A few months ago, we unveiled a beta feature in the Spotify for Artists tool that gives artists, labels, and teams the ability to share new music directly with our editorial team for playlist consideration. Since the feature became available in July more than 67,000 artists and labels have submitted music and now we’re excited to announce our playlist submission feature is officially out of beta.
The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.
I am constantly left speechless by just how cruel and fucked-up this administration is. If you’re feeling helpless, you can donate to the Trans Lifeline if you’re able, and this thread from Parker Molloy is a good read.
Avril Lavigne sat down to talk with Billboard:
After cranking her cover of favorite Nickelback song “How You Remind Me,” Lavigne searches YouTube for her and Whibley’s performance of Sum 41’s “In Too Deep.” “What a great song, right?” asks Lavigne. (I have to admit, it is.) She joins her 23-year-old self in harmonizing: “’Cause I’m in too deep, and I’m trying to keep/Up above in my head, instead of going under.”
Mike Duffy, writing at Fender:
The research found that the guitar players of today are more diverse than ever before. Women continue to define the emerging guitar market, accounting for 50 percent of all beginner and aspirational players – begging the question, is the future of guitar female? The growing diversity of players expands beyond gender, as well. Both African-American and Hispanic consumers now represent a significant and growing share of new players: African-Americans account for 19 percent of aspirational players, while Latin players make up 25 percent of beginners.
Nick Corasaniti, writing at The New York Times:
Since it opened in 1974, the club, the Stone Pony, has been the beating heart of Asbury Park, a beacon for musicians and fans alike. But its survival, much like that of its host city, has been a constant battle, a story of resilience and revival, of sold-out shows and shuttered windows.
Here is the renowned club’s history, as told by the owners, musicians, staff and fans who have called its dark black interior and low-slung stage home.
While posting the previous article, I noticed that Frank Turner also talked with October. The beer stuff is cool, but this section stood out to me:
What I feel that the record is chiefly about is that we’ve collectively forgot how to conduct our disagreements in a civil fashion. The whole point of the game of politics is to try to find a way that we can conduct our disagreements in a civil fashion.
I think that’s one of the main reasons I haven’t been able to connect with Frank’s recent album. The disagreements are over putting kids in cages, women’s rights, trans-rights, unchecked police killing, massive corruption and handouts to the richest people and corporations, a grotesque sexual predator man-baby in the White House, and countless other atrocities that occur on a daily basis. I’m angry about it and I don’t find any value in “civil disagreements” with those that want to deny people their human rights.
With the release of the new Venom film, our comic book thread regulars have helped put together a group of comics to check out to get to know the character even more.
In late September, Los Angeles-based artist Meagan Boyd wrote in a post on Instagram that Sigur Rós drummer Orri Páll Dýrason sexually assaulted her. Specifically, Boyd accused Dýrason of engaging in non-consensual sex with her while she slept, during a night they spent together five and a half years ago. On October 1, days after Boyd’s initial post, Sigur Rós announced that Dýrason had left the band as a result of the allegation. In a statement on Facebook, Dýrason wrote, “I will do anything in my power to get myself out of this nightmare, but out of respect for those actually suffering from sexual violence, I will not take that fight public.”
Pitchfork talked with both Boyd and Dýrason over the course of the past week.
Jessica Hopper, writing at Elle:
In the past few years, the number of female artists on country radio has been steadily declining. According to trade publication Country Aircheck, in 2016 female artists made up 13 percent of radio play; by 2017, that figure was down to a meager 10.4 percent. The country radio programmer quota–cum–excuse that fuels this inequity is that “one woman an hour” is plenty. In response, labels have grown reluctant to sign female talent, knowing that radio won’t support them. Festival and tour promoters excuse the dearth of female country acts on lineups by pointing fingers at radio and labels, insisting that there are not enough bankable female artists to draw from—just superstar headliners like Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.
Douglas Greenwood, writing for NME:
But there was one interaction that stayed with her to this day. “I remember having this wristband from the pit [at one of the shows], and Brendon Urie being on the edge of the stage and acknowledging me,” she reminisces, re-enacting her mini freak-out. “So I wore that wristband every day. I even covered it with plastic when I showered so it wouldn’t fall off!” An altercation with one of her bullies at school, though, led to the wristband breaking. “I was devastated,” she recalls. “I couldn’t understand how somebody could be so mean.”
As Halsey’s fame grew, she crossed paths with Brendon again. Now he’s a friend, and knows about the school drama that broke her heart back then. “I went back to my dressing room after [a show of mine he came to recently],” she tells me, “and there was a bouquet of flowers and two plastic Panic! At the Disco VIP wristbands, with a little note that said: ‘This is to replace the one you lost.’”
Lady Gaga and Tedros Adhanom, writing for The Guardian:
Suicide is the most extreme and visible symptom of the larger mental health emergency we are so far failing to adequately address. Stigma, fear and lack of understanding compound the suffering of those affected and prevent the bold action that is so desperately needed and so long overdue.
A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent.”
The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.
The British street artist Banksy pulled off one of his most spectacular pranks on Friday night, when one of his trademark paintings appeared to self-destruct at Sotheby’s in London after selling for $1.4 million at auction.
Incredible.
Jackson Sinnenberg, writing at Medium:
When we were doing the designs for merch I was like “I don’t care what I like. What do we think the people who come to our shows will like?” That’s what it should be! It’s not about me. I’m happy to be there, I’m not going to be phoning it in! I’m happy about giving it to them. I don’t look at it like it’s a bad thing. I’m happy there are people there to take it. Like if you asked Ian [MacKaye] the same way how he felt about Fugazi; “Whose band is Fugazi right now?” I bet Ian would say “Not mine, Not Guy’s. It’s their band.” It is! It’s their band! They’re maintaining the house, they’re trimming the garden because their memories do it. It’s become part of their lives now. So, it’s hands off for me.
You can check if you’re registered here. If you’re not. Register. Deadlines are coming up and the mid-term elections in November are extremely important.
