Music

Femi Kuti, the renowned multi-instrumentalist son of legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin have teamed up to co-curate Fela Boxset 5. The set is expected to ship in December and it’s available for preorder. The latest volume in the series comprises seven albums: Why Black Man Dey Suffer, Noise for Vendor Mouth, Kalakuta Show, Excuse O, Ikoyi Blindness, Original Sufferhead, and Overtake Don Overtake Overtake. Each record has been recreated from the original vinyl pressings, including the vinyl label and cover artwork. It also comes packaged...

Shovels & Rope have announced their new album, Manticore — due out on Feb. 18 — with the release of a new single, "Domino.""Domino" is a creative commentary on celebrity in American culture from the perspective of James Dean, who wonders throughout the lyrics why his image remains so resonant decades after his tragic death. Listen below:Manticore was originally planned as a stripped-down acoustic release, but "Domino" springs out of the gate with an energetic, rockabilly sound. After writing the material before the COVID-19 pandemic and then embarking on producing the project throughout it, band members Michael Trent and Cary Ann...

One of the three men charged in connection with Mac Miller’s fatal overdose has agreed to plead guilty and accept a 17-year prison sentence for supplying the fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills sold to the rising rapper shortly before his 2018 death. Under the terms of the deal, prosecutors are waiving Stephen Andrew Walter’s grand jury indictment and allowing him to plead to a single new charge of fentanyl distribution. He previously was indicted on more serious charges including fentanyl distribution resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance...

Reba McEntire's Living & Learning Spotify podcast returned for Season 2 on Monday (Oct. 25), and she kicked off the season with a particularly special guest: Her boyfriend, actor Rex Linn.McEntire and Linn started dating in early 2020, but they met much earlier: In 1991, both were on the set of the Kenny Rogers TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. At the time, McEntire was married to her then-manager Narvel Blackstock, who she divorced in 2015. Still, she and Linn shared a memorable conversation that would go...

Ed Sheeran appeared on the latest installment of NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series to perform a slate of songs from his upcoming studio album Equals, out Friday, October 29th. The singer’s five-song set featured the album’s two lead singles, “Bad Habits” and “Shivers,” which set the tone for his shift toward pure pop as he continues down the rabbit hole of “Shape of You.” He also made room for the previously released “Visiting Hours,” introduced with an anecdote about the song being inspired by losing a friend. Sheeran...

Pistol Annies have returned to the scene in the holiday spirit with their newest album Hell of a Holiday, which includes the playful song “Come on Christmas Time.”The song begins with "Lone Star Annie" Miranda Lambert delivering a flirty first verse: “I’ve got a crush on Santa / I wanna ride his sleigh / He’s got a certain something / I’d kiss him all the way / I wanna make him better / I wanna make him mine / I’ve gotta crush on Santa / So come on, Christmastime.""Come On Christmas Time"...

All Time Low have denied abuse allegations that have recently been made online, including on TikTok, which allege guitarist Jack Barakat had sexually abused them when they were minors. “The allegations being brought against us are absolutely and unequivocally false,” the band wrote in a statement signed by all four members on Monday. “When a TikTok video gained traction a few weeks ago alluding to inappropriate behavior within our camp, we chose not to respond because of the glaring inconsistencies in the story and the apparent reluctance to mention us...

The competition is heating up on The Voice Season 21, and Monday (Oct. 25) brought the first night of the Knockout Rounds. Winding down to the final minutes of the two-hour program, Team Kelly's Girl Named Tom went up against the talented Holly Forbes, showcasing their stellar sibling harmony on Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman.”Before their performance, the band — Joshua, Bekah Grace and Caleb Liechty — explained why they chose the classic country song: “It’s a song about a really hard-working man, and we relate to this song because is a pretty stubborn man,” Caleb...

The Jonas Brothers are gearing up to tear into each other in the newly announced Netflix special Jonas Brothers Family Roast. Hosted by Kenan Thompson, the comedy special opens up the floor for Joe, Nick, and Kevin to bash and flame each other in a way only siblings can. Premiering on November 23red, Jonas Brothers Family Roast will feature guest appearances from Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, former boy bander Niall Horan, comedian Gabriel Iglesias (a.k.a. Fluffy), musician John Legend, YouTuber turned late-night host Lilly Singh, actor Jack Whitehall,...

Sonny Osborne, a banjoist and member of the Osborne Brothers, died on Sunday (Oct. 24) at around 1:30 PM, Bluegrass Today reports, at his home in Hendersonville, Tenn. He was five days shy of his 84th birthday.A titan of the bluegrass genre who was known for incorporating a wide variety of musical sounds and styles into his work, Osborne and his brother and bandmate, Bobby Osborne, were born in rural Kentucky and grew up near Dayton, Ohio. They began pursuing music as teenagers, and by the early 1950s, they'd begun...

After weeks of being called out as racist and misogynistic, the video for J Balvin and Tokischa’s collaboration “Perra” (“female dog”) disappeared from YouTube on October 17. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tokischa spoke about the controversy for the first time, saying she’s sorry about how the video had been interpreted. Raymi Paulus, Tokischa’s manager and the video’s director, added in an email that the video was meant as a “satirical representation” of the “many contexts of the word ‘perra’” as well as life in the barrios of the...

Rising star Brittney Spencer is set to hit the road for her first-ever headlining run at the end of 2021. Her In a Perfect World Tour -- which is named after a line from "Sober and Skinny," a song she put out over the summer -- kicks off Dec. 2 at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City, Billboard reports. From there, Spencer will continue to hit clubs and small venues in Nashville, Michigan, Florida and many more markets. The In a Perfect World Tour will wrap in February 2022...

From the streets, to the 20,000-plus seats filled at Madison Square Garden, to the millions online, El Alfa’s La Leyenda del Dembow World Tour stop on Oct. 22 was nothing short of a triumph. The artist, born Emanuel Herrera, is the first star from the Dominican Republic’s dembow genre to headline the arena, and his performance there was a landmark statement about the authority that Dominican acts hold in el movimiento — the musical movement — across Latin America and the world. Dembow is a source of constant reinvention that,...

Brandi Carlile made her Saturday Night Live debut on Saturday night (Oct. 23), appearing as the musical guest for an early Season 47 episode of the late-night sketch comedy television show. The singer-songwriter offered up two songs from her newest album, In These Silent Days.Carlile and collaborators Phil and Tim Hanseroth, backed by Shooter Jennings on piano and two percussionists, first played "Broken Horses," which shares its title with Carlile's recently released memoir. She, in a shining gold suit and playing an orange electric guitar, stood center stage and was flanked by the...