Sly Stone, the brilliant and troubled visionary behind the wildly influential, boundary-smashing ’60s and ’70s greats Sly And The Family Stone, has passed away. In a public statement, Stone’s family says that he recently passed on “after a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues.” Stone was 82.
The hugely influential Bristol group Massive Attack have long stood firm in support of many causes, including their support for the people of Palestine during Israel’s campaign of genocide. Last year, Massive Attack joined forces with Fontaines D.C. and Young Fathers to release Ceasefire, a benefit EP raising money for Doctors Without Borders’ emergency efforts in Gaza. Last month, Massive Attack were among the artists who signed a letter of support for the Belfast rap group Kneecap, as various authorities, including the British government, attempt to make an example out of them for their vocal Palestine support. Now, Massive Attack have threatened legal action against Hen Mazzig, the Zionist Israeli influencer and author who accused them of “incitement.”
If you saw that headline and got confused, don’t worry about it. It’s OK. The singer from Korn is not going to play Snoop Dogg in a new biopic. That would be a weird casting decision on all sorts of levels. The singer from Korn is Jonathan Davis — one S. Jonathan Daviss, on the other hand, is a young actor from Houston who’s one of the stars of the big-among-teens Netflix show Outer Banks. He was also in the Netflix movie Do Revenge. Now, he’s going to play Snopp Dogg.
Back when I was covering the Columbus music scene, Way Yes — who played Afropop-influenced electronic pop with shades of Animal Collective and Vampire Weekend among other buzz-band forebears — were one of my favorite local bands. Sometimes those treasures from your home city remain buried within local lore, but Way Yes made it far enough outside of their localized bubble to be covered on this website long before I worked here.
The xx have been in and out of the studio for years working on the follow-up to 2017’s I See You, but all three members haven’t done a show together since the summer of 2018. They did, however, get together onstage at Jamie xx gigs a couple times last year, a feat they repeated at the LIDO Festival in London’s Victoria Park Saturday.
Kevin Abstract might not be talking to his old Brockhampton bandmates anymore, but he’s staying quite active on the solo music front. Abstract announced his new solo album Blush and shared its lead single “Geezer,” which sounds like some Sublime-influenced acoustic beach pop to slot into late ’90s MTV rotation alongside Sugar Ray. He already streamed the album live on Twitch Saturday, and now he’s used another gamer-friendly platform to drop a complementary release.
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival has turned into a venue for musicians debuting their visual albums. Turnstile did it with Turnstile: Never Enough Thursday night, and Miley Cyrus followed on Friday with the premiere of her Something Beautiful film, the accompaniment to her excellent album of the same name, at the Beacon Theatre. At the Cyrus shindig, there was some minor drama due to some very confused ticket-buyers who thought she was going to a very different kind of event.
Cultural treasures like to hang out together sometimes. Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen have shared stages a number of times over the years — in London, New York, New Jersey, Glastonbury. Last year, McCartney gently roasted Springsteen while presenting him with the Ivor Novello Awards’ Academy fellowship. And this week, it happened again, this time in McCartney’s Liverpool hometown.
What a festival. It’s not just the booking, even though the booking is cool as hell. The people who put together the Primavera Sound Festival know how to pull in huge stars and spiky critical-favorite types, and it might be the only fest where you can see Chappell Roan and Chat Pile within an hour of one another. You can wander into a club space next to one of the rows of food vendors and find people freaking out to a set from a Brazilian funk DJ. You can see tons of artists, from tons of different places and genres and sensibilities, having truly gratifying career moments. That’s amazing, but it’s not really what sets Primavera apart. There’s other stuff to consider, too.
Robbie Williams is getting ready to release Britpop, his first studio album in almost decade. Here’s a good way to promote it: Going out on a big tour, and unexpectedly reuniting all of the original members of 5ive for the first time in 25 years, which he did last night (June 6) in London.