Alternative Music
The xx’s Oliver Sim Announces Debut Album Hideous Bastard, Shares “Hideous”: Stream
After a pair of singles, Oliver Sim — aka one-third of 2010s indie stalwarts The xx — has finally announced his debut solo album. It’s called Hideous Bastard, and it’ll be out September 9th via Young. To accompany the announcement, Sim has shared the track “Hideous,” and he also spoke about the making of the record in a new wide-ranging interview with The New York Times. Written and recorded over the span of two years, Hideous Bastard is largely inspired by Sim’s love of horror movies, using the tropes found in classic slashers like Halloween to unpack his own real-life experiences with shame, fear, and masculinity. Pre-orders for physical copies are ongoing. “I imagine that might paint a picture of a dark, ‘woe is me’ sounding album, but in recent years I’ve become a firm b...
Courtney Love Says Johnny Depp Saved Her Life After 1995 Overdose
Courtney Love has credited Johnny Depp for saving her life after she overdosed in 1995 in Los Angeles. “I don’t really wanna make judgments publicly. I just want to tell you that Johnny gave me CPR in 1995 when I overdosed outside The Viper Room,” Love recalled in a now-deleted video posted to her friend Jessica Reed Kraus’ Instagram over the weekend. Love also said the actor supported her daughter Frances Bean Cobain while the Hole singer was dealing with addiction. “Johnny — when I was on crack and Frances was having to suffer through that with social workers — wrote her a four-page letter that she’s never showed me on her 13th birthday,” Love said, adding that they didn’t really know each other. Advertisement Related Video “Then he sent limos to her school where all the social work...
Alex G Announces North American Tour, Shares New Song “Blessing”: Stream
Alex G is entering a wild new era with “Blessing,” a new single that sounds like little else in his recent discography. Wherever he’s headed musically, he’ll be taking this sound on the road in October and November with a newly-announced North American headlining tour. The formerly (Sandy) songwriter’s last proper album was 2019’s House of Sugar, though just a month ago he shared his moody soundtrack to the new movie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. In comparison, “Blessing” is dripping with swagger; Alex G opens the track with a wall of distortion that gives way to marching drums and a strutting guitar riff. The lyrics are delivered in a call-and-response whisper, with Alex G beginning with the words, “Every day,” and waiting for the words “Every day” to be echoed back ...
Morgan Freeman Permanently Banned from Entering Russia
Morgan Freeman is among nearly 1,000 American citizens who’ve been permanently banned from entering the Russian Federation. In response to sanctions imposed by the US government over Russia’s unprovoked attack of Ukraine, Russia’s foreign ministry released the names of 963 Americans who are no longer welcome in their country. They include political figures like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, as well as members of Congress, tech executives, and journalists, according to the Washington Post. Freeman and fellow actor and filmmaker, Rob Reiner, are also on Russia’s shit list. While the foreign ministry didn’t offer any explanation for Freeman’s and Reiner’s inclusions, they were likely flagged for their participation in the Comm...
Stranger Things Stretches Out the Upside Down For an Endearingly Familiar Season 4: Review
The Pitch: While it’s been three years (and an entire pandemic) since we last saw Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and the rest of the denizens of Hawking, Indiana in the third season of Stranger Things, for them it’s only been six months. The Battle of Starcourt Mall kicked off a host of changes for our heroes, both young and old, with Eleven choosing to move to California with the Byerses, leaving Mike, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and the others to struggle with the cliques and clashes of high school on their own. And growing up is hard, even for Demogorgon slayers — Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) has joined the basketball team in an attempt to shake off the nerd cred Mike and Dustin cling to, while Max (Sadie Sink) is still mourning the death of brother Billy last se...
Eminem Shuts Down Pete Davidson’s Final SNL Rap Video: Watch
Pete Davidson had one final treat for SNL viewers before ending his seven-season run: a rap tribute video to the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels. The skit, which was apparently cut for time, begins with host Natasha Lyonne informing Davidson that Michaels is depressed because the two never got to make a rap video together. “You know, that guy has literally done everything for me, so I’m going to pay him back by doing this rap video exactly the way he wrote it,” decades Davidson. Set to the tune of “Forgot the Dre,” David proceeds to honor Michaels’ legacy by ratting off his many accomplishments — from discovering comedians like Chris Farley, David Spade, and Kristen Wiig, to writing Three Amigos, to winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The accompanying visuals feature Davidson dressed...
Robert Fripp and Plastic-Wrapped Toyah Perform Radiohead’s “Creep”: Watch
King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and his singer wife, Toyah Willcox, treat fans to a revealing rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” for their latest “Sunday Lunch” performance. Toyah sports nothing but plastic food wrap and strategically placed photos of Fripp, as she sings the alt-rock classic. With a “Fripp’s a Creep” sign mounted on the kitchen cabinets behind them, the married couple take on Radiohead’s breakthrough hit with their usual frisky approach. Toyah leaves little the imagination as she sings the uncensored version of the song. In fact, the only censoring in the whole clip are those aforementioned pics of Fripp. So “f**kin’ special,” indeed! Fripp and Willcox have been entertaining fans nearly every Sunday for most of the pandemic with their ongoing series of cover songs. The p...
Japanese Breakfast Performs on SNL, Eats Hot Dogs on Fallon: Watch
In the most recent step towards Michelle Zauner’s impending world takeover, Japanese Breakfast served as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live’s season finale. The indie rock band performed “Be Sweet” and “Paprika” from their 2021 album Jubilee. Additionally, Zauner appeared in the episode’s closing sketch, joining departing cast members Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant for a singalong of Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game.” But SNL wasn’t the only late-night stop for Zauner this past week: On Friday, the polymath visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to discuss turning her bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart into a movie, going to her first Grammys, and — of course — the origin of her 2017 song, “Jimmy Fallon Big!” “It kind of feels like I’m having conversa...
SNL Says Goodbye to Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney: Watch
Saturday Night Live bid farewell to several of its longest tenured cast members during an emotional season finale episode on Saturday, May 21st. Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney each said goodbye to Studio 8H in their own unique ways. As the undisputed star of SNL over the last several seasons, it was only appropriate that McKinnon’s farewell opened the show. Specifically, SNL dedicated its Cold Opening to a final reprisal of McKinnon’s long-running Close Encounters sketch, which concluded with her character boarding a spacecraft. “Earth, I love you. Thanks for letting me stay a while,” McKinnon said through tears. While Bryant was featured heavily throughout the episode, her appearance on Weekend Update served as her formal goodbye. Appearing alongside ...
Mick Jagger: Harry Styles Is a “Superficial Resemblance to My Younger Self”
Mick Jagger says Harry Styles is a “superficial resemblance to my younger self” who “doesn’t have a voice like mine or move on stage like me.” The Rolling Stones’ frontman’s eyebrow-raising comments about Styles came in what was otherwise a mundane interview with The London Times designed to drum up publicity for the band’s upcoming 60th anniversary tour. Jagger prefaced his remarks by saying he likes Styles and the two have “an easy relationship.” But the pleasantries ended there, as Jagger proceeded to rattle off all the reasons why there’s no comparison between the two. Advertisement Related Video “I mean, I used to wear a lot more eye make-up than him. Come on, I was much more androgynous,” Jagger said. “And he doesn’t have a voice like mine or move on stage like me; he just has a supe...
R.I.P. Norman Dolph, Early Velvet Underground Producer Dead at 83
Norman Dolph, the music industry polymath best known for his early work with The Velvet Underground, has died. He was 83. In a statement issued Friday, Planetary Group confirmed that Dolph had died on May 11th in New Haven, Connecticut, after a battle with cancer. “Touring galleries with someone who knew most of the artists personally was a privilege few people are lucky enough to experience,” added Invisible Hands Music owner Charles Kennedy, a close friend of Dolph’s. “I will miss Norman greatly but his friendship and the wisdom he imparted along the way is an endless well that I will cherish forever.” Dolph was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 11th, 1939. After graduating from Yale with an electrical engineering degree in 1960, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a salesman at C...
R.I.P. Norman Dolph, Early Velvet Underground Producer Dead at 83
Norman Dolph, the music industry polymath best known for his early work with The Velvet Underground, has died. He was 83. In a statement issued Friday, Planetary Group confirmed that Dolph had died on May 11th in New Haven, Connecticut, after a battle with cancer. “Touring galleries with someone who knew most of the artists personally was a privilege few people are lucky enough to experience,” added Invisible Hands Music owner Charles Kennedy, a close friend of Dolph’s. “I will miss Norman greatly but his friendship and the wisdom he imparted along the way is an endless well that I will cherish forever.” Dolph was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 11th, 1939. After graduating from Yale with an electrical engineering degree in 1960, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a salesman at C...
