Last month, Of Monsters and Men played a series of concerts in their native Iceland to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album, My Head Is an Animal. In the very likely event you weren’t able to attend any of the shows in person, you’ll still be able to watch them streaming online starting tonight, December 1.
Fittingly, the shows were recorded Gamla Bíó, the same place where Of Monsters and Men threw the release party for My Head Is an Animal a decade ago.
“We’re kinda just going back to that night, really,” vocalist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir tells ABC Audio. “We’re going to do the album in its entirety, and [will be] playing with…people who have been with us throughout this journey.”
Vocalist Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson adds that the concerts have a real “family” vibe to them, while also allowing the band to get back to their “sweaty club show” roots.
“I’m craving it,” Raggi says.
With the streams, Raggi and Nanna hope that “people will get sweaty with us around the world.”
“Watch on the internet and get sweaty,” Nanna laughs.
The shows will be available to watch via the streaming platform Mandolin. Subsequent airings will be held December 8, 15 and 22.
Rob Thomas‘ latest single “Small Town Christmas” was inspired by his own small town, located in the New York City suburbs in Westchester County. And when it came to depicting that small town in the song’s video, he knew he needed something that reflected his family’s real-life holiday experiences.
“We had shot all the live footage of me playing the song and that just didn’t make a video,” Rob tells ABC Audio. “And then, they wanted to use B-stock footage of, like, families having nice Christmases in small towns. And that just didn’t feel personal enough.”
So Rob and his wife, Marisol, decided to give fans a peek into their actual lives in their small town.
“Mari and I got together one night and just compiled together all the video that we had…that we have taken of ourselves, just from our phones and Instagram and stuff like that,” he says.
“We pooled together everything that we had of celebrating Christmas over the last few years up here,” he says of his town. “And then we put that in there and edited it together into the video.”
The video features shots of Rob and Mari and their dogs celebrating in front of the Christmas tree and playing in the snow, as well as scenes of them shopping for decorations, sledding, buying wine and other holiday activities.
Tonight on NBC, Rob will celebrate another Christmas tradition by singing on NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center, along with Alessia Cara, Harry Connick Jr., Norah Jones, Pentatonix, Carrie Underwood and more. The show airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will stream simultaneously on Peacock.
This past week, British hard-rock legends Deep Purple released their first album of cover tunes, a 12-track collection titled Turning to Crime.
Founding drummer Ian Paice tells ABC Audio that impetus behind the project was the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept the band from touring and from working together on new music in a studio.
“So what do you do? You just can’t sit on your a** all day long, all month long, all year long,” Paice notes. “And if you can’t get together with your pals to write new music, then play some old music…and choose pieces which were important to you for different reasons.”
Paice says the band members settled on the tunes democratically, and recorded the album remotely.
“I was worried at first that it would sound like five guys in different parts of the world, but it doesn’t,” Ian admits. “It sounds like five guys in a room having fun. And once I realized it was gonna have that collective feel, I was really happy with just getting the project as good as we could get it.”
Turning to Crime features Deep Purple putting its own spin on such songs as the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac gem “Oh Well,” Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Little Feat‘s “Dixie Chicken,” Cream‘s “White Room” and more.
Paice says “Dixie Chicken” was one of the songs he picked, noting, “I love the band, but also, [I’m a] great fan of [drummer] Richie Hayward…[He’s], just a feel-groove merchant.”
Ian also was quite happy with Deep Purple’s version of “Oh Well.”
“I think [guitarist] Steve [Morse] did a wonderful job,” he says. “He married…the Peter Green bit with a bit of Jeff Beck-ism at the end.”
Here’s the album’s full track list:
“7 and 7 Is”
“Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”
“Oh Well”
“Jenny Take a Ride!”
“Watching the River Flow”
“Let the Good Times Roll”
“Dixie Chicken”
“Shapes of Things”
“The Battle of New Orleans”
“Lucifer”
“White Room”
“Caught in the Act” (Medley: “Going Down”/”Green Onions”/”Hot ‘Lanta”/”Dazed and Confused”/”Gimme Some Lovin'”)
(NEW YORK) — Scientists are continuing to discover ways in which climate change is already affecting animal species around the world — including how it’s changing the phenology, or timing of biological events.
Grey seals are the latest species to see phenological shifts due to warming ocean waters, a new study published Tuesday in the Royal Society Journals has found.
Researchers who monitored grey seals in the U.K.’s Skomer Marine Conservation Zone for three decades found that climate change has caused older seal mothers to give birth to pups earlier, an observation that favors the hypothesis that climate affects phenology by altering the age profile of the population.
When the researchers first began surveying grey seals in 1992, the midpoint of the pupping season was the first week of October. By 2004, the pupping season had advanced three weeks earlier, to mid-September, according to the study.
Warmer years were also associated with an older average age of mothers, the scientists found. Grey seals typically start breeding around 5 years old and can continue for several decades after. But the older the seals got, the earlier they gave birth, the researchers said.
The changes were not isolated to the U.K. There have been observable changes in the timing of seal life throughout the Atlantic and the world, according to the study.
Climate change has also recently been linked to a rising divorce rate in albatross couples, which mate for life, and to the shrinking of dozens of species of Amazonian birds, which are evolving to have smaller bodies and longer wing spans.
The causes and consequences of phenological shifts across ecosystems and geographical regions as a result of climate change have become a major area of interest in recent years, according to the study.
These changes can have a domino effect. Since species do not live in isolation, phenological changes can cascade through biological communities through trophic, competitive and mutualistic interactions, according to the study. This can be especially apparent in “mismatches in seasonal events,” such as those between predator and prey populations or flowering plants and their pollinators.
Eventually, phenological shifts in life-history events, such as breeding and pupping, can decouple biological communities and lead to critical transitions in population structure and even the collapse of ecosystems, the scientists said.
The Jacksons are partnering with Hard Rock International for a series of performances at Hard Rock and Seminole casino venues around the U.S. that will kick off with four concerts in February 2022.
The confirmed shows are scheduled to take place on February 18 at the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in the group’s hometown of Gary, Indiana; February 21 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, Florida; February 23 at the Seminole Casino Hotel in Immokalee, Florida; and February 24 at the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek, Florida.
Tickets for the first two concerts will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, December 1, at 10 a.m. ET, while tickets for the second two shows will be available to the public starting Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. ET.
The Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana features a 37-foot-tall guitar marquee that was designed to replicate an original guitar owned by late Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson. The casino also houses a collection of Jackson memorabilia that includes one of Michael Jackson‘s iconic gloves and a suit Janet Jackson wore during her Velvet Rope tour.
“We are so honored and excited to be performing at a venue that means so much to us,” says Jacksons member Tito Jackson. “To be able to perform at four iconic Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos, including in our hometown, is truly humbling and we cannot wait to give fans a memorable experience.”
The group’s partnership with Hard Rock International is expected to extend beyond 2022. For more information, visit HardRock.com.
As previously reported, The Jacksons are also among the many artists who will be performing on the 2022 edition of the Ultimate Disco Cruise, which sets sail from Miami on February 26.
Jack White is headlining the 2022 High Water Festival, which will take place April 23-24 in North Charleston, South Carolina.
The bill, which is curated by Charleston folk duo Shovels & Rope, also includes Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Black Pumas, Local Natives and Sharon Van Etten, among others.
Pre-sale tickets are available now, and while tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Thursday, December 2, at noon ET. For the full lineup and ticket info, visit HighWaterFest.com.
High Water is White’s first announced live performance for 2022. The White Stripes rocker plans to release two solo albums next year: Fear of the Dawn on April 8, and Entering Heaven Alive on July 22.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 779,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Variant-specific vaccine could be completed in about 3 months: White House
-Greece to mandate vaccines for people 60 and older
-Global case count of omicron variant tops 200
-Omicron variant was in the Netherlands earlier than thought
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 30, 5:50 pm
Merck pill now awaiting FDA authorization after adviser endorsement
Advisers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have narrowly approved an endorsement of the Merck COVID-19 pill, voting 13 to 10 in favor of the authorization.
If authorized, it would be the first easy-to-take antiviral pill for COVID-19. Pfizer is also working on a COVID-19 pill, which it hopes will be authorized early next year. The FDA typically takes the advice of its advisers but will make its own final decision.
During Tuesday’s meeting, advisers spoke positively on Merck’s pill, even though it was not found to be quite as effective in the final analysis as it was in an early, preliminary analysis.
However, the advisers expressed doubt about whether it would be safe for pregnant people to use Merck’s pill because of the potential risk of harm to the fetus as well as its use in children due to lack of data and similar concerns as in pregnancy.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Nov 30, 2:45 pm
Variant-specific vaccine could be completed in about 3 months: White House
If a variant-specific vaccine is needed, the process, including FDA and CDC authorization, would take about three months, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said at Tuesday’s White House briefing.
The omicron variant has still not been detected in the U.S. Delta “remains the predominant circulating string representing 99.9% of all sequences sampled,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said.
Walensky said the CDC is also working on expanding a surveillance program through JFK International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that would conduct more tests on international arrivals.
Walensky added, “To be crystal clear, we have far more tools to fight the variant today than we had at this time last year.”
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Nov 30, 2:13 pm
Blanket travel bans won’t prevent international spread of omicron: WHO
The World Health Organization praised South Africa and Botswana on Tuesday for the “speed and transparency” in which they reported on the new omicron variant.
The WHO stressed that “blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.”
“In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data,” the WHO said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, while on a plane to Nigeria, told reporters Tuesday that South Africa should not be “punished” with travel bans for being transparent.
“These bans must be removed,” he said.
“We have advanced in the world to a point where we now know when people travel, they should be tested, like I was tested last night and I’m happy to be tested when I arrive again,” he said.
“And for us, the tourism industry is one of the key industries. … This is discriminatory against us, and they are imposing a very unfair punishment,” he said.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Nov 30, 1:35 pm
80 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated
About 100 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal data. Nearly 80 million of those people are over the age of 5 and therefore eligible to get the shot.
Since the beginning of November, hospital admissions have jumped by 20%, while emergency department visits have increased by 27%, according to federal data.
Minnesota and Michigan currently hold the country’s highest case rate, followed by Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Puerto Rico, Florida and Louisiana currently have the nation’s lowest infection rate, according to federal data.
(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, came face to face with her first accuser in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.
A woman prosecutors have referred to as “Jane,” one of the three alleged minor victims whose allegations against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell are detailed in a federal indictment, testified on the second day of her trial, telling her story publicly for the first time.
She told the jury that she met Maxwell and Epstein while attending summer camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, the beginning of what prosecutors earlier called “a nightmare that would last for years.”
After returning home to Palm Beach, Florida, “Jane” said, she began visiting Epstein at his seaside mansion, where she testified that she had her first sexual encounter with Epstein in 1994 when she was just 14. According to “Jane,” Epstein abruptly took her to his pool house, pulled down his pants and “proceeded to masturbate on me” while she remained “frozen in fear.”
The abuse escalated to include explicit massages, “Jane” said, during subsequent visits to Epstein’s house, and she identified Maxwell as the person (other than Epstein) most often in the room. Maxwell contributed, she alleged, by “leading me to a massage table and showing me how Jeffrey likes to be massaged.”
Maxwell faces a six-count indictment for allegedly conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2020 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Over the next several years, “Jane” said, she travelled with Epstein and Maxwell “maybe 10 times,” sometimes on Epstein’s private plane and sometimes on commercial flights. She visited both Epstein’s New York residence and his New Mexico ranch, she said, where she suffered further sexual abuse by Epstein. It was Maxwell, she said, who typically arranged for her travel.
Earlier in the day, Epstein’s former pilot, Larry Visoski, testified that he met “Jane” in the cockpit of Epstein’s plane, though he later acknowledged he did not know how old she was at the time and could not recall whether she had actually taken a flight.
“Jane” also described frequent orgies with Epstein and other women, the details of which, she said, are “hard to remember,” because they started to “seem the same” and she became “numb to it.”
She never told anyone about her experience, she said, until many years later.
“How do you tell or describe any of this,” she asked, “when all you feel is shame and disgust and confusion and you don’t know how you ended up here?”
It’s unclear whether Maxwell will take the stand during her trial, which is expected to last six weeks. If convicted, she could spend decades in prison.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) AMC was quick to renew its off-beat dramedy series Kevin Can F*** Himself for a second season, but the network just raised eyebrows with an announcement that the show’s second season would be its last, Variety reports.
The series stars Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Annie Murphy as Allison McRoberts and Eric Petersen as her titular husband. The show’s conceit is that it plays out as a stereotypical sitcom focusing on a married couple in scenes where Allison is with Kevin, and then takes a dark turn when Annie’s character is by herself, showing that she’s plotting to kill her schlubby dope of a hubby.
The show had an 81% positive rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. A few weeks ago, Petersen told ABC Audio that he was psyched to start work on the second season.
“Any time you do something new — and this show truly is something new — I mean, that just in and of itself is an accomplishment to get something on the air that really is not like anything that’s been done before,” the actor said. “And then you sort of cross your fingers that people get what we’re trying to do with it, that they enjoy it, that they find it funny and engaging and interesting. And people have, which is awesome.”
He adds, “So we’re so excited that we got season two. We’re going to start filming here in January, so it’ll be coming out next year. And I’ve already seen a few of the scripts and they’re very good, so [I’m] very excited to get going.”
Following weeks of speculation, Dr. Mehmet Oz officially declared his candidacy for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday.
In a Washington Examiner opinion column announcing the run, Oz highlighted his medical experience as the undercurrent for his campaign launch, while also indicating a policy focus on the ongoing national pandemic response.
“During the pandemic, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions. That’s why I am running for the U.S. Senate: to help fix the problems and to help us heal,” Oz said.
On his website, Oz added in his announcement, “Covid-19 became an excuse for government and elite thinkers who controlled the means of communication, especially social media and our major news agencies, to suspend debate. Dissenting opinions from leading scholars, even Nobel Laureates, were cancelled and ridiculed so their ideas could not be disseminated.”
He continued, “Doctors were forbidden from prescribing legal medications for the first time in our nation’s history. I tried to fund clinical trials to re-purpose an already widely used drug for possible benefits against Covid-19, but they were banned. Instead, government mandated policies that caused unnecessary suffering.”
In a video posted to Twitter, Oz said he is running as a Conservative Republican.
Oz joins a crowded Republican primary in what is shaping up to be one of the nation’s most-watched midterm races. As a pivotal 2020 campaign battleground that tipped the scales for President Joe Biden, Pennsylvania’s Senate race is now slated to help determine which party controls the Senate in 2022.
The current field of leading Democratic candidates includes Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Rep. Conor Lamb, state representative Malcolm Kenyatta and Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, who is also a physician.
