Hey everyone,
I hope this week’s podcast and email find you well and that you’re ready for a ton of news, specifically tour news because we’ve got loads of that this time around.
Zappagram is approaching its one-year anniversary! Next week marks our 52nd newsletter, and I couldn’t be happier that you’ve all generously invited me into your ears and inboxes for this long now.
Thank you all for sticking with me!
I wanted to note that, for reasons beyond my control, next week’s podcast and newsletter will be delayed by a day and will be released on Tuesday, April 11th.
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Ground control to reader. Take your protein pills. Put your helmet on.
This music newsletter ain’t gonna read itself.
“The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.”
—Muddy Waters
ROCK THE VOTE
:: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
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WEEKLY PLAYLIST #51
:: NEW MUSIC EVERY WEEK
Featuring: Bluhm, Butch Bastard, Jonathan Wilson, Great Lake Swimmers, Boygenius, Jenny Lewis, Twin Ritual, City and Colour, Alberta Cross, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, Neko Case
MASTER PLAYLIST (ALL WEEKS)
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MUSIC NEWS
:: WHAT’S GOING ON
Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, and Iron Maiden Announce Mega-Concert Called Power Trip
The metal and hard rock powerhouses will play Power Trip—a weekend in Indio, California. [Pitchfork]
Jenny Lewis Announces New Album Joy’all
Her first new album in four years is due out in June. [Pitchfork]
My Morning Jacket Announce Bonnaroo 2004 Live Album
It's the third installment of the band's ongoing "MMJ Live" vinyl series. [Consequence]
Boygenius Share “The Film” Directed by Kristen Stewart
A visual counterpart to the trio’s new album, The Record. [Pitchfork]
Boygenius Announce 2023 Summer Tour
The supergroup comprising Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker announced that it will be heading on a U.S. tour to perform their new album The Record. [RollingStone]
The Smashing Pumpkins Announce Tour With Interpol and Stone Temple Pilots
The North American tour begins in July. [Pitchfork]
Modest Mouse, Pixies, and Cat Power to Tour Together
Modest Mouse and Pixies will co-headline with Chan Marshall supporting 19 dates across North America. [Pitchfork]
Andrew Bird Announces 2023 Tour
The summer tour kicked off on March 30. [BrooklynVegan]
Elvis Costello & the Imposters Plot ‘We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday’ Tour
Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets will join as special guests. [RollingStone]
John Mayer Extends U.S. Solo Acoustic Tour
The musician announced on Monday (March 26) an extension of his current trek into the fall, with a series of additional dates across the United States. [Billboard]
Skrillex Announces Five-Hour Performance at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre
The DJ will hit the decks at 7pm, delivering tunes until midnight. [NME]
Madonna Announces Eight Extra Dates for Winter U.S. Tour, With Focus on Trans Rights in Tennessee Stop
She is adding eight extra dates to the second leg of her U.S. tour this coming winter. The additional shows were revealed in an announcement that put a special emphasis on a show she’s added for Nashville on Dec. 22, where she plans to put the spotlight on the state of Tennessee’s recent wave of LGBTQ+-targeted bills. [Variety]
Lana Del Rey Engaged to Range Media Partners’ Evan Winiker
While the couple have kept their relationship under wraps, they've been spotted in public a few times together over the past several months. [Billboard]
Bobbi Ercoline, Whose Hug Became a Symbol of Woodstock, Dies at 73
Embracing her boyfriend, a blanket around them, she appeared on the cover of the ubiquitous soundtrack album of “Woodstock,” the 1970 documentary film about the music festival. [NYTimes]
Procol Harum Lyricist Keith Reid Dead At 76, Wrote Iconic “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”
Reid passed on March 23. He was 76. [Stereogum]
Tom Leadon, Mudcrutch Co-Founder, Dies at 70
Leadon was a close friend of Tom Petty's, and played in two bands with the late rocker. [Billboard]
Seymour Stein, Legendary Music Exec Who Signed Madonna and Talking Heads, Dies at 80
Stein, whose Sire Records launched Madonna’s career and signed such early punk rock and new wave icons as the Ramones and Talking Heads, died Sunday in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer. He was 80. [Variety]
Severe Storm Collapses Roof at Morbid Angel Show in Illinois, Killing One and Injuring Dozens
The collapse came roughly 30 minutes into the metal concert, right after a tornado warning was issued for the area. Approximately 260 people were inside the sold-out 1,500 capacity venue at the time of the incident. [Consequence]
Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash Rip Tennessee Lawmakers Over Gun Laws After Nashville School Shooting
Rosanne Cash, Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow, and Margo Price were just some members of the Nashville music community calling out Tennessee politicians over the state’s gun laws following a mass shooting at a private Christian school last Monday morning that left six dead. [RollingStone]
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OTHER NEWS
:: MAY OR MAY NOT BE MUSIC-RELATED
Questlove to Direct Disney’s New Aristocats Movie
The Roots drummer will also oversee the music for the “live-action/hybrid reimagining” of the 1970 film. [Pitchfork]
At Brooklyn Algoraves, You Can Dance to Music While It’s Being Coded Live
Picture this: You walk into a club and see someone in front of a computer. Behind this person is a projector screen displaying code that they are feverishly typing to create musical sounds and visual effects in real-time What you're witnessing is live coding music. [AlternativePress]
Hulu and FX are set to release J Dilla Documentary
The prolific producer is credited for changing the sound of hip-hop, proving influential to many with unique lo-fi style of beat-making and drum programming. The Legacy of J Dilla will be a part of The New York Times Presents series, produced with FX, and is described as “an intimate portrait” of Dilla’s life and legacy. [NME]
Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler to Publish ‘Into the Void’ Memoir
Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath — and Beyond will chronicle his childhood in post-war Birmingham, England, the formation of Black Sabbath, and the stories behind “War Pigs,” “Paranoid,” “Iron Man,” and several other of the band’s biggest hits. The book arrives on June 6. [RollingStone]
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Z-REX
:: ZAPPA’S RECOMMENDATIONS
+ Evan Armstrong, writing for Napkin Math, in a piece titled, “The Meditations of Vinyl Jesus: Music producer Rick Rubin explores the creative process” is a must-read.
+ Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, producer extraordinaire Jonathan Wilson just released a new single, “Marzipan.” The accompanying video is a beautiful artistic rendering full of color and stop motion animation and bizarre transitions that you really must see to appreciate. Oh, and the song itself is heartbreakingly beautiful, of course.
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NEW RELEASES
:: RECENTLY DROPPED MUSIC
Alberta Cross: Sinking Ships [listen]
Boygenius: The Record [listen]
Crazy Horse: All Roads Lead Home [listen]
José González: Head On [listen]
Nick Waterhouse: The Fooler [listen]
The Hold Steady: The Price of Progress [listen]
The New Pornographers: Continue As a Guest [listen]
The White Stripes: Elephant (Deluxe) [listen]
William Tyler & The Impossible Truth: Secret Stratosphere [listen]
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RELEASE RADAR
:: UPCOMING RELEASES
- APR 7 -
Blondshell: Blondshell
Devon Gilfillian: Love You Anyway
Groundlift: “Bottleneck” (single)
Matthew Logan Vasquez: As All Get Out
Mudhoney: Plastic Eternity
Oracle Sisters: Hydranism
Thomas Bangalter: Mythologies
Wednesday: Rat Saw God
- APR 14 -
Angel Olsen: Forever Means EP
Chat Pile & Nerver: Brothers in Christ EP
Feist: Multitudes
Fruit Bats: A River Running to Your Heart
GoGo Penguin: Everything is Going To be OK
Kiersten Blue: “Thriving” (single)
Metallica: 72 Seasons
Mickey Sunshine: Mickey Sellout Pt 1
Natalie Merchant: Keep Your Courage
The Tallest Man on Earth: Henry St.
- APR 21 -
Everything But the Girl: Fuse
St. Paul & The Broken Bones: Angels in Science
The Smashing Pumpkins: ATUM (Act 3)
Twin Ritual: Allie
- APR 28 -
The National: First Two Pages of Frankenstein
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ON THIS DATE
:: MUSICAL HAPPENINGS OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
- APR 3 -
Birthdays: Doris Day (1924) • Mike Ness of Social Distortion & Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins (1962) • Sebastian Bach of Skid Row & Jamie Hewlett, co-creator of Gorillaz (1968) • American jazz singer Sarah Vaughan died of lung cancer. (1990)
- APR 4 -
Birthdays: Muddy Waters (1913) • Jill Scott (1972) • A Swedish couple ran into trouble with authorities after trying to name their baby Metallica. Michael and Karolina Tomaro went to court with the country's National Tax Authority about naming their daughter after the rock band. The six-month-old had been baptised Metallica, but tax officials said the name was "inappropriate." Under Swedish law, both first names and surnames need to win the approval of authorities before they can be used. (2007)
- APR 5 -
Birthdays: Mike McCready of Pearl Jam (1965) • Paula Cole (1968) • Pharrell Williams (1973) • Kurt Cobain committed suicide at his home in Seattle. (1994) • Layne Staley of Alice in Chains was found dead in his apartment from a mixture of heroin and cocaine. (2002)
- APR 6 -
Birthdays: Merle Haggard (1937) • Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis of Pixies (1965) • 48-year-old punk icon Wendy O. Williams, former frontwoman of The Plasmatics, took her own life near her Connecticut home. (1998) • Merle Haggard died of complications from pneumonia at his home in Palo Cedro, California. (2016)
- APR 7 -
Birthdays: Billie Holiday (1915) • John Oates of Hall & Oates (1949) • Andy Johns, the veteran producer and engineer died at the age of 61. He worked on many classic albums including The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street, Television's Marquee Moon, and a series of albums by Led Zeppelin. (2013) • John Prine died aged 73 due to complications from Covid-19. (2020)
- APR 8 -
Birthdays: Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses (1962) • Julian Lennon (1963) • Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend (1984) • Matthew Healy of The 1975 (1989) • Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro died from ovarian cancer. (1997) • Malcolm McLaren former manager of the Sex Pistols, the New York Dolls and Bow Wow Wow died from cancer aged 64. (2010)
- APR 9 -
Birthdays: Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance (1977) • Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes (1980) • Lil Nas X (1999) • Rapper DMX died of a cocaine-induced heart attack, aged 50. (2021)
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Be good to each other,
CZ 🤘🏻
Zappagram #51: The Meditations of Vinyl Jesus