Old Dominion grabs your attention from the very beginning of their top-twenty hit, “I Was on a Boat That Day.” But what exactly is the seemingly nonsensical, exotic-sounding phrase that starts off the song?
There’s an amazingly simple explanation, but Brad Tursi says first, you need to understand the mood the five guys in the band were in at the time: They’d fled Nashville to isolate themselves in a house and recording studio in Asheville, North Carolina — and they were getting a little wild.
“Honestly, that song, we wrote it, obviously, the same day we recorded it,” Brad recalls. “We went upstairs, we had some tequila, we were in a fun kind of crazy mood.”
“Usually you start every song, you find the tempo, and you have a click track and it’s easier to edit…” Brad continues. “But we kind were discussing it and someone was like, ‘Forget [it]… No clicks!’ And then [lead singer] Matt [Ramsey] just went, ‘One, two!’ So we just played it right off his count off, and that’s how this crazy thing in the beginning started.”
With lyrics like “drunk as a skunk eating lunch with a cross-eyed bear,” the antics don’t end there, but Trevor Rosen reveals there is a message in the song.
“It’s just a guy who needs to put some things behind him, right?” he says. “I think this character in our story is much like the world that we live in… He’s trying to get past a tough time. So what better way to do that than to get on a boat and get away from it all?”
“I Was on a Boat That Day” is the lead single from OD’s as-yet-unannounced fourth album, the follow-up to 2019’s self-titled Old Dominion.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Beauty and the Beat, the debut album by The Go-Go’s.
The album spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, making The Go-Go’s the only all-female band whose members played their own instruments to ever top that chart.
Beauty and the Beat featured two of the group’s biggest hits, “Our Lips Are Sealed,” which peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “We Got the Beat,” considered the band’s signature tune, which reached #2.
Go-Go’s keyboardist/guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who wrote or co-wrote eight of the album’s 11 tracks, including “We Got the Beat,” tells ABC Audio that she’s extremely proud of Beauty and the Beat‘s success.
“The fact that it really stayed [at #1] for six weeks…Wow, come on,” she gushes. “I mean, from where we started, we were girls. No one wanted to hear from girls, did they? — I guess they did — But yeah, that was a whole overwhelming moment.”
The album was co-produced by Richard Gottehrer, who also produced Blondie‘s first two records and co-wrote such classic ’60s pop hits as “Hang On Sloopy,” “I Want Candy” and “My Boyfriend’s Back.”
Caffey says working with Gottehrer “was like being in a master class,” and credits his pop sensibilities for helping to make the album sound great.
Charlotte recalls that Gottehrer “wanted us to do slower tempos than what we were playing live, so we could really understand the lyrics and let the melodies…come through.”
Caffey says the band members initially were angry that the recordings didn’t capture the group’s live sound, but she notes that when she heard “how those songs sparkled on the radio, then I understood.”
Here’s the Beauty and the Beat track list:
“Our Lips Are Sealed”
“How Much More”
“Tonite”
“Lust to Love”
“This Town”
“We Got the Beat”
“Fading Fast”
“Automatic”
“You Can’t Walk in Your Sleep (If You Can’t Sleep)”
“Skidmarks on My Heart”
“Can’t Stop the World”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has revealed that The Dirty Knobs, the current band he fronts, will be back with their second album next year, when the group also is scheduled to return to touring.
In a recent message on his Twitter page, Campbell announced, “The Dirty Knobs are coming to your town next year with some special guests and a brand new album…Our second!”
The band’s debut album, Wreckless Abandon, was released in November 2020, and the group initially had a run of headlining dates in small venues, as well as a stint opening for country star Chris Stapleton, lined up for this year, but both were pushed back until 2022.
According to TheDirtyKnobs.com, the headlining concerts are scheduled from a March 9 show in Tampa, Florida, through an April 30-May 1 stand in Austin, Texas. The group then will lend support to Stapleton starting with June 2 performance in Nampa, Idaho, and mapped out through a July 23 event at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
YouTube Originals new four-part docuseries Ice Cold— which premieres today — uses the prism of hip-hop jewelry to explore deeper issues around racial inequality and the American Dream, but it didn’t exactly start out that way. Director Karam Gill tells ABC Audio that the initial idea behind the project was to use jewelry as an entry point to explore hip hop.
“Hip hop has been explored through fashion, it’s been explored through so many different avenues but not specifically jewelry,” the LA-based filmmaker shares. “The project ended up where it’s at right now just over the course of time. That story became less about just flash and prices. It’s so much deeper.”
“… You start to realize ‘Wow this is actually a conversation about the American Dream… the perception of people based on where they come from or the economic reality of where they’re from and how our society views people,'” he explains.
Gill goes on to note how pianist Liberace and actress Elizabeth Taylor, both of European descent, were viewed differently for adorning themselves in elaborate jewelry compared to someone like Jamaican rapper Slick Rick. “Why is that? What does that say about us?” he asks.
While Ice Cold shines a light on some of society’s inequalities, it also dives into the hip hop subculture through a variety of different lenses — from the point-of-view of some of the genre’s biggest names like Migos, City Girls, and Lil Baby to top celebrity jewelers like Ben Baller and Johnny Dang.
The overall goal of the docuseries, though, is “to provide context.”
“I think people will have appreciation,” Gill says. “I don’t think people will be writing off rappers, hopefully, as much anymore for expressing themselves.”
(LONDON) — Haitian President Jovenel Moise was killed in an attack at his home before dawn on Wednesday, the country’s interim premier said.
A group of unidentified individuals raided Moise’s private residence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, at around 1 a.m. local time. They gunned down the 53-year-old head of state and wounded his wife, Martine Moise, who remains hospitalized, according to a statement from Haitian interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.
Joseph, who condemned what he called a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,” said that the Caribbean country’s national police force and military had the situation under control and declared a state of emergency.
Late Wednesday, Haiti’s communications secretary said in a tweet that police have arrested the “presumed assassins,” but Frantz Exantus did not provide further details about Wednesday’s slaying or say how many suspects had been arrested. He said more information was forthcoming.
Reaction has been pouring in from around the world condemning the assassination, including from U.S. President Joe Biden, who called the situation “very worrisome.”
Reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, Haiti has also been in the midst of a constitutional crisis as Moise and opposition leaders disputed the end of his five-year presidential term and legislative elections remained interminably delayed.
Addressing the nation in a televised speech, Joseph called on the people of Haiti to “stay calm.” He chaired a meeting of the government’s ministers Wednesday morning, although the country’s line of succession is unclear, especially given its recent political turmoil.
“All the ministers and I have been working since the news broke and we want to assure you we will bring the killers of the president to justice,” he said. “Please stay calm and let the authorities do their work. We don’t want the country to plunge into chaos. This is a very sad day for our nation and for our people.”
The assailants, who remain at large, were “well-trained commandos” who were speaking Spanish and most likely came from outside Haiti, according to Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S. The group was “highly trained and heavily armed,” according to Joseph, who called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting and an international investigation into the attack.
Edmond said the Haitian government had video evidence of the group speaking Spanish. He also said they claimed to be agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which Edmond rejected. He urged the U.S. to provide security assistance not just for the immediate investigation, but also to boost Haitian security forces against armed gangs and a porous border.
First lady Martine Moise is in stable but critical condition, according to Edmond, and she was to be moved to a Miami hospital for treatment at some point Wednesday.
The streets of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince were largely deserted Wednesday and Toussaint Louverture International Airport has been closed in the wake of the assassination.
The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince was also closed Wednesday, including for consular services, “due to an ongoing security situation,” it said in a security alert. The embassy also said it is restricting its American staff to its compounds “until further notice” and urged members of the public to avoid unnecessary travel to the area.
U.S. officials are “still gathering information” on the deadly attack, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, offering U.S. assistance “if there’s an investigation.”
“We’re still assessing, still gathering information, and the president of course will be briefed by his national security team this morning,” she said.
Hours later, the White House issued a statement from Biden condemning “this heinous act.”
“I am sending my sincere wishes for First Lady Moïse’s recovery. The United States offers condolences to the people of Haiti, and we stand ready to assist as we continue to work for a safe and secure Haiti,” the statement said.
Haiti has been in a state of chaos for months now, with frequent gunfire and street skirmishes between armed groups, political demonstrations and strikes, and a coronavirus wave never brought under control. Cases of the virus were as high last month as they were one year ago, and the country has yet to distribute a single vaccine dose or receive any shipments from COVAX, the international program to provide vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.
That’s in part because of the governing crisis roiling Haiti. The country’s political opposition had argued that Moise’s five-year presidential term ended this February — five years after his election victory, but four years after he took office — while he said he had one more year left because the disputed 2016 election delayed his inauguration until 2017.
Moise had been governing by decree since January 2020, after the country failed to hold legislative elections and the legislature’s mandate expired. Opposition leaders accused him of wanting to return Haiti to a dictatorship.
Earlier this year, Moise ordered the retirement of three Supreme Court judges and the arrest of nearly two dozen people, including prominent officials, who he alleged were plotting a coup. Violent protests against Moise erupted, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency in parts of the country in March.
The political instability in addition to economic woes and escalating gang violence have undermined efforts to rebuild Haiti from a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
While the Biden administration backed Moise’s claim to have one more year in office, it had grown increasingly vocal in its opposition to his “one-man rule,” in the words of the top U.S. diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, including governing by decrees and refusing to hold those legislative elections.
While the White House has said it will provide Haiti some of the initial 80 million COVID-19 vaccines it has promised to share overseas, it has yet to announce when it will do so — with the worsening security situation now making it that much harder.
ABC News’s Christine Theodorou, Molly Nagle, and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Congressional Democrats are eyeing a swift timeline for Senate approval of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan, aiming to have the legislation on the floor as early as the week of July 19, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The details of the timeline, including a push to have legislative language ready for consideration by Friday, were discussed among Democratic congressional aides and Louisa Terrell, the head of White House Legislative Affairs, and her deputy, Shuwanza Goff on a call Wednesday, the sources said.
The next hurdle for the bipartisan group of more than 20 co-sponsors, led by Sens Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would be to obtain an official analysis of their bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which crunches the numbers to see if proposed revenue would cover the desired new spending. That process takes time and usually far longer than most think or want.
The White House call and July 19 timeline were first reported by Politico.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants the bipartisan package considered before the August recess. He said a sweeping — potentially $5 trillion — budget bill containing a blueprint for the top priorities of the administration and congressional Democrats, like child and elder care, Medicare expansion and climate change policies, would eventually be considered just after the monthlong summer recess.
The latter bill — a budget resolution laying the groundwork for a so-called reconciliation bill that would be crafted under arcane chamber rules that require just a simple majority — would instruct multiple committees to draft pieces of a broader bill. The final product would require unanimous Democratic support in the Senate and nearly every Democrat in the House, given that no Republican is expected to vote for it.
The budget resolution and its directives to committees, which unlocks the reconciliation process, is being crafted by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and is expected to be unveiled early next week, according to two Democratic sources familiar with the matter.
Sanders has acknowledged the broad range of views among his Democratic panel members and caucus colleagues, conceding weeks ago that his ambitious price tag might need to shrink to win support.
The timeline for all of this is incredibly bold as Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempt to appease disparate factions of their caucuses. And Pelosi has insisted that she will hold onto any bipartisan infrastructure legislation that passes the Senate until that chamber also approves the reconciliation bill.
Moderates like Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have pushed for a far smaller package and urged against dramatically raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for the plan.
And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has made no secret of the fact that he plans to make it exceedingly difficult for his Democratic counterparts to maintain unity, urging centrist Democrats not to sign onto the sweeping, Democrats-only legislation.
“This is going to be a hell of a fight over what this country ought to look like in the future and that’s all going to unfold here in the next few weeks,” McConnell said Tuesday.”There is a process by which they could pass this bill without a single Republican, but we are going to make it hard for them,” McConnell said at an event Wednesday in his home state. “And there are a few Democrats left in rural America and some others who would like to be more in the political center who may find this offensive.”
The disaster that was Woodstock 1999 is the subject of a new HBO documentary.
The film, titled Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage, is set to premiere July 23. It’ll tell the story of the ill-fated festival, which featured performances by bands including Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit, but became infamous as it erupted into scenes of chaos, violence and sexual assault.
A newly released trailer sets up how poorly planned logistics, including expensive water and shoddy bathroom facilities — “You had kids rolling around in what they thought was mud,” shares one talking head — led to mass dehydration and health risks, which ultimately contributed to the festival’s demise.
The film also explores how Woodstock ’99 reflected what was happening socially and culturally in the U.S. at the time, and how that’s manifested itself in the country today.
“A lot of that energy just wound up in chatrooms and Reddit boards in 2021,” says The New York Times writer Wesley Morris.
Peace, Love, and Rage also features interviews with a variety of artists who performed at Woodstock ’99, including The Offspring, Korn‘s Jonathan Davis and Creed‘s Scott Stapp.
Founding Journey and former Santana member Neal Schon has decided to part with 112 of his valuable guitars, which he’ll be selling at a July 31 auction hosted by Heritage Auctions.
The sale will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Schon joining Santana, as well as celebrate Journey’s return to touring following the COVID-19 pandemic and that group’s plan to release a new album this year.
Among the many guitars going up for bid is the 1977 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Black Solid Body that Schon used to record Journey’s chart-topping 1981 album, Escape, which featured such classic tunes as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Stone in Love” and “Who’s Crying Now.” The opening bid for the historic instrument is set at $200,000.
Another of Schon’s guitar being auctioned that holds an important spot in Journey history is his 1974 Guild F-50R Natural Acoustic model, which he used to write “Wheel in the Sky” and “Patiently,” among other tunes. The minimum bid for this instrument is $30,000.
Schon also will sell two 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard Sunburst electric guitars, the respective asking prices for which begin at $175,000 and $150,000.
Regarding his decision to sell some of his cherished instruments, Neal explains, “I don’t feel good about having them all in cases, these guitars I’m never going to really play on albums or live or anything. They’re not meant to sit there and look beautiful. Somebody should be utilizing them, and I should allow somebody to, because there are not that many of them around.”
The auction will take place on the same day Journey will perform at the 2021 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, one of a handful of confirmed concerts the band has scheduled this year.
(NEW YORK) — A 16-year-old suspect was arrested Wednesday in connection with a shooting in Times Square that left a Marine injured, police sources told ABC News.
The unidentified teen surrendered to police Wednesday afternoon, ending a 10-day search by police. Charges are pending.
The incident took place on June 27 at the corner Seventh Avenue and 46th Street when a small group of vendors allegedly got into an argument, police said.
One vendor pulled out a gun and opened fire, according to investigators and surveillance camera footage. Samuel Poulin, 21, who was standing just a few feet away near a Starbucks, was grazed in the back by one of the bullets.
Poulin, who recently graduated from the Citadel and was visiting Manhattan from upstate New York, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said that Poulin was not the intended target.
The NYPD beefed up its presence in the area immediately after the shooting and Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city would crack down on illegal vending.
NYPD data shows a 37.8% increase in the total number of reported shooting incidents in the year to date compared to 2020, but newly released statistics show there was an improvement in June.
Reported shooting incidents in New York City were down 20% in June compared to May and reported murders were down 23% during that same period, according to crime statistics released by the NYPD on Tuesday.
Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The search and rescue efforts at the collapsed Surfside, Florida, apartment complex have shifted to a recovery effort as 86 people remain unaccounted for, officials said Wednesday.
Rescue crews found eight additional victims in the rubble Wednesday, raising the death toll to 54, officials said Wednesday afternoon.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. Since then, hundreds of first responders have been carefully combing through the pancaked piles of debris in hopes of finding survivors.
On Wednesday, a grand jury agreed to investigate the Surfside collapse, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced, saying in a statement that she requested that the grand jury “look into how we can prevent such a disaster from occurring again, not just in Surfside, and not just in condominiums, but in all buildings and structures in the coastal, intercoastal and surrounding areas of our county, state and nation.”
No further details were available, as grand jury work is confidential in Florida.
The announcement came after three more victims — husband-and-wife Gino Cattarossi, 89, and Graciela Cattarossi, 86, as well as Simon Segal, 80 — were identified Wednesday, according to investigators. In total 32 victims have been identified as of midday Wednesday.
Crews have hauled away nearly 5 million pounds of concrete from the vast scene of wreckage, but large piles of rubble still remain. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said the rescue workers have been “aggressively” searching for any voids or “liveable spaces” within the debris where there could be trapped survivors but that they are “not coming across that.” No survivors have been discovered in the wreckage of the building since the morning it partially collapsed.
“We’re not seeing anything positive,” Cominsky told reporters on Tuesday morning.
Teams are now able to operate at full capacity and search in areas that were previously inaccessible following the demolition of the remaining part of the building.
The part of the building that remained standing was cleared of any people or pets before it was demolished on Sunday night, due to concerns about its structural integrity. However, it was too dangerous for surviving residents to enter the building to retrieve their belongings, officials said.
Video released by the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue on Monday night showed crews working atop the piles, braving the elements as Tropical Storm Elsa approached the Sunshine State.
The incoming storm, which has weakened from a hurricane, initiated the discussion about demolishing the rest of the building and fast-tracked the process, according to Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett. Elsa made landfall in Cuba on Monday and by Tuesday morning the storm’s center was moving through Key West with maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
Prior to the demolition, the search and rescue operation was halted for almost an entire day last week due to safety concerns for the crews regarding the remaining structure. Poor weather conditions have also forced them to temporarily pause working.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
“The whole world wants to know what happened here,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters on Tuesday morning. “I look forward to learning the truth, as do we all, but I think it’ll be a while before it is understood.”
Burkett told reporters that he has drafted a letter that will be sent to condo boards and building owners outlining “minimum stopgap” measures to ensure their properties are secure.
“The town of Surfside is committed to doing everything it can to ensure the safety and peace of mind of its residents and we are grateful to our county, state and federal partners for all their amazing support,” he said.
