ted leo
We Need to Talk About Spotify
In late January, Neil Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify in response to The Joe Rogan Experience’s willful platforming of vaccine misinformation—resulting in Young’s catalog’s swift takedown from the streaming service. His critique quickly snowballed, with other notable artists removing their own music in protest of Spotify’s profit off Rogan’s message via an exclusive, $100 million-dollar deal—including Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and india.arie (who significantly noted Rogan’s “language around race”). Music fans en masse showed their support, opting to #DeleteSpotify and contributing to a company market loss reported between $2.1 billion to $4 billion—meaning an estimated $1 billion plummet in net worth for founder and CEO Daniel Ek due to his stake in the ...
Ted Leo’s 50 Best Songs
New Jersey native Ted Leo is one of the finest singer/songwriters of his generation, an unabashed anglophile who’s spiked his literate and melodious indie rock anthems with hardcore punk, dub reggae, Celtic folk, and Thin Lizzy guitar leads. He’s best known for his work since 2000 as the leader of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, but over the last 30 years, the prolific multi-instrumentalist has played in a number of bands including Chisel, The Both, Citizens Arrest, and The Spinanes, and has even contributed songs to Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe The Movie and Hulu’s Difficult People. Leo was born on Sept. 11, 1970 – perhaps a slightly symbolic date given that he’s written more than a few songs about the failures of post-9/11 American foreign policy. As he turns 50 this week, we’re lookin...
Watch Ted Leo with Members of Rise Against and Converge Cover the Replacements
If there’s anyone who knows how to get a group of musicians (in different places) to play an elaborately crafted cover, it’s Jordan Olds. And in his latest edition of Two Minutes to Late Night, he recruited Ted Leo to lead a cover of the Replacements’ “Kids Don’t Follow,” off their 1982 EP Stink. Dressed as a priest, Leo is joined by a powerhouse set of other musicians, including guitarist Zach Blair of Rise Against and former member of Hagfish and Gwar, bassist Nate Newton (Converge and Cave In and Doomriders and Old Man Gloom), drummer Thomas Cantwell (Gouge Away and Hesitation Wounds). Backup vocals include Long Neck’s Lily Mastrodimos along with Answering Machine’s J.D. Fetcho and Samantha Campanile. Olds also joins (as per usual) in his Gwarsenio Ha...
