Netflix is unwrapping some big gifts in December 2020. The shiniest box under the proverbial tree is David Fincher’s Mank. The filmmaker’s first feature in six years stars Oscar winner Gary Oldman as legendary Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the drama that surrounded his work on Citizen Kane. Another star-studded feature is Ryan Murphy’s The Prom, a fish-out-of-water comedy that finds Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Keegan-Michael Key putting on a Broadway production in a small town. That should keep the family business. Elsewhere, there’s the highly anticipated Selena: The Series, the fourth season of Big Mouth, the fourth and final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the de facto seasonal docuseries The Holiday Movies That Made Us. EditorsR...
The Pitch: It’s 1971 and David Bowie (Johnny Flynn) is about to make it big. Well, actually, he already kind of had. He’d just released “Space Oddity”, which would have become legendary even if he’d never released another album. We’d still be hearing it in commercials like we do Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” regardless, so the “what if?” at the center of the movie isn’t quite as pulse-pounding as writer-director Gabriel Range and his co-scribe Christopher Bell seem to imagine it to be. Anyway, Bowie’s about to be famous, but he’s concerned that the US doesn’t like or get him and that the record label doesn’t know what to do with him. So, they send him to the US to introduce himself, which is about all he can do because his visa doesn’t allow him to play shows. So, he just ...
KISS frontman Paul Stanley has paid tribute to the band’s late drummer Eric Carr, calling him “a gentle soul” who “never spoke badly of anyone.” Carr replaced Peter Criss in KISS in 1980 and made his recording debut with the band on 1981’s “Music From ‘The Elder'” album. His final recording with KISS was “God Gave Rock And Roll To You II”. His last public appearance before his death was at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 1991. Earlier today, Stanley took to his Twitter to write: “Eric was a major force both musically and spiritually while in KISS. His battle with cancer seemed all the more cruel because of his kindness and his never speaking badly of anyone. A gentle soul and I honor him on this day he left his...
Moving into yet another artistic medium, modern rock storyteller Claudio Sanchez of COHEED AND CAMBRIA has announced a partnership between his comic book brand Evil Ink and leading action figure manufacturer and collectible producer NECA to release the inaugural line of “The Amory Wars” action figures. Pre-orders are live today on the band’s official site and are expected to ship for the holidays. This fulfills a dream for Sanchez, as he integrates the sci-fi concept behind his band’s concept albums (“The Amory Wars”) into the toy space for the first time. Story protagonists, Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon come to life as intricately detailed eight-inch fully posable action figures with detachable weapon accessories. To promote the figures, the band shared...
On December 26, Grey Haven Media will release video a conversation between current EXODUS frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza and the band’s former vocalist Rob Dukes, recorded earlier in the month at Zetro‘s studio in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of Souza‘s “Zetro’s Toxic Vault” YouTube interview series. The one-hour-plus discussion is described as “raw and uncensored, with no stone left unturned.” Said Zetro: “This was the most insightful discussion I have had on the Vault. I learned things about EXODUS! My producer and I had discussed what to do with this interview. We decided on a pay-per-view event to cover expenses. Don’t worry, this groundbreaking interview will be up on the Toxic Vault at some point. We thank yo...
ASHES OF ARES, the band featuring former ICED EARTH members Matt Barlow and Freddie Vidales, will release a 12-inch black vinyl EP, “Throne Of Iniquity”, on December 18 via ROAR! Rock Of Angels. Limited to 300 copies, the EP that contains one new ASHES OF ARES song, “Throne Of Iniquity”, as well as two cover tracks, CHICAGO‘s “25 Or 6 To 4” and KANSAS‘s “Dust In The Wind”. For the recordings, the duo was reinforced by Kyle Taylor on drums and BASTION’S WAKE‘s Ray Hunter, who plays the acoustic guitar on “Dust In The Wind”. This EP will be also availabe as digital stream/download and is the forerunner of the band’s third full-length album that will follow in 2021. Barlow said in a statement: “Fre...
“Dad’s coat,” one bubble reads. “Brother’s shirt, Mom’s pants,” read little arrows, tracing the origins of the tuxedo flailing across the screen. The belt, however, belongs to the body it’s on. As does the song it dances to and these helpful tidbits from the accompanying “pop up” music video — all from the restless imagination of Abhinav Bastakoti, aka Curtis Waters. “Curtis Waters as a whole project has been around since I was a kid, a comic book character that I used to draw,” he tells SPIN. “I wanted it to feel like an alternate universe where there’s this character, but it gets kind of blurry now ‘cause I’m Curtis Waters full time.” Waters was propelled into the shoes of his persona by the success of his single “Stunnin,’” featuring his longtime friend Harm Franklin. Accumul...
Garrett Lockhart, who to friends and fellow musicians was affectionately known as i_o, tragically passed away at the age of 30 on Monday, November 3rd. The gifted techno and deep house producer was coming into his own, in every sense of the term. Since shedding his skin as Fawks, an alias in which he cut his teeth in the electronic music scene as one of its brightest drum & bass producers, he charted a path to stardom after establishing his spellbinding i_o brand. Lockhart recently celebrated his momentous signing to Armada Music as well as the launch of his own Label 444 banner. Ergo, perhaps the most devastating aspect of Lockhart’s sudden death isn’t what he has done so far, but rather how much more he had to accomplish. The EDM family has banded together in the last 24 ho...
As everyone digests the Grammys nominations list, while we’re still chewing over the political events of recent weeks, Brandon Flowers and Co. let the world know they won’t be going quietly into the night. The Killers let loose with a Trumpian tweet, in all caps, and all for laughs. The band banged on about observers not being allowed into counting rooms, “bad things happened,” the whole set up was “rigged.” And, of course, the “Mr Brightside” singers really won. Forget the results. The message was completed with the hashtags #RIGGEDGRAMMYS #WEWON. Its timely and a bit of good, clean fun. And every other band who failed to get a Grammys mention will wish they’d got there first. The Killers could be excused for having a gripe. In a career spanning more than 16 years, ...
Next up, Tanner Gomes’ brought it back to Kelly’s wheelhouse with a rendition of Tim McGraw’s “Real Good Man.” “It was good enough to surprise Blake Shelton. “You did some stuff there at the end that was really impressive,” he said of the Nashville resident. “Help me,” yelped Clarkson, her decision looming. Corvo, enthused Gwen Stefani, is a “phenomenal singer and performer, a musician. You’ve got everything going for you.” When it came to the crunch, Kelly admitted she’d hate herself either way. But she went with Tanner. Watch below. 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 ...
That’s pretty blunt, but it’s nothing compared to a tweet from The Weeknd himself: “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.” Asked for a response, Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy’s chair and interim president/CEO, supplied a statement to Billboard that read in part, “We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. I was surprised and can empathize with what he’s feeling. His music this year was excellent…We were thrilled when we found out he would be performing at the upcoming Super Bowl and we would have loved to have him also perform on the Grammy stage the weekend before …To be clear, voting in all categories ended well before The Weeknd’s performance at the Super Bowl was announced, so in no way could it have aff...