During the BET Awards, Kendrick Lamar performed his To Pimp a Butterfly track "Alright" while standing on a vandalized police car. The performance was a talking point on the latest episode of the Fox News roundtable program "The Five", Stereogum reports. In short, the pundits were not fans of Lamar's lyrics or imagery, claiming his performance "incites violence". "This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years," said Geraldo Rivera.
Also worth noting—Eric Bolling's reading of the "wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho" line is extremely funny.
Rivera continued:
This is exactly the wrong message. And then to conflate what happened in the church in Charleston, South Carolina with these tragic incidents involving excessive use of force by cops is to equate that racist killer with these cops, it is so wrong, it is so counterproductive, it gives exactly the wrong the message.
I wonder what they think of the new video. Here's the segment:
In a 2013 interview with Sopitas (via CoS), Yorke said:
"I feel like as musicians we need to fight the Spotify thing. We don’t need you to do it. No artists need you to do it. We can build the shit ourselves, so fuck off. … To me this isn’t the mainstream, this is is like the last fart, the last desperate fart of a dying corpse. What happens next is the important part.”
What happened next was that he released Tomorrow's Modern Boxes via BitTorrent. Radiohead's music is available on both Apple Music and Spotify.
Here's the video for Atoms for Peace's Amok track "Ingenue":
Kendrick Lamar has shared his video for his To Pimp a Butterfly track "Alright". Directed by Colin Tilley and the Little Homies, the black-and-white clip features the artist performing a variety of stunts, including flying down the street and rapping from atop a traffic light and while upside down. Oh, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for clowns, boombox stacks, and classic cars. Watch below.
Disclosure's Caracal, the follow-up to their excellent 2013 debut Settle, is out on September 25. The Lawrence brothers recently dropped a trailer for something related to the album. Turns out it was for a short film directed by Ryan Hope, which will be broken up into four music videos. The first one is for "Holding On", Disclosure's new single featuring Gregory Porter. Shot in Mexico City, the clip tells the story of Mariela, a savior-type character in a dystopian world, helping a group of rebels take back a city from Robocop-reminiscent soldiers. Watch it below.
We wanted to create something very different with our music videos this time around...
Kendrick Lamar has shared his video for his To Pimp a Butterfly track "Alright". Directed by Colin Tilley and the Little Homies, the black-and-white clip features the artist performing a variety of stunts, including flying down the street and rapping from atop a traffic light and while upside down. Oh, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for clowns, boombox stacks, and classic cars. Watch below.
Last night, Beck participated in Doug Aitken's Station to Station project at the Barbican in London, accompanied by Thurston Moore. The performance was billed as "an evening of music, poetry and visual arts," pairing music with poetry readings by Simon Armitage and others; the cinematic backdrop belied a cowboy theme, further emphasized by Beck (and some onstage actors') Wild West garb.
The Guardian reports that Beck performed the rare Stereopathetic Soulmanure cut "Waitin' For A Train" that evening, along with Morning Phase's "Wave"; Moore, meanwhile, played his song "Speak to the Wild" (off 2014's The Best Day). Check out out footage of it below via Stereogum.
Miguel's got a new album out this week called Wildheart. During his spot as musical guest on last night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live", he sang "Coffee" alongside a backing band dressed all in white. Before that, however, he stopped off at a coffee shop in Los Angeles to serenade an unsuspecting customer with the Wildheart track. Watch below.
Also, this morning, he did the same song on "Good Morning America". Watch that below as well.
Watch Miguel play "Adorn" at a Warm Up event at MoMA PS1:
Four Tet, aka Kieran Hebden, collaborated multiple times with the late jazz drummer Steve Reid. They released albums such as 2007's Tongues, 2008's NYC and 2011's Live At the South Bank. They also recorded a version of Derrick May's "Strings of Life" before Reid passed away in 2010. The song was played on a Gilles Peterson podcast celebrating Reid's life, but was never officially released. Today, Hebden announced on Twitter that it'll soon receive a formal release, as FACT points out.
Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - Strings of Life TEXT035... it's ready. Am picking up stock today.
Apple Music has now launched across iOS devices. As previously reported, it combines streaming, downloads, radio, and social elements all in one place.
iTunes now includes access to all of the iTunes store streaming on demand, with features like customized playlists and recommendations. Pitchfork is one of Apple Music's Curation Partners. Check out Pitchfork's profile for regularly updated playlists.
At noon Eastern time today, Beats 1, the in-house radio station, will begin broadcasting 24 hours a day. Beats 1 is co-anchored by Zane Lowe in London, Ebro Darden of Hot 97 in New York, and Julie Adenuga in London. The station's first interview will be with Eminem, as conducted by Lowe.
Beats 1 will also feature shows hosted by musicians and celebrities. Drake, Dr. Dre, St. Vincent, Disclosure, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Jaden Smith, Elton John, and Pharrell are amongst the initial hosts. It will be free, ad-supported, and available to anyone with an Apple device.
St. Vincent's show, "Mixtape Delivery Service", features Annie Clark creating mixtapes based on notes from fans. Dr. Dre's "The Pharmacy" features mixes as well as commentary from Dre and DJ Pooh. Josh Homme's show is called "Alligator Hour".
The social element of Apple Music, Connect, allows artists to upload their own content and interact with fans.
Apple Music will also match and upload any songs owned by the user, so that they'll be accessible through the app. Users will be able to access up to 100,000 songs through this feature.
The service will cost $9.99 per month, though it's free for the first three months. Initially, Apple wasn't planning to pay rights holders for streams logged during that free trial period. After a bout of criticism from industry figures such as Beggars Group and Taylor Swift, Apple capitulated to the demands for compensation. Subsequently, Apple struck a deal with the Worldwide Independent Network, which represents independent record labels worldwide (including Beggars), as well as the independent digital rights organization Merlin.
Santigold has shared "Radio", a new song that appears on the original soundtrack for Paper Towns, the forthcoming coming-of-age movie based off a John Green novel that stars Cara Delevingne. You can listen to it below. The soundtrack is out July 10, while the movie is out July 23.
Santigold is at work on the follow-up to 2012's Master of My Make-Believe, which she intends to release later this year.
Ben Browning of Cut Copy is readying his first full-length, Turns. Today, ahead of the record's summer release, he's shared the video for "Friends of Mine", directed by Trouble Hands. The video sees Browning rewinding time to revisit old friends. It features a cameo from "Girls" actor Alex Karpovsky (who also showed up in Tanlines' "Palace" video last week). Watch it below.
Dave Grohl hasn't watched Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the documentary about his former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain. In an interview with the Washington Post, he said he was "terrified" when he caught a part of it on television (via Consequence of Sound).
"All the footage of him as a child, I think that might make me sad, and then the dark stuff at the end I think would bum me out," Grohl said. He only ended up watching about 10 minutes before shutting it off, the Post reports.
In related Grohl news, Foo Fighters will kick off their scheduled tour on July 4 as planned, enlisting stars such as Buddy Guy and Joan Jett for their 20th anniversary celebration. That means Grohl's leg is healing nicely after a fracture suffered from falling off stage at a concert in Sweden forced the band to cancel a handful of tour dates, including a headlining set at Glastonbury.
Pitchfork.tv's "Playlist" is a series in which artists pick a list of favorite tracks and discuss what each one means to them. In this episode, Courtney Barnett shares her playlist, including Karen Dalton's “Something On Your Mind”, Abner Jay's “I’m So Depressed”, Rowland S. Howard's “Exit Everything”, Patti Smith's “Free Money”, Mickey and Sylvia's “Love Is Strange”, and Total Control's “Flesh War”.
Below, watch the full episode, featuring Barnett's commentary, as well as clips of each song. Click on the links contained within the video to hear the full songs.
Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington released their excellent Darkside album Psychic back in 2013.Last year, they played some final shows before calling it quits. One of those performances was filmed by La Blogothèque Télénantes in association with ARTE France. The concert film is called Psychic Live, and it's out right now on DVD and digitally via Matador.
The concert took place at Stereolux in Nantes, France on March 21 of last year. The DVD is available in a limited run of 1,000. The concert's live audio was mastered by Joe Lambert.
AC/DC have been famously hesitant to release their music digitally. Their albums came to iTunes in 2012—almost a full decade after the store launched. Now, their records are finally coming to streaming services starting tomorrow, The New York Times reports.
According to the Times' sources, AC/DC will make their records available on Apple Music, Spotify, and Rdio starting tomorrow.
AC/DC are one of the last big tent rock bands to abstain from making their albums available to stream. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd took the leap in 2013.
Not long after reuniting with the Bad Boy family at the BET awards (and taking a tumble through a trap door), Diddy has joined back up with his former group the Family. Puff Daddy and the Family have teamed with Pharrell for a new song called "Finna Get Loose", which you can hear above.
Diddy's last full-length was 2010's Last Train To Paris—a collaboration with his group Dirty Money.
Brownstein's bookHunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is out October 27 via Penguin. That's the cover above. Hynde's bookReckless: My Life As a Pretender is out September 8 via Doubleday, THR reports. Jones' book I'll Never Write My Memoirs arrives September 29 via Gallery Books (also via THR). Find the covers for both below.
The Avalanches are still at work on the follow-up to 2000's Since I Left You. They've undergone another lineup change as founding member Darren Seltmann is no longer with the group, as Consequence of Sound points out.
Back in February 2014, Seltmann's wife, singer-songwriter Sally Seltmann, told Melbourne's Herald Sun that he'd left the Avalanches. The news was confirmed by the band's label, Modular, who said: "Yep, Darren hasn't been in the band for a while, so officially the band is Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi right now. Album sounds awesome, but there's no dates or anything planned. The official line is 'stay tuned.'"
As usual, there's no real news on when the Avalanches album will come out. Here's what we knew three years ago.
St. Vincent was one of the many artists participating in Contemporary Color, David Byrne's collaborative project pairing color guard routines with live performances of new music by various artists. (Other participants included Blood Orange's Dev Hynes, tUnE-yArDs, How to Dress Well, Ad-Rock and Money Mark, Zola Jesus, Kelis, Nelly Furtado, Nico Muhly, and "This American Life" host Ira Glass.)
Over the weekend, the show stopped at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Below, watch video of her performing a new song called "Everyone You Know Will Go Away", accompanied by West Chester, Pennsylvania color guard team Field of View, via Consequence of Sound.
Watch more footage from Contemporaty Colorhere, and watch Annie Clark talk about participating in it here.
Two years after Carey's Cold Spring, Carey Mercer returns with another Frog Eyes album. Pickpocket's Locket arrives August 28 via Paper Bag. That's "Joe With the Jam" above. They've also announced a short tour, with a few shows with Destroyer. Find the itinerary below, along with the album cover and tracklist.
Pickpocket's Locket features string arrangements by Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Moonface).
In a press release, Mercer offered a comprehensive look at the album's creation:
My dad left me his acoustic guitar in his will; it was all he had to give, because he wasn't a rich man. I wrote ten songs on it, and I think that was the real gift he gave me: a love of music, not just the way you all love it (music lovers), but also a love of creating it, sowing myself, in some small way, into the story of music.
I was holding the guitar a lot, kind of savouring it: a Martin D-18. I had been making records for a few years with a computer, piling tracks on tracks, writing words over guitar licks already recorded in a studio.
I came to think of an acoustic guitar as somehow akin to a computer, only in the sense that they are both tools of transmission, both effective in their own way.
An acoustic guitar is still, in 2015, a very effective way of transmitting one's songs. I made a deal with myself: write ten songs, write all the words before anyone gets to hear any of the songs, memorize the songs so that I become the hard-drive that the acoustic guitar accesses. I mostly, if not totally, kept to this deal, which is rare: I'm generally pretty easy on myself.
I wrote about Joseph Beuys, about B. Traven, about God and Abraham and Isaac, about my dad being addicted to speed when he was 17.
I needed my crew and I found them. Three women: Melanie Campbell, my life-partner and long-time drummer, returned to the band after a hiatus. And my old friend Shyla Seller, an archivist and book designer who happens to also be a really precise and powerful piano player. And Terri Upton, who plays both stand-up bass, and electric bass.
I am a lucky person.
And then we needed some more crew, and we found them: our old friend and colleague Spencer Krug, who wrote string parts over the songs. And then Jesse Zubot, who played every string part on the record in one 10-hour day. And John Paton, who plays saxophone. And Paul Rigby, who caught a taxi cab over with his pedal steel guitar.
I wanted the following: Douglas Sirk strings, a noble spin on Corky's Debt to His Father, some Darkness on the Edge of Town vibes.
Pickpocket's Locket:
01 Two Girls (One for Heaven and the Other One for Rome)
02 Joe with the Jam
03 The Beat Is Down (Four Wretched Singers Beyond Any World That You Have Known)
04 Death's Ship
05 The Demon Runner
06 Rejoinders In a Storm
07 In a Hut
08 Crystal Blip
09 I Ain't Around Much
10 Rip Down the Fences That Fence the Garden
Frog Eyes:
07-31-08-02 Sackville, New Brunswick - Sappy Fest
09-11 Toronto, Ontario - Smiling Buddha
09-11-12 Hamilton, Ontario - Supercrawl
09-17-20 Victoria, British Columbia - Rifflandia
09-18 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
09-19 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore *
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - The Regent Theater *
09-21 Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
09-23 Bellingham, WA - Shakedown
10-16 Seattle, WA - Neptune *
10-17 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom *
Last week saw two new videos from Big Sean's Dark Sky Paradise LP: a performance clip for "All Your Fault" featuring Kanye West, and a narrative-driven visual for "I Know" featuring Sean and Jhené Aiko as old folks. Today, he's dropped another video: a clip for "Play No Games", his collaboration with Chris Brown and Ty Dolla $ign, inspired by Martin Lawrence's iconic '90s TV show "Martin".
Directed by Mike Carson, the homage stars Sean, Brown, and Ty, and includes cameos from French Montana, along with several of the show's stars: Thomas Mikal Ford, Reginald Ballard, and Lawrence himself (who instructs Sean and company to "get ta steppin'" at video's end). Check it out below.
Faith No More filled in for them at the latter festival, and like Florence, they gave a musical shout-out to Dave Grohl and company. Just before "Midlife Crisis", the band did a bit of the Foos' "All My Life". Check out footage of the performance below via Stereogum.
DJ Cassidy, a musician and producer who has DJ'ed both President Obama's inaugural ball and Beyoncé and Jay Z's wedding, has released a new single titled "Future Is Mine" featuring Chromeo. The song also features Patrice Rushen (of "Forget Me Nots" fame), drummer John J.R. Robinson (Daft Punk, Michael Jackson, countless others), guitarist Wah Wah Watson (Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Barry White), and horn player Jerry Hey (Michael Jackson). Listen above.
Chromeo's White Women came out last year. DJ Cassidy is working on a forthcoming LP that will be released in the fall via Big Beat/Atlantic.
Last week, Ryan Lott's Son Lux released Bones via Glassnote. Now, Lott has shared a new video for "You Don't Know Me". Directed by Nathan Johnson and created by The Made Shop, it stars "Orphan Black" star Tatiana Maslany and Noah Segan (Looper, Brick).
In a press release, Johnson said of the video:
When Ryan first sent the album over to The Made Shop, this was the song that I kept coming back to. It touches a pretty raw nerve, and we wanted to explore the song in terms of the empty rituals we often see in relationships and, to a larger degree, religion. We wrote the video specifically for Tatiana and designed everything around her performance. She’s such a phenomenal actor, and she brings something so compelling to the role – this powerful figure who is stuck in the vacancy of routines that have lost their meaning.
Check out Son Lux's tour dates below.
Son Lux:
06-30 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent* 07-09 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre* (Record Release Show)
07-10 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah*
07-11 - Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom^
07-13 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada^
07-14 - Austin, TX - Stubbs Jr^
07-15 - Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds (Downstairs)^
07-17 - St. Louis, MO - Luminary Center for the Arts^
07-18 - Louisville, KY - Forecastle Music Festival^
07-20 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall^
07-21 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brendas^
07-22 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall^
07-23 - New York, NY - Rough Trade^
08-08 - London, England - Visions Festival @ Oval Space
08-09 - Katowice, Poland - OFF Festival
08-19 - Cologne, Germany - C/O Pop Festival
08-20 - Charleville Mezieres, France - Cabaret Vert Festival
08-21 - Hamburg, Germany - Dockville Festival
08-22 - Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop
08-23 - Glanusk Park, England - Green Man Festival
08-25 - Groningen, Holland - Noorderzon Festival
08-28 - Paris, France - Rock en Seine Festival
09-04 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Tivoli Offspring Festival
09-05 - Vlieland, the Netherlands - Into The Great Wide Open Festival
09-06 - Laois, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival
10-19 - Brussels, Belgium - AB
10-21 - London, England - Village Underground
10-22 - Edinburgh, Scotland - Summerhall
10-23 - Leeds, England - Beacons Metro Festival @ Headrow House
10-25 - Rotterdam, Holland - Bird
10-26 - Amsterdam, Holland - Bitterzoet
10-27 - Hamburg, Germany - U&G
10-28 - Berlin, Germany - Bi Nuu
10-29 - Warsaw, Poland - Cafe Kulturalna
10-31 - Prague, Czech Republic - Meet Factory
11-01 - Budapest, Hungary - Dürer Kert, Room 041
11-02 - Vienna, Austria - Grelle forelle
11-04 - Zurich, Switzerland - Plaza
11-05 - Lausanne, Switzerland - Le Romandie
11-06 - Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Sonic Visions Festival Rockhal
11-09 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Pustervik
11-10 - Stockholm, Sweden - Bryggarsalen
11-12 - Lorient, France - Les Indisciplinés Festival, Le Manege
11-13 - Tourcoing, France - Festival Les Inrocks, Le Grand Mix
11-14 - Paris, France - Festival Les Inrocks, La Cigale
11-15 - Nantes, France - Festival Les Inrocks, Stereolux
11-17 - Toulouse, France - Festival Les Inrocks, Bikini
11-18 - Barcelona, Spain - La 2 de Apolo
11-19 - Madrid, Spain - Cats*
Diplo and Skrillex have shared their Jack Ü video for "Where Are Ü Now", which features Justin Bieber. Earlier in the month, attendees at the Seventh Letter Gallery in Los Angeles were invited to draw over still images of Bieber dancing. Their contributions were then curated by the directing duo Brewer, who turned them into this psychedelic clip featuring those images in motion. (Bieber shows up unadorned, too.) Check it out below.
Diplo and Skrillex also released a statement as Jack Ü:
We are being overwhelmed, in a good way, by the success of "Where Are Ü Now" with Justin Bieber, so with the video we wanted to just take it back to the beginning of the record & essentially create an ode to our fans. Doing what we do, it's entirely all about the fans. We walk a fine line by being "famous" and in the public eye but we are only here because of you, the fans. Justin wrote this record during a tough time in his life and it comes to us that sometimes, as artists, we are also just objects and we have to take that as much as we have to use that to create. We all do this for you, respect that you put us here and it's Ü that made the video.
This year's lineup of Adult Swim singles includes DOOM and Ghostface Killah's DOOMSTARKS project, Run the Jewels, Flying Lotus, Chromatics, Danny Brown with Clams Casino, SOPHIE remixing Sia, Shabazz Palaces, Skrillex, Slayer, D∆WN (formerly Dawn Richard), and Swervedriver.
Recently, the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach launched his new solo project, the Arcs. In May, they put out the boxing-themed "Stay in my Corner" b/w "Tomato Can", and now they've shared new track "Outta My Mind". It comes out July 7 as a 7-inch single, backed by non-LP track "My Mind". Debut album Yours, Dreamily follows on September 4, via Nonesuch.
Find footage of Jamie xx, FKA twigs, Father John Misty, Spiritualized, Todd Terje and the Olsens, Future Islands, Pharrell (performing a new song), Bon Iver's Justin Vernon joining the Staves (he also performed with Kanye), Hot Chip, Belle and Sebastian, Caribou, Sharon Van Etten, and others below.
You can find more performances from the likes of Jessie Ware, Charli XCX, Suede, Death From Above 1979, Jon Hopkins, La Roux, Mavis Staples, SBTRKT, Ryan Adams, Motörhead, and many others over at the BBC's YouTube page.
Find footage of Jamie xx, Father John Misty, Spiritualized, Todd Terje and the Olsens, Future Islands, Pharrell (performing a new song), Bon Iver's Justin Vernon joining the Staves (he also performed with Kanye), Hot Chip, Belle and Sebastian, Caribou, Sharon Van Etten, and others below.
You can find more performances from the likes of Jessie Ware, Charli XCX, Suede, Death From Above 1979, Jon Hopkins, La Roux, Mavis Staples, SBTRKT, Ryan Adams, Motörhead, and many others over at the BBC's YouTube page.
On the heels of sharing her recent new track "No Sleeep", Janet Jackson was honored with the inaugural Ultimate Icon: Music Dance Visual Award at the BET Awards tonight in Los Angeles. To celebrate the event, Tinashe, Ciara, and Jason Derulo performed a special dance tribute to a medley of Janet Jackson songs that culminated in a group performance of "Rhythm Nation". Watch it below.
Rihanna has shared the extended trailor for her forthcoming "Bitch Better Have My Money" video, which features a dark encounter between RiRi and an affluent-looking woman in an elevator. The clip premiered tonight at the BET Awards. Watch it below via Complex.
Tonight during the BET Awards in Los Angeles, Diddy, Mase, 112, Faith Evans, and Lil Kim reunited to perform a selection of Bad Boy's greatest hits, including “Hypnotize,” “Feels So Good,” "Peaches and Cream,” “Never Knew Love Like This Before”, and “It’s All About The Benjamins.”
In the course of the reunion the team was joined by the Lox, Pharrell, and French Montana, but part of the way through through the performance Diddy took a tumble and ended up falling through what appears to be the same trap door that Lil' Kim would later emerge from. Watch select clips below.
Wavves' Nathan Williams and Cloud Nothings' Dylan Baldi have released their collaborative LP No Life for Me on iTunes and bandcamp. It's out right now via Williams' label Ghost Ramp. That's the artwork above and the tracklist below. Listen to it here.
As previously reported, the album was produced by Sweet Valley (the beatmaking duo of Williams and his brother Joel) and features Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij.
On Twitter, Williams answered a few questions about the album and his current plans for Wavves and other projects. He said a joint tour was "not likely" due to his and Baldi's schedules, though Wavves will begin a tour on September 1 and release a new album in August. Additionally, he said that while the collaborative album won't get a proper physical release, it'll be released on vinyl.
Janelle Monáe and the Weeknd were both musical performers at tonight's BET Awards in Los Angeles, which were hosted by Anthony Answerson and Tracee Ellis Ross. Below, watch Monáe perform "Yoga" with a group of bodysuit-clad dancers, and see the Weeknd perform "The Hills" and then team up with Alicia Keys for a special rendition of "Earned It".
Nicolas Jaar has been on a tear recently. After releasing his Nymphs II 12" and a free album called Pomegranates, he's got a new 12" called Nymphs III coming on June 29 via his Other People imprint. The whole thing is streaming right now. Find it here.
Nymphs III:
01 Swim
02 Mistress
Watch Jaar perform as one-half of Darkside at Pitchfork Music Festival Paris:
Kendrick Lamar was a musical guest on tonight's BET Awards, which aired live at 8 PM from Los Angeles with hosts Anthony Answerson and Tracee Ellis Ross. Lamar performed his To Pimp A Butterfly track "Alright" from atop a vandalized police car and surrounded by American flag paraphernalia. Watch the performance below.
Later, Lamar won the award for Best Male Hip Hop artist, an award that he previously won in 2013.
Watch Kendrick Lamar perform "ADHD" at the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival:
Joni Mitchell was hospitalized on March 31 when she was found unconscious at home. After that, several conflicting reports surfaced about her condition. It was recently revealed that she suffered a brain aneurysm and was still in "very serious" condition.
On Friday, David Crosby gave an interview where he claimed that Mitchell was unable to speak. Today, as Billboard points out, Mitchell's conservator and friend Leslie Morris has released a statement clarifying the singer/songwriter's current condition.
"Joni did in fact suffer an aneurysm," the statement reads. "However, details that have emerged in the past few days are mostly speculative. The truth is that Joni is speaking, and she's speaking well. She is not walking yet, but she will be in the near future as she is undergoing daily therapies. She is resting comfortably in her own home and she's getting better each day. A full recovery is expected."
Ty Segall just finished up a run of solo acoustic shows in New York on Friday. As Stereogum points out, he covered Neil Young's On the Beach track "For the Turnstiles" and trotted out a new song. Watch him perform both alongside Wand's Cory Hanson below. (The new song starts at the 2:45 mark in the second video.)
Music festivals often feature big name artists bringing out big name guests, but those guests are usually other musicians. During her set at Glastonbury, Patti Smith was joined by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ahead of his 80th birthday on July 6, she read him a poem and led the audience in a "Happy Birthday" sing-along, The Guardian reports.
He responded:
Thank you, thank you. Dear sisters and brothers, I really appreciate so many people’s expressions of warmth, and I very much reciprocate it. I have dedicated my body, speech and mind to the well-being of others in my daily practice, so when people show these warm feelings, that gives me more enthusiasm. So I very much appreciate it.
These singers and musicians, most of you, have white hair—but the voice and the physical action looks very youthful. So that gives me encouragement myself. I’m now 80, but I should be more active like you.
Earlier in the day, the Dalai Lama took the stage to address the "unthinkable" violence in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria.
Smith has performed at several Tibet House benefit concerts. She wrote a poem for the Dalai Lama in 1994 and met him in 1995 at the World Peace Conference in Berlin. "I learned quite a bit from that man,” she said in a 1996 interview. “He would stand in front of a large body of people and project and magnify his joys and hopes so that all those people would be smiling. He was able to make each person feel radiant.”
Chris Squire—the bassist, vocalist, and founding member of Yes—died last night following his battle with leukemia, according to a statement from the band. Since he started the group with Jon Anderson in 1968 until he was diagnosed with Acute Erythroid Leukemia in 2015, Squire was the only constant member of the group. He was 67.
Squire grew up in central London, where, in 1964, he was suspended from school for having long hair. He played in a few bands in the 1960s, including the Selfs, the Syn, and Mabel Greer's Toyshop. It was through that last band that he met Jon Anderson. The two bonded over Simon and Garfunkel's music. They formed Yes and released their debut album in 1969.
Squire later released solo records and was a member of the short-lived supergroup XYZ, which featured Squire, Yes' Alan White, and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page.
Yes' statement reads:
For the entirety of Yes’ existence, Chris was the band’s linchpin and, in so many ways, the glue that held it together over all these years. Because of his phenomenal bass-playing prowess, Chris influenced countless bassists around the world, including many of today’s well-known artists. Chris was also a fantastic songwriter, having written and co-written much of Yes’ most endearing music, as well as his solo album, Fish Out of Water.
Outside of Yes, Chris was a loving husband to Scotty and father to Carmen, Chandrika, Camille, Cameron, and Xilan. With his gentle, easy-going nature, Chris was a great friend of many … including each of us. But he wasn’t merely our friend: he was also part of our family and we shall forever love and miss him.
As promised, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yellareunited as N.W.A. for the first time in over two decades last night. It was as part of the BET Experience live in Los Angeles. It was the first time Ice Cube performed with Yella since 1989 and with MC Ren since 2000. (Unfortunately, Dr. Dre didn't show up.) Watch footage of the three MCs performing "Fuck tha Police" and "Chin Check" (with Snoop Dogg) below.
N.W.A.'s other core member, Eazy-E, died in 1995.
That night also featured performances from Snoop and all four members of TDE's Black Hippy stable—Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock.
Tonight, Kanye West took the stage for his divisive headlining spot at Glastonbury. During his set, West brought Bon Iver's Justin Vernon onto the stage to perform "Lost in the World" (from 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). After the song, West revealed that his verse was taken from an email he wrote while recording. It was to a woman whom he loved: Kim Kardashian, now his wife. West also called Vernon "one of the baddest white boys on the planet." Vernon stayed on stage for a brief performance of Yeezus' "Hold My Liquor".
Echoing his 2013 Zane Lowe interview, he called himself "the greatest living rock star on the planet."
Update 6/27 6:57 EST: Kanye covered the first verse of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". Previously, during "Touch the Sky", West went up in a cherry picker and performed above the crowd. The Queen cover was West's first track after returning to the stage.
Update 6/27 8:01 EST: Watch West perform "Lost in the World" with Justin Vernon below. Also, watch his cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Update: 6/28 9:10 a.m. EST: Watch footage of British comedian Lee Nelson interrupting Kanye, plus more performances from the set, below.
During his Glastonbury set last night, Mark Ronson brought out Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, with whom he collaborated on three tracks on last year's Uptown SpecialLP. Below, watch them perform "Daffodils" and "Leaving Los Feliz".
Parker wasn't Ronson's only notable guest of the evening. As NME reports, Theophilus London came onstage torwards the beginning of the set to do "Only Wee". Later, Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow did "Animals", and teamed up with Boy George for "Somebody To Love". Finally, Mary J. Blige, Grandmaster Flash, and George Clinton came out to perform "Uptown Funk". (Ronson referred to Clinton as "the forefather of Uptown funk").
Tame Impala's new album, Currents, is out July 17.
Watch the band perform "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" for Pitchfork.tv:
Tonight, Kanye West took the stage for his divisive headlining spot at Glastonbury. During his set, West brought Bon Iver's Justin Vernon onto the stage to perform "Lost in the World" (from 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). After the song, West revealed that his verse was taken from an email he wrote while recording. It was to a woman whom he loved: Kim Kardashian, now his wife. West also called Vernon "one of the baddest white boys on the planet." Vernon stayed on stage for a brief performance of Yeezus' "Hold My Liquor".
Update6/27 6:57EST: Kanye covered the first verse of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". Previously, during "Touch the Sky", West went up in a cherry picker and performed above the crowd. The Queen cover was West's first track after returning to the stage.
West's spot at Glastonbury, like Jay Z's in 2008, caused some controversy. A petition created to "cancel Kanye West's headline slot and get a rock band" was signed over 100,000 times. The BBC reportedly fretted over censorship issues. Bets were being placed about how long his "rant" would go during his headlining spot. Dave Grohl mused that the performance would either be "a fucking disaster" or "the greatest show of all time."
Tonight, Kanye West took the stage for his divisive headlining spot at Glastonbury. During his set, West brought Bon Iver's Justin Vernon onto the stage to perform "Lost in the Woods" (from 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). After the song, West revealed that his verse for the song was taken from an email he wrote while recording to a woman whom he loved: his future (and now current) wife, Kim Kardashian. West also called Vernon "one of the baddest white boys on the planet." Vernon stayed on stage for a brief performance of Yeezus' "Hold My Liquor".
West's spot at Glastonbury, like Jay Z's in 2008, caused some controversy. A petition created to "cancel Kanye West's headline slot and get a rock band" was signed over 100,000 times. The BBC reportedly fretted over censorship issues. Bets were being placed about how long his "rant" would go during his headlining spot. Dave Grohl mused that the performance would either be "a fucking disaster" or "the greatest show of all time".
Tonight, Kanye West took the stage for his divisive headlining spot at Glastonbury. During his set, West brought Bon Iver's Justin Vernon onto the stage to perform "Lost in the Woods" (from 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). After the song, West revealed that his verse for the song was taken from an email he wrote while recording to a woman whom he loved: his future (and now current) wife, Kim Kardashian. West also called Vernon "one of the baddest white boys on the planet." Vernon stayed on stage for a brief performance of Yeezus' "Hold My Liquor".
West's spot at Glastonbury, like Jay Z's in 2008, caused some controversy. A petition created to "cancel Kanye West's headline slot and get a rock band" was signed over 100,000 times. The BBC reportedly fretted over censorship issues. Bets were being placed about how long his "rant" would go during his headlining spot. Dave Grohl mused that the performance would either be "a fucking disaster" or "the greatest show of all time".
