Welcome. In this newsletter, I share brief music-related news that’s not on my Disposable Underground blog. Please enjoy and thanks.
Inner Ear Studios, where some of the most famous music from the D.C. area was recorded, could close by the end of the year, Andrew Beaujon wrote for Washingtonian.
The ACLU announced a new playlist on Spotify by proclaiming, “The war on drugs is bullshit.” The playlist is wide ranging, with everything from “Purple Haze” to Peter Tosh to Bongzilla and the list goes on and on.
Hearing loss articles are always good to read, because hearing damage is an issue that I don’t think rock fans and musicians take seriously enough. After the film Sound of Metal came out, Alistair Lawrence wrote about tinnitus and preventing hearing loss for Kerrang!
Covid-19 has been devastating for musicians, as I’ve blogged about, but one story that could make you wince is the one about a band who was soundchecking for a gig that could have been its big break when the show was cancelled because of Covid.
I Heart Noise is translating a Russian book called 100 Tape Albums of Soviet Rock: 1977-1991: 15 Years of Underground Sound Recording and has posted the translation so far on its site in chunks. The chunks are here, but this passage from the introduction jumped out at me: “95% of human population don’t need freedom, but 5% do want it. And out of those 5, 1% can achieve it.”
Rest in peace:
Rapper DMX died last month after being in intensive care following a heart attack. His first five albums all went to the top of the charts, Dominic Patten wrote for Deadline.
Rot, the grindcore band, lost a bandmember to Covid-19. The band announced last month on Facebook that bassist/vocalist/lyricist Alex passed away. Rot is a Brazilian band that goes back to the early 1990s.
Shock G of Digital Underground died last month, Andrea Towers wrote for The Wrap, with no cause of death available at the time. Shock G was an important figure in Tupac Shakur’s early career and had a huge hit with Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance.”
Talk to you next month.
