Music – Page 3604 – 105.7 WDNY

Jimmie Allen loves all his ‘Dancing with the Stars’ cast mates, but admits “the biggest crush ever” on Melanie C

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

In his typical upbeat fashion, Jimmie Allen couldn’t be more complimentary about his competitors, heading into his fourth week on Dancing with the Stars.

“Everybody was kinda like I figured they would be,” he tells ABC Audio. “Like, when I saw this cast and we all met at Disneyland, everybody was super cool.”

“Melora [Hardin] is really nice,” he continues. “I talk to Matt James and Iman [Shumpert] a lot, Cody [Rigsby]. Me and [Michael] “The Miz” [Gregory] been talking a lot. He’s funny, yo! I like him. Even little Suni [Lee]. She’s cool. Amanda [Kloots] is really nice.”

“Olivia Jade, she’s super nice, man,” he adds. “You could tell she’s so young. She’s so nervous all the time. She’s really, really nice.”

Of course, there may be one particular favorite for the “Freedom Was a Highway” hitmaker.

“Melanie C is amazing. I mean, I get to hang out with Sporty Spice! Like God, I used to have the biggest crush on her ever,” he reveals.

Jimmie adds, “I’m definitely glad I’m on this season with this group of people. Like I felt like they went out and actually picked cool people, because everybody on the show is really cool. You know, everybody’s getting along.”

But who does Jimmie view as the one to beat?

“All of ’em!” he laughs. “I feel like they all scare me. You know, the cool thing is like, this cast is so different because everyone brings their own thing to the table.”

Tonight, Jimmie and his partner Emma Slater will be doing the Paso Doble to “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” from Mulan for Disney Heroes Night, which starts at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Nas teaching MasterClass in hip hop storytelling to help aspiring rappers “find their inspiration”

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Nas is always on the list in the discussion of the greatest rappers of all-time, and now the iconic MC is sharing his wisdom and experience in a new online course.

He’s teaching a MasterClass in hip hop storytelling that begins October 14.

“I feel like everybody has their own technique. If you take a look at mine, it’s really too much to say in one MasterClass,” Nas tells Complex. “If you take my technique, I think you’ll find that it might be real similar to yours if you’re a writer. You might see things that you do that are similar or that you didn’t see before in yourself. You might find that I gave you something that could add to what you’re doing, and I think that’s important. I think that’s where we’re at in the business: it’s to share.”

In a trailer for the course, he says he will teach students “how to find your inspiration, your flow, and how to turn your life experience into music.”

The Grammy winner grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City. On September 23, he received the key to Queens as he performed a charity concert raising money to help feed the hungry in NYC.

“I’m super honored by it. When you look back and think about humble beginnings, and you realize how much you’ve been putting in… It’s a great county. It’s a great town,” he says.

“To have that honor in 2021 and have my own day, September 23, makes me feel great,” Nas continues. “It makes me want to do something more.”

Tom DeLonge feels AVA drummer Ilan Rubin is a deserving Rock Hall of Famer: “He’s a phenom”

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Tom DeLonge may be the most famous member of Angels & Airwaves, but he isn’t the band’s resident Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

That’d be drummer Ilan Rubin, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2020 as a member of Nine Inch Nails. As DeLonge tells ABC Audio, though, Rubin’s enshrinement hasn’t seemed to have changed him all that much.

“He hasn’t brought it up once since it happened,” DeLonge says. “We gave him a bunch of s*** and he hasn’t brought it up, but he’s funny.”

DeLonge adds that Rubin is a very deserving inductee, given his proficiency at so many different instruments.

“Like, he’s so good at drums,” DeLonge says. “And he’s infinitely better than me on guitar.”

“[Rubin’s] crazy, I’ve never met anybody with his skill-set and his knowledge, his abilities,” he adds. “He’s a phenom, he really is.”

DeLonge jokes that having a Rock Hall of Famer in his band gives himself more credibility. “It kinda makes me in the Hall of Fame because we’re in the same band,” he laughs. “So, therefore, indirectly I’m a Hall of Famer maybe.”

Of course, it’s possible that DeLonge might be inducted himself as a member of Blink-182, who’ve been eligible for nomination since 2020. So, would that be something he’d actually be interested in?

“We don’t really recognize any type of award until we get it,” DeLonge quips. ‘And if we get it, then it’s important.”

Angels & Airwaves are currently on tour in support of their new album, Lifeforms.

Blondie releases digital EP featuring rare 1981 Christmas tune recorded with hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

With the holiday season approaching, Blondie has released a new three-track EP featuring a rare 1981 Christmas tune called “Yuletide Throwdown” that the band recorded with hip-hop legend “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, as well as a new remix of the song created by DJ/producer Cut Chemist.

“Yuletide Throwdown” originally was released on a flexi-disc given away by U.K. magazine Flexipop, and was co-written with and co-produced by Fab 5 Freddy. The song features Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry and Freddy rapping Christmas-themed lyrics over what actually is the original music for the band’s chart-topping 1981 smash “Rapture.”

The Yuletide Throwdown EP is available now digitally and via streaming services, while a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl version will be released on November 5, pressed on either black or magenta-colored vinyl.

“Yuletide Throwdown” recently was rediscovered while Blondie was going through its personal archives in preparation for a new box set that will be released in August 2022.

“It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!!” says Harry in a statement. “Some of my best times have been making music with [Blondie guitarist/songwriter] Chris Stein and Freddy B.”

Adds Stein, “Freddy has done as much as any multi-platinum selling Hip-Hop star to promote rap culture.”

Meanwhile, Fab 5 Freddy notes, “In the beginning of my journey into pop culture, Chris & Debbie were among the first to take me and my ideas about hip hop culture seriously and were like mentors to me shining a light along the road and assisting my quest. I’m happy after all this time the world can now hear this fun holiday tune we did way back then!”

The Romantics’ Mike Skill says newly released debut solo album shows fans his sound and his voice

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Founding Romantics guitarist Mike Skill has just released his debut solo album, Skill…Mike Skill, which is available now via digital formats, with a vinyl version due out later in 2021.

The 12-track collection features Mike’s recently issued version of The Romantics’ 1980 power-pop classic “What I Like About You,” as well as several other songs he released as digital singles over the last few years and some new tunes recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skill, who has co-written all of his band’s best-known songs, tells ABC Audio that one of the reasons he decided to put together the solo album was that The Romantics weren’t enthusiastic about working on new music during the pandemic.

“So I’m just kind of living in Mike Skill world, and…showing [what] my sound…is, and my voice and my name,” he explains.

One of the album’s tracks, “’67 Riot,” which was first released as a single, features contributions by one of Mike’s guitar heroes, The MC5‘s Wayne Kramer.

Skill says he was initially hesitant to ask Kramer to play on the song, but after Wayne heard it, “he loved it, loved the lyrics, he loved the whole attitude,” noting that the tune “had that throwback sound to late-’60s, ’70s kind of Detroit sound, that…high-energy rock.”

Skill worked on a number of the tracks with longtime Romantics drummer Brad Elvis, while Brad’s wife, singer/musician Chloe F. Orwell, also contributed her talents to some tunes.

Mike says Chloe wrote the lyrics for “Carrie Got Married,” a power-pop anthem that was penned as a sequel to the 1980 Romantics song “Tell It to Carrie.” Chloe also sang and played sax on the soul-flavored track “So Soul Alone.”

For more about the album, visit MikeSkill.com.

John Lennon’s “Imagine” certified triple platinum; multiple events planned to mark Lennon’s birthday Saturday

October 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

On the eve of what would’ve been the late John Lennon‘s 81st birthday comes word that “Imagine,” the classic peace anthem Lennon co-wrote with wife Yoko Ono, has been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA for sales of three million units in the U.S.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Yoko for John & Yoko Ono Lennon’s ‘Imagine,'” says Universal Music Enterprises president Bruce Resnikoff. “‘Imagine’ remains a timeless global anthem, and John & Yoko’s message of peace is just as relevant today as when it was first written.”

Ono recently said of the inspiration for “Imagine,” “John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other. The song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met — he comes from the West and I come from the East — and still we are together. We have this oneness and ‘the whole world would eventually become one’ is the sense that we will all be very happy together.”

“Imagine” and the album of the same name on which it appears were released 50 years ago this past September 9.

As has become an annual tradition to mark Lennon’s birthday on Saturday, the Imagine Peace Tower, the memorial art piece Ono conceived as a tribute to her late husband in Reykjavík, Iceland, will be illuminated at 4 p.m. ET, and will remain lit until December 8, the anniversary of John’s death. You can check out a livestream of the tower at ImaginePeaceTower.com.

Coinciding with the lighting of the tower, a special edition of Tim’s Twitter Listening Party, hosted by U.K. radio host and musician Tim Burgess, will be held at 4 p.m. ET. The show will present the recent “Ultimate Mixes” version of the Imagine album.

Paramore’s Zac Farro announces new album with HalfNoise project

October 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Paramore drummer Zac Farro has announced a new album with his HalfNoise side project.

The record is called Motif, and will arrive November 5. You can listen to a new single called “Superstition” now via digital outlets.

“Motif was a huge stepping stone for me in a lot of ways,” Farro says. “From the songwriting to the production, I pushed myself in ways that I hadn’t before.”

He adds, “I really wanted to create a ‘HalfNoise’ sound instead of only writing with the goal of just finishing songs or an album. I wanted this record to be pointed and have purpose.”

HalfNoise will be playing a trio of shows this November, in Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles.

Paramore, meanwhile, released their most recent album, After Laughter, in 2017. It marked Farro’s return to the band after initially leaving in 2010.

Scott Stapp guests on new EDM song, “Light Up the Sky”

October 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Scott Stapp is approaching the EDM world “With Arms Wide Open.”

The Creed frontman has released a new song called “Light Up the Sky” in collaboration with dance music DJs and producers Wooli and Trivecta.

“When I first heard the track, I instantly started recording melodies and lyrics,” Stapp says. “The piano, builds, crescendos, drops, and overall vibes just connected right away. I wanted to give voice to the idea that releasing life’s inevitable sadness, fear, or regret is the first step to reclaiming the kind of intense joy and passion that this track explodes with.”

He adds, “I’m grateful for Wooli and Trivecta for reaching out — here’s to blending two worlds and to unexpected opportunities that forge something beautiful and powerful.”

You can listen to “Light Up the Sky” now via digital outlets.

Stapp’s most recent album is his 2019 solo release, The Space Between the Shadows.

Sammy Hagar’s 2021 Birthday Bash being held on Catalina Island this week; Saturday’s show streaming at nugs.net

October 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Sammy Hagar‘s 2021 edition of his annual Birthday Bash is taking place this week, featuring three special performances by the Red Rocker and his band The Circle at the Catalina Casino on California’s Catalina Island.

The festivities began Thursday with a sold-out a VIP event that featured a hybrid acoustic/electric performance, as well as a segment where Sammy and the band — bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — shared stories and took questions from the audience.

The show featured a 10-song set that included covers of Led Zeppelin‘s “When the Levee Breaks” and Depeche Mode‘s “Personal Jesus,” as well as versions of Montrose‘s “Bad Motor Scooter,” Chickenfoot‘s “Sexy Little Thing” and Van Halen‘s “Right Now,” “Humans Being,” “Mine All Mine” and “Finish What Ya Started.”

The bash continues tonight and Saturday with full-length rock shows. For those who can’t make it out to the concerts, Saturday’s event will be available for streaming via nugs.net. Visit nugs.net/SammyHagar for more details.

Fans attending the Catalina Island shows will be required to show proof that they’re fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Hagar was unable to hold his birthday bash at its usual location — his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Instead, Sammy and The Circle played a socially distanced concert on October 8 on Catalina Island. With the pandemic still an issue in Cabo San Lucas, Hagar decided to bring the bash back to Catalina this year.

Hagar’s actual birthday is October 13. He’ll be 74.

Lil Wayne releasing ‘Tha Carter’ singles vinyl box set

October 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Lil Wayne is releasing his favorite songs from Tha Carter album series in a seven-inch vinyl box set.

Weezy announced Friday that Tha Carter Collection 7 will feature 19 tracks, including “A Milli,” “Go DJ,” “Hustler Musik” and “6 Foot 7 Foot,” along with liner notes and a booklet of rare photos never seen before. “Ya Dig,” which is included, was added to streaming services for the first time on Thursday.

You can purchase the box set now on Wayne’s website.

The first album in Tha Carter series was released in 2004, followed by Tha Carter II in 2005, Tha Carter III in 2008, Tha Carter IV in 2011, and Tha Carter V in 2018.

Last week, the Young Money Entertainment CEO dropped a collabo album with Rich The Kid titled Trust Fund Babies. He kicked off the week celebrating his 39th birthday at a bash in Miami hosted by his biggest star, Drake.

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