Welcome back to the Disposable Underground newsletter, a companion to my blog of the same name. Read on for some music news bits, tributes, and what’s new at the blog. Enjoy!
—Richard
Music News
Infographics can be fun, and the folks at Visual Capitalist have a new one showing a breakdown of music industry profits from the last 50 years along with some interesting analysis about formats, digital, and trends. Niccolo Conte has the info.
Behavior at gigs (mainstream ones) has been going downhill, some observers have reported, with attendees being rude to each other and the musicians in various ways more and more lately. Music journalist and author Simon Price has an interesting take on it and what to do about it at The Guardian.
The B-52s were going to play the White House last month at a state dinner for the Australian prime minister for some reason, but their performance was cancelled, First Lady Jill Biden announced. Darlene Superville has a few details at AP.
Artists4Ceasefire is a website where an open letter to Joe Biden
calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is posted. There’s no info on who wrote the letter, who is behind the site, or how to contact them, but musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Belly, Killer Mike, Macklemore, Natalie Merchant, and Riz Ahmed, along with other artist and celebrities, have their names listed.
The open letter at #NoHostageLeftBehind is the same format: no information on the hashtag at all but a list of signatories packed with celebrities and musicians.
I previously posted about the National Celebration of Hip-Hop which was rescheduled once (reason given that there were concerns about a looming government shutdown), and now it’s been mysteriously rescheduled again
to sometime in the Spring and its website has been stripped. Some comments on social media observe that the celebration is taking on “Fyre Festival vibes.”
Spotify is reportedly planning to treat its “underperforming” artists even worse than it has previously. Greg Kennelty shares a few details and links to the story at Metal Injection. It might make you go “ugh.”
Rest In Peace
Jon Kennedy, the original bassist for Cradle of Filth, died in a car crash last month, Rania Aniftos writes for Billboard. Vocalist Dani Filth revealed the news in a social media post.
Akihito Kikuchi was the bass player for the classic Japanese death metal band Transgressor. He died in October, shortly after playing a gig with the band at Kill-Town Death Fest in Copenhagen, it was announced on social media.
Jimmy Fleet, vocalist of the noisy gore band Phlegm, passed away in October. The band was popular in the underground subgenre during its time in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
Steve Riley died last month at the age of 67. Riley was a drummer for Keel, W.A.S.P., L.A. Guns, and other metal bands. Ron Keel posted the news.
New at the Blog
Oldskull predicts The Defeat of Humanity
NASA got a little help with OSIRIS-REx from Brian May of Queen
Hear guitar playing taken to another level with Takafumi Matsubara
Steve Moore of Zombi has more collaborative music for us
I’ve added more old content to the Disposable Underground ‘zine collection
And a Swedish hardcore band called Vidro played in Washington, D.C. in August:
Stop by the Disposable Underground blog for more. Thanks!
November 2, 2023 newsletter
