Life is a racket. Writing is a racket. Sincerity is a racket. Everything's a racket. | | | | Amanda Shires performing with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Oct. 19, 2019.
(Erika Goldring/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "Life is a racket. Writing is a racket. Sincerity is a racket. Everything's a racket."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// NICK TOSCHES was first generation, one of the original rock and roll writers who wrote about rock and roll by being rock and roll, by not giving a single f*** , and by making sure that you, by the time you were done reading anything he had written, would give all sorts of f***s, often about people you barely knew before you began reading. His best-known books were about JERRY LEE LEWIS, DEAN MARTIN and boxer SONNY LISTON. The ones that made my eyes and ears pop were COUNTRY, which tells the story of the genre largely through its overlooked (and sometimes strange) pioneers and heroes and which is my go-to source for any argument about where the phrase "rock and roll" comes from, and WHERE DEAD VOICES GATHER, which documents his obsessive and not completely successful search for information about minstrel singer EMMETT MILLER while making a case for Miller as one of the great 20th century voices and for minstrel shows as a major contributor to American musical culture. A problematic subject, to say the least, for a writer whose biggest fans understood that he, too, was "the embodiment of problematic." His prose sometimes made you want to sing and sometimes made you want to pull your hair out. Occasionally both. GEORGE JONES' voice, he wrote, "is one of rare prismatic inflections that transmute the familiar light of the timeworn into subtle new glimmerings." He was "maybe the greatest stylist in music writing." He could also spill encyclopedic research with textbook clarity. At CREEM and ROLLING STONE, he sometimes reviewed records without listening to them and sometimes reviewed records that didn't exist. He made up his own death, too, adding the date of his demise to his entry at BIOGRAPHY.COM some 20 years ago. He had it at 2021. He missed by only 15 months. RIP... At some point in your life, because people can be awful, you've heard a man at a gig yell "take your top off" at whoever happened to be onstage. This is what it's like to be that person onstage, courtesy the wonderful MAGGIE ROGERS. Pro-tip: Don't do it... The ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, bowing to complaints from fans and the band, has reversed itself and decided that longtime MOTÖRHEAD guitarist PHIL CAMPBELL (32 years) and drummer MIKKEY DEE (23 years) are official members and will be inducted with the band if it's voted into the Hall. Pro-tip: Lean toward generosity and inclusiveness, always... AMAZON WEB SERVICES has released the BLACK MADONNA from her contract to perform at its upcoming INTERSECT FESTIVAL in Las Vegas, while refuting the DJ's claim that Amazon's name wasn't on any of the paperwork she signed for the fest and that she had no idea it was an Amazon event. JAPANESE BREAKFAST tweeted on Friday that she wasn't told either, while expressing ambivalence over whether pulling out of the fest was her best option. Pro-tip: Most people have no idea what the initials "AWS" stand for, on an offer sheet, a URL or anywhere else... RIP RAY SANTOS. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | The New Wave icon was always an enigmatic presence, and the cool detachment that fueled his hits with Cars came from a very real sense of aloneness. | | | |  | I Care If You Listen | | Katy Henriksen considers the differences between curated radio programs and streaming culture in the wake of WNYC's decision to cancel New Sounds. | | | |  | Pollstar | | With recent approaches to tackling ticketing conundrums -- including The Black Keys' underplay show at Los Angeles' Wiltern that attempted to prohibit secondary sales and Tegan and Sara accepting donations to fill empty seats at San Francisco's Sydney Goldstein Theater that were purchased via the secondary market -- the balance of power continues to swing between the secondary and primary markets. | | | |  | Yahoo Music | | "She was just like, 'We're making a record. We're finishing it. That's it. Disease be damned.' She never once felt sorry for herself." | | | |  | Vox | | Some think professors shouldn't have fun. I've got something to show them. | | | |  | The Guardian | | Amazon has announced a Las Vegas music festival called Intersect. Like so many other branded events today, it exists only to exploit artists and audiences. | | | |  | MusicAlly | | In a keynote interview at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) conference in Amsterdam, Tencent Music's Andy Ng outlined his role in combatting piracy in China, building a legal streaming market there and why he and his employers are betting heavy on the EDM boom. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | The Boss conquered music and Broadway. Now he's making movies. | | | |  | i-D Magazine | | On her new EP 'Space Cadet' the 19-year old musician takes us on a journey through her sonic solar system. | | | |  | The New York Times | | He brought a brash style to coverage of the rock world in the late 1960s and '70s, then applied similar skills to novels and books on Dean Martin and Sonny Liston. | | | |  | Vulture | | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released its long list of 2020 inductions this week. It's a spectacularly diverse lineup of 16 acts put forward by the organization's New York-based nomination committee. The names of those potential inductees now get sent out to the so-called voting committee, which will narrow the list down to six or seven. | | | | | The Guardian | | The ex-REM frontman talks us through his new collection of photographs - and explains why he's giving all profits from his new single to Extinction Rebellion. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | Festival organizers waited two days to tell artists, angering multiple camps. | | | |  | Haute Living | | Nas is more inspired than ever and back in the studio recording new material after releasing his follow-up to 2002's "The Lost Tapes" this year. | | | |  | RADII | | The prolific attorney and beatmaker talks the Louis Vuitton-ification of Chinese rap and the problems with a copyright industry dominated by big tech. | | | |  | NPR Music | | One week after releasing a record-shattering studio debut, the Atlanta native brings a glowing R&B set to the Tiny Desk. | | | |  | TorrentFreak | | This week Guns N' Roses asked its fans to share bootleg footage of the band's "Not in This Lifetime..." tour, with a chance to have it featured in the official video. While that may seem like a great idea, some dedicated fans suggest that it's an (inadvertent) trap, as many people have received strikes and bans in recent months after sharing Guns N' Roses footage. | | | |  | Afropop Worldwide | | Urban traditional bands from the ethnic neighborhoods of sprawling Kinshasa have emerged as a surprise world music hit around the world. Overlooked and marginalized in the complex world of Congolese pop music, groups like Konono No 1 and Kisanzi Congo are reaching the world thanks to the concerted efforts of Belgian musician and producer Vincent Kenis, the man behind the Congotronics phenomenon. | | | |  | Chicago Reader | | Her new memoir, "Girl to City," crackles with the kind of sharp insights and perfectly chosen details her fans already love. | | | | | The Guardian | | Proliferation of hit TV has led fans to stream soundtracks of their favourite Netflix and Amazon Prime shows. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | I feel for this. I think I love this. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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