Twenty One Pilots’ hit “Heathens” has now spent 28 weeks at number one on the Hot Rock Songs chart, breaking the record set by Walk the Moon:
Now with 28 weeks at No. 1 (as of the chart dated March 4), “Heathens” — the duo’s single from the Suicide Squad soundtrack — has spent more time atop the chart than any other song, dating to the tally’s June 2009 inception.
The Mountain Goats will release their new album, Goths, on May 19th. Pre-orders are now up.
NASA:
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.
The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.
If we discover life on other planets while Trump is in office, humanity will have definitely jumped the shark.
Ted Leo has announced a Kickstarter for a new solo album:
I probably had enough songs to complete an album a good five years ago, but a number of things – personal and financial – prevented me from doing it. And though it’s always been a constant source of low-level anxiety that so much time continues to pass by, I’ve also come to see that time as a boon. When I missed that first hurdle, that first deadline to PRODUCE SOMETHING, the world didn’t end. Time kept moving, and all of the expectations that I had for MYSELF morphed into a more compassionate and contemplative group of feelings that were more about incubating, honing, experimenting, learning, and rebuilding a certain amount of confidence that I think I’d lost in my stymied relationship with the cycles of releases and promotion and needing support (not just financial) from the label I was working for; and so I started to actually just allow myself that time.
Instagram is adding the ability to post up to 10 photos with each post. Josh Constine, reporting for TechCrunch:
Today, Instagram launches the ability to share a mix of up to 10 photos or videos as a single carousel post that friends can swipe through. You can think of them as Instagram albums that collect permanent photos or videos around a theme. The feature rolls out globally on iOS and Android over the next few weeks.
Louis C.K. will debut a new standup special via Netflix on April 4th.
Louis C.K. has set two new stand-up specials at the deep-pocketed streaming giant, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The first special, titled 2017 and filmed in Washington, D.C., will premiere April 4. The comedian had a four-night stint in D.C. in January as part of his 2016-17 tour that concluded last week. in A date and title for the second has yet to be determined.
Jay Z has become the first rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The full class of inductees was announced today:
Musical titans Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Robert Lamm, James Pankow & Peter Cetera, p/k/a “Chicago,” Max Martin, and Shawn “JAY Z” Carter will become the latest inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the organization’s 48th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner. Berry Gordy, who deferred his induction in 2016, will also be part of the 2017 class.
Apple has announced details about their new campus, “Apple Park.”
Steve would have turned 62 this Friday, February 24. To honor his memory and his enduring influence on Apple and the world, the theater at Apple Park will be named the Steve Jobs Theater. Opening later this year, the entrance to the 1,000-seat auditorium is a 20-foot-tall glass cylinder, 165 feet in diameter, supporting a metallic carbon-fiber roof. The Steve Jobs Theater is situated atop a hill — one of the highest points within Apple Park — overlooking meadows and the main building.
Modern Baseball have canceled all their upcoming tour dates and are taking a break from the band for a while:
Hey everybody, Jake here. As much as it pains me to say this, we have decided to cancel our upcoming U.S. tour dates and festival appearances to take a break from Modern Baseball for a little while. If you already bought tickets for the tour, refunds will be available at point of purchase.
Over the past few months the band has become an immense source of anxiety for me, and it wasn’t until I opened up to Sean, Ian, and Brendan about it that we realized we were all feeling the same way. The project we started as a source of joy and positive expression had become something that was slowly eating away at our mental health and our friendships. We have been championing the importance of mental health for a while now, and we recently realized that it would be wrong for us to ignore our own health any longer. Please know that we don’t take a tour cancellation lightly, and under any other circumstances we would not even consider it an option, but in this instance we have to put our health and friendships first. You’ve supported us unconditionally throughout this crazy ride and we could never thank you enough. We never really learned how to do this whole “rock band” thing the right way, but you kept coming to the shows and talking to us and assuring us that we’d figure it out sooner or later. We could not have done any of this without you. Be honest with those you love and don’t be afraid to lean on them when you need to. Odds are they’ll need to lean on you pretty soon too.
A leaked memo from Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, outlines how the company plans to respond to the allegations from a former employee:
First, Eric Holder, former US Attorney General under President Obama, and Tammy Albarran — both partners at the leading law firm Covington & Burling — will conduct an independent review into the specific issues relating to the work place environment raised by Susan Fowler, as well as diversity and inclusion at Uber more broadly. Joining them will be Arianna Huffington, who sits on Uber’s board, Liane Hornsey, our recently hired Chief Human Resources Officer, and Angela Padilla, our Associate General Counsel. I expect them to conduct this review in short order.
The big question will be what the company does after the review.
My favorite podcast client, Overcast, has had a big update for 3.0:
Overcast 3 is now available, and it’s a huge update, mostly in the design and flow of the interface. I’ve been working on it since last summer, informed by over two years of testing, usage, and customer feedback.
MacStories has as great review (and I don’t just say that because there’s a nice screenshot of Encore in it):
The most notable visual and practical change in Overcast 3.0, however, is the new episode action tray. Inspired by Tweetbot’s tap-to-reveal action drawer in the timeline, Overcast’s action bar groups and simplifies actions that were previously hidden behind swipe gestures or other menus nested in an episode’s page. Upon tapping an episode in a list, Overcast will display buttons to share, star, play, add to queue, and delete the selected item.
I spent all of yesterday listening to my favorite shows in the new version of the app, and it’s still by far my favorite way to listen to podcasts.
Dirty Projectors’ new album is streaming on Facebook.
Susan J. Fowler, now an engineer at Stripe, wrote about her year at Uber:
Uber was a pretty good-sized company at that time, and I had pretty standard expectations of how they would handle situations like this. I expected that I would report him to HR, they would handle the situation appropriately, and then life would go on — unfortunately, things played out quite a bit differently. When I reported the situation, I was told by both HR and upper management that even though this was clearly sexual harassment and he was propositioning me, it was this man’s first offense, and that they wouldn’t feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stern talking-to. Upper management told me that he “was a high performer” (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn’t feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part.
The Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack has the number one album in the country this week.
The Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, earning 123,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Feb. 16, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 72,000 were in traditional album sales. The set was released through Universal Studios/Republic Records on Feb. 10.
Jello Biafra has turned down an offer to reunite the Dead Kennedys at Riot Fest:
Dead Kennedys had a sincere invitation to play a reunion show at Riot Fest in Chicago this fall. Jello Biafra turned it down. Klaus Flouride, DH Peligro and I were looking forward to doing it.