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NBA Player Kevin Love to Host Mental Health Q&A With Demi Lovato and Marshmello
Just over a week ago, Demi Lovato and Marshmello‘s hotly anticipated collaboration “Ok Not To Be Ok” was released on World Suicide Prevention Day. In light of the melancholic pop ballad, the two artists have now scheduled a forthcoming Q&A session to discuss the subject of mental health and wellness, which will be hosted by Kevin Love. The star Cleveland Cavaliers center recently penned an introspective essay for the Players Tribune titled “To Anybody Going Through It,” wherein he explains his own day-to-day struggles of life during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Love has been a vocal advocate for mental well-being in the NBA and has been open about his battle with anxiety and depression on and off the court. For next week’...
Fyre Festival Lawsuit Settled Between Organizers and Talent, Including Major Lazer and Disclosure
A Fyre Festival lawsuit between the infamous event’s organizers and their scheduled performers, including Major Lazer and Disclosure, has been settled. In December 2019, Gregory Messer, a litigation trustee, launched 14 lawsuits against Fyre Festival’s partners in a bid to recoup losses for the event’s creditors and investors who were fleeced in the operation. The lawsuit sought the return of $2.8 million in expenses paid to the artists and their representation, including Creative Artists Agency and Nue Agency. Messer and the defendants have now settled with a total of $360,000 in expenses returned. The bulk of the funds returned came from Paradigm Talent Agency, which represents Major Lazer and Disclosure, who were slated to perform at the calamitou...
Major Lazer Explore Sounds of Ghana and Nigeria in New “Chasing The Sound” Documentary
Major Lazer have dropped a trailer for their forthcoming documentary Chasing The Sound, which depicts the hit-making trio’s recent tour stops and exploration of culture in Ghana and Nigeria. Diplo, Ape Drums, and Walshy Fire of Major Lazer dive into the West Africa’s native Afrobeats genre and how the style has flourished into an impactful artistic movement, shaping broader mainstream music worldwide. The documentary highlights the movements of key players, including Mr Eazi, who recently worked with the group on “Oh My Gawd” alongside Nicki Minajand K4mo. “It’s an enormous scene there that’s taking over the world,” Diplo comments in the trailer. Walshy Fire goes on to tie the explorative venture back to Major Lazer’s mis...
LOUDNESS: 30th-Anniversary Expanded Edition Of ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ Due Next Week
The 30th-anniversary edition of LOUDNESS‘s “Soldier Of Fortune” album will be made available in Japan on September 23. The expanded version of the LP will include rough-mix recordings from the “Soldier” sessions, previously unreleased demos, the “You Shook Me” music video, footage of a Japanese TV show performance and video of LOUDNESS‘s 2015 reunion with singer Michael Vescera at the Loud Park festival in Japan. Billed as SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, the group performed material from Vescera‘s time in LOUDNESS (see video below). “Soldier Of Fortune” 30th-anniversary edition track listing: Disc 1 01. Soldier Of Fortune 02. You Shook Me 03. Danger Of Love 04. Twenty-Five Days From Home 05. Red Light Shooter 06. Running For Cover 07. L...
Ex-MACHINE HEAD Guitarist PHIL DEMMEL Says Some Songs On ‘The Blackening’ Would Not Have Happened Without His Contributions
Former MACHINE HEAD guitarist Phil Demmel says that he is proud of his contributions to the band’s “The Blackening” album. Released in 2007, the Grammy-nominated LP was recognized three years later by the U.K.’s Metal Hammer as the “Album Of The Decade”. The magazine said at the time that “The Blackening” “not only re-established MACHINE HEAD as one of the most important metal bands on the planet, but also made a mockery of the increasingly popular notion that the age of the album is dead.” Speaking to the “Aftershocks” podcast, Demmel said (see video below): “People hail [‘The Blackening’] as this huge thing. The dudes in METALLICA were really inspired by that record, and I had a lot to do with that ...
Ex-ILL NIÑO Vocalist CRISTIAN MACHADO Says He Has Seen ‘A Very Known Act Directing Racism’ At Another Known Band While On Tour
In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, former ILL NIÑO vocalist Cristian Machado was asked if ever felt racism in the metal music world from others in the industry or fans. He responded (see video below): “Me, personally, I was very blessed that I came up in the New York City music scene. The melting pot in New York City is massive. I mean, if you live in New York City and you aren’t acquainted friends with people of other cultures, people of color, then you’re probably secluded, not coming out of your house. But New York City is very, very vast with cultures. I was blessed in that aspect of having come up in a music scene that’s very inclusive to Latinos and to blacks and to Asians even. The New York hardcore scene is full of Latinos and Asians a...
KORN’s FIELDY Says ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’ Was ‘One Of The Hardest Songs’ He’s Ever Had To Learn
KORN bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu spoke to Rock Titan TV about how difficult it has been for him and his bandmates to not be able to tour extensively behind their “The Nothing” album due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe. He said: “Well, it was hard. We got lucky enough to [have done] the BREAKING [BENJAMIN] tour on ‘The Nothing’. No, we didn’t get to support it as much as we wanted to. It’s one of our most favorite records we’re most proud of, because it was [made] during the roughest times [for singer Jonathan Davis]. The whole tour finished with BREAKING BEN, to the last day, and that’s when the whole world shut down. We were, like, ‘Wow.’ We were so thankful we got to at least finish...
Stevie Nicks, Pearl Jam and More React to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death
The world lost a true hero on Friday night when revolutionary Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. When news of her passing broke, musicians flocked to social media to pay their respects. Stevie Nicks penned a poignant tribute to the “political rock star,” comparing her death to that of Nicks’ own mother and lamenting that they never met. “I so believed that she would live for a few more years,” she wrote in her lengthy statement. “I wanted to meet her. I wanted to hold her hand and give her a huge hug and thank her for all she had done for women, and for all she would continue to do.” The members of Pearl Jam took a more straightforward approach with their tribute, writing, “A life that was the very definition of servic...
The Replacements Refresh Old Footage For New ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ Video
As the release date of their Pleased to Meet Me deluxe edition set looms closer, the Replacements are continuing to get fans excited by sharing never before released material from that era. After sharing two demos last month (“I Don’t Know” and “I.O.U.“) the band premiered a new video for the track “Can’t Hardly Wait.” The updated visuals may look familiar to fans: they’re constructed from the same 1987 footage that was used for two other videos during Pleased to Meet Me’s initial rollout. The film was originally shot for “The Ledge;” however, that video was infamously pulled from MTV for “objectionable song content,” so the band re-used it for the follow-up, “Alex Chilton.” Its latest iteration comes with an HD resolution upgrade and remastered audio. Watch the new “Can’t Hardly...
50 Years Ago, Black Sabbath Deliver the Magnificent Paranoid
The “sophomore slump” has spelt the beginning of the end for quite a few rock acts over the years. But looking back, one of the cases in which the exact opposite occurred was when Black Sabbath delivered one of the greatest metal albums of all time, Paranoid. The Birmingham, UK-based band – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward – had already caught the attention of rock fans with their detuned and doomy self-titled debut (released in February 1970 in the UK, and June in the United States). And they wasted no time capitalizing on the buzz – issuing Paranoid in the UK on September of that year. (It would arrive in the States in January 1971.) While Sabbath amazingly knocked out the recording of their debut album in a single day, they would t...
Alone Is Cold, Rainy, and Muddy Survival Horror: Review
The Pitch: Recently widowed Jessica (Jules Willcox) attempts to leave her past by absconding into the Pacific Northwest wilderness. Unfortunately for her, those plans are literally derailed after a harrowing run-in with a cold-blooded killer. Following a series of very unfortunate events, Jessica finds herself kidnapped, beaten, and locked away in a remote cabin. But there’s hope! She manages to escape her captor, only to find herself in the middle of nowhere … completely alone … except for her pursuer. Bare Bones: Screenwriter Mattias Olsson adapts his 2011 Swedish thriller Gone for American audiences with Alone. He keeps things lean and mean, though, eschewing any of the fat that traditionally comes with Hollywood remakes. Instead, subtlety is survival with this reimagining, and that’s p...
Artist of the Month Anjimile’s Giver Taker Is a Startlingly Beautiful Prayer to the Present: Review
The Lowdown: Anjimile Chithambo might be new to the spotlight, but he’s been paying attention for a long time. His debut album, Giver Taker, carries a wide variety of influences — among them church choirs, ’80s pop, African music, and indie-folk — and melds them together as if they were born for this, born to flow into one another. The Boston-based trans musician wrote much of Giver Taker while in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, and many of the songs are also concerned with his experiences coming out as trans and non-binary. As such, the entire album is papered with transformation, but through lenses of tenderness: the love implicit in confessions and the awe of one’s own resilience in the face of socialization and struggle. The Good: Would that I could just plop every single lyric f...
