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Music

Weekly Music Round-Up: Pussy Riot, Scott Stapp Owes His Life To T.I., And The Bienis

We paid attention to music news so you didn't have to.

Next Week is CMJ, which, depending on who you ask, is either the best thing ever or the fucking pits. Basically, if you write about music, you're going to end up going to a million shows every single day, drink seven million free beers that companies use to ply you into writing about bands you probably don't care about, and then wake up and write some random stuff about which bands are cool because they played nine showcases in four days and are therefore now lodged in our minds. To put it in collegiate terms, it's half fall break, half finals week, and you tend to look forward to it with a sort of optimistic dread. Also, for what it's worth we are having our own CMJ showcase at Santos, and it will actually rule. Get the full info here. But guess what! It's not next week yet, it's still this week, and here is everything important that happened in music.

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—So the RZA is directing a new movie called The Man With The Iron Fists, and it's gonna be awesome, because someone gave RZA a blank check and told him to unleash his craziness in the most violent, extravagant way possible. Probably the best thing about the movie, however, is gonna be the soundtrack, which is seriously looking like a contender for rap album of the year. This week, we heard a new Wu-Tang track that had a disconcertingly good U-God verse on it, plus a new Kanye West song that sounds like an old Kanye West song, and also a song by RZA and the Black Keys that is better than it has any right to be.

—It came out that T.I. once prevented Scott Stapp of Creed from committing suicide. Life is hard and, and sometimes, only the craziest bullshit can save you. In an interview with MTV, T.I. admitted to having no idea who Stapp was at the time, which is the best.

Danny Brown rapped over Purity Ring, and shit was, like, the most Internet thing ever.

—Justin Bieber's computer was stolen. Then, someone published a picture that may or may not be of his penis. We're pretty sure it is. —One member of Pussy Riot was freed, which is great! What is not so great is that two of them are still in jail. —The Rolling Stones put out a new single for some reason. It's pretty good, but I'm not a dad, so I don't give a shit. —Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' album The Heist sold something in the neighborhood of 75,000 copies this week, meaning that Macklemore went from "Who the fuck is that?" to "His name programmed into rap bloggers iPhones' AutoCorrect" in record time, because none of us had heard of him. Everyone makes fun of Macklemore because he's a goofy white dude with conservative hair who makes goofy, accessible songs about individuality and the importance of not overdosing on drugs, and also Macklemore makes us all feel insecure since he dared be successful without us signing off on him.

So, yeah, that's basically everything that happened this week that you should care about. See you next week, when we haggardly complain about CMJ and talk about Justin Bieber's sex tape that will hopefully exist by then.

@drewmillard