Quasi at Slowdown Jr., Oct. 3, 2013, featured Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss on drums.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tripping around my twitter feed was news that Janet Weiss, the drummer for Sleater-Kinney, has left the band.

Big changes. pic.twitter.com/PWWHMWDLU9

— Janet Weiss (@jazzzhand) July 1, 2019

There is speculation that the “new direction” has something to do with St. Vincent’s role in the band’s new record. I wouldn’t be surprised, though I must tell you, I’ve liked the tracks off this new one more than any recent S-K release.

I’ve probably seen Weiss play more often in other projects, including Bright Eyes, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks and Quasi. Hope this frees her up to work with those artists in the future.

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While looking for background on the Weiss news I found an item in Pitchfork that says Spotify will no longer let artists upload music directly to their service. Independents will once again have to work through a third-party distributor to get their music on the service. Is that also the case with Apple Music? Seems like a bullshit thing for Spotify to do. That said, there’s always Bandcamp.

One wild dream has always been that established artists would be more aggressive with including quality unsigned artists’ submissions on their official Spotify playlists, or that these artists could be broken by being included on a play list of a “major influencer.” To my knowledge, this never happened.

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It’s July 1 which means it’s Canada Day which means it’s time for the annual Canada Day concert at The Waiting Room, tonight. Among the artists performing covers of Canadian songs are Korey Anderson, Bathtub Maria, 24 Hour Cardlock. The concert is a benefit for Siena/Francis House, and starts at 7 p.m. $8. Get your Canuck on.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.