Alternative Music
The Office Now Has a Mobile Game for People Stuck in 2009
It may seem hard to grasp the appeal of a video game format where your only task is to press a button over and over, but The Office went off the air nine years ago and it’s still dominating streaming numbers, so there’s a market for everything. East Side Games Group knows this, which is why they developed The Office: Somehow We Manage, a new idle game available for download on iOS and Android. In the game, players collect characters from The Office and work to sell paper at a digital Dunder Mifflin. As is the case in all idle games, this “work” earns players in-game cash. It’s a pretty straightforward concept, but the characters in the game reference plotlines from the show, so you get your nostalgia fix in a new, interactive way. Talk about beating — or clicking — a dead horse. ...
#CancelSpotify Trends on Twitter Following Neil Young Spat
Spotify’s decision to remove Neil Young’s catalog from the platform in order to keep peddling COVID misinformation via podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience has sparked quite a lot of online discourse about free speech, streaming, and the best way to support artists. The hashtag “#CancelSpotify” trended among Young fans on Twitter Thursday evening (January 27th), and other artists and streaming platforms joined the conversation as well. Apple Music, TIDAL, Deezer, and Qobuz made sure to remind fans that they still offered Young’s music, while SiriusXM relaunched Neil Young Radio. “When you have an opportunity to present an iconic artist still at the height of his creativity, you don’t hesitate to do it, again,” Steve Blatter, SiriusXM senior vice president and general manager of musi...
Alice Glass Shares New Single “LOVE IS VIOLENCE”: Stream
Alice Glass has released her latest single, “LOVE IS VIOLENCE,” along with its accompanying music video. Check it out below. Last week, Glass teased the single on her social media accounts by revealing its artwork, featuring her off-kilter head connected to a black skeleton hand by a sort of spiked cylindrical object. The song is the fourth single off the former Crystal Castles member’s upcoming debut solo album, PREY//IV, which is due out February 16 on Eating Glass Records after being pushed back from its original release date today. Glass previously released single “BABY TEETH” and its creepily animated music video as well as “FAIR GAME.” The electro-pop singer’s 2021 track, “SUFFER AND SWALLOW,” will also be included on the album more than a year after it was first unveiled as the then...
MØ Breaks Down New Album Motordrome Track by Track: Exclusive
Our Track by Track feature offers musicians the platform to share the inspiration and stories behind each song on their latest release. Today, MØ offers a deep dive into her new album, Motordrome. MØ has returned today (January 28th) with Motordrome, her first new album in more than three years. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The Danish singer began work on the follow-up to Forever Neverland after exhaustively touring for five years. While recovering from the physical and mental toll of being on the road, MØ faced another obstacle when a vocal injury forced her into months of rehabilitation. She distilled all of these experiences into her lyrics, reuniting with longtime co-writers like Caroline Ailin and Noonie Bao to bring the songs to completion. Other collaborators inc...
ASIA Feat. Original Members CARL PALMER And GEOFF DOWNES Announces 40th-Anniversary Celebration
ASIA, one of the greatest and best-loved supergroups to emerge during the 1980s, is currently preparing for an extensive 40th-anniversary celebration, due to kick off in summer 2022. Featuring founding members Carl Palmer (ELP, CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN) and Geoff Downes (YES, THE BUGGLES), the group will also include longtime bassist/ vocalist Billy Sherwood (YES) and newest member, guitarist/ lead vocalist Marc Bonilla, (solo artist, KEITH EMERSON BAND). The band is currently being booked for a U.S. tour to start late summer this year. “40 years of ASIA is a real musical milestone for us,” says Downes. “The success we experienced with our early albums has carried us through and gave us the foundation when we reformed in 2006. ASIA has been together ever since, althoug...
Here Is New Video Of LAMB OF GOD Performing With PHIL DEMMEL On This Year’s SHIPROCKED Cruise
LAMB OF GOD recruited Phil Demmel (VIO-LENCE, ex-MACHINE HEAD) to play guitar for the band on this year’s ShipRocked cruise, which set sail from Galveston, Texas on January 22 and included stops in Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico before returning on January 27. Demmel filled in for LAMB OF GOD‘s regular guitarist Willie Adler who was unable to make the trip for reasons that have not been disclosed. Fan-filmed video of LAMB OF GOD‘s final performance aboard the Carnival Breeze ship can be seen below. Since Carnival Cruise Line‘s Have Fun Be Safe protocols and procedures currently require that guests are fully vaccinated and tested before their cruise on all sailings through February 28, 2022, some fans have speculated that Adler‘s COVID-19 vaccination status was...
EXODUS’s STEVE ‘ZETRO’ SOUZA: ‘You’re Either A Metalhead Or You’re Not’
In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, EXODUS singer Steve “Zetro” Souza spoke about the community that exists between heavy metal fans and musicians, and what it means to be a true metalhead. He said: “It doesn’t exist without each other. It’s the only form of music that has to have both [fans and musicians in order for the scene to thrive]. The musicians, we couldn’t survive without the fans, and the fans aren’t gonna get it anywhere else, because there’s no media that plays it for them. Nobody cares. So, we have each other, which is fine. “You’ve never heard a guy come up and go, ‘Yeah, man, I was into SLAYER last summer,'” he continued. “That doesn’t happen. You’re either a fuck...
Watch SHINEDOWN Perform New Single ‘Planet Zero’ Live For First Time
SHINEDOWN performed its new single, “Planet Zero”, live for the first time last night (Wednesday, January 26) at the opening show of its “Shinedown Live In Concert” tour at The Warfield in San Francisco, California. Fan-filmed video and photos of the performance can be found below. “Planet Zero” is the title track of SHINEDOWN‘s seventh album, which will be released on April 22 via Atlantic Records. Vocalist Brent Smith stated about the new disc: “If we shut each other down and allow ourselves to be divided by the information we consume and the way we talk to each other, we lose our humanity. When you look outside of your phone, you’ll see there are so many people doing good things and trying to take care of each other. But we’re ...
Mining Metal: The Best Underground Albums We Missed in 2021
Mining Metal is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence writers Joseph Schafer and Langdon Hickman. The focus is on noteworthy new music emerging from the non-mainstream metal scene, highlighting releases from small and independent labels — or even releases from unsigned acts. Inevitably, we come across albums that we’d like to cover but don’t. More than eight good underground metal albums come out during most months, even when the scope of “underground” is narrowed to labels without dedicated distribution. But not every month. January is typically a fallow season for metal records, as people recuperate from the holiday season and begin planning their upcoming year. Because we dedicated December to our annual best-of list, we decided to spend this column covering a few bits and bobs we mis...
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Announce Breakup
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones announced their breakup on Thursday (January 27th) in a statement posted to the ska band’s official Facebook. “After decades of brotherhood, touring the world and making great records together, we have decided to no longer continue on as a band,” they wrote. “Above all, we want to express our sincere gratitude to every single one of you who have supported us. We could not have done any of it without you. Love Always, The Mighty Mighty BossToneS.” Formed in 1983 in Boston, the ska innovators released a total of 11 studio albums over the course of their career — from their 1989 debut Devil’s Night Out to 2021’s When God Was Great. In 2003, the group went on hiatus after more than a decade of nonstop touring. The break ultimately lasted until 2007, when the Bosston...
Space Force Retooled to Be More Like The Office in Season 2: Watch the Trailer
“‘Well, that wasn’t very much fun to make,’” Steve Carell said to Greg Daniels at the conclusion of Space Force Season 1. Daniels was the creator of The Office, and as he told Collider in a new interview, he and his star set out to create a more improvisational atmosphere for Season 2 in the hopes of capturing the magic of their most famous collaboration. You can catch some of that silliness in the newly-released trailer below. Space Force is a workplace comedy about those tasked with creating the sixth branch of the armed forces, which formed under President Trump and now continues under the new administration. “Steve and I were very much in the mind of not making it like The Office in the beginning, we were trying to make it very cinematic,” Daniels sa...
Maybe It’s a Bad Thing That The Book of Boba Fett’s Fifth Episode Was So Good
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett, “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian.”] This week’s episode of The Book of Boba Fett delivered a hell of a twist: It wasn’t about Boba Fett. Instead, the Mandalorian spinoff went ahead and became an episode of The Mandalorian, bringing back everyone’s favorite Space Dad (Pedro Pascal) and catching us up with what he’s been up to since surrendering sweet young Baby Yoda Grogu to Luke Skywalker for Jedi training. “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian” did eventually connect to the events of Boba Fett so far, but it served more value in reintroducing a character who perhaps we didn’t realize we missed so much. The system shock of Din’s return ended up highlighting what’s been missing from the series: An actual emotion...
