Oliver Tree has released a new song called “Freaks & Geeks,” a track off his upcoming album, Cowboy Tears.
The tune continues the “Life Goes On” artist’s folksier sound, first heard on the Cowboy Tears lead single, “Cowboys Don’t Cry.”
“Freaks & Geeks” is available now for digital download. It’s accompanying video, which finds Tree adding a bit of a Hot Topic goth-twist to his cowboy getup, is streaming now on YouTube.
Cowboy Tears will be released February 18. It’s the sophomore follow-up to Tree’s 2020 debut, Ugly Is Beautiful.
After Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine co-founded Beats Electronics in 2006, they focused on creating educational opportunities for minority youth in Los Angeles. In 2013, they donated $70 million to the University of Southern California to create the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation.
Now they are collaborating with Adidas to design a new education program in South Los Angeles that blends fashion, technology, and entrepreneurship, according to Rolling Stone. Adidas says in a statement, “Design and creative hobbies have become more than just that – they are an opportunity for youth to explore a future that can become a career.”
In addition to the new program with Adidas, Iovine, and Dre, who is performing in the Super Bowl halftime show, are launching a magnate school in South LA, set to open on September 22, 2022. Many youth in South LA come from low-income families, however Iovine says they can overcome their obstacles.
“A lot of these kids, they have all these words for them: under-served, disadvantaged,” the entrepreneur says. “But what they really have is superpowers.”
Iovine and Dre have become a super duo, producing several multi-platinum albums, and launching Beats by Dre. They were the subject of the 2017 Grammy Award-winning HBO docuseries, The Defiant Ones.
“We come from two different cultures, and we’ve collaborated for 30 years now,” the Interscope Records co-founder says. “We really complement each other.”
Following their success in music and audio, they hope for similar results in affecting education. “I grant that it’s a big idea, but we also believe that if you were to create a spark that’s powerful enough, a fire will happen,” Iovine says. “We think that this will catch on.”
Following her Lifetime/A&E documentary which was viewed by over 15 million people last weekend, Janet Jackson is raising money for a girls charity by selling some of her vintage concert merchandise.
Fans can purchase items from four of her tours: janet. 1993-1995, The Velvet Rope 1998–1999, All For You 2001–2002, and Rock Witchu in 2008. Proceeds will be donated to the non-profit organization Girls Leadership that teaches girls to exercise the power of their voice through programs grounded in social emotional learning.
Janet has partnered with The RealReal company for the sale, and the company is also contributing $10,000 to Girls Leadership. Merchandise is available on TheRealReal website.
“The sooner we can teach our girls how to speak up for themselves and to stand up for one another and in what they believe in, the better position they’ll be in as they get older,” the five-time Grammy winner says in a statement. “Women need to support one another more from day one and that starts from when we’re younger. We owe it to the younger generation to teach them, so they make fewer mistakes than we did.”
Jackson’s two-part doc dominated television over the weekend, scoring the best ratings for a non-fiction premiere on cable since ESPN’s The Last Dance in 2020, and the best ratings for a Lifetime non-fiction show since 2019’s Surviving R. Kelly.
The documentary also sent viewers rushing to download her music, too. Three of her albums — Control, Design of a Decade and Rhythm Nation — hit the top 10 on the iTunes U.S. chart, and she had a total of eight albums in the chart’s top 20 overall.
Lifetime will re-air the documentary this Friday, February 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Luke Bryan opens his Las Vegas residency with nine shows this month. As an artist-in-residency repping country music, he’s got some big shoes to fill: Carrie Underwood opened her own, dazzling Vegas show in December.
Now, Luke says he’s not trying to compete with Carrie or his fellow American Idol judge, Katy Perry, who recently launched a residency of her own.
“The girls are able to really make it more theatrical,” the country superstar tells People. “My thing is, I’m gonna throw my band on stage.”
While Luke’s availing himself of some of the extra bells and whistles that go into a classic Vegas show, he explains it’s part of a plan to “keep it real authentic to what I always have been, but just use the technology behind me to really have moments where fans can be wowed.”
Still, his Vegas set might differ a little bit from a stop on, for example, Luke’s Farm Tour. That’s because the audience will be a little different than his usual crowd, he explains.
“I think in Vegas, I’ve always been able to get away with really being myself, being free, and reacting with the fans in the moment,” he continues. “I think in Vegas, you can get away with that a little more than some conservative country music markets across the country.”
One thing’s for sure: Luke’s not planning to disappoint any concert-goers expecting a big, exciting show. “I’m going to come out there and deliver the energy, deliver the entertainment,” he promises.
Korn, Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin and Evanescence are playing the 2022 Inkcarceration Festival, taking place July 15-17 in Mansfield, Ohio.
As in previous years, Inkcarceration will be held at the historic Ohio State Reformatory, a now-defunct prison where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.
Other artists on the bill include Papa Roach, Three Days Grace, Falling in Reverse, Seether, Lamb of God, Black Veil Brides, Black Label Society, Theory, Sleeping with Sirens, Avatar and Spiritbox.
Alana Haim and Jonny Greenwood are among the nominees for the 2022 BAFTAs — the U.K. equivalent of the Oscars.
The HAIM sister’s performance in the movie Licorice Pizza is up for the Leading Actress award, while the Radiohead guitarist’s The Power of the Dog soundtrack will compete for the Original Score prize.
Both Licorice Pizza and The Power of the Dog are nominated for Best Film.
The 2022 BAFTAS take place in London on March 13.
Haim’s performance in Licorice Pizza has also been nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award, as has Greenwood’s The Power of the Dog score.
Lauren Alaina is among the stars who’ve signed on to compete in Beyond the Edge, a CBS reality show that pits celebrities from all aspects of show business against the elements. Variety confirmed the news this week.
The series, which takes some cues from Survivor, brings its star cast to the jungle of Bocas del Toro, Panama, where the celebs will battle “torrential downpours, scorching heat and deadly wildlife,” according to the network.
There’s one more twist: Instead of conventional reality show eliminations, the celebs will be able to ring a bell when they’re ready to tap out of the grueling experience. But each star will be playing for a charity of their choosing, and at the end of the two-week experience, the two top performers will battle it out in a final competition for the bragging rights of winning the most money for their charity.
Lauren’s not the only cast member repping country music: Also heading to Panama for the show is Craig Morgan, who had a viral hit in 2019 with “The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost.”
Lauren’s charity of choice is The Next Door, a Nashville-based facility supporting women impacted by addiction, mental illness, trauma, incarceration and more.
Meanwhile, Craig is playing for Operation Finally Home, a nonprofit that provides custom-built, mortgage-free homes to military veterans.
Other stars participating in Beyond the Edge include Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis, actor Jodie Sweetin, The Bachelor personality Colton Underwood and more. Beyond the Edge will premiere March 16 at 9 p.m. EST.
Founding Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has teamed up with author Mala Gaonkar to create an immersive sensory experience called Theater of the Mind, which will premiere August 31 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Off-Center.
The production, which originally was scheduled to debut in 2020 but was postponed because of COVID-19, takes place in a 15,000-square-foot historic warehouse and, according to an official description, brings audience members on “an immersive journey of self-reflection, discovery, and imagination, inspired by and grounded in neuroscience.”
The show uses stories from Byrne’s and Gaokar’s own lives to shape a narrative that attendees will be able to see, feel, taste and hear.
At each show, 16 audience members will follow a “Guide” through various environments and will have the opportunity to try a number of sensory experiments devised to make attendees question how they perceive their own beliefs, memories and identities.
Byrne explains that Theater of the Mind was inspired by a series of neuroscience experiments in which both he and Gaonkar participated.
“We began referring to the project as a Neuro Funhouse, but as we worked on it we came to realize that it was evolving to be something more than that,” he notes. “It has made us rethink some of our own beliefs and assumptions, to see ourselves and the world in a different way, and we hope that it might have a similar effect on our audience.”
Theater of the Mind begins previews on August 31, and officially opens on Septmber 13. The production will run through December 18. Tickets will go on to the general public on May 20, while pre-sale tickets will be available to all Denver Center for the Performing Arts subscribers starting May 6.
Those toiling away at Fortnite can now level up while listening to Silk Sonic. The popular battle royale game announced Thursday that they’ve teamed with the Grammy-nominated duo for its brand new “Icon Radio.”
According to a press release from Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, cars that players drive in-game will now come equipped with the station “Icon Radio.” It even has its own on-air host, ’70s funk legend Bootsy Collins, who will entertain players between playing tracks from the An Evening With Silk Sonic album.
Bootsy is jazzed about his latest venture and said in a statement, “Back in the day I was crazy about arcade games, so being able to bridge the worlds of music and gaming with Fortnite is very exciting.”
That’s not the only Silk Sonic-flavored update coming to the game. Both Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak also helped design brand new outfits and accessories that players can purchase in-game.
Jokes Bruno in a statement, “When Fortnite asked me if I wanted to create an outfit for the game, I asked, ‘Are CGI muscles off the table?’ They said ‘no.’ I said ‘deal.'” Anderson cheekily chimed in, “When Fortnite agreed to give Bruno CGI muscles, I said, I’m in. He could use the help, so I support it. And it makes me cool. Win, win.”
In addition, Fortnite is hosting a “Silk Sonic Cup” tournament for a chance at more branded goodies.
This isn’t the first time Silk Sonic dipped their toes in Fortnite. Anderson performed an in-game “Spotlight Concert Series” in September 2020 and, in April 2021, Bruno contributed an emote styled after his appearance in “Leave the Door Open.”
Slash is one of the most recognizable people in rock today, but when he was growing up, he often pretended to be someone else. Specifically, someone old enough to get into rock clubs.
During an interview on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!Wednesday night, the Guns N’ Roses icon recalled creating fake IDs when he was a teenager.
“I was pretty good at it,” Slash said. He then told a story of when he and his future GN’R band mate Steven Adler used fake IDs to get into a particular club, but while the doorman let Adler in, he rejected Slash.
“I was just crushed,” Slash shared. “So I went home, and I put on a bunch of makeup and put on some of my mom’s clothes — I was really drunk, you have to understand — and I went back up there. It was Ladies Night, so I went back and I got in.”
Slash’s initial thought was he was going to mess with Adler — “Steven would screw anything,” he joked — but soon realized that the drummer had since left the club.
“This whole black cloud of reality came down,” Slash remembered. “I felt the most vulnerable I’d ever felt, ever. Still to this day, I’ve never felt like that.”
After the interview, Slash and his solo band Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators performed their new single “The River Is Rising.” The track will appear on the upcoming Conspirators album 4, due out February 11.
