Welcome to the Disposable Underground newsletter, a companion to my blog of the same name. Read on for some music news bits, some interesting things from around the web, tributes, and what’s new at the blog. Thank you! —Richard
Music News
Sepultura has decided to wrap it up. They’re doing a 40th anniversary tour starting in March 2024 that is planned to last a year and a half. Like a lot of people that listen to metal, I’ve got a lot of Sepultura in my record (CD) collection. The press conference video about the breakup and tour is below—skip ahead in the video for the start of the conference:
Napalm Death has an eco-friendly pressing of its classic Harmony Corruption album coming out. Some other supporters of the eco-initiative from Be the Change include Earache Records, New Noise Magazine, and the band Carcass.
I linked to an article last month about Spotify reworking how it compensates (or not) artists. Now Spotify revealed in December that it is slashing around 17% of the company’s global workforce in its latest round of jobs cuts, AP reports.
Björk die-hard fans might be like, “Tell me something I don’t know,” but I just found out that back in 2015, the Museum of Modern Art had a Björk exhibit—the trailer is below. The cool thing is that at the MoMA website you can read the description and see a bunch of photos of how the exhibit looked.
The podcast 99% Invisible had a neat episode about a couple of spots in L.A.’s Chinatown that hosted punk gigs in the 1970s. The podcast talked to some of the people involved. It’s worth a listen.
I previously posted about The Museum of Post Punk and Industrial Music and The D.C. Punk Archive. There’s another one, The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas from Fat Mike of NOFX and others, which Brett Martin writes about in The New York Times Magazine. Martin describes the museum as predominated by artifacts from the NOFX generation. Hot Topic is the phrase that came to mind after I read the piece, but that’s fine.
Michael Amott did a gear video interview and in an interesting moment, the Arch Enemy guitarist agreed with the interviewer when it was suggested that guitar players are generally conservative people.
In climate change news, three giant record labels have formed the Music Industry Climate Collective, or MICC, which “will work to address the challenges and changes in the global climate and how they relate to the music industry.” The American Association of Independent Music will act as an advisor. Katie Bain has the story at Billboard.
I somehow once found out that hobbyists make cigar box guitars, and it turns out that making hubcap guitars is also a thing. You learn something new every day.
Women in metal is the subject of a new and entertaining 26-minute video documentary from Deutsche Welle. How Women are Conquering Metal focuses on female groups that have performed at the Wacken festival and includes interviews with Doro Pesch, Nervosa, and Iranian band Slave To Sirens, among others. Watch the documentary below.
I Dream of Wires is a documentary from 2014 about modular synths and features a number of heavy hitters in electronic music, including Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, and Throbbing Gristle. I watched it for the first time recently and found it informative. Watch the trailer below.
Rest In Peace
Colin Burgess, founding drummer of AC/DC, died in December 2023 at 77. He also found notoriety in the Australian band Masters Apprentices. Caroline Frost has the story at Deadline.
Michael Gibbons Jr., guitarist on the first two Leeway records, died in December of 2023. Leeway is one of the important NYHC bands. Ghost Cult Mag has the details.
New at the Blog
Classic Comateens single gets a reissue. It contains a couple of rocking numbers.
Watch the collected promo videos from new Myrkur album Spine. It’s more Mareridt than Folkesange and a great album.
Stop by the Disposable Underground blog for more.
January 1, 2024 newsletter
