music
Song of the Week: Danny L Harle Urges Us to Dance and Heal with “On a Mountain”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. It feels significant that British producer Danny L Harle chose to file his latest banger, “On a Mountain”, under his DJ Danny alias. Because, let’s face it: DJs need a win right now. Yes, our favorite spinners have found ways to keep busy behind the scenes over the course of the pandemic. Harle, himself, aside from prepping his upcoming solo album, Harlecore, has remixed no less than Georgia and 100 gecs and produced for 2020 standouts Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama in addition to longtime collaborator Caroline Polachek. That’s damn-good work ...
The War on Drugs Perform “Arms Like Boulders” on Colbert: Watch
Live shows may temporarily be on pause, but they’ve hardly been forgotten. In fact, The War on Drugs recently released a live album titled LIVE DRUGS comprised of concert recordings from throughout their career. (The 10-track effort was reportedly “culled from over 40 hard drives,” so you can be sure the concert nostalgia was intense.) On Friday, The War on Drugs supported their new effort by playing “Arms Like Boulders” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The remote performance saw Adam Granduciel, David Hartley, Robbie Bennett, Charlie Hall, Anthony LaMarca all play along on guitar, while Jon Natchez handled a mandolin. Replay the performance down below. Editors’ Picks “Arms Like Boulders” originally appeared on The War on Drugs’ debut album, Wagonwheel Blues, as well as th...
Sheer Mag Share New Song “Crushed Velvet”: Stream
Sheer Mag have shared “Crushed Velvet”, their first new music since 2019’s A Distant Call. The Philadelphia rockers’ latest singles comes from the soundtrack to Hulu’s new original film The Ultimate Playlist of Noise. Out now, the movie finds a teenager (Keean Johnson) traveling to New York City as he tries to experience as many unique sounds as possible before a tumor takes his hearing. That theme is perfect for Sheer Mag’s style, as “Crushed Velvet” trades on soaring guitar riffs, snarled vocals, and some growling background. It’s a smorgasbord of throwback rock sounds, and you can take a listen below. Editors’ Picks The Ultimate Playlist of Noise is streaming now on Hulu. You can sign up for free month of the streaming service here to watch the new movie now. Check out the trailer...
Baby Dancing to Tool’s “Invincible” Will Lift Your Spirits During These Dark Times: Watch
Dancing Tool Baby (via YouTube), Tool’s Maynard James Keenan (photo by Kevin RC Wilson) With a pandemic still plaguing the world and insurrectionists storming the U.S. Capitol, we need a bit of levity in these dark times. That’s where a new video of a baby dancing to Tool’s “Invincible” comes in, brightening our spirits with every one of his little stomps. We stumbled on this video in its infancy, and we’re not just talking about the baby’s age. Criminally, it only had 20 views since being uploaded just before Christmas by YouTube user Mom of Five. With the Fear Inoculum track “Invincible” playing on the family’s television, complete with a graphic of the album cover, the little Batman-pajama-wearing toddler seems to be drawn to the music. As he makes his way to the TV with his sippy...
Trailer Unveiled for Upcoming Serj Tankian Documentary Truth to Power: Watch
System of a Down singer Serj Tankian is the subject of a recently announced documentary film titled Truth to Power, which premieres on February 19th. The trailer and poster for the movie have now been unveiled. The new trailer offers a glimpse at what viewers can expect from the intimate documentary, which follows Tankian’s journey as a musician and longtime activist. The singer and his band continue to raise awareness for the crisis in Artsakh, an Armenian-adjacent state that was recently under siege by Azerbaijan and Turkey. In the past, they called for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. “[It’s] looking through my eyes at how message becomes reality through the arts,” Tankian said of Truth to Power in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone. “Instead of focusing on me as an ar...
J.Lo At 20: Celebrating The Album That Made Jennifer Lopez An Icon
By Yasmine Shemesh When Jennifer Lopez began recording her sophomore album, J.Lo, in 2000, she was in the midst of an incredible career high. With a $1 million salary for 1997’s Selena, she’d become the highest-paid Latina actress in Hollywood history and had no less than three new movies in the works. “Waiting for Tonight,” her dance-infused 1999 single, had become an anthem for the new millennium and was nominated for a Grammy. And she was about to make fashion history, thanks to a certain plunging Versace dress. In hindsight, given how long she’s been a multihyphenate, Lopez’s early ambidextrousness wasn’t one bit surprising. In fact, as she told Rolling Stone the following year, she felt like she hadn’t even started yet. “I’m looking forward to the ninth album, the 30th movie...
Rage Against the Machine Release Killing in Thy Name Documentary About Race: Watch
The socio-political events of the past five years have been a too-fitting backdrop for Rage Against The Machine’s music. The legendary rock group weren’t able to tour the country last year as planned, but today they’re giving their artistic response to the reignited racial justice movement with a new documentary called Killing in Thy Name. The project is a collaboration with a collective of international artists called The Ummah Chroma (which translates to “communities of color”), and it seeks to be “a fire escape from the fiction known as whiteness and a spring for discovery.” The bulk of the 15-minute endeavor features footage of a teacher and some schoolchildren learning about the west’s dark history of slavery, manifest destiny, and the very concept of “whiteness” within the conte...
Dr. Dre Released from Hospital Following Brain Aneurysm Scare
Dr. Dre Dr. Dre has been released from the hospital today following a brain aneurysm earlier this month. The happy update comes from friend and fellow hip-hop veteran Ice-T, who tweeted Friday afternoon that Dr. Dre “just made it home. Safe and looking good.” The Chronic rap icon was initially rushed to the ICU of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on January 5th. By later that evening, his condition seemed to be under control, and he was described as “stable and lucid.” Dr. Dre himself even posted on Instagram that he was “doing great and getting excellent care,” and assured fans that he would be “out of the hospital and back home soon.” Update: Just FaceTimed with @drdre He just made it home. Safe and looking good. 🙏👊🏽 — ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) Janua...
Zayn’s Nobody Is Listening Has A Song For Every Mood
By Ashley Oken Zayn’s eagerly awaited third album, Nobody’s Listening, is out today (January 15), and instead of the sprawling 90 minutes of 2018’s Icarus Falls or the pop maximalism of his 2016 debut, Mind of Mine, it scales back to focus on the singer’s deepest thoughts, including nostalgia, sexual desire, and heartbreak. It’s a tenacious yet delicate album full of stripped compositions and intimate lyrics, the kind that longtime fans need during a tumultuous time. Teasing new music for months before the release, Zayn dropped the early singles “Better” in September and “Vibez” three months later. The former hit the Billboard Hot 100 in October, while the latter set the tone for the rest of the album to come with its neo-soul vibe. On January 12, Zayn even launched a phone ...
Olivia Rodrigo’s Emotional Rite Of Passage, Taylor Swift’s Bonus Feels, And More Songs We Love
One of two bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of December’s Evermore, “Right Where You Left Me” transports listeners back to the fantastical forests of Folklore, Taylor Swift’s first foray into indie folk-pop. “Help, I’m still at the restaurant / Still sitting in a corner I haunt,” a forlorn Swift pleads in the pre-chorus, referencing a public breakup that left the song’s narrator permanently frozen in time. Folksy strings and self-aware lyrics underline tensions between the head and the heart, reality and fantasy, evolution and stagnation. It’s also a total earworm, which is to say: How dare you, Taylor! —Sam Manzella You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful p...
Apparently Car Choirs Are a Thing Now Thanks to the Pandemic
What’s a choir to do when the pandemic makes it impossible to rehearse in person? If you ask Canadian chamber ensemble Luminous Voices, they’ll tell you the answer can be found in your car. As NPR reports, Luminous Voices have been gathering together and singing from inside their own cars. And no, they aren’t shouting out of their rolled-down windows — only irresponsible dummies like Kirk Cameron would do that. Instead, their voices are actually broadcast through each individual car’s radio system. Think of it like Fast & Furious: The Hymn Edition. College music professor David Newman first came up with the innovative “car choir” approach after seeing his Facebook friends “either bemoaning the fact that we couldn’t sing together at all, or saying ‘Singing together is too important and ...
Eyehategod Unleash New Song “Fake What’s Yours” Ahead of Upcoming Album: Stream
Sludge metal vets Eyehategod have offered up “Fake What’s Yours”, the second single from the band’s forthcoming album, A History of Nomadic Behavior (out March 12th). The song proceeds lead single “High Risk Trigger”, following a similar thread of swinging doom riffs and the inimitable snarls of vocalist Mike IX Williams. Frankly, Williams described it best in his own words: “It’s a pure uncut chunk of anti-authoritarian preach-speak set to a condescending guitar riff that could only be born from the dirty streets of New Orleans,” Williams remarked in a press release. “We can’t wait for everyone to hear the full record, but for now, put on your gas masks, lock your doors, stay home and LISTEN!” As the singer revealed when the album was announced, given the current state of affairs, there’s...
