Normally, Taylor Mac’s days would follow a series of familiar scripts. Mac has a number of projects in the works, after all: a musical theater piece about Socrates called “The Hang,” as well as an eerily timely play called “Joy and Pandemic,” which is set before the outbreak of the 1918 flu pandemic.The playwright and performance artist, who prefers the pronoun “judy,” as in Garland, has been social distancing in the Berkshires, still writing while also supporting his Trickle Up initiative for artists impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. Like so many people, Mac’s taken up new routines, too, like playing the banjo and video chatting with friends over Zoom.The thing is, the days and weeks have started to run together. “It’s Blursday, in the month of Macramé,” Mac said.Mac tracked his cultural diary for a week while in isolation in April, which included listening to the new Fiona Apple album and watching James Bond movies on VHS. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Most Mornings:I wake up around 7 a.m. and I have breakfast and make everybody coffee, and I hang out. I always read The New York Times. I skip anything telling me what might happen, I just find those articles extremely annoying. The entire news has been taken over by what might happen, so I just scan the paper, and if something seems like it’s telling me what has happened, or what is happening, then I’ll read it. More

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Howard Donald describes his boyband as ‘business’ as the singer claims he and bandmates spent at least $13.7 million to produce impressive live shows for their fans.

Mar 26, 2021

AceShowbiz –
Howard Donald has jokingly branded Take That’s music “s**t.”

The 52-year-old boy band star has confessed that his band’s songs – which include mega-hits “Back for Good”, “Relight My Fire”, and “Patience” – are not necessarily his favourite tunes as he revealed he is a lover of electronic music.

He told the “Events That Made Me” podcast when asked which Take That songs are his favourites, “I don’t like any of them, they’re all s**t.”

On what he is listening to, he added, “At the moment I’ve got 15 boxes of vinyl, all dance music from the late 80s and 90s, I’m sifting through – Beck, Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk, Human League, Gary Numan.”

“I generally listen to a lot of electronic music – I listen to a lot of dance music.”

The musician hailed Take That “a business” and said they invest millions into making their live shows impressive for their fans.

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He said, “We’ve always said we want people to walk out of those arenas and say: ‘Wow. It was an amazing show. I got my $109 (£80) worth.’ ”

“Production wise, you could spend anywhere between $13.7 million (£10million) – $20.5 million (£15million) producing a show like that.”

“Then obviously you’ve got to do enough shows to get your money back, otherwise you would be doing it for free. And we are a business at the end of the day.”

And Howard – who is joined in the group by Gary Barlow, 50, and Mark Owen, 49, in the current lineup – insisted you don’t have to be into the “Rule the World” hitmakers’ music to enjoy their performances.

He added, “We never used to see guys at our show, and bit by bit the girlfriends would be bringing the guys, and the guys would have their arms in the air.”

“They’ve come along because they know Take That’s going to deliver a performance – whether you like the music or not.”

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Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.The Rolling Stones, ‘Living in a Ghost Town’[embedded content]A song the Rolling Stones had worked on last year, “Living in a Ghost Town” turned out to be unexpectedly timely. It’s a muscular, minor-key reggae-rocker that harks back to “Miss You” (along with the Specials’ 1981 “Ghost Town” and a brief nod to Jimi Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic”). The video has studio shots of the Stones together pre-pandemic, but the lyrics were revised in isolation, and Mick Jagger yowls them with commitment. “Life was so beautiful — then we all got locked down,” he sings, and concludes, annoyed and rueful, “If I wanna party, it’s a party of one.” JON PARELESEvanescence, ‘Wasted on You’The first song from the first new Evanescence album of original music in nine years is cathartic and familiar. There is Amy Lee’s voice, somewhere between ferocious and hymnal. And there is the arrangement, part understated hard rock and part power soul ballad. And there is the rendering of melodramatic subject matter with power and quasi-Christian grace: “I don’t need drugs/I’m already six feet low/wasted on you.” JON CARAMANICAJuice WRLD, ‘Righteous’Juice WRLD was 21 when he died in December from an accidental overdose of oxycodone and codeine. In his first posthumous single, he sings about pills and codeine, “Takin’ medicine to fix all of the damage/my anxiety the size of a planet,” over the kind of minor-key guitar picking he also used in his megahit “Lucid Dreams.” (He adds, “We may die this evening.”) Although it may be a studio illusion, the song sounds like it was largely finished; Juice WRLD saw his self-destructive path. PARELES More

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According to Dick Clark Productions, the ‘Whiskey Glasses’ singer will not be ‘performing, presenting or accepting’ any possible trophies at the 2021 music awards show.

Apr 30, 2021

AceShowbiz –
Morgan Wallen has been banned from Billboard Music Awards following his N-word controversy. On Thursday, April 29, it was announced that the “Whiskey Glasses” singer is not invited to the 2021 music awards show and nixed his chance to win any award despite getting six nominations.

“With our content reaching millions of viewers, dcp and MRC have the privilege and responsibility to effect change by creating a more inclusive dialogue in our productions and across the industry,” so read a statement from Dick Clark Productions. “Morgan Wallen is a finalist this year based on charting. As his recent conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting).”

“It is heartening and encouraging to hear that Morgan is taking steps in his anti-racist journey and starting to do some meaningful work,” the message continued to read. “We plan to evaluate his progress and will consider his participation in future shows.”

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At the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, the former contestant of “The Voice” season 6 garnered six nominations thanks to his “Dangerous: The Double Album”. They included Top Country Male Artist, Top Country Artist, Top Country Album, Top Song Sales Artist and Top Country Song. He got two nods in the last category.

Morgan was excluded from the show after he was caught using the N-word in a video filmed by his neighbor in late January. In the following month, he issued his apology via Instagram by saying, “Obviously the natural thing to do is apologize further and just continue to apologize but because you got caught and that’s not what I wanted to do… My words matter. My words can truly hurt a person and at my core, that’s not what I’m okay with.”

Earlier this month, Morgan informed his fans that he will not return to the stage this summer. “I wanted to let you guys know that I’ve taken a couple months away and feel like I’ve really worked on myself. I’m proud of the work I’ve put in and in many ways thankful to have had the time to do it. I’ve needed this time off,” he penned in a handwritten note shared on Instagram.

“I found this time away to be very valuable to me in many ways, but I feel like I need a little more of it and therefore will not be performing tour dates this summer,” the 27-year-old added. “It means I won’t be playing festivals or the Luke Bryan tour dates. But it’s important to me personally, if you can, still go to these shows – support country music. Country music is back and that’s a beautiful damn thing.”

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Mr. Thomas was a co-founder of the band, which was known for its hits such as “Celebration,” “Get Down on It” and “Jungle Boogie.”Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, a saxophonist and a founding member of the band Kool & the Gang, died on Saturday in New Jersey. He was 70.Mr. Thomas died in his sleep, according to a statement from his representatives that did not specify a cause of his death or where in New Jersey he died.Mr. Thomas was a co-founder of the long-running band Kool & the Gang, known for hits such as “Celebration,” “Get Down on It” and “Jungle Boogie.” He saw the band, which experimented with sounds from soul, funk, jazz, pop and R&B, through numerous lineup changes.Mr. Thomas was a “huge personality” in the band, his representatives said, and he helped style the performers’ wardrobes to ensure “they always looked fresh.”“Dennis was known as the quintessential cool cat in the group, loved for his hip clothes and hats, and his laid-back demeanor,” the statement said.The band won a Grammy Award in 1978, the decade when several of its upbeat hits climbed the charts.Around the time the band won a Grammy, it entered a slow period before adding a new vocalist, J.T. Taylor, and adapting its sound to match the disco sensibilities of the era. The group re-emerged in 1979 with the smash “Ladies’ Night,” an ode to a night of partying and dancing.Kool & the Gang, which formed in 1964, experimented with sounds from soul, funk, jazz, pop and R&B.Echoes/RedfernsThe band members followed the hit with the 1980 song “Celebration,” a timeless classic that embodied the group’s buoyant sound. The track became a staple at sporting events and any other displays of joy and enthusiasm. The song was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, an honor reserved for 25 songs every year that showcase the rich heritage of American music.The band members lent their voices to the 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” A number of the decade’s biggest artists recorded the track to draw attention to a famine in Ethiopia.Mr. Thomas formed Kool & the Gang in 1964 with six of his friends — Robert Bell, known as Kool; Ronald Bell; Spike Mickens; Ricky Westfield; George Brown; and Charles Smith. They first called themselves the “Jazziacs,” the statement said, before settling on the name “Kool & the Gang,” a nod to Robert Bell.“We learned that we had to simplify, that most simple music will grab a wide part of the audience,” Mr. Thomas told The New York Times in 1973, about choosing the group’s musical style. “Everybody in the group was a jazz musician at heart, but we knew we had to play R&B to make money.”Mr. Thomas was the band’s “budget hawk” in the early days, his representatives said, adding that he could be seen “carrying the group’s earnings in a paper bag in the bell of his horn.”Mr. Thomas’s alto saxophone solos were featured on several of the band’s tracks. He could also play the flute and percussion instruments, and he was the master of ceremonies at the band’s shows.His last performance with the band was on July 4 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.Dennis Thomas was born on Feb. 9, 1951, in Orlando, Fla. He and his parents moved to Jersey City, N.J., when he was 2 years old, The Times reported in 1973. He grew up in the city’s Lafayette section, where he met the other founding members of Kool & the Gang.“We want to play a universal music,” Mr. Thomas said in 1973. “We want to lift our audiences up so they think about what they’ve heard.”The band had a dozen top 10 hits on the Billboard charts, and the group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015.Mr. Thomas was married to Phynjuar Saunders Thomas and lived in Montclair, N.J., his representatives said.One of his daughters, Michelle Thomas, was an actress on television shows, including “The Cosby Show,” “Family Matters” and “The Young and the Restless.” She died in 1998 of cancer at age 30. He was also preceded in death by another of his daughters, Tracy Jackson.In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter Tuesday Rankin; his sons David Thomas and Devin Thomas; his sisters Doris Mai McClary and Elizabeth Thomas Ross; his brother Bill Mcleary; an aunt and several nieces, nephews and grandchildren, the statement said. More