Yeah Yeah Yeahs have premiered a new song called “Burning,” which will appear on the band’s upcoming comeback album, Cool It Down.
“‘Burning’ is a song about that feeling, smoke signals for the soul,” the “Maps” outfit says. “Begging to cool it down, just doing it the best we know how.”
You can listen to “Burning” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video is set to premiere this Friday, August 12.
Cool It Down, which will be released September 30, is the first Yeah Yeah Yeahs album in nine years, following 2013’s Mosquito. It also includes the previously released single “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” featuring Perfume Genius.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs will perform at Chicago’s Riot Fest in September, followed by headlining dates in New York City and Los Angeles in October.
If Taylor Swift needs any help, she can count on actor Ben Stiller, who came out as a proud superfan — or “Swiftie” for short.
Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Night at the Museum star described how driving lessons with his daughter made him a Taylor fan.
Stiller said 20-year-old Ella was learning to drive in New York City, which is not the best place for a novice driver to learn the ropes. The actor compared driving on the West Side Highway to Mad Max: Fury Road.
“What really helped is she played her favorite artist on the iPhone,” Stiller revealed. “So we would just drive and play Taylor Swift. And I was a fan, but now I think I’m a total Swiftie.”
As for the music the Zoolander star enjoyed, he explained, “We got into the later stuff: [the albums] evermorefolklore — about ‘Cardigan,’ ‘Betty’ and ‘August.'”
Noting he’d “get deep into it,” Stiller went into fan mode and educated Colbert about the albums, saying the songs are “all about being in the same love triangle, but from different points of view. And the characters are named after Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively‘s kids.”
Stiller also raved about the 10-minute version of Taylor’s “All Too Well,” knowing that it came “from the vault.”
Colbert flexed his Swiftie muscles, as he also is a fan of the singer, and revealed he spent a 14-hour car ride from New York to South Carolina playing just evermore on repeat. “I’ll just be muttering those lyrics on my deathbed,” the comedian quipped.
So, what happened with Stiller’s daughter? She thankfully passed her driving test, which he credited again to Taylor’s calming music.
Darius Rucker is the headliner for the next CMT Storytellers, a one-hour concert special featuring performances and never-before-heard stories about how some of the star’s biggest hits came to life.
“There have been so many nights when someone comes up to me after a show and tells me what a song means to them,” Darius recounts, “when they first heard it or how it became a song at a pivotal moment in their life, played at a wedding or even a memorial.”
After establishing himself as the frontman of rock group Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius turned to a solo career in country music in 2008. His episode of CMT Storytellers will feature songs from every era of his career, and underscore the special moments the songs create between the artist and his fans.
“The way music connects and how the story evolves for each person differently is perhaps the coolest aspect of music, which is what makes a show like CMT Storytellers so special as I think we can always use more moments of connection,” Darius continues.
CMT Storytellers: Darius Rucker will air on CMT on August 31 at 10 p.m. ET. Fans can catch five encore airings: August 31 at 11 p.m., September 4 at 12 p.m., September 9 at 8 p.m., and September 10 at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
If you happened to be at Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill County Fair 25 years ago, you may have seen Halestorm‘s first-ever show.
In an Instagram post, frontwoman Lzzy Hale reflects on that debut performance, which took place August 9, 1997.
“It was just lil bro [drummer Arejay Hale] and I at the time,” Lzzy recalls. “We named the band Halestorm on the way to the gig, and stepped nervously on stage.”
“Well, I was nervous,” she adds. “I don’t think Arejay has ever been nervous in his life!”
During the set, the Hale siblings played a song called “Love Is Power,” which was the first track they’d ever written together.
“We were shaking with excitement after our performance, and to our surprise we even took home the 3rd place trophy!” Lzzy shares. “On the ride home and all throughout our family dinner that night, lil bro and I planned our mission.”
We’d like to see how many Grammys the first- and second-place winners have.
Halestorm is currently on tour in support of the band’s latest album, this year’s Back from the Dead.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday enacted legislation that will expand the Department of Veterans Affairs, providing health care support to millions of veterans — as well as their families and caretakers — who were exposed to toxic burn pits.
Known as the PACT Act, the package grants more time to enroll in VA-provided care for veterans exposed to the toxins while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the White House.
“This is the most significant law our nation has ever passed to help millions of veterans who are exposed to toxic substances during their military services,” Biden said in remarks during the bill signing ceremony in the White House’s East Room.
The legislation simplifies how the VA determines if someone’s service put them at risk, which the White House and veterans say is often difficult to prove on an individual basis.
Some veterans or their survivors diagnosed with one of 23 specific conditions will no longer need to prove a direct service connection, per the new law, which also invests in toxic exposure research, among other things.
Burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq could be “the size of football fields,” Biden said at the signing. The U.S. military used them to incinerate waste from operations there, which included “tires, poisonous chemicals, jet fuel and so much more,” he said.
The issue is personal for the president, who for years has wondered if late-son Beau’s brain cancer stemmed from exposure to burn pits during his deployment in Iraq.
“When they came home, many of the fittest and best warriors that we sent to war were not the same. Headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer. My son Beau was one of them,” Biden said.
But the PACT Act, which the president called on Congress to take up last year, almost didn’t make it to his desk for a signature.
The proposal had faced uncertainty in the Senate after some Republican lawmakers changed their minds, voting against ending debate on the bill after they voted in favor of it weeks earlier — a convoluted timeline because a change to the text in the House required a re-vote.
It ultimately passed the Senate a second time, last Tuesday, with 11 Republican holdouts after protesters, many of them veterans, spent days advocating for their cause in front of the Senate steps. (GOP lawmakers had cited concerns about what they said were Democratic spending maneuvers bundled in the bill.)
Among the demonstrators urging PACT’s passage was actor and comedian Jon Stewart, who himself protested for hours outside the Capitol and walked the halls of Congress to meet with senators last week. He attended the bill signing Wednesday morning.
“What you’ve done matters,” Biden told Stewart, who received a standing ovation. “It really, really matters … And we owe you big.”
Some veterans and survivors who lobbied on the Hill last week also joined Biden and lawmakers at the signing.
Biden spoke with several of them before he left the East Room, handing out challenge coins to some, embracing others and thanking them for their service.
“This law is long overdue, but we finally got it done together,” he said.
ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
What do Kanye West, Lil Uzi Vert and Steve Lacy have in common? Aside from being musicians, the men now have the same tattoo. A picture shared on Lacy’s Instagram page shows the three posing together with their new ink.
“we here forever technically,” read the caption, which also happens to be the words L.A. artist Mez tatted on their left arms.
As of now, there is currently no musical collaboration between Kanye, Uzi and Lacy, but who knows? This may be the first step to a joint project.
Shahram Poursafi is wanted for his alleged involvement in criminal activities to include material support to terrorism and the attempted murder for hire of a former high-ranking United States Government (USG) official. – FBI
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday unsealed charges against an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps whom prosecutors say allegedly tried to arrange the murder of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton in “likely” retaliation for the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani when Trump was president.
The criminal complaint against 45-year-old Shahram Poursafi, who remains at large abroad, accuses him of attempting to pay various individuals in the U.S. $300,000 to kill Bolton, beginning in October.
Poursafi is charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire and with providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot.
In a statement after the case was unsealed Wednesday, Bolton said, in part: “I wish to thank the Justice Department for initiating the criminal proceeding unsealed today; the FBI for its diligence in discovering and tracking the Iranian regime’s criminal threat to American citizens; and the Secret Service for once again providing protection against Tehran’s efforts.”
“While much cannot be said publicly right now, one point is indisputable: Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States. Their radical, anti-American objectives are unchanged; their commitments are worthless; and their global threat is growing,” Bolton said.
The complaint and supporting law enforcement affidavit further allege how the Tehran-based Poursafi and the person he wanted to hire in the U.S. to arrange the killing — identified by the FBI as a confidential human source — conducted months of video and photo surveillance of Bolton at his home and office, in the Washington area, in late 2021 and early 2022.
According to the affidavit’s timeline, on Oct. 22 Poursafi asked an unnamed U.S. resident to take photographs of Bolton while claiming it was for a book that Poursafi was writing. The resident later introduced Poursafi to the FBI’s confidential source and Poursafi offered this person money to hire someone to “eliminate” Bolton, adding he had another “job” for which he would pay $1,000,000, the affidavit claims.
Investigators also said that Poursafi appeared to have private information about Bolton’s routine and schedule, though the source of his information was not clear.
At one point Poursafi allegedly suggested Bolton be killed by car or in the parking garage at his work and later said he should be shot — either while he was alone or, if he was in a group, without harming anyone else — the FBI said in the complaint affidavit.
The source whom Poursafi allegedly worked with told Poursafi they were working with a third individual who had ties to a cartel, the affidavit states.
The complaint affidavit also documents extensive communications between Poursafi and the confidential source. At one point, according to the complaint, he advised the source that killing someone “was like crossing the street; it was better not to spend too much time looking in one direction, but just to do it.”
Poursafi also told the FBI’s source that his “group” would require video confirmation of the target’s death, according to the affidavit. Poursafi repeatedly made further contact with the source, stating he was under pressure from his “group” or “his people” to have the killing carried out.
In January, the FBI alleged in the affidavit, Poursafi told the source he had a second “job” once Bolton was killed and he suggested that someone working for the Revolutionary Guard Corps was conducting surveillance on an unnamed second target in the U.S.
“This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on U.S. soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement Wednesday.
ABC News’ Adam Carlson and John Santucci contributed to this report.
In a newly released song, DaBaby is talking about the situations that helped him develop “Tough Skin.”
“Growin’ up in that struggle made me have tough skin,” he raps on the track, also attributing his resilience to his big brother, uncles and mother. Despite the hard times, he learned to “turn nothin’ to somethin'” and defend himself, as the aforementioned men in his family taught him how to shoot.
“Tough Skin” is the first single off DaBaby’s upcoming project, the sequel to his debut album, Baby onBaby. It’s paired with an accompanying visual, which sees him depict his childhood days and includes a crucifixion scene.
“Let’s get this ‘Baby on Baby 2’shit started,” DaBaby wrote while promoting the visual on Instagram. “Don’t trip, it’s just the warm up.”
The exact date for Baby on Baby 2 has not been announced, but the rapper previously told the Full Send podcast he was pushing to drop the project this month.
Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford has shared that he was sexually abused at age 6.
In a new interview with GQ about his upcoming debut solo album, (self-titled), Mumford reveals that the record’s opening track, “Cannibal,” is about that traumatic experience.
“Like lots of people — and I’m learning more and more about this as we go and as I play it to people — I was sexually abused as a child,” Mumford says. “Not by family and not in the church, which might be some people’s assumption. But I hadn’t told anyone about it for 30 years.”
Writing “Cannibal” allowed Mumford to talk about what happened with his mother. He remembers a few days after he first played it for her, she asked him what the song was about.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s about the abuse thing,'” Mumford recalls. “She was like, ‘What are you talking about?'”
He continues, “Once we get through the trauma of that moment for her, as a mother, hearing that and her wanting to protect and help and all that stuff, it’s objectively f***ing hilarious to tell your mom about your abuse in a f***ing song, of all things.”
That conversation with his mother then became the inspiration for the second (self-titled) song, “Grace.”
(self-titled) will be released September 16.
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Looks like Joe Alwyn is Taylor Swift‘s “End Game.”
US Weekly caught up with a source who is allegedly close with the couple, who dished on what’s going on in their ultra-private relationship.
“They love dividing their time between England and Nashville,” the source spilled. “That’s the way they both like it.”
Taylor was romantically linked to the Conversations With Friends star back in 2016, but the two have rarely been spotted together in public, let alone spoken of one another in interviews.
“Once Taylor and Joe started dating it became apparent to both of them that they were happiest doing their own thing in a low-key way,” the insider explained about why the two continue to keep things quiet. The source added that the couple has been able to do that because they keep their romantic lives and careers separate.
“That was a big reason why they bonded,” the informant added, noting this practice has strengthened their relationship. Because of this arrangement, the source says the two are “wildly happy together and are excited about their future together.”
But because the two are so secretive, their relationship status has been the subject of many rumors.
Last month, there was speculation the two were engaged — but neither Joe nor Taylor have confirmed the reports. In addition, the Grammy winner has not been seen wearing an engagement ring on her left hand.
