The Lumineers have announced a North American headlining tour in support of the band’s new album, Brightside.
The massive outing launches May 14 in Jacksonville, Florida, and will run all the way through the summer before wrapping up September 6 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Tickets go on sale next Friday, February 18, at 10 a.m. local time. Members of The Lumineers’ fan club will have access to a pre-sale beginning Monday, February 14, at 10 a.m. local time.
The itinerary also includes a number of shows rescheduled from The Lumineers’ planned 2020 tour. Previously purchased tickets will be valid for the new dates. Additional tickets to those stops are on sale now.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit TheLumineers.com.
Brightside, the fourth Lumineers album, was released in January. Its title track hit number one on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart.
Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” has racked up more than a billion streams on Spotify, which means the group will soon be receiving their Spotify billion-play award. The plaque kind of looks like a bowl and in fact, many recipients have eaten food out of their awards. Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley says he’s got plans to do the same.
“I haven’t gotten it yet, but I will definitely eat cereal out of it,” Dave tells ABC Audio. “And…I’m actually doing this thing where I’m trying to design my own cereal at the moment, so I’m going to eat that out of it!”
In addition to notching a billion streams, “Heat Waves” also topped Spotify’s Global Top 50 Chart, as well as Billboard‘s Pop Airplay chart. On that chart, “Heat Waves” is the first #1 in eight years to be written, produced and performed by a single artist. Most hits these days have multiple writers —Justin Bieber‘s “Peaches” has 11, for example — so why did Dave go it alone for “Heat Waves?”
“With this record, I did want to do something very personal — way more personal than anything I’ve ever done before,” Dave says of Dreamland, the album that includes “Heat Waves.” “I think I’m quite a shy person and I’m not very good at being very open. And it seemed like the…only way to do it was to do a lot of it on my own.”
Dave notes that he’s always preferred working solo.
“I remember doing the first album, I sang under a blanket because I didn’t want anyone to see me!” he tells ABC Audio. “I was really scared, even though it was just me and my friend in the room. It’s easier for me to kind of dig deeper if I’m on my own.”
Scotty McCreery admits that ever since he and his wife Gabi got married in 2018, they’ve been faced with constant questions about starting a family. Now, the couple is considering the idea more than ever before.
“All my uncles, it didn’t take them two minutes once we tied the knot to be asking those questions. I’m the last McCreery boy with the bloodline, so they’re all like ‘you got to carry on the name’ kind of thing,” the country singer shares.
And while the couple wanted to give themselves time between the wedding and having children to travel, Scotty reveals that the conversation of starting a family is becoming more frequent in their household.
“Those first few years, we were very much like, ‘we’re going to live our life, we’re going to travel, we’re going to do our thing.’ I think we’ve we’ve done a good amount of that now,” he describes. “So I think it’s a little less scary. It’s definitely a conversation that’s being had, I’ll say that.”
While Scotty and Gabi plan their future family, the American Idol‘s future in country music looks bright as his current single, “Damn Strait,” is climbing the top 30 on country radio. He continues on his Same Truck Tour through February 19.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Carole King, the acclaimed singer/songwriter who first found fame in the 1960s as a composer of hits for others before becoming a top-selling solo artist in the early ’70s, celebrates her 80th birthday today.
The Brooklyn, New York, native has enjoyed two distinct chapters to her career. The first began when, as a teenager, Carole started writing songs with her first husband, lyricist Gerry Goffin.
The couple became part of the famed Brill Building songwriting collective that churned out hits for artists in the 1960s. Their breakthrough song was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” a #1 hit for The Shirelles in 1960.
Many more hits followed, including Bobby Vee‘s “Take Good Care of My Baby,” Little Eva‘s “The Loco-Motion,” The Drifters‘ “Up on the Roof,” The Chiffons‘ “One Fine Day,” The Animals‘ “Don’t Bring Me Down,” The Monkees‘ “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” and Aretha Franklin‘s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
King and Goffin divorced in 1968 and Carole moved to Los Angeles, where she began the next chapter of her career, writing and recording her own songs. Things exploded for her in 1971, when she released her second solo album, Tapestry.
Tapestry spent 15 straight weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album included the chart-topping hits “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel the Earth Move,” the top-20 single “So Far Away,” and her own versions of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “A Natural Woman.” It also featured “You’ve Got a Friend,” with which James Taylor scored a #1 hit with in ’71.
Tapestry won four Grammy Awards and has gone on to sell over 13 million copies in the U.S.
Carole’s other solo hits include “Sweet Seasons,” “Jazzman” and “Nightingale.”
King is one of only three women to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice — in 1990 with Goffin for their songwriting achievements, and as a solo artist in 2021. Her many other accolades include induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and recognition at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Last month, Asia revealed that it planned to mark its 40th anniversary with a new tour this summer, and now the Asia spinoff group Asia Featuring John Payne has announced that it’s plotting a special 2022 trek that will celebrate two milestone anniversaries for the supergroup.
Payne was Asia’s lead singer and bassist from 1991 to 2006, and he formed his own version of the band in 2007, after the group’s full original lineup reunited in ’06.
The 2022 Asia Featuring John Payne tour will not only mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Asia’s chart-topping 1982 self-titled debut album, but the 30th anniversary of Aqua, the band’s first studio effort to feature Payne.
Asia Featuring John Payne is preparing a 90-minute show that will focuses on those two albums, featuring a set list that includes “Heat of the Moment,” “Only Time Will Tell,” “Sole Survivor,” “Wildest Dreams,” “Who Will Stop the Rain” and many more.
“This is going to be very nostalgic for me,” says Payne. “I haven’t played some of these songs in 30 years and I’m extremely excited to do this tour with our band. We want the shows to sound as close to the original recordings as possible.”
Asia Featuring John Payne currently has three confirmed upcoming concerts on its schedule — a February 26 performance in Orlando, Florida; a May 21 show in Lynn, Massachusetts, that also will feature founding Foreigner lead singer Lou Gramm; and a July 14 gig in Cleveland.
Pusha T is back after a long hiatus with his new track, “Diet Coke,” produced by Kanye West and 88 Keys. Ye does not rap on the track, but he is featured prominently in the black-and-white video, dancing to Pusha’s rhymes.
The song begins with a sample of Fat Joe saying a line he made famous in 2021, “Yesterday’s price is not today’s price.”
“Diet Coke” is the first new single from the former Clipse member since “Coming Home” featuring Lauryn Hill in 2019. The song is expected to be on Pusha’s upcoming fourth album, It’s Not Dry Yet, which he plans to drop later this year. It’s been nearly four years since his third and latest album, Daytona, was released n 2018.
Ariana Grande proved she does her own makeup, and her fans are shook. When doing an Instagram tutorial about how she perfects her signature look — aka the long cat-eye — Ari free-hands her inky black eyeliner with two simple strokes and zero mistakes. Fans say the tutorial gives them hope that they, too, will be able to get on Ariana’s level.
Joe Jonas is teasing more about DNCE‘s return. According to him, the band’s upcoming new single, “Dancing Feet,” is going to somehow include “dance battles to end all dance battles.” He also shared a video that shows his band and DJ Kygo, who will also feature on the upcoming track, practicing their moves. Joe has not yet announced when the single drops.
Meghan Trainor may present a picture-perfect parenting lifestyle for the camera, but the “Me Too” singer admits it’s a farce. Taking to Instagram, Meghan shared a hilarious video of the facade she puts up about parenting her one-year-old son, Riley. The clip starts with the “expectation” part of being a mom before jump-cutting to the “reality” — showing her toddler trying to rip off the kitchen cabinet doors. At least she’s honest!
Adele was the big winner at the BRIT Awards — the British equivalent of the Grammys — which took place Tuesday night in London.
The star grabbed the top award, Artist of the Year, and also captured the Song of the Year trophy for her number-one smash “Easy on Me” and the Album of the Year prize for 30.
But most exciting of all, Adele also performed: She sang “I Drink Wine,” from 30, while sitting on a piano wearing a green gown.
Adele dedicated her Album of the Year trophy to her son, Angelo, and her ex-husband, Simon Konecki. She said, “This album was all of our journey, not just mine, and I’m very proud of myself for sticking to my guns and putting out an album that was so personal to me — ’cause not many people do that any more. My son has been so kind and gracious and patient with me over the years.”
As for the other winners, Dua Lipa was named Best Pop/R&B Act, Olivia Rodrigo‘s “good 4 u” won International Song of the Year, Billie Eilish was named International Artist and Silk Sonic won International Group.
Ed Sheeran was named Songwriter of the Year, and he opened the show with a hard-rocking performance of “Bad Habits,” which he sang with British rock band Bring Me the Horizon.
Dua wasn’t able to attend the ceremony because she’s launching her Future Nostalgia tour in Miami tomorrow night. “Although we would’ve all loved to be in London celebrating with you like this — we’ve been rehearsing so we can put on a killer show for you all!!” she wrote on Instagram. “So grateful to do what I love everyday with people I love.”
The season of Weezer will soon be upon us. Or, rather, SZNS.
Last year, frontman Rivers Cuomo announced a plan to release four Weezer albums in 2022, each tied to one of the calendar’s four seasons. In a tweet this week, Cuomo revealed the release dates for the SZNS records.
Spring will arrive on March 20, followed by Summer on June 20, Fall on September 22, and Winter on December 21.
The announcement comes with two caveats, though. The first is that each of the release dates should coincide with the first day of that album’s corresponding season, and that if it doesn’t, Cuomo asks you to “please correct” him. While Spring, Fall and Winter are correct, the Farmers’ Almanac tells us the first day of summer is actually June 21.
The second caveat is that the release dates are “not confirmed with any record company or manager,” so who knows if they’ll actually stick.
Even if the SZNS albums don’t arrive as planned, you still have plenty of new Weezer music to listen to, since Cuomo and company released two records in 2021: OK Human and Van Weezer.
Avril Lavigne celebrates the 20th anniversary of her debut studio album, Let Go, this June. In a new interview, the “Love It When You Hate Me” singer reflected on her storied career and why she’s so excited for her next chapter.
Speaking to Fault, the Grammy nominee explained, “I look at all my albums like a journey into my story over the last 20 years. I’ve been writing music from when I was a teen, to a young adult and this one is my story today as a woman.”
Avril’s upcoming seventh studio album, LOVE SUX, comes out February 25 , and she says it marks “the first time I’ve made a record that’s rock all the way through.”
“When I started the album, I was definitely in the mindset of ‘If I’m going to rely on anyone in this world, it’s going to be me,'” she continued. “I’ve had been doing this so long and reached a lot of goals in my career. I feel I’ve earned the right to have fun and enjoy what I built over all of these years.”
“Being out on the road for a year at a time, traveling, doing promo, and all the other work that I put in over the years, it’s now time to just make fun music and have a blast,” Avril explained. “This record is one I’ve always wanted to make.”
Avril burst into the scene when she released her debut single, “Complicated,” on March 11, 2002. With her seventh — and, according to her, best — album coming out in a few weeks, she says she’s no longer feeling any “pressure” when it comes to her music career.
Said Avril, “Life’s short so it’s time for me to have fun.”
