Last week M83 released their latest album. As a child growing up in the 80’s, the sound of M83 really resonates with me. It has that 80’s feel—but at the same time—a sense of timelessness.
I was fortunate to take in an M83 show a few years back:

Ghost Face Reviews Watch The Throne (via Whatevs):

Liftoff (Feat. Beyonce): This shit sounds like the anthem the fairies in Ferngully would use to go to war against evil humans to or some shit b. This shit is like Shia LeBeouf in song form yo … Shit sounds like niggas doin aerobics on a magical cloud of daisies. How many meadows did Kanye cartwheel across before he decided to make this beat? Seriously

Reverend Gary Davis was mentioned during the documentary, It Might Get Loud.

The blues he sings is about as real as the blues gets.

Hear for yourself.

I came across a refreshing talk to the students of Berklee College of Music by John Mayer. While I’m not a musician and not all of his advice is relevant to me, what he said was great and can be useful to people in other artistic endeavors.
We read a lot about the importance of developing your personal brand and taking advantage of online tools and platforms but Mayer thinks otherwise. At least for when you’re still honing your craft:

This time is a really important time for you guys because nobody knows who you are, and nobody should. This is not a time to promote yourself. It doesn’t matter. This is the time to get your stuff together. Promotion can be like that. You can have promotion in 30 seconds if your stuff is good. Good music is its own promotion.

and:

You got the distraction of being able to publish yourself immediately, and it is a distraction if you’re not done producing what the product is going to be that you’re going to someday use the promotion to sell…I had to go through the same thing I’m talking to you about – what you have to go through – which is to completely manage all the distraction. Manage the temptation of publishing yourself

.

Playboy Interview: Miles Davis – Playboy

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player. I only can do one thing — play my horn — and that’s what’s at the bottom of the whole mess. I ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician. Most of what’s said about me is lies in the first place. Everything I do, I got a reason.

From Rolling Stone magazine, Paul Simon doesn’t like being Second to Dylan:

Simon, who has just released his new album So Beautiful Or So What, says that in his head at least, there has been something of a folk stand-off going on.

He told Rolling Stone: “I usually come in second to (to Dylan), and I don’t like coming in second. In the beginning, when we were first signed to Columbia, I really admired Dylan’s work. The Sound of Silence wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for Dylan. But I left that feeling around The Graduate and Mrs Robinson. They weren’t folky any more.”

via The Guardian

The Guardian: Rihanna and the rise of raunch pop:
S&M marked a pivotal moment for pop. In 2007, Rihanna told Paper magazine she aspired to be “the black Madonna”, and it’s possible S&M was her calculated attempt to top the level of infamy her heroine once attained, but she could just as well have taken her cues from the generation of phenomenally successful good-girls-gone-bad that preceded her: Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Their own transmogrifications from wholesome teen stars to FHM poster girls upped the stakes for future pop princesses, who must wear less and promise more to make the same impact on an over-stimulated audience. Pop music has reached a point where it’s most successful young women are shooting whipped cream (Katy Perry) and fireworks (Lady Gaga) out of their bras.

YouTube: Mr. Jones’ Tengu
via PSFK