music
Blondie Announce New Graphic Novel Against the Odd
Blondie have announced a new graphic novel called Against the Odds. It’s a collaboration with Z2 Comics that will illustrate the story of the iconic new-wave band’s rise in the New York art and fashion world. The book is Blondie’s first foray into the world of comics, but they’re the only newbies involved with the project. Against the Odds was illustrated by the acclaimed comic book artist John McCrea, and it was co-written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti — the duo who penned DC Comics’ relaunch of Harley Quinn. With vivid color, the book will chronicle the band’s come-up in Manhattan’s notorious punk and art world of the 1970s. Conner was actually there, watching Blondie at clubs like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Andy Warhol and David Bowi...
Tom Morello Tapped as Executive Music Producer for Upcoming Netflix Film Metal Lords
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is set to serve as the executive music producer for the upcoming Netflix film Metal Lords, due out later this year. The film is also the first feature-length project in a partnership between Netflix and Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. A brief press release described Metal Lords as a “coming-of-age comedy” with a plot synopsis many young metalheads can relate to: “Two kids want to start a heavy metal band in a high school where exactly two kids care about heavy metal.” Metal Lords is written and co-produced by Weiss and will be directed by Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist). Benioff serves as an executive producer, keeping the Game of Thrones pairing intact. The film stars Jaeden Martell (Knives Out, It...
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Share New Album L.W.: Stream
Prolific Aussie psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are back with their latest album, L.W. It comes on the heels of K.G., which dropped just three months ago. Stream it via Bandcamp below. L.W. runs nine tracks long and includes the previously released singles “Pleura”, “O.N.E.”, and “If Not Now, Then When?” As its name implies, L.W. serves as a companion piece to K.G. Frontman Stu Mackenzie previously explained the group didn’t initially plan to release a pair of linked albums: We wanted to make new music that was somehow more colorful this time around, and which maybe reflected t”he many new things that we have learned along the way. After recording Flying Microtonal Banana the songs expanded when we played them live, so we felt ready to tackle the microtonal landscape again...
Cannibal Corpse Expose Human Organ Trafficking in Video for “Inhumane Harvest”: Watch
As Cannibal Corpse prepare to unleash their new album Violence Unimagined on April 16th, the death metal pioneers have now offered up an unsettling video for the recently released first single “Inhumane Harvest”. Cannibal Corpse have always penned gory lyrics, but in this case the song’s words actually detail a serious criminal issue. “Inhumane Harvest” and its accompanying music video offer a disturbing look at the appalling underground illegal human organ trade. “‘Inhumane Harvest’ takes a look inside one of organized crime’s more sinister activities: the human organ trade,” guitarist Rob Barrett said in a press release. “Desperate buyers will pay a high price for a much-needed organ transplant to either save themselves or a loved one from certain death, which makes for a lucrative busin...
Björk Shares Sonos Radio Mix: Stream
Björk is the latest artist to curate a Sonos Radio station, plumbing her formidable WAV archives for a playlist that touches every corner of the globe. Her channel is called “21 years worth of wave files liquidated into a stream”. As she explained in an interview at the top of the mix, Björk has owned the same laptop for 21 years. It’s become a repository for all her favorite tracks discovered on CDs, cassettes, vinyl, and more — every song that she says “saved my life” she converted into a high-quality WAV format. Now, these sonic chronicles have been distilled down to an eclectic hour’s worth of music, featuring performances by Alim qasimov, Jeremiah, Oui, LFO, Aby Ngana Diop, ML Buch, and more. In a statement, Björk delved into her curation process, writing, “i am quite t...
Rina Sawayama Reveals Mercury Prize and BRIT Awards Nationality Requirements Have Changed
Last July, Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama revealed she was ineligible to win a Mercury Prize or BRIT Award for her critically acclaimed album, SAWAYAMA, due to an archaic nationality requirement. She’d lived in the UK since she was a toddler, but because she lacked a British passport, she wasn’t up for awards consideration. Today, our former Artist of the Month revealed the eligibility rules have changed. “I’m over the moon to share the news that following a number of conversations the BPI [British Phonographic Industry] has decided to change the rules of eligibility for all nominees for the BRIT awards and Mercury Prize,” she wrote on Twitter. “Starting this year, artists (like me) will be eligible for nomination even without British citizenship. The rules have broadened to include...
Julien Baker Can Run Away, But She Won’t
By Danielle Chelosky “I go back and forth about whether that would be the right thing to do,” singer-songwriter Julien Baker says about running away and making music in the woods. On this 10 a.m. phone call, Baker is doing what she seemingly always does — weighing the morality of a situation. “If I isolate myself from this world that I am confused and saddened by, the confusing sadness of the world doesn’t stop existing. I just get to distance myself from it.” The 25-year-old artist has reason to contemplate it all. After playing in bands from a young age, she took off with her striking solo debut Sprained Ankle in 2015. The impressive follow-up Turn Out the Lights came two years later and only heightened her fame. In 2018, she joined forces with fellow emotive musicians Phoebe Bridgers an...
Paramount+ Announces Docu-Series with Dave Grohl and His Mom, New Behind the Music
When CBS All Access rebrands itself as Paramount+ next month, it will come with a slew of new content for music fans. At the ViacomCBS’s TCA presentation on Wednesday, it was announced the platform will be a home to reboots of classic MTV and VH1 franchises as well as a new docu-series from Dave Grohl and his mom, Virginia Hanlon Grohl. The Grohls’ series is based on Mama Grohl’s 2017 book From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars, taking the name From Cradle to Stage. The book featured interviews with rock stars’ moms about raising their little hell-raisers, and the six-part docu-series will further explore those relationships. Each episode will center on a single famous artist and their mother, with Dave and Virginia along for the ride. Paramount+ wi...
20 Years Later, Life Without Buildings Share Their Voice With A New Generation
By Loren DiBlasi Two decades have passed, and Life Without Buildings still sound like freedom. Hear the band’s sole full-length record, Any Other City, once and it’ll never leave you — its lush, syrupy warmth oozes from your ears to your insides and stays there, like a glowing flame that never goes out. What keeps it crackling? Soft, sustained rhythms that toss and turn with gentle fervor, snaps of sharp, sparkling guitar, and a voice — a bizarre, beautiful cadence unmatched then and now — that’s strikingly naive yet bursting with profound wisdom. “No details! But I’m gonna persuade you!” singer Sue Tompkins swears in a clear, confident shout at the record’s outset, and yeah, you’re immediately convinced. It’s not what she says, exactly, but the heartfelt abandon with which she says it. Re...
Yaya Bey Announces New EP The Things I Can’t Take With Me, Shares “fxck it then”: Stream
Brooklyn-based R&B musician Yaya Bey experienced a breakout moment last year when she released Madison Tapes, her excellent political album, and she’s carrying that momentum forward with her upcoming release. Today, Bey has announced a new EP called The Things I Can’t Take With Me. It’s due out April 9th via Big Dada, but you can stream the lead single “fxck it then” in advance below. Over the course of six tracks, The Things I Can’t Take With Me finds Bey working through a breakup that trigged deep wounds and childhood traumas. The project came together in real time when, in the midst of writing a new album, Bey’s relationship unexpectedly ended and she found herself writing songs that warranted their own collection. “[The album] is going to be about the journey home to self,” she exp...
Show Me the Body Announce New EP Survive, Share Video for Title Track: Stream
New York City hardcore act Show Me the Body will return with their new EP Survive on March 19th. In advance of its release, the band has shared the music video for the title track. Survive follows the the group’s acclaimed 2019 sophomore album, Dog Whistle, and sees Show Me the Body picking up where they left off. Their aggressive musical approach remains intact on the EP’s title cut, with hints of hardcore, noise, and trap melded into three volatile minutes. The Survive EP marks the first new material from the band since the pandemic hit, pausing the vibrant NYC music scene of which Show Me the Body were active participants. “During this isolation we had to recalibrate,” the band commented in a press announcement. “Recalibrate both how we exist as a band and how we cultivate pow...
Half Waif Unveils New 7-Inch with “Orange Blossoms” and “Party’s Over”: Stream
Nandi Rose and her Half Waif banner have unveiled a gorgeous new 7-inch that boasts the songs “Orange Blossoms” and “Party’s Over”. The part-time Pinegrove member has travelled a great distance from that sound. After striking out on her own with Lavender, she found a bigger, bolder tone on 2020’s The Caretaker. The new singles continue in the same expansive vein. “Orange Blossoms” opens with chilly pleas for somebody to help, as Rose sings, “I don’t want to be here.” The drama comes from the contrast of quiet and loud, with softer sections that swell into gusts of choral storms before giving way to eerie calm. The second song, “Party’s Over”, celebrates the bittersweet joys of being an outsider. “Don’t you know that the party is over,” she sings, “But you’re just getting started/ Just keep...
