Alternative Music
Maggie Rogers Unleashes Sophomore Album Surrender: Stream
Maggie Rogers has released her sophomore album, Surrender, via Debay Sounds/Capitol Records. Stream it via Apple Music or Spotify below. The studio effort arrives three-and-a-half years after Rogers’ breakout solo album Heard It in a Past Life, and features the lead single “That’s Where I Am” as well as follow-ups “Want Want” and “Horses.” Interestingly, the singer recorded the entire project while simultaneously earning her master’s degree in religion and public life from Harvard Divinity School, for which Surrender served as part of her thesis. “I wanted to build a framework for myself, for how to keep art sacred,” Rogers explained in an interview with The New York Times. “I feel super religious, if music is a religion. When I’m in the crowd of fans or onstage, that’s when I felt the mos...
Chat Pile: God’s Country
Even as an instrumental trio, Chat Pile would absolutely slay. But Busch tips them into true greatness. He’s got it all: presence, personality, and the storytelling abilities of a seasoned horror director. Start with his arresting voice, which might mimic the authoritative bark of a cop with a grudge or the withered mewl of a basement-dwelling troll, eliciting not just discomfort but something approaching physical disgust. When he screams, which is often, it’s not just figuratively blood-curdling, it sounds literally curdled, like little globs of matter were detaching from the walls of his throat, gumming up the vowels as they tumbled out. When he expresses vulnerability, he has a tremulous, sputtering tone somewhere between Bobcat Goldthwait and Barney Gumble on a three-day bender; it’s t...
Stabbing Westward Singer Battling Throat Cancer, Band Cancels Tour Dates
Stabbing Westward singer Christopher Hall revealed Wednesday (July 27th) that he is battling throat cancer. As a result, the band has canceled a series of tour dates planned for August and September. Hall wrote the following on the industrial rock band’s Facebook page: “I’d like to apologize to everyone who made travel plans to see us in August and September. We’ve had to put those shows on hold while I deal with a serious health issue. I’ve been diagnosed with throat cancer.” He continued, “Prognosis is really good but it’s going to involve a couple of surgeries and 6-8 weeks of chemo and radiation. So unfortunately, I won’t be singing anytime soon. I’m hoping to be feeling more human by Halloween and have my voice back by Christmas. So again, sorry for the inconvenience. Chris.” Advertis...
Billy Corgan Performs New Smashing Pumpkins Song “Photograph” Inspired by Highland Park Shooting: Watch
Billy Corgan and his partner Chloe Mendel hosted a benefit concert on July 27th to support the victims of the July 4th Highland Park mass shooting, and at the event, he performed a new Smashing Pumpkins song called “Photograph” that he said was inspired by the tragedy. Corgan, a Chicago native, explained that “Photograph” is about finding a picture of himself “standing in the very spot where this horrible thing happened,” and how the most sudden of events can completely change the meaning of the most innocuous of things. “Good things become bad, bad things become good, simple things become complicated,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a good song or a bad song, but it certainly expresses the way that I feel,” Corgan added. Listen to “Photograph” here (at around the 97-minute mark). Advertis...
Rocky Spinoff Drago in the Works from Writer Robert Lawton
Brace yourselves: Another Rocky spinoff is coming. MGM Studios has tapped Robert Lawton to write the screenplay for Drago, the latest addition to the iconic boxing franchise. Drago centers Ivan Drago, the Russian boxer who took on Sylvester Stallone’s beloved fighter in the 1985 film Rocky IV. Decades later, Ivan’s son, Viktor Drago, appeared in Creed II, the second spinoff following the amateur boxer Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). Dolph Lundgren played Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and Florian Munteanu portrayed Viktor in Creed II, but it’s unclear whether either of them will reprise their roles in Drago. Lawton, who contributed to 2006’s Sex & Sushi and 2012’s Crave, scored the Drago gig after writing the spec script Becom...
Ben Affleck Confirmed to Return as Batman in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Who knows what’s going on with the DC Comics Extended Universe, except to say this: Once you play Batman, you’re never really done playing Batman. That’s the best way to explain today’s news that Ben Affleck will be returning as the Caped Crusader in the upcoming sequel film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, confirmed the news with a very cute Instagram post. “REUNITED bruce and arthur. love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright. busted on set all great things coming AQUAMAN 2 all my aloha j,” Momoa shares along with photos of him and Affleck snuggling together, followed by video of the two of them (as promised) encountering a Warner Bros. studio tour in progress. Affleck first played Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of J...
Pantera’s 10 Best Songs
The story of Pantera is bound to the modernization of heavy metal in the 1990s, but the band’s origins began long before that. Formed by guitar virtuoso “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, Pantera began as a rather rudimentary ’80s metal band: big hair, glam riffs, and unfortunate album titles such as Metal Magic and Projects in the Jungle. Bassist Rex Brown was along for the ride from nearly the beginning, but things shifted when vocalist Phillip H. Anselmo joined the band after they had already released three under-the-radar albums. While Anselmo was on board for 1988’s Power Metal, It would be the seminal 1990 album Cowboys from Hell that truly marked the arrival of the Pantera that is now recognized as one of the best heavy metal bands of all time. Perhaps th...
Madonna Says Directing Biopic Was “Preemptive Strike”: “No One’s Going to Tell My Story But Me”
Madonna has further explained why she took the reins for her own biopic, which the pop icon will be both directing and co-writing. In a new interview with Variety, the singer gave an update on the film’s progress and offered insight into why she considered it “a preemptive strike.” “I have a very long script that is really hard for me to make shorter,” Madonna told the magazine. “I’ve been whittling away at it, but it’s like hacking off my limbs.” After hinting at pressure to make an “extraordinary” film due to her “extraordinary life,” the Material Girl alluded to “misogynistic men” who made similar attempts in the past. “It was also a preemptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men,” she said. “So I put my foot in the door and said, ...
B.J. Novak Deals Out Some Intriguing But Muddled Vengeance: Review
The Pitch: Ben (B.J. Novak) is a guy who doesn’t necessarily have something to say, but he wants to be the type of guy who says stuff worth hearing. That’s why, despite being a working writer in New York, with publication credits including The New Yorker, what he really wants is to make a podcast. “Not every white guy needs a podcast,” producer Eloise (Issa Rae) tells him when he tries to hard-sell her on his ideas at a party, but things change when a former hookup of Ben’s ends up leading him to podcasting gold. Awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from a stranger, Ben finds out that a girl named Abilene Shaw, who he’d slept with a few times and texted casually, has died, and her family back home in small-town Texas thinks he was the love of Abby’s life. So, after a guilt t...
Joni Mitchell Announces The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) Archival Box Set
The Joni-ssance is coming, and right on cue, Joni Mitchell will soon share another collection in her ongoing archival box set series. Up next is The Asylum Albums (1972-1975), out on September 23rd via Rhino/Elektra. The 5xLP set includes remastered versions of 1972’s For the Roses, 1974’s Court and Spark, the 1974 live double-album Miles of Aisles, and 1975’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns. As a preview, you can hear the remastered version of Mitchell’s already-perfect For the Roses highlight “You Turn Me On I’m a Radio” today. The Asylum Albums is the third in Mitchell’s archival series, following 2020’s The Early Years (1963-1967) and last year’s The Reprise Albums (1968-1971). This go around, iconic the singer-songwriter tapped Bernie...
Marilyn Monroe Only Exists On Screen in New Trailer for Blonde: Watch
Ana de Armas takes on Old Hollywood’s biggest star in Blonde, the Marilyn Monroe biopic hitting Netflix September 23rd. Take a look at the new trailer for the film below. Directed by Andrew Dominik and based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the same name, Blonde will be the first Netflix original to be given an NC-17 rating for “some sexual content” (and reportedly a sexual assault scene) by the Motion Picture Association. “It’s a demanding movie,” Dominik said of the rating. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the fucking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.” Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, and J...
Leonard Cohen Tribute Album to Feature Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, & More
Blue Note Records has announced a new covers album titled Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen. Out October 14th, it features a star-studded lineup of vocalists including Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop, and Mavis Staples. Among the other heavy hitters on the LP are Norah Jones, Nathaniel Rateliff, and James Taylor, the latter of whom recorded a version of “Coming Back to You” that serves as the lead single. Meanwhile, Sarah McLachlan takes on “Hallelujah.” Here It Is was produced by Cohen’s longtime friend Larry Klein, who assembled a core band of jazz-based musicians including guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Nate Smith. Advertisement Related Video “Leonard Cohen had been a friend since 1982 or so, and in the last ...
