When it comes to Drake, it takes a village. He has investments and business ventures as wide-ranging and unpredictable as restoring an old surrealist art amusement park to launching his own production house, with the latter having earned him his first Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series as an executive producer on the HBO drama […]
Music
A Singer-Activist’s Advice for ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Singer Oliver Anthony: ‘As Long as We Are Divided, We Will Fail’
Richmond-born singer-songwriter-activist Stephan Said had a viral hit political anthem 25 years ago. He has some advice for Oliver Anthony and thoughts about his No. 1 song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Over the past couple of weeks, friends (and strangers) who know my peculiar musical career history have asked my thoughts on Chris Lunsford, […]
The Chemical Brothers on How ‘For That Beautiful Feeling’ Banned Old References to Create New Block Rocking Beats
Almost 35 years have passed since Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons first met at the University of Manchester — and it’s taken that long for them to be willing look back on their work as electronic duo The Chemical Brothers. Coinciding with the release of their tenth album, “For That Beautiful Feeling,” Rowlands and Simons […]
Jimmy Buffett’s Final Album, ‘Equal Strain on All Parts,’ to Be Released This Fall; Paul McCartney-Boosted ‘Gummie’ Out Now
The album Jimmy Buffett was known to have worked on earlier this year has been announced for a fall release. The 14-song “Equal Strain on All Parts” will be out Nov. 3 via the Sun label, with guests including Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris, Angelique Kidjo and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Three advance tracks were […]
James Blake Brings Back the Weirdness With ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’: Album Review
Newer fans may not be aware that in the early years of his career, James Blake’s music was really, really weird. The largely instrumental tracks featured lots of blipping, angular grooves and warped sounds and voices that were initially totally disorienting but would always coalesce into something melodic or rhythmic (if sometimes testing the boundaries of […]