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Mark Hoppus shares more details of cancer diagnosis: “I’m stage 4”

Mark Hoppus has shared more details on his recent cancer diagnosis, confirming to fans in a Twitch stream that he has 4-A diffuse large B-cell lymphoma – the same type of cancer his mother had battled (and eventually beat).

As the Lymphoma Research Foundation explain, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients are diagnosed with around the globe, with 18,000 cases reported every year. It’s an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that targets white blood cells, deteriorating the body’s immune system and its ability to fight infection.

Hoppus shared the news in a Q&A session with fans, saying: “It’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m stage 4, which is, I think, the highest that it goes.”

The Blink-182 bassist is adamant on maintaining his positivity, however. “We’re beating this cancer,” he added. “It’s just a matter of time.”

Watch Hoppus’ full Twitch stream below:

Word of Hoppus’ diagnosis follows an update he gave last week, wherein he revealed he was getting ready to undergo a test “that may very well determine if I live or die”. He spoke further on the details of such in his Twitch stream on Tuesday (July 13), saying: “The test is to find out if my chemotherapy is working at all. And if it is, then I go back for at least three more rounds.

“Ideally, I go in tomorrow and they say, ‘Congratulations! Your chemotherapy has worked and you are all done, and you’ll never have to think about this cancer again for the rest of your life.’ I hope.”

Regardless of how Hoppus’ chemotherapy – which he’s been receiving for at least three months thus far – is progressing, he clarified that still has at least three more rounds to go.

“If I go in tomorrow and they’re like, ‘It’s kinda working, we think it’s working,’ we’ll see,” he said. “Then I’ll still do three more rounds, I think. And if they say, ‘Well it’s really not working like we’d hoped,’ then I have to go and talk about other options. Which I guess means a bone marrow transplant.”

Hoppus also spoke about his experiences with chemo thus far, saying he felt like “a zombie that fell onto an electric fence” after his first session.

“The second round of chemo, I just felt very weak and tired. Really just like the worst flu ever,” he said. “The third round of chemo, I started retching. Nauseous and that whole thing.”

Hoppus first revealed his cancer diagnosis on June 23, telling fans in a statement: “It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this.”

Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge both voiced their support for Hoppus afterwards, and Hoppus shared his first photo since the news broke on July 4.

Listen to Iron Maiden’s first track in six years, ‘The Writing On The Wall’

Iron Maiden have released their first new music in six years with the track ‘The Writing On The Wall’ – listen below.

The metal band, whose 16th album ‘The Book Of Souls’ arrived in 2015, teased back in April that they had something “very, very exciting” in the works. “I think it’ll be worth the wait, put it like that,” said guitarist Adrian Smith.

It came after frontman Bruce Dickinson revealed last year that the group were back in the studio working on new material.

Today (July 15), Iron Maiden made their long-awaited return with a spectacular, six-minute single after teasing their comeback online. ‘The Writing On The Wall’ was written by Smith and Dickinson, with Kevin Shirley and bassist Steve Harris on production duties.

The song arrives with a suitably epic animated video, the creation of a collaborative team including former Pixar executives Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon (The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo).

Dickinson explained: “I had a pretty clear idea of the concept to accompany the song and when I met Mark and Andrew, on Zoom, it quickly became clear we were all very much on the same wavelength, and this was reinforced with the addition of Nicos and his young BlinkInk team. Our weekly team Zoom meetings were then usually both highly creative and a lot of fun!

“I’m very proud of the way the video turned out, it’s more like a mini-film really. I knew it was going to work out as soon as Mark brought my treatment to life with his incredible storyboards – I thought we could make something very special together. I think we did and hope our fans will agree. In fact it’s pretty much created by Maiden fans!!”

Details of Iron Maiden’s upcoming new album are yet to be revealed.

Speaking back in October 2020, Dickinson said that Iron Maiden had been “working together a little bit in the studio” after the band was forced to cancel last year’s ‘Legacy Of The Beast’ tour (the Europen leg was recently postponed until 2022).

“In the meantime, what are we doing? Well, we’re doing bits of writing,” Dickinson said. “I’m talking to Steve [Harris, bass]. We’ve been working together a little bit in the studio. On what, I can’t tell you, ’cause they’d have to kill me.”

In April, Adrian Smith said that fans would be “delighted” over what was to come.

Blackpink’s The Movie Will Be In Your Area (And Theaters) This August

Blackpink is coming to your area — in theaters!

YG Entertainment dropped a trailer today (July 14) for Blackpink’s upcoming documentary film as part of the girl group’s fifth debut anniversary, which they’re calling “4+1 Project.”

The trailer shows footage from Blackpink’s tours and rehearsals, along with members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa looking back on their journey since debuting in 2016 and becoming one of the biggest girl groups in the world. Each member can be heard saying something positive about their experiences. Lead singer Jennie said, “Performing onstage is one of the best parts.” Meanwhile, vocalist Rosé shared, “I really tried to pour my heart and soul into it.”

Jisoo, another vocalist, remarked how it was the greatest when they got together. “I think we shine the most when the four of us get together and challenge ourselves with new things,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHncNFal0ms

The documentary film is set to reveal exclusive, intimate features such as “The Room of Memories,” drawing on their last five years; “Beauty” photo shoots of each member; and exclusive interviews for their fans.

Blackpink debuted on August 8, 2016 with their single album Square One, which included tracks “Whistle” and “Boombayah.” The latter became the group’s first No. 1 hit on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart. In 2020, their lead single “How You Like That,” from the group’s first album The Album, won Song of the Summer at the VMAs. The Album debuted at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and went on to be one of the biggest albums of the year.

While Blackpink as a group has been reaching the music charts, some of its members have committed to solo work. Jennie made her solo debut with “Solo” in 2018, and Rosé became the first artist to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 as a soloist with her single album R, which was released this past March.

YG Entertainment confirmed that Lisa is the next member set to make a solo debut, set to be released later this summer. The music video for her new song is being filmed this week, per Soompi.

From the looks of the film and the group’s ongoing projects, Blackpink will continue to go places in their career. “I want to say thank you for always supporting me,” Lisa says in the trailer through id in joyful tears, thanking their dedicated Blinks.

Blackpink: The Movie will be released in theaters on August 4 in South Korea and worldwide. Tickets are currently available to purchase here.

Mark Hoppus on his cancer diagnosis: “This week I’ll take a test that may very well determine if I live or die”

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus has shared an update on his cancer diagnosis, saying he will be taking a crucial medical test later this week.

Hoppus publicly confirmed his diagnosis in June, and has been undergoing chemotherapy for at least three months now.

On social media yesterday (July 11), the vocalist said he is about to take a test “that may very well determine if I live or die”. Nevertheless, he is confident he will “kick cancer’s ass” either through chemo or bone marrow transplants.

Hoppus also shared a medical image of the tumour, which is located around his shoulder.

“Thanks to everyone for the positive thoughts and encouragement. I read all your replies and it means the world to me,” he said on Twitter.

“I’m going to beat this through chemotherapy or through bone marrow transplants, but either way I’m determined to kick cancer’s ass directly in the nuts. Love to you all. Let’s. Heckin. Go.”

to beat this through chemotherapy or through bone marrow transplants, but either way I’m determined to kick cancer’s ass directly in the nuts. Love to you all. Let’s. Heckin. Go. pic.twitter.com/6ih3AEJq7y

— ϻ?Ⓡ? ??Ƥ?ย? (@markhoppus) July 11, 2021

Since first announcing the diagnosis, Hoppus hasn’t revealed much else about what kind of cancer it is, or what stage it has progressed to.

“It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and friends to get me through this,” Hoppus said last month.

“I still have months of treatment ahead of me but I’m trying to remain hopeful and positive. Can’t wait to be cancer free and see you all at a concert in the near future. Love to you all.”

Fellow musicians including his Simple Creatures bandmate Alex Gaskarth (also of All Time Low) and members of A Day To Remember, Of Mice & Men and Good Charlotte have voiced their support. Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge have also made statements issuing their support for their Blink-182 bandmate.

Royal Blood announce intimate UK tour for this summer

Royal Blood have announced a string of intimate UK dates for this summer – check out the full details below.

The NME Big Read: Royal Blood: “Without sobriety, this album or this band wouldn’t exist. It was all quite scary”

The Brighton duo, whose third album ‘Typhoons’ came out in April, confirmed new shows in Bristol, Newcastle, Norwich and Hastings after the government outlined its proposed easing of COVID restrictions for July 19 yesterday (July 5).

It comes as Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher prepare to return to the stage for performances at Reading & Leeds, Tramlines and Victorious Festival.

In a video posted to Twitter today (July 6), frontman Kerr said he was “very excited to be announcing some intimate shows this July and August” while asking fans to “look after each other and play it safe” as full-capacity concerts return.

Incredibly excited to announce we will be playing a few intimate gigs this summer in the UK. Bristol, Newcastle, Norwich & Hastings, we’ll be seeing you very soon. pic.twitter.com/4KzQsZE2Bq

— Royal Blood (@royalblooduk) July 6, 2021

“If you have any COVID symptoms, please stay at home [and] self-isolate,” he added. “You can re-sell your tickets via Twickets or on the Ticketmaster fan-to-fan platform.

“We look forward to seeing you very, very much – it’s gonna be wild.”

Tickets go on general sale at 9am BST this coming Friday (July 9) from here. A pre-sale is accessible to fans who ordered the ‘Typhoons’ album from the band’s official store at the same time tomorrow (July 7).

Tigercub will appear at the shows as special guests – see the official tour poster below.

Pre-sale tickets are on sale from 9am Wednesday 7th July, if you ordered Typhoons from our store you have already been sent a pre-sale code, please check your junk/spam folders. Tickets on general sale at 9am Friday 9th July. Support from @tigercub https://t.co/jfHagrFCbB pic.twitter.com/20yQ9HpbIt

— Royal Blood (@royalblooduk) July 6, 2021

Royal Blood will embark on a UK arena tour in March 2022 following a string of headline dates across Europe.

In a four-star review of ‘Typhoons’, NME hailed the album as Royal Blood’s best work to date, praising the band for “[showing] what can really be achieved if you break your own walls down and let a little light in”.

Last month, the record featured in NME‘s Best Albums of 2021 (so far!) list.

Mark Hoppus shares first photo since confirming cancer diagnosis

Mark Hoppus has shared the first photo of himself since he announced his cancer diagnosis last month.

The Blink-182 bassist told his fans about his diagnosis in a post on his social media channels on June 23, writing: “For the past three months I’ve been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. I have cancer.

“It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this.”

Posting on social media yesterday (July 4) to mark Independence Day in the US, Hoppus shared an image of himself with the caption: “The Cancer Haver wishes you all a very happy Fourth of July weekend.”

The Cancer Haver wishes you all a very happy Fourth of July weekend. pic.twitter.com/q9vYFoP1RI

— ϻ?Ⓡ? ??Ƥ?ย? (@markhoppus) July 5, 2021

Hoppus, who in the photo is seen with a bald head as a side effect of his chemotherapy treatment, tweeted last Friday (July 2) about his experience of undergoing chemotherapy, writing: “Everything about chemo sucks except the part where it hopefully saves my life.”

The bassist recently gave viewers on a Twitch stream an update about his current health condition, saying: “How am I feeling today? I feel much better than yesterday. Yesterday was hellish for me and I woke up today feeling better – I went for a walk, and I had a decent breakfast, and I haven’t felt like I was going to throw up today, so we’ll take it as a win.”

Hoppus went on to thank one fan for their “kind wish of a speedy recovery”, adding: “We’re doing this.”

Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge both voiced their support for Hoppus last month after he confirmed his cancer diagnosis.

Jxdn Wants To Be Pop-Punk’s Poster Child

By Aliya Chaudhry

A day after the release of Jxdn’s electrifying debut single “Comatose” in March 2020, Travis Barker got in touch. Jxdn, whose real name is Jaden Hossler and who styles his performance moniker in all lowercase, was at that point known primarily for his dancing and lip-syncing videos on TikTok. He was, in fact, attending the creator convention Playlist Live in Florida when Barker called his team. A few months later, Hossler became the first signee to Barker’s label, DTA records.

More than a year onwards, he’s finally releasing his first album, Tell Me About Tomorrow, which opens with Barker’s voice saying Jxdn’s going to be the next big thing.

“He's literally like my dad,” Hossler says of Barker. “He's my family at this point.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee7k67oTa1M

For Hossler, who decided he wanted to make rock music before he released his first song, there was no one better to work with. Barker has become central to pop-punk’s re-entry into mainstream music, helming new projects from an ever-expanding roster of artists including Machine Gun Kelly, KennyHoopla, and Willow. Last year, Barker produced, co-wrote, and performed on Kelly’s Tickets to My Downfall, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Jxdn appeared in the album’s tie-in film, Downfalls High.

Hossler, now 20, was one of the earliest stars from the TikTok generation to successfully cross over into music. His soaring second single, “Angels & Demons,” has over 100 million streams on Spotify. His brighter-sounding later release “Better Off Dead” was co-written with Lauv and Blackbear.

“I've been surrounded by music my whole life,” said Hossler. His father was a musician and a member of the worship team at their church. Growing up in Texas and Tennessee, Hossler also sang in the choir and acted in plays in high school.

Despite his early interest in singing, Hossler didn’t initially pursue music, gaining internet fame through TikTok instead. He filmed dances, skits, and trends; he lip-synced to popular audio clips and occasionally sang himself. His videos ranged from goofy to edgy. Hossler became a member of the creator collective Sway House in early 2020 alongside other platform celebs like Bryce Hall and Noah Beck. He now has over 9 million followers and 260 million likes on the app. “I feel like social media was just a stepping block for me to get where I gotta go,” Hossler said. “I definitely needed it at the time.”

It was a Juice WRLD concert that ultimately gave him the spark to pursue music. “I just had the biggest epiphany of my life in the middle of this mosh pit,” he said. “I knew in that moment that I needed to make music because of how much I felt connected to it.”

Hossler was inspired by the late singer and rapper’s ability to speak openly about his experiences, good or bad. “The reason I felt confident enough to go after what I wanted to do was because I was like, ‘If Juice WRLD’s being vulnerable so all of these thousands of kids can be vulnerable, so I can be vulnerable and we're all doing it at the same time, then there's no way that I can't do this too,’” Hossler said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAi39ZNt0OE

Having seen creators from different platforms try to make the switch to a music career, with varying degrees of success, Hossler knew he would have to do something different. “I saw people come from YouTube, I saw people come from Vine, and I knew what I had to do to separate myself,” he said. “That's why I went with such an active rock song for my first one, and a pop-rock song for my second one. I really was just trying to break the current.”

It’s impossible to tell from listening to his music, but Hossler only started listening to pop-punk two years ago. “It's funny, I didn't grow up in the punk scene at all,” he said. “I didn't grow up listening to punk music ever.”

The first pop-punk song he ever heard was Blink-182’s “Darkside,” which the veteran band released only in 2019. “From that moment on, I think it just naturally grew into: If I was 14 right now and I was listening to punk music, that's what it feels like, because I'm changing my hair color,” he said. “I just really want to find out who I am.” He refers to legendary California punk icons Descendents as his favorite band, but he’s also a fan of Motley Crue and Justin Bieber.

In the time since Hossler launched his music career, pop-punk has exploded into a proper resurgence. Olivia Rodrigo’s rollicking “Good 4 U” hit No. 1 shortly after she set the table with the much softer “Drivers License” — a song Jxdn covered with Barker’s help. After Tickets to My Downfall landed in the top spot, so did “Mood,” Iann Dior and 24kGoldn’s rap-rock hit. Both Dior and Machine Gun Kelly feature on Hossler’s debut album, on the songs “Tonight” and “Wanna Be,” respectively.

TikTok has also been integral to the genre’s rise. The short-form video app has helped alternative culture go viral, whether it’s the e-girl and e-boy aesthetics that call to mind Myspace scene-kid style or the era-appropriate songs like All Time Low’s “Dear Maria, Count Me In” and Paramore’s “All I Wanted.” (Hossler has cited both bands as influences.) “I think it was the perfect storm of COVID giving millions of adults the ability to go back to a time that was more nostalgic,” Hossler said.

With Barker’s help, Tell Me About Tomorrow is packed with plenty of pop-punk essentials that would make it sound at home in the genre’s 2000s heyday, from the high-speed power-chord thrills of “Pills” to the singalong choruses of “DTA” and “Last Time” to the quick-building hooks of the darker “No Vanity.”

“I'm really just the epitome of pop-punk,” Hossler said. He describes his album as “a really good representation of say, Taking Back Sunday, and Blink literally [having] a baby. That's what it sounds like. I really would love to be the poster child of pop-punk.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O7HyNkyAnw

Tell Me About Tomorrow at times also takes influence from trap and emo rap. On “Angels & Demons,” Hossler draws from the melodic singing style of his idol Juice WRLD, though he’s quick to point out he doesn’t rap. “One Minute” starts off with a Blink-style riff before rushing into a trap beat paired with chugging guitars.

It’s not shocking to hear Machine Gun Kelly’s voice on “Wanna Be,” but it was a surprise for Hossler, however, when Barker showed him the guest vocals. “I come back to the studio and Travis is like, ‘Yo, listen to the second verse. I want you to recut it.’ And I was listening to it, and they're videoing me, and I was like, ‘What the fuck?” And then I heard Kells’s voice and I was like, ‘There's no way.’ I freaked out,” he said. (Hossler will be joining Machine Gun Kelly on his Tickets to My Downfall tour this fall.)

Tell Me About Tomorrow has been almost a year in the making. Hossler started working on it in August 2020. The album artwork and title were locked in early — about nine or ten months ago — and were the few things about the album that stayed the same throughout its long creation process. Hossler titled it after a phrase he used to say to a close friend who was going through a difficult time. “We'd always say, ‘Yo, if you tell me about this, I’m gonna tell you about tomorrow, and it's gonna be better,’” Hossler said.

The album artwork portrays Hossler as a baby, sitting in the bathtub. “That was a moment where I was so vulnerable,” he said. “I'm not worried about what's coming, and I'm not really worried about what's happening in the moment. I don't have to do anything. I'm just told about tomorrow. I'm told what's gonna happen. I don't have any anxiety.”

The choice was informed by the album’s focus on vulnerability and the frankness with which he speaks about mental health. “It's been cloudy with a chance of depression,” he sings on “Better Off Dead.” He’s spoken about his experiences with depression and suicidal ideation. “Why would I ever downplay it? I feel like it's an injustice to myself and everybody around me, to what I've been through and what people have gone through,” he said, saying that Juice WRLD inspired him to connect with audiences by speaking candidly about his struggles.

Those experiences may likewise one day lead him into experimenting with other types of sounds as he explores what else he has to say. But that’s in the future. “Right now,” he said. “I'm a pop-punk baby.”

Listen to Maxïmo Park’s new live EP ‘By The Riverside’

Maxïmo Park have shared a new live EP called ‘By The Riverside’ – listen below.

READ MORE: Maxïmo Park v Architects marks the return of the indie chart battle. But why now?

Released today (July 1), the collection features performances recorded during the Newcastle band’s live-streamed show in March, which marked the release of their seventh album ‘Nature Always Wins’.

Frontman Paul Smith and co. took to the stage at The Riverside venue on Newcastle’s Quayside for the virtual gig.

“We tried to warm up the empty venue with our natural energy and passion, as you can hear from this selection of tunes!” Smith explained of the EP in a statement.

“We chose older songs that are live favourites, like ‘The Hero’, but also a few from the new album that felt super-strong. ‘Versions Of You’ was originally inspired by my daughter, and the personal subject matter, along with everything else going on over the last year or so, made it a very emotional performance.”

You can stream ‘By The Riverside’ above via Spotify and find it on other online platforms here.

Maxïmo Park are set to embark on a UK headline tour in October, which will begin with a homecoming gig at Newcastle’s Boiler Shop.

The full tour schedule is as follows:

OCTOBER
Saturday 2 – Boiler Shop, Newcastle
Sunday 3 – The Mill, Birmingham
Tuesday 5 – The Leadmill, Sheffield
Wednesday 6 – EartH Theatre, London
Thursday 7 – Trinity, Bristol
Saturday 9 – EartH Theatre, London
Sunday 10 – O2 Ritz, Manchester
Monday 11 – Saint Luke’s, Glasgow

In a four-star review of ‘Nature Always Wins’, NME’s Damian Jones wrote: “The Geordie misfits return with joyful pop songs and introspective anthems aplenty on their seventh studio album.”

Metallica share classic ‘Sad But True’ performance from ‘Black Album’ tour

Metallica have shared a classic performance of ‘Sad But True’ – you can check it out below.

READ MORE: Metallica: every single album ranked and rated

The footage was captured during the metal icons’ concert at Gentofte Stadion in Copenhagen, Denmark on August 10, 1991. According to an official description, the appearance marked the band’s first “proper” show of the ‘Black Album’ tour.

“Can you hear us out there?” frontman James Hetfield asks the crowd to rapturous applause and cheers. “I can’t hear you!”

The musician goes on to introduce “new song” ‘Sad But True’, a “very happy little number – so cheer up, huh?”

Writing in the comments section, one fan said: “When they were young and mighty, and now they are just mighty!!! Amazing…” Another wrote: “I’d give my apartment in to be able to be in that show.”

The performance features on the Live At Gentofte Stadion DVD, which will be released as part of Metallica’s ‘Black Album’ remastered deluxe boxset to mark the LP’s 30th anniversary (out on September 10 via the band’s Blackened Recordings).

Released in August 1991, ‘The Black Album’ – aka ‘Metallica’ – features such songs as ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘The Unforgiven’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘Wherever I May Roam’.

Earlier this week, both St. Vincent and Sam Fender shared new versions of ‘Sad But True’ from the star-studded covers album ‘The Metallica Blacklist’. Fifty artists each contributed “a unique interpretation” of their favourite track from ‘The Black Album’ for the record, including Biffy Clyro, Phoebe Bridgers and IDLES.

Metallica will headline both NOS Alive and Mad Cool Festival, as well as the French festival Hellfest, next summer.

Saweetie on how meeting Cher inspired her to delay debut album

Saweetie has revealed how meeting Cher led to her debut album being delayed.

The California rapper was initially due to drop ‘Pretty Bitch Music’ last Friday (June 25) via Warner, having recently shared her latest single ‘Fast (Motion)’.

READ MORE: The BET Awards 2021: the big talking points, from Cardi B’s bump to a poignant DMX tribute

Last Sunday (June 27), Saweetie was nominated in the Best Female Hip Hop Artist category at the BET Awards 2021 (she lost out to Megan Thee Stallion) and spoke to Billboard about the “surprise” nod.

She went on to say that she’s “working on a really big campaign” with Cher, which caused her to rethink the release plan for her first studio effort.

“I thought [the album] was done, but after I met her, I had an epiphany,” Saweetie explained. “This album needs to have feelings, it needs to have soul, it needs to have spirit.

“And I have a lot of room for improvement, so I’m gonna work on that. And once it’s done, the album will be released.”

Asked if there would be any surprises on the LP, Saweetie said: “I’ma take y’all to the island.”

As for her collaboration with Cher, the rapper said that she can’t reveal too much at the moment “because of contracts”.

‘Fast (Motion)’ and its accompanying visuals came after Saweetie teamed up with K-pop singer Jamie and Japanese rapper Chanmina on a new remix of ‘Best Friend’, also featuring Doja Cat.

She also joined forces with No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani for a new rendition of the latter’s single ‘Slow Clap’ in April.

In March, Saweetie released her third EP ‘Pretty Summer Playlist: Season 1’. The project arrived alongside a video for the Drakeo The Ruler-assisted cut ‘Risky’, which was co-directed by Saweetie with FakeDell.

Meanwhile, Cher joined TikTok last week in celebration of Pride Month. “Happy Pride Month to everybody in the community that I love, and that means you,” she said in the video.

Inhaler enlist Noel Fielding for “extremely limited” version of debut album

Inhaler have announced a special edition of their debut album featuring artwork by Noel Fielding.

READ MORE: Inhaler talk debut album and new single ‘Cheer Up Baby’: “It’s a love letter to all our fans who are feeling isolated”

The Dublin band took to Twitter yesterday (June 29) to share the news of an “extremely limited version” of ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’, which is available to purchase via The Sound Of Vinyl.

Captioning a trio of preview photos, Inhaler said they were “honoured” that their “hero” Fielding had reimagined the official cover art in paint. “Thanks to the Lord of the dance for rendering us in your inimitable style, forever grateful,” they wrote.

You can see that post below:

We're honoured to have had one of our heroes @noelfielding11 paint an extremely limited version of the IWABLT Vinyl – it will be on sale via @TheSoundofVinyl tomorrow night at 19:00 BST – Thanks to the Lord of the dance for rendering us in your inimitable style, forever grateful pic.twitter.com/VUDvW1dJzc

— Inhaler (@InhalerDublin) June 29, 2021

‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’ is due for release on July 9, and was previewed by its title track earlier this month. Following on from the single ‘Who’s Your Money On?’, it arrived with a James Slater-directed official video.

Inhaler are set to take their debut album out on the road for a UK and Ireland headline tour this September – you can check out the full schedule below.

Speaking to NME back in March, the group explained that their first record will see them “dabble in different genres” while aiming for “something bigger” than an indie-rock-pop sound.

“We’ve never been a band who set out to sound like this and sing like this and talk about this y’know – it just happened really naturally and we’re the kind of people who are music-heads,” frontman Eli Hewson told NME.

Inhaler will play:

September
28 – Sheffield, Octagon
29 – Leeds, O2 Academy

October
1 – Newcastle, University
2 – Birmingham, O2 Institute
3 – Bristol, O2 Academy
5 – Nottingham, Rock City
6 – London, O2 Forum Kentish Town
7 – Norwich, The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA
9 – Liverpool, The Mountford Hall
10 – Glasgow, Barrowland
12 – Manchester, O2 Ritz

December
14 – Belfast, Limelight 1
15 – Limerick, Dolan’s Warehouse
16 – Cork, Cyprus Avenue
17 – Killarney, INEC Acoustic Club
19 – Dublin, Academy
20 – Dublin, Academy
21 – Dublin, Academy
22 – Dublin, Academy

Listen to LUMP’s “twisted” pop track ‘We Cannot Resist’

LUMP, the duo comprising Laura Marling and Tunng’s Mike Lindsay, have shared a new track called ‘We Cannot Resist’ – listen below.

READ MORE: Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay on surreal, yeti-fronted project LUMP: “We’ve gotta give him the right cuddles”

The song is set to appear on the group’s forthcoming second album ‘Animal’ (out July 30 via Chrysalis/Partisan), which will also include its previously-released title track as well as ‘Climb Every Wall’.

“It wants to be this massive pop track, but it’s been twisted,” Lindsay explained of LUMP’s latest single. “I like that when the chorus comes in you’re like ‘Wow!’ It’s this huge pop chorus, but then it becomes really creepy with the whispered ‘We cannot resist’.”

Marling, meanwhile, said in a statement that ‘We Cannot Resist’ was “another one about hedonism”.

“But it was tricky because it’s such American imagery,” she continued. “I remember we had to stop and start and redo quite a lot of the lyrical takes because saying things like ‘Down to burn rubber’ are quite awkward to say in an English accent.”

The track arrives with a woodland-set official video, which sees Marling and Lindsay get a rare glimpse of the colourful LUMP creature while out exploring. Later, the monster breaks out for an adventure through the streets of central London.

‘Animal’ will also feature the songs ‘Bloom At Night’, ‘Red Snakes’, ‘Paradise’, ‘Hair On The Pillow’ and more.

LUMP album — LUMP – ‘Animal’ official album artwork. CREDIT: Press

The full tracklist is as follows:

1. ‘Bloom At Night’
2. ‘Gamma Ray’
3. ‘Animal’
4. ‘Climb Every Wall’
5. ‘Red Snakes’
6. ‘Paradise’
7. ‘Hair On The Pillow’
8. ‘We Cannot Resist’
9. ‘Oberon’
10. ‘Phantom Limb’

Marling previously revealed that the record was inspired by a newfound interest in psychoanalysis. “I like the idea that psychoanalysis attempts to investigate the routes of desire,” she said.

LUMP will head out on the road in August and September – you can see the full tour schedule below.

August

31 – Gorilla, Manchester

September
2 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
3 – Trinity, Bristol
5 – Patterns, Brighton
6 – Scala, London

The Killers have made “a good start” on their eighth album, says Dave Keuning

Dave Keuning has spoken about rejoining The Killers for their upcoming seventh album, revealing that they’re “already working on the eighth one together”.

The guitarist, who founded the Las Vegas band in 2001, stepped down from his role in 2017 to pursue a solo career. He went on to release his debut album ‘Prismism’ in 2019, with its follow-up ‘A Mild Case of Everything’ arriving last week.

The NME Big Read: The Killers: “Music made it possible for me to dream”

Speaking to NME during a recent ‘In Conversation’ interview, Keuning was asked about Brandon Flowers and co’s new “concept record”, which is expected to arrive in August. It comes after the musician was spotted in the studio with the group back in January.

“It still sounds like The Killers,” Keuning said of the album. “A lot of these songs were ready to be recorded, and I would come in and play guitar.

“I did actually come in with a few song ideas that we worked on together and then made the record, so that was fun. It’s different.”

The guitarist went on to say that he’d wanted to “do more concept records a while ago”, and hone in on one particular style of music.

“I’m just happy to be back in any capacity on the seventh record and now that that’s done, I’m just excited to write and see where the eighth one goes,” Keuning told NME.

“I don’t think we know what it’ll sound like. It’s too early, but we’re writing ideas for it and we’ve got quite a few already, so we have a good start.”

READ MORE: The Killers’ 11 best songs

Although he didn’t contribute to The Killers’ 2020 album ‘Imploding The Mirage’, Keuning revealed that he’s been learning the featured tracks in preparation for the band’s next tour. He also tackled the “awkward question” of what he thought of the record’s songs.

“I’m happy to play them live, I’m not gonna do nothing,” he told NME. “I wanna play the songs.”

Keuning added: “The songs are good, it’s just… it is weird not knowing how to feel.

“I guess I compare it to a sports team that you were a part of, and then when you’re not on that team… do you root for the team or against the team. And now I’m back on the team.”

You can watch the full video interview above.

The update comes after drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. spoke about The Killers’ “very different” new record earlier this month. Frontman Flowers, meanwhile, told NME that it “might be even better” than ‘Imploding The Mirage’.

Halsey’s Going Into The Void With Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross

Today (June 28), Halsey announced that she is working on her fourth studio album titled If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power with industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails’s Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

A 10-second preview video of a new, untitled track with heavily atmospheric and textured musical elements came with the announcement. The video also depicts a billboard advertisement promoting the album zooming outwards.

https://twitter.com/halsey/status/1409545433282584577?s=20

https://twitter.com/nineinchnails/status/1409549178695393282

Fans are going wild and expecting that this will be a new punk-rock era for the New Jersey pop singer, who has previously delved into pop-punk and nu-metal elements.

https://twitter.com/WreckMyTrain/status/1409523439032016900?s=20

https://twitter.com/stillPARADISIN/status/1409528465162915848?s=20

Halsey seems to have already dropped hints that she’s been leaning towards a new rock direction. Last year, she and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker were featured on Machine Gun Kelly’s "Forget Me Too". A year before that, she and Barker collaborated with Yungblud for “11 Minutes.” She also was featured in Bring Me The Horizon’s “¿” on their 2019 Music to Listen To… album.

A lead single, tracklist, and an album release date are to be announced. Given Reznor and Ross’s penchant for winning awards — they have racked up two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and a Grammy together — fans are speculating that this new partnership could likewise spell trophy success for Halsey as well. She’s also expecting her first child, making 2021 an exciting year to be Halsey.

Watch Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker perform surprise LA rooftop gig

Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker performed a surprise rooftop show in Los Angeles over the weekend – check out the footage below.

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

The Ohio rapper – aka Richard Colson Baker – took to Twitter on Saturday (June 19) to direct his fans to a “rainbow lifeguard station” at Venice Beach, where he later took to the stage to perform a 13-song set.

MGK played to hundreds of people alongside his live band, which featured Blink-182‘s Travis Barker on drums. Following the impromptu set, Barker shared footage of their performance of the ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ track ‘WWIII’.

“This one will go down in history,” the drummer wrote as the caption on Instagram – see that post and more below.

venice beach today
rainbow lifeguard station 3pm ?

— blonde don (@machinegunkelly) June 19, 2021

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by travisbarker (@travisbarker)

one for the books
the venice menace pic.twitter.com/6spozcbsgZ

— blonde don (@machinegunkelly) June 20, 2021

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by the Blonde Don (@machinegunkelly)

pic.twitter.com/9swi8iDEWp

— MGK Updates ?⚡️ (@mgk_usa) June 20, 2021

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BlaqAbe (@slimxx)

Opening with ‘title track’, Machine Gun Kelly and co. also offered up live airings of ‘concert for aliens’, ‘forget me too’, ‘my ex’s best friend’ before closing the show with ‘I Think I’m OKAY’.

Machine Gun Kelly played (via Setlist.FM):

1. ‘title track’
2. ‘kiss kiss’
3. ‘drunk face’
4. ‘bloody valentine’
5. ‘forget me too’
6. ‘all I know’
7. ‘WWIII’
8. ‘love race’
9. ‘concert for aliens’
10. ‘my ex’s best friend’
11. ‘nothing inside’
12. ‘jawbreaker’
13. ‘I Think I’m OKAY’

Machine Gun Kelly is due to perform at Reading & Leeds festivals in August alongside headliners Liam Gallagher, Stormzy, Post Malone, Catfish & The Bottlemen and Queens Of The Stone Age.

An extensive US tour will follow in September and October, as well as a December homecoming gig at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse – the biggest venue in Cleveland, Ohio.

Last month, MGK shared the slasher film-inspired official video for his single ‘Love Race’, which features Kellin Quinn and Travis Barker.

Noel Gallagher launches new online photography exhibition

Noel Gallagher has launched a new online exhibition showcasing a selection of photographs documenting his life on tour with the High Flying Birds.

READ MORE: So, Noel might sell the Oasis back catalogue? Here are a few ideas

The collection, titled A New World Blazing, contains over 40 images by photographer Sharon Latham, who captured Gallagher’s band “at their most dynamic and their most intimate” while out on the road.

Speaking of the first-ever exhibition to focus on High Flying Birds, Gallagher explained: “Down the years I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best photographers in the world and I would put Sharon right up there. At its best a photograph should speak.

“What are the pictures saying? They are saying: We – NGHFB – have the best job in the world. To work, play, travel and party with these people is an absolute pleasure. I’m so happy that Big Shaz was there to capture these moments.”

Now online ‘A New World Blazing’: an exhibition of photography by @snappershaz, celebrating life on the road with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
Visit @redhousegallery to watch the film and a virtual tour of the show.#ANewWorldBlazing pic.twitter.com/51FK7SYBn0

— Noel Gallagher (@NoelGallagher) June 22, 2021

You can access A New World Blazing via Redhouse Originals here, as well as a 360-degree virtual tour of the show here.

Latham, who has previously shot Oasis in Manchester, participated in an interview with Edith Bowman about the new exhibition – you can check out the full behind-the-scenes video above.

Limited edition prints and special deluxe artworks are also available for purchase, many of which are signed by both Gallagher and Latham.

Talking about one black-and-white photograph in the collection, in which Gallagher is seen performing at Manchester Arena, Latham reflected on the “overwhelming” experience of returning to the venue for the first time since the terror attack at the venue in 2017.

“I remember sitting on the stage and literally crying as I was photographing, which is unusual for me ’cause I’m not a wimp – I’m a tough girl,” she said. “But when you see [the crowd] stood up… it’s epic when you see Noel onstage and you’re on that point of view.”

Latham added: “For me, Noel’s quite insignificant in the corner [of the shot]. The rest of it is just the whole crowd; their hands and their phones… all of it. And my daughter’s in that picture.”

Last Friday (June 18), Noel Gallagher scored his 12th UK Number One album with his Best Of album, ‘Back The Way We Came: Vol. 1 (2011-2021)’.

Willow Smith says she used to get bullied for being a Black girl who liked rock music

Willow Smith has revealed she used to get bullied in school for being a Black girl who liked rock music.

READ MORE: Nova Twins: “Being black women doing punk music is political”

The actor and singer, known mononymously as Willow, released her new single ‘Transparent Soul’ – a pop-punk outing featuring Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker – back in April.

Speaking at the time of its release, Smith said the song was the beginning a new era with her career and that she was “so grateful and excited to start this new journey”.

Speaking about her formative years as a rock and metal fan in a recent interview with V Magazine, Smith told Alexis White of metal core band Straight Line Stitch that she used to get bullied in school for being a Black girl who was a fan of Paramore and My Chemical Romance.
“But being a Black woman in the metal crowd is very, very different on top of the pressures that the music industry puts on you,” Smith said. “Now, it’s like an added pressure of the metal culture, the metal world, and just rock in general. I used to get bullied in school for listening to Paramore and My Chemical Romance.”
White responded: “Yeah, there’s a lot of,“Hey, you’re Black. You’re not supposed to listen to that.”
“Exactly! And it’s not okay,” Smith continued. “Just through the music that I’m putting out right now and the representation that I can bring to the mix, I just hope that the Black girls who are listening to my music and listening to this album see that there’s more of us out there. It’s a real thing, you’re not alone. You’re not the only Black girl who wishes she could flip her hair to the side, and wear black eyeliner, you know what I mean?”

Elsewhere in the interview, Smith talked about her forthcoming album and how it will include a lot more guest features than her previous record, 2019’s Willow, including one from Avril Lavigne.

“I’m so excited that I’m going to be having a song on the album with Avril Lavigne,” Smith said. “She is so iconic. From [ages] 13 to 16, she was my idol. It’s really nice to be able to have a quintessential pop-punk record with the pop-punk queen.”

jxdn announces Travis Barker-produced debut album ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’

jxdn has announced the release of his debut album, ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’ – listen to new single ‘Think About Me’ below.

READ MORE: Five things we learned from our In Conversation video chat with jxdn

Produced by Travis Barker, the 18-track LP comprises 14 new songs, including a feature from Machine Gun Kelly on the track ‘Wanna Be’. It will be released on July 2 via DTA Records.

jxdn (real name Jaden Hossler) has accompanied news of the album with the release of a new track called ‘Think About Me’, which arrives with a video featuring nods to iconic Nirvana and Blink-182 videos.

“This single is the perfect introduction to ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’ – I’m so proud of what Travis and I have created and can’t wait for the world to hear it,” jxdn said of the track.

Watch the video for ‘Think About Me’ below:

In addition to ‘Think About Me’, jxdn’s debut album will feature the singles, ‘So What!’, ‘Tonight’ featuring Iann Dior, ‘Better Off Dead’, and his smash hit ‘Angels & Demons’. You can see the full tracklist for ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’ below:

1. ‘Intro’
2. ‘Pills’
3. ‘Think About Me’
4. ‘Wanna Be’ (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly)
5. ‘A Wasted Year’
6. ‘Angels & Demons’
7. ‘I Nterlude’
8. ‘One Minute’
9. ‘Braindead’
10. ‘Tonight’ (Feat. Iann Dior)
11. ‘Fucked Up’
12. ‘So What!’
13. ‘Angels & Demons Pt.2’
14. ‘Better Off Dead’
15. ‘DTA’
16. ‘Last Time’
17. ‘No Vanity’
18. ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’

Out July 2, you can pre-order the album here.

jxdn was most recently announced as support for Machine Gun Kelly’s ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ 2021 US tour. He will also perform at this year’s Reading and Leeds festival.

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

‘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.

New lawsuit alleges Marilyn Manson raped ex-girlfriend and threatened to kill her

Content warning: This story contains discussion and description of sexual assault.

A new lawsuit filed against Marilyn Manson by an ex-girlfriend alleges the singer raped her and threatened to kill her.

The ex-girlfriend, only identified as Jane Doe, and Manson allegedly met at a pre-Grammy party in 2011. While the relationship was “gentle and romantic” at first, it is claimed it took a violent turn relatively quickly.

According to the lawsuit, per documents published by Deadline on May 28, Doe claims Manson raped her in June 2011 when she went to return a key for his apartment, threatening to kill her afterwards. Manson would also allegedly demand sex often, and became increasingly violent at one point during a three-day drug binge.

The lawsuit also alleges that Manson showed Doe a film titled Groupie, filmed in 1996, which showed him tying a young fan to a chair, forcing her to drink a glass of a band member’s urine, threatening her with a gun and possibly pistol-whipping her.

The plaintiff is suing for damages and a declaration that Manson’s conduct broke the law. When contacted by NME for comment, a member of Manson’s team “strongly denies the accusations”.

A source close to Manson has also said that the video was a “scripted short film”, shot by a photographer/videographer who was a frequent collaborator of Manson’s, and intended for use as an extra video feature for an upcoming album release that was never released. The source also said that the person in the film was an actress who had appeared in Manson’s video for ‘The Long Hard Road Out of Hell’.

This suit follows two previous lawsuits filed against Manson. In April, Game of Thrones actor Esme Bianco sued Manson, alleging sexual assault, physical abuse and human trafficking, months after going public with her claims. In May, Manson’s former assistant Ashley Walters sued the singer for sexual assault, battery, and harassment. Manson has denied the allegations brought against him in the previous lawsuits.

Earlier this month, a warrant was issued in New Hampshire for Manson’s arrest over two counts of Class A misdemeanour simple assault against a videographer. Manson’s lawyer Howard King said the claims were “ludicrous”.

Manson was dropped by his label Loma Vista in February, shortly after a number of women, including his former partner Evan Rachel Wood, came forth publicly with allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct against him. Manson has denied the allegations, calling them “horrible distortions of reality” in a February statement.

For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.

Liam Gallagher responds to Noel’s Oasis reunion price: “I’d do it for free”

Liam Gallagher has said he would reform Oasis for free after brother Noel named his price at £100million to get the band back together this week.

“There isn’t £100million in the music business between all of us… if anybody wants to offer me £100million now, I’ll say it now, I’ll do it. I’ll do it for £100million,” Noel told The Jonathan Ross Show.

In response to the comments, Liam says he wouldn’t even need payment to reunite the band, who split up in 2009.

Commenting under an Instagram post discussing Noel’s £100m comment by fan page Oasis Mania, Liam wrote: “I’d do it for FREE”.

LG on our Instagram ??

Posted by Oasis Mania Fanpage on Friday, May 21, 2021

Last week, Noel said he doesn’t believe that Oasis should reunite, because the band’s legacy is “set in stone”.

After news of the release of a special documentary marking 25 years of the band’s iconic Knebworth gig, Noel was asked about a reunion, saying he “doesn’t feel like it”.

“People ask me that question on a daily basis and I can only say to you that, I just don’t feel like it. When you’re in a band, it’s an absolute compromise so no I don’t think I could come up with an idea and then run it by four people and then six weeks later, somebody knocks it back because their cat’s got a cough so I like to march to the beat of my own drum. Oasis is done I’m afraid.”

Noel also recently revealed that his 2011 debut solo album had meant to be “the next Oasis album”.

‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ was released in October 2011, marking Gallagher’s first LP release since the break-up of Oasis in 2009.

Rosé on her record-breaking solo project: “The truth is, I’m really embarrassed.”

BLACKPINK’s Rosé has shared her thoughts on the chart-smashing success of her solo debut album, ‘R.’

READ MORE: BTS on masculinity: “We live in an age where we shouldn’t have those labels”

In a recent interview for Elle Korea’s June issue, the BLACKPINK member discussed her achievements as a soloist and the kind of artist she aspires to become.

Since its release in March, Rosé’s debut single album ‘R.’ has been met with notable success. Just last month, the Guinness World Records revealed that the Korean-Australian singer set two new world records with the project’s lead single, ‘On The Ground’.

? Most viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours by a solo K-pop artist
? First artist to reach number one on a Billboard Global chart as a soloist and as part of a group@ygofficialblink

— Guinness World Records (@GWR) April 11, 2021

Rosé now holds the record for the most viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours by a solo K-pop artist, after ‘On The Ground’ garnered 41.6million views within a day of its release. The record was previously held by Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’.

She is also the first artist to reach number one on a Billboard Global chart as a soloist and as part of a group. ‘On The Ground’ topped Billboard’s Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts on March 27, and she previously topped the Billboard’s Global Excl. US chart as part of BLACKPINK in October 2020 with ‘Lovesick Girls’.

Yet, despite her success, Rosé still doesn’t seem satisficed with her accomplishments. “The truth is, I’m really embarrassed,” Rosé told Elle Korea, as translated by Soompi. “As it was my first solo activity, I could see that I lacked a lot.”

“Nevertheless, I am very grateful to receive so much love,” she added about the success of ‘On The Ground’. “If I get another opportunity, I think I will be able to work more flexibly and enjoy it.”

Elsewhere during the interview, Rosé also talked about what kind of artist she aspires to become. “When I listen to a song, I try to recognise the feelings and stories that the artist wants to convey. As such, I hope that what I want to convey through my songs will be delivered well. That’s the kind of singer I want to be,” she shared.

In other BLACKPINK news, youngest member Lisa is reportedly set to make her solo debut next month, according to Harper’s Bazaar Thailand. In a series of now-deleted tweets, French producer DJ Snake also claimed that he has worked with Lisa on a new song.

However, YG Entertainment has yet to confirm details of the star’s upcoming solo debut. “Lisa is still working hard on the album,” the agency previously said in a statement to The Korea Herald.

St Vincent Daddy’s Home

At last year’s Sundance, Annie Clark and Carrie Brownstein premiered a mockumentary they named The Nowhere Inn. Playing augmented versions of themselves, the film cast Brownstein as a director trying to make a documentary that will reconcile Clark’s day-to-day self with her untouchable onstage persona, St Vincent. When the quotidian proves a little humdrum, the Clark character decides to heighten her St Vincentness for the sake of the movie, growing ever more spectacular, concocted and elusive. “I know who I am,” she notes. “What does it matter if anyone else does?”

The unknowability of St Vincent has provided much of her intrigue and also her appeal over the course of five albums (and one collaboration with David Byrne). Yes, there were Grammys, accolades, albums of the year, but the essential question of who really lay beneath the veneer has hovered over much of her career. Accordingly, the vocabulary used to describe Clark and her music has often suggested cleverness rather than emotional heft: arch, meta, provocative; complex, mischievous, ambitious. Critics described her work as if viewed behind glass, and at a distance.

The great surprise of Clark’s sixth album, Daddy’s Home, is its sense of proximity. These are songs that, long after first listen, you find under your fingernails, and scenting your jacket. “Gritty. Grimy. Sleazy,” as she puts it, their lyrics filled with characters wearing “last night’s heels on the morning train,” or turning up “at the holiday party red wine-lipped a little early,” carrying a Gucci purse like “a pharmacy.”

Clark has told how these songs were inspired by “music made in New York between 1971-1975” – a specificity of both time-frame and geography that might seem little more than an exercise in genre-dabbling, were the reason for the inspiration not so devastating.

Two winters ago her father was released from prison, having served time for his part in a multi-million-dollar stock manipulation scheme. Clark began writing this new collection of songs at that time, “closing a loop on a journey that began with his incarceration in 2010.” Her father’s imprisonment and subsequent release had, she explained, led her back to the vinyl he introduced her to in childhood. Records she believes she has “probably listened to more than any other music” in her entire life.

At points, Daddy’s Home can sound like a distant turn through a long-ago radio dial – half-heard flickers of half-remembered songs: “Pay Your Way In Pain”’s echoes of Bowie’s “Fame”, for instance, while “My Baby Wants a Baby” leans heavily on Sheena Easton’s 1980 release “9-5 (Morning Train)”. Throughout, the vocals of Lynne Fiddmont and Kenya Hathaway bob up like Thunderthighs backing Lou Reed.

The effect is not so much musical impersonation, but rather something more immersive; a plunge into the singer’s personal memory bank, a tangible, sensuous experience. The melding of saxophone, synths, Wurlitzer, horns, the extraordinary angles of Clark’s guitar, the stretch and snap of her voice, bring a sense of city heat: they press against your skin and wind round your legs, sultry and thirsty and fevered. Between them, three ‘Humming Interludes’ hang like a haze.

Much of Masseduction felt like a lost, lustful examination of inner emptiness – “the void is back and I’m blinking” as she memorably put it on “Hang On Me”. Daddy’s Home suggests a richer inner life, charged with internal desires: “Where can you run when the outlaw’s inside you?” she asks on the title track. “I can’t live in
the dream,” she notes elsewhere. “The dream lives in me.”

There are a lot of trapped people on this record, whether that is the incarcerated (the jelly-legged cabaret of the title track addresses her father’s jail time head-on), or those wanting to flee from a relationship (“You make a home I run away and the story starts again,” she sings on “My Baby Wants A Baby”), or the caged bird of “Candy Darling”. Others still explore all the ways we try to set ourselves free: pharmaceuticals, liquor, crashed cars, bodega roses, suicidal ideation. The result is something close, dark and airless.

And yet there is a deep and buoyant beauty here too: the combination of Clark’s voice, feathered and sweet, against surges of brass on “…At The Holiday Party”, for instance. The drowsy, inebriated drift of “Live In The Dream”. And throughout, the warm, buffering presence of Fiddmont and Hathaway. On previous records, Clark’s tales were told in a manner that was brittle and upright and shiny; here she sounds to have loosened her grip: the edges are softer, the layers are denser, the mood a little more mañana.

It would be wrong to mistake sonic warmth for knowability. Wrong, too, to suppose that these songs are any less rigidly devised and constructed. And yet, listening to Daddy’s Home brings a sense of exhalation, a filling out, an openness, that is as unexpected as it is wonderful. Yes she’s still arch and meta and provocative, still complex and mischievous and ambitious. But on this record, Annie Clark seems to stand just a little closer.

Questlove says Dr. Dre “saved” The Roots after their label “imploded”

Questlove of The Roots has discussed a pivotal moment in the band’s career when they were “saved” by Dr. Dre.

READ MORE: Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’: A 4/20 deep dive into the album that changed hip-hop forever

Speaking with Mark Ronson on THE FADER Uncovered podcast, Questlove discussed The Roots’ sixth album, 2004’s ‘The Tipping Point’, and how it almost didn’t arrive following the dissolution of the band’s record label, MCA, the year before.

“So as promised, MCA imploded,” Questlove explained. “We were without an island. The way that I heard the story went down was Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine had a breakfast meeting. Jimmy basically let Dre control the MCA guillotine. Okay, who do we save? Who don’t we save?

“I remember, eight of us got saved: Mary [J Blige], Common. I remember our name being last on that list. So, it was like, ‘Phew’. The way that the email came to us is like that high school musical, you look to see if you made the part.”

Listen to the discussion from the 53:00 minute mark below:

Questlove added: “Because that was a question like, ‘Okay, so where do all the MCA acts go?’ And then around February, we heard a rumour that they’re going to have a meeting to decide the future of who they’re going to save and who they’re not going to save. It was like, ‘Did I make it? Did I make it?’ Yeah, they’ll have an official statement in March.

“And then come March, they said, the following acts will be transferring to Geffen-Interscope. We were last. I was like, ‘Phew!’ And then I asked around. I was like, ‘What happened?’ That’s when I found out that Dre knew and liked us. Wait, Dre insisted that they save The Roots? Wow.”

Last month, the trailer for Questlove’s new documentary was shared. Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) documents the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 – otherwise known as “the Black Woodstock” – which took place the same summer as Woodstock.

Footage from the 1969 festival sat in a basement for 50 years, with performances from the likes of Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Mahalia Jackson and more.

The film premiered at Sundance earlier this year, where it took home the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. documentary category.

Here are all the winners from the BRIT Awards 2021

The BRIT Awards 2021 took place at London’s O2 Arena tonight, where a crowd of 4000 people gathered to celebrate the past 12 months of music – check out the full list of winners below.

READ MORE: At last! The BRIT Awards nominations feel like a real representation of UK music

Hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall, this year’s ceremony opened with Coldplay performing their new single ‘Higher Power’ from a pontoon on the River Thames. Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Headie One and more also took to the stage inside the O2 throughout the evening.

The BRITs 2021 served as a government COVID pilot event, meaning that a scaled-back live audience – largely made up of NHS and key workers – witnessed this evening’s performances and acceptance speeches in person without the need to wear masks or social distance.

Arlo Parks picked up the first prize of the night, winning this year’s Breakthrough Artist statue.

Arlo Parks BRITs — Arlo Parks on the red carpet at the BRIT Awards 2021. CREDIT: Getty

“This is a dream come true, I didn’t expect any of this,” Parks said during her acceptance speech. “So anyone who’s out there – dreams come true. I’m living proof of that. Thank you.”

Fending off competition from the likes of The 1975 and Biffy Clyro, Little Mix took home the Best British Group award. Later, Kurupt FM presented J Hus with the Male Solo Artist gong – his first-ever BRIT Award.

BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac announced the International Female Solo Artist winner Billie Eilish, who accepted the award via video link. Next up, Dua Lipa was named the Best Female Solo Artist and later won Mastercard Album Of The Year for ‘Future Nostalgia‘.

READ MORE: The 10 best moments from BRIT Awards history

The Weeknd accepted the International Male Solo Artist prize from former First Lady Michelle Obama, while Haim were named Best International Group.

“The UK was the first place to ever embrace us in the entire world, and for that we will be forever grateful,” said bassist Este Haim.

As previously announced, Taylor Swift became the first female artist to be crowned the BRITs’ Global Icon – following in the footsteps of past winners such as David Bowie, Elton John and Robbie Williams.

The UK loves you too @HAIMtheband ? #BRITs pic.twitter.com/Q6H6ySZFzW

— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021

“I am so indebted to and grateful to my British fans,” Swift said during her acceptance speech. “I love you so much for everything you’ve done for me.”

The BRIT Awards 2021 winners are as follows:

Global Icon

Taylor Swift – winner

Rising Star

Griff – winner

Breakthrough Artist

Arlo Parks – winner
Bicep
Celeste
Joel Corry
Young T & Bugsey

Male Solo Artist

AJ Tracey
Headie One
J Hus – winner
Joel Corry
Yungblud

Female Solo Artist

Arlo Parks
Celeste
Dua Lipa – winner
Jessie Ware
Lianne La Havas

British Single

220 Kid & Gracey – ‘Don’t Need Love’
Aitch & AJ Tracey ft Tae Keith – ‘Rain’
Dua Lipa – ‘Physical’
Harry Styles – ‘Watermelon Sugar’ – winner
Headie One ft AJ Tracey & Stormzy – ‘Ain’t It Different’
Joel Corry ft MNEK – ‘Head & Heart’
Nathan Dawe ft KSI – ‘Lighter’
Regard & Raye – ‘Secrets’
Simba ft DTG – ‘Rover’
Young T & Bugsey ft Headie One – ‘Don’t Rush’

British Group

Bicep
Biffy Clyro
Little Mix – winners
The 1975
Young T & Bugsey

International Group

BTS
Fontaines D.C.
Foo Fighters
Haim – winners
Run The Jewels

International Female Solo Artist

Ariana Grande
Billie Eilish – winner
Cardi B
Miley Cyrus
Taylor Swift

International Male Solo Artist

Bruce Springsteen
Burna Boy
Childish Gambino
Tame Impala
The Weeknd – winner

Mastercard Album Of The Year

Arlo Parks – ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’
Celeste – ‘Not Your Muse’
Dua Lipa – ‘Future Nostalgia’ – winner
J Hus – ‘Big Conspiracy’
Jessie Ware – ‘What’s Your Pleasure’

Check back at NME.COM for all the latest news and interviews from the BRIT Awards 2021.

BRITs 2021: Taylor Swift pays tribute to NHS and “incredible new artists”

Taylor Swift accepted the Global Icon Award at tonight’s BRIT Awards, and paid tribute to the NHS as well as her British fans.

READ MORE: Here are the winners from the BRIT Awards 2021

The pop star became the first female artist to receive the aforementioned prize during this evening’s ceremony (May 11) – following in the footsteps of past winners such as David Bowie, Elton John and Robbie Williams.

After being introduced by Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams, Swift thanked “anyone who decided that I would be worthy of this incredible honour” before paying tribute to the NHS and key workers.

“I am so indebted to and grateful to my British fans,” Swift said. “I love you so much for everything you’ve done for me. We’ve had so many amazing memories in the last 15 years – from playing Shepherd’s Bush Empire to playing The O2 Arena to playing Wembley Stadium.

An extra special speech from @taylorswift13 as she receives the BRITs Global Icon Award ? #BRITs pic.twitter.com/kZ7EGSIv7Y

— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021

“And hey, because of you, last year I even almost played Glastonbury. We all know what happened next…”

Swift then reflected on releasing ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ last year, describing the process of making her two surprise albums as “unique, cathartic and extraordinary” while thanking those who contributed to the projects.

Later, the singer addressed the “incredible new artists” watching on in the crowd and at home. “I need you to hear me when I say that there is no career path that comes free of negativity,” she said.

“If you’re being met with resistance, that probably means that you’re doing something new. If you’re experiencing turbulence or pressure, that probably means you’re rising.

“And there might be times when you put your whole heart and soul into something, and it is met with cynicism or skepticism. You cannot let that crush you; you have to let it fuel you.”

The BRITs 2021 served as a government COVID pilot event, meaning that a scaled-back live audience – largely made up of NHS and key workers – could attend the ceremony without the need to wear masks or social distance.

Check back at NME.COM for all the latest news and interviews from the BRIT Awards 2021.

Michelle Obama presents award to The Weeknd at The BRITs

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has presented The Weeknd with the award for Best International Male at this year’s BRIT Awards.

READ MORE: Here are the winners from the BRIT Awards 2021 – rolling list

As well as thanking The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) for his work as a musician and performer, she also highlighted his many charitable donations including ones to the coronavirus relief effort, Black Lives Matter and food aid in Ethiopia.

“In a tough year, he’s provided a light that’s pretty blinding and given us all a reason to dance,” Obama said.

In his acceptance speech, The Weeknd thanked his fans and added: “My people in Ethiopia who are suffering – you are deep in my heart. For everyone watching, please help where you can.”

You can watch his speech below:

Someone please get @theweeknd an umbrella!! Best acceptance speech location yet ? #BRITs pic.twitter.com/AxpVAiUF9h

— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021

Earlier in the evening, Dua Lipa opened the event alongside Coldplay who delivered a performance of their new single ‘Higher Power’ on the River Thames.

Chris Martin and co. opened the ceremony with a lively performance that began with fireworks and featured dancing holograms. The group performed on a specially constructed riverboat stage on the Thames which overlooked the O2 Arena where the awards were being held.

Hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall, this year’s BRIT Awards ceremony opened with Coldplay performing their new single ‘Higher Power’ from a pontoon on the River Thames. Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Headie One and more also took to the stage inside at The O2 Arena throughout the evening.

Winners include Haim (International Group), Arlo Parks (Breakthrough Artist), Dua Lipa (Female Solo Artist) and J Hus (Male Solo Artist).

Check back at NME.COM for all the latest news and interviews from the BRIT Awards 2021.

Winners include Haim (International Group), Arlo Parks (Breakthrough Artist), Dua Lipa (Female Solo Artist) and J Hus (Male Solo Artist).

Check back at NME.COM for all the latest news and interviews from the BRIT Awards 2021.

BRITs 2021: Elton John and Years & Years team up for spectacular ‘It’s A Sin’ cover

Elton John and Years & Years‘ Olly Alexander teamed up for a cover of Pet Shop Boys‘ ‘It’s A Sin’ at the BRIT Awards 2021 tonight (May 11).

READ MORE: Here are the winners from the BRIT Awards 2021

After teasing the live collaboration on social media yesterday (May 10), the pair took to The O2 Arena stage for a spectacular performance of the 1987 single – which inspired the title of Russell T Davies’ recent drama, starring Alexander.

A studio version of the joint cover – produced by Stuart Price (Madonna, The Killers, Scissor Sisters) alongside the Pet Shop Boys – is now available to stream/download here, with proceeds going towards the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

"By fighting together, we’ve changed the world." David Furnish introduces 'It's A Sin' ? #BRITs pic.twitter.com/dstLWTKn6i

— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021

The incredible @eltonofficial and @yearsandyears perform their brand new charity single 'It's A Sin' in support of Elton John AIDS Foundation ? #BRITs

You can download the track now: https://t.co/1llrPerdNW pic.twitter.com/9bOMYBuwqV

— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021

Introducing the collaborative BRITs performance this evening, Elton John’s husband David Furnish compared the reaction to the coronavirus pandemic to that of the AIDs outbreak – which he said was met with “silence” in 1981.

“People with HIV and AIDs were treated with ignorance, fear, shame and stigma,” Furnish added. “That silence allowed AIDs to grow into the greatest disease affecting our planet. But we fought back.”

Airing on Channel 4 earlier this year, the five-part It’s A Sin shone a light on the AIDS crisis of the early 1980s. Alexander portrayed Ritchie Tozer alongside a cast including Keeley Hawes (Valerie Tozer), Callum Scott Howells (Colin Morris-Jones) and Lydia West (Jill Baxter).

Winners included Haim (International Group), Arlo Parks (Breakthrough Artist), Dua Lipa (Female Solo Artist, Mastercard Album Of The Year) and J Hus (Male Solo Artist).

Check back at NME.COM for all the latest news and interviews from the BRIT Awards 2021.

Listen to Travis Barker join KennyHoopla on new track ‘Hollywood Sucks’

KennyHoopla has recruited Travis Barker for his new single ‘Hollywood Sucks’ – you can listen to it below.

READ MORE: Meet KennyHoopla, the Wisconsin shape-shifter repurposing indie bangers for the 2020s

It’s the first taste of Hoopla’s upcoming project ‘Survivors Guilt: The Mixtape’, which he announced earlier today (May 7). Set to be released on June 11, you can pre-save the mixtape here.

‘Hollywood Sucks’ isn’t the first time that the rising Wisconsin artist (real name Kenneth La’ron) and the Blink-182 drummer have teamed up. Last year, the pair collaborated on the pop-punk track ‘ESTELLA//’.

Hoopla sings on the chorus: “Hollywood sucks can you please move your Prius/ You are not fucking Jesus, he hates LA/ It’s not my fault/ Throw my phone at the wall/ You’re friends are really morons can we still date?”

Watch the Lonewolf-directed video for ‘Hollywood Sucks’ below:

Earlier this year, Travis Barker surprised a fan and his baby daughter, whose drumming videos have gone viral on TikTok, during an appearance on US TV in March.

Marcel Desobeau, who is a firefighter and paramedic, has been sharing father-daughter renditions of tracks by Korn, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, Papa Roach and many more via his HeavyMetalBaby account on TikTok.

Appearing virtually on The Drew Barrymore Show last week alongside his seven-month-old, Lane, Desobeau spoke of how the video series came about – before being introduced to Barker, who he’s a “huge fan” of.

Meanwhile, Willow Smith has returned with a new single titled ‘Transparent Soul’ – a pop-punk outing featuring Travis Barker.

The actress and singer, known mononymously as Willow, explores a confrontational pop-punk sound on the new track with Barker.

On Instagram, Smith indicated that ‘Transparent Soul’ signals a new era in her career. “I am so GRATEFUL and EXCITED to start this new journey !” she wrote. “Let the vibes commence.”

Tom DeLonge reveals plan to share unreleased Box Car Racer song

Tom DeLonge has revealed that he plans to release an unheard track from his side-project Box Car Racer.

The group – comprised of DeLonge, his former Blink-182 bandmate Travis Barker and David Kennedy of Angels & Airwaves – released their sole, self-titled studio album back in 2002.

READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves

With the 20th anniversary of the project fast approaching, the former Blink frontman addressed Barker’s claims from last year that an unreleased Box Car Racer song could be set to arrive.

“I think whenever the time’s right or it makes sense, we’re gonna release it,” Barker told Uproxx. “I would just love for the fans to hear that song.”

Appearing on the latest edition of the Rock This With Allison Hagendorf podcast (listen below), DeLonge said: “I think Travis already let out of the bag that we do have a Box Car song laying around.

“We have not decided when to release it, but there is one. And we did it over the past, like, I think couple of years.”

He continued: “But we just got to figure out, like, when that comes out, and how we do that. But we plan to.”

Back in March, DeLonge said that a single from Angels & Airwaves‘ upcoming new album would sound like a track by Box Car Racer.

He told the Rock This… podcast that A&A’s next record is “fucking great”, adding: “You know, everyone’s like, ‘Okay, is it really?’ But with this record, I’m like, ‘This is like the best shit I’ve ever done in my life’. It really is.”

Watch Dominic Fike perform Paul McCartney cover ‘The Kiss Of Venus’

Dominic Fike performed his recent cover of Paul McCartney‘s ‘The Kiss Of Venus’ on US TV last night – check out the video below.

The NME Big Read: Dominic Fike: “My music is crazy – it blends, it’s weird and it’s all different types of shit”

The Florida artist recorded a rendition of the song for ‘McCartney III: Imagined’, a re-working of Macca’s latest studio album featuring St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien and more.

Appearing via video chat on yesterday’s (May 3) edition of The Late Late Show With James Corden, Fike was asked about how he and his girlfriend first bonded over their shared love of McCartney and The Beatles.

“On our first date there wasn’t really much to talk about,” he replied. “So we just went through all the motions – like ‘What movies are you into?’, ‘What kind of music are you into?’

“She immediately said, ‘Do you like The Beatles?’. I said, ‘I like Paul McCartney’. She said that’s her favourite artist.”

Fike went on to say that he was “always trying to make music to impress” his partner, adding: “When this opportunity [to work with McCartney] happened I was like, ‘Wow, she’s gonna fall in love with me’.”

He later revealed that McCartney had talked on the phone to him about making ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, “which was the second album I ever bought.”

And his first? “Blink-182‘s ‘Greatest Hits’,” he replied.

You can watch the full conversation and live performance of ‘The Kiss Of Venus’ above.

In a four-star review of ‘McCartney III: Imagined’, NME wrote: “[The album] is another fine entry into the self-titled collection. The sheer star-power and respect from contemporaries and newbies is another flex that proves the endeavour, which started over 51 years ago, was a worthy one.”

EDM producer Pierce Fulton dies aged 28 after “tragic struggle” with mental health

EDM producer Pierce Fulton has died at the age of 28, his family has confirmed.

In a statement, Fulton’s brother Griff confirmed that that the producer died last Thursday (April 29) following a “tragic struggle with his mental health”.

Griff wrote: “Pierce was so incredibly full of life, love & unimaginable creativity. He was kind, caring, thoughtful, silly & sweet.

“The most magical person that we were all so blessed to know, hear & see. He was an expert at absolutely anything he set his mind to & had this incredible ability to retain knowledge unlike anyone I’ve ever known. The only word that truly can describe his abilities is genius.

“He could captivate a room of strangers in the blink of an eye with only one hope – to make everyone feel loved, comfortable & welcomed.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pierce Fulton (@piercefulton)

“He traveled the globe for the better part of a decade doing what he loved & cemented powerful friendships with so many wonderful people along the way, accomplishing more in his career in music than most could dream to accomplish in a lifetime.

“He loved you all so much & wanted to give you everything he had; and he had so much to give.”

Griff added: “To everyone out there who listened to his songs, thank you. To everyone out there who bought tickets to his shows & danced with him, thank you. To everyone out there who was lucky enough to cross paths with him at any point in life & made him feel loved, thank you.”

Paying tribute, Canadian EDM duo Sultan & Shephard wrote: “We are so sorry for your loss. Pierce was such a beautiful guy who always put a smile on our face when we saw him. We’re so glad we got to make music with him and get to know him. Sending your family our deepest condolences.”

Fulton first scored success in 2015 with breakout single ‘Kuaga (Lost Time)’, and went on to secure collaboration with the likes of Martin Garrix and Mike Shinoda on the 2018 track ‘Waiting For Tomorrow’.

His most recent release came in the EP ‘Keeping the Little Things’, which was released in August 2020.

He survived by his brother Griff, his mother Brook, father Mike, sister Addie and his wife Anastasia.

For help and advice on mental health:

‘Am I depressed?‘ – Help and advice on mental health and what to do next
Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians
Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues
YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day

Artist Spotlight: Colin Brittain

Have you ever wondered who’s behind the hit singles of Sueco, Papa Roach, American Teeth or Travis Barker? Well, here is a name to remember: Colin Brittain. Songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Colin Brittain has been making musicians’ dreams come through for years now. His latest release “SOS” by Sueco and Travis Barker is currently topping the rock charts, and with huge records coming out (let’s just mention one from Parson James and Jojo, on April 30th), this Nashville based artist has built his name in the industry as a pro producer who delivers multiple chart-topping bangers.

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Post udostępniony przez Colin Brittain (@docbrittain)

Born in Pensacola, Florida and raised in Tennessee, Brittain was surrounded by music since his early childhood, thanks to having a father who put himself through college playing drums in a country band. With Guitars sitting around on the couch all the time, drums in the garage, piano in the bonus room, Brittain grew-up constantly jamming and recording music, a crucial foundation for explaining his passion. He was raised playing country music, but once he discovered Rage Against The Machine’s “evil empire,” his life changed forever. That’s when he started listening to Tupac, Nirvana, coolio, Notorious BIG, Blink 182, Green Day, Incubus and a lot of So Cal punk, which is when he knew he wanted to be a producer. His mission is “to create and try to help the artists he works with achieve whatever crazy vision they have. That’s the most important.” says Colin.

The Weeknd Assembles His Own Ariana Grande In ‘Save Your Tears’ Remix Video

As it pops up near the end of The Weeknd's moody fourth LP After Hours, synthpop ballad "Save Your Tears" feels perhaps the most appropriate to the album's title of any of its tunes. It's more hangover than party, though its gorgeous, funky sonics (and eventual robotic vocalizations) create the kind of pop turn producer Max Martin has made a career out of.

It makes sense, then, for Ariana Grande to hop on the remix, out today (April 23), and for her contributions to leave the song even more dazzling. What's more surprising is the song's accompanying new animated video, which finds an animated Weeknd creating his own Grande out of spare parts in an underground lair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIIDh-qI9oI

The clip, directed by Jack Brown and produced by London animation studio Blinkink, fuses The Weeknd's chaotic, stylish After Hours persona with Grande's fembot iconography she leaned heavily into for Positions, her sixth album that dropped in October 2020. It's a nice match.

This isn't the first time Abel Tesfaye has been a cartoon, either. Last year, he appeared on TBS's American Dad to poke fun at his sex-fueled persona and "admit" to actually being a virgin; his 2020 "Snowchild" video recruited Japan's D'ART Shtajio animation studio to turn him into an anime protagonist as well.

Check out the spiffy new video above, then revisit Ari and Abel's previous collabs: "Love Me Harder" and "Off the Table."

Mark Hoppus is selling instruments and music gear from his personal collection

Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus is set to sell off a selection of instruments and music gear from his personal collection as part of a new partnership with Reverb.

The online marketplace, which is “dedicated to buying and selling new, used and vintage musical instruments”, recently teamed up with Hoppus’ ex-Blink bandmate Tom DeLonge for a similar sale.

READ MORE: Watch Blink’s Mark Hoppus and All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth – collectively Simple Creatures – go head-to-head on camera

Hoppus’ latest Reverb sale – his second with the brand after conducting his first sale back in 2019 – is set to begin on April 21, with drum machines, keyboards, amps and more that were used in the making of albums and on tours by Blink-182 and +44 set to be made available.

Among the specific items that are set to go on sale on Hoppus’ Reverb shop is a Marshall JTM45 amp head with a 4×12 cabinet, which was used throughout the early ’00s on Blink-182, +44 and Motion City Soundtrack albums.

Other gear that is set to go up for sale is an Orange amp head with a 4×12 cabinet (which was used on throughout the +44 album ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’) and a Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S8-DJ control deck.

You can find out more about Hoppus’ forthcoming Reverb sale by heading here, or by watching the above video.

Back in February Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker said that the band were “slowly finishing up” their new album, which is set to feature Grimes, Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell.

Rosé Is ‘On The Ground’ And Looking Up

By Ashlee Mitchell

It’s finally Rosé’s time to shine, and she’s ready to receive her flowers. The New Zealand-born, 24-year-old singer is a quarter of iconic K-pop girl group Blackpink, but she delivers enough for four on her first official solo effort. The main vocalist proves herself more than capable of holding her own with her two-song debut, R, which includes electropop lead single “On the Ground” and guitar-led ballad “Gone.” Both songs are sung entirely in English and give a refreshing new sound and vibe for Rosé as a performer who can stand alone.

As we catch up via Zoom, Rosé’s sweet and friendly tone reveals how she’s fierce in her own right, a “kill ‘em with kindness” type of girl. But her bright personality is only one reason she’s managed to steal Blinks’ hearts worldwide. “I’m most excited about how my fans will react, how they are feeling about my whole single,” she says with anticipation. She is the second Blackpink member to debut as a solo artist, following Jennie’s 2018 single “Solo.” Last October, the quartet released its first full studio album, The Album, to rave reviews, a No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200, and plenty of fan propulsion. “This time around I think we really just tried to focus on a new sound and a straightforward and great message that we hope that our Blinks are needing right now.”

Fans were waiting earnestly; she easily set a record for most pre-orders for a female Korean soloist before release and broke Psy’s record for most-viewed Korean soloist music video in 24 hours. These achievements are well deserved, as Rosé has been awaiting this moment almost as eagerly as her fans. “I’ve been preparing my solo for a very, very long time, but I think the first time I recorded a song regarding my solo was three years ago,” she says, reminiscing on the process. “We’ve had multiple songs come in and out, and we’ve recorded this and that, this type of music, that type of music, and it’s taken a long journey to get where we are at, but honestly, I think I just wanted to find a song that introduced me the best to the world.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKZvWhCqx1s

A big part of that introduction is the ephemeral “On the Ground” music video, which boasts glamorous outfits and scenery straight from a dream, including plenty of pink, flower fields, and a staircase to heaven. Rosé calls it “a collage of representations of me” spanning marquees and stages as well as blockbuster pyrotechnics. Yet it’s intimately centered on her. “I think the director really tried to portray a timeline of myself, since the song does have the key [phrase] ‘whole life.’ I’ve worked my whole life, and so I think he really tried to present the past and present version of myself, and he wanted to see a collided world in that sense.” As far as Rosé is concerned, it’s already iconic. “Every time I watch it, I still get chills watching some scenes.”

In late January, Rosé debuted her other new track, the emotional “Gone,” early for fans at Blackpink’s virtual concert The Show, garnering over 280,000 live viewers. “I recorded ‘Gone’ like two years ago. To be honest, I was very eager to put it out there and give it to my fans,” she explains. “I felt like it would be a very special thing to be able to sing my own song at my concert since I do know that a lot of my fans were waiting for that moment. Since we were preparing for it and we had just shot the video, we thought, why not give them a sneak peek of the video and kind of perform it for the first time? And I think it went well.” She sang the song alongside a guitarist while sitting on a swing set, allowing her angelic vocals to steal the show.

Both songs contain introspective, honest lyrics that capture Rosé’s humble and shy personality behind her striking star power. Though she and her group often feel bigger than life, she hopes this solo debut serves as a reintroduction, and a way to humanize herself for the fans. “I think I just want them to know that I’m no different than anyone else. I have the same thoughts in life, go through the same phases, and just like, I’m a lost soul too sometimes.” She speaks softly, choosing her words with care. “I just wanted my fans to kind of learn that I’m just as human as everybody else, and I can relate to a lot of things that everybody may be going through at this time.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjp4thii1WY

With lyrics like, “All my love is gone and the hate has grown / Standing all alone and I'm searching for something” on “Gone,” it’s apparent Rosé is ready to open up and embrace vulnerability. “On the Ground” provides the perfect contrast, taking a more confident stance, reminding listeners of the importance of being true to yourself. Rosé’s soulful delivery of the message makes it resonate even more.

For Rosé, one of the biggest pop stars in the world, being true to her fans is likewise important, and she says she paid attention to their conversations in the lead-up to her solo debut. “That whole process was very interesting, looking at all the fans’ reactions, seeing them talk about what kind of song they think I will be coming out with, what kind of performance I would be having, what kind of genre I’d be coming out with,” she says, then laughs. “It was fun to kind of look at that process of how they had waited for my solo, and to also see me kind of develop my own style of music until I released it.” Her radiant energy makes it hard not to root for her, and this new chapter is obviously one she’s immensely proud of.

As she reminds me, even with all the work she did to get to this place, her debut is just the beginning. “My homework is now to explore more as a solo artist,” she says. “I just started, the song has only just come out, I’m sure I have a long journey ahead of me. ... I have a lot of different types of genre songs that I already have archived, so I mean, I guess what my next step is — the world’s the limit.”

Watch Sam Smith’s emotional live performance of ‘Kids Again’

Sam Smith delivered an emotional performance of their latest single ‘Kids Again’ on US TV last night (March 16).

READ MORE: Sam Smith – ‘Love Goes’ review: pop balladeer leans even further into heartbreak than before

The track features on the London singer-songwriter’s third album ‘Love Goes’, which was released last October.

Appearing on the most recent episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, Smith performed a stirring rendition of ‘Kids Again’ with their band. The song began with an acoustic guitar accompaniment before more musicians and backing vocalists gradually joined in.

Backed by blinking pink lights, Smith stood beside a teacup and a bunch of flowers that sat atop a wooden stand. You can watch the performance below.

Meanwhile, the BRITs recently responded after Smith spoke out about the awards ceremony’s plans to keep gender-based categories.

The artist – who came out as non-binary in 2019, later changing their pronouns to they/them – said they “look[ed] forward to a time where awards shows can be reflective of the society we live in”.

In January, the singer participated in the virtual Music Feeds festival in a bid to raise vital funds for the fight against food poverty. They were joined on the line-up by Blossoms, Fontaines D.C. and more.

In a three-star Smith’s latest studio effort, NME wrote: “With their third album ‘Love Goes’, Smith leans further into the lowest lows of love: losing it […] Smith slowly but surely is making their way toward healing, but they aren’t done lamenting what could have been just yet.”

Tom DeLonge reveals new Angels & Airwaves single is “very Box Car Racer”

Tom DeLonge has revealed that Angels & Airwaves‘ upcoming new single will sound like his side-project Box Car Racer.

READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves

The former Blink-182 musician confirmed last month that A&A’s sixth full-length record was “coming”, having previously shared various behind-the-scenes studio clips on his Instagram.

Over the weekend (March 13), the singer responded to a fan on Twitter who expressed their love for Box Car Racer – the band made up of DeLonge, Travis Barker and Angels & Airwaves guitarist David Kennedy.

After speaking about the group’s sole album, 2002’s ‘Box Car Racer’, user Helen Kincannon wrote: “I know Tom DeLonge says that Angels & Airwaves is a continuation of BCR, but none of AvA’s albums have the same feel at all. (And I love all of AvA’s stuff too).”

Stay tuned then for this first single from the new @AVABandOfficial album. Very BCR and that’s also why Rich Costey is mixing it, because he mixed the BCR album… As he gave it that feel u are describing. ? https://t.co/w7kIF4juqr

— Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge) March 13, 2021

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A post shared by Official Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge)

DeLonge explained in a retweet of the post that the lead single from Angels & Airwaves’ forthcoming LP was “very BCR”, adding: “And that’s also why Rich Costey is mixing it, because he mixed the BCR album… As he gave it that feel you are describing.”

Back in October 2019, DeLonge shared a snippet of a new track which he said in the caption “kind of sounds like Box Car Racer”. You can see that video above.

Angels & Airwaves latest studio album came in the form of 2014’s ‘The Dream Walker’. Since then, they’ve shared three EPs: ‘…Of Nightmares’ (2015), ‘Chasing Shadows’ (2016) and ‘We Don’t Need to Whisper Acoustic’ (2017).

Ahead of LP6, the band have released a string of singles: ‘All That’s Left Is Love’, Rebel Girl’ and ‘Kiss & Tell’.

Watch Travis Barker surprise viral TikTok drummer fan and his daughter

Travis Barker surprised a fan and his baby daughter, whose drumming videos have gone viral on TikTok, during an appearance on US TV this week.

Read More: Blink-182 – ‘Nine’ review: the spiritual follow-up to the classic ‘Untitled’

Reacting to the sticksman appearing next to him on the screen, Desobeau said: “Man, you’re such an inspiration for me. I’m kind of lost for words right now, but thanks for being on the show.”

Barker then hailed the pair as “awesome” and thanked Desobeau for his work on the frontline in the emergency services.

After showing off Lane’s pink drum sticks, Desobeau was offered some musical advice from Barker.

“I started playing drums when I was three or four,” he said, “and we couldn’t afford a drum kit but we just had pots and pans, and that was my drum set for years – for like a good three years.

“I mean, it seems like [Lane] already enjoys it, so that’s a good sign!. That’s all I wanted to do – that’s the only thing that put a smile on my face.”

You can watch the full conversation above.

Since Desobeau uploaded his first video to TikTok on January 27, the HeavyMetalBaby account has amassed over 186,000 followers. His posts have collectively registered 2.7 million ‘likes’ on the platform so far.

Earlier this year, Travis Barker appeared to confirm that Blink-182 are planning on releasing a new album in 2021. The band’s latest album, ‘Nine’, arrived in September 2019.

Rosé of BLACKPINK to appear on ‘The Tonight Show’ next week

Rosé of BLACKPINK will make a musical appearance on an upcoming episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

READ MORE: BLACKPINK named advocates for UN climate change conference

According to Deadline, the K-pop star will guest on the American talk show next Tuesday (March 16), alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Riverdale actress Madelaine Petsch. Listed as a musical guest, Rosé is expected to perform songs from her forthcoming debut solo single album ‘R’, out this Friday (March 12).

Rosé joins other celebrities and musicians who have been announced to appear on the Tonight show in the coming week. They include rapper Freddie Gibbs, Japanese Breakfast, Camilo and Adrianne Lenker.

Rosé is currently gearing up for the release of her highly anticipated solo debut, ‘R’. On March, her label YG Entertainment said that the album was named after the first letter of her name to represent a “new beginning for [Rosé] as a solo artist”. It also confirmed that a video for its lead track, ‘On The Ground’, will be released on Friday.

The forthcoming single is co-written by Rosé with frequent BLACKPINK collaborator Teddy Park, who also co-produced it. See the full tracklist credits below:

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A post shared by ROSÉ (@roses_are_rosie)

She had first announced the upcoming release in January with the video teaser for the B-side ‘Gone’, which was given its live debut during BLACKPINK’s virtual concert The Show.

Back in 2020, Rosé made an appearance on the late-night talk alongside her fellow BLACKPINK bandmates to perform ‘How You Like That’, a single from their first full-length album, ‘The Album’. The record also featured collaborations with Selena Gomez and Cardi B.

In a four-star review of The Show, NME’s Rhian Daly said: “The Show might not be flawless but, with it, BLACKPINK step into Blinks’ areas worldwide and leave an indelible mark.”

Yungblud teases new single ‘Patience’ with KSI and Polo G

Yungblud has teased a new single called ‘Patience’, which will see the Doncaster musician team up with KSI and Polo G.

READ MORE: KSI: “A YouTuber doing music leaves a sour taste in people’s mouths. They despise it”

Sharing an image of himself in medieval armour alongside KSI in a space-suit on Instagram, Yungblud said ‘This is a fookin mental journey. Ready?’

KSI also shared the visuals, and revealed that the track will be released next Friday (March 12).

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A post shared by YUNGBLUD (@yungblud)

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A post shared by KSI (@ksi)

The track will be Yungblud’s first new release since January’s ‘Acting Like That’ with Machine Gun Kelly. The track, which also features Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, appears on Yungblud’s second album ‘Weird!’.

Last year, KSI revealed that he discovered his love for Yungblud’s music after encountering him at the NME Awards 2020.

“I didn’t know who [Yungblud] was. [Then] I came here and was like, ‘Shit, this guy is sick,” KSI told NME backstage at the awards.

Asked what he liked about the pop maverick, KSI replied: “I like his vibe. Both songs [he performed] were dope.”

Yesterday (March 4), meanwhile, Yungblud announced a new run of dates for his rescheduled ‘Occupy The UK’ tour.

He was set to hit the road for a string of shows this month, having delayed the stint from last May and June due to the coronavirus crisis.

The musician assured fans that his “intimate as fuck” tour, which was also scrapped last year, will be rescheduled and that these new dates will follow “soon”.

Watch rare footage of Deftones performing on Public-Access TV in 1992

Rare footage of Deftones performing on Public-Access TV in 1992 has surfaced online – you can watch it below.

Read more: Deftones: “Even in our worst moments, we persevere”

Sourced from a filmed broadcast on the Sacto Active Rock community-access TV show, the clip sees the band perform a song called ‘Answers’ during their formative years.

The pre-‘Adrenaline’ track has more of a dub/reggae vibe in comparison to the heavier alt-metal sound that they’re known for.

Shared by a Deftones fan channel, the clip sees the band with a different lineup, with John Taylor behind the drum kit in place of Abe Cunningham, who left the group in 1990 prior to rejoining in 1993.

Watch Chino Moreno and co. perform ‘Answers’ below:

In October, Deftones‘ frontman Chino Moreno said that he is open to one day finishing the band’s lost 2008 album ‘Eros’ as “an experiment’.

The band’s recent album ‘Ohms‘ saw them reunite with producer Terry Date, who worked on their first four albums and the sessions for a record in 2008 with the working title of ‘Eros’.

The album was shelved when bassist Chi Cheng was involved in a car crash that left him in a coma, and later died from cardiac arrest in 2013. Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega (who remains a full-time member today) and the band started from scratch on 2010’s acclaimed ‘Diamond Eyes’ with producer Rick Raskulinecz.

Moreno has now admitted that he’s open to the idea of one day returning to the material.

Meanwhile, Moreno recently appeared on rapper Trippie Redd‘s new song ‘GERONIMO’.

The collaborative track appears on ‘NEON SHARK vs. Pegasus’, a newly-released deluxe edition of Trippie’s latest album ‘Pegasus’.

The reissue was executive produced by blink-182‘s Travis Barker, and contains 14 additional tracks, including collaborations with Machine Gun Kelly and blackbear.

Tom DeLonge teases new Angels and Airwaves album on the way

Tom DeLonge is continuing to tease the new Angels and Airwaves album via his Instagram account.

Having released a string of singles – ‘All That’s Left Is Love’, Rebel Girl’ and ‘Kiss & Tell’ – DeLonge revealed earlier this month (February 1) that the band were back in the studio working on their long-awaited sixth LP.

READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves

Angels and Airwaves’ last full-length record came in the form of 2014’s ‘The Dream Walker’. Since then, they’ve shared three EPs: ‘…Of Nightmares’ (2015), ‘Chasing Shadows’ (2016) and ‘We Don’t Need to Whisper Acoustic’ (2017).

On Thursday (February 25), the former Blink-182 guitarist – who last year stated that he would “definitely” reunite with his old band again at some point – shared a picture of himself stood against a white backdrop and the words, “The world is different now. We feel more of us.”

The image was captioned: “New album coming. This is the one”. See the full post below.

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A post shared by Official Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge)

DeLonge shared further insight into the group’s next project by sharing a clip of a heavy, synth-driven track in the making earlier this month.

“This new Angels & Airwaves album is epic…” the musician wrote, before signing off with the rocket emoji.

The singer and guitarist first confirmed Angels & Airwaves were “back at it” in the studio over a year ago, on January 20 last year.

“Angels & Airwaves is back, and yes, this album will revisit my punk roots slammed within the progressive, atmospheric landscapes Angels and Airwaves has always been known for,” he wrote at the time.

The band released the song ‘All That’s Left Is Love’ last April in aid of the Covid-19 Response Fund of US non-profit Feeding America.

Wolf Alice reveal release date for comeback ‘The Last Man On Earth’

Wolf Alice have been teasing their return with the title ‘The Last Man On Earth’ – check out the latest teasers below.

READ MORE: The artists we really, really want new music from in 2021

The band have been dropping new teasers for ‘The Last Man On Earth’ throughout the week.

The title appears on the band’s website along with a cryptic looping video of a single blinking eye and a rose, along with a form for fans to enter their email address. It has also appeared on a number of posts on social media, with some ominous music playing in the background.

It’s yet to be made clear whether ‘The Last Man On Earth’ is the name of the band’s next album or upcoming single, but the band have now revealed that it will be arriving on February 24.

The Last Man On Earth. 24 February https://t.co/DaKJQtbpfU pic.twitter.com/YNHklvsz0j

— Wolf Alice (@wolfalicemusic) February 19, 2021

The band tweeted the date along with a blurry picture of frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, along with a link to their website.

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A post shared by Wolf Alice (@wolfaliceband)

In November 2019 the band “broke their radio silence” to promise fans that they were hard at work writing new material.

Then, in January 2020, boss of their label Dirty Hit Jamie Oborne told NME that the band were due to spend the first part of 2020 working on the new record.

“It’s going well,” said Oborne of progress on album number three. “The guys are just writing. The demos are pretty well formed, we’ve settled on a producer and they’ll be starting in about a month’s time. It’s going to be amazing. They’re an incredible band already but seem really inspired to make their best album.”

The band’s last album was the acclaimed ‘Visions Of Life’, released in 2017. It went on to bag the band The Mercury Prize the following year.

In May, meanwhile, Wolf Alice’s guitarist Joff Oddie released his debut solo album ‘To Mr Fahey’, proceeds of which go towards the anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust

Green Day Funko Pop! dolls appear to be on the way

Green Day Funko Pop! Dolls appear to be on their way soon, according to reports on social media.

The figure-making company have been immortalising musicians with their Funko Pop! Rocks range.

Read more: Billie Joe Armstrong – ‘No Fun Mondays’ review: a snapshot of 2020 told through cover songs

Now, it looks like Green Day will be one of the next acts to join the collection, with a Twitter account called @funkoPOPsnews tweeting: “Something for Green Day fans, these will be landing alongside many others in the next Funko POP Rocks wave!”

It has yet to be specified which of the band’s eras or albums will be commemorated in the figures. The Rocks series sees an artist paid tribute to in the form of a figure wearing a memorable outfit related to a certain releasee or period in their career.

Something for Green Day fans, these will be landing alongside many others in the next Funko POP Rocks wave! #GreenDay #FPN #FunkoPOPNews #Funko #POP #Funkos #POPVinyl #FunkoPOP #FunkoPOPs pic.twitter.com/pBi1s38VXY

— Funko POP News ! (@FunkoPOPsNews) February 11, 2021

So far, the range includes the likes of Fall Out Boy, Blink-182, Slayer, and more. According to reports, each member of Green Day will get their own individual figurine made.

Meanwhile, Green Day played their first live show in nearly a year last weekend (February 7) as they performed at the annual NFL Honors show.

The gig took place in celebration of the Super Bowl, which was held in Tampa, Florida. However, Green Day performed from outside the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Their set saw them play three songs from throughout their career – ‘Holiday’, ‘Basket Case’ and 2016’s ‘Still Breathing’.

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told NME last year that he had been hard at work on new music. “I’ve been writing a lot,” he said. “I’m always putting something together, whether it’s a full demo in my small studio or just some voice notes on my phone.”

Watch Best Coast perform ‘Master Of My Mind’ live on ‘Kimmel’

Best Coast have appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live – you can watch their appearance below.

READ MORE: Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino: “I questioned whether I would ever be able to make music again”

The group played ‘Master Of My Mind’ from latest album ‘Always Tomorrow’ in a top-floor home rehearsal space.

Reviewing that album, NME said: “‘Always Tomorrow’’finds [Bethany] Cosentino…starting afresh in a new decade.

“For the first time she’s enlisted bandmate Bobb Bruno to write songs when she felt unable to do so: a move that culminated in the LA duo’s most closely collaborative work yet (Cosentino’s autobiographical lyrics notwithstanding).”

You can see the full Kimmel performance below.

Back in September, Best Coast shared a surprise new live EP, ‘Live At World Cafe’.

The EP was recorded at a show the band played in early 2020 at the titular World Cafe in Philadelphia.

“Today we share with you a new live EP from a show we played at World Cafe in Philadelphia in early 2020 before ‘Always Tomorrow’ came out,” the band said of the new EP in a statement.

“It was the first time we played new songs for fans, and the first time we stepped on stage as a full band in a really long time. 2020 obviously went a lil crazy and we were forced to put everything on pause, but we hope this ‘Live At World Cafe’ EP will make you feel like you’re hanging with us.”

Best Coast recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their debut album ‘Crazy For You’ with a special live-streamed concert.

The gig saw the band perform the album in full, joined by guests including Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus, Paramore‘s Hayley Williams and Chvrches‘ Lauren Mayberry.

Maggie Lindemann Refuses To Let Paranoia Hold Her Back

By Jack Irvin

Maggie Lindemann has always considered herself a paranoid person. As a kid, it was the reason she’d ask her mom to stay in her room until she fell asleep. As an adult, it’s why she began sleeping with a switchblade under her pillow.

“It just gave me bad vibes, which is weird because it was a brand new house,” the 22-year-old singer-songwriter tells MTV News about her then-home in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Combined with the copious amount of horror films Lindemann watched at the time, nights when her roommate wasn’t home left her scared, to say the least. “Two stories are too much for me… I need to know every inch of the house. He would be gone, and I would just freak out and need to sleep with a knife under my pillow like every night — and in all my drawers.”

Her sharp response to fear came in handy as a direct inspiration for “Knife Under My Pillow,” the pop punk-inspired first single from her debut, Paranoia, out this Friday on Caroline Records and Swixxzaudio. While the EP may be the singer’s first-ever project, she is by no means a newbie in the music industry. Growing up in Texas and performing with her local church choir, she always dreamed of singing professionally, and she moved to Los Angeles at 16 to pursue it. Like many other teenagers at the time, she started posting cover videos online — not on YouTube, but on Keek, a now-defunct video platform that launched in 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LGghW2g7JM

After picking up a following, her fans flocked to her Tumblr and Instagram pages, turning her into a full-blown influencer before the term — which she despises — even existed. “I hate when people call me an influencer, ‘cause that is not how I make my money,” says Lindemann, who amassed nearly a million followers before releasing her first single, the downbeat “Knocking on Your Heart,” in 2015. “I always wanted to sing. I didn’t want to just be a pretty girl on Instagram.”

Lindemann expressed a similar sentiment in 2016’s aptly titled “Pretty Girl,” an empowering, anthemic pop track that became an international hit and caught the attention of 300 Entertainment, the record label she signed to that year. Considering the track has been streamed well over a billion times to date, and its follow-up, infectious dance bop “Obsessed,” boasts nearly 100 million streams, you’d think the singer would have followed up the immense success with an album. But behind the scenes, she wasn’t a fan of the music she was putting out.

“I hated being this bubblegum-pop girl. I just didn't ever feel like that was me,” she says. “The lyrics were me, but the vibe wasn't, and I felt like that started to become a constant theme in my music. I loved the lyrics, but the production, I always just didn't like it.”

Brandon Arreaga

She decided to shift her sound to better reflect her own music taste, citing acts like Sleeping With Sirens and Avril Lavigne as major inspirations. “I love heavy drums, heavy electric guitars. I always wanted to scream. I used to practice my screams when I was young,” Lindemann recalls. “I felt like my whole life was pop-punk, and then I was pop, and it just felt so weird.” In 2018, she released the emo, melancholic “Would I” and “Friends Go,” a No Doubt-influenced track that received a hardcore remix from Blink-182’s Travis Barker. But just as she was finally settling into a sound she identified with, things took a dark turn.

On June 21, 2019, she was asked to leave the stage during a performance in Malaysia, where she was then arrested by immigration police for not possessing the correct work permit visa. The incident was reportedly due to negligence on behalf of the visa agent, who was later fined over $7,000. After the show, Lindemann was put in jail for 24 hours before getting released to her hotel room, where she was forced to stay for five days before she could fly home. “It’s all such a blur, but basically we had to go and be like, ‘Look, we had no idea. We don’t book these things,’” she details. “We were facing possibly five years in prison for being there illegally and possibly deportation. It was just horrifying.”

https://twitter.com/MaggieLindemann/status/1146591825232199680

At the time, she felt she was being watched in her hotel room, only worsening her preexisting anxieties. “I've always been paranoid, but that was a different level 'cause it felt like I had a reason to be,” she says. While recognizing how fortunate she is to be able to move on relatively unscathed thanks to her legal team — and how many others aren’t as lucky — over a year later, she still finds herself reminded of the discomfort and uncertainty she felt during her time in jail. “I had to go to the DMV the other day, and the tiles and stuff were the same [as the jail cell], and I was just kind of like, ‘Whoa, this is really freaking me out.’”

But it also pushed Lindemann to “want to make better music” and finally get a project out into the world, and this time she wanted to call the shots — which meant parting ways with 300 Entertainment in favor of Caroline Records and her own label, Swixxzaudio. Within a week of returning home from the tour, she hit the studio and made the grim, guitar-driven “Different,” the first song written for Paranoia, as well as the first track she’s ever co-produced.

From that point, the songs kept flowing, and soon enough she had an EP’s worth of material. While new songs like the ear-shattering screamo track “Gaslight!” and metallic, cutthroat banger “Scissorhands” are a far cry from the polished pop of “Pretty Girl,” the musician feels like her sound perfectly aligns with her personality for the first time. “I used to always see comments like, ‘I love her Instagram, I love her style, but her music doesn't match,’ and it always would drive me crazy 'cause I'm like, ‘Ugh, I know. I want it, too, so bad.’ And I feel like it finally does,” says Lindemann. “What you see is who I am, for sure.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz2xnER6k2g

In fact, she’s felt so inspired by her new sound that she’s already hard at work on an album to come after Paranoia. “I have three songs already, but I’m still just in the beginning,” she details. “But I do want to have an album out not too too much longer after the EP drops, hopefully next year.”

If it were up to Lindemann, the next step would be to head out on a headlining tour, which she was planning to do before the pandemic hit back in March. Above anything else, her goal is merely to prove herself as an artist once and for all: “I just hope to reach people that I haven’t reached yet, and I hope that people will take me more seriously — and not think of me as an internet person who decided to make music or something.”

Olivia Rodrigo says response to ‘Drivers License’ is beyond her “wildest dreams”

Olivia Rodrigo has spoken of how the reaction to her recent breakout hit ‘Drivers License’ surpassed her “wildest dreams”.

The Californian singer-songwriter released the track on January 8, and it is currently at number one in the UK and US singles charts. As well as going viral on TikTok, the song has also won Rodrigo praise from her “idol” Taylor Swift.

Read More: Olivia Rodrigo: inside the Taylor-endorsed mega-hit ‘Drivers License’

Speaking in a new interview with NME, the 17-year-old star talked about how ‘Drivers License’ has smashed the records of her heroes and those that she listened to growing up.

“I mean, that is just everything. All the recognition the song has got is beyond my wildest dreams,” she explained. “Taylor Swift – is my songwriting idol and I wouldn’t be half of the woman and a songwriter I am today without her – reached out and was so supportive of the song.

“I just found out the other day that Lorde likes it, Halsey likes it, all of these people that I have grown up listening to are saying they’re liking the song.”

Rodrigo went on to say that the response has been “absolutely surreal” as the aforementioned artists’ music has inspired the songs she has written so far in some capacity.

The singer has also impressed artists outside the world of pop, with jxdn and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker surprising fans today (January 20) with a rock-orientated cover of ‘Drivers License’.

“Thank you so much [Olivia Rodrigo] for making the beautiful song! me and [Travis Barker] fw it so much we put our spin on it,” jxdn (aka Jaden Hossler) wrote on Instagram.

‘Drivers License’ broke the record for the most single-day streams for a non-holiday song on Spotify and made its debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 48th song in the chart’s history to ever do so.

Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly tease zombie film-inspired ‘Acting Like That’ video

Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly have shared a trailer for their video to ‘Acting Like That’, their recent collaborative track – watch below.

The team-up, which also features Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, appears on Yungblud’s second album ‘Weird!’ (released last month).

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

Yesterday (January 19), Yungblud – aka Dom Harrison – shared a zombie movie-inspired 30-second clip of the ‘Acting Like That’ video, which is set to drop tomorrow (January 21) at 6pm GMT.

The clip begins with Harrison calling MGK from a vintage red phone box, with the pair recalling the “mad one” they’ve been on in the days prior. Kelly, who is lying on the bonnet of his car, then spots a zombie approaching and swiftly hangs up.

“[What] the fuck’s his problem,” Harrison says, before appearing to clock something of grave concern in the distance. “Holy…,” he adds.

Speaking about the track upon its release last month, Yungblud said: “‘Acting Like That’ is a result of what happens when me, MGK and Travis get together, the energy’s electric and we write songs that amplify a feeling.

“This song radiates just going fucking nuts at your favourite show, a feeling that we all need right now. this song is about losing control and feeling free with your best fucking mates.”

Last week Yungblud revealed that he’s almost finished another new record during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, telling fans on Instagram he was currently “in the studio”.

“We’ve been locked down here. I’ve been so mad creative!” he said. “I’ve literally nearly got another album done, which is just fucking mental. I can’t wait for you to see.”

jxdn and Travis Barker team up on rock cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’

jxdn and Travis Barker have surprised fans with a cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single, ‘Drivers License’.

jxdn – real name Jaden Hossler – and Barker took to social media to announce the cover today (January 20).

The cover is a more upbeat rock rendition of the track, compared to the original’s anthemic pop styling. The album art for the single was also illustrated by Hossler himself.

“thank you so much [Olivia Rodrigo] for making the beautiful song! me and [Travis Barker] fw it so much we put our spin on it,” Hossler wrote on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by jxdn (@jadenhossler)

Listen to the duo’s cover of Rodrigo’s ‘drivers license’ below:

Rodrigo released ‘Drivers License’ earlier this month and the song went viral immediately, in part thanks to the help of TikTok creators. The track went on to break the record for the most single-day streams for a non-holiday song on Spotify and made its debut at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100, the 48th song in the chart’s history to ever do so.

In related news, Travis Barker appears to have confirmed that Blink-182 plan to release a new album this year.

When responding to a fan on Instagram asking if there were “any new Blink-182 albums dropping this year”, Barker simply replied “YES”.

New Blink music was promised back in July as their producer John Feldmann revealed that the band were “getting in touch with their roots” and working on songs which “have been super classic Blink – and I can’t be more excited”.

The band’s last album, ‘Nine’, arrived in September 2019, three years on from July 2016’s ‘California’. The trio also released the stand-alone single ‘Quarantine’ last year.

Christian Lee Hutson covers Taylor Swift, ABBA and more on new EP

Christian Lee Hutson has shared a new covers EP, featuring versions of tracks by Taylor Swift, ABBA and more.

‘The Version Suicides’ is the follow-up to a covers series Hutson shared for Bandcamp Day back in August, where he covered Blink-182, Kid Cudi and more.

“Last year, I started recording quiet demo versions of songs I like on my phone just to send to friends,” he wrote on Twitter to announce the new EP.

“We put out Volume 4 of The Version Suicides in August for Bandcamp Day and people seemed to like it so we’re putting out Volume 1 on Friday” (January 15).

Last year, I started recording quiet demo versions of songs I like on my phone just to send to friends.

We put out Volume 4 of The Version Suicides in August for Bandcamp Day and people seemed to like it so we’re putting out Volume 1 on Friday pic.twitter.com/fv6UcfdWuF

— Christian Lee Hutson (@chrisleehutson) January 13, 2021

Listen to Volume 1 of ‘The Version Suicides’, which sees Hutson cover Swift’s ‘Betty’, ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ and Vanessa Carlton’s ‘A Thousand Miles’, below.

The Version Suicides, Vol. 1 by Christian Lee Hutson

The new EP follows Hutson’s debut album ‘Beginners’, which came out last June and was produced by his frequent collaborator Phoebe Bridgers, who also starred in Hutson’s video for ‘Get The Old Band Back Together’ alongside her Better Oblivion Community Center bandmate Conor Oberst.

“I went with ‘Beginners’ as the title because that’s where I feel like I am in my life,” Hutson said of his debut album, “like I’m still just learning and trying to figure out how to navigate the world”.

Taylor Swift’s ‘Betty’, covered on Hutson’s new EP, features on her first 2020 lockdown album ‘Folklore’, which NME called “an extraordinary indie-folk makeover” upon its release last August.

It was followed in December by another record called ‘Evermore’, which saw Swift working once again with The National‘s Aaron Dessner and regular collaborator Jack Antonoff.

Machine Gun Kelly shares trailer and release date for ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ musical ‘Downfalls High’

Machine Gun Kelly has shared a teaser trailer for his forthcoming ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ musical Downfalls High – watch below.

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

The clip features appearances from Trippie Redd, blackbear and Iann Dior and goes on to reveal that it is due to drop on January 15. The musical will be narrated by Kelly and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, who contributed to and executively produced MGK’s recent album.

Speaking to NME in a Big Read cover feature last year, Kelly called the musical a “pop-punk Grease“ and it emerged from a running joke he had with his collaborator Mod Sun where they make excuses to leave situations by saying they need to go and watch Grease 2.

“I just shot it in four days with Mod Sun,” Kelly confirmed in the interview. “It was my first time directing. It was almost like shooting 14 music videos back-to-back, but with a narrative that’s outside of my personal life stories.

“It focuses on other characters, and then me and [Barker] are just the narrators. It’s an interesting concept because it hasn’t been done for an album ever, maybe outside of like Pink Floyd’s The Wall.”

Meanwhile, Barker recently confirmed that he is working on new music with Kelly.

MGK and Barker also shared a joint cover of Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ over the summer in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Its accompanying video saw the musicians take to the LA streets to protest against police brutality towards African Americans in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

In other news, Avril Lavigne also recently teased new music set to land in 2021, featuring Kelly.

Sharing photos from the studio, featuring MGK playing guitar and singing alongside Lavigne and Mod Sun, Lavigne wrote: “So are we ready for new music in the new year or what? Lemme know.”

In a four-star review, NME said ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ “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.”

‘Star Wars’ actor Oscar Isaac used to play in a ska band that opened for Green Day

Footage has emerged of Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac playing in ska bands before he was famous.

Names of the bands included The Worms, Closet Heterosexuals, Petrified Frogs and The Underdogs, the latter of whom once opened for Green Day and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the 1990s.

After a photo was shared on Twitter of Isaac with The Underdogs, footage began circling of a number of his bands playing across the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Still thinking about Oscar Isaac’s ska band that opened for Green Day and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the late 90s. pic.twitter.com/lOSOXK5Vzs

— machine gun handsome_pal (@handsome_pal) December 21, 2020

“I was in a few ska bands actually,” Isaac told Jimmy Kimmel in a past interview. “We played on a stage at a festival about five hours before [The Mighty Mighty Bosstones], but that was a great thing to have on your resume.”

Watch footage of Isaac playing with his bands The Blinking Underdogs and The Worms below:

In a recent Soundtrack Of My Life interview with NME, Isaac spoke of his childhood obsession with The Cure.

“They were the first band where I wanted every album of theirs because their music seemed to fit perfectly with everything that was happening in my adolescent life,” he told NME, before revealing that his favourite album from Robert Smith and co. is 1992’s ‘Wish’.

“I was so obsessed with this album, but no one thinks it was their best one,” he said. “It was really the band at the point of disintegration… But you know what? ‘From The Edges Of The Deep Green Sea’ is one of my favourite songs of all-time and the first song I truly fell in love with.”

In terms of his acting career, Isaac has been tapped up to star as Solid Snake in the upcoming film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.

Based on the Metal Gear Solid video game created by Hideo Kojima and published by Konami, the film will be written by Derek Connolly, whose major credits include Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, the Jurassic World trilogy, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, and Kong: Skull Island.

Isaac’s next film is the highly-anticipated Dune reboot, starring alongside Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Dave Bautista.

14 Albums You Might’ve Missed In 2020

How did you spend 2020? With more with 70 million songs on Spotify alone and approximately 70 billion hours' worth of bingeable TV and movies available to stream — just a rough estimate — it would be safe to guess the answer is: at home, with your faves. Indeed, as many of us turned to what we know and love to stay warm and comforted in this most turbulent year, it was especially hard to keep up with what was new.

But we've got you covered. Much like MTV News does each week with Bop Shop, we've rounded up a good crop of 2020 music here to add to your next playlist — recordings that might've not have been on your radar this year, but that'll be sure to make 2021 worth every second.

As we put this year to bed, let's celebrate the albums we love that you might've missed in 2020. Maybe you'll come to love them, too.

Westerman: Your Hero Is Not Dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OFYyFhWTYE

Will Westerman's world is insular, but his music feels universal. For his debut, the London sound architect built a folk album from sparse parts: wiggly guitar lines, blinking electronics, and his ever-ascending croon, which takes flight with no warning. It's all on display on the skyward title track, where Westerman honors late post-rock icon Mark Hollis with a simple slogan committed to hope, even amid loss: "I will try to hold this / If you don't see where hope is." At the end of the most hellacious year in recent memory and in the face of unfathomable grief, those words double as a dedication to positivity, grace, and love in 2021. More of that, please. —Patrick Hosken
Wizkid: Made in Lagos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Zk7ATICaw

Four years after Drake's "One Dance" brought Afrobeats maestro Wizkid to the global pop stage, the Nigerian superstar's second major-label album found him once again blazing through a series of expert collaborations. Burna Boy, Ella Mai, H.E.R., Skepta, and more dip in and out of Made in Lagos, filling its runtime with energy and genres from quite literally all over the world. But it's Wizkid's standout solo moments, like the sexy "Sweet One" and breezy, confident opener "Reckless," that make the album yet another force to be reckoned with. —Patrick Hosken
Caveboy: Night in the Park, Kiss in the Dark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPfWD1IC6p0

Caveboy deserved better from 2020. The Montreal-based indie-pop trio dropped Night in the Park, Kiss in the Dark — their years-in-the-making debut album — on January 31. Between one bandmate falling ill at the start of their 2020 tour and the global COVID-19 pandemic, the group had barely a month to promote the record IRL. And it’s a damn shame. Infused with lush, ‘80s-inspired synths and infectious beats, Night in the Park dazzles from first note to last. Its tracklist has everything: introspective ballads (“Find Me,” “Guess I’ve Changed”), sex-positive anthems (“Silk for Gold,” “Landslide”), and dance floor-ready bangers (“Obsessed,” “Hide Your Love”). In an alternate timeline, I’m knocking back tequila sodas at a dimly lit nightclub and shrieking in delight when the DJ plays “Obsessed.” —Sam Manzella
JoJo: Good to Know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2NF4Dn3WTU

I don't know how JoJo managed to release three versions of her latest album and have it still remain so slept on. Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, Good to Know, her first release since her 2018 re-recordings is a solid and concise look at how much she's grown as a songwriter, storyteller, and vocalist. While she traverses typical subject matter — alcoholic indulgence, no-good men, immaculate vibes — it's also clear that she's crafted her own slice of R&B sound that's so patently unique that the oft-repeated "Wait, JoJo is back?" jokes simply hold no ground anymore. She's here to stay. —Carson Mlnarik
Duckwrth: SuperGood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sILSv7GCyQg

The disrespect of 2020 on the year’s best dance-floor albums, from Future Nostalgia to What’s Your Pleasure, will only make the inevitable return to the nightlife that much more thrilling. The entirety of Duckwrth’s most audacious album yet, SuperGood, should feel just as betrayed: It’s a sprawling effort across rhythms, concoctions of electronic, disco-funk, and soul that deserved strobe lights. “World on Wheels” is simply one of the year’s most freely feel-good jams, begging for you to head to the skating rink — you know, once they’re open. —Terron Moore
Elysia Crampton: ORCARARA 2010
ORCORARA 2010 by Elysia Crampton Chuquimia

While many of this year’s leading experimental musicians veered at times towards legible genrefication — Arca’s distorted reggaeton-pop on KiCk i, Yves Tumor’s glam-rock turn with Heaven to a Tortured Mind — Elysia Crampton’s output remained ever formless and fragementary. The producer’s fifth album, ORCARARA 2010, was originally crafted to accompany an installation at the 2018 Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement in Geneva, trading narrative frameworks for sparse soundscapes that envelop and overwhelm. There are few times where a beat appears, and when it does, it rages as a thunderous maelstrom of drums ("Secret Ravine," “Spring of Wound”), giving way to sparkling expanses of burbling synths and piano keys (“Homeless”) that refuse to hold any true shape until eventually dissolving into nothingness. For Crampton, who is Aymara (a tribe indigenous to present-day Bolivia) and dedicates her album to an inmate firefighter named Paul Sousas, ORCARARA 2010 is a delicate, personal reckoning with intergenerational trauma and the deeply ingrained systems that continue to oppress people in the United States and abroad. —Coco Romack
Sault: Untitled (Black Is) & Untitled (Rise)
UNTITLED (Black Is) by SAULT

Here's what we know about Sault, the mysterious British music collective with millions of streams on their nocturnal, rhythmic, and bewitching assortment of tunes. On Juneteenth, the group — purportedly based around U.K. producer Inflo — released its first untitled album, (Black Is), via a name-your-price model, with proceeds going to charity, and with a clear message: "We present our first 'Untitled' album to mark a moment in time where we as Black People, and of Black Origin are fighting for our lives." Musically moving between funk, soul, subterranean R&B, and more, the 20 tracks comprise a powerful statement — one Sault followed up three months later with yet another untitled album, (Rise). Taken together, the pair of recordings mark a crucial year characterized by protests against racial injustice and frank, long-overdue conversations about equity. "Maybe you're uncomfortable / With the fact we're waking up," goes the haunting "Uncomfortable." "Why do you keep shooting us? / How do you turn hate to love?" —Patrick Hosken
The Ivy: We Move Faster at Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3c3Z-nGjik

Emerging trio The Ivy’s We Move Faster at Night feels like modern nostalgia: a brief six-track collection of earnest yet humble ambition, an adolescent coming of age steeped in the fuzzy filter of '80s synth-pop. Most of its songs approach the past — see “Memories,” “It Was Always You” — with a tone both somber and hopeful. The one song that does look forward, “Give Me a Try,” is the catchiest earworm, but even here, there’s still a timeless longing that binds the album together: for love, for patience, for a first chance, or maybe a second. —Terron Moore
Armani Caesar: The Liz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuH4LtIgCNo

Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor had two of the most famous eyes in the world. On the cover of her latest mixtape, Buffalo rapper (and Griselda's "First Lady") Armani Caesar adds a third, directly in the middle of Taylor's forehead. It's a nod to the slightly off-kilter, warbling world the Griselda rap crew inhabits, fortified by dusty loops and braggadocio. "Every time I spit the flow, it get applause," Caesar raps on "Gucci Casket." "Queen of this shit, you bitches mad or nah?" Between references to Casino's tortured heroine, CB4's intrepid business woman, and pro wrestling's independent force Miss Elizabeth, Caesar thrives in the vortex of brevity. That's the secret of The Liz, which covers 11 tracks in just 25 minutes and sets the stage for an even more staggering 2021. —Patrick Hosken
Ryan Beatty: Dreaming of David
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmobKehTYR4

Ryan Beatty’s sophomore album is experimental, genre-defying, and moody, following in the footsteps of his frequent collaborators Frank Ocean and Brockhampton. There are no pop earworms here, just lo-fi reflection on the queer experience, daring in both its production styles and candidness. You’d never guess the processed, sensual vocals on "Dark Circles" belong to the same artist who got his start covering pop tunes on his YouTube channel and making cookie-cutter bops on Radio Disney. I think it's time we had that conversation. —Carson Mlnarik
Boniface: Boniface
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkMEQB3IC4k

2020 created distance in a multitude of ways: between people, between goals, between our pasts and futures while stuck in a murky, unknown present. And that space of reconsideration is where Boniface’s excellent self-titled debut shines most: swelling, anthemic indie pop with its best moments pulling its narrator away from the things that once defined them — aged friendships, lost loves, and the monotony of suburbia — to see them through different eyes. On tracks like “Ghosts,” there’s a joyous invincibility to predictable small-town life, but standout “I Will Not Return As a Tourist” is fueled by a burning desire to escape everything known. “I can’t stand spending nights away from home,” they realize, “but that’s all that I’ve been doing.” —Terron Moore
Boldy James & The Alchemist: The Price of Tea in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWRhaS5azcA

Out of the three collaborative projects storied hip-hop producer The Alchemist dropped in 2020, his expansive set with Detroit rapper Boldy James feels the most like a dream. Not as celebrated as the verbose Alfredo (with Freddie Gibbs) and yet not as sweeping as Lulu (with James's Griselda cohort Conway the Machine), The Price of Tea in China moves in its own orbit, shape-shifting from grimy to soulful to ethereal in single snare snap. James sounds right at home behind Alchemist's menacing whistles on "Giant Slide," while "Surf & Turf" feels light as a feather thanks to a quick verse from Vince Staples. It's only one of James's own four projects in 2020 as well, and The Price of Tea in China — a pseudo-sequel to the pair's own My 1st Chemistry Set in 2013 — captures the collision of two prolific artists at the top of their respective games. —Patrick Hosken
A.G. Cook: Apple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koI7IRSjfxc

As the progenitor of London’s PC Music collective, which has influenced artists like Chari XCX and 100 gecs, A.G. Cook has stretched pop to its extremes. This year, the producer, who has long been behind the scenes, released his debut solo album, an experimental, 49-track collection called 7G that let fans in on his song-making process for the first time. It largely overshadowed the release of his second LP, Apple, the following month, but it’s the latter that distills that methodology into truly accessible tunes. It melds all the synthetic blips and ticks for which the genre has become known (“Airhead”), with earnest pop-punk vocals (“Animals,” “Beautiful Superstar”) for a sound that feels surprisingly both nostalgic and of the moment. It shows that, though this particular strain of hyperpop has often been dubbed the future of pop itself, it’s perhaps better served as a reflection of the present. —Coco Romack
The Avalanches: We Will Always Love You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evju5Sa-NPk

Twenty years ago, two crate-digging Australians stitched together a masterpiece album of sampling-based electronic music called Since I Left You. A carefree sequel followed in 2016. But late this year, well after the typical best-of lists had already been published, The Avalanches looked up from the dance floor to take in the night sky, recruiting artists as diverse as Leon Bridges, Jamie xx, Pink Siifu, and Vashti Bunyan to merge spectral romance and hypnotic stargazing on We Will Always Love You. What does a Valentine's Day dance party at the International Space Station sound like? Here's your answer. Now get out there and move. —Patrick Hosken

Diddy hands out cash and gift cards in Miami to help US residents during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs has helped Miami residents hit by the coronavirus crisis by handing out $50 bills.

The rapper also handed out $50 Publix supermarket gift cards and bags containing hygiene products to a huge crowd in Overturn.

Diddy is also working with festival and nightlife organiser Michael Gardner and the local Teens Exercising Extraordinary Success group to help provide rental assistance for families in Miami, reports The Associated Press.

It comes just months after the rapper hosted an online dance-athon, to raise money for healthcare workers in underprivileged areas of the US.

Diddy outside giving money out to the people in Miami pic.twitter.com/Mqr8ECPBqL

— 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2BIog) December 30, 2020

“Me and my family are having a dance-a-thon, the whole world is invited,” Combs said at the time. “We on lockdown, but we want to dance.”

He continued: “Let’s all dance together and raise money for our healthcare workers to let them know how much we appreciate them!”

Diddy previously hosted a two-hour town hall meeting on his cable network REVOLT TV, which discussed the effects of COVID-19 on the African-American community.

In October, he also launched his own political party and endorsed Joe Biden in the US presidential election.

During an appearance on Revolt TV with Charlamagne Tha God, Diddy spoke about Donald Trump‘s US administration and the political future of America. “White men like Trump need to be banished,” he said.

“That way of thinking is real dangerous. This man literally threatened the lives of us and our families going to vote – stand back and stand by. We’re in a war. We’re not taking this like it’s a war. We’re taking it like it’s a presidential election. We’re in a war of love versus hate. The number one priority is to get Trump out of office. The tribe of people that have the responsibility and really should be scared to death of this man is white people.”

Uncut’s Best Reissues & Compilations Of 2020

30 GRANDADDY
The Sophtware Slump: 20th Anniversary Collection
DANGERBIRD
Two decades on, the ‘American OK Computer’ (or one of them, anyway) got a deluxe vinyl box, featuring two LPs of rarities and B-sides and a full 2020 re-recording of the album on piano. The latter, rush-recorded during lockdown in Jason Lytle’s LA apartment, was a surprise highlight, actually shining new light on the 11 songs that made up the original record.

29 BRIAN ENO
Film Music 1976 – 2020
UMe
While Eno busied himself with a collaborative project alongside brother Roger (Mixing Colours, Luminous), the reissue of his back catalogue continued apace. The Jah Wobble (Spinner) and John Cale (Wrong Way Up) LPs arrived in August along with a Record Store Day release for his Rams OST. This survey of his film scores highlighted the range and depth of his cinematic endeavours: richly textured and immersive, these were more than just movie cues but recognisable compositions in their own right.

28 BESSIE JONES
Get In Union
ALAN LOMAX ARCHIVE
South Georgia-born Jones was a veritable expert in African-American song, learning slavery-era songs from her grandfather and picking up others throughout her life. This digital-only release from the Alan Lomax Archive, expanding on a previous 2CD set, compiled 60 songs she recorded solo and with the Georgia Sea Island Singers between 1959 and ’66. An incredible and important collection.

27 ROBERT WYATT
His Greatest Misses
DOMINO
Such is the compact nature of his catalogue, all Wyatt’s albums are pretty much essential purchases – if a ‘best of’ is required, though, one can barely improve on this, reissued on vinyl this year after a CD release in 2004. The hits were present – “I’m A Believer” and “Shipbuilding” – but some of his fine lesser-known work was showcased too, from “Arauco” to “Worship”.

26 KEVIN ROWLAND
My Beauty
CHERRY RED
Roundly criticised on its release 21 years ago, Rowland’s second solo album was seemingly just ahead of its time, as this remastered version proved. His glorious version of Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” was reinstated, while takes on The Four Seasons’ “Rag Doll” and George Benson’s “The Greatest Love Of All” were alternately grooving and uncompromising.

25 THE GO-BETWEENS
G Stands For Go-Betweens Vol 2: 1985–1989
DOMINO
Something of a motherlode, the second Go-Betweens box included their bona fide classics Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express and 16 Lovers Lane, alongside a host of bonus material, including demos for their abandoned seventh album. Some of those songs turned up on Robert Forster’s Danger In The Past, also reissued in fine form this year.

24 GLOBAL COMMUNICATION
Transmissions
EVOLUTION
This sumptuous 7LP boxset collected work done by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton, from their Eno-like 1993 reimagining of Chapterhouse’s Blood Music album to their own 76:14 the following year, and a load of bonus tracks. Enigmatically and beautifully packaged, the attention to detail mirrored the transportative, finely wrought electronics within.

23 SOLOMON BURKE
The King Of Rock ’N’ Soul: The Atlantic Recordings (1962-1968)
SOULMUSIC
Across three packed CDs, this set captured the peak of the ‘bishop of soul’’s career, from his early hit “Cry To Me” to his work with the likes of Chips Moman, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. “Maggie’s Farm” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” are just two highlights of this collection, which also featured alternate takes and new liner notes.

22 JOHN COLTRANE
Giant Steps 60th Anniversary
RHINO
A year after making history on Miles’ Kind Of Blue, Coltrane did it again with his fifth album as band leader. The original seven pieces, from the rapid-fire title track to the lovestruck “Naima”, were here joined by copious outtakes and new sleevenotes, all shedding light on the birth of this masterpiece.

21 NINA SIMONE
Fodder On My Wings
VERVE
After an unfulfilling experience making 1978’s Baltimore, Simone grasped the reins on the follow-up, recorded in Paris and released four years later. It remained largely obscure, though, which made this reissue, with a rejigged tracklisting and new artwork, a welcome addition to her legacy. Switching from English to French, Simone sang of grief and loss, and, most curiously, her dislike of the Swiss.

20 JON HASSELL
Vernal Equinox
NDEYA
Hassell had served a long apprenticeship by the time he released his debut album, performing with Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, which probably accounted for the record’s confidence and dexterity. Reissued 43 years on, its mix of jazz, ambient and world music remains completely unclassifiable, Hassell’s electronically treated trumpet conjuring up a singular soundworld.

19 ARETHA FRANKLIN
Aretha
RHINO
Tough as it is to sum up a career like Franklin’s in just one release, Aretha gave it a good go with a 2LP set and a 4CD boxset. The new artwork burnished the music within, most of it understandably taken from her Atlantic days, but there were choice alternate takes, work tapes and demos tucked away here too.

18 PJ HARVEY
To Bring You My Love
UMC/ISLAND
The vinyl reissue of all Harvey’s albums plus attendant demos inevitably set the bar high early on with Dry and Rid Of Her. But third album To Bring You My Love marked her first big stylistic shift and gave her a mainstream breakthrough with “Down By The Water”. The accompanying demos brought greater intimacy and intensity to the songs’ religious imagery and vamped-up delta bluesology.

17 ONENESS OF JUJU
African Rhythms 1970-1982
STRUT
This invigorating anthology shone a light on one of the funkiest catalogues of the entire 1970s. It followed Plunky Branch’s collective through its various incarnations, from the righteous spiritual jazz of Juju via the earthy Afro-funk of Oneness Of Juju to the cosmic boogie of Juju & The Space Rangers, its powerful messages of black pride and spiritual unity always front and centre. Also worth seeking out are the albums Space Jungle Luv and Live At The East, reissued separately.

16 PYLON
Pylon Box
NEW WEST
Everything the curious listener might need for their journey into the
work of this most underrated of post-punk groups was here: their two remastered albums, a rarities collection, rehearsal tape and a huge book. It uncovered a group who were at once pioneering, good-humoured and brilliant performers, and crucially, one that sound just as exciting today.

15 JONI MITCHELL
Archives Vol 1: The Early Years (1963-1967)
RHINO
While Mitchell’s recovery continued apace, she also dug back into her past – with last year’s reprint of a 1971 private press book Morning Glory On The Vine and also her Archives project, the first in a series of deep dives into her storied career. This inaugural 5CD set brought together unreleased demos, radio sessions and live recordings to shine a light on Mitchell’s remarkable folknik years. Essential listening.

14 BLACK SABBATH
Paranoid
UNIVERSAL
Sabbath’s 1970 saw them split one setlist over two albums of hard, swinging blues rock. While their debut revealed their capacity for horror, Paranoid showed that Sabbath could shock: quiet bits (“Planet Caravan”), political comment (“War Pigs”), and most notably a hit single (the title track). This deluxe vinyl retained all that over five LPs, adding a quad mix and live shows from Montreux and Brussels. The brilliant “Fairies Wear Boots” is in here four times, but fans will wonder if they couldn’t perhaps have fitted in a couple more.

13 THE REPLACEMENTS
Pleased To Meet Me (Deluxe Edition)
RHINO
If the original album captured a snapshot of the band teetering on the fence between mainstream rock stardom and the snotty punk underground, this deluxe reissue attempted to tell the whole story of the ’Mats’ most divisive era: there was a remastered original album, a disc of rough demos and one of alternate mixes and session curios.

12 BOBBIE GENTRY
The Delta Sweete Expanded Edition
UMC
Though Gentry herself has been silent for decades, the music she made on the cusp of the ’70s has only improved with the passing years. This deluxe reissue of her 1968 tour de force added unheard versions, demos and suchlike, while the original tracks remained equally swampy and sophisticated, with Gentry examining her Southern heritage through originals such as “Okolona River Bottom Band” alongside well-chosen covers.

11 TOM PETTY
Wildflowers & All The Rest
WARNER RECORDS
Released to mark what would have been Petty’s 70th birthday, this expanded set of his 1994 solo album illustrated the care currently being shown to Petty’s catalogue. The entry-level version was the 25-track double album Petty originally intended, scaling up to a 5CD Super-Deluxe edition with studio outtakes, home demos, alternative cuts and live recordings, some previously unreleased. What the 25-track version chiefly revealed, however, was a master songwriter at the top of his game.

10 BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND
Transmissions: The Music Of Beverly Glenn-Copeland
TRANSGRESSIVE
Interest in Beverly Glenn-Copeland has been building since the rediscovery of his stunning 1986 synth-folk cassette Keyboard Fantasies by the likes of Four Tet a few years ago. But this anthology, spanning 50 years of releases, revealed the unique artist’s full range: from his early, Joni-esque singer-songwriter material to the rousing gospel-house of more recent work, all unified by those instantly affecting vocals.

9 THE ROLLING STONES
Goats Head Soup
UNIVERSAL
This 1973 album was the moment the Stones’ sound of the late 1970s and ’80s was born – an exotic fusion of rock, funk and top-dollar tunes. The appearance of “Scarlet” – cut with Jimmy Page on guitar – among the outtakes and rarities posed an existential question – what if the Stones decided to groove more like Zeppelin? Meanwhile, the addition of the Brussels Affair bootleg offered the most compelling account out there of the Stones at their Mick Taylor-era live peak.

8 GILLIAN WELCH
Boots 2: The Lost Songs
ACONY
Consisting of 48 previously unreleased tracks recorded at home by Welch and David Rawlings in the early 2000s, Boots No 2 – released in three digital parts, and also now as a physical boxset – was truly a treasure trove. As if the likes of “Picasso” and “Valley Of Tears” weren’t enough, the box included a hefty book with lyrics and chords for each song.

7 NEW ORDER
Power Corruption & Lies (Definitive Edition)
WARNER MUSIC
Inspired by their adventures in New York clubland, New Order’s second album was their first classic, finally escaping the shadow of Joy Division to emerge, blinking, into a luminous electropop future. Beyond the remaster, this pink-boxed ‘definitive edition’ also gave you unheard embryonic versions of “Blue Monday” and “Thieves Like Us”, stacks of rare live footage, some quasi-erotic photos of ’80s synths and Tony Wilson in the bath.

6 LOU REED
New York Deluxe Edition
SIRE/RHINO
“Faulkner had the South, Joyce had Dublin, I’ve got New York,” said Lou Reed to this reissue’s sleevenote-writer David Fricke. On his classic 1989 album, Reed’s poetic excavations of NYC’s underbelly acquired a political bite that proved eerily relevant in 2020 (“They ordained the trumps/And then he got the mumps”). A disc of work-in-progress versions showed Reed locking in with new guitarist Mike Rathke, while a slew of live tracks found them stretching out.

5 IGGY POP
The Bowie Years
UMe
Focusing on Pop’s fecund ’70s run, the subtitle here underscores the importance on these recordings of Iggy’s erstwhile housemate. The Idiot and Lust For Life are given handsome polish – arguably, they’ve never sounded this good. While the inclusion of four discs (out of seven) of live material might feel like padding, they give a vivid snapshot of Iggy live in ’77. A rarities disc showcased alternative edits, although any home recordings Iggy and Bowie made probably remain safely under lock and key in the latter’s archive.

4 TREES
Trees
FIRE
Cultivating the land that Fairport’s Liege & Lief hacked clear, these short-lived British folk-rockers left behind two 1970 albums that have proved quietly influential. This lovely 4LP 50th-anniversary boxset told their unlikely story, and demonstrated why the music they made, from the eerie “The Garden Of Jane Delawney” to the visionary “Murdoch”, remains spectacular.

3 RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON
Hard Luck Stories 1972-1982
UMC
The six albums the Thompsons created during their decade of marriage were included here, in all their mystical and miserable glory, but the main draws on this 8CD boxset were the buried treasures. From embryonic material, including unheard songs, to the previously unreleased spiritual and jazzy workouts from their 1977 tour, the duo’s magical work had never before been catalogued like this.

2 NEIL YOUNG
Homegrown
REPRISE
With the pandemic putting a proposed Crazy Horse tour on hold, Young spent the year moving between livestreamed Fireside Sessions, an EP of protest songs and a slew of projects including Archives Volume 2. Homegrown, which arrived in June, was peak Archives: an unreleased album hailing from his golden ’70s run. It didn’t disappoint: this was folkie Neil on the way to the ditch, sharing the introspective qualities of On The Beach with the vérité nakedness of Tonight’s The Night.

1 PRINCE
Sign O’ The Times: Super Deluxe Edition
WARNERS
According to the first of the newly unearthed ‘vault’ tracks, chronologically ordered on this abundant 8CD Super Deluxe Edition, Prince started work on Sign O’ The Times back in 1979. The early demo of “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” already sounds like a wiry new wave smash, although when it finally emerged eight years later at the end of Sign’s dazzling third side, it had been lavishly kitted out with an air-punching synth hook, a wailing guitar solo and a moody jazz-funk coda. On paper, it sounds fatally overcooked – but Sign O’ The Times is one of those rare occasions when more really is more.

Prince scholars have long tried to impose an overarching narrative on his 1987 career peak, but given that it consolidated songs originally intended for at least three other projects, perhaps there really was nothing holding it together besides Prince’s unshakeable belief that everything he touched at this point would turn to gold. Lascivious machine-funk rubbing up against smouldering gospel-raga, bombastic synthpop, exquisite soul balladry and psychedelic schoolyard nostalgia? Why not? Titling the album after the jaw-droppingly stark “Sign O’ The Times” gave purpose to this fantastical voyage, and its aura of social awareness and black pride, however post-factum, resonated strongly in 2020.

The Super Deluxe Edition’s ladling on of 45 previously unreleased tracks is entirely in keeping with this maximalist celebration. Obviously they’re not all classics, but this being Prince, all are intriguing pieces of the puzzle. And some are downright stunning: the breezy, faintly oriental groove of “It Be’s Like That Sometimes”; the florid candy-pop
of “Cosmic Day”; the lush free-jazz intro to “Power Fantastic (Live In Studio)”, complete with Prince instructing his band to “just trip”. You’re unlikely to be able to consume them all in one sitting without feeling a bit sick, but think of it as less of a banquet and more like an opulent buffet.

Where will those diligent Prince Estate archivists start digging next? The “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” demo suggests there’s plenty more gold to be mined from the Dirty Mind era; or maybe they’ll attempt to force a critical re-evaluation of an underrated later album, like 3121 or The Gold Experience? Whatever they come up with, this boxset is unlikely to be matched for extravagance – a fitting tribute to Prince’s genius at his most effusive.

At-Home Livestreams Are So 2020. Bigger, Bolder Concert Experiences Are The Future

By Deepa Lakshmin

Lightning strikes. There’s a web of tangled branches, a flash of sequins; Misterwives frontwoman Mandy Lee emerges from the darkness of a blank computer screen, mic in hand, and a booming thunder in her voice as she launches into “Over the Rainbow.” Even for a virtual concert during a pandemic, the performance’s stage design had to measure up to the band’s bigger ambitions.

“We wouldn’t be able to bring like 30 trees on tour, you know?” Lee tells MTV News over a video call about the various theater sets the band and their crew built over the past four months: a skyline of clouds, a lonely bedroom, a poppy field in full bloom, a bubblegum-pink disco party. Each installation got its turn in the spotlight in The Live Dream, Misterwives’s ticketed virtual concert that streamed earlier this month on Moment House — the event startup that took home $1.5 million in seed funding from backers like Scooter Braun, Troy Carter, Jared Leto, and Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew.

In truth, “virtual concert” doesn’t do The Live Dream justice. The blink-and-you-missed-it costume changes, the sheer volume of sets, and the expansive choreography wouldn’t make sense on the intimate stages Misterwives came up playing in their hometown of New York City. But on campus at Rochester Institute of Technology — where they rehearsed and filmed the show over multiple days before editing it down and streaming the recorded set — they had the time, space, and resources to go bigger and bolder with their production. It’s a “silver lining,” Lee says, because it wouldn’t have been possible to pull off such a grand performance if their original 2020 tour plans had panned out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8sr-AxiZwg

Moment House founder Arjun Mehta tells MTV News over the phone that terms like “livestream” or “virtual show” are “limiting” or “feel inferior.” They prefer “moments.” The startup advises artists to focus on what they can deliver digitally that they could never create in real life. “You’re not supposed to compare the two,” Mehta adds. “This is supposed to be an entirely new unit, not a replacement.”

Though much of Moment House’s funding came after the onset of COVID-19, the company was founded in late 2019 with a 10-year product vision that hopes to keep the events rolling after the pandemic ends. With the live-music industry on hold since March, artists have nonetheless kept the connection alive, first with intimate at-home performances, then eventually with scaled-up concerts in proper venues. Moment House feels like the next logical step in that evolution.

Artists using Moment House — among them Halsey, Yungblud, and Blackbear, plus a Justin Bieber New Year’s Eve performance coming up — set their own ticket prices and pocket 100 percent of that revenue, and the startup charges an additional 10 percent service fee to cover operating costs. Selling tickets, besides paying the bills, also filters out casual listeners, Mehta points out. You’re left with core fans who are often eager to find their people. Pre-recording The Live Dream meant that Lee could join Moment House’s live chat during the show and interact in real time with these “Instawives,” the title of the Instagram DM group started by fans. A Discord server soon followed.

“I thought it was going to be like a movie, and it was going to be weird,” Misterwives super fan Jireh Deng tells MTV News over the phone. “Actually, it was really fun, and I felt like I was still part of a community as I was watching it online, even though we weren’t there physically in person.”

Audiences tune in from across the globe, and if they don’t live near a tour stop, this could be their only shot to see their favorite band perform. It’s a dilemma that BTS, with their worldwide Army, were working to solve even before COVID-19. Last June, the megastars broke the Guinness World Record for most viewers for a music concert livestream on a bespoke platform. A whopping 756,000 fans logged on for their virtual performance broadcast by Kiswe, a cloud-based company founded in 2013 that offers AR and XR technologies and multi-camera perspectives, among other tools, to make at-home viewing more engaging.

“It’s like a blank canvas,” Kiswe CEO Mike Schabel says over video about stages that are intentionally designed for digital audiences instead of arenas. In the BTS set, for example, “everything was a pixel — from the top, the bottom, the sides.” When you’re surrounded by LCDs and running video beneath your feet, the possibilities become endless. During a second Kiswe livestream in October, the K-pop group employed multi-view capabilities to tell six different stories running in parallel across four stages, so fans could pick their favorite. With augmented reality, they were even able to watch and hear fans react in real time. (According to a Kiswe report, BTS was “happy to see you, even if it’s through a screen.”)

Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met — together known as the New York-based pop band AJR — are currently gearing up for their own Kiswe livestream, One Spectacular Night, airing on Saturday, December 26. They tried out drive-in shows first, and now they’re planning a “virtual concert that really blows up the idea of what a virtual concert can be,” Ryan says over video. Fans expect big spectacles at their performances; on tour last year, they did a step-by-step recreation of how they produced “Don’t Throw Out My Legos” based on the snare of The Beatles’s “Penny Lane” and the sound of Jack dropping his keys, then closed out the night with a parade of simulated drummers pulled from the light-up suits they wore onstage.

Now the trio is letting their imagination run wild and collaborating closely with Kiswe to bring their vision to life. While an in-person tour stop might have eight or so impressive feats, this show will have one for practically every song, from Jack walking in midair thanks to wire automation, plus laser and LED tricks that look like magical illusions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfm6J3HODjA

“It’s weird because we’re living in a world where this idea of the livestream and what it could be is being built as we’re doing this,” Adam says. With tours, you know how much money, how many lights, and what kind of stage you’re working with, but “there hasn’t really been a box put around what a livestream can be yet.”

Yet the number of livestreams grows every day, according to data from Bandsintown, which has been aggregating livestream music events across genres and hosting platforms since March. The website registered over 62,000 livestreams in nine months. In June, 1.9 percent of music livestreams on Bandsintown were ticketed; that skyrocketed to 50.7 percent by the end of November, with 80 percent of fans on the site willing to pay for access. Fabrice Sergent, managing partner of Bandsintown, projects that artists could “double their income” in the future if they incorporate ticketed livestreams into their traditional tour strategy to reach fans globally. Over video chat, he compares it to the evolution and profitability of physical records: “That change happened over 10 years. The switch to livestream happened over 10 months.”

Bandsintown’s heat map of livestreaming data, shown below, proves that audiences across the country are tuning in, albeit in less concentrated groups far away from major cities. Now the concert industry is finally catering to those underserved markets and, as a result, becoming more inclusive of and accessible for fans everywhere.

Courtesy: Bandsintown

“When you’re touring and the money machine is well established, you repeat the money machine. You turn that crank,” Schabel says. “Well, unfortunately the industry got decimated this year… so you have to rethink a new money machine, and this one was sort of sitting there in the wings.”

For AJR, it’s been cool to see how many fans they have in Southeast Asia and South America — places they’ve never played before — so they can consider those locations for tours down the line. Up until now, social media was the main way to connect with such audiences. Though there’s always appreciation for unscripted Instagram Live or Twitch sessions straight out of an artist’s living room, both AJR and Misterwives welcomed the creative challenge to step outside their comfort zones and build something entirely brand new for their fans.

“I feel like it’s like putting out your album and then putting out the demos or sharing your voice memos,” Lee says about sharing cozy videos of herself playing by her Christmas tree. “You can have this beautiful polished product but… seeing the inner workings of us doing it ourselves, or ‘this is what it sounded like stripped down,’ I feel like that resonates so much more, even [when] you put everything you’ve got into the bigger production stuff.”

Each form of musical storytelling works hand-in-hand with another; the large-scale livestreams that are timed down to the second complement spontaneous posts, just as they’re expected to complement in-person concerts when they return. “I do think it’s nice to pull back the curtain,” Lee continues, “and be like, we’re all the same here.”

Watch US president-elect Joe Biden sing Metallica’s ‘King Nothing’ in video mash-up

A new mash-up video that sees Joe Biden take lead vocals for Metallica‘s 1997 single ‘King Nothing’ has been released.

YouTube user Lars von Retriever, who previously fused outgoing US president Donald Trump with the likes of Iron Maiden and Megadeth, has now switched focus to the incoming president. His latest clip takes snippets from Biden’s political career and campaigning to make it seem like he’s singing Metallica frontman James Hetfield’s lines.

Retriever’s Metal Trump series saw him merge Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?’ with Trump, as well as mashing him up with Iron Maiden’s ‘Fear Of The Dark’ and Motörhead’s ‘Ace Of Spades’. He is also the creator of ‘Atlas, Laugh!’, which is a version of Metallica’s ‘Atlas, Rise!’ – comprised of the sound of Hetfield chuckling and grunting.

In other news, it’s been revealed that Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State has his own band. Antony Blinken, who was deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, is the lead singer of a band called Ablinken, with songs called ‘Lip Service’ and ‘Patience’ available on Spotify.

Earlier today (November 24) the Trump administration officially authorised the transition for Biden to become US president.

The General Services Administration have declared Biden the apparent winner of the November 3 election, and Trump has agreed to begin the official transition period.

Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris have thus far been unable to begin preparations for the presidency ahead of the January 20 inauguration due to Trump’s repeated refusal to accept defeat.

Joe Biden’s new Secretary of State has a “wonk rock” band on Spotify

Joe Biden‘s nominee for Secretary of State has his own band, it’s been revealed.

Antony Blinken, who was deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, is the lead singer of a band called Ablinken, with songs called ‘Lip Service’ and ‘Patience’ available on Spotify.

An initial listen shows Blinken leaning into laid-back rock sensibilities, although Blinken personally describes it a little differently.

For those who like wonk rock check out and follow ABlinken on Spotify. Some original songs from many years back but just recorded. https://t.co/lVO7GhkuXC

— Antony Blinken (@ABlinken) June 23, 2018

Sharing the tracks on Twitter in 2018, he wrote: “For those who like wonk rock check out and follow ABlinken on Spotify. Some original songs from many years back but just recorded.”

Delivering their own verdict on the tracks, one Twitter user wrote: “Biden’s secretary of state nominee has a band that he founded that’s based off Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

“Honestly it’s pretty good. The song Lip Service is like a weird mix of Alan Parsons and Blue Oyster Cult.”

As the below video reveals, Blinken also previously performed with Steely Dan’s Jeff ‘Skunk Baxter’ at an official government reception in 2016.

As France24 notes, Blinken spent his formative years in Paris where he played jazz and discovered rock music, quoting Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” in his high school yearbook.

The publication also notes that Blinken has previously performed in a Beatles cover band and used down time during the coronavirus pandemic to compose his own songs.

The messages from friends and colleagues that I’ve received over the past 15 hours have been humbling.

Honored to announce, officially, that I have been nominated to serve as Secretary of State. If confirmed, this is a mission I will take on with my full heart.

— Antony Blinken (@ABlinken) November 23, 2020

Accepting the nomination from Biden on Monday, he wrote on Twitter: “The messages from friends and colleagues that I’ve received over the past 15 hours have been humbling.

“Honored to announce, officially, that I have been nominated to serve as Secretary of State. If confirmed, this is a mission I will take on with my full heart.”

The nomination came hours before the Trump administration officially authorised the transition for Joe Biden to become US president.

The General Services Administration have declared Biden the apparent winner of the November 3 election, and Trump has agreed to begin the official transition period.

David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones reacts to ‘Great British Bake Off’ Aladdin Sane cake

David Bowie‘s son Duncan Jones has shared his reaction over a tribute cake to his father on The Great British Bake Off.

In the premiere episode of the current series of the Channel 4 show, the contestants were each tasked with making a bust cake in tribute to a famous celebrity.

Contestant Marc Elliott decided to bake a cake of Bowie for his Showstopper challenge, though James poked fun at the effort with a comparison to the infamously botched restoration of the Jesus Ecce Homo fresco painting in 2012.

“Just caught this episode of The Great British Baking Show……….,” the director wrote on Twitter as he shared a picture of Elliott’s cake.

Posted with love. ? pic.twitter.com/BtVxijHRxv

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) November 23, 2020

He then added a picture of the restoration with the words: “Posted with love.”

The challenge also saw contestant Dave Friday make a bust of Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge, with the musician himself responding to the moment.

Posting a picture of the cake on his Instagram account, DeLonge joked: “When I was younger, and needed the money, I did a few hundred adult films. This looks EXACTLY like me at the time. EXACTLY.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Official Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge)

The challenge also saw attempts to make cake busts of musicians Bob Marley and Freddie Mercury, as well as the likes of Sir David Attenborough, Lupita Nyong’o and Louis Theroux.

Meanwhile, last year Jones criticised plans for the new biopic about his father called Stardust, which stars Johnny Flynn.

“Pretty certain nobody has been granted music rights for ANY biopic… I would know,” he wrote on Twitter.

He added: “I’m not saying this movie is not happening. I honestly wouldn’t know. I’m saying that as it stands, this movie won’t have any of dads music in it, & I can’t imagine that changing.

“If you want to see a biopic without his music or the families blessing, that’s up to the audience.”

Tom DeLonge and Illenium share collaborative single ‘Paper Thin’

Tom DeLonge and Illenium’s collaborative single ‘Paper Thin’ has arrived.

Read More: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves

The track sees DeLonge take lead vocals on a mellow and melancholy verse, which are then distorted as it reaches a thumping EDM chorus.

“Paper Thin was really a dream project for me,” Illenium said. “I got to collaborate with one of my favourite artists ever, Tom DeLonge. I feel like it has the nostalgic pop-punk vibes but also really incorporates my sound. I think the blend sounds amazing and I’m so stoked with how this one turned out!”

The collaboration, credited to Illenium, DeLonge, and also the latter’s band Angels And Airwaves, was first announced last week along with its apocalyptic-themed artwork.

This comes after it was revealed earlier this month that DeLonge will be making his directorial debut with the film Monsters of California, which has been described as a “coming of age adventure with a science fiction twist”.

As well as directing and co-producing the film, DeLonge co-wrote its script with Ian Miller and will also be writing and performing original music for its soundtrack. The movie draws on the musician’s well-documented passion for UFOs and aliens.

Angels And Airwaves, meanwhile, released their latest single ‘All That’s Left Is Love’ in April. Proceeds from the track went to Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

Back in May, DeLonge said he would definitely play with Blink-182 again in the future but the group have got to “figure out the timing”.

Blackstarkids’s Future-Facing Nostalgia Is A Living Mood Board

By Gabriel Aikins

When it comes to how the human brain works, nostalgia is one of the most powerful forces. The movies and shows we watch, the video games we play, and the music we listen to in youth will always hold a special place in our minds, and inevitably spring back up in pop culture. Think Billie Eilish sampling The Office on When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? or Ariana Grande recreating iconic early 2000 rom-coms for the “Thank U, Next” video. Nostalgia isn’t just a backward-facing experience, though. Those memories and works of art can be used as building blocks to influence and create new experiences and new art. There are few who know this better than Kansas City’s Blackstarkids. Taking the media they loved growing up in the 2000s and combining it with their formidable songwriting and producing talent, the young musical trio of TyFaizon, The Babe Gabe, and Deiondre are creating captivating, timeless sounds at an incredible pace.

While new LP Whatever, Man – out today on Dirty Hit – is their first album on a label, it’s Blackstarkids’s third album in a little over a year, following 2019’s debut, Let’s Play Sports, (which includes album opener “MTV”) and their first 2020 album, Surf. The energy present in the trio’s nostalgic pop tracks also comes across as they speak to MTV News over Zoom, and clearly explains how they can put music out so quickly. Asked if working with a label was a big adjustment, Ty replies with a flat “no” before chuckling and explaining they already had written half the album in March before meeting and signing with Dirty Hit in April, after which the second half was finished quickly. “Honestly, I can’t say I felt a huge sense of pressure because we had already established what we were doing with the project, so it was like, OK, let’s keep going and try to make it good,” he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yb4Y0F9E6M

While Blackstarkids draw from icons throughout time, Whatever, Man draws heavily in sound and aesthetic from the late ‘90s and the first decade of the 2000s, when they were still kids (Ty is 19; The Babe Gabe and Deiondre are both 20). The album’s track titles reference Kill Bill, millennial pop stardom, and Malcolm in the Middle — “Beatrix Kiddo,” “Britney Bitch,” and “Frankie Muniz” — and features intros and outros structured like iCarly-style web shows. The group utilize mood boards and their own knowledge of each other’s tastes as close friends to figure out what they want to create, and build out from there. In this case, the emotional high they were on this spring after the release of the grungier, more subdued Surf and the bright creative future drew them back in time to the dazzling pop that dominated the early 2000s. “It just feels good. It’s really bright,” Deiondre sums up. “It’s super nostalgic, too,” Gabe chimes in. “I remember growing up in that late 2000s era, and recreating that sound felt so good. My kid self is loving what we’re doing right now.”

Their work begins conceptually: The trio explain that a project starts with an album name and tracklist, and only then do they begin writing and making the music. They’ll choose existing songs as brainstorms. “A reference song could be anything,” Ty says. “So if the reference songs are more rock-based, then the song is probably going to come out more rock based.” The final product will often sound nothing like the reference song but carry similar feeling or ideas. The mellow and riff-based “Frankie Muniz,” for example, was born from a decidedly less mellow reference track: Green Day’s “Basket Case.” This stems from their multifaceted musical backgrounds. Gabe grew up around guitars and hip-hop and was making DJ mixes before Blackstarkids, Deiondre plays guitar in addition to his production chops, and Ty has had an encyclopedic knowledge of rap since before he was 10.

Jack Kelly

Making such a wide-ranging collection of songs requires constant communication and collaboration between the three friends. They agree that calling Ty and The Babe Gabe lead songwriters and Deiondre the producer is a good general way to describe how they work, but those roles aren’t strictly defined. “There’s plenty of songs that Deiondre has written on, too. And when he does solo music, he writes it all, so he’s a songwriter too,” Ty says. He and Gabe will often write while Deiondre produces. The trio will write and perform their own raps, too. All three bring a slightly different touch to their lyrics, with a common theme of expressing clear emotion and cleverly shouting out the icons that have influenced them. Gabe name-drops Britney Spears, Fergie, and Gwen Stefani on the chorus of “Britney Bitch” as she dreams of living the pop-star life. On the same track, Deiondre shouts out Myspace while rapping about the potential material perks of stardom for he and his friends, and Ty delivers the hook with his smooth cadence.

Deiondre’s role as producer is slightly more defined, and each track on whatever, man not only has its own distinct feeling – from pop icon-inspired “Britney Bitch” to “Tangerine Love”’s rock ballad sound – but also works to tell the story of all the things the group loves. “When Ty brought up the idea of the album and just overall what each song was going to sound like or feel like in terms of story, I knew I wanted it to be a lot of guitar-based songs,” Deiondre says. He cites the trend of palm-muting guitars that was prevalent in music and movies around the turn of the century as inspiration, like on Blink-182’s Enema of the State and in action films such as Crank, and adds that the guitar-based approach allowed plenty of space for more elements, including poppier synths and an array of percussion instruments and samples, to be incorporated into the mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Jlp8XqlaY

As good as Blackstarkids already are, they’re still learning and expanding their talents on the music business side as they go. They laugh as they recall how Surf didn’t have album art until a week or two before release, a timeline Dirty Hit gently steered them away from. Whatever, Man builds on their collaborative formula and adds more refined songwriting as they find their voices and production constantly adding in new wrinkles as it gets crisper, like the nuanced and layered guitar loops on “Dead Kennedys.” “For us, when we listen to it we get to really tell what emotion we were going for. I like the fact the emotions on this album are so strong,” Ty adds. The time period-appropriate idols that fuel their nostalgic writing – Nirvana, Outkast, Prince, Smashing Pumpkins – also serve as templates for them to improve and innovate.

If their packed 2020 is any indication, Blackstarkids are well on track to fulfill that promise of greatness to themselves. There’s no limit to what Ty, The Babe Gabe, and Deiondre can do as they only grow closer and more skilled over time, just as their idols like A Tribe Called Quest and Beastie Boys evolved as they released each project. They’ve already proven to be masters of genre-blending pop and eager historians and excavators of the media they loved growing up. “I want it to be one of those things where it’s something that’s relevant for the rest of our lives,” Ty says. “Even if we don’t do it for the rest of our lives, it’s something that people always know and respect.”

Omer Fedi Is The Guitar-Pop Prodigy Behind 24kGoldn And Machine Gun Kelly

By Ethan Shanfeld

Behind today’s top hits is a 20-year-old guitar prodigy from Tel Aviv named Omer Fedi. The multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter has topped the Billboard charts and worked with pop royalty from Lil Nas X to Machine Gun Kelly. But just over four years ago, Fedi moved to Los Angeles with no connections to the industry, at a time he could barely speak English, with one singular goal: “I wanna make my friends the biggest artists in the world,” he tells MTV News, casually pacing around his Bel Air home.

Fedi started playing drums before he could walk. His dad was one of the most accomplished and well-respected drummers in Israel, introducing Fedi to music at a very young age. Inspired by Drake Bell from the mid-aughts Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh, Fedi decided to pick up the guitar at age 10. After wandering into a nearby CD store and listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, he knew that music was the only way forward. Later, Fedi embraced jazz from listening to Steely Dan. He was enthralled by the incorporation of sophisticated chords and distorted riffs in pop music.

At 16, Fedi moved to the states when his dad sought to expand musical opportunities for himself and his son. Fedi enrolled at Calabasas High School and immediately joined the jazz ensemble, where his teachers were astounded by his technical chops. “He was so far ahead of everyone else in terms of his fluency on the instrument and his harmonic ability,” says Tod Cooper, a jazz clinician who volunteered at the school. “Nothing got in his way. He could speak through the instrument.”

Jay Bills

Fedi was a guitar virtuoso; his extraordinary talent would fill school auditoriums for shows normally only attended by performers’ parents. Competing as a high school senior at the 2018 Reno Jazz Festival, Fedi won the single “Outstanding Performer” award in a field of over 9,000 young musicians. The summer after sophomore year, Fedi landed a gig playing guitar at a nearby church, where he met other musicians who invited him to jam sessions. About a year later, one of Fedi’s friends called him with an opportunity to meet Sam Hook, a hit songwriter who was looking to collaborate with a guitar player.

“I had never produced or written a song, but we just started writing together, and soon I’d go to his house every day after school,” Fedi says. Eventually, the pair wrote Ella Mai’s “Naked,” a smooth R&B ballad driven by Fedi’s soulful plucking.

Fedi started spending mornings in classrooms and afternoons at Glenwood Place Recording Studios in Burbank, California. After graduating high school, Fedi linked up with English alt-pop star Yungblud. During one of their sessions, Fedi met former Interscope executive Conor Ambrose, who would later become his manager. “He came in wearing a pink beanie and just sat in the corner of the room,” Ambrose says. “He started playing guitar and everyone literally stopped in their tracks, like this is easily the most talented guitarist we’ve ever seen.”

Later that year, a friend from high school invited Fedi to a USC party. There, he met Golden Landis Von Jones, aka 24kGoldn, then a student trying to make it big as a rapper. They exchanged phone numbers and booked a studio session a week later. Fedi and Goldn’s creative partnership started with writing the emo-influenced Iann Dior song, “18.” They continued making music together, putting out 24kGoldn singles like the moody “Lot to Lose” and seductive “Games on Your Phone.” Both songs are built around Fedi’s carefully crafted guitar melodies.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD0EOVjjtrx/

“We always start from scratch,” Fedi says. “Goldn writes the lyrics — he’s one of the fastest writers of all time — and then we write the music and structure it together.” Fedi helped push Goldn to incorporate rock into his style with “City of Angels,” which pairs an angsty electric guitar progression with a steady drum machine. The song blew up on TikTok and dominated alternative radio for months. The duo continued collaborating on Goldn’s debut EP, Dropped Outta College, and are currently working on the artist’s first studio album, El Dorado.

In late 2019, Fedi performed as a touring guitarist during Goldn’s opening run with Landon Cube, playing a handful of shows across the country. However, when Goldn’s 2020 headline tour plans were thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic, he and Fedi rented an Airbnb in Hollywood to grind out new songs. Though it was on a night off at Dior’s place when they wrote the biggest hit of their careers so far — by accident.

“We didn’t even think about making music,” Fedi says. While Goldn and Dior played Call of Duty, Fedi and producer KBeaZy spontaneously started making beats. “I didn’t even have my guitars, so I took Iann’s guitar, plugged it into the computer, and the first thing I played was the ‘Mood’ guitar riff.” Within five minutes, Fedi and KBeaZy laid down a beat.

“Then Goldn’s sitting on the couch and starts singing, ‘Why you always in a mood?’” Fedi says. “He probably didn’t even know he was singing because he was so focused on the game."

Fedi heard something in Goldn’s subconscious hook and pleaded with him to pause the game, get off the couch, and record it. “I was like, ‘Goldn, I won’t be your friend if you won’t record this,’” Fedi says.

The song came together like magic and, after its release in July, almost immediately became a smash hit. As of this writing, “Mood” has spent over nine weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, hitting No. 1 on October 19. It has over 300 million Spotify streams and its music video has over 42 million views on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/GrAchTdepsU

“Mood” is grounded by a shuffling hi-hat beat and elevated by a catchy chorus and crooning verses, but the song is built around its euphoric guitar riff. It’s easy to understand why Fedi’s favorite band is Red Hot Chili Peppers: Like John Frusciante, he gives the guitar a distinct voice on everything he writes, so that after just a few notes, songs like “Mood” and “City of Angels” are immediately recognizable. “People know that when they work with me, it’s going to be a guitar-based song,” Fedi says. “Nothing can compete with the feeling of live guitar.”

One of Fedi’s goals is to bring the guitar back to the forefront of pop music. His signature cross-genre sound, evident on songs like The Kid Laroi’s “Go,” seamlessly blends guitar with hip-hop beats. The musician’s most recent creative endeavor was working on Machine Gun Kelly’s No. 1 album, Tickets To My Downfall, full of nostalgic pop-punk bangers. Fedi produced nine tracks on the deluxe album alongside Blink 182’s Travis Barker, one of his idols.

Recently, Fedi has been hanging out at Diplo’s house, making music with Dominic Fike, and playing jazz live from Charlie Puth’s Instagram. He’s also been working on Lil Nas X’s debut album and an exciting remix of “Mood,” coming out within the month. Last November, Fedi was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Ella Mai’s album. The first song he ever wrote was considered for music’s highest honor. But for a kid whose dream is to become “the best of all time,” this is only the beginning.

“I’m really happy and excited about everything that’s happening right now,” Fedi says. “But I try to keep my head down and just make good music.” In many ways, Fedi is the architect behind pop’s new sound. With a keen ear for crafting hooks and the technical training to execute them, no one is better suited to soundtrack the future.

Blackpink’s The Album Has A Song For Every Mood

By Natasha Mulenga

Blackpink’s The Album has finally arrived, and it feels like a long time coming. Though they’re the most-followed K-pop girl group on Instagram, the first Korean girl group to perform at Coachella, and the group whose music video for “How You Like That” garnered a record-breaking 86.3 million views in its first day, it’s hard to believe that The Album’s eight tracks make up the quartet’s first full-length Korean-language album since they debuted in 2016.

But since they dropped their 2018 Japanese-language album Blackpink in Your Area and teamed up with Lady Gaga on the dance-pop “Sour Candy” earlier this year, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa have plotted a course for this very moment. The Album shines. Mixing genres is a natural occurrence in K-pop, so it comes as no surprise that Blackpink’s latest project — out today (October 2) — draws from EDM, trap, and hip-hop, with a drizzle of South Asian beats and a dollop of pop rock. The only two collaborations are extremely high-profile; Selena Gomez brings the sweetness on “Ice Cream,” and Cardi B — whose “Bardipink in your area” tweet set a tone of excitement earlier this week — lets loose on “Bet You Wanna.”

Let there be no doubt: This is very much a confident pop album that Blinks will be satisfied with. And it’s got a song for every mood. Below, we break down how The Album can soundtrack your life.

Tom DeLonge responds to ‘Great British Bake Off’ cake shaped like his face

The Great British Bake Off returned last night, and it featured the unlikeliest of sights – Tom DeLonge immortalised as a cake.

Read more: Tom DeLonge: the hardest working UFOlogist in pop-punk on his new album, films, shows, comics, books and cache of declassified UFO videos

On the first episode of Season 11, contestants were asked to kick off the showstopper challenge by creating a cake in the form of a 3D bust of their hero.

Step forward, Dave from Hampshire, who decided to create his ‘Three Flavours of DeLonge’ cake – which consisted of a strawberry and mint flavoured cake with chocolate buttercream.

Responding on Instagram, Delonge posted a picture of the cake with the caption: “When I was younger, and needed the money, I did a few hundred adult films. This looks EXACTLY like me at the time. EXACTLY.”

Adding the hashtag “CAKE”, you can see the Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves musician’s post below.

View this post on Instagram

When I was younger, and needed the money, I did a few hundred adult films. This looks EXACTLY like me at the time. EXACTLY. #Cake

A post shared by Official Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge) on Sep 22, 2020 at 8:15pm PDT

While the cake received decidedly mixed reviews from the judges, it received a wilder reaction online – with fans seemingly struggling to take in the resemblance of Delonge.

One user wrote: “Seeing Tom DeLonge in terrifying cake form on national television is about as 2020 as it gets.”

Another said: “No one warned us that the final harbinger of the end times would be the Tom Delonge cake.”

No one warned us that the final harbinger of the end times would be the Tom Delonge cake

— Doombrarian (@Doombrarian) September 22, 2020

Therapist: The Tom Delonge cake drawing isn’t real, it can’t hurt you

The Tom Delonge cake drawing: #GBBO pic.twitter.com/F3gore0uQj

— Claire Murgatroyd (@clairemurgg) September 22, 2020

WHERE ARE YOU

AND IM SO SOGGY pic.twitter.com/OLc0OqE5LW

— Dom Peppiatt (@Dom_Pepin) September 22, 2020

[tom delonge voice] in the car i just can’t wait, to pick you up on our very first cake #GBBO pic.twitter.com/YT6Dw26bZC

— doomslayer gf (@TECHNOlR) September 22, 2020

But amid the disbelief, there was room for a few puns too.

“Dave’s making a cake of Tom Delonge from Blink 182. He’s using sprinkles and hundreds and thousands and desiccated coconut. In other words – all the small things,” wrote Innocent Drinks.

Another, playing on the lyrics of ‘What’s My Age Again’, wrote: “in the car i just can’t wait, to pick you up on our very first cake.”

DeLonge wasn’t the only musical hero to be immortalised on the show. Another contestant opted to create a Bob Marley cake – but it ended up with painful comparisons to The Mighty Boosh‘s Old Gregg.

.@noelfielding11
That cake wasn't Bob Marley. #gbbo #gbbo2020 pic.twitter.com/OfwF5hMRB7

— The Badger (@translatanator) September 22, 2020

therapist: the david bowie cake from bake off isn't real. he can't hurt you

the david bowie cake from bake off: pic.twitter.com/LZtNS2pZwn

— Jack (@jack_thelad) September 22, 2020

Just when 2020 couldn’t get any stranger, we’re watching cakes being made of Sir David Attenborough, Lupita Nyong’o, Louis Theroux, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Freddie Mercury, Miss Lou, Charles Darwin, Sir Chris Hoy, Marie Antoinette, Bill Bryson & Tom DeLonge from Blink 182. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/31UmqiEf7X

— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 22, 2020

In other Tom DeLonge news, the former Blink-182 guitarist suggested last week that aliens may have been present at the birth of Jesus.

In a new interview with The Guardian, DeLonge claimed that there is evidence to support his belief that aliens have been around since the birth of civilisation – and suggested that the Star of Bethlehem could have been an alien craft.

Jimmy Eat World and Thrice confirmed as headliners for 2000 Trees festival in 2021

Jimmy Eat World and Thrice have been confirmed to appear as headliners at next year’s 2000 Trees festival.

Read More: Jimmy Eat World tell us about conquering doubt for new album ‘Surviving’

Both acts were set to appear at the 2020 event along with AFI before it was postponed in April due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve tried for as long as possible to stay optimistic and keep the dream alive, but unfortunately we’ve been forced to take the incredibly tough decision to postpone 2000trees until July 8-11, 2021,” a statement from organisers read at the time. “After 13 years, we really can’t comprehend a summer without 2000trees, and we’re truly gutted.”

Jimmy Eat World will headline the first night on July 8 and Thrice on July 9 at Upcote Farm in Cheltenham. A third headliner for the 2021 event is yet to be announced.

For more information on tickets for 2021, head to the festival’s official website here.

Jimmy Eat World and Enter Shikari were among a host of acts that featured as part of a virtual replacement for the 2000 Trees Festival this year.

‘2000 Screens’, featured special live performances, podcasts and archival performances, streamed via the festival’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins recently announced a new podcast series called Pass-Through Frequencies.

Hosted by Fender Guitars, the show sees Adkins delve into the craft of songwriting and the creative process through in-depth conversations with various special guests including Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Steve Aoki, Death Cab For Cutie‘s Ben Gibbard, Tegan Quinn, Fun’s Nate Reuss, Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional and David Bazan.

Legendary London rock bar The Crobar is closing its doors

Legendary London rock bar The Crobar is closing its doors due to issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, it has been announced.

The bar opened in Soho in 2001 and was loved by bands and music fans alike, with Dave Grohl a frequent visitor who hired out the space to host a Foo Fighters’ Wembley Stadium after-party there in 2008.

The bar’s owners made the announcement on Facebook earlier today (September 20), confirming that The Crobar would be “unable to re-open at its current location”.

“If the insurance companies had paid out, we could have paid the rent and the staff’s wages and survived,” they wrote. “If the landlords had given us a rent discount or holiday, we could have survived. Sadly, our idiot government did not make either of them do what’s right, and now the bar and music industries are in tatters.”

They continued to note that The Crobar was not the only space affected, but that “years and years of hard work by pub, bar and venue owners across the country have been destroyed in the blink of an eye”.

The owners continued to say that, while the bar would not re-open in its current location, they planned to re-open a new Crobar with both a bar and a live music venue. “It will require crowd funding and I suspect it will be a year or so before opening will be viable, but fuck the greedy insurance companies, fuck the greedy short sighted landlords and fuck our brainless government,” they wrote. “We will be back!”

Other artists who visited Crobar over the years include Slash, Alice Cooper, Slayer’s Kerry King, Gwar, and pop stars Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

In July, the UK government announced a £2.25million fund to help grassroots venues through the coronavirus pandemic. The first 135 recipients were announced in August when the fund was also increased to £3.36million.

Machine Gun Kelly shares ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ cover shoot video

Machine Gun Kelly has shared a behind-the-scenes video for the cover shoot for his upcoming new album ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ – you can watch it below.

Read more: From Machine Gun Kelly to Lil Uzi Vert, rap-rock is back. And this time, it doesn’t suck

The rapper, whose real name is Colson Baker, was forced to change the artwork for his new album after fans pointed out that it appeared to reference a photograph by Sen Mitsuji – and it emerged that this hadn’t been approved.

“Found out that the album cover I released was essentially copied from a photo we do not own,” MGK tweeted earlier this month. “I’m in the process of replacing it right now.”

Yesterday (September 18), Kelz shared a behind-the-scenes video that showed how he shot the new artwork for the album. “how we ended up with a new album cover,” he captioned the clip.

At the beginning of the video, MGK is captured finding out that he has to change the album’s cover art after signing 13,000 of the original version.

View this post on Instagram

#TicketsToMyDownfall 9.25.2020

A post shared by the Blonde Don (@machinegunkelly) on Sep 18, 2020 at 8:09am PDT

‘Tickets To My Downfall’ is due out September 25.

Earlier this week, Machine Gun Kelly revealed that he’s recorded three new songs with Yungblud which he’s hoping to release later this year.

The pair teamed up last summer for their joint single ‘I Think I’m Okay’ alongside Blink 182’s Travis Barker, and performed the track live together at Reading Festival 2019.

Meanwhile, Machine Gun Kelly has spoken about Kurt Cobain’s influence on him, saying the Nirvana frontman resonated with him as a teenager.

“Kurt didn’t give a fuck how he sounded, he gave a fuck how he felt,” Kelz said. “He was like, ‘Dude, my stomach hurts today. I feel like shit. I hate this song that you all love so much. I’m gonna play it terribly. I’m not even gonna sing the right lyrics to this shit. Fuck you!”

Listen to Best Coast’s surprise new live EP, ‘Live At World Cafe’

Best Coast have shared a surprise new live EP – listen to ‘Live At World Cafe’ in full below.

Read more: Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino: “I questioned whether I would ever be able to make music again”

The EP was recorded at a show the band played in early 2020 at the titular World Cafe in Philadelphia.

“Today we share with you a new live EP from a show we played at World Cafe in Philadelphia in early 2020 before ‘Always Tomorrow’ came out,” the band said of the new EP in a statement.

Listen to ‘Live At World Cafe’ in full below.

The live album was recorded just prior to the release of Best Coast’s new album ‘Always Tomorrow’, and sees them previewing a host of the album’s tracks.

Reviewing the new album, NME‘s Charlotte Krol wrote: “‘Always Tomorrow’ boasts a handful of punchy, promising songs but it’s frustratingly unambitious in scope. When the album treads old ground, the ideas are stale. Hopefully a bigger rejuvenation is on the horizon.”

Last month, Best Coast shared a new, LGBTQ-inclusive version of their 2020 hit ‘Boyfriend’. The new version of the song, which features different pronouns, sees Cosentino sing: “I wish he was my boyfriend/ I wish she was my girlfriend/ I’d love them til the very end/ But instead they’re just a friend/ I wish he was my boyfriend.”

Best Coast recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their debut album ‘Crazy For You’, which features ‘Boyfriend’ as its opening track, with a special live-streamed concert.

The gig saw the band perform the album in full, joined by guests including Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus, Paramore‘s Hayley Williams and Chvrches‘ Lauren Mayberry.

Doja Cat Says Her New Album Integrates Dancehall, Afrobeat, Funk, House, And More

When Doja Cat made her VMA debut last night (August 30), she went full pink. Her first-ever performance on the awards-show stage found the artist bathed in hot fuchsia as she delivered her hits "Say So" and "Like That," songs that span nu-disco and pop-rap and are just a sample of the styles she keeps in her toolbox. Her 2019 album Hot Pink, for example, layered a rusty Blink-182 guitar arpeggio over a trap-inspired beat, and by the closer, she was diving into the technicolor realm of sparkly R&B.

Doja had another big moment during the show: when she took the stage to accept the PUSH Best New Artist award and thanked her fans as well as her mom, cementing her place as a unique talent to continue watching. But what could possibly be next for her as she plans her next musical move?

"I'm always kind of winging it," she told MTV News correspondent Dometi Pongo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agiESJ0ITwI

"I have my album coming — can't say when. I really want to make it a surprise. I don't want to say too much," Doja said, carefully. But though she couldn't reveal any specifics, she said the new album's energy in grounded in how each new song has its own "personality." "It's not gonna be perfectly consistent — I've never been, anyway. But we have some dancehall stuff on there, some Afrobeat stuff, some funk, house. I'm trying to cover all bases."

While she waits to release it — and while we wait to hear what her base coverage might sound like — Doja's got her PUSH Best New Artist trophy to enjoy, though she told MTV News the mere shock of winning made her first thing she was being fooled. "I thought it was a sick prank!" she said. "No, I was really, really excited to find that out and I didn't know how to try to hold myself back from tears. I usually say that I don't care about this kind of thing, but I actually do. I now know that I do care about getting this award, a lot."

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

"It means that there are people out there who enjoy my music and they care about me, like they care about the craft," she continued. "They care about what I'm doing. That's amazing for me because I just enjoy doing it, period. If people didn't like it, I'd probably still be doing it, but it's really cool that people support it."

In addition to making her VMA stage debut, Doja Cat took home PUSH Best New Artist and also was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Direction. Find out all the night's winners right here.

Boiler Room shares extensive archive of mixes on Apple Music

Boiler Room fans are now able to access an extensive archive of past mixes via Apple Music, thanks to the two platforms striking a new deal.

Read More: Charli XCX Los Angeles Boiler Room set is all too fitting for 2020

The initiative was announced yesterday (August 18) as Apple revealed plans to replace Beats 1 – which launched in 2015 – with three separate channels: Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country.

“Boiler Room is now available to Apple Music subscribers worldwide,” a statement reads. “Listeners can now access a catalogue of over 200 of the most influential recordings from Boiler Room’s ten-year history.”

The post goes on to confirm that royalties will go directly to the DJs, while the artists whose music is featured in the set will also receive compensation.

You can see that tweet below:

A new initiative with @applemusic.⁠
⁠Read more: https://t.co/biFOI3AOiQ pic.twitter.com/HXEbyHuxDi

— BOILER ROOM (@boilerroomtv) August 18, 2020

Available through the team-up is Boiler Room’s lockdown series Streaming From Isolation, classic sets such as Honey Dijon at Sugar Mountain and Ben Klock from the first Boiler Room space in Berlin, and many more.

According to Crack Magazine, the Apple Music 1 station will also play host to a new weekly show, Boiler Room Radio. The program will reportedly contain in-depth interviews and mixes from featured artists.

Yesterday, it was revealed that the likes of Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus, Snoop Dogg and Alanis Morissette have bagged their own slots on Apple Music Hits.

Since its inception, Beats 1 – now known as Apple Music 1 – has launched special shows from the likes of Elton John, Billie Eilish, Haim and Frank Ocean. Most recently, Lady Gaga debuted her weekly Gaga Radio program on the station.

Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music, Beats, and International Content, said that the new Apple Music stations will offer “an unparalleled global platform for artists across all genres to talk about, create, and share music with their fans, and this is just the beginning.”

Mark Hoppus, Snoop Dogg and more to get their own Apple Music radio shows

Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus, Snoop Dogg and more are set to present their own radio shows on Apple Music, it has been announced.

The news came today (August 18) as part of the streaming platform’s plans to expand, which will see Beats 1 – launched in 2015 – being replaced by three separate channels: Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country.

The Hits station will feature various exclusive shows from a wide range of artists, with Hoppus and Snoop joining the likes of Alanis Morissette, Meghan Trainor, Shania Twain, Backstreet Boys and Huey Lewis in bagging their own programs.

Snoop Dogg CREDIT: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

He added: “We will continue to invest in live radio and create opportunities for listeners around the world to connect with the music they love.”

Further details on specific shows have not yet been revealed.

Since its inception, Beats 1 – now known as Apple Music 1 – has played host to shows from the likes of Elton John, Billie Eilish, Haim, Frank Ocean and more. Most recently, Lady Gaga launched her weekly Gaga Radio program on the station.

Meanwhile, Blink-182 have shared a timely new single called ‘Quarantine’. It is set to feature on the band’s forthcoming new EP, which drummer Travis Barker hopes will “be out by the end of summer”.

Ho99o9 share furious new mixtape ‘BLURR’

Ho99o9 have shared a new mixtape – listen to ‘BLURR’ below.

The New Jersey-based punks’ new release comes complete with a full-length visual accompaniment.

Read more: Noise-punk masters Ho99o9: “The good thing with us is that we don’t give a fuck”

The duo describe the new mixtape as containing “tunes from the Horror workshop catalog, a playlist consisted of archived, unreleased & unavailable songs previously recorded from early years on & present”.

Listen and watch ‘BLURR’ and see its tracklisting below.

01 Beneath The Earth’s Crust
02 Lex Luger
03 Flesh ‘N Blood (feat. N8NOFACE)
04 Hydro Break
05 Sleep Paralysis
06 Hardcore
07 Dog Shit
08 Movie Night (feat. Pink Siifu)
09 Navigate
10 Firefly Family (feat. Mike IX)

The new mixtape follows the band recently sharing a new animated video for their recent single ‘Pigs Want Me Dead’, which arrived in the wake of George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter protests.

The clip, which was created by producer, director of photography and editor Tyler Bradberry, sees two black protagonists in a shoot out with an army of police in the style of a video game.

Ho99o9 also recently linked up with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker to play a virtual music festival called Black Power Live.

Speaking to NME back in 2018, Ho99o9 said: “The good thing with us is that we don’t give a fuck. You are either without us or you’re against us.”

BLACKPINK break multiple world records with ‘How You Like That’ video

BLACKPINK have broken a number of Guinness World Records with the video for their recent single ‘How You Like That’.

The K-Pop outfit released the track last week (June 26), following on from their Lady Gaga collaboration ‘Sour Candy’ in May.

Read More: K-Pop powerhouses Blackpink are the antidote to everyman pop stars – and they’re gonna conquer all

As Billboard reports, the song’s official video registered 86.3 million views upon its release.

These figures were high enough to break records for the most-viewed YouTube clip in 24 hours, the most-viewed music video on the platform in 24 hours, and the most-viewed music video by a K-Pop act in 24 hours. At the time of writing, the clip has amassed over 178 million hits overall.

Congratulations to BLACKPINK @ygofficialblink who've made @YouTube history with a multiple record titles following the release of #HowYouLikeThat https://t.co/26G94FSrRX

— GuinnessWorldRecords (@GWR) June 30, 2020

Sharing the news on Twitter, Guinness World Records said: “Congratulations to BLACKPINK @ygofficialblink who’ve made @YouTube history with multiple record titles following the release of #HowYouLikeThat.” You can see that post above.

BTS’ ‘Boy With Luv’, a collaborative track with Halsey, was the previous record holder of those categories. The current hit count for this video is over 51 million.

BLACKPINK previously held the most-viewed YouTube video in 24 hours title in 2019 with ‘Kill This Love’. Other past holders include Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ (55.4 million views) and Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ (43.2 million views).

Last year BLACKPINK became the first K-pop band to score a billion YouTube views on a single song. They hit the milestone with their music video for ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’, which landed on the platform last June.

Angels & Airwaves share atmospheric video for new single ‘All That’s Left Is Love’

Angels & Airwaves have shared a new video for their recent single ‘All That’s Left Is Love’ – watch it below.

Read more: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves

The latest track from Tom DeLonge’s band came out in April, with all proceeds going to Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

“We never appreciate the connection we have with others until it’s gone,” DeLonge says of the new video, “and although we may not be able to change this first part of this story, we can for sure change the ending.”

Watch the video for ‘All That’s Left Is Love’ below:

Announcing the song back in April, and revealing their decision to donate proceeds from the track to a coronavirus relief fund, the band said: “Friends, as we are all stuck at home and watching these unfortunate world events unfold, we couldn’t help but notice little glimmers of light showing across the globe – revealing the positive side of humanity that sometimes gets lost in our day-to-day lives

“That, ultimately, is what this band has been about since day one: hope. With all of that in mind, we decided to channel our feelings into a song – of which all proceeds will go to benefit Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.”

Meanwhile, Tom DeLonge has said that he intends to play with Blink-182 again in the future. DeLonge left the band in 2015, replaced by Alkaline Trio‘s Matt Skiba.

“Everyone wants to know, ‘Are you guys gonna play again?'” DeLonge said. “Yeah, of course we are. We just gotta figure out the timing, how it works for everybody.”

Download booker Andy Copping on who could headline future festivals

Download booker Andy Copping has discussed potential future headliners for the festival in a new interview.

Read more: Live after lockdown: venues on the idea of gigs with social distancing

The Donnington three-dayer, which was due to take place between June 12-14, was cancelled back in March due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Kiss, Iron Maiden and System Of A Down were set to headline the 2020 edition.

With the next Download Festival now confirmed for June 4-6, 2021, Copping has thrown a number of acts into the ring as possible first-time bill-toppers.

Asked by Kerrang! who he thought could rise to the occasion, he replied: “That’s quite easy. Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, Parkway Drive, Five Finger Death Punch.

“Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Twenty One Pilots… We haven’t had Foo Fighters, Blink-182 or Green Day headline Download.

As for “the new and contemporary acts”, Copping cited Frank Carter as a potential Download headliner. “Just seeing Frank’s rise over the years has been incredible,” he said.

“Ghost without question will be a headliner in future years.”

Copping went on to say that a Download Festival headliner in around five years’ time may not even exist yet, “such is the trajectory of acts and the way the business is sometimes.”

However, he explained that rising artists would need the support of “everyone in the industry” in order to reach the top of the poster. “It’s not just festival promoters, it’s yourselves in the media, the labels, and without doubt the fans – you’ve got to get behind these acts,” he said.

Speaking again with the outlet, Copping explained that he believed socially distanced gigs would be “virtually impossible” in the context of rock music.

“Rock gigs are all about everybody getting together – the community, the closeness – and not just the closeness of the fans,” he reasoned, “but the closeness of getting right next to the stage and close to the act. Social distancing is going to be virtually impossible for rock shows.”

Earlier this month, Download hosted a virtual festival over what would have been their 2020 festival weekend. ‘Download TV’ broadcasted 20 hours of classic sets from past events, including Biffy Clyro‘s 2017 headline appearance.

Post Malone Builds Insane Bud Light Wizard Staff

Post Malone showed off his and his friends’ impressive wizard staff, a tall towering sword made of taped-together beer cans.

Post Malone hit the ‘gram on Tuesday (May 27th) night to exhibit the results of his and his friends’ wizard staff, a tall sword of sorts made of taped-together beer cans. It’s no secret that Posty is a big fan of the brews, especially Bud Light. He’s challenged tons of other celebrities to beer pong tournaments in the past, and has even been known to drink beer out of his shoe while performing onstage. That’s why it hardly comes as a surprise that he’s been consuming copious amounts of brews with his bros in quarantine, but when he stacks the empty cans on top of one another like this, it looks pretty unreal.

In the photo, a camouflaged Posty poses next to the ceiling-high wizard staff, which was constructed using Bud Light cans, of course. He’s surrounded by his bassist Brian Lee, guitarist Nick Mac, tour photographer Adam DeGross, and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. The towering structure appears to be made up of approximately 35 or so cans, which, including the man who snapped the photo, Clemente Ruiz, is bout 7 beers each, although they may have just hit their height limit.

Rich Fury/Getty Images for Bud Light

Despite his affinity for beer, Post recently dipped his toe in the wine world by launching his own French rosé called Maison No. 9. He announced the partnership with Global Brand Equities earlier this month, stating, “Rosé is for when you want to get a little fancy. It’s a nice switch up and I have been thinking about doing my own wine for a while.”

Kendall Jenner Ordered To Pay $90K In Fyre Festival Lawsuit

Kendall Jenner is but one of many celebrities who have been named in lawsuits after they were paid to perform at or promote the Fyre Festival.

The effects of the infamous 2017 Fyre Festival are still being felt, and for some celebrities, it’s hitting their bank accounts. Billy McFarland, the now incarcerated producer of the supposed luxury festival, charmed his way into the pockets of investors. He paid a host of social media influencers, musician, and cleebrities to perform at or post about Fyre Festival, but in the end, it was all a disastrous scam.

Frederick M. Brown / Stringer / Getty Images

Back in August 2019, trustee Gregory Messer issued a complaint to bankruptcy courts to seek a return on monies paid out to performers, agents, and anyone else who made money from the fraudulent event. Rae Sremmurd, Blink-182, Migos, Lil Yachty, Pusha T, and Kendall Jenner are just a few names who were sued.

Jenner shared posts to her social media pages promoting the event, including mentioning G.O.O.D. Music since her brother-in-law Kanye West reportedly scheduled to hit the Fyre Festival stage. In the lawsuit against her, it’s asserted that she received upwards of $275K for her involvement in promoting the outdoor concert, but she’s only been ordered by a judge to repay $90K. So, in the end, she still made a profit.

Last year, The New York Times asked Kendall about her involvement with Fyre Festival and why she supported the event. “You get reached out to by people to, whether it be to promote or help or whatever, and you never know how these things are going to turn out, sometimes it’s a risk.” She added. “I definitely do as much research as I can, but sometimes there isn’t much research you can do because it’s a starting brand and you kind of have to have faith in it and hope it will work out the way people say it will.”

[]

On Kailee Morgue’s Here In Your Bedroom, Live Drums Made All The Difference

It might be springtime, but Kailee Morgue just wants to go to Halloween Town.

The spooky shop in Burbank, California is home to props, accessories, masks, and all things ghoulish, and for Morgue — a 21-year-old rising artist whose sound blends sharp punk influences with a cloudy contemporary pop sound — it's all she can think about while self-isolating in the new, sparsely decorated apartment she moved into just before she had to hunker down. "They have the masks from Halloween III that are like $500, but I just want them. I'm like, 'Yes! I will drop $500 for those masks!'" she told MTV News recently.

As she crouched on the floor of her new place and took a recent Zoom call, she discussed her new EP, Here in Your Bedroom, a six-song collection with nary a creepy tune in the bunch. Instead, it's packed with live drums, chunky power chords, and a sparking cherry-bomb "manic anthem" called "This Is Why I'm Hot" — no relation to the Mims classic. Though she'd seen success with 2018's subterranean "Medusa" and the downbeat kiss-off "F**k U," Morgue's new EP allowed her to go deeper into the more rollicking music that raised her, as well as the diaristic storytelling she ripped straight out of her own life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IezhalyIBc

"If it was a song like 'Medusa,' like, who cares if somebody helped me co-write that? They didn't, but if they did, it's so much a story about something that didn't happen to me that it could be cool to bounce those ideas [off of someone else]," she said. "But with something that is so personal, I wouldn't want to get that [help]. So I just really wanted to make that clear."

That's why she tweeted, when the EP dropped, "The credits on certain platforms might say otherwise but I wrote the entire EP on my own besides a co-write on 'Tied Up' and I am fucking PROUD of this project." In order to get to that place of pride, Morgue worked with producer Cameron Hale on matching the right instrumentals to her words. That included plenty of live drums, a staple of the slick punk-inspired bands like Blink-182, Paramore, and No Doubt she'd grown up on. They're the gunpowder on "This Is Why I'm Hot" and fellow barnburner "Wisconsin Ave" that makes them really smoke.

"I even remember when I sent ['Wisconsin Ave'] to my A&R and my manager, and they were like, 'Live drums? OK...' But I told the producer, 'I want this to sound like a band. I want it to sound full,'" Morgue said. "Because I had just gone on a tour and I was touring with a band — two bands, actually — and I was just like, 'I'm playing with one drummer and a backing track and I really want it to be bigger than that.'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq1p_6bnutc

"Wisconsin Ave" sounds a little like Lorde's "Ribs" given the Warped Tour treatment. It's so endearing because of the knocking percussion that, by the time it climaxes in a cyclone of post-punk energy, provides the perfect rigid counterpoint for Morgue's floating vocals. The trick also recently made songs like Halsey's "3am" and Broods's "Peach" similarly leap out from headphones; it's true of the chasmic pounds on Morgue's opener "Still" and the Eric Valentine-style road-flattened cracks that run through "This Is Why I'm Hot."

But that's only one sonic element of Here in Your Bedroom, the EP that takes its title from a Goldfinger song. Single "Knew You" distills that urgency into a subtler powder, "Tied Up" flaunts Morgue's nocturnal and jazzy side, and shiny gem "Dying to Live" is pure wiggly dance-pop. "We made it from scratch in a few hours, and that song was definitely not what I thought it would be," she said. "Having an '80s dance track that I'm referencing, dancing with myself, is a very random thing. But I think it's more sonically that I was like, 'Oh I didn't know I'd go there.'"

Here in Your Bedroom (which dropped April 24) is unafraid to explore new terrain, which makes sense for Morgue, who recorded and burned her first-ever CD of music when she was 11. She still has it, along with two others, but "nobody sees them." ("It's there for sentimental purposes," she said.) Around age 8, she started experimenting with songwriting by singing new words over melodies by radio hits from artists like Kelly Clarkson. Thirteen years later, she's got her own melodies, though she appreciates the idea of not thinking too hard about songs as she's making them — something she learned from loving Blink-182.

https://twitter.com/morguemami/status/1255972101967601664

"I like the idea of writing things that don't need to be thought about that much because I think that a lot of times, you can get stuck in your head and think, 'This has to mean something, and I'm being too hard on myself,'" she said. "So kind of wandering off and doing that a little bit made me realize I can actually integrate this into the music that I make if I just tweak it a little bit."

Another thing she's integrated into her music is her pure love of the Halloween movie franchise. "I made way more songs that sound like 'This Is Why I'm Hot.' They just didn't come out," she said, mentioning the slasher cut that she may tease via an Instagram snippet in the future. Try to hear it, though, in your head: a two-minute, punky lightning bolt about the fictional mass murders of Michael Myers, booming with big drums and buzzsaw riffs. Morgue might not even need those $500 masks.

Post Malone Teases New Album During Nirvana Tribute Concert

Post Malone gave fans an update on his upcoming album during his live streamed Nirvana tribute concert to raise money for coronavirus relief.

Post Malone can’t wait for you to hear his new album, but in the meantime, you can watch him emulate the legacy of Kurt Cobain in a floral dress while he performs some of Nirvana’s greatest hits. On Friday night, the singer/rapper was joined by bassist Brian Lee, guitairist Nick Mack, and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker to pay tribute to the iconic 90s grunge band over live stream while raising money for the World Health Organization (WHO)’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Within five minutes of Posty going live, he raked in almost 200,000 viewers, who watched him perform songs like “Come as You Are,” “In Bloom,” “Lithium” and “Heart-Shaped Box.”

Noam Galai/Getty Images

At one point during the 75-minute set, Posty discussed the status of his upcoming album. “I’m trying to put it out as soon as I f*cking can,” he promised. “I’m really proud of the music that we’re making.” While his musical style has certainly leaned more towards singing rather than rapping over the past few years, Posty acknowledged during the live stream that “everybody knows that I can’t sing for sh*t” after he insisted that he was using “no autotune at all” on his voice during the performance. Posty also made sure to take a moment to acknowledge that the late Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love, who had given Posty her blessing for the tribute concert, and Nirvana’s bassist, Kurt Novoselic, had tuned into the live stream, which you can watch in full below:

Ice Cube Reacts To 25 Years Of "Friday"

Ice Cube reflects on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Friday, inadvertently raising philosophical questions about mortality in the process.

It’s a common misconception, one peddled rather furiously by Madonna of all people, that time goes by so slowly. In reality, the passage of time is but one of life’s mysterious blink-and-you-missed-it events. Before long, your hairs are graying. Three drinks can lead to a hangover of epic proportions. Friday, Ice Cube‘s classic comedy and part of the reason Deebo remains one of hip-hop’s most referenced antagonists, turns twenty-five. Where does the time go, we’re left to wonder.

Ice Cube Reacts To 25 Years Of "Friday"

David Becker/Getty Images

Cube himself pondered that very conundrum on his Instagram page mere hours ago. “Daaaamn,” he writes, elongating his curse to symbolize the passage of years gone by. “25 years went fast.” And to further emphasize his point, an iconic clip from the film itself, one depicting a youthful Ice Cube and a youthful Chris Tucker deeply in character. While it’s not technically the official anniversary date, as “Friday” was originally released on April 26th, 1995, it should be noted that today is, in fact, Friday. And thus, is it not all the more appropriate?

Surely we could all use a little cheering up, what with a pandemic threatening the very fabric of our society. What better way to do so than to reflect on a hilarious and enduring piece of cinema while pondering the fragile nature of our own mortality. Bye Felicia, it was said; so too, as we shuffle off this mortal coil, do we all inevitably become Felicia.

Netflix’s "LA Originals" Doc Gets First Trailer, With Eminem, Snoop Dogg, & More

Netflix’s “LA Originals” documentary, chronicling the journeys of Chicano artists Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol, got its first trailer, featuring Eminem and Snoop Dogg.

Netflix has dropped the first trailer for LA Originals, a documentary chronicling tattoo artist Mister Cartoon and photographer Estevan Oriol’s rise to stardom, with appearances from Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and more. The film is described as “an exploration of the culture and landmarks of the chicano and street art movement that cemented Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol’s status as behind-the-scenes Hip Hop legends.” In the trailer, which dropped on Wednesday (April 1st), Em, Snoop, and George Lopez, among others, discuss the legacy of these two Chicano artists. Additional appearances in the film are made by Cypress Hill, Blink-182, Michelle Rodriguez, Wilmer Valderrama, and Danny Trejo.

The film is also directed by Estevan Oriol, a veteran photographer who has shot a number of celebrities over the years, including Eminem, Cypress Hill, Kendrick Lamar, and many, many more. He and Cartoon went on to build a friendship and partnership around their shared Chicano roots. Cartoon, whose real name is Mark Machado, has inked everyone from the late Kobe Bryant to Eminem to Dr. Dre. He has also designed logos for Cypress Hill and Shady Records, and made appearances in music videos for Xzibit‘s “Criminal Set” and Eminem’s “Stan,” to name a few.

Jesse Grant/Getty Images

LA Originals premieres on Netflix next Friday, April 10th, 2020.

How Artists Can Survive Coronavirus Quarantine & Emerge Stronger

Wendy Day provides HotNewHipHop with resources and information for struggling artists during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Wendy Day is an entrepreneur, author, and artist career builder with nearly three decades of experience in the music industry. As Founder of Rap Coalition, she has helped pull countless hip-hop artists out of unfair deals while educating them on the music industry. Day also runs the for-profit music consulting company PowerMoves, music incubator Artist-Centric, and is the author of the book How to Get a Record Deal: The Knowledge to Succeed, which was updated and re-published in March 2016 with audiobook narration from Slick Rick. She will launch a new music business education website in 2020. Throughout the 1990s, Day made her name by brokering several landmark deals in hip-hop: Master P and No Limit Records’ 85/15 distribution deal with Priority Records, Twista’s 50/50 joint venture with Atlantic Records, and Cash Money Records’ $30 million deal with Universal Music Group. She also was instrumental in securing Eminem’s first contract with Aftermath/Interscope, David Banner’s multi-million dollar deal with Universal Records, and a few other leveraged deals. In addition, Day has played a role in the careers of Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile, Hot Boys, C-Murder, Fiend, Do or Die, Boosie, Webbie, Lil Donald, Ras Kass, Trouble, Young Buck, and many others. Her clients have collectively sold over 1 billion sound recordings thanks to her guidance.

Wendy Day has been kind enough to give HNHH a full list of resources and tips to help any up-and-coming artists right now. Read Wendy’s exclusive tips and recommendations in full below. This piece was written by Wendy.

Feel free to comment with additional resources or tips for artists who might be struggling right now! Listen to our up-and-coming Soundcloud artists playlist here.

– Rose Lilah

In these unprecedented times, artists are unable to make a living from performing, the #1 way most of them make money. Thanks to the necessity of preventing or at least reducing the spread of the Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, life as we know it has been canceled for the foreseeable future with no solid end date in sight. We have watched festivals cancel, tours cancel, performances cancel — any event where more than 10 people can gather has been canceled.

The ramifications from social distancing and self-quarantine will most likely be felt for quite some time, including tremendous financial fallout. Many, many artists depend on money from live performances to support themselves. Additionally, club owners, restaurants, performance spaces, and venue owners depend on the revenue from ticket sales and food and drink purchases from music fans to keep their doors open. If we don’t find a way to support the musicians and venues we love now, they may not be there when this pandemic is over.

To that end, I’d like to share some tips and resources to help artists make some sense of all this, get through it, and emerge stronger than ever.

Release New Music

Since so many fans and potential fans are also stuck in their houses, this is a good time to reach them with new music and content. I have noticed that my distributors, Stem and DistroKid, are understandably taking a bit longer than usual to get music onto DSPs such as Spotify and Apple Music, so please allow at least a week, possibly 10 days, for your music to release commercially. But even with the delays, this is an ideal time to reach a captive audience. Remember, continuity is a main tenet of marketing.

Create and Sell New Merch

This is a great time to bump up your merchandising efforts. Through Shopify ($30 a month), you can set up a merch store if you don’t already have one. They also feature an app for a company called Merchly that will print and ship your merchandise for you. Basically, you use their template to design your merchandise for a basic wholesale price. After you set your retail price (make sure it’s above the wholesale price), Merchly will then print and ship your promotional items on demand. You keep the difference between the wholesale price and the retail price. It’s a great way to offer merchandise without having to spend money out of pocket, build a merch website from scratch, or stand in line at the post office to ship the merch to customers.

Livestream a Performance

Cherie Hu has created a Google Drive doc of events that have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus, as well as places to tune in to streamed concerts/events. Be sure to get on this list if you’re performing online. Most importantly, there’s a list of resources for those of you who want to stream shows live and don’t know where to turn.

In addition, if you’re looking to create live VR content or pre-recorded shows that can work on any device, webLinkVR is a great resource. After creating an account, you can do a concert or series of shows with them. And if you’re wondering about their bona fides, they were responsible for Conan O’Brien’s CONAN360 shows. Here is a PowerPoint and a White Paper from webLinkVR that explains how to upload 4K, 8K, and VR content.

Ask Your Fans for Support

If you have a large fanbase, consider adding yourself to Cameo to generate revenue by sending your fans personalized video messages. You can also offer this yourself through your social media using CashApp, Zelle, or Venmo for payments. Be careful using PayPal though, as fans could reverse their payments if they aren’t trustworthy.

You may also want to spend this time researching Kickstarter so that you can create a campaign to release new music, more content, or something even more creative. And of course, Patreon exists for those of you looking for a virtual tip jar or a way to rally fans who love you to support you on a monthly basis.

Set Yourself Up for Sync Licensing Success

Have you joined an online sync community yet? These sites give musicians guidance on how to write and pitch music for use in films, TV shows, commercials, and more, a great revenue source that every artist should take advantage of if possible. Currently, The Sync Community is offering a free 30 day trial so you can test them to see if they’re helpful for you. After you click on “Become a Member,” just use the code SYNC30DAYSFREE.

Stay Informed

Keep an eye on organizations like A2IM, which is offering financial support to indies, and consider whether you need the assistance. Although I’m NOT a fan of royalty advances due to their similarities to payday advances, Sound Royalties is offering no fee advances for artists who have some income from royalties. If you qualify and find yourself in a pinch, you can receive up to $25,000 with no fee or interest rate provided you pay back the advance within a year.

The good folks at NPR have put together a list of resources for musicians and people working in the music business, and The Washington Post offers an example from the past relating to live music. Also, be sure to balance the doom and gloom, like this article from Rolling Stone, with an upside, like this article from Afropunk. Billboard also released a helpful list of resources; be sure to check it out!

In addition, Microsoft is providing a Covid-19 tracker through Bing so you can see for yourself where the virus is spreading instead of believing what you read on social media. Forbes is also keeping track of all known Covid-19 scams. Finally, take the time to learn from pre-outbreak contractual mistakes, particularly as it relates to “force majeure” clauses. Many companies simply didn’t anticipate a pandemic (and who can blame them), so it will be imperative to know exactly what is covered in contracts and insurance agreements going forward. Here’s a great article from Chris Castle at Music Tech Solutions that runs through it in detail.

These are just some basic ideas available to artists who are being crunched by the inability to perform live or do paid shows. Hope you find this helpful, and hope we are back to normal, or as close to normal as we can get, relatively soon and with as little damage as possible. Stay safe and healthy — now go wash your hands again.

– Wendy Day

Machine Gun Kelly & Travis Barker Annihilate Paramore’s "Misery Business"

Machine Gun Kelly tapped his buddy and fellow rocker, Travis Barker, to perform Paramore’s 2007 hit, “Misery Business,” as part of MGK’s #LockDownSessions.

Machine Gun Kelly came through with the latest instalment of his special quarantine #LockDownSessions, this time with some help from his pal, Blink 182’s Travis Barker. The two rockers decided to take on Paramore’s pop punk banger, “Misery Business” from ’07, and the results are almost as good as the original.

Filming each of their parts in their individual homes, MGK and Travis kill their performance while still respecting the rules of social distancing. MGK launched the #LockDownSessions on March 16th, promising to cover a new song practically every day until the coronavirus quarantine is over. Although he’s only been doing these #LockDownSessions for less than two weeks now, it appears that he is already recycling material. He and his friend, Omer Fedi, already delivered an acoustic rendition of “Misery Business” for the very first #LockDownSessions instalment, but I guess we’ll let it slide in the name of isolation entertainment.

Jason Kempin/Getty Images for John Varvatos

Along with his two different covers of the Paramore hit, MGK has also taken on Childish Gambino‘s “Redbone,” Kid Cudi‘s “Pursuit of Happiness,” Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun,” and more. Visit Machine Gun Kelly’s Youtube channel for more of his #LockDownSessions and stay safe!

Sony Aims For PS5 To Be "As Easy As Netflix"

From the sound of it, Sony is looking to change the gaming experience with the upcoming Playstation 5 console.

Though Sony has yet to unveil an official release date for the upcoming Playstation 5 console, opting to keep the “holiday 2020” window open barring any coronavirus-related delays, fan excitement remains at an all-time high. All the more so following a recent reveal of the PS5’s tech specs, which include a solid-state drive and a 10.28 TFLOP GPU. Not to mention the inevitable sequels to games like God Of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man, as well as the ever-lingering hope for a second visit to the world of Bloodborne’s Yharnam.

Sony Aims For PS5 To Be "As Easy As Netflix"

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Today, a new report has shed a wider light on Sony’s intentions for their upcoming console, which centers around general quality of life changes to the gaming experience. Citing testimony from Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, Sony aims to make playing the PS5 as “easy as Netflix,” alluding to the possibility of instantly loading up a game and foreseeing exactly how long a given session might take. The main goal thereby being to open the door for smaller gaming windows, rather than the typical multi-hour burst that so often feels like a requirement.

Given that load-times are said to be borderline non-existent in this console generation, it’s easy to picture a world where PS5 gamers can load up multiple games in the blink of an eye, should the Netflix comparison prove apt. As we have yet to see anything official surrounding the dashboard menu, there’s really no telling how far Sony intends to go with their next operating system. One thing is for certain — it seems they’re going for broke with this one, and we can’t wait to see the PS5 in action.

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Dave East Won’t Let Coronavirus Stop His Fatherhood Grind

Dave East takes a moment to smile beneath the mask as he stages a quality quarantine playdate with his daughter.

Dave East is one of the many rappers finding ways to pass the time amid the ongoing state of self-isolation. After all, East is a native New Yorker and what choice does he have but to stay put, and rightfully so. And while some of his hip-hop colleagues have taken to charging Jenga towers like a cabin-fever fueled rhino or picking up the guitar for an impromptu jam session, East has opted to spend some quality daddy-daughter time complete with matching designer masks.

Dave East Won't Let Coronavirus Stop His Fatherhood Grind

Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

East took to Instagram to update fans on his well being, as well as that of his daughter Kairi Chanel Brewster. Posted up in the East Harlem home base, Dave stared coronavirus in the eye and didn’t blink. “Corona who?” he captions, implying that family should never be placed second even in the direst of straits.

Curiously, the picture arrives following another image of East out and about, boldly roaming the streets of Harlem with a cavalier tone. “Still In Harlem Fucc A Virus!!!!” he captioned, twenty-two hours removed from the lockdown picture. In any case, it would appear he had a change of heart and has since decided to buckle down and wait for the storm to pass. Whether this ultimately has an impact on his next album Karma 3, which is set to include a Jay-Z-flipping banger, has yet to be seen.

Migos Agrees To Pay $30K Settlement In Fyre Festival Lawsuit

Migos was one of nearly three dozens artists who were slated to perform at the fraudulent Fyre Festival back in 2017.

Folks are still feeling the effects of Fyre Festival. The luxurious festival was supposed to take place on the Great Exuma island in the Bahamas back in 2017. Artists like Migos, Pusha-T, Tyga, Blink-182, Lil Yachty, Skepta, Rae Sremmurd, and over two dozen others were slated to perform. In the end, Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland was found out to be a fraud. His partner for the festival, Ja Rule, wasn’t named in his crimes. McFarland was tried and convicted of mail and wire fraud. He’s currently serving out his six-year sentence.

Following the fallout, it was announced last year that Gregory Messer, the bankruptcy trustee for the festival, was coming after performers and Instagram influencers on the grounds that they aided in defrauding investors. Anyone who was paid to perform or promote the event was named in a lawsuit, and according to The Blast, Migo recently agreed to dish out $30K to settle the legal drama.

The publication states that the rap trio was paid $100K to hit the Fyre Festival stage, but of course, it never happened. “The Defendant shall pay the total sum of $30,000.00 (the ‘Settlement Payment’), as full and final settlement and complete satisfaction of any claims the Trustee has raised against the Defendant,” a court document reportedly reads.

All they need now is for a judge to sign off so they can put it all behind them.

T.I. Celebrates The Women In His Life With Emotional Tribute

With yesterday being International Women’s Day, T.I.took to Instagram to share an emotional homage to the ladies in his life.

Anybody who has seen one episode ofT.I. & Tiny’s Friends And Family Hustle understands that the titular host Tip Harris is all about family. And he’s not afraid to get emotional on his IG page, especially when it comes to the women in his life. With yesterday being International Women’s Day, T.I. used the opportunity to spread the love, penning a powerful dedication to his mother Violetta Morgan, wife Temeka “Tiny” Harris, sister Precious Harris (RIP), and daughters Deyjah, Leyah, and Heiress Diana.

T.I. Celebrates The Women In His Life With Emotional Tribute

“Happy International Women’s Day,” writes Tip, alongside a slideshow of pictures from the family archives. “To the women in my life. Love you & appreciate you all. I’d gladly Risk it all for you in a Blink… I would DIE &/or KILL just to ensure no hurt harm or danger comes your way‼️Thanks for making My Life All it is Today.”

It’s a welcome gesture from a man who initially came up as the arguable inventor of “Trap Music” as we know it. Clearly, the man understands where his priorities are these days, and it would be great to see this gesture set a wider example. While International Women’s Day has technically come to an end, the sentiment endures. Rest in peace Precious Harris, and much respect to T.I. for holding it down with a classy move.

Trippie Redd Ducks Flying Projectile With Catlike Agility

During a recent concert, Trippie Redd was forced to apply the “bullet time” cheat code and duck a piece of flying debris.

Trippie Redd might not look it, but the Love Letter To You 4 rapper is as dexterous as anyone in the game. At least when it comes time to react in the face of highly mobile debris. Such was indeed the case during a recent concert at Houston’s Revention Center, a sold-out show at that. While the performance was by and large a smooth affair, one overzealous fan decided to engage in some reckless and ill-advised behavior, putting the entire event at risk in the name of — something or other.

Trippie Redd Ducks Flying Projectile With Catlike Agility

Footage reveals the incident in question: Trippie, deep in concentration during a performance of “U Deserve It,” spitting bars for his loyal followers. All of a sudden a piece of debris comes flying toward him like a bat out of hell, forcing Trippie to input the “bullet time” cheat code in the blink of an eye. Somehow, he’s able to dodge the projectile with Neo-esque finesse, immediately calling for the song to be cut short.

The mood quickly sours as Trippie threatens to call it a night. Perhaps emboldened by the threat of a premature exit, several of the concertgoers actually pinpoint the culprit, essentially rendering him a public enemy. From that point, Trippie declares a martial law of sorts, requesting that the offender receive a fist to the jaw for his troubles. Severe to be sure, but can one truly hold Trippie’s emotional response against him? Were it not for his truly catlike reflexes, who knows what damage might have been done?

How Doja Cat’s "Mooo!" Set The Tone For Her Career

Transitioning from novelty to artist on the rise, we look at the ways in which Doja Cat’s first viral smash has informed her career from here on out.

At a time where it can feel like we’re being presented various shades of the same product, Doja Cat brings another flavour entirely. Equal parts inspired by Erykah Badu, Pharrell, Partynextdoor, video games and Japanese culture, the Los Angeles-born Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini has gone from being a tertiary artist gasping for the air of publicity to sending fans into hysterics with the news that she’d be heading out on tour or getting bankrolled to contribute to superhero movie soundtracks.

How Doja Cat's "Mooo!" Set The Tone For Her Career

Doja Cat at the NYC HNHH office – Image by HNHH

Far from a placid carbon-copy of what’s gone before, the raunchiness of Doja’s music is teamed with a vibrant sense of humour and an insistence on not taking herself too seriously. Brought into the major label sphere by the disgraced Dr.Luke and his Kemosabe imprint, it’s easy to forget that she’s not some overnight sensation when the volume of stories and fan accounts dedicated to her has risen at such a rapid rate over the past few years. Setting off with her 2014 EP Purrr! the talented vocalist began in the vein of a sultry R&B vocalist, producing music that shared more DNA with Jhene Aiko and Summer Walker than it does with her current contemporaries such as Megan Thee Stallion and Rico Nasty. Intoxicating as tracks such as “So High” and “Control” were, they lacked a real sense of identity. In her words, this came from an instinct “to collect all the things that interested me.”

Thrust into the industry during her teens, Doja has since been able to deconstruct why she reached something of a standstill when it came to increasing her profile in those early years. “I was high half the time. I was smoking hella weed. I was being a fucking delinquent,” she told The Face.”I had no idea how to be a businesswoman, and it took me about six years to realize that’s what I need to do.” Then, one fateful glint of inspiration would change everything. Made over the course of one day including filming a video with a makeshift bedspread green screen, the humorous yet undeniably catchy refrain of “Mooo!” changed everything. The kind of subject matter that could only be taken on by someone who was making YouTube tutorials at 14, Doja is very much a disciple of the internet in every sense and despite not being a conscious effort to create a meme, the “shitposting” mentality had naturally bled into the track.

Without trying too hard, Doja had found a way to harness virality and in turn, found a niche that completely altered her fortunes. “I proved to myself that I could do something that was worth watching,” she claimed. “It’s a fucking crazy video. Like, how do you not click that?” Organic as its creation was, with “Mooo!” Doja Cat found the crossroads between musical merit and comedy, a tone that her career has continued to carry. For her, it’s an integral part of the game as she told The Face that “I feel like you need to be a little bit of a comedian to be a rapper.”

After it brought new eyes and ears to what she was doing, the increased name recognition of rapping about a cow could’ve been the death knell for her legitimacy. In Doja’s case, her awareness of the internet’s practically non-existent attention span meant that it was time to feed them more content. As such, her March 2018 debut project Amala was reissued with the meme-worthy track in tow. Allowing those who’d came for the absurdity to stay for unique R&B and hip-hop hybrids such as “Go To Town” and “Candy.”

How Doja Cat's "Mooo!" Set The Tone For Her Career

Doja Cat performing at the 2020 Adult Video News Awards – Ethan Miller/Getty Images

As the buzz around Doja as a major artist has grown, she’s remained mindful of what allotted her this favourable position in the first place. Thus, when it comes to social media, she offsets thirst traps with comedic hijinks, while her elaborate live streams give fans a chance to observe the creative process in real-time as well, and offer an opportunity to hear Doja’s trademark candidness— which is part and parcel with her approach to music, too. Meanwhile, Doja’s repertoire of YouTube-based acapella performances such as the Mark Morrison-inspired “Return of The Snack” ensures that there’s still an outlet for her frivolous fun-having antics, even when the stakes are a lot higher.

“That’s a small portion of my career, taking a moment to do something stupid,” she said. “I have a song called ‘Waffles Are Better Than Pancakes.’ If I can’t be goofy, I’ll go insane.” As her stock continued to climb, the natural impulse would be to follow the blueprint to the letter. Yet for Doja, the release of her November 2019 sophomore offering Hot Pink was a chance to show the world how she could infuse her more gaudy lyricism and jol edge with elite-level output.

“With my first album it was a little bit like I was practicing,” she informed The Fader. “It’s like, you know the first time you do anything, you kind of have to figure out who you are? I feel like with this second project I know who I am and I know what I want and I know what I want it to sound like. I’m really proud of this.”

Tasked with an unenbly thin line to walk, Hot Pink kept the spirit of the no-rules, no-consequences approach that defined her earlier work and allowed it to manifest in previously unanticipated ways. Sampling Blink-182, working with Gucci Mane and above all, approaching the record with a clear head, the exponential rise in chart position from Amala’s peak of #95 to Hot Pink’s massive push to number 19 on the Billboards goes to show that all the hard work is paying off.

How Doja Cat's "Mooo!" Set The Tone For Her Career

Doja Cat at the 2019 BET Awards – Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Although “Mooo!” is behind her in some ways, everything from her more whimsical bars to her IG interactions means that she now judiciously walks a tightrope between being typecast and expanding far beyond the repressive limitations of a comedy rapper. Hitting on that sweet spot between zaniness and credibility that recalls Luda, Missy Elliott and De La Soul, what remains to be seen is whether this cross-sectional approach will allow her to crack that top 10 in the years to come. Either way, don’t expect the dalliances with social media-ready comedy to go anywhere fast.

“I just like to do the fun stuff,” she informed Billboard. “If I’m not having fun with it, I’m not going to do it for the rest of my life, I just wanna bring something fun — the current climate is so uptight and serious and it’s just good to have something stupid to laugh at.”

Warriors Reportedly Couldn’t Wait To Get Rid Of D’Angelo Russell

The Warriors were busy at the deadline.

Yesterday, the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves participated in a blockbuster trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota in exchange for Andrew Wiggins. If you were to ask most people around the NBA, they would tell you D-Lo is a much better player than Wiggins. However, it’s clear the Warriors couldn’t keep Russell’s contract and wanted someone who would fit into their system once Steph Curry and Klay Thompson come back.

According to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic, the Warriors were eager to trade D-Lo and they didn’t seem to mind what they got in return. In fact, as Thompson describes, Russell didn’t fit in with the team and executives around the club were trying to get rid of him sooner than later.

Warriors Reportedly Couldn't Wait To Get Rid Of D'Angelo Russell

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Per The Athletic:

“Take that as an indictment on Russell, if you want. It doesn’t seem like he did much to instill confidence. He didn’t play defense and disappeared when off the ball. He didn’t instill confidence in the leaders of the franchise that he would figure it out. But it should also be seen as a failure by the Warriors.”

“They championed him. They said they wanted him as part of their core. And before they even got to see him with their core, they walked away. Which means, at minimum, they completely miscalculated Russell’s fit. It’s early, and you never know how these things turn out. But the Russell experiment must have gone so poorly that the Warriors look like they might have been the ones to blink first in a negotiation with Minnesota.”

Russell will be joining a Timberwolves team that is currently on a 13-game losing streak. Despite this, he will also be joining his good friend Karl-Anthony Towns, so we’re sure there will be some palpable chemistry between the two.

Billie Eilish, Rage Against The Machine & More To Headline Firefly Music Festival

Firefly Music Festival looks to be worth the trip this year.

The full line-up for Firefly Music Festival 2020 has been officially announced.

Billie Eilish, Halsey, Rage Against the Machine, and Blink-182 are just a few of the names set to perform at this year's festival in Delaware's The Woodlands venue.

On the hip hop side of things, names of interest include Big Boi, Run the Jewels, Don Toliver, Leikeli47, Lil Tecca, and more.

Four-day general admission tickets will go on sale on February 3rd and start at $299.

The full Firefly Music Festival 2020 lineup is as follows:

Absofacto
Anna Lunoe
Avi Kaplan
Badflower
Big Boi
Big Wild
Billie Eilish
Blackbear
Blink-182
Boys Noize
Bryce Vine
Cage the Elephant
Cash Cash
Cat Dealers
Choir! Choir! Choir!
CHVRCHES
Clozee
Cold War Kids
Conan Gray
Cray
Cub Sport
David Lee Roth
Dayglow
Devon Gilfillian
Diplo
Dominic Fike
Don Toliver
Eliza & The Delusionals
Gashi
Grandson
Grouplove
Haiku Hands
Halsey
Hugel
Illenium
Illiterate Light
JJ Wilde
K.Flay
Kali Uchis
Khalid
Leif Vollebekk
Leikeli47
Lil Dicky
Lil Tecca
Loud Luxury
Lucii
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Lil Wayne Announces "Funeral" Release Date

Lil Wayne’s long-awaited follow-up to “Tha Carter V” is coming soon.

It looks like Lil Wayne‘s highly-anticipated follow-up to Tha Carter V is finally on the way. Funeral has been rumored to drop for a while but it initially seemed it was going to drop last year to coincide with his co-headlining tour with Blink 182. The album never came but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t going to release it. The rapper’s been teasing the project for a hot minute and it looks like he finally has a date set.

The Funeral is officially dropping on Jan. 31st. The rapper took to Instagram to share the release date with a short snippet of what to expect and if I’m not mistaken, the rapper does flick his lighter at the beginning before welcoming everyone to his “funeral” over a symphonic instrumental. Wayne’s clearly kicking off the year on a high note with the release of Funeral. Hopefully, there’s a tour to follow after the album drops.

Back in December, a fan shared a DM conversation he had with Weezy asking the rapper for an update on the album even if its the artwork or tracklist. At the time, Wayne had allegedly messaged back “Feb my G.” Clearly, he wasn’t far off and we’re excited to hear whatever Wayne’s cooked up on this project.

We’ll keep you posted on any more information about Lil Wayne’s Funeral.

Travis Barker Auctioning Off His Collection Of Pricy Vintage Convertibles

The Blink 182 drummer is making room for some new whips.

Travis Barker is parting ways with a few of his vintage vehicles, and he’s partnered with Barrett-Jackson to auction them off to the highest bidders. According to TMZ, Travis is saying goodbye to three of his babies: a 1941 Cadillac 62 Series Convertible, a 1960 Cadillac Coupe Deville, and a 1972 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. The convertible is predicted to reach up to $100,000 while the Chevy might even rake in a whopping $200,000.

Travis talked about his love for vintage cars with The Low And Slow Car Show in February of last year ahead of his Musink Music Festival and Tattoo Convention that he founded, sharing that his dad was the one who introduced him to all different kinds of old school whips. Travis has always made his love for Cadillacs in particular a known passion through his ink, as he has at least two Cadillac tattoos, including an emblem on his chest and a Cadillac script down his rib cage that took 12 hours to create.

His decision to let go of a few cars from his own collection stems from his desire to expand in many different areas of his life, and to make room for new rides. He recently bought a warehouse in Southern California, where he will house the remainder of his car collection, as well as his clothing brands and new record label DTA records.

The Neptunes Reveal Possible Collabs With Jay Z, Lil Nas X, Lil Uzi Vert, & More

The Neptunes tease possible collaborations with Jay Z, Lil Nas X, Lil Uzi Vert, and more.

The musical genius of production duo Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, also known as The Neptunes, is undeniable. The two masterminds have curated, crafted, and polished their own distinct sound that has led them to multiple platinum plaques, a Grammy Award for Producer of the Year (2004), and world-renowned success. Now, after taking a brief hiatus to work on individual ventures, Chad Hugo has revealed in a new interview with Clash that The Neptunes are back in the studio full-time producing music for artists like Jay Z, Lil Nas X, Lil Uzi Vert, and more.

While speaking with the music publication Hugo dropped a bombshell revealing that Williams and he were working with some of the hottest musicians in the game as well as a video game soundtrack. Hugo stated the following:

“I’m focusing on The Neptunes stuff, getting back on The Neptunes grind. We’re doing a couple of things. There’s a videogame soundtrack that’s in the works right now that I can’t speak about, I’m not supposed to, but uh, it’s in the works right now. We just did some work with Miley Cyrus, Jay-Z, Blink 182, Lil Uzi Vert, Brandy, Ray-J, Snoh Alegra, G-Eazy…”

The unaging producer extraordinaire, Pharrell also added some gracious words directed at his production partner Chad Hugo, stating:

“He’s himself. He’s a Savant. Being around him only makes everyone else better. He radiates genius. He’s been that way since I met him in the beginning band at 12 years old.”

It came as a shock to many back in May 2017, when Chad revealed that he was stepping away from music indefinitely. However, with a mind driven to create, true Neptunes and N*E*R*D enthusiasts knew that Hugo couldn’t stay away from the studio for long. With The Neptunes recently landing a nomination for the Songwriters Hall of Fame and releasing a collaborative effort alongside Metro Boomin, the duo is back in the limelight and looking to make some major moves in the new year. Check out The Neptunes full interview with Clash, here.

Mysterious Drones Flying Around Colorado & Nebraska Are Making People "Very Nervous"

The drones are under investigation.

Citizens living in Colorado and Nebraska are a little on edge since drones are flying over their homes and neighbourhoods for reasons unknown. According to The New York Times, police in each location have been bombarded with calls and reports of drones with blinking lights and wingspans of six feet hovering over their homes and open fields, prompting a federal investigation.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

“In terms of aircraft flying at night and not being identified, this is a first for me personally,” Sheriff James Brueggeman of Perkins County, Neb. told the publication, detailing how some residents have wanted to shoot them down. “I think it’s kind of a joke, but you have to remember the part of the country we live in. People here don’t like their privacy to be invaded.”

The drones are not breaking any laws but are making people feel anxious and nervous on its motive. "These drones have made residents in our community very nervous and anxious," Sheriff Todd Combs of Colorado's Yuma County said in a Facebook post. "People do not like the unknown as it upsets the balance of our lives. I will tell you right up front, I do not have a lot of answers for you at this time. I wish I did, but I do not."

Colorado's Sen. Cory Gardner is working with the FAA to get to the bottom of the issue.

Beyoncé Shares "2019 Bey-Cap" IG Video Highlighting Public & Private Moments

The twins are so cute!

The Beyhive almost had a heart attack when just 10 minutes before the east coast rang in the new year, Beyoncé uploaded a blank, black screen to her Instagram page. It took less than thirty seconds for theorists to begin speculating as to what the Lemonade singer had in store. She's become known for her surprise album drops that break the internet, but this time around, it looks as if Bey just wanted to celebrate the new year with a video featuring the highlights of her decade.

Beyoncé, Jay Z, Childish Gambino, and Oumou Sangaré's "Mood 4 Eva" played as the soundtrack to the blinking photos from the last 10 years of Bey's life. There were images of the singer and her rapper husband at a slew of events including Roc Nation brunches, sitting courtside at basketball games, Blue Ivy's birthday, Tyler Perry's Studio opening, Valentine's Day, the Brit Awards, Oscar's afterparties, the GLAAD Awards, Diana Ross's birthday event, NAACP Awards, and appearing on red carpets...just to name a few.

Her acclaimed Coachella performance along with its accompanying Homecoming documentary was littered throughout, but a major highlight of the fast-moving clip is being able to see a tad more behind-the-scenes footage of the Knowles-Carters' family life. Check it out below.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on Dec 31, 2019 at 9:04pm PST

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Post Malone showed off his and his friends’ impressive wizard staff, a tall towering sword made of taped-together beer cans.

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Kendall Jenner is but one of many celebrities who have been named in lawsuits after they were paid to perform at or promote the Fyre Festival.

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Post Malone gave fans an update on his upcoming album during his live streamed Nirvana tribute concert to raise money for coronavirus relief.

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Ice Cube reflects on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Friday, inadvertently raising philosophical questions about mortality in the process.

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Netflix’s “LA Originals” documentary, chronicling the journeys of Chicano artists Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol, got its first trailer, featuring Eminem and Snoop Dogg.

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Wendy Day provides HotNewHipHop with resources and information for struggling artists during the Coronavirus pandemic.

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Machine Gun Kelly tapped his buddy and fellow rocker, Travis Barker, to perform Paramore’s 2007 hit, “Misery Business,” as part of MGK’s #LockDownSessions.

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From the sound of it, Sony is looking to change the gaming experience with the upcoming Playstation 5 console.

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Dave East takes a moment to smile beneath the mask as he stages a quality quarantine playdate with his daughter.

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Migos was one of nearly three dozens artists who were slated to perform at the fraudulent Fyre Festival back in 2017.

With yesterday being International Women’s Day, T.I.took to Instagram to share an emotional homage to the ladies in his life.

During a recent concert, Trippie Redd was forced to apply the “bullet time” cheat code and duck a piece of flying debris.

Transitioning from novelty to artist on the rise, we look at the ways in which Doja Cat’s first viral smash has informed her career from here on out.

Doja Cat at the NYC HNHH office – Image by HNHH

Doja Cat performing at the 2020 Adult Video News Awards – Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Doja Cat at the 2019 BET Awards – Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

The Warriors were busy at the deadline.

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Firefly Music Festival looks to be worth the trip this year.

Lil Wayne’s long-awaited follow-up to “Tha Carter V” is coming soon.

The Blink 182 drummer is making room for some new whips.

The Neptunes tease possible collaborations with Jay Z, Lil Nas X, Lil Uzi Vert, and more.

The drones are under investigation.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

The twins are so cute!