A music festival, held in 1969, is filmed — bits of it airing on local TV — but then shelved for decades before it’s resurrected for a new film. No, it’s not Summer of Soul. It’s Memphis ’69, a recently completed doc — which starts airing next week — that …
Read More »Yacht Rock: Album Guide
Summer’s here and time is right for dancing … on the deck of a large nautical vessel. During the late Seventies and early Eighties, the radio was dominated by silver-tongued white-dude crooners with names like Rupert and Gerry, emoting over balmy R&B beats, swaying saxes, and dishwasher-clean arrangements. Though it …
Read More »States Are One-Upping Each Other with Vaccine Rewards — But Will It Work?
On Wednesday, May 12th, in what sounded more like a pitch from a used car salesman than the introduction of a major public health initiative, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the launch of a $1 million lottery for vaccinated residents of the state. “Now, I know that some of you …
Read More »'Rolling Stone Interview: Special Edition' With Michael Stipe
In the past couple of years, Michael Stipe has fallen back in love with music. “I had to really step away from it for a while, after R.E.M. disbanded,” he says, in the latest edition of our “Rolling Stone Interview: Special Edition” video series. “As kind of a lead singer/control …
Read More »Outside Lands 2021 Moves to Halloween Weekend
The organizers for Outside Lands have announced that the 2021 festival will be held on Halloween weekend (October 29th through 31st) as opposed to its traditional August dates, in order to ensure the safest possible environment in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have been eagerly anticipating our return to …
Read More »Mary Wilson's Tireless Music Business Advocacy
It was Valentine’s Day of 2018 in Washington, D.C., and Mary Wilson was on a mission. Then 74 years old, the Supremes singer, outfitted in a glamorous red dress and very high heels, needed to convince the nation’s representatives and senators to vote yes on the CLASSICS Act, a proposed …
Read More »Here's Where You Can Donate to Help Struggling Music-Industry Workers
It’s been nearly a year since Covid-19 essentially shut down concert tours — the financial backbone of most working musicians – in the United States and beyond. As a result, thousands of musicians and touring professionals, many of whom work as nonunion independent contractors, are still out of work and …
Read More »To Start the Healing, Set the Bones First
Donald Trump was a negligent and corrupt president who, by his own standards, got rolled in his bid for re-election. He then instigated a deadly attack upon the seat of federal democracy as part of a months-long attempted coup. You might think Republicans would want to take the off ramp …
Read More »The Attempted Coup at the Capitol Proves This Is the United States of QAnon
There’s a photo from the riots at the U.S. Capitol of a man in a fur headdress and full warpaint, presiding over the dais on the congressional floor. The man is named Jake Angeli, and he is an aspiring actor from Arizona, but he is perhaps best known as the …
Read More »When an Instagram Meme Gets You a Record Deal
Last year, aspiring rapper YNG Martyr was barely holding on to a job as “a web designer that didn’t know how to design websites.” “I was in a nine to five that was God-awful,” he remembers. “I hated it.” Faced with the prospect of wasting away at work, most people …
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