Go Jump in a Lake

If anyone has had a better response to the pandemic (besides, like, wearing masks, getting vaccinated and working in a hospital) than jumping into Lake Michigan every day for over a year in a pair of MOTÖRHEAD swim trunks, I've yet to see it. A daily act of catharsis. An expression of pure joy. Wind, snow, ice and global malaise be damned. DAN O'CONOR, the Great Lake Jumper—who in the past week has expanded his repertoire to other Great Lakes and an ocean—is a lifelong music guy who used to write for SPIN and now designs rock merch. In January, he started inviting musicians to perform live on the water's edge while he jumped, and using his daily ritual as a platform to fundraise for Chicago music venues. Life-affirming daily practice became live-music lifeline. There are probably more consequential things going on in the world. But some days this is all I need to know. In this short and sweet first-person account for Pollstar, Dan O'Conor tells the story of his jumps and a life full of live music. Go ahead and jump.

None in a Million

I've read my share of stories over the years about why nearly all of AALIYAH's music is missing from the streaming music universe, and if there's one thing they all have in common it's that they never quite make sense. There's always a vaguely villainous figure—her shadowy uncle, BARRY HANKERSON, who owns her masters through his label BLACKGROUND RECORDS and who appears to have a long trail of broken relationships behind him. There's her immediate family—grieving, sympathetic, suspicious of the uncle. There's music that keeps getting teased but never delivered. But the details never quite square with each other, and you generally have to read between the lines if you want to try to guess what's actually going on. A major announcement this week that Aaliyah's classic catalog is on its way to streaming services later this month along with the rest of the Blackground catalog, through a partnership between Hankerson and Bay Area indie label EMPIRE, is, strangely, not helping. Billboard has the lengthy "inside story" in which Hankerson lays out his plans. Twitter has the family's seemingly unhappy response. The New York Times has the analysis of how none of the dots seem to connect. "For fans," the Times' BEN SISARIO dryly notes, "the behind-the-scenes battling may matter less than the music finally becoming available online." If, that is, it actually does.

It's (Bandcamp) Friday

And that may or may not mean new music from KANYE WEST, it's hard to say, for all we know he's in the middle of a conceptual art project in which he'll hold an album release party in a football stadium every other week for an album that will have the same title but different music every time, or maybe DONDA will be released an hour from now, or maybe Kanye West doesn't exist... It definitely means a new album, the first in 16 years, from Chicago underground hip-hop duo ABSTRACT MINDSTATE, which Kanye produced... NAS collaborates with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, YG, Eminen, Lauryn Hill and executive producer Hit-Boy on KING'S DISEASE II... JAZZ IS DEAD partners ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD and ADRIAN YOUNGE mix it up with multi-instrumentalist and longtime Gil Scott-Heron collaborator BRIAN JACKSON on BRIAN JACKSON JID008. Jackson "set the tone for the entire [Jazz Is Dead] label," says Younge. "He turned our aspirations global".... Kristin Hayter, aka LINGUA IGNOTA, takes a turn away from the classical/metal hybrid that's been her calling card on SINNER GET READY, a concept album about the religious history of her adopted home state, Pennsylvania. Stereogum calls it "Appalachian Gothic"... British composer MAX RICHTER set out to break down literal borders on EXILES. The album's centerpiece is a 33-minute work inspired by the tragic sinking of a migrant ship off the coast of Libya six years ago, and Richter underscored its themes by recording it with the BALTIC SEA PHILHARMONIC, an unconventional orchestra whose members come from 10 European countries... Country singer CHRIS YOUNG's famous friends on his eighth album, FAMOUS FRIENDS, include Kane Brown and Lauren Alaina.

Plus new music from TINASHE, LIL TECCA, SADA BABY, PINK SIIFU (released earlier this week), KHRUANGBIN (remixes), the MORITZ VON OSWALD TRIO, FOXING, YOUNG NUDY (released earlier this week), RZA, HOMEBOY SANDMAN, FREDO BANG, DAMON & NAOMI WITH KURIHARA, TY SEGALL (earlier this week), LIARS, DESIRE MAREA, ELLEN FOLEY, BURN IN HELL, UNREQVITED, PATRICIA BARBER, GERRY GIBBS, SAINT BODHI, LAURA STEVENSON, ALLISON PONTHIER, ZACHARY KNOWLES, WILL YOUNG, KISSISSIPPI, SARA KAYS, the WANDERING HEARTS, LEAH BLEVINS, LAUREN ANDERSON, 9 HORSES, GAHLORD DEWALD (earlier this week), VACATION, the UMBRELLAS, INFORMATION SOCIETY, COLIN HAY, KATE TAYLOR, WILLY MASON... And the box set version of GEORGE HARRISON's ALL THINGS MUST PASS, which was technically already a box set when it was originally released 51 years ago... And (hi mom!) an album of BARBRA STREISAND rarities.

Programming Note: All I Ever Wanted

MusicREDEF will be off for the next week for summer vacation. The next newsletter will go out Tuesday, Aug. 17. You can find us on Twitter in the meantime. Or you can jump in a lake.