Chaka Chaka Chak-Chaka Khan.
(Waring Abbott/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Chaka Chaka Chak-Chaka Khan.
(Waring Abbott/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
MUSICREDEF PICKS
Gibson Needs a Setup, 'Black Panther' Score, Crystal Castles, New School of UK Jazz, Woke Spotify Playlists...
Matty Karas, curator February 20, 2018
QUOTABLES!
quote of the day
A lot of people be stupid and they think signing [to a label] means I'm gonna be bigger than what I am, but they never think of the opposite situation. What if this goes bad and this f***s up my career?
music
rant n' rave
rantnrave://

Remember guitars? Those vintage music-making devices that look like this, but smaller? GIBSON, one of the premier makers of the music tool popularized by musicians from MOTHER MAYBELLE CARTER to SISTER ROSETTA THARPE to JOAN JETT, has hundreds of millions of dollars worth of notes coming due and faces potential bankruptcy, according to pretty much the entire music and business media, all of whom cite the same source—a 13-paragraph story published on NASHVILLE POST, a business news site, on FEB. 9. The Post updated the story Monday with the news that Gibson is bringing back an ex-CFO, BENSON WOO, "who has made a career of working at companies in distress or in times of major change." The company, which has been dutifully streamlining its operations and holdings, says it expects a solid year, financially speaking. It has annual revenues of $1 billion—which sounds good until you learn it had revenues north of $2 billion as recently as four years ago. Also in debt these days: FENDER, whose guitars tend to be more affordable, and GUITAR CENTER, which spent decades steamrolling over local music stores from SEATTLE to ATLANTA and now may be asking itself: "To what end?" Gibson, maker of the top two guitars on my current want list (please don't streamline your lefthanded manufacturing capabilities out of existence, thanks guys), appears confident in its future, and an analyst at MOODY'S tells the Post that "the core business is a very stable business, and a sustainable one," but there will have to restructuring elsewhere. Rock and roll, meanwhile, will continue to struggle on the charts, while country continues to incorporate hip-hop and other current pop influences. It's a vicious cycle. That isn't according to Moody's; that's according to me and pretty much the entire music and business media... I loved the loud, persistent African percussion in BLACK PANTHER, and this video from GENIUS in which composer LUDWIG GÖRANSSON documents the writing, demoing and recording of his theme for T'CHALLA, with assistance from talking drums, a ROLAND TR-808 and the spirit of BAABA MAAL, is my video of the day. There's plenty more about the music (and culture and politics and art) of BLACK PANTHER in our MediaSET "'Black Panther' Matters"... BIG DADDY KANE at NPR MUSIC's TINY DESK... 18th and 19th century Italian music, like 21st century Italian and Japanese and American social media, was sometimes about cats... RIP STORMIN, BOYD JARVIS, SERGIO DELLA MONICA and DIDIER LOCKWOOD.

Matty Karas, curator

February 20, 2018