Day: 1 July 2020

With the lights turned out on Glastonbury 2020 and growing uncertainty regarding next year’s festival season, organizers Michael and Emily Eavis worry that the iconic UK festival could face bankruptcy.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Michael Eavis bluntly stated, “[2021] has to happen for us, we have to carry on. Otherwise it will be curtains. I don’t think we could wait another year.” Like many events in music, Glastonbury uses the profits from one year’s festival to fund the next, a formula that’s proving to be unsurprisingly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In noting the hefty sum of money lost in canceling this 2020’s event, which was posed to be Glastonbury’s 50th year anniversary, Emily Eavis calls on the UK government to walk-the-walk and show more support Britain’s crippled music industry.

“This country’s venues, theatres, festivals, performers and crew bring so much to this country financially and culturally, but they need support now.” Eavis continued, “Otherwise, I think we face the very real possibility of so many aspects of our culture disappearing forever.”

However uncertain, the marquee UK festival is still drumming up contingency plans for how 2021 could happen, including pre-festival testing for all attending and on-site mobile tracing of contact between those in the audience.

Via: The Guardian

Featured image: James Hines

Western Australia’s clubs, live music venues, bars, and restaurants have reopened to the public as the area enters phase four of its reopening plan amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to a recent report, Western Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan will dial back on past restrictions, while continuing to implement “two-square-meter” policies, using that floor space distance to determine venue capacity.

The phase four move stems from reports of single digit COVID-19 cases, as “the state now has five active cases, all of whom are in hotel quarantine,” according to ABC News Australia. “Queues formed outside venues ahead of 11:59 p.m. lifting of the limit on crowd numbers,” enabling establishments to open for standing beer drinkers, removing seated service requirements.

Venues like Perth’s Geisha bar are fully operational for drinking and dancing alike, while other clubs will delay reopening until July 18, when the two-square meter rules are expected to drop in phase five. Larger venues like Perth Stadium and the Perth Arena can only operate at 50 percent capacity, which hold regular sporting and entertainment events. The government still recommends withholding from kissing and holding hands, but it seems for now, Western Australia is moving closer to a sense of normalcy.

“We anticipate that at some point in the future, particularly as you see greater movement of people, that there will be outbreaks in Western Australia,” said Health Minister Roger Cook. “We are planning for that in order to respond to it—we know what to do, but everyone [should] continue to be vigilant.”

H/T: ABC News / 7 News

Featured image: Matthew Gedling

Kendrick Lamar‘s sophomore studio album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, is now the longest-charting hip-hop LP in United States chart history, according to new data from @chartdata.

The production, which boasts fan favorites such as “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “Swimming Pools (Drank),” and “Poetic Justice,” has logged 400 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart to date, notching a new record that serves as a testament to the LP’s timelessness. Good Kid M.A.A.D City is also notable for attracting Lamar’s first Grammy nominations of his career, securing Lamar nods for Best New Artist and Album Of The Year in 2013.

.@kendricklamar‘s ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’ has now spent 400 weeks on the Billboard 200. It’s the longest charting hip-hop studio album in history.

— chart data (@chartdata) June 29, 2020

Featured image: Rich Fury

Make no mistake—dance music is born from black culture. Without black creators, innovators, selectors, and communities, the electronic dance music we hold so dear would simply not exist. In short, dance music is deeply indebted to the global black community and we need to be doing more. Black artists and artists of color have played a profound role in shaping the sound and culture of dance music and now more than ever, it is necessary for everyone in the music community to stand up for the people that have given us so much. Dancing Astronaut pledges to make every effort to be a better ally, a stronger resource, and a more accountable member of the global dance music community. Black Lives Matter—get involved here:  

Black Lives Matter

My Block My Hood My City

National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Program

Black Visions Collective

Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Legal Defense Initiative

The Bail Project

The Next Level Boys Academy

Color of Change

Committee to Protect Journalists

A joint effort between Skrillex and Kanye West has been in the works since as early as 2012. While the collaboration was ultimately shelved pre-Yeezus, nearly a decade later two of modern music’s most titanic forces have officially come together on a track, this time surrounded by an impressive list of collaborators. Ty Dolla $ign, frequent collaborator of both Skrillex and West, brings the two together on “Ego Death,” along with additional firepower from FKA twigs and Serpentwithfeet.

“Ego Death” lands hot off the heels of West and Travis Scott’s latest, “Wash Us in the Blood,” cropped from West’s upcoming LP God’s Country. The star-studded collaboration also comes shortly after Skrillex and Ty Dolla $ign’s untitled piece highlighting racial injustice from earlier this summer. The collaborative ties between these five run deep, with Skrillex also assisting on the production of FKA twigs’ critically lauded late 2019 LP MAGDALENE.

Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign had reportedly teased an early version of “Ego Death” sometime during the Yandhi or pre-Jesus Is King era. Though now, with some final touches from Serpentwithfeet and FKA twigs, the track is finally ready to see the light of day, and based on the sheer collective star power these five bring to the table, this might be the posse cut of the year.

Make no mistake—dance music is born from black culture. Without black creators, innovators, selectors, and communities, the electronic dance music we hold so dear would simply not exist. In short, dance music is deeply indebted to the global black community and we need to be doing more. Black artists and artists of color have played a profound role in shaping the sound and culture of dance music and now more than ever, it is necessary for everyone in the music community to stand up for the people that have given us so much. Dancing Astronaut pledges to make every effort to be a better ally, a stronger resource, and a more accountable member of the global dance music community. Black Lives Matter—get involved here:  

Black Lives Matter

My Block My Hood My City

National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Program

Black Visions Collective

Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Legal Defense Initiative

The Bail Project

The Next Level Boys Academy

Color of Change

Committee to Protect Journalists