Music

Lorde gave her new song “Solar Power” its TV debut on Thursday night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

But rather than performing it in the studio, or sending in a pre-recorded performance, Lorde reached for greater heights: She delivered the song from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, where Colbert’s show is based.

Wearing a two-piece midriff-baring yellow outfit, Lorde began the song standing by the roof’s parapet, before joining her band members, who were standing around the edge of a giant circle tiled with reflective round mirrors.

Lorde stood in the middle of a tiered platform tiled with the same mirrors as she sang. When she got to the line “Come on and let the bliss begin/blink three times when you feel it kickin’ in/That solar power!” she and the band were enveloped in soap bubbles, pumped towards them from four bubble machines, which viewers could see in a dramatic overhead shot.

Lorde’s new album, Solar Power, comes out August 20.

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After teasing an announcement for several days, Dan + Shay finally dropped their big news on Thursday night. The duo is planning to release their fourth studio album, Good Things, on August 13.

Dan + Shay shared the title track and its accompanying music video this week, too. Euphoric and pop-heavy, the anthemic new song gets an epic visual component that finds both band mates meeting in a desert, with people and families of all descriptions flocking to join them.

“Good Things” was co-written by band mate Dan Smyers, who had a hand in penning all 12 of the album’s tracks. Dan also was the primary producer for Good Things.

Dan + Shay have often toed the line between country and pop in recent years, so it’s fitting that the album’s credits are brimming with superstars from both worlds. Old Dominion band mate Brad Tursi and hit-magnet country songwriter Ashley Gorley both show up in the credits, but so do singer-songwriter Julia Michaels and pop star Shawn Mendes.

Dan + Shay’s smash duet with Justin Bieber, “10,000 Hours,” is on the track list for Good Things, as are two more familiar songs: “I Should Probably Go to Bed” and “Glad You Exist.”

Dan + Shay bring their just-released “Good Things” to the stage during an appearance on NBC’s Citi Music Series on TODAY on Friday, just hours after their album announcement.

You can pre-order Good Things ahead of release day. You can also catch Dan + Shay on the road this fall when they resume their Dan + Shay The (Arena) Tour.

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Mark Hoppus shared an update regarding his ongoing cancer battle, telling fans during a recent Q&A that the cancer he’s fighting is the same type that his mother beat.

The Blink-182 bassist revealed he has an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “The cancer isn’t bone-related, it’s blood-related,” he said.

“My classification is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) Stage 4-A, which means, as I understand it, it’s entered four different parts of my body,” the musician continued. “It’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m Stage 4, which I think is the highest that it goes. So, I’m Stage 4-A.”

Hoppus remained upbeat and revealed he’s grown even closer to his mother because, a few years ago, she battled DLBCL and won.

“I’ve been able to talk with her and bond with her quite a bit. Oddly enough, we have the exact same form of cancer that she had. And she beat it,” he said, noting she is also a three-time cancer survivor. “Twice for breast cancer and one for the same cancer that I have.”

Hoppus, who first revealed his cancer diagnosis last month, explained that he has a weakened immune system because of chemotherapy, so he has to lay low.

“I can’t get sick and I have to vigilantly take my temperature and make sure I don’t have a fever,” he explained.

Hoppus said he’ll soon know if chemotherapy is working, noting he will undergo a PET scan and hopes doctors will tell him, “Congratulations! Your chemotherapy has worked and you are all done and you’ll never have to think about this cancer again for the rest of your life.”

“We’re beating this cancer,” he assured. “It’s just a matter of time.”

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Since changing her controversial stage name from Mulatto to Latto, the Atlanta rapper says she’s ready to embrace her new name to reflect her upcoming music.

“Yes, I’m so, so, so excited for the new music. I feel like historically, the negative definition of Mulatto might have been holding me back,” she tells NME. “And this new name, Latto, short for “lottery,” can be forthcoming of good fortune; financially, spiritually, emotionally. I feel like this is [going to] be turning over a new leaf.”

Fans were first introduced to Latto as Mulatto on the first season of Jermaine Dupri‘s competition series, The Rap Game, in 2016. It wasn’t until last year that the 22-year-old considered changing her stage name after facing backlash over the term’s history due to its widespread use in the U.S. South during the era of slavery.

Latto says it’s been a “pretty smooth” transition from competing with others to earning her first platinum plaque for her 2019 breakout single, “B**** From Da Souf.”

“I want more plaques,” she declares. “I got my first plaque, and now I need to be in the studio more ‘cause I need to make more hits to get more plaques.”

“The Biggest” rapper says fans can expect to hear more elevation and growth on the follow-up to her gritty debut album, Queen of Da Souf.

“I’m actually in album mode right now, so the first project I’m about to drop is gonna be a plethora of flows, different [beats per minute],” Latto explains. “I’m from the South, so I tend to choose slower [beats per minute]. That’s very Southern or whatever. But I’m choosing different beats, working with different people, producers, artists. Everything is just [going to] be an elevation.”

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For many bands, a best-of compilation marks a retrospective look at a career that’s at or close to the end. That’s why Dirty Heads vocalist Jared “Dirty J” Watson didn’t want to release one.

Watson admits to ABC Audio thathe was “so against” the idea of a Dirty Heads best-of when it was suggested by the band’s label.

“We’re not old,” Watson says. “They wanted to call it Greatest Hits, which is, like, ‘What?'”

“I think of, like, Led Zeppelin or Creedence Clearwater [Revival],” he adds. “It was just, like, ‘What are you talking about?'”

Watson eventually softened his stance when the label explained a best-of could be a “starter album” for new fans who’ve just heard Dirty Heads’ resurgent single, “Vacation” — which has gone viral in 2021 due to a TikTok trend —  as well as a collector’s item for older fans.

Watson was still hesitant, though, especially since Dirty Heads is sitting on a brand-new, recently-completed album. So, he struck a deal.

“I said, ‘If you guys wanna do a best-of album — which I think is super weird, but I get it — you have to put on two or three of these brand-new songs,'” Watson recalls.

The result is The Best of Dirty Heads, which is out today. Along with past singles including “Vacation” and “Lay Me Down,” the compilation also features several new recordings, including “Rage” featuring Blink-182‘s Travis Barker and Aimee Interrupter of The Interrupters.

“There’s acoustic guitars, and there are these reggae verses, but it is more aggressive and uptempo,” Watson says of “Rage.” “There is like a ska feel to it, but then there’s also a punk feel to it. So there’s enough of each person it it to where the features are perfect.”

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Pop Smoke‘s label, Victor Victor Worldwide, has released the tracklist for the rapper’s second posthumous album, Faith, which drops Friday. 

The 20-track album has a number of surprising guests, including Kanye West, Pharrell, Pusha T, Rick Ross, The-Dream, 21 Savage, 42 Dugg, Future, Takeoff, Kid Cudi, Swae Lee, and more. 

Chris Brown will bring his R&B vocals to the track “Woo Baby,” while pop singer Dua Lipa joins Pop on “Demeanor.”

In addition, Faith will shed light on Pop Smoke’s connection to other emerging Brooklyn drill rappers such as Bizzy Banks and Rah Swish, who also make appearances on the album. Yet in the comments, fans wished the album featured fellow drill rappers Sheff G, and Fivio Foreign.  Meanwhile, others declared Faith would become “the album of the year.” 

Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, was released in July 2020, months after the Brooklyn rapper was shot and killed at age 20. The album topped both the all-genre Billboard 200 chart and Billboard‘s Top Rap Albums chart.

 

 

 

 

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Elton John is celebrating 300 episodes of his Apple Music show Rocket Hour.

As he reflected on the milestone with Zane Lowe, Elton said one of the things he’s loved most about the show was getting to discover new, young artists like Lorde, Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa.

“When I first heard the first thing I ever heard from Lorde, which was ‘Royals,’ I just thought it was unlike nothing I’d ever heard before,” he said. “It…just blew my mind. It was so simple and yet so moving. The same thing with Billie Eilish; it was like, when I hear her records, there’s nothing [like] the space and the feel of it.”

As for Dua, Elton tells Zane, “She’s amazing…She just has this inner beauty and an outer beauty, but she deserves every success that comes her way.”

Dua, meanwhile, offered Elton praise right back in a congratulatory message for hitting 300 episodes.

“I’ll never forget when you played ‘Levitating’ on Rocket Hour, I absolutely lost my mind,” she said.

“I just think you’re absolutely incredible, but I also love how incredibly supportive you are of so many new artists and artists from all over the world, and how much you champion and love and respect artists all over,” she added. “It’s just been an absolute dream, getting to know you and getting to see all the magic that you are.”

Elton’s 300th episode airs Saturday on Apple Music 1.

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Coming across a YouTube post of her own isolated backup vocals on Foo Fighters’ classic “Everlong” has sent Veruca Salt‘s Louise Post down a rabbit hole — leading her to reminisce about the recording of the song, which Dave Grohl wrote about their then-romance.

Posting a snippet of that isolated recording on Instagram, Post wrote, “I sang these back-ups over the phone at 2am after being woken up from a deep sleep in Chicago by [Dave Grohl] who was tracking the vocals for ‘Everlong’ in LA.”

“He wanted me to sing the doo-doo’s, which were inspired by our song ‘Shimmer Like a Girl,” she continues. “While I was at it, I wrote a harmony for the chorus and sang that too.”

“The whispered section of this song was originally the dream I was having when the phone rang. It was a dream about us,” she adds poetically. “He later removed it and replaced with his own whispers, one which was a love letter to me.”

“Maybe I’ll tell the full story…eventually…if I feel like it,” she concludes. “But I just came across this post and thought I would share for anyone who is interested.”

While Grohl’s relationship with the “Seether” rocker didn’t end well — Post claimed onstage in 1997 during a show in Australia that Grohl had cheated on her with Winona Ryder — she said several years ago that she and the drummer are now “friends.”

 

 

 

 

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