Did you see Wonder Woman this weekend? Love it as much as most fans and critics did? If you crave more of the character, our forum’s comic book thread has again put together a list of accessible comic recommendations for you to check out. Whether you’re a new or lapsed comic book reader, or just new to this character, you’ll find something to enjoy in these wonderful hand-picked recommendations.
Chris DeVille, writing at Stereogum, talks about how since Arcade Fire released great music in the past, they have become too big to fail:
The mighty would have fallen by now, but their reputation is propping them up. That’s how it goes when your rock band becomes too big to fail. You grab enough people by the heart when they’re young and impressionable, you get to be a big deal forever, whether your moment of excellence lasted well over a decade (like U2 or the Rolling Stones) or just for an album or two (like Weezer and the Strokes). Call it brand loyalty, wishful thinking, whatever. It’s a fact of the music business. Creative death can’t kill the world’s biggest rock bands — only actual death, and sometimes not even that.
I’ve only heard a couple songs on the new Arcade Fire album, so I can’t comment on that directly, but I do think this is an interesting phenomenon in general. When an artist’s prior work creates an unstoppable gravitational force of fandom.
Matthew Lynley, writing for TechCrunch, details Blue Apron’s plan to go public:
The company is showing a rather incredible amount of growth. Blue Apron said it generated nearly $800 million in revenue in 2016, up from $341 million in 2015. For the first quarter this year, Blue Apron said it generated $245 million in revenue, up from $172 million in the first quarter last year. Despite all this, Blue Apron said it lost $55 million in 2016, though it said it lost $52 million in the first quarter this year.
A better way to IPO.
To celebrate the release of their new album, All Time Low have released a series of “Young Renegade” jackets and patches on their webstore.
Thom Yorke of Radiohead talked with Rolling Stone about the Israel controversy earlier this year:
I’ll be totally honest with you: this has been extremely upsetting. There’s an awful lot of people who don’t agree with the BDS movement, including us. I don’t agree with the cultural ban at all, along with J.K. Rowling, Noam Chomsky and a long list of others.
There are people I admire [who have been critical of the concert] like [English film director] Ken Loach, who I would never dream of telling where to work or what to do or think. The kind of dialogue that they want to engage in is one that’s black or white. I have a problem with that. It’s deeply distressing that they choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw shit at us in public. It’s deeply disrespectful to assume that we’re either being misinformed or that we’re so retarded we can’t make these decisions ourselves. I thought it was patronizing in the extreme. It’s offensive and I just can’t understand why going to play a rock show or going to lecture at a university [is a problem to them].
Punk Goes Pop: Volume 7 has been announced.
The president’s decision was a victory for Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, and Scott Pruitt, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, both of whom had argued forcefully to abandon the global agreement in favor of a clean break that would clear the way for a new environmental approach.
What an absolute disgrace.
The Dopamines’ new album, Tales of Interest, can be streamed over at Noisey.
Rolling Stone revisited OK Computer with Radiohead:
OK Computer transformed Radiohead from a cult British act into the most important rock band on the planet. But in classic Nineties fashion, its success only left Yorke more adrift. “Back then,” Yorke recalls, “the person I saw in the mirror kept saying, ‘You’re shit. Everything you do is shit. Don’t do that. It’s shit.'” For a minute there, he lost himself.
LCD Soundsystem have announced their new album is done and could see a release in the next six weeks.
Will Arnett spoke with Business Insider about the upcoming season of Arrested Development, and confirmed that the series will be structured more like the first three seasons:
This time around, not only is the whole cast returning (“sadly, Jason Bateman has agreed to do it,” jokes Arnett), but Arnett tells us that the show will be structured in a way that’s similar to the original seasons. That means the cast will be appearing together and sharing more scenes, he hints, as opposed to season 4, which focused on one or two characters per episode.
The New York Times has reported that Bill Simmons’s website, The Ringer, will be moving from Medium to Vox Media:
Mr. Simmons, a former ESPN personality, will keep ownership of The Ringer, but Vox will sell advertising for the site and share in the revenue. The Ringer will leave its current home on Medium, where it has been hosted since it began in June 2016.
Jim Bankoff, Vox’s chief executive, said in a phone interview that the partnership was the first of its type for the company and would allow it to expand its offerings to advertisers.
First, this seems like a pretty big hit to Medium as a publishing platform for bigger websites. Maybe Medium is just better suited for long-form writing for individuals that don’t want to set up their own blogs, and want something more professional looking than a Facebook note? Second, The Ringer needs to get a whole lot better to survive. The content just isn’t very good. The sportswriting and analysis is thin, the music reviews are mostly a joke, and the pop-culture pieces lack the bite or comedy of Grantland. The Ringer lacks an editorial identity and voice.
Nate Barcalow’s (formerly of Finch) new band, Private Lives, have launched a PledgeMusic campaign.
Linkin Park have landed their sixth number one album:
The set earned 111,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 25, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 100,000 were in traditional album sales. The album is Linkin Park’s seventh studio effort, and was released on May 25 through Machine Shop/Warner Bros. Records.
Greg Graffin talked with Las Vegas Weekly and mentioned that Bad Religion are gearing up for a new album:
Speaking of Bad Religion, he confirms that the band is “definitely gearing up for a new album,” since it has been more than four years since the release of its last LP, True North. (“Our fans are getting itchy,” he laughs.) Graffin is also working on a novel proposal based around a complex, evolution-based query.