Viking Wizard Eyes/Columbia Records; Credit: Jack Bridgland
News of Blink-182‘s reunion with Tom DeLonge led to a jump in the band’s streaming numbers.
According toBillboard, U.S. streams of the “All the Small Things” outfit’s catalog increased to 3.87 million on October 11 — the day the reunion news broke — from 1.73 million the previous day, marking a spike of 124%.
By the time Blink released their comeback single “Edging” the following Friday, streams reached a total of 6.22 million.
“Edging” marks Blink’s first new material with DeLonge in over 10 years. Following DeLonge’s departure from the group in 2015, Blink released two albums — 2016’s California and 2019’s Nine — with Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba on guitar.
With DeLonge back in the band, Blink will launch a worldwide tour in 2023. A new album is also in the works.
A Very Backstreet Christmas, the first holiday album from Backstreet Boys, is out now. Backstreet’s Howie Dorough says he’s relieved — not just because the album was postponed from 2021, but because they’ve literally been trying for decades to record it in the first place.
“I feel a big weight lifted off of all of our shoulders,” he laughs. “This is something that…we’re going on almost 30 years, I think. Every Christmas we keep on saying ourselves, ‘When are we going to do that Christmas record?’ And…we just never had the proper time to be able to do it.”
But as Howie notes, “The one positive thing that came out of COVID…was the blessing of giving us time to actually make this record.”
Due to production deadlines, Backstreet had to record in the middle of the summer, but Howie says their producer helped them get in a holiday mood: “[The studio] was all decorated with Christmas tree and stockings and the Yule log and stuff like that up on the screen, so it was quite easy,” he says.
The album mixes religious and secular favorites like “O Holy Night” and “Last Christmas” with three originals. Howie says when it came to picking the classics, all five members had “a lot of opinions,” so they stuck to the data.
“We said, ‘Everybody go and put down your top 15 songs,'” he explains. “And we did…almost like an Excel sheet, where the ones [with] the most votes…are the ones that made it.”
Backstreet fans definitely approve of the finished project.
“Nick [Carter] and I went on a live chat on Instagram, and the response from the fans was just overwhelming,” says Howie. “It seems like they really love it…I hope it was worth the wait!”
Ellie Goulding is the proud mom to son Arthur Ever Winter Jopling, whom she welcomed in May 2021. But in a new interview, she reveals she was “in denial” about her pregnancy as she was working on her new album, Higher Than Heaven, due out February 3.
Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Ellie explains she wrote most of the album after the COVID pandemic lockdown, during which she and everyone she was working with was “in this kind of strange haze of the fact that we’d all been forced into this very strange situation … everyone seemed to be on the same page that they wanted this escape from reality.”
And Ellie wanted to escape from the reality that she and her husband, Caspar, were expecting their first child. “I was pregnant and I was desperately … I was in denial about being pregnant,” she reveals. “Trying to be like, ‘It’s nothing,’ and just hiding it.”
“That was kind of part of my defense mechanism that I just wanted to escape … it’s a scary thing, finding out you’re having a child,” she says. And that feeling ended up influencing the entire album.
“That’s exactly what this album is. It requires a certain amount of pain to go through to write what I write,” she tells Zane. “This album is ultimate escapism about being completely, insanely in love. There’s a lot of sexuality in there.”
She adds, “It’s almost like a psilocybin-induced love.” In case you’re not familiar, psilocybin is the psychedelic compound found in so-called magic mushrooms. Maybe that’s why the album’s called Higher Than Heaven?
Former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum has signed a deal to release the first studio album by Kings of Chaos, the star-studded supergroup he founded that features a rotating lineup of famous rockers.
Kings of Chaos’ debut album will be issued by AFM Records and is expected to arrive in the fall or winter of 2023. According to a press statement, the project will feature original songs and “guest collaborations with some of rock’s biggest names — including some of today’s most talented and iconic female artists.”
The lead single from the album, “Judgment Day,” and a companion music video will be released Friday, October 28. Described “as a scorching rocker,” the song was co-written by Sorum, and features him on drums and lead vocals.
Sorum, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Guns N’ Roses in 2012, says Kings of Chaos is “a celebration with your bucket list artists you’ve always wanted to play with.”
Meanwhile, AFM Records executive Nils Wasko notes, “Matt Sorum is such an acclaimed rock icon. His clear vision and passion for Kings of Chaos really impressed us. Kings of Chaos will now come to life with an illustrious list of rock royalty joining Matt, and we can’t wait to be part of the journey.”
The group first came together in 2012 under the moniker The Rock ‘N’ Roll All Stars and has played all around the world over the last decade. Among the many well-known musicians and singers who have performed with the band are Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler, ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott, Cheap Trick‘s Robin Zander, Slash, Duff McKagan and Sebastian Bach.
Season 1 of the satanic animated comedyLittle Demon comes to an end tonight on FXX, with real life father and daughter Danny and Lucy DeVito playing Satan and Satan’s love child, Chrissy, and Lucy tells ABC Audio there’s a big reveal on tonight’s season finale.
“I could give you a little spoiler, and it’s that Chrissy realizes she has siblings,” she teases, adding, “The devil has gotten around.”
Lucy says her dad makes a great Devil, explaining, “he’s got this very dark side. He’s mischievous. You know, he’s got this sort of like love for the, kind of macabre.”
And Danny’s tapped into that side of his personality a time or two in the past, noting, “There was there was a period of time in there where I think after Batman and War of the Roses and things like that, people were actually calling me The Prince of Darkness, in the press, you know. So it was like, you know, your dad is the prince of darkness, you know?”
However, this Devil isn’t all about darkness, says Lucy.
“He’s also, like, very warm and, you know, like an amazing father,” she explains. “And we wanted to create, like, this interesting Satan, which was not just black or white, you know, someone who has this depth to them. He does want to spend time with his daughter. And I think that’s like kind of an interesting portrayal of the Satan that we see, you know, usually in pop culture who is more just evil.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Houston 4, NY Yankees 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
San Diego 8, Philadelphia 5
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Detroit 113, Orlando 109
Washington 114, Indiana 107
Atlanta 117, Houston 107
New Orleans 130, Brooklyn 108
Chicago 116, Miami 108
Memphis 115, New York 112 (OT)
Charlotte 129, San Antonio 102
Toronto 108, Cleveland 105
Minnesota 115, Oklahoma City 108
Utah 123, Denver 102
Phoenix 107, Dallas 105
Portland 115, Sacramento 108
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Florida 4, Philadelphia 3
Winnipeg 4, Colorado 3 (OT)
St. Louis 4, Seattle 3 (OT)
(NEW YORK) — As the surge in children’s respiratory illnesses, including rhinovirus and enterovirus, continues across the country, one children’s hospital is considering installing a field tent to deal with the influx of patients.
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford confirmed to ABC News it is in talks with the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Association as it explores the possibility of setting up a tent on the hospital’s lawn.
Another hospital in the state, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, said overall RSV cases seen in the emergency department jumped from 57 last week to 106 currently.
While the hospital currently has one to three children admitted with COVID-19, there are 30 admitted with RSV, according to Dr. Thomas Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
“I think the biggest concern from my perspective is the uncertainty of when the RSV surge will peak and what will happen with influenza as it has started to circulate in the area,” Murray told ABC News. “Increasing numbers of influenza along with high RSV numbers will require us to further expand our strategies to care for the children that need it.”
RSV — or respiratory syncytial virus — can cause mild, cold-like symptoms, and in severe cases, can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Most people recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and older adults,” the CDC says.
Enteroviruses can also cause respiratory illness ranging from mild — like a common cold — to severe, according to the CDC. In rare instances, severe cases can cause illnesses like viral meningitis (infection of the covering of spinal cord and brain) or acute flaccid myelitis, a neurologic condition that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.
Hospitals across at least 23 states — including Rhode Island, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, New Jersey and Massachusetts — and the District of Columbia have told ABC News they are feeling the crush of a higher-than-expected rate of certain pediatric infections other than COVID-19.
Dr. Michael Koster, director of pediatric infectious diseases at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, said that “from mid-September to mid-October,” the number of patients with RSV infections coming into the hospital had “doubled.”
“These patients aren’t just from Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts — we are seeing patients are coming from over 100 miles away, because their local pediatric hospital is full or has closed,” Koster added.
In an advisory last month to pediatricians and hospitals, shared with ABC News, the New Jersey Department of Health warned of increasing levels of enterovirus and rhinovirus activity, and noted the state was seeing a similar “surge” like other parts of the country.
A spokesperson for the department told ABC News at the time they were “monitoring and watching hospitalizations and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit census daily throughout the state,” adding that officials had planned a call with hospitals “to assess pediatric capacity” amid the surge.
Health experts say they expect things to worsen as the school year proceeds and winter approaches.
“When I talk to children’s hospitals in Illinois and across the country, very much universally, they’re telling me they’re seeing an uptick in pediatric admissions through the emergency department as well as children sick enough to require the pediatric intensive care unit,” Dana Evans, respiratory therapist and board member of the American Association for Respiratory Care, told ABC News. “Most of them are telling me that what they’re seeing is rhinovirus and enterovirus. Some of them are seeing enterovirus D68.”
Evans said it’s typical for these viruses to make their way back in the fall, while noting there have been changes in the typical patterns since the coronavirus pandemic.
“Last year, RSV hit unseasonably early in August, and this year it’s September,” said Evans. “We didn’t see it in 2020 — likely due to all of the COVID mitigation strategies and the masking and everything we were doing to prevent the spread of COVID which also prevents the spread of other respiratory viruses — but here we are in 2022, and we’re back at it.”
According to Evans, the cause of the surge is likely a combination of factors, including the fact that some children may not have been previously exposed due to COVID-related hygiene practices and that this could be a “particularly virulent” strain of the virus.
Children with chronic lung disease, premature babies and kids with asthma are considered especially high risk.
Evans said children and families should continue to practice good hygiene like hand washing and staying home when sick to help prevent viral spread.
“Anyone that’s exhibiting respiratory viral symptoms really should stay home, be it staying home from school or staying home from work, so they don’t spread the virus to their friends or to your colleagues,” said Evans. “That slowing the spread is important, so it reduces the prevalence of it in our communities, but also protects others from becoming sick as well.”
Parents and guardians should seek medical help if a child is having trouble breathing, wheezing or becoming blue or discolored in their face, according to Evans.
“Either coming to the emergency department or reaching out to your physician for recommendations of next steps at that point would be really important,” she said.
(CLEVELAND, Ohio) — The Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion removing a Cleveland Municipal Court judge from the bench, citing multiple “unprecedented” incidents of misconduct.
In a 5-2 vote on Tuesday, the justices voted to indefinitely suspend Judge Pinkey S. Carr’s law license, precluding her from being a judge.
The justices agreed with the court’s Board of Professional Conduct that Carr “ruled her courtroom in a reckless and cavalier manner, unrestrained by the law or the court’s rules.”
Carr, who had been a judge since 2012, was suspended without pay.
According to the board, Carr did not reschedule her cases when the municipal court was closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and issued warrants for defendants who didn’t show up to court and waived court costs and fines for defendants who did appear.
She regularly conducted hearings to “avoid complying with the requisite procedural safeguards” that were in place and referenced the Starz show “P-Valley” which is about a strip club in Mississippi, while in court, according to the justices.
The joked about accepting bribes from defendants and spoke in an “undignified manner in her courtroom,” according to the court.
She also allegedly wore clothes deemed inappropriate by the court’s rules, including T-shirts, shorts, tank tops and sneakers.
According to the justices, Carr, through a forensic and clinical psychologist who evaluated her, said that menopause and sleep apnea exasperated her mental health issues, which caused her professional misconduct.
Rich Koblentz, Carr’s attorney, told ABC News they respect the court, but they’re not pleased about the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision.
“We believe the sanctions were too harsh,” he said.
Short of disbarment, an indefinite suspension is one of the harsher penalties that the Ohio Supreme Court could deliver, according to Koblentz.
Carr must wait two years before applying for readmission to practice law in Ohio since readmission isn’t automatic after an indefinite suspension.
(CHANDLER, Ariz.) — Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for president in 2020 as a Democrat and endorsed Joe Biden after her exit from the race, on Tuesday campaigned in Arizona for the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, a fervent election denier Trump loyalist.
The move follows her dramatic public departure from the Democratic party, denouncing it a week ago on social media as an “elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.” In Chandler, Arizona, Gabbard warned against those that “deny the existence of truth” before remarking with glowing support her endorsement of Lake, one of the most outspoken election deniers.
“I feel like a rockstar up here, Tulsi,” Lake said in front of at least 250 people. “You are a rockstar, Kari,” Gabbard responded.
At the campaign event, less than three weeks ahead of the midterm elections, Gabbard acknowledged that some have told her it was “odd” that she would be campaigning for Lake in Arizona as a former Democrat — but she dismissed those concerns.
“It’s only odd if you’re focused on the wrong things,” Gabbard said of her endorsement. “If you’re paying attention, you recognize that what we share in common, Kari and I and every one of you, is that pride, and it is the courage…It is clear eyes to recognize the threats to our safety, to our borders, to our communities, to our families and our kids that are coming from today’s so called woke radical Democrat Party.”
Gabbard’s Arizona visit follows her Monday travel to New Hampshire, where she stumped for Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc and garnered heat for comparing President Biden to Adolf Hitler.
“Even Hitler thought he was doing what was best for Germany, right? For the German race. In his own mind, he found a way to justify the means to meet his end. So, when we have people with that mindset, well, you know we’ve got to do whatever it takes because, as President Biden said in that speech in Philadelphia, that those who supported Trump, those who didn’t vote for him are extremists and a threat to our democracy,” Gabbard said in an audio recording obtained by the Daily Beast.
Lake, who once donated to former President Barack Obama’s campaign, said on Tuesday that it was “no secret” that she was once a Democrat, too.
“I registered as a Democrat for four years. I was disappointed at the time at the establishment Republican Party,” Lake said. “I know it’s hard sometimes to kind of go, ‘gosh, darn it, we got it wrong. I voted for the wrong guy.’ But we don’t judge.”
Gabbard has not announced her next step in American politics, or if she’d consider jumping to the Republican Party. She’s long spoken out against the nationwide two-party system, however, leaving some to speculate that she may find a political home as an independent or in a third party.
But her recent campaign stops for Republicans and invocation of traditionally conservative talking points like “wokeness” and her focus on the border marks a sharp retreat from her support for Biden in 2020, when she suspended her unconventional presidential campaign.
“It’s clear that Democratic primary voters have chosen, Vice President Joe Biden, to be the person who will take on President Trump in the general election,” she said as she dropped out of the race, adding that, “I’m confident that he will lead our country, guided by the spirit of aloha respect and compassion, and thus help heal the divisiveness that has been tearing our country apart.”
Despite her status over the past 20 years as a Democrat, Gabbard over the past few years has become somewhat of a Republican darling, appearing often on Fox News and in August, she guest-hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” following the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.
On Tuesday, Gabbard warned against those who deny truth only to reinforce their own beliefs, referring to the topic of children who identify as transgender, not the widely debunked claims of election fraud that have been a centerpiece of Lake’s campaign.
“We have to go back to the basics because the basics are under attack. When we have people in power who deny the existence of objective truth, that leads to a very dangerous place because that means that whatever they say is what they will enforce through their laws,” Gabbard said.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken told “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos in a new interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law in illegally annexed parts of Ukraine “speaks to his desperation” as Ukrainian forces continue to make progress in rebuffing the invasion.
“Just in the last few weeks, he’s tried to mobilize more forces. He’s gone through with this sham annexation of Ukrainian territory,” Blinken said in a preview from the sit-down, which will air Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
“Now, in saying that he’s declaring martial law in places that he claims to have people who somehow want to be part of Russia, that speaks to his desperation,” the secretary said.
Blinken’s remarks come after Putin issued an order this week declaring martial law in four Ukrainian provinces that he seized in September, which was widely denounced by the international community.
Putin also placed all of Russia into various levels of heightened “readiness.”
When Stephanopoulos noted that second declaration and questioned Blinken if Putin is preparing for “all-out war,” Blinken said Russia’s invasion is already becoming more indiscriminate in its violence.
“Going increasingly after the civilian population in Ukraine, indiscriminately bombing, targeting even power plants, bombs falling on schools, on hospitals — that’s pretty close,” Blinken said.
More of Stephanopoulos’ interview of Blinken airs Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
