Anti-Flag talked with Substream Magazine about their new album:
“You realize, like, lives are literally being destroyed. Whether it’s LGBTQ people seeing their suicide rates going up in that community — you’ve seen obviously what’s happening with undocumented people with kids being put in concentration camps, so, it goes on and on,” Sane says when voicing his frustration and dismay with how the United States is currently operating under Trump’s administration.
PUP’s Stefan Sladkowski wrote for Consequence of Sound about The Clash’s London Calling:
The thing I learned from repeated teenage listening to London Calling — something that held true through my 20s and remains true as I listen to it on my turntable as I write today — is that it is one of the exceedingly-rare examples of a perfect record. (I’ve already recounted my first experience with the perfect physicality of the record, which cannot be overstated; it is something that I obsess over in both creating and purchasing records to this day.) Even if you want to make the argument, as one almost always should with any double-record, that there is some filler somewhere — that filler comes maybe 13 to 15 tracks into the record. By today’s standards, putting that many tracks on a record without filler is a borderline impossible task.
Colin Stutz, writing at Billboard:
Moving forward, in order for an album sale to be counted as part of a merchandise/album bundle, all the items in the bundle must also be available for purchase concurrently and individually on the same website. In addition, the merchandise item sold on its own will have to be priced lower than the bundle which includes both the merchandise and the album. Further, merchandise bundles can only be sold in an artist’s official direct-to-consumer web store and not via third-party sites.
Kat Bein, writing at Billboard:
Rock, rap and electronic music will each get their own special episode. Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump will represent for rock with a taping on Dec. 9. Anderson .Paak will come through for rap to tape on Dec. 9 as well, while Diplo will have his electronic taping on Dec. 10.
These tapings are public and fans of each act are encouraged to fill the stands, so register to attend your favorite of the shows (or all three) at priceisright.com.
Benjamin Mayo, writing at 9to5Mac:
Apple Music is now partnering with businesses to play music at retail stores. In a partnership with PlayNetwork, businesses can sign up to Apple Music for Business plans and get licensed music to be played in their retail locations with Apple providing human-curated playlists and even custom recommendations matched to the individual store brand.
Sarah Perez, writing at TechCrunch:
With Apple Music Replay, subscribers will get a playlist of their top songs from 2019, plus playlists for every year you’ve subscribed to Apple Music, retroactively. These can be added to your Apple Music Library, so you can stream them at any time, even when offline. Like any playlist, your Apple Music Replay can also be shared with others, allowing you to compare top songs with friends, for example, or post to social media.
Here’s mine for 2019. Looks about right.
Federico Viticci, writing at MacStories:
For people who want to stay on top of every new music release from their favorite artists, the tools available in Apple Music alone aren’t enough. And I understand why Apple doesn’t want to invest in this aspect of the service: not everyone runs a music-focused publication or needs to know about every single release for hundreds of artists every week. Since the unfortunate demise of Record Bird – the app that encapsulated my ideal new music release discovery tool – I’ve been building a new system to stay on top of music releases, and I’d like to explain how.
It’s a blogception! I, obviously, agree with everything here and plan to take a look at this MusicHarbor app later today.
Kacey Musgraves is teaming up with Amazon for a holiday special:
The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show invites fans in as Musgraves prepares for a most joyful Christmas gathering with a whimsical set and dazzling wardrobe influenced by the artist’s fresh aesthetic. Equal parts heart-warming and cleverly absurd, Musgraves pays tribute to holiday specials of the past whilst also reinventing just what a Christmas special can be, with a magically modern twist.
Collin Walsh of Grayscale talked with Quentin Singer at Forbes to talk about the band’s unique merchandise and business model:
From a simple glance at the band’s online store, their merchandise is undoubtedly a major step above most young bands, and even many mainstream artists. From the photography, the designs, and just the overall presentation of their apparel, some might confuse Grayscale as a new streetwear brand, rather than one of the alternative rock scene’s finest new bands. Elaborating on how the band created such a successful merchandise model, vocalist Collin Walsh and creative director Jordan Mizrahi, detail the evolution of Grayscale and how it’s become a clothing brand just as much as an alt-rock band.
Chris Conley of Saves the Day talked with BrooklynVegan about the songs that inspired Through Being Cool:
Lifetime usually played fast and loud and sounded like Bad Brains with poetic lyrics, but this song was mid tempo and catchy and emotional and raw. I must have listened to this song a thousand times in my lifetime and its essence is fused with my DNA. This song is a major reason why Saves The Day slowed down a bit on Through Being Cool and started playing more mid tempo melodic rock and roll.
PunkNews.org has reported more information on the Off With Their Heads tour cancelation:
As you are aware, the band recently and abruptly canceled a month-long tour in the middle of the trek, after arriving in Vancouver. Shortly thereafter, the band alluded to an accident involving the tour van. Details are still developing in this story. However, a 24 year old woman named Desiree was hit by the Off With their Heads tour van while a member of the band, or an associate of the band, was driving last Saturday night. Reportedly, the woman was dragged several blocks and suffered extensive injury. According to statements released by the woman’s friend Amber Jackman, Desiree was taken to Vancouver General Hospital and is facing life-threatening injuries. She will undergo multiple critical surgeries regarding injury to his face, leg, and other areas. Several surgeries have already been performed. After the accident, a member or associate of the band was taken into custody, and then later released. According to the police, alcohol is suspected as a factor in the accident.
Alex Gaskarth talked with RockSound about the latest Simple Creatures’ EP:
There’s some really cool ideas floating out there in the big folder of potential Simple Creatures music, but I think as we’ve continued to write, the ethos and the sound of Simple Creatures is becoming more defined. At first, we were just kind of swinging and trying a lot of different things, and part of that process was finding out the voice of Simple Creatures and what that is. Now we’re a lot more familiar with the kind of music we want to make for this, I think when it comes time to making more music, I’m sure we’ll go back and end up pulling from some of that stuff. But I think the idea of continuing to innovate and keep it new is what excites me most about this project, so I imagine that’s where we’ll go with it.
Fan voting is up for 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World talked with Alt. Press about their new album:
You did some songwriting with Sam Hollander (Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes,” Fitz And The Tantrums’ “HandClap”) for this album. Even though those songs didn’t make the cut, was that a way to avoid stasis—to get in a room with a stranger, be vulnerable and try to approach writing from a different creative place?
I wouldn’t entirely count those songs out yet, but we didn’t end up finishing them for this record. It’s fascinating to me: I love the craft of it. Everybody approaches it a different way. Everybody has a different kind of aural tradition of how they figured it out or was taught to them. The same thing goes for people who produce records: Everybody makes records a little bit differently. When you get the chance to work with somebody else, you learn so much.
Chris Farren talked with MTV about his recent album:
Regardless, Farren still wanted to make a solo record, and he wanted to be the one who recorded it. “I was sick of paying somebody $10,000 to be mean to me,” he says only half-jokingly. Perhaps it should’ve been expected given lines of his like, “Why can’t I bear to be alone with myself?” (2016’s “Say U Want Me”) and “I hope you never see me like the way I see myself,” (Born Hot’s opener, “Bizzy”), but Farren’s chronic insecurities are woven into the fabric of his musical history. He was so nervous about how people would react to his independent work that he decided to make his debut a Christmas album (and donate all the money to charity) in order to protect himself from negative criticism.
Zane Lowe talked with Wired about the future of Apple Music:
There’s also the matter of how livestreams fit into the picture. After events with Shawn Mendes, French rap group PNL and Tyler the Creator, who did a live performance of his album IGOR, streamed on Apple Music the night before it came out, Lowe says “live music is definitely on the horizon” for the service. It’s all part of the team’s bid to “eventise” – his word – album launches. In the case of Tyler the Creator, “fans can tune in, then after watching it maybe you go to the album.”
When it comes to someone like Billie Eilish, who now has her own Beats 1 show, the Apple Music team realised that their pre-adds, which allow users to register their interest in an album before it’s out, had made people more invested in her March 2019 album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Greg Barnett of The Menzingers talked with Atwood Magazine about the band’s upcoming album:
Absolutely. I don’t think in this kind of climate, you can not go full in with it. I think we’d be doing a disservice to the song and how we all feel if we didn’t fully go in and make a statement. That was one of the most difficult parts of writing that songs. I wrote like 20 verses-I can’t even count. We wrote them over and over again, because it’s hard to say everything you want to say in three and a half minutes. It’s really tricky. I wanted to stay on theme of who I am as a person. I didn’t want it to come off as pretentious. I wanted it to feel how I typically write songs. It was a challenge to hone in the lyrics to a way that I felt comfortable with and happy with and said as much as I wanted to say. At the end, I was really happy.
Green Day have teamed up with the NHL:
The league is announcing a two-year partnership with Green Day that includes an opening song for NBC Sports’ “Wednesday Night Hockey.” The song, “Ready, Fire, Aim” isn’t custom-made for the NHL and will be on Green Day’s next album, though it’s likely a matter of time until Green Day or another band follows what Hank Williams Jr. and later Carrie Underwood did for the NFL.
Ed Christman, writing for Billboard:
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Billboard estimates that the Victory company had $4.5 million-$5 million a year in revenue and further estimates that Concord paid somewhere in the range of $27 million-$34 million for the Victory company. […]
The Victory catalog will go under Concord’s Craft Recordings catalog team and “to the extent that we put out new albums from existing artists, Fearless is the most likely home” to market such albums, Salm says.
Meanwhile, Victory’s 30-person staff will remain employed by Brummel, who sources say has a “limited” non-compete clause that will allow him to pursue opportunities in the music business going forward, if he so chooses. The staff will work on Brummel’s other businesses which includes a third-party merch business, plus some real estate and other investments. Also, they will be involved in assisting with on-boarding Victory’s catalog and royalty payments onto Concord’s platform over the next few months.
Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World talked with Rocksound about the band’s upcoming album:
For me, what I felt was something interesting to explore was how every moment of your existence you have a choice between continuing what you’re doing, and doing something different. There is always resistance in doing something new. If you feel anxiety or depression or general dissatisfaction in whatever your personal condition is like, it’s really strange that there’s still resistance to deviating from that. To explore that, you really have to come to a present choice – that’s the difference between existing and truly living. Like I say in the song, ‘You can survive but not exactly live’. It’s like anything would be better than what I’m doing right now, but I’m too afraid to change it. It’s not a natural response for us to change