Kareem Ali doles out music at a torrid pace: He has released seven albums in the last 18 months, a mix of reverent deep house tracks and more potent, pointed grooves, questing science fiction and pressing political commentary. While it’s more common than ever for artists to jettison songs like …
Read More »Why Jeff Tweedy Is Calling for Reparations in the Music Industry
In the six weeks since nationwide Black Lives Matter protests rose up after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, musicians have been reckoning with their own complicit role in the longstanding structural racism of the music industry. Those efforts have ranged from the largely symbolic (removing the word “urban” from radio …
Read More »Curtis Waters' 'Stunnin' Is a TikTok Hit — And a Threat to the Major Label System
In early March, the veteran A&R Chris Anokute was listening to a SoundCloud link from an aspiring artist. The track came to an end, and the platform’s algorithm automatically queued up Curtis Waters’ “Freckles.” “I felt like he was telling my story,” says Anokute, who worked with Katy Perry at …
Read More »'On the Record' Directors Talk Sexual Assault in Music Industry, Loss of Women's Voices
One of the most anticipated films at Sundance is getting a premiere on new service HBO Max Wednesday — after a highly publicized dustup in which original backers Oprah Winfrey and Apple dropped their support right before its premiere at the festival. Helmed by veteran filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby …
Read More »S.G. Goodman's Southern Storytelling
When S.G. Goodman was growing up, her farmer father would plant an annual crop of sweet corn for his three kids, which they later harvested by hand and sold for money to buy their school clothes. The farm isn’t Goodman’s home anymore: “I live in a house where the backyard …
Read More »Rylo Rodriguez: Southern Rap's Prince of Samples
When Mariah Carey sang about everlasting love on 1996’s “Always Be My Baby,” she probably couldn’t have envisioned its rebirth as “Project Baby,” a story of squalor and perseverance by 24-year-old Mobile, Alabama, rapper Rylo Rodriguez. “Catch a DUI, these bills driving us crazy,” he sings in place of Carey’s …
Read More »Sheer Mag's Guitar Shredder on How He Became a Soft-Rock Quarantine DJ
Kyle Seely never planned to become a soft-rock DJ. But then he found himself stranded in Australia. “I was supposed to be in the States now, but I have no idea when I’ll be back there,” explains the Sheer Mag guitarist, who moved to Melbourne to live with his fiancé …
Read More »'I Majored in Mouth': How Little Richard Invented the Rock Star
Rebellion, outrage, scandal, hypersexual egomania, ripping it up, rocking it up, gigantic hair, and mascara — all these things are in rock & roll because Little Richard put them there. He was the loudest and wildest and rudest of the Fifties pioneers, the most flamboyantly and untamably free. He invented …
Read More »From Big Pink to Whitney's Dream House: Here's What It's Like to Live in a Pop Star's Former Home
Donald LaSala was checking the security cameras at his upstate New York property when he saw a man wander into his yard, look both ways, then kneel to kiss the grass. Dr. Matthew Krauthamer once found a group of friends having a picnic on his front lawn. Justin Berthiaume lucked …
Read More »Quarantine Comfort: The Best Livestreamed Performances So Far
With the coronavirus continuing to force artists to cancel or postpone tours and festivals, many have taken their shows to social media — livestreaming from the comforts of their homes and offering fans a glimpse of their lives. From Brian Wilson to Diplo, here are the best performances so far …
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