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Motion City Soundtrack Stand Up Against Ice in Their City

Motion City Soundtrack
Jason Tate

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.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Documentary Coming to Netflix

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Jason Tate

Variety:

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.

The Format Talk With The Washington Post

The Format
Jason Tate

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?”

Checking in on the Literal Dumpster Fire Platform

Twitter
Jason Tate

The New York Times:

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 Reunion

Jason Tate

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 Inducted Into Hall of Fame

Taylor Swift
Jason Tate

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 Reviews Goes Paywall

Pitchfork
Jason Tate

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.

Charlie Puth Talks with Rolling Stone

Charlie Puth
Jason Tate

Charlie Puth sat down with Rolling Stone for a new interview:

I remember it was my wife Brooke’s birthday. I was on my way to this wonderful restaurant in Sherman Oaks, and these songs will just pop into my head. And I heard this lyric called “I Used to Be Cringe.” And the title itself is cringey. It’s like, “What do you mean?” You can smell the comments, as they say — “Used to be?” I’m like, “That’s an interesting song title. What would that sound like?” And I’m just talking to myself while Brooke’s on her phone. It’s like a 30-minute drive down the hill, and I just start writing this whole song in F major. And it has a very flowy McCartney-esque chord progression. And it’s all just because Taylor had said something about me. It gave me enough excitement to write another song in my head. And now we’re ending the album with that.

Butch Walker Producing New Brian Fallon Album

Jason Tate

Spin Magazine dropped a little tidbit about Butch Walker producing an upcoming solo album from Brian Fallon (and it appears to have been confirmed by Butch).

These days, Walker is producing Billboard-ready records in a barn outside Nashville, touring with Train as the band’s new lead guitarist, and playing occasional reunion gigs with Marvelous 3. His forthcoming productions include new albums from Courtney Love, Nikki Lane, and The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon. 

Greywind Break Down New Album

Greywind
Jason Tate

Greywind did a track-by-track break down of their new album for Rock Sound:

‘Waterfall’ was one of the last songs written for the album and it felt like a crucial puzzle piece clicking into place when it finally came together. It’s beautiful, cinematic, and devastating. It has everything I love about music in it. We’re insanely proud of this song and judging by the reaction to it online, I have a feeling it’s going to be our set closer for a while!

Disneyland Relaunching Star Wars

Star Wars
Jason Tate

Disney is changing up their Star Wars content at Disneyland:

The company is changing the timeline in its Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge world in Disneyland, with plans to bring characters and elements from the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) to the land. 

That will include characters like Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa roaming the land (look for Han near the Millennium Falcon… and the cantina), as well as bringing John Williams’ iconic scores from the film franchise, which will play throughout the land.

Spotify Raising Prices Again

Jason Tate

Spotify is once again raising prices:

Individual Premium plans are now $12.99 per month (up from $11.99), while Duo subscribers will now pay $18.99 per month (up from $16.99). Meanwhile, family plans have increased to $21.99 per month (up from $19.99), and student plans rose by $1 to $6.99 per month.

These pricing changes take immediate effect for new subscribers and will roll out to existing Premium customers in the US, Estonia, and Latvia over the next month.

Vinyl Sales Rise for 19th Consecutive Year

Jason Tate

Variety:

U.S. vinyl sales increased for the 19th consecutive year, growing by +8.6% to 47.9 million units. Total U.S. Physical Album Sales increased by +6.5%. In contrast, U.S. Digital Album Sales dropped by -15.9%.

2025 marks the first time in the U.S. consumption era (2014+) that two individual albums earned 5m+ units in a single year (Taylor Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl” and Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem”)