If you’re hoping to grow your collection of BTS merchandise, you’re in luck. The “Butter” hitmakers have teamed with Nordstrom for an exclusive line.
The collection, dubbed BTS Themed Merch, went live on Friday both online and in stores and features unisex clothing, buttons, stickers and a whole bunch of other goodies. Items range in price from about $10 to $110 USD.
The line even includs photo flags that fans hoping to catch their next live performance can wave around in the crowds, but the $9 offerings that had group and individual photos are mostly gone.
Other offerings include a “Boy with Love” pink robe for $110 that comes with matching slippers for an extra $25, a gender inclusive “Black Swan” sweatshirt for $80, a “Mic Drop” black fleece pouch for about $40, and a “Dynamite” reversible knit scarf. Fans can also snatch up exclusive sweatpants, mugs, beanies, stamps, tee shirts, jackets, and even throw blankets.
Items are selling out already, so if you are dying to grab a little something, better act fast.
As one of country music’s fastest-rising newcomers, Breland has gotten his fair share of attention from listeners on the Internet — including some negative comments.
“There are people on the Internet who like to troll and I definitely have gotten some pretty hateful messages from people that don’t feel like my brand in country music is authentic,” the singer tells E! Online.
Hailing from New Jersey and pulling influence from gospel standards to Justin Bieber-era pop and more, Breland does indeed have his own distinct sound, which he’s dubbed “cross country.”
But he’s far from the only country artist to make the genre their own. His duet partner on his remixed version of “My Truck,” Sam Hunt, is just one example of someone who’s pushed the boundaries of country music and been hugely successful in the process.
Breland’s message to his haters? “Okay, well, you don’t have to love it. Music is interpretative,” he reflects. “Just because you don’t think that this is country enough doesn’t mean that it isn’t.”
Most recently, Breland joined forces with Dierks Bentley and Hardy for Dierks’ hit single, “Beers on Me.”
Hall & Oates singer Daryl Hall has released a live version of the 1984 Eurythmics hit “Here Comes the Rain Again” that he performed with the latter group’s Dave Stewart as an advance track from his upcoming solo compilation, BeforeAfter, due out April 1.
The performance, which features Daryl on vocals and piano and Stewart on acoustic guitar, comes a 2012 episode of Hall’s Live from Daryl’s House show. The track is available now via digital formats, while a video of their rendition of “Here Comes the Rain Again” has been posted on Hall’s official YouTube channel.
Hall has had a collaborative relationship with Stewart that dates back to Daryl’s 1986 album, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine, which was produced by Dave and includes three songs that he co-wrote.
As previously reported, BeforeAfter is a 30-track collection that features selections from all five of Hall’s solo studio albums, as well as eight performances from the Live from Daryl’s House series, six of which are previously unreleased.
Other Live from Daryl’s House performances on the compilation include a rendition of Todd Rundgren‘s “Can We Still Be Friends with Rundgren, and covers of Ruby and the Romantics‘ “Our Day Will Come” and Gladys Knight and the Pips‘ “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye).”
Coinciding with BeforeAfter‘s release, Hall will embark on his first solo tour in a decade, with Rundgren as his special guest. The eight-show trek runs from an April 1 concert in Chicago through an April 16 show in National Harbor, Maryland, and includes stops at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and New York City’s Carnegie Hall on April 5 and April 14, respectively.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) The new dramedy Family Squares is now in theaters and on demand, following a group of people shaken up by video messages left by the family matriarch after she passes away.
The film was shot remotely during the height of the pandemic by its cast — which includes Archer series star Judy Greer, as well as Emmy winners Henry Winkler, Margo Martindale, Ann Dowd, and Happy Endings star Casey Wilson — and plays out primarily via Zoom.
A fun behind-the-scenes clip runs during the end credits to show what an undertaking it was.
“Even if we were to do it now, it would be easier, but that was still back when we were like, ‘What are these things?'” Greer tells ABC Audio, gesturing to the borders of her Zoom window. “You know, especially…like no offense to actors, but like, we’re not super tech-savvy.”
She adds of the mostly ad-libbed project, “It was nice even just for a few days to have something to take my mind off of everything that was going on with the pandemic and politically. It was just like kind of a godsend for that short amount of time that we shot.”
As one might guess, Family Squares is at times an emotional movie — but real tears weren’t hard to come by during the lockdowns.
“Oh no, no, no,” Greer admits. “It was only hard because we all like we’re just wanting to talk to each other and communicate with each other and shoot the s*** and stuff like that. You know, like after being just like alone in my house with my husband for so long, I was like, ‘I get to talk to my friends!'”
(NEW YORK) — Some 70% of Americans will be able to remove their masks indoors, including inside schools, under new guidance to be released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
Under the new metrics in the updated guidance, more than half of U.S. counties, which make up 70% of where Americans live, will be in areas of low or medium risk and no longer recommended to wear masks, said two sources briefed on the plans but not authorized to discuss them ahead of the official announcement.
A CDC requirement that people continue to wear masks on public transportation, however, will remain in force for now, according to one official.
The official said the new guidance will consider three factors: new COVID hospitalizations, current beds occupied by COVID patients and hospital capacity, and new COVID cases.
It will mark a shift from focusing on daily spread to looking at the overall burden of COVID, with an emphasis on its most severe impacts.
Taken together, the new CDC metrics will consider an area to be “high, medium or low risk.”
Based on that risk level, which could fluctuate, a community could opt to remove mask recommendations indoors.
Schools will not be treated differently under the new guidance as other indoor spaces, according to two officials.
The updated guidance comes after weeks of pressure from governors and state officials who asked for a clear roadmap at the national level.
Though a majority of states went ahead and announced that they will drop mask mandates before the CDC’s guidance was ready, the new information could still aid local leaders and public health officials who are facing vastly different versions of the pandemic even within the same state.
And it will also give states and counties a guide to re-implement guidelines if a new variant pops up, which experts warn is a possibility.
Lainey Wilson knows that “Never Say Never” — her new duet with Cole Swindell — couldn’t be more different than her debut release to country radio, the chart-topping ballad “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
But when she first heard it, after Cole texted it to her while she was “drinking a piña colada on a beach in Mexico,” Lainey says she instantly gravitated toward “Never Say Never.”
“I immediately knew this song was special,” the rising star tells Nashville’s Tennesseean. “Even though it was completely different than ‘Things a Man Oughta Know,’ the song — and no, not the piña colada — made me feel something, so we recorded it.”
That intuition has served her well. Lainey was one of the genre’s biggest breakout stories in 2021, with a hit debut single and an opening slot on tour with Jason Aldean.
“It’s like I was being pulled behind a speedboat on a kneeboard,” she describes, thinking about her ascent to stardom.
There’s more ahead for Lainey, who’s a three-time nominee at this year’s ACM Awards — a turn of events that “blows my mind,” she says.
“I’ve been practicing my dang award-winning ACM speech since I was a little girl, and now that I might have to use it, I don’t know what I’m gonna say,” she adds.
As for “Never Say Never,” Lainey’s gut feeling seems to paying off there, too: The song is quickly cruising towards country radio’s top-fifteen.
Charlie Puth admits his head is full of music, but, when it comes to making a new song, he has an unconventional way of starting the process.
“Beatboxing is how I draft music,” he tells the U.K. radio station Heart, using his new song “Light Switch” as an example.
“I’m thinking about what the tempo is going to be and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Okay, I want it to be fast,'” Charlie said, and recreated the song’s tempo, bass and other elements using just his mouth. “I’m coming up with it and layering it into the actual song at the same time, but by me putting it out in my mouth — that’s a weird sentence — it’s just a feasible product that I can hear back rather than just playing it in my head,” he explained.
Speaking of his new single, Charlie remembers what inspired it in the first place — ironically, it was because he had too many music ideas in his head.
Says Charlie, “I started to think to myself, ‘I’m just thinking too much. I wish I had a light switch to turn my brain off’ and then I thought, ‘Oh, that could be it!'” He then drove to the studio and recorded the sound of him turning on the light — and the rest was history.
The Grammy nominee is gearing up for his third studio album, Charlie, which he teased is his most personal and emotionally open album yet. He also admits he feels anxious about how it’ll be received.
“I’m a very nervous person,” he confessed. “I’m always thinking, ‘Where is my song gonna end up? How is the song going?’… I’m not impervious to any of that. The bigger artist I become, the more worried I get.”
Thursday was a day of joy and pain for Jazmine Sullivan: She won three NAACP Image Awards, and also announced she tested positive for COVID-19.
The “Need U Bad” singer tweeted, “I am taking every precaution to isolate myself. I’m truly sad to have to cancel more shows but health and safety come first for myself, my team and all of you.”
Sullivan will not perform her scheduled shows today in Los Angeles and Saturday in Phoenix.
“We will let you know when the tour will resume once we have made that decision,” she continued. “As soon as we have more information in regards to tickets and rescheduling, ticket holders will be notified via email. Thank you so much for your understanding and support and I’ll be seeing you very soon.”
Sullivan’s statement comes a day after canceling her Wednesday concert in Sacramento, California, for “feeling extremely under the weather.”
The 34-year-old vocalist from Philadelphia kicked off her Heaux Tales tour on February 14 in Vancouver, Canada. The tour is scheduled to continue through March 30 in Chicago.
As Jazmine announced she tested positive for COVID, also on Thursday, she also won NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Female Artist, Outstanding Album for Heaux Tales, and Outstanding R&B Song for “Pick Up Your Feelings.” She commented on Instagram, “Thank you NAACP Image Awards for this recognition and always upholding and showcasing Black excellence. I’m honored.”
Sullivan is also up for three Grammy Awards: Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for “Pick Up Your Feelings,” and Best R&B Album for Heaux Tales.
Elle King is gearing up for her next tour, her first since 2019’s Shake The Spit Tour, and she can thank Stevie Nicks for making it easier to perform in front of a large crowd.
Speaking with Variance, the “Ex’s and Oh’s” singer revealed the legendary singer gave her the best advice when she was overwhelmed by nerves before performing a tribute for the late Tom Petty. She recalled, “I was playing with his band and I definitely hid behind my instruments because you know that whole joke, ‘What do I do with my hands?'”
“I got to meet Stevie Nicks and I was like, ‘I’m so nervous, I don’t know what I’m gonna do, like on stage, I’m just like, what do I do? Just stand there and sing?’ And she goes, ‘Why do you think I played tambourine? You think I’m just gonna stand there and look like an idiot?'” she continued. “So I asked for a tambourine on stage and it gave me something to do, and that was one thing that I’ll never forget.”
Elle is heading back on tour next month, her first headlining tour in three years, which has her nervous. “I put a lot of pressure on myself,” she admitted. “Looking at my full tour schedule gives me a little bit of anxiety!”
Elle adds it’s going to be a “very, very different tour for me” because it marks her first one since becoming a mom. She and partner Dan Tooker welcomed their son, Lucky, in September, and Elle says she’s “bringing my family” on tour.
“I’ve always really admired people who tour with their families and I always really wanted to be that and now I get to experience that and it’s exciting,” she says.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers are known for recording memorable versions of other artists’ tunes, but frontman George Thorogood has written plenty of memorable songs as well. It’s those originals that are the focus of a new compilation titled, aptly, The Original George Thorogood, that’s due out April 15.
The album, which you can pre-order now, will be available on CD, via digital formats, and as a two-LP vinyl set, including a standard black-vinyl version and a limited-edition translucent-orange-vinyl collection.
The CD and digital versions of The Original George Thorogood feature 14 tracks, while the vinyl editions boast 11 songs. All versions include such classic Thorogood tunes as “Bad to the Bone,” “I Drink Alone,” “Born to Be Bad,” “If You Don’t Start Drinkin’ (I’m Gonna Leave)” and “You Talk Too Much,” as well as the previously unreleased track “Back in the U.S.A.”
“It’s easy to write a song, difficult to write a good song, and even harder to write a great song,” says Thorogood. “It strikes home that I have the ability to write some pretty great songs, and there’s a real sense of achievement to that.”
George adds about the compilation, “We’ve been playing a lot of these songs for a long time, and some haven’t been performed live at all. I hope fans are surprised by the ones they’ve never heard before.”
This year, Thorogood and the Destroyers launched the Good to Be Bad: 45 Years of Rock Tour, which resumes on April 29 in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The band also will be supporting Sammy Hagar & the Circle on the Crazy Times! trek, which includes a variety of dates in June, August and September. Check out a full list of shows at GeorgeThorogood.com.
Here’s The Original George Thorogood‘s full track list:
“Bad to the Bone”
“I Drink Alone”
“Gear Jammer”
“Born to Be Bad”
“If You Don’t Start Drinkin’ (I’m Gonna Leave)”
“Back in the U.S.A.”*
“Rock and Roll Man”
“You Talk Too Much”
“Miss Luann”
“Back to Wentzville”**
“Rock and Roll Christmas”
“Oklahoma Sweetheart”
“Woman with the Blues”**
“I Really Like Girls”**
* = previously unreleased
** = on CD and digital versions only.
