Jack Antonoff on the Dark Secrets of Good Pop Music

Bleachers

Sam Schube, writing for GQ:

This is new. Antonoff, now 33, used to be a secret weapon. He started touring the country at 15, was signed to legendary pop-punk label Drive-Thru at 18. And then he linked up with some old touring pals to write world-eating pop jams as Fun. You remember the songs—“We Are Young,” “Some Nights”—because they destroy at weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduation parties, and bars. Along the way, he became something of a pop guru—not a gun for hire, but the rarest kind of collaborator. Armed with his own sonic signature, forged in vans and clubs and small theaters and bedrooms, he also had a willingness—a need—to be a true partner.

Ally Coalition’s Jan. 24 Talent Show Lineup Announced

Bleachers

Melinda Newman, writing for Billboard:

Grammy album of the year nominee Lorde, Kacey Musgraves, Bleachers, Shamir, Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of The National and Britt Daniel and Alex Fischel of Spoon have all signed on for The Ally Coalition’s 4th annual Talent Show, to take place Jan. 24 at New York’s Town Hall.

Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff will curate the Grammy week event, which will also feature comedians Aparna Nancherla and Phoebe Robinson, with more artists to be named.

The Many Lives Of Jack Antonoff

Stereogum have a new feature on Jack Antonoff of Bleachers and his Shadow Of The City festival:

Plenty of festivals claim idiosyncrasy and don’t offer it at all. At Shadow Of The City, you truly feel like you’re at one guy’s event, from seeing his family mill around the festival grounds to those grounds’ intentional proximity to Jersey lore. (Throughout the day, you can escape the sun by going inside the Stone Pony and chilling at its dive bar corner or squinting up at the guitars lining the wall from past performers.) Antonoff’s drawing on experience here, not just from a youth spent in Jersey but from years of the touring grind and playing festivals. There’s an over-saturation in that world, a sameness. And though Shadow Of The City isn’t intended to grow beyond its specific boundaries, to some extent it feels like an antidote to all the rest of it. “The whole point was, what are other festivals doing and let’s do the opposite,” he explains.