music
Bruce Springsteen Talks E Street Band, New Album, and Favorite Bob Dylan Songs on Colbert: Watch
Bruce Springsteen is just one day away from releasing his new album, Letter to You. Ahead of its release, the Boss appeared on Wednesday night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk about the inspiration behind the record, putting it out during a pandemic, and his favorite Bob Dylan songs, among other topics. After joking about not being able to take Letter to You on the road (“I do a lot of work in front of my bedroom mirror with the tennis racket… I go for three hours, just like the show”), Springsteen spoke extensively about its creation. He said the album only took seven days to write and four to record, and was largely inspired by the loss of his old friend George Theiss, the last surviving member of Springsteen’s original band, The Castiles. “I guess being the last guy in...
Jeff Tweedy’s Love Is the King Conquers Anger and Fear with Happiness: Review
The Lowdown: Who in 2020, a year defined almost exclusively by fear, hate and unprecedented political division, has the nerve to release a record called Love Is the King? That might sound a little too optimistic for Jeff Tweedy, but while the Wilco frontman doesn’t always paint a rosy picture in his songs, he knows how to offer calm reassurance in dark times. Few songwriters possess such an acute ability to make sense of the craziness around them, and if Tweedy’s latest solo endeavor proves anything, it’s that sometimes that’s good enough. [embedded content] The Good: There was a time when recording a record amid such social or personal turmoil would have sent Tweedy down the path toward artful rancor. But Love Is the King is the latest in what has been a string of relatively calm releases...
Buzz, Buzz, Lily Allen Launches Her Own Sex Toy
With the live music industry shuttered fo the foreseeable future, artists are relying more than ever on the revenue of merch. In addition to your standard T-shirts and hoodies, we’ve seen some artists get creative with their own lines of CBD products (Sigur Rós), body pillows (Travis Scott), and yes, even Crocs (Post Malone). Lily Allen, too, has been thinking outside of the box merchandise-wise by thinking more about her bedroom activities: the London musician has just launched her own sex toy. A collaboration with German company Womanizer, the sex toy is a fancy pink vibrator called Liberty. Along with guaranteeing good ol’ pleasure, as its name suggests, the product is also meant to break down the societal barriers surrounding the subjects of female masturbation and sex positi...
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Release Cover of “Shallow”: Stream
In an answer to the prayers of classic country music fans everywhere, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have released a studio version of their “Shallow” cover. The husband-and-wife country duo first performed the A Star Is Born hit during a Facebook livestream early in the pandemic. They reprised their rendition as part of their Garth and Trish Live! special on CBS back in April. Now, they’ve finally taken the track into the studio, recording it for Brooks’ forthcoming new album, FUN. Oddly, the track is officially credited as “‘Shallow’ (the duet with Trisha Yearwood)”, as if the female vocal parts are a “featured” aspect and not the main attraction. Either way, Yearwood knocks Lady Gaga’s high notes out of the stadium in this faithful recreation of the blockbuster 2018 single. “From the ...
Shygirl Announces New Alias EP, Shares SOPHIE-produced “Slime”: Stream
Shygirl has announced a new EP titled Alias. With a November 20th release date just around the corner, she’s also dropped her latest single, “Slime”. Shygirl is one of the most interesting musicians to emerge from the British club scene in recent years. The artist also known as Blane Muise straddles the worlds of electronica and hip-hop, with quirky, sly lyricism complemented by absolutely banging beats. She first made waves with the 2018 EP Cruel Practice, and now seems poised for a breakout. The upcoming Alias is meant to bring together the different parts of her personality, as “Slime” demonstrates. Produced by SOPHIE, Kai Winston, and Sega Bodega, “Slime” seems at first blush to involve a back-and-forth exchange between a cocky horndog and a badass boss bitch. The reveal, as you’ve alr...
Win Butler Hints That Arcade Fire Have Written “Two or Three” Albums in Quarantine
Early into quarantine, Win Butler revealed that the pandemic put the breaks on the recording of Arcade Fire’s new album. The frontman said he’d instead turned to writing more, and now it looks like he’s come up with enough material for more than just one Everything Now follow-up. In a new interview on Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast, Butler hinted that the delay in recording may end up fortuitous for those who can’t get enough Arcade Fire. “We would’ve been getting towards wrapping up [recording a new album], I think,” he said. “So instead we just wrote two or three.” Butler explained that it usually takes the band a full year of writing before they’re ready to go into the studio. After wrapping up the Everything Now tour in 2018, they set to work on creating the follow-up. Ar...
Todd Haynes Documentary on The Velvet Underground Lands at Apple TV+
Todd Haynes has found a home for The Velvet Underground, his upcoming documentary about the legendary avant-garde rock band of the same name. According to Variety, Apple TV+ has picked up the film and the worldwide distribution rights that come along with it. The documentary aims to establish The Velvet Underground’s status as a cultural touchstone ripe with contradictions. As such, it will include never-before-seen performances, studio recordings, experimental art, and various films by their one-time manager and longtime supporter Andy Warhol. Surprisingly, The Velvet Underground is the first full-length documentary of Haynes’ career. Over the past three years, the Oscar-nominated director put ample time and care into the feature to make sure it represents the band accurately, going so fa...
Liturgy Announce New Album Origin of the Alimonies, Share “Lonely OIOION”: Stream
Liturgy have announced the release of their fifth studio album, Origin of the Alimonies, which is the soundtrack to the band’s opera of the same name. The album arrives November 20th, and Liturgy have offered up a preview with the new song “Lonely OIOION”. Origin of the Alimonies was originally announced last year alongside 2019’s excellent H.A.Q.Q.. Both albums were planned for a 2020 release, but the band’s chief songwriter and leader Hunter Hunt-Hendrix altered those plans, surprise releasing H.A.Q.Q. while holding back Origin, which had previously been performed live as a proper opera. The move worked out, giving each album the spotlight it rightfully deserves. H.A.Q.Q. was greeted with overwhelming praise for its combination of composed black metal and Hunt-Hendrix’s microtonal produc...
Lindsey Buckingham Is Also Vibin’, Records His Own “Dreams” TikTok: Watch
Like cranberry juice, the “Dreams” TikTok challenge started out sweet and then quickly ran its course. Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is the latest to hop on the bandwagon, sharing a 15-second video on social media. The trend was started by the slick skateboarding of Nathan Apodaca, who later received a truck full of cranberry juice from Ocean Spray for his trouble. It got new life when Mick Fleetwood joined TikTok to recreate Apodaca’s video, and then Stevie Nicks laced up her skates to get in on the fun. All the attention pushed “Dreams” onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time since 1977, while making Rumors a top-ten album. In announcing his own video, Buckingham wrote that he, “Made this with my girls this weekend.” The clip opens on a...
Unreleased Notorious B.I.G. Freestyle Unveiled in (Sigh) Pepsi Commercial: Watch
Over twenty years after the murder of The Notorious B.I.G., the musical pantry is bare and fans will take any new crumbs they can get. It’s in the spirit of feeding the hungry that we offer you a previously unreleased freestyle from 1997, which has now come to light in a (sigh) Pepsi commercial. Via TMZ, Biggie laid down the lyrics in an appearance on the New York radio station Hot 97. Afterwards, it pretty much disappeared — until now. In defense of the makers of sugar water, it really is a whole entire verse about Pepsi. He raps, “Big slam, quick slam, tin can, whatever/ Whether too cold or too hot/ You got to keep Pepsi in the freezer/ I keep a 3 liter for my crew/ My girl like them diet joints too.” Ask not why Biggie Smalls keeps his soft drinks in the freezer, and instead e...
Miley Cyrus Covers Pearl Jam in Her Backyard for MTV Unplugged: Watch
Miley Cyrus has tried everything once. The teen idol who sometimes seemed to flail in the public eye has matured into a 27-year-old powerhouse of confidence and style. She knows what she’s good at, and her comfort zone is as vast as an ocean. Her current era of ’80s-inspired glam has been simultaneously thrilling and easy, throwing a spotlight on her fashion sense and rock’n’roll voice. Now, for her backyard edition of MTV Unplugged, she’s put all of her talents together for one of the most exciting pop performances of the coronavirus pandemic. Cyrus has been recording “Backyard Sessions” for the last decade, but most of those were intimate and casual. This concert was arena-ready, with light-displays that helped transform the space over time. Earlier in the day, while the sun shined brigh...
Paul McCartney Announces New Solo Album McCartney III
Paul McCartney will return on December 11th with McCartney III. The self-titled album arrives on the 50th anniversary of the former Beatles’ first solo album; like both McCartney I and its 1980 follow-up McCartney II, McCartney III is solo album in every sense, self-produced and recorded solely by McCartney, who plays every instrument. “Paul hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of ‘Rockdown,’ he soon found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating even more new ones,” a press release explains. “Before long an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped back, self-produced and, quite literally, solo work marking the opening of a new decade, in the tradition of 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II...
