Today is officially the 5th anniversary of Carly Rae Jepsen’s stunning album Emotion. And what better way to celebrate than with more music from that era? The pop star has unveiled two Emotion bonus tracks “Never Get to Hold You” and “Love Again”. As Stereogum points out, these songs had actually leaked back in 2015, but Jepsen has never officially released them until now. Not unlike the proper album, they swell and burst with the kind of saccharine melodies and emotion (duh) that have become the Canadian artist’s trademark. “Never Get to Hold You” finds Jepsen yearning to embrace a partner, steady synths twinkling beneath her. Meanwhile, “Love Again” is a sweeping number about accepting heartbreak and believing that one day the right person will come along. Editors’ Picks For Jepsen...
Kanye West’s presidential aspirations hit several more roadblocks this week after being booted from the ballot in three crucial midwestern states. In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Kanye “failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.” In Wisconsin, the state’s elections commission concluded that Kanye’s ballot signatures were invalid, because they were submitted past the 5:00 p.m. legal deadline on August 4th. And in Kanye’s home state of Illinois, the state’s board of elections backed a hearing officer’s previous conclusion that a majority of the signatures submitted by Kanye were invalid or fraudulent. As it stands now, Kanye is on the ballot in five states: Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont, and pending verification in six others: Iowa, Missouri, Mi...
Rising English rockers Chappaqua Wrestling have unleashed the grungy new single “The Rift”. Chappaqua Wrestling formed in Manchester in 2017 and are now based out of Brighton. The 2017 release EP 1 announced the quintet as an act worth following, and put them on the radar of various BBC music programs. The band hasn’t officially revealed their debut album, but they’ve spent quarantine pumping out interesting singles. The latest of these is “The Rift”. While those crunching guitar riffs come straight from the heart, the framing of “The Rift” is undeniably heady. Chappaqua Wrestling’s primary songwriters, Jake Mac and Charlie Woods, were raised by jazz musicians and opera singers, and cite as influences experimental artists like Kandinsky and Mattisse. In this case, the lyrics wer...
Jack Sherman, one-time guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, has died at the age of 64. Red Hot Chili Peppers confirmed Sherman’s passing in a statement posted to Instagram. “We of the RHCP family would like to wish Jack Sherman smooth sailing into the worlds beyond, for he has passed. Jack played on our debut album as well as our first tour of the USA. He was a unique dude and we thank him for all times good, bad and in between. Peace on the boogie platform.” Sherman joined Chili Peppers in 1983, replacing the band’s founding guitarist Hillel Slovak. He played on the band’s 1984 self-titled debit and co-wrote a majority of the songs on their 1985 follow-up Freaky Styley. However, prior to the release of Freaky Styley, Sherman was fired so that Slovak could re-join the band. Sherman briefly...
A statue honoring Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell was recently vandalized. The bronze statue, which was commissioned by Cornell’s family following his death in 2017, currently stands outside the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. According to KIRO 7 News, on Thursday an unknown person vandalized the statue by covering it in white paint. In a statement issued Friday, Chris Cornell’s widow, Vicky, said she and her children “are heartbroken to learn of the vandalization of Chris’s statue at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. The statue is not only a work of art but a tribute to Chris, his incomparable musical legacy and everything that he stood for. It represents Chris, who is beloved not only in Seattle, but worldwide.” “In the face of this hate and destruction, we are thankfu...
Travis Scott is having a very busy 2020, even though what’s arguably his biggest single of the year hasn’t dropped yet — well, until now. “The Plan”, Scott’s contribution to the soundtrack for Christopher Nolan‘s movie Tenet, has arrived in the latest trailer for the upcoming blockbuster. “The Plan” isn’t some random B-side Scott agreed to fork over to the Hollywood machine. According to an interview in GQ, Scott’s single wound up becoming an integral part of the film, going so far as to become a type of musical glue instead of a simple backing track. “His voice became the final piece of a yearlong puzzle,” said Nolan. “His insights into the musical and narrative mechanism [composer] Ludwig Göransson and I were building were immediate, insightful, and profound.” Scott delivers with both hi...
The coronavirus pandemic has forced countless businesses to close their doors due to a sudden lack of income. Unfortunately, that list now includes the replica bar from Cheers in Boston, Massachusetts. Cheers sits inside Faneuil Hall Marketplace as an exact replica of the NBC sitcom’s joint. The spinoff location first opened in 2001 to immediate praise and has since become a constant fixture in both the city’s bar scene and its tourism industry. Tom Kershaw, the founder of the Cheers bar, said he tried everything he could to salvage the spot. “I have faced, and pulled through, many kinds of downturns and upticks in the economy within the last 20 years Cheers Replica Bar at Faneuil Hall Marketplace has been in business,” he said in a press release. “Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic, combin...
Happy birthday, Joe Strummer! The Clash frontman would have turned 68 today, August 21st, and some of the biggest names in entertainment came together to celebrate with a gargantuan livestream tribute. It included Bruce Springsteen, Bob Weir, Lucinda Williams, Jeff Tweedy, Josh Homme, and more, all while raising money for struggling live music venues. While the list of contributors is as starry as they come, “A Song for Joe: Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer” placed the late icon front and center. It opened with Strummer’s voice offering a definition for himself: “Punk rock warlord, with warlord being one word.” Over a montage of dramatic photographs, the great songwriter explained how the music itself is separate from the intention. He said, “Music is not the point. What matters is how...
On Thursday, Perfume Genius delivered a #PlayAtHome performance of “Whole Life” on The Late Show. Despite not actually broadcasting from a proper TV studio, the artist born Michael Hadreas still held viewers captive, thanks to some dramatic lighting and his magnetic body language. The whole thing was shot in a dimly lit room in Los Angeles with longtime collaborator Alan Wyffels. Hadreas can be seen performing in front of a projection screen rolling footage of collapsing water towers. Between that imagery, the song itself, and Hadreas’ body and shadow dancing in tandem with one another against the screen, it all felt somewhat poetic. You could almost say that the emotive potency of Perfume Genius is so powerful it transcends quarantine borders. Watch it for yourself below, and then revisit...