Saudi Arabia has just lifted its decades-long ban on women driving, and in a genuine celebration, Saudi rapper Leesa A released a song and video where she takes the wheel for the first time; it’s become a viral success in the Middle Eastern nations, and taking it by storm over here, too
“I don’t need anyone to take me/ Drivers’ license with me,” raps Leesa A. “I am not kidding, today I can drive myself. The steering wheel in my hands, the pedal under my foot.”
In this video from Monster Truck Ninja, digitally-animated Batman and Robin groovily dance to the Batman theme. Then they are joined by all the other characters, including a few that I’m not so sure were even in the series, which makes the video even better.
It doesn’t matter whether you love or hate guns; it’s obvious that the US would be a safer place if there weren’t thousands of them sold every day without background checks. Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, makes a passionate, personal appeal for something that more than 90 percent of Americans want: background checks for all gun sales. “For every great movement around the world, there’s a moment where you can look back and say, ‘That’s when things really started to change,'” Gross says. “For the movement to end gun violence in America, that moment is here.”
Who knew Guns N Roses Paradise City and Stevie Wonder’s Living for the City would work so well? Bill McClintock did. This good music, separately, and together.
In the early 1960s Philips in The Netherlands were working on creating a new compact cassette tape system. Meanwhile over in Japan, Sanyo were doing the exact same thing, but the results were very different…
Tracey Thorn didn’t think she was about to make a new solo record, her first in a handful of year, but with the current social and political climate, the songs flooded in. With an electronic bend that at times recalls her days in Everything But the Girl, the collection that make up Record are her catchiest and most immediate songs of her career. Thorn spoke with Kyle Meredith about the inspiration behind the tracks, her work with Warpaint and Corinne Bailey Rae, and the idea of working professionally with her husband again.
The host of Fernwood Tonight, Martin Mull, by the way, is an amazing accomplished guitar player in his own right. Mull broke into show business as a songwriter, penning Jane Morgan’s 1970 country single, A Girl Named Johnny Cash, which peaked at #61 on Billboard’s country charts. Shortly thereafter, he began his own recording career. Throughout the 1970s, and especially in the first half of the decade, Mull was best known as a musical comedian, performing satirical and humorous songs both live and in-studio recordings. Notable live gigs included opening for Randy Newman and Sandy Denny at Boston Symphony Hall in 1973; Frank Zappa at Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters in 1973; Billy Joel in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1974; and for Bruce Springsteen at the Shady Grove Music Fair in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in October 1974. His self-titled debut Album, released by Capricorn in 1972, featured many noteworthy musicians, including Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Levon Helm from The Band, Keith Spring of NRBQ and Libby Titus.
Elvis Costello and Gary Sperrazza attribute the remark, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” to Martin Mull.
OK, so, here’s Tom Waits performing The Piano Has Been Drinking and sitting down for a short interview.
In January 1980, when Wings flew to Tokyo for a tour of Japan, customs officials found approximately 8 ounces of cannabis in Paul McCartney’s luggage. They arrested McCartney and brought him to a local jail while the Japanese government decided what to do. After ten days, they released and deported him without charge. A couple of busts since then, in 1997, he spoke out in support of decriminalisation of the drug: “People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong.” He did however, decide to quit cannabis in 2015, citing a desire to set a good example for his grandchildren.
Here’s a news report from that time Paul McCartney was busted in Japan back in 1980.
Before Star Wars, Mark Hamill gained a reputation as a prolific voice actor. He first did voice acting work in the early 1970s voicing the character Corey Anders on the Saturday morning cartoon Jeannie by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He later played Sean in the Ralph Bakshi film Wizards, which was released just three months before Star Wars in 1977.
Though the voice role he is most known for is Batman’s archenemy the Joker, his success as the Joker has led him to portray a wide variety of characters in television, film, anime, and video games (mostly similar super-villains).
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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.
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