Jack White was a guest on Conan O’Brien’s show in 2014 and expressed how happy he was when The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” is played in sports arenas around the world.
Kid Cudi Announces “To The Moon – 2022 World Tour”
Multi-hyphenate artist Scott Mescudi aka Kid Cudi announces his To the Moon – 2022 World Tour in 27 cities across North America, Asia, and Europe. The tour kicks off with 20 North American shows starting in Vancouver on August 16, and will include stops at The Kia Forum in Los Angeles, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, American Airlines Center in Dallas, and the United Center in Chicago. Then in the Fall, “To The Moon” travels to the Toyosu PIT in Japan and all over Europe, including The O2 in London, Verti Music Hall in Berlin, AFAS Live in Amsterdam, Palais 12 in Brussels, and the Zenith in Paris, with Milan closing out the tour at Fabrique on November 22.
Kid Cudi is supported throughout the North American leg by Don Toliver and Strick on all dates, with additional support on select dates by Denzel Curry and 070 Shake. Support for all international dates to be announced at a later date.
Along with “To The Moon,” Kid Cudi announced the inaugural “Moon Man’s Landing” festival in his hometown of Cleveland, OH on September 17, 2022. Kid Cudi curated the lineup to include some of his favorite artists such as Playboi Carti, HAIM, Don Toliver, Dominic Fike, Pusha T, Jaden, 070 Shake, and more.
On September 30, 2022 Kid Cudi will debut “Entergalactic,” an animated music series he created with Netflix. A brand-new studio album also titled “Entergalactic” will accompany the series. The first single “Do What I Want” was released on all platforms June 10.
Kid Cudi is riding high off a wide array of acclaimed work in music, television, and film, from his 2020 album Man on the Moon III: The Chosen which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 to serving as musical guest on Saturday Night Live, to collaborating with Ariana Grande on the original song “Just Look Up” for Netflix’s Don’t Look Up and starring in A24’s 2022 horror-hit X. Kid Cudi also recorded the single “Stars in the Sky” for the soundtrack to the film Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 2022.
“To The Moon” Tour 2022
Tue Aug 16, 2022 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
Thu Aug 18, 2022 Portland, OR Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Fri Aug 19, 2022 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
Sun Aug 21, 2022 Oakland, CA Oakland Arena
Tue Aug 23, 2022 San Diego, CA Pechanga Arena
Wed Aug 24, 2022 Los Angeles, CA The Kia Forum
Thu Aug 25, 2022 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center
Sat Aug 27, 2022 Denver, CO Ball Arena
Tue Aug 30, 2022 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
Wed Aug 31, 2022 Austin, TX Moody Center
Thu Sep 1, 2022 Houston, TX Toyota Center
Sun Sep 4, 2022 Miami, FL FTX Arena
Tue Sep 6, 2022 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
Thu Sep 8, 2022 Washington DC Capital One Arena
Fri Sep 9, 2022 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
Sat Sep 10, 2022 Boston, MA TD Garden
Mon Sep 12, 2022 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
Wed Sep 14, 2022 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
Fri Sep 16, 2022 Chicago, IL United Center
Sat Sep 17, 2022 Cleveland, OH Moon Man’s Landing
Tue Oct 17, 2022 Tokyo, Japan Toyosu PIT
Sat Nov 12, 2022 Berlin, Germany Verti Music Hall
Sun Nov 13, 2022 Amsterdam, Netherlands AFAS Live
Tue Nov 15, 2022 London, UK The O2
Thu Nov 17, 2022 Brussels, Belgium Palais 12
Sun Nov 20, 2022 Paris, France Zenith
Tue Nov 22, 2022 Milan, Italy Fabrique
Apple’s Fitness+ Artist Spotlight Series returns with music from Elton John, Katy Perry, Prince and Daft Punk
This week, Apple’s Fitness+ Artist Spotlight Series returns with music from Elton John, Katy Perry, Prince and Daft Punk!
Every Monday for four weeks, Fitness+ subscribers can enjoy new workouts featuring each artist across different workout types, including Cycling, HIIT, Strength, Yoga, Dance and Treadmill.
- Try a Cycling workout with music by Prince, a HIIT workout with music by Katy Perry, a Strength workout with music by Daft Punk and a Yoga workout with music by Elton John.
- In the Cycling workout, Fitness+ trainer Sherica Holmon will take users through seven working songs to coincide with Prince’s affinity to the number seven including “Kiss,” “I wanna be your lover,” and “I would die 4 U” amongst others.
- In a Yoga workout led by Fitness+ trainer Molly Fox, users will flow to the music of Elton John featuring four ballads from his incredible catalog including “Tiny Dancer,” “Your Song,” “Daniel,” and “Blessed.” Each song will explore a different pose as users stand, reach, bend, and twist.
- In an upcoming Treadmill workout featuring the music of Katy Perry, Fitness+ trainer Jamie-Ray Hartshorne, will coach users through some of Katy Perry’s biggest hits including “Teenage Dream,” “California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg),” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F),” and “Firework” amongst others.
Artist Spotlight Series
- The Artist Spotlight series features over 50 workouts across nearly every workout type featuring the music of artists like BTS, Queen, Nicki Minaj, The Beatles, Shakira, Calvin Harris, Keith Urban, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Lopez amongst others.
- Inspired by the Artist Spotlight Fitness+ workouts, Apple Music and Apple One subscribers can enjoy the Fitness+ Spotlight series, which features a unique playlist for each individual Artist Spotlight musician, including motivating, high-energy tracks from their entire catalogs, as well as collaborations and remixes to keep people moving outside of their Fitness+ workouts.
- Apple Fitness+ is a fitness experience for everyone, powered by Apple Watch. With personal metrics from your Apple Watch synced on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.
- Enjoy eleven types of workouts and guided meditation featuring the world’s top trainers. Or lace up your running shoes and try Time to Walk, an audio walking experience with inspiring guests and Time to Run, which guides you through international running routes, city by city.
- Fitness+ is available as a subscription service for $12.99 CAD per month or $99 CAD per year.
- Three months of Apple Fitness+ are included for with the purchase Apple Watch Series 3 or later, and one month of Fitness+ is included for existing Apple Watch users.
Ringo Starr’s Isolated Vocals For The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends”
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this song in mid-March 1967,written specifically as Starr’s track for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, and later would peak at number 63 in Britain and number 71 in the United States.
Alt-Rockers SOUL FILTER Say “The City Knows” with New Single
Award-nominated Canadian alt-rock outfit Soul Filter unveil their new song exploring the unforgiving nature of big cities, all from the perspective of a small-town girl, with this, their fiery new single, “The City Knows.”
Produced by John Angus MacDonald of The Trews and dripping with ‘90s nostalgia, “The City Knows” is a page torn from a diarist’s letter to the era of cassette walkmans and no smartphones. Lending itself to be more of a dark fairy tale, the song reflects the artists that have heavily inspired Soul Filter — in this track’s case, think the introspective, confessional vibe or Fleetwood Mac coupled with the ethereal, high-energy flair of Florence & The Machine.
“The City Knows” is based on the true story of a small-town girl who finally makes it to the big city and quickly realizes it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “Though I was in a city surrounded by people, I never felt so alone,” lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Karen Penton shares. “It’s forever seared in my memory…
“Writing about it years later, I was able to see it from a new perspective.”
The emotional complexity of discovering oneself in a new place is explored through beautifully laid literary devices embedded in the lyrics. The lonesome journey in a big city is captured in “The City Knows” to emphasize the internal struggle of navigating the path less travelled.
“There’s a pretty fantasy
An emerald buried somewhere in the city
If it glitters then it’s gold
My ruby shoes are gonna save my soul
Milk and honey, wait for me
At the end of a fairy tale street
Got no reason to disbelieve
Sometimes I feel like it wants me to leave”
Once a rough version of “The City Knows” came together, a demo was sent to John Angus MacDonald of The Trews for production. Colin MacDonald of The Trews and Halifax singer/songwriter/producer Chris Kirby were then brought in to help lyrically flesh out the rest of the song.
Fast forward to a recording session in Prince Edward Island with John Angus himself, and the result speaks for itself.
After meeting in 2001 and falling musically in love, husband and wife songwriting duo Karen and Mike Penton decided to take their talent and create something original. With several ‘90s cover bands under their belt, they began their new musical adventure in 2017 and founded Soul Filter. They have since released their debut album, A Minor Conspiracy, which garnered a 2020 Music PEI nomination for Rock Recording of the Year.
Songwriter & Producer JOHN TOMAINO Captures the “Freeze Frame” with Release of New Single
Fresh from a forthcoming genre-bending album brimming with catchy, yet profound, songs, award-nominated songwriter and producer John Tomaino ushers audiences between the stills with a hypnotic new single, “Freeze Frame.”
Tomaino’s core musical DNA is on full display throughout the track, allowing “Freeze Frame” to serve as a prime preview for the Australian artist’s new album, People Will Talk — due out this Summer 2022 via Epictronic Records.
This is Tomaino’s debut album release, and it showcases not only his genre-bending productions that span EDM, electronic, pop, rock, indie, folk, hip hop, adult contemporary, and more, but also his multiple talents as the release’s writer, arranger, and producer. Despite the astonishing diversity of tunes, however, this is not a compilation album — but rather a cohesive body of work with a strong identity.
Nowhere is this more on display than in “Freeze Frame” which joins the LP’s 12 original tracks by embodying Tomaino’s main motto — to “serve the song” — as he blissfully ignores genres and lets the track, like all his others, dictate what it wants to be. Creating unique and engaging sonic landscapes that stand the test of time, it’s music “with an extended warranty,” as he puts it.
Critically acclaimed, industry peers, icons, and audiences alike have taken notice; Tomaino’s original music first caught the attention of famed US multi-platinum Music Producer, Scott Mathews, who said it’s “the most important sound to come out of Australia since Midnight Oil,” adding that Tomaino’s music has “a cool Van vibe with an aria of optimism that distinguishes JT in a whole other class than Mr. Morrison.”
DamnGoodTunes Magazine in the US agreed, declaring Tomaino “a fine, fine talent reclaiming a lost art” and, along the way, Sir Paul McCartney’s publishing house in New York spotted a great songwriter in Tomaino, adding his song “Emergency” to their prestigious catalog.
Ahead of his upcoming debut album release for People Will Talk, John Tomaino continues to be recognized in multiple songwriting awards — including as a Finalist in the Australian Music Awards and the Great American Song Contest.
Durham County Poets Are “Back at the Groove Shack,” Leading the Soulful Way ‘Out of the Woods’ with New Album & Single
There’s no stopping anyone with the right attitude and some ambition and, for Canadian powerhouse blues band Durham County Poets, the drive to get “Back at the Groove Shack” after our pandemic pause is creatively evident with this, their soulful new single and album, Out of the Woods.
While we all hunkered down for the long haul of COVID, DCP lead vocalist and songwriter Kevin Harvey knew that the time was right to get working on new music that could have the power to uplift and inspire just when we all perhaps need it the most.
“The idea was for it to be a positive, uplifting experience for all involved — creators and listeners,” notes Harvey.
The result of this experience? The band’s fifth album, Out of the Woods, produced by Bill Garrett; the smooth, funky, and smile-worthy title track is the lead single that introduces the new collection in both style and substance.
From the one-word vocal intro of “alright”, the album’s title track, “Out of the Woods,” takes us down a path heading straight for the light at the end of the tunnel. Along the way, there’s continuous, rhythmic reassurance that everything is indeed going to be alright.
“The number one inspiration for the single ‘Out of the Woods’ was my mother,” says Harvey. “She has always been a rock and the kind of mom that has the ability to set you straight! Get me off my high horse and or kick my behind if I start feeling sorry for myself, and always with love.”
We ain’t home yet but we’re out of the woods
Come on now, take a look at this world and start acting like we know we should
DCP has a lot to live up to and surpass after scoring a 2020 JUNO nomination for Best Blues Album of the Year for their fourth record, Hand Me Down Blues, and watching it stay on Roots Music Report’s Top 50 chart in Canada for more than 12 months. The album also received two Maple Blues Awards nominations and a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination for Kevin Harvey.
While Harvey is the voice out front, Durham County Poets are a “band in the truest sense of the word,” they share.
“Every member writes and arranges and brings something unique to the table,” says Harvey. “You’ll hear a variety of genres and a broad range of styles.” Those DCP members are David Whyte on guitar and backing vocals, Neil Elsmore on guitar and backing vocals, Carl Rufh on bass and backing vocals, and Rob Couture on drums.
“The guys in the band wrote songs that bolster that positive uplifting vibe, it’s peppered all over the album,” he continues. “Even when the content is somewhat sobering and can be a tad weighty, the end result is relevance and beauty, and a bit of humour never hurt nobody either.”
Positivity, forward-thinking, and passion are the key drivers for bandleader Kevin Harvey, who has been in a wheelchair since 1981 after what he calls a “stupid accident.“ He sees it as just one experience among many in his life and will not allow it to define or confine him. With the grace of God, the collective power of the band, and the slowly changing views of society towards the disabled, DCP has been able to realize some of the hopes and aspirations they all have as musicians. Harvey sums it up with his personal motto, “Music is a precious gift too important not to be shared.”
The belief in and celebration of that precious gift has been palpable when the band has fired up at key festivals such as Ottawa Blues, Rochester Jazz, Montréal Folk, Deep Roots Nova Scotia, Wintergrass Seattle, Port Credit, Ontario’s Southside Blues Shuffle, and the Pop-up “Superfolk” in Morin Heights, QC.
The positive power that a DCP show can have was observed by Bill Hurley of Extended Play Sessions when he wrote, “There’s something about the Durham County Poets that leaves you feeling that everything might be OK in the world after all. There’s a human spirit that lives in these people and their music is the medium that allows that spirit to roam free.”
In the coming months, the Durham County Poets will be sharing that spirit with enthralling performances increasing their usual five members to seven with a horn section. They’ll be hitting stages throughout Québec and Ontario and in the U.S. in New England and New York State in support of their fifth album Out of the Woods. Visit durhamcountypoets.com for dates.
Pop Songstress Zula Palmer Instills Thoughtful Disquietude with Dark, Synth-y New Single, “Wife”
If you want to shrug off all naivete, become a waitress. This simple truth is inherent in Philadelphia/London pop chanteuse Zula Palmer’s understatedly searing new single “Wife” – available now – about all the ways middle-aged men can be awful, harassing and cringey… Particularly in the company of young women who are, literally, a captive audience.
Dark and synth-y with syncopated beats, “Wife” is magnetic and compelling specifically because of what it doesn’t say as much as what it does. Many of the lyrical stanzas cut off before the end of certain thoughts and phrases, only to begin with what seems like a new thought or scenario. Taken together, however, feelings of anger emerge, as well as incredulity.
“’Wife’ is a tale of wacky flirtation, suspicious intentions, and, well – harassment,” Palmer says. “I had just started working at a local pub in London when I noticed how courageous some middle-aged fathers and husbands can get. The more they drink, the more they talk, and compliment, and imply (and still never tip).
“I rarely felt helpless; it was frankly entertaining to watch them embarrass themselves like that.”
The entire experience struck her as thought-provoking fodder for a narrative. “I thought it would be a fun story to pen,” she says, adding that the lyrics are just as hungry as the male gaze — especially in the chorus, which embraces food-related language. It’s “translating all kinds of hunger into an instruction of how not to approach your female server.”
At first, she approached the song like a diss track, but then she decided to make it a bit more complex. “As I kept writing, it kept turning more and more eloquent, and at some point I realized I wanted the song to feel like an anecdote, narrated more than sung, which I’d never done before,” she said. “I kept the production minimal partly because I wanted to let the lyrics shine through.”
The “pretty word play,” as she refers to the twisting and turning of the song’s phrases and stanzas, was very purposeful. As you listen, you can picture a woman who’s roiling with rage on the inside, yet who appears plastic and compliant, and maybe even flirty, on the outside.
“I really wanted to make it lyrically so attractive that nobody would even see past it to recognize ‘Wife’s merit,” Palmer says. “It’s almost as if the song was a woman.”
Zula Palmer is an emerging London-based artist who takes on the role of the 21st century storyteller. With an observant eye and an ear for compelling narrative, Palmer proves social norms to be arbitrary and redefines what it means to have an attitude. Though her empowering messages are delivered in a package of catchy melodies and snappy beats, her lyricism haunts and lingers on, inviting listeners to revisit the most obscure and unwelcome ideas, driving them into bittersweet discomfort.
She is an experienced live performer – from working as a classical pianist at the National Philharmonics in Warsaw, Poland, to pop debuts in London, and to basement shows in Philadelphia, where she currently resides.
My Next Read: “Looking for the Magic: New York City, the ’70s and the Rise of Arista Records” by Mitchell Cohen
Looking for the Magic is a cultural-historical remix, a fresh perspective on how Arista Records reflected its place and time, New York in the 1970s and early 1980s. Through interviews with dozens of artists and executives, music journalist Mitchell Cohen goes inside the business of making and marketing music during this vibrant and diverse period. Under Clive Davis, rock, pop, punk, jazz, R&B, disco, cabaret and Broadway were all represented on Arista. The label sounded like the city it was at the geographical center of.
From its inception as a new entity built on the pop and soul foundation of Bell Records, to groundbreaking artists like Gil Scott-Heron and Patti Smith, to revitalized legends like the Kinks and Aretha Franklin, up to its launching of its biggest star, Whitney Houston, Arista Records’ story has never been told like this. Looking for the Magic covers the wide scope of the label’s roster: its giant pop successes (Barry Manilow), its dedication to cutting-edge jazz (Anthony Braxton) and its embrace of rock royalty (Lou Reed, the Grateful Dead).
Looking for the Magic (named after a song by Arista group the Dwight Twilley Band) takes the reader behind the scenes, to the Kinks’ backstage fights, Lou Reed’s on-stage diatribes, and to CBGB’s, Kenny’s Castaways and the Continental Baths. We find out how “Because the Night” made its way from Bruce Springsteen to Patti Smith; how Barry Manilow went from obscurity to stardom; how MTV ushered in a second British Invasion for bands like the Thompson Twins and Haircut One Hundred; and how Arista formed alliances with adventurous labels like Stiff and Ze Records.
Grammy-nominated scribe Mitchell Cohen has written about music and film for publications such as Creem, High Fidelity, Film Comment, the Village Voice, Musician and Phonograph Record. He began working at Arista Records in the late ‘70s, as a publicity and advertising copywriter, and then as one of the label’s A&R executives, until leaving the label in 1993. He has won a Clio Award and is the co-author of the books All These Things That I’ve Done (with Matt Pinfield) and The White Label Promo Preservation Society (with Sal Maida).
Richard Reed Parry And Susie Ibarra Announce “Heart And Breath: Rhythm And Tone Fields (Offair)” Album
Today, multi instrumentalist and composer Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) and notable percussionist and composer Susie Ibarra are announcing the release of Heart and Breath: Rhythm and Tone Fields (OFFAIR) alongside a gleaming focus track and visualizer “Field II: Slow Drift”.
The project started as a sound pack for creator platform Splice, Ibarra and Parry collaborated remotely using the rhythm of their heartbeats to create each track.
The compositions that emerged are hypnotic fields of sound that seem to float suspended in time and space, unfolding gently in a manner that is at once intimate and expansive, and which connects the listener to their own most primal, internal body rhythms.
Of the recording process Reed Parry said, “This doesn’t sound like any record I’ve ever heard. There’s a sensibility to it that was enabled by remote recording, and the fact that we made our breath into music and then into samples and then we built on that to make an album. I think it’s a great new step to make a record that can exist as component pieces.”
Of “Field II: Slow Drift”, Ibarra said, “these tunings meet in an otherworldly place greeting sound from the southern Philippines with a western cadence that gently surprises us as it seems unending and continually drifts slowly along.”
Composer/performer/sound artists Richard Reed Parry and Susie Ibarra started their musical journey together after being approached by Splice to create a body of new musical work together as a first-time, long-distance music collaboration. The two decided to expand and explore an idea used in Parry’s prior composition work – using the rhythms of their heart rates and breathing patterns as the basis for rhythmic tempos and musical dynamics, paired with Ibarra’s extended rhythmic and melodic percussion language and her ongoing interpretive practice of Philippine gong music.
OFFAIR Records is a joint venture between Universal Music Canada (UMC) and Versus Creative globally distributed by UMC and Virgin Music Label + Artist Services. With a community of established artists exploring beyond their familiar sonic territories, OFFAIR’s series of releases will bring instrumental and experimental soundtracks to listener-specific environments, mental spaces and shared universal moments. The mission of OFFAIR co-founders Rishi Shah and Nate Auerbach is to create deeper experiences through music. OFFAIR is building a brand, community, and distribution system together with their partners at UMC and Virgin Music to drive intentional listening, supported by special events, partnerships and more.
Tracklisting
1. Field I: After C
2. Field II: Slow Drift
3. Field III: Even
4. Field IV: Gong
5. Field V: Sarunay Shifting
6. Field V: Sarunay Shifting
7. Field VII: Overtone Heartbeats
8. Field VIII: Hands
9. Field IX: Simple Breath