Jem Aswad-Senior: Celebs Rumors

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Scott Schinder, Veteran Music Writer, Dies at 61

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Veteran music writer Scott Schinder, who wrote for virtually every major music publication over the course of a three-decade-plus-long career, has died after a long illness, his friend Randy Haecker confirms to Variety. Schinder’s work can be read in Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Time Out New York, the Austin Chronicle, Please Kill Me, Creem, Musician, Newsday, Stereophile, Musician, Tower Pulse, New Musical Express, Melody Maker, Texas Music, SXSWorld and probably many others. No cause of death has been announced; he was 61. A native of Long Island and a longtime New York resident, Schinder was a ubiquitous presence on the city’s music scene, where, beginning in the 1980s, he could be found most nights of the week at CBGB, Irving Plaza, Maxwells, Under Acme, Brownies and multiple other venues of the era. Indeed, the photo on his author page at Please Kill Me could have been taken at one of dozens of different venues in the city on any of a couple thousand evenings (it was actually taken at CBGB circa early 1990s).
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Grace Jones Electrifies New York With Eye-Popping — and Hilarious — Show: Concert Review
Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Grace Jones was one of the most iconic artists of the early ‘80s, with a boldly androgynous and prescient image and string of brilliant albums with a pioneering sound and expertly curated covers that fused R&B, new wave and reggae into a fusion that has been echoed everywhere from Rihanna to Massive Attack and beyond. Now 75, she’s continued performing but hasn’t released an album since 2008, and seemed to drop below the radar for all but her fanbase, influencees and the LGBTQ and Pitchfork audiences until the past few years, when the brilliance of her “Warm Leatherette,” “Nightclubbing” and “Living My Life” albums became even more undeniable. Yet even fans who’d seen her shows in the past probably were not prepared for the eye-popping, mind-blowing concert she staged as part of Blue Note Jazz Festival at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Wednesday night, which mere words cannot do justice. At 75, her always-deep voice sounds as great as ever, her outfits and staging are as provocative as ever, and she could give Mick Jagger a literal run for his money in terms of fitness and dexterity at a certain age. Best of all, for all her hauteur, diva-tude and icon status, she never takes herself too seriously and every outfit, headdress, and staging touch had an undercurrent of humor that’s sadly lacking in most artists — and her stage banter is absolutely hilarious, although the humor often lay less in what she was saying than the way she said it (although lines like “Why do you need a dick if you’ve got a dildo?” land in a multitude of contexts).
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Ezekiel Lewis Named President of Epic Records
Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Epic Records has appointed Ezekiel Lewis to the post of president. He will continue to report to Sylvia Rhone, Epic Records’ Chairwoman and CEO, and to lead the A&R division while helping run the day-to-day operations of the company. Lewis has served as the company’s executive vice president and head of A&R since 2020, working closely with such artists as 21 Savage, Bia, Black Eyed Peas, DDG, Future, Giveon, Madison Beer, Meghan Trainor, Mimi Webb, Southside, Zara Larsson and more. Prior to joining Epic in 2017, Lewis served as senior VP of A&R at Motown Records from 2011, working with such artists including Ne-Yo, Erykah Badu, Migos, Lil Yachty, T.I., and Rich Homie Quan. He is also a Grammy-winning songwriters who has co-written and co-produced songs for Justin Bieber, Mary J. Blige and Usher, and also worked closely with Mariah Carey and Yo Gotti. In 2010, he founded Bar Music Group, a music publishing company that included projects Chris Brown, Future, Trey Songz and others. As a musician, he signed with David Foster’s 143 Records and played a key role in Trey Songz’s career. In 2004, Lewis co-founded the Clutch, a collective of songwriter-producers responsible for hits by Omarion, Ciara, Britney Spears, Timbaland and others.
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Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ Anniversary Edition Is a Reappraisal and Reaffirmation of Its Genius: Album Review
Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor When Daft Punk launched its fourth and presumably final mission statement, “Random Access Memories,” into the atmosphere 10 long years ago, it was greeted with the kind of genre- and generation-spanning adulation that’s rare in any genre. At the time of its release, the supernova of cool around Daft Punk was so pervasive — and the hits from the album, particularly “Get Lucky,” were so ubiquitous — that it topped album charts all over the world, won four Grammys (including album of the year and best-engineered album) and got a whopping 8.8 score from Pitchfork, a publication that played no small role in the duo’s rise. Yet it was a drastic about-face for the pioneering duo, whose electronic and dance music of the previous 15-odd years had spawned countless influences and whose world-shaking 2006-7 tour basically spawned EDM. Fans expecting another electronic masterpiece instead they got a deliberately retro album that intentionally used the technology and recording techniques of the ‘70s and ‘80s to evoke the pristine, perfectionist grooves of Michael Jackson, Chic, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and others — and even unfurled a yacht-rock flag on “Fragments of Time.” It has orchestras, choirs and a battery of top-notch musicians including pioneering funk guitarist Nile Rodgers, virtuoso bassist Nathan East, pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz and powerhouse drummer Omar Hakim. There are guitar solos, tinkling electric pianos, ‘70s funk bass, piledriving drums and even acoustic guitars. Bored with electronics, the duo “wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers, but with people,” said the duo’s Thomas Bangalter.
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Will Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Win Stop Other Copyright-Infringment Lawsuits? Attorneys Weigh in
Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Much of the music industry heaved a collective sigh of relief when the news broke Thursday that Ed Sheeran was found not liable on a copyright claim alleging that he copied key elements from the Marvin Gaye ‘70s hit “Let’s Get It On” for his own song “Thinking Out Loud.” The case is one of countless similar infringement cases that have been brought before courts, settled, or continue in seemingly endless loops of appeals. But there’s little question that recent ones — at least the ones that followed the 2015 “Blurred Lines” decision that shook the industry — have sided with creators. The lawsuit around Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” went on for five years before being decided initially in favor of Christian rapper Marcus Gray — who claimed her song was substantially similar to his earlier track “Joyful Noise” — but was overturned in 2020 when a judge ruled that the eight-note “ostinato” Perry allegedly copied lacked the “quantum of originality” to warrant copyright protection (Gray’s appeal was unsuccessful). Later in 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the long-running copyright battle over Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” leaving in place a ruling that rejected infringement allegations over the 1971 song. The justices denied a petition aimed at reviving the case, ending six years of litigation over claims that the song’s writers, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, plagiarized the song’s iconic intro from the 1968 song “Taurus” by the group Spirit.
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