Sponsor: West Friends Release New Full Length

West Friends
Sponsored Post

West Friends have released their new album, Junk Drawer, on all streaming platforms. The album is a marriage of the band’s pop-punk influences and crashes onto the scene with a gloriously loud, sarcastic, and secretly sentimental love letter to the pop-punk of our youth.

Jordan and Isaiah both grew up in the Pacific Northwest punk scene and cut their teeth in numerous bands touring basements, couches, and clubs across the west coast. While the theme (and sound) of the record play heavily on the nostalgia millennials all feel for the way things were, it also injects a new energy into the scene. With influences like Yellowcard, Four Year Strong, and blink-182 (of course), there’s bound to be a song on the record that reminds you of the sweaty, sun-burned mosh pits of the 2000’s Warped Tours.

Check it out on your favorite streaming platform and follow the band on Instagram or their website.

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Interview: Summerbruise

Summerbruise
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to schedule a Zoom call with emo/punk band, Summerbruise, to discuss their slick new single that recently released, called “Never Bothered” and their touring plans. Summerbuise is vocalist/guitarist Mike Newman (he/him), drummer Stanli Fryman (she/her), bassist John Parkison (them/he), and guitarists Mitch Gulish (he/him) and Cora Kunda (she/her). If you’re enjoying this interview, please consider supporting this band here, or check out a show.

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Apple Music Unveils New Culver City Studio Space

Jason Tate

Hollywood Reporter:

Apple Music has unveiled a new studio near its Culver City headquarters, an expansive 15,000-square-foot space the streaming service hopes will serve as an all-in-one creative hub where musicians can come for radio interviews, write and record new music, conduct photo shoots and film video content.

Apple Music Studios opens this summer and will serve as the home for some of Apple Music Radio’s marquee programming including the Zane Lowe Show.

Charli XCX Comments on “Boomer” Critics

Charli Xcx
Jason Tate

Charli XCX has responded on Xitter about the criticism of her using autotune during her Glastonbury set:

really enjoying these boomer vibe comments on my glastonbury performance. it’s super fascinating to me. like the idea that singing with deliberate autotune makes you a fraud or that not having a traditional band suddenly means you must not be a “real artist” is like, the most boring take ever. yawn sorry just fell asleep xx

but to be honest… i enjoy the discourse. imo the best art is divisive and confrontational and often evolves into truly interesting culture rather than being like kind of ok, easily understood and sort of forgettable.

Ben Gibbard Finishes Western States 100-Miler

Death Cab for Cutie
Jason Tate

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie completed the Wester States 100-miler ultra marathon:

But by mid-afternoon, he was so consumed by the 90-degree heat that he literally couldn’t see straight.

The 48-year-old Seattle resident is a veteran ultrarunner who has finished more than two dozen trail races since 2012, including four previous 100-mile events. But in his first crack at Western States, he thought he was doomed.

“I think I was having heat stroke or something,” Gibbard said. “By the time I got to the top of the canyon at Devil’s Thumb, I couldn’t see. I was really nauseous. I was seeing double and had to lay down. I was shivering even though they were putting blankets on me. I was in bad shape.”

Eventually, Gibbard started to feel better and the aid station volunteers helped him get rejuvenated by sipping warm soup broth. From there, he got back on his feet and continued his journey and made it to the 62-mile aid station in the small town of Foresthill at 8:50 p.m.

Shoutout to my college friend Nick (mentioned in the article) for helping train and pace Ben!

Probable ‘AI’ Artist Gaining Spotify Traction

Jason Tate

Digital Music News:

Has an AI “artist” topped 474,000 Spotify monthly listeners (and counting) in just weeks? It sure seems that way, and the development is raising new questions about machine-generated tracks’ streaming prevalence.

Word of that presumably AI-powered “band,” The Velvet Sundown, appears to have started circulating earlier this week on Reddit. There, multiple users said some of the relevant tracks had arrived in their Discover Weekly playlists.

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