Music
Wazupnaija – Naija Entertainment blogs & Forums – Entertainment – Music
Viggo Mortensen’s Falling Is Exhausting: Review
This review was originally part of our coverage of the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: In Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut, gay Air Force pilot John (Mortensen) struggles to care for his ailing conservative father, Willis (Lance Henriksen). Malcontent and never afraid to shy away from a racist, homophobic or sexist rant, Willis offends everyone from John’s husband Eric (Terry Chen) to his daughter Sarah (Laura Linney), all while he slips in and out of flashbacks, including his two marriages to wives Gwen (Hannah Gross) and Jill (Bracken Burns). Grumpy Old Man: Early in Falling, as the relationship between John and Willis is being established, it’s clear that Henriksen is exceptional in the role. Willis is the kind of curmudgeonly character whose edges are too often ...
NOFX’s Fat Mike on His Sobriety, Sexuality: ‘I Think I Came Out of the Closet Even More’
Fat Mike of NOFX has never been shy about voicing his opinions and speaking the truth about his reality, but he’s taken his honesty to a new level with “Fuck Euphemism,” the brand new single off of the upcoming Single Album. The song itself (and accompanying animated music video) is full of the thoughtful wordplay that’s made them one of the dominating forces in punk for over 30 years now, but the subject matter is a full-frontal look at Mike’s struggle of where he fits in with the current gender identity standards echoing throughout society. Of course, that makes sense for the second single off of their latest work, as Single Album (which was apparently supposed to be a double album before getting cut down) is likely the darkest and most personal material the band has ever put out. SPIN s...
Gang of Four Box Set Gets New Release Date, Share Previously Unreleased Demo
Influential post-punk lineup Gang of Four will put out Gang of Four: 77-81, a limited-edition box set of early work. Ahead of the release, “Damaged Goods” and a demo of the unreleased song “Elevator” have been shared. Gang of Four: 77-81 includes Entertainment! and Solid Gold (both remastered from the original analog tapes), a singles LP, and a double-LP of the never-officially-released Live at American Indian Center 1980. The collection arrives on March 12 in LP and CD editions. The collection was originally supposed to arrive in 2020 but was delayed because of production issues. Additionally, the package includes two new badges, a C90 cassette tape compiling 26 never-before-issued outtakes, rarities and studio demos from Entertainment! and Solid Gold, and a 100-...
The Last Remaining Juke Joints in America
Ten years ago, some buddies and I made a film called We Juke Up in Here. It was an insiders’ journey into the underbelly of Mississippi’s surviving juke joint culture. Three years later, The New York Times showed up on my doorstep. “How many such places still exist?” the reporter asked. “With actual real, live blues music at least sporadically?” I clarified. “Maybe five.” I gave them the list to visit in a three-state region, centered by Mississippi. And they did. Red Paden outside Red’s Lounge (Clarksdale, MS, 2011) CREDIT: Lou Bopp The Great Migration In Reverse In the early 1990s, I often took a cheap Southwest Airlines flight from my native Dayton, Ohio to Chicago in search of down-home blues venues like Lee’s Unleaded and Rosa’s. Then, in 1995, my advertising career moved me to ...
Cannibal Corpse Announce New Album Violence Unimagined
Death metal pioneers Cannibal Corpse have announced their 15th studio album, Violence Unimagined — one of our most anticipated heavy albums of 2021. They also premiered the lead single, “Inhuman Harvest”, on Monday (February 1st) via SiriusXM’s “Liquid Metal” program. Needless to say, Cannibal Corpse haven’t let up over their 30-plus year career, and “Inhuman Harvest” is as brutal as ever. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher spews forth his vocals offer a bed of necrotic downtuned death metal. It’s classic Cannibal Corpse, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. That said, it’s uncertain whether troubled guitarist Pat O’Brien is on the recording. All signs indicate that O’Brien — who was involved a bizarre incident involving over 80 firearms and human skulls in 2018 — was not in the studio when C...
Kelsey Grammer in Talks for Frasier Reboot
The executives at ViacomCBS are hankering for toss salad and scrambled eggs, hoping for a revival of the hit sitcom Frasier. As Variety reports, the company is in early talks with star Kelsey Grammer for a reboot that would air on Paramount+, its rebranded streaming service set to replace CBS All Access. Frasier was the Dave Grohl to Cheers’ Nirvana; a spin-off from a beloved cultural institution that went on to outlast the original. Starring Grammar, David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin, and John Mahoney, who died in 2018, Frasier ran from 1993 to 2004, winning a record-breaking 37 Primetime Emmy Awards and taking home five consecutive trophies for Outstanding Comedy Series. At a time when far less successful franchises have been brought back fro...
R.I.P. Dustin Diamond, Saved by the Bell’s “Screech” Dead at 44
Dustin Diamond, the actor who famously played Screech on Saved by the Bell, has died at the age of 44. Last month, Diamond was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. TMZ reports that he passed away early Monday (February 1st). Born January 7th, 1977, Diamond said goodbye to a normal childhood at the age of 11, when he appeared in the first non-pilot episode of the Disney Channel original series Good Morning, Miss Bliss. That show transferred to NBC in 1989, in the process moving from John F. Kennedy Junior High to Bayside High School and acquiring the new name Saved by the Bell. Diamond played the role of Samuel “Screech” Powers throughout the show’s initial run (1989-93), plus the TV movie Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style (1992), the sequel series The College Years (1993-94), the two-h...
PVT CHAT Gets Kink Right: Review
This review was originally part of our Fantasia Festival 2020 coverage. The Pitch: Jack (Peter Vack) is a lonely boy in the big city. He lives in a rundown apartment—the only kind anyone can afford in New York City–where his windows are duct-taped over and his day-to-day involves either bowls of Maruchan ramen or online poker games. But he also engages in BDSM scenes with a number of cam girls, and one in particular has caught his eye. Enter Scarlet (Julia Fox), who dominates Jack from afar, making him a human ashtray as smoke billows out from her big beautiful lips. As time ticks away and more and more money is dropped, Jack and Julia begin to connect on a deeper level, a connection that sets both parties up for twists that audiences will never see coming. I’ll Always Love You New York: W...
Sting, Dolly Parton, Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Legend Turn Out for Quarantunes Fundraiser
“As we struggle through this unprecedented moment and dream of how we will come out the other side as a stronger, more responsive company, it is heartening to see the support from so many friends from both sides of the stage. The artists and performers who came together to make this special night and our patrons and supporters are helping to make sure that theater remains a vital part of our community as we move forward,” said CTG managing director and CEO Meghan Pressman, who spoke during the event along with artistic director Michael Ritchie. Pressman added that she was particularly grateful to the Weitzes for dedicating so much time and energy to the CTG cause. (They have raised north of $17 million since the start of the pandemic for a long list of organizations.) “It is a testimony to...
Nicole Scherzinger Signs With Range Media Partners
Her work in theater included the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats in London’s West End, earning her an Olivier Award nomination while among her movie work was a voice part in Disney’s Moana and a part in a remake of Dirty Dancing. Outside of the entertainment space, Scherzinger works closely with Special Olympics, UNICEF and CAST LA as a global ambassador of their international relief efforts and she is considered a tastemaker in categories such as health, fitness, fashion, lifestyle and beauty. This article originally appeared in THR.com. 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, sharing...
Dolly Parton Declined Trump’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, Twice
Former POTUS Barack Obama has spoken with regret for having overlooked awarding Parton with the Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. “That was a screwup,” he told late night TV host Stephen Colbert in an interview last year. “I’m surprised. She deserves one,” he continued, adding, “I’ll call Biden.” Now that Joe Biden is president, will Dolly accept if the offer was made? “Now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure,” she explained on The Today Show. “I don’t work for those awards,” Dolly continued. “It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But that’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.” She mig...
Katy Perry and Common to Appear at L.A. Fundraiser ‘Icons on Inspiration’
The show will be available free to stream beginning Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. PT and will remain available through March 6. Proceeds from the fundraiser will sustain the ongoing work of the Phil, its musicians and future work in engaging and entertaining audiences. “This year, music has been a lifeline for so many of us, helping to bring us together in spirit through the many challenges,” Dudamel offered. “We wanted to create an event that honored that sense of hope and connection and celebrated the way that the orchestra can unite us in the service of something greater than ourselves. To be able to share the stage with these extraordinary cultural icons is a dream and privilege, and to be able to perform some of their favorite pieces of music is a gift.” Also featured between the conversatio...
