Live musicianship. Shoutout to all the musicians, everybody who's not working right now. Everybody that's looking around in circles like what are we gonna do? All we can do is create, just keep creating, keep creating. This time is sure to pass. And we have something that is beautiful and the world needs. So hold tight, breathe easy. | | | | Rock you like the Company? Scorpions circa 1984.
(Chris Walter/WireImage/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Live musicianship. Shoutout to all the musicians, everybody who's not working right now. Everybody that's looking around in circles like what are we gonna do? All we can do is create, just keep creating, keep creating. This time is sure to pass. And we have something that is beautiful and the world needs. So hold tight, breathe easy.”
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| | rantnrave:// Three episodes into PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE's deliciously bonkers eight-episode podcast about the possibility that SCORPIONS' 1990 power ballad "WIND OF CHANGE" was written by the CIA—damn if that wasn't the easiest pitch in the history of podcasts—I'm reasonably sure we're not going to get a clear answer and it doesn't really matter if we do. I could be wrong, and since all eight episodes dropped on SPOTIFY on Monday, it's possible you already know the answer (and since we're talking about the CIA and a German metal singer with a funky English accent, it's possible that answer is wrong, too). Having heard so far about the CIA-backed adventures of LOUIS ARMSTRONG (he knew), NINA SIMONE (she didn't) and the NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND (they suspected), I get the impression this is more a series about what's plausible than about what's verifiable, and what seems plausible at this point is that a deep state exists and it's a basically a songwriting camp and booking agency. It's kind of amazing how quickly you accept at least the possibility of things that made you laugh out loud in disbelief when you first heard the pitch two or three sentences ago. That's good storytelling, from all sides. Highly recommended, regardless of your feelings about either the band or the (better than I remembered) song; kudos to Spotify, PINEAPPLE STREET and CROOKED MEDIA. (The weirdest thing for me, though, is that the WIKIPEDIA page for "Wind of Change" makes no mention of any of this, not even the existence of the podcast. As of early this morning, it hadn't been edited in two weeks. Is the CIA controlling that, too?)... Also loving right now: DOJA CAT and NICKI MINAJ's "SAY SO" remix, which somehow just became Minaj's first-ever #1 single. It's her 109th (!!!) charted song. It's Doja Cat's first #1, too, and it sounds like it exists in three decades at once, a 2020 pop song as imagined by a '70s disco fan with a working knowledge of '90s girl groups. It's super summer breezy and a perfect concoction for TIKTOK, which loves to resurrect sounds from random moments past... After nine (!!!) straight #1 albums, DRAKE debuted at #2 this week with DARK LANE DEMO TAPES. Did a CD bundled with tickets for a tour that may never happen block his path to his 10th #1?... RIP NICK BLIXKY, PASCAL F.E.O.S. and, on a personal note, STACEY PHELON, owner of the Long Branch, NJ, recording studio SUBTERRANEAN SOUND and basically the house engineer for the Jersey Shore's 1990s underground rock scene. Stacey recorded MONSTER MAGNET's debut album, SPINE OF GOD, and lots of others by local legends like GODSPEED, BIG NURSE and DAISYCUTTER. And the first sessions by my band, the TROUBLE DOLLS. His 16-track basement studio was the first real studio I'd set foot in. You never, ever forget the first time, no matter how cranky the house engineer may be and no matter how inaccessible the bathroom is. It was a window into a new life. It was paradise. Thank you Stacey. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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 | Spotify |
| It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall just fell. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. And the soundtrack to the revolution is the metal ballad “Wind of Change,” by the Scorpions. Decades later, journalist Patrick Radden Keefe heard a rumor: the song wasn’t written by the Scorpions. It was written by the CIA. This is his journey to find the truth. | | |
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 | The Atlantic |
| "I don't know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life," Dave Grohl writes. "But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to." | | |
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 | British GQ |
| As the man who guided Ariana Grande through one of pop’s darkest days, Scooter Braun knows all about crisis. Here, he predicts how different the world will look - for music, for business, for all of us - in the wake of a catastrophe felt in every corner of the globe | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| After his career in music, the rock ’n’ roll innovator took up the task of maintaining his legacy -- because nobody else was going to do it. | | |
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 | Level |
| Over more than 30 years of friendship, I saw a man trying to do it all - and succeeding. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| In 1966, Betty Wright dropped by the offices of Deep City, a Miami label located in the back of Johnny's Records in her home neighborhood of Liberty City. She had been recently discovered by artist, songwriter and producer Clarence Reid, who wanted Deep City co-founder Willie Clarke to take a listen to Wright's singing chops. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Things get very murky when computers can replicate the human voice. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| Last month, Fiona Apple joined an exclusive club when her album 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters' received a real-time perfect score on the most vital and polarizing music publication of its era. How did the distinction come to mean so much? And what does it mean in 2020? | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| The Spotify boss suggests the future growth of his company will rely on the migration of free radio listeners -- and he thinks record labels should back the strategy. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| Did American spies write a Scorpions song? | | |
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 | Pollstar |
| The massive success of this event, and its coordination with the release of his latest single, is turning heads throughout the music industry. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Two new campaigns call for artists to receive greater cut of Spotify and streaming royalties. | | |
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 | NPR |
| The Jazz Coalition Commission Fund is trying to help struggling musicians by doling out $1,000 micro-grants through a nomination and jury process. Winners will create new musical pieces. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Spotify didn't know they would stumble upon a goldmine back in 2015 when they rolled out their RapCaviar playlist to showcase a mesh of emerging and superstar MCs, as the trendsetting playlist has become the most sought-after real estate in all of hip-hop. | | |
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 | Treble |
| A 50-song history lesson from analog to digital. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| The 41-year-old musician is known as one of the best songwriters in the country. And that just may have been the problem. | | |
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 | VICE |
| The independent radio station streams a lot of good music, but it's also a repository for the feelings of an entire city. | | |
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 | Live4ever Media |
| There are many bitter ironies about this new world we inhabit after COVID-19 entered our lives. The saddest of all is, of course, that those best placed to treat the virus are those that have the | | |
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| Billboard |
| The Bronx-born and bred Harrell’s vision and instincts were that of the rare, landscape-shifting music men, like Berry Gordy, Clive Davis, Ahmet Ertegun. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| Read wisdom from country iconoclast Terry Allen, new age dreamer Laraaji, soul survivor Bettye LaVette, jazz statesman Gary Bartz, and Ethio-jazz treasure Hailu Mergia. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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