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Rise Against Announce New Album

Rise Against
Jason Tate

Rise Against will release their new album, Wolves, on June 9th. They’ve released the first single “The Violence” today. Tim McIlrath describes the album as such:

In many ways, a Rise Against show is a safe space for our fans, but I realised that I don’t only want to create safe spaces, I want to create dangerous spaces where misogyny can’t exist, where xenophobia can’t exist.

I want to create spaces where those sentiments don’t have any air, and they suffocate: where those ideas die. ‘Wolves’ isn’t about creating a safe space, it’s about creating a space that’s dangerous for injustice.

Pre-orders are now up.

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Steve Ballmer Unveils USAFacts

Jason Tate

Steve Ballmer has unveiled USAFacts. Here’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, writing for The New York Times:

On Tuesday, Mr. Ballmer plans to make public a database and a report that he and a small army of economists, professors and other professionals have been assembling as part of a stealth start-up over the last three years called USAFacts. The database is perhaps the first nonpartisan effort to create a fully integrated look at revenue and spending across federal, state and local governments.

Want to know how many police officers are employed in various parts of the country and compare that against crime rates? Want to know how much revenue is brought in from parking tickets and the cost to collect? Want to know what percentage of Americans suffer from diagnosed depression and how much the government spends on it? That’s in there. You can slice the numbers in all sorts of ways.

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Streetlight Manifesto and Victory Records Settle Lawsuit

Victory Records
Jason Tate

Streetlight Manifesto and Victory Records have ended their lawsuit. They released a joint statement:

Victory Records and Streetlight Manifesto have amicably settled the litigation filed by Victory in the U.S. District Court in Illinois. After a long and successful run, the parties agreed that it was in their mutual best interests to end the 15 year relationship. As part of the settlement, Victory agreed to sell Streetlight Manifesto all of their master recordings for an undisclosed sum resolving claims that were asserted in the lawsuit. No further comment will be made by either party.

Harry Styles Comments on Young Music Fans

Harry Styles
Jason Tate

Harry Styles dropped this quote in a recent interview with Rolling Stone when asked about his fan base:

Asked if he spends pressure-filled evenings worried about proving credibility to an older crowd, Styles grows animated. “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music—short for popular, right?—have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans—they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.

All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth tweeted his agreement.

When I was younger I was way too self-concious about the kind of music I liked and told my friends I liked. I was constantly afraid of being made fun of or called names. I felt judged if my pop-punk bands were too “pop,” so god forbid I tell anyone I liked Madonna or The Bangles. It’s great to see more artists speaking out about this, because we have to break this stigma that if young women like a band that’s somehow worthy of criticism.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ Soundtrack Revealed

Marvel
Jason Tate

The soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has been announced and director James Gunn sat down with Rolling Stone to dive into it:

“I’ve always said that if the Guardians had a house band, it would be ELO,” says Gunn, “and ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ is one of my favorite songs by them. We had a hard time getting the rights. We had to really fight to get the song, and I personally appealed to Jeff Lynne.” Lynne had previously approved a song for the first Guardians that Gunn ended up cutting, which made the process harder this time. But in the end, Gunn says, “I think we made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

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Bruce Springsteen and Joe Grushecky Team Up

Bruce Springsteen
Jason Tate

Bruce Springsteen and Joe Grushecky have teamed up for the anti-Trump song “That’s What Makes Us Great.” The song is available for purchase on Grushecky’s website. Joe talked with the Pittsburg Post-Gazette about the song’s origins:

“I had this song, and Bruce and I had been talking. I sent it to him and he liked it. I said, ‘What do you think about singing on it?’ He gave it the Bruce treatment.”

Rather than hooking up in the studio, they handled it all digitally, long distance. The Houserockers laid down the track with Rick Witkowski, Brian Coleman and Grushecky’s son Johnny producing. Springsteen, who wrapped up a world tour with the E Street band in February, emailed his part from Jersey.

‘Captain Marvel’ Gets Two Directors

Marvel
Jason Tate

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will be directing the upcoming Captain Marvel movie:

Mississippi Grind directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will direct Brie Larson in Captain Marvel, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Guardians of the Galaxy’s Nicole Perlman and Inside Out’s Meg LeFauve wrote the script for the Marvel Studios film, which will be produced by Kevin Feige.

They landed the job after an extensive search. Last summer, Marvel had whittled down its list of contenders to include Niki Caro, Lesli Linka Glatter and Lorene Scafaria for the highly coveted job, which will mark Marvel’s first female-centric tentpole. The studio was making the hiring of a woman a priority for the project.

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