Get to know Son Little (photo by Erik Voake), Transviolet, Louis the Child, Laura Stevenson and PVRIS ahead of Dover, Delaware’s Firefly Music Festival. This works for home listening, too.
Category: Music & Film
Sasquatch 2016: Five Up-and-Comers You Need to See
Your cheat sheet to George, Washington’s gorgeous Sasquatch! Festival, starring Tamaryn, SOAK, Kevin Garrett, La Luz, and Briana Marela. Not northwest bound? Tune in at home.
L.A. Reid Talks Fifth Harmony
I won’t hold it against the man that he made a Coldplay joke (w/r/t Chris Martin) the minute I got on the phone with him. L.A. Reid is a legend after all. Too often I have great chats with industry folk, and all I have to show for it is a quote or two in a profile about an artist. Here he is speaking at length about Fifth Harmony, Simon Cowell, and how much he loves Justin Bieber’s sound.
The 15 Best Things I Saw at Coachella 2016
This was my 14th consecutive Coachella, and 17th if you count the short-lived cruise and the two years I went both weekends, but first with Rolling Stone. I teamed up with shutterbug Andy Keilen (that’s his shot of Kamasi Washington above) and writer Steve Appleford to tackle the best fest in the west. Half of the entries on this list are mine. Can you guess which ones without looking at the tags below? Make sure to keep scrolling downward on the article itself.
The Passion: Inside Fox’s Bizarre Biblical Musical
READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)
“Replace the robes and sandals with Jordans and jeans, and you have a visual people can relate to.” That’s Tyler Perry, summing up what’s one of many, many very odd elements of Fox’s The Passion, a live televised musical set in modern times, using modern pop songs, but depicting the last mortal days of Jesus Christ. I spoke to all those dudes above, plus Perry in an attempt to make sense of the spectacle. The jury’s out on that, but it’s a good, weird read.
Read my standalone Q&As (in order of fun-ness) with:
- Chris Daughtry, Judas
- Prince Royce, Peter
- Jencarlos Canela, Jesus
- Adam Anders, mastermind
- Tyler Perry, host
Take Two: AMTHST and BJ the Chicago Kid
Nic Harcourt and I popped into NPR member station KPCC to spin some tunes and talk shop. Alex Cohen hosts, and I give dap to BJ the Chicago Kid (who lives in L.A.) and AMTHST (Nite Jewel and E-40’s son Droop-E). Not sure if my crack reference made the cut. Lemme know?
Charlie Puth’s Weekly Grind Is ‘Mostly Girls’
READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)
Charlie Puth is 24 and incredibly famous for writing swoony hits. He’s also a Berklee grad who writes and produces all of his songs. He takes selfies with Al Roker too. A week in the life of this man isn’t like any week I’ve ever known (also markedly different from weeks had by Ricky Reed, Machine Gun Kelly, and the guy from Disturbed) — click his handsome mug to see why.
Take Two: Nevermen, St. Lucia, and Rihanna
Back in the saddle! In this week’s installment of “Tuesday Reviewsday” (peep the podcast on iTunes or at NPR), I chitchat about Rihanna’s Anti, share my favorite cuts from St. Lucia’s Matter, and super duper gush over the arrival of Nevermen—that’s the supergroup comprising freak king Mike Patton, werewolf/singer Tunde Adebimpe, and the night-terror-having cosmology-creating avant-rap poet laureate Doseone. Geeked. Listen below or via one of the links above.
Esperanza Spalding’s Surrealist Dream
READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)
Esperanza Spalding, the Grammy-stacking perpetual “jazz darling,” has made a prog album. Well, it’s a very soulful, jazz-streaked, noisy rock record called Emily’s D+Evolution, which is a concept LP about that titular character, who is Esperanza’s alter ego. (When you talk to her, it starts to make sense.) For the story, I also got to interview the legendary Wayne Shorter, who name-dropped Haruki Murakami and Neil deGrasse Tyson during our chat. That part didn’t make it into the piece, but, well, now I’m name-dropping.
Anderson .Paak Was Homeless Before He Was a Star
READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)
Anderson .Paak and I went cruising down the PCH on the first day that El Niño truly dumped on us. It was a little harrowing, but you wouldn’t know it from watching our video interview. Plus, if you read the story (which includes a chat with the mighty Talib Kweli), you’ll see that this dude’s made it through much much worse. His crazy soulful new album Malibu is out now.
Chris Writes Things 