A pair of emo-themed music festivals have announced their lineups for 2024.
The inaugural Best Friends Forever takes place October 11-13 in Las Vegas and will be headlined by Sunny Day Real Estate, Bright Eyes and Cap’n Jazz. The bill also includes The Jesus Lizard, The Dismemberment Plan, American Football and Pinback.
Meanwhile, the touring Sad Summer Festival will run from July 12 in Sacramento, California, to August 9 in Columbia, Maryland. The lineup includes headliners Mayday Parade and The Maine, as well as The Wonder Years, We the Kings and Real Friends.
Dirty Honey has premiered the video for “Coming Home (Ballad of the Shire),” a track off their new album, Can’t Find the Brakes.
While the clip doesn’t include any hobbits, it does feature shots of the four members amid the scenic snow and deserts of the American West.
“Being musicians that live on the road, ‘Home’ has become wherever it is that we’re playing music, rather than a particular place,” says frontman Marc LaBelle. “We wanted to showcase our separate journeys, knowing full well that the music will always call us back home.”
You can watch the “Coming Home (Ballad of the Shire)” video streaming on YouTube.
Can’t Find the Brakes, the sophomore follow-up to Dirty Honey’s 2021 self-titled debut, was released in November. It also includes the single “Won’t Take Me Alive.”
The music film that Jennifer Lopez made to go along with her album This Is Me … Now features a bevy of famous faces — from Jane Fonda to Trevor Noah to Sofía Vergara — playing members of the Zodiac Council, who weigh in on Jennifer’s character’s love life. But it turns out there were some equally big stars who were asked to participate, but didn’t.
In The Greatest Love Story Never Told, a Prime Video documentary about the making of This Is Me … Now, we learn some of the stars who were asked to cameo in the film but were either unavailable or said no include Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge and Snoop Dogg.
But Jennifer tells Entertainment Weekly that she’s perfectly happy with the stars who did say yes.
“They were giving me a list of all these amazing people, and I was like, ‘Yes, I like all of those people, but that’s not what I want,'” she tells EW. “My first people were Jenifer Lewis and Jane Fonda, and they were like, ‘Wait, we don’t get it. This is like music. This is young.’ And I was like, ‘No. This is a council of people who I want to be very diverse. I want all different kinds of people.'”
Jennifer also says that if you watch the documentary, you’ll see she’s not disappointed when she’s informed that such-and-such star isn’t available.
“The casting director and the other producers came in and they were like, ‘How about this person? This person’s not available.’ And they started saying all these people,” she explains. “If you see me sitting there, that’s not what I want. What I want is people who represent a certain thing, who could understand what I’m trying to do here.”
The new Paramount+ film As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial explores more than just the criminalization of rap lyrics in courtrooms in the United States.
Director J.M. Harper tells ABC Audio that with the documentary, he intended to highlight the decadeslong weaponization of Black art dating back to slavery.
Harper describes a scene in which rapper Kemba, who narrates and interviews prominent rap figures in the doc, goes through library archives and comes upon journals from the time of the Middle Passage. The journals reveal that slave masters didn’t know what to make of singing and communicating among Black people.
The director says that the camaraderie Black art and music created — and white people’s inability to understand it — created a trickle effect.
“It goes from there to Negro spirituals to rhythm and blues to jazz to soul music, rock ‘n’ roll … all the way up to hip-hop,” Harper says. “Every single time you have the emergence of a Black genre you had white supremacists or state powers trying to stop it because it brought people together.”
Harper includes the banning of drums after the Stono slave rebellion in the 1700s and the censorship of music in the ’90s to help illustrate the “whole history” of hip-hop used as a tool to incarcerate.
A main takeaway Harper says the “data” and historical lens might help viewers to gain: “If you watch the doc, you can see [criminalization of lyrics] comes from this 300- or 400-year history of cultural racism and oppression of music, Black music because of what it does, because of how it brings people together.”
As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial streams on Paramount+ Tuesday, February 27.
Did you know that Lee Brice had something to do with the kiss tattoo on Chris Janson‘s arm?
The lip, which belongs to Chris’ wife, Kelly, was tattooed while Chris was out touring with Lee, courtesy of Lee’s tattoo artist.
“This is my wife’s lips. I was playing a show on a military Marine base in California, and my buddy Lee Brice actually had a tattoo artist on the road. So I made Kelly kiss my arm and then we tattooed it,” Chris tells fans in an Instagram Reel.
Additionally, Chris shared that the pin-up girl tattoo, which he got on tour with Hank Williams Jr. and Lynyrd Skynrd, was simply inked because he was riding motorcycles and “thought it was cool.” “It really has no meaning at all,” he says with a laugh.
Chris’ new song, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get,” drops March 8 and is available for presave now.
As reported, director Yorgos Lanthimos‘ quirky dramedyPoor Things snagged 11 nominations ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, and if you haven’t caught up with it yet, it’s now available for rent or purchase on digital.
Producer Emma Stone snagged nominations both in the Best Actress and Best Picture categories for the film from Searchlight. The Frankenstein-esque story centers on the “fantastical evolution” of Stone’s Bella Baxter, a young Victorian woman brought back to life by Willem Dafoe‘s brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.
The studio teases, “Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents.”
Based on the book by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things also earned nominations for Ruffalo in the Best Supporting Actor category, as well as noms for Best Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score and Production Design, among others.
The digital release includes behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as deleted scenes.
Poor Things comes to Blu-ray and DVD March 12 — two days after the 96th Academy Awards air on ABC.
Model Pattie Boyd is giving fans some direct insight into her love triangle with rockers George Harrison and Eric Clapton, thanks to a new auction happening at Christie’s.
Boyd, who was married to Harrison from 1966 to 1977 and had an affair with Clapton, who she was later married to from 1979 to 1989, is auctioning off a host of personal items: handwritten lyrics, photos and jewelry, including two letters written by Clapton while she was still married to Harrison.
“I am writing this letter to you, with the main purpose of ascertaining your feelings towards a subject well known to both of us,” he writes in one letter. “What I wish to ask you is if you still love your husband? All these questions are very impertinent, I know, but if there is still a feeling in your heart for me… you must let me know!”
Another letter is addressed to “Layla,” Clapton’s nickname for Boyd and the inspiration for his 1971 hit song.
“Why do you hesitate, am I a poor lover, am I ugly, am I too weak, too strong, do you know why?” he writes. “If you want me, take me, I am yours … if you don’t want me, please break the spell that binds me. To cage a wild animal is a sin, to tame him is divine. My love is yours.”
“I’m happy to let go of these things which I have treasured and loved for so many years,” Boyd shares. “These items represent special moments in my life but now I think it’s time to move on and share what I have with others.”
The auction runs from March 8 to March 22 at Christie’s online. More info can be found at Christies.com.
In May, NBC will celebrate 10 years of viral Classroom Instruments remixes, celebrity Water Wars and Whisper Challenges with an anniversary salute to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The special airs May 14 at 9 p.m. ET and will stream the next day on Peacock.
“To be able to sit in the same chair as the iconic hosts before me, it’s been my absolute honor to be a part of The Tonight Show for the last 10 years,” Fallon said in a statement.
“I want to thank all the viewers who have laughed with me, inspired me, and come along for what has been the most joyful journey of my life. I still pinch myself every day and am so appreciative of the opportunity to stand alongside the giants of our business who have made their mark on this great television institution.”
In a statement, NBC notes that the television event will feature “a look back at the many unforgettable moments that have defined the show’s legacy, viral hits, favorite sketches, musical performances and interviews that have shaped our culture.”
Mark Lazarus, the chairman of the NBCUniversal Media Group, saluted Fallon’s leadership of the top-rated late night show, adding, “Jimmy has broadened The Tonight Show with his signature brand of humor and continues to deliver laughs to millions of people night after night. We couldn’t be prouder that this iconic NBC show bears Jimmy’s name.”
Luke Bryan‘s got something up his sleeves, and he’s not giving clues just yet.
The American Idol judge took to socials Monday to share that he’s “counting down the minutes” to an as-yet-undisclosed announcement. Fans took to the comments to leave their guesses, which included a new album, music and tour.
No clues were given except the announcement time: February 29 at 12:50 p.m.
You can follow Luke on his socials to get the news as soon as it drops Thursday.
Luke’s latest single is the Jon Pardi-assisted “Cowboys and Plowboys,” which is approaching the top 30 on the country charts.
blink-182, The Killers and Dave Matthews Band are headlining the 2024 Oceans Calling Festival, taking place September 27-29 in Ocean City, Maryland.
The bill also includes the reformed Sublime — now consisting of original members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh alongside the late Bradley Nowell‘s son, Jakob — as well as Cage the Elephant, The Offspring, 311, Young the Giant, The Revivalists, The All-American Rejects, The Hives, Grouplove, Mt. Joy, Switchfoot, The Beaches, The Darkness and Counting Crows.
A ticket presale will begin Thursday, February 29, at 10 a.m. ET. Remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public at 11 a.m. ET.
