music blog
CNN+ Announces It’s Shutting Down Three Weeks After Launch
CNN+, the billion-dollar bet that CNN’s future depended on digital streaming, will be shutting down at the end of the month, The New York Times and CNN report. The news comes scarcely three weeks after CNN+ launched on March 29th. The streaming offshoot of the cable news titan was championed by former CEO Jeff Zucker, who had planned to spend $1 billion on CNN+ over four years. But Zucker departed in February after failing to disclose a relationship with CNN’s marketing chief, and the future of the platform fell further into doubt last month, when CNN’s parent company WarnerMedia finalized a merger with Discovery to become Warner Bros. Discovery. Its fate may have been sealed when Warner Bros. Discovery announced that HBO Max and Discovery+ would be combined into one streaming platfor...
Janelle Monáe Discusses Coming Out as Non-Binary to Their Family: “I Couldn’t Be Little Janelle”
Janelle Monáe stopped by Red Table Talk for the show’s Season 5 premiere and opened up about their journey of coming out as non-binary to their family. “I’m non-binary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman solely,” the singer told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris. “I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she.’ And if I am from God, I am everything… I will always stand with Black women. But I just see everything that I am, beyond the binary.” The eight-time Grammy nominee first drew attention to their identity back in 2020 when they used the hashtag #IAmNonbinary alongside a meme promoting gender fluidity on Twitter, but explained during the sitdown that they hadn’t yet started the process of getting vulnerable wi...
Fontaines D.C. Are at the Height of Their Powers With Skinty Fia
Only four years ago, Fontaines D.C. released their first set of singles — one of which being “Boys In The Better Land,” an anthemic romp about the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side. Now, the boys of Fontaines D.C. have moved to London to see for themselves. For their brilliant third album, Skinty Fia—which is undoubtedly their most complex and nuanced album yet—the Irish rockers are digging even deeper into their Irish identity, looking both outward and inward, and offering empathetic observations and plainspoken truths. The expansive sound that Fontaines D.C. employs on Skinty Fia (out Friday, April 22nd) is a logical advancement from 2020’s Grammy-nominated A Hero’s Death, but the storytelling throughout points to a band totally unafraid of the unknown. “There ...
2022 MTV VMAs Set for New Jersey in August
The 2022 MTV Video Music Awards have gotten an airdate and location: The show will take place on Sunday, August 28, at Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center. It’ll be the first VMAs at Prudential Center since 2019. The 2021 Video Music Awards took place at Barclays Center in Brookly, New York in front of a live audience. The previous year, the event was broadcast from various New York locations, and there was no audience due to the pandemic. A press release for today’s announcement closed with the following note: Health and safety remains the number one priority for MTV and Prudential Center. We are working hand-in-hand with state and local officials to implement stringent protocols in order to maintain the safety and wellbeing of artists, fans, staff, and partners. Prudential Center...
Coachella 2022 Weekend 2 Lineup & Schedule: All the Set Times You Need to Know
The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival returns for its second weekend from April 22 to 24. Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Swedish House Mafia with the Weeknd will once again headline the festival at Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. As with the first weekend, the lineup also includes Phoebe Bridgers, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Danny Elfman, Doja Cat, Run the Jewels, Jamie xx, Carly Rae Jepsen, Vince Staples, Japanese Breakfast, Baby Keem, and Caribou. After their surprise appearance on last weekend’s schedule, Arcade Fire are notably not currently scheduled to appear on weekend two. Below, find the full schedule for the second weekend. Follow along with all of our Coachella 2022 coverage. Before the festival’s COVID-19-related 2020 cancellation, the announced ...
Cynthia Plaster Caster, Artist Famed for Plaster Casting Musicians’ Phalluses, Dies at 74
Cynthia Plaster Caster—the artist known for casting the erect phalluses of famous rock musicians like Jimi Hendrix, the Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley, and Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra—has died. Her representatives confirmed that she passed away in Chicago earlier today (April 21) following a long illness. She was 74 years old. Cynthia Albritton was born in Chicago in 1947. While attending art school in the 1960s, she was given an assignment to create a plaster cast of “something solid that could retain its shape.” While others might reach for a seashell or toothbrush, Albritton—who would later describer herself as a “recovering groupie”—found her muse in the frontmen of her favorite rock bands. Specifically, their penises. Albritton’s first famous subject belonged to Jimi Hendrix, who agr...
Watch Shakira and Rauw Alejandro’s Video for New Song “Te Felicito”
Shakira has teamed up with Rauw Alejandro for a new song called “Te Felicito.” It comes with a music video in which the two artists sing along to the track while dancing like robots in an AI world. Check out the visual—directed by Jaume de la Iguana and filmed in Barcelona—below. Shakira’s last album, El Dorado, came out in 2017. Right before the pandemic hit the United States, she performed at the Super Bowl 2020 halftime show with Jennifer Lopez and dropped “Me Gusta” with Anuel AA. As for Rauw Alejandro, he released his latest EP, Trap Cake, Vol. 2, this past winter Revisit Pitchfork’s video “Rauw Alejandro Makes His Life’s Soundtrack, From College to ‘Fantasías.’” Content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
OZZY OSBOURNE ‘Couldn’t Understand’ What LEMMY Was Trying To Tell Him The Morning MOTÖRHEAD Legend Died
Ozzy Osbourne has told Classic Rock in a new interview that he spoke to Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister on the morning that the iconic MOTÖRHEAD frontman passed away. Lemmy, who celebrated his 70th birthday on December 24, 2015, learned two days later that he was afflicted with an aggressive form of cancer. He died two days later, on December 28, 2015, at his home in Los Angeles. Speaking with Classic Rock for the magazine’s 300th issue, Ozzy recalled his final conversation with his longtime friend. “He was a good man, Lemmy was,” Ozzy said. “All the guys from MOTÖRHEAD have gone now, from the original band. It’s hard to lose anyone you love. I was talking to Lemmy on the morning that he died, but I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. I want...
BURTON C. BELL: ‘Stepping Away From FEAR FACTORY Was Not An Easy Decision’
During an appearance on the latest episode of “The Ex-Man” podcast hosted by Doc Coyle (BAD WOLVES), Burton C. Bell reflected on what life has been like for him in the year and a half since he exited FEAR FACTORY. The singer said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I feel really good. I’ve been creative. I’ve been working on various new projects, just extending my creative abilities outward and onward, not just musically but writing, photography, even extending towards painting and stuff like that — just being fully creative in every possible way. I’m not saying I did nothing for two years but I’ve been busy for two years as well just moving forward in my life path and my career. And I haven’t looked back.” He added: “Of course...
LAMB OF GOD Cancels Fort Wayne Concert After Fill-In Singer Falls Ill
LAMB OF GOD has been forced to cancel tonight’s (Thursday, April 21) performance at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The show, which is part of “The Metal Tour Of The Year” with MEGADETH, TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES, will go ahead with the other bands playing their sets as scheduled. LAMB OF GOD‘s concert cancelation comes two days after frontman Randy Blythe missed the band’s concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan after testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Filling in for him at the gig were TRIVIUM‘s Matt Heafy and IN FLAMES‘ Anders Fridén, as well as Mark Hunter of CHIMAIRA, which supported LAMB OF GOD on a U.S. tour back in 2003. Earlier today, LAMB OF GOD issued the following statem...
POP EVIL Drops New Single ‘Eye Of The Storm’
Hard rock group POP EVIL has released a gritty new single, “Eye Of The Storm”, along with an accompanying video directed by Sam Shapiro. The track is a powerful number that conveys the chaos of a hurricane through dark, electric instrumentals with a pummeling, chaotic metal maelstrom that contains an uplifting message at its center. The video is an allegory of the song’s meaning and paints a picture of the storm with rapid, flashing lights and rain flooding the scene. As for the song’s lyrical plea, the band explains: “It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, at some point we all face a situation beyond our control. The wind howls at your door as darkness fills the sky and everything you know is being tested. You don’t know if you can ...
‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2’ Delayed Until 2023
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Mike Marsland / Getty Sorry Spider-Man fans, but it looks like Sony’s highly anticipated sequel to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse has been delayed until sometime next year. According to Vulture, Sony Pictures recently published their latest release calendar and unfortunately for comic book fans, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2 has been pushed back nine months from October 7, 2022 to June 2, 2023. To make matters even worse, the film will be delivered in two installations, so while we’ll be getting part 1 in June of 2023, we won’t be getting the conclusion until March 29, 2024! Why is Sony doing us like this?! Related Stories One of the film’s writers, Phil Lord apparently took delight in the announcement that the film was being pushed back and...
