Music

Black Veil Brides’ new album The Phantom Tomorrow is coming out in October, and now the band has announced that they’re giving you something to read while you listen to it.

The group has teamed with Incendium to create a six-issue comic book series, also called The Phantom Tomorrow, which front man Andy Biersack says will “build on the world that we have developed for “Blackbird,” “9,” “Scarlet,” and the entire Phantom Tomorrow universe that BVB fans have come to know over the past year via our music videos and other visual mediums.”

The Phantom Tomorrow story is based on a concept by Biersack, and is written by Michael Moreci, who’s contributed to Stranger Things and Batman: Detective Comics.  It follows a brilliant scientist named Dennis Kane, whose huge ego “causes the world to fall apart around him,” according to the description on Incedium‘s website.

Then, Kane is “resurrected as “Blackbird — a mysterious figure caught between life and death,” who is desperately seeking redemption, and is “willing to fight through hell and back to get it.”

The first print edition of each issue will come as a limited-edition, individually numbered collectible book with cardstock covers, foil treatments and glossy pages.

Biersack writes on Instagram, “Growing up, I was heavily influenced by the works of Alan Moore, Todd McFarlane, and many other iconic writers and artists in the comics field and to have the chance to create and develop an original character that both pulls from those influences as well as creates new and compelling story arcs is a dream come true.”

In addition to the comic books, both t-shirts and action figures are also being released as part of The Phantom Tomorrow series.  You can pre-order the series now.

 

 

 

 

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BTS is giving you the permission to dance. 

The Korean pop supergroup is calling on fans to show off their dance moves to their new song, “Permission to Dance,” for the first global dance challenge hosted on YouTube Shorts.

Throughout the video, the superstar group can be seen doing dance moves that incorporate the signs for “joy,” “dance” and “peace.”

Fans will have three weeks to submit their own 15-second video recreating the dance moves from the upbeat video, using the hashtags #PermissiontoDance and #Shorts. BTS will then pick their favorite clips to be featured in a Shorts compilation video. 

The contest takes place from July 23 through August 14. 

Co-written by Ed Sheeran, “Permission to Dance” has amassed more than 170 million views on YouTube. The track follows BTS’ current single, “Butter,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and set a Guinness World Record for becoming the most viewed YouTube music video in a 24-hour period.

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Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are celebrating two weeks of wedded bliss.

The pop superstar shared a never-before-seen candid shot from her wedding ceremony to her country star husband, which took place on July 3. “Happy 2 week anniversary [Blake Shelton],” she wrote in the caption of her post.

The black-and-white image shows Blake and Gwen dressed up in their wedding outfits, standing together in the doorway of the chapel that Blake had built on the property of his Oklahoma ranch specifically for the couple’s wedding. Standing by them is Carson Daly, who officiated the wedding.

Per People, the superstar couple purposely kept their wedding intimate and focused on family. “They didn’t want a circus. In the end, they just wanted to have this moment with their loved ones,” one source explained.

In the days since the wedding, fans have learned the backstories behind a few of the details that the couple used to honor their family members. Gwen’s custom bridal train featured her name and Blake’s embroidered into it, plus the names of her three sons, Kingston, Apollo and Zuma.

She also tributed her parents — who were both present at the wedding — with a lavish, five-tier wedding cake based on the same one that they had at their own ceremony.

Blake and Gwen’s wedding came five years after the couple started dating. They originally met when they were both coaches on The Voice. 

 

 

 

 

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What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of pop’s biggest stars?  Well, they definitely took a hit, but for a lucky few, the money kept rolling in thanks to streaming royalties and physical sales of their music.

The queen of all that was Taylor Swift, who returned to the number-one spot on Billboard‘s ranking of the highest-paid musicians of 2020 in the U.S.,  even though her income in 2020 dropped to “only” $23.8 million.  By comparison, the last time she was on the list, in 2018, her income was $99.6 million.

Taylor topped the chart based almost solely on sales of her albums folklore and evermore — physical and digital sales, plus streaming.  Billboard notes that because Taylor owns her masters, she gets 46% of the money they generate, compared with the 33% a top artist usually earns.

Post Malone is number two on the list, just behind Taylor with $23.2 million. Unlike her, he actually had some touring income in the early part of 2020 that boosted his overall paycheck, which was added to his streaming sales for hits like “Circles.”

Celine Dion comes in at number three because, she was able to tour before the pandemic hit, raking in some $17 million.  Royalties from her recordings and publishing made up the rest of her $17.5 million paycheck.

Billie Eilish was in the top five thanks to three pre-pandemic concerts she performed, but she made the bulk of her $14.7 million in streaming and publishing, as well as physical album sales.

Here’s how some other big stars did in terms of their U.S. paychecks:

11. The Weeknd, $10.4 million
19. BTS, $8.9 million
23. Ariana Grande, $7.5 million
31. Justin Bieber, $6.22 million
36. Ed Sheeran, $5.66 million
37. Halsey, $5.55 million
38. Harry Styles, $5.51 million

Globally, Taylor slides to number two, Billie rises to number three, and rock legends Queen are ranked number one.

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Keyshia Cole‘s biological mother, Frankie Lons, has passed away at age 61.

According to TMZ, Lons, whose struggle with substance abuse was documented on Cole’s various BET reality series, including Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, reportedly overdosed at her Oakland home on Sunday, the same day she was celebrating her 61st birthday.

Cole’s younger sister, Elite, confirmed the news of her mother’s death in an IG Story. “Worse pain ever….to see my mama in a body bag on her birthday! My heart so f***in broke.”

As you may recall, Cole had a rocky relationship with her biological mother and father, Virgil Hunter. Although the singer was adopted and raised by family friends, she eventually reunited with her biological family once her career hit the mainstream.

It was just early last year that Cole had praised her mother for deciding to check herself into rehab.

“Maybe that’s what’l make THIS Time different,” she’d written in a now-deleted post. “This being what YOU WANTED AND NO ONE ELSE….”

As of March of last year, Frankie had reportedly been sober for 60 days.

Cole has not yet commented on her mother’s passing.

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Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus has gotten some good news from his doctors.

The 49-year-old bassist, who’s been diagnosed with an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, gave an update on his treatment Monday.

“Scans indicate that the chemo is working! I still have months of treatment ahead, but it’s the best possible news,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I’m so grateful and confused and also sick from last week’s chemo,” he continued. “But the poison the doctors pump into me and the kind thoughts and wishes of people around me are destroying this cancer. Just gonna keep fighting…”

During a recent Q&A, Hoppus revealed he’s battling the same form of cancer his mother beat a few years ago.

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Lil Nas X is pulling out all the stops for his new single, “Industry Baby.” 

On Monday, the hitmaker unveiled a teaser for the new track that takes aim at his dispute with Nike over the controversial Satan Shoes he released in collaboration with design company MSCHF. The shoes, a tie-in to his video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” were Nike Air Max 97s that were redesigned to feature a pentagram and contain a drop of human blood. 

After the shoes were released, Nike sued MSCHF for trademark infringement. The lawsuit was settled back in April.

The trailer for “Industry Baby” stars Lil Nas X in a one-man show as he pokes fun at the situation. The clip is set inside a courtroom where the rapper plays the defendant, judge, a juror and both the prosecutor and defense lawyers.

“This is about much more than shoes. Mr. Nas X, are you gay?” the prosecutor asks. “What does this have to do with the shoes?” Lil Nas X replies, the judge later sentencing him to five years in prison.

The video ends with a teaser of the track featuring Jack Harlow and produced by Kanye West and Take a Daytrip. “Industry Baby” drops in full on Friday. 

Over the weekend, Lil Nas X posted a jokingly tearful video on Tik Tok writing, “when you have court on Monday over Satan Shoes and might go to jail but your label tells you to keep making Tik Toks.” 

(Video contains uncensored profanity)

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The Ohana Festival, founded by Eddie Vedder in 2015, is scheduled to take place September 24-26, but it’s proven to be so popular that a second weekend has been added.

The Ohana Festival encore weekend will be October 1-2, once again at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, CA. Pearl Jam, which was already headlining one night of the original festival, will headline both nights of the encore, and those will be the band’s only additional concert dates for 2021.  Additionally, Eddie Vedder is headlining one night of the original festival solo.

The acts who’ll perform on the encore weekend include Beck, Brandi Carlile, Sleater-Kinney, White Reaper and NHC — aka Navarro Hawkins Cheney, comprised of Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Cheney, along with Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Those three musicians played together under the name Ground Control on the January 8 David Bowie tribute livestream A Bowie Celebration: Just for One Day! Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor joined them on vocals.

Tickets for the encore weekend go on sale Friday, July 23 at 10 a.m. PT at OhanaFest.com.  The first weekend in sold out.

A portion of the proceeds from the festival will benefit the San Onofre Parks Foundation and the Doheny State Beach Foundation.

 

 

 

 

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