Kenny Chesney has the number one album in the country this week:
Country superstar Kenny Chesney captures his ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his latest studio effort, Here and Now, bows atop the tally. Notably, he ties Garth Brooks for the most No. 1s among country acts in the chart’s history.
The set earned 233,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending May 7, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Spanish Love Songs have launched a Patreon.
ABC will be airing the Taylor Swift “City of Lover Concert Special” this weekend.
ABC announced on Friday (May 8) that it will air the brand-new one-hour concert special Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert on May 17 at 10 p.m. following the season finale of American Idol.
The special, which will be available the next day on-demand on Hulu and Disney+ was filmed in September at the L’Olympia Theater in Paris.
Billie Eilish and her father will start a new radio show, “me & dad radio,” on Apple Music.
Good friend Drew Beringer, you know him, has started a new newsletter. His first issue has fourteen essays all about Hayley Williams and how her music has impacted lives:
Now that the generation who loved Paramore and saw what Hayley meant at the time are the professional critics, and also probably owing to the increased accountability for blatant sexism within this music scene, we’re seeing a shift in critical evaluation of Paramore, finally some recognition of how brilliant they’ve always been. That might play a part in Hayley’s shedding that shame, but probably it’s mostly that she’s grown older, has been through some shit, and is ready to claim the confidence in her role that she has always deserved. It seems to me that that is what has allowed even for her to not have to utter the phrase ‘solo record’ as if it’s a dirty word, let alone to create one, and one that is this honest, expressive (both emotionally and musically) and unapologetic. It’s a triumph, one that is deeply rewarding to witness.
This was an instant subscribe for me.
Victory Records has launched a new website.
Foxing have launched a Patreon.
We’re coming up on 10 years of being a band which we find unbelievable. Time with you has flown by. Whether you were there with us in the first basements we played or found us on Tiny Desk, you’ve completely changed our lives. So here’s a Patreon page for those of you want to share in our experience more than you are now. This is where we will be sharing as much of ourselves and our process as we possibly can.
Eve Barlow, writing at Vulture:
The pop-punk and emo scene in the early 2000s. It was brutally misogynistic. A lot of internalized sexism, and even when you were lucky enough to meet other bands who were kind and respectful, there was other shit that wasn’t. And I was really feisty. We got offered Warped tour, and there was a caveat: “It’s a stage called the Shiragirl Stage. It’s all female.” I was pissed! I wanted to qualify for a real stage. When I’ve been offered female opportunities, it feels like a backhanded compliment. But people sometimes think that’s anti-feminist, that I don’t wanna be grouped in with the girls. As a 16-year-old who had dreams of playing with the big boys, it felt like we were being slighted.
And:
Dude, yeah. Summer of condoms, 2006. I got condoms thrown at me. In 2005, I wore T-shirts every day. In 2006, I was a little more comfortable. I’d wear a tank top. But my chest was exposed. We were in San Diego or San Francisco, and a condom flew at me, and it stuck to my chest while I performed. I was so embarrassed. I started talking shit because I was so young and arrogant. I don’t think I was wrong. It’s just I have more anxiety now than I did at 16.
Anyway, yeah, the entire thing is fantastic and worth reading.
But, most of all, legitimate services will struggle to replace the community that grew naturally within What.cd. It was a place willed into existence by people who truly love music, not something that labels constructed to attract customers, and it was held together by that community. Some digital music services have tried to create similar connections — Apple Music and Spotify users can share their playlists, and iTunes users of the past could do the same with iMixes. Apple, in particular, has tried a little too hard on two separate occasions to turn music into a social network, with little success.
Make no mistake: I understand the legal and ethical ramifications of torrent trackers and file sharing. I would vastly prefer to pay artists — and it’s just the right thing to do. It was merely a perk that What.cd was free, but I do not see that as its defining characteristic. If it were a legitimate streaming service, but was otherwise exactly the same, I would have paid many times the amount of my current Apple Music monthly subscription. That’s how good it was.
I thought this was a really well written, and thought provoking, piece on current music streaming services and where they succeed and fail compared to the piracy platforms that came before.
Bandcamp has announced that artists earned $7.1 million from sales last Friday.
Jeremy McKinnon of A Day to Remember talked with NME about the release of the band’s new album:
It’s still up in the air, everyone obviously wants it to come out as soon as possible but we’re going with the flow here. We’ve almost got all the masters in, I’m expecting them any time now. We’re still trying to get our artwork done. I know that’s been annoying fans but we have such a thing going. Every ADTR record has had these cool silhouettes that are unique to them and then, just because we were lazy and didn’t like people yelling at us, we just didn’t do it for ‘You’re Welcome’ yet. How lame is that?
YoungBoy Never Broke Again has the number one album in the country this week:
YoungBoy Never Broke Again scores his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his latest release, 38 Baby 2, bounds in atop the tally. The set arrives with 67,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 30, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Saves the Day have launched a Patreon.
Welcome to the Saves The Day Patreon page!! We thank you from the bottom of our collective Hearts for being part of this new and most special project. Here we will give you, our most loving fans, access to every behind-the-scenes moment, memory, memorabilia, special private live-streams, lyrics, and lessons on how-to-play your favorite Saves The Day songs, plus brand new Bug Sessions singles delivered right to your earbuds every month!
Hannah Ewens, interviewed Hayley Williams for Vice:
Hayley remembers being very sensitive about being singled out: “Being female and fronting an all-male band was like throwing your soul to the wolves. People didn’t know how to take you — if your supposed power meant that they should be intimidated or inspired. In the midst of all of that there’s just a tension. Sometimes I didn’t want that.” What she did want was for the band to be recognised as a pack: for their connection to each other, or at least for their songwriting abilities. “All these reviews would come out that would paint me as some sort of dictator in a band setting, or as a brat – it’s because I was a female, really,” she says, calmly, adding that she learnt a lot from the experience. “I’m not bitter about it but I grew up understanding that I was a little kid wearing a demon costume that I couldn’t see but everyone else could.”
MusiCares announced Thursday (April 30) that its COVID-19 Relief Fund is depleted and that it has been forced to stop accepting new applications.
“Unfortunately, until we can raise more money for our COVID-19 Relief Fund, we can no longer accept new applications from those seeking assistance. While our goal is always to provide support to everyone in need, we are currently bound by the funds available,” the Foundation said in a statement.