Ghost will be celebrating the arrival of their new album with a “release ritual.”
The virtual event is set to stream live on YouTube this Thursday, March 10, at 2 p.m. ET, and will be followed by an “afterparty” exclusively for YouTube Premium subscribers.
As for what a “release ritual” actually entails, that’s not totally clear, but a trailer for the celebration promises that it’ll include Papa Emeritus IV, frontman Tobias Forge‘s persona for the Impera album cycle, and the Nameless Ghouls that make up the rest of Ghost.
Impera, the follow-up to 2018’s Prequelle, arrives this Friday, March 11. It includes the previously released songs “Hunter’s Moon,” “Call Me Little Sunshine” and “Twenties.”
The Weeknd has a pretty big gig coming up…he’ll be appearing on The Simpsons! He confirmed his exciting new venture on Twitter, saying he is “proud of this one.”
The Weeknd shared a link to a story from his fans’ watchdog account, The Weeknd Access, which reports that he will “voice the character of ‘Orion Hughes’ in the new episode of ‘The Simpsons’ which will premiere this March 20th.” Not much else is known about his stint on the long-running animated sitcom.
The Grammy winner has dreamed of voicing a character on The Simpsons for years. He apparently spoke it into existence when talking to Variety in 2020. “An obvious bucket list would be to work on The Simpsons,” he said. “That would be a dream — and if they’re reading this, I actually have a pretty cool idea if they’re down.”
The Weeknd has previously crashed the animated universes of American Dad and Robot Chicken, where he either spoofed himself or created alternate versions of his musical personas. “I want to continue to create different Weeknds in alternate universes,” he also said in the same Variety interview.
Deep Purple has canceled their upcoming concerts in Ukraine and Russia, which had been scheduled to take place on May 31 in Kyiv and June 4 in Moscow, respectively, in the wake of Russia’s military invasion of its neighboring country.
Coinciding with the cancellations, all five current members of Deep Purple have posted messages on the band’s official website and social media pages regarding the harrowing situation, prefaced by a note that reads, “As a rule, Deep Purple is apolitical, but on this occasion…”
The messages also are accompanied by the lyrics to the group’s Cold War-inspired 1970 song “Child in Time.”
Frontman Ian Gillan writes, “If speaking out means we shall never see our Russian friends again, then that is a big sacrifice, but nothing compared with never again seeing our Ukrainian friends who are being killed to satisfy the psychopathic ambitions of the Russian leader. I would like to see Russians on the streets in their millions, to show their disgust at the Ukrainian invasion, and I’d like to dream that very quickly, Russia can find some modern leadership that will bring them back into the world as friends. We have so much in common.”
Bassist Roger Glover writes, in part, “We condemn [Russian President Vladimir] Putin‘s military for the atrocities to innocent men, women and children in Ukraine[,] and we apologize to our Russian and Ukrainian fans that the shows have been cancelled. We live in hope that we can fulfill those dates in the future.”
Drummer Ian Paice‘s message reads, partly, “What’s happening is beyond distressing. It’s criminal and should be treated as such. The invasion of Putin’s army into Ukraine, (because that’s what it is), I hope will turn out to bring his ultimate downfall.”
Post Malone didn’t mince words over his pending lawsuit over his 2019 hit, “Circles.” The suit was filed by Canadian musician Tyler Armes, who claims he’s owed songwriting credit.
According to Rolling Stone, Armes says he’s due partial ownership of the song because he contributed a guitar riff to it. The singer adds he was originally offered publishing royalties capped at five percent, but Posty’s team withdrew the offer when he tried negotiating for a higher number.
Now, Malone’s firing back. Through his lawyers, he responded that Armes contributed an “admittedly extremely commonplace guitar chord progression” and that a “fragment of guitar melody” he sang did not make it into the final piece.
Rolling Stone reports Malone further responds, “Armes does not have a shred of affirmative evidence with which to meet his burden of proof that his alleged contribution to the guitar melody is original. Armes admitted that his contributions did not even rise to the level of originality, which is also required in addition to the fixation requirement. He either conceded that his ideas were commonplace musical devices or failed to meet his burden to demonstrate any originality otherwise. Armes thus cannot even establish the threshold requirement that he made a copyrightable contribution.”
Posty seeks to have the lawsuit dismissed. A hearing has been set for April 4.
Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan’s “Buy Dirt” is heading into tonight’s ACM Awards ceremony nominated in three categories, and though Luke isn’t the primary artist or a writer on the song, he says its message is enormously important to him.
“[Jordan is] so amazing at all this and having so much fun, and I am, too,” Luke says ahead of the show. “That song is really important for me to be on, too. I’m really honored to be a part of it.”
Luke’s been lucky enough to put out many songs that are special to him over the course of his career, but he knows it’s never a given that a special song will get recognition at an awards show. One example that comes to mind is his chart-topping 2013 ballad, “Drink a Beer.” The song reflects on the loss of a loved one, a pain that Luke knows all too well — when he performed it at the 2013 CMA Awards, he dedicated it to his late siblings, Chris and Kelly.
But “Drink a Beer” was never nominated at an awards show, though in Luke’s opinion, it “probably should have been nominated for some stuff,” or even “won Song of the Year.”
Luke has learned never to take awards show recognition for ganted, which makes “Buy Dirt”’s multiple mentions all the more special. “It’s always amazing to have the opportunity to try to win one of these awards,” he notes.
The ACMs will stream tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton is co-hosting the event with Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen.
There’s many reasons for Carly Pearce to be excited about the ACM Awards, but perhaps the biggest one is that her idol, Dolly Parton, is co-hosting.
As a teenager, Carly and her family moved from their native Kentucky to Pigeon Forge, TN, where she became a performer at Dollywood, an experience that trained the “Every Little Thing” singer for her future success.
“Dolly Parton has always been a huge inspiration in my life ever since I was a little girl,” Carly tells Hello! magazine. “She has taught me so much over the years from her kindness and the way she treats others, to her incredible songwriting and her ability to speak from the heart in all of her songs. Her impact on myself and country music as a whole is something I’ll always cherish.”
The country legend is co-hosting the 57th annual ceremony with Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett, where Carly is nominated for four of the night’s awards: Album of the Year for 29: Written in Stone, Female Artist of the Year, Music Event of the Year and Video of the Year, the latter two for her duet with Ashley McBryde on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”
Carly and Ashley will perform the track when the ACM Awards air live from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.
ZZ Top has will release a new album called Raw on July 22 that was recorded in conjunction with the famed blues-rock trio’s 2019 documentary, That Little Ol’ Band from Texas.
That film included a segment where ZZ Top’s classic lineup — singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard — played an intimate set of songs from their back catalog at historic Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, and that “raw” performance served as the basis for the album.
The 12-track collection boasts versions of such classic ZZ Top hits as “Legs,” “Tush,” “La Grange” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” and other gems like “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” and “Tube Snake Boogie,” as well as renditions of “Brown Sugar” and “Certified Blues,” two tunes from the band’s 1971 debut, ZZ Top’s First Album.
Raw, which was produced by Gibbons, is dedicated “in righteous memory” of Hill, who died in July 2021 at age 72. The record will be available as a 180-gram vinyl LP, on CD and via digital formats.
In liner notes for Raw, Gibbons and Beard write jointly about the album, “[I]t was, in a very real way, a return to our roots. Just us and the music, no audience of thousands, no concession stands, no parking lot social hour, no phalanx of tour buses. Just us and the music.”
They add, “‘The Dust’ may have left the building but he’s still very much with us.”
In other news, ZZ Top will launch a new U.S. trek on May 27 in San Diego. Dubbed the Raw Whisky Tour, the outing is mapped out through a July 23 concert in Watertown, New York. Tickets for most dates go on sale on March 11.
Here’s full Raw track list:
Side 1
“Brown Sugar”
“Just Got Paid”
“Heard It on the X”
“La Grange”
“Tush”
“Thunderbird”
Side 2
“I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
“Gimme All Your Lovin'”
“Blue Jean Blues”
“Certified Blues”
“Tube Snake Boogie”
The Prodigy will be returning to the road this summer for their first tour since the death of vocalist Keith Flint in 2019.
The U.K. outing launches in July, will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the group’s 1997 multi-platinum album The Fat of the Land, which spawned the single “Firestarter.”
“We can’t wait to get back onstage and play our tunes for the people again,” remaining members Liam Howlett and Maxim say in a statement. “The 25th anniversary of Fat of the Land felt like the right time for us to step up. We’ll be droppin’ tunes from all our albums and maybe some s*** [you] haven’t heard before.”
The pair adds, “This one’s for Flinty.”
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit TheProdigy.com.
The Prodigy played their last show in February 2019, about a month before Flint’s death. In August 2019, the band announced they were working on new music.
Sam Smith is the latest artist to be hit with a major lawsuit over alleged idea theft. He and his “Dancing With a Stranger” collaborator, Normani, have been accused of plagiarizing their 2019 hit.
Billboardreports that songwriters Jordan Vincent, Christopher Miranda and Rosco Banlaoi filed suit against Sam and Normani on Friday, claiming the duo stole their 2015 song, “Dancing with Strangers.”
“The hook/chorus in both songs — the most significant part and artistic aspect of these works — contains the lyrics ‘dancing with a stranger’ being sung over a nearly identical melody and musical composition,” the lawsuit states. “In both songs, the title, hook, chorus, lyrics, and musical composition are all the same — and are repeated throughout the song giving both songs their identities.”
The 2015 song had allegedly been shopped to other labels before it was ultimately released on SoundCloud a year later, then debuted on Spotify and YouTube in 2017. The songwriters claim it was “immediately obvious” that Sam and Normani swiped their song upon hearing it in 2019.
“It is beyond any real doubt that Smith, Normani, and the other defendants copied Plaintiff’s work,” the suit declares. “The protected expression in both the Infringing Song and Plaintiff’s preexisting work is nearly identical and is strikingly similar.”
The trio also claim Sam and Normani stole elements of their music video for their own, saying it bears “extraordinary similarities” to their earlier work.
Vincent, Miranda and Banlaoi are seeking unspecified monetary damages as well as “declarations of authorship and ownership,” among other demands. They have requested a jury trial.
Phoebe Bridgers has announced a U.S. headlining tour.
The long-winding trek launches April 13 in Phoenix, and will run all the way through late August. Tickets will go on sale this Thursday, March 10, at noon local time through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform. Registration is open now through Tuesday, March 8, at noon ET.
Bridgers will be touring in continued support of her 2020 album, Punisher, which features the Grammy-nominated single “Kyoto.”
Along with the headlining dates, Bridgers will play a number of festivals this year, including Coachella, Forecastle and This Ain’t No Picnic.
