Kesha’s Billboard Music Awards Performance Blocked

Kesha

Joe Lynch, writing for Billboard, on how Dr. Luke’s record label, Kemosabe Records, is blocking Kesha from playing the Billboard Music Awards:

“Kesha accepted an invitation to perform on the show and she received written approval from Dr. Luke’s record label, Kemosabe Records,” dick clark productions said in a statement. “Kemosabe subsequently rescinded its approval following a media report on Wednesday May 11 regarding Kesha’s appearance on the BBMAs. Unfortunately, Kesha and Kemosabe have since been unable to come to an agreement for Kesha to perform on the show.”

Utterly ridiculous.

Update: The performance is now back on with the following statement from the label:

Kesha’s performance on the Billboard Music Awards was always approved, in good faith. Approval was only suspended when Kemosabe learned Kesha was to use the performance as a platform to discuss the litigation. Now that Kemosabe has obtained assurances, that it is relying upon, from Kesha, her representatives and Dick Clark Productions that neither Kesha nor her supporters will use the performance as such a platform, the approval has been restored.

I repeat: utterly ridiculous.

Frank Turner on Safe Gigs for Women

Frank Turner

Frank Turner, writing on his blog:

It’s actually really fucking dumb that I have to spell this out, but if you’re the kind of guy who has ever behaved like that towards a woman in any context, I’d like you to do two things: firstly, just be a fucking human, consider yourself in the other person’s shoes, ask yourself if you could defend your actions if publicly called out in front of your friends, your family, the whole crowd. And secondly, if that first part didn’t work, I’d like you to fuck off and never come to any of my shows again.

Brand New – “I Am a Nightmare”

Brand New’s new song “I Am a Nightmare” is now available on YouTube, Bandcamp, and from the band’s webstore.

Update: This song comes from the band’s upcoming album, as confirmed by the press release for the song:

The song—produced by Brand New and longtime collaborator Mike Sapone, mixed by Vince Ratti, and taken from the band’s upcoming release—will be available via all Digital Service Providers this week and can be pre-ordered now on vinyl.

Emphasis added.

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Cassino – “Rose of Lee” (Song Premiere)

Cassino

Cassino will be releasing their new EP, Bottlenecker, on May 27th and today I’m excited to premiere the new song “Rose of Lee” from it. You’ll find that below and can pre-order the album on iTunes. Nick, talking about the song said:

This song was the first one written after Kingprince. We had some of the same guys who played on Kingprince jam on this record. They tour with bigger pop-country acts, so it’s entertaining to let them loose and see what they come up with. Their understanding of the mathematics of music is interesting to me because they hear the songs sometimes at a different angle. We recorded this record in my friend’s log cabin north of Nashville in the snake infested woods of Smiley Hollow. It had two creeks and was fairly quiet most of the time. Ed said there was a wolf like creature haunting the woods around the house, and the dogs wouldn’t go outside. I came to the conclusion it was maybe some version of Ed’s soul haunting himself. Or a malamute.

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