The New York State Senate Tuesday voted to repeal a 44-year-old provision that had previously shielded police officers’ disciplinary records from being released to the public, an early sign that the nationwide police brutality protests are advancing actionable change. In 1976, legislators passed the provision, known as 50-A of New …
Read More »John Waters on Little Richard: 'He Was the First Punk. He Was the First Everything'
John Waters will always remember how an interview he conducted with Little Richard crashed and burned. The Polyester and Hairspray filmmaker had met the Architect of Rock & Roll — Waters’ idol to the point that he modeled his mustache after the singer — in a shockingly normal hotel room …
Read More »John Prine: The Secrets Behind His Classic Songs
Back in 2016, John Prine was having trouble writing new songs. It had been more than a decade since his last album, 2005’s excellent Fair & Square,and the longer he waited to release a new one, the more anxious he felt. “One of the reasons I’m having such a difficult …
Read More »Yeasayer Sue the Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar Over 'Black Panther' Song
The now-defunct Brooklyn band Yeasayer has filed a lawsuit against the Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar and others claiming their 2018 Black Panther soundtrack collaboration “Pray for Me” infringes on the band’s 2007 track, “Sunrise,” Pitchfork reports. In the suit, Yeasayer — which broke up last December — said that “Pray for …
Read More »Dave Grohl on Rush Drummer Neil Peart: 'We All Learned From Him'
Dave Grohl, a Neil Peart acolyte who inducted Rush into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, penned a tribute to the drummer following news of Peart’s death Friday. “Today, the world lost a true giant in the history of rock & roll,” Grohl said in a statement …
Read More »Dave Riley, Bassist for Noise Rockers Big Black, Dead at 59
Dave Riley — the bassist for the fiercely independent, influential noise-rock group Big Black — died Tuesday after a short battle with cancer. His housemate, Rachel Brown, reported the news on Facebook. He was 59. “In late August, [Riley] developed a persistent sore throat that wasn’t responsive to antibiotics,” Brown …
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