Journal
- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
The Black Keys have secured the No. 1 Current Rock Album and No. 1 Current Alternative Album in US sales following the release of their new album, Ohio Players, last week. The album also is the highest debut of the week on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums Chart and Top Alternative Albums Chart, at No. 5 on both charts, and has reached No. 4 on Overall Current Album sales and No. 26 on the Billboard 200. Internationally, Ohio Players is the band’s sixth consecutive top 20 album in the UK, as well as top 20 in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland, among others.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Reviews
- Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, and Vince Gill—whose rich history and friendship runs for almost 50 years—reunited to perform a concert for Grand Ole Opry's Saturday night broadcast live this past weekend. You can watch the hour-long set again here. "There’s nothing better than singing with old and dear friends," says Harris, "especially if those friends happen to be Rodney and Vince."
Journal Topics: Artist News, Radio, Television, VideoFriday, July 31, 2020
The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt gave Amoeba Music a look at what he's been listening to as part of its series What's in My Bag? (Home Edition), including Eartha Kitt, Elke Sommer, Bessie Smith, and more. Merritt filmed the episode on a mini-golf course in upstate New York, so he also gives us all a look at his putt-putt skills. You can have a look here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoThursday, July 30, 2020
Mountain Man has released a live take on Michael Hurley's "Blue Mountain," from the trio's new live album, Look at Me Don’t Look at Me, out next Friday, August 7, on Nonesuch. The track and album were recorded at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle in November 2018. You can hear "Blue Mountain" everywhere now, and watch a visualizer for it here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsWednesday, July 29, 2020
Lianne La Havas performed "Bittersweet," from her new, self-titled album, for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's online series Play at Home. The video was filmed at La Havas's recent one-night-only concert at London's Roundhouse. You can watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoTuesday, July 28, 2020
In this essay, composer Sarah Kirkland Snider shares the story of (and behind-the-scenes photos from) her collaboration with video designer Deborah Johnson / CandyStations on Mass for the Endangered. The Mass, with a libretto by poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, is a celebration of, and an elegy for, the natural world, an appeal for greater awareness, urgency, and action. The recording, on which the English vocal ensemble Gallicantus performs the piece, is due September 25. 'Sanctus/Benedictus,' from the piece, is available now, as is Johnson's video for it.
Journal Topics: Artist Essays, Artist News, VideoTuesday, July 28, 2020
Rhiannon Giddens has been appointed the next Artistic Director of Silkroad. Her first official appearance will be this Wednesday in a virtual concert for Tanglewood. "Rhiannon is a source of inspiration for all of us," says Kathy Fletcher, Executive Director of Silkroad. “In addition to her enormous musical talent, she fosters an immense social consciousness and creates unity through her art. These are goals for which we consistently strive in our own performances and education initiatives." "Rhiannon is an extraordinary human being and musician," says Silkroad founder Yo-Yo Ma. "She lives Silkroad’s values, at once rooted in history and its many musics, and is an advocate for the contemporary voices that can move us to work together for a better world."
Journal Topics:Monday, July 27, 2020
Lianne La Havas's new, self-titled album was just released to critical acclaim on Nonesuch Records in the US. Here, she talks with writer Sophie Harris about her third album, which spans the arc of a relationship and reflects musical references as varied as Milton Nascimento, Joni Mitchell, Jaco Pastorious, Al Green, and Destiny’s Child. Read the article to find out why she tells Harris: "I dare say that this is the closest I’ve gotten to a pure expression so far."
Journal Topics: Artist NewsFriday, July 24, 2020
Devendra Banhart, whose new EP, Vast Ovoid, is out now, performed "Taking a Page," from his 2019 album Ma, for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's online series Play at Home. The video was filmed at his home in Los Angeles by Consuelo Althouse. You can watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoFriday, July 24, 2020
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw’s Orange, which earned Attacca Quartet a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, is now available on vinyl for the first time. The two-LP vinyl edition includes the album on double 180-gram orange vinyl, pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands, along with a printed excerpt from the score. "Completely gorgeous in so many ways," exclaims BBC Radio 3. "It hits you everywhere, all at once." "A love letter to the string quartet," says NPR. "[W]hen you hear all the imaginative sounds on Orange, you know you're listening to the voice of a strong composer."
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, July 24, 2020
Devendra Banhart's four-song EP Vast Ovoid is out now. It follows his 2019 studio album, Ma, about which Q says: "Banhart’s singular world remains as intoxicating as ever, as if all human life is here." The EP, available in a limited-edition 12" white vinyl 45 and digitally, includes the Helado Negro remix of the Ma song "Love Song" and three songs "that didn’t quite fit in with Ma's theme of maternity," Banhart says. "Ultimately all three songs are about the difference between disappointment and disillusion … Bigger difference than I realized ..."
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsThursday, July 23, 2020
NPR Music and Jazz Night in America debuted an hour-long set from shows Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade played at The Falcon in Marlboro, NY, just before recording their new album, RoundAgain, last September. The premiere event on Wednesday also included a live Q&A with the musicians and NPR Music's Nate Chinen. You can watch both again here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsThursday, July 23, 2020
Vagabon is featured on the cover of and in the pages of Mirror Sound: A Look Into the People and Processes Behind Self-Recorded Music, a new book by musician and writer Spencer Tweedy, graphic designer Lawrence Azerrad, and photographer Daniel Topete, due October 20, 2020, from Prestel. The book is a visual portrait that delves into the people and processes behind self-recorded music, showcasing twenty-seven musicians, interviews, and studio visits and more than 150 images, as well as an introduction by Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein.
Journal Topics: Artist News
