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Bands and a New Trend Brewing
Todd Ahsmann isn’t sure if he’s ever seen live music without a beer in his hand. The Goose Island president and former music industry vet says beer and music go hand in hand. “We should be collaborating,” Ahsmann says. “The half-joke used to be that rock radio was funded by beer because beer companies were mostly buying advertising. Concert venues and festivals make just as much off beer sales as they do ticket sales. They’re dependent on each other.” Since 2013, Ahsmann’s Chicago craft brewery has partnered with musical groups like Japandroids, Sharon Van Etten, and Parquet Courts for exclusive beer releases during the Pitchfork Music Festival. The first collaboration was a Belgian wheat ale with Run the Jewels. When Ahsmann first pitched the idea, festival founding director M...
Alex Lifeson on Solo Music, Envy of None, ‘Really Cool’ Upcoming Rush Reissue
Alex Lifeson didn’t have some grand master plan for all of this: the glossy-looking website, the big rollout of new music, the subsequent parade of interviews. But the dominos just keep tumbling, and he’s going with the flow. With the launch of his new signature Epiphone electric guitar, the Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Standard, he finds himself in a rare solo spotlight — probably the most attention he’s faced since Rush retired from touring in 2015. “I stayed away from social media forever,” he tells SPIN. “I really wanted to protect my privacy and wasn’t really interested in doing all the things that are required because I’m generally a lazy person. But now with the Epiphone account, with the demand of creating an Instagram and my own website, I’m going to try to utilize those things an...
Passion, Perseverance, and Propaganda: Behind Pakistan’s Controversial Hunza Verse Music Festival
Before prohibition and religious radicalization under the rule of Zia Ul Haq in 1977, Pakistan’s nightlife was thriving. In the bustling metropolis of Karachi, clubs like Excelsior, Oasis, Samar, and Club 007 openly served alcohol, hosted American jazz musicians like Dizzie Gillespie and Duke Ellington, and attracted professional belly dancers from foreign cities like Beirut, Cairo, Tehran, and Istanbul. Sweeping conservatism shuttered Pakistan’s nightlife, thwarting any chance for dance music to enter the fold. In recent years, however, regional stability and tides of liberalism have birthed interest in electronic music beyond house parties and underground raves. Diplo performed in Islamabad in 2016 before returning in 2018 alongside Valentino Khan and Chrome Sparks for a Pakistani rendit...
Song of the Week: Lil Nas X Proves He Can’t Be Locked in With “Industry Baby”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Lil Nas X proves once again that in spite of controversy or haters, he will always break free. Lil Nas X is very good at his job. He’s one of the most fearlessly fun pop stars in recent years, remarkably adept at wielding social media to his advantage, and creates on an unrestrained wavelength as young, Black member of the queer community. While his extremely online persona is often what catches attention, he manages to back it all up by dropping bops along the way, and his latest effort with Jack Harlow is no different. “Industry...
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EDM.com Playlist Picks: DJ Snake, Marten Hørger & Claude VonStroke [7/23/21]
The electronic music community is constantly evolving with new sounds every week, as artists become more innovative with their compositions. EDM.com’s weekly “Playlist Picks” series highlights the top releases in the genre, helping uncover the latest tracks that will soon dominate the dance music scene. Ring The Alarm – DJ Snake & Malaa The dynamic duo DJ Snake and Malaa have came together for a house banger called “Ring the Alarm”. The song is heavily influenced by Malaa’s style of production with a thick bass line, supported by Snake’s blue-ribbon sound design. Pow Pow – Marten Hørger & Phace House maven Marten Hørger teamed up with Phace for this powerful, high-energy tune. The sound design on this anthem consists of brassy e...
An Explosive Time and Place: A Look Back on the 1990s Rave Riots in Los Angeles
Wade Randolph Hampton and Tef Foo’s “Seventh Heaven” party hadn’t even gotten to midnight when the shit hit the fan. It was New Year’s Eve 1996. They had booked the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and expected 17,000 people to attend. They’d promoted the show with an elaborate tabloid-style flyer and booked artists like Hardkiss, Symbiosis, and Hampton himself to play. But they hadn’t counted on a bad batch of energy drinks. “Around 9:15, 9:30, it’s like, ‘What’s going on?’ And our manager says, ‘Well, some people are getting sick,’” says Foo of when he first heard about the drink, called Liquid FX and distributed by a man named Daniel Bricker for free to fans waiting in line. “Then around 10 o’clock I’m like, fuck, I have to get on the mic to tell them don’t drink that fuck...
American Sign Language Expert Unpacks BTS’ “Permission To Dance” Choreography
After releasing the definitive song of the summer, “Butter,” which spent a staggering seven weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, BTS has dropped yet another joyful bop in the form of “Permission To Dance.” The rumors are true: “Permission To Dance” has now replaced “Butter” at No. 1, meaning BTS has accumulated number 1 tracks faster than any artist since Michael Jackson. Filmed by teams in both Seoul and Los Angeles, there’s plenty to unpack from the accompanying music video, but among the euphoric vignettes, heartfelt spotlights on service workers through the pandemic, and Jungkook’s incredibly emo haircut, one detail stands out: The BTS ARMY has been abuzz with the fact that the choreography incorporates sign language. William Martinez, a professional actor and musician who grew up ...
10 Must-Watch TV Shows Premiering In 2021
The second half of 2021 looks to be a promising one in the world of entertainment, with all the major networks and streamers offering an exciting slate of both new and returning TV shows. The forthcoming months will see the final seasons of Netflix‘s Money Heist, which is split into two volumes, AMC‘s The Walking Dead, which will take its final bow after 11 years on the air, NBC‘s Brooklyn Nine-Nine and possibly BBC‘s Peaky Blinders. Meanwhile, shows like HBO‘s Succession, which egged on the internet’s fascination with Cousin Greg, Showtime‘s Billions, FXX’s Archer, Netflix’s The Witcher and Apple TV+‘s six-time Emmy nominated Ted Lasso will all return with brand new seasons after experiencing production delays due to COVID-19. Take a look at the shows HYPEBEAST will be following this...
18 Most Commonly Misheard Song Lyrics
For 46 years now, Bruce Springsteen fans have disagreed over whether the opening lyric to 1975’s “Thunder Road” is “The screen door slams/ Mary’s dress sways” or “The screen door slams/ Mary’s dress waves.” On Springsteen’s official website and songbook, the word is “waves,” but as many have pointed out over the years, this doesn’t make much sense. (“Sways” rhymes better with “plays” than “waves,” and dresses don’t “wave in the wind,” they “sway in the wind.”) Either way, up until this point, the official record has mostly indicated that the dress waves. It would take nothing short of a thunderstorm to shake up the Springsteen status quo. Enter the Internet. After the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman tweeted a picture of an empty “Springsteen on Broadway” stage with the caption “The screen ...
How Sensorium Galaxy Is Adopting EDM to Spearhead the Next Generation of Virtual Entertainment
Sensorium Galaxy’s behind-the scenes teasers are about to become the highlight reel of the live music industry. Despite devastating economic impact to the broader sector, the past 15 months could not have proven to be a better case study for one of the most powerful emerging startups at the intersection of music and tech. The stars are beginning to align for Sensorium Galaxy, a next-generation concert platform where users can explore virtual worlds while enjoying performances from their favorite artists in industry-leading, triple-A quality. The company has yet to launch its first digital concert environment, PRISM, but will do so later this year. Even so, a cascade of high quality teasers and headline generating talent acquisitions have hit the public eye over t...
Sinéad O’Connor: Rememberings
Trial lawyers say whoever tells the best story wins. And love her or hate her, in her memoir Rememberings, Sinéad O’Connor tells a case-winning story of her life. Of the Americans under 30 who even know her name, most probably have it archived with #pretty, #skinhead #onehitwonder, #SNL and #meltdown. Three of these hashtags derive from the event that shit-canned her career: when the global pop star closed out a gig on Saturday Night Live by displaying a photo of the Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church, declaring “Fight the real enemy!” then tearing the photo — and her life — in two. This is lost in translation to YouTube, but in 1992, that Pope-icide really wasn’t a crowd-pleaser. “Total stunned silence in the audience,” she writes, going on to report not seeing a single person...
Song of the Week: Clairo Questions the Expectations of Womanhood, With Some Help From Lorde, on “Reaper”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, a highlight from Clairo’s sophomore album, Sling, has us swooning. When announcing her sophomore LP, Sling, last month, Clairo shared a note admitting the album was inspired by her dog, Joanie, who made her consider themes of care, motherhood, and responsibility. These subjects all appear on the excellent late album cut “Reaper,” which features Lorde on backing vocals. Clairo ponders life with and without a child throughout the song, employing a gently-strummed acoustic and ethereal harmonies to create a comforting environment. Ho...
