Claudio Sanchez was working on the follow-up to Coheed and Cambria’s 2018 album Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures before life went into lockdown due to the pandemic. With the Armory Wars in the midst of a cease fire, the frontman has turned his attention back to his long-gestating solo project, The Prize Fighter Inferno. Sanchez has revealed he’s been writing a new album under the moniker, and today he’s shared a pair of songs to prove it. Speaking with SPIN, Sanchez said he hadn’t returned to Prize Fighter Inferno since 2012’s Half Measures EP out of a sense of “guilt” over having to put Coheed on hold. “… I’m like, ‘Oh, I wanna go do this thing … I wanna go exercise my ego with a side project.’ It makes me feel horrible, so I never do it.” Now that he’s unable to “just pass around ...
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, over 700 musicians have signed an open letter asking the US Congress to increase relief measures for artists. A wide range of acts have signed the petition so far, including Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, Deafheaven, Julia Holter, Charly Bliss, and Jeff Rosenstock. The newly formed Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) penned the letter as a way to ask their government representatives — especially Speaker Pelosi, Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and leaders of the Congressional Arts Caucus — to consider more helpful COVID-19 relief measures for artists. To make contacting representatives easier, the union has created a special phone number to connect callers to the aforementioned offices, the prompts of which ar...
For the latest edition of Foo Fridays, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters have unlocked the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium. The footage was compiled over two sold-out shows in London on June 6th and 7th of 2008. The set drew heavily from the Foos 2007 album Echoes, Silence. Patience & Grace, and included special guest appearances by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. With Grohl on the drums and Taylor Hawkins on the mic, they played the Zeppelin favorite “Rock and Roll”, before Grohl and Hawkins switched places for “Ramble On”. In introducing Page and Jones, Grohl said that the country of England “made us the band we are today,” and so he felt compelled to plan something special. “Just so you know, tonight, playing here at fucking Wembley Stadium, i...
Cue up the Aerosmith, Bruce Willis is dialing things back to Summer 1998. On Thursday, the blockbuster star waxed nostalgic amidst quarantine by dusting off his trademark orange jump suit from Michael Bay’s Armageddon. His daughter Rumer Willis, posted the hilarious photo on her Instagram, writing, “He said this is ‘His saving the [world] outfit’ (Actual one from Armageddon).” She also added an appropriate hashtag: “#ThisManIsADamnLegend.” Not gonna lie, it’s good seeing Harry Stamper back in action, particularly after he saved the world at the end there on that nasty asteroid. As you’ll see below, Willis is in true action star mode, too, and his eyes say it all: “Back off, Covid.” Here’s hoping he dusts off the Hudson Hawk hat next week.
Phil May, the longtime vocalist of UK rock band Pretty Things, has died at the age of 75. According to The Guardian, May died in a Norfolk, UK hospital due to complications from hip surgery. His death was not COIVD-19 related. May formed Pretty Things in 1963 alongside former Rolling Stones guitarist Dick Taylor. They were initially a part of the British blues rock scene, achieving six top 50 hits between 1964 and 1966. Their biggest single, “Don’t Bring Me Down”, peaked at No. 10 on the UK charts, while its follow-up, “Honey I Need”, hit No. 13. Despite their early success, and sharing the same management as Pink Floyd, Pretty Things failed to achieve the same international success as fellow rock bands of their times. They later attributed their lack of fame in the US to a decision to tou...
The Force is strong with Timothy Olyphant. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Deadwood star has joined the Star Wars galaxy by signing on for the second season of Disney+’s The Mandalorian. As of publication, there’s no word on who he’ll be playing, but given Olyphant’s hunky looks and trademark wit, we’re kind of, maybe, okay, we totally are, hoping he’s playing Dash Rendar from Shadows of the Empire. That may be wishful thinking, but seeing how we’re seeing Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano and Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett, it’s not exactly out of the question. At the very least, it would connect that Star Wars legend. Whatever the case, Olymphant joins a stacked cast that also includes The Terminator and Aliens star Michael Biehn in an undisclosed role. We’ll also take Biehn as Renda...
This week, a cache of confidential Lady Gaga files was leaked by a hacker group. Those same cybercriminals are now aiming to bring down Donald Trump. It all started earlier this week, when Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, one of the most prominent law firms in the entertainment industry, became the target of a hacker group using ransomware called REvil. The massive cyberattack resulted in over 750 gigabytes of stolen data pertaining to the firm’s A-list clientele, which include Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Drake, U2, and Madonna, as well as Robert De Niro, Bette Midler, and LeBron James. The hacker group offered to return the classified data in exchange for $21 million dollars, according to Rolling Stone. Rather than cough up the ransom money, however, attorney Allen Grubman and the rest of...
Last month, Andrew Lloyd Webber teamed up with Universal Home Entertainment to stream a selection of his musicals for free. After playing some hits (The Phantom of the Opera) and some flops (By Jeeves), Weber has now unlocked Cats, the unkillable stage show with more than nine lives. As Playbill reports, Cats will be streaming for the next 48 hours, with suggested donations benefiting the Actor’s Fund COVID-19 Relief. Unlike Tom Hooper’s neutered film adaptation, the stage production of Cats was a massive, paradigm-shifting hit. It won Tony and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best New Musical, is one of the longest-running productions in Broadway and West End history, and has grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide. This particular version was filmed in 1998, and starred Elaine Paig...
Move aside DJ Roomba, there’s a new housekeeper in town. A total Jedi Knight of a Star Wars fan has reworked Roomba technology to build himself his own R2-D2 machine (which he’s calling R9-D9) — and, yes, it’s the droid we’re looking for. It sweeps. It mops. It even talks. What’s more, it can be yours. The man in question — filmmaker Matthew Scott Hunter — created a complete video breakdown on how he designed the thing using household items and materials. Editors’ Picks Essentially, he took his R2-D2 garbage can, inserted a fan motor for head movements, and added a Bluetooth speaker so it could talk. He even designed the thing to be remotely controlled, which should come in handy when it gets pesky as droids do. Okay, so it’s not exactly a Lego set, and may prove rather difficult for...