music
Unheard Thelonious Monk High School Performance to See Release
A previously unreleased Thelonious Monk live recording from 1968 will finally see light on July 31st through Impulse! Records. The album captures Monk and his all-star quartet performing a concert at a local high school in Palo Alto, California. According to a press release, the concert was organized by 16-year-old student named Danny Scher, and was recorded by the school’s janitor. The tape was stowed away in Scher’s attic for years and was only recently rediscovered. T.S. Monk, the son of Thelonious and founder of the Thelonious Monk Institute, called the performance “one of the best live recordings I’ve ever heard by Thelonious.” He added, “I wasn’t even aware of my dad playing a high school gig, but he and the band were on it. When I first heard the tape, from the first measure, I knew...
20 Years Ago, Deftones Unleash Their Magnum Opus White Pony
Though it wasn’t so apparent on their 1995 debut album Adrenaline, Deftones screeched onto the scene with an instinct towards perpetual expansion that was practically encoded in the band’s creative DNA. At first, the Deftones brand was basically synonymous with the nu metal movement the Sacramento, California, outfit seemed to fit so well. By 1997’s sophomore effort Around the Fur, it was clear that Deftones were straining against the stylistic confines they’d initially seemed comfortable working within. The hip-hop, groove metal, and thrashy influences were still there, but the music was now undergirded by an emphasis on dynamics, mood, and atmosphere. But when the band released its third album, White Pony, six months into the new millennium (June 20th, 2000), Deftones effectively rendere...
Beyoncé Drops New Song “Black Parade” to Honor Juneteenth: Stream
Beyoncé went big to honor this year’s Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. On Friday, the pop icon not only launched “Black Parade Route”, an initiative that supports Black-owned small businesses, but she also dropped a brand new song called “Black Parade”. Of course, it’s as timely and moving as expected from Queen Bey. Musically, “Black Parade” is a celebratory blend of pop, trap, hip-hop, and electronica-verging on Detroit techno. Over cascading horns and a chipper flute melody, Beyoncé sings about the unique joys of being Black, touching on everything from womanhood to her heritage and the ways in which Blackness proudly permeates throughout it all. Stream “Black Parade” below. [embedded content] It’s been a while since Beyoncé dropped new music ...
Public Enemy Takes on Trump In Scorching New Single “State Of The Union (STFU)”: Stream
Public Enemy has long been the soundtrack for the fight against inequality — and that hasn’t changed in Trump’s America. Today, the group returns with a blistering new single for the times appropriately titled, “State of the Union (STFU)”. Chuck D seethes with rage as he calls for the destruction of the current administration: “It’s not what you think/ It’s what you follow/ Run for them jewels/ Drink from that bottle/ Another for years is gonna gut you hollow.” Produced by DJ Premier, it’s a classic Public Enemy track in the truest sense and culminates in the chorus, which finds Chuck D and Flava Flav singing: “State of the union/ Shut the fuck up/ Sorry ass motherfucker/ Stay away from me.” In a statement on the track, Chuck said, “Our collective voices keep getting louder. The rest of th...
BTS Serenade with Sweet “Stay Gold” Single: Stream
BTS are releasing a new Japanese-language album next month titled Map of the Soul : 7 ~ The Journey ~. The 13-track effort expands on the excellent Map of the Soul : 7 from earlier this year, boasting two new original songs. One of those, “Stay Gold”, has been released today and it features the K-pop boyband in full serenade mode. “Stay gold, even in a dream/ Stay gold/ I’ll find you,” BTS sing during the swooning chorus. “Stay gold, gold/ I want to see you/ Stay gold/ You are everything/ Stay gold/ For everyone.” It’s the perfect sweet morsel of love and warmth the world needs right about now. Hear it for yourself below. This new offering comes just as BTS made chart history in Japan. According to Forbes, newly released mid-year reports show that BTS topped the country’s 2020 album ...
Cat Power Pays Tribute to Cassius’ Philippe Zdar with Cover of “Toop Toop”: Stream
Cat Power (photo by Inez & Vinoodh) and Cassius’ Philippe Zdar (photo via Dyane de Serigny) Today marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of Cassius’ Philippe Zdar. To honor the late French producer, his friend and collaborator Cat Power has shared a cover of Cassius’ 2006 hit “Toop Toop”. Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) and Zdar worked together numerous times over the years, with the former appearing on a handful of tracks on Cassius’ 2016 LP Ibifornia. Zdar even worked pro-bono on Cat Power’s classic 2012 album Sun. Their close relationship led Marshall to pay homage to Zdar at his funeral, where she teamed with -M- (French rocker Matthieu Chedid) for a performance of “Toop Toop”. Zdar’s widow, Dyane de Serigny, recalled in a press release how she joined the duo at Cas...
Cyclo-Flo’ – Hood Lullaby + Over What?
Check out this brand new tune from Cyclo-Flo’ – Hood Lullaby + Over What? out now! Uber-talented Nigerian rapper Cyclo-Flo’ comes forward with two brand new singles for his teeming fans. “Hood Lullaby” is a World and Afrobeats fusion with influences from hip-hop. It is a realistic, yet metaphorical allusion to the struggles of making it out from your dungeon. “Over What?” is a perfect blend of contemporary hip-hop and Afro-specific imagery. It is about that friend that everyone has, but never quite figures out until certain success has been achieved. Listen to Cyclo-Flo’ – “Hood Lullaby” below! Listen to Cyclo-Flo’ – “Over What?” below! Share this: You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back ...
Astronautalis Shares First New Solo Single in Four Years “The Way I Am”: Stream
Rejoice! Astronautalis has returned with his first new solo single in four years, and his first new track since his 2018 collaboration with POS in Four Fists. It’s called “The Way I Am” and the Florida-Minneapolis bard has paired the melancholy jam with a hilarious new music video featuring a deepfake of Tiger King. Produced and mixed by Subp Yao, “The Way I Am” finds Astronautalis doing a little soul searching over balmy beats that sound like the aural equivalent of a meditative stroll. “I’m drunk on whiskey maybe,” he sings, “Passed in the back of the van/ You seen it all now, ain’t i crazy?/ Can you still love me the way i am?” “I was kind of a mess of a man when I met the woman who would later become my wife,” Astronautalis says of the song. “Thankfully, she saw through all my bullshit...
20 Reasons We Still Love Deftones’ White Pony
Gimme a Reason takes classic albums celebrating major anniversaries and breaks down song by song the reasons we still love them so many years later. This week, we celebrate 20 years of Deftones’ White Pony. In 2000, nu metal ruled the airwaves. It’s then-novel mixture of alternative rock choruses, heavy metal riffs tuned lower than ever before, and hip-hop verses and rhythms had been on a half-decade growth streak. It’s juggernaut acts, like Korn and Limp Bizkit, were ubiquitous. One of the genre’s most forward-thinking devotees, a cadre of Sacramento upstarts known as Deftones seemed hot on their tails, thanks to the success of the singles “My Own Summer (Shove It)” and “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” from their 1997 album Around the Fur. However, rather than be keep following the p...
TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe Rallies the “People” on New Protest Song: Stream
In honor of Juneteenth, aka Freedom Day, Tunde Adebimpe has released a new protest song. Simply dubbed “People”, this offering sees the TV on the Radio frontman instructing his listeners to confront and condemn white supremacy wherever it rears its ugly head. “If you see it’s a Nazi, say it’s a Nazi, and get that Nazi out,” declares Adebimpe on the track. “People” was self-produced by the indie rocker with assistance from friend and TV on the Radio drummer Roofeo. It’s available to stream and/or purchase below via Bandcamp, and all proceeds will benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center, Movement for Black Lives, and the ACLU. For the rest of Juneteenth, Bandcamp, too, will be donating its share of profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Earlier this month, Adebimpe performed TV on the Radi...
GWAR’s Blothar: Oderus Urungus Wouldn’t Have Wanted His Statue Next to a “Row of Losers”
Over the past week or so, a petition to replace a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, with one of late GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus has garnered more than 55,000 signatures. While it would be cool for scumdogs everywhere to see their fallen leader honored, current GWAR singer Blothar the Berserker tells us that Oderus wouldn’t want a statue of himself alongside a “row of losers.” As controversial statues continue to get toppled amid worldwide protests, the petition calls Robert E. Lee a “failed war general that supported a racist cause” while touting Oderus as a “great local leader.” While Oderus may have come from the planet Scumdogia and settled in Antarctica, his alter ego, Dave Brockie (who passed away in 2014), called Richmond his home. Blothar beamed in...
Beyoncé Launches “Black Parade” Initiative to Support Black-Owned Businesses
Beyoncé is marking Juneteenth by launching “Black Parade Route”, a new initiative supporting Black-owned small businesses. The newly launched section on Beyoncé’s website includes an expansive list of Black businesses filtered by categories such as “Art & Design”, “Beauty”, “Fashion”, “Lifestyle”, and “Restaurants & Bars”. “Being Black is your activism. Black excellence is a form of protest. Black joy is your right,” reads a tagline for “Black Parade”, which “benefits BeyGOOD’s Black Business Impact Fund, administered by the National Urban League, to support Black-owned small businesses in need.” In a corresponding Instagram post, Beyoncé writes, “Happy Juneteenth Weekend! I hope we continue to share joy and celebrate each other, even in the midst of struggle. Please continue to re...
