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Music News: Matt & Kim tour derailed by onstage injury

Kim Schifino performs at Festival Vaiven in Mexico, wincing with pain from a knee injury resulting from a stage jump
Kim Schifino performs at Festival Vaiven in Mexico, wincing with pain from a knee injury resulting from a stage jumpMatt & Kim

by Jay Gabler

April 06, 2017

Matt & Kim are famous for their highly athletic performances, and an onstage jump in Mexico has resulted in a tour-ending knee injury for the group's Kim Schifino.

Late last month the drummer tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee during a jump onstage at Festival Vaivén, and after the duo played a few more songs, it was clear just how serious the injury was. They've had to cancel the remaining four shows on their tour, and say they won't be able to play again for nine months.

With typical candor, Schifino and her bandmate Matt Johnson detail the circumstances surrounding the injury and its aftermath in a pair of videos posted to YouTube. (Pitchfork)

Remembering two music notables

Bluesman Lonnie Brooks has died of undisclosed causes at age 83. A seasoned and acclaimed musician with a long string of albums on Chicago's Alligator Records, the Louisiana native is best-known for his 1980 cover of Robert Johnson’s "Sweet Home Chicago." (New York Times)

Producer Paul O'Neill has died of an undisclosed chronic illness at age 61. In the mid-1990s, O'Neill created Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a prog-rock band that became wildly popular for their heavy-hitting Christmas albums and over-the-top live shows. Last year alone, Trans-Siberian Orchestra concerts sold almost a million tickets. (Rolling Stone)

Gorillaz album was based on possibility of a Trump win

In a Beats 1 radio interview, Damon Albarn collaborator Pusha T — who appears, along with Mavis Staples, on the new Gorillaz single "Let Me Out" — says that the forthcoming Gorillaz album Humanz was based on Albarn's then-hypothetical idea that Donald Trump would win last year's U.S. presidential election.

"When I get over there," Pusha T said about going into the studio with Albarn long before the election, "Damon begins to tell me the album's a party for the end of the world if Trump were to win. This is conceptualized as a party for the world if Trump wins. I didn't even want to think about it, but it did give me a colorful backdrop into just being like, 'Say anything' and attack all issues that i wanted to attack...Mind you I wrote from the perspective of this day...of a Trump win. Then I started wondering, 'What type of crystal ball did this guy [Damon Albarn] have? Why are you even asking me to even think along these lines?' He really did; he was first. I don't think that he thought he was going to win but he definitely conceptualized this whole thing." (Billboard)

Neil Young is okay

When Neil Young had to call in sick for inducting Pearl Jam into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the upcoming Friday night ceremony (David Letterman will do the honors instead), some fans worried about the nature of Young's undisclosed illness. No need to worry, a representative for the rock legend tells Pitchfork: Young's illness is "nothing major."

New Tupac biopic trailer

There's a new trailer for All Eyez on Me, the Tupac Shakur biopic that hits theaters on the late rap icon's birthday, June 16. As Billboard notes, star Demetrius Shipp Jr. "bears an uncanny and almost eerie resemblance to Tupac."