Alternative
Courtney Barnett Launches Expansive Live Archive
With concerts currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Courtney Barnett is one of many artists forced to wait to perform live again until it’s safe to do so. Instead of letting that get her down, though, Barnett has just done the next best thing: start an online archive of her touring and performing history. Best of all, it’s completely free to view. Inspired by the legendary digital archives of Neil Young and The Grateful Dead, Barnett decided to organize her past live performances as a way to give back to her fans during the pandemic and immortalize her progress as a live artist. Since playing her first-ever set at The Lark Distillery’s open mic night back in 2007, the Tell Me How You Really Feel singer has gone on to play nearly 800 shows, including solo concerts, gi...
Winston Marshall to Take Leave of Absence from Mumford and Sons Following Andy Ngo Tweet
Mumford and Sons banjo player Winston Marshall is taking a leave of absence from the band amidst outcry over his recent social media post praising right-wing agitator Andy Ngo. In a tweet posted this past weekend, Marshall called Ngo a “brave man” and congratulated him on publishing a book about Antifa’s “radical plan to destroy democracy.” “Finally had the time to read your important book,” Marshall wrote. Now, though, Marshall has issued a public apology and announced his intention to take time away from Mumford and Sons “to examine my blindspots.” “Over the past few days I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed. I have offended not only a lot of people I don’t know, but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for the I am truly sorry,” Ma...
St. Vincent Reveals She Initially Planned on Making Tool-Inspired Album
St. Vincent (photo by David Brendan Hall) and Tool (photo by Kevin RC Wilson) St. Vincent mastermind Annie Clark recently detailed her new album, Daddy’s Home, describing it as inspired by “music made in New York from 1971-76.” As it turns out, the project almost had an entirely different sound. During an appearance on RADIO.COM’s New Arrivals with Bryce Segall, Clark revealed she initially planned on making a “heavy record” inspired by Tool. “The crazy thing about music is, you can plan and plan and think you’re gonna go one way, and then you start writing and the music just takes you wherever the music takes you,” she explained. “That was certainly the experience with this. I was dead set in my mind that after MASSEDUCTION, I was just gonna make this like, heavy record. Like just heavy t...
Gary Numan Reveals the Origins of New Single “I Am Screaming”: Stream
Our new music feature Origins seeks in depth details about new songs from the artists who create them. Today, new wave legend Gary Numan wants you to hear that “I Am Screaming”. Intruder, Gary Numan’s upcoming 18th studio album, picks up the narrative of 2017’s Savage (Songs from a Broken World) from a different point of view. While that previous LP depicted a barren future wrecked by global warming, the new wave icon’s latest effort takes on the perspective of Mother Earth herself. “If Earth could speak, and feel things the way we do, what would it say? How would it feel?” Numan explained when announcing the album. Although the entirety of Intruder seeks to answer those questions, perhaps no track does so more directly than the new single “I Am Screaming”. What begins as a mournful bubbli...
Tame Impala Play Sold-Out Concert in Australia
In Australia, the weekly average of COVID-19 cases has been in the single digits since January. As such, pre-pandemic normalcy has all but returned to the country — and that includes packed, maskless concerts. On Friday night, Tame Impala returned to the stage for the first of two Tame Impala Sound System sets in Perth. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker conceived Tame Impala Sound System back when Australia was in quarantine, and subsequently debuted the project with a series of television performance and an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk. These performance saw Parker and co. reimagine tracks from the band’s discography with synths, sequencers, and samplers. Or, as Parker himself describes it: “Wielding their overflowing arsenal of synths, sequencers and samplers to rework and reimagine trac...
Kings of Leon Unveil New Album When You See Yourself: Stream
Kings of Leon have unveiled their first album in five years, When You See Yourself. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The 11-song effort is the Nashville-bred band’s first full-length since 2016’s WALLS. They previewed the album with three singles — “The Bandit”, “100,000 People”, and “Echoing” — but the most compelling aspect of the rollout process had nothing to do with the sound of the music (which is quite good). Earlier this week, the group announced that they were going to be the first band to ever release an entire album in NFT form — that’s “non-fungible token” for those who aren’t aware. NFT’s are essentially a cryptocurrency for art: images, videos, music, and even items like concert tickets that are sold on an online marketplace like Bitcoin. In add...
The Stone Roses’ Ian Brown Refuses to Play Festival With Mandatory Vaccination Policy
Ian Brown has said a lot of crazy shit about the coronavirus. In a bizarre Twitter rant last fall, the former Stone Roses frontman called COVID-19 a “plandemic” that’s making us “digital slaves”, and he shared a new solo song that fleshed out his worldview into 5G microchip territory. Since then, he’s continued to blather conspiratorial nonsense on Twitter, and now he’s putting his money where his mouth is. As of today, the English musician has stepped down as the headliner of an upcoming UK festival because attendees are required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. The 58-year-old was slated to headline the second night of a three-day festival called Neighbourhood Weekender, but after organizers announced that they’re pushing the fest back to September and that attendees will have to s...
Kings of Leon Are Releasing Their New Album as an NFT
Kings of Leon are about to do something revolutionary. On Friday, the Grammy-winning alt-rock band will release their new album When You See Yourself as an NFT, making them the first band to ever release their album in this burgeoning cryptocurrency format. For those who aren’t up on their crypto lingo, NFT is an acronym for non-fungible token. They’re essentially a form of digital currency like Bitcoin, except instead of a monetary value, they contain art, music, or even something unique like a concert ticket. Throughout the last few months, their popularity has soared immensely in the music community — and so has their value. Over the weekend, Grimes sold a collection that contained exclusive songs and art that earned her $6 million via auction. In addition to releasing When Yo...
Eddie Vedder Says His Baseball Walk-Up Song Would Be Fugazi’s “Give Me the Cure”
Every baseball fan has imagined it: bottom of the ninth, two outs, and the loudspeakers start blasting your walk-up song. Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is no different, and the longtime Chicago Cubs backer recently revealed that the music he would like played as he stepped up to the plate would be Fugazi’s “Give Me the Cure”. Vedder indulged his athletic fantasies in an appearance on the podcast The Artist and the Athlete, hosted by broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak. Alongside Chicago’s All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo, the songwriter told stories of taking drunken batting practice with Cubs’ President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein and meeting a “baby-faced” Rizzo back when he was still a minor league prospect. When Czarniak asked about Vedder’s theoretical walk-up music, the r...
Julien Baker Gives Stirring Performance of “Hardline” on Seth Meyers: Watch
Julien Baker supported the release of her brilliant new solo album Little Oblivions with an appearance on Monday’s edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers. Accompanied by a full band, Baker delivered a stirring performance of the album’s opening track, “Hardline”. Catch the replay below. Little Oblivions, Baker’s third solo album to date, was released last Friday. In her review of the album for Consequence, Natalia Barr called Little Oblivions a remarkable and devastatingly honest listen that finds Baker searching for answers that refuse to come easily. Also revisit Baker’s recent appearance on Going There with Dr. Mike, where she spoke candidly about her history with depression and OCD. [embedded content] Related You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Onlin...
Israeli court limits use of spy agency to track coronavirus cases
Israel’s top court ruled Tuesday the government must curb its use of the domestic spy agency to track coronavirus infections, saying “draconian” surveillance constituted a blow to democracy. The government began using the Shin Bet’s surveillance technologies in March 2020, when Covid-19 infections began to spike. But the supreme court quickly blocked such practice, saying legislation was needed to authorise the programme. Tracking was discontinued in June but the following month, amid another infection surge, parliament passed a law allowing the surveillance when “an epidemiological investigation cannot be completed otherwise”. Initially approved for three weeks, that has measure has been repeatedly extended since while details of how information was obtained were kept secret. Critics crie...
St. Vincent Details “Sleazy, Grimy” New Album Daddy’s Home
One of our most anticipated albums of 2021 is the impending new record from St. Vincent. Last year, Annie Clark confirmed that the LP would arrive by this summer, and earlier this week some eagle-eyed Reddit users spotted posters that indicated it’s titled Daddy’s Home and would be released on May 14th. In a new interview with The New Cue, Clark didn’t confirm either of those facts, but she did share some key details about the album’s theme, sound, and recording process. While speaking with the new weekly music newsletter, the Grammy-winning rocker revealed that it was co-produced by Jack Antonoff (who she worked with on 2017’s MASSEDUCTION ) and that it was heavily inspired by early ’70s New York City. “I would say it’s the sound of being down and out Downtown in New Y...
