The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced its class of 2023. Sade Adu, the singer and songwriter behind quiet storm group Sade, is among the inductees, as are Snoop Dogg, Gloria Estefan, new jack swing mastermind Teddy Riley, the Michael Jackson and Alanis Morissette collaborator Glen Ballard, ELO’s Jeff Lynne, and the sometime Taylor Swift co-writer Liz Rose. The ceremony takes place on June 15. Nile Rodgers, chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, said in a press release, “The music industry does not exist without songwriters delivering great songs first. Without them there is no recorded music, no concert business, no merch… nothing, it all starts with the song and the songwriter. We are therefore very proud that we are continually recognizing some of the culturally most important so...
British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks has announced a new album: My Soft Machine is out May 26 via Transgressive. The LP’s lead single, “Weightless,” arrives with a music video directed by Marc Oller. Take a look below. Discussing her single in a press statement, Parks said, “‘Weightless’ surrounds the painful experience of caring deeply about someone who only gives you tiny breadcrumbs of affection. It’s about suddenly realising that a person has dulled your edges and embarking on the slow journey back to being a brighter version of yourself.” Parks won the Mercury Prize in 2021 for her debut, Collapsed in Sunbeams. And, at the 2022 Grammy Awards, Parks was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album. My Soft Machine includes a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers called “...
Van Conner, the co-founder and bassist of Screaming Trees, has died, according to a social media post from his brother and bandmate, Gary Lee. Conner was 55 years old. “Van Conner bassist and song writer of Screaming Trees died last night of an extended illness at 55,” Lee wrote. “It was pneumonia that got him in the end. He was one of the closest friends I ever had and I loved him immensely. I will miss him forever and ever and ever.” Conner formed Screaming Trees in 1984 in Washington alongside his brother, drummer Mark Pickerel, and Mark Lanegan, who died last February. The group was part of the early wave of Pacific Northwest rock bands predating the grunge movement, which included Nirvana, Soundgarden, and more. Following their debut album, Clairvoyance, in 1986, Screaming Trees relea...
Zedd has a timely request for Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk: reduce the hate speech. After Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last year, hate speech has risen exponentially on the platform, according to The Verge. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and more found that slurs against Black Americans rose 302% after Musk’s takeover. Moreover, slurs against gay men reportedly increased by 158%. Musk, who has long championed electronic music, has been vocal about his goal to use Twitter as a vehicle to enable free speech without censorship. Another priority after his acquisition of Twitter was to reduce the amount of bots on the platform and prosecute scammers. But now Musk is facing another predicament with no room for error: hate speech. The...
Concrete is apparently a more robust material than we thought. Vietnamese designer Duc Vu Anh has devised a concept for a nimble portable speaker made entirely out of concrete. It’s just a concept at this juncture, but if the unit is ever manufactured for sale, it could provide users with high-quality audio. To operate the innovative speaker, the user would simply tap the top of it to turn it on and do the same to turn it off. There are four physical buttons, which allow it to be turned up and down, play and pause music, and connect to Bluetooth. The device would also have a USB port on the left side to recharge the battery. According to Anh’s technical sketches of the speaker, it will use high gloss paint, concrete, ABS plastic and translucent plastic. And there...
The bar for post-pandemic live music experiences has never been higher. On February 10th, an “epic electronic disco” will take place at the Manchester Cathedral, one of the most historic chapels in England. The building was originally founded in 1421 as a parish church before becoming a cathedral over 400 years later in 1847, according to The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. Produced by JBM Music, the unique show is part of 360 Beats and Fever’s “360°” series, which offers “clubbing experiences in exceptional locations such as cathedrals, concord planes, landmarks and rooftops while the DJ plays in the centre of the room.” The historic Manchester Cathedral. David Dixon Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles Techno, disco and house mus...
This year brings the 20th anniversary of SoCal’s Lightning in a Bottle festival, and its organizers have spared no expense. This week brought the release of a star-studded Phase 1 lineup poster, revealing Rezz, Diplo, ZHU, Tale of Us and The Glitch Mob as headliners. Taking place at Buena Vista Lake in Bakersfield, from May 24-29, the fest will host more than 60 artists via this first wave of announcements. Longstanding summertime favorites like Phantogram, Caribou and The Floozies join surging trendsetters like Desiree, Canabliss, Sam Shure and Deer Jade. A host of bass music acts—from Liquid Stranger and LSDream to Moore Kismet and Mersiv—rounds out the expansive bill of music-makers handpicked for the iconic event’s milestone. Rezz, Diplo, ZHU and The Gl...
If the investors in Jurassic Park never figured out that the dinosaurs always kill people, then the manufacturers of M3GAN can be just as entertainingly dense. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a sequel to the killer horror movie — aptly titled, M3GAN 2.0 — hit theaters on January 17th, 2025. M3GAN, aka the Model 3 Generative Android, romped its way to a $30 million box office in its opening weekend and has made nearly $100 million to date. Those are the kind of numbers that would be impressive for almost anyone except James Cameron, let alone a movie with a $12 million budget. M3GAN starred Allison Williams as the human protagonist, with a team of Amie Donald and Jenna Davis as the titular villain. It was directed by Gerard Johnston and boasted a script by Akela Coo...
Jack White’s 14-year-old daughter Scarlett joined him on stage to perform bass on the Elephant cut “The Hardest Button to Button” at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on January 16th. Both White and his ex-wife Karen Elson shared photos and a video clip of their daughter’s performance on Instagram. “Miss Scarlett Teresa White,” Elson wrote. “My beautiful, kind, never wants to be the center of attention with a heart of solid gold daughter. What a sweet moment with her papa bear @officialjackwhite.” Watch the footage and see the photos below. Advertisement As NME points out, this isn’t the first time Scarlett has performed with her father. She was recently credited for playing bass on White’s 2022 album, Fear of the Dawn. Last year, White also dropped Entering Heaven Ali...
William Daniels, Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World, has been married to actor Bonnie Bartlett Daniels for 72 years — not all of them monogamous. As the 93-year-old Bartlett Daniels relates in her new memoir Middle of the Rainbow, the pair opened their marriage in what became a “very painful” period in their lives. “I guess it was a little bit of an open marriage at first, but that was very painful,” Bartlett Daniels said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “That didn’t work well. And it was a time when people were doing that. It was at a time in New York when there was a lot of sex and a lot of people doing all kinds of things, you know – very free. But I don’t know if there was a lack of commitment a little bit, and that’s not good. So there was a lot of pain connec...
Lace up your cleats, because Ted Lasso is finally on its way back; Apple TV+ has today announced that their hit sitcom will return for Season 3 sometime Spring 2023. (Translation: soon.) They’ve also revealed a first look at the season, which you can see in the still above. Ted Lasso Season 3 was originally announced to return in fall 2022. Although a specific premiere date for the new season is still up in the air, the show’s co-writer and co-star Brett Goldstein said last summer that the crew was planning on Season 3 of the Jason Sudeikis-starring series to be its last. However, since then, we’ve heard whispers that Season 3 might not be the end after all, and with its streaming numbers, we can imagine Apple TV+ would want to keep the ball rolling. Season 2 of Ted Lasso wr...
A$AP Rocky has shared an emotional track reflecting on the vicious cycle of rappers lost to gun violence and substance abuse. Originally performed during his Amazon Music live show last month, Rocky has now released the single on streaming platforms. The song arrives on the anniversary of A$AP Yams‘ tragic death. Yams, whose real name is Steven Rodriguez, was a fellow member of the A$AP Mob collective and passed away from an accidental overdose in 2015. Yams is among the late rappers Rocky paid homage to during last month’s performance, along with DMX, Takeoff, The Notorious B.I.G., Pop Smoke, Juice WRLD and more — a montage of photographs of them flashed behind him as he sang. “How many problems get solved? / Am I a product of things that I saw?” Rocky professes in the chorus. “How many p...