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August Supporter Pitch Update

Chorus.fm
Jason Tate

As I wrote about last week, I’m making my yearly pitch to everyone that reads this website to become a supporting member:

Based on these calculations, I am exactly 90 supporters short of this website hitting my goal for the year.

That means if 90 more people sign-up to any tier of the supporter membership by the end of this year, I’ll be sitting right where I want to be and it’ll be a massive weight off my shoulders.

Last week over 20 new people signed up to be a supporting member and I can’t thank you enough. It’s a fantastic start.

The Simple Brilliance of Colleen Green’s Cover of Blink-182’s ‘Dude Ranch’

Colleen Green
Jason Tate

Lindsay Zoladz, writing at The Ringer:

In her hands, the juvenile potty humor comes off less as a defining factor of the record than a defense mechanism, as if Hoppus and DeLonge have suddenly realized how emotionally raw some of these songs are and felt a nervous impulse to distract the listener with comic relief. Great covers help you see familiar source material from new angles. I used to think Dude Ranch was Blink’s most gleefully immature record. Now I hear it as their most vulnerable.

I enjoyed this article and look at this album. As I wrote in last week’s newsletter, these songs hold up surprisingly well in this setting.

Drake Tops the Charts

Drake
Jason Tate

Drake has the number one album in the country this week:

Drake achieves his ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his new archival compilation album, Care Package, premieres in the top slot. The set, which was released on Aug. 2 via OVO Sound/Republic Records, launches with 109,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 8, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 16,000 were in album sales.

Henry Rollins Talks Punk Rock in the Trump Era

Black Flag
Jason Tate

Henry Rollins talked with The Daily Beast about a variety of topics in the world and punk rock:

We live in an age of inevitability from Reagan to now, because, since he was president, there’s been one overriding current in this country: Send the money upstairs, you get less, he gets more. Dumb down the electorate. Really work at it. Because we need dumb people who don’t travel, and who hate and fear whatever’s “out there” so we can throw them into a desert and blow up a country that never did anything to us. And, while we’re at it, make it easier to rob a liquor store, or just make some bad choices, so Johnny can go away for 20 years for three joints in his ass pocket. Because that’s where those guys make their money: through incarceration. These kids in cages that are costing the American taxpayers $750 a day, and yet there’s no budget for toothbrushes? That should tell you everything.

Gabe Saporta Does Track-by-Track for ‘Hot Mess’ 10-Year Anniversary

Gabe Saporta
Jason Tate

Gabe Saporta talked with Alt. Press about the ten year anniversary of Cobra Starship’s Hot Mess.

“Nice Guys Finish Last” was inspired by Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” which is one of the best songs in the last 20 years. It was inspired by that a little bit, and we had to give publishing to the guys who wrote “Toxic” for that song. It’s also about the only job I ever had, which was when I was 17. I worked for my next-door neighbor who was like an old rock ’n’ roller and hired me to do internet stuff for him because I was just a young kid who knew the internet. He just hired me to hang out, and he was just a crazy, obnoxious guy who totally would not be able to exist in today’s universe. But he literally said that to me. He told me that, “Yeah, just treat girls like shit, and they’ll stick to you—stick to the bottom of your shoe.” He literally said that, and I put that into a song, and it sings really nice in the song.

Taylor Swift on Sexism, Scrutiny, and Standing Up for Herself

Taylor Swift
Jason Tate

Abby Aguirre, writing for Vogue:

I ask her, why get louder about LGBTQ rights now? “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,” she says. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. It’s hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It’s clickbait, and it’s a part of my life story, and it’s a part of my career arc.”

Disney Announces $12.99 Bundle for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+

Disney
Jason Tate

Julia Alexander, writing for The Verge:

Disney will offer a bundle package of its three streaming services — Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — for $12.99 a month starting on November 12th, the company announced today. […]

The streaming services is likely to be available through “Amazon, Apple, and other distributors,” according to Iger. Disney has not finalized any deals with the aforementioned companies, but told investors “we feel it’s important for us to achieve scale quickly, and we think it’s going to be an important part of that. They’re all interested in distributing the product.”

Vic Fuentes Named Co-Chairman/CEO of Living the Dream Foundation

Pierce the Veil
Jason Tate

Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil has been named Co-Chairman/CEO of the Living the Dream Foundation:

Living the Dream’s main focus is introducing sick children and young adults to their musical heroes and creating what the foundation calls Dream Days, which can include meet-and-greets with artists, VIP access to concerts and special events, or hospital visits. Hundreds of Dream Days have been realized since the foundation launched in 2007. In addition to Pierce the Veil, acts that have participated include Blink-182, Slipknot, Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson.