Review: MattstaGraham – Prescribe Whatever

Adam Grundy

The debut album from emo/punk rock artist MattstaGraham called Prescribe Whatever tackles the issues of struggling with mental health, while battling the outside vices that make navigating this crazy life more difficult. The artist got “internet famous” through parodies of established emo rock bands like Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, and My Chemical Romance, and garnered the attention of I Surrender Records, who promptly signed him. With a blend of familiar-sounding guitar tones powered with punk rock passion, this artist would be great for fans of The Homeless Gospel Choir, Gob, and Allister.

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Pusha T Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Pusha T has the number one album in the country:

Pusha T scores his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as It’s Almost Drydebuts atop the list dated May 7. It earned 55,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 28, according to Luminate. Streaming activity comprised 83% of the hip-hop album’s first-week unit total.

Review: Charli XCX – Crash

Adam Grundy

Every now and then you come across an album that just compels you to write about it. The current pop music scene is filled with new artists (Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa), established artists branching out from their main project (Hayley Williams), and the household names (Adele, Lady Gaga). Charli XCX was one of those artist I heard name-dropped a few times along the way of navigating through the wave of pop artists that were out there, but I discovered Crash by Charli XCX pretty late in the game (nearly a month after the initial release date) and I was immediately drawn into the world that this artist brings forth on the dynamic, smash of a record. Armed with a plethora of A-list producers, including The 1975’s George Daniel (among many others), Charli XCX could’ve gone in a number of directions on her fifth studio album. Much like how Dua Lipa set the world on fire the last two years with Future Nostalgia, Crash has that feeling of being the “it” pop record that could garner the same amount of momentum on radio and word of mouth.

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Epic Ask Court to Keep Google from Removing Bandcamp

Bandcamp
Jason Tate

Jay Peters, writing at The Verge:

Epic Games has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop Google from removing independent music storefront Bandcamp from the Android app store — which Google has apparently threatened to do because Bandcamp is using its own billing system instead of paying Google an app store fee.

Bandcamp, which Epic acquired in March, has used its own billing system on Android since 2015, and was able to do so because of rules exempting digital music from having to use Google’s billing system, according to a blog post from Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond. “However, Google is now modifying its rules to require Bandcamp (and other apps like it) to exclusively use Google Play Billing for payments for digital goods and services, and pay a revenue share to Google,” Diamond says

Naomi Judd Passes Away

Jason Tate

Country music star Naomi Judd has passed away:

Naomi Judd, who as one half of the mother-daughter duo the Judds dominated the country music charts in the 1980s with a blend of tight vocal harmonies, traditional arrangements and modern pop aesthetics, died on Saturday outside Nashville. She was 76.