Brooklyn rap trio Flatbush Zombies announced release dates for three new projects including their second LP, Vacation in Hell, out on April 6th. Vacation in Hell follows the group’s acclaimed debut LP, 2016’s 3001: A Laced Odyssey, which debuted at Number 10 on the Billboard 200. The trio toured heavily behind the album, including festival slots at Panorama, Bonnaroo and Reading and Leeds. Frequent creative collaborator Ellington Hammond chronicled that busy two-year period in the upcoming documentary, out April 2nd,...
They Might Be Giants make actor Nick Offerman the victim of a voodoo doll in the creepy new video for “The Greatest,” a song from the duo’s latest album I Like Fun. In the video, a weird old man – for reasons unknown – has formed an Offerman obsession with the former Parks and Recreation star’s photo collaged around the man’s room. The old man tirelessly mans a sewing machine, creating what later is revealed to be a voodoo doll in...
Illustration by Mark Summers Chuck D has never been shy about sharing his opinions. From the earliest days of Public Enemy, the rapper spoke out about everything from police brutality to what he saw as systematic racism in American society. In the past year, he’s had a new platform for expressing his views in Prophets of Rage, a supergroup he formed with B-Real of Cypress Hill and 3/4th of Rage Against The Machine. They are heading to New Zealand and...
Stone Temple Pilots have released “Roll Me Under,” their latest single with new singer Jeff Gutt. The crunchy, hard-hitting track will appear on the band’s upcoming LP, Stone Temple Pilots, out March 18th. “Roll Me Under” is the second track to feature Gutt that the band has unveiled so far, following “Meadow,” which came out in November. Singing over ringing guitars from Dean DeLeo and clobbering drums from Eric Kretz, Gutt strikes a defiant pose. “Roll me under/I’ll pull...
Michael Nesmith couldn’t believe what he was seeing when he walked onstage at the San Bernardino, California, club Pappy & Harriet’s Palace earlier this month. It was his first gig with his early-Seventies country-rock group the First National Band since they split 46 years ago amid raging public disinterest, yet here was a capacity crowd euphorically singing along to songs drawn from a trio of albums that never went higher than Number 143 on the Billboard album chart. “This is...
The halftime show for Super Bowl XXVI, in 1992, was legendarily awful – and not just because of the grotesque, striped sweater Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano wore while declaring, with Dorothy Hamill at his side, “It’s winter magic!” Kids in MC Hammer pants rapped about Frosty the Snowman; a dude on stilts was inexplicably given seven of television’s most valuable seconds to wave to the camera. You could practically hear viewers changing channels to Fox’ In Living Color halftime...
Megadeth‘s skull-faced mascot Vic Rattlehead, katana sword in hand, combs a cemetery in search of a captive boy in the band’s new video for “Lying in State,” an especially bleak cut off their 2016 album Dystopia. The song’s lyrics seem to be politically charged, with Dave Mustaine singing, “What we are witnessing is the decline of Western civilization,” but the clip itself is pure fantasy: The band performs in a ruined tomb next to burning trash cans, Vic’s sword has...
David Mueller, the radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift, received a new job co-hosting a morning show in Mississippi, the Daily News reports. Mueller, who previously went by the pseudonym “Jackson,” will now appear on-air as “Stonewall Jackson” and co-host “Jackson and Jonbob” on 92.7 KIX. Mueller’s new boss, Delta Radio CEO Larry Fuss, defended his decision to hire the disgraced DJ in an interview with the Daily News saying, “I sat down with him face-to-face in Minneapolis before I...
On July 15th, Paul Simon will play a massive gig in London’s Hyde Park billed as Homeward Bound: The Farewell Performance. It’s unclear at the moment if he intends for this to be the final gig he ever plays, the last time he plays in London or simply the beginning of a farewell tour. It is consistent with statements he made to the New York Times in 2016 about his desire to pack it up. “Showbiz doesn’t hold any interest...
Of all of the Velvet Underground‘s officially released studio and live albums, White Light/White Heat is by far the noisiest and most difficult. “No one listened to it,” said Lou Reed of the LP in 2013, just a few months before his death. “But there it is forever – the quintessence of articulated punk. And no one goes near it.” Recorded in a short flurry of studio sessions in September 1967, and released on January 30th, 1968, White Light/White Heat –...
Charlie Walk, the president of Republic Group and a judge on the Fox reality show The Four, faces accusations of sexual harassment from a former employee that worked under Walk at Sony Music. In “#MeToo: An Open Letter to Charlie Walk,” Tristan Coopersmith details her time working with Walk as well as the unwanted advances and sexual misconduct she endured during her yearlong tenure. According to her LinkedIn page, Coopersmith worked as a Director of Millennial Research and Marketing between...
Franz Ferdinand made one of the greatest debuts of all time back in 2004 with their self-titled LP – 11 tracks of flawless disco-punk that could’ve been a lesser band’s greatest-hits package. They’ve never been daunted by the mixed blessing of having started so strong – not even now, as they plan to release another debut of sorts, February 9th’s strong Always Ascending. It’s their first album without departed guitarist Nick McCarthy, and with new member Julian Corrie, who adds...
While much of the chatter surrounding Sunday’s Grammy ceremony centered on Kesha, Janelle Monáe and other women who raised their voices (and wore white roses) in support of #MeToo and Time’s Up, the night’s winners list told a different story. Of the eight awards presented during the telecast, only one – Best New Artist – was given to a woman, Alessia Cara; the full list of 84 categories, which included solo artists and bands, songwriting committees and liner-notes scribes, didn’t fare much...
The Grammys received an unexpected morning jolt Sunday when Donald Trump lashed out at Jay-Z on Twitter over remarks the rapper made regarding the unemployment levels among African-Americans. While Jay-Z acknowledged on the Van Jones Show that black unemployment had reached a new low under the Trump administration, there were more factors to the issue. “Money doesn’t equate to happiness,” Jay-Z told Jones. “That’s missing the whole point.” Trump responded the next morning with a tweet that only focused on...
Even in retirement, Chimp the robot’s still got it. The giant red humanoid crouches down like a Transformer to roll on all fours, then stands up and slowly approaches a door. It sees its world by coating it in lasers, allowing Chimp to reach for the handle, delicately turn it, and roll through the entry. Two and a half years after Chimp competed in the Darpa Robotics Challenge, it remains one of the weirdest humanoid robots on Earth. But that...
Rolling Stone cover stars, Migos, become martial arts masters in the Kung Fu-styled “Stir Fry” video. The Georgia rap trio open the clip gambling with producer, Pharrell, in the back room of a restaurant in Hong Kong. Suddenly, a severed hand is thrown through the window and interrupts the gathering. The visual culminates with the rappers squaring off with a rival crew in a fight sequence filled with vintage action-film sound effects, wild kicks and a particularly gruesome revenge. After that...
Oh, wait – you think the Grammy is supposed to go to the year’s best album? That’s sweet. Stay gold, Ponyboy. This has literally never been the way the Grammys worked and never will be, so stop chewing that sock pretending it’s a cookie. Of course Bruno Mars beat Kendrick Lamar. Everybody knew he would. The Grammys are comedy gold, and giving Album of the Year to Bruno instead of Kendrick will go down in history as one of their...
Ten years ago, the members of Vampire Weekend were being interviewed about their sudden success and the blogosphere’s misgivings about their pedigree – specifically the fact that the band comprised four Ivy League grads with a penchant for polo shirts and boat shoes. “For me, it was a cool idea to strive This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: Vampire Weekend’s Debut Album: 10 Things You Didn’t...
At the 60th iteration of Music’s Biggest Night, Kendrick Lamar owned the opening, Kesha and Janelle Monáe delivered stirring calls-to-arms, Patti LuPone reprised her classic Evita role, and Sting and Shaggy refused to cede the spotlight. Here’s the best and worst of a night where Dave Chappelle played unofficial host and comedians played with adorable pug pups in the...
Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar dominated the 60th Annual Grammy Awards Sunday night, with both artists picking up a slew of trophies and delivering some of the night’s most memorable performances. Mars pulled off an incredible Grammys sweep, winning all six awards for which he was nominated and snatching the night’s three biggest prizes: Record of the Year for “24K Magic,” Song of the Year for “That’s What I Like” and Album of the Year for 24K Magic. After winning Album of...
