Entertainment News
Sir Ian McKellen Gets COVID-19 Vaccine: “I Feel Very Lucky”
Sometimes being a hero is helping a ragtag party to destroy the One Ring, and sometimes it’s leading by example. Earlier today, Sir Ian McKellen shared a photograph of himself receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. “I feel very lucky to have had the vaccine,” he wrote on Twitter. “I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone.” Via BBC and itv, the 81-year-old McKellen accepted his inoculation at Queen Mary’s University Hospital in London from Dr. Phil Bennett-Richards. The procedure took less than ten seconds, and afterwards the acclaimed actor bumped elbows with his GP. “Next time I come — well no, six days after I next come I’m going to give them all a big hug,” McKellen said, referring to the vaccine’s second booster dose. “Is [hugging] allowed? I...
Nicole Atkins, Erika Wennerstrom, Neon Dreams to Play Sound Mind’s Rhythm & Reset Livestream: Watch
Heartless Bastards’ Erika Wennerstrom ( photo by Charlie Pearce), Nicole Atkins (photo by Ben Kaye), and Neon Dreams As if the holiday season wasn’t already stressful enough, this is still 2020, when everything bad is doubled. That’s why Sound Mind Live is offering some respite and promoting community self-care with their livestream benefit event Rhythm & Reset. Taking place Thursday, December 17th at 8:00 p.m. ET, Rhythm & Reset will feature artists performing intimate sets while also speaking out about their own experience with mental health. Nicole Atkins, Heartless Bastards’ Erika Wennerstrom, and Neon Dreams are all set to appear. In addition, the artists will join a panel of mental health experts to share tips for self-care and resources for coping with isolation as we ...
Older Gentleman Delivers Amazing Cover of Slipknot’s “Snuff”: Watch
YouTube singer-songwriter Frank Watkinson might seem like an unlikely Slipknot fan for his age. Yet, his thoughtful cover of the band’s 2008 track “Snuff” proves that Watkinson knows at least one of the band’s songs to its core. The already slow track is rendered even more emotionally direct through the simple combo of Watkinson’s powerful voice and an acoustic guitar. Sitting in his living room, he delivers a rendition worthy of an actual concert audience. The clip originates from August but made the rounds over the past couple days (via Metal Injection). While the original track is a ballad by Slipknot standards, Watkinson strips the song even further to its bare chords and sentiment, harnessing a simplicity that genuinely conveys the song’s intended message and atmosphere. Watkinson’s c...
David Bowie’s Unreleased Covers of John Lennon and Bob Dylan Will Finally Be Unearthed for 74th Birthday
Even beyond the grave, David Bowie continues to gift us new music. On January 8th, what would have been his 74th birthday, two previously unreleased covers will be made available to the public for the very first time. The first is Bowie’s take on “Mother”, the 1970 track from John Lennon. This cover was originally recorded in 1998 with the Thin White Duke’s longtime producer Tony Visconti. It was supposed to appear on a Lennon tribute collection, but the release never came to fruition. Meanwhile, the second offering is a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven”, taken from his 1997 Grammy-winning album Time Out of Mind. Bowie also recorded his reimagining in 1998 while working on his live album LiveAndWell.com that came out the following year. Editors’ Picks The new Bowie cover...
Florence Welch Shares Gorgeous Cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: Stream
The holiday season is well underway, and Florence Welch is celebrating by lending her voice to a Christmas classic. As part of The Stars Come Out to Sing for Christmas, an annual charity event by Nordoff-Robbins, the Florence and the Machine singer shared a gorgeous cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, which you can hear below. For her rendition, Welch stayed true to the original, singing gently over a bare piano melody that’s slightly faster than Judy Garland’s 1944 version. Of course, the power in her cover comes from her extraordinary vocal range. Instead of flaunting her skills, Welch takes a subtle approach, singing the iconic falsettos with graceful dexterity and charming casualness. Thankfully, Welch’s performance was captured live in a beautiful video that sets the sc...
As I Lay Dying Singer Tim Lambesis Hospitalized with Burns to 25% of His Body
As I Lay Dying singer Tim Lambesis is in the hospital after a bonfire accident left him with burns to 25% of his body. The controversial metal vocalist, who notoriously served time for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife, posted about his condition Wednesday (December 16th) on Instagram. The metalcore singer shared a photo of himself in the hospital, fully bandaged but with a smile on his face as he was about to undergo a procedure to remove dead skin. Along with the picture, Lambesis offered details about the incident and his road to recovery: “Keep your head up no matter what! I’m doing the best I can to make a thumbs up on my way to surgery (in about 30 minutes). I apologize to my friends that I have not had the time to fill in yet on what happened. The entire gas c...
Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin Cover The Knack’s “Frustrated”: Watch
It’s night seven of Hanukkah, and Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin are still going strong with their covers song series. Over eight crazy nights, the Foo Fighters frontman and Grammy-winning producer are tackling a different song by a prominent Jewish musician. For entry number seven, they’re tackling The Knack’s “Frustrated”. “Tonight we’re featuring 4 nice Jewish boys whose biggest hit was a song about a nice Jewish girl… ‘My Shalom-a’ or something like that,” Grohl and Kurstin wrote in a tweet posted to Foo Fighters’ Twitter. “We’re huge fans of New Wave (as well as the ‘old wave’ that came after Moses parted the Red Sea) so we are psyched to present…The Knack! Previously, the duo paid tribute to Jewish greats like the Beastie Boys (“Sabotage”), Drake (“Hotline Bling”), Mountain (“Missi...
Lizzie McGuire Reboot No Longer Happening
Sadly, the Lizzie McGuire reboot is no longer happening. On Wednesday, Hilary Duff shared a post to her Instagram in which she briefly explained that the Disney+ revival of her iconic series has been scrapped entirely. “I know the efforts and conversations have been everywhere trying to make a reboot work but, sadly and despite everyone’s best efforts, it isn’t going to happen,” Duff wrote in the post. Although she didn’t give a specific reason as to what ultimately killed the production, which was first announced in August 2019, Duff reiterated that she had hoped to take the Lizzie McGuire character — who was supposed to be 30 — in a more adult-friendly direction from the 13-year-old she played in the show’s original run from 2001-2004. Back in February, Duff publicly stated that she want...
Rick James Biographical Series in the Works
Rick James has one of the craziest life stories in music history, and now a TV show is in the works to tell it. Universal Studio Group’s UCP is developing a limited series called Super Freak that will detail the late soul icon’s music career and myriad legal issues. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is describing the series “a funkadelic mix of music biopic and true crime” that will trace the singer’s come-up in the ’60s, the “Super Freak” years of the ’80s, and his mid-90s comeback that was derailed by kidnapping and assault charges and a debilitating crack addiction. Randy McKinnon (author of Notes From a Young Black Chef and screenwriter for Netflix’s Grand Army) has been tapped to write and co- executive produce the series alongside a host of other EP’s. Am...
HBO Max Finally Arriving on Roku This Week
Over 200 days after it was launched, HBO Max is finally set to arrive on the popular Roku platform. HBO Max has some great programming, but its first year of existence has been nothing if not messy. Beyond the confusion of what the heck HBO Max is versus HBO Go/Now, there’s been the varied availability on TV platforms. It only just arrived on Amazon Fire last month, then earlier this week snuck onto Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex, followed closely by PlayStation 5. This left Roku out in the cold as the last remaining platform on which users didn’t have HBO Max access. And PS5 wasn’t even on the market when WarnerMedia’s streaming service arrived, adding insult to injury. Now, however, Roku and Warner have finally announced they’ve come to terms and will launch HBO Max on the Roku channel stor...
Once-Relevant Actor Kirk Cameron Holds Large Caroling Event in the Middle of the Pandemic
You might remember Kirk Cameron from his role in the TV series Growing Pains, the movie Like Father Like Son, or any of the cringey Christian dramas he made throughout the 2000s. But in 2020, the 50-year-old Evangelical Christian has pivoted from acting to anti-masking. On December 7th and December 13th, Cameron hosted gatherings of hundreds of people at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks, California to sing Christmas carols and commiserate in close quarters. In a video of the second event that Cameron posted to his Instagram with the caption “Joy over Fear” — a pointed rebuke of social distancing restrictions — very few attendees are seen wearing masks and almost everyone is singing in unison, mouth germs abound. That same day, Ventura County (the location of the gathering) reported...
Creed Singer Scott Stapp to Play Frank Sinatra in Ronald Reagan Biopic
Scott Stapp (via “My Sacrifice” video), Frank Sinatra (via Nothing But the Best album cover) We’ve been inundated with some unforeseeable headlines in 2020, and here’s one more before the year ends: Creed singer Scott Stapp is playing Frank Sinatra in an upcoming biopic on Ronald Reagan. Yes, the rock vocalist is portraying the legendary crooner in the movie Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president of the United States. Stapp already filmed the role, telling Billboard, “Sinatra in performance mode was an exercise in restraint. He had this steely, stylish swagger and his sheer presence commanded a room. I was excited to join the cast and blown away by the on-set attention to detail, style, and overall production.” His performance as Sinatra comes during a scene in whi...
