music
Phoebe Bridgers Announces Her Own Record Label Saddest Factory
Don’t look now, but Phoebe Bridgers has launched her very own record label. In partnership with Dead Oceans, she’s announced the creation of Saddest Factory. Bridgers will serve as the label’s CEO and intends to release music of all variety. “The vision of the label is simple: good songs, regardless of genre,” she said in a press release announcing the label’s formation. In an interview with Billboard, Bridgers said she is especially excited to be involved in the marketing of music, which she describes as her “secret passion.” She explained further: “I love thinking of bus bench ideas and Instagram filters and stuff. It’s very corporate of me, but I’m kind of obsessed.” As such, Bridges described her role at the label as the liaison “from artist [brain] to corporate brain.” Saddest Fa...
Lil Wayne Reveals New Single “NFL” Featuring Gudda Gudda and HoodyBaby: Stream
Just weeks after dropping his massive deluxe edition of Tha Carter V, rapper Lil Wayne has scored another big release. Today, he’s unveiled his new song “NFL”, which serves as the official soundtrack to Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. “Ballin’ like we at the Super Bowl/ Scored a touchdown and just spiked this shit/ You know the other team, they don’t like this shit,” boasts the Louisiana-born Lil Wayne. He’s assisted by fellow hip-hop acts Gudda Gudda and HoodyBaby, and the track’s moody production was handled by Boi-1da (Drake, Rihanna) and !llmind (Kanye West, J. Cole). Check out the lyric video for “NFL” below. Thursday Night Football on Amazon kicks off October 8th with a showdown between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears. Editors’ Picks In addition to Tha ...
The Kills Announce Rarities Album Little Bastards, Share Unreleased Demo “Raise Me”: Stream
The Kills have shared a previously unreleased demo called “Raise Me”. The song is taken from the band’s newly announced rarities collection, Little Bastards, arriving December 11th via Domino. The compilation comprises recordings dating from The Kill’s earliest 7-inch singles in 2002 through 2009. Featuring remastered B-sides, demos, and covers, Little Bastards collects many tracks originally recorded for bonus inclusion on CD singles. As that format vanished in the wake of digital streaming, most of those songs were abandoned — hence the title Little Bastards. The name is also a reference to the drum machine the duo used to expand their sound during the early days of their career, lovingly dubbed Little Bastard. “It was a Roland 880,” The Kills’ Jamie Hince explained in a statement, “whic...
Trey Anastasio Announces Virtual Residency from New York’s Beacon Theatre
Trey Anastasio is bringing fans back to the Beacon. The Phish frontman has announced an eight-week virtual residency to be livestreamed from New York City’s iconic Beacon Theatre. Dubbed “The Beacon Jams”, the shows come in partnership with MSG Entertainment and Twitch. Every Friday from October 9th through November 27th, Anastasio will take the Beacon stage for performances that will be broadcast on his Twitch channel beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET. There will be both electric and acoustic sets, as well as moments of interaction with the home audience. Proceeds from the events and all merch sales during the streams will benefit Phish’s non-profit organization, the WaterWheel Foundation. Specifically, the donations will go to the newly launched Divided Sky Fund, which focuses on delivering trea...
Mick Fleetwood Joins TikTok Just to Recreate Viral “Dreams” Video: Watch
In the midst of one of the craziest, darkest weeks in a crazy, dark year, a viral TikTok video brought joy to the world. User @420doggface208, aka Nathan Apodaca, became an overnight star simply by posting a clip of himself skateboarding and drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice while singing along to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”. Now, the band’s own Mick Fleetwood has launched his own TikTok account — just to pay tribute to Apodaca’s video. The legendary musician posted his own version of the clip, in which he rolls along (it seems he’s being pulled somehow) and sips from a full bottle of Ocean Spray. Making his lip-synching to his bandmate Stevie Nicks’ lyrics even sweeter is that there appears to be a light drizzle coming down. Even on such a gray day, there is something so blissfully p...
Song of the Week: BLACKPINK Find Their Own Roar on “Lovesick Girls”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. Note to self (and anyone in the same camp). It’s time to stop underestimating K-Pop. What once felt like a fad to those of us late to the genre now pulls in fans and numbers in the States like only a small handful of hip-hop and pop stars can boast. Take BLACKPINK for instance. Perhaps once in the shadow of male K-Pop world-beaters BTS, the girl group dropped their debut Korean-language studio album, matter-of-factly titled The Album, last Friday, and already the video for new single “Lovesick Girls”, released the day before, has racked up over 94 million YouTube views. Lord knows what that figure will be by the time I finish this ...
Austin City Limits TV Season 46 Premieres with John Prine Tribute Episode: Watch
Season 46 of Austin City Limits TV premiered over the weekend with a tribute to John Prine, who died in April after contracting COVID-19. The special hour-long episode compiled highlights from the late singer-songwriter’s eight appearances on the long-running series over a span of 40 years. Entitled “The Best of John Prine”, the episode opened with a message from a modern torchbearer of Prine’s songwriting style, Jason Isbell. “If the artist’s job is to hold up a mirror to society, John Prine had the cleanest and the clearest of anyone I’ve ever known,” said Isbell, who previously participated in a livestream tribute to Prine over the summer. “Sometimes it seemed he had a window, and he would climb right through.” From there, the performances proceeded chronologically, starting with a 1978...
Trump Supporters Play Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” Outside Military Hospital
Because the whole Donald Trump has COVID-19 thing isn’t enough of a fiasco, the president’s supporters had to drag Bruce Springsteen into this. A small group of MAGA sycophants stood outside Walter Reed Medical Center on Sunday to show their love for Trump — by playing “Born in the USA”. To emphasize for what has to be the bajillionth time, “Born in the USA” is not a pro-patriotism song. It’s a lament for a country addicted to feeding its working class populace into pointless wars, only to leave them neglected once they return. So the fact that these people were blasting this protest song outside of a military hospital, where actual members and veterans of the military are trying to rest and be cared for, crosses irony over to actual ignorant cruelty. That’s without even mentioning Springs...
John Prine Performs “Sam Stone” in Previously Unaired Austin City Limits TV Clip: Watch
Austin City Limits TV returns this weekend with the launch of its 46th season. While new episodes began filming in studio sans audience earlier this month, the season premiere will actually focus on archival footage. Specifically, the episode will be a retrospective celebration of the late John Prine, featuring selections from his impressive eight ACL appearances. Spanning five decades from Prine’s first solo acoustic set in 1978 to his final one in 2018, the footage includes one previously unaired clip from 1987. It finds the country folk great singing his classic elegy for a drug addicted veteran, “Sam Stone”. Ahead of the ACL TV season premiere on October 3rd, this rare performance is being shared today. Before going into the track from his 1971 self-titled debut, Prine did what he did ...
Jónsi Soars and Crashes (in a Good Way) on Shiver: Review
The Lowdown: On Shiver, his first solo album in 10 years, Icelandic artist Jónsi presents atmospheric electronic art-pop, which balances uplift with glitchy dread. With band Sigur Rós on indefinite hiatus, and after separating from his longtime partner/collaborator, the singer-songwriter-composer now lives in LA and had his first visual-art exhibition last fall. Those themes of the uncomfortable freedom of dislocation and transition are reflected on the songs of Shiver, which soar, short-out, crash and re-boot. [embedded content] The Good: While Jónsi’s mystical countertenor voice has often been associated with glacial fjords and forests thick with elves, Shiver evokes dark landscapes that are more industrial and interior. The 45-year-old multi-instrumentalist teamed up with en vogue young...
Lana Del Rey Criticized for Wearing Mesh Face Mask
Lana Del Rey is drawing criticism for her choice of face wear during a recent indoor book signing. Earlier this week, Del Rey appeared at a Los Angeles Barnes and Noble to sign copies of her new poetry book, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. As photos and videos posted to Del Rey’s own Instagram show, the singer opted to wear a mesh face mask. With hundreds of tiny little holes, the covering offered Del Rey little in the way of protection during the COVID-19 pandemic, but at least it was sparkly! Not surprisingly, Del Rey was immediately hammered on social media. “Lana Del Rey wearing a face mask // a random Karen wearing a face mask,” read one comment posted to her Instagram. Another read, “What is wrong with Lana del Rey like she’s literally not okay why is she wearing a fishnet mask...
BLACKPINK’s The Album Delivers Everything Fans Love About Them: Review
The Lowdown: It’s pretty rare to be pop icons before your first album even drops, but BLACKPINK are an exception to the rule. Coachella, an arena tour, and one million album pre-orders: all with less than 20 songs to their name. The group released their first single in 2016 and, until this point, have put out a string of increasingly similar-sounding title tracks with the occasional B-sides. It’s easy to see why the album, appropriately titled The Album, was so highly anticipated by dedicated fans and casual listeners alike. The group deliver on everything fans love about them — like glossy production, addicting beats, distinctive vocals, and captivating performances — while managing to show off some new sides of BLACKPINK as well. [embedded content] The Good: The Album opens by kicking do...
