Entertainment News
Patti Smith Announces Birthday Livestream Performance
For years, Patti Smith has celebrated her birthday by playing an intimate gig with friends in New York. Thankfully, the punk rock pioneer is carrying on the tradition this year — albeit in the form of a livestream. On December 30th, Smith will perform with her band for the first time in 2020. Their show will be streamed by Veeps, which Smith recently used to broadcast a solo set of hers on Black Friday. “I just thought it would be nice to uphold that tradition in a certain way because it’s always a joyful moment,” Smith said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I love birthdays because we’re born and life is the greatest thing we have, I just thought it would be a nice thing to share with everybody.” Smith sees the one-off show as something of a makeup for the world tour she...
Ariana Grande Announces New Sweetener Concert Film for Netflix
Following a few sneaky teasers earlier this week, Ariana Grande has officially announced her new Netflix concert film capturing her “Sweetener Tour”. Titled excuse me, i love you, it will be available to stream in just a few weeks on December 21st — exactly one year after the tour closed out. “I know this project only captures some of one tour (out of all the other hundreds of shows and moments we have shared over the past six or seven years… jesus lol) but I just wanted to thank u all for showing me more in this lifetime already than I ever dreamed of,” the 27-year-old pop star wrote on social media today. Grande’s “Sweetener Tour” originally kicked off March 2019 and ran for about nine months. The concerts saw the Grammy winner perform hit songs off both Sweetener and thank u, ...
Trapt’s Twitter Suspended After Rant Seemingly Defending Statutory Rape
MAGA proud boys Trapt are at it again. If the racist and xenophobic ravings of frontman Chris Taylor Brown weren’t bad enough, the band’s toxic Twitter feed has finally been suspended after a rant seemingly defending underage student-teacher relationships and statutory rape. This after Trapt’s Facebook was suspended for “violating community standards” following a pro-Proud Boys post. The latest debacle appears to have started when someone trudged up a screenshot of one of the band’s old Twitter replies, no doubt scavenged from a pile of similarly tasteless remarks made throughout the years. This one defended underage student-teacher relationships, and the screenshot reignited the argument between Trapt (likely Brown) and an angry mob of angry commenters. Trapt doubled down on their old rep...
Every Time I Die Share New Songs “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”: Stream
Every Time I Die have returned with the double single, “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”. They’ve also announced a livestream event for December 19th. The songs mark the first new music from the Buffalo, New York hardcore act since 2016. In the interim, the band’s lost none of their mathematic prowess and virtuosic precision. If the rest of Every Time I Die’s forthcoming ninth studio album lives up to these tracks, fans are in for another excellent slice of passionate metal. As the titles “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures” imply, there’s more than a little of 2020 that’s seeped into the new material. Vocalist Keith Buckley stated in a press release that the songs are “two sides of the same reactionary coin.” “While ‘A Colossal Wreck’ looks around at the current state o...
Apple’s First Over-Ear Headphones, the AirPods Max, Will Only Cost You $549
Apple has announced AirPods Max, the tech giant’s first ever over-ear headphones. The cordless devices will retail for $549 and become available starting Tuesday, December 15th. The history of headphone technology begins with over-the-ear models, but starting with The Walkman in 1979, earbuds began to overtake them in popularity. It’s a trend that Apple helped along in 2001, when their first generation of earbuds shipped along with the original iPod. Their wireless AirPods launched five years later. As demand for a wider variety of listening options has increased, different people place varied values on discretion, comfort, and audio fidelity. The AirPods Max are the result of Apple bowing to demand for a high-end listening experience. Similar to the AirPods Pro ($249), the new Max models ...
Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo is Selling Over 2,000 Unreleased Demos
We didn’t get a new Weezer album this year, but frontman Rivers Cuomo has arguably given diehard fans a better gift. The 50-year-old rocker recently created an online marketplace where he’s selling over 2,000 unreleased demos, spanning the pre-Weezer years all the way up to the band’s 2015 era. Located in the “Market” section of his Mister Rivers’ Neighborhood website, Cuomo has ten different compilations for sale that are organized based on different periods of his creative history. Each demo pack costs just $9, but the track counts range from 26 in the concise “Best of the Demos” comp to a whopping 1,113 (that’s over 38 hours of music!) for “The EWBAITE Years”, which encompasses the 2011-2014 era. Fans of Weezer’s early work will surely be tantalized by the 72 demos in the coveted “Blue-...
10-Year-Old Nandi Bushell Covers Muse’s “Hysteria”, Earns Praise From Band: Watch
10-year-old Nandi Bushell has already defeated Dave Grohl in a drum-off, received Kirk Hammett stamp of approval for her “Enter Sandman” cover, and was even gifted a Tom Morello signature guitar for her viral rendition of Rage Against The Machine’s “Guerilla Radio”. But that hasn’t stopped the musical prodigy from continuing her quest to conquer all corners of the rock world. On Sunday, Bushell posted a video of herself nailing the complex drum and bass parts for Muse’s proggy 2003 song “Hysteria”. “Ever since I jammed ‘Hysteria’ by Muse on drums I wanted to learn the bass line too as it’s so so #awesome!”, the whiz kid wrote on Twitter. “It is the HARDEST bass line I have ever learned. I had to concentrate A LOT!” Like all of her previous covers, Bushell played the parts flawlessly ...
Nick Cave Says He Will Record a New Album in Lieu of Touring
Because of the ongoing pandemic, Nick Cave has been forced to cancel both his 2020 and 2021 tour dates. However, the gothic rock veteran doesn’t plan on just sitting around and bingeing TV shows for the next few months. Intent on making the most of his newfound down time, Cave has announced that he will begin recording a new album. Cave revealed the exciting tidbit on his Red Hand Files Q&A website while replying to a fan who had expressed her sadness over the tour cancellation news. The Australian musician first addressed the scrapped concerts, writing, “When the pandemic first hit and we had to postpone the European tour I was given the opportunity to take stock, and to see what I actually wanted to do with my life.” “Well, I took stock. I took a year’s stock. I came to the conclusio...
Tom Petty’s Estate Releases “Something Could Happen” Video Starring Lauren Cohan: Watch
Tom Petty’s estate has released a new music video for “Something Could Happen”. It’s directed by Warren Fu (The Strokes, Daft Punk) and stars The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan. “Something Could Happen” appears on Wildflowers & All the Rest, Petty’s new double album reissue of his 1994 record Wildflowers. When finding inspiration for the track’s music video, Fu fell hard for “Into the Great Wide Open”, off Petty’s 1991 album of the same name, and decided to create a modern spinoff on its imaginative, out-of-left-field video. “In looking back on Tom’s old music videos, it was obvious that he had a lot of fun with them and was not afraid to get a bit weird,” said Fu in a statement. “I wanted to create another modern fairytale in the spirit of Tom’s music video for ‘Into the Great Wide Open’...
Julia Jacklin Drops Cracked Christmas Song “baby jesus is nobody’s baby now”: Stream
Julia Jacklin is marking the holidays with the cracked new Christmas song “baby jesus is nobody’s baby now”. 2020 has been long and tumultuous, and for the residents of six continents it might be easy to forget that Australia began the year on fire. But down in Oz, where the holiday season overlaps with the dead of summer, it’s impossible to forget the bushfires that caused over $100 billion in damage alongside unfathomable ecological harm. Jacklin’s latest single imagines how a certain infant of legend might have fared in the Land Down Under. “She lost the baby,” Jacklin begins, “The house nearly burned down/ Baby Jesus is nobody’s baby now.” But her ambitions are larger — and more humorous — than just reliving a nationwide trauma. After all, ’tis the season for awkward family dinners and...
Pringles Reveal Mascot’s Full Body After John Oliver’s Dare
Pringles’ mascot Mr. P, photo via Twitter Pringles have one of the most recognizable mascots in the game. His name is Julius Pringles and he’s got a bushy mustache, flowing brown hair, and a dapper red bowtie that screams “Chips from a paper towel roll can be fancy, I swear!” It wasn’t until a recent John Oliver episode, though, that Mr. Pringles suddenly appeared suspicious, on account of the TV host pointing out that he apparently has no body. A floating head that wants you to eat potato chips? What is he hiding? Egged on by the Last Week Tonight host, Pringles took to social media today to introduce Mr. P and his disproportionate but entirely real body. “The moment @IamJohnOliver and @LastWeekTonight have been waiting for,” the brand tweeted. “In honor of every second John has tho...
R.I.P. Harold Budd, Legendary Ambient Composer Dead at 84
Harold Budd, the legendary avant-garde ambient composer, has died at 84. His frequent collaborator Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins confirmed the news on Facebook, writing, “It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Harold Budd. Rest in peace, poet of the piano.” Born in Los Angeles in 1936, Budd quickly took to music at a young age. He played the drums growing up and, once enrolled at Los Angeles City College, signed up for a music theory course in harmony. Budd briefly stepped away to enlist in the army, where he met Albert Ayler, the avant-garde saxophonist and his eventual bandmate for a short spell. Once back, Budd studied under composer Gerald Strang at San Fernando Valley State College and was deeply moved by a lecture John Cage delivered while attending the school, g...
