THE WEEKLY WRAP | 22/03/2024
The Weekly Wrap is a look at the biggest stories in music all collected in one place for your reading ease.
By Tobias Handke
Cola Boyy Passes Away at 34
Oxnard, CA musician Matthew Urango, better known by his alias Cola Boyy, sadly passed away this week.
Born born with spina bifida, scoliosis, and kyphosis, Cola Boyy found success with his disco creations after the release of his debut EP, Black Boogie Neon.
Signed to Air’s Record Makers, the man behind ‘Penny Girl’ and ‘Buggy Tip’ released his debut album, Prosthetic Boombox, in 2021. The record contained collaborations with the Avalanches, MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden and more.
Cola Boyy’s music was politically motivated and he was an advocate for disability rights and people of colour.
Record Makers said in a statement: “He was quite a soul, a man with no age, a childlike spirit with the musicality of an old legend. His lyrics, his melodies, the sound of his voice: every side of his music was unique and timeless.”
His manager, Jack Sills, took to Instagram to profess his admiration for Cola Boyy with the below message.
“Rest in peace to my brother @colaboyy. Anyone who knew Matthew knows he had a larger than life personality. He was always the life of the party and could chop it up with anyone. He was also one of the most talented and down to earth people I’ve ever met. His humor and natural charisma endeared him to whoever he met. Matthew cared enormously for his family, friends and community which he often expressed through his music. He had just finished his next album and was excited to start releasing new music this summer. I will continue to work with his family and @recordmakers to make sure this happens. Love you homie. Cola Boyy Forever!”
Dr. Dre says Eminem is working on a new album
Dr. Dre confirmed Eminem is back in the studio during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week. Speaking with the talk show host about his career, collaborations and recent star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Dre revealed that Eminem is recording new music for his next album.
“Eminem is working on his own album, which is coming out this year,” Dr. Dre said. “I actually talked to him, and he said it was okay for me to make that announcement right here on this show. So, he has an album coming out. I’ve got songs on it, and it’s fire.”
The rapper and producer continued, “I’m actually gonna hear the entire album for the first time tomorrow. He holds his music close to his chest, so I haven’t heard everything. I haven’t even heard everything complete that I’ve done, but I’m gonna hear it, and he’s putting out an album this year.”
It’s been four years since Eminem dropped his last album, 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By. Dre’s revelation comes amid mounting rumours that Em is set to tour Australia later this year.
Check out Dre talking about Em’s new album in the clip opposite at the 25:50 minute mark.
La Dispute Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Rooms of The House with One-Off Sydney Show
In a trend that's becoming a regular thing, La Dispute is the latest band to announce a one-off Australian show. The American post-hardcore act is celebrating the 10th anniversary of their seminal album Rooms of The House this year. They have booked five shows in different cities around the world where they will perform the record in full.
The band will hit London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Grand Rapids (their hometown) before playing The Roundhouse in Sydney on November 22. Why Australia you might ask? It turns out drummer Brad Vander Lugt lives on the Sunshine Coast after moving there with his wife (who is Australian).
Taking to Instagram, the band explained why they are only play five shows.
”Won’t be doing the full anniversary tour treatment this time, partly because we’re writing, partly because we didn’t want to do two anniversary runs back to back, and partly because there’s something special about limiting it. Like punctuation marks at the end of a chapter’s last paragraph, in this case exclamation marks, rather than dwelling on the whole chapter again.
So that’s what we’re doing: five shows to celebrate. We’ll play the record in full (+ songs from the back catalog), in five places that mean a lot to us: London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Sydney, and in our hometown of Grand Rapids, MI, and we hope you can join us. We’ll pull out all the stops for these shows, with the lineups and the sets.”
You can read the full comments about the tour in the Instagram post opposite.
Tickets are on sale today via Live Nation.
Lollapalooza 2024 Lineup Includes SZA, The Killers, Tyler, the Creator and Blink-182
Last week it was Glastonbury, this week it is Lollapalooze. The festival started by Perry Farrell in the 90s has just dropped its 2024 lineup and boy is it a doozy.
There are ten headliners this year, which is just insane. Some of the big names at the top of the bill include R&B superstar SZA, rapper Tyler, the Creator, punk misfits Blink-182, Las Vegas indie rockers The Killers and hip-hop star and Splendour in the Grass headliner Future, who is teaming up with producer Metro Boomin for his performance.
Also playing this year’s festival are Deftones, Killer Mike, Nia Archives, Two Door Cinema, Last Dinner Party, Raye and Australia’s very own Ruel.
Held at Grant Park, Chicago from August 1-4, tickets for Lollapalooza 2024 are on sale now here.
Nick Cave contributes A new song to THE SOUNDTRACK OF The Amy Winehouse biopic BACK TO BLACK
The track list for the soundtrack to the Amy Winehouse biopic, Back To Black, has been revealed. Along with Winehouse’s best tracks, such as ‘Love Is a Losing Game’ and ‘Tears Dry on Their Own’, the soundtrack includes a new track written for the film by Nick Cave entitled, ‘Song for Amy’. Cave and writing partner Warren Ellis also composed the film’s score.
Cave isn’t the only artist to contribute, with the soundtrack also including songs from artists who inspired Winehouse, including Billie Holiday, The Shangri-Las and Dinah Washington.
“The film, and the music on this soundtrack, focus on Amy Winehouse’s extraordinary genius, her unrivalled creativity and the raw honesty that infused everything she did,” reads a press release. “A truly phenomenal writer and performer, Amy was and remains a once in a generation talent.”
Back To Black: Songs from the Original Motion Picture will be available on 140g black vinyl, limited edition peach-coloured vinyl, double vinyl, single CD and double CD formats.
You can pre-order the album here. Back To Black is set for release April 11.
radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood announces photo book How to Disappear
Radiohead bassist Johnny Greenwood has revealed he is releasing a photo book documenting his time in the pioneering band. How To Disappear - A Portrait of Radiohead has been two decades in the making and will feature never-before-seen photos of the band between 2003 and 2016.
A press release about the book states that it will feature candid moments of the group in the studio and on stage, as well as a 10,000-word essay written by Greenwood about his life in the band.
Taking to Instagram to promote the release, Greenwood wrote;
“I’ve been taking photographs of my fellow band members for many years, and I’m very happy to have put together a selection of images that describes how we’ve spent much of our time together; writing, rehearsing, recording and performing.
”I’ve also written an essay that attempts to thread these pictures together into a portrait of my band from its less certain middle years to now.
”I hope that anyone who likes our music will enjoy it, as much as I did putting these two decades’ worth of memories together.”
How To Disappear - A Portrait of Radiohead is set for release on October 15. The standard hardcover edition will be 97 pages while a limited edition deluxe autographed version with an additional 32-page book of ‘light show’ photos in a slipcase will also be available. If you pre-order How To Disappear, Greenwood will also autograph your copy.
You can pre-order a copy of the book here.
James Blake dropping unheard music on new streaming platform
At the beginning of the month, UK artist James Blake took to social media to share his frustrations with the modern way we consume music and the paltry pay artists receive from streaming services such as Spotify. Well, it looks like he’s found a solution to his problem.
Blake has announced he will be releasing unheard music on new platform Vault. The platform follows a subscription method whereby music fans pay a monthly fee for access to unheard music from artists.
“About a week ago I went viral with a post about the effects of streaming and TikTok on artists’ ability to support themselves and I wanted to give you some figures,” Blake said in a video posted to his socials (which you can view in full opposite). “This is how much artists make out of streaming: Between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream, depending on the platform.
“Which is one million plays equals $3,000, and if you’re assigned to a label, then imagine that number’s cut by at least 50 per cent. And after management cut – which is between 15 and 20 per cent – and taxes and recording overheads, it’s just not sustainable for an artist to focus on just their art.
“Only 19 per cent of artists on Spotify have more than 1,000 monthly listeners. And TikTok pays artists so little that Universal just took their whole catalogue off it. I’ve been wondering, how do we sort this shit out?
“I wanted to find a way for musicians to make money directly from the music they make … Music is not cheap to make, and I wanted to help incentivise musicians to actually spend more time making music. Also, I’ve spoken to a lot of artists that feel frustrated that so much great music goes unreleased because it doesn’t meet certain requirements or trends.”
Blake is one of the first major artists to sign up to Vault and will be offering fans the chance to hear his music for just $5 per month. He has also said he will use Vault to update fans on tours, tickets and other major announcements.
Blake continued; “So this is kind of a backstage pass of the process. It’s where you’ll hear first about ticket drops and anything else I’m doing. This thing was built fairly quickly after my outbursts on social media, so we’ll be adding features as we go along.
“The concept of subscribing to an artist directly, I think, can change the game and release artists from the relentless merry-go-round of the current state of things … This is hopefully a great step towards allowing artists to be as authentic as possible whilst still making a living.”
You can listen to Blake’s unheard tunes and find out more about Vault here.
Friday Five
This week's Friday Five is a celebration of all things pub rock. With West Thebarton’s sophomore album Mongrel Australia dropping today, we wanted to shine a light on some Aussie pub rock classics for your Friday.
1. Cold Chisel - ‘Khe Sanh’
2. Bad//Dreems - ‘Mob Rule’
3. The Angles - ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’
4. The Chats - ‘Smoko’
5. Australian Crawl - ‘Boys Light Up’
