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Taylor Swift Channels Her Inner Jessie With New ‘Toy Story 5’ Song “I Knew It, I Knew You”

Eric Alper
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Taylor Swift Channels Her Inner Jessie With New ‘Toy Story 5’ Song “I Knew It, I Knew You”

Taylor Swift grew up with the ‘Toy Story’ films, and now she’s part of one. The global superstar has lent her voice to the ‘Toy Story 5’ soundtrack with an original song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” and she’s telling the story behind it in an exclusive ABC sit-down as part of a new special.

‘Toy Story 30 Years and Beyond – A Special Edition of 20/20’ airs Friday, June 12 from 8-9 pm ET/PT on ABC and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. The hour charts Pixar’s rise from making shorts and TV commercials to becoming an animation superpower, told by the people who lived it.

A longtime admirer of composer Randy Newman, Swift says the movie’s message hit her so personally that it inspired a song bringing her back to her country roots. She channels her inner Jessie on the track, joining the long line of fans who can’t picture these films without Newman’s iconic music.

The two turned the LA premiere into a moment. Swift and Newman surprised the audience by performing after the end credits, with Swift playing “I Knew It, I Knew You” and joining Newman for a duet of the classic “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” the song that opened the very first film back in 1995.

The special digs into how the original ‘Toy Story,’ voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, was so challenging it almost wasn’t made, and how that first full-length computer-animated feature paired technical innovation with real storytelling heart. It also looks ahead to ‘Toy Story 5,’ with exclusive footage and a behind-the-scenes look at Pixar’s Emeryville campus.

The lineup of voices is deep. Interviews include Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Joan Cusack as Jessie, Greta Lee as Lilypad, Tony Hale as Forky, Ernie Hudson as Combat Carl, Craig Robinson as Atlas, Blake Clark as Slinky Dog, Jeff Bergman as Mr. Potato Head, and Wallace Shawn as Rex, plus Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, director Andrew Stanton, and co-director Kenna Harris.

Open Mike Eagle And Producer Kenny Segal Drop The First Half-Whimsical Breakup Album On ‘DOOMED!’

Eric Alper
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Open Mike Eagle And Producer Kenny Segal Drop The First Half-Whimsical Breakup Album On ‘DOOMED!’

Two friends of nearly 20 years finally built something whole together. Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal announce their first full collaborative album ‘DOOMED!,’ out August 14 via Backwoodz, with worldwide physical distribution through Rhymesayers / Secretly. The duo shared the first single, “Unfinished Concrete Initials” featuring Hemlock Ernst, alongside the news.

The record runs 15 songs and lands somewhere none of us have been before, what the duo calls the world’s first half-whimsical breakup album. It’s five years in a blender, every misunderstanding of a long relationship stretched into an absurdist black comedy on wax, the sound of every fight playing at once.

It’s also Los Angeles. Both Mike and Kenny arrived in the city as young, aspiring artists pulled toward the scene around the groundbreaking rap crew Project Blowed, and they’ve been friends and occasional collaborators ever since. ‘DOOMED!’ marks the first time they’ve built a full body of work together, and the timing made it click. Mike was processing the end of a turbulent relationship and hungry for catharsis. Kenny, fresh off acclaimed collaborations with billy woods, K-the-I???, Human Error Club, and Benjamin Booker, was looking for his next challenge.

“In recent years, Kenny made it very clear that he wasn’t trying to keep having one or two beats on my projects; he wanted to build something,” Open Mike Eagle explains. “Then my relationship fell apart right when we started working, and it was like, ‘Perfect, I have a lot to say about this.'”

Mike frames the album like prestige TV. “Out To Lunch” is the pilot, introducing a man whose head is still stuck in yesterday. From there it moves through fights about the color of a rental car, a prayer for the strength not to check an ex’s social media, a doomed attempt to carve lovers’ initials into wet concrete, and an Adventure Time character he describes as someone he uncomfortably identifies with.

The writing is vivid and strange in the best way. “Each vision is a crashed airplane halfway on the border of dream and nightmare, bitter and sweet, sadness and freedom,” Mike says. “Every one of Kenny’s beats is a chunk of ore from a different comet. I used each one as a canvas to paint my impression of a dead world.”

DOOMED! Tracklisting:

  1. Out to Lunch
  2. Streets of Rage: Public Arguments Edition feat. Gothic Tropic
  3. DOOMED!
  4. Unfinished Concrete Initials feat. Hemlock Ernst
  5. Don’t Go Look (Battleworld Focus Prayer)
  6. She Swear I’m Colorblind feat. billy woods
  7. Science Fiction/Fantasy
  8. The Irredeemable Magic Man
  9. The Many Hustles of my Lonely Time Traveling Uncle
  10. Trying to Remember What I Aimed At
  11. Shrodinger’s Green Room (There but Uninvited)
  12. It Happens in Every Universe (interlude)
  13. Sweetheart Jail
  14. Infinity War Spoliers
  15. Watching a Movie Called Freedom By Myself

The Waterboys Unearth Lost ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ Treasures On ‘Atlantic Rain’

Eric Alper
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The Waterboys Unearth Lost ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ Treasures On ‘Atlantic Rain’

Nearly 40 years after the sessions, The Waterboys are opening the vault. The band has announced ‘Atlantic Rain – The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings,’ a 25-track collection of previously unheard music from the classic ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ era, out July 17 via Chrysalis Records in 3CD, 3LP, and digital editions.

The backstory is staggering. During the 1986-88 sessions, The Waterboys recorded almost 400 multi-track reels, many running at half-speed to pack in more music. Around a fifth of those reels carried no song titles, just scribbled notes like “instrumental,” “unknown,” “soundcheck,” or “jam.” Band leader Mike Scott finally went through the mystery tapes in 2024-25 and pulled out a trove of release-worthy performances.

Among the finds are never-before-heard songs like “Come Back To Galway,” “Light Shine On Me,” and “Endless Store,” the epic “Man With The Wind At His Heels,” and covers of Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and Willie Nelson. The set stands proudly alongside the legendary 6-disc ‘Fisherman’s Box’ from 2013, once thought to be the final word on these sessions.

A second preview track is out now, a passionate cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” with a new lyric video streaming. It follows last month’s first teaser, “Too Close To Heaven (soul version).” There’s also a fresh remix of the classic “We Will Not Be Lovers,” recently featured in the Netflix show ‘Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen.’

When ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ arrived in 1988, it marked a sharp turn for the band. After their early alternative rock records, they relocated to Ireland and embraced roots, country, and Celtic music, and as ‘Atlantic Rain’ shows, the palette also stretched into soul, old-time gospel, and ecstatic instrumental jams. The album drew bemusement, delight, and rage in equal measure on release, and has since become the band’s biggest seller. The physical editions come with a 54-page deluxe book featuring track-by-track notes from Scott.

This summer brings the music to the stage. The Waterboys head out on a nine-date arena run dubbed The Fisherman’s Blues Revue, celebrating the era across Dublin, London, Glasgow, and Europe. The shows feature Americana great Steve Earle, who joins the ensemble singing his own songs while adding guitar and mandolin to Waterboys numbers, alongside legendary fiddler Steve Wickham and ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ flautist Colin Blakey. The lineup also includes Brother Paul on organ, Famous James on piano, Aongus Ralston on bass, Eamon Ferris on drums, and Norwegian lap steel ace Roar Øien. Tickets are on sale now.

Atlantic Rain Tracklisting:

  1. Too Close To Heaven (soul version)
  2. Come Back To Galway
  3. The Man With The Wind At His Heels
  4. And Then The Gods
  5. Light Shine On Me
  6. Endless Store
  7. This Land Is Your Land (studio version)
  8. Saints And Angels (1988 version)
  9. I Can’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
  10. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
  11. Honky Tonkin’
  12. No Expectations
  13. When Doves Cry
  14. Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground
  15. Killing My Heart (full length)
  16. Bob And Anto’s Soundcheck
  17. We Will Not Be Lovers (live take)
  18. Lost Highway (double version)
  19. The Good Ship Sirius / The Ship In Full Sail
  20. Mister Saxman
  21. The Waves
  22. The Last Jam (long version)
  23. Night Falls On Windmill Lane
  24. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
  25. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

Video: Cypress Hill Bring The Smoke To Germany’s Summerjam Festival In 2019

Eric Alper
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Video: Cypress Hill Bring The Smoke To Germany’s Summerjam Festival In 2019

Cypress Hill rolled into Cologne in 2019 and reminded everyone why they’ve spent three decades owning festival stages. Captured by Rockpalast at the Summerjam Festival, the South Gate, California crew tore through a career-spanning set built on the gritty, psychedelic hip-hop they pioneered in the early 90s. The lineup brought B-Real and Sen Dog on vocals, Mix Master Mike on the turntables, and Eric Bobo on percussion, a combination that hits with serious force live. The setlist pulled from across their catalog, from “Hand On The Pump” and “When The Shit Goes Down” to the inescapable “Jump Around” and newer cuts off their 2018 record ‘Elephants On Acid.’ Ever since their 1991 debut and the monumental ‘Black Sunday’ in 1993, which gave the world “Insane In The Brain,” they’ve built a sound on DJ Muggs’ smooth loops and the contrasting deliveries of B-Real and Sen Dog.

The Tiny Bumps On Your F And J Keys Have A Secret 138-Year History

Eric Alper
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The Tiny Bumps On Your F And J Keys Have A Secret 138-Year History

Ever run your fingers across a keyboard and felt those two tiny ridges on the F and J keys? A new explainer from Simple Things – Surprising Histories digs into why they’re there, and the answer goes back more than a century. Those bumps are homing bars, physical anchors that let your index fingers find the home row without looking down. The video traces the story from the birth of touch typing in 1888, credited to Frank Edward McGurrin, through the shift away from slow hunt-and-peck typing, to June E. Botich’s 2002 standardization of the tactile ridges we use today. There’s a fun detour into vintage 1980s Apple keyboards, which oddly placed the bumps on D and K instead, plus a look at the science of tactile priming and the nerve endings in your fingertips that make the whole system work. It’s a clean, four-minute history of a design detail most people never think about, and the comments add a great wrinkle: blind computer users point out those same bumps are essential for navigating a keyboard by touch.

Muscle Shoals Quartet The Family Turn Six Years Of Patience Into Debut Album ‘Delusions of Grandeur’

Eric Alper
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Muscle Shoals Quartet The Family Turn Six Years Of Patience Into Debut Album ‘Delusions of Grandeur’

HEADLINE Muscle Shoals Quartet The Family Turn Six Years Of Patience Into Debut Album ‘Delusions of Grandeur’

TAGS: The Family, Dylan LeBlanc, James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, Bay Simpson, Claire Nichols, Rodney Hall, Spencer Coats, Brad Crisler, Jesse Walker, Candi Staton, John Paul White, Jason Isbell, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, FAME Studios, Big Black Cow Records,

BLOG POST Four acclaimed Muscle Shoals songwriters waited six years to let this record out, and now it’s coming. The Family, made up of Dylan LeBlanc, James LeBlanc, Angela Hacker, and Bay Simpson, announce their debut album ‘Delusions of Grandeur,’ due July 31 via Big Black Cow Records. The connection runs deeper than the music. Dylan is James’ son, Bay is Angela’s son, and James and Angela raised the boys together as a family of musicians.

They cut the album at the legendary FAME Studios in 2020, at the urging of FAME’s Rodney Hall, with no expectations about what the sessions would become. Lockdown gave them the time, and a show in Huntsville gave them their first taste of playing together publicly. The idea of a band took shape from there.

Lead single “The End,” out today, is taut and timeless, soulful folk rock built on lush harmonies, jazzy chord changes, and a groove that wouldn’t sound out of place on a lost Eagles or Steely Dan record. James sings lead and digs into darker territory. “To me the song is about nihilism. People’s fascination with post-apocalyptic hysteria,” he says, describing a “staring into the abyss” mentality that comes naturally to where the family comes from as people.

The road here wasn’t smooth. Dylan, Angela, and James each fought private battles with substances and alcohol, and the family had drifted apart over the years under the weight of touring schedules and separate lives. The record pulled them back together. “We all came into it carrying different scars, different experiences, and different stories of survival, but through the music we found healing in each other,” they shared in a family statement, calling the album proof that broken things can still become beautiful.

With Spencer Coats engineering and Brad Crisler co-producing, each member brought ideas to FAME, and the sessions forged a bond that shaped the album they’d always heard in their heads. Once the world reopened, though, no label bit. Dylan kept the flame alive in January 2026 by sharing the riff-driven “Pick Your Poison” on Spotify, billed as Dylan LeBlanc, The Family, and it became one of his most popular tracks.

The final push came from Jesse “Chunk” Walker, a naval officer and entrepreneur married to Dylan’s twin sister, whose online store Big Black Cow Records gave the album a home. “So much of your life, you can sit around and just wait for someone to give you an opportunity, and you’ll be waiting for a really long time,” James says. “Why don’t we create the opportunity for ourselves?”

The album channels a ’70s folk-rock sound, full of FM radio warmth and Southern rock grit. The hook-laden “History of Things to Come” puts Angela up front, while the Fleetwood Mac-esque “Everybody Loves You Now,” powered by Bay, is the quartet’s own favorite. It’s a warm, lived-in collection that earns every bit of its golden-age comparison.

The album is only the start. The Family recently cut seven new songs plus a live album from their first shows in May 2026. “We go through what any other family would go through,” Angela says. “Then we get to share what we love, which is music, that’s so freaking cool to me.”

Video: Mumford & Sons Turn A Berlin Festival Field Into A Singalong At Lollapalooza 2023

Eric Alper
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Video: Mumford & Sons Turn A Berlin Festival Field Into A Singalong At Lollapalooza 2023

Mumford & Sons made Berlin’s Olympiapark feel like a living room in September 2023, headlining Lollapalooza with the communal energy that’s become their signature. The British folk-rock outfit pulled from across their catalog, moving from the banjo-driven anthems that first broke them worldwide to the bigger, stadium-sized rock of their later records. Marcus Mumford and the band have always known how to shrink a festival field down to something intimate, and this set swung from hushed acoustic passages to full-band crescendos with the whole crowd singing along. Rooted in the West London folk scene and built on the back of ‘Sigh No More’ and ‘Babel,’ their sound leans on bluegrass instrumentation, soaring harmonies, and lyrics that land with real feeling. This performance catches them firing on all cylinders, a great snapshot of a band that connects with tens of thousands through sheer force.


Rush Drummer Anika Nilles Sits Down With Rick Beato To Talk Filling Neil Peart’s Seat

Eric Alper
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Rush Drummer Anika Nilles Sits Down With Rick Beato To Talk Filling Neil Peart’s Seat

Anika Nilles has the hardest gig in rock right now, and she’s making it look effortless. In a new interview with Rick Beato, the German drummer opens up about joining Rush as their touring drummer, the pressure of stepping into Neil Peart’s legacy, and the world tour that’s already won over the band’s famously devoted fanbase. She learned 40 Rush songs in under a year and nailed opening night at the Kia Forum, drawing a standing ovation after her Tom Sawyer solo. Nilles talks about how she got started, what the run has meant to her, and the weight of one of the most scrutinized jobs in live music. Her playing speaks for itself, and her humility has made her an easy figure for Rush fans to rally behind.

Maya Hawke Brings Folk Heart To KEXP With A Four-Song Live Session

Eric Alper
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Maya Hawke Brings Folk Heart To KEXP With A Four-Song Live Session

Maya Hawke walked into the KEXP studio with a guitar and a trio, and what came out is one of the loveliest live sessions of the year. The four-song set runs through “Bring Home My Man,” “Slacker In The Rye,” “Heavy Rain,” and “Lioness,” with Christian Lee Hutson on vocals and guitar and Odessa Jorgensen adding violin and harmonies. Hawke’s voice carries the whole thing, delicate and unhurried, the kind of performance that pulls you in inside the first minute.


Stranger Things: The Hawkins Kids Who Traded the Upside Down for the Recording Studio

Eric Alper
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Stranger Things: The Hawkins Kids Who Traded the Upside Down for the Recording Studio

Here’s a fun thing about Stranger Things. The Netflix juggernaut turned a group of unknown kids into household names, revived interest in 80s classics like Kate Bush and The Clash, and quietly assembled one of the most musically stacked casts on television. Half of Hawkins moonlights as a working musician. Behind some of the series’ most beloved characters are nine actors who have formed bands, recorded albums, and gone on concert tours in between hunting alternate dimension monsters.

So grab your Walkman. Here are the Stranger Things stars who turned out to be the real deal behind a microphone.

Joe Keery, aka Djo

If you’ve spent any time on TikTok in the past couple of years, you’ve heard his music whether you knew it or not. Before Steve Harrington’s hair became iconic, Keery was the vocalist and guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Post Animal, joining the Chicago group in 2015 and recording their debut album before leaving as Stranger Things took off. He then launched a solo project under the name Djo, and it has become the most successful music career to emerge from the cast.

The breakthrough came from an unlikely place. ‘End of Beginning’ was originally released in September 2022 as the sixth track on his second album ‘Decide,’ but gained massive popularity on TikTok in early 2024 and was issued as a single that March. The song kept climbing. It peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, then caught a second wave following the end of the series, eventually hitting number one on the UK Singles Chart in January 2026. The song is deeply tied to the show’s themes. Keery has said it was inspired by leaving Chicago for Los Angeles after his breakout role, and is about looking back at a section of your life and yearning for it while appreciating what happened. He’s kept the momentum going, releasing a new Djo album, ‘The Crux,’ in April 2025, recorded at legendary studios including Electric Lady in New York.

Maya Hawke

Robin Buckley’s portrayer is a serious singer-songwriter with a real catalog behind her. Maya Hawke has been steadily building a body of folk-tinged indie work, and her third studio album, ‘Chaos Angel,’ arrived on May 31, 2024, while she was filming the fifth and final season of Stranger Things in Atlanta.

Fans have begged for the obvious crossover. Asked whether she’d ever make music with Keery, Hawke offered a thoughtful no, at least for now. She explained that the show is so big anything they did together would probably overshadow it, and that it would be a long time before anyone on the show publicly collaborated, though they all listen to and engage with each other’s work.

Finn Wolfhard

Mike Wheeler himself has been making music almost as long as he’s been on the show. Wolfhard took center stage as the frontman of the rock band Calpurnia, formed in 2017, which released a single EP, 2018’s ‘Scout,’ showcasing his howling vocals and funky guitar riffs. When that project ran its course, he started another. After Calpurnia dissolved in 2019, Wolfhard formed a second band, The Aubreys, featuring more mature songwriting, which released an album called ‘Karaoke Alone’ in 2021. He’s gone solo too, dropping the album ‘Happy Birthday’ in 2025, leaning into indie rock, folk, and introspective songwriting.

Jamie Campbell Bower

The actor who brought the terrifying Vecna to life is no newcomer to the stage. Known to fans as the season four big bad, Jamie was the frontman of the UK punk-rock band Counterfeit, which released the album ‘Together We Are Stronger’ in 2017 and toured extensively before going on hiatus. His more recent work takes a far more personal turn. In 2024, he returned with his solo album ‘The Panic Years,’ a dark, emotionally raw project that dives into mental health, addiction, and recovery.

Charlie Heaton

Jonathan Byers’ moody artistic streak isn’t far from the truth. Charlie Heaton was a musician before he was an actor. Drumming, specifically. Before he got into acting, Heaton played drums in several rock bands, even moving to London at 16 to pursue music, and played in the band Comanechi where he met former partner and lead singer Akiko Matsuura.

Caleb McLaughlin

Lucas Sinclair’s actor has been carving out his own lane as a solo artist. Caleb McLaughlin has released singles including his 2021 debut ‘Neighborhood’ and a follow-up, ‘Soul Travel,’ and has stressed that he takes music seriously as a pursuit rather than a hobby.

The Broadway Crew

Not every musical Hawkins kid went the rock-band route. A few honed their chops in the most demanding live setting there is. Gaten Matarazzo performed in Les Misérables on Broadway, Caleb McLaughlin was in The Lion King, and Sadie Sink starred in Annie, all roles requiring serious vocal ability. It’s part of why the cast is so musically gifted across the board.

When you step back, a cast this musical feels almost inevitable given the show itself. The music of Stranger Things, whether the original score or the licensed soundtracks, has been one of the show’s most beloved elements, from reviving Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ to soundtracking key emotional beats with 80s staples. A show that lives and breathes music was always going to attract performers who feel the same way. The Upside Down may be closed for business, but the cast’s recording careers are very much still open.

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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