LANY have released a cover of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” for Spotify.
HalfNoise – “Scooby’s In The Back” Video
HalfNoise has released a video for “Scooby’s In The Back.”
With Confidence – “Waterfall” Video
With Confidence have released a video for “Waterfall.”
Eminem Freestyles About Donald Trump
Eminem appeared on a pre-recorded segment during the BET Hip-Hop Awards last night to perform a freestyle about Donald Trump. Trump’s too busy trying to destroy the freedom of the press and start nuclear war to respond (and he rarely picks fights with white men anyway).
An MP3 of the song can be found here.
Julien Baker – “Turn Out the Lights” Video
Julien Baker has released a video for “Turn Out the Lights.”
Kevin Devine – “No One Says You Have To”
Kevin Devine has shared the new version of “No One Says You Have To.” The track features The Mynabirds.
Paramore Release “Hard Times” Blooper Reel
Paramore have released a blooper reel from the recording of their music video for “Hard Times.”
Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties – “Orchard Park”
Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties have released the new song “Orchard Park.” The song was produced by Ace Enders and Nik Bruzzese.
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Tom DeLonge Announces To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science
Leslie Kean, writing for HuffPost:
It all started with award-winning platinum recording artist and producer Tom DeLonge. […]
Fast foward to the present. Now, these early advisors have mostly receded to the background and Tom has moved on to something even bigger. He has assembled a new team of collaborators and created the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science (TTS/AAS), for which he is President and interim CEO. The Academy includes three synergistic divisions: Science, Areospace, and Entertainment. The Public Benefit Corporation is seeking to serve the public good through exploring “the outer edges of science and the understanding of phenomena,” and making all of it public.
On Wednesday October 11, at 9:00 AM PT and 12:00 PM EST, the team will launch the new initiative at an event to be live-streamed from Seattle. Tom will introduce his colleagues and explain the intentions and purpose of the new company, and its need for public support.
The new initiative has a website.
2017 has broken my ability to be shocked by anything that hits the news. Aliens could start walking down the street tomorrow morning and I’d be like, “oh, it’s a Wednesday in 2017, whateverfuckit.”
Josh Ritter on CBS This Morning
Josh Ritter was recently featured on CBS This Morning.
New Pennywise Coming in 2018
Jim Lindberg of Pennywise confirmed on a recent episode of the Punkanoraml Activity podcast that a new album from the band will be coming in 2018.
Talking Batman on Welcome to Geekdom
Yours truly is on the latest episode of Welcome to Geekdom talking about The Lego Batman Movie and the animated Batman film Mask of the Phantasm. Both films are great and I had a lot of fun geeking out on two different variations of the Batman character.
Martin Scorsese on Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office Obsession
Martin Scorsese, writing at The Hollywood Reporter:
There is another change that, I believe, has no upside whatsoever. It began back in the ’80s when the “box office” started to mushroom into the obsession it is today. When I was young, box office reports were confined to industry journals like The Hollywood Reporter. Now, I’m afraid that they’ve become…everything. Box office is the undercurrent in almost all discussions of cinema, and frequently it’s more than just an undercurrent. The brutal judgmentalism that has made opening-weekend grosses into a bloodthirsty spectator sport seems to have encouraged an even more brutal approach to film reviewing. I’m talking about market research firms like Cinemascore, which started in the late ’70s, and online “aggregators” like Rotten Tomatoes, which have absolutely nothing to do with real film criticism. They rate a picture the way you’d rate a horse at the racetrack, a restaurant in a Zagat’s guide, or a household appliance in Consumer Reports. They have everything to do with the movie business and absolutely nothing to do with either the creation or the intelligent viewing of film. The filmmaker is reduced to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer.
He’s not wrong.
And as film criticism written by passionately engaged people with actual knowledge of film history has gradually faded from the scene, it seems like there are more and more voices out there engaged in pure judgmentalism, people who seem to take pleasure in seeing films and filmmakers rejected, dismissed and in some cases ripped to shreds.
Sounds a little like popular music criticism as well.
Travis Barker and More Open Up on Fighting Addiction and Depression
Steve Baltin, writing for Forbes, interviews a variety of artists on fighting addiction and depression:
Travis Barker: Sobriety saved my life. My only my regret is it didn’t happen sooner. It was sad that it took a plane crash and almost dying to finally sober up. My second chance at life and my kids was enough to never touch drugs again. Being present and sober is something I wouldn’t trade for anything. Music is my drug.
And:
Anthony Green: I don’t have the answers for what we do, but I know that in Circa Survive and with my situation, the forefront with everything in the band is each other. That stuff comes before making money. From the beginning of the band we wanted it to be a family that cared about each other. So when I needed to go to rehab and I needed to have my mental health issues addressed, the band got put on hiatus and pause. I think that a lot of these guys are in situations where they’re afraid to stop the train from rolling because a lot of people depend on them financially. I think putting the idea of your mental health in front of making money is one thing you can do.
Today is World Mental Health Day and there’s some great insights from a variety of people in this piece.1
I hate trying to use Forbes’ website though, so I’m sorry about that.↩
Mansions Announce New EP
Mansions will release their new EP, Deserter, on November 3rd. Today they’ve debuted the new track “Heel Theme” and pre-orders are now up.