Get in the Van

Or hop on your couch and watch someone else get in the van. It's the weekend, it's spring, and while the highways might not be full of starving, sleep-deprived musicians in beat-up rented vans driving all day in search of tiny clubs in Wichita or Tucson or Fresno with sketchy bathrooms and germ-covered SM58 microphones, for the first time in a long time it doesn't seem crazy to at least dream about that beautiful, glamorous fantasy world. "It's the greatest thing you could ever do," FLEA tells us in the trailer for DAVE GROHL's documentary WHAT DRIVES US, which drops today on AMAZON PRIME's music-doc premium channel the CODA COLLECTION. "I just felt like we were this roaming band of gypsies. We show up and we rock you." Which is one way of looking at the life. Another way might go like this: "People are always like, 'Oh what kind of sights did you see when you went to New York?,' or whatever. And it's, like, I got some soup and I saw a disgusting club bathroom. Saw some human feces." That's drummer/vocalist HOZOJI MATHESON-MARGULLIS of Seattle post-hardcore band HELMS ALEE in another new doc, WHY AM I DOING THIS? (A FILM ABOUT TOURING), which dropped two weeks ago on YOUTUBE and advertises itself as "100% Dave Grohl free!" It features not a single musician who ever showed up and rocked you like Flea, or who ever wanted to. Two films about the same, yet different, life, and you might want to fill two bowls of popcorn, buy an extra six-pack of PBR and make it a double feature. Grohl's film is told through the eyes, ears and memories of members of NO DOUBT, the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, METALLICA, U2, BLACK FLAG, FUGAZI, STARCRAWLER, etc., sharing war stories about what it was like, for the most part, back then. It has a budget. ERIC FUNDINGSLAND's "Why Am I Doing This" probably has a budget, too—it's hard to say—and stars members of BOTTOMLESS PIT, HELMS ALEE, WIMPS, the BISMARCK, CONAN NEUTRON, etc.—many of them from Grohl's old hometown, Seattle—telling war stories about what it's still going to be like when live music resumes and what it's never, in fact, not going to be like. Same highway, different lanes. Same chord, different inversions. Next phase, new wave. FIRST AVENUE, 7TH ST ENTRY. Someone should make five or six more of these. I'd watch 'em all.

Dot Dot Dot

Streaming will continue to push recorded music revenues toward increasingly high peaks for at least the next decade, GOLDMAN SACHS analyst LISA YANG predicts in the company's latest update of its MUSIC IN THE AIR report. "New formats" including gaming and connected fitness will be major revenue drivers too, the banking giant predicts... But the real future is on TWITCH, according to, um, Twitch, which, in a report called TWITCH'S ROCKONOMICS, says it's paying out significantly more per hour of listening time than streaming services are paying... A manifesto by WILLIE NELSON, who turned 88 on Thursday... OUTSIDE LANDS, scheduled for the last weekend in October in San Francisco, sells out in two hours... NICK CAVE on ANITA LANE... The video of PRINCE's guitar gently weeping at the 2004 Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony has been re-edited by the original producer. Still no shot of his guitar coming back down at the end, though. Which it did.

It's Friday

And that means new music from DAWN RICHARD, who goes electronic via New Orleans in SECOND LINE... Norwegian alt-pop songwriter GIRL IN RED, who makes her full-length debut with IF I COULD MAKE IT GO QUIET... Tennessee singer/songwriter ASHLEY MONROE, who explores life beyond the borders of her usual, um, country on ROSEGOLD... Country star THOMAS RHETT, joining the mini-trend of releasing double albums one at a time with COUNTRY AGAIN SIDE A... Afrobeat great TONY ALLEN, whose final album, THERE IS NO END, arrives on the first anniversary of his death... DJ KHALED, whose KHALED KHALED features, and I'm quoting, "all your favorite artists," and you can take it for granted that he's not exaggerating... GOJIRA, continuing to make climate-friendly metal on FORTITUDE... And more new music from FLYING LOTUS (his soundtrack to the Netflix anime series "Yasuke"), ANGEL BAT DAWID/HANNE DE BACKER/SIGNE EMMELUTH, SHELLEY FKA DRAM, LIL EAZZYY (debut mixtape from buzzed-about Chicago rapper), the ALCHEMIST, CADENCE WEAPON, J.PERIOD, MATT SWEENEY & BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL WITH WARREN ELLIS, EDDY KENZO, MICK FLEETWOOD & FRIENDS (all-star live album paying tribute to Fleetwood Mac's early years), MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, MAETA, JULIA MICHAELS, JULIA STONE (Australian singer/songwriter co-produced by St. Vincent), ADRIAN CROWLEY, JUAN WAUTERS, LEON VYNEHALL, SCOTCH ROLEX, ELSA HEWITT, BURIAL & BLACKDOWN, CRUMB, ENUMCLAW, DEGO, SERJ TANKIAN, RITUALS OF THE DEAD (out Saturday), ORYX, DROPKICK MURPHYS, ROYAL BLOOD, ROSIE TUCKER, RONNIE MILSAP, MARILYN MCCOO & BILLY DAVIS JR., MORRAY, YELAWOLF, CAPOLOW, MICHAEL WOLLNY/EMILE PARISIEN,/TIM LEFEBVRE/CHRISTIAN LILLINGER, SUFJAN STEVENS, SHOVELS & ROPE (covers album feat. Sharon Van Etten, the War & Treaty and others), MERCYME, BOWERBIRDS, KUČKA, BEN SERETAN, JOSEPH SHABASON, YA TSEEN, TEENAGE FANCLUB, GUIDED BY VOICES, AMY SPEACE, SARAH LOUISE and PAUL JACOBS... And from BROOKLYN's BLANK FORMS, a 500-page book celebrating the work of jazz trumpeter DON CHERRY and fashion and textile designer MOKI CHERRY in the 1960s and '70s. Two albums will follow in June.

Rest in Peace

Japanese film and TV composer SHUNSUKE KIKUCHI, best known for the anime series "DRAGON BALL"... Indian classical singer RAJAN MISHRA... 1950s torch singer JILL COREY... NICK WEAVER, songwriter/guitarist for Australia's DEEP SEA ARCADE.