interview
Yo La Tengo Unearth High Quality Version of Their “Tom Courtenay” Video: Watch
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Electr-O-Pura, the seminal seventh album from indie favorites Yo La Tengo. To honor the occasion, the band will reissue the record on double-LP for the first time this September, offering “the highest quality of audio the album has had on vinyl to date.” They’ve also unearthed a high quality version of their “Tom Courtenay” music video. Released in 1995, it’s believed the clip aired sparingly, “at least once on MTV’s 120 Minutes,” per a statement. It’s since been ripped and shared many times over online, though existing only as a low resolution visual. That is… until now: The video has been “exhumed” from label Matador’s “sub-basement storage facilities”, and for the very first time, is making its high quality premiere on YouTube. This means YLT...
UNFPA: Nigeria records 12,000 new cases of fistula yearly
The United Nations (UN) Population Fund (UNFPA), says Nigeria records 12,000 new cases of Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF), yearly. Newsmen reports that VVF is an abnormal fistulous tract extending between the bladder (vesica) and the vagina, that leads to continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault. Mrs Ulla Muller, Country Representative of UNFPA, told newsmen in an interview in Abuja, that with the figure, Nigeria was one of the countries with the highest number of VVF cases globally. “Nigeria has about 148,000 cases of fistula, with about 12,000 new cases every year,” Muller said. According to the UN representative, UNFPA has large imprint in Nigeria through preventive and curative interventions such as family planning, community engagement and training of healthcare wo...
Rob Brydon on The Trip’s Final Odyssey to Greece: “I Love Making a Well-Timed Exit”
“I certainly think that comedy at the moment is highly valued,” says comedian Rob Brydon. “I think people just want to escape from this reality and laugh.” With The Trip to Greece, the latest and final entry in director Michael Winterbottom’s Trip series, Brydon and co-star Steve Coogan (who happens to be a seven-time BAFTA award winner) travel to new destinations to give audiences the opportunity to do just that, one celebrity impression at a time. The endless number of gorgeous Grecian locations the comedians travel through and to, alongside meals that cause us to salivate and emit envy in equal measure, offer a strange, but welcomed sense of escapism in these “Stay-At-Home” times. However, it is the seemingly effortless comedic chemistry between Brydon and Coogan that make the Trip film...
Remembering Ronnie James Dio 10 Years After His Passing: Interview with Wendy Dio
It’s been 10 years since the world lost one of the greatest voices of heavy metal and hard rock, the iconic Ronnie James Dio. The singer had a legendary career, ranging from doo-wop bands in the late ’50s to a reunion with his onetime Black Sabbath bandmates as Heaven & Hell in the 21st century. Born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dio was raised in Cortland, New York, and became a trumpet player at an early age. Eventually, his vocal talents led him to singing in a variety of doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll bands (including Ronnie Dio and the Redcaps). By the time he became the singer in Elf (earlier going by the name the Electric Elves), he began to find the style of music that best suited his voice – hard rock, and later, heavy metal. Elf opened shows ...
ASTRO Break Down ‘Gateway’ EP That Is ‘Reintroducing’ the Emerging K-Pop Boy Band
ASTRO returns to the Emerging Artists chart this week with big gains on YouTube and Twitter. Following a busy 2019 that included two album releases and their first-ever U.S. tour, ASTRO is looking to reintroduce themselves with a new EP that looks to transcend their past. Following the release of the K-pop boy band’s Gateway — that ties in everything from surging pop on standouts “Knock” and “Lights On” to playful hip-hop for “When You Call My Name” — ASTRO sees gains across the board to mark a return to Billboard‘s Emerging Artists chart. At No. 49 this week, ASTRO’s re-entry to Emerging Artists can be mostly attributed to their social media presence. Upon the release of Gateway, the sextet gained 75,000 new YouTu...
The travel that changed me: Jini Reddy
From trekking in Nepal to exploring Iran and Pakistan, author Jini Reddy regales us with tales of the travel that changed her If ever there were an international woman of mystery, she’d likely be a lot like Jini Reddy. A British author and journalist, Reddy has lived in London, Montreal, Hong Kong, Provence and Tbilisi. She has travelled to the Kalash Valleys in Pakistan under armed guard, completed the Annapurna Circuit on a whim and bedded down in a men’s hostel in the daunting city of Delhi. As an author, Reddy has won a British Guild of Travel Writers Awards for her debut Wild Times and was recently named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact. In her new book, Wanderland, Reddy combines nature writing, personal reflection and memoir to chart her search for the magica...
