Entertainment News
LEGO Releases Soothing “White Noise” Playlist Made Up of The Sounds of LEGO Bricks: Stream
One of the most chaotic Januarys in American history may finally be over, but there’s still plenty to stress out about, especially as we enter our 12th month of the pandemic. To help ease some of these anxieties, a comforting new “White Noise” playlist has been released by… The LEGO Group. Yeah, the company with the colorful little blocks. Don’t worry; LEGO isn’t trying to become the next hottest music tastemaker. Instead, LEGO’s entire mix is made up of the sounds of LEGO bricks. “Each LEGO element makes a unique noise, which is why designers experimented with over 10,000 in their quest for the perfect soothing sounds,” explains a press statement. There are seven 30-minute tracks on the “White Noise” playlist, and each showcases a different sound made by the toys. Sifting through waves of...
Skullcrusher Conjures Vintage Folk on New Single “Song For Nick Drake”: Stream
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Helen Ballentine records music under the moniker Skullcrusher, but it doesn’t sound like what you might expect it to. She writes dreamy folk songs fit for Secretly Canadian — who fittingly released her debut EP last year — and today she’s back with another slice of such: a standalone single called “Song for Nick Drake”. As the title implies, “Song for Nick Drake” is an ode to the late pastoral legend and the visceral memories his music conjures. “‘Song for Nick Drake’ is about my relationship to the music of Nick Drake,” explained Ballentine in a press release. “It recalls moments in my life that are viscerally intertwined with his music, specifically times spent walking and taking the train. The song is really my homage to music and the times I felt mos...
Tha God Fahim and Your Old Droog Uncork New Album Tha Wolf on Wall St.: Stream
Mixtape masters Tha God Fahim and Your Old Droog have linked up for the new collaborative album Tha Wolf on Wall St. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The pair have been prolific both separately and together, most recently teaming up on Droog’s December drop Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition. That LP was executive produced by Mach-Hommy, who also lays down some guest work here. But Tha Wolf on Wall St. owes it’s jazzy, laid-back soundscapes entirely to Tha God Fahim. As a rapper-producer, Fahim favors atmospheric beats that can accommodate a wide variety of flows, often allowing his vocal phrases to unspool across several bars. His higher voice provides an airy contrast to Droog’s earthy rumble, and together they put on a masterclass in lyric-forward hip-hop. Previously, TG...
R.I.P. Double K, People Under the Stairs Rapper Dead at 43
Double K, the rapper best known for his work as one half of the Los Angeles hip-hop duo People Under the Stairs, has died at the age of 43. On Sunday morning, close friends and collaborators confirmed he passed away, though no cause of death has been revealed. Double K, who was born under the name Michael Turner, grew up sampling music in his free time to create “beat tapes” that he would use while DJing local events. In high school, he went on to join the Log Cabin Crew, a hip-hop collective that included several members of Living Legends, where he further honed his skills as an artist. As a teenager, Double K met his soon-to-be bandmate Christopher “Thes One” Portugal while searching for sample material in the now-defunct record store Martin’s. The two decided to spin their beat tapes fo...
Robert Fripp and Toyah Take on “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”: Watch
It wouldn’t be Sunday without another fun take on a rock classic by King Crimson founder Robert Fripp and his singer wife, Toyah Willcox. This time, the pair cover “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, with Toyah strapping on a guitar to go along with her vocals. Robert and Toyah have become YouTube sensations in recent weeks with their “Sunday Lunch” quarantine performances. They’ve been covering rock classics for a few months now, but they truly went viral earlier this month with a take on Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” — a rendition that saw Toyah riding an exercise bike while wearing a revealing top that garnered thousands of comments filled with euphemisms. They followed with performances of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle”, and now they’ve graced us with a cover of...
System of a Down Unveil Music Video for “Genocidal Humanoidz”: Watch
System of a Down have unleashed the music video for “Genocidal Humanoidz”, one of two new songs the band surprise-released back in November. The video was unveiled at the end of a fundraising livestream event that the band hosted Saturday morning (January 30th) on YouTube. “Genocidal Humanoidz” and the track “Protect the Land” marked System of a Down’s first new music in 15 years. The band came together to record and release the new tracks to help raise money for the Armenia Fund, with a focus on aiding Armenia and its neighboring state of Artsakh, which had come under attack by Azerbaijan and Turkey. While “Protect the Land” premiered with an accompanying music video, “Genocidal Humanoidz” had just been an audio release until now. The “Genocidal Humanoidz” video, which was co-directed by ...
Coachella Postponed for Third Time Due to COVID-19
Encore? For the third time, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Via Billboard, Coachella’s sister country festival Stagecoach Country has also been pushed back. Coachella takes place almost every year in Indio, California. Last year’s event, scheduled for April, was meant to be headlined by Rage Against the Machine, Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, and Lana Del Rey, before the novel coronavirus waylaid those plans. It was optimistically pushed to October, but that idea only lasted until June before the raging pandemic made it shutter once again. In the process, 2020 became the first year without a Coachella in twenty years. Festival organizers hoped to bring it back this year April 9th-11th and 16th-18th. But even that proved overly sanguine, as...
Fredo Releases New Album Money Can’t Buy Happiness: Stream
British rapper Fredo has dropped his star-studded new album, Money Can’t Buy Happiness. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. Money Can’t Buy Happiness is the second studio album of Fredo’s career, following 2019’s Third Avenue. On his new effort, he links up with Summer Walker for The Fugees-sampling song “Ready” and collaborates with both Pop Smoke and Young Adz for the uptempo number “Burner on Deck”. He also reunites with Dave, his longtime friend and fellow British rapper, for “Money Talks”, which serves as a follow-up single of sorts to their 2018 smash hit “Funky Friday”. In a statement, Fredo explained that he scrapped his original version of Money Can’t Buy Happiness before settling on this current version, in part to portray a more realistic version of himself and his belie...
R.I.P. SOPHIE, Futuristic Pop Producer Dead at 34
Futuristic pop producer SOPHIE tragically died Saturday in an accidental fall. She was 34 years old. According to a statement issued by SOPHIE’s record label, the producer “climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell.” The accident occurred in Athens, Greece, where SOPHIE had been living. A native of the UK, SOPHIE first made a name for herself in the early 2010s with a series of bubbly, surrealist singles, including “Nothing More to Say”, “Bipp”/”Elle”, “QT”, and “Lemonade”/”Hard”. During this time, she also became a close associate of PC Music, collaborating with label figurehead A.G. Cook as well as with GFOTY and Danny L Harle. SOPHIE’s early success ultimately led to more high-profile collaborations. In 2016, she teamed with the then-budding...
J.J. Abrams to Produce New Cloverfield Sequel
Even if your city has been destroyed by a monster, you’re trapped in an underground bunker, or your space station got sent to a parallel universe, you’ve probably heard of the Cloverfield franchise. The science-fiction anthology series will continue through at least a fourth film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with J.J. Abrams set to produce a new sequel. The franchise launched in 2008 with Cloverfield, a found-footage monster flick directed by Matt Reeves. Two loosely-connected sequels followed, with both 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) originating as unrelated projects that were acquired by Abrams’ Bad Robot banner and retrofitted for the Cloververse. Unlike those previous follow-ups, the new movie is designed from inception t...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Says He’s Been Blacklisted for Right-Wing Views, Blasts Black Lives Matter
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan made headlines over the past year for his outspoken right-wing politics. In a new interview, Dolmayan says his views have caused him and his various projects, such as his comic book series Ascensia, to be blacklisted. “I’ve been a victim of it,” Dolmayan told Cancelled with Rob Rosen and Desma Simon — a podcast focusing on “canceled” individuals telling their side of the story. “Let’s just say that Ascencia could easily be made into a TV show or movie and I had an agency working on that with me. And that agency [had] to take a step back.” Dolmayan compared it to McCarthyism, the vicious campaign to blacklist or disenfranchise suspected communists in the United States in the 1950s. “So, I’ve already been a victim of this, and it’s no different and...
O.J. Simpson Receives Coronavirus Vaccine
O.J. Simpson is many things, but he is not an anti-vaxxer. The former NFL star-turned-accused murderer received his coronavirus vaccine on Friday. Simpson, who was previously seen partying without a mask, got his shot in Las Vegas on Friday. He was photographed wearing a mask that said, “The Juice” (of course), which he subsequently posted to Twitter. In an accompanying caption, Simpson wrote, “Get your shot. I got mine!!!” Simpson’s lawyer told the New York Post that his client was eligible to receive the vaccine due to his advanced age (he’s 73). “If you’re 70-plus, you’re eligible for the shot — you can schedule your shot and they’ll do it,” Malcolm P. LaVergne said. “There’s no favoritism with him being a celebrity — that has nothing to do with his getting the shot.” As for w...
