AEG to Require Proof of Full Vaccination for U.S. Concertgoers and Event Staff

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AEG:

AEG Presents, a global leader in concerts and live events, announced today that it will be requiring proof of vaccination for entry into its owned and operated clubs, theatres, and festivals. The decision comes on the heels of the dramatic surge in Covid-19 cases as the Delta variant spreads throughout the United States. AEG Presents is either an owner or partner in such iconic venues and festivals as New York’s Webster Hall and Brooklyn Steel, The Roxy and El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, The Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas, Firefly Music Festival, Day N Vegas, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and Coachella Music & Arts Festival, among others.

The vaccination policy, limited only as required by law, will be in full effect nationwide no later than October 1, 2021. Several venues have already been following local government vaccination mandates, with others anticipated to come in the weeks leading up to October 1. The date was chosen specifically to allow time for any eligible unvaccinated ticketholders and staff to reach fully vaccinated status should they choose to do so. Leading up to October 1, AEG Presents will be implementing a policy of showing proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of show date where permitted.

Jimmy Urine Sued for Sexual Assault of Minor

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone:

James Euringer, the lead singer and primary songwriter for New York electropunk band Mindless Self Indulgence, has been accused of sexual battery of a minor, according to a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on Monday.

In the suit, the woman, whose identity was left anonymous because she was a minor at the time, claims that she had a sexual relationship with Euringer for over two years — from January 1997 to June 1999 — starting when she was 15 years old and Euringer was 27. Euringer, the suit alleges, “groomed and manipulated [her] into believing that his sexually assaultive behavior was not criminal and that by engaging in sexual activity with him Plaintiff was actually helping to protect younger girls from sexual assaults.”

Patrick Stump Talks With Screen Rant

Patrick Stump

Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy talks with Screen Rant about doing the theme song for Spidey and His Amazing Friends.

The morning of the meeting, I got an email just letting me know what the show was going to be, what it was going to be about, and what the characters were. I was kind of taking it slow, so I was still in my pajamas. I opened up my phone, I looked at this, and I got so excited. I wrote the song pretty much in 10 minutes in my head, just reading the thing, I was like, “It should sound like this!” And then I’m scrambling to put on real clothes and drive over to the studio, humming guitar parts into my voice notes at the stoplight.

Basically, by the time I got to the meeting, I had a fully recorded song. And this is the first time they’re meeting me, this was the “get to know you” thing. I was like, “I have something,” and it ended up being one of those magic things that doesn’t happen that often. But sometimes as a creative person, every so often you have one of those things where it just is exactly right. Your first thought is exactly right. So, I played them the song that I wrote that morning, and it’s pretty much what you hear in the show now.

Conor Oberst and Waxahatchee Talk Songwriting Tips

Bright Eyes

Conor Oberst and Waxahatchee trade songwriting tips in a new interview over at Consequence:

Crutchfield: That’s pretty much exactly how I do it. It takes me so long to write lyrics, so I collect all of these vocal melodies and just sort of have them in my back pocket. When I finally sit down to write words, it’s like the most painful and torturous process, and it takes so long.

Oberst: Not to butter your bread, but your melodies are always so incredible. And then to have that with the amazing lyrics and your voice is insane. Total package over there. I feel like the lyric writing is the easiest thing for me. Do you ever write something that you’re stoked about, and then you realize that it’s already a song?

Bo Burnham’s Jeff Bezos Songs Jump in Streams

Jeff Bezos

Billboard:

Streams of “Bezos I” and “Bezos II,” Bo Burnham’s Jeff Bezos-focused songs from his latest comedy special and corresponding album Inside, jumped 21% in the wake of the Amazon founder and richest person in the world’s brief trip into space on July 20.

On July 20 and 21, “Bezos I” earned 1.4 million U.S. on-demand streams, up 22% from 1.2 million the two days prior to his launch (July 18 and 19), according to MRC Data.

Pop Smoke Tops the Charts

Pop Smoke has the number one album in the country:

Pop Smoke’s second posthumous album, Faith, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, garnering the rapper his second leader. The guest-laden collection was released on July 16 and starts with 88,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 22, according to MRC Data.

Tumblr Introduces Paid Subscription Tool to Woo Younger Bloggers

Katie Deighton, writing for the Wall Street Journal:

Microblogging stalwart Tumblr on Wednesday began a test letting some users charge their followers a monthly fee in exchange for access to exclusive content.

The blogging site, which Verizon Communications Inc. sold to WordPress.com owner Automattic Inc. in 2019 for far less than the $1.1 billion it paid for it, said it hopes to make the option to charge for posts widely available this fall.

The feature, called Post+, offers content creators a choice of three monthly prices to charge their followers—$3.99, $5.99 or $9.99—with Tumblr taking a 5% cut of subscription fees. Users can continue to post free content as well if they want.

Tumblr is still around?

Steve Lamos Leaves American Football

American Football

Steve Lamos has left American Football:

After many years with American Football, my life situation has changed. Unfortunately, I now need to move on from the band.

I’d like to thank Mike, Holmes, Nate, Garzon, and Cory; Amber, Cara, and Butch; Jason, Jim, and Todd; Matt, Darcie, Seth, and everyone else at Polyvinyl; Atiba, Damien, Evan, SB, Sarah V, Dan, Sarah T, Meric, Logan, and the many other amazing artists and people whom I’ve come to know through AF. 

I wish you all the best as the band moves on to its next phase. 

Finally, I’d like to thank AF fans: you have provided me with some truly amazing experiences—and some truly amazing memories.

Study Projects a Surge in Coastal Flooding

Globe

NASA:

In the mid-2030s, every U.S. coast will experience rapidly increasing high-tide floods, when a lunar cycle will amplify rising sea levels caused by climate change.

High-tide floods – also called nuisance floods or sunny day floods – are already a familiar problem in many cities on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported a total of more than 600 such floods in 2019. Starting in the mid-2030s, however, the alignment of rising sea levels with a lunar cycle will cause coastal cities all around the U.S. to begin a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers, according to the first study that takes into account all known oceanic and astronomical causes for floods.

Led by the members of the NASA Sea Level Change Science Team from the University of Hawaii, the new study shows that high tides will exceed known flooding thresholds around the country more often. What’s more, the floods will sometimes occur in clusters lasting a month or longer, depending on the positions of the Moon, Earth, and the Sun. When the Moon and Earth line up in specific ways with each other and the Sun, the resulting gravitational pull and the ocean’s corresponding response may leave city dwellers coping with floods every day or two.

Well, that sure sucks.

Jimmy Eat World Share Origins of New Graphic Novel

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World talked with Consequence about their upcoming graphic novel:

With all this backstory and with the video turning out rad, we felt it would be a shame to let it just end. The video pretty much is a live-action comic anyway. Z2 Comics was the best partner to do this with because they have experience working with people outside the comic world to make something good. They put me in touch with the writer, Alex Paknadel. I shared what I knew about the backstory and a very basic arc of where KLARRG could end up emotionally. After that I let him just go. He had total freedom to take it wherever he thought was interesting.

The illustrator Koren Shadmi was enlisted to draw because I felt his take on Sci-Fi was spot-on for the tone. Just a really great mix of presenting the unexplainable and unreal with a sense of total immersion, helplessness and struggle.

Half Waif Breaks Down New Album

Half Waif

Half Waif broke down their new album for Consequence:

Lying in bed after visiting my aunt, who has Alzheimer’s, I couldn’t sleep. I just kept fixating on the way her arm felt when I touched her — so soft yet solid — and how much love I tried to pour from my fingers, from my voice, into the vessel of her body. It’s a brutal disease and it took her away from us really quickly. But there are things that can’t be taken away. The memory of her swimming at our family’s cabin in Maine, the feeling of my fingers on her shoulder, the song. I started singing the melody of what would become “Swimmer” that night, just a loose scrap of a verse. The next day, I had this impulse to turn it into a dark pop song.

Tyler, the Creator Tops the Charts

Tyler, the Creator has the number one album in the country this week.

Tyler, the Creator scores his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200chart as his latest studio effort, Call Me If You Get Lost, debuts atop the tally. The set was announced on June 17, released on June 25 via Columbia Records and earned 169,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending July 1, according to MRC Data.

Mark Hoppus Offers Health Update

Mark Hoppus

Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 offered a health update during a recent Twitch event.

“On good days, I go do stuff,” he said. “I went on a walk outside today and it was the first time I’d left my house in like… five days pretty much. But this round of chemo I wasn’t totally stuck on the couch, miserable. I’ve actually watched movies and walked around and cleaned the house and hung out with my dogs. I didn’t just feel like a poisoned electrified zombie leaned up against an electric fence like I did the past couple of rounds.”

But his ability to interact with the world is limited, and Hoppus finds it frustrating. “I can’t go anywhere right now. I wanted to go to the Dodgers last night. I can’t. I want to go hang out with friends and go to a restaurant. I can’t,” he said. “My white blood cell count is way too low for me to go out, so I am stuck trying to get better. That’s alright, I’ll take it.”

Amazon Announces Vinyl Subscription Service

amazon

Rolling Stone:

Amazon says that it’s selecting albums from the “golden era of vinyl,” which it defines as the 1960s and 1970s. Its music team singles out Pink Floyd, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis and Abba as examples of artists that fit their criteria. One Amazon user noted that the first two albums released to subscribers werePink Floyd’s The Wall and London Calling by The Clash.