit in a certain scene and that scene blows up, life is easy. For a time anyway. I remember Jamie T, who was a good friend of mine, we played open mic shows together and then he just exploded while I stayed small.
Hayley Williams has written a new essay on her blog:
in 2026, Trump, our president once more, still shits his suits and lies through his teeth about everything. in 2026, Project 2025 is 51% complete and we’re now talking about a Project 2026. ICE (fuck em), Epstein (fuck em), cities who mismanage and put profits over people (fuck em) , multiple genocides (FUCKKKK em)— only a few of the huge issues dominating the news cycle and our collective minds. it’s an exhausting time to just be human, especially if you are a human on the side of liberty and justice for ALL.
the career i’ve chosen allows me to engage with a lot of people directly, through art and through live events. this year, i’ll be even more outside than i was last year, seeing the world over, up close. i still feel very lucky that, as someone who struggles dearly with my mind and a hyper-vigilant nervous system, i get to spend a lot of time together with the people in some capacity. i get to partake in the much needed catharsis live music offers us and to connect with other humans. it’s kind of the only way i see myself staying remotely hopeful in the face of… everything.
New Found Glory sat down with Kerrang!:
“They’re caring about me and they want to know how I am,” rationalises Chad, “But my answer is only ever two things: I’m dying or I’m doing good. What I was finding over the past two or three years is there’s a way of talking through the suffering that keeps them in the negative headspace.
“You want someone to ask if you’ve seen the latest TV show, like Welcome To Derry, and to tell you it’s awesome. I’d rather someone just talk to me like that, like a normal person. There are people in my life that have struggled with what I’m going through more than me. That puts a stress on me where I’m like, ‘I’m having a good day, and you brought it to a place that I don’t want to be in.’ So that’s what [You Got This] is about. It’s saying thank you for caring, but don’t use this as a tool for connection for yourself.”
The Format talked with The Aquarian:
Nate: I’ve always been a psychopath about sequence. For me it’s [about] the final song. In the past we’ve maybe got a little prog about it. Any album I do, it’s always about the first song and the last song, and what happens in between. The first song tees you up. The last song sends you away. This is the exact same way. It just feels like a very cohesive album stylistically. It does allow the songs to flow together nicely.
Britney Spears has sold her musical catalog to Primary Wave.
Aisha Malik, writing for TechCrunch:
Spotify is rolling out a new “About the Song” feature that lets users explore the stories behind the music they’re listening to, the company announced on Friday. The feature displays short story cards that users can swipe through and rate with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
These short, swipeable stories are summarized from third-party sources to highlight interesting details and behind-the-scenes moments, the company says.
Motion City Soundtrack talk with Rolling Stone about ICE taking over their hometown:
Pierre: It becomes really real when it does happen in your city, or in my case at my kid’s school. I was told that ICE agents showed up at the elementary school one day and got out of their vehicles. They didn’t do anything but they were walking around the school with their guns in the air, and then left. All the kids ran to the window and saw that, and they were scared out of their minds. They’re weaponizing children and they’re terrorizing them and traumatizing them.
Cain: It felt real in a different way, like when the pandemic started and you had that deep pit in your stomach. I started seeing friends of mine filming atrocities, like literal crimes on the streets and watched the way the people that are supposed to be in authority show who they are. I mean, not even the military rolls around without name tags on. What the fuck is this? It felt like we were being attacked.
Netflix is spicing up its documentary slate with a new film about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, set to premiere on March 20.
Directed by Ben Feldman (“Bug Out,” “Rich & Shameless”), “The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers” examines the gritty, formative years of the Los Angeles band, and the influence of original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988. The film features interviews with bandmates Flea and Anthony Kiedis, as well as others who were close to Slovak, who discuss the band’s early evolution and the deep bond of their childhood friendship.
Spanish Love Songs have given an update on their new album:
Chris Walla & Sarah Tudzin are each producing half of the record. Sarah is mixing as well.
I wrote 15ish decent songs for it (and a lot of bad ideas prior). Probably recording 13. Putting 10 on the thing in a perfect world.
The Format talked with The Washington Post:
Even though the songs were piling up, Ruess wasn’t sure if he wanted to release any of them. He called up his old partner Means for a gut check, and they spent a few days hanging out in Santa Barbara, listening to his demos, adding a bridge when a song needed it. “I didn’t know what it was, but I was just happy to be there,” Means says.
At first, Means thought he was helping out on a Nate Ruess solo record. But they eventuallydecided it was a Format album, and Ruess called in prolificalt-rock producer Brendan O’Brien.
It was going to be a rock album, full stop. No pianos. Roaring electric guitars. In the same vein as the albums O’Brien produced for Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen. O’Brien wasn’t entirely convinced, but he loved the demos. “I actually told him you cannot help but write pop songs,” O’Brien says. “This is what you do. You understand that, right?”
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, created and then publicly shared at least 1.8 million sexualized images of women, according to separate estimates of X data by The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Starting in late December, users on the social media platform inundated the chatbot’s X account with requests to alter real photos of women and children to remove their clothes, put them in bikinis and pose them in sexual positions, prompting a global outcry from victims and regulators.
In just nine days, Grok posted more than 4.4 million images. A review by The Times conservatively estimated that at least 41 percent of posts, or 1.8 million, most likely contained sexualized imagery of women. A broader analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, using a statistical model, estimated that 65 percent, or just over three million, contained sexualized imagery of men, women or children.
Flight on the Conchords will reunite in LA:
Flight of the Conchords will spread its wings once more, as Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are set to reunite at Netflix Is a Joke Festival in Los Angeles.
The performance, which will take place in early May, marks the New Zealand musical comedy duo’s first live show since 2018, when Flight of the Conchords filmed the “Live in London” HBO special.
Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette have been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame:
Taylor Swift has become the youngest-ever woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She enters the class of 2026 alongside Alanis Morissette, Kiss songwriters Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and Kenny Loggins, who follows his fellow yacht-rockers the Doobie Brothers after their selection last year. Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, the writer of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” who went on to sign Frank Ocean to Def Jam, also makes the cut, alongside Mariah Carey collaborator Walter Afanasieff and a duo best known for their work with Tina Turner: Terry Britten and Graham Lyle.
Pitchfork have announced a new commenting/rating system as part of a new subscription where reviews are going behind a paywall after four “free” reviews:
Subscribers will also have access to Pitchfork’s full review archive, which now contains over 30,000 reviews.
For non-subscribers, the News, Features, and Columns sections of the site will continue to be free. And casual readers can continue to read four free reviews per month. But to read unlimited reviews, see the reader scores, and comment yourself or read the comments of others, you’ll have to smash subscribe.