jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 06/26/2020 - 'Dixie' Chicked, Pop Smoke's Last Days, Glastonbury, Rick Rubin, Rick Wakeman, Arca...

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We want to meet this moment.
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Arca at the Sónar Festival, Barcelona, July 18, 2019. "KiCk i" is out today on XL Recordings.
(David Zorrakino/Europa Press/Getty Images)
Friday - June 26, 2020 Fri - 06/26/20
rantnrave:// There appear to be people who think the band now known as the CHICKS caved in to public pressure in tossing the other half of the name, which the long-running Texas trio originally named for a LITTLE FEAT song went ahead and did Thursday morning without bothering to officially announce it. They just changed the URL of their website and their social media handles (shoutout whoever quickly scooped up at least one of their old ones, assuming that wasn't them, too) and released a single under the new, shortened name. "We want to meet the moment," the homepage of the website now says. There was in fact public pressure, but the Chicks aren't a band that has ever shown much interest in doing what they're told. "March, march to my own drum / Hey hey, I'm an army of one," goes the chorus of the new single, a stripped-down, roots-rocky (or at least as roots-rocky as you can be over a programmed beat) protest song that in two verses covers a convention's worth of left wing causes. Marching to their own drum in the past famously got them banished from country radio; it also allowed them to successfully come back a couple years later, without radio's help, with a single that basically told their detractors to shove it. They changed their name this week not because someone in New York or Los Angeles or Austin told them they have to (it's equally likely someone in Dallas or Tallahassee begged them not to), but because they thought it was the right thing to do and because they wanted to. Defiant Chicks would've worked, too... Question: Can country artists still say they've been "Dixie Chicked"?... The Chicks also changed managers, but not to any of those tracked in this informative interactive report, courtesy ROSTR, that charts the world's biggest music management companies based on such metrics as roster size, SPOTIFY and YOUTUBE reach and a variety of other data points. CORAN CAPSHAW's RED LIGHT MANAGEMENT has the most clients, by far, of any company tracked here (more than four times as many as MAVERICK, which has the second biggest roster) while Maverick, SCOOTER BRAUN's SB PROJECTS and the Latin-focused WALTER KOLM ENTERTAINMENT are the Spotify and YouTube champs... MARC GEIGER is stepping down as global head of music at WME... CASH MUSIC, a long-running nonprofit that provides crucial tools to indie artists, is shutting down in July... NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL has a CBGB Caucus... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from KHRUANGBIN, ARCA, HAIM, G-EAZY, IDK, 6LACK, JESSIE WARE, THROTTLE ELEVATOR MUSIC (feat. KAMASI WASHINGTON), HUM (actually dropped earlier this week, breaking a small corner of the internet), TENILLE TOWNES, CORB LUND, GREY DAZE (new recordings by CHESTER BENNINGTON's pre-LINKIN PARK band using his original vocals), CEELO GREEN, YUNGEEN ACE, NATANAEL CANO, BUJU BANTON (dancehall star's first album in 10 years), NADINE SHAH, PARK HYE JIN, LOUIS THE CHILD, BELL WITCH & AERIAL RUIN (from the linked review: "[It] won't be for everyone. In fact, it's practically not for anyone at all"), POTTERY, RAY LAMONTAGNE, BECCA MANCARI, DERRICK HODGE, BOBBY WATSON, MACEO PARKER, BRIAN MCKNIGHT (his last album of original songs, he says), MAX B, AUGUST ALSINA, BANKROL HAYDEN, DEAD TONGUES, JAMES KRIVCHENIA (second solo album by BIG THIEF drummer), COUNTRY WESTERNS, WILL HOGE, BAD MOVES, GORDI, DIRTY PROJECTORS, MOE. and ART FEYNMAN... RIP MADY MESPLÉ.
- Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
going down to liverpool
The New York Times
The Last Days of Pop Smoke
by Jon Caramanica
The Brooklyn rapper was on the verge of an international breakthrough when he was killed in February. Here is the story of his whirlwind final months, told by those who knew him best.
The Guardian
Michael Eavis: Glastonbury could go bankrupt if it can't be staged in 2021
by Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Founder says another cancellation would 'be curtains' for festival and has hopes for testing scheme, with daughter Emily saying they will 'mutate to survive.'
The Ringer
Rick Rubin Does Nothing and Everything at Once
by Rob Harvilla
Retracing the legacy of the superproducer, who helped shaped the course of music by stripping away the pieces that didn't matter.
The Ringer
The Top 100 Albums in the Rick Rubin Extended Universe, Ranked
by Corbin Reiff
From his early Def Jam work to his revival of Johnny Cash and all the odds and ends in between, we've ranked the best (and worst) of the legendary superproducer's career.
Vanity Fair
The Stranger-Than-Fiction Secret History of Prog-Rock Icon Rick Wakeman
by David Kushner
The Yes keyboardist defined Spinal Tap-esque excess, until he staked everything on his eccentric dream of an Arthurian rock opera on ice. Now, the tale of his epic spiral and long, slow comeback can finally be told.
Dweller
A Conversation on the Bleaching of Techno: How Appropriation is Normalized and Preserved
by Axmed Maxamed and Mathys Rennela
The following conversation took place before the on-going wave of protests, and in spite of the recent reckoning with anti-Black racism of a lot of white actors in the scene, the challenges and issues mentioned are still very relevant. Although the Dutch scene is the primary focus of this discussion, similar dynamics can be observed all across the world.
The Daily Beast
'Russell Simmons Raped Me.' Will Black Women Always Be an Afterthought?
by Alexia Norton Jones
Alexia Norton Jones, activist and daughter of MLK's attorney, writes about surviving the predatory hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and why we must believe and fight for Black women.
i-D Magazine
Arca: 'We're all transitioning: from birth to death, it's inevitable'
by Frankie Dunn
The artist tells i-D about her new brilliant new album, "KiCk i," accompanied by remote portraits by Juergen Teller.
The New York Times
The Dixie Chicks Change Their Name, Dropping the 'Dixie'
by Ben Sisario
The platinum-selling country trio will be known as the Chicks, the latest example of sweeping cultural changes brought on by nationwide protests spotlighting racial inequality.
New York Post
Let me hold a benefit concert, with fans tested for COVID antibodies: James Dolan
by James Dolan
There is a way to safely host an event that will raise money for those in need, help scientists with data, and remind the world of the New York Experience: A benefit concert.
st. louis to liverpool
ROSTR
The World's Leading Artist Management Companies: 2020
by Mark Williamson
The second edition of ROSTR's report highlighting the artist management companies with the biggest rosters, largest reach & much more.
Office Hours
How Quality Control Music Took Over Atlanta
by Dan Runcie
The Atlanta record label gained traction by staying loyal to one of hip-hop's best markets.
Vulture
Phoebe Bridgers Feels Your Pain
by Ilana Kaplan
The wildly prolific singer-songwriter on her devastating new album "Punisher" and being "the sad girl."
The Guardian
Queer as folk: traditional British music is now telling LGBT stories
by Harry Harris
Folk music hasn't always been as progressive as it might be -- so it's heartening to see queer-friendly collectives like Bogha-frois and FemFolk flourish.
Ludwig van Toronto
Music and Liberation
by Robin Roger
To honour Pride Month, LVT spotlights two illuminating presentations on iconic gay composers Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Leonard Bernstein.
GQ
How 'Ramy' Made the Best Soundtrack on TV
by Gabriella Paiella
From rare seventies Arabic funk to indie dance hits, the score to the award-winning comedy is rich with gems.
Longreads
Tangled Up in Bob Stories: A Dylan Reading List
by Aaron Gilbreath
Music legends from Tom Waits to Joni Mitchell immediately heard Dylan's genius in songs like "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," but not me. It took me two decades to warm to Bob Dylan. It's a common story. He's one of those artists that people say will "grow on you," or, in more patronizing terms: You'll understand when you're older.
Complete Music Update
Artist groups call on Congress to investigate Live Nation's controversial post-COVID memo
by Chris Cooke
American music industry campaign groups the Artist Rights Alliance and the Future Of Music Coalition have both called on members of US Congress to investigate the recently circulated memo from Live Nation regarding changes to its artist contracts once the COVID-19 shutdown is over.
Billboard
Dance Music Pioneer Kevin Saunderson: The Scene Is Still Failing Black Artists
by Katie Bain
It's not an understatement to say that Kevin Saunderson has been part of dance music culture since the inception of the scene in the late '70s. At age 17, he attended the hallowed New York venues Paradise Garage and The Loft, where he was not only exposed to the house and disco being spun by future legends such as Larry Levan and David Mancuso, but to the social diversity of the burgeoning genre.
Watt
RETRO READ: The Secret Lives of Playlists
by Liz Pelly
Not all Spotify playlists are created equally. To begin understanding this, look at them closely. Literally.
MUSIC OF THE DAY
YouTube
"Dearest Alfred"
Khruangbin
Hypnotizing. From "Mordechai," out today on Dead Oceans.
"REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'"
@JasonHirschhorn


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