Jimmy Eat World have released some new merch to their store. (Now, how about an album announcement?)
Jimmy Eat World Release New Merch
Gen Z Is Keeping Emo Alive
Marianne Eloise, writing at Vice:
The first time I felt truly old was the first time I read someone comment “I was born in the wrong generation” under a My Chemical Romance video from 2006. For millennials like me, our emo phases are mostly relegated to our teen years, only resurrected in the dizzying glow of a karaoke booth. But back in school, belonging to a group was everything: you were emo to death, or you weren’t.
Now, as genre and culture melt and slam into one another, we’re witnessing a new sort of emo revival. Well, even to call it that would be a bit of a stretch. Rather, today’s teenagers are posting about how much they love Fall Out Boy’s Take This To Your Grave or Taking Back Sunday’s Tell All Your Friends, second-generation 2000s emo albums that came out when they were barely born.
This is today’s entry in the “wanna feel old” box.
Shazam Data Is Powering Apple Music’s Newest Chart
Sarah Perez, writing at TechCrunch:
Today, Apple announced that Shazam data will also now power a new Apple Music chart: the Shazam Discovery Top 50.
The chart will feature a weekly global ranking of the top 50 artists on the move and their trending track, based on Shazam data.
The ‘Matrix 4’ is Coming
Justin Kroll, writing at Variety:
Lana Wachowski is set to write and direct a fourth film set in the world of “The Matrix,” with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity, respectively.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures will produce and globally distribute the film. Warner Bros. Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich made the announcement on Tuesday. […]
In addition to Wachowski, the script was also written by Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell. Wachowski is also producing with Grant Hill. Sources say the film is eyed to begin production at the top of 2020.
Slipknot Top the Charts
Slipknot have the number one album in the country this week:
Slipknot scores its third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as the rock band’s We Are Not Your Kind bows in the top slot. The album earned 118,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Aug. 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 102,000 were in album sales.
New ‘He-Man’ Series Coming to Netflix
Kevin Smith has announced he’s working on a new anime He-Man series for Netflix.
The new series, titled “Masters of the Universe: Revelation,” will take place in the Mattel toy inspired world and will focus on some of the unresolved storylines of the classic ‘80s show. Smith will serve as showrunner and executive producer.
“I’m Eternia-ly grateful to Mattel TV and Netflix for entrusting me with not only the secrets of Grayskull, but also their entire Universe,” Smith said. “In ‘Revelation,’ we pick up right where the classic era left off to tell an epic tale of what may be the final battle between He-Man and Skeletor! Brought to life with the most metal character designs Powerhouse Animation can contain in the frame, this is the Masters of the Universe story you always wanted to see as a kid!”
Welcome to Bon Iver, Wisconsin
Bon Iver is the center of a new feature at Pitchfork today:
For six weeks, everyone worked in different little studios, bringing ideas in and out to main rooms, auditioning riffs, futzing with samplers, pedals, gear, and synths until something genuinely surprising emerged. More than ever, Vernon was letting the band dictate the sound of the record: psychedelic and warm, dense and open. Even though there were plenty of false starts and dead ends, Vernon attests, “They’re all seeds—a mood that you can build around. I didn’t want to be worried about being the author of everything, it was more about trying to find something I can cruise on.”
Shura Tells the Transatlantic Love Story Behind Her New Album
Shura talked with MTV about her upcoming album:
So no one is more surprised than Shura now that her sophomore album happens to be about successful, all-encompassing love. But love changes things. Love radically alters perception and beautifies reality; it brings everything together in perfect, poetic harmony. Now Shura’s noticing patterns everywhere. “Wherever I go I’m followed by some kind of home improvement,” she says to MTV News.
Twenty seconds before our call, a drill starts in the London apartment next to hers. When she moved into her girlfriend’s New York home last November, the builders came in to do work on the house next door. “I think it’s because I just wrote a U-Haul lesbian album,” she says. Even in conversation, Shura can twist a great hook.
August Supporter Pitch Update
As I wrote about last week, I’m making my yearly pitch to everyone that reads this website to become a supporting member:
Based on these calculations, I am exactly 90 supporters short of this website hitting my goal for the year.
That means if 90 more people sign-up to any tier of the supporter membership by the end of this year, I’ll be sitting right where I want to be and it’ll be a massive weight off my shoulders.
Last week over 20 new people signed up to be a supporting member and I can’t thank you enough. It’s a fantastic start.
The Simple Brilliance of Colleen Green’s Cover of Blink-182’s ‘Dude Ranch’
Lindsay Zoladz, writing at The Ringer:
In her hands, the juvenile potty humor comes off less as a defining factor of the record than a defense mechanism, as if Hoppus and DeLonge have suddenly realized how emotionally raw some of these songs are and felt a nervous impulse to distract the listener with comic relief. Great covers help you see familiar source material from new angles. I used to think Dude Ranch was Blink’s most gleefully immature record. Now I hear it as their most vulnerable.
I enjoyed this article and look at this album. As I wrote in last week’s newsletter, these songs hold up surprisingly well in this setting.
Westering Settings – “Spinning World”
Westering Settings’ new song “Spinning World” is up for stream over at Brooklyn Vegan.
Drake Tops the Charts
Drake has the number one album in the country this week:
Drake achieves his ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his new archival compilation album, Care Package, premieres in the top slot. The set, which was released on Aug. 2 via OVO Sound/Republic Records, launches with 109,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 8, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 16,000 were in album sales.
The Maine Release New Live EP
The Maine have released Live at the Orpheum Theatre to streaming services.
Henry Rollins Talks Punk Rock in the Trump Era
Henry Rollins talked with The Daily Beast about a variety of topics in the world and punk rock:
We live in an age of inevitability from Reagan to now, because, since he was president, there’s been one overriding current in this country: Send the money upstairs, you get less, he gets more. Dumb down the electorate. Really work at it. Because we need dumb people who don’t travel, and who hate and fear whatever’s “out there” so we can throw them into a desert and blow up a country that never did anything to us. And, while we’re at it, make it easier to rob a liquor store, or just make some bad choices, so Johnny can go away for 20 years for three joints in his ass pocket. Because that’s where those guys make their money: through incarceration. These kids in cages that are costing the American taxpayers $750 a day, and yet there’s no budget for toothbrushes? That should tell you everything.
My Chemical Romance Release Some New Distressed Merch
My Chemical Romance have released a new “distressed” collection of clothing.