Entertainment News
Street Artist Turns NYC Subway Station into “Van Halen Avenue”
A New York City street artist paid tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen in the most clever way, turning the Van Siclen Avenue stop in Brooklyn into “Van Halen Avenue”. The same artist pulled a similar stunt last month, turning the 50th St. station in Manhattan into “Ruth St.” in honor of late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Adrian Wilson is the artist who conceived the subway tributes in honor of the guitar legend and the Supreme Court justice. After being featured on the news for his Ginsburg tribute, he figured someone else would have taken the initiative for the Van Halen guitarist, or at least taken credit for it. But, as he wrote on his Instagram, he ultimately took matters into his own hands. “Come on people,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a pic of his “Van Halen Avenue” sign. “I even explaine...
Portugal. The Man and “Weird Al” Honor Indigenous Peoples with New Song “Who’s Gonna Stop Me”: Stream
Portugal. The Man and “Weird Al” Yankovic, photos by Ben Kaye Portugal. The Man and “Weird Al” Yankovic have joined forces once again, but this time it’s not to turn beloved indie songs into polka jams. Instead, they’ve collaborated on a new track, “Who’s Gonna Stop Me”, in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day. Produced by the Grammy-winning Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Rihanna) and co-written by the legendary Paul Williams (David Bowie, The Love Boat theme), the song also features contributions from The Last Artful, Dodgr. A peacefully powerful call for freedom, the opening verses are meditative before a rattling drum beat turns it towards invigorating. “Sneaking out, jumping over backyard fences/ We’re all just looking for freedom,” sings “Weird Al” on the second verse. “I’ve got an ...
Angel Olsen Debuts New 11-Minute Song “Time Bandits” on Instagram: Watch
Angel Olsen has been on an absolute tear since releasing Whole New Mess in late August. Not only has she covered both George Harrison and Bobby Vinton — the latter for Miranda July’s latest film Kajillionaire — the folk songwriter also delivered an acoustic Tiny Desk (Home) Concert for NPR. Olsen is back today bearing another gift: a new 11-minute song called “Time Bandits”. Olsen performed the track in full on Instagram on Sunday; she was seated at her piano in her Asheville home, with the camera positioned right in front of her mic. According to the video’s caption, “Time Bandits” was written just a few weeks ago after Olsen returned from St. Louis. “Against better judgement I’ve decided to put new songs up,” she added. “It’s a business but it’s my business.” (We can’t say we’r...
FKA twigs Says She Made a “Whole Album in Quarantine”
Fans had to cool their heels for five years between 2014’s LP1 and 2019’s MAGDALENE, but the wait for FKA twigs’ third album is already nearing its end. In a recent interview, the British songwriter said that she made a “whole album in quarantine.” The news came in conversation with Scott Goldman as part of the Grammy Museum’s Programs at Home. Early on in the pandemic, twigs acknowledged “struggling a little bit to find my rhythm.” A professional dancer before she was a professional musician, twigs missed going to dance studios and pushing her body to its limits. But she eventually settled in, finding a songwriting routine over FaceTime. She explained, “In the beginning of the quarantine I was struggling a little bit to find my rhythm, because I love to train, I love to go to da...
Chubby and the Gang Pay Their “Union Dues” on New Song: Stream
London punk five-piece Chubby and the Gang dropped their debut album, Speed Kills, earlier this year to some excited praise, and it seems like labels were tuning in. Today, Partisan Records revealed they signed the band, and Chubby and the Gang are celebrating by releasing a new single called “Union Dues”. Considering their garage-rock spin on punk is as politically concerned as it is musically reckless, Chubby and the Gang should be a logical fit on Partisan alongside bands like Fontaines DC and IDLES. Led by “local electrician” Charlie Manning, Chubby and the Gang are billed as “coming out of a new wave of British hardcore,” the reality of which is blisteringly fun, rapidly quick, and excitingly unpredictable. If “Union Dues” is any indication of Chubby’s next moves, then we’re in for a ...
Netflix’s Trailer for Unsolved Mysteries Volume 2 Guarantees Goosebumps: Watch
This past July, Netflix revived the classic cold case TV series Unsolved Mysteries for a new season. The first half of the season offered six goosebumps-inducing episodes filled with tales of UFOs, haunted homes, and unexplained deaths. Volume 2 is now set to arrive just in time for Halloween, and in anticipation, a new trailer has been released today. The creepy clip teases six new spine-tingling stories. If they’re brave enough, viewers will learn about tsunami ghosts, missing children, and a strange lake-dwelling figure. There will also be cases about a person who escaped death row and a suspicious murder all the way in frigid Norway. As with the first batch of episodes, Volume 2 won’t feature a central narrator — R.I.P. Robert Stack, man of my nightmares — but rather additional creepy ...
George Thorogood Premieres “Bad to the Bone” from Deluxe Reissue of Live in Boston, 1982: Stream
George Thorogood and The Destroyers have been going strong for more than 40 years. And they’re going back nearly that long for a new deluxe reissue of the album Live in Boston, 1982. In advance of the release, Thorogood is teaming up with Consequence of Sound to premiere a visualizer for the deluxe edition’s previously unreleased live version of his signature tune, “Bad to the Bone”. The deluxe edition, dubbed Live in Boston, 1982: The Complete Concert, adds 12 previously unreleased songs to the original 2010 release, for a total of 27 tracks. The reissue will be available as a 4-LP 180-gram vinyl set; a 2-CD edition; and digitally beginning December 4th via Craft Recordings. A red marble vinyl release will be made available exclusively for Record Store Day’s Black Friday event on November...
Unsane Launching Their Own Record Label, Reissuing Back Catalog
Unsane’s early albums have been out of print for years and missing from digital platforms, but the band has taken things into its own hands to rectify the matter. Frontman Chris Spencer will launch the imprint Lamb Unlimited label Friday (October 9th) as a means of reissuing Unsane’s back catalog and associated side-projects like the Cutthroat 9s. Finally, early Unsane releases will be accessible in digital and streaming formats. Unsane’s 1991 self-titled debut and 1993 singles comp, Singles 89-92, were issued on Matador Records and became cult favorites for fans of noise rock and post-hardcore — with some grisly album covers to boot. It just seemed cruel that these albums remain vacant from streaming services in 2020, so Spencer created Lamb Unlimited to rescue the Unsane discography...
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange Joins Spider-Man 3
It’s becoming increasingly evidence that Spider-Man 3 is to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Flash is to the DC Extended Universe. We got our first real hint this was coming when it was revealed earlier this month that Jamie Foxx would be reprising his role as Electro from the non-MCU The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now, another MCU character getting caught the tangled web of Spider-Man 3 all but confirms it, as Benedict Cumberbatch is reportedly appearing as Doctor Strange. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Cumberbatch’s Strange will fill the mentor/adult role held by Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in the previous MCU Spidey films, Homecoming and Far From Home, respectively. But considering the upcoming Doctor Strange standalone sequel is enti...
Wonder Woman Collaborators Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins Team for Cleopatra Film
From Princess Diana to the Queen of Egypt: Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot and director Petty Jenkins have re-teamed for the new historical epic Cleopatra. 2017’s Wonder Woman was the highest-grossing live action film ever directed by a woman. So, it’s no surprise Gadot and Jenkins’ latest collaborator attracted an army of deep-pocketed suitors; Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures won a “wild auction” that included Warner Bros., Universal, Netflix, and Apple. The movie follows Cleopatra VII, a Greek descendant of of one of Alexander the Great’s top generals. After her father’s death, she fought a brutal civil war against her brother for control of Egypt. Her victory came as part of a more-than-casual alliance with Julius Caesar, but it was her ill-fated rela...
Killer Mike Co-Founds Black-Owned Digital Bank Greenwood
Killer Mike is one of the founding members of the new Black-owned digital bank Greenwood. As CNN reports, the venture officially launches in January of 2021 but has already received “tens of thousands” of account requests. Greenwood is the brainchild of chairman Ryan Glover, the creator of Bounce TV. He co-founded the bank along with Killer Mike and Andrew Young, a Civil Rights icon who has served as a Georgia congressman, mayor of Atlanta, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The trio first announced the business in June, when they successfully raised $3 million of seed money. The platform was then officially unveiled on Thursday, October 8th, and has already been flooded with account applications. “I will say we’re in the tens of thousands,” Glover said. “That number is increasing ...
