NEWS
Insomniac Launches New Record Label and Festival Experience, Lost In Dreams
Insomniac has announced a brand new electronic music record label and festival experience. Dubbed Lost In Dreams, the brand will operate under the same umbrella as Insomniac’s other fan-favorite titles, including Bassrush, Basscon, Factory 93, and Dreamstate. Much like “Dawn,” the melodic vertical of Excision‘s Subsidia Records, the Lost In Dreams record label will focus on future bass, melodic dubstep, and electronic pop music. True to Insomniac fashion, a press release issued by the famed dance music event brand also teased an “immersive festival experience,” but details are scarce at the moment. Announcements of major label signings are to be expected in the coming weeks, and the imprint will lean heavily into “vocal-driven dance music,” accordi...
AC/DC’s Angus Young Conceived “Highway to Hell” While on the Toilet
A nasty bout with food poisoning can lead a poor soul on a highway to hell right to the toilet, but for Angus Young, a visit to the toilet led to one of AC/DC’s signature songs. That’s right, the legendary guitarist conceived “Highway to Hell” while sitting on the porcelain throne. The revelation came in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, who had Angus and singer Brian Johnson share the stories behind a few of AC/DC’s best-known tunes. “We had started with the Highway to Hell album … we’d been in Miami, and we’d been in a rehearsal room and that’s what we were doing,” began Angus about the 1979 hit. “We were putting together new tracks. And we’d been there a couple of weeks and we were going a bit slow. And then I had come in one day with [my brother Malcolm] and just before we ...
Horsegirl Share New Single “Ballroom Dance Scene”: Stream
Teenage Chicago noisy rock trio Horsegirl have released a new single called “Ballroom Dance Scene”. Watch its corresponding music video down below. Band members Penelope Lowenstein, Nora Cheng, and Gigi Reece wrote the song, which details the lives of various fictional characters, during the fall 2019 Chicago teacher’s strike. They created the accompanying video during this past winter break, shooting it on their phones and an old digital Canon camera. Street footage was filmed in the band’s “aux-less 2004 Buick LeSabre,” while the indoor scenes were shot in the attic of Reece’s childhood home. The song itself features layered vocal melodies and builds from restrained opening acoustic strum, bringing in swirling electric guitars midway through. “Ballroom Dance Scene” serves as an ampl...
Chicago Rappers Mother Nature Drop New Single “Momentz”: Stream
Mother Nature are a Chicago rap duo who make a crisp and punctuated style of underground hip-hop. They have a new mixtape coming out later this year, and today they’re give fans a taste with a new single called “Momentz”. The Windy City MC’s Klevah and TRUTH have been putting out music together as Mother Nature since 2016, and have kicked around in the Chicago local scene ever since. In that time they’ve released a handful shorter projects and a full-length in 2020 called Portalz, and last year they also appeared on a compilation that included bigger names like Open Mike Eagle and Kemba. The project was a collaboration between producer BoatHouse and the venerable Chicago label Closed Sessions, and Mother Nature once again teamed up with those two local entities for for this new joint, “Mom...
Victor Osimhen likens his unconscious 30 minutes to a brain reset
Super Eagles and Napoli forward Victor Osimhen has said his 30 minutes of unconsciousness Sunday, ‘felt like a brain reset’ Osimhen was discharged to return to Naples on Monday after spending the night under observation at a hospital in Bergamo following an alarming collapse towards the end of the club’s 4-2 Serie A defeat by Atalanta on Sunday. Osimhen was knocked unconscious in a scary incident during the final minutes of the game after a challenge with Cristian Romero; he was stretchered off the pitch and taken directly to hospital. A close adviser to the player told ESPN that a disoriented Osimhen was shocked when he saw the video of the incident. “He could not believe it when they showed him the video from the incident,” the adviser said. “He said it felt like a brain reset.” Multiple...
The Pretty Reckless Earn First No. 1 on Top Album Sales Chart With ‘Death by Rock and Roll’
The Pretty Reckless previously logged top 10s on Top Album Sales with Who You Selling For (No. 8, 2016) and Going to Hell (No. 5, 2014). Death by Rock and Roll also enters an array of other album charts, including the Billboard 200 (No. 28), Top Rock Albums (No. 3), Hard Rock Albums (No. 2), Tastemaker Albums (No. 3) and Independent Albums (No. 5). The album’s title track reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in August of 2020, marking the fifth leader for the band. The set’s latest radio single, “And So It Went,” featuring Tom Morello, climbs 9-8 (a new peak) on the most recently published chart (dated Feb. 27). Back on the new Top Album Sales chart, Foo Fighters’ Medicine at Midnight falls 1-2 in its second week (15,000 sold; down 77%), while Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Ever...
Recording Academy’s Virtual ‘Women in the Mix’ Event Will Champion Female Producers & Engineers
The event will spotlight female producers and engineers in the music industry while encouraging and facilitating mentorship between established women in the industry and aspiring female music professionals. The Recording Academy has been focused on the gender gap in the recording studio for a while. This event follows follows the academy’s Women In The Mix Pledge in 2019. Grammy history bears out the need for more progress in this area. In the 47 years that the Grammys have awarded producer of the year, non-classical, female producers have been nominated in the category just eight times — and only four of the eight have been nominated on their own, not in collaboration with male producers. Those four are Paula Cole (1997), Sheryl Crow (1998), Lauryn Hill (1998), and Linda Perry...
Cardi B Was ‘Freaking Out’ While Talking to Mariah Carey About New Album, Hair Care
Cardi also ran down the laborious routine of keeping her team safe, which involves everyone getting tested three or four times a week and coordinating hair, makeup and fashion from a distance. But even with her high-flying lifestyle, when Mariah asked Cardi if she considers herself down to earth, the “WAP” rapper said, “I can vibe with anybody. I know hood chicks, I know college girls. I can relate to any type of vibe.” After describing how writing her memoir — The Meaning of Mariah Carey — helped Carey work through her “interesting, dysfunctional childhood,” things got real when Mariah asked Cardi if she felt beautiful as a little girl, or, like Carey, like an outsider. Bronx-bred Cardi said growing up Dominican/Trinidadian in New York made ...
The Strategy Behind Mexico’s Rapidly Ascending Grupo Firme
Grupo Firme is not your typical banda artist. First of all, they’re not from Mazatlán or Culiacán, like most artists in that genre are. And the number of band members in the group is uncommon: Banda ensembles typically have 16 musicians and norteño bands five, but Grupo Firme has seven members, all ranging between 22-29 years of age. They are somewhere in the middle, straddling banda and norteño, and it was their fresh take on regional Mexican classics that helped put them on the map. In April 2019, they took on Calibre 50’s “El Amor No Fue Pa’ Mi,” and it was an instant hit on YouTube. To date, it has raked in nearly 200 million views on YouTube. “It was impressive,” lead singer Caz says. “But what was more impressive was that Edén Muñoz (Calibre 50’s vocalist and the track’s songwriter) ...
Axl Rose Joins the Gang on an Episode of Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
Scooby-Doo, the beloved Saturday morning cartoon that launched in 1969, will incorporate a new element in its latest episode: a guest cameo from none other than Guns N’ Roses’ frontman Axl Rose. The mystery-solving gang – Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and titular pup Scooby — walk up to a diner on Route 66 when they first spot the singer. The “Welcome to the Jungle” singer is lounging on a motorcycle, wearing a hat and skull necklace. Spotting the GNR frontman, Velma exclaims “Jinkys” as the gang proclaims in unison: “it’s singer/songwriter/musician and total rock god Axl Rose!” Turns out Rose is already pals with Scooby and Shaggy, and he joins the group in an effort to find “a mysterious group of mud men who steal the Mystery Machine,” according to Rolling Stone. Check out a tea...
Bobby Shmurda Released From New York Prison
It’s hard to imagine that Bobby Shmurda has been in jail since the Obama administration, but today, the rapper, born Ackquille Jean Pollard, is a free man. Originally scheduled for release this coming December, Shmurda was let out early. The New York Times reported last month that was he eligible for an early release due to good behavior. “At approximately 8:30 this morning, Ackquille Pollard was conditionally released from Clinton Correctional Facility. Mr. Pollard will be under community supervision in Kings County until he completes his sentence on February 23, 2026,” a statement from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community said, confirming Shmurda’s release today. Shmurda was arrested in late 2014 as part of a drug-trafficking sting, along with s...
