Entertainment News
Elliott Smith’s Self-Titled Sophomore Album Gets 25th Anniversary Reissue
This July marks the 25th anniversary of Elliott Smith’s sophomore self-titled album. To celebrate the occasion, Kill Rock Stars has announced a deluxe reissue of the LP, set for release on August 28th. Official Smith family archivist Larry Crane pulled the closest possible recordings to the original Elliott Smith mix downs from scores of reels, cassettes, files, and DAT tapes to give the album a fresh remaster. The special edition comes housed in a 52-page coffee table book featuring handwritten lyrics, stories from Smith’s friends and collaborators about the era, and two dozen previously unreleased images from photographer JJ Gonson. One of those new photographs is the original image that became the album’s cover art. What’s more, the collection includes the previously unreleased Liv...
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande Drop Collaborative Single “Rain on Me”: Stream
With just a week to go before the arrival of Chromatica, Lady Gaga has unveiled the album’s most highly anticipated collaboration: “Rain on Me” featuring Ariana Grande. Check it out below via its official music video. On the new single, the two pop powerhouses take turns belting out lines like, “I’d rather be dry, but at least I’m alive.” The pair took a similar empowering stance in all of the track’s various promos on social media, which featured Gaga and Grande striking poses in outfits straight out of a sci-fi flick. In an interview with Apple Music on Thursday, Gaga recalled how the partnership came together, “I said to her, ‘OK, now everything that you care about while you sing, I want you to forget it and just sing. And by the way, while you’re doing that, I’m going to dance in ...
Woods Return with New Album Strange to Explain: Stream
Indie folk rockers Woods are back with a new album called Strange to Explain. Hear the entire effort below via Apple Music or Spotify. Due out via their own Woodsist label, Strange to Explain marks the group’s 11th (!) full-length to date. In the time since their last LP, 2017’s Love is Love, Woods frontman Jeremy Earl became a father, and guitarist Jarvis Taveniere relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, turning the group bicoastal. The two bandmates also helped produce David Berman’s first and only album as Purple Mountains. Editors’ Picks According to a statement, the new record’s 11 tracks — including lead single “Where Do You When You Dream?” — serve a “sweet reflection for the 15-year-old band, bouncing back to earth as something hopeful and weird and resolute.” Stran...
The 1975 Finally Release New Album Notes on a Conditional Form: Stream
By this point, our calendars are filled with crossed reminders of the release date for The 1975’s new album. After two years and multiple delays, the circle finally takes the square: The 1975 have today released Notes on a Conditional Form. The follow-up to the truly excellent 2018 effort A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships was formally announced last summer with an expected due date of February 21st, 2020. Work didn’t progress as anticipated, however, and a month before the release it was pushed to April 24th. Then the full-length faced another hitch along with the rest of the world when the pandemic hit, forcing The 1975 to delay it once again until today, May 22nd. In her review of the album, Consequence of Sound contributor Samantha Small said that the diverse record is...
Doja Cat Pounces on Remix of The Weeknd’s “In Your Eyes”: Stream
Doja Cat has learned the power of the remix, especially after “Say So” featuring Nicki Minaj became each woman’s first number one hit. Now she’s teamed up with Canadian megastar The Weeknd, pouncing on a new remix of his After Hours track “In Your Eyes”. She feels right at home in The Weeknd’s tripped-out pop landscape, where the melodies are intoxicating and the artists have been over-served. She begins her verse in tears over her love, even though the rest of the lyrics imply that the relationship is going well. “I can’t stop staring at you” she sings, before spitting raps. “It’s like I forgot that staring is rude/ And that’s what five shots could turn me into.” Check out “In Your Eyes (Remix)” below. In March, The Weeknd shared a deluxe edition of After Hours featuring re...
Lana Del Rey Responds To Instagram Backlash: “Don’t Ever Ever Ever Ever Bro- Call Me Racist”
It’s been a day for Lana Del Rey. In an Instagram post on Thursday morning, Del Rey announced the September 5th release of her new album and name-checked major pop stars of color like Beyoncé and Cardi B in a lengthy digression on the glamorization of abuse and feminism’s place in pop music. Shocker: It didn’t go down so well, eliciting all sorts of backlash from fans and passersby alike. Del Rey has since responded to the vitriol by replying to comments on her own Instagram post. To further broadcast her sentiments, Del Rey then republished her own comments in an Instagram story. Here’s the first comment: Bro. This is sad to make it about a WOC issue when I’m talking about my favorite singers. I could’ve literally said anyone but I picked my favorite fucking people. And this is the proble...
Cannabis Could Help Treat COVID-19, New Study Finds
Has Mike Tyson’s ritual of smoking $40,000 worth of weed every month been strengthening his immune system against the coronavirus pandemic? Probably not… but maybe! According to a new study by researchers at the University of Lethbridge, using cannabis could help treat COVID-19 by blocking coronavirus cells from entering the human body. This non-peer-reviewed, pre-clinincal study, titled “In Search of Preventative Strategies: Novel Anti-Inflammatory High-CBD Cannabis Sativa Extracts Modulate ACE2 Expression in COVID-19 Gateway Tissues”, was published in the peer journal Preprints in May. Lethbridge researchers began looking into a correlation between the two for a partnership between their university, pharmaceutical research company Pathway RX, and cannabinoid-based oral health compan...
Lana Del Rey Announces New Album, Rejects Critics Who Say She “Glamorizes Abuse”
Lana Del Rey has been teasing a spoken word record for the last few months, but apparently she has even more up her sleeve. In an Instagram post early Thursday, she announced she will release a new album on September 5th, the follow-up to last year’s stellar Norman Fucking Rockwell!. Del Rey also appeared to shade major pop stars of color like Beyoncé and Cardi B in a lengthy discussion about the glamorization of abuse and feminism’s place in pop music. Del Rey’s social media post was predominantly focused on rejecting the criticisms that her music glamorizes abuse. “I’m fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent abusive relationships all ov...
Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, and Karyn Kusama Surprise NYU Graduates Over Zoom
Who spoke at your graduation? Probably not Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, or Karyn Kusama. Well, that was a reality for this year’s graduating class of Cinema Studies majors at New York University. As IndieWire reports, the acclaimed auteurs all surprised the budding filmmakers with kudos as they head out into … eh, reality. Ever the realistic, Wright cut right to the chase of said reality: “I know this has been a long, hard journey to get here and I know you’d all love to celebrate with each other, and I’m sorry you cant do that, but this is still a milestone in your lives and you should all be very, very proud of yourselves for what you’ve done.” The Baby Driver filmmaker contended, “If it makes you feel any better, I never got to graduate either because I never went to f...
Guns N’ Roses Launch “Not in This Lifetime Selects” Concert Streaming Series: Watch
Having just postponed their summer North American tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Guns N’ Roses are offering an alternative “live experience” for fans. The band has launched a new streaming series, dubbed “Not in This Lifetime Selects”, showing pro-shot footage from their mega-successful tour. The “Not in This Lifetime Tour” kicked off in 2016, with Slash and Duff McKagan rejoining Axl Rose in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band. Over a four-year period, the extensive trek has earned $563 million, making it one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. The streaming series starts Thursday (May 21st) with select highlights from the band’s October 29th, 2019 show at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. That gig saw GN’R play 25 songs, including seven from their iconic d...
Christopher Nolan Unleashes New Tenet Trailer: Watch
Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. are insistent on getting Tenet into theaters — COVID be damned. To keep the hype machine going, they’ve unleashed a new trailer — which debuted live on Fortnite — that has us salivating for the time-warping thriller. Like the first preview that dropped in December, this latest trailer offers more eye candy and even more proof that this is, indeed, the “most ambitious film” Nolan has ever made. We’re still fuzzy on what the hell exactly is going on, but we know we want more. Once again, the film centers around a spy played by John David Washington, who’s been tasked with preventing World War III. Only it’s not nuclear holocaust he’s trying to stop — it’s someone with the ability to manipulate time in a very unique, mind-bending way. Editors’ Pic...
Sylvester Stallone to Host Rocky Watch Party Screening
“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Those words feel particularly relevant in 2020, which makes it the perfect time to revisit the start of the Rocky Balboa story — and you can do it with Philly’s Finest himself. Today, Sylvester Stallone will be hosting a livestream screening of Rocky on Facebook. To launch Creative Artists Agency’s (CAA) new weekly series “Screening Room with the Stars”, Stallone will be on hand to watch the 1976 classic with fans. The initiative will see a new film stream every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT on the movies’ respective studio’s Facebook page, so Rocky will be screened on MGM’s page. Next week will find screenwriter and star Nia Vardalos hosting a viewing of My Big Fat Greek ...
