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Jon Spencer Says the Blues Explosion Are No More
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the stalwart New York outfit that reimagined blues rock in the 1990s and inspired the subsequent garage-rock revival, is no more, Spencer revealed in a new interview for the Kreative Kontrol podcast. The trio of Spencer, guitarist Judah Bauer, and drummer Russell Simins went on hiatus in 2016 but no longer plans to regroup. Spencer cited Bauer’s health issues as the main factor in the split. Watch him discuss the band’s end below. The trio formed the Blues Explosion in 1991, following Spencer’s tenure fronting the deliberately offensive 1980s garage rockers Pussy Galore. Their 1994 album Orange mixed breakbeats and blues poetry with primal rock’n’roll riffs, subverting the self-reflective grunge orthodoxy of the time. They released a further eight albums ov...
Zola Jesus Announces New Album Arkhon, Shares Video for New Song: Watch
Nika Roza Danilova has announced her sixth full-length album as Zola Jesus. Arkhon arrives May 20 via Sacred Bones, marking her first LP in nearly five years. Today, she has shared lead single “Lost,” which samples a Slovenian folk choir. The track arrives with a music video written, directed, edited, and shot on location in the Cappadocia area of Turkey by Mu Tunç. Check it out below and scroll down for the album art and tracklist. Speaking of her new song, Danilova said in press materials: “It’s true. Everyone I know is lost. Lost hope, lost future, lost present, lost planet. There is a collective disillusionment of our burning potential. As we stray further from nature, we drift from ourselves. ‘Lost’ is a sigil to re-discover our coordinates and claim a new path.” Of the video, she con...
Romero Share Video for New Song “Halfway Out the Door”: Watch
Romero, the Melbourne power pop band, are releasing their debut album Turn It On! on April 8 via Cool Death and Feel It Records. Following the title track and other previous singles, today, they’ve released the video for their new track “Halfway Out the Door.” The video was directed by Megan O’Keefe. Watch it below. “I dated this guy on and off for years, who wouldn’t leave me but wouldn’t exactly love me either,” the band’s vocalist Alanna Oliver said in a statement. “‘Halfway’ is written about him and my eventual commitment to myself.” O’Keefe said the video’s aesthetic came at the suggestion of the band’s drummer Dave Johnstone. “Dave had a strong vision and pushed to use my mum’s old Panasonic camcorder to film this video,” she said. “It makes for a more authentic storyline and the aes...
The Range Announces New Album Mercury, Shares Video for New Song “Ricercar”: Watch
The Range has announced his first new album in six years. Mercury is out June 11 via Domino and it features the previously shared single “Bicameral.” The follow-up to 2016’s Potential also includes “Ricercar,” a track that comes with a new video today. Watch it below. James Hinton explained the song’s title in a statement: Ricercar – literally – “to search out” A Ricercar in a musical context is a prelude fugue that kind of sets the tableau of a piece to follow. I first heard about the concept of a Ricercar in a biography of Bach, who famously encoded his own name in a piece (H having been interchangeable as the name for B-flat at the time). Hinton said the song was inspired by 1990s DJ Premier beats and features the reworked “Chief Kamanawanalea” break by the Turtl...
DL Hughley Sets The Record Straight On Theophilus London Confrontation Over Kanye West
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Paras Griffin / Getty D.L. Hughley is setting the record straight about a confrontation he had with rapper Theophilus London over comments Hughley has made about self-embattled superstar Kanye West. London recently shared a series of posts to his Instagram page in which he claimed he ran up on the Kings of Comedy star at Nobu in Miami to demand that he apologize to Ye for his comments. “Lmao I told him to apologize on camera for doing that dumb Vlad interview and his people called security,” London wrote in a post accompanied by a video that briefly showed him walking past a table where Hughley was eating with his family. First of all, even if what London said was half true, it would only make him the corniest negro at Nobu that day. This man is real...
Zola Jesus Announces New Album Arkhon, Shares “Lost”: Stream
Zola Jesus is back with her first album in five years. The singer-songwriter otherwise known as Nika Roza Danilova will release Arkhon on May 20th via Sacred Bones, and as a preview, she’s shared the single “Lost.” Zola Jesus has long been a solo project for Danilova, but on Arkhon, the musician set aside her pride and tried out collaboration. “At some point, I had to work with other people,” she explained. “I needed new blood. I needed somebody else.” She worked with producer Randall Dunn on the project, and also enlisted Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan) for drums. Allowing other people to contribute to her art allowed Danilova to play with spontaneity instead of meticulously crafting every detail of the record. At times, this allowed the classically trained singer to d...
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Break Up
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have broken up, frontman Jon Spencer has confirmed. The New York blues trio announced a hiatus in 2016, but Spencer says the band no longer has plans to regroup. Hot off his time in Pussy Galore, singer-guitarist Spencer formed the Blues Explosion with guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins in 1991, fusing blues and rock and roll guitar carnage with punk and soul. The trio released nine studio albums across their career; their last release was 2015’s Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015. In a new interview with Kreative Kontrol podcast, Spencer said that shortly after their last album’s release, Bauer contracted a respiratory illness that made it difficult for the band to continue. “We had a good run,” Spencer said. The artist released his...
Miley Cyrus’ Plane Makes Emergency Landing After Being Struck By Lightning
Miley Cyrus’ plane was forced to make an emergency landing in South America on Tuesday after being struck by lightning. In an Instagram post (see below), Cyrus shared a video of the lightning struck and a photo of the subsequent damage caused to one of its wings. Fortunately, “My crew, band, friends, and family who were all traveling with me are safe,” Cyrus wrote. However, as a result of the incident she has canceled a concert in Paraguay scheduled for Wednesday. Advertisement Related Video Cyrus is amidst a South American tour, which has included appearances at Lollapalooza’s festivals in Chile and Argentina. As of now, she is still scheduled to play Lollapalooza Brasil on Saturday. Last month, Elton John’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the UK following a hydraulics fa...
Gorillaz in 10 Songs
This article originally ran in 2017 and has been updated. Ever felt overwhelmed by an artist’s extensive back catalog? Been meaning to check out a band, but you just don’t know where to begin? In 10 Songs is here to help, offering a crash course and entry point into the daunting discographies of iconic artists of all genres. This is your first step toward fandom. Take it. Isn’t it frustrating not being able to box something in? Not being able to name it because the goddamn thing is so busy evolving that it slips through your fingers? Sure, they might be a bunch of cartoon characters, but there’s always been something a little darker than meets the eye going on with Gorillaz. They’re pockmarked and weathered, garish, rough around the edges, the residents of Banksy’s Dismaland as counterpoin...
Chris Martin Says ‘Of Course’ He’s Rooting For Grammy Rivals BTS
If you Wiki “good sport” this week the image at the top might just be of Chris Martin. That’s because in an interview with radio station Exa 96.9 FM in the Dominican Republic the Coldplay singer was askedif he’s backing BTS to win their first Grammy at the upcoming 2022 awards show. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Of course [I’m rooting for BTS], man,” Martin told the show’s host. “I love them. I love those guys and I just wish them good things, always.” Chris has had nothing but good things to say about the South Korean septet since teaming up with them to record the song “My Universe” for Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres album. But keep in mind that Martin threw his vote behind BTS even though Coldplay will face off against the K-pop icons at...
Woman Charged With Manslaughter in Shoving Death of Beloved Vocal Coach Barbara Gustern
A 26-year-old woman charged in the death of an 87-year-old Broadway singing coach hurled an epithet at her before shoving her to the ground and walking away while the older woman lay bleeding on the sidewalk, prosecutors said at an arraignment Tuesday (March 22). Lauren Pazienza, of Port Jefferson, Long Island, turned herself in earlier Tuesday to face a manslaughter charge in the death of Barbara Maier Gustern, which police said was the result of “an unprovoked, senseless attack” between two strangers. Gustern hit her head and was critically injured March 10 after she was shoved to the ground on West 23rd Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. She died March 15. Friends told The New York Times that Gustern had just left her apartment to catch a student’s performance after hosting a r...
Ed Sheeran Awaits Verdict in ‘Shape of You’ Copyright Court Battle
An 11-day trial over the copyright of Ed Sheeran’s hit song “Shape of You” concluded in London on Tuesday (March 22), with the judge saying he would take some time to consider his ruling. The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, deny accusations that the 2017 song copies part of a 2015 song called “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Lawyer Andrew Sutcliffe, representing the “Oh Why” co-writers, argued there was an “indisputable similarity between the works” and suggested the chances of two songs that “correlate” appearing within months of each other was “minutely small.” The lawyer claimed that Sheeran had “Oh Why” “consciously or unconsciously in his head” whe...
