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Following the lead of former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are hitting the road for their very own arena tour. “An Evening with President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton” will feature the Clintons in conversation, sharing “stories and inspiring anecdotes that shaped their historic careers in public service, while also discussing issues of the day and looking toward the future,” according to Live Nation, which is producing the tour. The tour kicks off on November 18th in Las Vegas, Nevada, with three more dates scheduled in Toronto, Montreal, and Sugar Land, Texas before the year is over. A second, nine-date leg is planned for April and May 2019, with shows scheduled in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, and Vancouver, among cities elsewhere. I’d also be remiss not to point out the Coachella-size hole in the itinerary. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 12th at 10:00 a.m. local time. You can also grab them here. “An Evening With The Clintons” Tour Dates: 11/18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Park Theater 11/27 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena 11/28 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre 12/04 – Sugar Land, TX @ Smart Financial Center 04/11 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre 04/12 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre 04/13 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met 04/26 – Wallingford, CT @ Toyota Oakdale Theatre 04/27 – Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall 04/30 – Boston, MA @ Opera House 05/02 – Vancouver, BC @ Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena 05/03 – Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theater 05/04 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum Source

Ozzy Osbourne’s final tour hit a bump in the road over the weekend when the he had to undergo hand surgery as the result of an infection. The Prince of Darkness was forced to postpone his Saturday night concert (October 6th) at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., after hitting the hospital that morning for the medical procedure. According to a press release, Osbourne was expected to remain at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles for a few days, where he will be under doctor’s care. A picture of Ozzy’s bandaged hand, as provided by his publicist, can be seen below. The postponed show, meanwhile, has been rescheduled for October 16th. As of now, the metal legend is expected to return for his Tuesday concert (October 9th) in Chula Vista, California, and play what were to be the remaining dates of this leg of the tour — October 11th in Los Angeles, and October 13th in Las Vegas — in addition to the makeup show on the 16th. Stone Sour will continue to support Osbourne for the next three dates, but will not be available to play the October 16th makeup show. A new opener for that gig will be announced shortly. Following this North American run of his “No More Tours 2” trek, Osbourne will embark on a winter 2019 tour of Europe with support from fellow metal icons Judas Priest. That trek kicks off January 30th in Dublin, Ireland. You can grab tickets to his upcoming show here. We caught Ozzy’s concert in Jones Beach, New York, last month. Check out our review of the show here. Source

Return of the Mac? Earlier this year, longtime singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter Lindsey Buckingham was fired from Fleetwood Mac — or rather “let go,” if we want to be cordial. “Words like ‘fired’ are ugly references as far as I’m concerned,” drummer Mick Fleetwood told Rolling Stone of the departure. “Not to hedge around, but we arrived at the impasse of hitting a brick wall.” In the same interview, singer, songwriter, and tambourine maestro Stevie Nicks cleared things up, saying: “We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and he wanted to put it off until November [2019]. That’s a long time. I just did 70 shows [on a solo tour]. As soon as I finish one thing, I dive back into another. Why would we stop? We don’t want to stop playing music. We don’t have anything else to do. This is what we do.” And so, the official story is that Buckingham wanted to chill, they wanted to go, but then you hear Buckingham’s side of the story: “I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective. The point is that they’d lost their perspective. What that did was to harm – and this is the only thing I’m really sad about, the rest of it becomes an opportunity – it harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build, and that legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.” In other words, nothing has changed over the last 40 years with these folks. It Takes Two: Well, that’s not exactly true. Some things have changed, particularly the addition of Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and former Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, who both get the rewarding journey of trying to make everyone forget about Buckingham. Not surprisingly, the rest of the band turned a cold shoulder on their old friend, partner, and lover, leaning curiously heavy on their salad days, as if to say, “Look, this band’s always been more than Lindsey,” which, look, they’re not wrong, but it also seems a tad convenient. But convenience has been king in this situation for the band, as Fleetwood cheekily told Billboard: “It’s ironic that we have a 50-year package coming out with all the old blues stuff with Peter Green, all the incarnations of Fleetwood Mac, which was not of course planned. But that’s what we’re feeling, especially myself and [bassist] John [McVie], having been in Fleetwood Mac for 55 years. So it’s exciting, totally challenging in the whole creative part of it, and we’re really loving it.” It’s a nice coincidence that works wonders for the outfit right now. Still, the addition of Finn and Campbell only stresses the impossibility of replacing Buckingham, seeing how it took two musicians to swap out one. Granted, Finn gets the job done (especially on the harmonies for hits like “The Chain” or “Go Your Own Way”), and you even get to hear him duet his band’s biggest hit (“Don’t Dream It’s Over”) with Nicks, but it’s impossible to buy any of the band’s theatricality, which has always been one of their on-stage trademarks. Even when they were phoning it in, you at least knew there was a history there. Perhaps that’s why Campbell is the easiest new face to consider. Given his ties with the band, the legendary Heartbreaker actually makes sense, and there’s at least some narrative to be felt — even outside of the Mac. After all, here’s a guy who’s still reeling from the tragic passing of his brother-in-arms Tom Petty, and so, this gig actually winds up being the perfect opportunity for him to grieve the loss. Seeing him up there, bouncing around and adding a curveball to Buckingham’s signature riffs and scales was admittedly quite an enigmatic experience. Though, when it came time to actually pay homage to Petty, the band more or less fumbled. Instead of covering “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” or “Insider” or “I Will Run To You” or any of the multiple Petty-Campbell-Nicks options out there, they stuck to the predictably simple sing-a-long of “Free Fallin'”. Sure, it was “nice” to hear Nicks take the reins on the legendary FM hit, but c’mon, this was a chance to dig deep and do something really special. Instead, it all felt so lazy, and it didn’t help that Getty-stamped photos were flashing in the background throughout the cover. No, really: The True Mac Daddy: Nicks sounds straight off the vinyl. Fleetwood can bang a drum like he’s in his thirties. John McVie is still John McVie. Hell, we’ll even give a round of applause to Finn for giving the second-best Buckingham impersonation after Bill Hader. But, the true Mac Daddy of the night was Christine McVie. The band’s oft-forgotten vocalist and keyboardist has only been back with the gang for a little over four years, after retiring from the stage in 1998, and she proves on this tour why her loss is paramount. Not only does she lead the group’s more accentuated hits — ahem, “Everywhere” and “Little Lies” — but she also oozes with character, opting to go off-script in ways that felt incredibly natural and jamming out like the biggest fan in the room. She also hardly took a break like, say, Nicks, who would vanish from time to time. (That’s no dig on Nicks; this writer would have passed out 15 minutes into the show.) No, McVie’s a trooper from beginning to end, and blame it on Buckingham’s absence, but her presence is far more defined on this go-around. So much so that the entire set ends with an unlikely duet between McVie and Nicks on “All Over Again”, a deep cut off of 1995’s Time, the first album at the time not to feature Nicks since 1974’s Heroes Are Hard to Find. It’s a bold move by the band, given that it’s hardly an epic closer or anything, but it’s a smart move. Seeing the two of them setting aside their differences and sharing the spotlight felt like a proper moment to end on. If anything, it feels emblematic of a time when women have never been more united. It was beautiful. That One Song: It’s a tossup between “Little Lies” and “Rhiannon”. The former is one of those bops you tend to forget, only to hear again and say, “Oh my god, I love this fucking song,” while the latter is a legend in its own right. When Nicks began singing the mesmerizing ballad, which dates all the way back to 1975, she had the support of every single soul in the audience. Those who were leaving to get beer or hit the john quickly ran back to their seats. Those who were waiting to hear it all night bled their lungs out. Those who have loved this band forever and ever were in tears. It’s the song and always will be the song, and as long as Nicks is around, it’ll always be the song of the Mac. Lindsey, Can You Ever Forgive Them? Setlist: The Chain Little Lies Dreams Second Hand News (Neil Finn on lead vocals) Say You Love Me Black Magic Woman (Stevie Nicks on lead vocals) Everywhere I Got You (Split Enz cover) Rhiannon Tell Me All the Things You Do (Neil Finn lead vocals) Storms World Turning (with drum interlude by Mick Fleetwood) Hypnotized (Neil Finn lead vocals) Oh Well (Mike Campbell on lead vocals) Don’t Dream It’s Over (Crowded House cover) (Neil Finn & Stevie Nicks on lead vocals) Landslide Isn’t It Midnight Monday Morning You Make Loving Fun Gold Dust Woman Go Your Own Way Encore: Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover) (Stevie Nicks on lead vocals) Don’t Stop All Over Again Source

Death Cab for Cutie are currently out supporting their new album, Thank You for Today. However, all those new songs didn’t stop Ben Gibbard and co. from feeling a little nostalgic during their Chicago stop at the Auditorium Theatre on Sunday evening. The night marked the 15th anniversary of their iconic fourth studio album, 2003’s Transatlanticism, and to celebrate, the band surprised fans by performing the entire album in full. What’s more, they even returned for two (!) proper encores. (Read: Five Reasons Death Cab For Cutie’s Transatlanticism Should Be Everyone’s Favorite) It’s a pretty impressive feat, especially given that this isn’t exactly the type of band that traditionally does this sort of thing. Perhaps being in the Windy City inspired the guys to tear a page or two from Wilco, who have made this one of their many hallmarks. Regardless, watch fan-shot footage below and consult the setlist shortly after. Setlist: I Dreamt We Spoke Again Summer Years The Ghosts of Beverly Drive Long Division Gold Rush Transatlanticism: The New Year Lightness Title and Registration Expo ’86 The Sound of Settling Tiny Vessels Transatlanticism Passenger Seat Death of an Interior Decorator We Looked Like Giants A Lack of Color Encore: I Will Possess Your Heart Black Sun Northern Lights Cath… Soul Meets Body Encore 2: I Will Follow You Into the Dark Crooked Teeth Marching Bands of Manhattan Source

Following the yet to be confirmed overdose of two partygoers at this years Defqon festival in Sydney, an olive branch has been extended to the organisers of the hardstyle event to potentially move the large capacity dance party to Canberra. Greens ACT state government official Shane Rattenbury has written to the organiser QDance encouraging them to cross the border after the successful first pill testing trial in 2017 by Groovin The Moo. In the two page letter to the promoters Rattenbury said about the initial trial “A total of 85 substances were tested… and among these were at least two potentially fatal ingredients”. The NSW governments stance on the incident has been all over the joint, firstly announcing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, then backflipping and establishing a committee to investigate ‘music festival drug safety panel’ that actually contains no real industry figure heads and revoked a response by Music NSW signed by 60 prominent music industry companies and personalities. With the recent discovery that young Australians are consuming drugs now more than ever before, it seems like Gladys’s “war on drugs” is working as well as ever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Source

Turns out young Australians are taking record levels of cocaine and consuming higher potency ecstasy according to the Australian Drug Trends Reports as part of the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centres research. The annual report by the Australian Government funded organisation found some interesting trends around the consumption of illicit drugs after a a survey with 299 participants from various states around Australia. Of the results they found; More than one in four people who take stimulant drugs are using ecstasy weekly in 2018 Crystal and capsule ecstasy use have reached the highest levels since reporting began in 2003, while pill use has dropped Almost three in four (72 per cent) reported taking crystal ecstasy and more than two in three (63 per cent) take the capsule form of the drug, which are known to be of higher purity than tablets. One in five reported taking capsules not knowing what substance was inside. Over the past six months half of all participants said they had used LSD and one in three used ketamine. Almost all of the participants reported drinking alcohol (98 per cent), 90 per cent used cannabis and 85 per cent used tobacco (44 per cent daily). Cocaine use had also risen, with almost 60 per cent of participants saying they had taken the drug in the last six months, compared to 48 per cent in 2017 but not used frequently. Some of these trends reflect globally such as the increased use of cocaine in the UK which has pointed to cheaper production stemming out of Columbia. Dr Amy Peacock, who heads up the NDARC’s Drug Trend’s research said “It is a concerning trend in terms to the possible harms to people,” adding “Use of higher purity stimulants can increase the risk of experiencing acute and long-term negative health effects [including] dehydration, increased or irregular heart rate, agitation, headaches, and seizures,” The report follows the tragic deaths of two attendees at this years Defqon festival in which NSW Premiere vowed to shut it down forever before rolling back on the statement and instead opting to set up a Drug Safety Panel to investigate the dangers – without any discussion around pill testing or any industry representatives involved. It will be interesting to see what the results of the panel are, and if there will be a strategy outside of increased punishments and continued use of drug detection dogs that get it wrong 60-70% of the time and cost a staggering amount. Meanwhile, drug possession numbers have been found to have been accidentally duplicated twice for nearly 7 years in NSW. Turns out music festivals in Australia already do a lot to keep you safe, check out what they do here. Source: Sydney Morning Herald Source

The Lowdown: In the title song of Phosphorescent’s C’est La Vie, Matthew Houck sings “C’est la vie, they say/ But I don’t know what they mean.” After listening to this laid-back album, this listener doesn’t know what Houck means either. Since his remarkable 2013 album, Muchacho, Houck’s life has changed considerably: He fell in love with fellow musician, Jo Schornikow, had two kids, and moved from Brooklyn to Nashville. His sound, however, hasn’t changed much: You’ll recognize his stuttering atmospherics, keening tenor, swelling and unhurried tempos, and the plaintive pedal steel. If anything, Houck sounds like his spiritual uncertainty has mellowed into a pretty sweet family life. While the rest of America, including his hero Willie Nelson, is pissed the hell off — either preaching from our individual pulpits or roiling in despair — Houck is trying to take a long view from his own front porch. The Good: Phosphorescent’s downbeat yet good-natured alt-country can soothe you and spark a grin. At his poppiest, Houck sounds like Springsteen charming a working-class, good-time crowd; at his jammiest, he sounds like the War on Drugs in a rocking chair. (In a good way!) Nearing 40, Houck doesn’t shy away from writing about his comfort and joy. On bouncy, sandy single “New Birth in New England”, he sings of his partner and children as lovely twists of fate and sounds like Kenny Chesney covering Bob Dylan’s Desire (in a good way!). The final refrain “Don’t I know ya” builds over an organ shuffle, echoing the sweet gospel of Hiss Golden Messenger. Houck is best when he gets strange. Six-minute “Christmas Down Under” is the closest C’est La Vie gets to the contemplative epic of “Song for Zula”, Muchacho’s standout track. On “Christmas”, Houck is washed up on a surreal shoreline, musing that “Jesus had a daughter” while a submerged beat pulses and pedal steel shimmers overhead. But unlike on “Zula”, he’s not alone in his meditations — he’s joined by multiple Auto-Tuned voices, singing the same lines. When you consider his partner is Australian, a holiday in an upside-down world feels quite ordinary. The Bad: The album is bookended by wordless wilderness: “Black Moon/Silver Waves” begins with a whoop and an eerie chorus howling in the night over arrhythmic strums, and the inverted outro “Silver Moon/Black Waves” rumbles out into darkness. Between these two bursts of chaos, however, are 39 minutes of middle-of-the-road civility. On “These Rocks”, Houck repeats, “I was drunk for a decade,” but won’t really change his life, shrugging, “Thinking about putting that stuff away.” The blues of the lyrics could’ve been compelling in their paralysis, but the tone is light, like a slightly bummed Dr. Dog. Throughout, the singer is supported by a breathy choir, floating him far above any consequences. “I wrote all night/ Like the fire of my words could burn a hole up to heaven,” Houck sings on “C’est La Vie No. 2”. “I don’t write all night burning holes up to heaven no more” — a fitting thesis for leaving behind youthful delusions. But did he leave behind his passion, his fight, his seeking, too? Verdict: C’est La Vie has moments of real beauty and depth while reflecting on fatherhood and settling down. But Houck should keep pushing into the strange, uncomfortable places where his best music gets made; now’s not the time to shrug it off. Essential Tracks: “Christmas Down Under” and “New Birth in New England” Source

The Pitch: Falling to Earth after being abandoned by her TARDIS, the newly-regenerated Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) is immediately thrust into a life-or-death situation investigating a mysterious alien pod that’s just arrived in Sheffield. Fortunately for her, she’s assisted by an intrepid group of new human companions, including the dyspraxic Ryan (Tosin Cole), his sheepish step-granddad Graham (Bradley Walsh), and underappreciated policewoman Yas (Mandip Gill). Together, the four of them, along with Ryan’s nan Grace (Sharon D. Clarke) must foil an interstellar manhunt. Same Software, Different Case: Like its protagonist, Doctor Who has survived this long thanks to its endless ability to regenerate – the malleability of its imaginative premise lends itself inherently to the kind of change that came between seasons 10 and 11. In this way, season 11 of Doctor Who is a fresh start for the show, with a new Doctor, new showrunner (Broadchurch’s Chris Chibnall), new companions and new, more cinematic look. The episode itself is about change – the ways in which we move forward in the face of events that change everything about who we are, the divide between the person you are and the person you’re going to be. “We are capable of the most incredible change,” the Doctor says, and the characters and show alike prove that sentiment in numerous ways. In the season’s premiere episode, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” all these changes make for a layered, stripped-down version of the show that feels refreshingly back to basics. There’s no fancy title sequence, the Doctor is missing her TARDIS (the search for it appears to be the major thrust of the series), and the main crew is a tight-knit ensemble of four as opposed to the common Doctor-companion pairing we’ve become accustomed to in the past. It’s a good sign, as Chibnall works best with these kind of emotionally complex ensemble dramas as opposed to fitting into the old mold of Doctor Who (just look at any of his previous episodes for the show). If Chibnall must put a little Broadchurch into his version of Doctor Who – complete with interpersonal family drama, tear-jerking funerals, and people looking forlornly across vast grassy plains – then so much the better. Doctor Who, BBC America Doctor Who has been crawling slowly but surely towards higher production values over the course of its run, and it’s great to see the show’s look finally reach the level of quality we can expect from prestige dramas. Who’s new cinematography is vast, colorful and sharp, director Jamie Childs making the most of Chibnall’s Broadchurch roots to give even this Earth-based adventure a much needed facelift. The bigger change, honestly, is new composer Segun Akinola taking over for Murray Gold, who composed every season of the revival until now – Akinola’s music is an ambient, synth-tinged breath of fresh air from Gold’s bombastic leitmotifs; we’re still scrambling to hear what his version of the Who theme is, but his quieter approach seems a perfect fit for this new iteration of the show. It’s About Time: And, of course, there’s the much-heralded new Doctor (the first woman to play the role), who makes a stellar impression with her first full-length adventure. Whittaker’s take on the character hearkens back to the kind of motor-mouthed joie de vivre of David Tennant, but with a big heart and distinctly Yorkshire twang. She’s a curious cat, adorably self-effacing at times and admirably brave in others – in short, the perfect qualities for a Doctor. Here, at the very beginnings of her tenure in the role, it’s thrilling to see her wide-eyed, expressive interpretation of the Time Lord take shape – it’ll be fascinating to see how she makes her mark in the part over the next few years, and hopefully beyond. Jodie Whittaker in Doctor Who, BBC America Regeneration episodes are always a tricky litmus test for a new Doctor – the new actor spends much of the episode in a manic daze as the new regeneration (and new performer) gets used to moving around in their new skin. This leaves little room to really dig into the monster of the week, this time a tooth-collecting alien hunter named “Tim Shaw” (at least, that’s what his alien name sounds like to the Doctor, much to Tim’s chagrin). Even with the premiere’s extended runtime, the chase to prevent Tim from hunting down an unsuspecting human for his bounty takes a backseat to developing the Doctor and her three co-leads. Still, that’s small potatoes, especially when it gives the audience more time to get used to the show’s numerous changes. The Verdict: If this first adventure is any indicator of the season to come, series 11 of Doctor Who is off to a brilliant start. Whittaker is firing on all cylinders, her companions are dynamic and have their own built-in interpersonal issues to sort out (e.g. Ryan’s tension toward his step-gramps Graham, especially in the wake of the premiere’s events), and the look and scope of the season is extremely ambitious. While it’s easy to miss some of the show’s hallmarks – the title sequence, the TARDIS – here’s hoping the show will find them along the way just as the Doctor and her companions search for her time-space machine. Where’s It Playing?: Doctor Who swashbuckles its way through time and space Sundays at 8pm Eastern on BBC America. Trailer: Source

A new statue immortalizing Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell was unveiled in the singer’s hometown of Seattle on Sunday. Cornell’s family and friends, including members of Soundgarden, were on hand for the unveiling ceremony, which took place at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture. The life-size statue was commissioned by Cornell’s wife Vicky and designed by artist Nick Marra. Featuring his signature boots, dog tag, long locks, and Gibson Memphis guitar, the statue will be on display at the Museum of Pop Culture for all of his fans to see. The weather was overcast during the ceremony, which seemed fitting to Jasen Emmons, Artistic Director at MoPOP. “The clouds tonight somehow feel right for someone who brought us so much dark, beautiful music,” Emmons said during his remarks. “He was the voice of a generation, and an artist that continues to draw us closer together, forever,” added Vicky Cornell. See video of the unveiling and photos of the statue below. The kids of #ChrisCornell unveil his statue that will now forever stand in his memory in #Seattle. #KOMONews #MoPOP pic.twitter.com/aV1ha2Dc4Y — Kara Kostanich (@KaraKostanich) October 8, 2018 Cornell was found dead in a Detroit hotel room on May 18th, 2017, just hours after a Soundgarden concert. Following an autopsy, a medical examiner ruled his death as a suicide. A new posthumous box set compiling material from Cornell’s various bands, including Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave, as well as music from his solo career, will be released in November. Source

The post Life Is Beautiful 2018 feels are real as we are all colored in blue- literally though and we can thank the Blue Man Group‘s appearance for that one. In the midst of living our best lives yet in the heart of Downtown Las Vegas, we were exhilarated by the trash-made art monkeys, Cousin’s Maine Lobster truck, and The Weeknd bringing 50 Shades of Grey to reality. Enjoy a photo tour and a few exciting interviews form Life Is Beautiful 2018. Photo via Life Is Beautiful 2018 Facebook Popping around backstage we had a quick interview with What So Not. If you could direct the music video for your new song ‘Beautiful’, what would it be? It’s all about movement. I would love to really have it on Winona, she has amazing features… cheek bones, everything. She is beautiful. I would have her facing the camera while singing those intimate lyrics and cut it to the jungle and ocean. My friend an idea to get someone skating through Los Angeles. Back to Winona, I would want her close up and black in the back. A mix of all that. Skrillex is a frequent collaborator in your new album. You also have San Holo featured. Now these are two very different guys with very different sounds. How did you get them to come together for this? Sonny was easy, we’ve been pals for a while. Years ago he sent me to his label and he brought me on tour. We really got along and jammed out a lot. With San, we worked on that song the first day I met him and we got this vibe. He is such a great dude and we had so much fun. There was actually a guitar, very beat up and out of tune, we shoved things of paper in between the strings to make it ring funny. It was a vibe. Photo via LIB Facebook Turn up to ‘Beautiful’ below:  Photo via Steven Brossart Photography After a ‘terrifying’ firework malfunction, we are relieved to say the two avid fans hit reported minor injuries and were able to be treated on the scene. Photo via LIB Facebook With that, listen to ‘Across The Room’ below:  Chatted a bit with Grammy-nominees and the music behind the iPhone X/iPhone 8 Red, Sofi Tukker: You just collaborated with Benny Benassi, how did that come about? That was really organic. We became friends with him through a mutual friend and we ended up seeing him at all the festivals. Every time we saw him he would have the biggest smile and be so warm with welcoming us. He mentioned working on a track. We had that track sitting for a few years, we never knew what to do with it and we decided to feature him on it. He is the sweetest guy. You have so many huge songs out there, if you could choose a song to be known for forever which one would it be? This doesn’t really answer your question, but more than a song. I would was us to be known for what we are and what our music means to people. So a lot more than a song. Photo via Sofi Tukker Facebook Listen to ‘Everybody Needs A Kiss’ below:  Photo via Steven Brossart Photography  Had a heart-to-heart with Mikky Ekko: What makes you tick? Nothing f***ing boring. As a musician and a producer, I need to manifest not something that simply rhymes, but a classic. Something timeless. You need to push yourself to find something unique enough to write about, not have something interesting find you. You need to explore all sides to you, parts that aren’t comfortable. If you could direct a music video for Post Malone’s ‘Psycho’, what would it look like? First I would change the melody a bit. I would flip some of the chords around. For the music video, I would have it showing a Bee pulling nectar from a flower and the flower eating it over and over. Then the Bee and the flower start to change colors. Photo via Mikky Ekko Facebook Click play on Mikky Ekko’s ‘Smile’ below: Photo via Life Is Beautiful Facebook Life Is love, but most importantly, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. Photo via LIB Facebook As we crawl into bed, our hearts cry knowing Life Is Beautiful is now a chapter in our youth’s past. Together we foot-traffic’d along Freemont, held our hands above shoulders at the Bacardi stage, and found ourselves a friend or two. We are excited to see what Life Is Beautiful has for us in stores next year! Referencing back to the lyrics sang by Bastille on that one moonlit night, “I want to raise your spirits, I want to see you smile, but know that means I have to leave.” Photo via LIB Facebook Check out the rest our exclusive photo tour while listening to our Life Is Beautiful 2018 playlist. Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Photo via Steven Brossart Photography Follow Life Is Beautiful 2018: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter The post Backstage at Life Is Beautiful 2018 [Virtual Tour] appeared first on EDM | Electronic Music | EDM Music | EDM Festivals | EDM Events. Source

In the past, Taylor Swift has been criticized for staying political silent, especially during the 2016 President election. Now, though, ahead of the November midterms, Swift has publicly endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen and Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper, who are both running in her home state of Tennessee. “I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” begins Swift in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram on Sunday night. Swift says she bases her vote on “which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.” Marsha Blackburn, the GOP’s candidate for Senate in Tennessee, is not a person “willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love,” Swift argues. She goes on to list several specific issues she has with Blackburn’s record, including her opposition to the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape, as well as Blackburn’s belief that same sex couples should not be able to marry. “These are not MY Tennessee values,” explains Swift, which is why she “will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives.” She concludes her post by encouraging her fans to “educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway.” “So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count,” Swift remarks. “But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do.” Read Swift’s full post below. Needless to say, tomorrow morning’s episode of Fox and Friends should be lit. Source

Leon Bridges brings neo-soul to Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.I think the best way to describe the kind of music Leon Bridges crafts is with this little anecdote: A couple years ago, I decided to make a “Throwback Jams” playlist on Spotify, composed of a variety of genres from the 60’s to mid-90’s. The purpose of the playlist was to make me a bit nostalgic whilst reminding me I can still groove to some classics. I unknowingly chucked Coming Home by Leon Bridges – not knowing exactly when it was made but acknowledging that it made me feel nostalgic – onto the playlist. I didn’t realize that he actually isn’t a “classics” until a couple months in. Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Todd Michael “Leon” Bridges has a classic, soulful R&B sensation in his music that he radiates on stage as well. It’s evident in his button up jean vest and single cuff beanie that this man was made to bring the past to the present. Think of a softer, more blues-based Anderson .Paak. The 29 show tour, which ended with double dates at New York’s Radio City Hall after the Boston show, was named after his 2018 record Good Thing. The sophomore record comes after his 2015 Grammy nominated record Coming Home. Good Thing debuted at an impressive number three on the US Billboard 200 Charts. Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.He opened with the very funky, very groovy If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be) which immediately got the crowd bopping on their feet. Hell, the song begins with “live from the funk.” Right off the bat, I had a “guitar face” kind of funk smirk. He continued the groove with Bad Bad News, one of my favorite tracks off of the Good Thing record. The rhythm and blues jam, performed live, made me feel like I was in a 1970’s film, caught in a dark, candlelit underground jazz club sipping an Old Fashioned. The funk heavy keyboard and timeless, soft guitar solos contrast the fiery meaning of the song. “They tell me I was born to lose, but I made a good good thing out of bad bad news.” The song is worthy of the self-validation he gives himself in the lyrics. Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs like a timeless artist. The way he moves in stage is like melting butter on a warm skillet; smooth, gliding and graceful. After the photographers left the pit, our contact picked us up and said, “I can’t believe he can move like that, sing and not be out of breath.” We were all in concurrence. There a lot of (nameless) artists who try to imitate this classic 60’s, 70’s Motown vibe without much success. It can sometimes come off as tacky, try hard and inauthentic. However, Leon Bridges makes it seem effortless, paying respect to the genre by adding his own contemporary, personalty flair to the funk in a sensible, respectful manner. The man oozes vintage appeal in with a faithful, twenty-four carat air. Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Leon Bridges performs at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on his Good Thing Tour on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.The post Photo Story: Leon Bridges brings Neo-Soul to Boston on his Good Things Tour appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Hozier cries power at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. I read a YouTube comment on a Hozier video the other day that said, “Damn. I forgot this guy existed.” Well, he’s back. Hozier performed a sold out show at the House of Blues in Boston on his North American Tour following the release of his latest 2018 release Nina Cried Power – EP. Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.I have a longstanding relationship with Andrew Hozier-Byrne’s music. I’ve been listening to him since 2015, a little bit before Take Me to Church exploded on the charts. His self titled 2014 record Hozier was spinning on repeat religiously for many weeks, and I still frequently go and listen to it on loop. I consider it one of the most impressive first full length album releases of any artist. Lyrically, every song is outstanding. The production is clean and a mood is set right from the beginning and continues throughout the record. Whenever I go to Joshua Tree National Park, I always make an effort to listen to Hozier. I truly think the perfect place to listen to the record is in the middle of a desert. Nina Cried Power – EP does the same justice to Hozier’s legacy. The release is such a massive deviation from the Top 50 Billboard charts where it seems like every artist uses the same producer and songwriter/ghostwriter. Hozier did an excellent job of sticking to his indie rock, blues soul whilst making room for new vocal developments (I mean, have you HEARD Nina Cried Power?!). Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.“It’s not always you come face to face with a crowd like a Boston crowd,” grinned Hozier during his set. Listening to the EP made me realize I take poetic songwriting for granted. Right from the start, Nina Cried Power (feat. Mavis Staples) packs a punch that many opening EP songs fail to do. The battle cry song cries of social justice and the role that music has played throughout the journey for the championship of equality. This was the perfect song for Hozier to open his set up with. By opening with the gospel-esque cry, it instantly set a fervor and energy that isn’t always present Hozier songs. He instantly followed it with the high impact Jackie and Wilson, which maintains the same vitality as Nina Cried Power without the emotional zeal. It also happens to be my favorite Hozier song! Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.A definite show highlight was Someone New, which he jammed to towards the end of his set. “Jam to?” you might be thinking. “How could he be jamming to his own song?!” Much to the crowd’s pleasant surprise, Hozier and his band did a funk twist on the classic Hozier song. Halfway through the song, the guitarist threw up a couple riffs (no pun intended) from Cissy Strut by The Meters. It was in this moment that I realized the versatility of Hozier and how passionate he is about music. Let’s be real, Ireland-born Hozier physically looks like the King of the Forest who probably Snow White-like serenades squirrels whilst he walks around his lush woodland kingdom. Very rarely does he deviate away from this wholesome folk look and tone in his music. But the moment he threw some funk into Someone New, head bobbing and jamming with his band, I finally truly understood he is more than his aesthetic leads him on to be. I’ll never forget the first funky riff of the song. There was an audible, passionate “wooOOoaahh” from the very surprised crowd (me included). Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.I’ve been countless shows in Boston, but very rarely do I hear a reaction from the crowd for Hozier. It really seemed like more than half of the crowd new every word to every song. I know it’s a bit overused to say that a concert felt like “an intimate living room jam sesh” but truly, it seemed like every every person in the crowd was emotionally invested in the concert. Not many artists have the ability to illicit that kind of passionate response during shows. Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.Hozier at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on his 2018 North American Tour on Oct. 01, 2018. Photo by Brittany Chang.The post Photo Story: Hozier Cries Power in Boston on his 2018 North American Tour appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Adam Young of Owl City lights up Paradise Rock Club in Boston during the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.There’s a lot of nostalgia that comes along when I talk about Owl City’s music. I spent a good amount of 2009 to 2011 (circa-middle school….yikes) listening to Adam Young’s voice. At one point, I probably knew every word off of his 2009 record Ocean Eyes. I taught myself how to play Fuzzy Blue Lights and Hello Seattle on the piano. I used to listen to The Saltwater Room whenever I thought of my middle school crush. I also just cringed very hard when I thought of that. “With your ear to a seashell, you can hear the waves in underwater caves as if you actually were inside A SALTWATER ROOOOOM.” Yeah. Sometimes I think I peaked in middle school too. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.The point of exposing my darkest days, braces and transition lenses glasses and all, is to show how integral Adam Young’s Owl City was to my childhood. I used to listen to The Technicolor Phase while doing homework. I remember watching the music video to Fireflies and thinking it was the cutest, most creative thing I had ever laid my tiny pupils on. Owl City was the soundtrack of my middle school. I must admit, however, that I left Owl City behind when I left the “RAWR xD” phase. And since then, the last I had heard of Adam Young was when Good Time with Carly Rae Jepsen dominated the radios and Fireflies became an internet meme. Admittedly, that was one of my favorite meme trends. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.When I saw that Owl City was going on tour again, I was pretty surprised. Owl City? He’s still making music? Interesting. I gave his 2018 record Cinematic a shot, and I was even more surprised. All My Friends sounds nothing like his 2008 Swimming in Miami. The first sound of guitar in All My Friends was really stirred up some cognitive dissonance. Although there are some sound differences, the record still stays true to the wholesome Owl City lyrics. But otherwise, he stays decently true to old Owl City. The record is still mostly upbeat electronica, and I still find myself feeling nostalgic when I hear his voice. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.Young opened his set with Verge and a beautiful guitar-heavy introduction. For the most part, his set kept to his 2015 Mobile Orchestra record and Cinematic. But then, at song 6, he played On the Wing, followed by Hello Seattle. I grinned the entire time. The most surprising part of the show wasn’t Adam Young himself, but instead, the crowd. In my most cynical, self-centered mind, I genuinely thought most of the crowd were going to be people like me. Young 20’s, old fans who wanted a throwback to middle and elementary school. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. A good chunk of the crowd was composed of current Owl City fans, donning Mobile Orchestra shirts and holding Cinematic posters. The age of this dedicated body ranged from both young children to people my age. Oh, and their parents, of course. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.Also, mad kudos to whoever designed the set. The twinkling lights in the background playfully paralleled Fireflies and the fake flowers around the cold, metal bars of his instruments made the stage feel very ethereal. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.I will also admit, I’m currently listening to Fireflies and I really can’t help but to tap my feet to the beat. Somethings never change…apart from my less angsty demeanor, of course. Adam Young of Owl City at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the Cinematic Tour on Sept. 21, 2018.The post Photo Story: Owl City Lights Up Boston on the Cinematic Tour appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Looking for something cool to do with your extra day off this weekend? Or looking for some cool new music? deM atlaS and Atmoshpere have got you covered. Hip-hop duo Atmosphere just released their 7th studio album today, entitled Mi Vida Local. They are also coming to Boston House of Blues on October 8th! You can listen to the album here, and check out deM atlaS, the opening act for Monday’s show, here. Tickets are still available and are affordable for that college budget, so end your Columbus Day weekend right by seeing this legendary performance! Atmosphere, made up of legendary Indie duo Slug and Ant, can make a good song of anything. Their newest release, Mi Vida Local, is perhaps their best album yet, and focuses on the southside of Minneapolis, where Atmosphere is from. Rhymesayers describes the new release as “an album about how the fight to find happiness never really ends,” but “also about discovering that there’s happiness to be found just in fighting.” Sean “Slug” Daley perhaps describes Atmosphere’s music in the most fitting way: “People are just looking for something they can relate to. Something that they can take and apply to themselves. Some of us are lucky enough to become that through our art.” Rapper Joshua Turner aka Dem Atlas in his basement performance space Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Minneapolis.deM atlaS, the opening act for Monday’s show, is also a Twin Cities native. His music is “emotionally complex” and has a classic hip-hop feel, but still pushes boundaries. His recent album DWNR features his top hit “All We Got,” an ode to making something of yourself despite conflicted origins. Both deM atlaS and Atmosphere are Rhymesayers Entertainment artists. Rhymesayers is an independent label that originated in the Twin Cities and strives to empower hip-hop artists. Self-described as the “aftermath” of the hip-hop movement in Minneapolis, Rhymesayers has almost a dozen artists signed. Learn more about deM atlaS, Atmosphere, and Rhymesayers. And get tickets to the show here! The post Atmosphere, deM atlaS come to Boston: Listen appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Dispatch ends their Summer 2018 tour back home in Boston with two sold out shows at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion on Sept. 20, 2018. There’s always something extra special about bands that decide to go become active again after over a decades long hiatus. Dispatch is not an exception. The legendary folk band is a staple of the indie roots music scene. Before they released their 2017 America, Location 12 record that broke their silence, the last original record they released was their 2012 Circles Around the Sun. And only months after America, Location 12, Dispatch announced the would do a Summer 2018 tour and release songs every couple of weeks throughout the summer. This became Location 13, which opens with Cross the World. “Once teenage friends now struggling with the place where the sidewalk ends. So we said goodbye in Boston with that dirty water rolling on,” sings Chadwick Stokes Urmston in the song. Chadwick Stokes Urmston of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.The band now has had their feet planted in Boston since its conception. Starting out first as New England legends, Dispatch is now a household name across the nation and considered one of the most famous independent bands in history. “We’ve been called the biggest band nobody’s ever heard of, ” said Urmston in an interview with Independent. In 2004, the band famously drew an estimated crowd of 110,000 to the Hatch Memorial Shell on Boston’s Charles River Esplanade. The farewell (or so we thought) show caused the Boston Police to shut down Storrow Drive. The shame came after the release of The Last Dispatch, a documentary about the final days of the band. Brad Corrigan of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.In my opinion, however, the most defining feature of the band is their activism. The Elias Fund, a nonprofit dedicating its efforts to help to community development, education and AIDS education in Zimbabwe, was founded by a two men inspired by Dispatch’s Elias. Urmston penned after the song after he befriended the real Elias when Urmston lived in Zimbabwe. The song is also unbelievably epic live. Boston – as a city – has a kind of dedication to their beloved that I’ve never seen in another city. Most people think it’s only with sports teams. The Sox. The Bruins. The….PATS. What many fail to mention, however, is Boston’s dedication to their natives. Marky Mark is a prime example. Dispatch is another. Take a Boston-grown Sox crowd and move them to Blue Hills Bank Pavilion. That is exactly how I felt being in Dispatch’s crowd. This city damn well loves the band, and it’s no surprise why. Chadwick Stokes Urmston of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.Brad Corrigan and Chadwick Stokes Urmston of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.Brad Corrigan and Chadwick Stokes Urmston of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.Chadwick Stokes Urmston of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.Chadwick Stokes Urmston of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.Touring member Matt Embree of Dispatch at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA on Sept. 20, 2018.The post Photo Story: Dispatch Finishes Their Summer 2018 Tour Back Home in Boston appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

To kick off the spookiest month of the year, The Neighbourhood provides Boston with eerie and haunting sounds. IDK, the Neighbourhood’s opener, performed a set of five songs. The rapper walked onto the stage in an all black outfit and a mask. He tried engaging the crowd by attempting to choreograph mosh pit within the right side. The organized chaos of failed, yet the energy remained at a decent level during his set. IDK has over 625,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. He has collaborated with artists Joey Bada$$, Denzel Curry, Swizz Beatz and Russ. The up and coming rapper exudes aggression and edge. IDK’s most played song, “No Wave (feat. Denzel Curry)”, is a nitty gritty bop. The Neighbourhood’s latest EP—Ever Changing—features IDK on their track “Beautiful Oblivion.” The sound is reminiscent of 90s hip hop, paired with some modern psychedelic. Overall, the track is trippy, yet the band and their featured artist did not perform the song at the concert! Rutherford crowdsurfingAlthough the Neighbourhood was not able to cover all of the tunes off their latest work, they covered an extremely wide range of their portfolio. Their set opened with an ode to their first album: I Love You. Hits from the early 2010s like “Afraid,” “Alleyways,” and “Female Robbery” rocked the crowd with a wave of fan nostalgia. Jesse Rutherford, the band’s frontman, had a chain microphone that dangled from the ceiling of the stage. He proceeded to swing with it in between his vocal performance. During Zach Abels’s guitar solo on their track “warm,” the lead singer lost himself on stage. He made loops in mid-air with the mic and spontaneously front-flipped into the audience. Rutherford body surfed over his fans for the length of the guitar solo and made it back to the stage right before it was time to perform their last song, “Stuck With Me.” Rutherford swinging on his micThe Neighbourhood did not return to the stage to perform an encore. The audience had already gotten more than they paid for. The band will be kicking off their European tour in London in late January. The post The Neighborhood Rocks House of Blues appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Good Together If you’re ever looking for a night to let go of everything and just feel free and good, then a Honne concert is just the medicine you need. The band had stolen the entire Royale room’s hearts with the music and the simple, sweet vibes they offered on the stage. Honne sang so many of their new songs as well as so many of their old ones from the previous album, and Boston was singing along without any direction. After I left the photo pit to stand in the crowd, I noticed how immensely packed it was–I had known it was a sold out show, but didn’t realize how massive the room was until I saw all of the crowded bodies and smiling faces. Hands were up in the air and heads were back with eyes closed as people absorbed the music into their bones and swayed to the beats of each track. I was starstruck by how incredible Honne was live, and it only elevated my love for them to greater heights. The band recently released their second debut album Love Me/Love Me Not, a 12-track project of beautiful work. The album was elegantly released as well, with a pre-release plan of dropping two-track EPs at a time throughout the summer, giving the fans a dose of what was to come, and what emotions to feel until the full production was revealed. The lights were atmospheric and subtle, but they made an impact for every song they performed. There was no doubt that the whole hour and half of music was euphoric, an encounter of immense fantasy, seduction, and bliss. The band didn’t even stop too many times to interrupt the show, they played song after song, with ease, caressing our ears and giving us a true soundtrack experience. Would 100% recommend seeing them should you ever have the chance! Here are the photos I took last night: Be sure to follow Honne on social media for more from their extraordinary band: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Website The post Honne Performance Mystifies the Boston Crowd at Royale appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

A Mood Au/Ra is an artist I have been a fan of quite some time, and being able to see her perform live was more than a pleasure. The singer/songwriter with a lot of personality took the stage and really ran the show on Friday night at Cafe 939 in Boston, MA. She was the perfect opener for Tove Styrke’s headlining tour, and it will be exciting to see her one day running her own headlining tour. Au/Ra sang all of her tracks and the crowd loved every second of it. You could tell not many knew of her before the show, but you also could tell that the audience was not going to forget her after. She sang her hit “Panic Room”, as well as a fun song titled “Drake”, where she both admitted her love for the video game Fortnight and the fact that she tried to friend Drake, the rapper, on the game’s platform–a dream that never came true. So why not write a song about it? She also sang her song “Junk Food,” which is, in fact, about junk food and junk food only. Au/Ra is just an incredibly real and chill human being that makes it easy for a fan or a listener to enjoy and relate to her besides the fact that she is also a talented vocalist. With vibrant blue pigtails and a lot of charisma on stage, the pop artist gave everyone a vibe to sway and sing along to. She even was able to get the crowd to sing a chorus line with her in unison that was very well done. This superstar has such great music that surprisingly captures you and has you singing the songs even after you’ve turned off the music. Here are some of the photos I captured from that night! Be sure to follow Au/Ra on socials to hear more about what the songstress will be up to in the coming fall season! Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website The post Moody Pop Singer Au/Ra Steals the Show at Cafe 939 Boston appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

On Saturday night, Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement made their long-awaited return to HBO with a new hour-long comedy special called Flight of the Conchords: Live at the London Apollo. The special captures the Conchords’ recent “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour”. during which the comic songbirds performed new original songs as well as past classics. Flight of the Conchords: Live at the London Apollo is now available on HBO On Demand, HBO Go, and HBO Now. Below, you can watch a trio of clips from the special, including a new song called “Deana and Ian”, the fan favorite “Hurt Feelings”, and some on-stage banter about complimentary muffins. Ahead of this weekend’s premiere, Flight of the Conchords appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and performed their new song “Father & Son”. Beyond his work in Flight of the Conchords, Clement has a number of other upcoming projects in the works, including a U.S. television adaptation of the breakout New Zealand horror comedy, What We Do In the Shadows, as well as a theatrical sequel. Source

While Saturday Night Live continued to predictably disappoint everyone above New York’s Rockefeller Plaza, one of its alums kept things hilarious over at Los Angeles’ Greek Theater with a Cancer For College benefit dubbed, “Will Ferrell’s Best Night Of Your Life”. Hosted by Ferrell and produced by his own Funny or Die, the night saw the blockbuster comic in top form among a who’s who of A-list comedians, ranging from Jerry Seinfeld to Samantha Bee, Michelle Wolf to Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel to Jerrod Carmichael. Throughout the night, Ferrell kept things lively by twerking as Donald Trump (in disguise as George W. Bush), playing Brad Paisley’s fictional brother Gary, overseeing a panel as Ron Burgundy, and bringing “more cowbell” to Chris Martin’s acoustic rendition of Coldplay hit, “Viva La Vida”. As promised, Ferrell’s doppelgänger Chad Smith brought his Super Mega Funktastic Jam Rock All-Stars supergroup, which featured Martin, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Josh Klinghoffer, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Dave Matthews Band’s Stefan Lessard, and Brad Paisley. If you recall, Smith and Ferrell previously came together at the 2014 Cancer For College benefit to cover the Rolling Stones with McCready, Lessard, McKagan, and country singer Brandi Carlile. This time around, the one-off supergroup performed a set of covers, including Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”. Watch all the clips below. Source

Tove Styrke is a beautiful human inside and out, and she gave a stunning performance the other night at Cafe 939 in Boston, MA. Though a small venue, the room was packed, and people were singing along to every song word for word. She was beyond excited, wearing a flow, white ruffle shirt, shiny flared black pants and a cowboy hat that said her name on the inside lip of it. She was surrounded by a bed of light up roses and that changed into various hues of technicolor according to the music, and it was just an overall good time. Her voice was strong, her presence was energetic, and her music was hypnotic. She sang many of her best hits as well as some off the new project and some oldies, and no matter what she was still in command of the cheering crowd. The space was intimate enough to really feel like the fans were part of the show as well, an aspect of Styrke’s career that she takes very seriously. She loves her fans, and truly tries to make sure that they know that as well. Styrke has been riding a really powerful wave in the past year. She recently released her new album Sway as well as embarked on this journey of her own headlining tour! In addition, she released a track with her good friends, the talented electronic duo NOTD, called “Been There Done That.” The track has already hit over 5 million streams on Spotify, and has demonstrated the forceful foundation Styrke has provided herself for her music career. Here are some of the photos I captured from that Friday night, and be sure to check out my interview with the artist pre-show to hear what she has to say about her journey to stardom, her music, and the tour HERE. Stay tuned as the Swedish-native has a lot more in store for her fans this coming year and into the next! Follow her on social media to find out more and follow Styrke’s incredible journey! Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Website The post Tove Styrke Photo Story at Cafe 939 Boston appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Further proof we’re all living in a simulation: Limp Bizkit’s set at Rock Allegiance Festival in Camden, NJ on Saturday night was briefly interrupted after Insane Clown Posse’s Shaggy 2 Dope reportedly rushed the stage in an attempt to dropkick Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst. Shaggy was ultimately unsuccessful as his kick landed short of Durst’s body. He was immediately confronted by security and a fight ensued on the side of the stage. For his part, Durst didn’t seem to recognize that Shaggy was his assailant. “What a pussy, he couldn’t even pull it off,” Durst remarked, before telling security to “calm down… It’s just one guy.” As a user on reddit points out, Limp Bizkit and ICP actually have bad blood dating back two decades, and it seems like things finally came to a head on Saturday night. ICP had played a set at the festival hours earlier. “Well it all started 20 years ago when ICP was trying their hardest to sell out. They performed at Woodstock and after was told ‘Fred wants to meet with you’ they had no idea who the fuck Fred was. I guess Fred Durst was a mega superstar and egoed out on them hard like wouldn’t look at them or anything while he talked. He invited them on the Family Values tour with Korn and all those bands then at the last minute told them to fuck off outside and booted them. They were on this huge festival show Monster sponsored together and I’m assuming he was a c*nt again.” Watch footage of Shaggy’s attack below. Source

The first time we see Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) in Rushmore, he’s in the middle of a hubristic dream about himself. Nonchalantly taking a moment away from his morning stock market reading to solve a math problem that even his teacher’s mentor at MIT couldn’t crack, Max is all smug swagger, the kind of assured prep-school type who knows he’s about to jog through life on his sheer genius. And then, a second after that, Max wakes up. Twenty years on, Rushmore has become one of the pre-eminent coming-of-age movies of the 1990s. It’s influenced everything from laborious Fall Out Boy song titles to a new generation of industrious, low-budget indie comedies about ambitious underachievers set to meticulously curated soundtracks. It cemented a melancholic version of Bill Murray that may well be more familiar to younger generations than the rambunctious Murray of so many classic comedies. It made Schwartzman a star, and its director Wes Anderson an even bigger one. A great deal of its appeal comes from its mod-rock style and its perfectly executed dark comedy, but it’s also stood the test of time better than a majority of late-’90s teen comedies by having a wisdom about young (and old) men that most of its peers lacked. One of the things that Rushmore understands well, even if its fans sometimes don’t, is that Max is more than a little bit obnoxious. Sure, Anderson treats his compulsive need to be acknowledged for his efforts with bemusement a lot of the time, but he and Owen Wilson’s screenplay also has an excellent ear for the ways in which the precocious Max still sounds and acts like a self-obsessed teenage boy. Like a lot of disaffected high schoolers, Max is desperate to buck a system that he views as repressive and misunderstanding of his genius. Also like a lot of them, he fails to see how desperately indifferent most of them are to his plight. Dr. Guggenheim (Brian Cox), the principal of Rushmore Academy, wants Max to be anyone else’s problem but his. Max’s father (Seymour Cassel) is dealing with the loss of his wife and Max’s mother in his own quiet way. Max’s only real friend is his chapel partner Dirk (Mason Gamble), he’s failing all his classes, and he’s desperate to be loved in the way that a lot of teenagers want to be loved: by somebody who’ll at once lust after them and coddle them like a parent. The second he meets Rushmore’s new first grade teacher, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), Max decides that Rosemary is his soulmate, and neither age nor Rosemary’s total lack of interest nor his own shortcomings will get in the way. In a lot of filmmakers’ hands, Rushmore could turn creepy really quickly. Particularly in a terse classroom exchange between Max and Rosemary late in the film, even Anderson straddles that line on occasion, but the film’s blunt pragmatism about all the ways in which Max isn’t ready for the realities of the life he’s chosen for himself is what keeps it on an even keel. Max is a child, and in large part thanks to Schwartzman’s nasally gawky performance, he looks like a child. He’s a child desperate to be respected and adored the way he thinks men will be, but he’s still a child when it counts. So is Herman Blume (Murray), and the relationship between he and Max is where Rushmore lands on some of its most affecting ideas about maturing into adulthood. In short, Anderson and Wilson use the film to drive at the point that growing up isn’t a finish-line sort of thing, at least not in the ways you’re taught as a kid. Max and Herman hit it off right away because they’re mirror images of one another. Max might be poor and Herman rich, but they’re both self-destructive, both full of anger, both desperate to cling to somebody who can make sense of all the things they dislike about themselves so that they won’t have to. Both of them see Rosemary as that figure, and Williams finds a great deal of emotion in Rosemary’s willingness to let her guard down around both men at various points, even knowing that no good will probably come of it. She projects a mature vulnerability that’s constantly at odds both visually and in the story with Schwartzman’s dweeby simpering and Murray’s forlorn, distant ache. There’s a lot of depth to Rushmore, but lingering in those depths for too long does a disservice to how consistently funny it also is. Like a number of Anderson’s best films, the jokes in Rushmore might sting, but they do so while simultaneously landing the belly laugh. Rushmore is full of classic setpieces (the montages involving Max’s various school activities and he and Herman’s eventual game of reckless one-upsmanship), but some of its biggest laughs are shoved into the margins. This comic sensibility would become a hallmark of Anderson’s work to come, but some of his best gags can be found here: Herman stuffing an elementary schooler’s 3-point shot in mid-phone call, Max jotting liner notes into a bible in artful calligraphy, pretty much any background image from the post-pay “Heaven and Hell Cotillion” at the film’s end. Rushmore cemented so much of Anderson’s stylistic sensibility, from the Mark Mothersbaugh score to the meticulous rule-of-thirds photography, but most of all it established him as a filmmaker who could exist as both one of his generation’s best comic directors, and as one of its most thoughtfully melancholic. Here, that melancholy largely manifests itself in the form of anger, but it’s not the kind of anger you typically think of when “movie anger” comes to mind. Rushmore is an angry movie in the way that people are usually angry in life: exhausted, sometimes a little wearily funny, often just trying to find something or someone else to help shoulder the burden for a while. It’s mostly unsentimental about how selfish that kind of anger can be, but hey, that’s growing up. Max is the kind of totally unique creation that only a pair of enterprising screenwriters could dream up, but he’s also little more than the insane pipe dreams of every art-minded teenager brought to vivid life. The hardest part of growing up is realizing that being older won’t automatically give you the answers, but by the time Max and Herman reach the end of Rushmore, they’ve figured out that the next best thing is just making it as far as they have at all. Source

The success of thrash metal around the world in the ‘80s, even without the help of mainstream radio and MTV, had many of its purveyors feeling particularly emboldened. The biggest artists of that era were poised to make their grandest statements yet: Master of Puppets, Among The Living, Pleasure To Kill, Darkness Descends, Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, etc. All albums marked by intense, fevered performances and intricate songwriting inspired by prog rock’s complexity and punk’s clenched fists. Slayer’s Reign In Blood, released October 7th, 1986, lands smack in the middle of that decade like an axe hitting a bullseye. No other metal release that year or during that era felt quite as demanding and insurgent. It hit fast — clocking in under less than a half-hour in its original release — and hit hard, helping push a band that was already respected among their fans and peers toward new levels of success. A spot on the Billboard 200 chart. Gold-certified sales. Bigger concert dates. And a level of inter-band tension that wouldn’t settle down for the better part of 15 years. A good chunk of the credit for the progress that Slayer achieved on that album and beyond needs to be meted out to producer Rick Rubin. The future impresario was already a fan by the time he saw them live at the CMJ New Music Seminar in 1985. But it was that performance at New York’s The Ritz that turned him into an out-and-out obsessive. In D.X. Ferris’s book Slayer 66 ⅔: The Jeff & Dave Years…, Rubin told the author, “I don’t recall much of anything that night before Slayer. They totally annihilated…I can’t imagine any other band in the world mattered that night.” As legend has it, the producer hounded the band after that, urging them to sign with Def Jam and let him behind the boards for their third full-length. Smelling blood and cash in the water, Slayer acquiesced and about six months later, they had recorded Reign In Blood. Rubin’s influence was, in part, to quit messing around and aim straight for the jugular. The tempos for their songs were ratcheted up to near hardcore punk BPMs, pushing everyone to play right up to the edge of their abilities. It was a tightrope walk at times, but everyone stayed aloft, or, as was often the case with Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King’s guitar solos, soared through it all like a hawk soaring toward its prey. Rubin took a dominant hand in the producer’s chair, suggesting drum fills and helping whittle the material until it reached a sharp point. And he kept the studio free of alcohol and drugs. “I think he maybe made us a little more accessible to some people,” drummer Dave Lombardo admitted to Ferris, “to where maybe those people wouldn’t have given it a chance otherwise.” Reign In Blood is bookended by its two longest songs: “Angel of Death” and “Raining Blood.” The former, written by Hanneman, is a pulverizing tune that speaks of the evil deeds of Josef Mengele, the Nazi scientist who performed experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. It was custom built to court controversy, with charges of Nazi affiliation following the band for the next three decades. And it was the song that made Def Jam’s then-distributor Columbia balk at releasing the album, sending the label into the arms of Geffen. Composed by Hanneman and King, the latter was a blasphemous vision of an angel cast out of heaven, f–king shit up in purgatory. The music follows suit, pivoting from a double-time assault to a chugging stomp that feels like it’s cracking the earth’s crust. Recognizing their impact on audiences from the jump, both songs have been mainstays of Slayer’s live setlists ever since. In between are eight tracks that offer only brief moments of reprieve, like the pinging buildup that kicks off “Piece by Piece,” or “Postmortem,” which settles into an early headbanging pace before a manic circle pit breaks out. Everything else in this meaty middle section of the album oozed with its titular crimson. And it put the rest of the metal world on notice: the whole scene was going to be different from here on out. Or as future Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph recalled to Decibel magazine about hearing Reign In Blood for the first time coming from Forbidden guitarist Craig Locicero’s boombox, “I stood in front of that box for the entire 20-some-odd minutes. I remember looking at Craig and going, ‘We’re fucked.’” Beyond its immediate impact, the shockwaves of the album are still being felt as strongly as ever. Reign In Blood continues to be heaped with praise and somewhat meaningless accolades, like its induction into Decibel magazine’s Hall of Fame, the first record to be given such a treatment, and high placement on lists of the best metal releases of all time and the best albums of the ‘80s. And it continues to find fans. If you’ve been lucky enough to see Slayer in concert, especially on this current run that is supposedly the band’s final tour, you’ve likely felt how the air in the room shifts when King and Gary Holt hit the opening riff of “Raining Blood.” It’s as if an electric charge has jolted everyone to attention, an army ready to charge into the breach without question. Few songs and fewer albums, metal or otherwise, can command that kind of response. Thirty-plus years later, Reign In Blood still has that power. Source