The xx hasn’t released a new album in over five years, but according to bassist/vocalist Oliver Sim, that streak won’t last forever.
Speaking with Consequence’s Kyle Meredith with… podcast, Sim declares that the “Crystalised” trio “definitely” plans to continue putting out new material.
“The xx will always be my home and will always be my priority,” Sim says. “Normally I wouldn’t speak for [bandmates] Romy [Madley Croft] and Jamie [xx], but I know they feel the same.”
Sim just dropped his debut solo album, Hideous Bastard, last month, and he’s “excited’ to see how that, as well as Croft and Jamie’s own solo material, will impact the direction of The xx’s music going forward.
“How is this gonna change the band?” Sim wonders. “What have we all learned independently?”
Before you start getting too excited, Sim notes that “nothing is recorded at the moment,” but does confirm that “There is more music from The xx, definitely.”
Nickelback has shared a new song from their upcoming album, Get Rollin’.
The track is called “Those Days,” but we’d guess that its working title was “Photograph Pt. 2” given how both songs are about looking back at your youth.
“Those Days” includes the lyrics, “Remember when they played ‘Purple Rain’ to our first slow dance” and “Remember Guns N’ Roses came out we were standing in line.” Sadly, there’s no update on Joey or whatever the hell was on his head.
You can listen to “Those Days” now via digital outlets. It’s also accompanied by a lyric video full of references to Star Wars, Top Gun and other retro movies, streaming now on YouTube.
Get Rollin’, the 10th Nickelback album and follow-up to 2017’s No Fixed Address, is due out November 18. It also includes the previously released single “San Quentin.”
How is Rihanna feeling about becoming the newest Super Bowl halftime performer? She finally broke her silence but made it clear she’s keeping her cards close.
TMZ ambushed the star in Los Angeles after she was done shopping to ask about the big game. Rihanna called the pap “sneaky” for waiting for her outside the store, but that didn’t stop her from throwing a few bones.
“I’m nervous,” she revealed through a dramatic whine when asked how she feels about taking on football’s biggest stage. She then quickly deadpanned, “But I’m excited.”
The pap didn’t let up and continued peppering Rihanna with NFL-centered questions, namely who will be accompanying her on the halftime show.
At the moment, no one has been announced as the singer’s co-headliner; there are some reports Rihanna will do the event solo — as Lady Gaga did in 2017.
The paparazzi threw out a few potential guests to Rihanna, such as A$AP Rocky, but she declined to answer. Instead, Rihanna threw up a peace sign and continued walking to her car. The hitmaker did call out a polite “Thank you, girl” before climbing into the vehicle.
The Super Bowl halftime show will mark Rihanna’s return to music after an extended, six-year absence. The singer last released the album Anti and its supporting tour back in 2016.
When Carly Pearce stepped onstage at the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday night, her performance was extra meaningful and emotional: Loretta Lynn’s death had been announced just that morning.
Fans in the crowd might’ve guessed that Carly would perform “Dear Miss Loretta,” a tribute to the country legend that she included on 29: Written in Stone in September 2021, and she did — but that’s not all.
While she was onstage, Carly explained that after she released “Dear Miss Loretta,” she got a voicemail response about the song from Loretta herself. Then, she proceeded to pull out her cell phone and play the message for the crowd.
True to Loretta’s deadpan, forthright personality, the voicemail contained plenty of humor. “I’m layin’ here in bed, just taking it easy. I’m fixin’ to get up and wash my face maybe, comb my hair….I haven’t got no place to go, have I?!” the message opens.
But Loretta’s words quickly become more heartfelt. “I love your song. Thank you, sweetheart. I love you, honey,” she continues. “Come and see me sometime.”
As she played the voicemail, Carly turned to the crowd with tears in her eyes. “I’ve listened to that message a lot today, and if that doesn’t capture the purest form and the essence of her beautiful soul, I don’t know what else does,” she said before launching into her performance of “Dear Miss Loretta.”
Loretta Lynn died on Tuesday, October 4 at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was 90.
Hilary Swank announced on Good Morning America that she is preparing for the biggest role of her career: mom.
The two-time Academy Award winner revealed at the end of her GMA interview Wednesday that she and husband Philip Schneider will soon be parents.
“I’m going to be a mom — and not just of one, but of two,” Swank announced. “I can’t believe it!”
While Swank awaits the arrival of her two little ones with Schneider, whom she married in 2018, she is gearing up for her return to network TV with ABC’s Alaska Daily.
The show, premiering Thursday, comes from Tom McCarthy, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind 2015 Best Picture, Spotlight.
Swank said she and McCarthy had a meeting, and he sent her a 2019 article called “Lawless” by Anchorage Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins “about true crimes in Alaska.”
“It was eye-opening, horrifying — all things at once, things you can’t believe are happening,” Swank said. “I want to shine a bright light on these issues, especially the missing [and] murdered Indigenous women that, I mean, no one’s doing anything about. It’s an extra responsibility, you know, to do justice for the underdogs, for the underserved,” she added. “It’s just something that I’m passionate about.”
Swank plays Eileen, a New York journalist who moves to Alaska to work for a daily newspaper in Anchorage, looking for a clean start both personally and professionally.
Hilary recently told ABC Audio how she relates to her character. “I feel like being an actor is being a journalist because you’re like digging into this character,” she said. “You’re asking a lot of questions about who this person is in order to tell a story.”
Alaska Daily premieres Thursday, Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
(NEW YORK) — Just weeks before Halloween, law enforcement officials are warning about a deadly drug packaged in pills that “look like candy.”
So-called rainbow fentanyl began showing up on the streets on the West Coast in February and has gradually made its way across the country.
This week, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and law enforcement partners announced the first significant seizure of rainbow fentanyl. It happened on Sept. 28 when agents and officers stopped a vehicle on the Manhattan side of the Lincoln Tunnel that contained 15,000 multicolored pill with an estimated street value of $300,000.
The multicolored pills are similar in look to party drugs and meant to be more appealing to young people, according to the DEA’s Frank Tarrentino, who called it “newly packaged poison.”
“Fentanyl is everywhere and it is on everything,” Tarrentino said, noting some of the pills seized in the car were discovered in a yellow Lego box.
“The pills look like candy,” said New York City’s special narcotics prosecutor Bridgette Brennan. “We believe it is critically important to educate the public about this new form fentanyl is taking.”
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is one of the primary drivers of the significant increases in drug overdose deaths in recent years. More than 56,000 people died of from overdoses involving synthetic opioids in 2020, an increase of 56% from the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The pills are often made to resemble real prescription opioid medication like Oxycontin, Vicodin and Xanax, or stimulants like Adderall, according to the DEA. Most are made in Mexico, with China supplying the chemicals.
In a warning issued in August, the DEA said that brightly colored fentanyl is being distributed not just in pill form but also “powder, and blocks that resembles sidewalk chalk.”
According to the agency, 2 milligrams of fentanyl, the equivalent of 10 to 15 grains of table salt, is “considered a lethal dose.”
“Without laboratory testing, there is no way to know how much fentanyl is concentrated in a pill or powder,” the DEA said. “Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing this country.”
Amid all the recent warnings, statistics about rates of overdoses by so-called rainbow fentanyl are not available yet.
In response to the growing threat and the recent rise in deaths due to fentanyl, school districts in Florida, Texas and California have announced new plans to fight the crisis.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district, announced last month that naloxone, a medicine used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, would be available at all K-12 schools in the district in the coming weeks, provided for free by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The announcement comes after several suspected overdoses in the last month, with one juvenile dying at Bernstein High School in Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Here are questions about fentanyl and the growing crisis, answered:
Why does fentanyl exist?
Pharmaceutical fentanyl is used frequently in medical settings. Developed for the pain management treatment of cancer patients, it is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the DEA.
“It is a very good and effective medicine at relieving pain in appropriate quantities managed by anesthesia,” Dr. Kimberly Sue, medical director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition and an addiction specialist at Yale University, told ABC News last year. “What we’re seeing in the opioid overdose deaths in this country is related to fentanyl that is obtained outside of the context of medical prescriptions, usually on the street.”
Why is fentanyl so deadly?
Fentanyl is dangerous because it “depresses” a person’s respiratory function and central nervous system, and can cause a person to stop breathing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If fentanyl is inhaled, consumed or injected it can be deadly, but a person cannot overdose by touching it.
How does a person know if they’ve taken fentanyl?
There is no way to know whether a pill or powder contains fentanyl by simply looking at it, and fentanyl has no distinctive taste or smell.
“In the case of a pill that you buy off the street, people should assume there is fentanyl present even if it is labeled as some other medication,” said Sue. “I’ve taken care of many patients who think they’re buying oxycodone or heroin and there’s nothing in it. It’s just fentanyl.”
Fentanyl test strips are one tool people can use to test for the drug before consuming something that could be laced with fentanyl, like a pill, powder, nasal sprays or eye drops.
To use the strips, a person dissolves a small amount of the substance in water, and then dips the test strip into the water. The strips can give results in as little as five minutes, according to the CDC.
Is there a way to reverse a fentanyl overdose?
Naloxone, the medication being made available at all Los Angeles public schools, is the main tool used to reverse an overdose.
The medication, also known under the brand name Narcan, can restore normal breathing within two to three minutes in someone who has overdosed, according to the CDC.
Naloxone is available in all 50 states, can be used without medical training and can be delivered by either nasal spray or injection.
In most states, naloxone can be purchased from a pharmacy without a prescription, according to the CDC.
Where does illicitly manufactured fentanyl come from?
Police and other experts say fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills have been illegally imported from as far out as China and even smuggled through the U.S.-Mexico border.
Of the more than 11,000 pounds of fentanyl that made its way into the U.S. last year, more than half of it came through the border between Mexico and San Diego, according to investigators.
In some instances, Chinese drug suppliers send the ingredients to make fentanyl to cartels in Mexico. After creating the fentanyl, either in raw powder or pill form, the cartels would ship them across the border in trucks, according to investigators.
Border patrol agents have stepped up their searches for the pills and other related fentanyl contraband, officials told ABC News in May.
What do I do to help a person who is overdosing?
If you think a person is overdosing but are not sure, the CDC says to treat it like an overdose.
Signs that a person is overdosing may include small and constricted pupils, slow and shallow breathing, choking sounds, falling asleep or losing consciousness and pale, blue or cold skin, according to the CDC.
The first thing to do is call 911 immediately.
Next, the CDC says to administer naloxone to the person if it is available.
While administering help, try to keep the person awake and breathing and lay them on their side to help prevent choking.
If you or someone you love is in need of help, call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit http://www.samhsa.gov/find-help to reach SAMHSA’s 24-hour helpline that offers free, confidential treatment referral and information about mental and/or substance use disorders, prevention and recovery.
Charlie Puth‘s new album, Charlie, is coming out on Friday, and he wanted to reflect on how far he’s come as an artist.
Sitting down with Allure, Charlie reviewed his past music videos — starting with 2015’s “See You Again” with Wiz Khalifa. “I was actually not supposed to be in this music video,” the hitmaker recalled. He said it goes a step further, explaining, “I wrote this song for Sam Smith, Adele, Eminem, Skylar Grey, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne — they all auditioned to sing it. I was never intended to be the artist on this song.”
Another standout music video was “Attention”; Charlie admitted he threw up on the set while filming. The singer has a super sensitive tummy — as evidenced in James Corden‘s 2017 bit “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts” — and that got the better of him.
He revealed the actress “portrayed a crazy ex-girlfriend so well” in the glass-smashing scene that he forgot they were acting, adding that scene was a reenactment of what actually happened in real life.
Looking back at the “How Long” music video, Charlie admitted it makes him cringe because it “showed the whole world that I really couldn’t dance.” “I can’t look at it. It’s so bad,” he said.
In addition, he had the police called on him because they filmed the video until 7 a.m., and people were tired of hearing his music. “There’s a lot of drama surrounding my music videos,” he laughed.
Charlie also had some love for “Left and Right” with BTS‘ Jungkook, adding the colors they wore represented the two sides of the brain. He called Jungkook “a trooper” because his schedule was incredibly stacked. Despite flying straight from South Korea, Jungkook powered through jet lag to shoot the video in a day.
(STOCKHOLM) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Wednesday for their work in making molecules “click.”
Two Americans, K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, and Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University in California, and one Dane — Morten Meldal at the University of Copenhagen — received the prize.
Sharpless and Medal — independent of each other — “laid the foundations of click chemistry,” a field in which molecular building blocks are snapped together “quickly and efficiently.”
Bertozzi then used this field to develop bioorthogonal chemistry, in which scientists modify molecules in cells of living organisms “without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell.”
“This year’s Prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” Johan Åqvist, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said in a statement.
Sharpless previously won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, making him only the fifth person to win two Nobel prizes and the second person ever to win the award twice, according to the committee. His first award was for developing three types of chemical reactions.
Last year, scientists Benjamin List and David MacMillan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a new tool in molecular construction.
Each Nobel prize is worth 10 million kronor — the equivalent of about $900,000 — and is given to laureates with a diploma and a gold medal on Dec. 10, the date the creator of the Nobel prizes, Alfred Nobel, died in 1896.
StaceyAbrams, one of the most pivotal voices on voting rights, lands on the cover of Essence Magazine‘s October issue.
With the 2022 midterm elections quickly approaching on November 8, the Georgia politician opens up about the importance of voting and shares a fearful part of the election process.
“What is the most devastating response to me is when someone says, ‘My vote doesn’t matter.’ Of course it matters,” she says. “You may not win with your vote every time, but you make them work for it every time. That’s the point. If somebody’s got to work for something, they’re not going to be as mean to you as they were. They’re not going to ignore you the way they do.”
For the month’s Paint the Polls Black issue, Abrams delves into ideas pertaining to the Black vote, the meaning behind the Black community voting in their best interest and the younger generation’s beliefs. A vital part of the voting process, she says, is electing those who care about the Black community.
“We must elect candidates who see us, hear us, represent us, and have a commitment to passing legislation that ensures our communities have the opportunity to thrive,” she expresses.
Abrams is currently running to become the first Black woman governor of Georgia and the first ever in U.S. history. Her passion for community service, voting rights and equality helps fuel her, but she’s also driven by her upbringing and the values instilled in her at an early age.
“[My parents] always reminded us that our faith should be a shield to protect and not a sword to strike down,” she told Essence. “This belief still guides me today as I fight to ensure that Georgians of all backgrounds are seen [and] heard.”
(STOCKHOLM) — A Swedish scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this week for his work in evolution.
The committee awarded Svante Pääbo, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”
Pääbo sequenced the genome of the bones of a Neanderthal, the ancestor of modern-day humans.
By extracting and studying the DNA, which was widely believed to be impossible, it led to the discovery of a hominin — a type of human species — that was previously unknown, called Denisova.
This work also helped traced the migrations of extinct species and how they influenced the physiology of modern humans, particularly how our immune systems work.
“Pääbo’s seminal research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline; paleogenomics,” the committee said in a press release. “By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.”
Pääbo’s father is biochemist Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 for the discovery of prostaglandins, compounds in the body that have hormone-like effects.
Each Nobel prize is worth 10 million kronor — the equivalent of about $900,000 — and is given to laureates with a diploma and a gold medal on Dec. 10, the date the creator of the Nobel prizes, Alfred Nobel, died in 1896.
In 2021, scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian jointly received the prize “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
