The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
The Current Music News

Today’s Music News: Interpol live-tweet Buffalo snowstorm

by Staff

November 20, 2014

As you've probably heard, there is some extremely intense snow coming down right now in upstate New YorkInterpol, who were riding through the area en route to play a show in Toronto, have been stuck in their bus for over two days—and are live-tweeting the whole thing. Fortunately, they tweeted, the bus was well-stocked with "dry goods and vodka." (Pitchfork) Neither snow nor rain nor sleet nor hail will stop Interpol's Theft of the Dial from being broadcast today on the Current at 11:15 a.m.; it will also appear on our site at that time.

Motown singer Jimmy Ruffin ("What Becomes of the Brokenhearted") has died at age 78. Jimmy's younger brother, the late David Ruffin, was a member of the Temptations. (Pitchfork)

Taylor Swift has made Hot 100 history: her single "Blank Space" has bumped her other single "Shake It Off" from the top slot on the Billboard chart, making Swift the first female artist ever to replace herself at #1. (Billboard)

Speaking of the Billboard charts, the way they're computed is about to change: Billboard's album chart will now be based not just on actual album sales but also on streams, with 1,500 song streams counting as a single album sale. The change is being welcomed by both big pop stars—the new Ariana Grande album, now at #36, would be #9 under the new formula—and by indie labels like Glassnote, home of Jeremy Messersmith and Mumford and Sons. The acts whose chart performance is most likely to be hurt by the change are veteran stars whose fans—predominantly older—are more likely to buy albums than to stream the music. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, Billy Bragg is calling Swift a hypocrite for pulling her music from Spotify while allowing it to remain on other streaming music services—including, prominently, YouTube. Swift is calling her decision a matter of principle and saying it's about showing that music has value, but Bragg says it's clear that the bottom line for Swift is actually...well, the bottom line. "Google are going after Spotify and Taylor Swift has just chosen sides," wrote Bragg on Facebook. "That’s her prerogative as a savvy businesswoman—but please don’t try to sell this corporate power play to us as some sort of altruistic gesture in solidarity with struggling music makers."

Courtney Love and Dave Grohl are on good terms, says Love—and it was apparently the female form that brought Grohl back together with his former bandmate Kurt Cobain's widow, with whom he was formerly locked in legal battle. "The other night, we just started talking about this one actress’s boobs," Love told Jimmy Kimmel, "and we just picked up where we left off after 20 years of suing one another. We’re cool, we’re totally tight."

British shoegaze band Ride have announced a reunion tour, 18 years after they broke up. The short tour's only U.S. stop will be New York, on Jun. 4, 2015. (Consequence of Sound)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0SFc3px9rI

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple's relaunch of Beats Music as part of iTunes could come as soon as March. Streaming music competitors are watching Apple carefully, as a streaming music service that's tightly integrated with iPhones and iPads could cut significantly into the market share of SpotifyPandora, and other services. (Stereogum)

The family of a crew member who was killed by a train accident on the site of Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the producers of the film, production on which is now indefinitely suspended. (Billboard)

Listen to the Morning Show’s music news roundup on the Current every weekday at 9:00 a.m. to hear our hosts discuss the latest music news.

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.