K.Flay has revealed that she’s gone deaf in one ear.
In a video posted to her Twitter Thursday, the “Blood in the Cut” artist, born Kristine Flaherty, shares that she woke up some weeks ago without the ability to hear out of her right ear.
“Very scary, I was super worried,” Flaherty says. “I felt some types of hopelessness and depression.”
Despite receiving various medical treatments — including getting various shots in her ear and inhaling “pure oxygen in a chamber in the basement of UCLA” — Flaherty reveals that “it does not look like I will be getting any of my hearing back.”
“I have single-sided deafness in this right ear,” she says.
Looking on the bright side, Flaherty notes that her ongoing physical therapy is going “very well” and that the experience has strengthened her relationships with the people closest to her.
“I’ve had to receive a lot of help, which I think can be hard to do sometimes for people, to receive as opposed to give,” Flaherty shares. “It’s really vulnerable and scary, but it’s brought me even closer to the people that I love.”
Joni Mitchell will return to the stage for her first headlining concert in over two decades as part of Brandi Carlile‘s Echoes through the Canyon concerts next year at Washington’s Gorge Amphitheatre on Friday, June 9, and Saturday, June 10.
Friday’s show will feature a headlining set from Carlile and her band, while Mitchell will host one of her “Joni Jams” on Saturday, with Carlile opening. Friday night’s opening act, and the full list of performers for the “Joni Jam,” have yet to be announced.
“No one’s been able to buy a ticket to see Joni Mitchell play in 20 years, so this is enormous,” Carlile said during an appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Wednesday. “And she’s so excited because it’s close to Canada and some of her Canadian fans…I can’t believe it’s happening, but it’s happening and she’s going to crush it.”
Mitchell, who has rarely performed in public since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015, joined Brandi and an all-star cast of musicians and singers — including Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons, Dawes‘ Taylor Goldsmith, Lucius, Allison Russell and Shooter Jennings — at this year’s Newport Folk Festival in July.
Carlile helped organize the informal “Joni Jams” with a rotating crew of music A-listers at Mitchell’s home in Los Angeles.
Tickets for this year’s Echoes through the Canyon shows on sale to the public at 10 a.m. on October 28, with presales for Citi card holders available from 10 a.m. on October 25 to 10 p.m. on October 27. Carlile’s Bramily fan club members will have earlier access to presales. Details are available at BrandiCarlile.com/tour.
The Beatles have just debuted a couple of the previously unheard rarities that will appear as bonus tracks on the forthcoming deluxe reissue of their landmark 1966 album, Revolver.
One track is an acoustic demo of John Lennon singing part of an early version of “Yellow Submarine.” In the 30-second segment, which is subtitled “(Songwriting Work Tape/Part 1),” Lennon softly strums and picks an acoustic guitar while singing, somewhat sadly, “In the place where I was born/ No one cared, no one cared/ And the name that I was born/ No one cared, no one cared/ And the town where was born/ No one cared, no one cared.”
The final version of “Yellow Submarine” features Ringo Starr on lead vocals. It was long believed that Paul McCartney was the tune’s main writer, but the demo suggests that Lennon played a bigger role in its composition.
The second track is an early alternate version of “Got to Get You into My Life,” identified as “(Second Version / Unnumbered Mix).” The rendition is a bit more raw-sounding than the well-known studio version and lacks the song’s signature brass parts while showcasing some fuzzed-out guitar riffs.
Meanwhile, a new animated music video featuring the updated mix of “Taxman” from the Revolver reissue also recently debuted on YouTube.
As previously reported, the deluxe reissue of Revolver will be released on October 28 in multiple configurations.
Among the versions of the reissue is a special edition that features new stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes of Revolver, the original mono mix of the album, 31 tracks of session outtakes, a four-song EP that includes the non-album tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain,” and a 100-page hardbound book.
Veteran Scottish rockers Simple Minds have just released their 18th studio album, Direction of the Heart.
Frontman Jim Kerr tells ABC Audio that he’s proud of producing an album of Direction of the Heart‘s quality this late in the band’s career.
“I mean, 18 albums in 45 years, and still to be wanting to be in there,” Kerr enthuses, “Still to be wanting to surprise ourselves. Still to be wanting to live up to a name we have made for ourselves. I think there’s a real commitment to it, and I think there’s some great tunes.”
Kerr says that while the band began working on tracks for the album before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the record was written by him and his Simple Minds co-founder Charlie Burchill in the middle of the health crisis in Sicily, Italy, where Kerr has a home.
The singer says the pandemic afforded him and Burchill time to let their creativity flourish.
As Kerr explains, “[W]ith no distractions, because there was nothing else, not even the football matches were going on … we set to work, I think, with the kind of commitment that we’ve never had since those young early days [of the band].”
Kerr notes that Simple Minds’ goal for the project, as described in a press release announcing the record, was “to make a feel-good record in the worst of times.”
Musically, Kerr says the band sought to combine elements of classic Simple Minds songs with modern sounds.
“[W]e started off as an art-rock band, and there’s definitely a pop element and stuff, and I think that’s still the sweet spot for us,” he maintains. “If we can conjure up the old days, but somehow … make it feel in the moment … that’s the challenge, really.”
A week after Adam Levine teased his first Spanish-speaking single, “Ojalá,” with Colombian star Maluma and The Rudeboyz in a 20-second TikTok video, we now have the official video.
The steamy video kicks off with The Rudeboyz — a.k.a. Chan El Genio and Kevin ADG — driving while listening to the “incredible” beat they just produced and sharing how great it would be to have Maluma and Levine on the song.
“We’d kill it. Can you imagine? That would be a dream,” they say.
Next we hear the Maroon 5 singer and Marry Me star trading verses about getting over the heartbreak of losing a girl. While Adam starts off singing in Spanish, he switches to English later in the song.
Levine first hinted at a possible collaboration with Maluma back in June, posting a photo on Instagram of them in a recording studio, captioned, “World ain’t ready.”
In addition to being Maluma’s longtime collaborators, The Rudeboyz have produced hits for artists such as Shakira, Sech, Jennifer Lopez, Prince Royce and Sebastián Yatra.
Swifties got all they wanted and more on Friday. Taylor Swift not only released her highly-anticipated 10th studio album, Midnights, she also gifted fans seven surprise bonus tracks.
Those new tracks are part of what Taylor’s calling Midnights (3am Edition). The songs include “The Great War,” “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” “Paris,” “High Infidelity,” “Glitch,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” and “Dear Reader.”
“Surprise! I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour,” Taylor wrote on Instagram. “However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks.”
In a separate Instagram post, Taylor thanked her collaborators on the album, including Jack Antonoff,Lana Del Ray, Zoe Kravitz and William Bowery — the latter of whom we know as her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
Taylor also dropped the music video for “Anti-Hero” on Friday morning. The visual, which was written and directed by Swift, shows her “nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real time,” as she described it on Instagram. The video culminates in a brawl at Taylor’s funeral, featuring Mike Birbiglia and John Early as her grown sons and Mary Elizabeth Ellis as her daughter-in-law.
Blame it all on her roots: Miranda Lambert was destined to be a country girl ever since she was eight years old, thanks to a special gift from her grandfather.
The singer shared two selfies from a “lunch date” with the man she calls Paw Paw Hughes, explaining a little bit of the special relationship she and her grandpa have had over the years.
“He bought me my first pair of cowboy boots and cowboy hat when I was 8. Guess he knew back then I was gonna be a country girl forever,” Miranda wrote in the caption of her post. “Love you so much Paw Paw Hughes (my mama’s daddy.) Best lunch date ever.”
The two photos show Miranda and her grandpa cracking up — a frequent pastime for them, she explained.
“He has the best stories and the best sense of humor,” the singer told her fans. “We were both laughing in pic 2 because he said, ‘Who is taking the picture?’ I said, ‘Me…it’s a selfie.’”
Miranda’s been enjoying a little downtime after the first leg of her Velvet Rodeo: The Las VegasResidency. She’ll hit the stage once again in late November.
Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Marsai Martin, Chika, ChlöeBailey and many others sit down to discuss their lives and career journeys using personal stories about their hair for the Hulu Onyx Collective special The Hair Tales.
Though the stories focus on Black women, their experiences and identities tied to their hair, Ross says Hair Tales is a show for all audiences.
“I say that this is a show that is about Black women, for everyone, in that it is an opportunity for us to gain context and connection,” she told Essence, adding that the conversation about hair and its complexities “is always an important” one to have.
Executive produced by Ross, OprahWinfrey and Michaela Angela Davis, The Hair Tales arrives at a time when leaders and change-makers are continuing to fight hair-based discrimination in the U.S.
“So often we forget that our society and our culture has been selling us a lie about ourselves and particularly about our hair,” Ross said. “Hair really is a portal into our souls and you’re in a sacred position when you’re the ones putting your hands in our hair, having your hands in our souls.”
By way of honest, open discussions,Ross hopes The Hair Tales resonates deeply with Black women.
“This show is an intimate and intentional discovery of the humanity of Black women told through the metaphor of hair,” she said. “Our intention was that this was a love letter to Black women.”
The Hair Tales will debut October 22 on OWN and Hulu at 9 p.m. EST.
Twenty years ago this Saturday, Santana followed up their massively successful 1999 comeback album Supernatural with another chart-topping and collaboration-filled record: Shaman.
Released on October 22, 2002, Shaman debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album featured one major Billboard Hot 100 hit, “The Game of Love,” featuring pop singer/songwriter Michelle Branch, which peaked at #5.
The song, which was co-written by New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander and hit-making songwriter Rick Nowels, went on to win a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Like Supernatural, Shaman paired guitar legend Carlos Santana with various performers from different genres, including pop/R&B singers Seal and Macy Gray, Chad Kroeger of the rock band Nickelback, nu-metal group P.O.D., pop singer Dido, multicultural rock outfit Ozomatli, roots rocker Citizen Cope, hip-hop artist Melky Jean and opera legend Plácido Domingo.
Kroeger appears on a song titled “Why Don’t You & I” that he wrote. Since Nickelback’s label didn’t want the track to be released as a single, Santana rerecorded the tune with vocals by Alex Band of the group The Calling and issued that version, which ended up reaching #8 on the Hot 100.
Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, who co-wrote and sang the Supernatural smash “Smooth,” also lent his songwriting talents to two tracks on Shaman.
Original Santana drummer Michael Shrieve co-wrote and played on a track titled “Aye Aye Aye.”
Shaman has been certified two-times Platinum by the RIAA for sales of 2 million copies in the U.S.
Here’s the full track list of Shaman:
“Adouma”
“Nothing at All” — featuring Musiq (Rob Thomas, Cori Rooney)
“The Game of Love” — featuring Michelle Branch (Gregg Alexander, Rick Nowels)
“You Are My Kind” — featuring Seal (Rob Thomas)
“Amoré (Sexo)” — featuring Macy Gray
“Foo Foo” — featuring Tabou Combo
“Victory Is Won”
“Since Supernatural” — featuring Melky Jean & Governor
“America” — featuring P.O.D.
“Sideways” — featuring Citizen Cope
“Why Don’t You & I” — featuring Chad Kroeger
“Feels Like Fire” — featuring Dido
“Aye Aye Aye”
“Hoy Es Adiós” — featuring Alejandro Lerner
“One of These Days” — featuring Ozomatli
“Novus” — featuring Plácido Domingo
Even amid all the throwback artists on the When We Were Young festival lineup, Jimmy Eat World is something of an elder statesman of the scene. Having formed in 1993, the Arizona rockers spent many years playing tiny venues and basement shows leading up to their early 2000s breakout with “The Middle.”
Given their long history and the nostalgic vibes of the festival, When We Were Young seems like a fitting place to bring out an early cuts Jimmy Eat World set. However, as frontman Jim Adkins tells ABC Audio, he’s not sure that’d be such a good idea.
“If we did go with a set of, like, what we would be playing at a basement gig in ’97, I don’t know if people are really gonna dig that,” Adkins shares. “I mean, there’d definitely be some people [thinking], ‘Yeah, cool,’ but I don’t know if enough of those people would spread the love to win over an audience.”
Still, longtime Jimmy Eat World fans can expect to hear a few deep cuts at When We Were Young.
“We’ll definitely include some of the older songs that we don’t normally play, or don’t play all that often, especially at a festival,” Adkins says. “I don’t know if we’ll make a whole set out of it, though.”
Adkins adds that he and his bandmates will “definitely change” up the set list between each of their performances over When We Were Young’s three days.
“I think there might be some people that go to multiple gigs, which is wild,” Adkins says.
When We Were Young takes place October 22, 23 and 29 in Las Vegas. The bill includes My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Bring Me the Horizon, A Day to Remember and Avril Lavigne, among many, many more.
