MTV to Bring Back “Unplugged”

MTV
Jason Tate

Steven Zeitchik, writing for the LA Times:

“Unplugged,” which could be on the air in coming months, will stoke the interest of those who came of age with artists such as Nirvana, Eric Clapton and Arrested Development breaking down their music to its acoustic basics, often with some added atmosphere.

“It won’t be carpets and candles,” Erik Flannigan, executive vice president of music and multiplatform strategy, said of the new show. “And it won’t be rock legends playing their catalog. “What we want to do,” he said, “is take the attributes that made ‘Unplugged’ such a success for so many years and reimagine them for 2016.”

Further Sky Records Offer Free Compilation

Bandcamp
Jason Tate

Further Sky Records is offering a free compilation on Bandcamp to celebrate their one year anniversary.

For our one year anniversary we reached out to all the artists we’ve worked with, our friends, and some of our favorite up-and-comers to put together this compilation. We’re giving it away to all of you as a thank you for the support you’ve given us. That support is the reason why we’ve had such a successful first year, and we really can’t thank you all enough. Enjoy the music!

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Descendents to Release ‘Hypercaffium Spazzinate’ in July

Descendents
Jason Tate

Descendents have announced that they will release their new album, Hypercaffium Spazzinate, in July via Epitaph Records.

The band played six new tunes (“Feel This,” “Victim of Me,” “On Paper,” “Testosterone,” “Full Circle,” and “Shameless Halo”), all of which sounded like Descendents songs (which is to say they were catchy, short and full of energy) and announced a new album titled Hypercaffium Spazzinate slated for a July release on Epitaph Records.

The Lack of Diversity at Bled Fest

The Lack of Diversity at Bled Fest
Jason Tate

Bled Fest have posted a blog on their website discussing, kind of, why they don’t have more diverse roster at this year’s festival:

Is there a responsibility on us or other event producers like us to even pay any attention to races, genders, etc.? Is there a quota? Let’s just roll with an estimate of 10%. If 10% of applications represent minorities, should I book 10% of acts featuring minorities? 15%? 20%? Should we specifically attempt to go outside of who submitted and the agents we work with (defined earlier as almost entirely white males) to make sure that there’s a fair % of minorities represented? and what’s fair? Do we focus more on race and gender than we do on skill, promotional value, achievement, professionalism, etc.?

I think this is a false choice. I don’t think looking at the reasons for why certain music scenes lack diversity means you need to ignore other metrics. Using phrases like “affirmative action” and “quotas” misses the entire damn point: do better than you’re doing right now. Let’s start there.