Beartooth has launched a new, signature whiskey brand.
The 96-proof beverage is called Barry’s Batch Whiskey, and was created in collaboration with Middle West Spirits, based in the “Hated” outfit’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
“We are so thrilled to be partnering with Columbus, Ohio’s own Middle West Spirits to present to you our first-ever whiskey — Barry’s Batch!” says bassist Oshie Bichar. “This exceptional straight rye whiskey was hand-picked by us, and we can’t wait for you to taste how delicious it is.”
Along with Barry’s Batch, Beartooth is also selling a special edition vinyl variant of the band’s 2021 album Below with a whiskey and barrel-inspired color.
If an album of 17 new Red Hot Chili Peppers songs isn’t enough to satiate your needs, then we have good news.
Speaking to NME, frontman Anthony Kiedis teases “another wheelbarrow of songs” to follow the band’s just-announced new record, Unlimited Love.
“We’re gonna put out music by the handful — literally,” Kiedis says.
“Don’t be surprised if another wheelbarrow of songs comes your way in the near future,” he shares. “We have a lot of s*** to turn people onto.”
Returning guitarist John Frusciante adds that the Peppers already have a “loose plan” for an Unlimited Love follow-up.
“We definitely have enough material that we love,” Frusciante says, revealing that the leftover tunes have a “relaxed energy that’s distinct from the intensity” of Unlimited Love.
Before we get to hear those songs, we’ve got a two-month wait for Unlimited Love, which drops April 1. Lead single and opening track “Black Summer” is out now.
Red Hot Chili Peppers will embark on a world tour in support of Unlimited Love this summer. The U.S. leg launches in July.
Last week, eagle-eyed fans spotted clues that they claimed proved that a Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran remix would soon be upon us. Now, fans have spotted the biggest clue yet that a new version of Ed’s song “The Joker and the Queen,” featuring Taylor, is imminent.
On YouTube, if you go to the credits of the official lyric video for “The Joker and the Queen,” and scroll down past the lyrics, you’ll get to the publishing information. There, plain as day, it says, “The Joker And The Queen (feat. Taylor Swift).” At least it did at press time — but it’s also been captured and posted online.
As previously reported, rumors of the remix began last week when Ed posted an Instagram teaser that showed him signing some CD on with artwork depicting a playing card that was one half joker and one half queen — with the queen looking very much like Taylor with blonde hair and bangs.
In addition, Ed wears a Taylor Swift patch on the back of his jacket in the video for “Overpass Graffiti,” and in Taylor’s“I Bet You Think About Me” music video, she draws an “equals” sign in the icing on a wedding cake. “The Joker and The Queen” appears on Ed’s album = (Equals).
The two have previously released three songs together, all on Taylor’s albums: “Everything Has Changed” on Red, “End Game” on Reputation and “Run,” a vault track on Red (Taylor’s Version).
Jennifer Lopez stood her ground when casting the main characters for the upcoming Marry Me movie and revealed she said no to some of the biggest acts in music when casting Bastian, a role that eventuall went to Maluma.
“So many names came up. All the big musicians you can think of right now,” the “On the Floor” singer told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “But not one Latin name came up. And I was like, ‘You know what? I really want to make a bilingual album for this for a mainstream Hollywood movie. Why don’t we pick a Spanish artist, a Latin artist. Somebody who just is in Spanish, and let’s talk Spanish in the movie.'”
Jennifer, who plays pop superstar Kat Valdez in Marry Me, continued, “I wanted to make a bilingual album,” and says hiring a Latin artist was her top priority. “When we were talking about that part, a lot of different names came up. We need somebody who’s a musician, superstar, super swag, could play this character. And all of the nuances that he has could be lovable,” she described.
Although the part called for “the perfect, right guy,” Jennifer adds there was a caveat: the person also had to be “the guy who you don’t want to marry, and who could that be?”
Maluma was eventually hired to play Bastian, Kat’s boyfriend who cheats on her the day they’re supposed to wed. Jennifer adds of Maluma, “The two songs that he wrote specifically for the movie, not as a Maluma song, but as a Bastian song, was so impressive to me. Because it showed me that he really understood the character.”
Marry Me, also starring Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman and Game of Thrones star John Bradley, arrives in theaters Friday, February 11.
When Russell Dickerson sings the first verse of his hit song “Home Sweet,” he’s remembering a real-life story, complete with going from “all-inclusive margaritas in Malibu” to “prayin’ we could pay rent this month.”
The song’s about his newlywed days, when he and his wife Kailey has just tied the knot — and they were broke.
“Literally, the day we got back from our honeymoon is when I got dropped from my first publishing deal,” Russell remembers. “Which was two years of great income. I was providing for the fam…and my income went to zero dollars.”
Fortunately, those lean times didn’t last: Russell found success as a country star, and he’s had four number-one hits to date. Now, “Home Sweet” is just outside country radio’s top-ten. Though most of his fans have never had a publishing deal, Russell says that most listeners can relate to the song’s sentiment.
“I think so many people, so many newlyweds or people who are just young, and you know, just struggling to pay rent…everybody’s been there,” he says. “So that’s kind of a level of relating to the song.”
“Home Sweet” comes off of Russell’s 2021 album, Southern Symphony.
At the age of 50, Clifford “Method Man” Smith Jr. is proud to continue his successful career with his featured role in Power Book II: Ghost. He loves appearing in the series with co-star Mary J. Blige after winning a Grammy with her in 1996: Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “I’ll Be There for You”/”You’re All I Need to Get By.”
The member of the iconic Wu-Tang Clan admits that growing up poor in New York City borough of Staten Island, it was not easy “getting by.”
“I was a Black boy living in some of the worst areas in New York,” Smith says in the cover issue of Essence‘s February digital issue. “I’ve been told that from the gate, ‘You don’t belong here.’ Sometimes even without words.”
Since then, Smith has proven that he belongs as an actor, as well as a rapper.
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of Wu-Tung’s 1993 triple-platinum debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Beyond his group accomplishments, Method Man has forged his own identity with five solo albums, plus three collabo projects with Redman. He made the transition to acting in 1996, and his film credits include Belly, Brown Sugar, Red Tails, and 2019’s Shaft.
He tells Essence that he remembers it being difficult to convince casting directors he was ready for film and TV.
“I guess my background turned some people off. Some people aren’t willing to give you a chance, especially when you’ve already had one and you kind of squandered it,” Smith notes. “There was a changing of the guard in hip-hop. I was cool with that. I had to evolve with the business and if that meant acting, so be it.”
British artist Mae Muller scored a massive hit with “Better Days,” her collab with Swedish producer NEIKED and Polo G. Now, fans tell her they’ve gone online check out all her solo music, and she says that means everything to her.
“That’s the most important thing,” she tells ABC Audio. “Obviously I love ‘Better Days’ — the song has opened so many doors, but all the songs I did before, they really came from the heart and [are] really personal to me. So it just makes me feel like everything was kind of worth it, and it’s happening when it’s meant to happen.”
It’s because she wrote all her solo songs that Mae was hesitant to sing on anything she didn’t write, but “Better Days” changed her mind.
She explains, “I’ve had quite a few songs be sent over and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we think this is going to be a big song,’ but I’m like, ‘But it doesn’t feel right, and I wouldn’t say that. The message isn’t right for me.’ And that’s the biggest thing.”
But after hearing “Better Days,” Mae says, “I was like, “I would say this, and this is very aligned with how I feel and what I would say.’ And also, I was like, ‘This song sounds like a banger, and the only person who’s going to lose out if I don’t do this is me!”
“It just felt right,” she says, and laughs, “I just said, ‘Dolly Parton didn’t write every single one of her songs, so I’m sure it’s fine if I don’t!'”
Mae’s now hard at work on new songs, and her upcoming U.S. shows in March, she’ll “definitely” perform “some unreleased music that people can enjoy” — music that she says will be “a little teaser” of what’s to come.
On Friday, longtime Elton John guitarist and music director Davey Johnstonereleased his first solo album in almost 50 years, Deeper than My Roots.
Johnstone tells ABC Audio that the project started coming together when Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour was postponed in 2020 album because of the COVID-19 pandemic and he unexpectedly found himself with extra time on his hands.
As he amassed new songs, aided by some lyrical help from his friend, actor and poet Rick Otto, Davey says he got the idea to enlist several of his musically inclined children to contribute to the album, which he notes became “a complete family affair.”
Early in the project, he asked his youngest son, Elliot, to sing on a track, while his son Charlie, an accomplished keyboardist, also played on that song and engineered it.
“[I]t was suddenly sounding really magical,” Johnstone notes, “and I thought, ‘Well, this could be the basis for this record. It could be…me writing all this material and then involving my kids.'”
Elliot wound up singing lead on most of the tracks. Johnstone reports that his other family members who contributed to the album included “my middle son, Jesse, [who] played drums remotely on about four, maybe five songs, [and my] eldest son, Tam, who…produced and mixed a couple of the tracks.”
Davey tells ABC Audio that he titled the album Deeper than My Roots because it’s “got a lot of different influences,” including 1960s and ’70s pop and rock, and “Scottish and Irish traditional music.”
Johnstone also reveals that his famous boss “was blown away” when he listened to the record, pointing out that Elton said, “[T]his is sweetest album I think I’ve ever heard,” and was particularly impressed by Elliot’s vocals.
A deluxe, 30th anniversary edition of the late Natalie Cole‘s chart-topping 1991 album Unforgettable…with Love was released today on CD and digital formats.
The expanded collection features a newly remastered version of the original album, plus a couple of bonus tracks.
Unforgettable…with Love is a collection of standards that were previously recorded by Natalie’s famous late father, Nat King Cole, and was highlighted by a virtual duet between her and her dad on his classic early-1950s hit, “Unforgettable.”
The Natalie/Nat King Cole “Unforgettable” duet reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album spent five weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart during the summer of 1991. The album and song wound up winning a total of seven Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Unforgettable…with Love has gone on to sell more than seven million copies in the U.S.
The bonus tracks included on CD and digital versions of the reissue are renditions of “At Last” and “Cottage for Sale,” which were first released as B-sides of singles from the original album.
A two-LP 180-gram vinyl version of Unforgettable…with Love reissue, without the bonus tracks, will be released on March 25. Limited-edition colored-vinyl variants pressed on purple, pink and white vinyl, respectively, can be ordered from Natalie’s official website, Target and Barnes & Noble.
Nat King Cole died of lung cancer at age 45 in 1965, while Natalie passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of 65 in 2015.
Here’s the Unforgettable…with Love reissue’s track list:
“The Very Thought of You”
“Paper Moon”
“Route 66”
“Mona Lisa”
“L-O-V-E”
“This Can’t Be Love”
“Smile”
“Lush Life”
“That Sunday That Summer”
“Orange Colored Sky”
“A Medley Of: For Sentimental Reasons, Tenderly & Autumn Leaves”
“Straighten Up and Fly Right”
“Avalon”
“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”
“Too Young”
“Nature Boy”
“Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup”
“Almost Like Being In Love”
“Thou Swell”
“Non Dimenticar”
“Our Love Is Here to Stay”
“Unforgettable”
“At Last”*
“Cottage for Sale”*
Oliver Wakeman, longtime Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman‘s oldest son who followed in his dad’s footsteps to play with the U.K. prog-rock legends from 2008 to 2011, will be releasing a new three-CD box set on April 11 featuring some of his noteworthy collaborative recordings.
Collaborations features expanded reissues of Oliver’s 2001 album with Yes guitarist Steve Howe, The 3 Ages of Magick, and his 2013 project Ravens & Lullabies, which he made with respected British folk and prog-rock guitarist Gordon Giltrap.
The box set’s third disc is a previously unreleased acoustic live album, From a Stage, recorded at a Christmas concert Oliver and Giltrap played several years ago with current Sweet lead singer Paul Manzi.
Ravens & Lullabies also features contributions from Manzi, as well as from ex-Yes frontman Benoît David.
The reissues of The 3 Ages of Magick and Ravens & Lullabies feature a few bonus tracks.
Collaborations comes packaged with a 16-page booklet and individual art prints of the three albums’ cover art.
In advance of the box set’s release, a new music video for the Ravens & Lullabies track “Moneyfacturing” has debuted on Oliver Wakeman’s official YouTube channel.
“This is one of my personal favorite band tracks I have ever written and recorded, allowing me to make use of a lot of my collection of keyboards,” Oliver says of the tune. “It is a radio-friendly song which also reminds people what a great electric guitar player Gordon is!”
You can pre-order the Collaborations box set now at BurningShed.com.
