music
R.I.P. Jimmy Cobb, Veteran Jazz Drummer Dies at 91
Jimmy Cobb, the veteran jazz drummer best known for his work alongside Miles Davis on 1959’s Kind of Blue, has died at the age of 91. According to NPR, Cobb passed away Sunday, May 24th, at his home in Manhattan. The cause of death was lung cancer. Cobb was the last surviving member of Miles Davis’ First Great Sextet, which also included saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, and bassist Paul Chambers. The sextet appeared on Davis’ landmark Kind of Blue, widely considered the best-selling jazz record of all time. Cobb also drummed for Davis on several other albums, including Porgy and Bess, 1958 Miles, Sketches of Spain, and In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk. Additionally, he appeared on Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Coltrane Jazz,...
Elon Musk and Grimes Change Baby’s Name to Comply with California Law
Earlier this month, Grimes and Elon Musk welcomed a healthy baby boy, and they promptly set him up for years of therapy by naming him X Æ A-12. Now, without much explanation, the child has undergone a rebranding: X Æ A-Xii. There, that clears things up, doesn’t it? Via The Guardian, there’s been speculation that the child’s original name violated California law, which stipulates that only the 26 letters of the alphabet can be used. The new appellation would seem to fit the rule of law, swapping as it does a 12 for an Xii. Neither Musk nor Grimes has confirmed this as the reason, though in responding to an Instagram comment about the CA mandate, Grimes wrote, “Roman numerals. Looks better tbh.” Using the roman numerals for 12 instead of the modern English symbols won’t change...
R.I.P. Bucky Baxter, Longtime Steel Guitarist for Bob Dylan and Steve Earle Dies at 65
Bucky Baxter, the veteran steel guitarist known for his extensive work with Bob Dylan and Steve Earle, has died at the age of 65. According to Rolling Stone, Baxter passed away Monday, May 26th, at his home in Sanibel Island, Florida. A cause of death was not immediately made available. Baxter played on several Steve Earle albums released during the 1980s and early 1990s, including Guitar Town, Exit 0, and Copperhead Road. Baxter was also a founding member of Earle’s backing band The Dukes. While on tour with Earle in the early 1990’s, Baxter met Bob Dylan, who asked Baxter to teach him how to play steel guitar. Not long after, Baxter was invited to join Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour” and would remain a frequent presence on the road for the next decade. All told, Baxter backed Dylan for ...
Faith No More Reschedule European Comeback Tour for 2021 Due to Coronavirus
Faith No More were due to embark on a European tour this summer, their first such outing in four years. However, due to the ongoing outbreak, the band has rescheduled all of those dates for 2021. The new itinerary sees their overseas concerts pushed back almost exactly 12 months. Now set for June and July 2021, these gigs include Berlin, Oslo, Amsterdam, and two-night stints in both London and Manchester. All currently held tickets will remain valid for next year, and refunds will also be available upon request. According to a statement, an announcement regarding Faith No More’s imminent North American tour with Korn, set to launch this August, is forthcoming. Editors’ Picks Last week, it was announced that Faith No More’s shows with System of a Down and Korn, previously marked for t...
Genevieve Artadi Announces New Album Dizzy Strange Summer, Shares “Living Like I Know I’m Gonna Die”: Stream
One half of the jazz-funk project Knower, Genevieve Artadi dropped her solo debut, genevieve lalala, back in 2015. Five years later, she’s announced her sophomore album under her own name, the serendipitously named Dizzy Strange Summer. Due out July 17th via Brainfeeder, the 16-track LP is being previewed today with the lead single, “Living Like I Know I’m Gonna Die”. Though not what’s become known as a “quarantine album,” Dizzy Strange Summer does reflect the world’s current state in both its title and themes. The collection’s 16 songs were written while Artadi was experiencing a personal upheaval, not unlike many of us are going through now. “I was pretty lost,” she said in a press release. “But enjoying feeling lost.” Helping the psychedelic jazz artist find her way on the LP were ...
Spotify Lifts 10,000-Song Cap on Libraries
In a new Community blog post, Spotify announced that it was lifting the 10,000 item cap on users’ online libraries. The policy change will roll out over the coming days. This has been one of the platform’s most popular requests since at least 2014, proving that when the community demands the same thing for six years running, Spotify partially listens. That’s “partially”, because these unlimited saves come with a few caveats. To start, it only applies to the online library; users are still restricted to 10,000 offline downloads. Furthermore, playlists remain capped at 10,000 songs, so the super-user dream of putting an entire library into a single massive playlist remains just that — a dream. Still, for most Spotify obsessives, this will be a relief. Now digital users can enjoy accumulating...
Shinedown Cancel Summer Tour After Singer Previously Hoped to Stick With Timeline
Shinedown singer Brent Smith recently made headlines when he said that the band was “not afraid” to play for fans amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, he insisted that Shinedown were “not backing off” their summer “Deep Dive Tour”, but now the band has officially canceled the outing. In an interview with Jose Mangin for Zippo Live earlier this month, Smith said, “You can’t stay inside forever … if you shelter at home for too long, it’s going to deplete your immune system.” He continued, “Don’t be paralyzed by fear. You can’t allow that to happen, because then this invisible virus, however you wanna put it, then it begins to win.” Regarding the U.S. summer tour, Smith added, “As of right now, that’s all a go. So we’re not backing off of that rescheduled timeline.” While the singer did...
Mastodon Working on New Album, Recording Song for New “Bill & Ted” Movie
Mastodon were making significant progress on their highly anticipated new album, until the coronavirus pandemic delayed production. In a new interview, guitarist Bill Kelliher revealed the metal band had laid down 20 rough songs when the recording process came to a halt. “We were kind of right in the middle of it and we had about, I don’t know, 20 rough songs recorded right before this [pandemic] hit. And it just totally put the brakes on it,” Kelliher told RocknRoll Beer Guy. However, it appears the band feels like it’s safe enough to reconvene and continue work on the new record. “I’m actually leaving tomorrow for Atlanta,” added Kelliher. “We’re gonna get back together and have our first kinda… try to get back into finishing a few things that we started and seeing where we get.” The gui...
Frontman of Prominent Christian Rock Band: “I No Longer Believe in God”
Jonathan Steingard, the frontman of the successful Christian rock band Hawk Nelson, has declared in a lengthy Instagram post that he no longer believes in God. The singer-guitarist has been a member of Hawk Nelson since 2004, taking over lead vocals in 2012. The Canadian band has placed a number of LPs in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart, amassing a large following along the way. In a caption accompanying his open letter, Steingard remarked, “I’ve been terrified to post this for a while – but I feel like it’s time for me to be honest. I hope this is encouraging to people who might feel the same but are as afraid to speak as I am. I want to be open. I want to be transparent with you all – and also open to having my heart changed in the future.” In the letter itself, Stei...
2 Chainz’s Atlanta Restaurant Shut Down by Police for Violating COVID-19 Guidelines
It’s probably no coincidence that a number of states began rolling back lockdown restrictions right around Memorial Day. While some businesses have committed to continuing operating cautiously within local health guidelines, others have been throwing caution dangerously to the wind. That includes rapper and restaurateur 2 Chainz, whose Atlanta eatery Escobar Restaurant & Tapas was so packed on Monday that police had to shut it down. As TMZ reports, Georgia State Police drove by Escobar on Monday night and noticed it “was rather loud, busy, and occupied to be operating as a restaurant at that time of night.” A look at the establishment’s Instagram Stories reveals more than food service was indeed going on, as there are clips of people dancing, receiving bottle service with sparklers, an...
Minneapolis Ice Cream Truck Plays Extreme Metal, Serves No Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all scream for … extreme metal! An ice cream truck is making the rounds in northeast Minneapolis but all it’s serving up is heavy metal music. According to City Pages, area residents have noticed a black ice cream truck cruising through the streets while blaring out extreme metal music. Even though it also plays a more traditional ice-cream-truck jingle and appears to have images of various ice cream choices on the side of the truck, it never stops for treat-seeking kids with money in their hands. Turns out it’s the long-conceived brainchild of the driver, Matt Peterson, who purchased a rundown ice cream truck 10 years ago and tricked it out with heavy metal imagery. He calls the truck the Hell General, and there’s quite a backstory that goes along with the high-vo...
Jayda G Announces New EP, Shares “Both of Us”: Stream
Electronic artist Jayda G has announced a new EP, Both of Us / Are U Down. It will be available as a 12-inch and digitally on July 3rd via Ninja Tunes, and as a preview, Jayda has released the music video for the lead single and title track, “Both of Us”. Born in the small town of Grand Forks, British Columbia, Jayda Guy began her DJ career in 2013 after moving to Vancouver to get her masters in Resource and Environmental Management. In 2019, she released her debut album, Significant Changes, an effort that set her on a path to stardom and opened doors on the international festival circuit. Featuring the title tracks and a pair of remixes, the Both of Us / Are U Down EP is her first new release since Significant Changes. Apparently, Jayda G hadn’t been considering another project...
