Zappagram #38
Not to be a bummer but my family is sick (again) and a lot of famous people died this week which is kind of a shitty way to kick off 2023 if you ask me...
Hey all,
Happy new year!
This newsletter typically lands in your inboxes by 12pm ET on Mondays. My apologies for being late today. My reason? My entire family is sick. Again. For the second time in a month. We all got sick, got well, and somehow got sick again. I feel like absolute garbage. I spent the morning at the pediatrician with my incredibly unhappy two year old son, who isn’t old enough to understand why he feels like shit, but he definitely does. That’s apparent.
Maybe we never fully recovered from whatever the hell we had the first time around and now it’s back for round two? Who knows. After I get this newsletter finished, I’m going to fall over in bed and cough myself to sleep.
What I do know is that I’m happy you’re here with me, ready to dive into a new year, headlong, headfirst. Full steam ahead. So…you know the drill:
Take your protein pills.
Put your helmet on.
Let’s do this shit.
“Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.”
―David Bowie
HEAVY ROTATION
New weekly playlists highlighting great music
🎶
WEEKLY PLAYLIST #38
Goose • Omar Apollo • Silvertwin • Spiral Starecase • Los Bitchos • A.O. Gerber • Babehoven • Superchunk • Ethel Cain • Cannons
MASTER PLAYLIST (ALL WEEKS)
MUSIC NEWS
The latest happenings in the world of music
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Jeremiah Green, Founding Member of Modest Mouse, Dead at 45 [RollingStone]
Fred White, Drummer of Earth, Wind & Fire, Dies at 67 [Billboard]
Singer Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters has died at age 74 [NPR]
Foo Fighters to Return “Soon” Without Taylor Hawkins [Pitchfork]
Moby Drops ‘Ambient 23’ LP: ‘Made to Help Anxiety’ [RollingStone]
Queen’s Brian May Knighted, Is Now Sir Brian Harold May [Pitchfork]
The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Is Now Spotify’s Most-Streamed Song Of All Time [Stereogum]
Jo Mersa Marley, Grandson of Bob Marley, Dead at 31 [Consequence]
OFF TOPIC
May or may not be music-related
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Vivienne Westwood, Fashion Designer Who Popularized Punk Style, Dies at 81 [Variety]
Watch Patti Smith Pay Tribute to Vivienne Westwood With ‘Redondo Beach’ Performance [NME]
Barbara Walters, Trailblazing Broadcast Journalist, Dies at 93 [Billboard]
Vinyl Albums Just Had Their Biggest Sales Week Of The Modern Era [Stereogum]
David Bowie and Dennis Hopper once smuggled cocaine into a psych ward for Iggy Pop [FarOut]
Remembering the Musical Greats We’ve Lost in 2022 [NME]
Actor Jeremy Renner In “Critical But Stable Condition” After Snow Plow Accident [Consequence]
GOOD READS
Read it to believe it
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None of My Favorite Albums of 2022 Were From 2022
by Paul Combs
[via Medium]
VIDEO SPOTLIGHT
See it to believe it
🎶
Rick Beato interviews Billy Corgan
If you’re a Smashing Pumpkins fan, this nearly 90 minute interview is well worth the time. Rick and Billy discuss everything from the band’s early days, trials, triumphs, studio sessions, to their new album released in two parts—one last year and one at the end of January. [via YouTube]
NEW RELEASES
Listen to these recently dropped albums
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Moby: Ambient 23 [listen]
UPCOMING RELEASES
These albums are coming soon
🎶
JANUARY 6
Iggy Pop: Every Loser
JANUARY 13
Bob Weir: Ace (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) • Margo Price: Strays • Tycho: Dive (Reissue)
JANUARY 20
Bad Brains: The Youth Are Getting Restless (Reissue) • Ella Fitzgerald: Live At Montreux 1969 • Guided By Voices: La La Land • John Cale: Mercy • Måneskin: Rush!
JANUARY 27
The Arcs: Electrophonic Chronic • Elle King: Come Get Your Wife • Green Day: Nimrod (25th Anniversary Edition) • Kimbra: A Reckoning • Meg Baird: Furling • New Order: Low-Life (Definitive Edition Box Set) • Pelican: City of Echoes
JANUARY 31
The Smashing Pumpkins: ATUM – Act 2
ON THIS DATE
Musical happenings of historical significance
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JANUARY 2
Birthdays: Roger Miller (1936) • Glenn Goins (1954) • The entire shipment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album 'Two Virgins' was seized by authorities in New Jersey due to the full frontal nude photograph of the couple on the cover. The album was eventually wrapped in plain brown paper in record stores. (1969)
JANUARY 3
Birthdays: Sir George Martin (1926) • Van Dyke Parks (1943) • Stephen Stills (1945) • Robert John & John Paul Jones (1946) • Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk (1975) • Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (1987) • Phil Everly, one half of the Everly Brothers, died of complications from lung disease aged 74, in California. (2014)
JANUARY 4
Birthdays: Nels Cline (1956) • Bernard Sumner of Joy Division (1956) • Lorna Doom of The Germs (1958) • Michael Stipe (1960) • Till Lindemann of Rammstein & Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins (1962) • Cait O'Riordan of The Pogues & Beth Gibbons of Portishead (1965) • Chauffeur Neil Boland was accidentally killed when The Who's drummer Keith Moon ran over him in his Bentley. Moon was trying to escape from a Gang of skinheads after a fight broke out at a pub in Hatfield, England. (1970) • Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy died of heart failure and pneumonia after being in a coma for eight days following a drug overdose. (1986) • Gerry Rafferty died aged 63 after a long illness. (2011)
JANUARY 5
Birthdays: Sam Phillips (1923) • Producer, Phil Ramone (1934) • Chris Stein of Blondie (1950) • Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson (1966) • Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age and A Perfect Circle (1970) • Bruce Springsteen released his debut album 'Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973) • Charles Mingus died aged 56. (1979) • Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident. (1998)
JANUARY 6
Birthdays: Earl Scruggs (1924) • Doris Troy who sang on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1937) • Syd Barrett (1946) • Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds (1951) • Malcolm Young of AC/DC (1953) • Muzz Skillings of Living Colour (1960) • Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys (1986) • Lou Rawls died, aged 72, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after battling lung cancer. (2006)
JANUARY 7
Birthdays: Paul Revere (1937) • Kenny Loggins (1948) • Black Sabbath released Paranoid, their second studio album in the U.S. (1971) • Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for Canadian rock band Rush, died from brain cancer aged 67. (2020)
JANUARY 8
Birthdays: Elvis Presley (1935) • Shirley Bassey (1937) • Robbie Krieger of The Doors (1946) • David Bowie (1947) • Steve Garvey of Buzzcocks (1958) • Paul Hester of Crowded House (1959) • Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone (1966) • David Bowie released his twenty-fifth and final studio album Blackstar, coinciding with his 69th birthday and two days before his death. (2016)
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Thank you for being here.
🤘🏻
CZ
Get better soon!! Whatever it is, it's tearing through this town. Went back to work this AM, and sick call board was was /full/.
I so love your introductions prior to relaying all the current musical information you provide, Chris!
I’m a bit alarmed to hear your family is suffering again. Two-year-olds don’t deserve two rounds of illnesses in a month (but then, neither do his parents!). Keep the antioxidants flowing in your household for the rest of the winter -- and listen to a LOT of the music that gets your blood flowing. See ya next week.