Author: New Music Express

Billie Eilish adds extra UK tour date due to overwhelming demand

Posted on by New Music Express

 billie_eilish_happier_rectangleBillie Eilish has added an extra date to her 2022 UK tour due to “overwhelming demand”, after tickets for the previously announced shows went on sale today (May 28).

The star will bring her ‘Happier Than Ever’ tour to the UK and Ireland next summer, kicking off in Belfast on June 3.

The additional date will take place at London’s The O2 on June 25, bringing Eilish’s total number of shows at the venue on this stint up to five. She will also play at the arena on June 10, 11, 12 and 16.

Tickets for the new show are on sale now and can be purchased here.

UK: Due to overwhelming demand, Billie has added an additional show in London at the O2 Arena on Jun 25. Purchase your tickets now at https://t.co/6hWuy4ELSv pic.twitter.com/TfpXiJQNlX

— Billie Eilish (@billieeilish) May 28, 2021

The ‘Happier Than Ever’ tour will begin with a North American leg next February, with the first show taking place in New Orleans. Before that, Eilish will headline a handful of US festivals late this year, including Las Vegas’ Life Is Beautiful, Delaware’s Firefly, New York’s Governors Ball, and Austin’s Austin City Limits.

Meanwhile, the teen star will return with her second album, also called Happier Than Ever, on July 30. The tracklist includes 2020 singles ‘My Future’ and ‘Therefore I Am’, as well as the recently released ‘Your Power’.

 

Announcing the album, Eilish called it “my favorite thing I’ve ever created”. “I am so excited and nervous and EAGER for you to hear it,” she wrote on Instagram.

“I can’t even tell you. I’ve never felt so much love for a project as i do for this one. hope you feel what I feel.”

The record was co-written and produced by Eilish’s brother Finneas and recorded in LA. It will not feature any external songwriters or producers.

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All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in U.K. Adds Slint to Line-Up; Weekend One Sold Out

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All Tomorrow’s Parties was founded in 2000, with Mogwai invited to curate the line-up in the unusual setting of Pontins Holiday Camp, Camber Sands. Since then the festival has expanded across the globe continuing to set itself apart from large corporate events by staying intimate and fan-friendly, whilst influencing countless other festivals along the way. Two special December festival events at Camber Sands will be the last ever UK Holiday Camp festivals – two consecutive weekends under the title The End Of An Era. Weekend 1 is now completely sold out, making Weekend 2 the last chance fans will have to attend this very special festival in it’s original holiday camp home.

Weekend 2 running from November 29th – December 1st will be curated by ATP and Loop. Loop released three mind-blowing albums in the late 1980s highlighted by 1990’s A Gilded Eternity and ATP are very pleased to invite them to collaborate with us on the line-up which also sees Mogwai return to play the closing set of this final holiday camp festival. Today we can announce another very exciting headliner:

SLINT, hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, released two incredible albums on the Touch & Go label – 1989’s Tweez and 1991’s Spiderland. Spiderland left an unmistakeable imprint on the burgeoning ‘post-rock’ genre and gained many avid listeners across the next two decades. One of those listeners was ATP’s Barry Hogan:

“I’ll never forget the first time I heard Spiderland. It’s one of those records that changed my life and even inspired me to reform the band in 2005 by flying to Louisville, and bringing all the original members together for the first time in 13 years. Spiderland still excites me now as much as the first time I heard it. To say we are fortunate to have this incredibly influential band play the final ATP is a huge understatement.”

After Hogan’s trip, Slint ultimately reformed to headline All Tomorrow’s Parties UK in 2005, then performed the Spiderland album in full for the first time at another short series of live appearances in 2007. ATP are very excited to be able to invite Slint back to make a very rare live appearance as one of the headliners of the last ever ATP holiday camp festival.

The remaining tickets for the event are on sale now via ATPFestival.com – with more exciting names still to be added to the line-up. So far the line-up looks like this…

Mogwai
Slint
Goat
Superchunk
Girls Against Boys
Michael Rother presents the music of Neu! & Harmonia
Om
Ty Segall
Balam Acab
Edan (DJ set)
Dawn Hunger
Föllakzoid
Tall Firs
Wolf People
Civil Civic
Eaux
New War
The KVB
Thought Forms
DJ Jonathan Toubin

Curated by Loop:

Loop
The Pop Group
Comets On Fire
Fennesz
23 Skidoo
Dirty Beaches
White Fence
Kandodo
Hookworms

+ more to be confirmed!

Listen to Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper’s new acoustic version of ‘SHELTER’

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Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper

Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper have shared an acoustic version of their recent single ‘SHELTER’ – listen to it below.

The original track, which also features Wyclef Jean, is taken from Mensa’s recently released ‘I TAPE’ EP. Other tracks on the project include collaborations with Jeremih and Tish Hyman.

Examining mass incarceration as well as the impact the coronavirus has had on the Black community, ‘SHELTER’ is inspired by Mensa’s relationship with Oklahoma inmate Julius Jones, who in 2002 was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death at the age of 22. Mensa is working to save the now 40-year-old, who has always maintained his innocence, from death row. You can learn more about the campaign to free Jones here.

The stripped back rendition of ‘SHELTER’ is accompanied by a new video directed by Chance, marking the ‘No Problem’ rapper’s directorial debut.

Mensa said of the track’s new version: “By stripping the song to its most bare form we were really able to bring out a new depth of beauty and meaning, in a time when we as a people are searching for it.”

He added: “Chance’s directorial focus on simplicity shows strength in showing the world just as it is.”

You can watch the video for the acoustic version of ‘SHELTER’ below:

In a three-star review of ‘I TAPE’, NME‘s Will Lavin called it “a statement record that fuels action and turns the volume back up on the Black Lives Matter chants that dominated social commentary last year.

“For some, the fight for equality might have been a hashtag – but not for Mensa; he’s still swinging.”






Last month, Chance The Rapper shared the official music video for his new song, ‘The Heart & The Tongue’.

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Flight Of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie’s Work on The Smiths episode of ‘The Simpsons’

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Flight Of The Conchords comedian Bret McKenzie has revealed that he worked on the upcoming Simpsons episode that sends up The Smiths. The episode, titled Panic On The Streets of Springfield, will reportedly see Lisa get a new imaginary friend – a depressed indie singer from 1980s Britain.

While the show has stopped short of getting Morrissey onboard to voice the character, they will instead be voiced by another prolific British star – Benedict Cumberbatch.

Taking to social media earlier this evening (April 18), McKenzie revealed that he “wrote some 80’s pop songs” for the episode alongside comedy writer Tim Long.

“During the madness of 2020 I worked very remotely on an episode of The Simpsons,” McKenzie wrote on the official Facebook page of Flight Of The Conchords.

“I wrote some 80’s pop songs with my friend Tim Long, woke up at 3am in New Zealand to record the sultry crooning of Benedict Cumberbatch in London and zoomed a few sweet harmonies in LA with Yeardley Smith.”

He added: “It airs in the States on Sunday night (4/18). And hopefully everywhere else soon. Check it out!”

During the madness of 2020 I worked very remotely on an episode of The Simpsons. I wrote some 80’s pop songs with my…

Posted by Flight of the Conchords on Sunday, April 18, 2021

While it marks the first time that The Smiths have been sent up in the show, Morrissey is said to have previously turned down an appearance in Season 15 episode ‘The Regina Monologues’.

The episode saw The Simpsons clan heading to Britain, and featured guest appearances from then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

Last week, members of the cast and crew of The Simpsons explained how cult segment ‘Steamed Hams’ nearly launched a spinoff series.

Reflecting on 25 years since the episode during which the segment aired, ’22 Short Films About Springfield’ first premiered, actor Hank Azaria and co-showrunners Al Jean, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein recalled initial plans in a recent interview.






Meanwhile, The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria has apologised for his longtime portrayal of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on the series, while also acknowledging the show’s participation in “structural racism”.

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Chvrches announce premiere of new single ‘He Said She Said’

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Chvrches

Chvrches have announced they will be premiering their new single ‘He Said She Said’ tomorrow evening (April 19).

  • READ MORE: The Big Read – Chvrches: “The coven is pissed, the reckoning is coming”

The synth-pop trio – comprised of Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty and Iain Cook – are due to release their fourth studio album sometime this year, having written and recorded it over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

Today (April 18), the band took to social media to announce their first new music since 2019’s ‘Here With Me’, their collaboration with Marshmello, and ‘Death Stranding’, taken from the soundtrack for video game Death Stranding: Timefall.

Titled ‘He Said She Said’, the new track will be premiered on Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 show tomorrow night at 6:10pm.

“The end is near,” the band wrote on Instagram. “Tune in to @anniemacmanus on @bbcradio1 tomorrow from 10:10am PT / 1:10pm ET / 6:10pm BST for the premiere of ‘He Said She Said’.”

Last week, the band teased new music with a series of cryptic posts. They began posting screenshots on Instagram displaying iPhone-style notifications, which included the message “It’s all in your head” above the options “Trust” and “Don’t Trust”.

Chvrches then shared a grainy video of frontwoman Mayberry applying makeup in a mirror. The singer, now sporting blonde hair, screams in split-second shots before smudging lipstick across her face.

The clip is soundtracked by distressed, filtered audio that sounds like it’s being played backwards. “Video Diary 001: I feel like I’m losing my mind,” the post’s caption read.

In December, Mayberry offered fans some hints at what to expect from Chvrches’ next record, which will follow 2018’s ‘Love Is Dead’.

She said the new album had “definitely got the Chvrches DNA” but that the songs featured on it couldn’t “slot into any of the first three records”.






Last September, the singer explained that the band would be following a “theme” on their next full-length. “For me, it’s been interesting to look at the records and see the progression of the storytelling, for lack of a less wanky word,” she said.

“I feel like it’s about the marriage between the stuff that’s purely personal, and the stuff that’s more imagery, and narrative [based]. We have a pretty specific theme in mind for the whole thing, so yeah, I feel like it’ll be a marriage of those things.”

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Lullaby Your Kids to Sleep with ‘Lullaby Versions of Alice Cooper’

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Alice Cooper‘s music has been re-recorded to reach a new audience with the release of a lullaby album made for infants.

Titled ‘Lullaby Versions Of Alice Cooper’, the new record features soothing instrumental versions of some of the legendary rocker’s  biggest hits including ‘Poison’, ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Under My Wheels’.

The album has been released in partnership with Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star, the company which creates “beautiful lullaby versions of your favourite artists”, via Roma Music Group.

With over 135 titles in its catalogue, other artists who have had their music turned into lullabies by Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star include Adele, The Beatles, Lady Gaga and Metallica.

You can listen to the lullaby version of ‘Poison’ below:

See the ‘Lullaby Versions Of Alice Cooper’ track list below:

01. ‘Poison’
02. ‘School’s Out’
03. ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’
04. ‘I’m Eighteen’
05. ‘Feed My Frankenstein’
06. ‘He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)’
07. ‘Billion Dollar Babies’
08. ‘How You Gonna See Me Now’
09. ‘Only Women Bleed’
10. ‘I Never Cry’
11. ‘Under My Wheels’
12. ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’

You can listen to the album via Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and more here.

Earlier this month, Cooper revealed that his first experience using drugs was alongside Jimi Hendrix.

“Weed was the first drug, and it was [with] Jimi Hendrix,” he told Ralph Sutton and Big Jay Oakerson on The SDR Show. “I’m sitting there after the show. I went to see them. And we were just a little high school band. But they said, ‘Hey, come on up to the hotel room.’ And we were sitting on his bed, and Jimi goes, ‘Here, man,’ [and he passed me the joint]. And I went, ‘Okay.’

“And then he goes and puts a quarter in the bed – you know, the vibrating bed. There was, like, eight people sitting on the bed. And he goes, ‘We’re on a spaceship.’ And I went, ‘Okay.’”






Meanwhile, Evanescence are set to hold a new livestream concert that will be hosted by rock icon Alice Cooper.

The group will perform tracks from that album and from across their back catalogue at the new virtual gig. Taking place on May 13, the show – dubbed ‘Driven To Perform’ – will kick off at 9pm ET (2am BST, May 14) and will be free to stream.

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Tame Impala: ‘The Slow Rush’ Review + New Music Video

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Release Date: February 14
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewer: Thomas Smith

You have to feel a little bit for Tame Impala. It wasn’t Kevin Parker’s intention to be coronated the saviour of rock on a mainstream level, but – for better or worse – that’s what happened.

As genres started collapsing into themselves in the last decade’s second half – rock into electronic, pop into hip-hop – there Parker stood in the middle of it all, guitar in hand.

Following 2012’s mainstream breakthrough ‘Lonerism’, their third album ‘Currents’ established them as rare modern guitar heroes making the leap to festival headline slots.

It remains an unfair burden. Interviewers have recently found Parker keen to move the conversation away from the rock saviour narrative.

Speaking to Billboard, he made it clear that his ambitions lay in the pop battlefield, explaining that “writing a catchy, sugary pop song” is “the yin to the yang of psychedelic rock”.

Instead, he wants to “be a Max Martin”, a reference to one of the most celebrated songwriter this side of the millennium, whose credits include work with Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and The Weekend.

Since ‘Currents’, Parker has become a voguish producer adored by hip-hop titans – from Kanye West to A$AP Rocky– and pop heavyweights such as Lady Gaga (he co-wrote some of her rootsy 2016 album ‘Joanne’).

His horizons have broadened beyond a home-studio in Melbourne – he’s now in the thick of LA’s music scene.

It seems there were endless moving parts and inner-conflicts rattling Parker’s mind in the five-year gap between ‘Currents’ and Tame Impala’s fourth album, ‘The Slow Rush’. He’d hoped to have the album out to coincide with their headline appearance at Coachella last Spring.

That didn’t materialise and he’s since admitted that work only really began towards the end of 2018. Well, fans’ expectations have been dizzyingly high: it’s little wonder that this album has such a large gestation period.

Read the full review at NME