music blog
Nine Inch Nails Reunite With Early Members At Hometown Cleveland Concert
Trent Reznor reunited with several members of Nine Inch Nails’ ’90s lineup, including Richard Patrick, Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner, and Charlie Clouser, during a special hometown show in Cleveland on Saturday night (September 24th). The reunion took place the night after Reznor and a group of his former bandmates appeared for a live Q&A at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where only some of the rotating lineup was inducted in 2020. There seemed to be no bad blood on the stage though, as the frontman shared the spotlight for six songs to close out the one-night-only tour stop. The former members collectively took the stage during the tour debut of “Eraser” from 1994’s The Downward Spiral, and they remained there until the conclusion of the show. Their mini-set featured early c...
Beth Orton: Weather Alive
Orton’s writing, too, has grown more elusive. She has spoken in interviews about her diagnosis with temporal lobe epilepsy, a condition she is reluctant to describe in much detail beyond its resulting seizures and memory problems. The lyrics on Weather Alive, which occur in bursts and fragments, often circle around these types of disembodying experiences. “I have lived as a satellite,” she sings. “I saddled up/I settled up/I don’t sit right.” Other songs seem designed to capture and prolong brief portraits of serenity, a practice that might feel counterintuitive to someone more prone to meditating on darkness. “Almost makes me want to cry,” she sings repeatedly in the title track. “The weather’s so beautiful outside.” The lyrics set a scene, but the landscapes tend to form gradually with e...
Post Malone Hospitalized After Having a “Very Difficult Time Breathing”
Post Malone was forced to cancel the Boston show of his twelve carat toothache tour after being sent to the hospital. In a note shared by the artist on social media, he explained that he woke up that afternoon with “cracking sounds” on the right side of his body despite feeling “so good” the night before. “I’m having a very difficult time breathing, and there’s like a stabbing pain whenever I breathe or move,” he wrote. “We’re in the hospital now, but with this pain, I can’t do the show tonight. I’m so f*cking sorry.” Posty continued to state that all tickets will be valid for a rescheduled date that is already in the works, also promising to make it up for the Boston fans. Just last week, Malone took a hard on-stage fall during his St. Louis show; he was performing “Circles” and did not n...
Nine Inch Nails Reunite With Early Members, Cover Filter Song
Nine Inch Nails were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the ceremony to be scaled down to a TV broadcast. In the wake of the ceremony, a live celebration in Cleveland was announced for 2021, which was later cancelled and rescheduled until 2022. Now nearly two years since his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Trent Reznor returned to his hometown of Cleveland for the performance, which saw him reunite with four members from the band’s early days. On Friday, the band hosted Nine Inch Nails Fan Day before performing at the Blossom Music Center on Saturday, as Rolling Stone and Cleveland.com report. Chris Vrenna, Richard Patrick, Danny Lohner, and Charlie Clouser sat down for a Q&A Friday night, and later joined the band on Saturday to perf...
Dr. Dre on Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show: “She Has the Opportunity to Really Blow Us Away”
Earlier this week, the NFL announced that it will partner with Apple Music as the sponsor for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show. After rumors that Taylor Swift would be chosen as this year’s halftime performer began to circulate, Rihanna announced that she will officially be headlining the show. As part of the Super Bowl announcement, Dr. Dre sat down with Apple Music 1 host Ebro Darden to discuss Rihanna’s headlining performance. “I just like her and what she does, and her get down, and how she approaches her artistry and the whole nine,” Dr. Dre said. “It’s fantastic. She has the opportunity to really blow us away. I know we set the bar extremely high.” Dr. Dre notably performed alongside Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg at last year’s event, which was also the first...
Portola Festival Responds to Crowd Control Incident in San Francisco: “A Minimal, Isolated Issue”
Portola Festival took place this weekend at Pier 80 in San Francisco, and on Saturday (September 24), the Goldenvoice-affiliated festival experienced crowd control issues as a large group of people rushed toward one of the festival stages, Billboard reports. Around 5 p.m., guests were making their way to the festival’s Warehouse stage for a performance by the English electronic producer Fred Again.., when attendees began climbing over barricades surrounding the stage. Video of the incident posted to social media show guests breaking free from the bottlenecked crowd and forcing themselves through the VIP area to make their way to the performance. “There was a minimal, isolated issue with a festival stage entrance yesterday,” a representative for Goldenvoice shared with Pitchfork. “This occu...
NFL Announces Apple Music as Its New Super Bowl Halftime Show Sponsor
Following the announcement made earlier this year that Pepsi is ending a decade-long partnership and will no longer be the sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the NFL has brought on another major player, in hopes to expand its musical offering at one of the most watched performances of the year. The league officially announces a multi-year partnership with Apple Music to continue the celebration of the world’s greatest songwriters, musicians, producers and artists. The partnership sees the Super Bowl Halftime Show move in a direction that focuses on the music listening experience of the performance, tapping into Apple Music’s over 90 million songs catalog. In a statement, NFL’s SVP of Partner Strategy Nana-Yaw Asamoah said, “We are proud to welcome Apple Music to the NFL family as our...
Wynonna Judd Says She and Sister Ashley ‘Are So United Right Now’ While Opening Up About Mother’s Passing
Wynonna Judd is sharing her emotional journey following the passing of her late mother, Naomi Judd, the other half of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds. In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, the country singer opened up about her relationship with her mother before her death in April, her experience of saying goodbye to Naomi and the various emotions she’s grappled with since. “I did not know that she was at the place she was at when she ended it because she had had episodes before and she got better,” the singer recalled. “And that’s what I live in is like, was there anything I should have looked for or should I have known?” Naomi died by suicide on April 30 at the age of 76, a day before The Judds were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was ...
Portola Festival Organizers Address Crowd Rush Incident: ‘A Minimal, Isolated Issue’
San Francisco’s Portola Festival at the city’s Pier 80 experienced a crowd issue Saturday (Sept. 24) when a large group of people rushed an early evening set by English producer Fred Again. The incident at the site occurred around 5 p.m. on the festival’s opening day. Video shared to social media shows members of the crowd jumping over the barricade surrounding the event’s Warehouse stage, a large enclosed space with two separate entrances for general admission and VIP attendees. The crowd waiting to get in through the GA entrance began gathering outside the Warehouse roughly 30 minutes before Fred Again’s set was scheduled to begin. As the crowd ballooned in size, a large throng of people bottlenecked at the GA entrance, with many of them unable to get inside and with some membe...
David Foster, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette & More Inducted Into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) honored David Foster, Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, Alanis Morissette and francophone legend Daniel Lavoie Saturday night (Sept. 24) at a gala ceremony at Toronto’s Massey Hall that highlighted their incredible hit-stacked careers, influence and legacy. Hosted by platinum-selling Quebec singer-songwriter Marie-Mai, the three-and-a-half-hour show included tribute performances by such artists as Corey Hart, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake, Alessia Cara, JP Saxe, Charlotte Cardin, Jessie Reyez, Serena Ryder and Chicago’s Neil Donell, backed by a house band. Deborah Cox — the 2022 inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame — kicked off the ceremony with a showstopping rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing,” written by Foster and Li...
Dr. Dre Gives Advice to Rihanna Ahead of Super Bowl Halftime Show
Rihanna is headlining the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show, and last year’s headliner, Dr. Dre, has some words of wisdom for her. Dre spoke with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1 on Sunday (Sept. 25), soon after Rihanna’s news was announced. Apple Music was recently named the official sponsor of the annual event. “Oh, my god,” said Dre, who took the Super Bowl stage last year. “Let me tell you something, man. I actually just got the news that Rihanna’s going to do it, and I’m a super fan of Rihanna. I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do. “ “I just like her and what she does, and her get down, and how she approaches her artistry and the whole nine. It’s fantastic. She has the opportunity to really blow us away. I know we set the bar extremely high,” he added. His advice to the n...
James Earl Jones Abdicates Darth Vader Voice Role to AI Technology
James Earl Jones has apparently relinquished the role of lead Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader to AI voice technology. The 91-year old actor and EGOT winner originated the character with his vocal performance in 1977’s Star Wars. In a report by Vanity Fair about the Ukrainian start-up Respeecher, it was revealed that the process of transitioning the vocal responsibilities from Jones to the company’s proprietary AI algorithm has been ongoing since the Sith Lord’s revival in the 2022 Star Wars prequel series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Respeecher programmers employed an algorithm that uses archival recordings to create new dialogue. Jones provided his singular, sinister take on Darth Vader for a number of Star Wars spin-offs throughout the years, but his last contribution came in 2019’s The Ri...
