Music

In 2020, Halsey thrilled fans when she marked the fifth anniversary of her 2015 album, Badlands, by releasing her first live album, Badlands (Live from Webster Hall).  Now she’s doing something similar to mark the fifth anniversary of her album hopeless fountain kingdom, which was released June 2, 2017.

On her socials, Halsey wrote, “HFK – live from Webster Hall available June 24th. Happy 5th birthday to my 3rd favorite of all my double platinum albums.”  She included the cover art for album, as well as photos from that era.

While Halsey didn’t give details of the recording, her live Badlands album was recorded in May 2019 at New York City’s Webster Hall. That night, she performed Badlands in its entirety. The following night, she performed hopeless fountain kingdom in full, so it’s likely the album will be taken from that performance.

hopeless fountain kingdom, a concept album loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, featured the singles “Now or Never,” “Bad at Love” and “Alone,” as well as “Strangers,” Halsey’s duet with Lauren Jauregui.

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Carrie Underwood found a creepy surprise in her garage recently: a huge snake. The country superstar posted video of the moment on her Instagram Stories, showing just how long the surprise visitor was, plus some of her efforts to gently escort it back out into the wild.

“You scared the everloving — ohhh, you scared me, bud,” Carrie says from behind the camera as she films the snake, which is stretched out underneath a table in her garage. “Look at how long this sucker is. Whoa.”

The singer posted, “Country life be like…” in the caption of her clip.

Though Carrie was keeping her distance from the snake, it’s no surprise that she wanted to remove it using humane methods. A vegetarian and rescue dog owner, Carrie is a noted animal rights activist who, in 2013, spoke out against a Tennessee “ag-gag” bill on the grounds that it would have made it more difficult to protect farm animals from abuse.

She also established the C.A.T.S. Foundation to support her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma. In addition to raising money for education and community support, the foundation funded a new animal shelter with an emphasis on spay and neuter programs and shelter pet welfare.

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Doja Cat has released the cinematic visual for “Vegas,” her contribution to the soundtrack of the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film ELVIS, starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. 

In addition to Doja, the video features Shonka Durkureh, who plays real-life R&B and rock ‘n roll pioneer Big Mama Thornton in the film. Thornton was the first to record the song “Hound Dog,” which later became a huge hit for Elvis. “Vegas” features an interpolation of Thornton’s take on “Hound Dog.”

Doja first debuted the song at Coachella, and Durkureh joined her for those performances as well.

The video takes Doja down to the steamy South, where she sings in a nightclub, visits a church and joins a crowd of writhing dancers at a house party.

In addition to “Vegas,” the soundtrack for ELVIS will also feature songs from Måneskin, Diplo, Jack White, Jazmine Sullivan, CeeLo Green, Eminem, Stevie Nicks, Tame Impala and more.  The movie and the soundtrack both arrive on June 24.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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A Georgia judge has denied bond for Young Thug, leaving him behind bars until January 9, 2023, the expected date of his trial.

The ruling came on Thursday from Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville after the Atlanta rapper’s team fought for his freedom. Meanwhile, prosecutors argued that the artist, whose birth name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, was a threat to the community, claiming that Williams is the leader of a street gang called Young Slime Life.

On May 10, Williams, 30, was among 28 individuals, including fellow Atlanta rapper Gunna, born Sergio Kitchens, included in a 56-count grand jury indictment. The counts include conspiracy to violate the RICO Act, murder, armed robbery, and participation in criminal street gang activity. A few days later, Young Thug was also charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of firearm during commission of a felony.

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Imagine Dragons has revealed the track list for the band’s upcoming album, Mercury — Act 2.

The 18-track set includes the previously released single “Bones,” as well as “Ferris Wheel,” “Peace of Mind” and “I Don’t Like Myself.”

As its name suggests, Mercury — Act 2 is the companion follow-up to last September’s Mercury — Act 1, which features the singles “Follow You” and “Wrecked,” as well as the hit JID collaboration “Enemy.”

Mercury — Act 2 will be released in a package alongside Mercury — Act 1 on July 1.

Imagine Dragons is currently on tour in Europe in support of both Mercuries. They’ll launch a U.S. tour in August.

Here’s the Mercury — Act 2 track list:

“Bones”
“Symphony”
“Sharks”
“I Don’t Like Myself”
“Blur”
“Higher Ground”
“Crushed”
“Take It Easy”
“Waves”
“I’m Happy”
“Ferris Wheel”
“Peace of Mind”
“Sirens”
“Tied”
“Younger”
“I Wish” (Bonus track)
“Continual” feat. Cory Henry
“They Don’t Know You Like I Do”

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Fans already know that Gwen Stefani’s going all-out on her garden this year — both on social media and in interviews, the pop superstar’s been gushing about her outdoor plans for the Oklahoma ranch where she lives with her country star husband, Blake Shelton.

But all that hard work isn’t a solo project: Blake’s busy helping Gwen make those gardening dreams a reality, he tells People.

“Gwen is absolutely into it. It’s flower planting time,” the singer says. “And Gwen doesn’t settle for those little areas around the sidewalk. We’re talking about fields, acres of flowers. So I have my work cut out for me.”

But it’s a labor of love for the couple, who are still smitten as ever as they approach their one-year wedding anniversary next month.

“I wish everybody could have a chance to meet and talk to Gwen Stefani at some point in their life because you’ll just be a better person for it, is the only way I know to say it,” Blake continues. “She’s just a magical person to be around.”

Blake and Gwen tied the knot on July 3, 2021 after dating for several years. They first met as coaches on the set of NBC’s The Voice.

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Chris Young returns with the deluxe version of his Famous Friends album today. In keeping with the original theme of collaboration, he’s adding three more duets to the track list.

One of those is a revamped version of “Think of You,” Chris’ duet with Cassadee Pope, which topped the country charts in 2016. He’s also including two new team ups: one with Jimmie Allen and one with Old Dominion.

Both those duets happened naturally, Chris says. The Jimmie collab, “Music Note,” was a long time coming from two musical pals who both love collaboration.

“Jimmie Allen had been yelling at me because we hadn’t done a song together, and I’m like, ‘Dude, you didn’t ask, so I didn’t know you wanted to do one,’” Chris recounts. “And I just sent him ‘Music Note’ when we wrote that song. I was like, ‘Hey, this could be cool for the two of us,’ and he was down for it.”

As for the Old Dominion duet, “Everybody Needs a Song,” Chris says that was a no-brainer, too, because he wrote the song with one of the band members.

“That one was a co-write between me, [songwriter] Chris DeStefano and Brad [Tursi],” the singer explains. “So Brad just went and asked everybody. So both of them, all three of them if you want to count the third one [with Cassadee Pope], were all pretty organic.”

The new duets join the three collaborations on the original track list, including duets with Mitchell Tenpenny, Lauren Alaina and the smash hit title track with Kane Brown.

The deluxe version of Famous Friends also includes two new solo tracks and an acoustic version of Chris’ 2015 hit “I’m Comin’ Over.”

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Twenty years ago Saturday — June 4, 2002 — 17-year-old Avril Lavigne released her debut album, Let Go. The pop/punk album helped popularize the genre and went on to become one of the best sellers of the decade, moving more than 16 million copies worldwide.

Let Go spun off four massive hits: “Complicated,” “Sk8er Boi,” “I’m With You” and “Losing Grip.” The album and its singles collectively earned Avril eight Grammy nominations, four Juno Awards and the MTV VMA Best New Artist Moonman.

Looking back, does Avril think Let Go still holds up?

“Oh, I definitely think my vocals are way stronger now, that’s for sure!” Avril tells ABC Audio. “But … yeah, the songs are cool. I like them. A couple are … I don’t know. My voice has, like, evolved for sure.”

Avril points out one cringeworthy songwriting moment in “My World,” a song about growing up in Napanee, Ontario.

In the song, Avril sings, “Made my money by cutting grass/Got fired by a fried chicken a**/All in a small town, Napanee.” She laughs, “I think it’s hilarious in ‘My World’ that I literally say the town’s name that I came from and my job and that I got fired.”

“I worked at a fried chicken chain and got fired, but I was a really good worker … the guy was a d*****bag,” Avril continues, still laughing. “I literally got fired and then wrote about it and put it in this song … I think that’s hilarious. And part of me is like, ‘Why did I do that?’ But the other part of me is like, ‘Hmm, that’s pretty cool that you did that!'”

You’ll hear all of Let Go‘s hits on Avril’s current Love Sux tour, which wrapped its Canadian leg Thursday night in Halifax.

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British New Wave veterans The Fixx released their first new studio album in a decade, Every Five Seconds, today.

The album features 10 new original songs from the band. Commenting on the themes of the record, Fixx frontman Cy Curnin says, “Life can either be a series of broken obsessive thoughts or it can be a wonderful mosaic of moments. Every Five Seconds reflects this human paradox. The constant struggle between bewilderment and betterment.”

Four tracks from Every Five Seconds were released in advance of the album — “Wake Up,” “Closer,” “Woman of Flesh and Blood” and “Take What You Want.” In addition, an animated music video for the latter tune, featuring enigmatic images of disembodied hands, debuted in April on The Fixx’s official YouTube
channel.

The band will support Every Five Seconds with a U.S. tour that gets underway on June 10 in Las Vegas and runs through a June 30 performance at Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

The Fixx scored a string of hits during the 1980s that included four songs that reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 — “Saved by Zero,” “One Thing Leads to Another,” “Are We Ourselves?” and “Secret Separation.”

The group’s most recent previous album, Beautiful Friction, was released in 2012.

Here’s the full track list of Every Five Seconds:

“A Life Survived”
“Closer”
“Take What You Want”
“Wake Up”
“Suspended in Make Believe”
“Lonely as a Lighthouse”
“Cold”
“Spell”
“Woman of Flesh and Blood”
“Neverending”

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More new Jack White music is coming your way.

The White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather rocker will be dropping a fresh solo tune called “If I Die Tomorrow” next Wednesday, June 8. The track is available to presave now.

“If I Die Tomorrow” will appear on White’s upcoming album Entering Heaven Alive, the second of two solo records he’s releasing this year, following April’s Fear of the Dawn.

Notably, White sings the phrase “If I die tomorrow” on the Fear of the Dawn single “What’s the Trick?” But judging by a preview of the tune, “If I Die Tomorrow” will be much different sounding song.

Entering Heaven Alive arrives July 22. It includes the previously released songs “Love Is Selfish” and “Queen of the Bees,” as well as an acoustic version of the lead Fear of the Dawn single “Taking Me Back,” dubbed “Taking Me Back (Gently).”

White is currently supporting both albums on his Supply Chain Issues tour, which continues Friday in Reno, Nevada.

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