Hey everyone,
To kick things off this week, I wanted to share something (not music-related) a friend of mine recently published on Substack Notes that I found to be especially poignant. Here is his quote in its entirety.
Also this past week, Meta launched Threads and it’s honestly (surprisingly) a refreshing and well-executed social media experience. You can find me over there @heychriszappa and I hope you’ll follow me.
If you enjoy the podcast and newsletter, please tell your friends, enemies, and anyone else who will listen. Zappagram is 100% reader/listener-supported. If you find what I do valuable, it would validate my weekly effort to have you as a paid subscriber. Thanks for considering it.
Ground control to reader: Take your protein pills. Put your helmet on.
This music newsletter ain’t gonna read itself.
“I've always wanted to smash a guitar over someone's head. You just can't do that with a piano.”
—Elton John
ROCK THE VOTE
:: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
WEEKLY PLAYLIST #64
:: NEW MUSIC EVERY WEEK
Featuring: Honeycrush, The Ocean Greys, Little Green, Bethany Cosentino, Space Nat, Safari Room, Windser, Joshua Powell, Gal Musette, Wolf & Moon, Stereophonics, Beck/Phoenix, Sleepy Gonzales, Charles Bradley, Colatura, darkDARK, Hazel
ZAPPAGRAM #64
ZAPPAGRAM PLAYLIST (ALL WEEKS)
MUSIC NEWS
:: WHAT’S GOING ON
Feist, Liz Phair, Philip Selway Feature on New Nick Drake Tribute Album
Ben Harper, Fontaines D.C., and Bombay Bicycle Club also contribute [Consequence]
Bob Marley Biopic One Love Gets First Trailer
Kingsley Ben-Adir stars as the reggae legend [Consequence]
The Eagles Announce Farewell Tour with Steely Dan As Special Guest
"The Long Farewell" will run through 2025 [Consequence]
Las Vegas’ $2.3 Billion MSG Sphere Shows Off Its Absolutely Bonkers Exosphere
The venue officially opens in September with U2's "Achtung Baby Live At Sphere" residency [Consequence]
Two Previously Unreleased Prince Gems Have Left the Vault
The artist's estate debuted "7 (E-Flat Version)" and "All a Share Together Now" at the Paisley Park Celebration last month [RollingStone]
Watch Elton John Play Emotional ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ at Final Stop of Farewell Tour
Elton wrapped up his five-year Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in Stockholm [RollingStone]
Z-REX
:: ZAPPA’S RECOMMENDATIONS
As a huge Queens Of The Stone Age fan, I’ve talked a lot recently about their new album In Times New Roman which is absolutely brilliant in every way. The band has released a video for one of my favorite songs on the album, “Carnavoyeur” and it’s every bit as weird and trippy as it is cool.
NEW RELEASES
:: RECENTLY DROPPED MUSIC
ANOHNI and the Johnsons: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross [listen]
Julie Byrne: The Greater Wings [listen]
Local Natives: Time Will Wait for No One [listen]
Nick Drake: The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs of Nick Drake [listen]
PJ Harvey: I Inside the Old Year Dying [listen]
Taylor Swift: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) [listen]
RELEASE RADAR
:: UPCOMING RELEASES
- JUL 14 -
Duane Betts: Wild & Precious Life
Gordon Lightfoot: At Royal Albert Hall
He’s Not Your Kind: Cambria
- JUL 21 -
Bloc Party: The High Life EP
Blur: The Ballad of Darren
Greta Van Fleet: Starcatcher
Guided By Voices: Welshpool Frillies
Nils Lofgren: Mountains
- JUL 28 -
Aphex Twin: Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760 EP
Bethany Cosentino: Natural Disaster
Brad: In the Moment That You’re Born
Darlingside: Everything Is Alive
Joni Mitchell: Joni Mitchell at Newport
Madeline Kenney: A New Reality Mind
Stevie Nicks: Complete Studio Albums & Rarities
SUSTO: My Entire Life
- AUG 11 -
Liam Gallagher: Knebworth 22
Neil Young: Chrome Dreams
- AUG 18 -
Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn 2011
ON THIS DATE
:: MUSICAL HAPPENINGS OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
- JUL 10 -
Birthdays: Ronnie James Dio (1942) • Arlo Guthrie (1947) • Producer and record company executive John Hammond died. He brought Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen, and Bruce Springsteen to Columbia Records. (1987)
- JUL 11 -
Birthdays: Peter Murphy (1957) • Suzanne Vega (1959) • Producer and drummer Tommy Ramone died, aged 65. (2014)
- JUL 12 -
Birthday: Christine McVie (1943) • American singer songwriter Minnie Riperton died of cancer aged 31. (1971) • Simply Red scored their first U.S. #1 single with “Holding Back The Years.” Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall wrote the song when he was seventeen. (1986) • Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood left his wife of 23 years and moved in with an 18-year-old Russian cocktail waitress. The 61 year-old dad-of-four had met the teenager while out drinking and had taken her away to his luxury pad in Ireland. (2008)
- JUL 13 -
Birthdays: Roger McGuinn (1942) • Gerald Levert (1966) • Over 100 US radio stations banned The Beatles new single 'The Ballad Of John and Yoko' due to the line “Christ, you know it ain't easy” calling it offensive. (1969) • Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane, bass player with The New York Dolls, died aged 55 after checking himself in to a Los Angeles emergency room, complaining of fatigue. He was quickly diagnosed with leukaemia, and died within two hours. (2004)
- JUL 14 -
Birthdays: Woodrow Wilson ‘Woody’ Guthrie (1912) • Jim Gordon (1945) • Dan Smith of Bastille (1986) • Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons (1987) • Tom Jones lost a paternity suit and was ordered to pay $200 a week in child support to 27 year old Katherine Berkery of New York. The judge in the case was Judge Judy Sheindlin (1989) • Arthur Cave the 15-year-old son of musician Nick Cave died after a fall from a cliff in Brighton, Sussex, England. (2015)
- JUL 15 -
Birthdays: Linda Ronstadt (1946) • Roky Erickson (1947) • Artimus Pyle, drummer with Lynyrd Skynyrd (1948) • Johnny Thunders (1952) • Ian Curtis and Joe Satriani (1956) • Jason Bonham (1966) • John Lennon's mother Julia was killed by a car driven by an off-duty drunken police officer named Eric Clague (Clague was later acquitted of the offence). Lennon was 17 years old at the time. (1958)
- JUL 16 -
Birthdays: Stewart Copeland (1952) • Ed Kowalczyk (1971) • US singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, who had success in the 70s with a #1 single “Cat’s In The Cradle” was killed, aged 38, after suffering a heart attack while driving on a New York expressway. His car was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer, causing the gas tank to explode. (1981) • The White Stripes played their 'shortest live show ever' at George Street, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Jack White played a single C# note accompanied by a bass drum/crash cymbal hit from Meg. At the end of the show, Jack announced, "We have now officially played in every province and territory in Canada." They then left the stage and performed a full show later that night in St John's. (2007)
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Zappagram #64: Adele will fuck you up