Alternative Music
Song of the Week: Fiona Apple Reads Tolkien Poetry on “Where the Shadows Lie”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Fiona Apple makes a fantastical return with “Where the Shadows Lie.” The music of Fiona Apple has a way of making itself feel suspended in time. From the straightforward, piano-heavy compositions of her 1996 debut Tidal to the raucous, ramshackle qualities of 2020’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters, the iconic musician might’ve been a spokesperson of turn-of-the-century doom — but her sound is void of a specific era. Really, it’s a trait that Apple shares with the Lord of the Rings franchise...
Right Said Fred Change Minds, Call Beyoncé “Arrogant” for Using “I’m Too Sexy”
Right Said Fred have said at least one thing wrong. On July 22nd they warmly acknowledged a writing credit on Beyoncé‘s July 29th album, Renaissance, but in a new interview with the Sun, the duo appeared to have retracted that sentiment, calling her “arrogant” and claiming that she didn’t ask permission for using the melody to their hit, “I’m Too Sexy.” The saga began even before the release of Renaissance, which used part of the hook of “I’m Too Sexy” on “Alien Superstar.” The official Twitter account for the brothers tweeted, “It’s nice to get writing credit on the new Beyoncé album.” The account also hit the like button on responses to their tweet offering congratulations. But when speaking to the Sun, Chris and Fred Fairchild sang a differen...
Rap Song of the Week: Quavo and Takeoff Move Forward as a Duo with “Two Infinity Links”
Rap Song of the Week breaks down all the hip-hop tracks you need to hear every Friday. Check out the full playlist here. This week, Migos members Quavo and Takeoff push on as a duo on “Two Infinity Links,” the opening track from their new album, Only Built for Infinity Links. After months of speculation, Quavo and Takeoff essentially admitted Migos are done (for now) earlier this week. During an appearance on DJ Scream’s Big Facts podcast, Quavo alluded to family loyalty and explained the situation was “something to do with the three brothers” rather than Offset’s recent label issues. Meanwhile, Takeoff left the door open for the return of Offset, mentioning they told him to fix “whatever ain’t right.” Regardless of what went down, Quavo and Takeoff are determined to prove their ...
Mike Patton: “Singers Are Fucking Idiots”
If anyone knows singing, it’s Mike Patton. He fronts numerous bands and has one of the greatest — if not the greatest — vocal ranges of all time. That all said, Patton insists that “singers are fucking idiots.” In a new interview with Bandcamp that focuses on his extensive discography with his various bands and projects — including Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Dead Cross, Fantômas, Tomahawk, and more — Patton discussed his role as a singer. “I still see it as, ‘I am here to help,’” reasoned Patton. “I am a component. I think that’s important, but let’s be honest: Singers are fucking idiots. They think they own the fucking show, but they don’t, okay? That’s one thing I’ve learned over the years: All you’ve gotta do is sit back and be a part of the fucking band.” Advertisement Related Vi...
Alice in Chains’ Dirt Re-Enters Top 10 of Billboard 200 Chart on Its 30th Anniversary
Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Stitcher | Radio Public | Pocket Casts | RSS Alice in Chains’ seminal 1992 album, Dirt, has re-entered the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart 30 years after its release. The chart achievement comes thanks in large part to a 30th anniversary remastered reissue of the LP, which was released on September 23rd. Advertisement Featuring such classics as “Would?,” “Them Bones,” and “Rooster,” Dirt is considered by many as Alice in Chains’ masterpiece. It is the subject of the new season of Consequence‘s podcast The Opus, with Episode 1 having premiered earlier this week (listen above). The appearance of Dirt at No. 9 is the first time it’s cracked th...
Randall Park Learns His Store Is “The Last One” in First Trailer for Blockbuster: Watch
Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for Blockbuster, a workplace sitcom about the last store in a once-mighty video rental empire. The preview opens with Timmy Yoon (Randall Park) learning that “seven more Blockbusters just closed. You’re officially the last one on earth.” Timmy has worked at Blockbuster since his teenage years, and he seems to live his life being kind and wishing everything would just rewind. “No one’s going anywhere,” he announces to his staff, “Because everything is under control.” His ragtag crew is made up of Eliza (Melissa Fumero), Connie (Olga Merediz), Carlos (Tyler Herrera), Hannah (Madeline Arthur), and Kala (Kamaia Fairburn). Never far from the action is strip mall owner Percy (J.B. Smoove), who serves Timmy an eviction notice. “I feel bad real bad ...
Hans Zimmer Announces New Live Double Album
Over two hours worth of Hans Zimmer compositions get a new life on Hans Zimmer LIVE, a forthcoming live double-album commemorating the legendary German composer. Ahead of its March 3rd release, we can hear a reimagined version of “The Last Samurai Suite” today. Recorded during his 2022 European concert tour of the same name, Hans Zimmer LIVE compiles highlights from the soundtracks to films like The Lion King, The Dark Knight, X Men: Dark Phoenix, Dunkirk, Gladiator, Inception, Interstellar, The Last Samurai, Man of Steel, No Time to Die, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Wonder Woman 1984. Recording took place over the span of 10 nights, alongside Zimmer’s 20-piece band “The Disruptive Collective.” “I simply wanted to produce the best album,” Zimmer said in a press release. “I ...
Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on Creating the Music You Do (or Don’t) Notice for Cate Blanchett and Todd Field in Tár
Little Children director Todd Field’s return to film, the acclaimed drama Tár, was worth the wait. A haunting descent into the psyche of a composer/conductor (Cate Blanchett) whose ambitions get derailed by her past and present foibles, the film presents a lush soundscape that includes many layers, from the original composition that Lydia Tár is struggling to create, to the lush symphonies of Mahler, to the uneasy underlying score created by Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker). Field brought Hildur onto the project very early on — “I think I was like the second person to join the project after Cate,” she tells Consequence via Zoom — and she says that when she first read the script, she felt like the writer/director had authentically captured a lot about the modern-day world o...
John Waters to Direct Liarmouth, His First Film in 18 Years
For the first time in 18 years, the Pope of Trash is back to bless us with another film. As Deadline reports, John Waters will write and direct an adaptation of his own 2022 novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance for Village Roadshow Pictures. Waters’ last turn behind the camera was directing Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, and Chris Isaak in 2004’s A Dirty Shame, which paired high-camp sensibilities with a big studio budget in an experiment that, it seemed at the time, would never be repeated. Now, the 76-year-old provocateur is back. “Liarmouth is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while, so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” Waters said. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to...
The Cure Debut New Music at European Tour Kick-Off: Video + Setlist
The Cure kicked off their European tour with a concert in Latvia on Thursday night. The 25-song setlist included two new songs called “Alone” and “Endsong,” which are presumably taken from their long-awaited new album Songs of a Lost World. “Alone,” a seven-minute “Plainsong”-adjacent number, opened the show in typical Cure fashion, with Robert Smith walking on stage without a guitar to take in the crowd during an extended instrumental intro. “This is the end of every song that we sing,” he eventually croons. “Endsong,” meanwhile, naturally closed out the band’s main set (two encores followed). The second new offering proved equally cinematic, stretching out for 10 minutes with a militaristic drum riff over melancholy synths. From the looks of these tracks, Smith’s “relentlessly doom and g...
The Midnight Club Takes Big Risks and Gets Satisfyingly Creepy: Review
The Pitch: High school senior Ilonka (Iman Benson) has her whole life in front of her, which won’t be long. When she’s diagnosed with terminal cancer, and her doctors say the treatment isn’t working, she decides to spend her remaining days at Brightcliffe, a hospice care center for dying teens, where all the tenants are wrestling with their mortality while trying to enjoy however much time they have left. But all is not as it appears at Brightcliffe, which at one point was home to a mysterious cult, and where every night the youths meet in the library to tell terrifying stories. Ilonka joins this “Midnight Club” and in this adaptation of a whole bunch of stories by Christopher Pike, soon reveals to them that she has secrets of her own, a special reason for coming to Brightcliffe, and a pla...
Alvvays: Blue Rev
What separates Blue Rev from all the teenage-kicks albums before it is Rankin’s subconscious, hyperreal songwriting, which runs counter to the current mode of stark diaristic pop songwriting where singers follow an emotion or idea without detour. Rankin, on the other hand, is all detours and off-ramps, asides and parentheses, bushwhacking through the undignified mess of life. She only gestures at a feeling, allowing the band and her blockbuster vocal lines to take the listener the rest of the way. In her world, the worst thing is not running into your ex, but running into your ex’s sister at a pharmacy who will casually offer that he has that “new love glow” about him. Murder, She Wrote and a Belinda Carslie song make memorable cameos. Proust had his little cookies; Rankin has Blue Rev, a ...
