Hello!

I missed publishing last week because of various odds and ends (ok fine, it was SF Beer Week) so here we are. But it was a crazy week of big new music releases, so I’m going to run down some of those after some Oscars thoughts I had. Also, that NBA All-Star Game last night was so goddamn fun to watch! The new format change was amazing to watch in action - it felt like a Game 7.

I mean how often do you see the best of any sport try so hard in an exhibition game!?

#Bonghive

Remember when Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture and everyone was united in being happy and excited that justice could be done at the stodgy old awards show?

Yeah, those were the days, huh?

What an exhausting week. Politics and global health anxiety aside, it was good to have a moment last Sunday in which we all were happy that Bong Joon Ho and his film Parasite deservedly swept the local American cinema awards show. It’s rare that Best Picture goes to the film that cinephiles, critics, and industry people all agree on, but it happened!

The Palme d’Or is the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which is a decidedly more international and “artistic” festival - the types of films that do well there aren’t necessarily built for box office success. Parasite is that rare movie that is both accessible and challenging to all kinds of audiences - in spite of the fact that it’s a Korean-language film!

If you missed the telecast, the only thing other than a super exciting last 30 minutes as the Parasite train kept rolling was a completely out of left field performance of “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.

Yeah. The song from the movie 8 Mile. The one that came out in the year 2002.

It seemed totally random at the time, but there was a reason behind the performance:

In an email, Howell-Taylor ascribed the Eminem appearance to the show’s theme, which was the impact of storytelling. “We wanted to do a segment on the impact of songs in movies,” she wrote. “Eminem and 8 Mile is such an impactful moment and given that he didn’t attend the show when he won the Oscar 18 years ago we asked if he wanted to perform this year. Plus it’s so hard to surprise anyone these days and we worked hard to give audiences something they were not expecting!”

It’s a great song (probably Eminem’s best?), but having that performance in the middle of an already exhausting 3.5 hour telecast? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

New Music Galore

There were a ton of high profile music releases last week - I’m gonna highlight the biggest three:

Billie Eilish - No Time To Die

Billie’s the youngest artist (18 years old) to ever record a theme song for a Bond movie. Fun fact - it’s the only time someone else (Hans Zimmer, the composer for No Time To Die) has put production touches on one of her released songs other than her brother, Finneas!

Justin Bieber - Changes

Odd that one of the biggest pop stars of the decade released his first album in five years and there doesn’t seem to be a… buzz around it? It’s a return to slow to mid-tempo R&B jams which is… fine, but nothing as memorable or earworm-y as his smash hits from Purpose. “Intentions” is the main highlight single for me so far.

Tame Impala - The Slow Rush

Speaking of artists who are releasing their first album in five years, Tame Impala also put out their new record, The Slow Rush, last Friday. I spent the better part of the weekend tracking down a copy of the vinyl album and listening to it and can say it’s definitely my favorite album out so far in 2020. Kevin Parker is the rare talent that transcends genres and fan bases.

The Australian native has produced songs for Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Rihanna, but also manages to have a day job as a one man band with a natural psychedelic rock sound reminiscent of Phish, mastering genre blending and multi-instrumental showcases. The Slow Rush is a concept album exploring relationships with time, including nostalgia as a drug (Watchmen anyone?) and I am all in on this exploration.

The #1 Song In The Country Is…Roddy Ricch - The Box

I’d be remiss if i didn’t bring to your attention that the most popular song in the US (and charting around the world) for the last like… 4-6 weeks depending on which metric you’re looking at has been Roddy Ricch’s “The Box.” TikTok is (has been) here to break artists, folks.

Our Favorite New Song: Jack Garratt - Time

Jack Garratt is awesome. He’s a one-man talent who can produce, sing, dance, and play all of the instruments. I’ve seen him live a few times back in 2016 when he released his debut album and he’s the rare talent that translates recording all of the instruments in the studio to playing them all on stage.

He’s taken a bit of a break in the last few years to work on some personal issues that arose from having extreme expectations set on him early in his career.

The problems began with those awards from the BBC and the Brits. At the time, he was one of only four people to win both accolades in the same year. The others were Adele, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith.

"The world knows of three of them and it doesn't know who I am," says the 28-year-old. "That's true. It's not unfair. It's not rude. It's not mean. It's just true."

That is insane company to be in and it’s easy to forget that artists are humans too. Either way, happy to see Jack is back and making music again. He’s got a new EP out, with Time being the first single - it’s a jam.

In Conclusion