This summer, The Beths will return with a sophomore album called Jump Rope Gazers. After previewing the release with last month’s “Dying to Believe”, the New Zealand indie pop outfit is unboxing a new single in “I’m Not Getting Excited”. While musically a jumpy, driving number, its subject matter is about denying oneself the freedom to enjoy excitement and success — all because of constant second-guessing. In a statement, lead singer Elizabeth Stokes explained this case of imposter syndrome, “People always ask ‘are you excited!?’ and it’s a fair question, because exciting things do happen to us sometimes. Support slots, overseas tours, music releases. Stuff we’ve dreamed about for years. So the correct answer is always ‘yes.’ But the truth is that deep down there’s a tiny Liz saying, ‘don’...
John Peel’s BBC 1 radio show was iconic at the time it aired. In hindsight, it’s only grown all the more legendary. The legendary broadcaster recorded over 4,000 sessions with over 2,000 artists, which is, objectively speaking, a lot. To help make sorting through the Peel Sessions archive easier, angel-in-disguise and blogger Dave Strickson has uploaded and alphabetized hundreds of available recordings from the show to stream online (via BrooklynVegan). Most of the original studio sessions from Peel’s radio show were released as Peel Session EPs by his label, Strange Fruit Records, but many of those are unavailable to stream online. Thankfully, listeners occasionally upload those almost-lost-to-time recordings to YouTube. That’s where Strickson comes in. To help make the process of di...
Bedroom pop artist Jordana is back with a brand new single called “I’ll Take It Boring”, and it’s pretty much another guaranteed hit from the 19-year-old wunderkind. A few months ago, Jordana signed to Grand Jury Music and re-released her debut album, Classical Notions of Happiness, through the label. If you haven’t heard it, check it out ASAP. It’s a collection of folk-tinged pop songs that’s as witty as it is personable, landing Jordana alongside fellow young singer-songwriters like Sidney Gish and Caroline Rose. Thanks to “I’ll Take It Boring”, fans don’t have to wait to hear what she was working on as a follow-up. “’I’ll Take It Boring’ is a song about my experience at a Halloween party which I regretted attending,” Jordana said in a press release when asked about the track’s origins. ...
Bryan Adams was supposed to kick off a residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday, but because of the coronavirus, those dates have been delayed indifferently. The “Summer of ’69” songwriter and devout vegan isn’t holding back on who he blames for the crisis. “Thanks to some fucking bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards, the whole world is now on hold,” Adams wrote in an Instagram post on Monday night. “My message to them other than ‘thanks a fucking lot’ is go vegan.” While other musicians such as Paul McCartney have expressed similar sentiments regarding China’s wet markets, Adams’ tone and word choice has led some to accuse him of racism and xenophobia. It is worth noting that there is no conclusive evidence that COVID-19 originated from a wet market...
Snoop Dogg and Meek Mill have both called out the media for their coverage of Tekashi 6ix9ine following his comeback single, “GOOBA”. The two vented their frustrations on Instagram, with Snoop going as far to say, “Fuck Tekashi 6ix9ine… Feel me on this, and if u don’t fuck u 2.” Tekashi 6ix9ine got a lot of attention for his new song — it racked up over 36 million views in less than 24 hours on YouTube — and part of that praise was coming from music writers and influencers alike. Snoop Dogg and Meek Mill had enough when they saw Elliott Wilson, Rap Radar founder and a longtime hip-hop journalist, share the cover art for “GOOBA” in his Instagram Stories, notes HipHopDX. Snoop Dogg has been a vocal critic of Tekashi 6ix9ine for a while, so it’s no surprise he was angry to see the felon ...
EDM mega fest Electric Daisy Carnival has announced a new Virtual Rave-A-Thon. This livestream will take place May 15th, 16th, and 17th, with donations benefitting coronavirus relief charities. Across two “stages”, or unique Twitch and YouTube channels, the Virtual Rave-A-Thon will see performances from Afrojack, David Guetta, Flosstradamus, Kaskade, TOKiMONSTA, Zeds Dead, and more. EDC founder Pasquale Rotella will be hosting the event, as well as conducting interviews and interacting with fans at home. Other acts will include 12th Planet, AC Slater, ARMNHMR, ATLiens, Benny Benassi, Boombox Cartel, Borgore, Chris Lorenzo, Claude VonStroke, Deorro, Dombresky, Don Diablo, Duke Dumont, Ekali, Headhunterz, i_o, JSTJR, K?D, KSHMR, Lee Foss, Malaa, NGHTMRE b2b Ghastly, Nicole Moudaber, Oli...
Musicians are staying busy during the coronavirus pandemic by doing everything from reading children’s books to hosting interviews in a shower. Now, Josh Homme has served up his own slice of quarantine-induced creativity by playing Queens of the Stone Age song “Villains of Circumstance” in his bathroom. In the clip below, Homme can be seen playing a small acoustic guitar in his bathroom at home in Los Angeles. The original version of “Villains of Circumstance”, as heard on 2017’s Villains, is a six-minute-long sprawler full of eerie backing reverb and trickling guitar parts. It’s ominous and sinister, as if hiding a tender heart at its core. Homme reels things back for his quarantine rendition, taking the emphasis off the instrumentation and putting it onto his warbling vocal par...
While most bands are conceding that touring won’t happen for at least the next several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shinedown frontman Brent Smith says his band is planning as if they’re hitting the road this summer. As he puts it: “We are not afraid to play for you.” Shinedown were forced to postpone their spring North American “Deep Dive Tour” due to the pandemic, but quickly rescheduled the dates for the summer, before health experts and government officials started predicting that concerts wouldn’t resume until 2021. In a new interview with Jose Mangin for Zippo Live, Smith explained that the band is still hoping to honor the newly scheduled dates. “We are supposed to be on tour right now doing that tour, interspersed with headlining some festivals,” said Smith. “We rescheduled...
Migos, the prolific rappers with the sticky triplet flows, have returned with a new track, “Racks 2 Skinny”. Produced by DJ Durel, “Racks 2 Skinny” finds the Migos having just spent an unwise amount of money. But the trio are not deterred. “When the racks too skinny (too skinny),” Quavo says in the hook, “I can make somethin’, squeeze a milli (squeeze, uh).” The song comes with a music video directed by Joseph Desrosiers and Migos. It features huge piles of rubber-banded cash, expensive grills, and space-age sports cars filmed like something out of Sin City. Check out “Racks 2 Skinny” below. This is the second new track that Migos have released in as many weeks. On May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) they released the new track “Taco Tuesday”. In February, they teamed up with Young Thug and ...