Author: djfrosty
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After years of restoration, research and archive digging, the Les Paul Foundation has opened the Les Paul Recording Studio as part of the historic United Recording facility in Los Angeles, California.
Anyone who rents out the new Les Paul Recording Studio will have full access to record with Paul’s immaculately restored 8-track mixing console, known as The Monster, and Paul’s Ampex 5258 Sel-Sync 8-track recorder, known as The Octopus, which is widely credited as the first-ever 8-track recorder. The gear has also been revamped to allow for it to be hooked up to a digital audio workstation and used as a modern console.
“It’s like having the Wright brothers’ plane and actually being able to fly it,” says Tom Camuso, director of audio engineering.
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The new studio brings Paul’s recording equipment back to Hollywood, where he first invented them, after a long stint in the Mahwah Museum in Mahwah, NJ. Paul built these tools in the 1950s in the garage of his nearby Hollywood home when recorded music technology was incredibly limited. Over time, the multi-genre guitarist, producer and inventor developed what he called his “New Sound,” which included pioneering revolutionary techniques like multi-track recording, sound-on-sound, close miking, overdubbing, speed manipulation, echo and more.
Paul also had a hand in creating the solid-body electric guitar, of course. Among the other perks of the Les Paul Recording Studio, musicians will now be able to check out a number of Paul’s early electric guitars as well as a vast archive of his photos.
“We’ve painstakingly restored Les Paul’s original gear to working condition, allowing today’s artists to record using the exact tools that revolutionized popular music. Combined with the newest technology and digital recording tools, the Les Paul Recording Studio will welcome musical artists, producers, engineers and students to a new and innovative studio environment that is the only one of its kind in the world,” says Michael Braunstein, executive director of the Les Paul Foundation.
The studio will also act as a place for students to learn about Paul’s contributions to the history of recorded music and to record their own compositions. For more information about the studio, visit les-paul.com.
Young Thug has reacted to a viral message on X of a fan with a large back tattoo that boasts the wrong lyrics to Thugger’s 2016 “Digits.” A post from Madrid tattoo artist Infrababy circulated on social media last week. It features a fan’s new ink with “Horses don’t stop, they keep going” written above […]
Speaking to Howard Stern on Tuesday morning (April 8) just two days after the controversial season three finale of his hit HBO series The White Lotus, Mike White said he doesn’t really know what the beef over the the show’s soundtrack was all about. Last week, show composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer told the New York Times that he was permanently checking out of the gig after what he said were years of creative disputes with White over the Chilean musician’s unconventional musical style.
“Oh man… I honestly don’t know what happened, except now I’m reading his interviews because he decided to do some P.R. campaign about him leaving the show,” White nervously laughed while speaking to Stern on his SiriusXM morning radio show. “In reading the interviews I just realized he… I just don’t think he respected me. I think he basically, he wants people to know he’s edgy and dark and I’m… I watch reality TV,” added White, who, has, in fact, joyfully competed on both The Amazing Race (twice) and Survivor: David Vs. Goliath.
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In his chat with the Times, Tapia de Veer compared his collaboration with White as being akin to the kind of rock bands he’s been in before where, “the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all.” In fact, the composer who has won three Emmys for his work on the show said he’d had creative conflicts with White since the very first season of the show. He noted that he thought the show runner’s script for the first go-round was very “well-written,” but that he felt the comedic, “reality TV kind of vibe” did not fit with his “super dark and edgy” musical leanings.
“But when we had the talk with Mike, I just told him in a joke that I thought we could do some kind of ‘Hawaiian Hitchcock,’ and he really grabbed on that and he started laughing,” Tapia de Veer said, while also dinging White’s original temporary score as “nice background music” with a “chill, sexy” Ibiza club vibe but “literally no edge to it.”
Tapia de Veer also noted that after his divisive soundtrack for the just-concluded season received push-back from fans who missed the beloved melodies from the first two seasons, he planned to slyly bring back the “ool-loo-loo-loo” vocalizations they desired, but that White “wasn’t happy about that.”
White seemed perplexed by the apparent animus, telling Stern “we never even really fought… he said we feuded. I don’t think I ever had a fight with him, except maybe some emails. But it was just basically, like, me giving him notes. I don’t think he liked having to go through the process of getting notes from me or wanting revisions or ever. I guess he just didn’t respect me.”
In fact, White told Stern that he’s “never kissed somebody’s ass so hard” just to get them to be on board as he did with Tapia de Veer.
The show creator added that he knew Tapia de Veer was “not a team player and that he wanted to do it his way,” but that he was thrown that the musician would go to the Times to “s–t on me and the show three days before the finale. That was kind of a b–ch move.” Stern shot back that as the show’s writer and creator, White should have had the power to weigh in on the musical choices on the series that is his sole vision.
“Anyone that you hire, they gotta go with your vision, that’s it!” Stern suggested.
“Well that’s honestly why it did work the first couple seasons, because we did go through the process,” White explained. “But by the time the third season came around he’d won Emmys and had his song go viral, so he just did not want to go through the process anymore. He didn’t want to get notes from me… he always had this contemptuous smirk on his face whenever he was dealing with me. I think he thought I was just a chimp or something. I don’t know.”
In the end, White said he was confused by the ire over what he said was a pretty typical “creative difference” with the composer he readily praised as “really talented.”
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Harriet Tubman stands as one of the most important figures of the abolitionist movement, and her role as a conductor on the Underground Railroad cemented her in history. As part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order that seeks to rewrite history, information on Harriet Tubman was edited on the National Park Service’s website, but was later restored.
As observed by many online, the National Park Service removed information about the Underground Railroad, replacing language about the movement to free slaves from the southern states and taking down a photo and quote from Tubman.
“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger,” was the quote that appeared on the website segment under a photo of Tubman. According to a Washington Post report and other accounts, the photo was removed and then replaced with a smaller photo alongside white abolitionists.
The New York Times reports that the changes appeared to have happened back in February after President Trump’s sweeping order, which seeks to do away with DEI initiatives. With historians, educators, and readers all providing intense pushback on the deleting and editing of Tubman’s historic contributions from the NPS website, the segment was restored to its original state.
CNN followed up with the NPS and obtained a quote from an NPS spokesperson.“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership. The webpage was immediately restored to its original content,” the statement read.
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Photo: Source: Universal History Archive / Getty
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Diddy’s legal issues continue to get more complicated. He is now is facing two new charges due to a superseding indictment.
As spotted on Variety, the mogul will have to strategize his defense to account for some new accusations against him. Last week, prosecutors upped the ante on his federal trial with new charges against him related to sex trafficking and prostitution. The 17-page document claims Diddy trafficked “Victim 2” starting in 2021 to 2024 and “attempted, aided and abetted, and willfully caused Victim-2, to engage in commercial sex acts.” This filing also details that he “knowingly transported individuals in interstate and foreign commerce with intent that the individuals engage in prostitution.”
Diddy’s legal team has refuted the claims in an exclusive statement to Variety. “These are not new allegations or new accusers. These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships. This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.” Diddy is still being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He has plead not guilty to the original charges. His trial is set to commence May 5.
You can read the superseding indictment here.
Sean “Diddy” Combs and federal prosecutors are locked in a pre-trial battle over a crucial question: Whether jurors can hear testimony from numerous other accusers beyond the four women at the core of the government’s case.
In dueling court filings Monday, attorneys for the two sides exchanged heated arguments over the prosecution’s plan to call witnesses that it identifies as “non-statutory victims” – women who say they were sexually assaulted by Combs but whose claims don’t form the basis for the actual charges.
Diddy’s lawyers say the feds are trying to “pollute the trial with decades of dirt” by adding last-minute “incendiary” claims to paint him as a “bad guy”; prosecutors say Combs is “desperately” trying to keep relevant testimony about his other intent and knowledge “hidden from the jury.”
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“That testimony powerfully establishes that the defendant made no mistake when he coerced other victims into unwanted sex,” the government wrote in its filing Monday. “It proves that the defendant intended to take the sexual gratification he wanted, regardless of consent.”
Combs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation that aimed to “fulfill his sexual desires.” The case centers on elaborate “freak off” parties in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sex, as well as on alleged acts of violence to keep victims silent.
A trial is currently set to start on May 5. If convicted on all of the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, Combs faces a potential life prison sentence.
The actual criminal counts against Diddy center on four alleged victims, identified in court documents as Victim-1, Victim-2, Victim-3, and Victim-4. While Victim-1 is known to be Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, the identities of the others are unknown and prosecutors are seeking to keep it that way.
On Monday, attorneys for Combs lodged a scathing filing claiming the government had “suddenly” moved to add new accusations from other alleged victims beyond those four women. They claimed the “incendiary” new claims of sexual assault were “substantially more serious” than the actual sex trafficking and racketeering allegations – and would “make it impossible for Mr. Combs to receive a fair trial.”
“The government should not be permitted to pollute the trial with decades of dirt and invite a conviction based on propensity evidence with no proper purpose by painting Mr. Combs as a bad guy who must have committed the charged crimes,” his lawyers wrote.
Diddy’s lawyers say such testimony would not only “double the length of a trial,” but is improper “character evidence” – material not directly linked to the alleged wrongdoing that’s designed to convince jurors that a defendant could have committed the crime.
“This tactic cannot be allowed to succeed,” Combs’ lawyers wrote in their filing. “If the government’s evidence were allowed, it would mark one of the worst abuses of the character evidence rule in the history of American law.”
Later on Monday, prosecutors fired back to defend their plan, arguing that Combs himself had opened the door to such testimony by planning to argue that the alleged victims had consensually partaken in the “freak offs” and other sexual activity. They say testimony about other numerous other assaults will clearly disprove such a defense strategy.
“When the defendant inevitably argues at trial that he had no clue these four women did not want the sexual experiences that he demanded, the government should be able to point out that someone as practiced as he is in sexual assault surely recognized the signs of non-consent,” prosecutors wrote. “And when the defendant claims that he only ever intended to have consensual, loving sexual experiences with the [charged] victims, the government should be able to point out his repeated intent to sexually gratify himself with unwilling participants.”
Neither side disclosed in court filings who the new alleged victims are, or how many of them the government plans to call as witnesses. But Combs’ lawyers said that “all but one of the alleged incidents happened over twenty years ago” and that the new accusations “implicate dozens of unidentified witnesses and alleged co-conspirators around the world.”
Artists working with record labels in Latin America have a higher percentage of monthly listeners and generate more revenue on digital platforms than those who are self-released, according to a new report by Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) and the Latin American Independent Music Observatory (OLMI) on digital distribution in the region.
The report also shows that “the existence of local infrastructure (such as digital distributors) is related to higher levels of professionalization, income and knowledge of the digital value chain by artists, for example in relation to the types of existing contracts and the terms offered.”
Released on Tuesday (April 8), the study — which was conducted between 2023 and 2024 — analyzes the situation in eight countries, including Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Paraguay, and highlights how artists’ presence on digital platforms and affiliation with independent record labels positively influences their economic sustainability.
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“These results reinforce the notion that the structural and financial support that labels provide to artists is key to their success in the music ecosystem,” Noemí Planas, CEO of WIN, said in a press release. “Public and private investment to promote a professional music infrastructure in the region is key to ensure the growth of all players.”
One of the challenges the music industry faces in the region is the “heavy reliance on live performances,” the report states. That’s because “although more than 60% of artists generate income through streaming, less than 10% earn more than US$5,000 per year,” it notes. The report adds that “artists with more than 500 monthly listeners barely represent 30% [of artists]” — meaning a large majority may be affected by the recent royalty payment reforms introduced by the major streaming platforms that contemplate the demonetization of content below certain thresholds of streams and listeners.
The study found that almost a third (32.2%) of respondents market their music through distributors that have recently integrated — or are in the process of integrating — with majors, denoting a trend towards market consolidation.
“Consolidation in the music sphere is concerning because of its impact on the dissemination of Latin American independent music, especially in the digital market, where we see that there are fewer and fewer independent operators,” Planas adds. “The concentration of power, information and access channels in the hands of three large multinationals translates into worse conditions for independents, such as streaming models that demonetize their content and that they have no choice but to accept.”
The report highlights the importance of strengthening the relationship with record labels and investing in the education of key players. “[It] reaffirms the need to consolidate a professional, informed and collaborative ecosystem in Latin America,” Cristóbal Dañobeitia, director of OLMI, said in a statement. “The union between key players and investment in education, research and technology are essential to ensure equitable and sustainable growth.”
Titled “La Música Independiente en Latinoamérica: Cadena de Valor y Distribución Digital” (“Independent Music in Latin America: Value Chain and Digital Distribution”), the study was commissioned by WIN and developed by an interdisciplinary team of experts from OLMI, in collaboration with trade associations ABMI, IMICHILE and AMI PY, as well as AMPROFON, Sociedad Chilena de Autores e Intérpretes Musicales (SCD), Alianza Francesa Costa Rica and Universidad de los Andes.
To access the full report (in Spanish) click here.
LISA is feeling emotional as she checks out of the White Lotus. Following the show’s finale, the BLACKPINK star reflected on her first-ever acting gig in a heartfelt Instagram post Tuesday (April 8), writing, “What a ride.”
“Thank you Mike White for trusting in me to fulfill the role of Mook and bring her character to life,” LISA continued, sharing a slew of photos taken on set in her home country of Thailand, where the third season of the hit Max series was filmed. “It was the greatest honor to be part of this show as my first acting gig alongside such incredible actors. And I’m so proud to be able to share my culture and show the beauty of Thailand to the world.”
“Mook has changed my life in a way where I am learning more about myself and my capabilities,” added the K-pop star. “My Sunday nights may feel a lot emptier but closing out The White Lotus with a full heart.”
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LISA’s post comes two days after the final episode of White Lotus season three premiered on Max. On the show, the “Rockstar” singer played an employee of the fictional hotel chain’s Thailand location and starred opposite Tayme Thapthimthong — whose character Gaitok had a big crush on Mook — in many of her scenes.
In one of the photos LISA posted, Thapthimthong lies on the floor in a staging area behind the scenes of White Lotus, smiling at the girl group star’s camera. In other pictures, LISA — wearing her khaki White Lotus uniform — sits on the beach in a director’s chair, watches back one of her scenes on a tablet on set and hangs out with an adorable dog. She also included a video of herself mastering driving Mook’s scooter with the help of a few crew members, hilariously letting out an anxious screech before riding down the street.
LISA’s turn on White Lotus was just one of a few major projects she worked on during BLACKPINK’s hiatus over the past year or so. She also dropped her debut solo album, Alter Ego — which debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and featured collaborations with Doja Cat and RAYE, Megan Thee Stallion, Rosalía and more — in February.
Now that her first solo album is out and White Lotus is wrapped up, LISA will now gear up to reunite with her BLACKPINK bandmates this summer. The girl group is currently working on new music and will embark on a world tour kicking off in July, marking the foursome’s first trek since 2022-23’s Born Pink World Tour.
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There’s been a new addition to the Shady Crew. Eminem’s daughter Hailie Jade Scott has welcomed a son with her husband Evan McClintock.
Elliot Marshall McClintock was born on March 14, 2025, and his proud mom recently shared his first public photo, writing, “happy due date//3 weeks earthside little e 🤍,” Scott said.
The baby’s middle name is an ode to her father, whose real name is Marshall Mathers.
Little Elliot is the Grammy Award-winning rapper’s first grandchild.
In a music video last year, for his song, “Temporary,” the rapper shared some rarely seen home movies in tribute to his daughter, and at the end, Hailie presented him with a Detroit Lions jersey with “Grandpa” embroidered across the back. The 52-year-old rapper’s jaw dropped and his eyes teared up at the announcement.
Scott, 29, hosts a podcast called “Just a Little Shady,” recently shared on her show her excitement about becoming a mother. “It’s so weird to think about… I can’t even wrap my head around it,” Scott said, according to People Magazine. “I have to meet this human that I’ve created. What’s he gonna look like? What’s he gonna … what’s his personality gonna be [like]? It’s strange but super exciting.”
Eminem has famously written numerous songs in celebration of his daughter. Songs like “Just the Two of Us,” and “My Dad’s Gone Crazy,” have featured her voice. She and her husband met while attending Michigan State University, where she majored in psychology. She is currently an influencer and on the fourth season of her popular podcast.
Turnstile has announced its first album in four years: Never Enough, the long-awaited follow-up to the hardcore band’s 2021 breakthrough Glow On, will be released on June 6, the band revealed on Tuesday (April 8). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In addition, Turnstile shared a preview […]