music
Heavy Culture: Living Colour on Their Upbringings, Pandemic Life, and Getting Out the Vote
Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their music. The latest installment of this column features an interview with the Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun, guitarist Vernon Reid and bassist Doug Wimbish. Since 1985, Living Colour have blended rock, metal, and blues to form a sound all their own, inspiring many artists along the way. This year, the rock pioneers are celebrating 30 years of their sophomore album, Time’s Up, which yielded such hits as “Type”, “Love Rears Its Ugly Head”, and “Elvis Is Dead”. This edition of “Heavy Culture” spans several months, as we first caught up with the members of Livin...
Axl Rose Poetically Urges Americans to Vote for a “Better World” in the “Face of Fear and Intimidation”
With Election Day upon us, Axl Rose is urging his fellow Americans to vote. The Guns N’ Roses singer posted a series of poetic tweets, listing the reasons why it’s so important to cast a ballot in the presidential election this year. While Rose doesn’t mention Donald Trump or Joe Biden by name, his social media posts over the past four years have been decidedly anti-Trump. In fact, the rock legend has repeatedly ripped apart Trump and his administration throughout the president’s entire term in the White House. Among his many takedowns of Trump, the GN’R frontman once called the president a “repulsive excuse for a person with a sick agenda.” The singer also lambasted members of Trump’s administration for seemingly discouraging social distancing during the pandemic. In a three-part twe...
Arcade Fire Debut New Song “Generation A” on Colbert’s Election Night Special: Watch
Arcade Fire on Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand: Building Back America Great Again Better 2020 Arcade Fire debuted a brand new song called “Generation A” as part of their appearance on Stephen Colbert’s election night special on Showtime. In introducing the performance, Colbert described the song as “inspired by the current climate of the country with a hopeful message to the youths.” Musically, “Generation A” hears Arcade Fire continue to embrace the wilder synth sounds heard on their previous two records, albeit with a driving thud of bass that gives the song a punk oomph. “They say wait until you’re ready,” sings frontman Win Butler. “Wait until your number’s called/ They say wait, all we need is love/ But darling, California’s burning, New ...
Lil Wayne’s Girlfriend Seemingly Denies Rumors She Dumped Him After Trump Endorsement
After rapper Lil Wayne endorsed Donald Trump for president, TMZ reported that he’d been dumped by his girlfriend, Denise Bidot. It looked like Weezy F. Baby might have to F. himself for a little while, but now Bidot seems to have quashed those rumors. In a since-deleted tweet, screenshotted for posterity, Bidot responded to the breakup story by writing, “I did NOT! This is absolutely false,” (via Complex). Bidot, a model, recently deleted her Instagram account, and one of her last posts was a meme that read, “Sometimes love just isn’t enough.” That fueled rumors of their breakup, and blogger B. Scott poured gas on the fire by publishing a confirmation from someone alleging to be Bidot’s friend. But yesterday, November 3rd, Bidot herself dumped cold water on the story. At this time, it’s no...
The 5 Best Covers of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”
Very few were originally sold on The Man Who Sold the World, whether talking about David Bowie’s now-admired third album or the title track nestled near the back of that same recording. After a debut album of boyish, quirky pop juvenilia and a follow-up known mostly for the novelty of the future Starman’s first foray into outer space (“Space Oddity”), The Man Who Sold the World saw the English songwriter shift towards a harder brand of rock alongside producer Tony Visconti and future Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson and drummer Mick Woodmansey. Still, the departure gained Bowie little notice, and the title song itself did little to stand out at the time on the single-less album. It wouldn’t be until Bowie’s success two records later as Ziggy Stardust that critics and fans alike bega...
AC/DC Team Up with DC Shoes for New Footwear and Apparel Line
AC/DC have teamed up with DC Shoes for a new line of footwear and apparel. The merch launches this Saturday (November 7th), just in time for the legendary band’s upcoming album, Power Up, which arrives on November 13th. DC Shoes is known for its skate footwear, so it’s not surprising that the shoes are the highlight of the AC/DC collaboration. A handful of classic DC styles and silhouettes have been adorned with the band’s iconography. One style features the cover of Highway to Hell printed on the canvas area, while others boldly display the band’s logo. The shoes will retail for a suggested price of $55 to $75. In addition to the footwear, the AC/DC x DC Shoes partnership also features beanies, longsleeves, and more as part of the line, ranging from $25 to $75. As AC/DC were a staple musi...
Foo Fighters to Play on Saturday Night Live This Weekend, Tease New Music
Foo Fighters have been announced as the musical guest for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live (November 7th) alongside host Dave Chappelle. And by the looks of it, Dave Grohl and co. will be bringing along some new music. Over the last few days, fans have spotted Foo Fighters’ logo projected alongside the letter “X” (the Roman numeral for 10) at various locations in Los Angeles. The projections are accompanied by a short video of a coffin on fire. Similar imagery has also popped up on Spotify. All the while, Foo Fighters have been sending out bi-weekly emails reminiscing about each of their past nine studio albums (an email for their most recent LP, Concrete and Gold, arrived earlier today). Putting the clues together, it certainly seems like Foo Fighters are gearing up to announ...
The Offspring Cover “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”: Stream
The Offspring have released their first-ever holiday song, a cover of the Darlene Love classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. Along with the single, the band has promised new music in early 2021. As frontman Dexter Holland pointed out in a press release, the band felt it was a good time to bring some holiday cheer to their fans. “It just seemed like the world could use a nice holiday song right now,” remarked Holland. “We’ve always been huge fans of Darlene Love, so when the idea came up to do a Christmas song, we jumped at the chance to record that one … and tried not to wreck it!” The punk-rock veterans actually deliver a pretty faithful rendition of tune, with their version produced by Bob Rock (Metallica, Mötley Crüe). The original 1963 version was famously produced by Phil Spect...
Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten Goes Full MAGA, Calls Trump “the Only Hope”
Former Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, a.k.a. John Lydon, made good on his threat to vote for Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential election. Lydon called into Good Morning Britain on Wednesday to discuss his support for Trump. “It makes complete sense to me to vote for a person who actually talks about my kind of people,” Lydon commented. “Trump is not a politician. He’s never claimed to be. How unusually exceptionally wonderful is that for people like me, working class people.” “We’re bored of ‘intellectual’ left-wing ideas,” Lydon continued. “We can’t take much of you. You talk twaddle. Everything you do – you just miss the point of who the general population are.” The interview then took an awkward turn when Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid asked Lydon about Trump’...
Lana Del Rey Announces New Album Right When Everyone Could Care Less
Like everyone else in the country, Lana Del Rey spent Tuesday night eating at Denny’s and announcing a new album. Wait, what? The Norman Fucking Rockwell! singer hopped on Instagram Live while getting dinner and checking in on the election results. After a brief update on Texas and Florida, LDR thought it would be a great time to discuss her upcoming projects. Because, you know, priorities mean nothing, it’s 2020, and we still don’t know who the president will be next year. First, Del Rey revealed what we all already knew: her next LP Chemtrails Over the Country Club has been delayed. She noted that she was indeed finished with the new album, which she described as “folky” and “super different from Norman.” However, though she initially anticipated a September release, it now looks li...
Lil Pump Joins Donald Trump for Election Eve Rally, Introduced as “Little Pimp”
As Lady Gaga stumped for Joe Biden in Pittsburgh, Donald Trump countered with his own “celebrity” endorser. During a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday night, Trump was joined on stage by Lil Pump. The Harvard Dropout rapper came out in support of Trump last week, after apparently learning of Biden’s plan to tax individuals making over $400,000 a year. “Fuck I look like payin’ an extra 33 in tax for Biden, bitch ass n*gga? Fuck Sleepy Joe, n*gga! Trump 2020, bitch,” he yelled in a clip posted to social media. Word apparently got back to the reality show president, who’s always on the lookout for a new attraction for his “COVID-19 Superspreader World Tour”. Of course, neither man bothered to do one iota of research on the other before taking the stage together. Trump introduced Lil P...
Big Boi, Sleepy Brown, and Killer Mike Perform “We the Ones (Remix)” on Fallon: Watch
It was Atlanta night in New York City on Monday as Big Boi and Sleepy Brown brought their new remix of “We the Ones” to The Tonight Show. They were joined by fellow Dungeon Family alums Killer Mike and Big Rube. In its original form, “We the Ones” appeared on the self-titled 2017 EP from production trio Organized Noize, of which Brown is a member. Bigs Boi and Rube were already present, but it took last month’s remix to add Killer Mike of Run the Jewels. The track has always been a protest song, but since it came out Killer Mike has become one of the most notable voices of the resistance. His verse added a new perspective centered around aspiration and faith. After an introduction from Jimmy Fallon, the song opened with Big Rube at a podium labelled with the official “Seal o...
