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Music News

Portishead regroup to livestream rare concert to benefit Ukraine. Tickets for the War Child benefit in Bristol—headlined by Idles—will be raffled off, with all entrants getting livestream access. [Pitchfork]

Gus Van Sant’s Kurt Cobain movie to be adapted as opera. London’s Royal Opera House is adapting Van Sant’s 2005 film, Last Days, into an opera for its 2022-2023 season. [Consequence]

What Dolly Parton wants us to know about the Smoky Mountains. From her Tennessee mountain home, the nature-loving singer says mistreating Earth is like ‘being ugly to your mama.’ [Nat Geo]

The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia to headline Coachella, replacing Kanye West. West dropped off the bill earlier this week for undisclosed reasons. [Consequence]

 

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s Kidd Creole found guilty of manslaughter. AKA Nathaniel Glover, Kidd Creole stabbed a homeless man to death in NYC in 2017. [Pitchfork]

Los Lobos founding member Francisco González has died at 68. [NPR]

Pink Floyd to release first new music in 28 years in support of Ukraine. The single, featuring vocals from Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox, is billed as the first original music from Pink Floyd since 1994. [Pitchfork]

Wet Leg --‘Wet Leg’ review: an instant classic debut that justifies the hype. [NME] Lots of buzz around this band. Their new album is Stereogum's album of the week and Brookly Vegan call it "an absolute blast".

Cocteau Twins' and Massive Attack collaborator Elizabeth Fraser returns with first solo music in 13 years. EP to debut June 18. [NPR]

An unearthed video shows Prince at age 11 talking about fair pay for teachers. [Spin]

Music History
[Courtesy of calendar.songfacts.com ]

April 4
2015: Kendrick Lamar's landmark album To Pimp A Butterfly flies to #1 in America.

April 5
1968: With tensions high the night after Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, James Brown goes ahead with his concert at the Boston Garden, agreeing to televise the show to help keep calm in the city.

April 6
1974: ABBA become European stars overnight when their composition "Waterloo" wins the annual Eurovision Song Contest.

April 7
2020: Acclaimed singer-songwriter John Prine dies at 73 after coming down with coronavirus.

April 8
1994: Kurt Cobain's body is found in his Seattle home by an electrician sent to install a burglar alarm. He is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound three days earlier. The Nirvana song "Come As You Are" takes on new meaning with the line, "I swear that I don't have a gun."

April 9
1997: Amidst personal tensions between its band members, Soundgarden announce their breakup, which lasts for 13 years.

April 10
1970: At one of the band's last concerts, in Boston, Doors frontman Jim Morrison asks the audience if they'd like to see something of his "that rhymes with 'sock,'" and then, more bluntly, screams "Would you like to see my genitals?" The power in the stadium is switched off, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek pulls the singer, already facing similar charges from a Miami gig, off the stage.

 

 

 

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