NEWS
Florence Welch, Thomas Bartlett Writing Music for New Great Gatsby Broadway Show
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T14:26:56+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 10:26am ET Concert tours aren’t the only live musical productions gearing up for a post-pandemic return, as Broadway just got it first new project in over a year. Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine and producer Thomas “Doveman” Bartlett (St. Vincent, Sufjan Stevens) are set to write the lyrics and music for an upcoming stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby. “This book has haunted me for a large part of my life,” said Welch in a statement (via Deadline). “It contains some of my favorite lines in literature. Musicals were my first love, and I feel a deep connection to Fitzgerald’s broken romanticism. It is ...
heka Shares New Song “(a) dab” : Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T14:52:03+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 10:52am ET From her upbringing in the rural Italian countryside to her current city life in London, multi-instrumentalist Francesca Brierly explores the hidden connections between sound, space, and memory through rich experimental folk landscapes under the name heka. Following the release of her acclaimed debut single “(a) wall” last month, heka has shared the new song “(a) dab” as another noir taste of her upcoming (a) EP slated for release on May 19th via Balloon Machine Records. heka’s debut EP mines her past travels and integrates various field recordings she collected from different eras and time zones into one lush composite sketch a...
Serj Tankian on More New System of a Down Music: “We Might Be Able to Get It Together and Do Something Again”
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T15:03:46+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 11:03am ET System of a Down surprised fans back in November by releasing their first new songs in 15 years. Singer Serj Tankian is “extremely proud” that the band was able to put aside their differences, and offers hope that they’ll one day “get it together and do something again.” In the past few years, the band members have made no secret about creative differences hampering their return to the studio. The multiplatinum metal act has not released an album since 2005’s Hypnotize, but came together to record the songs “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” to raise funds for Armenia and its neighboring state of Artsakh, which had come und...
Dave Grohl, Violet Grohl Joined by Krist Novoselic to Cover X’s ‘Nausea’
It was a two-Grohl show when dad and daughter — Dave and 15-year-old Violet — were joined by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and keyboard player Greg Kurstin for a cover of the song “Nausea” by L.A. punk band X. The song is from the elder Grohl’s upcoming documentary What Drives Us. The remote performance saw Violet sing the part originally performed by X’s Exene Cervenka, while Dave took X singer/bassist John Doe’s parts on the faithful version of the 1980 song. The song’s artwork, a letter G “on fire,” also mimics the original X album, which featured that letter in flames. As Grohl said last week in a lengthy Instagram post, his long-lost cousin, DJ Bonebrake, is X’s drummer. Grohl also spoke at length to Kimmel about his myriad projects. Some peop...
Live Twitter Spaces Discussion Will Break Down 2021 Billboard Music Awards Finalists
Selected finalists for the 2021 BBMAs will be announced Wednesday: NBC’s Today show will reveal finalists in the top Hot 100 artist category live in the Pop Start segment in the 8 a.m. hour ET/PT, while E!’s Daily Pop will reveal finalists in the top Latin male artist category starting in the 11 a.m. hour ET/PT and Access Hollywood will reveal finalists in the top rap female artist category live starting at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT. Finneas and Maggie Baird, Luis Fonsi, Jon Batiste, Tate McRae and Verzuz creators Swizz Beatz and Timbaland will help announce all the 2021 BBMAs finalists during Billboard Music Awards – The List Live, which will stream Thursday starting at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT on both Billb...
Elton John Dishes on Oscars Venue: ‘It’s Like a Starbucks’
He made no attempts to clarify his opinions later on, during the live viewing party that streamed online thanks to meeting platform Cisco Webex. After the 60-minute preshow — which featured a shimmering set from global pop superstar Dua Lipa and appearances by Lady Gaga, Cynthia Erivo and the cast of It’s a Sin — John and partner David Furnish appeared during commercial breaks along with Eric McCormack. During the first break, John unloaded on the Academy Awards’ Union Station venue, saying, “The Oscar ceremony looks like it’s coming from a Starbucks somewhere.” During the subsequent break, in between compliments to early winner Daniel Kaluuya (“He’s a lovely man”), John doubled down on his hot take. “I still can’t get over the se...
2021 Helpmann Awards Canceled Due to Pandemic
LPA chief executive Evelyn Richardson says it’s simply “not feasible to proceed” with presenting the 2021 edition, after the industry’s nightmarish experience over the past 12 months, “Our industry is only now getting back to work and there is still more to be done to ensure we can fully operate in every state and territory at 100 percent capacity in all indoor and outdoor venues,” she continues. “For our live music sector in particular, some significant challenges remain before it can fully reactivate.” Richardson says the organization will use this gap-year to “take a step back and reimagine the Helpmann Awards for 2022 onwards.” The Helpmann Awards were established by LPA in 2001, and in 2018 expanded its program into a two-evening s...
Lana Del Rey Sets New Album ‘Blue Banisters’
Del Rey has been prolific of late. She recently released Chemtrails Over The Country Club album, which hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Shortly after, the U.S. artist announced that another new album, Rock Candy Sweet, will arrive on June 1. And in late 2020, she debuted her poetry collection Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass. It remains unclear if Blue Banisters is a different working title for Rock Candy Sweet, or whether that album will drop as planned. What is clear, however, is that Del Rey is enjoying the most creative phase of her career so far. As least some of those energies are a borne from criticism. On her Instagram Stories on March 20, Del Rey shared a screenshot of an article from Harper’s Bazaar that had a dig at her. “Just want to say than...
Soccer Mommy Announces 2021 North American Fall Tour
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-27T17:12:17+00:00“>April 27, 2021 | 1:12pm ET Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) is finally going on tour behind her excellent 2020 album, color theory. Today, the Nashville native announced a 2021 headlining fall tour with Squirrel Flower and Emily Reo in support. The North American trek kicks off on September 15th at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse and will continue with dates in cities like Brooklyn, Toronto, Nashville, Austin, and Los Angeles. It will conclude on November 9th at Delmar Hall in St. Louis. Squirrel Flower will open during the first half of the tour, through the October 1st show at Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom. Reo will take over beginning October 21st at White ...
Elizabeth Banks’ Flintstones Reboot Bedrock Picked Up by Fox
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-27T17:54:43+00:00“>April 27, 2021 | 1:54pm ET Fox has picked up Elizabeth Banks’ reboot of The Flintstones, which is now titled Bedrock. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the adult animated series will be set 20 years after the 1960s original and star Banks, who is also executive producing the project. The reboot was first announced two years ago as a collaboration between Warner Bros. and Banks’ own Brownstone Productions. Bedrock will center around a grown-up Pebbles Flintstone (voiced by Banks), who is embarking on her own career while her father, Fred, nears retirement. With the Stone Age giving way to an “enlightened new Bronze Age, the residents of Bedrock will...
Lana Del Rey to Release New Album Blue Banisters on July 4th
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T04:03:14+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 12:03am ET Lana Del Rey will celebrate July 4th with the release of a new album titled Blue Banisters. Del Rey’s eighth studio album to date, it’s set to arrive a little less than four months after the release of her seventh full-length, Chemtrails over the Country Club. Del Rey shared the album’s release date and artwork in an Instagram post on Tuesday night (see below). Previously, Del Rey said the follow-up to Chemtrails would be titled Rock Candy Sweet and be released on June 1st. As the image of Del Rey featured on the original artwork for Rock Candy Sweet is the same one used for Blue Banisters, it seems she has simply changed the name of...
Judge Throws Out Wade Robson’s Molestation Lawsuit Against Michael Jackson
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Mirrorpix / Getty Michael Jackson’s name can now live on with more honor. A judge has tossed Wade Robson’s lawsuit claiming the pop star molested him as a child. As spotted on The Washington Post, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young has approved Jackson estate’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Wade Robson in 2013. “There is no evidence supporting plaintiff’s contention that defendants exercised control over Jackson,” the judge wrote in the ruling documentation. “The evidence further demonstrates that defendants had no legal ability to control Jackson, because Jackson had complete and total ownership of the corporate defendants.” This decision mirrors the same dismissal of a lawsuit filed on the behalf of James Safechuck. Bot...
