music
Chloe x Halle Perform NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert: Watch
The Bailey sisters Chloe x Halle took their Grammy-nominated album Ungodly Hour for a spin in a new NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. While the performance took place in a studio setting, the ground was festooned with homey touches: plants, books, candle holders, and childhood memorabilia courtesy of the duo’s mother. After opening with “Don’t Make It Harder on Me”, elder sister Chloe paused to acknowledge the pandemic and the effect it’s had on everyone’s mental health. She said, “I know this year 2020 has been absolutely bonkers for all of us. For those moments where you kinda feel less than, and you’re not good enough, that’s why we wrote this song: for ourselves, as a mantra, to let ourselves know that whatever happens, we’ll be OK. And this is our world.” From there, the sisters...
Three Cheers! My Chemical Romance Now Have Their Own Makeup Line
My Chemical Romance’s highly anticipated reunion tour may have been postponed to next year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have your own emo night at home, black eyeliner, bleeding hearts and all. In fact, the band highly encourages it: MCR have announced their own makeup line inspired by their now-classic 2004 album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. A collaboration with cosmetic company HipDot, the new MCR line includes affordable products such as a double-ended liquid eyeliner ($12) and a nine-color eyeshadow palette ($24). Both should help with recreating frontman Gerard Way’s signature Three Cheers-era look — and even if it all runs because of your *~sad~* tears, that just means you’re officially An Emo Kid Who is Not Okay (You Promise). My Chemical Romance’s HipDot makeup collecti...
Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin Announce Hanukkah-Themed Song Series
Dave Grohl may have recently lost an epic drum battle to 10-year-old rock prodigy Nandi Bushell, but the Foo Fighters frontman’s cheery holiday spirit is still going strong. So much so, in fact, that he is planning to release a new song each night of Hanukkah in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin. The pair’s new music series is simply titled The Hanukkah Sessions and will see Grohl and Kurstin covering various renowned Jewish musicians. Running throughout the entirety of the Jewish holiday, the project officially begins tomorrow, December 10th and extends until next Friday, December 18th. “With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin & I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS...
Troye Sivan Taps Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson for “Easy” Remix: Stream
Kacey Musgraves (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), Troye Sivan (photo by Tim Ashton), and Mark Ronson Troye Sivan has called upon Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson for a new remix of his summer single “Easy”. The track originally appeared on the In a Dream EP. Sivan teased the collaboration last month, saying he “maybeeeeeee” had worked with “two of my fave artists of all time.” The lush reimagining has arrived, now a few beats per minute slower and with new, gorgeous instrumentation courtesy of super-producer Ronson. “Easy” comes with an epic music video that shows off Sivan’s new mullet. It features long car rides with Musgraves driving and Sivan riding shotgun, and you can check it out below. Editors’ Picks Musgraves and Sivan first worked together on “Glittery” from The Kacey Musgraves Chr...
R.I.P. Jason Slater, Original Third Eye Blind Bassist and Queensrÿche Producer Dies at 49
Jason Slater, who was the original bassist in the band Third Eye Blind and a longtime producer for Queensrÿche, has died at the age of 49. His daughter Alyssa reported that Slater died from liver failure at a hospital in Maui, according to TMZ. While Slater was Third Eye Blind’s original bassist and backup vocalist, he did not appear on any of the pop-rock act’s albums. He was a member from 1993 to 1994, recording their first demo. He left the group before they scored huge success with their six-times platinum 1997 self-titled debut, which yielded the hits “Semi-Charmed Life”, “Jumper”, and “How’s It Gonna Be”. A rep for Third Eye Blind revealed to TMZ that the band hadn’t spoken with Slater since 1996, but added, “When a spirited member of the music scene is taken too soon, it is always a...
Slash: New Guns N’ Roses Pinball Machines Are “Way Beyond My Expectations”
A couple of months ago, Guns N’ Roses announced a series of “Not in This Lifetime” pinball machines, modeled after the band’s mega-successful reunion tour of the same name. The arcade games were co-designed by Slash, who caught up with us to discuss all things pinball and his involvement in the creation of the machines. The “Not in This Lifetime” machines are manufactured by Jersey Jack Pinball, and are available in three editions — Standard, Limited, and Collectors — each with a different design on its body. The machines feature a 21-song soundtrack that closely mirrors the setlists that Guns N’ Roses played on their “Not in This Lifetime” tour, which saw the return of classic members Slash and Duff McKagan. As we learned from Slash while speaking with him about the machines, his love of ...
Rico Nasty On Nightmare Vacation, Naruto, And Never Rushing Herself
The rapper Rico Nasty has at least two tattoos of herself, one on each arm. On her right shoulder sits an inked-in rendering of a pink-haired selfie taken to commemorate her first visit to the Sony Music offices following the release of her third mixtape, Sugar Trap, in 2017. Her left forearm bears an image of a cartoonish black-and-white figure, less a portrait and more a persona — feisty, with spiked hair and a jagged smile — that made an appearance in the music video for her clanging single “OHFR?”. In it, Nasty wears fishnet stockings, vampiric black makeup, and a patched leather biker jacket, stomping and growling and swinging a miniature guitar like a battle axe. That fondness for shapeshifting self-definition has left a trail of mixtapes released as various alter egos, starting with...
Patti Smith Announces Birthday Livestream Performance
For years, Patti Smith has celebrated her birthday by playing an intimate gig with friends in New York. Thankfully, the punk rock pioneer is carrying on the tradition this year — albeit in the form of a livestream. On December 30th, Smith will perform with her band for the first time in 2020. Their show will be streamed by Veeps, which Smith recently used to broadcast a solo set of hers on Black Friday. “I just thought it would be nice to uphold that tradition in a certain way because it’s always a joyful moment,” Smith said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I love birthdays because we’re born and life is the greatest thing we have, I just thought it would be a nice thing to share with everybody.” Smith sees the one-off show as something of a makeup for the world tour she...
Ariana Grande Announces New Sweetener Concert Film for Netflix
Following a few sneaky teasers earlier this week, Ariana Grande has officially announced her new Netflix concert film capturing her “Sweetener Tour”. Titled excuse me, i love you, it will be available to stream in just a few weeks on December 21st — exactly one year after the tour closed out. “I know this project only captures some of one tour (out of all the other hundreds of shows and moments we have shared over the past six or seven years… jesus lol) but I just wanted to thank u all for showing me more in this lifetime already than I ever dreamed of,” the 27-year-old pop star wrote on social media today. Grande’s “Sweetener Tour” originally kicked off March 2019 and ran for about nine months. The concerts saw the Grammy winner perform hit songs off both Sweetener and thank u, ...
Trapt’s Twitter Suspended After Rant Seemingly Defending Statutory Rape
MAGA proud boys Trapt are at it again. If the racist and xenophobic ravings of frontman Chris Taylor Brown weren’t bad enough, the band’s toxic Twitter feed has finally been suspended after a rant seemingly defending underage student-teacher relationships and statutory rape. This after Trapt’s Facebook was suspended for “violating community standards” following a pro-Proud Boys post. The latest debacle appears to have started when someone trudged up a screenshot of one of the band’s old Twitter replies, no doubt scavenged from a pile of similarly tasteless remarks made throughout the years. This one defended underage student-teacher relationships, and the screenshot reignited the argument between Trapt (likely Brown) and an angry mob of angry commenters. Trapt doubled down on their old rep...
Every Time I Die Share New Songs “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”: Stream
Every Time I Die have returned with the double single, “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”. They’ve also announced a livestream event for December 19th. The songs mark the first new music from the Buffalo, New York hardcore act since 2016. In the interim, the band’s lost none of their mathematic prowess and virtuosic precision. If the rest of Every Time I Die’s forthcoming ninth studio album lives up to these tracks, fans are in for another excellent slice of passionate metal. As the titles “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures” imply, there’s more than a little of 2020 that’s seeped into the new material. Vocalist Keith Buckley stated in a press release that the songs are “two sides of the same reactionary coin.” “While ‘A Colossal Wreck’ looks around at the current state o...
Apple’s First Over-Ear Headphones, the AirPods Max, Will Only Cost You $549
Apple has announced AirPods Max, the tech giant’s first ever over-ear headphones. The cordless devices will retail for $549 and become available starting Tuesday, December 15th. The history of headphone technology begins with over-the-ear models, but starting with The Walkman in 1979, earbuds began to overtake them in popularity. It’s a trend that Apple helped along in 2001, when their first generation of earbuds shipped along with the original iPod. Their wireless AirPods launched five years later. As demand for a wider variety of listening options has increased, different people place varied values on discretion, comfort, and audio fidelity. The AirPods Max are the result of Apple bowing to demand for a high-end listening experience. Similar to the AirPods Pro ($249), the new Max models ...
