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Music News: Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac over firing

Fleetwood Mac at the MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony in 2018.
Fleetwood Mac at the MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony in 2018.Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
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by Jay Gabler

October 12, 2018

Above, listen to an episode of The Current's daily Music News podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up for a daily Music News e-mail.


Lindsey Buckingham has sued his former Fleetwood Mac bandmates over their decision to fire him from the band so they could go on tour despite his wishes not to. Citing a contract with Live Nation, Buckingham is suing Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and John McVie for "breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and international interference with prospective economic advantage," reports Rolling Stone.

Buckingham says that negotiations with the band over the months since the break was announced have been unsuccessful. Fleetwood Mac, whose new members Neil Finn and Mike Campbell are referred to in the lawsuit as "contract players," say they question Buckingham's "true motivations" in allowing press to see the lawsuit before delivering it to the people being sued.

"Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again," Buckingham says he was told at the time of the break.

Activists who convinced Lorde to cancel Israel show ordered to pay damages

Two New Zealand activists have been ordered to pay approximately $13,000 in damages for convincing Lorde to cancel a planned Israel show. The concert was scheduled for this past summer in Tel Aviv, but Lorde canceled the show after Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab penned an op-ed on a New Zealand website arguing that Lorde (also a New Zealander) should boycott Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The lawsuit was brought by three Israeli teens who were hoping to attend the show. It's significant beyond the music world because it may be the first action brought under a new Israeli law allowing people to bring suit against those who encourage boycotts of the country, if they can demonstrate that the boycott has harmed them. (Rolling Stone)

Wu-Tang series coming to Hulu

A ten-part TV series dramatizing the origins of the Wu-Tang Clan is headed to Hulu. The show will be set in Staten Island during the '90s, and it's written by the RZA along with screenwriter Alex Tse. In a statement, RZA sounded...excited. "This opportunity to continue the Wu-Saga in a 10-episode series will exponentially increase our inspirational style of entertainment," he said about Wu-Tang: An American Saga. The show is just moving into development, so we're still a ways out from a premiere announcement.

In the statement, RZA also cited a line delivered by Ol' Dirty Bastard when he crashed Shawn Colvin's Song of the Year acceptance speech at the 1998 Grammys. "Wu-Tang is for the children!" (Rolling Stone)

Today's new releases

Kurt Vile: Bottle It In

The prolific rocker Kurt Vile is releasing his seventh solo album, his eighth if you include his 2017 Courtney Barnett collaboration Lotta Sea Lice. "The ranging album from the Philadelphia songwriter adopts a drifting mind as its emotional compass," writes Pitchfork in a 7.0 review. "There's no rush to get where he's going, and he rarely checks to see if you're still following along."

Ella Mai: Ella Mai

It may seem odd to call a debut album "long-awaited," but that's definitely the case with the new self-titled LP from Ella Mai, a 23-year-old British-born American immigrant singer-songwriter with Jamaican and Irish ancestry. Her charming single "Boo'd Up" hit the U.S. top five this year, and the album contains a mix of burbling R&B bops and slow jams you can play during cuffing season with your boo'd-up bae. A prime example: "Everything," a duet with John Legend.

Angélique Kidjo: Remain in Light

Given the strong African influence in Talking Heads' post-punk, it makes a lot of sense that the veteran Beninese artist Angélique Kidjo would cover their 1980 classic Remain in Light and make it utterly her own. The Afrobeat album features appearances by Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend) and Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), among others.

Yoko Ono: "Imagine"

Yoko Ono has released a new recording of "Imagine," the classic song she co-wrote with her late husband John Lennon. The track will appear on Warzone, a forthcoming album that finds the 85-year-old Ono re-imagining songs from throughout her career. The full album comes out next Friday. Ono released her take on "Imagine" this past Tuesday, to mark what would have been Lennon's 78th birthday. (The Guardian)


Songs sampled in podcast
Jahzzar: "Comedie" (CC BY 4.0)
BoxCat Games: "Against the Wall" (CC BY 3.0)
Wu-Tang Clan: "Protect Ya Neck"
Angelique Kidjo: "Once in a Lifetime"
Ella Mai feat. John Legend: "Everything"
Kurt Vile: "Loading Zones"
Yoko Ono: "Imagine"