Something About Them

In a career that lasted 28 years, officially ending Monday with an eight-minute YOUTUBE video in which one of them blew himself up and the other walked off into the desert sun to the sound of one of their own songs advising, "Hold on / If love is the answer you hold," the two men who constituted DAFT PUNK released four studio albums of mostly electronic dance music (lowercase e, d and m) and a film soundtrack and produced a few handfuls of singles for a select group of artists including KANYE WEST and the WEEKND. They toured infrequently, but on a very very grand scale. They studiously avoided showing their faces in public. It had been eight years since they released anything under their own name, save for guest spots on two singles by the Weeknd that they co-wrote and co-produced, one of which went to #1 in the US and both of which were performed at the Super Bowl two weeks ago. “Our output is rare,” the one inside the silver helmet once said, “and that means people pay attention more." They won the GRAMMYS for Album of the Year and Record of the Year seven years ago, which seemed simultaneously impossible and inevitable. "We all wanted to know what would come next," BEN CARDEW wrote for DJ MAG on Monday. "It could have been anything. They could have returned with an album of thunderous techno or vocal house anthems, deep disco or piano laments, R&B grooves or punky beats, and it wouldn’t have surprised us." Instead, Daft Punk's long-awaited followup was an eight-minute announcement, with no dialogue and no text, that there would be no more.

Three of the four studio albums will be remembered as pop and dance classics that progressed, somewhat counterintuitively, from a sort of futuristic house music to a sort of retro disco: 1997's HOMEWORK, 2001's DISCOVERY and 2013's Grammy-dominating RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES, which de-emphasized the e while doubling down on the d and the m. All were dripping with hooks. The fourth, 2005's HUMAN AFTER ALL, on which the synthesizer-playing and robot-helmet-wearing THOMAS BANGALTER and GUY-MANUEL DE HOMEM-CHRISTO first tried to consciously "humanize" themselves, divided fans at the time but is not without considerable pleasures of its own. The humanity runs deep through all their albums; that was one of their not-so-secret secrets. Computerized vocals have feelings, too; never forget. There isn't a single electronic act today who wasn't directly affected by Daft Punk, and there are quite a few hip-hop, pop, R&B and indie-rock artists in the influenced-by pile, too. The Daft Punk influence hasn't quite hit Nashville yet but give it time. A lot of regular humans, too, left something of themselves on Daft Punk's dancefloors, and most of them took something better away. MusicSET: "No More Times: Daft Punk Powers Down."

Tenth Avenue Podcast

SPOTIFY announced a ton of news at its "Stream On" event on Monday, including that it's adding a hi-fi tier later this year (no pricing or timing info yet), that it's expanding a variety of existing tools for artists and labels and that it's launching in 85 (!) new countries. I'll be coming back to some of this later this week, especially the fidelity boost and what it means and doesn't mean. There was a ton of podcasting news, too, including the dropping of the first two episodes of a tantalizing eight-part series in which BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and BARACK OBAMA sit around and chat in Springsteen's home studio about big issues. Episodes 1 and 2 of RENEGADES: BORN IN THE USA are here and here. A small issue which they don't discuss but somebody should: You can find the podcast in Spotify by searching for "Springsteen," but you can't find it by searching for "Obama," nor can you find it on either Springsteen's or Obama's artist page.

Dot Dot Dot

BOBBY SHMURDA is scheduled for release from prison today after serving six years for conspiracy and weapons possession. NPR's RODNEY CARMICHAEL and SIDNEY MADDEN on what happens next... We don't know yet if there's life on Mars, but there is most definitely sound on Mars... June 21 is the earliest that restrictions on concerts, festivals and clubs in England could be lifted under a roadmap unveiled Monday by Prime Minister BORIS JOHNSON. There are a lot of ifs and unknowns, obviously, between now and then that might make it hard for anyone to book tours and events for any particular target date.

Rest in Peace

Roots-rock pianist GENE TAYLOR, who played with the FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS and the BLASTERS and who was found in his bed in Austin Saturday morning after living without heat for five days... JAMES BURKE, one of the FIVE STAIRSTEPS who broke out of Chicago with this 1970 soul classic.