music
Ora The Molecule Announces Debut Album Human Safari, Shares “Creator”: Stream
Norwegian avant-pop artist Ora The Molecule has signed to Mute Records and announced her debut album Human Safari. To pair with the news, she’s shared its elastic lead single, “Creator”. Ora The Molecule is the project of the Oslo, Norway-born songwriter Nora Schjelderup, who started putting out music under this name back in 2018. In 2019, she released a great EP called Sugar that sonically landed somewhere between The Eurythmics, Austra, and Jessie Ware. Throughout the rest of 2019, she dribbled out singles that were in the same vein of sleek, icy, slightly strange dance-pop, and clearly she resonated with a wider audience. According to a press release, the 12-track Human Safari was informed by Schjelderup taking the opportunity to really examine the world around her. ...
Judas and the Black Messiah Soundtrack Features JAY-Z, Nipsey Hussle, NAS, ASAP Rocky, More
Nipsey Hussle, JAY-Z (photo by Amy Price), Nas (Ben Kaye), and ASAP Rocky (Kimberley Ross) Judas and the Black Messiah officially arrives later this week, but the Shaka King film has already drawn rave reviews, including being named on of the Top 10 Movies of 2020 by the National Board of Review. The soundtrack is shaping up to be a blockbuster in its own right — Rapsody and others shared the tracklist on social media, and it boasts the first collaboration between JAY-Z and Nipsey Hussle, as well as NAS, ASAP Rocky, and more. The movie concerns Fred Hampton, a leader in the Black Panther movement who was betrayed by fellow panther William O’Neal and then assassinated in his sleep by the FBI on December 4th, 1969. It’s produced by Ryan Coogler and stars Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanf...
Faith No More, Stone Sour, Lagwagon Members Form Dirty O’Keeffe, Unleash “Brick or Bullet”: Stream
Members of Faith No More, Stone Sour, Lagwagon, and Trash N’ Privilege have started a quarantine band called Dirty O’Keeffe, introducing themselves with the single “Brick or Bullet”. The group features bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More), Christian Martucci (guitarist for Stone Sour and Corey Taylor’s solo band), drummer Dave Raun (Lagwagon), and guitarist Steve Shephard (Trash N’ Privilege). “Brick or Bullet” is a riff-heavy rocker that features lead vocals by Martucci, who also delivers a blistering guitar solo around the two-minute mark. There’s no word yet on whether it’s a one-off song or if the new outfit has more music on the way. Gould had time to work on the new project after Faith No More’s summer tour with Korn was canceled due to the pandemic. Other Faith No More members have a...
BTS Will Bring Their ‘Dynamite’ Energy To MTV Unplugged
BTS are no strangers to iconic MTV performances. Last August at the VMAs, they virtually spanned the globe for a neon-centric rendition of No. 1 hit “Dynamite,” making the event a suit-and-tie affair as they moved through its three minutes of disco-pop. Their latest venture with MTV promises to be a little more stripped-down, but equally iconic. That’s because few performances are more iconic than MTV Unplugged. On Tuesday, February 23, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook will bring their collective energy to an update of the storied series straight from Seoul, South Korea. MTV Unplugged Presents: BTS airs that night at 9 p.m. ET, and you won’t want to miss it. The special promises to bring fans a new look at the group’s latest album, Be, which dropp...
BTS Announce MTV Unplugged Performance
BTS have broken so many American records that it’s hard to remember there was a time where they weren’t one of the most popular international artists in the US. Now, the K-Pop superstars are cementing their place in western history by filming a “special edition” of MTV Unplugged, where they will join the ranks of iconic musicians like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Ms. Lauryn Hill. MTV Unplugged Presents: BTS was filmed in “intimate settings” in Seoul, South Korea. For the TV special, the newly minted 2020 Band of the Year will play live renditions of songs from their latest album BE (Essential Edition) — like the smash hits “Dynamite” and “Life Goes On” — as well as never-before-seen versions of their career-defining hits. MTV has promised that the worldwide music event will “build off the iconi...
R.I.P. Mary Wilson, Founding Member of The Supremes Dead at 76
Mary Wilson, founding member of the trailblazing Motown group The Supremes, has died at the age of 76. According to her publicist, Wilson passed away suddenly on Monday evening (February 8th) at her home in Henderson, Nevada. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed. In 1959, Wilson auditioned and was accepted into a singing group called The Primettes, pairing with three other then-unknown vocalists: Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown. By 1962, the group had downsized to a trio (McGlown left to get married), signed with Motown Records, and changed their name to The Supremes. Within a year, they scored their first No. 1 hit with “Where Did Our Love Go” Between 1964 and 1969, The Supremes earned 12 No. 1 singles in total — a record for the most chart-topping songs among Am...
Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus Unveil New Song “Poor Lost Souls”: Stream
Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus wish blessings on Los Angeles’ homeless population on their new song “Poor Lost Souls”. The former Squirrel Nut Zippers bandmates have remained friends since parting ways in the ’90s, and Bird even joined SNZ for “Train on Fire” from their 2020 album Lost Songs of Doc Souchon. Now, the two songwriters are fulfilling a longtime ambition and collaborating on an album, These 13, which contains a baker’s dozen of folksy new tracks. The latest, “Poor Lost Souls”, takes place in LA, where, as the lyrics have it, you can “Look down and see the stars/ Look up and see the gold/ Look around and see these poor lost souls.” Mathus keeps up a steady groove of guitar, while Bird adds fiddle accents. The song highlights the absurdity of abundance surrounding need, w...
Foo Fighters Perform “Waiting on a War” on Fallon: Watch
Foo Fighters were guests on Monday night’s edition Jimmy Fallon, promoting their new album, Medicine at Midnight. After frontman Dave Grohl chatted it up with the Tonight Show host, the band performed their single “Waiting on a War”. The track is a stirring piece of a hopeful anxiety, with low synths and bass underscoring a tension that waits until the very end to break. As such, this wasn’t a face-melting rock show of a late night performance, with Foo Fighters instead delivering a relatively simple run-through of the song in a purple-lit set. That said, it’s a powerful enough song to still grab you even in such a straightforward set up — especially once Taylor Hawkins and the band got to rip into it during the outro. Prior to taking the remote stage with the rest of the Fighters, Gr...
In Defense of Phoebe Bridgers Smashing Her Guitar on Saturday Night Live
This past weekend, Phoebe Bridgers made her eagerly anticipated debut as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. During the final moments of her performance of “I Know the End”, a track from her buzzy sophomore album, Punisher, Bridgers went out with a bang — literally — when she repeatedly smashed her guitar into a monitor onstage. Unfortunately, the Internet being what it is, Bridgers’ epic moment of punk euphoria was clouded by curmudgeonly chatter. A simple search of “Phoebe Bridgers guitar” on Twitter brings up a litany of comments wondering why “that woman” had the nerve to “damage expensive property.” Others called the act pointless and even poked fun at Bridgers for apparently not being strong enough to have done more physical damage to the instrument. No matter how much doom scr...
Lars Ulrich’s Father Has Released a New Album at Age 92
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich’s father, Torben Ulrich, has released a new album at age 92. The spoken-word collaboration with cellist Lori Goldston is titled Oakland moments: cello, voice, reuniting (rejoicing) and arrived on Bandcamp and limited cassette tape on February 5th. The album features Torben reciting text and poetry over Goldston’s cello. If that triggers a Lulu flashback, don’t worry: Goldston’s playing quite pleasant, and Torben’s narration has a relaxing ASMR vibe to it. Lars took to Instagram to congratulate his father: “92 years old and just getting started…Today, as one does at his age, he’s putting out another record… This one being a collaboration with his dear friend @legoldston.” The fact that Torben is releasing new music at age 92 shouldn’t be too surprising. He’s ma...
Glenn Danzig Shares NSFW Trailer for His Upcoming Vampire Western: Watch
Glenn Danzig has unveiled the NSFW trailer for his upcoming vampire Spaghetti Western, Death Rider in the House of Vampires. The film follows the Misfits frontman’s previous directorial outing, Verotika. Bridging Danzig’s love of vampire horror and Italian westerns, the film’s trailer is steeped in the atmosphere of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” …only with a lot more blood. These cowboys have fangs. Danzig wrote, directed, scored, and stars in the upcoming film alongside the likes of Devon Sawa, Julian Sands, Danny Trejo, Eli Roth, and Kim Director. It follows the Death Rider (Sawa), who travels to the desert Vampire Sanctuary, ruled by Count Holliday. The price of admission is “one untouched virgin.” The trailer’s combination of bloodthirst and gunslinging recalls Robert Rodriguez and ...
Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood Calls for UK Government to Renegotiate Brexit Touring Provisions
On February 1st, the long-running Brexit saga finally came to an end, and British citizens woke up on an island both figuratively and literally. But the ramifications of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union are still being parsed. On February 8th, Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood wrote an op-ed in The Guardian that looked at the new requirements for British bands on the Continent and called for the government to “renegotiate on the provision for touring in Europe.” Greenwood opens the op-ed by recalling Radiohead’s first European excursions, the “small clubs and early festival slots across Sweden, The Netherlands and France in a crappy old bus that smelled of diesel and had sad grey curtains.” He adds, “There were so many different kinds of milk.” Beyond the fond memories, G...
