The Isolation Check-In: New Music, Livestreams, Playlists, and More Amid Coronavirus

Pitchfork
·9 min read

With music fans responsibly self-isolating and social distancing and venues on lockdown, artists are finding creative ways to navigate the coronavirus outbreak and its profound impact on the entertainment industries. To help you keep track, Pitchfork is rounding up a daily slate of concert streams, digital gatherings, community support efforts, and other endeavors artists are undertaking to support everyone’s wellness. Check back to this page every day for new listings and recaps.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

  • Ben Gibbard: Live From Home: The Death Cab frontman’s nightly stream was an all-covers set. He took on song by Phoebe Bridgers, Elliott Smith, Def Leppard, Rilo Kiley, Big Star, Dylan, the Shins, and the Flaming Lips, as well as “The Bones Are Their Money” from the Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson.

  • Courtney Barnet and Lucius & Friends: At 6 p.m. Eastern, Lucius and Courtney Barnett will host a livestream concert on Lucius’ Instagram Live. The concert will benefit the Oxfam COVID-19 Relief Fund and will feature appearances from special guests Kurt Vile, the War on Drugs, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lukas Nelson, Fred Armisen, Sheryl Crow, Sharon Van Etten, Emily King, Bedouine, Jonathan Wilson, and more surprise guests. Watch it here.

  • Phil Cook: The singer-songwriter is hosting a livestream concert from his backyard to benefit the Durham Artist Relief Fund. The livestream of Happy Hour With Phil Cook begins at 5 p.m. Eastern over at Northstar Durham’s website.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

  • Leaving Records: Los Angeles’ Leaving Records is hosting a livestream event on Twitch called Listen to Music Safely From Your Home Next to A Fern. The Twitch livestream begins at 4 p.m. Eastern and features Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Cool Maritime, Matthewdavid’s Mindflight, and more.

Friday, March 20, 2020

  • At Home with TIDAL: TIDAL is livestreaming a number of performances for 12 hours. on the docket are TIDAL X: Rock the Vote, Made in America sets, and more.

  • Benjamin Gibbard: Taking a break from his “Live From Home” series, DCFC’s Ben Gibbard has recorded a new song for his beloved Seattle. It’s called “Life in Quarantine.”

  • Defected Virtual Festival: Defected Records is broadcasting a 12-hour virtual festival from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Eastern, featuring Joey Negro, The Shapeshifters, Dan Shake, and Simon Dunmore, live from London’s Ministry of Sound.

  • Laura Marling: The UK singer-songwriter is going live on her Instagram at 3 p.m. Eastern to give guitar lessons.

  • Jordan Rakei: Ninja Tune’s Jordan Rakei is creating a song from scratch, live on YouTube.

  • Neil Young: As promised, Neil Young held his first Fireside Session. Check out the rarities-filled set at the Neil Young Archives.

  • Swae Lee: One half of Rae Sremmurd hits Instagram Live at 8 p.m. for a special live performance, according to his Twitter. No time zone specified here—take a guess.

  • Fat Tony: The Houston rapper will livestream an empty Brooklyn concert from 9 p.m. Eastern on Friday night, benefitting the Houston Food Bank. Head to his YouTube page to watch, and donate here.

  • The War on Drugs: Adam Granduciel will debut new recordings on Instagram Live at 6 p.m. Eastern.

  • Liv.e Ft. Maxo: Los Angeles-based singer Liv.e shared a session from her home studio featuring two unreleased tracks from her upcoming LP Couldn’t Wait to Tell You, as well as a Steve Kuhn cover. She also performed a new, untitled song featuring Maxo, who dropped in to sing a few bars.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

  • Benjamin Gibbard: Live From Home: Ben Gibbard covered the Decemberists in his third “Live From Home” installment.

  • The Black Madonna: The Black Madonna DJed for two hours... from her kitchen! Watch the Boiler Room set below.

  • Luck Reunion: The annual Luck Reunion festival (set for March 19) was canceled due to coronavirus. So Willie Nelson is taking it digital. Luck Presents: ‘Til Further Notice will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern. Confirmed performs include Willie Nelson and his sons Lukas and Micah, Margo Price & Jeremy Ivey, and Jewel.

  • Niall Horan / Common: The former One Direction’er and the rapper/actor are hosting sets as part of the virtual concert series Together at Home, a collaborative effort between the World Health Organization and Global Citizen. Horan goes live on Instagram at 4 p.m. Eastern and Common will do the same at 6:30 pm Eastern.

  • La Blogothèque: Beloved for its intimate live sessions, La Blogothèque has responded to the lockdown in Paris by uploading all of its Soirées de Poches (Pocket Parties) series, shot in people’s apartments, to YouTube for free. Featuring Bon Iver, Charles Bradley, Vampire Weekend, Beach House, Sharon Van Etten, Run the Jewels and more.

  • of Montreal: The Athens, Georgia, group has opened a Patreon offering subscribers (deep breath): “exclusive songs/video-art/poems/psychedelic animations/tutorials/comedy/rants/critiques/odes/self-help/self-harm/ghost stories/bathtub confessions/oM news/health and beauty tips/critical skateboard missives/LOVE ADVICE/buxom emoji scatting/keyboard trills along the beard/orgone energy silkshakes/the occasional addled conversation...”

  • Third Man Records: Today marked the launched of Third Man Public Access. The daily performances will take place at Third Man’s Blue Room in Nashville. Watch new age pedal steel player Luke Schneider perform below.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

  • Arca: Arca has launched a chat server for fans with the goal of “providing a place for us to meet, stay connected and create new ways to find joy, vitality and faith in the midst of so many unknowns.”

  • Benjamin Gibbard: Live From Home: Ben Gibbard said his second show was “an all-request set.” Watch him cover New Order around the 40-minute mark.

  • Nowadays: The New York nightclub Nowadays will host “Virtual Nowadays,” a livestream on their website held from 8 p.m. to midnight Eastern. It will feature DJ sets, educational sessions, and talks. Check out the schedule on their website.

  • Rufus Wainwright: For a series he's calling Musical Everydays, Rufus Wainwright is playing one song from his extensive catalog every day on piano and posting it to Instagram. Hear “The Art Teacher” below.

  • Thao Nguyen: Thao Nguyen (of Thao & The Get Down Stay Down) is hosting a family-friendly livestream. Thao TV, she writes, is geared for parents with children home from school.

  • Wilco: In December 2019, Wilco hosted an intimate live performance and Q&A at a basketball court in the Chicago Athletic Association. Showcasing music from the band’s latest album Ode to Joy, the full thing is now available to watch via Songkick.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

  • The Armed: Detroit’s the Armed are inviting fans to collaborate on a new piece of music, “The Apocalypse Song.” The collective is letting fans download the stems of an unfinished track and inviting them to complete the job.

  • Benjamin Gibbard: Live From Home: Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard is going to host concerts from his home studio every day at 7 p.m. Eastern. They’ll broadcast on YouTube and Facebook. “We’re still working out the details but I’m hoping to take some requests and maybe even have a guest or two stop by digitally,” Gibbard wrote.

  • Chris Thile: Mandolinist Chris Thile, the host of radio variety show Live From Here, has launched the “Live From Home” series, which will offer a digital space for musicians to put on virtual concerts for fans. Thile kicked things off himself with a cover of Wilco’s “Radio Cure” and tagged artists such as Sara Bareilles and Jon Batiste to contribute to the series.

  • Christine and the Queens: Chris is hosting daily hangouts on her Instagram at 6 p.m. Eastern. “Guests and weird concepts included. 🕊♥️ ,” she promises.

  • Dan Mangan: Singer-songwriter Dan Mangan’s show at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall last week was canceled, but he and his band still performed in the empty venue and recorded the set. The aptly titled Show to Nobody is streaming on Mangan’s YouTube.

  • Hinds: Indie-pop group Hinds are currently on quarantine in their native Spain. Yesterday, they uploaded a tutorial on how to play their latest single “Come Back and Love Me.” They said, “Obviously if you can get yourself into playing music or doing something creative then it can actually help your mental health and staying calm.”

  • John Legend: John Legend hosted a concert from his home. Chrissy Teigen joined him.

  • Michael Stipe: R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” is getting an expected streaming boost due to coronavirus. Michael Stipe had some more encouraging words to share now that time’s have changed.

  • Neil Young: Fresh off his digital concert for Bernie Sanders, Neil Young is planning to launch a livestream series at the Neil Young Archives website. “We will try to do a stream from my fireplace with my lovely wife filming,” he wrote. “It will be a down-home production, a few songs, a little time together.”

Playlists

  • Drag City: The independent Chicago label made a “squeaky clean” playlist called “Disinfecting Wipes” in hopes of soothing fears and wiping the slate clean.

  • Hamilton Leithauser: Leithauser is inviting fans to his “quarantine hell” and taking suggestions for his “out of tune guitars” playlist.

  • Kevin Drew: Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew has created the Calm Jams for the Times of Now playlist. The first edition features his favorite ambient works.

  • Light in the Attic Records: Reissue label Light in the Attic is crowdsourcing tunes for its new playlist Calm in the Attic: An Ambient Playlist for Stressful Times.

  • Matt Berninger: The National’s Matt Berninger has launched the Social Distancing Distortion playlist to help people “stay healthy, body and mind.”

  • Phoebe Bridgers: The Stranger in the Alps singer-songwriter tipped her cap to Bhad Bhabie with a cheeky isolation playlist that plays on the phrase that made Danielle Bregoli famous.

  • 100 gecs: The gecs join the playlist game. “ear potions,” the duo writes. “its music idk....”

Read “A Working Guitarist in Italy’s Hardest-Hit Coronavirus City Talks Life Under Lockdown” and “How 14 Major Cities Are Responding to the Coronavirus.”

Watch Now: Pitchfork Video.

This article was originally published on Tuesday, March 17 at 1:33 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on Monday, March 23 at 10:24 a.m. Eastern.

Originally Appeared on Pitchfork