New way it solutions

“Oh, my goodness, Roy Rogers is gone!” So exclaims Lauryn Hill as she swerves around a familiar corner near her suburban New Jersey neighborhood. It’s a sultry night in July, and the Fugees’ singer is driving me back from Sony Music Studios, in midtown Manhattan, in her mom’s wheels, a brand-new sport utility vehicle with all the add-ons. The recent disappearance of a local landmark like the boarded-up fast-food emporium is yet one more reminder that life for Hill has been moving ahead at warp speed. “We used to be No. 10, now we permanent 1,” boasts Hill’s band mate Wyclef Jean in a singsong, Bob Marley-style lilt at the start of “Fu-Gee-La,” the Fugees’ theme song, cri de coeur and call to arms all wrapped in one. With its tough-talking raps, slack island beat and serpentine melodic refrain (“Ooh-la-la-la…”), “Fu-Gee-La” is as perfect an unofficial anthem for hip-hop’s future as … [Read more...] about The Fugees: Leaders of the New Cool

We still have much to learn about Clerks 3, which Kevin Smith now seems determined to make. But at the very least, the soundtrack is probably going to rock, literally, as former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way is set to provide the score for the movie. For anyone who has been keeping on Way's career in his post-MCR years, this seems like a perfect match, considering his sensibilities, and considering what this franchise is. According to a new report, Kevin Smith made the reveal during a recent stop on the Reboot Roadshow, his current tour which sees him making his way around the country to screen Jay and Silent Bob Reboot with Jason Mewes, which also includes a Q&A session after the movie. During said Q&A, the news was dropped on the audience. Unfortunately, for the time being, few additional details have been made available and Gerard Way has yet to weigh in himself, but this will make the first time that the emo rocker will score a movie soundtrack. Though, he is … [Read more...] about Clerks III Will Get Soundtrack Score from My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way

One afternoon this past spring, David Crosby found himself facing two unlikely scenarios: He was in New York’s grimy East Village, on the other side of the country from his California home, and the notoriously assertive musician was being given orders. “Turn off your cell phone, Croz,” says Michael League, the bearded, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist and leader of the multi-genre band Snarky Puppy, sitting in the control room of a funky studio above a bodega. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Becca Stevens then dashes into the booth where Crosby is about to lay down vocal parts and makes him hand over his chiming phone. Finally, Crosby starts adding his voice to the track, but his delivery is a bit grainy and he needs time to warm up. League periodically cuts him off, telling him not to fall off his syllables so hard. “I’ll learn it,” Crosby says over the mic from inside the booth. “It takes me a while, guys. This will happen to you when … [Read more...] about How David Crosby Found a New Harmony

Not long after Green Day played Woodstock ’94 – a performance that scored the band mass adulation – singer Billie Joe Armstrong received a letter from his mother. “It was a hate letter,” says Armstrong. It seems Mrs. Armstrong ordered the concert on pay-per-view and had settled in to watch the event with a friend. That’s when the melee occurred. Onstage, the Green Day set culminated in a titanic mud fight; Armstrong yanked down his pants; and bassist Mike Dirnt had his front teeth smashed when he was tackled by a security guard who thought he was a fan storming the stage. Finally a mud-covered Armstrong asked the fans to shout, “Shut the fuck up,” and the band exited. Photos: A Look Back at Green Day’s Career “She said that I was disrespectful and indecent,” says Armstrong, “and that if my father was alive, he would be ashamed of me. She couldn’t believe that I pulled my pants down and got in a fight onstage. … [Read more...] about Green Day: Best New Band

A lot of artists have complained about the abysmal sound quality of digital music over the years, but Neil Young is one of the few that actually did something about it. It began in 2012, when Young began talking about his plans to create a high-resolution digital music company called Pono. While a Kickstarter campaign to fund it in 2014 pulled in a record $6.2 million and a standalone player and online music store did come out, consumers were hesitant to abandon their smartphone for a separate device. As a result, the company struggled to compete with the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Undeterred, Young created the Neil Young Archives interactive website, where fans could stream any song in his vast catalog with stunning sound quality. Young’s decade-long quest to preserve the quality of music everywhere is the subject of his new book To Feel the Music: A Songwriter’s Mission to Save High-Quality Audio, which he co-wrote with Phil Baker. An exclusive … [Read more...] about Read Exclusive Excerpt From Neil Young’s New Book ‘To Feel the Music’