The set of Hadestown, the Broadway musical up for 14 Tony Awards on June 9th, incorporates wildly swinging lamps and a trap door that hurls people into the underworld. But as the show’s auteur, Anaïs Mitchell, demonstrates, the show wasn’t always so hi-tech. Putting down the iced beverage she’s sipping …
Read More »Vampire Weekend Take Joy Ride Through Desert in 'This Life' Video
Vampire Weekend hitch a ride with a desert dweller named Wade in the video for “This Life,” which appears on the band’s latest album, Father of the Bride. Directed my Emmett Malloy, the clip stars Kyle Field of the band Little Wings as Wade, an Uber-driver of sorts who picks …
Read More »See Slipknot's Live Debut of 'Unsainted,' 'All Out Life' on 'Kimmel'
Slipknot staged their first concert in nearly three years Friday on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where the band played new single “Unsainted” and 2018’s “All Out Life” for the first time live. Slipknot’s Kimmel mini-set, the band’s first live gig since November 2016, follows the announcement earlier this week of their …
Read More »Watch Kamala Harris Pitch Teacher Pay Raises on 'Full Frontal'
Samantha Bee spoke with California Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris about her plan to improve pay among public school teachers on Full Frontal Wednesday. As Harris noted, teachers make, on average, 11 percent less than similarly college educated professionals, and the meager wages are causing people to leave …
Read More »'Contact High' Shows Hip-Hop Icons in a New Light
As the director of publicity and marketing at Payday Records in the early 1990s, Vikki Tobak worked with acts like Jay-Z and Gang Starr as they were beginning their careers. “There was this inflection point where hip-hop started to realize its power,” Tobak says. “[Artists] realized that images — what …
Read More »Wynton Marsalis on 12 Essential Jazz Recordings
“It’s self-explanatory,” Wynton Marsalis says, pointing toward the papers in front of him. “Basically, if you look at what I wrote, that says everything you need to know.” The trumpeter had entered only about 30 seconds before, walking into a small conference room at the New York offices of Jazz …
Read More »'Avengers: Endgame' Breaks All Box Office Records With $1.2 Billion Opening
As expected, Avengers: Endgame shattered every opening week record in box office history as the Marvel epic opened with $1.2 billion worldwide and $350 million domestic, both new records. Endgame crushed the record established one year earlier by its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War, which opened with $250 million domestically – …
Read More »Remembering Gary Stewart, Rhino Records' Rock Archaeologist
It was sad but fitting that news of the passing of Gary Stewart, a bedrock force in the modern age of rock & roll reissues, broke on Friday morning, April 12th — 24 hours before the doors opened for this year’s Record Store Day. Because for Stewart, every day was …
Read More »At the Nipsey Hussle Memorial Service, Tears and Smiles in Equal Measure
The memorial began nearly an hour late, which may have been an inadvertent blessing. It was scheduled to begin at 10am, but a half-hour later, hundreds of people holding their free tickets for the service were still patiently pooling towards the security gates outside the Staples Center, where the city’s …
Read More »The Twisted Thrills of 'Killing Eve'
“I live on quite a murdery street, so I don’t want you to hear me getting murdered,” says Emerald Fennell over the phone as she fumbles with her keys outside the gate of her L.A. home. Then she reconsiders: Her untimely, violent death might make for a good story. “The …
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