Music

For those who’ve been wondering how Megan Thee Stallion puts the spice in her more-sensual tracks, wonder no more. 

The “Savage” rapper was the latest guest on First We Feast’s Hot Ones and, while chowing down on a buffet of super-spicy wings, broke down how to make a good freak anthem.  “First of all, you need to have that good bassline, that good drum pattern, so you can be on rhythm,” the Grammy winner explained.  “You got to match the strokes to the drums. If you cannot match the stroke to the beat, it ain’t heat.”

“Then you just gotta have somebody that can really sang, Megan went on. “Not sing but SANG, because when somebody can sang, you really feel it in your soul,” she added and made a few gestures when demonstrating how a good vocal riff can set the mood.

Elsewhere, the 26-year-old opened up about working with snakes when filming the “WAP” music video with Cardi B — revealing that it was the “Up” rapper’s idea and she was dead-set on using real live serpents.

“I was like, ‘Okay, if Cardi B saying she wanted me to lay down with some snakes, I guess I got to lay down with the snakes with her a**,'” Megan laughed, adding that she met the snakes and bonded with one green serpent in particular and joked, “We was killing it the whole time.”

But, she admits while she and Cardi were “trying to be all sexy” in the snake pit, “we were scared as hell.”

Unsurprisingly, Meg can handle her hot sauce and didn’t even break a sweat after trying one with an ominous “TBA” Scoville rating.

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More than four years after the arrival of his first EP, Ryan Hurd‘s first full-length album finally arrives today. 

Though he’s previously written number-ones for Lady A, Luke Bryan, and Blake Shelton, the record features Ryan’s biggest hit as an artist so far, his nearly-top-five duet with his wife Maren Morris, “Chasing After You.”

And it’s titled… Pelago. 

“It was called RH LP1 Sony Music Nashville for about three months,” Ryan laughs, perhaps hinting at some difficulty or delay in finding a name.

“Well, first of all, you have to ask me about it, so that’s a good thing,” he explains. “Second of all, I needed a word that rhymed with Chicago for my song ‘Coast,’ and I kind of used that as a placeholder thinking I made it up, and turns out, it’s actually a word in Italian and Latin that is actually what it sounds like.”

So Ryan’s unusual album title is actually a teaching moment.

“It’s a word that means ‘open sea,’ and it’s a word that means ‘overwhelming passion,'” he reveals. “So I thought that was just a really cool umbrella for all of these songs in this project.”

Physical copies and downloads of Pelago offer eleven new songs, all co-written by Ryan, save for “Chasing After You.” Streaming versions of the album also add four favorites, including “To a T” and “Diamonds or Twine.”

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It was his voice that got him in the door, but it might’ve been a timely feat of athleticism that cemented Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz as the new lead singer of Bad Wolves.

DL, who previously played guitar in the band The Acacia Strain, joined Bad Wolves earlier this year following the departure of former frontman Tommy Vext. Being he was longtime friends with guitarist Doc Coyle, the band connected with DL and sent him a trio of instrumentals to record his vocals over, and then invited him for an in-person rehearsal session.

As DL tells ABC Audio, it was during a moment after that rehearsal — a moment that will “burned in my mind forever,” he says — that he knew the fit was right.

“We were walking out into the parking lot of the rehearsal space,” DL recalls. “I don’t know if it was keys or something, but from across this long parking lot, [drummer] John [Boecklin] threw keys or whatever it was at me.”

“I just caught them with, like, two fingers,” he says. “The ex-football player in me just, you know, reacted.”

That little bit of chemistry seemed like a sign that DL and Bad Wolves were made for each other.

“Everybody just kind of stopped and looked at each other, like, ‘All right! Let’s go to dinner!'” DL says. “It was one of those moments…It was cool.”

Of course, it certainly helped that the rehearsal itself went well, too.

“The second that we were all finally in a room together with the songs and stuff, it just felt like a family reunion,” DL explains. “It felt really good, felt really natural.”

Bad Wolves’ first album with DL, Dear Monsters, arrives October 29. It features the lead single “Lifeline.” 

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Adele is officially back. She released the music video for “Easy on Me,” her first new song in six years, as the clock struck midnight in the U.K., meaning the U.S. was able to enjoy it at 7 p.m. ET. 

She first teased “Easy on Me” last week and announced earlier this week that she’ll release her fourth album, titled 30, on November 19.

The video was directed by Xavier Dolan, who also filmed Adele’s clip “Hello.” Like that video, it starts with Adele in an empty house — the same house from the “Hello” video, in fact — talking to someone on the phone.

This time, she describes how she’s all packed up and ready to hit the road.  As she drives away, pages of sheet music fly out the back window as she sings of her regrets.  

“You can’t deny how hard I tried/I changed who I was to put you both first/but now I give up,” Adele sings, possibly referring to her ex-husband and her son.

She then asks the listener to cut her some slack, explaining, “Go easy on me baby/I was still a child/didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me/had no time to choose/what I chose to do.”

“For me, there’s nothing stronger than artists reconnecting after years apart,” Dolan says in a statement. “I’ve changed. Adele’s changed. And this is an opportunity to celebrate how we’ve both evolved, and how we’ve also both remained faithful to our dearest themes. It’s all the same, but different.”

Adele’s album 30 is now available for pre-order.  There will be a Target deluxe CD featuring three bonus tracks, a Walmart clear exclusive double vinyl, and an Amazon white exclusive double vinyl, as well as a cassette and on all digital platforms.

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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced a new exhibit showcasing its 2021 inductees, including Foo Fighters.

The display, which will open at the Cleveland museum on October 24, will feature Dave Grohl‘s beloved Dan Armstrong Ampeg guitar. The uniquely transparent axe was famously used in the Foos video for “All My Life,” and Grohl also played it during the recording of 2002’s One by One and during the tour behind 2011’s Wasting Light.

Items from the other Rock Hall Performer inductees, which include Todd Rundgren, The Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Carole King and JAY-Z, will also be featured in the exhibit. Additionally, it will honor late Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads, who’s being inducted this year with the Musical Excellence award, by displaying the iconic white V-shaped Jackson Concorde guitar that he designed.

The 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held October 30 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. An HBO special focusing on the event will premiere at a later date.

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In advance of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on October 30, Jay-Z has sent a very special portrait to represent him at the Rock Hall’s Inductee Exhibit.

Rather than donate artifacts from his iconic career, the Roc Nation CEO loaned a 72-inch by 96-inch oil portrait he purchased from New Orleans artist Jerin “Jerk” Beasley, titled “Tree of Life,” according to Cleveland.com.
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“We sent photos of what we’ve done in the past and Jay-Z’s team shared what his interpretation was of his success and what it means to him,” says Nwaka Onwusa, vice president and chief curator at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “It’s so in line with who he is now, and his fans will appreciate and understand that. Music is art and art is music in a way. You don’t get to Jean-Michel Basquiat without talking about Charlie Parker, for instance.”

Beasley posted an Instagram photo of the portrait, with the comment from Jay-Z, “Don’t bark up that tree, that tree will fall on you, I don’t know why your advisors didn’t forewarn you.” The artist also posted a video of him creating “Tree of Life.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Celebration Day exhibit opens October 24 and features memorabilia from each honoree. Hova will be inducted with artists including Tina Turner, and specialty award recipients LL Cool J, Gil Scott-Heron, and Billy Preston.  Tickets to Celebration Day and the Induction Ceremony on October 30, featuring the Inductee Exhibit, are now available on the museum website.

 

 

 

 

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For the second time, the thriller streaming service Shudder is highlighting Black writers and directors with a new horror anthology, Horror Noire. 

A follow-up to 2019’s documentary Black Noire: A History of Black Horror, Black Noire will feature six stories together in one two-hour presentation, each written and directed by Black filmmakers.

Included in the anthology will be the installments Daddy, Bride Before You, Brand of Evil, The Lake, Sundown, and Fugue State.

The films include Luke James from The Chi; A Black Lady Sketch Show’s Erica Ash; Lucifer’s Lesley-Ann Brandt; You’re the Worst‘s Brandon Mychal Smith; John Wick: Chapter 2‘s Peter Stormare; Genius: Aretha Franklin’s Malcolm Barrett; Rachel True from The Craft, and horror icon and Candyman star Tony Todd.

Horror Noire debuts on Thursday, October 28 on Shudder and at a later date through Shudder as part of the AMC+ bundle.

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Sara Bareilles will perform at a very special fashion show this November.

The Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show on November 13 will feature 26 models walking a virtual runway — all of whom have Down syndrome.  The event is being organized by the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, and will be hosted by ABC’s Kyra Phillips and John Roberts of Fox News.

During her performance, Sara will “share her personal connection” to the “Down syndrome community,” according to the Foundation. 

Other stars who’ll be participating include Quincy Jones, Jeff Probst, Grey’s Anatomy stars Caterina Scorsone and Eric Dane, football stars Brandon McManus, Justin Timmons and Harrison Phillips, and supermodel Beverly Johnson.

You can watch the event and support the Foundation by buying a $25 ticket.

Sara will end her current stint starring in her hit musical Waitress on October 17; the lead role of Jenna will then be taken over by country star Jennifer Nettles of the group Sugarland.

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