Music

The Network — who are not Green Day under their masks — made their late-night debut Friday with a virtual performance of “Threat Level Midnight” on The Tonight Show. Although the Network sounds a lot like Green Day, and their luchador mask-wearing drummer looks a lot Tre Cool, and they are also signed to the same label as Green Day (Warner Records), the long-dormant new wave band have been insisting since their 2003 formation that they are not a Green Day side project. The mysterious band first released their 2003...

If the country music community truly values authenticity, then they'll rally behind Ashlie Amber.Don't flinch when you see her mohawk. Don't drop your jaw when you see the singer-songwriter's full figure in revealing swimsuits on Instagram. If the color of her skin has you making assumptions about her style of music, reset your expectations.The Colorado-raised, Las Vegas-based chanteuse knows who she is now, after years spent hiding her hair with wigs and hating her body. Google her name to find a four-word biography as elegant as it is confident:Ashlie Amber: Black Female Country SingerAmber's mid-20s were...

Taylor Swift has canceled all of her pending tour dates due to the “unprecedented pandemic.” The star had a small slate of shows planned for last summer in support of her 2019 album Lover; they were all postponed in April of last year due to the pandemic. Swift made the announcement on social media Friday evening. “I love coming on here to tell you good news, or to share a new project with you,” she wrote. “It’s not my favorite thing in the world to have to tell you news...

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn't been easy for Dylan Jakobsen, but it has been an opportunity to re-center himself and his priorities. His new song "Don't Ya Think?," premiering exclusively on The Boot, musically expresses a desire to keep a positive outlook and live each day to the fullest, even with the world around him partially shut down and headlines full of heavy news.Jakobsen was writing for a new album in early 2020, but when COVID-related closures and changes began in earnest in the United States, "inspiration really came into full fruition."...

Fatimah Warner’s verified Twitter page is an endless sprawl of revolutionary reading material (she’s been studying Karl Marx), a bulletin of global atrocities (LGBTQ activists in Ghana are living in fear of violent persecution, don’t you know), and a celebration of advocates and activists (Nina Simone and communist writer Claudia Jones, recently). With only four songs released since her last album as the rapper Noname, 2018’s triumphant Room 25, Warner has been engaging fans, detractors, and spectators in her radical education. On the internet, she behaves more like a peer...

Reba McEntire is returning to television to reprise her previous appearance on Young Sheldon. The country superstar posted to social media on Wednesday (Feb. 24) to reveal her upcoming guest appearance. which is set to air on Thursday (Feb. 25)."June's back! Don’t miss her return to Young Sheldon tomorrow night at 8/7c on CBS!" McEntire writes, adding the hashtag #YoungSheldon.She posted a picture of herself reflected in a dressing room mirror to accompany the announcement, writing, "June's Back!" in what appears to be lipstick on the mirror.McEntire debuted in the...

As part of Rolling Stone‘s Icons & Influences series, Maren Morris discussed what Sheryl Crow meant to her as a budding musician in the late Nineties. “I would just gush over her album inserts, and see who played on what song, did she write these songs with the same people from the last album,” the country singer recalled. “I remember kind of obsessing over her early on.” Morris emphasized Crow’s particular songwriting style, pinpointing “Strong Enough” as “one of her greatest songwriting achievements.” “Even though I’m happily married, it takes...

The Shootouts are having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day in their new song "Here Come the Blues." The honky-tonk group is premiering the song exclusively with The Boot; press play below to listen.While the song's melody is upbeat, steady and twangy, the protagonist of "Here Come the Blues" is having a tough time. His love has left him, and he's facing down a pity party with an unwanted guest: his emotions. And, oh, by the way, "her chair just stubbed my toe."The Shootouts' lead singer Ryan Humbert calls the...

Wolf Alice have announced new album, Blue Weekend. The follow-up to 2018’s Mercury Prize-winning Visions of a Life, the upcoming LP arrives on June 11th via Dirty Hit/RCA Records and is available for preorder. The band also shared the video for the album’s first single, “The Last Man on Earth.” In the Jordan Hemingway-directed clip, vocalist-guitarist Ellie Rowsell is filmed in black-and-white as she delivers the song about “the arrogance of humans.” “And every book you take and dust off from the shelf/Has lines between lines between lines that you...

Trisha Yearwood has been diagnosed with COVID-19, a statement from the country star and her husband, Garth Brooks, revealed on Wednesday (Feb. 24). Brooks, meanwhile, remains negative for the virus.Brooks and Yearwood were already quarantined because someone within their "inner circle" tested positive for COVID-19 around Feb. 11. They were tested about one week after their initial exposure to the virus, and then continued to quarantine. The statement explains that "subsequent tests" revealed Yearwood's positive diagnosis.“The Queen and I have now tested twice. Officially, she’s diagnosed as ‘on her way out...

Coldplay’s “Fix You” was always something of a hymn, and last night, the song finally got the choir it needed. On their MTV Unplugged performance, the seven members of South Korean pop powerhouse BTS delivered an angelic, meticulously arranged, goose-bump-inducing cover of the song. It was a ridiculously perfect performance that should convert any remaining skeptics of K-pop, Coldplay, soaring balladry, and/or the power of the human spirit. “This song gave us comfort,” BTS’ Jimin said, “so we wanted to prepare this cover to comfort you as well.” In BTS’ rendition, what...