Aretha Franklin was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center Honors’ 2015 tribute to Carole King earlier this month, and now there is footage of the song she had played: 1967’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”.
President Obama is seen wiping what appears to be a tear from his eye during the performance right before the audience gives an emphatic standing ovation. Carole King, during this, is immensely impressed. meanwhile. Watch the video via NME below.
Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Motörhead frontman Lemmy, has passed away at 70. The news was first reported by journalist Eddie Trunk and confirmed later by TMZ, who said he died on Monday afternoon.
Motörhead have released a statement on Lemmy’s death on Facebook, reading: “There is no easy way to say this… our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. He had learnt of the disease on December 26th, and was at home, sitting in front of his favorite video game from the Rainbow which had recently made it’s way down the street, with his family. We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words. We will say more in the coming days, but for now, please… play Motörhead loud.”
In an interview with Expressen, drummer Mickey Dee confirmed that Lemmy’s death is the end of Motörhead. “Motörhead is over, of course. Lemmy was Motörhead. We won’t be doing any more tours or anything. And there won’t be any more records. But the brand survives, and Lemmy lives on in the hearts of everyone.”
Kilmister joined the psychedelic rock band Hawkwind in 1972 where he contributed bass and vocals. After parting ways of Hawkwind in 1975, he created Motörhead. Motörhead, in 1977, released their self-titled debut. Over 40 years and 22 studio LPs, the group became one of the biggest hard rock bands ever, leaving a mark on heavy metal, punk, garage rock, and more. Their last album, Bad Magic, was released ealier this year.
In the four decades since the creation of the group, Motörhead experienced various lineup changes. As the founder and the only constant member of the group, Lemmy stood as the anchor.
The self-titled third album of MGMT was released in 2013, and the band has not played a gig in the United States since Coachella 2014. Yesterday, however, the band revealed on Twitter that Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser are now getting ready for a comeback.
https://twitter.com/whoisMGMT/status/680537421377880064
Watch MGMT’s video for “Cool Song No. 2” below.
Run The Jewels have stared a new advent calendar on their website where fans can submit their email addresses to be entered in a contest to win free RTJ merch for the next twelve days. #12DaysOfRTJXmas starts today. Enter the contest here.
The first day of the contest has a Tag The Jewels mural painting. Watch the video here.
The Beatles have been always absent from music streaming services. However, from tomorrow, their music will be available finally on services including Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. The Guardian reports that the back catalogue will not be exclusive to paying subscribers, meaning free users of sites like as Spotify and Deezer will have access too.
This is not the first time the band has been late to the digital age, the did not become available in the iTunes store until 2010.
Brooklyn rock band Yeasayer released their last album in 2012, Fragrant World. The band has remained fairly quiet since then. Today, however, they posted a short video containing new music to their website, under the header “Amen & Goodbye,” which is 24 seconds of a spinning, faceless stone figure holding a bearded sheep zen statue with piano in the background of what could possibly be a part of a new song. Watch it below.
Over the weekend, Lupe Fiasco announced plans to release three albums in 2016. According to a minimal tweet, the first one will be called Drogas. His last album was Tetsuo & Youth, released in January.
When Skylar Spence was still under the name of Saint Pepsi, he released a great edit of “Call Me Maybe,” which was a dramatic reworking that was stretched to a 7-minute free-form and pretty much did everything he could with the melody. It attracted Carly Rae Jepsen and her team’s attention because was able to do an official remix of “Your Type,” the next E•MO•TION single. This is a more traditional remix, placing heavy synths for an airy Prom King (his first release under Skylar Spence)-esque instrumentation. Listen through Billboard below.
E•MO•TION is out now. Skylar Spence’s Prom King is as well via Carpark.
Recently, it was announced that M83 had plans to release new music in 2016. A tweet from producer J. Meldal-Johnsen now confirms that the band’s next record “is now finished.”
Meldal-Johnsen produced M83’s previous album, 2011’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. He says he’s “very happy” with its follow-up.
In an interview with EW.com, M83’s Anthony Gonzalez said that the album was strong and eclectic. “It’s very epic. There’s a lot of different genres that are not supposed to live together but I tried to make them live together, which is quite challenging. It’s also quite different from the previous albums which is what I’m the most proud of.”
The album hass “a lot of classic drum sounds, with bass and drinks, an Elk synth,” he explained, “I felt like we really tried to be very modern but also very old-school at the same time.” He said that frequent vocalist Morgan Kibby does not make an appearance on the album, but there are many “unexpected guests.” He said also that the lyrics take inspiration from 1970s and ’80s television. “Shows like Punky Brewster and Who’s the Boss,” he discussed. “I feel like TV shows are starting to sound and look the same. There’s no more passion anymore. So this album is a tribute to those old-fashioned shows.”
M83 have begun scheduling tour dates in support of the album. See the current list of shows below.
M83 2016 Tour Dates:
06/16-19 – Dover, DE @ Firefly Music Festival
07/07-09 – Lisbon, PT @ NOS Alive Festival
07/07-09 – Bilbao, ES @ Bilbao BBK Live
08/10-17 – Budapest, HU @ Sziget Festival
08/11-13 – Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West Festival
08/12-14 – Helsinki, FI @ Flow Festival
Even though Christmas is not for another week, the Shins received their presents early. Recently, the band learned that their cover from 2o12 of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” had topped Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as the most popular song during the holidays among shoppers, according to PlayNetwork, a company that creates playlists for stores across the US.
“Well, we’ve always been super-popular on the Island of Misfit Toys so it was just a matter of time before the human world embraced our incredible Christmas spirit!” Mercer told EW.com after hearing about the honors.
It’s not just The Shins who have been graced by good news about the band. The group’s label Columbia sent an email that promised that new music would be on its way in 2016. “Happy Holidays from The Shins,” the message reads. “New year, new music!”
New material at all from the band would be the first since “So Now What,” the band’s part in Zach Braff’s 2014 film, Wish I Was Here. The Shins’ last full-length releases was 2013’s Live at Third Man Records and 2012’s Port of Morrow.
