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Evanescence moves bassist Tim McCord to guitar; Sick Puppies’ Emma Anzai joins lineup

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

After announcing the surprise departure of guitarist Jen Majura over the weekend, Evanescence has unveiled a new band lineup.

Longtime Evanescence bassist Tim McCord will move to guitar in place of Majura. Having originally joined the group in 2006, McCord is the longest-tenured non-Amy Lee member of Evanescence.

“After 16 years in the band as our rock solid bass player, Tim is taking a turn on his original instrument,” Evanescence says. “Spoiler alert — he’s great at it.”

As for who will take McCord’s place on bass, that would be Emma Anzai, of the band Sick Puppies.

“We’ve been friends and fans for years, and the time has finally come to join forces,” Evanescence says of Anzai.

The new lineup will make its live debut when Evanescence launches a European tour in June. They’ll return to the U.S. for a couple festivals in July, followed by a tour with Korn, kicking off in August.

Evanescence announced that Majura was leaving the band last Saturday, writing, “It has been a very special chapter in the band with our dear friend Jen Majura, but we have decided it’s time to go our separate ways.”

“We will always love her and support her, and can’t wait to see what she does next!” the statement reads. “We are so grateful for the good times and great music we made all around the world together.”

Majura later issued her own statement, writing that she has “no hard feelings against anybody,” while suggesting that the parting of ways was less than completely mutual.

“I feel the need to address that none of this was my decision!” she wrote.

Jack White, Måneskin & more featured on soundtrack for upcoming ‘Elvis’ movie

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Jack White and Måneskin will be featured on the soundtrack to Elvis, the upcoming biopic about music legend Elvis Presley.

The album will also include contributions from Tame Impala, Gary Clark Jr., Stevie Nicks, Eminem and CeeLo Green, Doja Cat and Kacey Musgraves, as well as “original songs and recordings” from Elvis himself.

The track list for the soundtrack hasn’t yet been announced, but a recent trailer revealed that Måneskin will be covering the 1968 song “If I Can Dream.” Måneskin also performed the song during their return to Eurovision earlier this month.

White, meanwhile, is a big Elvis fan — you may recall he purchased the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s first recording at an auction for $300,000 in 2015.

Elvis stars Austin Butler in the title role and Tom Hanks as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. It premieres in theaters on June 24.

Jimmie Allen collaborates with Jennifer Lopez, T-Pain & more on ’Tulip Drive’

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Jimmie Allen‘s new album is chock-full of superstar collaborators.

Next month, Jimmie will drop his highly anticipated third album, Tulip Drive, and on Monday, he unveiled the track list’s 17 songs, most of which were co-written by the hitmaker. Among the titles are album opener “be alright,” current single “down home” and “habits & hearts.”

There are several eye-catching guest stars on the track list, including Jennifer Lopez, who appears on the instant gratification track “on my way” that drops on Friday. Former The Voice coach CeeLo Green and T-Pain share “pesos” with the country star, while former nurse-turned-singer Katie Ohh is featured on “broken hearted.” Jimmie’s 7-year-old son, Aadyn, also lends his voice to the closing track, “you won’t be alone.”

“This is the first [album] where I chose to write songs about my own personal experiences, thoughts and hopes,” Jimmie said in a statement.

Tulip Drive is named after the street his grandmother grew up on in his native Delaware. It arrives on June 24.

REO Speewagon’s 1996 album ‘Building the Bridge’ reissued this week on CD, digital formats

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

REO Speewagon will reissue its 14th studio album, Building the Bridge, on May 27 on CD. The record also will be released for the first time via digital music services that day.

The band will be selling CD copies of Building the Bridge during its Live and UnZoomed tour this year with Styx and Loverboy. The net proceeds from the sales will be donated to REO and Styx’s Rock to the Rescue foundation. In addition, a vinyl version of the album will be released later in 2022.

While Building the Bridge failed to chart when it was released in 1996, REO frontman Kevin Cronin says in a statement he felt it was “the album that truly solidified the current REO lineup, and its songs are some of our strongest ever.”

Cronin continues, “From the title song, which I sang with Bill Clinton on his 1996 campaign trail, to ‘Haven’t We Lost Enough (I Still Love You),’ which I co-wrote with my musical hero, Stephen Stills, to the production collaboration with the late, great Greg Ladanyi, I feel this record is pound for pound one of our best.”

The Building the Bridge reissue, which will be released by Jimmy Buffett‘s Mailboat Records label, features remastered audio and updated artwork.

Adds Cronin, “I am excited to give new life to this long forgotten, but powerful album.”

You can preorder the Building the Bridge reissue now.

The Live & UnZoomed tour kicks off May 31 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is mapped out through a September 18 show in Bangor, Maine.

Here’s the full Building the Bridge track list:

“Can’t Stop Rockin'”
“Haven’t We Lost Enough (I Still Love You)”
“Building the Bridge”
“When I Get Home”
“Then I Met You”
“Look the Other Way”
“After Tonight”
“Hey, Wait a Minute”
“One True Man”
“She’s Gonna Love Me”
“Ballad of the Illinois Opry”

Amazon’s ‘Night Sky’ is sci-fi flick with a twist

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

What exactly is in that shed? The new sci-fi series Night Sky is streaming now on Amazon Prime.

Academy Award winners J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek play an aging couple with their fair share of life stories and secrets, including a portal in their backyard shed that seemingly leads to another part of the universe. Simmons tells ABC Audio there is a very human story here underneath the show’s fantastic premise.

“I didn’t even know when I started reading the script that we were going to go off into sci-fi land. I just started reading from page one in complete ignorance and I fell in love with the characters,” he recalls. “And then as our…universe in the show sort of expands it was just one pleasant, sort of jaw-dropping moment after another.”

So what drew the Spider-Man: No Way Home star to the script? Simmons says it was a couple of things.

“Sissy was already attached when they sent me the script that had me very interested right up front. And then really it was Holden Miller’s script and the insight that he has into a couple of 70-somethings and as we learn in future episodes — you know insights that he has into a lot of things,” he explains.

Night Sky also tackles some pretty big life topics, too, such as aging and our purpose in the world. Spacek told ABC Audio she’s not sure if we’re meant to get all the answers to this life’s burning mysteries.

“I don’t think so, I think this life is a bit of an experiment,” she shares. “A process. That when by the time we get to the end of it hopefully, we’ll understand. But at this point I’m still kinda in the dark!”

Vanessa Hudgens to host 2022 ‘MTV Movie & TV Awards’

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

tick, tick…BOOM! co-star Vanessa Hudgens has been announced as the host of the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards.

The event will be held live from the Barker Hangar in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 5, at 8 p.m. and will precede MTV’s celebration of this year’s reality shows, Movie & TV Awards: UNSCRIPTED. More details on the later shows will be forthcoming, the network promises.

Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has grossed more than $1.8 billion, leads all other contenders with seven nominations for this year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards. Euphoria, which also stars No Way Home‘s Zendaya, was a close second, with six.

Black Twitter isn’t really feeling Walmart’s rumored Juneteenth ice cream

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Juneteenth is a federal holiday observed in America to commemorate the emancipation of Black people. While many Black families may be gearing up to celebrate by hosting barbecues or cookouts next month, one thing that may — or may not — be on grocery store lists is Walmart’s new Great Value brand Juneteenth ice cream.

When a picture surfaced over the weekend of the “Celebration Edition” swirled red velvet and cheesecake-flavored ice cream, Twitter users were not shy at expressing their disdain.

Like that of Black dances, music and vernacular, many say the ice cream serves as yet another example of white commodities attempting to benefit from Black culture. Some noted the company’s addition of the small trademark symbol (TM), placed directly next to the word Juneteenth, written in red and surrounded by green, black and yellow-colored branding.

“The gentrification of Juneteenth is on the way brough[t] to you by @Walmart,” one user said. “I’m also looking at the little ™ symbol next to Juneteenth with so many questions sigh. Do you not have any trademark attorneys who advised against this? Or do y’all just not care?”

“For those who don’t get the outrage behind the #Juneteenth ice cream: A White-owned company named @Walmart is trying to trademark Juneteenth,” another said.

One user, “a Black Texan,” suggested simply not to buy the frozen snack while others pointed to an alternate, Black-owned ice cream brand, Creamalicious.

“Instead of getting that Juneteenth ice cream from Walmart get this instead!!,” the user said, sharing a picture of the Creamalicious red velvet cheesecake treat. “Black owned and it’s good.”

Those who take issue with the product say it’s not just about ice cream, it’s about the possibility that a massive corporation like Walmart may profit off the holiday intended to honor Black people’s decades-long fight for equality in America.

Rihanna is a “fantastic” mom, “in awe” of her baby, source tells ‘People’

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Rihanna and her boyfriend, A$AP Rocky, are enjoying their roles as new parents to their baby boy, a source close to the couple tells People.

“Being a new parent is of course an adjustment, but they are doing great. Their baby boy is healthy and Rihanna is just in awe of him,” the source dishes. “She really was so excited to be pregnant. She loved it. Meeting her son was of course extremely special too.”

According to the source, Rihanna “barely leaves [the baby’s] side,” adding, “She is a fantastic mom … She enjoys sitting outside with her baby.” The fashion icon and singer “very much enjoys spending quiet time with her baby” and “doesn’t seem rushed to get back to work.”

Rih and Rocky announced in January that they were expecting their first child by debuting her growing baby bump in a series of photographs. She then proceeded to take maternity fashion to a whole new level, covering Vogue in a skin-tight bodysuit and showing off her belly at red carpet events.

Laura Dern, Sam Neill say their ‘Jurassic Park’ relationship was “inappropriate”

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

While 1993’s blockbuster Jurassic Park is universally thought of as a family-friendly film, two of its stars now say there was something “inappropriate” about it.

That is to say, Laura Dern‘s paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler and her love interest, Sam Neill‘s paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, were quite the May-December romance.

“I am 20 years older than Laura! Which at the time was a completely appropriate age difference for a leading man and lady,” Neill tells the Sunday Times.

“And it was only now, when we returned in a moment of cultural awareness about the patriarchy, that I was, like, ‘Wow! We’re not the same age?'” added Dern.

However, the actress commented, “Well, it felt completely appropriate to fall in love with Sam Neill.”

Neill joked to the paper, “It never occurred to me until I opened a magazine and there was an article called ‘Old Geezers and Gals.’ People like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery acting with much younger people. And there I was, on the list. I thought, ‘Come on. It can’t be true.'”

In their defense, the characters were closer in age in the late Michael Crichton‘s original Jurassic Park novel.

Dern, 55, and Neill, 77, reunite with other Jurassic Park original stars Jeff Goldblum and BD Wong, as well as Jurassic World‘s Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, in June’s Jurassic World Dominion.

The Universal Pictures film opens June 10.

The xx’s Oliver Sim shares HIV status with new solo song “Hideous”

May 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The xx vocalist and bassist Oliver Sim has released a new solo song, “Hideous,” and, in doing so, publicly shared for the first time that he was diagnosed with HIV at age 17.

“I’ve lived with my status since I was 17,” Sim, 32, writes in a statement accompanying the “Hideous” video. “It’s played with how I’ve felt towards myself and how I’ve assumed others have felt towards me, from that age and into my adult life.”

Sim shares that he wrote “Hideous” “quite impulsively” and intended to “release it into the world and be done with it,” but, on the advice of his mother, decided to have “conversations with people in my life first.”

“Either people I hadn’t told yet or people I had told but hadn’t wanted to talk much further on it,” Sim says. “I’ve spent the past two years since writing ‘Hideous’ having those conversations, which was difficult and uncomfortable to start with but has allowed me to feel a lot freer and has only strengthened the relationship with myself and with the people in my life.”

Sim also reached out to Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville, who’s long been an advocate for those with HIV and AIDS. The two developed a friendship, and Somerville is featured on “Hideous.”

“‘Am I hideous?’ no longer feels like a question I’m asking to the outside world but rather a counter active one for myself,” Sim writes. “Scary as it still feels, I’m excited to share this music with you and I hope you enjoy it.”

“Hideous” will appear on Sim’s upcoming debut solo album Hideous Bastard, due out September 9. It also includes the previously released songs “Romance with a Memory” and “Fruit.”

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