The South by Southwest Music Festival is known for spotlighting emerging artists, but one of the festival’s showcase artists this year has been making records for nearly 60 years.
The Zombies are one of the more than 300 artists announced Wednesday as performers at next year’s edition of the legendary Austin, Texas, festival, which will run March 13 through March 18. The Zombies are from England, of course, but the lineup features acts from all over the world, from Australia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Norway and Colombia to New Zealand, Denmark, Argentina, Nigeria and Japan.
Also included on the list is Painted Shield, the side project of Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard. Their debut album, featuring Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and drummers Josh Freese and Matt Chamberlain, came out in the past few years.
The music festival is part of the larger South by Southwest Conference, which includes TV, movie and comedy festivals, as well as panels and exhibits covering everything from technology and food to climate change, the gaming industry, marketing, transportation, the cannabis industry and more.
If all you wanted for Christmas is a heavy cover of Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” then you have From Ashes to New to thank.
The “Through It All” rockers have released their own spin on the hit holiday staple, complete with big guitars and screaming vocals.
“We always thought it would be sick to cover a Christmas song, but never did,” shares frontman Matt Brandyberry. “We had some extra studio time and thought this could be the chance. There were so many obvious choices for our style (‘The Grinch,’ ‘Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘Carol of the Bells,’ etc.) but we thought it would be so cool to put a dark spin on a lighthearted Christmas classic.”
You can listen to the “All I Want for Christmas” cover now via digital outlets.
From Ashes to New’s most recent album is 2020’s Panic. They’ve released two new singles this year — “Until We Break” and “Heartache” — and are also featured on the all-star track “The Retaliators Theme (21 Bullets)” alongside Mötley Crüe, Asking Alexandria and Ice Nine Kills.
More new From Ashes to New music is expected in 2023.
MichaelBublé has become associated with the holidays thanks to his Christmas album, but he admits he never anticipated it would have such an impact on his career.
Speaking with Billboard, he explained, “I mean, I knew what I was doing when I made the record. I had high hopes. I was quite ambitious. Because I really genuinely love the songs.” He also said he “never had any idea that it would be like this ever, ever.”
The singer said he used to become frustrated when the album overshadowed the rest of his music offerings. In July, Michael shared a TikTok about how much he dislikes being told he can only come out around Christmastime.
“Years ago, I would complain about [the album’s success], and I would say [exasperated], ‘Well, you know, they keep talking about the Christmas album,'” he told the outlet. As for what softened his views, he says it was when his then-3-year-old son Noah was battling liver cancer. Noah is now 9 and in remission.
“I remember sitting in the hospital, and I just remember thinking how lucky I was. I just remember thinking so clearly, you know, how wonderful this is, that this is a part of your legacy,” he said, adding, “[Christmas has] become less about what religion you are and it’s become about just a time when us human beings might need a bit of a break. And there’s a little more empathy and kindness.”
“To be connected to something so beautiful, there are much worse things in life … Can you imagine how lucky I feel to be invited into all of that?” he expressed.
Michael released Christmas in October 2011. It sold more than 12 million copies globally and is one of the best-selling holiday albums of all time.
Country music will be well represented on the stage of The Voice during the show’s season 22 finale. Kane Brown, Blake Shelton and Breland are among the stars performing during the two-hour event.
Kane will join Blake, who is also a coach on the show, for a rendition of “Different Man,” their latest duet. It’s the title track on Kane’s most recent album.
Meanwhile, Breland will make his debut on the Voice stage with a performance of “For What it’s Worth,” which is his current single at country radio and comes off the track list of his full-length studio debut, Cross Country.
It’ll be a multigeneral musical spread on the finale of The Voice, with performances from stars like Maluma, OneRepublic, Adam Lambert, Kelly Clarkson and Girl Named Tom. All four coaches — Blake, John Legend, Gwen Stefani and Camila Cabello — will perform with the contestants on their respective teams.
Five finalists remain going into next week’s live finale. Bryce Leatherwood, Bodie, Omar Jose Cardona, Brayden Lape and Morgan Myles are all in the running to win The Voice this season.
The event will air on NBC next Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.
White Reaper has released a new song called “Fog Machine,” a track off the band’s upcoming album Asking for a Ride.
“We had [‘Fog Machine’] in our back pocket for a while,” says frontman Tony Esposito. “We knew we loved playing it together, but it was a little tricky to nail the arrangement at first. We got it together at the last minute before we went into the studio and now it’s our favorite song to play live.”
You can listen to “Fog Machine” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.
Asking for a Ride, which also features the lead single “Pages,” will arrive January 27. It’s the follow-up to 2019’s You Deserve Love, which spawned the single “Might Be Right.”
White Reaper will launch a U.S. tour in support of Asking for a Ride in February.
It must be hard to play in a band, manage that band and file lawsuits against your fellow bandmates at the same time.
Journey‘s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, who were both jointly managing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group, have decided to step back from that role, Billboard reports.
Schon and Cain have handed the reins over to Def Leppard‘s manager, Mike Kobayashi, who confirms he was “just hired,” according to Billboard. While the band has been a cash cow on the road, raking in $40 million this year, Cain and Schon have been embroiled in a legal squabble over expenses.
As previously reported, Schon is suing Cain for setting up a band American Express card without his knowledge, while Cain denies that and claims that Schon has been “running up enormous personal charges on the band’s credit card account.” That lawsuit is pending, but it’s not the only recent legal dispute involving the band.
As Billboard notes, in September, former lead singer Steve Perry sued to stop Schon and Cain from trademarking the names of the band’s hits. And in 2020, Schon and Cain sued bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, accusing them of trying to get control of the band’s name. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, and Valory and Smith left the band.
Amid all these issues, it’s no wonder Journey needs someone to look after their affairs, especially since the band’s 50th anniversary Freedom tour is set to kick off February 4 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Nicki Minaj‘s husband has been ordered to “facilitate settlement discussions” with the woman who accused him of rape. Jennifer Hough sued Kenneth Petty in 2021 for infliction of emotional distress, harassment and witness intimidation. According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, the judge is hoping the two parties can get on the same page.
AllHipHop reports Judge James R. Cho referred the case to mediation on Tuesday, giving parties a March deadline to complete the process. The case will go to trial if Hough and Petty are unable to reach a settlement.
As reported, Petty served more than four years in prison after he was convicted of raping Hough in 1995. The alleged rape victim claimed she was repeatedly pressured to recant her statements. She filed a lawsuit accusing the couple of alleged harassment and intimidation, initially noting that Nicki was involved; the charges against the rapper have since been dropped.
Petty still faces the charges against him. He was recently sentenced to three years of probation and one year of home confinement for his failure to register as a sex offender in connection to the rape.
Nicki’s husband is taking legal action over the sex offender status. He and Pough are scheduled to start opening arguments in the case on January 6, 2023.
(SPOILERS) Marvel fans know that characters who die rarely stay dead, yet Michael B. Jordan‘s appearance in the hit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever still managed to be a jaw-dropper.
Now that the cat — or panther — is out of the bag, Jordan explained to Extra what it took to keep the surprise quiet.
Jordan says with a laugh, “I had to lie to my family over here!”
He continued, “I had to lie to everybody out here … I had to just keep it under wraps.”
In the film, his N’Jadaka/Erik “Killmonger” Stevens — who was killed by Chadwick Boseman‘s T’Challa in the original film — makes his surprise appearance from the Great Beyond after T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, takes the mystical heart-shaped herb.
Doing so temporarily transports a person to the ancestral plane, where a relative guides you on a spiritual path. However, while Shuri was sure she’d see her brother or her mom, Queen Romanda, her heart is filled with vengeance, so she instead encounters the spirit of her villainous cousin, who was also seeking revenge. She keeps the disturbing revelation secret — like MBJ had to in real life.
Jordan added, “When you’re dealing with Marvel and stuff like that, you know the routine. So you just gotta, you know, deny, deny, deny, deny, deny until the end of it, yeah.”
Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has reigned at the top of the box office for the past four weeks. The film has made more than $733 million worldwide.
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Kirstie Alley’s unexpected death at age 71 has put a spotlight on colon cancer, the disease that took her life.
Alley had been recently diagnosed with colon cancer prior to her Dec. 5 death, a rep for the actress confirmed to ABC News.
“We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” Alley’s children True and Lillie Parker wrote in a statement shared to Alley’s Twitter account Monday night. “She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead. As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.”
Colorectal cancer — the umbrella term for colon and rectal cancers — is the fourth most common cancer in men and women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It affects men and women almost equally. The lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is 1 in 23 for men and 1 in 25 for women, according to the American Cancer Society.
At age 71, Alley was in the age demographic — ages 45 to 75 — when colon cancer is most likely to occur, CDC data shows.
It is not known exactly when Alley was diagnosed with colon cancer, or what stage she was in or what treatment she received. Her family said only that her cancer was “recently discovered.”
While colon cancer does have signs and symptoms, they often may not show until the disease is in its later stages, according to ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.
“The key thing is that in early stages of colon cancer, there can be no symptoms or someone could be asymptomatic,” Ashton said Wednesday on “Good Morning America.” “When you get to more advanced stages, there can be signs and symptoms like abdominal pain, unexplained weight loss, blood in stool or anemia that is detected, but those are the signs typically when you’re talking about metastatic or later stages.”
Risk factors for colon cancer include everything from family history and certain genetic mutations to lifestyle factors like obesity, inactivity, smoking and alcohol to excess, and a diet low in fiber, fruits and vegetables, according to Ashton.
“It’s typically not one thing,” she said of the risk factors.
Colon cancer has been more in the spotlight in recent years with the death of Chadwick Boseman at age 43 and, more recently, with ’80s pop star Taylor Dane revealing she battled the same disease.
Earlier this year, a major study found that more young people are being diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer, prompting renewed calls among doctors for early detection and screening.
Researchers from University of Colorado School of Medicine found that young patients under 40 years old have had the highest increase in rates of new late-stage colon cancer cases diagnosed, meaning the cancer has already spread at the time of diagnosis. In particular, subgroups of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic participants had the highest increases.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force, the leading organization on preventative medicine, recently changed the guidelines to start screening for colon cancer to age 45, down from 50, in light of the trends of increasing cases of colon cancer in younger people.
There are several different ways of screening for colon cancer, including visual exams and stool tests.
The most commonly known test, a colonoscopy, requires a doctor to use a flexible tube with a camera at the end to directly look at your colon and rectum. Flexible sigmoidoscopy can also be done where only the lower third of the colon and rectum is examined. During both tests, suspicious areas can be biopsied and removed if necessary.
A “virtual colonoscopy” uses a CT scan to take images of your colon and rectum. All these tests require a bowel prep to allow for good visualization.
Stool-based tests include three blood tests that look for hidden blood, antibodies or abnormal DNA in the stool, all indicative of cancer or polyp cells. If a test other than a colonoscopy is performed and turns up abnormal results, it should be followed up with a colonoscopy.
While a colonoscopy can be a daunting test for some due to the prep work involved — including drinking a prescription laxative drink — Ashton said there are steps people can take to make it easier.
“The first thing I tell my patients is you have anesthesia. You are asleep. You will feel no discomfort, no embarrassment,” said Ashton. “But the key thing for the prep … I say start two days before with a clear liquid diet.”
Some examples of liquids to consume include ginger ale, clear chicken broth, Jell-O and coconut water, according to Ashton.
“That will make the day before [the colonoscopy] much easier,” said Ashton. “And it will make the job of a gastroenterologist easier because they’ll be able to get a better visualization.”
Amrit K. Kamboj, MD, an internal medicine resident, and Vanya Jain, a medical student from New Jersey Medical School, who previously worked with the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
While Bob Dylan‘s tours are Never Ending, catching a glimpse of the famed rocker offstage is something that rarely happens. You almost never see Dylan, for example, making a Starbucks run, leaving a restaurant or taking a smoke break. So how does he avoid getting photographed, when everyone in the world has a phone? It’s because, as his former guitarist explains, “he’s slippery.”
Billy Burnette, a guitarist, songwriter and solo artist who’s played with Fleetwood Mac and John Fogerty, was Dylan’s touring guitarist in 2003. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Burnette explains that Bob does go out, but he flies under the radar. During the tour, Burnette explains, “He went out and ran every day. I’d see him in his sweats in the hotel, but he’s slippery.”
“[T]hey lost him one day [in an airport],” Burnette adds. “They couldn’t find him anywhere. I’m in this little gift shop and I turn around, and there he is. He goes, ‘Hi Billy.’ I was like, ‘How did you get in here?’ He moves around. It’s a weird thing.”
When Rolling Stone points out that Dylan is sometimes seen wearing a hoodie with the hood up, Burnette explains, “When he wears the hood, you’re not supposed to talk to him. I didn’t know that until one day we were in line to get on a plane at the airport.”
“I tapped him on the shoulder,” he continues. “The drummer said, ‘No, no. He don’t talk to anyone when he’s got the hood on.’ I was like, ‘OK. I’m glad you told me.'”
