For The Record – July 21st

By Yumna Yousry On Jul 21, 2013

• Atoms for Peace have withdrawn their music from Spotify this week to protest the streaming service’s artist payments policy. Producer and band member Nigel Godrich’s initial tweet ‘We’re off of Spotify. Can’t do that no more man. Small meaningless rebellion. Someone gotta say something. It’s bad for new music’ sparked a still-ongoing Twitter war. Thom Yorke has also pulled his solo album The Eraser.

• Look out for new albums by Mazzy Star – the first in 17 years – in September and new offerings by Moby and RJD2 in October. Meanwhile, the new Tool album has been delayed to early next year.

• Video distributor Vevo has initiated an Unexpected Covers series, the first video of which features Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos covering Fun. single Carry On with just a piano and backup singers. And in other covers you didn’t see coming, Robin Thicke performed his (somewhat creepy) take on Icona Pop’s I Love It for the BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge this week.

• Just ten short weeks after their ‘final’ show in Australia, Wolfmother announced this week that they are reviving the band for a series of California shows.

• To protest the Zimmerman acquittal, Stevie Wonder is boycotting Florida and refusing to perform in the state until the Stand Your Ground law is ‘abolished’.

• Kanye’s clothing line with French designer APC includes a Hip Hop T-shirt, a plain white t-shirt priced at $120, which sold out a day after going on sale last Sunday.

• Karmin’s first album is coming in September, but until then, here’s the Say My Name-reminiscent color popping video for new single Acapella:

• Dave Matthews hitched a ride to his own show in Pennsylvania after his bike tire popped, leaving him stranded, with two fans who were heading to the concert. Matthews reportedly repaid their kindness by inviting them backstage and then taking them out to dinner.

• The nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards were announced this week, with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis tying with Justin Timberlake for most nominations, with six each, including nominations for Video of the Year for both. The show will air on August 25th.

• Bono was honored with France’s highest culture award, the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, for his musical and activist efforts. Previous recipients of the award include Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Shakira.

• A supposed leaked snippet of Lady Gaga’s new single Burqa features lyrics such as ‘Let’s get it on, religious risky fashion. Put it on, wear that Burqa all year long’, but some sources have since denied that the leaked track is a Gaga song.

• And in this week’s ‘This Shit is Being Blown Way Out of Proportion’ news, Taylor Swift fans allegedly sent death threats to a clothing company that produced a shirt displaying the names of all the artist’s exes.