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Ace Love Makes a Bold Entrance with Debut Album ‘Valor & Honor’—A Funk-Pop Journey of Heartbreak, Triumph, and Soul

The wait is over—Ace Love ’s debut album Valor & Honor is finally here, and it’s nothing short of a revelation. The 10-track album introduces a new, electrifying voice to the world of funk-pop, R&B, and disco. The Calgary-based artist has crafted a sonic journey that’s as much about emotional vulnerability as it is about unapologetic swagger. And Valor & Honor is a testament to his hard-won success, both as a producer and as a storyteller.

“I want this album to be something everyone can find a piece of themselves in. I poured everything into these songs, and I believe every listener will walk away with something that resonates with them personally. That’s the magic of music.”
Ace Love

From the first notes of the album opener, "Valor," it’s clear Ace Love has something important to say. The track immediately sets the tone with its infectious, yet urgent, funk-pop grooves—a pulse that carries throughout the entire record. It's a sound that feels both timeless and contemporary, blending classic rhythms with modern production values. Ace’s smooth, soulful voice wraps itself around each beat with the ease of a seasoned artist, while his lyrics carry the weight of personal experience.

Valor & Honor isn’t just a collection of tracks; it’s an emotional arc. Ace’s personal story—rooted in hardship, perseverance, and self-discovery—plays out through songs that speak to universal experiences. It’s clear that Ace poured his heart and soul into Valor & Honor, and that emotional honesty is one of its strongest suits.

Ace Love’s dual role as producer and co-producer also shines through. While he takes full control of the production on both the opening track “Valor” and the album’s closing anthem “Royalty,” much of Valor & Honor is the result of collaborative effort. The sound is rich and dynamic, built on a foundation of slick funk rhythms and R&B hooks that never lose their edge. Whether he’s pulling from the emotive cadences of R&B or the vibrant pulse of disco, Ace Love knows exactly how to blend genres into something that feels both fresh and authentic.

This album is a journey through his pain, his triumphs, and his ongoing pursuit of connection through music. Each track is an open door, offering listeners a chance to find something of themselves within Ace’s story. Valor & Honor is the start of what promises to be a career worth watching, and it’s an album that deserves to be heard by anyone who believes in the power of music to move and transform.

Cherry Bullet unveil elegant music video for new single ‘Love In Space’

Cherry Bullet have premiered the music video for their newest single, ‘Love In Space’.

READ MORE: STAYC – ‘YOUNG-LUV.COM’ review: a mature, ambitious return that ups the ante

In the elegant visual, the septet performs the choreography for their latest release in front of a birthday party venue. The scene later cuts to the girls dressed in sparkling cocktail dresses, following around a black cat. “Across time / Beyond another universe / I see you, love in space, space, space,” the group sing on the chorus.

‘Love In Space’ is a cut from Cherry Bullet’s second mini-album, ‘Cherry Wish’, which was released at the same time as the music video for the song. The septet’s latest record will portray a “dreamy image” of the group, according to FNC W, the group’s management agency.

‘Cherry Wish’ is the follow-up to the group’s debut mini-album, ‘Cherry Rush’, which was released last year. That mini-album featured the hit track ‘Love So Sweet’. Cherry Bullet debuted in 2019 with single album ‘Let’s Play Cherry Bullet’.

In other K-pop news, STAYC member Isa has revealed she shot an arrow at someone by accident while filming the music video for ‘RUN2U’, the girl group’s latest single. “I did shoot [the arrow] for real [and] I even got callouses [on my hand],” the idol revealed.

Hercules And Love Affair share new song ‘Grace’ and unveil first album in five years

Hercules And Love Affair have returned with a new single – listen to ‘Grace’ below.

Andy Butler’s first Hercules And Love Affair album in five years will be released via BMG.

‘In Amber’ will arrive on June 17 and fans can pre-order the album here.

Speaking about the new record, Butler said: “Across this record, there are emotional fields I hadn’t ventured into previously with Hercules And Love Affair.

“Destruction, rage, loss, but also redemption and journeying towards empowerment are all touchstones on the album. It has taken years to make, but I am happy to put it forward now, at a moment in time where we have all been confronted with such heightened feelings collectively and on an unprecedented scale”.

“In dance music, the focus tends to be more on celebration, joy, desire, heartbreak. But rage? Existential contemplation? Not so much…certain emotions seemed to be off limits”.

You can listen to the new single ‘Grace’ here:

The tracklisting for ‘In Amber’ is as follows:

‘Grace’
‘One’
‘You’ve Won This War’
‘Christian Prayers’
‘Dissociation’
‘Contempt for You’
‘Gates of Separation’
‘Killing His Family’
‘Who Will Save Us?’
‘The Eyes of the Father’
‘Poisonous Storytelling’
‘Repent’

Butler has reunited with Anohni for the project, some 14 years after the pair last worked together.

Reflecting on this, Butler said: “In some ways, ‘In Amber’ is a record I didn’t know I had in me. From singing out, to suggesting to get Budgie (from Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Creatures fame) to participate, to derailing some of the arrangements for more impact – Anohni definitely pulled much of it out of me.”

“As an artist that has always puts my personal lived experience forward in my work, not to mention the chaos of living through these recent times, I could not in good conscience make something comfortable,” Butler added.

“I needed to express my discomfort. Making a 90’s sounding techno or house record, or an odd 80’s sounding dance track was not anything I needed to do”.

Kings Of Convenience Peace or Love

On the cover of Peace Or Love, the long-awaited fourth album by Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye, the Norwegian duo are playing chess on a stylish piece of furniture. It’s not the first time the game has featured on their record sleeves – the art for 2004’s Riot On An Empty Street included a half-played board on the shaggy rug of a chic apartment, while 2009’s Declaration Of Dependence depicted the duo taking a break from a game on a Mexican beach.

ORDER NOW: The Beatles are on the cover of the September 2021 issue of Uncut

Bøe and Øye do enjoy chess (the latter spent most of a recent quarantine playing it online), but their frequent references to it also capture something fundamental about the alliance that’s always powered Kings Of Convenience. Though their music is hushed, thoughtful, polite even, their relationship has always been fiery and competitive, the beauty and stillness of their songs fashioned from conflict.

The 12 years between Declaration Of Dependence and Peace Or Love weren’t the result of struggle and strife, however, but rather of a quest for perfection. Recording took place sporadically over five years and spanned five different cities, including Siracusa in Sicily, where Øye now lives, with the duo searching only for the right mood and feel, a kind of loose magic, rather than any technical prowess.

Their efforts seem to have paid off, for Peace Or Love is their most cohesive album yet. While it’s not a world away from their previous work, the mood is noticeably more stripped-down and melancholic – there’s nothing like Riot…’s I’d Rather Dance With You or Declaration…’s Boat Behind – perhaps informed by the last decade, which saw Øye lose his parents and Bøe suffer the breakup of his marriage to Ina Grung, the cover star of Riot… and their debut, 2000’s Quiet Is The New Loud.

In customary fashion, they begin with a slow, desolate song. Rumours, driven by three intertwining acoustic guitars, addresses someone facing “accusations we both know are wrong”; in close, breathy harmony, they offer support and advice, but it might be too late: “I want to tell you that I love you/But I know you can’t hear me now”.

Comb My Hair, with its fast, coiled fingerpicking, is darker still. Here, with the loss of a loved one, the protagonist is unable to get out of bed; even the stars and the warm evening air are “cold and senseless now”. Love Is A Lonely Thing, a tranquilised, echoing ballad with verses shared between Øye, Bøe and a returning Feist, and the minor-key Killers, both deal with the pain of love, of waiting interminably for someone or something to appear. Closer Washing Machine, one of the best tracks here, uses clashing guitar chords and plaintive viola to emphasise Øye’s romantic dejection and existential angst: “It’s true I’m more wise now than I was when I was 21/It’s true I’ve less time now than I had when I was 21…”

Not everything is quite as dark, though: Bøe’s Rocky Trail is a skipping, bossa nova cousin to Misread, but it twists and turns so deliciously that its chorus appears only once. Fever places electronic beats under Øye’s wry contrasting of lovesickness and actual sickness, but the effect is reassuringly subtle. Catholic Country, meanwhile, is swaying and vaguely South American, the chorus written with The Staves and beautifully delivered by Feist.

Ultimately, it’s the sparse, live interplay between the two guitars and voices that carries Peace Or Love. The arrangements were largely worked out on tour, while recording mostly took place in homes – hence the Sicilian crickets that accompany Bøe on Killers. There are mistakes here too, especially on Washing Machine, which only enhance the air of intimacy.

After a quarter of a century playing together, Kings Of Convenience seem to have discovered the purest essence of the music they create. It’s become increasingly tricky to tell who originated these songs, especially when, as on Catholic Country, Bøe is singing Øye’s lyrics over his own riff; what’s more, any frills they might have dabbled with in the past have been stripped out, leaving only the bones of the songs and whispers of the rawest feelings. Stylish moves, perfectly played.

Ringo Starr invites everyone to “spread peace and love” on his birthday

Ringo Starr will be celebrating his 81st birthday next month, and he’s inviting everyone to “spread peace and love” on the landmark date.

READ MORE: The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ at 50: 10 perfect moments that give you goosebumps

The invitation comes as part of his annual ‘Peace And Love’ birthday initiative, a tradition he started on July 7, 2008, the date of his 68th birthday, after being asked by a journalist what he would like for his birthday. “Peace and love,” was his answer.

Since then the Beatle has invited everyone everywhere to think, say or post #peaceandlove at noon their local time on July 7 “to fulfil his birthday wish and encircle the planet in a wave of Peace and Love”.

Today (June 28), Starr shared a video message. “I’m inviting everyone who wants to join the peace and love celebration for my birthday at noon your time wherever you are, 7-7-21,” he said.

“You can post it, you can say it, you can even think it – but it would be really cool if you go ‘Peace and Love’ at noon on my birthday – so let’s spread peace and love on my birthday – c’mon everybody!”

You can watch the message below:

Usually on his birthday, Starr meets with fans wherever he is in the world. It’s a tradition that began on July 7, 2008 when he convened with fans and friends in front of the Hard Rock Café in Chicago, passing out cupcakes and joining the crowd for “Peace and Love” at exactly noon.

Last year, the pandemic prevented an in-person event, and Starr instead moved the celebration online, hosting ‘Ringo’s Big Birthday Show’, which featured unseen concert and unique performances by Starr, Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Ben Harper and Dave Grohl, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark Jr, Sheila E, and more.

In 2019 there were over 30 Peace And Love events in countries all around the world. Details about 2021’s regional gatherings for the initiative, which will be hosted by fans – both in person and on Zoom – can be found on Starr’s Facebook page here.

Meanwhile, Disney+ has announced plans to stream Peter Jackson’s new The Beatles: Get Back documentary.

The Beatles film will focus on the making of the band’s penultimate studio album ‘Let It Be’ and will showcase their final concert as a band, on London’s Savile Row rooftop, in its entirety.

Machine Gun Kelly releases slasher music video for ‘Love Race’

Machine Gun Kelly has released the music video for his recently released track ‘Love Race’, featuring Kellin Quinn and Travis Barker.

READ MORE: Machine Gun Kelly: “I’ve been jumping up and down on the table, believing in myself, for-fucking-ever”

‘Love Race’ arrived back in April and marked Kelly’s second single of the year. The music video takes a leaf from classic slasher films, with a group of teenagers getting picked off one by one by a masked killer while at a summer camp.

The video also features Barker playing drums, as well as influencers Alissa Violet, Xowie and Noah Beck.

Watch the clip for ‘Love Race’ below:

‘Love Race’ arrived a month after Machine Gun Kelly’s collaboration with Corpse Husband, ‘Daywalker!’. It marked the first new music since his 2020 pop-punk album, ‘Tickets To My Downfall’.

NME gave ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ a four-star review upon its release, writing that Kelly “reignites the least cool genre ever (OK, with maybe the exception of nu-metal), channeling the angst and abandon of his childhood heroes”.

“Boisterous, full of sincerity and exciting enough to make you jump on a table in the middle of a board meeting, ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ is an album that not only proves MGK can do whatever the hell he likes, but that also maybe pop-punk still has something important to offer the world.”

The LP also saw him take home Top Rock Album and Top Rock Artist at the Billboard Music Awards earlier this week.

Machine Gun Kelly has been announced for Reading & Leeds festivals this August and Louder Than Life the following month. The artist has also announced his headline US tour, which will begin in September and be spread across 28 cities.

Ariana Grande’s Fluttering Strings, Julien Baker’s Misplaced Faith, And More Songs We Love

The search for the ever-elusive "bop" is difficult. Playlists and streaming-service recommendations can only do so much. They often leave a lingering question: Are these songs really good, or are they just new?

Enter Bop Shop, a hand-picked selection of songs from the MTV News team. This weekly collection doesn't discriminate by genre and can include anything — it's a snapshot of what's on our minds and what sounds good. We'll keep it fresh with the latest music, but expect a few oldies (but goodies) every once in a while, too. Get ready: The Bop Shop is now open for business.

Ariana Grande: "Six Thirty"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7GAXfrajHc

The string pops that help give Ari's new Positions album its intermittent bubbles are sprinkled across the LP like pixie dust. Opener "Shut Up" is a downright baroque affair, and the pizzicato plucks of "34+35" help redouble the playful sexuality of the lyrics. But on the lovesick and worried "Six Thirty," the fluttering violins add a sweeping grandeur — the kind that makes a line like "And you wonder, baby, if I'm gonna stay / Even if one day you lose it and go crazy" hit like a pair of wings readying for takeoff. —Patrick Hosken

Julien Baker: “Faith Healer”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWAOkg2i6_g

When Julien Baker sings, the people listen, and “Faith Healer” — the raspy-voiced indie rocker’s new single — is no exception. The soul-baring cut is as much a song about literal addiction as it is an ode to misplaced faith. “Faith healer, come put your hands on me,” Baker croons, her vocals tinged with desperation. We all want to believe in something or someone; it’s what or whom we choose to pour our faith into that separates us. Personally, I believe that Little Oblivions, Baker’s first full-length solo release since 2017’s Turn Out the Lights, will also deliver. —Sam Manzella
Kim Petras: “Party Till I Die”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4QuH_2hPps

Halloween is kind of a bummer this year. Costume parties? Canceled. Trick-or-treating? Canceled. Even It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on television has been effectively canceled. But if there’s one thing we can count on, even in 2020, it’s resident spooky-season pop queen Kim Petras. The aptly titled “Party Till I Die” was quietly added to her Halloween EP Turn Off the Light, further building on her reputation as the pop’s finest purveyor of bloodthirsty bops, ghostly glitches, and hellishly fabulous lyrics. She’s serving us death on the dance floor, sex in a coffin, and partying in a graveyard all in one. Thank goodness, because we’ve never needed it more. —Carson Mlnarik
Jesswar: “Venom”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIuhbBDJcBY

“Got venom in my lyrics / Bodies drop when I spit it,” is how Australia-via-Fiji rapper Jesswar positions her talents on this stomping juggernaut of a tune. The blows exchanged throughout the video are only part of the assault here — the rest comes from her audacious and inspiring delivery. —Patrick Hosken

Serengeti (ft. Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier): “Wasps”
https://youtu.be/DJWMkPM8uII

Remotely created collab projects are the norm in 2020 — but few manage to capture the actual electricity of IRL studio sessions as Serengeti’s latest, With Greg from Deerhoof. As advertised, it features the Chicago rapper spilling unfettered rhymes over wonky, baroque instrumentals created by Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier. Serengeti apparently laid down his vocals as soon as the music hit his inbox, lending an urgency felt on the monochromatic sprawl of “Wasps.” —Patrick Hosken
Overcoats: “No Surprises” (Radiohead cover)
https://youtu.be/5iNT-dYvwlc

New York-based electro-pop duo Overcoats have not strayed away from the political, using their platform and folksy, minimalistic sound to bring awareness around voting and to throw support behind Joe Biden. It’s no mistake that their enchanting cover of “No Surprises” arrives just days before the 2020 election. The two build on Radiohead’s sparse production and softly spoken message, putting a dreamy pop spin on the tune while its powerful message remains. As they wrote on Instagram, lyrics like “Bring down the government / They don’t, they don’t speak for us,” feel especially poignant right now, and even more so powerful as their voices build to a warm chorus at the track’s conclusion. —Carson Mlnarik

Soccer Mommy’s Space-Age Synths, Junglepussy’s Salad Slams, And More Songs We Love

Soccer Mommy: “Circle the Drain (Unknown Mortal Orchestra Remix)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lj0pfkBxPY&feature=youtu.be

“Circle the Drain” gets the psychedelic rock treatment courtesy of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, whose spacey synth sounds transform the Swiss-born indie rocker’s mellow depression anthem into something appropriately otherworldly. Want to feel even more moldy in the brain? Soccer Mommy’s original version dropped pre-pandemic in January 2020, which was technically this year, even though the Before Times feel like a distant memory. “Hey, I’ve been falling apart these days,” indeed. —Sam Manzella
Wild Pink: “The Shining But Tropical”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMUQpapX0zU&feature=youtu.be

New York’s Wild Pink have always been difficult to categorize. A dream-pop band doing jangle-pop (or vice versa)? A crunchier War on Drugs with emo accents? Arena-sized new single “The Shining But Tropical” doesn’t clear that up easily, instead exercising a newfound largesse where band leader John Ross’s poetic musings can mingle with soft synthetic noises and gorgeous open guitar strums. Ratboys’s Julia Steiner adds subtle vocal harmonies, and Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy stars in the meditative video, proving that no matter what bucket Wild Pink falls into, they’re in good company. —Patrick Hosken
Blackpink ft. Cardi B: “Bet You Wanna”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXBdvSj9F2I

The very best love-crazed R&B-pop fusions — from Amerie’s “1 Thing” to Little Mix’s “Move” and Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” — use all the same elements to harness and release the feeling of flailing wildly over a new crush. They’re erratic in every way: soaring, speeding hooks randomly shattering into sharp edges of sparse percussion; vocals that wail at the edge of human sonic comprehension, then a smirking one-liner delivered like a whisper to your ear. Pop has had massive moments in 2020, from Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia to Lady Gaga's Chromatica, but this standout from Blackpink’s long-awaited LP, The Album, finds the genre at its freest. —Terron Moore
Gregory Dillon: “Lovely.”
https://youtu.be/pd_674eQlDw

Need a synth soundtrack for your next séance? Brooklyn crooner Gregory Dillon has already sung about having an “Alien Boyfriend,” so why not tackle the other side of the supernatural spectrum with a spooky tune about demons and nightmares? This glittering slice of dark pop will not only have you dancing in your seat but will also inspire you to break out the Ouija board. If that’s not scary enough, the accompanying Blair Witch Project-esque music video is set within a graveyard. Be warned: You might want to listen with the lights on. —Chris Rudolph
Why Don’t We: “Fallin’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgx-R_4s12U

Last time we heard those drums, they soundtracked Kanye West’s rage on “Black Skinhead,” courtesy of production from Daft Punk. But now, Why Don’t We have utilized them for an onslaught of falsetto and romantic confusion. The “Fallin’” video, likewise, is true to its name, finding Corbyn, Daniel, Jack, Jonah, and Zach embracing antigravity. —Patrick Hosken
Junglepussy: "Main Attraction"
https://youtu.be/dN6S63t4tBE

The first single off the Brooklyn rapper's fourth album Jp4, dropping October 23, "Main Attraction" is classic Junglepussy: a composite of witty, stiletto-sharp punchlines that riff on themes of wellness and independence. "These bitches want me to make sense / They should just make a salad," she quips. Given she once delivered a lecture about self-care at Yale, perhaps we should heed her advice. —Coco Romack
I Dont Know How But They Found Me: “Leave Me Alone”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwpnuaBoKPU

“Leave Me Alone,” the lead single from iDKHOW’s debut album, Razzmataz, is densely charged funk rock — brash, full-throttle electric noise that rattles your bones and melts your face off. It’s like playing The 1975 out of a Toyota Prius with all four tires on fire. It’s the bright future captured by that stadium sound: The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Jet. Could this Salt Lake City duo, Dallon Weekes and Ryan Seaman, become the next genre-defining band? Perhaps. —Terron Moore
Joohoney: “Smoky”
https://youtu.be/3ruHs2BKa9M

“Smoky” is the emo-K-pop crossover we needed. The second single from Monsta X rapper Joohoney’s solo mixtape, it’s a scream-cry, headbanging track that revels in the realization of losing your way. “It’s about me collapsing in the darkness, losing my old self who was so passionate,” Joohoney said in a statement. Your eyes will start stinging when the children's choir joins on the chorus, and you can hear why Joohoney also says this is “a song for myself in the future,” a reminder of where you’ve been as well as a wake-up call for when you are slipping back. Crank this track all the way up, roll the windows down, and speed down the highway screaming, "Smoky!” with Joohoney. It's cathartic. —Daniel Head

Peace and love! Ringo Starr celebrates 80th birthday with star-studded YouTube show

Ringo Starr has marked his 80th birthday with a livestream featuring a series of appearances from some of his famous friends.

The Beatles drummer is known for marking each birthday with a charity event in Hollywood, but coronavirus meant that he was forced to stage it from home for the first time.

With Starr leading proceedings from his drum kit, the event saw cameos from the likes of Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello – who all performed a selection of Beatles covers.

After sharing clips from previous concerts, Ringo also took a moment to reflect on the power of the Black Lives Matter movement.

He said: “There’s no greater act any of us can make than to stand up and be counted when you see injustice.

“I don’t have to tell you that the Beatles’ early success had a lot to do with the influence we found in American artists.

“We loved listening to Ray Charles, Little Richard is my hero, Stevie Wonder, Sister Rosetta Tharpe – I saw her live at the cabin – and my stepdad’s favourite, Billy Eckstine. The list goes on and on.”

He added: “Black lives matter. Stand up and make your voice heard.”

Money raised from the livestream went to four charities; Black Lives Matter, the David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid.

Starr has long held concerts to mark his birthday in his adopted home of the United States. For the past 12 years, he’s hosted the ‘Peace and Love’ celebration event in Los Angeles on the date. Last year, David Lynch, Peter Jackson, Nils Lofgren, Sheila E., Benmont Tench, Ed Begley, Jr. and more joined him.

LeBron James & Alvin Kamara Show Love To NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace

Bubba Wallace sported a Black Lives Matter paint scheme on the same day NASCAR banned the Confederate flag.

NASCAR has always been one of those sports with a cloud of stereotypes hanging over it. Of course, the sport was born in the south which doesn't have the best record on race relations. As a result, there have been very few black drivers despite NASCAR's best efforts to change that. In an attempt to distance themselves from negative stereotypes, NASCAR has implemented diversity programs that have led to more black employees and even some African-American drivers climbing up their ranks.

Bubba Wallace was a part of NASCAR's drive for diversity program and now, he is racing for Richard Petty who is a legend of the sport. Following the murder of George Floyd, Wallace sought to make a statement and unveiled a "Black Lives Matter" paint scheme before his race at Martinsville on Wednesday night. In fact, this scheme had many athletes impressed, including LeBron James and Alvin Kamara who shouted Bubba out on social media. Kamara eventually watched the whole race because he was so excited about Wallace's statement.

Prior to the Martinsville race, Wallace urged NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag from its races and that's exactly what they did. It was yet another example of NASCAR trying to distance itself from negative stereotypes of the past and they received quite a bit of praise for it.

As for the race itself, Wallace had himself an amazing drive as he finished 11th out of the 40 cars in the field. Richard Petty Motorsports doesn't typically have the best equipment so finishing 11th was quite the accomplishment and many drivers praised Wallace's ride, following the race.

Ray J & Princess Love Face Off In Zeus Network Special

Ray J & Princess Love’s relationship drama has been played out on social media for months, but the couple will be facing off for a new series.

The unraveling relationship between Ray J and Princess Love is about to come to a head. The married couple has been traveling down a rocky road over the last few months, but it looks like they’re going to face off on the Zeus Network for their upcoming show, The Conversation: Ray J and Princess Love.

The Love & Hip Hop Hollywood couple have been reportedly living apart following their massive argument that unfolded on social media. If you remember, an eight-month-pregnant Princess accused Ray J of abandoning her and their daughter in Las Vegas. She said he left to go party with escorts while Ray J denied deserting his wife and daughter.

A sneak peek at The Conversation: Ray J & Princess Love has been released and it looks intense. Unlike other shows, Ray and Princess will speak with each other without the help of producers, therapists, or hosts. In the clip, Princess called her husband “selfish” and told him, “I don’t respect you.”

They recently welcomed their infant son Epik into the world, so these last few months have been bittersweet for the pair. Princess shared the preview of the Zeus Network feature on Instagram with a caption that reads, “A conversation that’s been long overdue.. It doesn’t get any realer than this.” A fan commented that they didn’t understand why famous couples air out their business for cameras, and Princess responded this was the only way she could get Ray to sit and talk with her.

The Conversation: Ray J And Princess Love premieres on Zeus Network on March 15th. Check out the preview below.

Robert Downey Jr. On "Tropic Thunder": "90% Of My Black Friends" Loved Blackface

He addressed the controversial film on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last week.

Robert Downey Jr. paid a visit to The Joe Rogan Experience podcast last week, as projections that his $175 million budget film, Doolittle, would lose $100 million at the box office are revealed. At one point, Joe asks RDJ if he thinks “you could do blackface today,” referencing Robert’s role in Ben Stiller’s 2008 film, Tropic Thunder, as an Australian-born actor named Kirk Lazarus who undergoes “pigmentation alteration” to portray a black character. Robert responds, “you could…” with a little hesitation, and elaborates on the film’s conception. “When Ben called and said, ‘Hey I’m doing this thing’ – you know I think Sean Penn had passed on it or something. Possibly wisely. And I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that and I’ll do that after Iron Man.’ Then I started thinking, ‘This is a terrible idea, wait a minute.'”

However, he reconsidered what his intentions were in taking the role. “Then I thought, ‘Well hold on dude, get real here, where is your heart?,'” he recounts. “My heart is…a) I get to be black for a summer in my mind, so there’s something in it for me. The other thing is, I get to hold up to nature the insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion, just my opinion.” Praising Ben Stiller as a “masterful artist and director,” RDJ reveals that Ben’s execution was what made the film ultimately work. “[Ben] knew exactly what the vision for this was, he executed it, it was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie. And 90 percent of my black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great.'”

Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

Joe then asks him about “the other 10%” to which Robert responds, “I can’t disagree with them, but I know where my heart was. I think that it’s never an excuse to do something that’s out of place and out of its time, but to me, it blasted the cap on [the issue].” After Joe declares that it’s unlikely that blackface could ever be received well today, RDJ touches back on the issue of intention. “There’s a morality clause here on this planet and it’s a big price to pay. I think having a moral psychology is job one. Sometimes, you just gotta go, ‘Yeah I effed up.’ Again, not in my defense but, Tropic Thunder is about how wrong [blackface] is, so I take exception.”

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

However, he reveals that he did get some pushback from his loved ones. “My mother was horrified,” he reveals. He imitates his mother’s response, saying, “‘Bobby, I’m telling ya, I have a bad feeling about this.’ I was like, ‘Yeah me too, Mom.'” Robert Downey Jr. went on to be nominated for a Golden Globe as well as an Oscar for Bets Supporting Actor for his role in the film, but lost both times.

Alien Ant Farm’s Dryden Mitchell kicks CKY off tour after frontman Chad I Ginsburg punches him in the face

Alien Ant Farm’s Dryden Mitchell has said CKY have been sent home from their joint UK and European tour after the band’s Chad I Ginsburg punched him in the face.

The two bands announced the tour back in April and a string of shows on the continent began last month, with the opening night of the UK leg set to take place in Margate’s Dreamland tonight (November 9).

But in a post on Instagram earlier today, Mitchell has confirmed that CKY will play no further part in the tour after a physical altercation between the two frontmen.

“Sadly, Chad from CKY hasn’t figured out how to cohabitate with others after all these years,” Mitchell began his message. “They will no longer be on the Alien Ant Farm Tour through the rest of the UK shows after Chad punched me in the face earlier today.”

“I’ve watched him treat multiple crew members and opening band members like trash through the Europe shows and cause general drama around our camp. Before the last Europe shows I went to Chad and asked if he had any issues with anyone specifically and if he wanted to have a meeting with the whole crew and bands to discuss what’s going on, he up ended the table in the dressing room and threw his phone, and then cancelled their show.”

“Well he punched me in the face and pretty much ran away like I imagine he’ll do for all of his future problems,” he continued. “I’m grateful for my sobriety and grateful that I didn’t retaliate physically in any way whatsoever. I would love these shows to continue and apologize to all the CKY fans for Chad’s behavior. We have zero hard feelings for Jess and Elvis in CKY and are gutted to see them go, but I will never knowingly put myself in volatile situations so this had to end.”

The tour is also one of the first to adopt the Music Venue Trust’s proposal to include a £1 donation from every ticket to support grassroots music venues. The organisation will distribute donations to small, local, grassroots music venues across the country to ensure the music ecosystem continues to support new and developing artists.

“We’ve always loved our UK tours! For over 20 years we have been able to play shows all around our “home away from home” and we’re excited to see old friends and fans on this run. We’ve watched CKY as fans through the years but have never had the pleasure to meet and tour with them. We think this is a proper nice fit,” said Mitchell.

Alien Ant Farm released their album ‘~mAntras~’ in April, their first new album in nearly a decade and their sixth in total.

CKY, meanwhile, are scheduled to play Tool’s new Dominican Republic festival Tool In The Sand in March next year.

STAYC chase love in music video for new single ‘GPT’

STAYC have dropped their new single album ‘…I’, alongside an affecting music video for title track ‘GPT’.

Both the record and visual for ‘GPT’ were released on October 30. On STAYC’s new song, the six-piece address a seemingly aloof love interest, who the band refer to as ‘GPT’, which appears to be a reference to the AI chatbot.

The character was described in a press release as “someone who replies indifferently to continuous questions, capturing the essence of unrequited curiosity.”

“Answer me, G-P-T / Don’t you wonder about me? / Is it enough for you as it is?,” they croon on the song’s chorus.

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Aside from ‘GPT’, the ‘…I’ single album also includes an additional B-side track titled ‘Meant To Be’, a mellow jazz track about a romance that perseveres in the face of time and distance. The digital record also includes a cappella and instrumental versions of ‘GPT’.

It marks their first music since they released their first studio album ‘Metamorphosis’ in July, led by title track ‘Cheeky Icy Thang’. The album included a total of 14 tracks, including the girl group’s first unit and solo tracks.

Prior to the release of ‘Metamorphic’, they also released a remake of TWICE’s hit single ‘Fancy’ for Spotify Singles this March. “As we were embarking on our journey to become artists, we always respected what they have done and also we wanted to emulate them,” the group said of TWICE in an interview with NME.

Pop Star Maria Ellis Celebrates Self-Love with Bold New Track “Conceited”

Maria Ellis is on a mission to redefine self-confidence in her latest single, "Conceited." The track, the lead single from her upcoming EP Ultrabaddie, is an infectious anthem that dares listeners to embrace their self-worth unapologetically. As a pop/R&B sensation, Maria captivates her audience with bold lyrics and a dynamic sound that invites you to sing along while reflecting on your own experiences with self-perception.

Picture yourself in a moment of self-doubt, scrolling through social media, and feeling the pressure to present a perfect image. Now, let Maria's voice resonate in your head: “I’m a bit conceited, loudest when I’m preaching, I mean it, I mean it.” These words encourage a shift in mindset, prompting you to celebrate your individuality rather than shrink in the face of insecurity. As you play "Conceited," let the energetic beats and sultry vocals wash over you, empowering you to step into your light and appreciate your unique qualities.

https://youtu.be/hZrazoXhd7I

With the Y2K-inspired music video for "Conceited," Maria Ellis transports you to a retro-futuristic world that enhances the track's theme of self-empowerment. Imagine vibrant colors and nostalgic visuals framing a narrative of confidence and fun. It’s not just a song; it’s an experience that inspires you to connect with your inner badass. As you watch, consider how the visuals reflect your own journey. What moments in your life have led you to embrace your self-worth?

As the anticipation builds for the full Ultrabaddie EP, fans are encouraged to join the conversation on social media. Share your stories of self-empowerment and tag Maria Ellis as she invites her audience to celebrate their own journeys. With "Conceited" leading the way, this is not just about listening to music; it’s about creating a community where everyone feels empowered to express their true selves.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3AqLi4Kdmb0aCUGUvkMZsw?si=b2ac5e01f555470f

Jackson Wang reaches out to BamBam amid mental health concerns: “Be at a place where you get appreciation”

Jackson Wang has publicly reached out to GOT7 bandmate BamBam with words of advice amid concerns surrounding the latter’s mental health.

Over the span of the past few months, GOT7’s BamBam has been sharing cryptic posts and updates that fans believe indicate a decline in his mental health. He first expressed his current state in an Instagram Story in late July, where he told fans he “just want[s] to sleep and don’t wake up so I can finally rest”, according to Koreaboo.

BamBam has since received an outpour of encouraging messages from fans, family and fellow celebrities alike. After he posted a YouTube video of Justin Bieber’s ‘Changes’ to his X on October 1, his GOT7 bandmate Jackson Wang replied to the post with encouragement and words of advice for the 27-year-old singer.

“People closely around us, specially the industry. The only thing they care about is living their life like you are living urs. Different intentions. It’s facts, it’s reality. We all go through it, just different aspects” he wrote. “Don’t take it negatively, sometimes [we] just gotta be more selfish and get things right for urself. It’s not always a bad thing. We all have choices. Make them bam.”

Wang concluded his message to BamBam by telling him to “be at a place where you get appreciation” and to not “forget who u r”, before reassuring him that he “love[s] you for who u r”.

People closely around us specially the industry.
The only thing they care about is living their life like you are living urs.
Different intentions.
It’s facts, it’s reality.

We all go through it, just different aspects.

Dont take it negatively,
Sometimes just gotta be more…

— Jackson Wang (@JacksonWang852) October 1, 2024

Wang followed-up he message with words of reassurance. “One more thing, bam❤️ Ur audience love u, U da reason. Not anything else, Not the people , team, label, partners, or anyone else,” the GOT7 rapper added.

One more thing, bam❤️
Ur audience love u,
U da reason.
Not anything else,
Not the people , team, label, partners, or anyone else.

— Jackson Wang (@JacksonWang852) October 1, 2024

BamBam has been sharing more about hsi personal life both online and offline over the past months, according to Koreaboo. During his Manila concert last month, he told fans: “I’m gonna say I feel unhappy more than I feel happy these days … I just wanna be honest because you guys are the only people that I can talk to.”

“I have a lot of things going on in my mind right now, but then every time, the only place that I feel free and I feel like happy these days is meeting you guys on stage,” he added. “So the stage is like a playground for me right now. When I’m by myself, I kinda think a lot, so I appreciate you guys come out here and have a good time for me.”

In other posts, BamBam has also apologised “for being so negative and sensitive”, announcing that he will be “taking some time off for myself”. Other stars who have expressed their support for BamBam include variety show star and singer Brian Joo and rapper Jessi.

Dave Grohl’s representatives debunk viral “love child” post circulating on social media

A viral post by an Instagram user claiming she was the mother of Dave Grohl‘s “love child” has been confirmed to have been fake.

Earlier this week, the Foo Fighters revealed that he has become a father of a baby girl outside of his marriage – but is “doing everything I can to regain the trust” of his wife Jordyn Blum and his family. He and Blum already share three daughters, Violet, Harper and Ophelia.

In an Instagram post, he also promised to be a “loving and supportive parent” to the child.

Shortly after the announcement, a post went viral from someone claiming she was the mother of Grohl’s fourth child, who said the child’s name was Roxie Junie Grohl.

The post featured a lengthy caption alongside a photo of a woman holding a newborn baby’s hand.

“My sweet Roxie Junie Grohl, being your mama has already been the most incredible experience of my life,” the caption began.

Violet and Harper have since deactivated their Instagram accounts. Violet has become known in recent years for touring with Foo Fighters alongside her father and is featured on the band’s 2023 track ‘Show Me How’ from their emotional album ‘But Here We Are‘ – written in the aftermath of the loss of Grohl’s mother Virginia and late Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins.

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In January 2021, he hailed Violet as “an incredibly talented musician” who can “pick up an instrument and learn it within a week”. He added: “To be her drummer is one of my life dreams.”

In other Foo Fighters news, an Irish hitchhiker who is supposedly responsible for the formation of the band in the mid-1990s was recently identified.

The band are also set to perform at the Soundside Music Festival in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on September 29. Visit here for any remaining tickets.

“This is not the end, this is not the beginning”: Linkin Park look to the future with new faces

It’s been six years, ten months and nine days since Linkin Park last graced a stage. In the wake of Chester Bennington’s tragic suicide, their final performance – a star-studded 2017 tribute concert in his memory – left the band, their peers, and millions of fans with an outpouring of love and grief. But there was no clear path into the future – no promises that Linkin Park would ever perform again under that banner.

After months of rumours of varying credibility and a 100-hour countdown that bewildered fans by counting back up, on September 5 the band raised a curtain that unveiled everything at once. Through a coordinated fan club show, music video release, and Billboard cover story, we finally know that Linkin Park’s new co-lead vocalist is Emily Armstrong of Los Angeles hard-rock veterans Dead Sara. Replacing original drummer Rob Bourdon is Colin Brittain, producer and collaborator for the likes of All Time Low and A Day to Remember; while just for their debut performance, Alex Feder subs in for the band’s absent guitarist Brad Delson.

Linkin Park with new members Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain. Credit: James Minchin III

Out today, too, is ‘The Emptiness Machine’, the lead single from their eighth studio album ‘From Zero’, due November 15, ahead of a run of international arena shows and a 2025 world tour. Coming live from a studio backlot in Hollywood, in front of several hundred diehard LP Underground fan club members, Linkin Park’s ‘From Zero’ livestream is a celebration and a revival – and perhaps an effort to instantly end speculation about whether the band’s new singer will be able to pull it off.

All eyes are, without question, now on Armstrong, who has gone from fronting a bluesy power trio to joining one of the biggest bands in the world. She has enormous shoes to fill. Many bands have had to replace iconic singers, but there’s no precedent for an act as high-profile as Linkin Park doing so with a vocalist of another gender. It’s a stroke of genius: acknowledging and embracing the fact that Bennington’s successor was never going to sound the same. There’s no attempt to recreate the tone of his piercing, fragile tenor, but Armstrong’s rougher alto, just maybe, channels some of the same spirit.

New Linkin Park singer Emily Armstrong. Credit: Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Warner Music

Across the livestream’s 14 songs, she delivers a powerhouse performance that’s also human and imperfect. She holds nothing back on ‘The Emptiness Machine’, Linkin Park’s heaviest song in a decade. She’s completely at home within the intense angst of ‘Crawling’ and ‘One Step Closer’, singing with the familiarity of someone who grew up on ‘Hybrid Theory’. Her high belts and screams, absolutely chilling on ‘Faint’ and ‘Lying from You’, bring an almost metalcore sound to those songs’ harsh vocals. But it’s on the ballads where she’s most disarming – she soars on ‘What I’ve Done’, and the band’s first performance of ‘Lost’, a ‘Meteora’ outtake that became an unexpected hit in 2023.

It’s not always polished. In moments, Armstrong’s visibly overcome with emotion. In several songs, she pushes her screams too hard to sustain comfortably – but to be fair, Bennington didn’t sound perfect every night either. These are emotionally and physically demanding songs; anything less than her all isn’t an option. She’s yet to completely find her comfort zone onstage, but who wouldn’t be a little intimidated debuting – with Linkin Park – in front of the whole world?

“It has never been Linkin Park’s philosophy to take the path of least resistance”

If there’s any doubt that the band have committed to their new vocalist, they’ve lifted the keys of most of their older songs to match her vocal range. As Mike Shinoda told Billboard, it’s a “mindfuck” having to relearn the muscle memory of guitar, keyboard and backing vocal parts he’s been performing, in some cases, for a quarter of a century. But Shinoda’s never been one to hide his emotions, and more than anyone else onstage, he looks thrilled, standing side by side with Armstrong as they harmonise on the last choruses of ‘Papercut’. It’s truly surreal – what’s old is new again.

Judging by the immediate social media reactions, Armstrong hasn’t, and won’t, be embraced by everyone. But the truth is, since 2007’s ‘Minutes to Midnight’, every new Linkin Park album has gained them new fans while alienating some old ones. For the more nostalgic fans, the original recordings aren’t going anywhere, nor are tribute bands like Portugal’s Hybrid Theory – exceptionally talented soundalikes who’ve played arenas around the globe.

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And Linkin Park’s upcoming world tour – which currently comprises six arena dates in in LA, New York, Hamburg, London, Seoul and Bogotá – will no doubt be incredibly lucrative. But as the band explained to Billboard, their collaboration with Armstrong and Colin Brittain emerged organically over years of sessions working on new music, long before anyone decided that it was material for Linkin Park. It was about chasing the new – not recreating the old. It has never been Linkin Park’s philosophy to take the path of least resistance. They’re not moving on, but moving forward.

While introducing the band’s new members, Shinoda tells the audience lovingly, “In the role of Chester Bennington tonight is all of you.” How each fan chooses to honour that is up to them. Meanwhile, the new Linkin Park will continue, rewriting an unthinkable tragedy into a once-unimaginable future.

Big Thief enlisted by folk veteran Tucker Zimmerman for new album ‘Dance Of Love’

Big Thief has been enlisted by singer-songwriter Tucker Zimmerman to be the backing band on his new album ‘Dance Of Love’.

The album’s lead track, “Burial at Sea,” comes with a video directed by Noah, the younger brother of Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker. Driven by melodic guitar strings, the song also features Lenker on backing vocals. The band backs Zimmerman on nine of the album’s ten tracks.

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‘Dance Of Love’ is due to be released on October 11 on 4AD, you can pre-order and pre-save it here.

In a press statement, Zimmerman said: “After years of writing and filling a box with over 500 song sheets, I had finally found my path, my originality, my voice. It had become clear to me that songs of only one kind were worth spending time on: those which had a positive message and a peaceful vibration […] Just poetry. Little hums that perhaps might lift us all above our daily worries and fears, little hums that try to make the world a better place to live in.”

Tucker Zimmerman – ‘Dance Of Love’ tracklist

1. Old Folks From Farmersville [ft. Big Thief, Iji and Twain]
2. Idiot’s Maze [ft. Big Thief, Iji and Twain]
3. Lorelei [ft. Big Thief]
4. The Season [ft. Big Thief, Iji and Twain]
5. Burial at Sea [ft. Big Thief, Iji and Twain]
6. They Don’t Say It (But It’s True) [ft. Big Thief]
7. Leave It On The Porch Outside [ft. Big Thief, Iji and Twain]
8. The Ram-A-Lama-Ding-Dong Song [ft. Big Thief, Iji and Twain]
9. Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace) [ft. Iji and Twain]
10. Nobody Knows [ft. Big Thief]

Zimmerman’s 1969 album ‘Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman’ was included in David Bowie’s list of favourite vinyl records. One of the tracks from the album, ‘Fourth Hour of My Sleep’ was later recorded by Mick Ronson’s band Ronno.

Horace Panter My Life In Music

The Specials’ bassist on his journey to the Dirt Road Band: “I knew that there was a new world somewhere”

JIMI HENDRIX, A BIG STAR CD, GILLIAN WELCH, FONTAINES D.C. AND MORE – ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW UNCUT HERE!

THE BYRDS

“5D (Fifth Dimension)”

CBS, 1966

I joined The Searchers’ fanclub when I was 11, but the first single I ever bought was “5D (Fifth Dimension)” by The Byrds. I didn’t have the faintest idea what it was on about, and you couldn’t dance to it because it was in waltz time, but it was fantastic. By buying it, I became a music fan – you could tell, because I owned a single by The Byrds! It was the first step. I was living in Kettering, a little out-of-the-way East Midlands market town, and all of a sudden there was psychedelia, which I thought had to do with long hair and colours. I didn’t know about drugs or anything like that, but I knew that there was a new world somewhere and perhaps I could be part of it.

CREAM

Wheels Of Fire

POLYDOR, 1968

“Crossroads” was really the only song I would listen to on Wheels Of Fire, it was just fantastic. How three human beings could make that amount of noise, and go off in totally different directions but still sound amazing, was incredible to me. So I started going to concerts. Me and my mate went down to London in 1969 for the Pop Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. We saw Blodwyn Pig, The Liverpool Scene and Led Zeppelin – it was totemic, amazing! I was 15 years old and I’d never heard anything so loud in my life. It was the greatest thing that had happened in my life up to that point, being in this place with so many people, listening to this ferocious noise.

THE ROLLING STONES

Exile On Main St

ROLLING STONES RECORDS, 1972

In 1972, I moved away from home and went to Coventry Art School. I’d see concerts at Lanchester Polytechnic: I saw Man, I saw Ace… I saw Captain Beefheart, which was incredible. I joined the college band, and also I heard Exile On Main St for the first time. I think it’s the greatest album ever made. I’m one of those guys, I’m afraid – although Bill Wyman only plays on half the album. I’m a bass player, so I know these things. The bass is either played by Mick Taylor, Keith Richards, or some guy called Bill Plummer, who I’ve never heard of, but he plays on my favourite song, which is “All Down The Line”. Yeah, that music makes me drive my car faster. It’s great, I love it.

TERRY REID

River

ATLANTIC, 1973

Another album that I really loved was River, which is Conrad Isidore on drums, Lee Miles on bass, David Lindley on guitar, and of course Terry Reid with his amazing voice. The first side of River, that’s right up there. For me, it’s the sound of his voice, and the rhythm section is so funky without being heavy – it’s amazing music. It’s one of those things where I remember where I was when I first heard it. I was in Southampton with the drummer in the college band. We were at a friend of his, and he played it. I was open-mouthed – I thought, ‘Wow!’ Then I went out and bought it the next week.

LITTLE FEAT

Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

WARNER BROS, 1974

At college, I learned to dance – or I felt more comfortable dancing than when I was when I was a teenager. Why was it that I danced to Motown and Stax and Atlantic and not Pickettywitch or Love Affair? It was because I started listening to bass guitar, so I got really into all that music. I saw Average White Band at Coventry Technical College and they did an encore of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, which was transcendent. But one of the most amazing concerts I’ve ever seen in my life is Little Feat at Birmingham Odeon in 1976. They were incredible. How all those people could make such amazing music was absolutely beyond me. Feats Don’t Fail Me Now is the one that I keep going back to, it’s so good.

BURNING SPEAR

Garvey’s Ghost

ISLAND, 1976

I started listening to reggae via Jerry Dammers and the guys that eventually became The Specials. I didn’t really understand it first off, but then someone stood me in the corner at a blues dance next to this huge speaker system and it was like, ‘Oh yeah, I get it.’ Lynval Golding and his friend Desmond Brown [The Selecter], they used to come round my flat with reggae singles and say, ‘OK, listen – this is how the bass goes.’ [Rico Rodriguez’s] Man From Wareika was the album that united a lot of the white guys in The Specials. But I think my favourite is Garvey’s Ghost, which is the dub version of Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey. It’s really interesting to see how they interpret the songs.

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

The Fabulous Thunderbirds (Girls Go Wild)

CHRYSALIS

After The Specials, I went back to blues. I spent probably two years listening to the first two Fabulous Thunderbirds albums. I thought they were the greatest band ever, because they were like a bar band – they just set up, played and everybody had a good time. It was the equivalent of what I experienced with the pub rock thing in London in the ’70s. I ran a little four-piece blues combo in Coventry for the past 20 years, we just played locally. We once went as far south as Cheltenham, but we didn’t like it! And that was lovely, playing in pubs for 150 quid. So that’s always been a part of me, and the Dirt Road Band is just an extension of that.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

Decoration Day

NEW WEST, 2003

The only album that’s really wiped me out recently is Decoration Day by Drive-By Truckers. I read an article about them and they sounded really interesting. This is gonna sound really posey, but I was in Amoeba Records in Hollywood and there it was: I bought a secondhand copy, and I was stunned. It sounds like Neil Young & Crazy Horse, that ragged guitar kind of thing, but the songs are fantastic. Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley both write great stuff – and on Decoration Day, Jason Isbell was in the band as well. I’ve been buying other albums of theirs, but I think Decoration Day is probably the one.

Dirt Road Band’s Righteous is out now on DRB Records

Hear Leon Bridges’ new single, “Peaceful Place”

Leon Bridges returns with a new album, Leon, which is released by Columbia on October 4.

You can hear the first single “Peaceful Place” below.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

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The album is available to pre-order here.

The tracklisting for Leon is:

When A Man Cries

That’s What I Love

Laredo

Panther City

Ain’t Got Nothing On You

Simplify

Teddy’s Tune

Never Satisfied

Peaceful Place

Can’t Have It All

Ivy

Ghetto Honeybee

God Loves Everyone

J Spaceman & John Coxon announce Music for William Eggleston’s Stranded In Canton

Jason Pierce and John Coxon have announced details of an instrumental score for Stranded In Canton, William Eggleston’s 1970s art film, which is released October 18 via Fat Possum and available to preorder here.

THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE

To accompany the announcement J Spaceman & John Coxon have shared the track “Mother’s milk” from the album:

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In 2015, Spaceman, Coxon and friends – including Spiritualized alumni Tony “Doggen” Foster, and drummer Rupert Clervaux – performed a new original score live at a special film screening at London’s Barbican Gallery. The recording sat on a shelf for 10 years, and will finally be unveiled through this release. In addition, Spaceman and Coxon will perform the work in London, New York, Los Angeles and Eggleston’s hometown of Memphis, on the invitation of the photographer’s son Winston Eggleston. All dates are listed below.

Stranded In Canton is a black-and-white film portrait of Memphis in 1974, shot in bars and on street corners, showing Eggleston’s friends carousing, playing music and firing pistols into the night sky.

“With Memphis, I grew up with and I fell in love with that whole part of the world and the music that came from there,” explains Spaceman. “Memphis is infused with this magic, then this dreadful poverty as well. There’s a strangeness to it. It’s a place where I never felt comfortable. When I was making Ladies and Gentlemen [We Are Floating in Space], I went out and did some work with Jim Dickinson because, much as I wanted to have him help me with my record, I just wanted to go and meet the man. He was always a bit like Dr. John, a walking encyclopaedia with knowledge of all the music of that area, all the blues musicians and all the stuff that doesn’t get written about. So, the Eggleston film is a spying hole into that world. Jim Dickinson even plays in the movie, Furry Lewis plays in the movie too, but there’s also an unhinged craziness. It feels dangerous.”

You can pre-order the album here.

The Spaceman and Coxon live dates are:

Wednesday, November 20 – London, UK @ EartH

Wednesday, December 4 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge

Saturday, December 7 – Memphis, TN @ Crosstown Theater (WYXR)

Monday, December 9 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever

Coldplay share ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’ video following Glastonbury headline performance

Coldplay have shared the music video for their single ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove‘ following their headlining set at Glastonbury 2024.

The band released the track early last week (June 21) which marked the first teaser of new music from the band since they announced details of their latest studio album ‘Moon Music’.

Directed by Ben Mor – who previously directed the band’s Beyoncé collab ‘Hym For The Weekend’ – the black and white music video stars actress, writer and storyteller, Natasha Ofili (The Politician) performing her own American Sign Language interpretation of the song.

The video also features the Deaf members of the Venezuelan Sign Language (LSV) section from El Sistema Venezuela’s Coro de Manos Blancas (White Hands Choir) a world-renowned performing arts ensemble from Barquisimeto, supported in collaboration with the Dudamel Foundation.

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Towards the end, Coldplay are seen performing the song at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece in front of an audience who were invited via the band’s social media.

Coldplay’s 10th studio album, ‘Moon Music’ is set for release on October 4. You can pre-order the LP here.

“We’re going to make 12 albums. Because it’s a lot to pour everything into making them. I love it and it’s amazing, but it’s very intense too,” he said. “I feel like because I know that challenge is finite, making this music doesn’t feel difficult, it feels like, ‘This is what we’re supposed to be doing’.”

The release of the ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove‘ follows the band’s headlining performance on the Pyramid Stage at this year’s edition of Glastonbury.

Coldplay live at Glastonbury 2024. Credit: Andy Ford for NME

In NME’s four-star review of their set at the annual Worthy Farm music bash, Andrew Trendell noted Martin’s words about the festival: “I look around and I see so many amazing wonderful people from all over the place, and that’s what makes Glastonbury the best city in the world in my opinion,” he offers, honouring “the most peace-loving, love-making people” that make up the Glasto populace. He admits that Coldplay have “stolen so much of the ethos of Glastonbury’s vision”, and as a result they become “a band of 100,004 people”.

He continued: “Will Coldplay top Glasto again? Five more times? Who knows? Martin revealed a few years back that the band planned to stop making music in 2025, telling NME they had a plan to make 12 albums; now number 10 ‘Moon Music’ is coming in October. There’s a question mark over the future, but tonight was a good crack at making history with a set that felt like home.”

In other news, Michael J. Fox responded to what he described as a “fucking mind blowing” appearance during Coldplay’s headlining set at Glastonbury.

Fox was a surprise guest during the encore on a night that also saw the band bring out an array of guests including Little Simz, Femi Kuti, Victoria Canal and Laura Mvula.

Elsewhere, fans took to social media to react to Martin’s apparent accent change during the band’s performance.

Blur ‘To The End’ review: Britpop legends prove love and friendship outlasts all

“Time is not infinite,” offers Blur’s Damon Albarn in the opening scene of new documentary film, To The End. Born of the Britpop age that promised so much, the band now in their 36th year and on their second comeback seem acutely aware that they aren’t, as their gobby rivals once promised a generation, going to “live forever”.

We begin with Albarn enjoying a pastoral existence on the rural Devon coast; getting cut up by Land Rovers on winding roads, celebrating the first egg from his beloved pet chicken and living in a very big house in the country. But all’s not well. Shattered by the split from his partner of 25 years, the self-confessed workaholic turns his heartache into song – and can only do it with his oldest friends around him. As guitarist Graham Coxon puts it, “a boulder is dislodged” within his pal – with two decades of pent up emotion pouring out.

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That frank and honest storyline alone (we often see the frontman struggling and in tears) would have made for a must-see film, but the stakes are higher. As well as charting the indie legends’ recording of their immaculate comeback album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, To The End also follows them on the road to a pair of shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Directed by Transgressive Records founder Toby L, To The End is a joyful and touching tale of a band crawling out of their Last Of The Summer Wine years to get all Spinal Tap once more. Each member has a challenge to beat: bassist turned cheesemonger Alex James savours the party lifestyle while remaining fearful of his old problems with alcohol, Coxon wrestles with the notion of being a stadium band when he only ever wanted to be a punk, and drummer turned politician Dave Rowntree goes and breaks his bloody leg weeks before curtain-up.

Still, the highs are higher; it’s wonderful to see the band retrace their friendship right back to school, the live footage from their intimate warm-up shows and the Wembley gig itself put you right in the beer-soaked mosh-pit, and Coxon gets a laugh by doing something pretty gross with a can of Diet Coke. No Spoilers.

They bicker, they hug, they call each other c**ts, they get the job done. While Blur’s last doc and accompanying live movie No Distance Left To Run was a portrait of a band celebrating their legacy and giving a nostalgia-hungry world exactly what they craved, this spiritual sequel shows a band simply supporting each other. Whether they return again or not remains to be seen. But even if they don’t, this was one hell of a final fling.

Details

Director: Toby L
Release date: July 19 (in cinemas)

Watch Bambie Thug proclaim “love will triumph over hate!” at the end of their powerful Eurovision performance

Bambie Thug has given a special message at the end of their gripping Eurovision performance – watch it below.

READ MORE: Bambie Thug on Eurovision 2024: “I know that my heart is in the right place”

The Irish Eurovision entry has been tipped as one of the favourites to win this year, with them ranking fourth on the bookie’s odds to win the contest.

However, the Cork singer has also faced significant challenges throughout the competition due to their pro-Palestinian stance. It was revealed they were forced to remove the words ‘ceasefire’ and ‘freedom for Palestine’ in a medieval script from their costume due to Eurovision’s political neutrality clause.

Though they were prevented from saying the words ‘ceasefire’, Bambie seemed to allude to the Israel-Palestine conflict at the end of their powerful performance. After their triumphant finish, Bambie said to the crowd: “Love will triumph over hate!”.

Portugal’s entry Iolanda also seemed to have a message of her own, potentially referencing the conflict as well. At the end of her song ‘Grito’, she said the words: “Peace will prevail”.

Fans also spotted both Bambie and Iolanda wearing acrylic nails in support of Palestine; Bambie’s were painted with the Palestinian flag colours, whilst Iolanda’s were in the style of the keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf. Take a look below:

"LOVE WILL ALWAYS WIN OVER HATE" – Bambie Thug, Ireland 2024 🇮🇪❤️#CrownTheWitch #Eurovision2024 pic.twitter.com/Sz6DFLY7Ca

— florin⸆⸉ (@esc_florin) May 11, 2024

Iolanda: Peace will prevail. ✊🇵🇸

SAY IT LOUDER QUEEN #Eurovision2024 pic.twitter.com/rtaz4PVXaI

— H 🇷🇸🪻 | 🇮🇹🇬🇷🇦🇹🇨🇭 (@itsdelreeey) May 11, 2024

This year’s competition has been dogged controversy due to the EBU’s decision to include Israel amongst the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israel’s entry also stoked further controversy due to the original lyrics of their song, initially titled ‘October Rain’. Performed by Eden Golan, it appeared to contain references to the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attacks and was barred from performance due to breaking rules on political neutrality.

Israel was finally confirmed to compete after changes were made to the lyrics and the song’s title was changed to ‘Hurricane’.

Recently, the organisers doubled down on their choice, with the EBU saying: “I fully agree it is a family event and the great thing about this music competition is that it’s all about values. It’s about uniting onstage all of these young talents, these participants, and they do great. It’s about diversity and inclusion.

“But there are competition rules and you need to follow the competition rules and take decisions based on these competition rules. If you were to exclude Kan outside of these competition rules, that would have been a political decision, as such, which we cannot take.”

The EBU’s decision has also proved controversial amongst longtime Eurovision fans, who NME interviewed before the competition tonight. Though Jay Aston from former UK Eurovision-winning group The Fizz (fka Buck’s Fizz) said she would be watching, other fans such as musician Jason Kwan have expressed doubt over the competition’s political neutrality clause.

Kwan claimed Eurovision was “inherently and explicitly political” due to the EBU’s decision to include Israel and to censor “pro-Palestinian artists, and even outwardly using the official social account to like problematic posts and block accounts who have provided genuine critique and questions around the EBU’s decisions.”

In other news, Bambie Thug has given an update on their Eurovision complaint, saying the EBU confirmed an Israeli commentator had “broken the rules of conduct”.

Paul McCartney replies to fan Adrienne 60 years after she declared her love for him

Paul McCartney has replied to a declaration of love from a Beatles fan named Adrienne – just 61 years after her original message.

In 1963, Adrienne was interviewed on CBS ahead of the Fab Four’s first ever visit to the US, where she excitedly proclaimed: “I love The Beatles and I’ll always love them!”

“Even when I’m 105 and an old grandmother, I’ll love ‘em. And Paul McCartney, if you are listening, Adrienne from Brooklyn loves you with all her heart!”

And now, McCartney has finally got round to reciprocating the love. “Hey Adrienne, it’s Paul,” he said in a video on Instagram that opens with the original clip of Adrienne.

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“Listen, I saw your video, I’m in Brooklyn now, I’m in New York, I finally got here. We got an exhibition a photo exhibition. Come along and see it.”

The film, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, was first released in cinemas 54 years ago and has been difficult to obtain since – prompting considerable bootlegging. It features footage of the Fab Four while they were writing and recording their 12th and final studio album of the same name in January 1969 at London’s Twickenham Film Studios.

As he did for the 2022 docuseries Get Back, which features extra archive material from the Let It Be shoot, acclaimed filmmaker Peter Jackson has used state-of-the-art digital technology to restore the 55-year-old film reels to crisp, modern quality.

In other McCartney news, he has praised Beyoncé’s cover of his song ‘Blackbird’, which was included on her latest album ‘Cowboy Carter’.

“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird’,” he wrote. “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place.”

“I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!”

McCartney is also preparing to release the 1974 Wings live album ‘One Hand Clapping’ for the first time. It was recorded when McCartney and Wings headed to Abbey Road Studios for the recording of a documentary and possible live studio album, but was never officially released despite overwhelming demand, although various bootleg versions emerged over the years. The record will be out on June 14.

OnlyOneOf add new dates to 2024 ‘Things I Can’t Say LOve’ world tour

K-pop boyband OnlyOneOf have announced more dates and concerts for their ongoing ‘Things I Can’t Say LOve’ world tour in 2024.

Today, (April 26), OnlyOneOf revealed the cities and date for their long-awaited Asia and Australia legs of their 2024 world tour. It comes after the K-pop boyband announced the Japan, America and Europe legs of the tour over the past few months.

In July 2024, OnlyOneOf will hold concerts in eight Asian cities, which include Taipei, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore and more. Following these shows, the K-pop boyband will head to Australia for two shows, one each in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

Meanwhile, the US leg of the tour is currently ongoing and will run into early-May. On the other hand, the Europe leg of OnlyOneOf’s tour will take place during June 2024, with tickets on sale now via the official Jin Entertainment website.

Venue and ticketing information for the Asia and Australia legs of OnlyOneOf’s 2024 ‘Things I Can’t Say LOve’ world tour have yet to be announced. Keep tabs on this page for the latest updates.

The dates for OnlyOneOf’s 2024 ‘Things I Can’t Say LOve’ world tour are:

MARCH 2024
27 – Osaka, Japan, Gorilla Hall Osaka (FINISHED)
29 – Tokyo, Japan, 1000 Club (FINISHED)

APRIL 2024
04 – Sao Paulo, Brazil, Studio Stage (FINISHED)
06 – Montevideo, Uruguay, Complejo Sala Show (FINISHED)
10 – Medellin, Colombia, The 6 Church (FINISHED)
12 – Monterrey, Mexico, Foro Tims (FINISHED)
14 – Mexico City, Mexico, Foro Puebla (FINISHED)
17 – Vancouver, British Columbia, Vogue Theatre (FINISHED)
19 – Chicago, Illinois, Copernicus Center (FINISHED)
21 – New York, New York, United Palace (FINISHED)
24 – Toronto, Ontario, Queen Elizabeth Theatre (FINISHED)
26 – Atlanta, Georgia, The Eastern
28 – San Juan, Puerto Rico, Teatro Inter Bayamon
30 – Orlando, Florida, Plaza Live

JUNE 2024
02: London, United Kingdom, Heaven
04: Paris, France, The Yoyo-Palais De Tokyo
06: Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Panama
07: Cologne, Germany, Carlswerk Victoria
09: Munich, Germany, Tonhalle Munchen
12: Warsaw, Poland, Progresja
14: Milan, Italy, Fabrique
16: Madrid, Spain, La Nueve Cubierta
18: Barcelona, Spain, Sala 2 Razzmatazz

JULY 2024
02: Taipei, Taiwan
04: Hong Kong, China
05: Macau, China
07: Manila, the Philippines
09: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
11: Singapore, Singapore
13: Bangkok, Thailand
16: Jakarta, Indonesia
19: Sydney, New South Wales
21: Melbourne, Victoria

#lyOn from Europe – @OnlyOneOf_twt is making their way to your country in June for their ❤️OnlyOneOf 2024 World Tour – dOpamine ❤️
Benefit package information, concert admission prices, and sales schedule will be posted tomorrow, April 12!#OnlyOneOf #OnlyOneOf_dOpamine_Europe pic.twitter.com/qk3uM8bQ1O

— Studio PAV Europe (@StudioPAVEurope) April 11, 2024

#lyOn from Asia 🇹🇼🇭🇰🇲🇴🇵🇭🇻🇳🇸🇬🇹🇭🇮🇩 and Australia 🇦🇺 – Get excited because OnlyOneOf is coming your way very soon for their ❤️ OnlyOneOf 2024 World Tour – dOpamine ❤️

Get ready to join the fun on this amazing world tour and interact with the members of OnlyOneOf through our… pic.twitter.com/mbuGonhgad

— Studio PAV (@studio_pav) April 26, 2024

Comprising members KB, Rie, Yoojung, Junji, Mill and Nine, OnlyOneOf are a group under 8D Creative. The group’s concept was largely developed by creative director and producer Jaden Jeong, who is known for his work with LOONA and most recently tripleS.

Cedric Burnside Hill Country Love

Almost halfway through Hill Country Love, Cedric Burnside untangles a skein of blues from his guitar and starts singing, “Here I go, bout to walk through the door/I see people, all over the floor/I can’t blame them, the music is hot you know.” The opening of “Juke Joint”, one of the many high points of Burnside’s new album, does much to position his songwriting, and his music, within the rich tradition of hill country blues, placing it firmly in the juke joint: old rural weekend venues where black communities would gather to drink, eat, hang out and play music. It’s no surprise, then, that photographer and scholar Bill Steber once called juke joints the “kiln where the musical fires burned brightest” in the Mississippi Delta.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

For Burnside, the juke joint is emblematic of both the development of hill country blues, and the community spirit that informs his music. He’s particularly well placed to carry that history: his grandfather was legendary hill country blues musician, RL Burnside; his father, Calvin Jackson, was a drummer who played with the likes of Jessie Mae Hemphill and Junior Kimbrough. All were key players who brought hill country blues into the late 20th and early 21st century. Burnside started playing with his grandfather, who he calls Big Daddy, in his mid-teens; negotiating the road as a youngster opened his eyes, and when he’d return to school after touring, his fellow students would say he “talked like a fifty-year old”, Burnside laughs.

Being around such musicians also helped Burnside understand, at an almost molecular level, the histories of hill country blues, and the way those histories inform how this seemingly sui generis music comes together. Fundamentally, it builds out of fife and drum blues, a form of music where a cane fife (a small flute) player leads a troop of drummers. This music was first documented for a wider listenership by Alan Lomax, who ‘discovered’ Sid Hemphill, one of the key sources of hill country blues, in the early ’40s. From that music, and subsequent fife and drum corps like Othar ‘Otha’ Turner and his Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, you get the single-minded stream of melody and polyrhythmic complexity that makes Hill country blues so unique.

If anyone can be singled out as being responsible for bringing hill country blues to wider attention, though, it’s Mississippi Fred McDowell, whose Lomax recordings are among the foundational texts of modern blues. Burnside tips his hat to McDowell several times on Hill Country Love, giving remarkably faithful, spirited performances of McDowell classics “You Got To Move” and “Shake Em On Down”. On both, Burnside goes acoustic, the slide burring beautifully against the strings as Burnside sings these songs with deft confidence and a sensitivity to the curious corners of the melodies; he’s obviously drunk deeply from McDowell’s archive of recordings, and he knows how to mobilise that knowledge and understanding to stay faithful to the music’s past, while carving his own initials into the music too.

But the connection with McDowell, for Burnside, is even more intimate and immediate. “Him and my Big Daddy was really good friends,” he says. “They played house parties together; they drank moonshine together. He was one of the ones that I really wish I could have got to meet and shake his hand. That’s one of the reasons why I put ‘Shake Em On Down’ and ‘You Got To Move’ on the album. My Big Daddy used to play those songs.” One thing that keeps doubling back, throughout Hill Country Love, is the remarkably interwoven community that is hill country blues, the way the Burnside and Hemphill dynasties are so core to the music and its development, and the way this history feeds itself and creates parameters for the music that are, however, never limitations.

You can hear those connections and parameters most clearly, perhaps, in the closing “Po Black Maddie”, where Burnside takes on a song from his grandfather’s catalogue and makes it his own. It’s one of the album’s most bravura performances, the guitar playing limber and lithe as Burnside and his band ride the song’s mantric riff and structure to the skies. It’s also an excellent example of what makes this music so special and unique – it’s fixed to a point; the music is hypnotic, droney, repetitive, but not reductively so, and it creates its own energy, its own head of steam, through such stark repetition. “I think that’s one of the good things of hill country blues,” Burnside reflects, “that drone, that hypnotic beat. It’s always going. No matter where the music goes, that beat is still there.”

If there’s a key to Hill Country Love’s 14 songs, it’s perseverance, when it comes both to the music, and to the life that sustains it. On “I Know”, Burnside’s cat’s-claw guitar figure is shadowed, beautifully, by Patrick Williams’ harmonica, keening away in the back of the mix, before stepping forward for a solo that draws as much as it can out of a child’s clutch of notes. A run of songs midway through the album weave together tightly to create parallels between dedication to one’s faith, and dedication to one’s music: “Closer”’s clipped guitars are tracked by Burnside’s rich voice, while “Love You Music” is carried by a riff that’s strangely filigree, while drummer Artemas LeSueur, the understated heartbeat of Hill Country Love, shifts from deep, sly toms, to martial clamour on the snare.

“Toll On They Life” feels like the album’s centrepiece, though, the simple poetry of Burnside’s lyrics cracked open by a surprising, unexpected chord change that leads the song into new terrain, briefly: the flourish feels like light chiming through carriage doors. Throughout, Burnside is quietly observational, taking in the way “People get mad when things don’t quite go the way they want/They do crazy things out of spite”; soon he’s warning, “People will lie in your face/To get things to go they way.” What’s remarkable about Burnside’s delivery here is the way it see-saws between a kind of dispassionate observation and an understated, yet stern judgement – something he can flick between in the simple curve of a syllable.

Lest this all sounds too heavy, Burnside’s also able to cut loose, to follow a groove to its natural conclusion. “Funky” does just what it says, with a railway rhythm from LeSueur matched by a grinding guitar riff and Burnside’s itchy, tetchy repetition, like a dancefloor mantra, of the title’s imperative. “Smile” is slower, but the chipped guitar riff with its decisive cut-offs, traced in outline by sleepy harmonica and the deep prowl of the bass, has a sensuous, smoky sway. Luther Dickinson’s bass playing on the album can slip by at times, but it’s a keen, grounding weight to the songs, giving them real heft.

Dickinson’s also co-producer of the album, along with Burnside himself. Recorded in a rather prosaically described “old building in Ripley, Mississippi”, you get the sense here of two friends at play; this is music created with ease, songs that are uncluttered, with no fuss or flash, but plenty of commitment. It’s another compelling achievement for a blues artist whose institutional recognition – a Grammy for best traditional blues album for 2021’s I Be Trying; the Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence – actually makes perfect sense. As the keeper of the flame of hill country blues, Burnside’s earned it, and then some.

On their debut album, Lola Amour hold space for joy and grief: “If you’re feeling sad, it’s also nice to dance it out”

“Lately, I think we’ve been listening to our intrusive thoughts way too often,” admits Lola Amour’s saxophonist Jeff Abueg. He’s referring to the “whack ideas” he and his bandmates indulged while slogging away at their anticipated debut LP – which has finally arrived, five years after its first projected release and following a pandemic, multiple changes in the band’s line-up, and a vault towards mainstream stardom with the viral hit ‘Raining In Manila’ (more on that later).

Despite Abueg’s self-deprecating disclaimer, ‘Lola Amour’ shows the funk-pop seven-piece’s canny balancing of flamboyant creative decisions with digestible ones. They slashed a two-minute horn solo down to 45 seconds on ‘Namimiss Ko Na’ – the same track where they ditched a metal riff for a dancey disco tune, over verses that grieve a loved one’s bout with dementia.

The experimentation and play continues throughout the record, which was released yesterday (April 10) on Warner Music Philippines. In ‘Umiinit’, frontman and rhythm guitarist Pio Dumayas spits cocksure bars between happy handclaps and falsetto-backed harmonies. He reprises the rapping in the much softer ‘If I Ever Come Back’, accompanied by the band’s version of a gospel choir – or “just five of us singing recorded 30 times to sound like 150 people,” explains David Yuhico, who plays keys and handles the album’s mixes.

On this album, “we just went with our gut feeling,” Abueg says. The rest of the septet nod in agreement. The band’s current lineup includes Dumayas, Abueg, Yuhico, plus drummer Raffy Perez, lead guitarist Zoe Gonzales, trumpeter Angelo Mesina, and recent addition Manu Dumayas, the multi-instrumentalist who has taken over bass duties from Raymond King (he also shares chief songwriting credits with his brother Pio on the album).

Going with their gut feeling has worked to the 10-year-old band’s advantage so far. If Lola Amour had stuck to chart-topper conventions, their 2023 single ‘Raining In Manila’ could have been an efficient, 3-and-a-half minute ballad pining about long-distance romance.

“We’re not saying ‘no sad songs allowed’, because there are sad songs on the record” – Pio Dumayas

Instead, over nearly five minutes (complete with a blaring brass break that takes up a quarter of the song), Pio raspily croons about being stuck in the sopping capital while missing friends who’ve fled the Philippines. The frontman calls that a “niche topic” which listeners have sometimes conflated with romantic love. “I wasn’t trying to make it sound like a love song, but I did want to say as much as I could while saying very little,” he says.

“‘Raining In Manila’ defied a lot of conventions,” Yuhico adds. ”We were advised to shorten it so listeners don’t tune out, especially the instrumental break. But up until now, people still sing along to the instrumental part when we’re performing.”

One of those singalongs took place in January at the Philippine Arena, courtesy of the 55,000-strong audience at the Manila stop of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour. Chris Martin riffed on the song’s opening keys and verses before asking the band to jam with him onstage. “Everyone was there to see Coldplay, not Lola Amour. So, there was this fear na epal lang kami [we were just a bunch of showoffs],” Pio recalls. “We stepped up onstage thinking that was the time the audience would start chatting with each other. But no, they all sang to it and they were all screaming – which was a very proud moment for us.”

The earworm has racked up over 124million Spotify plays since its release last June, enjoying viral numbers in countries with large Overseas Filipino Worker communities including Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and the UAE. A motley mix of artists and personalities both at home and abroad have expressed love for the tune, including Filipino playwright and national artist Ricky Lee, Fil-Am influencer Bretman Rock, Jake of K-pop boyband ENHYPEN and Thai rapper BamBam of GOT7.

Lola Amour, photo by press — Credit: Press

Like the song’s explosion into popularity, Lola Amour are now the very opposite of niche. But did they ever identify as niche artists? “There wasn’t a conscious effort to be niche but we’ve [always] made songs that didn’t sound like the rest of what’s popular right now,” Pio says.

He and his bandmates started as friends who went to the same all-boys private high school in Muntinlupa. They fused from two bands whose members’ training spanned symphonic groups, classical instruments and DIY music tutorials on YouTube. Their varied backgrounds meant they drew inspiration from film and video game scores, garage rock, reggae and guitar pop. The only thing missing was probably a ska phase. “Yeah, how come we never had one?” Pio and the rest of the band snicker. “Actually, pwede pa [we still can]. Thank you for the idea.”

Lola Amour went from campus gigs to winning 2017’s Wanderband, the annual indie band competition hosted by Manila’s Wanderland Festival. Later, they made TV rounds, appearing in Season 3 of Coke Studio together with rapper Al James, performing a string of songs that collapsed genres. “It’s never a conscious choice to sound different. We do our best and then it just sounds different because that’s all we can do,” Yuhico says.

On ‘Lola Amour’, the band prove their chief strength is blurring genre lines with dancey and rhythmic songs that pair with Pio and King’s largely – and subtly – sad lyrics.

“‘Raining In Manila’ defied a lot of conventions… We were advised to shorten it so listeners don’t tune out” – David Yuhico

“I think there’s a conscious effort not to double down on the sadness of the lyrics and for the rest of the band members to add some drive to the song. Personally, if you’re feeling sad, it’s also nice to just dance it out,” Yuhico says. “That doesn’t mean we’re not open to it. We’re not saying ‘no sad songs allowed’, because there are sad songs on the record,” Pio adds.

One of them is the raw closing track, ‘Bliss: Part II’. An ode to a friend who died by suicide, written by Pio the night of his passing, it holds space for vocal imperfections, guitar squeals, and wispy strings and sax lines that crescendo into Pio’s wailing and Perez’s explosive drum beats.

“I was protective of the song when we were trying to pull it back to the album,” Pio recalls. “I’ve never thought that we could make a song that touches on [suicide]. It was very heavy. Even during the recording process, I still felt the heaviness. It’s kind of weird to start tearing up in the recording room. But it made us very happy to be able to revive his memory.”

“When you’re presented with an opportunity, will you be able to choose? What will you sacrifice?” – Pio Dumayas

Also bittersweet for Lola Amour to look back on is the difficult, protracted process of making the album – and having it all pay off, so much so that they can leave their day jobs to become full-time musicians.

“Making the album wasn’t easy. We had to see each other six times a week just to make it happen. We realised that it’s not going to move unless we fit it into the schedule,” says Pio.

“‘Raining In Manila’ was the turning point. It was the only thing that convinced us that we had an opportunity. So when you’re presented with an opportunity, will you be able to choose? What will you sacrifice? Will you sacrifice your day job or will you sacrifice this opportunity?” the frontman muses.

“A lot of us would never admit it to our old selves but this is a dream for us. We’re making music that’s reaching people and we’re very happy to do it.”

Lola Amour’s debut self-titled album is out now via Warner Music Philippines. The band will launch the record on April 13 in Makati and on April 27 in Cebu

Jane Weaver Love In Constant Spectacle

Jane Weaver is playing a very good long game. She’s just turned 52 and has spent over 30 of those years deeply involved in music in Manchester – from her early bands Kill Laura and Misty Dixon to her free-flowing solo output and more wayward projects such as Fenella and NeoTantrik – and yet this latest release, Love In Constant Spectacle, is by some distance her most satisfying album. Full of surprises and tantalisingly familiar, it’s the sound of Weaver stretching out and drawing from her wealth of experience to fashion a heartfelt, head-spinning account of grief and solace.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Viewing the curve of her career, you can see how she got here: 2014’s The Silver Globe and its follow-up Modern Kosmology packaged her hippie-ish idealism in proggy chansons and Can-like grooves, a homespun blend of Hawkwind and Hot Chocolate that paved the way for Flock in 2021. This, she’d decided, was to be her pop breakthrough, one she’d play to her swelling fanbase at numerous festivals. She studied the hits of Hall & Oates and the Bee Gees and emulated the parts that worked for her, producing an array of celestial psych nuggets like “The Revolution Of Super Visions” and “Heartlow” that sounded great on the radio. The pandemic scuppered most of her plans – she only finished touring that record in March last year – but Flock certainly helped Weaver take flight.

It was during her band’s runs in America that this album began to take shape, on long desert drives across Southern states into the sunset, soundtracked by the blissful pastorals of Harold Budd and Vangelis. Weaver was coming to terms with her father’s illness and eventual passing, and sought some kind of comfort in the natural world, an attempt by one fairly well attuned to the frequency of the cosmos to place order on the chaos of life. Securing John Parish as producer for the record also allowed Weaver the luxury of revelling in the sound of her music, happily relinquishing control to the man who’s stewarded records by PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding and Dry Cleaning. In the past, Weaver has had a hands-on role in every aspect of her albums, necessitated by budgetary constraints and an inherent resourcefulness, often recording them bit by bit over a couple of years in a local studio. So to have a first-class studio booked months in advance, for a batch of songs already well-rehearsed, with a producer known for channelling the essence of an artist, gave Weaver the space and confidence to look at her work from different angles.

For some songs she tried the technique of automatic writing, translating her lyrics to give the impression she’s singing someone else’s words, which provides a sense of welcome detachment. The opening lines of the spellbinding title track, “Over the head of you/Wanted an island to give to you”, might stem from this process, but it’s the song’s Roxy-ish swagger that pulls you in. Trish Keenan of Broadcast famously used this lyric-writing approach, and there are shades of that group, and Stereolab too, in the chintzy swirl of “Perfect Storm” and the loping funk that underpins “Emotional Components”, not to mention the fuzzy psych of “Happiness In Proximity”. Parish’s presence seems to have given Weaver the freedom to create extravagant arrangements which he hones into focus, as on “Univers”, an enchanting reflection on the natural order of things that started life as a country ballad but evolved into something quite stunning in the studio. Similarly, where perhaps Weaver might have piled on the synths to make a point in earlier recordings, here she exercises restraint to let the songs bloom. “The Axis And The Seed” unfurls atmospherically over a “Metronomic Underground” bassline as Weaver sings of “the crocus buried deep” and finding “the axis and the seed”; this is what she means by love in constant spectacle: although the soil is cold and muddy, life is bubbling away under the surface and come spring the flowers burst into life. By the time the purring final track “Family Of The Sun” coasts out of view, pulled away by a motorik drum-machine and cresting jangle, Weaver is serene and composed, singing, “I’m escaping this loneliness through the optical/And completing this task”.

There’s a pleasing sense of closure in the album’s circular flow, which also, inevitably, possesses that sense of optimism that runs throughout Weaver’s catalogue. This might well be her finest record so far, but you can bet the next ones will be even better.

Loka Manya Prawiro’s ‘I Love You Evermore’: A Musical Journey of Love and Loss

Loka Manya Prawiro, a seasoned musician with a rich tapestry of life experiences, unveils his latest musical offering, I Love You Evermore. This deeply personal album is a testament to Prawiro's resilience in the face of adversity, capturing the essence of love, loss, and spiritual growth.

Born in 1961, Loka's musical journey began at a young age, driven by a passion for music that transcends conventional boundaries. Influenced by a diverse array of genres, including pop, rock, soul, R&B funk, and classical instrumentals, he has crafted a unique sound that defies categorization.

Despite facing personal tragedies, including the loss of his mother to cancer in 2018, Prawiro found solace in music. After an 18-year hiatus, he returned to the studio, channeling his emotions into his compositions with raw honesty and authenticity.

I Love You Evermore, originally penned in Indonesian as "Aku Makin Cinta" for his beloved wife, stands as a timeless classic that resonates deeply with listeners. Each track on the album reflects Loka's personal journey, offering a glimpse into the depths of his soul.

Collaborating with seasoned music arranger and producer Aminoto Kosin, as well as the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, Prawiro has created a symphonic masterpiece that evokes a myriad of emotions. From the tranquil melodies of "Leonie" to the heartfelt tribute of "A Song to Say Goodbye Mama," each song is a heartfelt expression of love and loss.

The album's thematic spectrum, ranging from calmness to deep imagination, reflects Prawiro's desire to evoke a myriad of emotions centered around the universal theme of love. Through timeless classical instrumentation, he offers solace and connection to listeners worldwide.

Brian Losch's expertise as the mixing and mastering engineer at Losch Recording has played a pivotal role in shaping the album's final sound, ensuring sonic excellence that resonates with listeners.

As I Love You Evermore reaches audiences globally, Prawiro hopes that listeners will find solace and inspiration in its melodies, inviting them to contemplate the profound meaning of love. Looking ahead, he teases plans for more cinematic music, promising further exploration of emotional depth and dramatic storytelling through his art.

In closing, Prawiro emphasizes the emotive power of music, believing that each listener will interpret the songs differently yet hoping that they'll sense the underlying thread of love woven throughout.

I Love You Evermore by Loka Manya Prawiro is now available on all major streaming platforms and digital music stores, inviting listeners to embark on a heartfelt musical journey filled with emotion, love, and inspiration.

https://open.spotify.com/album/5VBKYRLyC0OoFqTjAO5Deu?si=GnmSH4MdQyWrMdczL4oPRQ

Ever Fallen In Love?

When he sat down to write a biography of Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks, Paul Hanley hit a problem. His enthusiasm for the subject was getting in the way of his objectivity. “I was a massive Buzzcocks fan at the age of 14. It was quite a process to keep stepping back. I thought, ‘A lot of people could write a biography. It’s only me could write about my relationship with the band.’”

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

As a former drummer with The Fall, Hanley is well-placed to write about one of the most significant Manchester bands. The beauty of Sixteen Again: How Pete Shelley & Buzzcocks Changed Manchester Music (And Me), is the way it renders an adult view of Pete Shelley’s genius with teenage enthusiasm. The biographical details of Shelley’s life are present; so is the purity of Hanley’s passion.

Hanley remembers the day Buzzcocks’ first album Another Music In A Different Kitchen came out. Future Fall members Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon and Steve Hanley (Paul’s older brother) went to Virgin’s Manchester branch for a launch event. The shop released balloons. “The idea was that whoever got the one that flew furthest away would win the album. Of course, they all got caught in the trees.” When the trio returned, album in hand, Hanley was waiting by the record player. “I looked at this sleeve and listened to the record and I thought, ‘This is the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life’. Everything about it. I loved the record. I loved the sleeve. And there was badges! It was the perfect thing for me at 14 years of age. This was gonna be my band.”

Buzzcocks are vital in punk history because they brought the Sex Pistols to Manchester, and demystified the process of releasing records with the Spiral Scratch EP. For the teenage Hanley, there was also the fact that John Maher went to his school, and left at 16 to join Buzzcocks. “I left the same school at 16 to join The Fall. I thought John Maher was the best drummer in the world. I had John Maher, Karl Burns out The Fall, and Steve Morris of Joy Division – three of the best drummers I’ve ever heard in my life and they were within reach.”

With hindsight, Hanley can appreciate that the appeal of Buzzcocks was rooted in Pete Shelley’s ability to channel the emotional intensity of adolescence. “He could sing authentically and put himself in the headspace of a 15, 16 year-old without a hint of condescension. It wasn’t Jilted John. If you look at the Sex Pistols, there’s so much artifice in Johnny Rotten’s persona. And The Clash bouncing around, with this rock’n’ roll sort of thing. [With Buzzcocks] It was just Pete Shelley stood on a stage. You would expect to get a similar kind of vibe if you stood next to him at a bus stop. Which you wouldn’t get with most other bands. I mean, you wouldn’t want to be stood next to Ian Curtis at a bus stop if he behaved like he did on stage, would you? Or Mark E Smith…”

Speaking of which, Hanley’s Fall offshoot band House of All, is about to return with a second album, Continuum, and a UK tour. Hanley promises “more variety of sound” and admits to being amazed at the band’s ability to conjure songs from nothing. “I’m not sure I want to work out how we did it. But I can’t even if I wanted to.”

Sixteen Again is published by Route on April 17; House Of All’s Continuum is released by Tiny Global Productions on April 5

Ruth Jones addresses rumours of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ return after James Corden West End reunion

Ruth Jones has commented on rumours of Gavin and Stacey making a comeback following a reunion with co-stars James Corden and Rob Brydon.

The actress is currently starring in Sister Act: The Musical on the West End and appeared on the red carpet with Corden and Brydon on Thursday (March 21), once again fueling rumours of the show returning for the first time since the 2019 Christmas Special.

Jones was asked about hopes of the show coming back by Zoe Ball on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show yesterday (March 22), who asked if there’d ever be a resolution to the special’s cliffhanger ending in which Nessa proposed to Smithy.

“Is he though? Is he waiting? James and I think those characters exist and that Nessa is still working down the slots in Barry Island,” said Jones. “We like to think that their lives are carrying on.

When pressed further, Jones said: “Who knows? You never say never in this world, do you?”

Gavin and Stacey — James Corden and Ruth Jones as Smithy and Nessa in ‘Gavin & Stacey’. Credit: BBC

Deadline reported last month that another Christmas special was apparently in the works and was scheduled to be filmed in the summer.

Despite this, stars of the BBC show have constantly said it was unlikely to make a return in recent years.

Joanna Page, who played Stacey in the sitcom, was the latest to play down the chances of a Gavin And Stacey comeback back in November, despite fans hoping that Corden moving back to the UK following his eight-year stint hosting The Late Late Show in the US would increase the chances of a return.

Speaking to MailOnline, Page said at the time: “I can see them never doing any more because it was nice to leave it on a cliffhanger because it’s up to the viewer to imagine what would have happened. So I can imagine them ending it like that.”

Corden also previously played down the likelihood of the show’s return, telling Sky News: “I genuinely don’t know if we’ll ever do another one. I think Ruth [Jones] and I would love to make something together again… I really don’t know with Gavin & Stacey. I think we feel so proud of that last special.

“I think, in a way, those characters, they live on, they carry on, they’re still out there somewhere living and breathing. Their lives carry on and we just sort of get together and open this portal and find out. Some people say to me, ‘I want to know what happens’. And I go, so do I!”

He added: “I don’t know… Maybe there’s something really perfect about it ending there. Can we truly fulfil people’s ambitions for it? I know it’s such an annoying answer, I’m aware of that, but I don’t know.”

Watch Dave Grohl’s fiery cover of Wings’ ‘Live And Let Die’ at Love Rocks NYC benefit show

Dave Grohl covered Paul McCartney’s ‘Live And Let Die’ during a benefit concert in New York this week – watch the fiery cover below.

The performance took place during Grohl’s appearance at the Love Rocks NYC concert at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre on Thursday (March 7), an annual event in aid of the charity God’s Love We Deliver.

Also appearing at the benefit were artists including Tom Morello, The Black Keys, Nile Rodgers and Hozier.

Grohl headlined the show, playing a version of Foo Fighters’ 1997 classic ‘Everlong’, before closing out with the Wings song, originally the theme song of the 1973 James Bond film of the same name.

[embedded content]

Grohl memorably played the same song alongside McCartney during his epic Glastonbury headline set in 2022, as well as a version of The Beatles’ ’I Saw Her Standing There’.

“Now, I’ve got a little surprise for you,” teased McCartney by way of introduction, before inviting “your hero from the west coast of America – Dave Grohl!”

“This guy flew in especially to do this,” he added.

Grohl spoke in 2021 about the first time he ever met McCartney, back in 2002. The two musicians were backstage at the Royal Albert Hall after a tribute concert for George Harrison.

“I noticed Paul McCartney out of the corner of my eye, chatting away with friends, and I couldn’t help but stare,” Grohl remembered. “There. He. Was.

“What happened next will forever remain a blur. I don’t recall exactly how Paul and I were introduced, what was said, or how long we talked, but I do remember putting on my best ‘this is not the most incredible thing ever to happen to me’ face while trying to keep from making a fool of myself.”

Grohl recently teamed up with Epiphone to launch a signature version of his DG-335 guitar, which is available now for £1,249 via the manufacturer’s website.

Meanwhile, Foo Fighters are set to resume their ‘Everything or Nothing at All‘ global stadium tour in Dallas this May.

Grohl’s most recent musical output is his featured drum part on St Vincent’s “gnarly” new single ‘Broken Man’.

“There are essentially three drummers on the track: the first part is my programming, the second part Mark Guiliana comes in, and then at the very end of the track – just when you think it can’t get any higher – Grohl comes in with this absolute reckless spirit and just takes it to the edge,” Annie Clark told NME of the release.

Artists and music world speak out on International Women’s Day: “We’re on this planet to love and support each other”

Artists from across the music world have come together to speak out on International Women’s Day 2024 – celebrating and promoting the movement of women’s rights.

Taking place today (March 8), the annual event comes as a worldwide day of acknowledgement for the achievements of women, and serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come in striving for gender equality.

Gaining momentum across the early 20th century, the event was officially recognised by the UN in 1996 and also sheds light on the issues of inequality still prevalent in society, including domestic abuse, the gender pay gap, patriarchal structures and more. Each year, the event is celebrated with a unique theme, with 2024’s being ‘Invest In Women: Accelerate Progress’.

Now, countless artists and companies from across the music industry have spoken out in celebration of IWD, and taken to social media to celebrate the accomplishments of the women around them.

“It’s international women’s day and I hope you are using your voice to fight for equality today, as well as the other 364 days in the year,” wrote Norwegian pop punk band Sløtface, who also used the post to promote their new single ‘Final Gørl’ which is about “badass women”.

“Happy International Women’s Day everybody! As Allies, we need to show solidarity for our trans friends today,” wrote Lambrini Girls, who also took aim at Harry Potter author JK Rowling in their update, following her transphobic past comments. “IWD is for all women. No excuse for pricks like JK Rowling to hijack it with hate. If your *Feminism* is diminishing Women, then you are a misogynist. Trans rights always”.

Similarly, both The Blessed Madonna and Witch Fever shared their support for the trans community on X, with the latter writing: “Trans women are women, and queer and trans liberation is a feminist issue. Happy IWD to our trans sisters, we see u & stand in solidarity”.

Singer Rakel Mjöll added: “Happy international women’s day to women, those who love women, support women & to empathetic creatures… We’re put here on this planet to love, support each other & then watch many beautiful wild gardens grow. And that I will continue to do so & hope you will too.”

Happy International Women’s Day everybody! As Allies, we need to show solidarity for our trans friends today

IWD is for all women. No excuse for pricks like JK Rowling to hijack it with hate. If your *Feminism* is diminishing Women, then you are a misogynist

Trans rights always

— Lambrini Girls (@Lambrini_Girls) March 8, 2024

Oh and incase ur unsure, trans women are women, and queer and trans liberation is a feminist issue 🏳️‍⚧️ happy IWD to our trans sisters, we see u & stand in solidarity

— WITCH FEVER (@WITCHFEVER) March 8, 2024

Happy international women’s day. In celebration, I’m going to to take a nap. Byeeeee!

Ps: Leave trans women the heck alone! It’s their day too. pic.twitter.com/ZwJE5nCy2q

— The Blessed Madonna (@Blessed_Madonna) March 8, 2024

Independent Venues Week also took to X to “celebrate all the incredible women in the IVW team that support independent venues around the UK,” going on to share an article about the women helping to keep grassroots venues alive.

Similarly, Fabric revealed that it had launched “a brand new 14 mix series featuring some of the scene’s most formidable established and emerging talent,” with all mixes available to stream now.

Check out more responses from the music world below.

This International Women’s Day, we want to celebrate all the incredible women in the IVW team that support independent venues around the UK 💜

Have a read of this amazing article on the women keeping their venues alive that #inspireinclusion for all: https://t.co/YZKNNOMr12 pic.twitter.com/YtWNgwpaHr

— Independent Venue Week (@IVW_UK) March 8, 2024

Back for International Women's Day 2024 is a brand new 14 mix series featuring some of the scene's most formidable established and emerging talent.

All mixes are available to stream now via fabric’s Soundcloud.https://t.co/DFRFlf8p8a pic.twitter.com/X3Mg8Kj1LN

— fabric (@fabriclondon) March 8, 2024

Grateful for the women in my life. Being raised by women made me a man. Happy #InternationalWomensDay to all the inspiring, powerful women around the world. pic.twitter.com/FZ4GFjfc7u

— Pitbull (@pitbull) March 8, 2024

♀️🎶Happy #InternationalWomensDay

IWD is a powerful celebration that recognises the incredible achievements and resilience of women throughout history.

Women are dominating music, but what's happening behind the scenes?

➡️Read the full article: https://t.co/Jx0UUHaP5A pic.twitter.com/QqF6HcaIe6

— The FAC (@FeaturedArtists) March 8, 2024

ALL QUEENS
all day.. every day@BBC6Music
happy #IWD pic.twitter.com/GF8sL34ohN

— maryanne hobbs (@maryannehobbs) March 8, 2024

One part love, one part wild. Happy #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/R42ULvu4I8

— Def Leppard (@DefLeppard) March 8, 2024

Happy #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/Uj6jWKZnYu

— Kittie (@OFFICIALKITTIE) March 8, 2024

Others celebrating International Women’s Day are pop icons Madonna and Kylie Minogue, who joined forces on stage last night (March 7) to perform a live duet.

The moment took place at Madonna’s recent show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, where she took to the stage as part of her ongoing ‘Celebration’ tour. During the collaboration, the two sang both the Australian pop star’s 2001 hit ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ and Gloria Gaynor’s girl-power anthem ‘I Will Survive’.

The making of Love’s “She Comes In Colors”

Love’s reputation rests on their dazzling third album, 1967’s Forever Changes. But the journey there involved several different stops. Not least among these is “She Comes In Colors” – a jazzier, flute and harpsichord-peppered Arthur Lee composition from 1966’s Da Capo. The Los Angeles band’s second album – named after a musical term meaning “back to the beginning” – took a pivotal step on the odyssey from their eponymous debut’s garage rock towards an ornate, psychedelic form of rock’n’roll.

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“The first album was more minimalist, with everything recorded live,” recalls guitarist Johnny Echols, sipping ginger beer on a tour bus in Leeds, shortly before performing the hallowed catalogue with The Love Band. “But Da Capo was a more grown-up album. We wanted to push the envelope. I’m very proud of ‘She Comes In Colors’, because we’d been known as a garage rock band but suddenly jazz musicians would come up to us and ask, ‘How on earth did you guys come up with that..?’”

The seeds of this adventure had been sown shortly before the main album sessions, when Love entered Sunset Sound Recorders’ Studio One with producer Jac Holzman and engineer Bruce Botnick to lay down “7 And 7 Is”, a hurtling proto-punk number that would become their first – and only – American Top 40 single (reaching No 33).

“That single was very different from the song Arthur had written,” says Echols, explaining that it had started out as “a kind of Dylanesque folk song about Arthur, very autobiographical”. As he explains it, an endorsement deal with Vox meant they could try out pioneering new effects, such as a tremolo box for a guitar and distortion pedal for the bass. “Which no-one had then. Arthur was listening in the booth and went, ‘That’s pretty cool.’” The results gave them the confidence to experiment even more, changing producers, studios and engineers for Da Capo and blossoming with “She Comes In Colors”. Receiving little airplay outside the LA area on release in 1966, the song wasn’t a hit but has had quite an afterlife. The Rolling Stones quoted it – “She comes in colours everywhere” – uncredited, in 1967 single “She’s A Rainbow”. The Hoosiers covered it and Janet Jackson sampled it. Even Madonna borrowed from it – unwittingly – on 1999 hit “Beautiful Stranger”, with producer William Orbit later admitting borrowing from the melody. “Arthur got a credit for that,” smiles Echols. “The whole group should have been credited really, but the acknowledgement was nice.”

JOHNNY ECHOLS: “My Little Book” had done quite well as a single [reaching US 52 in March 1966], so we wanted to keep pushing with “7 And 7 Is”.

BRUCE BOTNICK: It was just really, really unusual for me. I had never heard anything like that before. But I loved the energy. The drummer [Alban “Snoopy” Pfisterer, who’d trained as a pianist, not a percussionist] struggled with the tempo. After about 30 takes Arthur said, “Sit down, I’ll play.” I guess Snoopy must have then figured out how to do it.

ECHOLS: By that time everyone was cursing at the poor man. We played it so much that by the end my fingers were bleeding, but after that we felt we could do anything. We realised we needed a real drummer, so finally got Michael Stuart [now Stuart-Ware] from the Sons Of Adam.

MICHAEL STUART-WARE: Arthur had heard the Sons play a few times. One day, he came by our pad in Laurel Canyon and said, “You guys can have this tune if you want it”, and banged out “7 And 7 Is” on his black Gibson acoustic. Our lead guitarist Randy Holden said, “That’s not really us”, so Arthur played us “Feathered Fish”. Randy went, “We’ll take that!” and we covered it. Love’s original drummer, Don Conca, was fabulous, but the drugs took over and he stopped showing up for gigs. One night Arthur asked, “Is there a drummer in the house?” So Snoopy had filled in, but was more comfortable once he switched to harpsichord. Arthur was always asking me to join and after the Sons stopped getting along, I finally said OK. When I bumped into Don Conca he said, “That’s cool, man. You’re the only drummer in Hollywood who can handle it.”

ECHOLS: Don Conca was a loud showman, like Gene Krupa or Buddy Rich. Michael was a finesse drummer. He did these rhythmic counterpoints that sounded marvellous. We all had eclectic tastes. Country, gospel, blues, jazz. Arthur and I went to the same Memphis high school as Charles Lloyd and I’d watch fascinated as he played clarinet. After we moved to Los Angeles, Charles came to see Love at [LA club] Bido Lito’s. We were drawing 10 times more people than him. He was kinda miffed, but light-heartedly. When we wanted to go more jazzy we got Tjay Cantrelli, who we’d played with in the Grass Roots, on woodwind. He was just going to play a session, but the flute changed the sound so much that he became part of the group.

STUART-WARE: I’d listened to the first Love album, but Arthur wanted to cover new ground from a jazz foundation. At the first practice at Arthur and [guitarist] Bryan MacLean’s pad on Brier, we smoked hash and listened to Charles Lloyd, Cat Stevens and Fresh Cream. Then Arthur played his new tunes on the Gibson, including “She Comes In Colors”. On stage at Bido Lito’s, Love were a natural LSD trip with no comedown, but the new songs sounded more sophisticated.

ECHOLS: We also changed producers. Mr Holzman [also Elektra Records boss] came from a folk music background and wanted everything clean and pristine, but our sound was loud, levels driven into the red. When Jac told us about Paul Rothchild, who’d just got out of prison for selling marijuana, we thought that was the coolest thing. We hadn’t heard his stuff. The only reason we hired him was because he’d gotten out of prison. We also got a new engineer, Dave Hassinger, who captured our sound as it was and got a great mix. We went into RCA Studios, because Paul Rothchild was working with The Doors in Sunset. RCA had installed an eight-track machine, so we could overdub on Da Capo. It was a brand new slate. I think Paul Rothchild expected us to do something like the first album. It took him a while to get used to these jazzier songs, but then he got on board and he was perfect.

STUART-WARE: Love ruled the Sunset Strip mysteriously. Because the group didn’t play often, everyone was always, “Where are they?” Our racial diversity enhanced that mystique and was an integral part of our difference.

ECHOLS: We were a racially diverse hard rock group because Arthur and I were racially diverse and grew up in a racially diverse community. We wanted our group to reflect who we were. We didn’t want to be typecast as R&B, or play the Chitlin circuit, where Chuck Berry’s manager had to carry a 45 and say, “Pay me now
or he’s not going on.”

BOTNICK: It was highly unusual to have a black person doing rock’n’roll, before Hendrix, but Arthur never called any race issues. He dealt with you on the level of: “This is my music and this is what I want.”

ECHOLS: Arthur had taken accordion lessons and his parents had also bought him an organ. He only joined the band I had with Billy Preston in school because young ladies flocked to us. He had a musician’s soul but didn’t want to take the time to become one. His genius was to be able to sit down with a group of us and sing songs that he’d written, and as we’d find the chords he’d go, “I like that.” He assembled the music like a collage, in his head from what we played. “She Comes In Colors” was the most difficult song on Da Capo to record. It probably took seven or eight takes, because in a way it’s three songs in one, but it’s hard to hear where the changes are.

STUART-WARE: Playing unusual time signatures didn’t present much of a challenge for anyone in the group. I’d listened to Dave Brubeck in school and played in a high school jazz group. The jazzy groove on “She Comes In Colors” was one I had from the get-go. I just had to play harder because I was up against electronic instruments. The flute and harpsichord duet was groundbreaking, and Arthur’s vocal was diverse and immaculate, as always.

ECHOLS: Arthur was a showboat, an introspective child who’d found his thing by being different. In summer he’d wear a fur coat and one shoe, sweating in that coat so much it smelled. He had this idea that a rock person should be nutty, but he was a fantastic poet. Even in elementary school he was always writing little rhymes. He had the knack of taking the most mundane situation into something interesting, and you’d think, ‘Wow.’ He wrote “She Comes In Colors” about his girlfriend, Annette Bonan. She’s Annette Ferrell now, but always wore colourful clothes, like the flower children did then.

STUART-WARE: I never really knew what the songs were about. Arthur usually left it to the listener to work out the reality. If he was ever asked, self-deprecation was his blade of choice: “It’s just about some chick.” But maybe he did write that song for Annette.

ECHOLS: When Arthur sang “When I was in England town, the rain fell right down” he’d never been to the UK. I explained, “Arthur, it should be ‘London town’.” But he sang it anyway. Maybe he didn’t want to share songwriting credits, but people here think “England town” is kinda cute.

BOTNICK: By then Love should have been hugely successful, but Arthur wouldn’t tour, wouldn’t leave Hollywood. In those days to promote an act properly you had to play somewhere to get radio. I think he felt comfortable and safe in his environment, but not touring harmed their career.

STUART-WARE: Concert promoters would track me down by phone. I’d call Arthur and the answer was always no. Eventually he got mad at me for asking. I often wondered, ‘What’s with the not playing?’

ECHOLS: We played in New York, Vegas, or Massachusetts, but we couldn’t play in the South or middle America, or sometimes we’d have bookings cancelled. The problem was the racial makeup of the group. It hurt us, because The Doors and Buffalo Springfield and all those other groups were able to tour. But we were getting successful, buying houses and had women chasing us, whereas at the start we were just trying to make a living. Also, we did some dumb things. I’ll demonstrate the mindset of a rock’n’roll kid. I bought an E-Type Jaguar, and when it ran out of gas I left it at the side of the street. My father begged me to go back for it. Eventually it was impounded and auctioned. Those cars are worth hundreds of thousands now. Leaving my car was probably the dumbest thing I ever did, along with insisting that Elektra sign The Doors. We got a fantastic offer from MCA Records, who could get us into way more shops, but we knew that having Love on their label was part of Elektra’s cachet. We figured that if they had The Doors, maybe they’d let us go. But instead all the money that was going to promote Love went on The Doors. People went “What did you do that for?” Because we were dumb kids! I was barely 18 then.

STUART-WARE: Then The Rolling Stones stole the line “She comes in colours” for “She’s A Rainbow”. Wasn’t Mick [Jagger] afraid of being sued? I remember we all thought, ‘Wow. How could Mick think it was OK to do that?’

BOTNICK: We all take stuff, but I do remember Arthur being offended.

ECHOLS: When Madonna used the melody from “She Comes In Colors” for “Beautiful Stranger”, Arthur was credited as a writer.

STUART-WARE: It doesn’t bother me that neither Da Capo or Forever Changes were hugely successful. What does bother me is that we didn’t work harder to promote both albums, or play more shows just for the thrill of playing.

ECHOLS: But even though Da Capo didn’t sell a whole lot, we felt we’d arrived as a group. People like The Beach Boys were talking to us as peers. On the next album we felt we had to push it to another higher level. The universe smiled on us, we did Forever Changes, and in the 55 years since it’s never been out of print.

The Love band featuring Johnny Echols tour the UK in July – tickets can be found here

Michael Stuart-Ware’s Love book, Behind The Scenes At The Pegasus Carousel, is now available as a Kindle under the title Pegasus Continuum

Kylie Minogue tells us what’s next: “Indie pop folk is one of my happy places”

Kylie Minogue has spoken to NME about potentially experimenting with indie folk music next, and revealed that she is open to new collaborations. Watch our interview above.

The pop legend spoke to NME on the red carpet of the 2024 BRIT Awards, before receiving the award for Global Icon and closing out the ceremony by performing a medley of her biggest hits. Ahead of the show, NME asked the ‘Padam Padam’ singer about her recent comments about wanting to experiment with new genres – particularly indie folk.

“I just listen to playlists of one song I like, which leads me down this trippy path,” she said, reflecting on the artists she had been enjoying recently. “Who should I seek out tonight? Just putting it out there that indie pop folk is one of my happy places.”

She continued: “I just love collaboration and stepping into different [genres]. Being malleable and seeing what’s possible.”

“I like all change. Who would’ve thought I’d do a murder ballad with Nick Cave [1996’s ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’]? Or sing with Kermit the Frog?” she added. “There are so many artists I love, and every collaboration takes you somewhere you didn’t know you’d go. So watch this space! You never know, something might come of tonight.”

Kylie Minogue performs on stage during the BRIT Awards 2024 at The O2 Arena on March 02, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images)

As well as receiving a BRITs Global Icon award at this year’s ceremony, Minogue was also nominated for International Artist of the Year. Other nominees included Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, but ultimately the award was given to SZA.

Her appearance at the event came shortly after she was confirmed as one of the headliners for this year’s BST Hyde Park. She will perform at the concert series on Saturday, July 13, and joins a list of headliners including Shania Twain, Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams, Stray Kids and Kings Of Leon. Visit here for tickets and more information.

In other Kylie Minogue news, she recently won the second Grammy of her career, picking up the Pop Dance Recording statue for her hit single ‘Padam Padam’ – 20 years after winning her first award at the event. She also teamed up with Sia on a collaborative new track called ‘Dance Alone’.

Her latest album ‘Tension’ arrived last September, and was given a four-star review by NME. “Ultimately, ‘Tension’ plays like a fun, flirty night out with an old friend who never burdens you with her problems,” it read. “Whether you’ve known Minogue for a lifetime – or just since ‘Padam Padam’ – you’ll want to join the party.”

The Two Hundred Seventy: Setting Sail with “ShineLove Paradise”

In the heart of Geneva, amidst the rhythm of everyday life, a dynamic musical duo emerges, embarking on a new chapter with their latest release, “ShineLove Paradise.” Meet The Two Hundred Seventy, a pair whose decades-long journey in music has led them to this moment of creative expression and collaboration.

For more than 30 years, these two individuals have cultivated their passion for music while navigating the demands of their daily routines. The moniker “Two Hundred Seventy” holds symbolic significance, pointing towards the west on the compass, symbolizing their unwavering connection to the musical traditions originating from faraway lands. With “ShineLove Paradise,” their vision is clear: to craft a sonic tapestry that evokes the warmth of sun-drenched beaches and the joy of shared moments.

The lyrics of “ShineLove Paradise” offer a glimpse into a world of escape and possibility, where worries melt away and dreams take flight. Lines like “I want to take you, show you a place that nobody knows” beckon listeners to join them on a journey of exploration and discovery.

As the song unfolds, listeners are transported to a realm where time seems to stand still, and the air is filled with the promise of new beginnings. It’s a testament to the transformative power of music, reminding us of its ability to uplift and inspire even in the midst of uncertainty.

In a world filled with noise and chaos, The Two Hundred Seventy offers hope and tranquility, inviting us all to journey with them to the shimmering shores of “ShineLove Paradise.” So, close your eyes, let the music carry you away, and embrace the magic of this musical odyssey.

Play “ShineLove Paradise” below:

Questlove defends Sexyy Red appearing on Roots Picnic 2024 line-up

Questlove has defended Sexyy Red appearing on the Roots Picnic 2024 line-up, saying “I’m still shocked yall got energy for ‘”oh hell no isms’.”

The line-up for the annual Philadelphia music festival was revealed yesterday (February 20) and featured the likes of Lil Wayne, Jill Scott, Nas, André 3000 and more. The event will return to The Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA on June 1-2.

]The announcement of Sexyy Red’s appearance at this year’s edition of Roots Picnic was met with criticism due to her support for Trump as well as comments of her being “trashy”.

The Roots drummer took the time to respond to one of the hateful comments about Sexyy Red’s inclusion on the lineup, saying that he was “shocked” at the reactions.

“Damn…..hell hath frozen over when I like a Mel post. There is always that one aft on the show everyone hates because it serves as a reminder the hip hop THEY like is from 30 years ago. I mean I get it it but look: we gotta round and balance the day out: there are other stages & podcasts and events to see,” Questlove wrote in the comments section (per Stereogum).

He continued: “I’m still shocked yall got energy for “oh hell no isms” like it’s 16 years folks–when have you seen a festival in which EVERY ACT is the act you love? I mean the way I see it: cats in here bringing a certain energy: meanwhile there is a whole entire Jill post & an Amerie post & a Black Thought post & a Meth & Red post & I see/hear nary a “I love real music” person SUPPORTING that page.

“It’s almost worth it just for this engagement & trolling was the last thing on my mind lol. Roots Picnic is well rounded and that’s why it works.”

Elsewhere, the Roots Picnic will also see various collaborations take place such as The Roots’ Black Thought performing with Method Man and Redman, Fantasia and Muni Long teaming up with Adam Blackstone and Scarface and Amerie set to play with the Backyard Band.

General ticket sale will commence on Friday, February 23 at 10am local time. Visit here to purchase tickets.

In other news, Questlove previously shared his thoughts on André 3000’s comeback album, describing it as “a good medicine”.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Questlove shared his enthusiasm for the new project, writing: “Man — critics often ask ‘what song do you wish you’da written that another artist made?’ The answer is always [OutKast’s] ‘SpottieOttieDopealiscious”’but man — this was next level.”

“I am no stranger to the ‘departure album’, The Roots’ drummer continued. “I’ve even taught my first 2 years at NYU about them (Sgt Peppers/Dirty Mind/Paul’s Boutique/Pet Sounds/There’s A Riot Goin On/Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants/Pinkerton/Awaken My Love/Slow Train Coming/Here My Dear) — albums the complete opposite of what the artist is known for.”

“I knew this 3000 jawn was a left turn but I didn’t know it’s the RIGHT left turn. All you newbie meditators/microdosers/“time-out-for-me—before-I-hurt-someone” people who are trying to do better — THIS is good medicine music for you.”

“I always said “one day imma make the ambient record I’d love to sleep and dream to”,” he added, before concluding: “thank you @andre3000 #NewBlueSun”.

Khruangbin share blissful single ‘A Love International’ and announce new album ‘A La Sala’

Khruangbin have today (January 16) shared their blissful new single, ‘A Love International’ and have announced details of their first album in four years, ‘A La Sala’. Check out the new single below.

The album, which translates from Spanish as ‘To The Room’, will arrive on April 5 on Dead Oceans in partnership with Night Time and you can pre-order the album, which has seven varied album covers available to purchase, here.

A statement about the album explains that “the building blocks…for ‘A La Sala’s’ 12 songs were jigsaw pieces found in Khruangbin’s creative past” that were made up of “parts of the band not lost, but not yet tapped into.”

It continued: “Having stockpiled ideas originally set down as off-the-cuff recordings (voice-memos made at sound-checks, on long voyages, as absentminded epiphanies), they began fitting those pieces together in the studio for ‘A La Sala’.”

Check out the new song here and the album track list below:

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‘A La Sala’ Tracklist
1. ‘Fifteen Fifty-Three’
2. ‘May Ninth’
3. ‘Ada Jean’
4. ‘Farolim de Felgueiras’
5. ‘Pon Pón’
6. ‘Todavía Viva’
7. ‘Juegos y Nubes’
8. ‘Hold Me Up (Thank You)’
9. ‘Caja de la Sala’
10. ‘Three From Two’
11. ‘A Love International’

The American trio worked with singer-songwriter Leon Bridges on a second collaborative EP, entitled ‘Texas Moon’, back in 2022 and the new album marks their first original music as a band since 2020, aside from various remixes.

Reviewing their last album ‘Mordechai’, NME awarded it a full five stars and wrote: “No wonder Khruangbin, who make psychedelic music that travels between eras and continents, have become low-key stars in the past decade. Guitarist Mark Speer and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson played in a gospel band together at St. John’s United Methodist Church in downtown Houston – the same church that Beyoncé, Solange and the rest of the Knowles family frequent.

“…‘Mordechai’ is Khruangbin at their most grounded and energetic, the tempo slightly raised with vocals infiltrating nearly every track — all three members sing throughout. The band artfully showcase their musical knowledge to create a project which marks a clear distinction for the largely instrumental band. With ‘Mordechai’, Khruangbin have at once expanded their horizons while rooting their latest project in a sound they’ve made their own.”

The band also graced NME‘s cover back in 2020. Speaking about their perceived rapid rise to fame at the time, the band’s Laura Lee said: “You have no idea how long it’s going to last when you’re starting out. The whole of last year was a real ‘Holy shit!’ moment. We set out to be a worldwide band – and we got it.”

While Donald Johnson added: “People on the outside look at our trajectory and go, ‘Oh, it happened so fast…But, y’know, not really. We’ve been at this for nearly 10 years, I have no idea how we ended up where we did…We can only take this band one day at a time.”

Last minute gift guide for gig lovers

A paid for ad feature with viagogo.

It’s almost Christmas and for many, that means a last minute panic as they try and find the perfect present. Gift vouchers are fine, socks are useful but overdone and the less said about shower gel gift sets the better. Instead, why not give the present of a great night out this Christmas?

From huge stadium gigs through the bombast of live theatre to the dizzying excitement of watching your favourite new band dominate the stage of a small venue, tickets really do make the best gifts. With that in mind, we’ve created the ultimate last minute gift guide to help see you through this festive period. And hey, there’s no harm in buying an extra ticket for yourself either. It is your Christmas too.

The mosher

Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, and Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy perform live — Fall Out Boy perform on their ‘So Much (For) Stardust’ tour. CREDIT: Elliott Ingham

Rock & roll is back in the mainstream thanks to TikTok and a new generation of artists rediscovering the raw power of the electric guitar. Whether you’re buying for a lifelong rock fan, or someone who’s just discovered Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’, you can’t go wrong with a ticket to Download Festival. Taking place over three days in June, the weekender will play host to living legends (Fall Out Boy, The Offspring) alongside a new crop of greats including HotWax, Scowl and Wargasm.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for Download Festival at global marketplace, viagogo here.

If you want something more ferocious though, Slipknot have announced a 25th anniversary tour for their debut self-titled album, taking place at the end of 2024.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for Slipknot at global marketplace, viagogo here.

The hip-hop head

None of hip-hop’s big names have confirmed plans for next year yet but your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper has announced a UK tour. Fresh from releasing debut album ‘How Do You Sleep At Night?’, Teezo Touchdown is heading out on his first proper headline run. With co-signs from Drake, Tyler, The Creator and Travis Scott, Teezo creates what he calls “rock & boom” and looks set to become the next big thing in the scene.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for Teezo Touchdown at global marketplace, viagogo here.

Alternatively, Frank Ocean has just released a range of new merch alongside a repress of ‘Blonde’.

The pop lover

It’s been a huge year for pop music, with massive tours from Beyoncé, Madonna and Sam Smith. Somehow, 2024 will be even bigger. We’ve already had the return of Dua Lipa confirmed and Taylor Swift’s huge ‘Eras’ tour is finally touching down in Europe. Girls Aloud have also announced their long-awaited return, with a sprawling headline tour that just keeps getting bigger. Promising to play all the greatest hits alongside their own favourites, it’s set to be an emotional, joyful evening.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for Girls Aloud at global marketplace, viagogo here.

Alternatively, why not pick up a vinyl copy of Dua Lipa’s banging new single ‘Houdini’ on vinyl.

The dancing queen

If you want a great night out, you can’t go wrong with the music of ABBA. Now, while the band aren’t actually touring, the impressive ABBA Voyage is the next best thing as it brings together cutting edge tech with those timeless songs. Alternatively, the musical Mamma Mia! continues to go from strength to strength in London’s West End.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for London’s West End at global marketplace, viagogo here and Abba Voyage here.

The person who just wants a fun night out

Sophie Ellis-Bextor at Glastonbury 2023. Credit: Joseph Okpako/WireImage

Sometimes, you just want the adult version of a sugar-fuelled school disco. Luckily, Nile Rodgers & Chic are touring in 2024 and they’re bringing party-starting queen Sophie Ellis-Bextor with them. If you’ve seen her showstopping Glasto 2023 performance or heard about Chic’s feel-good dance blowout, you know this is going to be a night to remember.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for Nile Rodgers at global marketplace, viagogo here.

Alternatively, Moulin Rouge is currently playing on the West End, featuring tracks from the likes of Adele, Katy Perry and Rihanna.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for London’s West End at global marketplace, viagogo here

The ‘music was better in my day’ fan

Not everyone likes new music and that’s fine. There’s something comforting about going to a gig, and knowing you’re going to know all the words as you’re transported back to a time where, in your humble opinion, music was better. No gig next year is going to be as chaotically wonderful as Liam Gallagher’s 30th anniversary tour for Oasis’ classic album ‘Definitely, Maybe’. He’s even promising not to play any of his solo material.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for Liam Gallagher at global marketplace, viagogo here.

Alternatively, why not pick up a vinyl player to relive the glory days.

The hit lover

The Killers, live in Vegas, 2023. Credit: Chris Phelps

Some music lovers can’t resist a deep dive into the carefully curated world of an album. Others are just here for the hits, and next year The Killers are heading out on a massive UK headline tour in support of their second greatest hits album ‘Rebel Diamonds’, which features one song from every year they’ve been a band. As you can imagine, that setlist is going to be wall-to-wall bangers.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for The Killers at global marketplace, viagogo here.

Additionally, why not get some earplugs so they a) don’t damage their hearing and b) can’t hear how out of tune their neighbour is singing along to ‘Mr Brightside’

The humble bragger

Got a friend who can’t help but tell you that they saw an artist before they got massive? Well, why not help them out with tickets to see The Last Dinner Party on their upcoming UK and European headline tour. From the moment they released their first single ‘Nothing Matters’, the band have been known as the most exciting thing in indie and with their debut album finally coming out in February, their next headline tour is going to be a real ‘I was there’ moment.

Fans can buy and sell tickets for The Last Dinner Party at global marketplace, viagogo here.

Alternatively, why not buy them tickets to a gig at your local grassroots venue. Not only will you be supporting a scene that can’t help but create greatness, but you could discover something wonderful.

Red Hot Chili Peppers announce 2024 ‘Unlimited Love’ US tour with huge support acts

Red Hot Chili Peppers have announced their North American 2024 ‘Unlimited Love’ tour with huge support acts.

The tour – which is in support of the legendary rock band’s 2022 LPs ‘Unlimited Love‘ and ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen‘ – will kick off on May 28, 2024, at the RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater in Ridgefield, Washington. From there, Anthony Kiedis and co. will make stops in cities such as Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Virginia Beach, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Toronto and more. The US tour will wrap up on July 30 at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St Louis.

Kid Cudi, Ice Cube, Ken Carson, Otoboke Beaver, Seun Kuti, Wand and IRONTOM will serve as opening support for the band on select dates.

A ticket pre-sale will be available for fans who are Citi cardholders. Cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday, December 5 at 10am local time until Thursday, December 7 at 10pm local time through the Citi Entertainment program.

An artists pre-sale will begin on Wednesday, December 6 at 10am local time for fans who use the code: RHCP24. General ticket sales will commence Friday, December 8 at 10am local time. Visit here for tickets and check out the full list of dates below.

Red Hot Chili Peppers 2024 'Unlimited Love' US tour poster. Credit: PRESS — Red Hot Chili Peppers 2024 ‘Unlimited Love’ US tour poster. Credit: PRESS

Red Hot Chili Peppers 2024 ‘Unlimited Love’ US tour dates are:

MAY
28 – Ridgefield, WA – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater +
31 – Quincy, WA – The Gorge +

JUNE
2 – Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheater +
5 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre =
7 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater ^
18 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre *
21 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre ~
26 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park ~
28 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach ~

JULY
2 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake =
5 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center *
12 – Buffalo, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater ^
15 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage ^
22 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center #
25 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center @
30 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre @

+ With Ken Carson and IRONTOM
= With Kid Cudi and IRONTOM
^ With Wand and IRONTOM”
With IRONTOM
~ With Ice Cube and IRONTOM
# With Seun Kuti & Egypt80 and IRONTOM
@ With Otoboke Beaver and IRONTOM
% Not a Live Nation Date

In a three-star review of the Red Hot Chili Peppers gig in London at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in July, NME shared: “Was tonight just another date on the relentless 2022-2023 Global Stadium Tour, another sports stadium to fill with sweet slap bass? Perhaps – since this is the Chilis we’re talking about, though, it was anything but ordinary.”

In other news, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, recently opened up about his most painful on-stage injuries.

Speaking to Sean Evans on Hot Ones, Flea said that he’s accidentally hurt himself on stage. “I’ve hit myself in the face with my bass,” he admitted. “One time, I have like a scar in my head somewhere from when I cut my head open, you know, like bam (pretends to hit his head), like that,” he admitted.

Listen to Feeder’s two new singles ‘The Knock’ and ‘Soldiers Of Love’

Feeder have shared two new singles ‘The Knock’ and ‘Soldiers Of Love’ – you can listen to both below.

The double A-Side will feature on their forthcoming ‘Black’ / ’Red’ double album and follows there previous singles ‘Playing With Fire’ and ‘ELF’.

Speaking about the tracks via a press release, frontman Grant Nicholas said: “‘The Knock’ is one of the more direct, up-tempo songs on the ‘Black’ / ’Red’ album. It’s really a song about a highway or road of life and the journey in which it can take us on and the challenges we face along the way.”

He added: “When writing ‘Soldiers Of Love’ I remember having a very clear visual image for the song, almost like a film soundtrack. It’s the first time we’ve recorded bagpipes on a Feeder track as we felt they would add to the slight Celtic feel of the song. It was originally going to stay more of an acoustic style track but I felt the song could be more cinematic and grander sonically.”

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The double LP, which is out on April 5, 2024 through Big Teeth Music (via Townsend Music / Absolute Label Services), completes a trilogy of albums joined to 2022’s ‘Torpedo’. It can be pre-ordered here.

“I really wanted the album to be split in two parts for the listener, CD1 and CD2, black and red rather than be one long player, almost like a musical production with an interval,” said Nicholas of the double album previously.

He added: “Making it was a very creative time for me as a writer and a real labour of love. Making the Black / Red album for me personally was a musical pilgrimage and I feel the end result is undeniable Feeder.”

Along with the forthcoming double album, Feeder recently revealed details of a new UK tour set for 2024. Any remaining tickets can be found here.

Soojin ‘AGASSY’ review: a captivating love letter to herself

“I’m blooming when you look at me,” Soojin sings in fragile wisps on the intro of her debut solo mini-album, ‘AGASSY’. “Hello my sunshine.” The resilience of flowers speak volumes; come rain or shine, they stand tall and retain their vibrancy – and Soojin herself is much the same. After leaving popular girl group (G)I-DLE under a cloud of controversy, the singer has largely spent the last two years away from the spotlight.

‘AGASSY’, her first release since, masquerades as a lovelorn record that employs the poetic metaphors that have always surrounded flora, but look closer and you’ll find that written between its lines is a soft but stern statement of self-empowerment. Not only is it a testament to her strength in returning to what does best – making music and performing, as she sings on the record’s title track (“Love, love, I don’t know that kind of thing / I just dance”) – it is also a captivating love letter to herself.

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On ‘Sunflower’, she depicts the giddiness of falling head first in love, comparing the experience of developing deep emotions for someone to a sunflower blooming within her: “The feeling becomes clearer / In short, dazed / You move more and more towards the sky / As the stories pile up / I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” While the song itself is rather pedestrian, its lyrics are remarkably strong. But the highlight here – and throughout the rest of the mini-album, is Soojin’s delivery, with her signature soprano tone.

On the other hand, the energetic, PinkPantheress-esque ‘TyTy’ plays to the strengths of her unique vocal tone. Twinkling synths skip beneath her wispy, layered falsettos as she takes control of the song’s quick flow. ‘TyTy’ is repetitive, catchy and on-trend in all the right places, but it’s on the hazy, dream-like ‘Sunset’ where Soojin truly finds her groove.

The lyricism on ‘Sunset’ is poetic and carefully written, as Soojin gracefully toes the line between clarity and ambiguity of what she really feels. There is a hint of hesitation, but Soojin delivers with a calm confidence. “Day or night / The light becomes clearer / As if mixing together the borderlines,” she sings in an alto register, evoking the intermediacy and transitional experience of watching the sun set beneath the horizon.

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The K-pop idol ends the album on a rather melancholic note with the ominously titled ‘bloodredroses’. Her voice, now laced with more emotional weight, speaks to the pain she experiences where there was once love, because one cannot exist without the other. “Dry tears, thorns filled with painful memories / I bloomed among them / It’s fragrant, blood red roses,” laments Soojin.

‘bloodredroses’ comes across so intimate and personal that it feels like we’re taking a forbidden peak into her own diary, and that’s the exact reason why it stands out the most. Soojin bares her heart and soul on this record, acknowledging the trials and tribulations she had to weather, yet finds the space to accept that she has grown because and in spite of them. “I spread like flower petals bigger than these thorns / And embraced the blooming me / Be myself, a flower that will not withеr away.”

On ‘AGASSY’, Soojin embraces the sliver of light at the end of what must have seemed like a dark, endless tunnel. She wears her heart on her sleeve and that’s what gives it so much power. The mini-album – even if it tends to play it safe with run-of-the-mill production – underscores the potential Soojin has always held and puts it on display for the world to see once again.

Details

soojin agassy review

“Fast Love”: Diego Smith’s Melodic Ode to Love’s Ephemeral Nature

In the vibrant music scene of Buenos Aires, Diego Smith, a multifaceted artist originally from Chillán, Chile, has made a striking impact with his latest single, “Fast Love.” This piece is more than a song; it’s a narrative woven from the threads of fast-paced modern life and the fleeting nature of relationships, echoing the essence of urban music that has propelled Chile to new heights.

“Fast Love” emerges as a profound reflection on the complexities of contemporary relationships, encapsulating the emotions of a generation grappling with the rapid pace of life and love. The song, conceived three years ago, has matured into a melodic representation of Smith’s artistic journey. Its release marks the return of the first Chileans to collaborate with Ozuna, bringing a unique blend of cultural influences and musical innovation.

Smith‘s path to musical success is a story of passion and perseverance. His early years in Bulnes were marked by a deep-seated love for music, a flame kindled by his grandfather and fueled by school rap sessions. Despite his initial inclination towards football, music took precedence, leading to the creation of his first compositions at the tender age of 10. This journey culminated in the release of his debut single, “Replay,” in 2017, setting the stage for a promising career.

In “Fast Love,” Smith’s lyrical prowess shines through as he navigates the ebb and flow of intense emotions and genuine connections. The song is a testament to his belief that authenticity and depth can thrive even in transient moments. His ability to capture the essence of modern relationships in his music resonates deeply with listeners, making “Fast Love” a standout track in his growing discography.

Diego Smith‘s sound is continually evolving, influenced by a diverse range of artists from Bruno Mars to Lil Baby. His commitment to innovation and boundary-pushing is evident in every note and lyric. Among his notable tracks, “Illuminati” and “Conexión” stand out, alongside “Arte,” his personal favorite from the past year.

His achievements extend beyond the recording studio, with significant milestones such as participation in the Netflix series “La firma,” a successful Chilean tour, and a performance at the prestigious Movistar Arena. Smith’s dedication to his craft and his belief in the power of music to spread joy have established him as a prominent figure in the industry.

As he continues to collaborate with leading producers and artists, Diego Smith remains committed to exploring new horizons and experimenting with different genres. His aspirations to create a dembow track with El Alfa and a merengue piece with Elvis Crespo, along with potential collaborations with artists like Mon Laferte, Akapellah, and Los Bunkers, highlight his versatility and passion for music.

“Fast Love” is not just a song; it’s a reflection of Diego Smith‘s artistic identity, marked by a journey of growth, exploration, and the relentless pursuit of musical excellence. It stands as a symbol of the ever-changing landscape of love and life, inviting listeners to embrace the swift currents of modern existence.

Laura Jane Grace announces new album ‘Hole In My Head’ and shares video directed by Danny Trejo’s son

Laura Jane Grace has unveiled details of a new album, ‘Hole In My Head’, and has shared the album’s title track with a video directed by actor Danny Trejo’s son, Gilbert. Watch it below.

READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Laura Jane Grace

The track is the second from Grace’s upcoming new album, following on from ‘Dysphoria Hoodie’, which was released last month. According to the singer-songwriter, ‘Dysphoria Hoodie’ was a new anthem dedicated to the trans community and is a raw ode to a particular type of armour we hold onto when seeking comfort.

The new album will be released via Big Scary Monsters on February 16 and you can pre-order it here. The LP will mark the American musician’s first new music since 2021’s ‘At War With The Silverfish’ – an emotionally honest EP that saw Grace open up about her pent-up anger, fears and anxiety and convey it across seven songs.

The new album was recorded at Native Sound in St. Louis with David Beeman and mixed by Matt Allison. A statement described ‘Hole In My Head’ as “a sonic curio cabinet containing multitudes — a showcase that features warm, ’50s rock-influenced guitar riffs, saved-for-later lyrics, love letters to new surroundings, and thoughtful reflections on a punk life lived.”

Check out the video for the album’s title track here:

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Hole In My Head track listing:
‘Hole In My Head’
‘I’m Not A Cop’
‘Dysphoria Hoodie’
‘Birds Talk Too’
‘Punk Rock In Basements’
‘Cuffing Season’
‘Tacos and Toast’
‘Mercenary’
‘Keeping Your Wheels Straight’
‘Hard Feelings’
‘Give Up The Ghost’

Grace will also be touring into the new year – check out the full list of dates below and get ticket for the shows here.

DECEMBER
16 — Memphis, TN — Minglewood Hall
28 — St. Louis, MO — Off Broadway
29 — Lawrence, KS — Granada Theatre
31 — Denver, CO — The Marquis

JANUARY 2024
2 — Omaha, NE — Slowdown
3 — Minneapolis, MN — Cloudland
6 — Madison, WI — Joey’s Song Benefit
13 — Athens, Greece — Onassis Stegi Exhibition Hall-1
15 — Thessaloniki, Greece — Mylos

MARCH 2024
2 — Indianapolis, IN — The Vogue
3 — Columbus, OH — A&R Music Bar
5 — Pittsburgh, PA — Spirit Hall
6 — Philadelphia, PA — Underground Arts
8 — Hamden, CT — Space Ballroom
9 — New York, NY — Racket
10 — Somerville, MA — Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre
12 — Washington, DC — Howard Theatre
13 — Virginia Beach, VA — Elevation 27
15 — Durham, NC — Motorco Music Hall
16 — Knoxville, TN — Bijou Theatre
17 — Nashville, TN — City Winery
19 — New Orleans, LA — Tipitina’s
20 — Birmingham, AL — Saturn
22 — San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger
23 — Houston, TX — RISE Rooftop
24 — Fort Worth, TX — Tulips

“Making It Work”: Carsn’s Uncompromising Take on Life and Love

In the dynamically evolving landscape of modern hip-hop, Dallas/Fort Worth’s own carsn. stands out as a force to be reckoned with. His latest single, “Make It Work,” is not just a track; it’s a bold statement, a manifesto that captures the gritty reality of striving to balance relationships and personal ambition in a world that doesn’t pause for anyone. This is music with a purpose, music that doesn’t just want to be heard – it demands to be felt.

Carsn. has always been more than just a rapper or a singer; he’s an artist who paints with emotions and experiences, blending them into a soundtrack that resonates with anyone hustling to make their dreams a reality. His new track, “Make It Work,” is a prime example of this, offering a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the challenges of prioritizing oneself in a relationship. The song, with its compelling beat and introspective lyrics, speaks to the relentless drive and determination needed to succeed in both love and life.

The lyrics of “Make It Work” are a deep dive into the complexities of modern relationships. Carsn. doesn’t shy away from the truth, addressing the often harsh realities of trying to maintain a connection in a fast-paced world. “Decide on me baby won’t you put me first” isn’t just a line; it’s a demand, a call for recognition in a relationship where the give-and-take is anything but balanced. The track mirrors the artist’s life philosophy – if something’s worth having, it’s worth fighting for, but not at the cost of losing oneself.

Carsn.‘s journey is as multifaceted as his music. Inspired by artists ranging from Smino to Mac Miller, his style is a hybrid, pushing the boundaries of traditional rap and branching into melodic, alternative, and even indie strains of hip-hop. His previous album, MIXED 3MOTIONS, and hits like “Big Guap” have already showcased his versatility and depth. “Make It Work” is a continuation of this trajectory, cementing his place as a trailblazer in the genre.

In “Make It Work,” the raw emotion and stark honesty of the lyrics are matched by a beat that’s both haunting and hypnotic. It’s a track that doesn’t just get stuck in your head – it gets under your skin. It’s a reflection of carsn.’s ethos: authentic, uncompromising, and real. This is music for those who understand that the grind never stops, that making it work isn’t just a choice, but a way of life.

Carsn. is not just making music; he’s crafting anthems for a generation defined by their relentless pursuit of success against all odds. “Make It Work” is more than a single; it’s a statement, a piece of the puzzle that is carsn.‘s ongoing narrative – a narrative where giving up is never an option, and making it work is the only way forward.

Cullen Jack: Harmonizing Heartbreak in “Space and Time”

In the vast expanse of the music universe, a new star twinkles with a poignant melody of love lost and the solitude of waiting. Cullen Jack, Oregon’s melodic maestro, weaves a tale of heartache and the aching void of absence in his latest single, “Space and Time.” With a heartfelt narrative set against a canvas of tender piano tunes, Jack invites us into a story of love’s labyrinth where space and time don’t heal, but tell a tale of their own.

“Space and Time” isn’t just a song—it’s a journey through the corridors of hope and the alleys of despair. It starts with a whisper, a gentle confession of patience when Cullen croons, “When you asked for space, I stepped away…” His voice, a blend of raw emotion and refined artistry, echoes the strength it takes to let go. But as the verses unfold, the realization dawns—the space becomes a chasm, the time turns into a relentless tide, sweeping away the castles of what could have been.

Cullen Jack‘s artistry lies not just in his words, but in the silences between them, the instrumental breaths that speak volumes of the introspection and growth that comes from pain. The song crescendos with an instrumental bridge, a poignant pause that serves as a canvas for listeners to paint their own experiences of love and loss.

The cheesiness of the piece comes with a mature flavor, the kind that knows the bitterness of growth. It’s in the earnest search for self-improvement, the wistful smile of moving on, and the sober realization that sometimes, coming back isn’t in the cards. “Signed, Kind Regards, I’m movin’ on,” he sings, and it’s a line that sticks, a postscript to a chapter that’s closing.

Cullen‘s background in classical piano and his symphonic adventures add depth to each note, his music resonating with the authenticity of someone who has translated life into music. He channels the spirits of his muses, from the storytelling grandeur of Jim Croce to the lyrical wit of John Prine, and the result is a single that’s as much a story as it is a song.

“Space and Time” stands as a testament to Cullen Jack’s journey—a bridge from the piano bars of Tokyo to the global stage, from singing tales in two tongues to telling the universal story of love. As he gears up to shower us with more singles and an album, this track is a promise of the musical mosaic to come. It’s a mosaic where each piece is a note, a lyric, a heartbeat that Cullen Jack captures and turns into song, etching his mark in the rhythm of the world, one beat at a time.

Power ’s “You’re The One” Echoes Unyielding Love And Obsession

Power, the artist who weaved magic with hits like “Hook Up” and “Is It True,” graces the hip-hop scene yet again, this time bringing an anthem of love and enthrallment with his latest single “You’re The One.” Listeners are treated to a soulful narrative of an extraordinary connection. The song captures the heart’s deepest corridors, depicting intense and raw emotions, echoing the silent yet passionate rhythms of the soul.

The lines, “Nah we don’t like to mention, we both get a lot of attention, but all our other lovers, ain’t in the same dimension,” are a testament to the chaotic yet exhilarating journey powerf two souls coming together amidst the madness of a world drowning in fading allure. It’s narrated with arresting clarity, where every beat, every note, and every word portrays a love that rises above the ephemeral, rooting itself in the eternal.

In the music video, audiences get a VIP pass to a universe where sleek style vibes with real, unfiltered feelings. It's all going down in a high-end condo, where he and his partner are caught up in an intricate dance. The combined artistry of Power and Aman Bhatia brings a level of realness that hits deep, capturing emotions that are as pure as they come. Every scene is a mix of the glam and the genuine, keeping it real while living that luxe life.

“You’re The One” captures the deep, unspoken feeling experienced in those quiet, intimate moments of soul recognition. It’s a sensory experience that resonates in the silent spaces of the heart, echoing the profound, wordless connection of encountering one’s other half. In this sublime narrative, Power lays bare an obsession, lighting up a world where love, in its rawest and realest form, resides.

Check out the music video for “You’re The One” here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L1KNttQfo8

Listen to the song below:

Ty Segall shares his love of eggs on new single ‘Eggman’

Ty Segall has shared his new single, ‘Eggman’ – watch the video below.

It is the California garage rock musician’s second new song of 2023, following on from last month’s release of ‘Void’.

The one-take music video, which Segall made with his wife and creative partner Denée Segall, sees him gorging his way through a bowl of hard-boiled eggs for an uncomfortably long time.

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The song opens with screeching guitars, which then give way to reveal a ’60s-style psych-pop tune, finally culminating in an ear-splitting, feedback-heavy blowout. “Your mouth’s agape and caked with eggs…You sit and rot your mind with thought,” he sings.

The guitarist, singer and producer has released a total of 14 solo albums, most recently 2022’s ‘Hello, Hi’. In addition to these, he is a member of the bands Fuzz, the CIA, Broken Bat and GØGGS.

Segall, who is backed live by The Freedom Band, made up of regular collaborators Mikal Cronin (bass, backing vocals), Charles Moothart (drums) and Emmett Kelly (guitar, backing vocals), will play a small number of shows in October and November – see full details below.

In addition, Segall has announced a more extensive 20-date North American tour to take place in early 2024. The tour starts on February 20 in San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, wrapping up at Harlow’s in Sacramento on May 11.

You can find tickets for the forthcoming gigs here.

Ty Segall’s remaining 2023 live dates are:

OCTOBER

5 – Turner Hall, Milwaukee, WI
6 – Majestic Theatre, Detroit, MI
7 – Deluxe at Old Nation Center, Indianapolis, IN
26 – Levitation, Austin, TX

NOVEMBER

10 – White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ (solo acoustic)
11 – Space Ballroom, Hamden, CT (solo acoustic)

When Stars Align: Leandro Cury’s “Estrela” Dazzles With The Power Of Love

From the pulsating heart of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, Leandro Cury, the captivating Brazilian artist, delivers a soul-stirring single called “Estrela,” a Portuguese word that translates to “Star.” Just as stars shimmer in the night, this track shines with its touching narrative of love and connection. The musician sings about a time when he walked in the shadows, lonely and disheartened, only to find his beacon of hope in the warmth of a cherished bond.

The lyrics delve deep into the realms of romantic relationships, reflecting on how they become sanctuaries, even amid life’s storms. Cury’s poetic lines, “Before I met you/ For a long time, I believed I deserved to be alone/ Today, I want to remind you/ That when everything was a storm, I found my shelter in you/ Your energy harmonizing with mine/ Makes me feel so good, makes me feel so good,” beautifully depict the rejuvenation one experiences in the presence of genuine love.

When two souls come together, the universe itself seems to echo their harmony. It’s the wind whispering secrets, waves merging seamlessly, and clouds dancing in joyous union. This celestial dance of emotions is perfectly encapsulated when Leandro Cury proclaims how his lover’s joy and energy resonates with his own, lighting up his world, “So good that it makes your star shine within me/ Your joy balancing mine/ Makes me feel so good, makes me feel so good/ Tremendous well-being merging your world with mine.”

Drawing inspiration from iconic artists like Legião Urbana, Os Paralamas do Sucesso, Barão Vermelho, and Renato Russo, Cury crafts a song that resonates on a universal scale. With this release, he sends out the message that love is not just about finding someone; it’s about recognizing the light within, revealing a side the audience might’ve never known existed.

“Estrela” is for every heart seeking its twin flame. It reminds listeners that in the vast expanse of the universe, when stars align, they create a brilliance unmatched, much like the beauty of two souls in love. Charting an ever-rising musical career, Leandro Cury is gearing up for more, especially with the forthcoming EP, Counting Constellations.

Listen to “Estrela” here:

James Corden opens up about possible ‘Gavin and Stacey’ return

James Corden has opened up about a possible Gavin and Stacey return in a new interview.

READ MORE: ‘Gavin & Stacey’ review: a near-perfect celebration of everything that made the show great in the first place

The 2019 Christmas special of the show left viewers on a cliffhanger as Nessa, played by Ruth Jones, proposed to Corden’s character Smithy. Created by Corden and Jones, Gavin and Stacey aired between 2007 and 2010 for three seasons. The show returned for a Christmas special in 2019.

Speaking to Sky News about a possible return, Corden said: “I genuinely don’t know if we’ll ever do another one. I think Ruth [Jones] and I would love to make something together again… I really don’t know with Gavin & Stacey. I think we feel so proud of that last special…

“I think, in a way, those characters, they live on, they carry on, they’re still out there somewhere living and breathing.

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“Their lives carry on and we just sort of get together and open this portal and find out. Some people say to me, ‘I want to know what happens’. And I go, so do I!

“I don’t know… Maybe there’s something really perfect about it ending there. Can we truly fulfil people’s ambitions for it? I know it’s such an annoying answer, I’m aware of that, but I don’t know.”

Back in 2021, Corden teased the possibility of more episodes in the future. “As it stands there aren’t any plans to do more, but that’s not to say that there isn’t the want or the inclination to do one,” he told BBC Radio 2.

He added: “When we wrote that last special we never thought whether we’d make another, but that special ends on such a… it ends so open I think it would be a shame to leave it there. That’s certainly my feeling and I think Ruth feels the same.

“It doesn’t feel like the end of a book but the end of a chapter. If we did another that would be the end of it.”

Corden stepped down from The Late Late Show earlier this year.

Justin Timberlake says new *NSYNC track is “a love letter” to fans

Justin Timberlake has opened up about the new *NSYNC track, which was announced earlier this week by the newly reunited band.

The track, which is their first new song in over 20 years, is called ‘Better Place’ and will see the famous nineties boyband reunite once more.

The boyband – comprised of Justin Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass – reunited at the 2023 MTV VMAs on Tuesday (September 12) where they presented Taylor Swift with an award.

It comes after a comeback track from the group was teased via posters for the third Trolls film, Trolls Band Together. The promos featured the *NSYNC logo, with a QR code directing fans to a website containing a snippet of music.

Since then, Timberlake has taken to Instagram to share a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the track and how he pitched the idea to other *NSYNC members.”So many stars aligned…If we do this song, it’s a love letter to our fans,” Timberlake told them. “I would be honoured to have the group on the song.”

“When the stars align… got my brothers back together in the studio to work on something fun and the energy was special,” Timberlake wrote on the caption to the video. “Better Place is coming 9/29. LOVE Y’ALL.”

You can watch the clip here:

*NSYNC hinted at the announcement on social media recently by lip-syncing to a classic scene from Friends, in which Joey and Rachel discuss a secret within the group.

‘Better Place’ marks the boyband’s first release of new material since 2002. Timberlake embarked on what would become a hugely successful solo career that year, with *NSYNC officially parting ways in 2007.

Prior to this week’s VMAs appearance, the group came together at the same event in 2013 before reuniting for their Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony in 2018.

*NSYNC presented Swift with the Best Pop award at the 2023 VMAs. Expressing her excitement over the comeback, the ‘Midnights’ singer said: “I had your dolls. Are you doing something? What’s gonna happen now? They’re gonna do something, and I need to know what it is.

“You guys are pop personified, so to receive this from your golden pop hands is… it’s too much.”

Giselle Niemand ’s “Lovers Do” Hits Online Charts Breaking All Conventions

Exceptionally talented South African artist, Giselle Niemand, shares her debut international single, “Lovers Do.” This remarkable release, crafted under the guidance of Emmanuel “Manny” Mijares, a renowned songwriter and film executive producer with a string of platinum records, unveils the boundless potential of this rising star. At the tender age of 13, she has already captivated the industry as a singer, model, actress, and dancer, leaving an indelible mark wherever she goes.

With her vocal prowess on full display, Giselle Niemand delivers a powerful performance, singing: “Hey you/ What you gonna do/ If I say I want it too/ Wanna do what friends don’t do/ What Lovers do/ Hey you/ What you gonna do/ If you don’t I’ll make that move/ Thinking me and you should do/ What Lovers do.” She expresses the true nature of passion that goes beyond boundaries and breaks conventions, fearlessly conveying the message of defying expectations in the pursuit of love and dreams.

An impressive portrayal of the thrilling and uncertain nature of love’s discovery, the song encapsulates a whirlwind of emotions. Giselle’s lyrics vividly illustrate the intense connection between two people, evoking a rush of exhilaration. Vulnerability shines through as she openly acknowledges her nervousness. Driven by curiosity, she is drawn to the mysterious depths of hidden desires, anticipating the revelation of an extraordinary connection waiting to be unleashed.

After its stunning debut at New York Fashion Week, the song quickly gained popularity, shooting up the online charts. Niemand, being the ambitious artist she is, is already getting ready to release her new single “Later” this summer. Building upon the vibrant and fun-loving visuals of “Lovers Do,” skillfully directed by Manny Mijares, viewers can anticipate yet another enthralling journey that will leave them spellbound.

Check out the music video below:

Listen to “Lovers Do” on Spotify:

CloudPainter’s “Love Come Down” Projects The Warmth Of The Tucsonan Sun

Folk-Rock band from Arizona, CloudPainter, premiered their debut single “Love Come Down.” The group, consisting of Cloud Microphones founder and acclaimed musician RJ Cloud, master vocalist and Perfect Girl singer-songwriter Liz Painter, bass guitarist Steve Smith, and drummer Josh Sailor, was inspired by the story of how the members originally came together in Tucson and became lifelong friends.

Painter explains: “The lyrics and title “Love Come Down” speak to optimism and trust in life’s process, and the idea that doing so leads us to create our greatest outcomes. It speaks to a feeling among our circle of friends at the time we met. With lifelong friendships, one wonders if “love will come down and carry you away someday” but these friendships continue to evolve and inspire beauty as the chorus answers with the question, “Do you believe we can fly through a beautiful sky?”

CloudPainter’s frontman RJ Cloud admits that the band is focused on finding its own path. When speaking of their unique sound he says: “Playing instruments like the Hammond organ and vintage guitars, captured with boutique microphones and preamps lends itself to a roots sound. Sometimes we cross over with more modern instrumentation, but we still manage to slip in some of the iconic analog gear. This can be a lot of fun! Ultimately, the tone and character of these sounds play a big role in CloudPainter’s sound.”

Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, and Pink Floyd, are a few of the artists that have inspired CloudPainter to make music that not only aspires but also spreads hope and optimism. Swinging between Southern Rock, R&B, and Psychedelia, the multi-genre group is planning to drop a full-length album this year. Following “Love Come Down,” the band is set to go on tour in 2024.

Listen to “Love Come Down” here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvCNAnzmvHY

Ben Carrillo Is Overjoyed With Love In Latest Music Video For “Zoom Zoom”

Guatemalan artist Ben Carrillo, shared “Zoom Zoom” almost two months ago accompanied by a vibrant music video. Co-directed by Alejandra Hinojosa and shot by Natasha Abdul, the clip features Gisselle Kuri and Carrillo, having a wild night out and enjoying each other’s company. The visuals that were filmed in Los Angeles revolve around everyday activities: eating at a fast food stall at sunset, riding public transport, walking and dancing down the street aimlessly with a loved one.

“Zoom Zoom” follows the 6-track EP Nirvana, which in addition to the title track, includes “Palo Santo,” “El Trip,” “Culo,” “Libertad,” and “Noches Sin Dormir.” Written by Ben Carrillo in collaboration with Ana Bejarano and Harlan Silverman, the single talks about those love stories that make you feel happy anywhere, any time, and in any situation.

Harlan Silverman produced “Zoom Zoom” relying on reggae beats, strong bass sounds, and guitar rhythms. Carrillo reveals that his music and lyrics reflect his Latino roots and are all about family, love, work, and respect for women, “My songs have lyrics that make a difference to our culture. I write about my life and that of my people, about my opportunities, about being better every day, about the discipline that one must have to get ahead.”

Adding to his popularity with songs such as “Zoom Zoom,” “Reggaeton De Guatemala,” “Marijuana,” ft. Amenazzy and “Para Ella,” Ben Carrillo teams up with Vibras Lab to continue delivering more of his versatile work that showcases his multifaceted ingenuity.

Watch the Official Video for “Zoom Zoom” here:

Listen to “Zoom Zoom” here:

Watch The 1975 play ‘I’m In Love With You’ on ‘Jimmy Fallon’

The 1975 performed their recent single ‘I’m In Love With You’ on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon yesterday (November 10) – watch below.

READ MORE: The NME Big Read – The 1975: “I’d rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero”

The Manchester band, who are currently on their North American ‘At Their Very Best’ tour, appeared as the musical guests on last night’s episode of the US chat show.

Donning sharp suits, Matty Healy and co. played ‘I’m In Love With You’ on an understated studio set featuring a vintage rug and old fashioned lights. The song appears on the ’75’s fifth album ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’, which came out last month.

Tune in here:

The group kicked off their current headline tour in Uncasville, Connecticut last Thursday (November 3), where they debuted an ambitious and dazzling new stage design.

During a gig at Madison Square Garden in New York this week, frontman Healy ate raw meat, did push-ups and then crawled into a hollowed-out TV set as part of the ‘Consumption’ interlude.

In a five-star review of that same show, NME wrote: “It’s the kind of night that only The 1975 could host, the type of evening that leaves you buzzing and remembering why you love live music in the first place, walking home and thinking aloud, as one fan did before heading towards the subway: ‘I didn’t know how much I needed that’.”

You can check out a series of behind-the-scenes photographs from the band’s MSG afterparty here.

The 1975 are set to bring the ‘At Their Very Best’ tour to the UK and Ireland in January 2023. Find any remaining tickets here.

Lizzo shares first trailer from her forthcoming HBO documentary ‘Love Lizzo’

The first trailer for a new documentary about Lizzo‘s life and rise to fame has been shared.

READ MORE: Lizzo – ‘Special’ review: joyful superstar uplifts with self-assured, self-empowering bops

Love Lizzo, which was announced earlier this year by HBO, is being directed by Doug Pray, executive producer of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s 2018 documentary series The Defiant Ones.

In the trailer, which you can view below, the film explores her journey from childhood to her breakthrough as an artist.

It shows footage of the singer during her formative years in which she explains that she didn’t feel confident enough to think one day she could be performing songs on a stage for thousands of people.

She also says that she felt like giving up several times, and her music came very close to not being a thing after she saw door after door get slammed in her face.

It comes after she recently said she was bullied at school for being “different” and listening to Radiohead.

“It was a Black school, mostly Black and brown, Caribbean, I had Nigerian friends,” Lizzo said. “They were all listening to what was on the radio — Usher, Destiny’s Child, Ludacris — and I was into Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’. I kept it hidden, even when I was in a rock band, because I didn’t want to be made fun of by my peers — they’d yell, ‘White girl!’”

Love Lizzo will debut on HBO Max on November 24.

Meanwhile, the singer will head out on a UK and European tour in February 2023 – you can see her upcoming tour dates below and find any remaining tickets here.

February 2023
17 – Spektrum, Oslo, Norway
18 – Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark
20 – Barclays Arena, Hamburg, Germany
23 – Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands
24 – Sportpaleis, Antwerp, Belgium
27 – Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany
28 – Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin, Germany

March 2023
2 – Mediolanum Forum, Milan, Italy
3 – Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland
5 – Accor Arena, Paris, France
8 – OVO Hydro Arena, Glasgow
9 – Utilitia Arena, Birmingham
11 – AO Arena, Manchester
13 – 3Arena, Dublin
15 – The O2, London

Stormzy has “made peace” with the idea that no one may like ‘This Is What I Mean’

Stormzy has spoken about his upcoming third album ‘This Is What I Mean’, saying he’s “made peace with the idea that no one may like it.”

READ MORE: Stormzy live at Reading Festival 2021: festival return is another rockstar moment

The follow-up to 2019’s ‘Heavy Is The Head’, ‘This Is What I Mean’ is due out November 25 and was previewed by lead single ‘Hide & Seek’.

Speaking about the new record in an interview with Rick Rubin for i-D, Stormzy explained how he finds it “impossible to figure out what people want from me.”

“This idea of being in the studio, thinking you have to make a certain kind of song… it’s the least creative place you can be,” he said. “And really, the audience doesn’t even know what they like – and I know that because I’m the same when I’m listening to music.”

Stormzy went on to say “the process of making this album has been very selfish.”

He continued: “One thing I tried to keep in mind when making the album was that I needed to love it. I need to love the music I make more than anyone else. It should be my pride and my joy.”

“It reflects the man I am and the man I’ve become,” he continued of ‘This Is What I Mean’. “It’s a reflection of growth. It’s not an attempt at music so much, it’s more me trying to hold up a mirror to myself.”

“I feel like this album unlocks whatever freedom I’ve been looking for – both as a man and as a creative. It allows me to spread my wings,” Stormzy said. “I’ve made peace with the idea that no one may like it.”

The rapper has previously spoken about the “beautiful” and “spiritual” experience of recording his new album on a secluded island and revealed that he’s written a song that he reckons is worthy of this year’s Christmas Number One.

Jarvis Cocker on Pulp reunion tour: “I’m sure we’ll probably play in places around the world”

Jarvis Cocker has said that Pulp will “probably play” more shows worldwide, following the announcement of their UK and Ireland reunion tour.

READ MORE: Pulp’s 10 best songs – as voted by you

Over the summer, Cocker confirmed that the Sheffield band would be hitting the road next year for their first gigs together since 2012. He then teased last week that “big” news was coming, before Pulp detailed a run of UK and Ireland shows for summer ’23.

When asked how extensive their touring plans were by BBC Radio 6 Music‘s Lauren Laverne, Cocker said, “This country is the country that made Pulp famous, where we sold most records and where we knew most people.” He added: “I’m sure that we’ll probably play in other places around the world, but it just seemed appropriate to do it here first.”

Elsewhere in the interview, he discussed how his view of Pulp has changed over the years. “I suppose I had some difficulty when we first became really famous because I wanted that since being a little kid so there was no way it was going to match up to what I imagined it to be,” he said. “I try not to think about myself much, but it’s the biggest thing that ever happened to me, to dream of being a pop star then to actually be one.”

Yesterday, (November 3) Pulp shared that Wet Leg will be joining them at their huge Finsbury Park show. There are likely to be further acts announced for that outdoor date in the coming months.

Richard Hawley, who was briefly a member of Pulp in the early ’00s, is due to open for Cocker and co. at both of their hometown gigs in Sheffield. No other support acts for the upcoming tour have been announced currently.

Sharing the news on social media, Cocker wrote: “You won’t just get to hear Pulp on this tour next year. Tickets go on sale in just under 24 hours. Set your alarm.” Hawley, meanwhile, said he was “very much looking forward to” his dates with Pulp. Elsewhere, Wet Leg wrote: “If you’re starting to think about Christmas..DON’T. Just don’t.. Think about this gig in July instead… that’s better isn’t it.”

Pulp bassist Steve Mackey has confirmed that he won’t be joining the band on the road next year. “I’ve decided to continue the work I’m engaged in – music, filmmaking and photography projects,” he said.

“Wishing Candy, Nick, Mark and Jarvis the very best with forthcoming performances in the UK and also an enormous thanks to Pulp’s amazing fanbase, many of whom have sent me lovely messages today.”

Sam Fender’s brother Liam teases hopeful debut single ‘Love Will Conquer’: “It’s all for the taking”

Sam Fender’s older brother Liam has teased his hopeful debut single ‘Love Will Conquer’ and confirmed a headline show at Newcastle’s Riverside. Check out our interview with Fender below, alongside an exclusive snippet of the track.

READ MORE: Sam Fender live in Newcastle: a euphoric homecoming for the Toon’s finest

‘Love Will Conquer’ will be released tomorrow (October 28) and is the first proper release from Liam Fender. “It’s been a long time coming,” he told NME of his debut single.

Fender went on to say the dreamy indie anthem is about “that feeling of togetherness in turbulent times. I’ve certainly felt that over the last few years, the world’s been going to hell in a handcart.” The song, which champions believing in yourself and other people, has “a universal message” according to the musician: “It’s about optimism and how things can always get better.”

The video for ‘Love Will Conquer’ is set in the Fish Quay of Fender’s hometown of North Shields and sees Jacob Anderton as an aspiring musician, playing pub gigs to disinterested crowds while wrestling with self-belief. It is auto-biographical “to a degree” Fender explained, although he’s never actually been a trawlerman. “But it’s a story that a lot of people in the North East scene know well, as they slog away, trying to get their music out there and doing the gigs that they have to in order to pay the bills.”

Check out a snippet below:

Musically, Fender takes inspiration from “people who always follow their own path”, listing David Bowie, Tom Waits, Richard Hawley as key influences. “Coming from the North, there’s a certain romance in songwriting that I grew up with.”

“I’m really impressed by Arctic Monkey’s new stuff,” he continued. “They’ve taken on this crooner-ish feel and I know that’s influenced by Americana, but that romanticism of a bygone era is also something that’s deeply rooted in northern, working class towns. I’ve always drawn upon that.”

Fender has been writing songs for over 20 years now and spent a bulk of his twenties self-releasing EPs and playing the pub circuit. “It runs in the family,” he explained. “My dad was a musician and I come from a musical household. I was always fascinated by these bizarre characters and anarchist musicians that would come over to the house. I loved how they just followed their own path so from a really young age, I just wanted to do that.”

He played his first gig aged 13 as a stand-in drummer for his dad’s mate’s band “and that’s where the bug really started. For better or worse, it’s always what I’ve wanted to do,” he explained. After struggling to make it and feeling “pretty disillusioned” with music in general, though, Fender took “a good few years out.”

“It’s really refreshing now, because I’ve fallen back in love with music. Everything feels exciting again,” he said.

But why now? “Sam’s stuff has really taken off over the last few years to a fairly crazy level,” explained Fender, who realised there was an audience for the raw, authentic, character-driven stories he was writing. “I just thought that if I didn’t have another shot at things now, I never would.”

Fender goes on to say that while Sam’s success has inspired him, he’s “not jumping on the bandwagon”. “We’re two very different artists, and I think we’ve inspired each other over the years,” he explained.

Growing up, there was no chance of Liam and Sam making the Newcastle version of Oasis though. “There’s a nine-year age gap between us, so I was too busy mopping up his sick and trying to stop him from ruining my instruments,” Fender laughed.

Earlier this year, Liam did join Sam onstage at Newcastle Arena to perform ‘The Dying Light’. “I’d been working on this project long before that but that certainly reminded me that this is something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Fender before describing the experience as “exhilarating and surreal.”

Fender went on to say that because of the age gap between him and his brother “there’s absolutely no rivalry there.” The siblings don’t text each other for advice, either. “If I gave him advice, he wouldn’t listen. Same if he tried to give me any advice. We do talk about the madness of it all though, and have a laugh about it all,” said Fender. “We’ve both always followed our own path though, and don’t like to interfere beyond listening to what each other are working on.”

Liam knows there are “definitely some expectations” that come with being related to one of the biggest rockstars in the country. “There’s a bit of pressure and it feels daunting but it’s also entertaining,” he said. “I didn’t think at the age of 37 I’d be putting out music in any meaningful sense, considering all my mates are having kids and settling down.”

“I don’t have any massive expectations and I’m not trying to become a big star or anything like that,” he added. “I just want to make music that I’m proud of.” He is currently sat on a handful of other songs that are “quite different” to ‘Love Will Conquer’ but “sit in place next to each other” and aren’t “totally sporadic”. There is also talk of an EP next year, followed by a “great” album: “That’s the ambition at the moment. What comes after that? Who knows. It’s all there for the taking really.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Liam Fender (@liamfender)

Liam is currently in rehearsals for his headline show at Newcastle’s Riverside on December 8, with tickets going on sale tomorrow. “I’m not one for doing things by half, so I’ve got a band of top musicians from the North East that I’ve handpicked,” he said.

“I’ve had people who’ve known me for years get really excited about the fact I’m getting back out there and giving it a go. That response has been really encouraging. I’m looking forward to the ride.”

He added: “There’s always an element of belief in what you do, but there’s always an element of doubt as well. If it feels good to me though, I know I’m doing the best I can.”

Liam Fender’s debut single ‘Love Will Conquer’ will be released tomorrow (October 28).

Watch Leslie Jordan’s reaction to Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ in resurfaced video

A video showing Leslie Jordan’s reaction to ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion has resurfaced online following the actor’s death.

Jordan died aged 67 on Monday (October 24) following a car accident in Los Angeles. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, local law enforcement confirmed that the actor was driving a BMW when he crashed into the side of a building.

Since the news of his death was announced, many have shared clips from Jordan’s Instagram videos, which went viral at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and earned him a new generation of fans.

One of the most shared clips is his reaction to ‘WAP’, where he describes the track’s explicit lyrics as “just shocking”.

Remember when Leslie was listening to WAP for the first time ? pic.twitter.com/NkSwew21mE

— ? (@heyjaeee) October 24, 2022

“I don’t judge,” Jordan remarks in the clip. “To each his own. I guess every garbage can has its lid.”

Jordan is best known for starring in Will and Grace, American Horror Story and Hearts Afire, along with supporting roles in The Help, Call Me Kat and The Cool Kids.

Cardi B paid tribute to Jordan on Twitter, writing: “I love him.”

???I love him https://t.co/aLUQxfUWzB

— Cardi B (@iamcardib) October 24, 2022

Dolly Parton also paid tribute on Instagram in a statement, writing: “Well I am as hurt and shocked as if I have lost a family member.

“Leslie and I had a special bond, I think the world felt they had a special bond with him. I know people always say, ‘Oh, they will be missed’ but in this case that could not be more true. He will be missed by everyone who knew him personally and by everyone who was entertained by him. Rest in peace lil’ brother.”

Other stars to pay tribute included his Will And Grace co-star Sean Hayes, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dylan McDermott.

New Chvrches and Sons & Daughters side-project Protection share the ravey ‘Still Love You’

Iain Cook of Chvrches and fellow Glaswegian musician and producer Scott Paterson formerly of Sons & Daughters have launched new project, Protection. Check out their debut single ‘Still Love You’ exclusively on NME below, along with our interview with the duo.

READ MORE: Chvrches on karaoke bangers, Robert Smith and a decade together

Released via Saint Luck Records/The Orchard tomorrow (Friday October 21), ‘Still Love You’ calls upon elements of the dance music of the past with a very modern and future-facing edge.

“’Still Love You’ just evolved naturally, but retrospectively I feel like it’s got parallels with early techno and house from the ‘80s,” Paterson told NME. “We weren’t referencing it at the time, but I can hear echoes of it now. We weren’t trying to be retro or pastiche, because I feel like it’s a really modern track.”

Cook agreed, adding: “I also feel like it has a bit of a flavour of Daft Punk. We also put some stuff from old psychedelic records in there in the background.”

The pair first met “many moons ago” in the mid-2000s when they were both in bands, but came together via a mutual friend, many shared tastes in music and film, and love of wasting time playing Street Fighter.

“It wasn’t until last Spring when we were listening to a lot more new music through being holed up during lockdown and all that when Scott said, ‘Do you fancy doing something together?’ and we asked ourselves why he hadn’t done that yet,” said Iain.

“We set ourselves a few fun rules to play around with in terms of how it would be creatively. That just gave us a framework and a little bit of focus. We would each start with a sketch of an idea with only two or three elements at most, and then swap it over with no comments or direction to see where it would go. We just kept that process going, and it was a really fun and democratic way to start the project.”

Paterson added: “We’ve got more in common than we don’t. There’s maybe some stuff on the outskirts that the hardcore prog and black metal that’s not for me. After 16 years of being friends and never making music together, lockdown seemed like a great opportunity for that. We just did it for fun.”

Chvrches with The Cure’s Robert Smith at the BandLab NME Awards 2022. Credit: Zoe McConnell

Speaking of the rest of the material they have in the bag, Paterson explained how the duo have “30 songs in various stages of completion” that are “all over the place – in a really exciting way”.

“Everything has been really organic and there has been so much variety in the music that we’ve been making because it was just for fun and made in the moment,” he said. “None of the other music we’ve made sounds like ‘Still Love You’. There’s high-tempo breakbeat stuff, there’s ambient stuff, there’s all sorts. It’s almost like you’re making a mixtape of your favourite music for a friend.”

Cook agreed: “There was a composer who once said that we all make music about the music we love. That feels true to me as an artist. Without being derivative, if I’m listening to a lot of stuff that I’ve not heard before then I get inspired to write.

“When you’re starting a new project, it’s very much like feeling out the boundaries of what we can and want to do. Listening back, we found there weren’t many boundaries but a lot of connective tissue between the songs. If you were to ask me what it was, I don’t think I could tell you.”

For now, the pair are focussing on “having fun”, with plans to release some EPs in the next year, and hopefully an album on the horizon as they’re “figuring out” how to translate the project into the live arena.

“We’re just very keen for this to be our true selves and not trying to obfuscate that or hide behind anything,” said Paterson. “We’re making the music that we love and it’s influenced by all that we love. We’re not going to dress up or anything!”

As for the future of Chvrches, Cook explained that the trio have a show in Jakarta before a tour of Australia and Japan as well as support dates in Brazil with Coldplay. Then, they’ll start to work on the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed ‘Screen Violence‘.

“I’m pretty certain we’ll get round to album five in time, but there hasn’t really been any debate yet about when we’ll start that, but I’m sure it’s coming,” he said.

Meanwhile Paterson, who has also played with the likes of March Of Dimes and The Kills, said that he’d be putting his all into upcoming material from Protection.

“This is my full-time thing at the moment,” he said. “Over the last 10 or 11 years I’ve been working and touring a lot with my friends’ bands on guitars, bass and keys. I’ve also been producing and co-writing a lot, but at the moment that’s all on hold while we’re doing this.”

Chvrches also recently told NME that they’d been thinking about ways to mark 10 years of their debut album ‘The Bones Of What You Believe‘ in 2023.

Ed Sheeran had “already started” writing James Bond theme when he was replaced by Billie Eilish

Ed Sheeran has said he’d already “started writing” the theme song for No Time To Die when he was replaced by Billie Eilish.

Back in 2019, Sheeran’s manager revealed that the star had met James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli two years prior to discuss penning the official track for the most recent film in the hit spy franchise.

READ MORE: Ed Sheeran – ‘=’ review: the millennial Lionel Richie indulges his saccharine streak

Danny Boyle, who worked with Sheeran on Richard Curtis’ Yesterday (2019), was lined up to direct the 25th Bond movie at the time (he later quit due to “creative differences”, with Cary Joji Fukunaga taking over the role).

“Obviously they changed directors but we’re still open to it,” Stuart Camp explained. “But they’re not even having those conversations yet.”

He added: “It’s certainly something [Sheeran would] want to do though, it’s a box that’s still to be ticked, for sure.”

But the No Time To Die theme ended up going to Billie Eilish, who went on to win her first Oscar for the song.

During an appearance on That Peter Crouch Podcast this week, Sheeran explained: “I was within a fucking gnat’s pube of doing one [a Bond theme], but then they changed directors, changed scripts and that was it all done.

“I had started writing it. I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t hurt not doing it.”

Sheeran went on to say that his Bond dream isn’t over yet, however: “I think eventually as an English singer you’ve got to eventually do a Bond song. If they come back I’ll be like, ‘Yeah yeah, of course’.”

Sheeran had talked about potentially writing a track for a James Bond film during an interview in 2014, but admitted that he may not be the right artist.

“I’d love to do a James Bond song, but can you imagine it?” he said. “I just wasn’t born with the James Bond voice. You never know – I’m not ruling it out. Maybe in 10 years time, when my balls drop…”

He added: “I think the James Bond theme tune should be ballsy. I feel like if I was going to do it, it would sound a bit wet.”

Sheeran recently opened up, meanwhile, about the impact that Queen Elizabeth II‘s Golden Jubilee had on his career.

Watch Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett perform two songs together live in the US

Marcus Mumford‘s solo tour featured a performance with his Mumford & Sons bandmate Ben Lovett at The Midland Theatre in Kansas City last night (October 18) – watch footage of the show above.

READ MORE: Marcus Mumford on solo album ‘(self-titled)’: “I’ve never felt so fulfilled around a project”

After travelling out to the show, Lovett got on stage to perform the band’s singles ‘I Will Wait’ and ‘Ditmas’, taken from their 2012 album ‘Babel’ and 2015’s ‘Wilder Mind’ respectively.

Marcus Mumford is scheduled to embark on a UK and Ireland headline tour in November – you can find any remaining tickets here and see the full list of dates below. It’ll follow his current run of North American concerts – you can buy any remaining tickets here.

NOVEMBER 2022
14 – Leadmill, Sheffield
15 – 02 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
18 – The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA, Norwich
19 – 02 Institute 1, Birmingham
20 – Uni Great Hall, Exeter
22 – Marble Factory, Bristol
23 – Albert Hall, Manchester
24 – Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool
26 – SWG3 Galvanisers, Glasgow
28 – Olympia, Dublin

The singer previously performed the single ‘Grace’, taken from his new album, on The Late Late Show With James Corden earlier this month (October 1).

In an interview about the album with NME, Mumford spoke of how ‘Grace’ was written about the moment he told his mother of the sexual abuse he experienced as a child, which is explored on debut single and album opener ‘Cannibal’.

Reviewing ‘(self-titled)’ upon its release in September, NME wrote: “While it is undoubtedly an emotional and often heart-breaking listen, it’s also a record full of defiance, hope and faith. It shows that even after the deepest, most cutting trauma, it’s somehow possible to find peace and begin again.

“Mumford recently told NME that writing this album “saved” him; it’s likely to help save many others too.”

The 1975’s Matty Healy on his Rage Against The Machine comments at Leeds Festival: “We fucking love Rage so much”

The 1975‘s Matty Healy has looked back on the on-stage comments he made at Leeds Festival about replacing Rage Against The Machine as Reading & Leeds 2022 headliners, clarifying that he and his bandmates “fucking love Rage so much”.

READ MORE: The 1975 on the cover: “I’d rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero”

The 1975 were called up to replace RATM as headliners just two weeks before the twin festivals took place in August, with the latter pulling out due to frontman Zack de la Rocha’s ongoing leg injury.

Speaking on stage at Leeds Festival on August 26, Healy told the crowd: “I’m sorry we’re not Rage Against The Machine, but who’s Rage Against The Machine?

“I mean, give it up for the greatest rock band of the previous generation, ladies and gentlemen please… Being literally in Rage Against The Machine and having a gammy leg is quite funny, though.”

Healy, who subsequently praised RATM during The 1975’s Reading headline set two nights later, later clarified his comments following a social media backlash, adding that he intended to say: “I’m sorry we’re not Rage Against The Machine, but who can be Rage Against The Machine?”

The 1975's Matty Healy on the cover of NME — The 1975’s Matty Healy on the cover of NME

Speaking to NME in The 1975’s latest Big Read about his RATM comments, Healy said: “I watched it back and I was like, ‘That delivery was so bad!’

“There are no records that me and George [Daniel, drummer] know more than Rage. Even ‘Renegades’. We fucking love Rage so much. I think I was so conflicted by how weird it was for me to even accept putting myself in the same league as them that I couldn’t even get my words out right.”

Healy then added: ”If I’d have slagged Rage off then I would have leaned into it and had a bit ready. I’m not scared of doing that!”

Read the full NME Big Read cover story interview with The 1975 here, where Healy also discussed cancel culture and quitting Twitter as well as the view that The 1975 are a “post-Arctic Monkeys” band, and the heart and humour on their new record.

The 1975’s new album ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ was released last Friday (October 14) – you can read the NME review here.

The band will be heading out on a UK tour in January 2023. Visit here for tickets and more information.

Lauv teams up with (G)I-DLE’s Minnie for performance of ‘All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love)’

Lauv and (G)I-DLE vocalist Minnie recently teamed up to perform the American singer-songwriter’s single ‘All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love)’.

READ MORE: (G)I-DLE live in Singapore: K-pop quintet close the curtains on a tumultuous yet triumphant era

On the October 15 episode of South Korean music show Music Universe K-909, the two singers united for a live performance of ‘All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love)’, from Lauv’s August 2022 album ‘All 4 Nothing’. Lauv and Minnie performed a stripped-down acoustic version of the track atop a stage decorated with flowers, with the former playing the guitar.

“I’m so in love, I’m so in love / I don’t ever wanna stop this ride that we’re on / I don’t ever wanna say goodbye / ‘Cause then all of those nights / They would just be all for nothing,” they sing on the chorus.

Shortly after the performance aired, the (G)I-DLE singer took to Instagram to share photos taken backstage with Lauv. “It was a pleasure to perform with you and I had so much fun working with you,” she wrote in the accompanying caption.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MINNIE (@min.nicha)

The performance came ahead of (G)I-DLE’s fifth mini-album ‘I Love’, which dropped today (October 17) at 6PM KST. The release was accompanied with a luxurious Marilyn Monroe-Monroe-inspired visual for its lead single ‘Nxde’.

During a media showcase for the release, leader Soyeon revealed that the song and video hoped to challenge the perceptions and connotations surrounding the word “nude”.

‘I Love’ also includes five B-sides, two of which – ‘Change’ and ‘Sculpture’ – were produced by Minnie. The Thai-born K-pop star has produced several tracks for the girl group since 2019, including ‘Blow Your Mind’, ‘Moon’ and ‘Already’.

Listen to Madison Beer’s ’60s-inspired single ‘Showed Me (How I Fell In Love With You)’

Madison Beer has released her new single ‘Showed Me (How I Fell In Love With You)’ – watch the video for the track below.

READ MORE: Madison Beer on the cover: “I have a voice and it deserves to be heard”

‘Showed Me’ premiered on BBC’s Radio 1 yesterday (October 13), with the music video being debuted on MTV today. The song is the latest to come from Beer’s upcoming project, which is the follow-up to her 2021 debut ‘Life Support’.

The ’60s-inspired track samples The Turtles, with the accompanying music video showing Beer as a femme fatale that manages to best a playboy poker player, while wearing looks from Laquan Smith, Balenciaga, and Tom Ford’s Gucci.

“Writing and making the video for ‘Showed Me’ was a really unique experience,” Beer said. “This song samples The Turtles ‘You Showed Me.’ I’ve never used sampling or interpolation on a song before, but I’m always looking for new ways to experiment in the studio and pay homage to the classic sounds and melodies I loved growing up. This song is the perfect culmination of those things.”

‘Showed Me’ follows ‘Dangerous’, which was released in August and was Beer’s first new music for 2022. Speaking to NME, she described it as “definitely the most personal song I’ve done”.

“I was inspired lyrically to write the song from a place that I hadn’t yet,” she explained, adding that while previous “break-up songs” like ‘Selfish’ or ‘Reckless’ were loaded with “digs at whoever I was writing it about”, ‘Dangerous’ was driven by a different mindset.

She continued: “I wanted to write it from the place where I’ve been where there’s no anger, and there’s no resentment and there’s not regret; it’s just truly reflecting and missing and reminiscing a bit.

“It was really difficult, as I had to be really honest with myself, but I felt ready to bring this new perspective.”

Speaking about her forthcoming project, she said: “Right now there are a few [songs] that fit, a few that don’t, and I just have to figure out how to blend them. But we’re definitely approaching the finish line.”

Queen share rediscovered track featuring Freddie Mercury, ‘Face It Alone’

Queen have shared a rediscovered track featuring Freddie Mercury – listen to ‘Face It Alone’ below.

Over the summer, Roger Taylor and Brian May revealed that they had unearthed a previously unreleased song by the band that had been sung by their late frontman.

READ MORE: Queen’s Freddie Mercury: the maddest stories about rock’s best-loved hellraiser

“And it’s wonderful,” Taylor told Zoe Ball during an interview on BBC Radio 2. “Actually, it was a real discovery. It’s from the ‘Miracle’ [1989] sessions.” May described the tune as “beautiful” and “touching”, adding: “It was kind of hiding in plain sight.”

Today (October 13), Queen have released the stirring song along with an official lyric video – you can watch it below.

Fans can also pre-order a special 7″ vinyl edition of ‘Face It Alone’, which is due to arrive on November 18.

Additionally, the track will appear on a limited collector’s edition box set of Queen’s 13th studio album ‘The Miracle’. Per a press release, the eight-disc release boasts an hour-plus disc of previously unreleased recordings, including six unpublished songs.

A series of candid spoken exchanges in the studio will also offer “the most revealing window yet into the four members’ creative process and the joy, in-jokes and banter on their return to working together”.

You can pre-order the collection here (also released on November 18).

‘Face It Alone’ marks the first new song featuring Freddie Mercury to be released in over eight years.

Since Mercury’s death in 1991, Queen have released a number of previously unheard tracks featuring the frontman. In 2014, they shared the compilation album ‘Queen Forever’, which was comprised of songs recorded in the ‘80s that had been “forgotten about”.

(G)I-DLE unveil sombre music video for B-side ‘DARK (X-File)’, ahead of ‘I Love’

(G)I-DLE have dropped a music video for ‘DARK (X-File)’, a new song set to appear on their forthcoming record ‘I Love’.

READ MORE: (G)I-DLE live in Singapore: K-pop quintet close the curtains on a tumultuous yet triumphant era

The new visual, shared on October 12, begins with a film roll with the text “Hide it so you can never find it” superimposed, followed by the letter “X”. The haunting video cuts to the five members of (G)I-DLE after what seems like a rough night. The portion of ‘DARK (X-File) on the video is an abridged version of the song, clocking in at 1 minute and 26 seconds long.

‘DARK (X-File)’ will appear as a B-side off the girl group’s forthcoming mini-album ‘I Love’, due out on October 17 at 6pm KST in full. According to the tracklist shared last week, ‘DARK (X-File)’ was co-composed by member Yuqi and the lyrics were penned by Soyeon.

The other tracks set to appear on ‘I Love’, including lead single ‘Nxde’, were also previewed earlier this week with an “audio snippet” video. ‘DARK (X-File)’ was the only song to be excluded from the preview. This rollout is similar to ‘My Bag’ from their March studio album ‘I Never Die’, which was released days before the record as well as its title track ‘Tomboy’ dropped.

‘I Never Die’ received four stars in a review by NME’s Tanu I. Raj, who described the record as a “revelatory experience”. “‘I Never Die’ is less of a proclamation and more of an assurance for (G)I-DLE themselves – peel away the bravado, gumption and even the wondrous layers, and you’ll find a simple promise: no matter what, they will always make it through, and they will always be here.”

The five-piece’s return to music comes shortly after they concluded the final stop of the ‘Just Me ()I-DLE’ world tour, which took place in Singapore earlier this month. The tour first began in Seoul in June, before the quintet went on to tour North and South America across July and August. The Asian leg – which included stops in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines – marked the final stretch of their global trek.

Stevie Nicks and Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart share new Ukraine relief song ‘Face To Face’

Stevie Nicks has featured on a new collaborative song to raise money for the Ukraine relief effort.

The song, ‘Face To Face’, is part of the ‘Collaborate For Peace’ project from Eurythmics‘ Dave Stewart, Russian musician Boris Grebenshchikov and Ukrainian Serhii Babkin. All proceeds will go to the Global United24 initiative from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Nicks said in a statement: “Since the day the war began, I have carried Ukraine and its people in my heart. I am so honoured to sing on this song written by my friend Dave Stewart, Boris Grebenshchikov and Serhii Babkin. I hope it reminds people to continue to support Ukraine. I remind people during my shows to remember — this war is not over…”

“I wanted to write a gentle, peaceful song after seeing all the horrible images coming out of Ukraine,” Stewart added. “The song is about how all war is horrific and it’s written from the perspective of a young 18-year-old having to march off to war, not really understanding what he’s getting into.”

Babkin said: “It’s a great honour for me to be a part of this song and to record with such legendary musicians. I’m very grateful to Dave Stewart, Boris Grebenshchikov and Stevie Nicks for their support of Ukraine. Today, Ukrainian people suffer so much because of the war that Russia unleashed. I want to express not only that terrible pain but also a hope. With my part of the song, I want to say: It won’t always be like this. It’s a cruel fight between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness. And Light will prevail, I truly believe it will!”

Listen to ‘Face To Face’ below.

Back in February at the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Nicks shared a heartfelt statement, saying: “This is Hitler coming back to haunt us. In one evening – until now, an entire sovereign country has been full on invaded. How dare he. My heart is broken for our new friend – and for people of Ukraine – I am so, so sorry. Love and prayers for them.”

Nicks is currently touring the US – see her forthcoming dates below, and purchase any remaining tickets here.

OCTOBER 2022
09 – The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
12 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
16 – Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater
19 – Charleston, SC – CreditOne Stadium
22 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
25 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
28 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre

Neil Young and Crazy Horse announce upcoming album ‘World Record’, share new single ‘Love Earth’

Neil Young has announced ‘World Record’, a new album the singer created with his band Crazy Horse.

READ MORE: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – ‘Barn’ review: rugged and rural beauty, with a sense of hope

The 10-song album will be released on November 18, and was produced by Rick Rubin at his Shangri-La studios in Malibu. The same studio was previously used by Young to record his 2016 album, ‘Peace Trail’. On ‘World Record’, Young provides vocals across the album’s tracklist alongside instrumentation from Crazy Horse, all of which was recorded live and mixed to analogue tape by Rubin.

Coinciding with the announcement, Young and Crazy Horse have today shared the first song from ‘World Record’, a tribute to mother nature titled ‘Love Earth’. The track sees Young muse on earth’s beauty, likening blue skies and crystal waters to a fanciful romance. “We lived by the sun and had it all”, Young sings, “We were living in a dream”. Listen to that below:

‘World Record’ comes after a recent album tease from Young during an episode of Rubin’s ‘Broken Record’ podcast. During his conversation with the producer, Young promised that ‘World Record’ would feature “unheard of combinations of instruments,” and also discussed the songwriting process involved in making the album.

‘World Record’ will arrive the same year as ‘Toast’, the most recent album from Young and Crazy Horse released in July. That project — which was previewed by the single ‘Timberline’ — was originally written in 2001, but was later shelved due to it being “so sad at the time that I couldn’t put it out,” Young said.

Prior to that, the band last year released ‘Barn’, which marked Young’s 14th joint album with Crazy Horse at the time. The record featured the single ‘Heading West’, and was the basis of a making-of documentary directed by the Daryl Hannah. In a four-star review of ‘Barn’, NME said the album proves “that Neil Young remains as vital as he always has been.”

Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s ‘World Record’ tracklist is:

1. ‘Love Earth’
2. ‘Overhead’
3. ‘I Walk With You (earth ringtone)’
4. ‘This Old Planet (changing days)’
5. ‘The World (is in trouble now)’
6. ‘Break The Chain’
7. ‘The Long Day Before’
8. ‘Walkin’ On The Road (to the future)’
9. ‘The Wonder Won’t Wait’
10. ‘Chevrolet’
11. ‘This Old Planet reprise’

Ian Brown addresses negative reaction to opening of UK tour: “HATERS HATE AND LOVERS LOVE!”

At his Glasgow gig on Monday night (September 26), Ian Brown responded to criticism of the opening of his UK tour the previous evening.

Last Sunday (September 25), Brown began his first UK headline tour in a decade at Leeds’ O2 Academy. Following the show, fans shared their anger after the Stone Roses singer played his sold out big with no band, with some likening the performance to “karaoke”.

One attendee in Leeds described the show as Brown “[doing] karaoke and [butchering] his own tunes,” adding: “Gutted to see Ian Brown turn up to his £40 a ticket, sold out gig at leeds tonight WITH NO BAND.

“I’m a life long fan but it was bad. Ian Brown does karaoke and butchers his own tunes. Most were too pissed to care but I had to get out after this one.”

At the Glasgow gig – the second show on the tour – Brown stopped a song midway through to indirectly reference the criticism, and say that he believed everyone at the Leeds show was having a great time.

“Last night we played in Leeds,” he told the crowd, “and all there was was hands in the air, all the way to the back.”

After the Glasgow show, Brown shared footage from the show and wrote: “THANK YOU GLASGOW I LOVE YOU X.”

In another tweet, he added: “HATERS HATE AND LOVERS LOVE!”

Ian Brown took time out of his set in Glasgow this evening to address the negative press around his opening night! ? pic.twitter.com/l0pcFS2AkU

— Robbie Hanratty (@RHanratty99) September 26, 2022

THANK YOU GLASGOW I LOVE YOU X pic.twitter.com/X9xgWzLN8F

— Ian Brown (@ianbrown) September 27, 2022

GLASGOW. HATERS HATE AND LOVERS LOVE! https://t.co/QlfHexHeW8

— Ian Brown (@ianbrown) September 27, 2022

The Glasgow show received a significantly warmer reaction than the previous show in Leeds, with one fan tweeting: “Don’t always believe what you read on Twitter! Ian Brown absolutely smashed it out the fucking park in Glasgow tonight. Fantastic performance.”

Another added: “Ian Brown in Glasgow tonight using his own brain, doing the unexpected, doing his own thing. That’s what makes him Ian Brown. If u went looking for the norm or Roses tunes then u are 5 years too late and at the wrong gig. Love his solo stuff, love him, great night.”

“He doesn’t need a band. Blew the roof off,” another impressed fan wrote after the show. See a range of reactions to Brown’s Glasgow gig below.

Don’t always believe what you read on Twitter! @ianbrown absolutely smashed it out the fucking park in Glasgow tonight. Fantastic performance ?

— Alan Foster (@mralanfoster) September 26, 2022

@ianbrown in Glasgow tonight using his own brain, doing the unexpected, doing his own thing. That's what makes him Ian Brown. If u went looking for the norm or Roses tunes then u are 5 years too late and at the wrong gig. Love his solo stuff, love him, great night. ?

— MB (@yes_we_can2scot) September 26, 2022

Absolute class at @ianbrown in Glasgow last night. He doesn’t need a band. Blew the roof off. Brilliant ???????

— Katy Ince (@ktincey) September 27, 2022

Nothing but positivity for Ian Brown @ianbrown in Glasgow @O2AcademyGla ?? here's First World Problems pic.twitter.com/GA4PDY8Vjq

— red rocks YT (@redrocksYT1) September 26, 2022

Despite the negative press, had a great night seeing @ianbrown in glasgow. Great night, great party? pic.twitter.com/HN6znH1Avv

— Scottaaay (@HigherPrimate_) September 27, 2022

Ian Brown in Glasgow – not for me, left early. I go to see a band play not a disco/light show with one singer, such a shame. Glad others seemed to enjoy it though #ianbrown #glasgow

— Albert (@AlbertBrambler) September 26, 2022

@ianbrown don’t really know how to work Twitter. Just back from your Glasgow gig. All I can say is fuck the haters,that was the best gig I’ve been to in a long time. You were amazing from start to finish. The crowd loved you. Thanks for a great night. I needed that. One love ?

— Debbie Roberts (@Debsdr) September 26, 2022

@ianbrown was bloody brilliant at 02 Glasgow last night. Whole place was buzzing. Everyone entitled to own opinion but whole crowd was buzzing last night pic.twitter.com/3f46YMX6l1

— siobhan devlin (@siobhandevlin20) September 27, 2022

Brown’s headline tour continues tomorrow (September 29) at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall. See the remaining dates on the tour below and pick up tickets here.

SEPTEMBER 2022
26 – Glasgow, O2 Academy
27 – Edinburgh, O2 Academy
29 – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
30 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse

OCTOBER 2022
1 – Liverpool, Mountford Hall
3 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
4 – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
6 – Nottingham, Rock City
7 – London, O2 Academy Brixton

London’s Oval Space licence under review after alleged shooting

The licence of London venue Oval Space is under review after an alleged shooting on the premises last month.

READ MORE: Independent Venue Week 2022 – “Now more than ever, small venues need to be shouted about”

As reported by Mixmag, the club is under threat of closure after “a serious incident” occurred when a firearm was discharged within the venue on August 30. Tower Hamlets council has a document detailing the allegations in full here.

The grounds for the review are as follows: “That in the opinion of a senior police officer of the Metropolitan Police the above premises are associated with serious crime and disorder or both and concerns in relation to public safety and prevention of public nuisance. Lack of management of the premises and lack of adequate searching leading to serious incident to take place.”

According to the report, police were called to the nearby Temple Street at 4.20am after a member of the public found a man with injuries to both his legs on the street.

The injured man was reportedly seen on CCTV running from Oval Space and was being chased by another man. In an interview with the police, it’s claimed that the man said that bullets were fired in the venue, causing him to flee.

Two members of security who were working on the night of the incident stated in the report that they “did not see any altercation occur outside the club” at the time. Another security guard claimed there was “bang on the dancefloor” at 4.15am, which was assumed to be “the sound of a balloon bursting”. Security turned on house lights to search the venue, and at that point many revellers left the club.

CCTV footage allegedly shows a man, who was said to regularly attend the club with promoters, bypassing the queue to enter the venue. In the footage he can reportedly be seen being passed a bag by the suspected shooter, which police believe contained the firearm, and skipping the security check before handing the bag back to the suspect.

A police officer confirmed in the report that a firearm was discharged within Oval Space, which “has been seen on CCTV”. This officer also claimed that “five days of the investigation have been wasted as the General Manager [of Oval Space] was not contactable and has given the account that her phone was lost/stolen”.

NME has contacted Oval Space for comment.

The multi-purpose space in Bethnal Green has been rallying for support ahead of a key meeting with the Licensing Sub Committee. Organisers have urged people to join in a letter-writing campaign with the Night Time Industries Association to lobby Tower Hamlets. DJ Mag reports that the venue had seen more than 2,000 letters of support sent to Tower Hamlets Council in five days.

“Oval Space is an important cultural venue In London. Since opening in 2013, it has quickly developed a reputation as a key part of London’s cultural tapestry,” the club wrote on Instagram. “We need everyone to send representation in support of Oval Space through our pre-formatted letter which highlights the importance of these spaces in major cities across the country.”

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A post shared by Oval Space (@ovalspace)

“If you love our venue, have celebrated there, danced there, spoken there, and been inspired by our breadth of culturally diverse events, then please support us,” the club’s team said in another post.

The Licensing Sub Committee is due to meet today (September 27). A decision is expected within five days. Oval Space will have the option of appealing the decision if its licence is revoked.

“The appeal must be made to the Magistrates Court. A notice of appeal must be given to the justices’ chief executive for the Magistrates Court within a period of 21 days beginning with the day on which the appellant was notified by the Licensing Authority,” Tower Hamlets Council states on its website.

In other news, the bosses of London venue Printworks are in talks to reopen venue after its planned 2022 closure and area redevelopment.

Watch Yeah Yeah Yeahs debut new song ‘Lovebomb’ at Chicago show

Yeah Yeah Yeahs played a small show in Chicago earlier this week, where the trio debuted a new song from soon-to-be-released fifth album ‘Cool It Down’.

READ MORE: Yeah Yeah Yeahs live in Manchester: indie sleaze icons triumphantly kick off ‘Cool It Down’ era

The show was announced earlier this month and took place at the Metro in Chicago on Monday night (September 19). The band played unreleased song ‘Lovebomb’ – a slow-burner built around shimmery, atmospheric synths – and four other cuts from the band’s first album in nearly a decade, which is set to arrive next week.

Other ‘Cool It Down’ tracks on the setlist included the album’s lead single – the Perfume Genius-assisted ‘Spitting Off The Edge of The World’ – and last month’s ‘Burning’, along with the unreleased ‘Fleez’ and ‘Blacktop’, both of which the band have been previewing on tour in recent months. Watch fan-shot footage of ‘Lovebomb’ below:

Set to arrive on September 30, ‘Cool It Down’ will mark Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first album since 2013’s ‘Mosquito’, and follows a lengthy retreat from touring from 2014 onwards with only sporadic live performances in between.

“Our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed,” bandleader Karen O said in a statement announcing ‘Cool It Down’ earlier this year.

“Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days. So yes we’ve taken our time, happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.”

Pierre Kwenders wins 2022 Polaris Music Prize for ‘José Louis And The Paradox Of Love’

Congolese-Canadian musician José Louis Modabi – better known as Pierre Kwenders – has won this year’s Polaris Music Prize for latest album ‘José Louis And The Paradox Of Love’.

Kwenders will receive a monetary prize of $50,000 for winning, having been selected above fellow shortlisted acts such as Destroyer (‘LABYRINTHITIS’), Charlotte Day Wilson (‘ALPHA’), Ouri (‘Frame of a Fauna’) and Lisa LeBlanc (‘Chiac Disco’).

During an emotional acceptance speech during the ceremony at the Carlu in Toronto, Ontario Kwenders noted that in the past two months, he had lost his grandfather and two of his cousins.

“I remember the reason I do what I do and the reason why I do the music that I do and I tell the story that I tell with my music is to tell the story of the people that inspire me,” he noted. “All those three people that I mentioned inspired me as fuck.” Kwenders also thanked his manager and his collaborators on the album, including Arcade Fire‘s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne.

In an additional statement, Kwenders said: “This is for all the kids from the diaspora, the African diaspora, moving in Canada. Sometimes you feel like you don’t know what you’re running into, or what you’re coming into. But there is hope, there is a place to live and dream and be yourself.”

The Polaris Music Prize was launched in 2006, and this year marks the 17th iteration of the award, which honours the best Canadian album of the year based on artistic merit. This year, the winning album was selected by a jury of 11 music media professionals drawn from the wider Polaris jury pool of 197 writers, editors, broadcasters, DJs and personalities.

Last year’s Polaris Prize winner was Cadence Weapon, who presented Kwenders with his award. Previous winners have included Arcade Fire, Kaytranada, Fucked Up, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Feist and Backxwash.

Listen to Björk’s meditative new love song, ‘Ovule’

Björk has shared a new single called ‘Ovule’ – you can listen to it below.

The song serves as the second preview of the Icelandic artist’s 10th studio album ‘Fossora’, which is due for release on September 30 via One Little Independent Records (pre-order here).

READ MORE: Björk’s ‘Cornucopia’ live in London: an audacious, expectation-disrupting spectacular from an artist unbothered with people-pleasing

Following on from the track ‘Atopos’, Björk’s latest offering sees the singer present her own unique “definition of love” in a musical form.

Announcing ‘Ovule’ on social media today (September 14), Björk wrote: “It is a meditation about us as lovers walking around this world and I imagine 2 spheres or satellites following us around.

“One above us that represents ideal love, one below us representing the shadows of love and we ourselves walk around in the third sphere of real love, where the everyday monday-morning meet-in-the-kitchen-love lives in.”

The single arrives with a captivating official video – tune in below.

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A post shared by Björk (@bjork)

Speaking previously about the meaning behind ‘Fossora’, Björk explained that the album is about “a word i made up”, adding: “It is the feminine of fossore (digger, delver, ditcher), so in short it means ‘she who digs’ ( into the ground ).”

She said: “Each album always starts with a feeling that I try to shape into sound. This time around the feeling was landing on the earth and digging my feet into the ground.

“It was also woven into how I experienced the ‘now’. This time around 7 billion of us did it together nesting in our homes quarantining being long enough in one place that we shot down roots.”

In October 2021, Björk said that she’d made her new record “for people who are making clubs at home in their living room” during the COVID-enforced lockdowns.

Two songs from the LP – ‘Sorrowful Soil’ and ‘Ancestress’ – are said to be directed tributes to the singer’s mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018 aged 72. You can see the full tracklist below.

‘Atopos’
‘Ovule’
‘Mycelia’
‘Sorrowful Soil’
‘Ancestress’
‘Fagurt Er í Fjörðum’
‘Victimhood’
‘Allow’
‘Fungal City’
‘Trölla-Gabba’
‘Freefall’
‘Fossora’
‘Her Mother’s House’

Meanwhile, Björk has also launched a new podcast series in which she reflects on the creation of each of her studio albums to date.

Dolly Parton pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II: “She carried herself with grace and strength her entire life”

Dolly Parton has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II online and recalled meeting her at her Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977.

Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the Queen died on Thursday (September 8) at her Balmoral estate after 70 years on the throne. She was 96 years old.

Parton shared a post on her Instagram page yesterday (September 9) honouring Queen Elizabeth II, joining a host of other famous faces in paying tribute. “I had the honour of meeting and performing for Queen Elizabeth II on my trip to London in 1977,” she wrote.

“She carried herself with grace and strength her entire life. May she Rest In Peace. My thoughts are prayers are with her family at this time. Love, Dolly.”

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A post shared by Dolly Parton (@dollyparton)

Alongside the note, Parton also shared a photo of that meeting between herself and the Queen. The country star took part in the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977, alongside The Jackson 5, Scottish singer and entertainer Sydney Devine and comedian Frankie Howerd.

Other figures from the entertainment world to pay tribute to the Queen included Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Mick Jagger and many more.

A 2021 interview with McCartney resurfaced after news of the monarch’s death broke, in which the Beatle recalled meeting the Queen when he was 10 years old. Other moments where Queen Elizabeth II had brushes with pop culture – including her London 2012 skit with James Bond actor Daniel Craig – were also recirculated.

Members of Sex Pistols, who famously released their controversial single ‘God Save The Queen’ just before her Silver Jubilee, also responded to her death online. “Rest in Peace Queen Elizabeth II,” John Lydon wrote. “Send her victorious.”

The Libertines pay tribute to “much loved” early drummer Paul Dufour, who has died

The Libertines have paid tribute to their “much loved” former drummer, Paul Dufour, who has died.

READ MORE: The Roots Of… The Libertines

Dufour played in the early days of the band before Gary Powell replaced him.

“Paul Dufour, our much loved drummer from the early days, passed away last night. We are all in great shock and sadness. Sending love and thoughts to Paul’s friends and family. It was honour to play with you Mr Razzcocks. Forever in our hearts x,” read a message posted on The Libertines’ Instagram account alongside an archive photo of the band.

Dufour’s cause of death has not yet been revealed.

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A post shared by The Libertines (@thelibertines)

One fan wrote on Twitter with a picture of him posing with Dufour by a drum kit: “Had the pleasure of meeting him earlier this year. Was a really nice bloke that spoke very highly of his time in the band. Spoke to him for ages about it all.”

Other fans sent their condolences to the London four-piece after learning of the news.

Had the pleasure of meeting him earlier this year. Was a really nice bloke that spoke very highly of his time in the band. Spoke to him for ages about it all. pic.twitter.com/eytTQmu0QE

— Jack O'Beirne (@thfcjack14) September 7, 2022

Meanwhile, in other Libertines news drummer Powell spoke to NME recently about the band’s next album.

Discussing the progress of the follow-up to their third album ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’, (2015), Powell said: “The good thing is everybody’s been writing. I’m hoping there’s going to be a whole new fervour and interesting dimension added to how we approach things.

“Obviously, we’re not going to try and reinvent the wheel and be like Depeche Mode going from rock ‘n’ roll to electronic, but I think we can push the boat out a little more while still bringing something that has the same emotional integrity and dynamism that the audience craves when they come to a Libertines show.”

Last month, the band played an intimate show in Margate ahead of celebrating the 20th anniversary of their iconic debut, ‘Up The Bracket’. Check out NME‘s photos from the show here.

Sam Ryder announces debut studio album ‘There’s Nothing But Space, Man!’

Sam Ryder has announced details of his debut studio album, ‘There’s Nothing But Space, Man!’.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 runner-up is due to release the 14-track record on November 18 via Parlophone. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

READ MORE: Sam Ryder on his debut album and life after Eurovision: “Who knows what will happen next?”

Ryder’s first studio effort will feature the hit track ‘Space Man’ – which came in at second place at this year’s Eurovision, scoring an impressive 466 points overall – as well as the singles ‘Living Without You’ (feat. Sigala and David Guetta) and ‘Somebody’.

Also set to appear on the album are the cuts ‘Tiny Riot’, ‘Put A Light On Me’, ‘Whirlwind’, ‘Crashing Down’ and ‘Lost In You’ among others.

“This year for myself and the team has been one filled with so many blessings, opportunities and dreams coming to fruition,” Ryder explained in a statement.

“To create a body of work throughout this time representing aspects of our journey feels like the highest honour and a beautiful way to redirect the flow of energy back to the people who are making this whirlwind possible – you.”

He concluded: “Biggest thank yous, and I hope you enjoy it!”

The full tracklist for ‘There’s Nothing But Space, Man!’ is as follows:

‘Deep Blue Doubt’
‘Space Man’
‘Somebody’
‘Tiny Riot’
‘All The Way Over’
‘OK’
‘Put A Light On Me’
‘Whirlwind’
‘Ten Tons’
‘More’
‘Crashing Down’
‘This Time’
‘Lost In You’
‘Living Without You’ (Sigala x David Guetta x Sam Ryder)

Ryder’s ‘Space Man’ gave the United Kingdom its best Eurovision result since 1998, and is the highest-charting UK entry in over quarter of a century (it peaked at Number Two, per the Official Charts Company).

The UK will stage the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 on behalf of this year’s winning country Ukraine (Kalush Orchestra clinched victory at the event in May with their track ‘Stefania’). The shortlist of the seven potential host cities was announced last month.

During an interview with NME over the summer, Ryder spoke about the “amazing” experience of making his debut studio album.

“Last year, I wrote about 100 songs, and not all of them are good, it’s just the nature of writing songs,” he said.

“Some of my favourites we’ve put together for an album. It’s done, you’re just curating the thing. You’ve got this collection of work and you’re putting it together now, and then making the final touches and then listening back…”

Ryder will embark on a UK and Ireland headline tour next year, kicking off at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on March 17, 2023. You can find any remaining tickets here.

Additionally, he’ll play the brand-new London venue Outernet on November 23 and November 24, 2022.

Last Saturday (September 3), Sam Ryder made a surprise appearance with Queen at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in London. He took on the role of frontman for a dazzling performance of ‘Somebody To Love’.

Jay-Z hits back at criticism of his wealth: “We fucking killed ourselves to get to this space”

Jay-Z has hit back at those who have criticised his business ventures over the years.

READ MORE: Beyoncé and Jay-Z (aka The Carters) – ‘Everything Is Love’ review

The rapper spoke out during a Twitter Spaces event earlier this week to promote his recent collaboration ‘God Did’ with DJ Khaled.

When asked to discuss his history of bolstering financial opportunities for other black artists including Rihanna and Kanye West, Jay-Z responded: “Yeah, we’re not gonna stop. You know, hip hop is young, we still growing, and we’re not falling for that tricknology whatever, you know, this public puts out there.”

“Before was the American dream, ‘Pull yourself by the bootstraps, and you can make yourself…you can make it in America,’ all these lies that America told us our whole life,” he continued.

“And then when we start getting in, they tried to lock us out of it. They start inventing words like you know, ‘capitalist,’ you know, things like that. I mean, you know, we’ve been called ‘n****r’ and ‘monkeys’ and shit. I don’t care; those words y’all come up with. Y’all gotta come up with stronger words.”

Defending himself and the music industry, Jay-Z added: “We went our alternative route, we made this music, we did our thing. You know, we hustled, we fucking killed ourselves to get to this space and now it’s like, ‘eat the rich.’ man, we’re not stopping.”

Earlier this year, Rihanna, Jay-Z and Kanye West all made their debut on Forbes’ billionaire list alongside the world’s top earners.

Meanwhile, along with Jay-Z, DJ Khaled‘s 13th studio album ‘God Did’ also featured contributions from Drake, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Future, Migos‘ Quavo and Takeoff, SZA, Travis Scott, Gunna, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Lil Baby, Jadakiss, a posthumous appearance from Juice Wrld (on a track titled ‘Juice Wrld Did’) and more.

The 1975 drop new track ‘I’m In Love With You’, announce UK and Ireland tour dates

The 1975 have released ‘I’m In Love With You’, the third track from their forthcoming album ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. Hear the track and watch the video below.

READ MORE: The 1975 live at Reading Festival 2022: “It’s. Just. Fucking. Bangers”

The band have also announced details of the UK and Ireland leg of their ‘At Their Very Best’ tour which will kick off in January 8, 2023 in Brighton and run until January 30 in Belfast. Tickets will are set to go on sale tomorrow (September 9) and will be available here. View the full tour itinerary below.

The 1975’s fifth studio album is set to arrive on October 14 via Dirty Hit, and the band has already offered previews of the new release with singles ‘Part Of The Band’ and ‘Happiness’, the latter song they performed at this year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals.

The 1975’s UK & Ireland 2023 tour dates

JANUARY
8 – Brighton – The Brighton Center
9 – Bournemouth – Bournemouth International Center
10 – Exeter – Westpoint Arena
12 – London – The O2
15 – Birmingham – Resorts World Arena
16 – Cardiff – Motorpoint Arena
19 – Glasgow – SSE Hydro
20 – Manchester – Manchester Arena
22 – Nottingham – Motorpoint Arena
23 – Leeds – First Direct Arena
25 – Newcastle – Utilita Arena
26- Liverpool – M&S Bank Arena
29 – Dublin – 3Arena
30 – Belfast – The SSE Arena

Last week, The 1975 replaced Rage Against The Machine as headliners for this year’s Reading and Leeds. During the band’s Reading set, frontman Matt Healy joked about replacing the band and The 1975’s fondness for RATM, quipping: “Shout out to them. I will stand by being Rage Against The Machine and having a gammy leg is quite funny. That is funny, but we love them. We love you guys.”

In a four-star review of their set, NME said Healy’s on stage “confidence comes with smacks of self-awareness.”

“They know their way around a pop song and putting on a show,” the review continued. “Maybe they’ll save the theatrics for the upcoming UK tour this winter that they teased – and we can get to some high concept musings when the new record is out – but tonight, all we needed was a good time.”

FKA twigs, Olly Alexander, Aisling Bea and more announced as ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ judges

FKA twigs, Years & Years‘ Olly Alexander and comedian Aisling Bea are among the new guest judges announced for the next season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

READ MORE: FKA twigs: “There are so many sides to me that the world hasn’t seen yet”

The fourth season of the UK edition of the long-running drag show will also welcome Spice Girls‘ Mel B, Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, Boy George and more.

Announcements are expected on a release date for the new season of Drag Race UK “very soon” according to a post on the show’s official Twitter account, and ahead of the reveal of a premiere date, a teaser video has been shared with the tagline: “Bring it to the runway.”

Check that out below, along with the full list of season four celebrity judges.

Bring it to the runw4y! ? #DragRaceUK pic.twitter.com/Fguk5m5tbf

— RuPaul's Drag Race UK (@dragraceukbbc) August 30, 2022

Category is… Celebrity guest realness! ? Here’s all the fabulous faces coming to #DragRaceUK 4⃣✨ pic.twitter.com/W5sWyDibRb

— RuPaul's Drag Race UK (@dragraceukbbc) August 31, 2022

Last year, Charli XCX shared a special Halloween performance of her latest single ‘Good Ones’ featuring the stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

The drag performance of the song sees Asttina Mandella lead an ensemble cast made up of her fellow Drag Race stars including A’Whora and Cherry Valentine from season two, along with season three’s Krystal Versace and Elektra Fence.

The group lip synced along to the track while delivering Halloween-inspired choreography in sparkly red and black costumes.

Elsewhere, last month RuPaul responded to his Emmy nominations with a statement about LGBTQ+ rights. The nominations for the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced in July, and RuPaul’s Drag Race earned eight nominations in total, including Outstanding Competition Program and Outstanding Host For A Reality or Competition Program.

In a post on Instagram following the nominations, RuPaul wrote: “As the basic human rights of LGBTQ+ people are being threatened once again, I want to thank our peers in the Television Academy for acknowledging the achievements of the beautiful and talented souls that work in front of and behind the cameras at RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“Through the miracle of drag, our spectacular season 14 queens have touched hearts and opened minds around the planet.”

He added: “We will never take for granted the platform we’ve been given to tell authentic queer stories, and pledge to do everything in our power to continue to spread light, love, and laughter.”

Dave joined by Stormzy and AJ Tracey at Reading Festival headline set

Dave was joined by special guests Stormzy and AJ Tracey during his Reading Festival headline set last night (August 26) – see the full setlist, footage and reaction below.

READ MORE: Dave live at Reading Festival 2022 review: a statement-making set from the youngest ever solo headliner

The rapper was co-headlining the festival’s first evening alongside Megan Thee Stallion, and played a career-spanning set featuring tracks from both his studio albums.

Alongside a cover of Headie One’s ’18HUNNA’, Dave was joined by AJ Tracey to perform ‘Thiago Silva’, while later on in the set, Stormzy came on stage to perform ‘Clash’, returning the favour Dave paid him last summer by coming on during Stormzy’s headline set at the festival.

See footage of the special guest appearances and Dave’s full setlist below.

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A post shared by Reading & Leeds Festival (@officialrandl)

@postaccountt

#randl22 #readingfestival #fyp

♬ original sound – postaccountt

Dave played:

‘We’re All Alone’
‘Professor X’
‘Funky Friday’
‘Wanna Know’
‘No Words’
‘Heart Attack’
‘Thiago Silva’ (with AJ Tracey)
’18HUNNA’
‘System’
‘Location’
‘Twenty To One’
‘Both Sides Of A Smile’
‘Clash’ (with Stormzy)
‘Starlight’

Elsewhere on Friday at Reading, Megan Thee Stallion invited two groups of fans on stage to dance with her. At the start of the set, Stallion said security wouldn’t let any fans on stage. Later, she brought a security guard on stage and told fans he was going to help get her “hotties” on stage.

Before they arrived, Stallion said there were “rules” for when they are on stage. One was “do not be on your phone the whole time” and the other was to “fuck things up”. She told the crowd to “show them all some love”.

Reviewing Dave’s set, NME wrote: “His show rises to the occasion: Dave opens to the sombre ‘We’re All Alone’, accompanied by a live band and a twisted metal cage to resemble a broken heart. Whilst the live band is dressed in black and even the screen visuals are in black and white, Dave pops out in a colourful denim two-piece; a stark contrast.

“Throughout, he calls upon a strings quartet to up the drama. He’s musical talent is no secret, too, and less than ten minutes into his set he’s on the keys, solo, crafting a beautiful melody to end his first track.”

Reading & Leeds 2022 continues today with performances from Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me The Horizon, Fontaines D.C. and Wolf Alice.

Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and more from Reading & Leeds 2022.

The 1975 debut new song ‘I’m In Love With You’ during live comeback in Tokyo

Tonight (August 20), The 1975 made their live return in Japan, playing the first of two gigs as part of the Summer Sonic Festival – watch them debut a new song called ‘I’m In Love With You’ below.

READ MORE: New song ‘Part Of The Band’ finds The 1975 ripping up their own rule book

The gigs mark the band’s first live shows since they performed in Dublin in March 2020, and come ahead of a last-minute pair of headline gigs at Reading & Leeds (August 26-28), where they’ve replaced Rage Against The Machine, who were forced to pull out due to injury.

Across their 16-song set, the band played tracks from all four of their studio albums, as well as two cuts from forthcoming LP ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’, which is due out on October 14 via Dirty Hit/Polydor.

One of the songs given a live debut was new single ‘Happiness’, with an unreleased, anthemic track called ‘I’m In Love With You’ – confirmed to be on the ‘Being Happy…’ tracklist – also performed. Comeback track ‘Part Of The Band’ wasn’t played meanwhile.

See footage of the live debut of ‘Happiness’, the first ever reveal of ‘I’m In Love With You’ and other highlights from the set, as well as the full setlist, below.

The 1975 ‘I’m In Love With You’ Debut track from Being Funny In A Foreign Language (Part1) pic.twitter.com/zpUNqPs1yz

— Ben (@fuckedinacar) August 20, 2022

NEW SONG – I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU @the1975 pic.twitter.com/capq3tVKws

— The 1975 Updates (@The1975_Tour) August 20, 2022

Live debut of Happiness @the1975 pic.twitter.com/ocEhxAaE5u

— The 1975 Updates (@The1975_Tour) August 20, 2022

TOOTIME @summer_sonic @the1975 pic.twitter.com/lgTRhjKE91

— The 1975 Updates (@The1975_Tour) August 20, 2022

The Sound by The 1975 pic.twitter.com/p4LuP66uq8

— The 1975 TH (@the1975_thteam) August 20, 2022

The 1975 played:

‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’
‘Love Me’
‘Chocolate’
‘Me & You Together Song’
‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’
‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’
‘Paris’
‘Happiness’
‘Robbers’
‘A Change Of Heart’
‘I’m In Love With You’
‘Somebody Else’
‘Love It If We Made It’
‘People’
‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’
‘The Sound’

Discussing the aesthetic of the band’s new live show in a recent clip posted to Instagram, Healy said: “It’s the old show but with no colour. There’s a quiet resignation to the show — going back to black and white and removing alll that aesthetic optimist from the show. It feels quite tough, but not macho.”

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A post shared by Matty (@trumanblack)

Ahead of the release of the band’s new album, Beabadoobee has praised the “awesome” record, saying that “no one’s fucking ready” for how good it is, while Taylor Swift said “it’s so funny” when asked for her opinion on the album.

Healy also praised Jack Antonoff for his work on the band’s forthcoming album, saying that Antonoff’s reputation is often that of being a “busy”, in-demand producer but that he wanted to stress just how “good” and incisive a producer he is.

Additionally, it’s been confirmed that The 1975 will hit the road for their ‘At Their Very Best’ North American tour in November. The stint includes a headline concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Tickets are on general sale now – you can purchase yours from here. Check out the full tour itinerary here.

T.I. confirms he punched The Chainsmokers’ Drew Taggart in the face over kiss

T.I. has responded to The Chainsmokers singer Drew Taggart’s claim that he was struck in the face by the rapper after giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“T.I. just literally punched me in the face,” Taggart said in a clip posted on TikTok yesterday (August 16) that shows the duo performing at a nightclub alongside T.I. and others. “We’re in a vibe and I, like, gave him a kiss on the cheek. It was totally my fault,” while Taggart’s Chainsmokers bandmate Alex Pall can be heard laughing in the background.

“He was like, ‘Don’t do that.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ He pushed me off and I was like, ‘Alright, my bad,’” he said, with Pall adding that a member of T.I.’s crew approached him and said, “You need to get your boy.”

Taggart added that the rapper was quick to move on from what had happened. “He was like, ‘Alright cool, we’re good.’ It was the weirdest interaction ever,” the singer explained.

@thechainsmokers

My bad T.I. won’t happen again… unless?

♬ original sound – The Chainsmokers

“First of all, T.I.’s fully in the right here. I was feeling the vibes way too hard and I kissed T.I. on the cheek. And he punched me in the face for it! It’s like, fully fine,” Taggart concluded.

T.I. has since shared his own video stating that there “isn’t that much more to the story that you’ve already heard” that Taggart told, but added that he loved The Chainsmokers.

“They make great music,” he said in the clip. “I think the important thing to take away is that afterwards, we had a drink, we took a shot, you know what I’m saying? And we moved on.”

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In July last year, T.I. used Lil Nas X to defend homophobic comments made by DaBaby at that summer’s Rolling Loud Festival in Miami.

Appearing at the festival, DaBaby told the crowd: “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two or three weeks, put your cellphone light up.”

Posting a video in support of DaBaby, T.I. said: “For instance, the Lil Nas X shit. The performances and video, man I got a lot of respect for bruh because he had the courage to live his truth, but that shit ain’t for me… Just can’t look at it… And I don’t want my children seeing it, either,” he said.

He expanded on that comment later on in the video, saying: “If you have a Lil Nas X video, and him living his truth, you gone damn sure have people like DaBaby who are going to speak they truth. There ain’t nothing wrong with none of that. It ain’t got to be no hate, it’s all honesty.”

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp share special Sunday Lunch cover of Grace Jones

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have shared a special edition of their Sunday Lunch series, taking this week’s episode (August 14) out of their kitchen.

The couple were joined by Simon Darlow, the former Buggles member who played on Willcox’s recent album ‘Posh Pop’, to make up the Posh Pop Three.

READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Toyah Willcox

As they covered Grace Jones’ ‘Slave To The Rhythm’, the trio performed from within a building site, Willcox at times singing to the camera from a higher floor and moving around a set of scaffolding.

The video was conceived, directed and co-edited by Willcox. Watch it below now.

Last week (August 7), Willcox and Fripp shared their own spin of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1980 hit ‘Crazy Train’ in the traditional setting of their home kitchen. It was the second time the pair had paid tribute to the Prince Of Darkness – one of their first Sunday Lunch videos, from all the way back in November of 2020, was a cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’.

The newest take on an Osbourne track saw Willcox dress up in a cross necklace and fringe gloves, which she frequently dangled in front of Fripp (much to his annoyance). Willcox declared at the end of the video: “We love Ozzy!”

The Sunday Lunch series begin in 2020, and Willcox explained last year that it had been born from a desire to keep Fripp inspired and entertained during the coronavirus-enforced lockdowns. Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without,” she told the Guardian. “He was withdrawing, so I thought: ‘I’m going to teach him to dance.’ And it became a challenge.”

Mogwai replace King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard at All Points East

Mogwai have replaced King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard for this year’s All Points East. View the updated line up below.

READ MORE: All Points East 2021 review: generations collide to end the summer in fervent style

The Scottish band will join The National on August 26 at Victoria Park along with Perfume Genius, Lucy Dacus, Kurt Vile and more.

The announcement of King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard’s All Points East replacement comes after the band cancelled their UK and European dates due to a “personal health crisis”. The Australian psych-rock outfit had completed four dates on the run, with the most recent being a headline show in Prague on August 5. Among their axed performances include a set at the POLandROCK Festival in Szczecinek, Poland, which was scheduled for August 6.

“Unfortunately due to a personal health crisis we’re going to have to cancel the remaining EU and UK dates,” frontman Stu Mackenzie wrote in a statement shared to the band’s Instagram page.

Mackenzie continued: “For the past decade or so I’ve dealt with Crohn’s Disease the best I can. It’s a miracle we haven’t cancelled any shows in the past. But right now, my health is in really bad shape and I need to get home for some urgent treatment.

“Being able to travel the world and play live music for people every night is such a privilege and I’m so grateful for the shows we were able to make happen in Ireland, Croatia and Czech Republic. Thanks for understanding and again, I’m SO sorry. Love Stu.”

King Gizzard’s world tour will now continue at the end of September, when the band embark on a 22-date run across North America. See the full list of their upcoming tour dates here, and find tickets to the North American shows here.

All Points East August 25 line up CREDIT: All Points East

All Points East is set to return for two editions this year, running across two weekends: Friday, August 19 – Saturday, August 20 and Thursday, August 25 – Sunday, August 28.

Acts headlining across the dates include Tame Impala, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Kraftwerk, The Chemical Brothers, Disclosure and Gorillaz. Joining them are the likes of IDLES, James Blake, Caroline Polachek, Michael Kiwanuka, Fleet Foxes and more.

In a four-star review of the festival, NME wrote: “Every single event that has been able to open its gates over the last month has brought a fervent, feverish energy with it, with fans not only making up for lost time, but scrambling to savour every last drop before the season disappears.

“Maybe it’s this feeling – as well as the presence of thousands of revellers travelling back from a weekend at Reading Festival to continue the party for one more day – that makes the final day of All Points East 2021 feel like a proper celebration.”

Hear members of Sex Pistols, Blondie and Melvins cover Small Faces’ ‘Song Of A Baker’

Member of the Sex Pistols, Blondie and Melvins have covered the Small Faces’ ‘Song Of A Baker’ – listen below.

The rendition is by Cabbage ‘N Mash, a project featuring Melvins‘ Dale Crover and director Bob Hannam, who have together enlisted Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and Melvins producer/engineer Toshi Kasai (on keyboards).

As Consequence reports, Crover, who primarily plays drums with Melvins, is on guitar duties for the cover. Hannam, who directed the documentary The Colossus of Destiny – A Melvins Tale, takes lead vocals.

The collaboration surfaced from Crover and Hannam’s love for the Small Faces, the ’60s British rock outfit later headed by Rod Stewart under the Faces reincarnation.

‘Song Of A Baker’ featured on the Small Faces’ third album, ‘Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake’, which was released in 1968.

Crover said: “Bob and I, being big Small Faces fans, thought it would be fun to pay tribute to the band. Somehow we managed to get Clem Burke from Blondie and Glen Matlock from the Sex Pistols to join us, as well as Toshi Kasai. I’ve always loved this track and really happy we got to record with these guys.”

Hannam added: “After countless conversations over the years about wanting to record a couple of our favourite songs by the Small Faces, last year we finally called up the dream rhythm section of our good friends Clem and Glen and headed to Toshi’s studio in Los Angeles to lay them down. What a huge personal honour to salute one of the greatest and most underrated band of the ’60s with such talented musicians.”

‘Song Of A Baker’ is released alongside Small Faces deep cut ‘Donkey Rides, A Penny A Glass’ on August 21. It comes in limited-edition 10-inch vinyl from Amphetamine Reptile Records at this location and digitally via Cabbage ‘N Mash’s Bandcamp page.

Faces, who formed in 1969, formally disbanded in 1975 after Stewart left the group. Around the same time, guitarist Ronnie Wood began playing with The Rolling Stones.

The band recorded four studio albums in their time, most recently ‘Ooh La La’ in 1973.

Last year there were reports that the group were recording new music, having disbanded more than four decades ago.

BLACKPINK explore virtual worlds in music video for special single ‘Ready For Love’

K-pop girl group BLACKPINK have dropped their new single ‘Ready For Love’, as part of their ongoing collaboration with PUBG Mobile.

READ MORE: STAYC – ‘We Need Love’ review: the momentum falters as fourth-gen K-pop group play it safe

On July 29, BLACKPINK unveiled the new single alongside a music video for the new special single released in collaboration with PUBG Mobile. ‘Ready For Love”s accompanying visual features footage from the girl group’s virtual performance of the song during the mobile game’s in-game concert ‘THE VIRTUAL’, featuring virtual avatars of Rosé, Jennie, Lisa and Jisoo as they traverse vast new worlds, ride motorcycles and take to the skies on pink clouds.

“There’s no need to wait now / No need to be afraid / Show me the colour of your heart / I really need you in my world / Open your eyes, here I am in front of you,” Jennie and Rosé harmonise on the pre-chorus of the EDM-inspired pop number.

The clip arrived just days after their virtual show ‘BLACKPINK X PUBG Mobile 2022 In-Game Concert: [THE VIRTUAL]’, which took place on July 23 and 24. The recent concert will also be available for all-day replays this coming weekend (July 30 and 31).

While not an official release, ‘Ready For Love’ marks the K-pop group’s first music together since their last full-length effort ‘THE ALBUM’ dropped in October 2020, which featured the lead single ‘How You Like That’.

YG Entertainment confirmed earlier this month that the quartet are currently gearing up to make a comeback in August. A sprawling global tour, touted by YG as “the largest world tour in the history of a K-pop girl group”, is also on the cards for later in 2022.

Additionally, OneRepublic vocalist Ryan Tedder has teased an upcoming collaboration with BLACKPINK, which will presumably be part of the girl group’s August release. “I can’t tell you what’s coming out. I think one or two of my songs have made the album,” Tedder said in an interview with Good Morning America. “From what I’ve been told, and the stuff that I did with them, I can just say is very true to their sound.”

StevenCharles Is On Cloud Nine After Two Hit Singles “Stay” & “Love You Still”

StevenCharles is a one of a kind artist with an instantly recognizable voice that holds the power to instantly soften the listener’s heart. His graceful voice has been the highlight of his two debut singles, “Stay” and “Love You Still.”

His first song “Stay” introduced audiences to StevenCharles’ energetic aura that saw everyone dancing around with the song’s funky and groovy melodies. However with “Love You Still,” the talented artist showcased his emotional side while conveying a personal story that resonated with tens of thousands of his loyal listeners.

The Canadian-born singer-songwriter had been adamant about being a professional musician since the age of six years old. He first began expressing his singing talent by performing in church groups and local bars, where he became a local star. Ever since StevenCharles launched his solo career, he has been dropping nothing but pure gems with “Stay” and “Love You Still” as he emerges to be one of the biggest prospects in the scene.

You can follow StevenCharles on: Instagram – Facebook – Spotify – YouTube

Kehlani on fan reaction to ‘Blue Water Road’: “They can tell I’m in a better place just from the music”

Kehlani recently spoke to NME about fan reactions to their latest album ‘Blue Water Road’, protecting their energy, and embarking on a headline tour for the first time in five years.

READ MORE: Kehlani – ‘Blue Water Road’ review: R&B star swaps badass braggadocio for quiet confidence

The singer spoke to us right before taking the stage at New York City’s Pier 17 as part of their In Bloom, Imagined By Kehlani Grey Goose Essences event, where they gave tracks from ‘Blue Water Road’ a live debut. Check out the live performance below.

“I’m really excited to see how it’s received,” the R&B star told NME backstage. “I’m excited to see everyone sing it, and what they resonate with the most. My fans are cute and adorable in a very specific way. They’ll be in the crowd hugging each other, holding hands, and making out with their girlfriends. It’s very gay and sweet. I’m excited to see which songs make them do all that.”

With ‘Blue Water Road’, Kehlani stepped into new sonic territory, parting from the “toxic, very dark, hypersexual pocket of songwriting” that featured on their previous two albums and instead focusing on love and spirituality. According to the singer, fans have been receptive to their shift in sound and mindset.

“What’s cool is they’re excited about being able to tell I’m in a better place just from the music,” she told us. “The comments I’ve received from my core fan base about the album are they’re so happy for me. They’re like, ‘yeah, the music’s fucking awesome, but you’re not depressed, you’re not beefing, and nothing’s toxic!’ That’s the coolest transition of all of this for sure.”

Later this month, Kehlani will kick off their first headlining tour since 2017, playing some of the largest clubs and amphitheatres of their career.

“I just want to figure out how to impact my audience, so they can leave and take something that they grasped, learned, or experienced [at the show] and spread it further,” they said of the upcoming shows. “We’ve always had these therapy-esque talks mid-performance, but I’m trying to implement those intimate moments in smaller venues into these huge stages now.

“We have an amazing set-up with the show we’re about to give that’s completely different. Before, I was just performing and connecting, but now there’s this whole other element to it. I’m trying to weave both together and make sure people leave with something.”

READ MORE: On The Cover — Kehlani: “I’m really in a lighter, more mature, happy, fun space”

Though the singer has kept a tight relationship with their fanbase during their near decade in the music industry, following the release of ‘Blue Water Road’ she’s found the balance between “protecting the most important things” about themselves while still living authentically.

“I don’t think that because I have a lot of eyes on me, I deserve to have less of a quality of expression in my life,” Kehlani told us. “I don’t want to have to hide on a date, I don’t want to hide at the grocery store. I don’t want to have to hide anywhere. I want to be able to look bummy and go anywhere without feeling like I have to be different in case somebody [sees me].

“I also think everybody across the board, no matter what kind of following they have needs to protect their energy and the things they find most precious,” she added. “I just let people know if they’re speaking to me in a way I don’t like that I’m also a person. I also think for so long, I put out a specific energy that people don’t often come [at me] really crazy. It’s rare.”

The California singer’s upcoming dates will feature Rico Nasty and Destin Conrad as openers, and they’ve previously worked with artists like Calvin Harris and Justin Bieber in the studio. When asked about their dream future collab, however, Kehlani had one artist in mind to share the stage with.

“Beyoncé. I wouldn’t even sing I’d just stand there. I wouldn’t dance, I’d just [sit on the stage and watch her],” Kehlani laughed. “To watch her up close? I’d take my shoes off, sit cross-legged and be like, ‘this is crazy.’ [She’s] an enigma, a phenomenon, and I haven’t seen her live yet, so I feel like I wouldn’t even be able to understand. That would be my dream.”

Kehlani also discussed evolving their sound without aiming for perfection, telling us, “I’m going to think I’m not that tight now in two years.”

She added: “I don’t think I was that tight last year, today. You’re always going to get to that place where you can psychoanalyse yourself, artistically, spiritually, physically, mentally as time has passed. That’s human nature, but [I do what I’m] feeling in that moment, because regardless, being an artist, once the music drops, we don’t like it anymore anyways.

“That’s just how we are. But, I also remember that it’s always new to somebody, so I don’t ever want to yuck anybody else’s yum [when it comes to my music]. I’m always going to be what I’m going to be in that moment, love it or hate it and I’m also going to hate it too in a year, so bear with me.”

Kehlani’s ‘Blue Water Road Trip’ starts on July 30 in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a string of North American tour dates running until October, with a date in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 21. View details and purchase tickets here.

Alexander 23’s Gentle Musings On The Aftershock Of Love

By Alex Gonzalez

In the three years he’s spent collaborating behind the scenes, the artist Alexander 23 has built an impressive resume. As one of the music industry’s go-to songwriters and producers, he’s collaborated with Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez, and Chelsea Cutler, among others, coining a sound that strikes a chord between sharp lyricism and instrumental melodies.

It all started in Deerfield, Illinois, where Alexander 23, born Alexander Glantz, was raised. He became enamored with music “immediately as I gained consciousness,” he says, which he estimates was in “like, the fifth grade.” Around that time, he played on his elementary school’s basketball team, and he enjoyed listening to albums from rock bands like Kansas and Supertramp from beginning to end during the long drives to games. His father helped cultivate that passion, regularly playing the guitar around the house.

Glantz briefly attended the University of Pennsylvania to study engineering but withdrew after a year to focus on music. At 19, he moved to New York and joined an indie band, teaching himself to play bass, piano, drums, and guitar along the way. The group was short-lived and disbanded in 2017. That’s when he moved to Los Angeles with only the earnest goal of writing for other artists — and notably, without a car. He remembers the solo cross-country move as being a strenuous process. “You cannot walk around L.A., which I learned the hard way early on,” Glantz says. “A few expensive Ubers later, I bought a shitty little car.”

Stefan Kohli

While he entertained the idea of being a soloist, Glantz initially figured that working behind the scenes would allow for more financial stability. Having become well-versed in production software like Ableton, he landed himself production credits on tracks for pop musicians like AJ Mitchell and Sam Setton. About “five or six months” after moving to California, he decided to take a chance and record songs of his own while continuing to team up with other artists.

Since then, he’s released two nine-track EPs, including 2019’s I’m Sorry I Love You and Oh No, Not Again! in 2021. His ability to combine live instrumentation with contemporary electronic elements, as well as his knack for describing behaviors for which people often don’t have the words, has made him one of the industry’s most sought-after collaborators. On Aftershock, his proper full-length debut, he details the process of a harrowing breakup, from the first inklings of doubt to finally closing the chapter, over the course of 11 poignant tracks.

“I like to think of it as a one-year-plus-or-minus radius away from a breakup,” Glantz says. “It’s about the events leading up to it, the breakup, then getting over it; meeting new people, thinking you’re ready to meet new people, and you're not actually ready. You miss her, but you don't miss who you were together. It's definitely a breakup album, which obviously I'm not the first person to do, but I tried to really pull from my specific experience and really get into the nitty gritty and all the nuances that I was feeling.”

Aftershock opens with “Hate Me if It Helps,” which sees Glantz unfazed in the midst of his ex’s bitterness. On it, he allows his former partner to blame him for the dissolution of their relationship, even if her accounts are false. Co-written by Olivia Rodrigo, for whom he co-produced “Good 4 U,” the track features Glantz questioning the truth of what his ex is telling her friends and family before issuing saccharine apologies on the bridge. “I’m sorry I stayed up with you every night / For making you laugh when you wanted to cry / I’m sorry I paid for your SSRIs,” he sings.

https://youtu.be/NZ4OwtXruRM

Many fans have found the line to be playfully tongue-in-cheek, but others have taken to social media to say the lyric further stigmatizes mental health issues. “You know, what's funny about that line is I never meant for it to be a large mental health conversation starter,” Glantz says. “I have plenty of songs about that, as well, but I wanted a line in there that felt like something you would regrettably say in the heat of feeling a certain way about someone or a certain situation.”

On the excruciatingly self-aware “Crash,” Glantz recounts the painful early stages of the split: changing his ex’s name on his phone, dreading Valentine’s Day chocolates (which he says now “taste like charcoal”), and recalling texts he typed up but never sent. While he still has love and respect for his ex, he understands that the two of them are no longer meant to be together. He sings, “I miss you, but I don’t miss us / ‘Cause apart we’re great, but together we suck.”

Glantz admits that he’s learned the hard way that two people, even with the best intentions, can bring out the worst in each other. “The sum of the parts is not always greater,” Glantz notes. “That's something I think people need to learn, especially in more intimate and romantic relationships. It sucks. And I think the fact that it sucks makes you want to fight for it more, which in turn, only makes it worse.”

Stefan Kohli

Glantz’s music is undoubtedly relatable. His ability to put universal feelings, like the train of thoughts and the behavioral patterns that follow heartbreak, into words has set him apart as a thoughtful young musician in an era of quick, hook-heavy TikTok grabs. Take the punchy, percussion-filled track called “Cosplay,” wherein he describes the moment of realizing that he and his ex were never good for each other. He surmises that they were simply imitating the mannerisms and aesthetics of “each other’s exes” from previous relationships.

Perhaps the most powerful track on the collection doesn’t pertain to a breakup at all. On the ballad “The Hardest Part,” driven by gentle piano keys and a melancholy guitar riff, Glantz reflects on the loss of a friend. The song’s chorus — “the hardest part of getting old, is that some people that you don’t love don’t” — evokes a grand feeling of sadness while pointing to the small, intimate moments that make a friendship special. He describes noticing when the “trees turn red” and realizing that he’ll never again see the “three dots” that appear as someone is replying to a text message.

While Glantz paints a vivid picture of his friend, “The Hardest Part” also speaks to the grief and loss every one of us has faced in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “This has been the first time where I've had friends start to pass away,” Glantz says. “It's incredibly strange to reconcile. And even when it's not someone who you talk to every day, even if it’s losing someone whom you only speak to a few times a year but have a shared childhood and history with, it’s really strange to deal with. It hits you on birthdays or coming home for Thanksgiving. Learning how to deal with that emotionally has been a journey.”

https://youtu.be/ws-li4Fy1kY

Over the years, Glantz has opened concerts for several major artists, including Mxmtoon, Omar Apollo, and John Mayer. During a show in Boston, Mayer joined Glantz on stage to perform a cover of Tears for Fears’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Glantz will tour this fall in support of Aftershock, which he says is the “cherry” on top of making music. As a songwriter and producer, he is always satisfied when he can take another artist’s song to the next level, but as he prepares to perform his own body of work, he admits to feeling a perfectionist’s sense of concern. He knows fans will associate these songs with him forever.

“I remember that, when I'm making music for me, I'm gonna have to live with these songs, both as a representation of me and also my life,” he says. “I'm definitely a bit more particular when making music for myself, which, in turn, makes producing for other people a little bit easier. But making music for others versus myself is just different, more so than easier or harder.”

Lera Lynn Something More Than Love

Lera Lynn isn’t prone to repeating herself. Having moved further away from her countryish beginnings with 2018’s duets album, Plays Well With Others, she followed up with the self-made, and self-explanatory, On My Own. Now she’s shifted into an entirely different dimension with Something More Than Love. Co-produced with her partner Todd Lombardo, it’s an often moving, sometimes troubled, meditation on the joys and trials of new parenthood.

ORDER NOW: The Beatles are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut

Lynn gave birth to their first son at the start of the pandemic. Adjusting to being a mother while processing the internal and external changes in her life, she began suffering from postnatal depression. All of this played into the songs that took shape at the couple’s home in Nashville. As its title suggests, Something More Than Love pulls deep from her emotional self. Both “Illusion” and “Black River” deal with the euphoria of finding meaningful connection, the latter’s acceptance of fate finding a metaphor in the ceaseless roll of the current it describes.

Lynn ponders sharing her body with a new presence on “Conflict Of Interest” (“Can we both exist/Inside of this new skin/What is your name?”), before declaring her utter devotion on the self-sacrificial title track, her protective genes kicking in: “How could I deny you?/Formula of stardust/You’re a perfect figure”. The full weight and terror of responsibility threatens to drag her under on “Eye In The Sky”, but, ultimately, there’s renewed strength on “Golden Sun” and “I’m Your Kamikaze”.

On a musical level, Lynn imparts these songs with an unhurried grace. And while there’s an agreeable twang to “Black River” and folk-country steel on “In A Moment”, synths form the album’s bedrock. “Illusion” carries echoes of Kacey Musgraves’ transition to propulsive pop (Lombardo is a recent contributor of hers, as are fellow band members Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian), while the exquisite “What Is This Body?” and “Cog In The Machine” present a more abstract and experimental side of Lynn, crowned by her cool, effortlessly agile vocals.

Queen’s Brian May teams up with 10CC’s Graham Gouldman on new space-themed track

Queen’s Brian May has teamed up with 10CC founder Graham Gouldman on a new track – listen to ‘Floating In Heaven’ below.

READ MORE: Queen’s Freddie Mercury: the maddest stories about rock’s best-loved hellraiser

The collaboration between the pair was done to mark the historic first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that launched in December 2021 and went into orbit in January of this year. The telescope is the most powerful to be launched into space.

May is a long-time astronomer and has a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College, London. Gouldman is a fellow space enthusiast and the two decided to work together on a song to mark the historic moment when the first images from the telescope were shared.

‘Floating In Heaven’ was written and performed by Gouldman and features May on guitar and vocals. It was released yesterday (July 12) to coincide with the release of the first pictures brought to earth from the telescope.

Listen to the song here:

Last weekend, Queen and Adam Lambert performed an impromptu cover of operatic track ‘Nessun Dorma’ during a show in Bologna, Italy.

‘Nessun Dorma’ is the aria from the last act of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot and reached new audiences in 1990 when Luciana Pavarotti performed it during the World Cup, which was held in Italy that year.

Queen and Adam Lambert performed a version of the song following an airing of Queen classic ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ at their show.

Sharing footage on Instagram after the show, Brian May wrote: “A spontaneous gift to Bologna last night. So proud of Adam. I can see our dear departed friend Luciano smiling. Let’s Rock tonight.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal)

Last month, Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May confirmed that they have unearthed an unreleased song by the band featuring late frontman Freddie Mercury.

The track, recorded during the Miracle Sessions, is going to be released this September.

Queen and Adam Lambert have also announced a new online concert film called Rhapsody Over London. The performance was shot at one of the legendary band’s 10 sold-out shows at The O2 Arena in London last month as part of their 2022 ‘Rhapsody Tour’.

Fans will be able to watch the two-and-half-hour, 28-song gig via an online Kiswe live-stream on July 24 (4pm BST) and July 25 (8pm BST). The film will then be available to view on-demand until July 31.

Boy Pablo embraces summer loving in new single ‘Be Mine’

Boy Pablo is back, delivering feel-good summer vibes in new single ‘Be Mine’.

READ MORE: Boy Pablo: “I’m just a normal dude that got lucky”

The track, out today (July 12), dropped alongside an official music video that was filmed shortly after Boy Pablo’s Primavera Sound performance in Barcelona.

The video opens with a close-up performance straight into the camera by Pablo. The intimate action is coupled with a delicate swoon of rhythms that builds to a funky melody which is shown to be delivered by a full band, Pablo then cruising on the road in a pensive and romantic state.

Watch it below:

In a press release, Boy Pablo – aka Nico Muñoz – said of the track’s soundscape: “I’ve been obsessed with cumbia music for a while now so it became natural for me to try writing something inspired by it. It was one of those songs I didn’t expect to write, it just appeared.

“It’s basically a cheeky way to approach a love interest that you know has a slight interest in you. I feel like it’s a very Latino romantic thing to do.”

The release of ‘Be Mine’ today marks the first new music from Muñoz since his surprise cover of The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’, a collaboration with Sobs‘ Celine Autumn that dropped last month.

That release followed February’s ‘La Novela’, a collaboration with Cuco marking not only Muñoz’s first new music of the year, but the first new material since he released his debut album, ‘Wachito Rico’, in 2020.

Featuring the singles ‘Hey Girl’, ‘I Just Wanna Go Home’, ‘Rest Up’ and ‘Leave Me Alone’, NME‘s Rhys Buchanan noted in a four-star review that Muñoz “deserves all the praise he gets”.

“‘Wachito Rico’ exudes a breadth of musicianship that proves Boy Pablo is no flash in the pan, despite having found viral fame overnight.”

Placebo cancel several dates due to COVID outbreak in band and crew

Placebo have been forced to cancel several live dates following an outbreak of COVID in their band and crew.

READ MORE: Placebo: “David Bowie taught me how to be a better person”

Writing on Instagram, the band revealed that they would no longer we able to perform dates in Bucharest, Romexpo in Romania (July 13) nor Skopje Calling in Macedonia (July 16).

“We are frustrated and disappointed to not be able to perform these shows which are important to us – as we know they are to you.”

“We apologise sincerely for the inconvenience and disappointment. We are doing all we can to reschedule and please check locally for further announcements.”

You can see the full post here:

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A post shared by OFFICIAL PLACEBO INSTAGRAM. (@placeboworld)

The band are due to embark on a UK and Ireland tour in November – you can see those dates below and find tickets here.

NOVEMBER
Friday 18 – Portsmouth, Guildhall
Saturday 19 – Brighton, Centre
Monday 21 – Liverpool, Eventim Olympia
Tuesday 22 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
Thursday 24 – Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
Saturday 26 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
Sunday 27 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
Tuesday 29 – Leicester, De Montfort Hall
Wednesday 30 – Leeds, O2 Academy

In other news, the band’s Brian Molko has recently spoken about Placebo’s connection to Kate Bush and the reason they chose to cover ‘Running Up That Hill’.

The band covered ‘Running Up That Hill’ in 2003, with the song becoming the first track on the band’s ‘Covers’ album that same year. Their rendition ended up peaking at Number 44 on the UK Singles Chart in 2006, after being used during the fourth-season premiere of The O.C.

The original song has found renewed popularity after featuring in the fourth season of Stranger Things. The track – which appears on Bush’s 1985 fifth studio album, ‘Hounds Of Love’ – reached Number One on the UK singles chart earlier this month (June 17).

In an interview with the Guardian, Molko said: “We were already in the habit of covering our favourite songs from the 80s, so I suggested that we do ‘Running Up That Hill’ but that we slow the tempo down as much as we could without it becoming a dirge, and obviously we wanted to keep it electronic with sounds from the early 2000s.

“I met Kate once at a party: it was a record company do and there was an orderly queue to speak to her. When I got to the front the first thing she said to me was: “I like your cover of my song.” That was enough. I’m very, very pleased that it got Kate’s endorsement.”

Watch Sharon Van Etten’s dreamy new video for ‘Headspace’

Sharon Van Etten has released a dreamy new video for ‘Headspace’ – check it out below.

READ MORE: Sharon Van Etten on the cover: “I have to be hopeful. I’m a mother and I want to be brave for my son”

The track appears on the singer’s new album ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’, which was released earlier this year via Jagjaguwar.

Van Etten stars in video alongside dancers Coco Karol and Miguel Angel Guzmán. It was directed by Ashley Connor.

Discussing the concept behind the video, Van Etten said: “When I was writing this song, I wanted to talk about domesticity and intimacy frustrations under the tensions of working at home and seeking connection while being tied to our devices and still trying to reach each other as lovers, parents, humans.

“Reminding each other that there is still a primal attraction even in the midst of the mundane and repetition of everyday life.”

Check it out here:

Reviewing ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’, NME said that ‘Mistakes’ is “Van Etten at her best, its thumping chorus ideal for banishing lockdown-induced rumination on your regrets: “Every time I make a mistake / Turns out it’s great”. Around a quarter of the album reaches these heights – see the swirling coda of ‘Home To Me’, on which she tackles the conflict between creativity and parenthood.

“Although it lacks the immediacy of 2018’s hookier ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’, this unyielding record is, at times, a powerful reckoning with the age of uncertainty.”

Earlier this year, Van Etten appeared on the cover of NME and discussed her experience filming The OA, saying she felt like an “imposter” on set.

The singer-songwriter played Rachel DeGrasso in the Netflix series created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij. While there were plans for a five-season story, the show was cancelled after two seasons in 2019.

Speaking to NME about her time in the series, Van Etten had some reservations about her performance. “It was a challenge to take on a role like that, and I feel very lucky to have worked with Brit and Zal – they’re very adventurous in the kind of work they produce.

“I was constantly insecure, and I knew I was the imposter. So as lucky as I felt that the show wanted me to be part of it, I was also quietly relieved I didn’t have to do it anymore. I’m sorry to the fans but I just felt like I was going to be found out… I didn’t know what I was doing!”

Lloyd Banks breaks down his swag on new track ‘Fell In Love’

Lloyd Banks has dropped off the second track from his upcoming new album, ‘The Course Of The Inevitable 2’ – listen to ‘Fell In Love’ below.

READ MORE: Soundtrack Of My Life – 50 Cent

The follow-up to last year’s ‘COTI (The Course Of The Inevitable)’ was previewed earlier this month with the release of its first single, ‘Menace’ featuring Conway The Machine.

Due to be released on July 15, the album’s latest single hears Banks break down the characteristics that make him so irresistible to the ladies.

“Cool in the summer, heat hot when the winter’s on/ I came, I saw, I killed them already/ My game is raw, my Lord, they all petty/ I paved the way, let niggas in the doors heavy/ You talk a lot, you bashed in with small fetti,” he raps on the song’s second verse.

Listen to ‘Fell In Love’ below:

Banks has also shared the tracklisting for ‘The Course Of The Inevitable 2’, which you can check out below.

1. ‘Impact’
2. ‘No Reward’
3. ‘Menace’ (feat. Conway The Machine)
4. ‘Living Proof’ (feat. Benny The Butcher)
5. ‘Value Of A Check’
6. ‘Power Steering’ (Feat. Jadakiss)
7. ‘Fell In Love’
8. ‘Socialize’
9. ‘Murda One’
10. ‘Don’t Switch’ (Feat. Tony Yayo)
11. ‘Dead Roses’
12. ‘Trapped’
13. ‘Traffic’ (Feat. Vado & Dave East)
14. ‘On My Way’

News of a new album comes after Banks tweeted back in February: “I can’t wait for y’all to hear this sh!t SMH,” letting fans know just how excited he is about the forthcoming release.

Prior to the release of last year’s ‘COTI’, Banks hadn’t released a full-length project since his 2016 mixtape ‘Halloween Havoc 3: Four Days Of Fury’. His last official album before that was 2010’s ‘The Hunger For More 2′.

Meanwhile, D12 rapper Bizarre has recalled the time Suge Knight stopped by 50 Cent‘s ‘In Da Club’ video shoot in an attempt to intimidate the G-Unit head honcho.

Placebo’s Brian Molko on why they covered Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’

Placebo‘s Brian Molko has spoken about the band’s connection to Kate Bush and the reason they chose to cover ‘Running Up That Hill’.

READ MORE: Placebo: “David Bowie taught me how to be a better person”

In an interview with the Guardian, the frontman revealed how he first came across Bush. “My first exposure to Kate Bush was the video for Babooshka when I was a preteen,” he said.

“I’d never seen anything like it: who is this person from outer space, singing an incredibly strange song? I was completely captivated by this beautiful woman who had such charisma and seemed so unique.

“Then I discovered that my older brother had [album] ‘The Kick Inside’, so I was introduced to ‘The Man With the Child in His Eyes’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’. Then [in 1985] ‘Hounds of Love’ came out and blew my mind completely.”

Placebo covered ‘Running Up That Hill’ in 2003, with the song becoming the first track on the band’s ‘Covers’ album that same year. Their cover ended up peaking at Number 44 on the UK Singles Chart in 2006, after being used during the fourth-season premiere of The O.C.

Molko continued in the interview: “We were already in the habit of covering our favourite songs from the 80s, so I suggested that we do ‘Running Up That Hill’ but that we slow the tempo down as much as we could without it becoming a dirge, and obviously we wanted to keep it electronic with sounds from the early 2000s.

Last month, Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower revealed that he listened to Placebo‘s cover of ‘Running Up That Hill’ to help him get out of character as Vecna.

“When I was prepping for Vecna, to get into Vecna, I would use a lot of bands like Sun 0))), Carpathian Forest, Darkthrone, Mayhem,” the actor recently revealed on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast.

“Escaping Vecna… I’m a huge fan of Placebo,” he said. “I love Placebo. And obviously Placebo covered Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ sometime in, I dunno, I guess it must have been the late ’90s, early 2000s. And so I would go with that.”

Earlier this week, it was announced that Kate Bush had officially broken three Guinness World Records following the recent resurgence of ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’: Oldest female artist to reach Number One, longest time for a track to reach Number One on the UK’s Official Singles Chart, and longest gap between Number Ones.

Meanwhile, the final two episodes of Stranger Things season four landed on Netflix today (July 1).

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“I want this album to be something everyone can find a piece of themselves in. I poured everything into these songs, and I believe every listener will walk away with something that resonates with them personally. That’s the magic of music.”

Bubba Wallace sported a Black Lives Matter paint scheme on the same day NASCAR banned the Confederate flag.

Ray J & Princess Love’s relationship drama has been played out on social media for months, but the couple will be facing off for a new series.

He addressed the controversial film on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last week.

Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

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