The Week In Music
The week in music – here are the headlines that caught our attention.
Some really fun releases this week.
Lucius cover “Goodnight Irene”
Lucius, who is performing in Fort Collins tonight and in Boulder tomorrow, released a video this week with Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. Waters collaborates on Nudes, released March 2, as does Wilco’s Nels Cline. The acoustic-themed album also covers Tame Impala’s “Eventually.” Watch Lucius and Waters cover the traditional “Goodnight Irene”, which serves as the album closer on Nudes.
A John Prine Shuffle
This week also saw another John Prine release, this time the shuffling, rousing “Knockin’ On Your Screen Door.” The folsky number will appear on The Tree Of Forgiveness, due out April 13. “Knockin’ On Your Screen Door” opens the album. The song tells the story of a down-and-out loner who finds hope in the only possession he owns – an 8 track tape that plays George Jones.
New Decemberists
This week, The Decemberists released “Once In My Life”, another sythny single from their upcoming album of the same name. Once In My Life is available March 16 on Capitol.
Neko Case To Release First Album in 5 Years
As if that wasn’t enough, this week we learned Neko Case will release Hell-On June 1. Listen to the self-titled track in which she’s at her most eruditely biting. “Nothing’s quite so poison as a promise,” she sings, before a gnawing guitar solo.
And The Oscars Goes To… Sufjan
If you don’t watch movies or The Oscars, you probably heard anyway that Sufjan Stevens might have stolen the show. He performed “Mystery of Love” from the movie Call Me By Your Name. It sounded good, though let’s cue the visual evidence. He really won the day… because… the jacket speak-eth.
Facebook MIght Be Entering The Music Market
The internet was buzzing this week with news that Facebook might be in talks with record companies to what some speculate might be an upcoming streaming service. There aren’t many more details yet, but if you’d like to know more about the potential biggie, there’s more.
Spotify Algorithm For Gender Balance
On International Women’s Day, Spotify and Smirnoff launched the “Smirnoff Equalizer”, a new Spotify feature that will show users their listener’s habits with a gender breakdown.
Then, if your playlists shows more male artists, Spotify will generate a more gender-balanced playlist.
David Byrne Apologizes
David Byrne’s eclectic American Utopia is out today. Earlier this week, he apologized for a lack of gender balance among his collaborators on the album. He wrote:
“I regret not hiring and collaborating with women for this album–it’s ridiculous, it’s not who I am and it certainly doesn’t match how I’ve worked in the past.”
Here’s the picture/tweet that prompted the apology:
I have a new album out in 8 days called American Utopia! I recorded it over a two-year period and its evolution involved a lot of collaborators. Some were old friends and some were completely new to me. This month’s playlist is a sample of their own work.https://t.co/sw9G2lb39Y pic.twitter.com/apRcvWMens
— DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) March 1, 2018
Wake Up!
And just as we were finishing off this post, word came in of a new Parquet Courts single. “Wide Awake” the song is now available, and Wide Awake the album is out May 18 on Rough Trade.
Hope that your weekend sounds something like this.
