You won’t have to wait until next year to see AJR‘s OK ORCHESTRA tour.
The brother trio has announced a run of live headlining dates for this fall, kicking off September 7 in Madison, Wisconsin. The trek will precede the previously announced 2022 OK ORCHESTRA tour, set to launch next April.
Tickets to the 2021 shows will go on sale this Friday, July 16, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit AJRBrothers.com.
OK ORCHESTRA, AJR’s fourth studio album, was released in March. It includes the singles “Bang!” and “Way Less Sad.”
A stacked lineup of stars are confirmed to perform for the Country Music Association’s newly announced CMA Summer Jam, a two-night outdoor event taking place in downtown Nashville on July 27 and 28.
Performing the first night will be Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Carly Pearce, Mickey Guyton, Cole Swindell, Dwight Yoakam and Lainey Wilson.
The following night, Jimmie Allen, Gabby Barrett, Luke Combs and Dierks Bentley will take the stage, as will Florida Georgia Line, Brothers Osborne, Miranda Lambert, Jon Pardi and Thomas Rhett.
The show will take place at Music City’s Ascend Amphitheater, and it will be filmed as part of a three-hour primetime TV special, which will air later this summer on ABC. More details on that special, including additional performances filmed at other locations in Nashville, will be announced soon.
CMA Summer Jam marks the CMA’s first new outdoor concert event in two years. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted the annual CMA Fest, which usually takes place in June, for both 2020 and 2021.
Tickets for the show go on sale beginning July 14 at 10AM CT, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the CMA Foundation, which supports music education programs across the country.
Volbeat has premiered the video for “Wait a Minute My Girl,” the band’s latest single.
The animated clip is a hectic collage of strange images that definitely wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Sid’s Toy Story room. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
“Wait a Minute My Girl” dropped in June along with another new song, “Dagen Før.” It currently sits in the top 10 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Volbeat’s most recent album is 2019’s Rewind, Replay, Rebound.
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The death toll of the devastating partial collapse of a 12-story residential building in Surfside, Florida last month rose to 94, officials announced Monday.
The recovery effort entered its 19th day on Monday and officials said 84 victims are now identified, 222 people are accounted for, and 22 are potentially unaccounted for.
Mayor Miami-Dade Daniella Cava also spoke about the weather’s impact on the recovery mission during a news conference Monday. She said that the weather service was embedded in the recovery efforts and that weather issues are expected for the next few days.
The mayor also said that police and medical examiner teams were working around the clock to identify victims and that 207 families have been served at a family assistance center.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. The rest of the building was demolished, due to concerns over structural integrity and an incoming tropical storm.
The death toll has soared since the remainder of the condo building was destroyed and no longer posed a threat to the recovery search area.
While there is still much recovery work to be done, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters family members and first responders took part in a memorial walk on Saturday night and paid tribute to everyone who has supported the efforts.
Levine Cava thanked the search and rescue teams who came from Israel and provided two commanders with keys to the city before they departed back home.
“We took a moment to celebrate and thank the men and women from all the search and rescue teams … who have been working 24 hours a day for the last two and a half weeks,” she said.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
Surveys and inspections of the surrounding buildings are still ongoing.
Attorney Jennifer Bonjean and Bill Cosby speak outside of Cosby’s home on June 30, 2021 in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania; Michael Abbott/Getty Images
After his 2018 conviction on sexual assault charges was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court, Bill Cosby is reportedly considering suing the state of Pennsylvania.
Cosby was sentenced in September 2018 after being convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that an agreement with a previous prosecutor in the case meant Cosby shouldn’t have been charged in the case.
The comedian’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, says the state violated Cosby’s due process rights. He told theDomenick Nati Show Friday, “We are looking at what recourse, what legal recourse we can take against the state of Pennsylvania” and added that he believes the state has “an axe to grind against black men.”
Wyatt stated Cosby is hoping to obtain “a couple of hundred grand” in compensation.
On Sunday, Montgomery County PA District Attorney Kevin Steele issued a statement, obtained by ABC News, which addressed State Supreme Court Chief Justice Max Baer calling Cosby’s trial a “reprehensible bait and switch” by the prosecution, referring to a claim made by Cosby’s legal team that Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor promised not to criminally prosecute Cosby in the Constand case.
“To be very clear, prosecutors in this case did not believe there was an agreement not to prosecute or immunity for the defendant at the time we moved forward on the case, and we do not believe it now,” Steele’s statement reads, in part. “If we had believed there was an agreement or immunity, we would not have moved forward in our attempt to bring Cosby to justice.”
Justin Bieber had quite a warmup for his 2022 tour this past weekend: He performed three times in 24 hours in Las Vegas, Billboard reports.
Things kicked off Friday night when Justin performed for more than an hour at the Encore Theater at the Wynn Las Vegas, singing 18 songs, including his new collaboration with The Kid LAROI, “Stay” — and LAROI joined him to sing the track.
Then, a few hours later, Billboard reports, Justin appeared at the Wynn’s XS Nightclub and sang five songs, including “Peaches,” “Sorry,” “What Do You Mean” and “Where Are You Now.”
On Saturday night, Justin was back at the Wynn to celebrate the grand opening of the hotel’s new supper club, Delilah. After walking the red carpet with his wife Hailey and other stars, including Kendall Jenner, Anitta, Machine Gun Kelly, Addison Rae and others, took the stage for a midnight set.
Justin sang about six songs for the 500 guests, Billboard reports, including “Holy,” “Hold On,” and “Peaches,” as well as “Stay,” for which he was joined again by The Kid LAROI.
(MIAMI) — Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced in a statement Sunday night.
Diaz’s chief of staff, Isidoro Lopez, also tested positive for the virus.
“Both started experiencing flu-like symptoms earlier today and will be isolating,” the statement read. “Staff and others who have been in close contact with them will be getting tested between today and tomorrow.”
The two men have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the statement.
Although the chances of contracting the novel coronavirus after being fully vaccinated are very rare, so-called breakthrough cases are still possible. Health officials and experts alike have warned that new, more contagious variants of the virus may be more effective at evading vaccines.
Diaz, 60, has been among the officials on the site of a condominium collapse in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Since the deadly disaster occurred before dawn on June 24, Diaz has been seen regularly attending press briefings and closed-door meetings. The news of his infection raises concern about a potential outbreak among those who have been on the site.
For weeks, hundreds of first responders from various search and rescue teams across Florida, the United States and even other countries have been combing through the vast wreckage in Surfside, pulling out bodies and belongings from the pancaked layers of rubble. During a press briefing on July 2, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky revealed that at least six workers have tested positive for COVID-19. The workers were members of the same task force but were no longer on the site. Investigators were conducting contact tracing and testing of all other workers, according to Cominsky.
It was unclear whether the infected workers were vaccinated or if anyone had been placed in quarantine.
The search for bodies is ongoing, as 22 people remain listed as missing. At least 94 people have been confirmed dead, according to officials.
Florida, home to some 21.5 million people, has reported more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 38,000 deaths from the disease. More than 43% of the Sunshine State’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported an increase in COVID-19 cases and a higher positive test rate over the past week. The number of newly confirmed cases rose by about 8,000 compared with the week prior, for a total of 23,747 new cases. Meanwhile, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests statewide was 7.8%, compared with 5.2% the week before.
(NEW YORK) — If you were trying to make a purchase on Amazon overnight, you may have run into some issues.
Several users went on Twitter to complain that they couldn’t get past the homepage after logging into their accounts or that they weren’t able to complete their purchases.
The website Downdetector, which tracks outages, says there were more than 38,000 reports of users having trouble with Amazon’s site after 11 p.m. ET Sunday.
On this date in 2014, “Somethin’ Bad” — a duet between two of country music’s biggest female artists — became a #1 hit. Neither singer was a stranger to the top spot on the chart, but the song was the first chart-topping duet between two female solo acts in two decades. Do you know who sang it? ANSWER: Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert.
E Street Band guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt was honored by the American Federation of Teachers over the weekend and, during the emotional ceremony, praised teachers for being “on the frontlines against ignorance.”
According to a statement from AFT, Van Zandt, 70, was awarded the organization’s Making a Difference award for his support of teachers, inclusive of his “years of work promoting and appreciating the work of educators” through his philanthropy.
The guitarist appeared virtually at the federation’s TEACH summer educational issues conference on Saturday.
“This is an amazing award, coming from my favorite people — you,” Van Zandt began in his pre-recorded speech. “You, my friends, are the ones who make a difference every day. Teachers are on the frontlines against ignorance. Honestly, we have never needed you more.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer also praised the arts-inclusive twist on the STEM acronym, now called STEAM to include arts education.
“There are no wrong answers in the arts,” said Van Zandt. “The arts provide a comfort zone, and that extends to other disciplines.”
He closed his speech by praising all educators, saying, “I can’t overstate my appreciation for all you do and for this award. I salute you. You are helping to create the next generation of engineers, scientists, doctors, nurses, artists, activists, writers and even musicians.”
In the statement, AFT president Randi Weingarten said they chose Van Zandt to receive the honor because he “passionately spreads the gospel of teachers’ tireless work and actively engages with teachers and students during regular classroom visits and through TeachRock.org, his free online music and arts curriculum.”
The statement adds, “He lends his name and notoriety to supporting educators, which is particularly special given everything they’ve done to support students in the last year.”
