Entertainment News
Cage the Elephant Announce Virtual Concert
Cage the Elephant have announced a special virtual concert, marking their first live performance since early spring. The livestream will see the full band play an electric set from the iconic Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The event is part of a Winter Benefit for Bread & Roses, a non-profit arts organization that produces free entertainment and live music for Bay Area children, teens, adults, and elders who don’t have the ability to easily experience the uplifting power of the arts in any other way. As such, the evening will consist of music, fundraising, and celebration to honor the organization’s essential work. The Winter Benefit concert will be broadcast on January 30th at 8:00 p.m. EST via Nugs.net and tickets are now on sale. Check out the poster for the special ...
Kid Cudi’s 37-Second “Beautiful Trip” Breaks Record for Shortest Song on Billboard Hot 100
It took Kid Cudi ten years to release the final entry in the Man on the Moon trilogy, but only 37 seconds to break a Billboard record. “Beautiful Trip”, the 37-second intro to Man on the Moon III: The Chosen, has become the shortest song to ever chart on the Hot 100. The Hot 100 launched 62 years ago to celebrate the most popular songs in America. It’s explicitly geared towards singles, and an unconventionally-structured track like “Beautiful Trip” would never have made the list before Billboard began counting online streams. As it is, Man on the Moon III debuted as the No. 2 album in the country behind Taylor Swift’s evermore, and since “Beautiful Trip” is the opening cut on a streaming hit, it almost accidentally grabbed the No. 100 spot on the Hot 100. The song ...
Amazon Shares Trailer For Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America: Watch
Amazon Studios has shared the first trailer for Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America. The Coming to America sequel 32-years-in-the-making Is scheduled to premiere digitally on Amazon Prime on March 5th, 2021. The follow-up to its 1988 predecessor sees Zamunda’s newly-crowned King Akeem (Murphy) returning to America to meet his long-lost son. Along with Arsenio Hall, playing Akeem’s trusy sidekick Semmi, the film’s cast includes Wesley Snipes, James Earl Jones, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and Teyana Taylor. It was directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) and written by original screenwriters Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield with Kenya Barris. Like many of 2021’s upcoming blockbusters, Coming 2 Amer...
Denzel Washington Is on Jared Leto’s Tail in The Little Things Trailer: Watch
One of the first movies Warner Bros. is using to smash release windows in 2021 is the Denzel Washington-starring The Little Things. Arriving in select theaters and HBO Max day-and-date on January 29th, the psychological thriller has today received its first trailer. Written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Founder, The Blind Side), The Little Things finds Washington playing Joe “Deke” Deacon, a Kern County Deputy Sheriff with an impeccable track record yet no forward career momentum. While on an evidence-gathering assignment in Los Angeles, Sergeant Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) ropes him into a serial killer investigation. They both have their sights set on one particular man (Jared Leto), but their hunt for a murderer threatens to unearth some dark secrets from Deke’s past. The trailer ce...
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Wife Toyah Perform Eccentric Covers of Nirvana, Alice Cooper, GN’R, and Sex Pistols: Watch
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and his singer wife, Toyah Willcox, have stayed busy in recent weeks with eccentric interpretations of classic heavy songs by Nirvana, Alice Cooper, Guns N’ Roses, and Sex Pistols. They’re the latest additions to the couple’s “Sunday Lunch” pandemic performance series. You may remember the couple’s utterly bizarre Halloween rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, which saw Fripp playing the song on guitar while Willcox sang and danced in what appeared to be a prison cell. Although the new covers aren’t quite as unconventional as the Sabbath performance, they still showcase the idiosyncratic talents of each artist. Fripp tends to handle most of the music, while Willcox sings and supplies interpretative dances, including a one-person mosh for Nirvana’s “Smells Li...
Playboi Carti Will Release New Album Whole Lotta Red on Christmas
Yes, it’s actually happening. Playboi Carti will finally release his long-awaited sophomore album Whole Lotta Red on Christmas Day. The Atlanta rapper has been teasing the follow-up to his visionary 2018 record Die Lit for over two years, revealing its title back in August 2018 and detailing it throughout 2019. Back in April of this year, he dropped its lead single “@ MEH”, which led many people to believe that the album would arrive before the summer. It didn’t, but Carti said that album was “turned in” to his label on November 23rd, and last week some eagle-eyed fans spotted promotional graffiti that seemed to indicate that Whole Lotta Red would finally be seeing the light of day on Christmas. In typical cryptic Carti fashion, the rapper has eschewed a tracklist ...
Talking Heads to Receive 2021 Lifetime Achievement Grammy
A month after revealing the nominees for the 2021 Grammy Awards (and completely shutting out The Weeknd), the Recording Academy has revealed the recipients of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards. Perhaps a sign of the Academy’s continued attempt to clean up its image with a diversity push, the 2021 Lifetime Achievement honorees include icons from a range of genres. Talking Heads, Selena, and Salt-N-Pepa will all receive the Special Merit gramophones, as will Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, opera singer Marilyn Horne, and late jazz great Lionel Hampton. The Talking Heads’ accolade is particularly noteworthy, as the legendary alt-rock group never received a Grammy during their existence. Their lone nomination came in 1984 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group for “Burning...
Nicolas Cage Details the History of Swear Words in New Netflix Trailer: Watch
Netflix’s History of Swear Words has received its first official trailer, and it’s a fuckin’ doozy. The Nicolas Cage-hosted series is a dive into the origins of the words “fuck”, “shit”, “bitch”, “dick”, “pussy”, and “damn”. Fittingly, the trailer begins with a dapperly dressed Cage standing up from his seat and screaming the F-bomb at the top of his lungs, which seems like a good indication of what the show is all about. Netflix describes the six-episode series, which was produced by Funny or Die, as such: “An education in expletives: the history lesson you didn’t know you needed. History of Swear Words, hosted by Nicolas Cage, is a loud and proudly profane series that explores the origins, pop culture-usage, science, and cultural impact of curse words.” Throughout the trailer, Cage is jo...
Queen’s Brian May Recalls Recording Sci-Fi EP with Eddie Van Halen
Brian May, photo by David Brendan Hall / Eddie Van Halen, photo by Philip Cosores Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May has paid tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen by recalling the time the two recorded the sci-fi themed Star Fleet Project EP in 1983. “A couple of days after I heard the news about Eddie, I went back to Star Fleet,” May told Total Guitar. “I started revisiting all the feelings I had when we were in the studio doing that, and it sort of healed my soul a bit. I thought, ‘Yeah, this is what I should be doing at this time.’” The three-song, 28-minute release was officially released under the “Brian May + Friends” moniker on October 31st, 1983. The EP favored a heavy blues rock sound and also featured REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer and session musicians Phil Chen and Fr...
His Dark Materials Renewed For Third and Final Season
Although season 2 doesn’t wrap up until next week, HBO and BBC have a third and final season for His Dark Materials. The TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s beloved book trilogy has already covered The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, so season three will correspond with the events in The Amber Spyglass, thus bringing the fantasy-drama epic to a close. Production is set to begin in Cardiff, Wales in March 2021. According to Deadline, season two only consisted of seven episodes due to COVID-19 restrictions, but season three will take eight episodes to tell the conclusion of Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will’s (Amir Wilson) journey. The series is produced by Bad Wolf in association with New Line Cinema for BBC One and HBO, with Pullman himself involved in New Line’s rost...
Nickelback Hilariously Spoof Own “Photograph” Video for Google Photos Commercial: Watch
Nickelback have long been one of rock’s most parodied acts, but the latest mockery of the band comes courtesy of Nickelback themselves. The Canadian rockers have hilariously spoofed their own “Photograph” video in a new commercial for Google Photos. The multiplatinum group’s 2005 music video has been the inspiration for countless memes and even a Donald Trump tweet that was eventually blocked by the band over copyright issues. The image of frontman Chad Kroeger holding up a picture frame, with the words “Look at this photograph”, provides a blank slate for endless fun. In the Google commercial, Nickelback are poking fun at the original song and video with newly written lyrics that even dare make fun of Chad Kroeger’s signature curly locks: “Falling down the photo rabbit hole/ Is it my hair...
Frank Zappa’s Birthday Celebrated with New Branded IPA
Celebrate Frank Zappa’s birthday (December 21st) this year with the perfect boozy stocking stuffer: the Zappa-inspired “Why Does It Hurt When IPA?”. The new and cleverly titled beer is a collaboration between the Zappa Family Trust and San Diego’s Duckfoot Brewery Company. The West Coast-style IPA is brewed with so-called “ZAPPA hops”, Simcoe and Cascade, said to be as “hugely eclectic” as the late rock icon himself. According to a press statement, the beverage promises “notes of passion fruit, spice and grapefruit,” a noted favorite of Zappa’s. In addition to these bright flavors, the packaging for the new beer features never-before-published photos of Zappa himself playing guitar while sitting on the toilet. Indeed, this IPA loves to fold in all the jokes: there’s Zappa on the can a...
