Grimes Talks With Rolling Stone

Jason Tate Apr 14, 2016

Grimes talked with Rolling Stone about new music in the works, sexism in the music industry, and how rock music could work in 2016.

I personally really love [British bands] like Bring Me the Horizon and Foals. There’s definitely a future in rock, but it will probably be more fusion-oriented, like rock that uses 808s. Twenty One Pilots is kind of like that – it’s sort of rock, but the sound is hip-hop. You know all those songs on [the Smashing Pumpkins’] Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness that almost sound like Lorde or something? I feel like that vibe has not been explored.

Amazon Working on Bob Dylan TV Series

Jason Tate Apr 14, 2016

Cynthia Littleton, writing for Variety, on a TV series in the work inspired by Bob Dylan songs:

Lionsgate TV is closing in on a deal with Amazon for an hourlong drama series inspired by characters and themes from Bob Dylan’s vast archive of songs.
“Time Out of Mind” will be spearheaded by writer-director Josh Wakely, who managed to secure the wide-ranging rights deal for Dylan’s song catalog. The project, which is in the early stage of development, will be produced through Wakely’s Sydney-based Grace production banner.

Noisey Talks With Latterman About Reunion

Jason Tate Apr 13, 2016

Dan Ozzi, writing for Noisey, talks with Latterman about their upcoming two reunion shows and catching up on what the members have been up to. It’s a great read.

Something I’ll experience so often on RVIVR tours is that people will come up to me and say, “I wish I saw Latterman!” And I’ll be like, “Yeah we played here.” And they’d be like, “Really? When?” And I’d say, “In 2001 at Trashcan Books.” And they’re like, “What’s that?” And I’m like, “I don’t know, the anarchist space?” And they’re like, “Oh that’s not around anymore. My older sister worked there, but I was ten years old.” RVIVR, in the beginning, we pissed a lot of people off. People were very, very angry at us about wanting to be inclusive of queer people, wanting to be inclusive of women, of trans people. To the point where people would come to RVIVR shows just to mess with us.

Against Me! Will Perform in North Carolina as a Form of Protest

Jason Tate Apr 13, 2016

Tasneem Nashrulla, writing for Buzzfeed, spoke with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! about the band’s choice to play a concert in North Carolina next month in light of the state’s ridiculous new “bathroom law.”

“Bryan Adams and Bruce Springsteen aren’t transgender,” Grace said. “For them to say, ‘I think this bill is messed up and I’m not going to go here and be part of the state,’ that seems like the effort of an ally, which is really commendable.”
But Grace said that the transgender people who live in North Carolina don’t have the option to boycott the state. “They live here. They pay taxes. They are prisoners to it.” While Grace acknowledged that someone like Springsteen canceling his concert brought a lot of attention to the issue, she said, “no one would care if we canceled.”

Lady Gaga’s Startup Backplane Selling Assets

Jason Tate Apr 12, 2016

Josh Constine, writing for TechCrunch, on Lady Gaga’s startup, Backplane, selling its assets:

Founded in 2011, Backplane raised a Series A of $12.1 million in 2012 from the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Sequoia, Google Ventures, Founders Fund, SV Angel, Greylock, Menlo Ventures, Formation 8 and Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures all poured money in at around a $40 million valuation. That was despite basically just being a fan site for Lady Gaga with hopes of launching social networks for brands. It eventually raised $5 million more.

‘Nondescript Pop Punk Band Dropkicks a Girl Off Stage’

Jason Tate Apr 12, 2016

Alex Young, writing for Consequence of Sound, after Parker Cannon of The Story So Far kicked a fan in the back over the weekend:

Over the weekend, the band’s desperation for relevancy reached a boiling point, as lead singer Cannon decided it would be super badass to dropkick a female in the back. The female fan had climbed onstage during the band’s encore, seemingly with the intention of taking a selfie, which is pretty douchy thing to do. But no where near as douchy as potentially paralyzing a person by kicking them in the spine so that they fall off stage. It’s the type of dumb shit one would do in high school — or, as member of a pop punk band whose target fanbase matured a decade ago.

And from Emma Garland, at Noisey:

The flippancy with which Cannon acts so aggressively towards a young female fan who is literally funding his excuse to be on stage in the first place – despite the fact that he spends every night shouting “think about who you let between your thighs” and “I know where you’ve been / You’re ruining men” into a mic – is fucking gross. Yes, taking selfies onstage is probably quite annoying, but as a grown ass adult it’s your responsibility to handle it A) reasonably and B) not like a piece of shit.

Warped Tour’s going be running a full-fledged university by the time all the classes needed to teach pop-punk bros how to be decent human beings are accounted for.

The Largest Ever Analysis of Film Dialogue by Gender

Jason Tate Apr 11, 2016

Hanah Anderson and Matt Daniels have put together the largest ever analysis of film dialog by gender: 2,000 scripts, 25,000 actors, 4 million lines.

But it’s all rhetoric and no data, which gets us nowhere in terms of having an informed discussion. How many movies are actually about men? What changes by genre, era, or box-office revenue? What circumstances generate more diversity?
To begin answering these questions, we Googled our way to 8,000 screenplays and matched each character’s lines to an actor. From there, we compiled the number of words spoken by male and female characters across roughly 2,000 films, arguably the largest undertaking of script analysis, ever.

You could spend hours exploring this page; incredible.

Jessica Brown Findlay Cast in Morrissey Biopic

Jason Tate Apr 11, 2016

Ali Jaafar, writing for Deadline:

Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay has joined the cast of Steven, the Mark Gill-directed biopic of iconic British singer Morrissey. Findlay stars opposite Jack Lowden in the lead role of the movie that follows the character from his early life in the 1970s before he went on to become the lead singer in seminal 1980s band The Smiths. She will play Linder Sterling, an English visual artist, performance artist and musician from Liverpool who became a close friend of Morrissey.

Blog: It’s a Tesla

Jason Tate Apr 10, 2016

Ben Thompson, writing for Stratechery:

To that end, the significance of electric to Tesla that the radical rethinking of a car made possible by a new drivetrain gave Tesla the opportunity to make the best car: there was a clean slate. More than that, Tesla’s lack of car-making experience was actually an advantage: the company’s mission, internal incentives, and bottom line were all dependent on getting electric right.
Again the iPhone is a useful comparison: people contend that Microsoft lost mobile to Apple, but the reality is that smartphones required a radical rethinking of the general purpose computer: there was a clean slate. More than that, Microsoft was fundamentally handicapped by the fact Windows was so successful on PCs: the company could never align their mission, incentives, and bottom line like Apple could.

Kanye West’s ‘The Life of Pablo’ Hits Number One

Jason Tate Apr 10, 2016

Keith Caulfield, writing for Billboard, reports that Kanye Westʼs The Life of Pablo will debut at number one on the Billboard 200 charts.

The Life of Pablo is the first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 where the majority (70 percent, in fact) of its units were generated by streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Its 66,000 SEA units equates to just over 99 million U.S. streams for the album’s tracks in the week ending April 7. (Each SEA unit is equal to 1,500 streams from an album.)

Tracking Time From the 70s to Today

Jason Tate Apr 9, 2016

Camilo Jose Vergara’s “Tracking Time” project photographs a variety of locations across the country from the 70s up to present day. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing and have been scrolling through the photos all afternoon.

Bruce Springsteen Cancels North Carolina Show

Jason Tate Apr 9, 2016

Bruce Springsteen has canceled his upcoming North Carolina show over their ridiculous new “bathroom” law:

As you, my fans, know I’m scheduled to play in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday. As we also know, North Carolina has just passed HB2, which the media are referring to as the “bathroom” law. HB2 — known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act — dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use. Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden. To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.

Gerard Way Has a New DC Comics Imprint

Jason Tate Apr 8, 2016

Brittany Spanos, writing for Rolling Stone, talks with Gerard Way about his new DC Comics imprint.

It feels great. A monthly book is a lot different than the limited series that I was doing — and still continue to do — with Umbrella Academy. We’re on Series Three right now, and you really have a long time to write those things. You plan those out pretty far in advance. Being a comic-book writer for a monthly book is a whole different animal, and you end up putting a lot of yourself into it — a lot of personal things I feel. And that happens in Umbrella Academy, too, but it feels more immediate because you need material to sell those books. To get back to your question, it feels amazing. I come in, and I help edit. I art-direct; I help put the teams together; I give people directions. Sometimes I write scenes, things like that. It’s using all of my skills, which is really great, and it’s more focused than when I was doing art for the band, but it’s very similar.

Rolling Stone’s Top 40 Punk Albums

Jason Tate Apr 6, 2016

Rolling Stone have put together a list of the Top 40 Punk Albums. No London Calling, but Enema of the State? I knew I was an absolute punk.

Punk rock started in 1976 on New York’s Bowery, when four cretins from Queens came up with a mutant strain of blitzkrieg bubblegum. The revolution they inspired split the history of rock & roll in half. But even if punk rock began as a kind of negation — a call to stark, brutal simplicity — its musical variety and transforming emotional power was immediate and remains staggering. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Ramones’ toweringly influential self-titled debut, we’ve compiled a list of the 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time.

WhatsApp Turns on Encryption

Jason Tate Apr 6, 2016

Cade Metz, writing for Wired, tells the inside story of WhatsApp turning on end-to-end encryption.

More than a billion people trade messages, make phone calls, send photos, and swap videos using the service. This means that only Facebook itself runs a larger self-contained communications network. And today, the enigmatic founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, together with a high-minded coder and cryptographer who goes by the pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike, revealed that the company has added end-to-end encryption to every form of communication on its service.