It is one of the most difficult-to-learn instruments in the world. Just setting up the pedals and levers requires an intense amount of foreknowledge. There are multiple standard tunings. Its strings usually run in a non-intuitive order. Playing it requires both hands, both feet and, occasionally, both knees. | | | | Robert Randolph playing his pedal steel, Las Vegas, Oct. 29, 2005.
(Denise Truscello/WireImage/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “It is one of the most difficult-to-learn instruments in the world. Just setting up the pedals and levers requires an intense amount of foreknowledge. There are multiple standard tunings. Its strings usually run in a non-intuitive order. Playing it requires both hands, both feet and, occasionally, both knees.”
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| | rantnrave:// What, you weren't specifically looking for a 2,000-word story on the history of the pedal steel guitar, from its development by country session players in the 1950s through its adoption by Nigerian juju superstar KING SUNNY ADE in the 1980s and new-music composers in the '90s, through to its place, in more recent times, "somewhere in the wall-of-sound saturation" of LANA DEL REY's ULTRAVIOLENCE? Me neither. But damn if I didn't learn a lot from JESSE JARNOW's microtonally bendy exploration for NPR MUSIC on the strange, singular, difficult-to-master analog instrument, less than a century old and oft misidentified and misunderstood. In five-plus years of curating MusicREDEF, I've collected exactly one other article with the phrase "pedal steel" in the headline—fittingly, this 2015 obituary for pedal steel pioneer BUDDY EMMONS. I promise to do better going forward... Wow: Consolidation in the music biz, visualized (and the most informative COACHELLA poster you'll see this year): Who Booked the Coachella Lineup? A two-question quiz, if you'd like, before you click on that: Which agency has more than a third of the 2020 Coachella lineup on its roster? And which agency reps one of Coachella's three headliners—and nobody else on this year's bill?... BEGGARS GROUP has moved its powerhouse roster of indie labels, including XL, 4AD and MATADOR, from WARNER's ADA to the indie distributor REDEYE for physical distribution in the US. DOMINO and SADDLE CREEK have done the same. It's fallout from an ongoing vinyl distribution crisis, detailed here, here and here, that was brewing through most of 2019 and boiled over on the Black Friday edition of RECORD STORE DAY. TL;DR version: Consolidation isn't always a good idea. Sometimes it's a disaster. Labels, record stores and music fans are all hoping new releases show up on release day more consistently this year than they did last year... What do you do when believe two of the world's biggest companies are stealing your pioneering audio technology, but you can't afford the risk of suing both of them at the same time?... SOFAR SOUNDS settles with the New York department of labor for $460,000 for its use of unpaid volunteers, a practice detailed last summer in this TALKHOUSE feature by JOHN "KID MILLIONS" COLPITTS... TINY MIX TAPES goes on hiatus... RIP OPTIV and ELIZABETH WURTZEL. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | NPR Music |
| The pedal steel guitar is, for many, inextricable from its roots in country music -- but its well runs much deeper than simply providing some smooth twang. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Companies are making plans to put droves of departed idols on tour - reanimating a live-music industry whose biggest earners will soon be dying off. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| For the past three decades, Jason Flom, the CEO of Lava Records, has been fighting to get the wrongfully convicted out of prison. But his goal is to prevent the innocent from ending up in prison in the first place. | | |
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 | ROSTR |
| We take a look at the talent agencies behind the artists hitting the desert later this year. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| The live shows you can’t miss. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Billboard Biz spotlights Gross Labs founder Nick Gross, who is looking to turn his burgeoning entertainment startup into an empire. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Sofar Sounds - has reached a $460,000 settlement with the New York Department of Labor after an article revealed its extensive use of unpaid volunteer workers. The payment will be distributed to volunteers — known as “ambassadors” — who worked at Sofar shows. | | |
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| Variety |
| Over the weekend, Dexter Fletcher's " Rocketman" received a surge on the Oscar buzz meter. Elton John, whose life the film is based on, won a Golden Globe for "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" beating out Beyonce (for "The Lion King") and Taylor Swift (for "Cats"). | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| Hans Zimmer spent a year with Terrence Malick before “The Thin Red Line” score was done. James Newton Howard lost a shot at an Oscar because Malick used classical masterworks with Howard's score for "A Hidden Life." But Howard says working with the director was worth the Academy snub. Here's why. | | |
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 | Mixmag |
| Everybody has to start somewhere. | | |
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 | First Floor |
| a.k.a. The electronic music media's attitude toward MDL Beast has been somewhere between "suspiciously silent" and "alarmingly complicit." | | |
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 | Analytics India Magazine |
| Spotify's home screen is governed by an AI system called Bandits for Recommendations as Treatments, or BaRT. | | |
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 | Talkhouse |
| AJ Haynes (Seratones) on her unexpected career as a patient advocate, and the upcoming Supreme Court case she’s working on. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| The maker of home speakers said Google and Amazon stole its technology and abused their power, but it could only risk suing one. | | |
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 | Sodajerker |
| Beck joins Simon and Brian in London to talk about his incredible new album "Hyperspace." He describes his experiences collaborating with Pharrell, Greg Kurstin and Paul Epworth, the influence of his Grandfather, and what it was like to receive a Grammy from Prince. | | |
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 | She Shreds |
| Recognized as Japan's first female singer-songwriter, Sachiko Kanenobu enjoys the fruits of her labor 40 years after the release of her debut album, "Misora." | | |
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 | CBS News |
| Bill Whitaker spends time with the Grammy-winner before her big show with Jennifer Lopez at February's Super Bowl. | | |
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 | HUCK Magazine |
| Grappling with societal fractures and a far-right surge, young Germans have discovered a new way of building bridges in the face of disunity: hip hop. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| The second season of Lifetime’s harrowing documentary detailing decades of abuse allegations against the musician covers a larger culture of complicity. | | |
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 | Please Kill Me |
| The Philadelphia recording studio Sigma Sound almost single-handedly defined the pre-Disco sound of the 1970s, with the smooth, soulful outpourings of the O’Jays, Stylistics, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Spinners and Billy Paul. Sigma’s sound was as distinctive as Stax/Volt in Memphis and Motown in Detroit, and it attracted the notice of Dusty Springfield, Todd Rundgren, and David Bowie. | | |
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