Sponsor: Noiselab: Ableton Live Tutorials

Noiselab
Sponsored Post

Noiselab is a community of Ableton producers and electronic musicians offering online courses to help you learn the software. Courses range from “music theory for electronic musicians” to introductory courses teaching the basics of electronic music production. This first course “Electronic Music Production Level I” is available to take for free:

This is the first course in our 3-part series. We’ll cover what a DAW (digital audio workstation) is, why Ableton Live is a unique DAW, and the difference between the Session View and Arrangement View. We will also teach you how to work with MIDI instruments, audio material, and much more.

All instructors are either Ableton Certified Trainers or successful producers with impressive industry credentials. You can find out more information at the Noiselab website.

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Labor Day

Jason Tate

Today is Labor Day, so we’ll be on a more relaxed posting schedule. I’ve always enjoyed this Ezra Klein piece, from 2014, on Labor Day:

Labor Day is a day of rest that commemorates years of war. Congress inaugurated the holiday just days after President Grover Cleveland sent 12,000 federal troops to break the Pullman strike. The tactics were bloody; US deputy marshals killed two men and wounded many more.

That was 1894, an election year. Cleveland needed a way to win workers back to his side. He saw an opportunity in a federal holiday honoring workers — as well as organized labor.

And this from Tim Goulet:

In reality, however, Labor Day started twelve years earlier — even before the 1886 Haymarket events that inspired May Day — with a mass rally in New York. On September 5, 1882, socialists, the Knights of Labor, and various left organizations associated with the Central Labor Union (CLU) organized a march calling for shorter hours, higher pay, safer working conditions — and a labor holiday. That year, New York had been the scene of spirited labor struggles. On January 30, thousands of workers thronged Cooper Union to support Irish tenants protesting their British landlords.

Lil Uzi Vert Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Lil Uzi Vert has the number one album in the country this week:

Rapper Lil Uzi Vert bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with his debut studio album, Luv Is Rage 2, starting with 135,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 31, according to Nielsen Music. The album was released on Aug. 25 through Generation Now/Atlantic Records, and follows two earlier charting efforts for the artist.

It looks like PVRIS sold around 11k copies in their first week. Brand New did another 4k (a 94% drop from their chart-topping first week).

Chance the Rapper Announces $2.2 Million Fund for Chicago Schools

Chance the Rapper
Jason Tate

Rolling Stone:

Chance the Rapper announced Friday that his SocialWorks organization has raised $2.2 million for the Chicago Public Schools’ arts programs.

“Quality education for public schools is the most important investment a community can make,” the rapper said at Chicago’s Harold Washington Cultural Center, four days before the school year begins in the city.

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Kanye West to Produce New Pusha T Album

Kanye West
Jason Tate

Complex is reporting that Pusha T’s new album will be produced by Kanye West:

Before performing “Crutches, Crosses, Caskets,” he confirmed that King Push is produced top to bottom by Kanye West.

“I had done this album like three times,” he says. “[Kanye] comes in and he picks all the beats and shit. And then, he hear the beats, and he scraps ‘em and says ‘I can do better.’”

A Serf on Google’s Farm

Google
Jason Tate

Josh Marshall, writing at Talking Points Memo:

Now Google can say – and they are absolutely right – that every month they send checks for thousands and millions of dollars to countless publishers that make their journalism possible. And in general Google tends to be a relatively benign overlord. But as someone who a) knows the industry inside and out – down to the most nuts and bolts mechanics – b) someone who understands at least the rudiments of anti-trust law and monopoly economics and c) can write for a sizable audience, I can tell you this: Google’s monopoly control is almost comically great. It’s a monopoly at every conceivable turn and consistently uses that market power to deepen its hold and increase its profits. Just the interplay between DoubleClick and Adexchange is textbook anti-competitive practices.