Swinging Modern Sounds: Observations on the Occasion of a 100th Column
The clash of opinions about music is music itself.
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Posts Tagged: Spotify
You Never Win, You Never Lose: Talking with Gabriel Birnbaum
Gabriel Birnbaum discusses his new album, NOT ALONE.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #84: Music for Spaceships
Perhaps space is an inevitable resting place for music of this kind, because time is completely different when conceived of in the vastness of space, and not only because of relativity.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #83: On George
There really is not a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t stop at some moment and think about George Harrison.
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Mimesis of Girlhood in Three Acts featuring Bright Eyes
In those days, it was not uncommon for me to dream about having sex with Matt Damon and wake from those dreams convinced it was possible.
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Sound & Vision: Ken Freedman
Allyson McCabe talks with Ken Freedman, the general manager of WFMU (the longest-running freeform radio station in the US), about the relevance of radio, technological innovation, and a just-launched morning show.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #63: Patrick Madden
Patrick Madden teaches writing at Brigham Young University and is the author of the essay collection Quotidiana. His essays frequently appear in literary magazines and have been featured in The Best Creative Nonfiction and The Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies. He pays close attention to the details of the every day, infusing humor and self-deprecation, combining […]
...moreMood Music
At Largehearted Boy, essayist, literary experimentalist, and scholar Mary Capello shares an annotated playlist for her new essay collection, Life Breaks In (University of Chicago Press). She describes mood as the “companion and muse” for her writing: If there is one subject under the sun that defies our ordering systems even as it tempts us […]
...moreRecord Store Day Is Approaching
Tomorrow a whole slew of releases, promos, and events are hitting locations across the country in celebration of all the great things about a local record store that the Internet can never replace. Check out a full list of exclusive releases, along with information about participating stores and what’s happening where. Don’t be a jerk: give […]
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Swinging Modern Sounds #71: A Michael Bay Film Eating Itself
“Love,” then is not to be taken lightly here. It is being engaged at full force, megaphonically.
...moreDavid Lowery Sues Spotify
The frontman of Camper Van Beethoven filed his second suit in favor of musician’s rights on December 28th, Pitchfork reports. The suit claims that Spotify published tracks without sufficient efforts to obtain copyright permission, and thus illegally distributed. This case adds itself to a number of legal issues facing the musical subscription service—since last year’s Taylor […]
...moreNewsom Speaks Against Spotify
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Newsom recognized that the streaming service Spotify is “a genius idea,” but spoke out against what she sees as a systematized attempt to circumvent paying artists: Spotify is like a villainous cabal of major labels. The business is built from the ground up as a way to […]
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Swinging Modern Sounds #50: The Big 5-0!
While it’s possible to find a lot to worry about in the world of contemporary music, there’s always something new to listen to as well, post-historical, outlying, pre- or anti- or minimally digital music. And so maybe there will be five more years of Swinging Modern Sounds.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #53: The Distribution Problem, Part Three
I thought, in my ongoing attempt to describe how digital music is changing the way we consume music, that it would be good to speak to a representative young person about her music listening habits.
...moreWho Cares When Your Record Was Digitally Remastered?
I’ll admit I’m obsessive about dates in general, and music-related dates most of all. So when I started using the music-streaming service Spotify, I was pleased to see a year listed next to the name of every album in their expansive library—presumably the year when the recording was released, which I consider crucial information.
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