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Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun Earn Historic Best Actor Nominations at Academy Awards
Two of the best film performances of 2020 were Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal and Steven Yeun in Minari, and both actors were rightfully nominated for Best Actor at the upcoming Academy Awards because of such. However, in addition to the general excitement of Ahmed and Yeun getting those well-deserved nods, this also means they just made history as the first Muslim actor and first Asian American actor, respectively, to be nominated in the category. In Sound of Metal, Ahmed plays a heavy metal drummer named Ruben who’s learning to live with the loss of hearing, particularly in regards to his career as a musician and his love life — a performance that required him to study with an ASL coach for nearly a year. It’s an intimate and deeply moving character study, especially compared to the bi...
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Is An Audacious Mess: Review
The Pitch: Well, it’s finally here: the infamous “Snyder Cut.” The rallying cry of DC fanboys for nearly half a decade, Zack Snyder’s original version of the DC cinematic universe’s Avengers equivalent before studio meddling and a tragic death in the family led the oft-maligned director to step away and let Joss Whedon get his grubby, quippy little hands all over his self-serious, baroque baby. The 2017 version was visibly, obnoxiously, the product of two directors with warring approaches wrestling with a single project: Snyderesque aesthetics clashed mightily with repetitive, snarky repartee that didn’t seem to befit the DC verse’s grumpiest heroes. It was a bit more fun, but incredibly uneven, and featured one of cinema’s most horrifying upper lips. But now, amid enormous, organized...
Flogging Molly’s Dave King Just Wants to Bring Some Drunken Joy Back to St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is this week, and Flogging Molly isn’t about to leave everyone high and dry for a second straight year. Sure, COVID might’ve gotten in the way of their plans last year, but the Celtic punk legends are going above and beyond this year to bring a live-streamed show straight from Ireland just so fans around the world can chant along to “Drunken Lullabies” from the comfort of their own homes. Tickets start at $15 and go up from there, but at least you can rest assured knowing that you’ll get your money’s worth from vocalist Dave King, violinist Bridget Regan, and the rest of the band. Plus, the show is sponsored by Bushmills, which seems like a particularly appropriate partner at a time when everyone’s drinking enough to forget the fact that they haven’t been able to buy an o...
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Andra Day, H.E.R. Highlight Music Oscar Nominations
While the excitement of last night’s Grammy Awards is still fresh, the 2021 Oscar nominations landed this morning, with the prolific Nine Inch Nails duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross nabbing nominations for their work on David Fincher’s Mank and Pixar’s Soul. A pair of music films — Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The United States vs. Billie Holiday — received Best Actress in a Leading Role nods for their stars, Viola Davis and Andra Day, respectively. Late actor Chadwick Boseman was nominated for Best Actor in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. <!– // Brid Player Singles. var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ “div”: “Brid_10143537”, “obj”: {“id”:”25115″,”width”:”480″,”...
Cocteau Twins’ Milk & Kisses Turns 25
When Cocteau Twins broke up in 1998, it came as a surprise to virtually no one. Five years earlier, guitarist Robin Guthrie and vocalist Liz Fraser ended their 13-year romance, leaving the band to operate on thin ice. “To be honest with you, I’m amazed that we stayed together as long as we did,” admits former bassist Simon Raymonde, who now runs the Bella Union label and records as one-half of Lost Horizons. “I was expecting the band to break up after [Robin and Liz] broke up. A normal band would have done that! But looking back on it now you can see why we did stay together, because the music was really important to all of us.” <!– // Brid Player Singles. var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ “div”: “Brid_10143537”, “obj”: {“id”:”2511...
Kings Of Leon Rule Australia’s Albums Chart With ‘When You See Yourself’
Also new to the ARIA Albums Chat this week is A Day To Remember’s You’re Welcome, at No. 9. It’s the American post-hardcore band’s second Top 10 on the ARIA Charts, having hit No. 1 with their previous album, 2016’s Bad Vibrations. The Smith Street Band return to the chart with Unplugged In Wombat State Forest, the Melbourne rock band’s third live release in 12 months. It’s new at No. 11 on the national all-albums survey, and it’s this week’s best-seller on the ARIA Vinyl Albums Chart. Veteran Australia singer and songwriter Pete Murray impacts the chart for the first time since 2017 with The Night – EP, which starts at No. 22. Rising Australian funk/hip-hop artist Genesis Owusu makes his ARIA Top 50 debut with Smiling With No Teeth, bowing at No. 27. The Canberra artist collected AR...
Australia’s Chart Release Day Moves Forward to Friday
Every day, Australia enjoys the sunrise before most other countries. There’s a new dawn for the country’s official music charts, too, which are moving forward one day for a Friday publication. Starting From this Friday (March 19) the weekly ARIA charts will be published at 5pm, a full 24 hours earlier than usual. With the shift, Australia will be the first major market weekly charts available anywhere. “We hope this will provide more opportunities to promote the Australian market and local artists,” says a rep for ARIA, which compiles the charts. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, shari...
Taylor Swift’s ‘Floral Folklore’ Grammys Dress: Watch It Come Together
It was another big Grammy night for Swift, who made history with her third album of the year award for her surprise pandemic record Folklore, which she accepted with her musical collaborators, The National‘s Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. “I want to thank all of my collaborators who are on the stage,” Swift said in her acceptance speech. “But mostly, we just want to thank the fans. You guys met us in this imaginary world that we created, and we can’t tell you how honored we are forever by this. Thank you so much, and thank you to the Recording Academy. We will never forget that you did this for us. Thank you so much.” Taylor also thanked the fans again in a tweet, writing, “The fans are the reason we’re floating to...
Here Are All the Times That Females Swept the Big Four Grammys
1971 (presented March 14, 1972): Carole King won album (Tapestry), record (“It’s Too Late”) and song (“You’ve Got a Friend”). Carly Simon, who had her breakthrough hit in 1971 with the haunting “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” won best new artist. 1981 (presented Feb. 24, 1982): John Lennon & Yoko Ono took album (Double Fantasy), Kim Carnes won record (“Bette Davis Eyes”) and Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss won song for writing that smash. Sheena Easton, coming off such hits as “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” and “For Your Eyes Only,” took best new artist. 2006 (presented Feb. 11, 2007): Dixie Chicks (consisting of Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Robison) won album (Taking the Long Way), record and song (“Not Ready to Make Nice”). Carrie Underwood, coming off s...
Bruno Mars And Anderson Paak Slide Into Leisure Suits For Silk Sonic Debut
In 2018, shortly after Bruno Mars took the a few of the top honors at the Grammys, I implored every player to put their pinky rings up to the moon in celebration. Now, as the 2021 show marks his return to the stage for the first time since, I must swap in flared collars and dark sunnies for pinky rings — a soulful re-emergence is upon is. “Leave the Door Open,” Mars’s latest collaborative tune with Anderson .Paak, is a complete throwback to the time of Bobby Womack and Curtis Mayfield. As the supergroup Silk Sonic, the pair have gone full ’70s soul, and “Door” is characterized by its soft piano and smooth vocals, elements they brought to life on the Grammys stage Sunday night (March 14). By “stage,” I mean a dark set that nevertheless sparkle...
Folklore Or Evermore? Taylor Swift Chose Both At The Grammys
By Deepa Lakshmin To everyone who fantasizes about running away to start a new life in a cabin surrounded by towering trees and babbling streams, Taylor Swift’s 2021 Grammys performance is for you. The 10-time Grammy winner — who has six more nods tonight (March 14), including nominations for Album of the Year and Song of the Year — transformed the stage at Los Angeles’s Staples Center into an enchanted forest fit for a princess who never wants to be found. Swift certainly looked the part as she sang “Cardigan,” the lead single off 2020’s Folklore, in a patch of moss on a cabin rooftop. It would be very unlike Tay to stop there, of course. She just wrapped a busy year releasing two surprise albums and rerecording her old music, so she had to show off a few more of the hits she’d worked so ...
H.E.R. Honored George Floyd With ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ It Won Song Of The Year
After her powerful rendition of “America the Beautiful” at the Super Bowl, H.E.R.‘s big year keeps getting better. Last year’s winner Billie Eilish was nominated once again in the Song of the Year category for “Everything I Wanted,” it was H.E.R. who took home the coveted Grammy for her George Floyd-inspired song, “I Can’t Breathe.” “We wrote this song over FaceTime,” H.E.R. said while accepting the award with her co-writer Tiara Thomas, who joined her onstage. “I didn’t imagine that my fear and that my pain would turn into impact and it would possibly turn into change. That’s why I write music. That’s why I do this.” “These lyrics were kind of easy to write because it came from a conversation o...
