Page 8099 – 105.7 WDNY

Ex-Bad Wolves frontman Tommy Vext sues label exec, who calls claims of using racial slurs “categorically false”

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ex-Bad Wolves frontman Tommy Vext is suing Allen Kovac, the CEO of his former band’s record label, Better Noise Music.

According to TMZ, Vext alleges that Kovac forced him out of Bad Wolves due to his political beliefs, including his support for former President Donald Trump and his criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement. He also accuses Kovac of using racial slurs in conversations with him.

Vext claims Kovac demanded radio stations and streaming services pull Bad Wolves music in an effort to get him to quit music altogether, all while attempting to stop him from posting more of his political opinions. Eventually, Vext says, Kovac set his sights on kicking him out of Bad Wolves.

“For several years I’ve poured all of my energy and passion into building Bad Wolves,” Vext tells TMZ. “We’ve toured the world several times and charted 6 Billboard number 1 singles. All the while I’ve had to endure disparaging, manipulative and at times racially charged misconduct from my former manager Allen Kova[c] and his record company Better Noise Music.”

“Allen has forced me out of my own band and is now attempting to slander and cancel me,” Vext adds. “After several failed attempts to settle amicably, I’m now forced to place this in the hands of the courts.”

In a statement, Kovac calls Vext’s claims “categorically false,” and alleges that he’s trying to “extort” Better Noise Music.

“In 40 years in the music business, I have never made any derogatory racist comments, been accused of doing so, or been sued by an artist,” Kovac says. “Tommy Vext, a self-proclaimed QAnon supporter, has dragged us into a ridiculous, unfounded narrative that falsely paints him as a victim.”

Bad Wolves members John Boecklin and Doc Coyle add, “In all our dealings with Allen Kovac, he has never used any derogatory racial slurs. Tommy is making all of this up. Period.”

Bad Wolves announced in January that they’d parted ways with Vext. He’s since been replaced by Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz.

Tracee Ellis Ross, Jon Bernthal, O’Shea Jackson Jr. & more joining hot-button comedy series ‘The Premise’

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Former star and co-producer of The Office, B.J. Novak, has unveiled a slew of stars joining his FX on Hulu anthology comedy series, The Premise.

Tracee Ellis Ross, Daniel Dae Kim, Jon Bernthal, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Ed Asner have been named as players in the anthology, each episode of which tackles hot-button issues like gun control, “woke” culture, police brutality and more.

FX on Hulu calls The Premise a “fearlessly ambitious new series that uses comedy to engage with the biggest issues of our unprecedented modern era.”

The network says the series, which was created and will be hosted by Novak, “combines daring comedic premises with equally daring dramatic performances, creating a new tone for a new time.”

Other stars who will appear include George Wallace, Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever and Beau Bridges.

The series will premiere its first two episodes — “Social Justice Sex Tape” starring Ayo Edibiri and Ross, and “Moment of Silence” starring Bernthal and Boyd Holbrook — on Thursday, September 16 on FX on Hulu.

Pregnant woman, boyfriend shot dead at Texas soccer tournament

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(HOUSTON) — A horrific act of domestic violence unfolded at a soccer tournament near Houston when a pregnant woman and her boyfriend were gunned down in front of witnesses allegedly by her ex-husband, who later died by apparent suicide, according to authorities.

The shooting occurred around 10:15 a.m. on Sunday at a park in Harris County, northeast of Houston.

“Heartbreaking!” is how Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez described the killings.

The pregnant woman and her boyfriend were shot in the parking lot of the park soon after they arrived to watch the woman’s son play soccer, according to sheriff’s department officials.

Witnesses told investigators that the woman’s 42-year-old ex-husband was already at the tournament watching their son play when he saw her and her boyfriend in the parking lot and went to confront them, according to a statement from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

“The ex-husband walked up to them and shot both of them multiple times with a silver revolver. The ex-husband then walked to his vehicle and drove away,” the sheriff’s office statement reads.

The boyfriend died at the scene while the woman was taken to Houston Northwest Medical Center, where she and her unborn child were both pronounced dead, according to the statement.

“There were at least 100 people out here at the soccer field at the time that the shooting occurred,” Sgt. Ben Beall of the sheriff’s office told ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston.

Beall said relatives of the pregnant woman told investigators that the suspected shooter was the victim’s ex-husband.

The sheriff’s office immediately launched a search for the ex-husband.

Around noon on Sunday, a relative of the alleged gunman called sheriff’s investigators to report the suspect contacted them by phone and was threatening to take his own life, authorities said. They directed the sheriff’s office to go to a mobile home within the city limits of Houston to check on the man.

“The deputies located a Hispanic male, believed to be the ex-husband, behind the trailer, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” the statement from the sheriff’s office reads.

A silver revolver matching the one used in the double homicide was found on the ground next to the man, authorities said.

The names of the victims and the alleged gunman were being withheld by authorities pending confirmation by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

The shootings come amid skyrocketing gun violence that has swept the nation in recent months.

An ABC News investigation published on Sunday analyzed data from the Gun Violence Archive, an online site that tracks gun violence, and found that between Saturday, July 17, and Friday, July 23, at least 1,018 shooting incidents occurred nationwide — which calculates to a shooting every 10 minutes. At least 404 people were killed in the incidents and 928 wounded.

Many of the shootings involved domestic violence, the report found.

Last year marked the deadliest year for shooting-related incidents in the United States in at least two decades, according to Gun Violence Archive data with more than 43,000 gun deaths. The data suggests 2021 is on track to surpass those figures with more than 24,000 gun fatalities already reported.

BTS replaces themselves at number one — after replacing themselves at number one

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Another day, another chart record for BTS.

Last week, the K-pop superstars’ new single, “Permission to Dance,” replaced their hit “Butter” at number one after seven weeks. Well, “Butter” is now back at number one for an eighth week. That means it’s now tied the record for the longest-running number-one of 2021 so far: Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Drivers License” also spent eight weeks on top earlier this year.

As Billboard notes, BTS has now become the first act to replace itself at number one with a new song, and then have the first song return to number one — without any other songs holding the top spot between the two events.

In other BTS news, “MIC Drop,” the video of a remix they did with superstar deejay Steve Aoki, has hit the billion-view mark on YouTube. Steve celebrated the news on Twitter, writing in part, “my first music video to ever do that & i’m so amazed by u.”

“MIC Drop” is BTS’ fourth video to hit a billion views, following “DNA,” “Boy with Luv,” and “Dynamite.”

After becoming a dad, Ed Sheeran planned on quitting music forever

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry welcomed their first child, daughter Lyra, in September of last year, and he says becoming a dad nearly made him quit music altogether — until he thought better of it.

Ed recently told Sirius XM Hits 1 that after he completed his record-breaking Divide tour, he felt like he’s already accomplished everything he possibly could in music and wasn’t sure what he could do next, so he stopped making music for a while. Then, after Lyra arrived, he figured, “Right, that’s it, I’m just gonna be a dad. I’m not gonna play music any more.”

But then, Ed says, “I found myself getting really sad and having zero purpose…and then I suddenly was like, ‘I think it’s more important for my daughter to grow up knowing that her parents have a work ethic and her parents love working hard and and love creating and enjoy their jobs…rather than, like, looking at your dad as technically unemployed.”

“So I slowly got back into music that way, and then the creative process started flowing again,” he explains. “But there was a long period of time where everything was directionless.”

Ed also says he realized that it’s not about chasing the next sales record.

“I have people in my family that are like, ‘The next album has to be even bigger!'” he reveals. “And I know they’re saying to be supportive, but I’m like, ‘Maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe it should just be an album, and maybe a career can kinda go [up and down] rather than always up.'”

US concludes combat mission in Iraq as Biden meets with Iraqi prime minister

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said the U.S. is “not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission” in Iraq.

The president, while meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi Monday afternoon, said the U.S. role there will be focused on training and assisting to combat the Islamic State group.

“Our shared fight against ISIS is critical for the stability of our region and our counterterrorism cooperation will continue, even as we shift to this new phase we’re going to be talking about,” Biden said.

A U.S. official told ABC News Thursday the change in mission is more of a semantic one and the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will not dramatically differ as they shift their emphasis to training and assisting.

As with anywhere around the world, the official added, U.S. troops reserve the right to defend themselves too.

Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Fareed Yasseen told ABC News last week that Iraqi forces will continue to request direct U.S. assistance for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and training.

Several U.S. officials have said the 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq are already largely in that kind of advise-and-assist role.

Both sides have repeatedly committed to U.S. troops exiting once the coalition to defeat ISIS completes its work, essentially kicking the can down a long road now to appease political pressure in Iraq, fueled by Iranian-backed factions and militias and U.S. air strikes against them.

During the Trump administration, a tit-for-tat series of attacks between Iraqi militias and U.S. forces in Iraq to fight ISIS precipitated an assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in January 2020. While the Shiite militias were able to breach an outer perimeter, no one was injured in the attack.

Days later, President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Iran’s most powerful general Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force. The strike outside Baghdad International Airport further inflamed anti-American sentiment among Shiite militias and Iraq’s government responded by denouncing it as another U.S. violation of its sovereignty.

With a majority in parliament, Shiite lawmakers voted to expel U.S. troops that month. While the resolution was non-binding, there’s been strong political pressure on the Iraqi government since then to see an end to the U.S. military presence, especially after the two governments and the defeat ISIS coalition declared the end of the terror group’s so-called caliphate.

In a series of “strategic dialogues” since then, they have negotiated ways to strengthen U.S.-Iraqi cooperation on other issues, including trade, energy and diplomacy with Iraq’s Arab neighbors, while repeatedly committing to pulling American forces out one day.

Biden on Monday also noted that the U.S. is sending Iraq 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which the president said should be arriving “in a couple of weeks.”

With Monday’s announcement, that day could be closer — but it’s still not here yet.

That much was clear to those Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, also known as Popular Mobilization Forces. The spokesperson for one group, the Nujaba Movement, said in a statement that the change in mission was a “cheap trick.”

They “will not differentiate between advisers of the occupation or soldiers of the occupation, for all of them are important targets for the weapons of the resistance, until the last occupying soldier leaves the land of Iraq,” said the spokesperson, Nasser al Shammari.

ABC News’ Libby Cathey contributed to this report.

Isaiah Rashad shares track list for new album, ‘The House Is Burning’

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

At the end of the week, rapper Isaiah Rashad will bless fans with his highly-anticipated album, The House Is Burning.

On Monday, the Chattanooga, Tennessee native shared the track list for his first album in five years, which features Lil Uzi Vert, Duke Duece, Smino, Jay Rock, and fellow Tennessee rapper Duke Duece.

The 16-track album also features vocal performances from R&B singer SZA and hip-hop crooner 6LACK on Rashad’s track, “Score.” On the production tip, there are sounds from Jay Worthy, Kenny Beats and Devin Malik, among others, including Hollywood Cole, who produced Rashad’s May single, “Lay Wit Ya,” among others.

The House Is Burning track list follows the video for Rashad’s single, “Wat U Sed,” a track that features Doechii and Kal Banx. To hype his first album since 2016’s The Sun’s Tirade, the rapper has announced his U.S. tour, dubbed Lil Sunny’s Awesome Vacation, beginning in September. Presale tickets will be available as early as Tuesday, July 27 at 10 a.m. ET.

The House Is Burning drops Friday.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by rashad (@isaiahrashad)

Universal and Peacock ink head-spinning deal for new ‘Exorcist’ trilogy with Leslie Odom Jr. and Ellen Burstyn

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Now this deal will make your head spin: Universal and its related company, the streaming service Peacock, have inked a reported $400 million deal to bring three new Exorcist films to the big and small screens.

According to the studio, the film will be produced by the horror masters at Blumhouse, and will star Exorcist‘s original Oscar-winning lead, Ellen Burnstyn, and Hamilton and One Night in Miami Academy Award nominee Leslie Odom Jr..

David Gordon Green, who successfully rebooted the Halloween franchise for Blumhouse, will be calling the shots behind the camera for the continuation of the 1973 horror classic that was directed by William Friedkin. In that film, Burnstyn plays the horrified mother of Linda Blair‘s character, a girl who gets possessed by the devil.

The Exorcist, the first horror film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, earned Burnstyn a Best Actress Academy Award.

The first of the three new Exorcist films is expected to hit theaters October 13, 2023.

The deal is the latest collaboration with Blumhouse and Universal, which together have generated more than $3 billion at the box office globally, thanks to hits like Get Out, Split, and The Invisible Man.

New ‘medical freedom’ law outlaws requiring COVID-19 vaccine to access public spaces

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — New Hampshire residents cannot be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine in order to “access any public facility, any public benefit, or any public service” according to a new bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

The so-called “medical freedom” bill does not override state vaccine law, which “requires that all children enrolled in any school, pre-school, or child care have certain immunizations to protect them and those around them from vaccine preventable diseases,” according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

The COVID-19 vaccine is not currently listed as a requirement for attending school, nor is it approved for children younger than 12.

Other exceptions to the new law include correctional facilities, such as jails and prisons, where immunizations can be mandated “when a direct threat exists,” as well as county nursing homes and medical facilities operated by the state.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

New Hampshire’s law stands in contrast to some other parts of the Northeast, which have edged toward mandatory vaccinations in recent days.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that COVID-19 vaccination would be compulsory for all city workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers, starting Sept. 13. City workers will have the option of getting tested weekly for COVID-19 if they choose not to get vaccinated.

“We’re doing this out of a sense of urgency,” de Blasio said. “It is about protecting the workforce, their health and safety, and the people they serve.”

New Hampshire’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average. As of Sunday, 64% of residents had received at least one dose, and 58% were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, 57% of Americans have gotten at least one shot, and 49% are fully vaccinated.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

Chris Lane extends Fill Them Boots Tour

July 26, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Chris Lane is expanding his Fill Them Boots Tour.

The “Fix” hitmaker has added four new dates to the six-month trek, with stops in Grand Rapids, Michigan on December 2, the Rosemont Theatre in Illinois on December 3, The Fillmore in Detroit on December 4, and a show in Madison, Wisconsin on January 21.

Named after his latest single, the tour keeps Chris and opening acts Tyler Rich, Ernest and Lily Rose on the road through March. Tickets for all shows are on sale now.

The singer became a dad earlier this summer when he and wife Lauren Bushnell Lane welcomed son Dutton on June 8.

+ More