If you had told me last year that in 2020, we'd all be separated from each other, isolated in our homes, only speaking by FaceTime, and there's this thing called Zoom and everyone's throwing parties on it, I'd be like, 'Whoa, that sounds futuristic.' But it just feels like normality. | | | | Future in Atlanta, Jan. 19, 2020. "High Off Life" is out today on Freebandz/Epic.
(Paras Griffin/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "If you had told me last year that in 2020, we'd all be separated from each other, isolated in our homes, only speaking by FaceTime, and there's this thing called Zoom and everyone's throwing parties on it, I'd be like, 'Whoa, that sounds futuristic.' But it just feels like normality."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// What's noteworthy about CHARLI XCX's HOW I'M FEELING NOW, which she conceived during her first week in quarantine in Los Angeles two months ago and released this morning, isn't that she could write and record an album in a matter of weeks while stuck in her house—I assume 98 percent of the people making pop records today have the chops, equipment and networking ability to do that—but that she went ahead and did it. And that, at least on first listen, it's pretty good. Virtuosic follow-through. This is a good love song about being happily trapped indoors with your boyfriend who knows what to say after your therapist gets a bit too real with you. This is a fun, over-the-top club jam—about getting dolled up not for a club but for a video chat. "How I'm Feeling Now" is a pop record about life in spring 2020, a response to a moment, a vision of a sci-fi future that has suddenly become the present. The most-talked-about album of this plague year was made in a different kind of quarantine—a voluntary one—on the other side of Los Angeles, over a period of several years rather than several weeks, and exists in a rather different sonic and psychic space. Two different responses to two different isolated presents, and though I'm reasonably sure which one will deliver more sustenance to me over time, I'm thankful to live in a moment when both can, and do, exist. Thankful for the technology, thankful for the artists and eagerly awaiting the responses of others like them (and others not like them)... The TRAVIS MCCREADY concert scheduled for tonight in Arkansas in violation of public health directives was postponed Thursday after state officials suspended the club's liquor license. I'm thankful to live in a time when sanity can be enforced. Gold star to the home state of saxophone playing GOV. BILL CLINTON and bass playing GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE. The club, TEMPLE LIVE, is now seeking permission to reschedule the show on Monday. McCready, meanwhile, will play an outdoor show Saturday in Pineville, Mo., where no objections have been raised and apparently no state directives are being flouted. Still, I wouldn't object if nobody showed up... In the universe where we're still social distancing, NELLY and LUDACRIS step into the virtual ring at 7pm ET Saturday for the next edition of VERZUZ on INSTAGRAM LIVE... Behind the scenes at Instagram, FADIA KADER is one of the key people helping to keep the Verzuz verses flowing... Need a musical background for your next ZOOM meeting? Here are some options courtesy of the SONG SOMMELIER. (Me, I've got some mileage out of a certain New York City punk-rock bathroom as photographed here)... It's FRIDAY and that means in addition to CHARLI XCX there's new music from FUTURE, JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT (released a week ago to indie record stores, today everywhere else), MOSES SUMNEY, PERFUME GENIUS, YUNG LEAN, SHEFF G, KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH, JEFF MILLS, the MAGNETIC FIELDS, THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN, SPARKS, POLO G, ROY WOODS, KAMASI WASHINGTON (his score to NETFLIX's MICHELLE OBAMA documentary, BECOMING), INFANT ISLANDS, KOHTI TUHOA, I'M GLAD IT'S YOU, ALMA, NOAH CYRUS, MAITA, WILLIAM PARKER, JONATHAN BARBER & VISION AHEAD, WALTER SMITH III & MATTHEW STEVENS, LUCIAN BAN/JOHN SURMAN/MAT MANERI, JOSHUA CRUMBLY, PHILLIP SOLLMANN, JONNY NASH & SUZANNE KRAFT, SLEAFORD MODS, TWO FEET, PARADISE LOST, ASKING ALEXANDRIA, HANNI EL KHATIB, WILLIE NILE, NAHKO AND MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE, MOBY, RETIREMENT PARTY, PUBLIC PRACTICE, THE DEARS, WESTERN ADDICTION, JESS WILLIAMSON, GRETCHEN PETERS, MARSHALL CHAPMAN and live albums from PRINCE and DAVID BOWIE. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | Wired UK | | Radiohead were one of the first bands to build their own website. Now, they've created an archive of all their digital iterations in an attempt to make something that lasts. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | How does a Latin-pop superstar spend lockdown? Hanging out with his girlfriend, watching 'Toy Story' and surprising the world. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | Even outdoors with plenty of space to spread out, a casual jam session is rife with risk. So how are we to imagine formalized indoor shows with hundreds of people anytime soon? | | | |  | Vulture | | To institutions and artists and audiences alike. | | | |  | Trapital | | The late music executive made Uptown Records a brand that extended beyond its music. | | | |  | The New York Times | | "You've got to fall on your face to sit at the table," says the erstwhile R.E.M. frontman. | | | |  | Resident Advisor | | The electronic-pop auteur speaks candidly about the future of live performance, authorship in the digital era, running battles with the press, her lost nightcore album, and a love of Burial that you just might have found yourself reading about in the news lately. | | | |  | Variety | | U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Thursday sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delrahim, "urging the Department of Justice to ensure that a vibrant and competitive live performance marketplace will exist after the coronavirus pandemic," according to a statement. | | | | | Pitchfork | | There's also a new hotline to help other artists contact members of Congress themselves. | | | |  | Sound Diplomacy | | We want to encourage cities to better leverage their music economies to create more inclusive, prosperous music communities from recovery. | | | |  | The Ringer | | Twenty years ago, Britney Spears released the last classic album of the teen-pop era and a sendoff for the record industry's gilded age. | | | |  | The New Yorker | | A conversation with Mike Hadreas about songwriting, queerness, Americana, and orangutan videos. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | Sean Glass on the opportunities presented by lockdown -- and the changing face of entertainment media. | | | |  | Fast Company | | The progressive company is hoping to inspire others to embrace the importance of psychological wellness-just in time for Mental Health Awareness month. | | | |  | Okayplayer | | Beyoncé's appearance on the "Savage (Remix)" is her latest attempt at rapping -- and it's her most well-oiled performance thus far as a rapper. | | | | | Resident Advisor | | Tajh Morris, the DJ also known as Turtle Bugg, documents an overlooked chapter of Detroit's musical history. | | | |  | The Verge | | People have increasingly turned to Zoom to keep up with friends and family since the start of the pandemic. Fandoms have always thrived online, and are also using Zoom for listening parties, watch parties, crafting sessions and more. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | With a new album, an Edgar Wright-directed documentary and a movie-musical starring Adam Driver, the long-running cult act Sparks may yet become famous. | | | |  | VICE | | When things are out of your control, sometimes a simple distinction--like "right note" vs. "wrong note"--is all you need to feel sane again. | | | |  | Complex | | Tekashi 6ix9ine has always been obsessed with his visual identity. Now he's traded in gang imagery for a cartoonish style that pushes his new narrative. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | From "Set My Heart on Fire Immediately," out today on Matador. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
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