Pop Evil has announced a U.S. headlining tour for 2023.
The trek, dubbed the Skeletons tour, launches March 17 with a home state show in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and will come to a close April 23 in Milwaukee. In a tweet, Pop Evil shares that the tour “marks the next chapter” for the band.
“This tour will show Pop Evil like you’ve never seen before,” the “Trenches” rockers tease. “Can’t wait to be back on the road playing for all of you.”
Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 9, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit PopEvil.com.
Pop Evil’s most recent album is 2021’s Versatile, which includes the singles “Breathe Again,” “Work” and “Survivor.” This year, they’ve released two new songs: “Eye of the Storm” and “Paranoid (Crash & Burn).”
Next year, Switchfoot‘s 2003 breakout album, The Beautiful Letdown, celebrates its 20th anniversary. Speaking with ABC Audio, frontman Jon Foreman reveals the band has “big plans” to mark the milestone.
“We have some cards up our sleeve,” Foreman teases.
The Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot’s fourth album, spawned the hit singles “Meant to Live” and “Dare You to Move” and has been certified double Platinum by the RIAA.
“So many memories about that album and the time,” Foreman recalls. “We’re excited to kinda dive in to that journey.”
One of those memories is the first time Switchfoot ever played New York City, which took place around the time the band first got signed to Columbia Records.
“Then they dropped us — we were that good!” Foreman laughs. “And then, like, 2 1/2 million records later, they said, ‘OK you can come back.'”
“It’s been wild to look back 20 years and think of the journey we’ve been on since that album,” he adds.
The Beautiful Letdown will officially turn 20 in February. In the meantime, you can catch Switchfoot on their current holiday-themed tour, which concludes December 18 in Mesa, Arizona. The band’s new holiday record, this is our Christmas album, is out now.
Lindsey Stirling‘s latest holiday album, Snow Waltz, features her takes on classics like “Feliz Navidad,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Deck the Halls” and her current hit, “Joy to the World.” She says she’s able to come up with fresh versions of these old favorites by focusing on her “secret weapon” — her violin.
“I always think to myself, ‘Why would someone want to listen to my version?’ There’s so many versions that have been done of all these different songs, and especially if you’re not having that vocal, like, why would someone want to listen to a violin version?'” she tells ABC Audio.
“So then I get to think of creative ways [to do them]: ‘Well, the violin is great at this style, a voice can’t do that,'” she adds, noting that “thinking of things that a violin can do” allows her to create things that “maybe no one else really can.” She laughs, “It’s really fun to think of it as my secret weapon!”
And Lindsey says that focusing on the powers of her violin allowed her to create some truly unique takes on those classics.
“It took the songs in such different directions, like ‘Joy to the World,’ I took it in a Celtic direction because I was able to do all these Celtic riffs and make the song super unique,” she explains. “And all of them are done in ways that you’ve never heard them done before. So whether it’s everybody’s cup of tea or not, who knows? But at least I enjoy them.”
She laughs, “They made them really fun for me to arrange and write, and if anything, it’s at least different. There’s a reason to listen.”
People definitely are listening to Lindsey’s Christmas songs: She’s currently in the middle of her annual holiday tour.
Even though Elton John‘s ending his touring career, he’ll continue to make music. In fact, he believes he’ll never have writer’s block and will always be able to come up with new songs, because he’s just so much better than everyone else.
During a conversation with Elton, his husband, David Furnish, and ex-Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele about fashion, creativity and philanthropy for Saks Live Events, Furnish tells Elton he’s amazed that he and other musicians haven’t “run out of notes” yet when it comes to writing songs, since there are only a finite amount of them.
“Somebody will run out of notes, but I won’t,” Elton declares. “Most people will run out of notes, but I will not — because I just have faith … that something will happen.”
“Also I’m a better musician than most people,” he boasts. “I’m a piano player, so … I don’t just use three or four chords.” He then admits, “I know it sounds really egotistical to say that, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that.”
Elton also dismisses American musicians’ fashion sense, saying they “never really got it as far as dressing [up onstage].” “American rock ‘n’ roll acts were usually just very boring to look at. They were just like, ‘Oh, God,'” he added, rolling his eyes for effect.
The exceptions, he notes, were Sly & the Family Stone and Earth, Wind & Fire — “people like that.”
So why are Brits so much better at fashion? “It’s a British tradition,” he explains. “You look at the great British singers like Mick Jagger and Bowie and Marc Bolan and Rod Stewart and Freddie Mercury … they dressed up and they were flamboyant. It’s a theatrical thing in England … and we were raised in Britain to love that kind of stuff.”
The supernatural series Wicked City has arrived and things are bound to get witchy.
The new ALLBLK drama cast includes accomplished actress Vanessa Bell Calloway, who tells ABC Audio the series “is about these young urban witches in Atlanta, and they’re trying to navigate their way through their lives and their careers.”
“They’re four witches that are really tight and then a fifth sister kind of joins the coven because she is sent there by her mother, actually, and she doesn’t even know this world exists, she has no idea that she too possesses magical powers,” she explains.
Over her career, Bell Calloway has appeared in numerous shows like This Is Us, Saints & Sinners, The Black Hamptons, Shameless, and more. So what drew her to the role in Wicked City?
Aside from the fact that she’s never played a witch on screen, Calloway says, “It was simply a no brainer because I think the project is fresh, it’s new, and you never see a Black leads in a supernatural or spiritual type of spiritual realm, type of show.”
“We’re always girlfriends or the friends or the other person, but we’re never the stars,” she adds.
Bell Calloway also shares that being able to produce the series made the decision to join the cast an easy one.
“I’m at the stage in my career that, yes, I still love to act, but I like to produce and I like to direct,” the actress says. “And anytime you get a chance to be a part of a project that’s in the inception, you know, just being formed and shaped. That’s exciting.”
Catch new episodes of Wicked City, also starring Shaquita Smith, Mercedez McDowell, Chantal Maurice, and Chanel Mack, every Thursday on ALLBLK.
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Issa Rae‘s breakthrough series Insecure came to an end nearly a year ago, but she’s still hard at work, breaking barriers along the way. As The Hollywood Reporter‘s Equity in Entertainment honoree, she sat down with the publication to share some details about her life after the HBO show.
After six successful seasons, Issa says she “took time to decompress” — the whole month of January to be exact. She launched her Rap Sh!t this year, but with no role in the show, she says 2022 “has probably been the most relaxing — relaxing for my standards — year I’ve had in, like, 10 years.”
Rap Sh!t, she adds, allowed her the opportunity to sit in her behind-the-scenes role as creator and writer, which sees her “just sitting on my ass and watching people be great while eating all day.” Still, she felt the pressure to make sure that it was likable and completely different than Insecure.
Overall, the break post Insecure has given Issa the time to figure out “what I want my next three shows to be.”
“I realized that maybe I’m not that great at multitasking and I need to carve out time to be able to continue to create, because that’s what makes me the happiest,” she explains. “That’s what makes me the most excited.”
She’s also happy to see how far her Insecure cast has come in their individual careers. “It really does feel like, ‘Oh, we’re really out here winning,'” she says. “I’m just really proud to see what everybody else is gravitating toward and to see them killing it.
After landing roles on the upcoming films Barbie and Vengeance, Issa is looking for more ensemble work. She is also working toward getting a studio in South LA.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Wednesday that the panel’s long-awaited report will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
Thompson said the report’s release would be coupled with some form of public presentation, the details of which are still being sorted out by committee members.
The report and accompanying materials will be posted online, Thompson said.
He also said that any decisions regarding potential criminal referrals will come the same day, and will be voted on publicly.
Thompson indicated on Tuesday that criminal referrals related to the Capitol attack were under discussion, but that final decisions — including on specific crimes and specific suspects — had not been made pending a vote by committee members.
(WASHINGTON) — As Republicans plan to aggressively challenge President Biden’s border and immigration policies in the House next year, one border-district Republican is drawing attention an alarming number of suicides in the ranks of Customs and Border Protection agents.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers plan this week to introduce the TAPS Act to direct resources to Border Patrol agents — modeled on a past effort at the Pentagon to address mental health issues in the military.
“There’s a lot of things that should unite us,” Gonzales said at a news conference Wednesday. “The fact that we have 14 agents who have committed suicide [this year] is a problem … and it’s a problem for this body to solve.”
The 14 recorded suicides is the highest recorded by the agency in 13 years — since 2009. The agency reported eight suicides in 2020 and 11 suicides in 2021.
Gonzales, who represents Uvalde, also spoke about the mental health needs of the agents who responded to the school shooting.
“What they have been exposed to 100% has an impact on you,” he said.
“Until we take out the far of law enforcement coming forward to talk about mental health issues, they’re not going to do it,” said Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing rank and file agents.
Under the current rules, Judd said, an agent who approaches supervisors for mental health issues can be stigmatized and at risk of losing pay.
The Democrats in attendance acknowledged the challenge the next Congress will have in advancing immigration and border security legislation, given the GOP House and a Democrat-controlled Senate.
Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., said the “best thing we can do for border security is comprehensive immigration reform.”
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said Democrats and Republicans “recognize that our immigration system is totally broken, and is working for no one.”
“The folks who are manning the southern border are bearing the brunt of our failed policies,” she said. “We are willing to work with anyone on the right or the left to deal with that crisis.”
Gonzales signaled that this new effort could be its own bipartisan push, ahead of any major border security plan advanced by Republicans in the majority next year. Democrats will still control the Senate with 51 seats, and will need at least 60 votes to advance legislation.
A CBP spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News that the agency is “facilitating a culture that destigmatizes suicide and makes it safe for employees to seek help,” and is “increasingly dedicating resources” to support the workforce’s “mental health and well-being.”
“In addition to offering new resources for the field and generating social media and other communications campaigns, CBP has expanded the number of on-site clinicians and is hiring over a dozen operational psychologists. Together, these licensed professionals implement an evidence-based suicide prevention and intervention program, while tackling precursors to suicide including substance abuse, relationship problems, financial difficulties, and job stress during periods of expanded mission scope and complexity,” the spokesperson said.
ABC’s Lauren Peller and Quinn Owen contributed to this report.
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text the new three digit code at 9-8-8. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
(NEW YORK) — Just before Thanksgiving, about 9 million people who applied for student debt relief from the federal government got an email from the Department of Education with a subject line indicating their application had been “approved,” according to a copy of the email obtained by ABC News.
But that was misleading as the Biden administration’s student loan program was halted in mid-November by Republican-led lawsuits — weeks before the email was sent informing borrowers of their “approved” status.
The email explained as much in the email body, informing borrowers that “lawsuits are preventing the Department of Education from implementing its one-time student loan debt relief program.”
The program will remain in limbo until the Supreme Court makes the final call on the program sometime before late June. But the subject line left many borrowers confused.
Acknowledging the misfire this week — about two weeks later — the Department of Education told ABC News that borrowers will get an updated email soon that corrects the subject line and clarifies the state of the program. (The Department of Education said that some people did get emails with the correct subject line.)
A spokesperson said Accenture Federal Services, a contractor that does digital work for the federal government, is primarily responsible.
“Communicating clearly and accurately with borrowers is a top priority of the Department. We are in close touch with Accenture Federal Services as they take corrective action to ensure all borrowers and those affected have accurate information about debt relief,” a spokesperson for the Education Department said.
Accenture Federal Services has not returned a request for comment from ABC News, but the Education Department said the company is expected to review quality control measures for future email messages having to do with the program.
On the whole, the erroneous email is just one of multiple twists and turns for the debt relief proposal, which the White House announced in late August.
Around 26 million Americans applied for forgiveness by early November — nearly half of the people who were eligible. About 43 million Americans qualify in total, according to the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona have said they remain confident the program will prevail through the legal challenges, though its challengers maintain the president has overreached his authority.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump had an outside team conduct a deeper search for any government documents at four properties which turned up at least two more documents marked classified, ABC News has confirmed according to sources familiar with the matter.
The documents were recovered at a storage unit that is owned by the federal government, and maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA) in West Palm Beach, Florida, the sources told ABC News.
The Department of Justice has been notified of the documents’ existence.
The news of the search and discovery was first reported by The Washington Post.
In August, federal agents searching Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate recovered hundreds of classified documents that had been taken there when Trump left the White House.
The search of the storage unit was conducted after a federal judge pushed Trump’s lawyers to search for any further documents that were taken by the former president and his allies.
A spokesperson for Trump told ABC News in a statement, “President Trump and his counsel continue to be cooperative and transparent, despite the unprecedented, illegal, and unwarranted attack against President Trump and his family by the weaponized Department of Justice.”
“President Trump will keep fighting against the outrageous politicization of law enforcement and will always stand for America and all Americans,” the statement said.
