Jimmy Eat World has released all three of the band’s Phoenix Sessions streaming concerts to watch for free on YouTube.
The virtual shows originally premiered earlier this year and included full album performances of “The Middle” outfit’s latest release, 2019’s Surviving, as well as 1999’s Clarity and 2004’s Futures.
“In a time seemingly more uncertain than now, we wanted to give something to you amazing people, while selfishly fulfilling our need to play music together,” Jimmy Eat World says. “We are eternally grateful for each and every one of you who helped make this happen by purchasing tickets and all the beautiful fans we met during those meet and greets.”
“Here’s to seeing you all IRL in 2022!” the band adds.
Audio recordings of the Phoenix Sessions streams were previously released on digital outlets in November.
As the featured artist on one of the biggest hits of the year, Lil Nas X‘s “Industry Baby,” Jack Harlow is riding a wave of success. He received two Grammy nominations for the song, attended the Met Gala, and now sits courtside with household names at basketball games.
However, the Louisville, Kentucky, native knows fame can be fleeting.
“I’m terrified to fall off and lose my spot or lose the ground I’ve covered, or not reach the potential that people see,” Harlow admits to Variety. “Every time I sit courtside at these games or go to the Met Gala or maybe the Grammys, what’s in my head is, ‘I’ve gotta be here next year.’ I don’t want this to be the last time.”
Meanwhile, the “Whats Poppin” rapper says that while he is focused on his creativity, he finds that as his popularity rises, music has become less important.
“Once you become actually famous, it’s only half about the music,” he says. “They’re just showing up to see you in the flesh, put you on their Snap, throw some panties at you, whether they know a single lyric or not.”
Harlow also wishes that, like Kendrick Lamar and Eminem, he had an alter ego to hide behind.
“Sometimes artists will assume characters for a verse or a feature — Kendrick does that, Em had it with Slim Shady, and sometimes in the studio my engineer will even encourage me to ‘get out of Jack Harlow,'” he says. “That’s something I’d have to work on intentionally, and maybe I will.”
The Byrds‘ three surviving original members, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman, have come together to collaborate on a new deluxe photo book focusing on the influential band’s early years that will be published next year.
The 400-page tome, titled The Byrds: 1964-1967, features over 500 images taken by such lauded photographers as Henry Diltz, Jim Marshall, Linda McCartney and Barry Feinstein, as well as restored pics from the Columbia Records archives and from the personal archives of the group’s original manager.
The book also features commentary penned by McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman, who share their recollections about the group, which pioneered folk rock, psychedelic rock and country rock, as well as about their late band mates Gene Clark and Michael Clarke.
The Byrds: 1964-1967 is the first in-depth photo book about the group, and the book on which the surviving founding members have collaborated. The project also marks the first time that Roger, David and Chris have all worked together since recording a few new songs for The Byrds’ 1990 retrospective box set.
Four versions of the book will be published: a Standard Version, a Deluxe Limited Edition, a Super Deluxe Limited Edition, and a Super Deluxe Limited Edition that comes with a fine art print.
The Super Deluxe Limited Editions, which will be released in October 2022, can be pre-ordered now at ByrdsBook.com, and are the only configurations signed by all three surviving founding Byrds members. When copies of the Super Deluxe versions sell out, they will not be reprinted.
Those purchasing the Super Deluxe Limited Edition with a print will be able to choose one of three images — McGuinn photographed by Diltz in 1967, Crosby photographed by Marshall in 1965 or Hillman photographed by Feinstein in ’65.
In a deal that dwarfs even that of his idol Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen has sold his masters and music publishing to Sony for a whopping $500 million, sources tell Billboard. The publication says the deal may be the biggest payday yet for an individual musical body of work.
Springsteen’s album catalog has sold more than 65 million copies in the U.S. alone. That catalog includes such bestsellers as 1984’s Born in the U.S.A., which has sold 15 million copies, and 1980’s The River, which has sold five million copies.
Billboard estimates Springsteen’s album catalog generated about $15 million in 2020 alone, with his publishing catalog generating about $7.5 million a year.
The publication notes that years ago, Springsteen was granted ownership of his earlier albums as an incentive to re-sign with Columbia, the label for which he’s recorded his entire career.
Last year, Dylan made headlines when Universal Music Publishing Group purchased his catalog for between $375 million and $400 million.
Rush is releasing a collection of rare, never-before-seen photos from the Moving Pictures album cover shoot.
The images were taken by photographer Deborah Samuel, who also shot the covers for the Rush releases Permanent Waves, Exit…Stage Left and Signals. The pics are now being unearthed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Moving Pictures, and to raise money for the charity organization Grapes for Humanity and its efforts to provide sight-restoring surgeries and “eradicate preventable and curable blindness in low to middle income countries.”
“I clearly remember the day Deborah set up for this cover, and especially the interior series of the Moving Pictures photographs,” says guitarist Alex Lifeson.
“I was jumping around in the dark with a bright strobe flashing away, which was disorienting to say the least, but the results fit so well with the album concept, and I loved the final photos she produced,” Lifeson recalls. “I’m thrilled to revisit them and make the covers and these interior photos available in support of Grapes for Humanity.”
Singer/bassist Geddy Lee adds, “I’m very thankful to Deborah for generously making these rare photographs available to our fans, the proceeds of which will help bring sight to the sightless.”
Moving Pictures, Rush’s best-selling album, hit the big 4-0 this past February. The 1981 record produced the singles “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” as well as the beloved instrumental “YYZ.” It’s been certified five-times Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over 5 million in the U.S.
BMG Rights Management (Europe) GmbH/Sony ATV Publishing/Demetri Jagger
Singer/songwriter Chris Jagger, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger‘s younger brother, has been hosting a podcast series for the Austin, Texas-based Hot Pie Media podcast network, and he’s revealed that his famous sibling will be joining him on multiple upcoming episodes of the show.
The Jagger brothers are still working out the details of their podcast collaboration, which, according to a press release, “[is] guaranteed to be one-of-kind, uniquely entertaining and the beginning of bigger things to come.”
Hot Pie Media tells ABC Audio that the episodes will feature “scripted portions, as well as allotted time for chatting,” adding, “In addition to [Chris and Mick] creating music beds for some of the content within the episodes, we will encourage them to also perform.”
“I look forward to my brother Mick being a part of my Hot Pie Media podcast series,” Chris says in a statement. “Mick joined me for a duet on my new album…so working together again on my podcast makes our collaboration another family affair!”
Hot Pie Media CEO Robert Walker adds, “Having the Jagger brothers working together on our network is a major milestone for our company. It’s also a very rare opportunity for the public to enjoy these two talented artists performing as a duo.”
Chris, who’s a partner in Hot Pie Media, has co-hosted and/or contributed to a number of podcasts and specials for the network. One of these saw him team up with Mick’s former romantic partner, supermodel Jerry Hall, for a program called Jerry’s Hall of Fame that featured Hall playing and discussing some of her favorite recordings.
Josh: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Billy: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Josh Groban has recorded at least one of Billy Joel‘s songs, but now, he’ll actually be playing the part of The Piano Man himself in a new original scripted series from Audible.
The series is called The Miranda Obsession, and it’s based on a true story that was documented in a 1999 Vanity Fair article of the same name. The audio-only series stars The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan as Miranda Grosvenor, the alias of a real-life Louisiana woman who charmed many famous men in the ’70s and ’80s, simply by talking to them on the telephone.
Born Whitney Walton, “Miranda” would call stars late at night, and was reportedly so alluring that the men she called would fall in love with her, just by hearing her voice. Among the people with whom Walton had phone relationships were Billy, Eric Clapton, Warren Beatty, Bob Dylan, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Robert De Niro, Ted Kennedy, Johnny Carson and many more.
Billy was reportedly so entranced by Miranda that he considered writing a musical about her. Others bought her expensive gifts, and, according to Vanity Fair, two of her telephone pals — music producers Quincy Jones and Richard Perry — proposed to her. Walton died in 2016 at age 74.
In a statement, Brosnahan says, “I was completely captivated by the story of Miranda and her intimate relationships with some of Hollywood’s most powerful male players. Not only did she hold her own, but she curated a fantasy on the other end of the telephone and drew men into her design with words alone.”
In addition to Brosnahan and Josh, The Miranda Obsession series will feature Milo Ventimiglia as Richard Perry, and will premiere on Audible April 28, 2022.
Black feminist writer and poet bell hooks died Wednesday at her home in Berea, Kentucky, at the age of 69, according to a statement from her family.
Watkins had been fighting an illness and died with family and friends at her side, the family said in their statement, also noting, “The family is honored that Gloria received numerous awards, honors, and international fame for her works as a poet, author, feminist, professor, cultural critic, and social activist. We are proud to just call her sister, friend, confidant, and influencer.”
Born Gloria Jean Watkins on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Watkins published under the pseudonym “bell hooks” — a name inspired by her great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks, and spelled in all lowercase letters — to keep focus on her work and ideas rather than on her identity, she said in an interview with The Sandspur in 2013.
Watkins studied English at Stanford University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz after attending segregated schools before college.
Her first book, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, focuses on the impact of sexism on Black women. She wrote more than 40 books with the main emphasis on feminist theory and Black womanhood. Those books have been published in over 15 different languages.
In 2014, Watkins founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College after being a teacher there since 2004. The institute serves as a collection of contemporary African American art and storage of her books and poems.
Watkins’ family announced that a ceremony honoring her life will be held at a later date.
FINNEAS has premiered the video for “Only a Lifetime,” a track off his new album, Optimist.
The clip stars the older O’Connell sibling as he wanders throughout an empty aquarium until the end, when he’s joined by his sister, Billie Eilish, and what appears to be their parents.
“A lot of people were pacing around their houses, praying for lockdown to be lifted, and waiting for the vaccine,” FINNEAS says. “I had a sudden realization — I might really miss this calm time I had with my family and my girlfriend.”
“Only a Lifetime,” FINNEAS shares, reflects him “trying to remind myself to stay present and stay engaged no matter what is going on.”
You can watch the “Only a Lifetime” video streaming now on YouTube.
Optimist, FINNEAS’ first full-length solo effort, was released this past October. He’s nominated for Best New Artist at the 2022 Grammys.
A Whitney Houston NFT was auctioned this week for $999,999, setting a record for the highest-selling NFT on the Tezos blockchain.
From The Whitney Houston Collection, the NFT is an early, never-before heard, full length song demo that the six-time Grammy winner recorded at just 17 years old, along with a digital video created by 17-year-old artist Diana Sinclair.
“This initial NFT drop is one of many Whitney Houston collections as we continue to tell her story, going behind the scenes and using never-before-seen content from the estate’s archives to celebrate her career, music, and talent in new and creative ways,” Rob Dippold, partner & president of Digital Strategy for Primary Wave Music, said in a statement.
Whitney E. Houston Estate President and CEO Pat Houston loved having Sinclair involved in the project.
“Being able to work with someone as young as Diana, she’s 17 years old. Whitney was 17 years old when she recorded the song. Both come from Newark, both have the same middle name. Whitney had the desire to always help others help themselves, especially young people,” Pat Houston said
“She established the Whitney E. Houston Foundation in 1989 and she had events each year centered around young people, so it was a no brainer when we were introduced to Diana,” Pat continued. “We want to continue Whitney’s legacy, and this is a new art form for her music to be displayed. What better way than to do it with Diana and through the NFT.”
A portion of the proceeds of the auction will go directly to the Whitney E. Houston Foundation, a non-profit that continues the work of the late star of The Bodyguard to empower, support, and inspire young people.
