The band black midi makes complex music with a simple goal: "Drama," Geordie Greep, its guitarist and main singer, said via a video interview from the band's rehearsal space in London. "We're thinking about how to make something as thrilling as possible, how to keep the tension there always."
The group's music arrives, most of the time, as a structured barrage: dissonant riffs, shifting rhythms, darkly cryptic lyrics and textures that can whipsaw between clockwork intricacy and pulverizing noise. Its 2019 debut album, "Schlagenheim," presented a band that had melded the speedy precision of prog-rock with the hard-nosed vamps and abrasively eccentric vocals of post-punk, along with dollops of free jazz and atonality. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize, Britain's award for musical quality.
On its second album, "Cavalcade," arriving Friday, black midi broadens its music even further. The band pushes its dynamics to new extremes, juxtaposing bristling cacophony with sparsity and quietude, while Greep and Cameron Picton, the band's bassist, sing about societal and physical decay along with the chance that music holds hope. The album even offers one straightforwardly melodic song: "Marlene Dietrich," a bossa-nova-tinged ballad about the familiarity of pop as a sanctuary in a world of strife. "Cavalcade" is the work of a band that's determined to defy all routines, including its own.
black midi was an early arrival in a wavelet of British bands that ignore mainstream pop's short attention spans and programmed sounds. Instead, they present sinewy, hands-on virtuosity and knotty structures. "What's going on everywhere in London at the moment," Picton said, "is that there's a huge community of really open-minded and tight-knit musicians, from full-on jazz to totally straight-up rock. And then there's this whole kind of mishmash in the middle — really exciting stuff."
Two audacious kindred bands — Squid and Black Country, New Road — have released their debut albums this year. "black midi are a once in a century kind of group," said Isaac Wood, the singer and guitarist of Black Country, New Road. "Once they decide to take a walk down a certain route, they really go the whole way and explore every avenue."
At first, Greep recalled, "It was less about the songs than just playing together until we got into that euphoric zone — just an excuse to play really loud for a long time. But that got kind of boring after a while, so we started making proper songs."
black midi honed its music with regular gigs at the Windmill, a pub in Brixton with a reputation for nurturing innovative bands. The group still touches down at the Windmill — most recently with a 2020 Christmastime benefit webcast to support the club through the pandemic. For that concert, black midi merged with Black Country, New Road — billed as Black Midi, New Road — to perform Christmas carols, Minimalistic improvisations and, well, "Born to Run."
black midi's first single appeared in 2018: "Bmbmbm," a surly, discordant post-punk vamp interlaced with found-sound shrieks and sudden eruptions of full-band bashing. It was on the Speedy Wunderground label created by the producer Dan Carey , who heard the band at the Windmill and would go on to produce black midi's debut album. "It was like they'd invented a new form of music," he said by phone. "The way the tempo is so fluid, but you're always in the groove, even if you're sort of outside it. And then at the same time, incredibly soulful bass lines and amazing lyrics. And so fiercely put together, so much force."
From the beginning, black midi left audiences "reeling," he added. "It shows that it's OK to make music that's pretty out there, and people will like it. There's plenty of people who are fascinated by the outer edges of normal music."
For Philadelphia Band Low Cut Connie, Music Became A Pandemic Support Group : NPR
Last year, cooped up at home, the band Low Cut Connie began to stream performances. Before long, they turned into a musical support group for fans coping with the pandemic.
Let's go back to March 19, 2020. I know you'd probably rather not do that, but stay with me here. The pandemic had just begun, and Adam Weiner of the band Low Cut Connie was feeling just like the rest of us.
WEINER: For some reason - I don't know why. By the end, there were tears coming down my face. I was sweating. It was like this cathartic performance for us.
CHANG: There is so much to unpack right there, but can you talk about the support group aspect of all this?
WEINER: Absolutely. It's been incredible watching this community of people all over the world that have been tuning in for over a year. Some of them are getting up at 6 in the morning. Some of them, it's 11 o'clock at night.
CHANG: Oh, but I'm used to it. In fact, I almost find comfort in not making eye contact with my audience. But what you do is different.
WEINER: It is. I'm used to performing in front of thousands of people, hugging people, messing up people's hair.
WEINER: And to do it for cellphones, it was challenging at first. But, you know, it's a weird thing. It's like this antenna grew on the back of my head, and I could sort of feel, just intuit the reaction of the people watching.
WEINER: And I'd say, (singing) yeah. And they go, (singing) yeah. People over 40 countries were going, (singing) yeah.
Brown music community adapts during COVID-19 pandemic
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"One of the lessons of this past year has been that music is pretty d–mn resilient," said Emily Dolan, chair of the Department of Music. In normal times, the department hosts upward of 200 events each year in addition to ensemble practices, private music lessons and normal classes — all activities that require gathering in person to some capacity. In a year where that in-person gathering wasn't possible, different arrangements had to be made.
"Only 20 people could be in a room physically at a time and distance," said Mark Seto, director of the Brown University Orchestra. "Practically speaking, what that meant is that only people who could do whatever they're doing musically while wearing a mask could participate in any in-person opportunities." As a result, the only groups that could gather were string players, pianists and percussionists. Singing and wind instruments were off the table.
For Seto, that meant salvaging as much of the in-person orchestra experience as possible. He separated his ensemble into two groups, which met in person at different times. While it wasn't the same, the rehearsals were meaningful nonetheless. The ensemble even culminated its efforts in a prerecorded YouTube performance May 13.
"We've tried to keep the sense of community tangible, but it's hard to do over Zoom," said Ethan Asis '23, music director for the Jabberwocks, Brown's oldest a cappella group. While the ensemble was still able to attract new members, Asis said that its typical activities have essentially been on hold since the pandemic began.
"We have always been a group that spends a lot of its time performing both at Brown and doing gigs off campus, whether it's a random gig in Providence or Boston or if it's on tour," said Asis. "We were a pretty intense group in the sense that we spent six hours a week or more rehearsing." Learning new arrangements over Zoom, however, just didn't work.
And, in addition to changes for ensembles, there were also big changes for the world of recorded music.
"There was a lot of figuring things out, and what I'm the most impressed at is looking back at the capstones and honors theses that our students did," Dolan said. For many of these graduating students, their capstones took the form of full-length albums.
"They don't look like a bunch of COVID compromises … They're really great projects that don't look like they were done under (extreme restrictions)," Dolan added. In fact, all the time spent inside gave many students the opportunity to experiment musically in ways they never had before.
Music Industry Moves: Warner/ Blavatnik's New Social Justice Grants - Variety
“Over the past year, we’ve been developing a targeted grantmaking strategy focused on three key pillars – education, criminal justice reform, and arts and culture – in order to optimize our impact and reach,” said Paul Henderson, WMG/BFF SJF Board member and Executive Director at the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability. “This next set of grants is all about the intersection of community, culture, and commerce, and we’re very proud to support organizations at the forefront of addressing racial disparities with robust programming tied to the arts and education.”
+ Attorney Jodie Shihadeh , a ten-year veteran of Doug Davis’ Davis Firm, has officially announced the founding of Shihadeh Law P.C., a boutique transactional entertainment law firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Clients include producers/songwriters J White Did It (Megan Thee Stallion “Savage”, Cardi B “I Like It”, 21 Savage “A Lot”), Roy Lenzo (Lil Nas X “Rodeo” & “Montero”), Paul Phamous (Dua Lipa, Nick Jonas) and El Guincho (Rosalia), along with Irish group Eden and American singer/songwriter Audrey Mika.
“After ten years of practice in the entertainment industry, and personally coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, I am thrilled to announce the launch of Shihadeh Law, P.C.,” Shihadeh says. “As a female-founded firm that was launched during a global pandemic, we have unique insight on how to effectively advise clients to navigate unforeseen obstacles and market changes to pursue their professional endeavors without interruption.”
+ UTA has signed veteran country singer-songwriter Billy Ray Cyrus for worldwide representation in all areas. In addition to multi-platinum country music hits during the 1990s, Cyrus also enjoyed a successful career as an actor in the series “Doc” and “Still the King,” as well as the hit Disney Channel series “Hannah Montana” with his daughter Miley. And as evidenced by his presence on the remix of Lil Nas X’s Grammy-winning 2019 smash “Old Town Road,” Cyrus says of his approach to music, “My philosophy to making music is no limitations. No rules, no limits, no preconceived notions. Don’t try to think inside the box or outside the box, just think like there is no box.”
Sony Music Entertainment announced a pair of big promotions on Monday, elevating Melissa Thomas to executive VP of International Marketing, U.S. Repertoire and Monica Cornia to Senior VP of Sales, Commercial Music Group.
Thomas (pictured above left), who was previously SVP, will continue to report to Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer. According to the announcement, highlights of her sting include spearheading global marketing campaigns for Lil Nas X, Camila Cabello, Harry Styles, DJ Khaled, Travis Scott, AC/DC, the Kid Laroi, Rosalía and Giveon. She began her career with SME at Sony Music U.K. in 2005; she had previously held roles at Universal Motown Records in New York and then Universal Music in her native Canada.
In making the announcement, Stringer said, “Melissa knows how to harness the global power of our Company to help break our U.S. artists around the world. Her teams, in conjunction with our U.S. Record Labels, have created unique marketing campaigns that resonate with audiences and push our artists to success.”
Cornia (pictured, above right) will oversee all U.S. sales strategies for the company’s catalog. Cornia takes on this role after three years serving as co-head of the International Marketing department for U.S. repertoire, where she developed SME’s new and established U.S.-signed artists across global markets. She previously was VP of International Marketing for RCA Records from 2014 to 2018; before that role, she managed Kesha at Vector Management.
In making the announcement, Darren Stupak, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Sales, SME said, “From the very start of Monica’s career at Sony Music, she has always embodied our artist-first approach, showing fantastic insight, expertise and a strong track record in bringing our U.S. artists to new audiences.”
CFA music students release video: UNM Newsroom
Liz Alarid-West and Aileen Gonzalez became friends in the Albuquerque charter school Tierra Adentro (TANM), where they met their mentor Caro Acuña, a professional and percussionist who co-produced the video. The song, Honey , is a gentle love song, with Alarid-West on bass and Gonzalez on guitar. The bossa nova groove is driven by the beat of cajón and congas played by Acuña.
The band’s name NICTEHA comes from Gonzalez’s middle name, which means “water flower” in Mayan.
“To me, it seemed catchy and beautiful to use as a stage name and a band name,” she explained.
“We would even joke around about starting a band because we saw how well we played together,” Gonzalez said.
“Our relationship with Caro is very natural and organic because we are a musical family and she is our tía (auntie),” Alarid-West noted.
Alarid-West, a dancer and choreographer, began her musical journey playing trumpet in an elementary school mariachi club. She went on to learn – “and am still learning” percussion, bass, and guitar. She is starting her senior year in the fall with a double major in Dance and Spanish and expects to graduate with a bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Flamenco. In the band, she goes by the moniker Mrowneila.
“UNM has helped my music through my guitar accompaniment of flamenco dance classes. Every semester that I play for dance, I see improvement in my technique and sound,” she said.
Gonzalez, a singer who also plays guitar and piano, just finished her freshman year at UNM and is experimenting with different courses in the College of Fine Arts before choosing a major and minor. Her love of music came from listening to her father sing and play when she was a child. She took Flamenco guitar, singing, and dance at TANM and started creating her own songs.
“For Honey , I had the melody and guitar chords already, Liz came in on the bass. It is most definitely a group effort… We like to blend sounds and genres and play whatever makes us feel good. We really want to show how diverse we can be in our music,” Gonzalez remarked.
Olivia Rodrigo's 'Sour' Leads Apple Music Pre-Add Chart - Rolling Stone
As if the overwhelming fan reaction wasn’t proof enough that Olivia Rodrigo ’s Sour was headed for a massive first week on the charts, the album topped the Apple Music Pre-Add Chart during the week leading up to its release.
Sour saw more Pre-Adds than any other album from May 14th through May 20th. Pre-adds allow listeners to queue up an album to be added to their library when it’s released, offering a good indication of the albums that fans are most excited for. It’s a good sign that it’s leading the pre-add chart, where previous RS 200 toppers like Rod Wave have also led.
As SOUR rises to Number One, it pushes Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever to Number Two. Notable entries include 42 Dugg’s Free Dem Boyz, Leon Bridges’ Gold-Diggers Sound and Olamide’s UY Scuti .
NH music teacher Warren Muchemore left lasting impression PHS students
PORTSMOUTH — It didn't matter if it was a saxophone, a trumpet, the trombone, the French horn, an oboe, a clarinet, the drums, a piano or the bass. If you could name it, Warren Muchemore could play it.
From fourth grade all the way through high school, Russ Grazier, co-founder and CEO of the Portsmouth Music & Arts Center, learned under Muchemore as a student at the old Portsmouth Junior High and later Portsmouth High School. For about four decades, Grazier said, Muchemore, who taught at both schools, wrote all the music for the high school marching band himself. Every single piece of music he composed was specifically designed to cater to the strengths of each student in the ensemble at that point in time.
A "kind, inspiring, supportive" teacher, Muchemore had a memorable sense of humor and an ability to connect with individuals, Grazier remembered. Sometimes, if a student wasn't at school that day or was unable to be at rehearsals, Muchemore would hop in with his students, take on the missing instrument and play it to perfection, no matter what it was.
"In those formative years, it's so important to have an important role model. And he was such an amazing role model for everyone," Grazier said.
As a young teacher beginning to work in the school district in 1988, PHS' current performing arts coordinator, Steve Cirillo, learned the ropes from Muchemore. Several decades later, Muchemore's influence is still prevalent at PHS.
Guidance went beyond handing over the necessary teaching materials to Cirillo, as Muchemore would sometimes even join the marching band after Cirillo took it over to ensure a smooth sound and a quality performance.
A fond string of memories for Cirillo stem from the days before computers, when Muchemore would pass along his handwritten scores to Cirillo so he could write in the parts for percussion players. Every time, Cirillo couldn't help but bask in the privilege, feeling as if he was "writing with this legend."
"Warren was a humble man, it was never about him," Cirillo said. "The pride, I think, in his work was to see the kids being successful, and that's what I think Warren would pass on."
When the wall was erected, there were more than 300 names listed. The name in the biggest font is that of Warren Muchemore, who Grazier recalled being cited in over $10,000 worth of donations from near and far from former students.
Google celebrates Savoy Ballroom with interactive Doodle game - CNET
Nearly 100 years ago, a dance club opened in Harlem with a then-novel business model: rejecting racial discrimination. The iconic Savoy Ballroom gave birth to some of the most vivacious dances of the time and showcased a who's who of jazz greats.
It also broke new ground. White-owned but managed by a Black man, the Savoy was one of the first racially integrated public places in the US, allowing it to attract a wide range of customers at a time when segregation was still the norm across the country. Dubbed "the world's finest ballroom," the venue proved so popular that it had to turn away 2,000 patrons on opening night.
The club is long gone now, but Google on Wednesday launched an interactive Doodle to celebrate this day in 2002 when a plaque was installed to mark the location of the ballroom's entrance on Lenox Avenue between 104th and 141st streets. Instead of challenging your fancy footwork, the Doodle tests your fleet finger work on the keyboard while you're serenaded by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
Opened in 1926, the Savoy featured a 10,000-square-foot dance floor that was a city block long and could accommodate 4,000 people. Every year, more than 700,000 people visited the club annually, passing through a lobby that featured a large, cut glass chandelier and marble staircase. Men were required to wear a coat and tie -- one of the house rules enforced by tuxedoed bouncers who were former boxers and basketball players.
Webb's 1934 Big Band and jazz standard Stompin' at the Savoy was written in honor of the ballroom.
Nicknamed the "home of happy feet," the Savoy also originated and developed a long succession of dances, including the Lindy Hop, the Flying Charleston, the Stomp, the Big Apple and the Jitterbug Jive, among many others.
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