New Venue Brooklyn Made to Present Jeff Tweedy, Steve Earle, Guided by Voices, Many More

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA2IM’s Libera Awards are the Grammys of independent music, the one time in the entire year that a huge percentage of that community gets (relatively) dressed up and gathers for a night of celebrating the indie sector’s wins and its continued vital importance to the global music world and economy.For obvious reasons, for the past two years the awards have been held virtually, but that didn’t stop the community from gathering around their laptops again to celebrate as

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOne the many legal standoffs between Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky and the surviving members of Soundgarden has been at least temporarily resolved: The bandmembers now have access to the band’s official social media accounts and website, which Vicky Cornell has barred them from for the past few years.“Soundgarden and Vicky Cornell, the personal representative of the Estate of Christopher Cornell, are pleased to announce that, effective June 15, 2021, they have come to

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter months of rumors, music agents Matt Galle, Mike Marquis and Rachel Pestik have joined CAA’s Music Touring department, the company announced Wednesday.Galle most recently served as a member of Paradigm Talent Agency’s Music Executive Leadership Group.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) will present an overview of its inaugural Industry Action Report Card on Friday morning June 18th as part of the National Museum of African American Music’s State of Black Music Summit.With journalist and industry exec Naima Cochrane, BMAC drafted its first-of-its-kind report to “track and measure how individual companies in the music industry delivered on their pledges to work toward justice, equality and change in the wake

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBiz 3 PR veteran Dana Meyerson has launched an imprint called Slashie through Mom + Pop Music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBruce Springsteen is getting back to work this summer, playing a big role in Broadway’s return by bringing back his $108-million-grossing “Springsteen on Broadway” for the entire summer, but that isn’t all he has in the works, as he revealed in a call on Sirius XM’s E Street Radio.“I am looking forward to being in front of an audience,” he told hosts Dave Marsh and Jim Rotolo. “It’s going to be quite a thing.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNearly six months after Congress passed the $16 billion Save Our Stages act into law, less than 100 of the nearly 5,000 struggling independent venues have been approved for relief money, according to a report released Wednesday (June 9) by the Small Business Administration, which distributes the loans — and just “a few” have actually received any funds.This stunning state of affairs stands in bold contrast to the initial PPP and the more recent restaurant relief

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn the heels of the forthcoming Rolling Loud festivals in Miami and Los Angeles comes the three-day Rolling Loud New York 2021, taking place place October 28 – 30th at Citi Field with headliners Travis Scott, J.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSources confirm to Variety that Mariah Carey has parted ways with Roc Nation and struck a partnership with the upstart Range Media Partners, where she will work with Melissa Ruderman, who oversaw her career at Roc Nation and left to join Range in January, as Variety exclusively announced.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOne of the great perks of working as an entertainment writer is the weird promotional stuff you get in the mail — cool things intended to amplify buzz around a project that can’t really be elaborate or useful enough to qualify as payola.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDrake and Live Nation Canada will open History, a new live-entertainment venue in the superstar rapper’s hometown of Toronto, later this year, the company announced Tuesday (June 8).“Some of my most memorable shows were playing smaller rooms like History,” Drake in a statement.  “I wanted to take those memories and what I learned to create an incredible experience for both the artists and the fans.”According to the announcement, the 2,500-capacity venue will “offer

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA week after some tracks purportedly from Lorde’s third album leaked onto the internet (although it seems very few people have actually heard them?), the singer posted a note on her website Monday, along with a rather attention-grabbing photograph of a derriere, possibly hers, from below.As last week’s rumors predicted, it seems the first single is called “Solar Power.” The remainder of the message says only, “Arriving in 2021… patience is a virtue,” nodding to the

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTo celebrate New York’s apparent reopening, Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning a large-scale performance by multiple acts in Central Park and is working with veteran producer and executive Clive Davis to help organize the talent, according to a report Monday in the New York Times.No acts have been confirmed for the show, which is tentatively set for Aug.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith 1989’s “Three Feet High and Rising,” the Long Island rap trio De La Soul created one of the truly groundbreaking albums in hip-hop history, bringing a happy, psychedelic, flower-bedecked vibe — dubbed “the D.A.I.S.Y. Age” — to a genre that had largely been musically and lyrically aggressive and/or self-aggrandizing up to that point.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNew York’s City Parks Foundation returns to live, in-person performances this summer with the announcement of the shows planned for the 2021 season of Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage, New York City’s largest free outdoor performing arts festival. SummerStage shows will be returning to Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and The Coney Island Amphitheater.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWarner Chappell Production Music has opened the doors to two new recording facilities: SkyLight Studios in Los Angeles and Sandtrack Sound in Nashville.The WCPM team partnered with David Kotch of Criterion Acoustics to redesign SkyLight Studios, a former mastering lab located in Hollywood.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn recent years, as streaming has rapidly become the format of choice for much of the world — and the primary revenue source for recorded music — the value of copyrights has soared.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBritish rock quartet Glass Animals, R&B singer Ari Lennox, electronic artist Yaeji and Colombian-Canadian R&B singer Lido Pimienta are among the many artists scheduled to perform at the seven-week-long BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival this summer, which returns to the Prospect Park Bandshell after a pandemic-induced hiatus.The festival, organized by the Brooklyn-based arts and media institution BRIC, takes place from Saturday, July 31 through Saturday, September

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHayley Kiyoko is officially kicking off Pride Month with a new love song called “Chance” and a self-directed video co-starring actor Alexandra Shipp (“Love, Simon,” “X-Men: Apocalypse”).“‘Chance’ is a song based on those moments when I denied my true feelings for someone out of fear of rejection, and therefore didn’t allow someone to take a chance on me,” Kiyoko says. “I hope this song empowers people to push past their own self-doubt and realize how worthy they are

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSeven-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette has unveiled new tour dates for her 2021-2022 world tour to celebrate 25 years of her groundbreaking “Jagged Little Pill” album. The 35-date U.S.