“It heads off assholes right out of the gate. Nobody can look at me and say shit about my appearance or my body, which is all too common for women in music. It’s like, ‘Are you going to call me a cunt? Are you going to tell me I’m ugly? Well, here’s my band name—do your worst, motherfucker.’” – PERFECT PUSSY’S MEREDITH GRAVES
No, this isn’t a Rickroll. Watch Rick Astley cover AC/DC
Here’s Rick Astey having a great time behind the drums performing AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, which he delivered during his encore set at the Troubadour in Los Angeles a few months ago. Astley, was on tour in support of his recent self-performed, self-penned 50 LP, made two Stateside appearances during the trip — one in L.A., and one in New York.
Bastille Photos From The Air Canada Centre, Toronto
Check out these photos from Bastille’s Wild Wild World Tour at the Air Canada Centre. All photos taken by Mini’s Memories, and for all your photo needs, please contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Trailer Starring Frances McDormand Is Here
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated.
Future Islands Use American Sign Language For Their Promo Clip Of “Cave”
I always have time for the fine Future Islands, but using American Sign Language in their lyric video for Cave was the first time in eons I’ve been excited to share a promo clip.
Ed Sheeran Cancels 50,000 Tickets On Latest Tour Sold To Scalpers, Gives Them Back To Fans
Ed Sheeran has a carrot and stick approach to the secondary market.
The carrot is Ticketmaster’s new Verified Fan program, requiring concert-goers to register in advance to purchase tickets for his upcoming Divide World Tour. The stick came in the form of 50,000 ticket cancelations aimed at scalpers, whose seats were revoked and then resold to fans who had already verified their identity with Ticketmaster.
“The Verified Fan program gives us some great tools to figure out who is a real fan, and who isn’t,” Ticketmaster’s President of North America Jared Smith tells Billboard. “It changes the equation and puts new assets at our disposal to identify fans.”
Smith explains that Verified Fan works because it slows transactions down and allows the company to scrub its list of bot and scalper purchases. Prior to Ed Sheeran’s fan presale, an email was sent to fans encouraging them to register to purchase tickets in advance. Fans were required to provide Ticketmaster with an email address and a phone number, and then that contact data was scrubbed against a database of known resellers and accounts tied to scalpers.
The coordinated effort between Ticketmaster and the Messina Touring Group, which is promoting the Sheeran run, resulted in the sale of 350,000 tickets to verified fans.
Sawdust City Music Festival Coming To Gravenhurst, Ontario August 4-6
In Celebration of Canada’s 150th, the inaugural Sawdust City Music Festival is launching this August long weekend (Aug 4-6) in Gravenhurst, ON. The 3-day festival is the creative brainchild of renowned Canadian Singer-Songwriter, Musician & Label Owner Miranda Mulholland and will feature an incredible lineup of musicians, including the Jim Cuddy Family Band. Programming will consist of 3 nights of music at the Sawdust City Brewery, an evening of music at the Opera House, a free Songwriters’ Workshop, a Sawdust Stripped Down acoustic series, and a free concert on Sunday evening as part of the Music on the Barge series (a 50+ year tradition). Additional artists confirmed for the festival are local darlings Bet Smith & The Currie Bros, C&C Surf Factory, Devin Cuddy, Zachary Lucky, Jessica Mitchell, NQ Arbuckle, and Roaring Girl Records’ own Harrow Fair, Benjamin Hermann, Tim Moxam and Liz Stringer (with many still to be announced). Tickets for the festival are available now.
Miranda’s vision of the festival came from her desire to celebrate her Gravenhurst heritage and was well received by the city’s Manager of Arts & Culture, Krista Storey. “We were very excited when Miranda approached us with this idea for a new music festival in town!” Krista continues; “We really appreciate that she wants to bring this festival featuring top notch talent back to her roots and we’re very proud to be a part of it. These are the types of unique, cultural initiatives that attract visitors and help create economic sustainability in small towns like Gravenhurst.”
Miranda’s Great-Great-Grandfather was Charles Mickle, who owned the lumber mill that dubbed the town’s Sawdust City nickname, was Gravenhurst’s mayor twice, and commissioned the construction of the Opera House for the town’s residents. As the founder and Artistic Director of the Sawdust City Music Festival, Miranda’s goal is to celebrate her heritage while providing an amazing experience for residents and visitors alike, increasing cultural engagement at the community level in the beautiful town of Gravenhurst.
“When I first created my label Roaring Girl Records, I had a hypothetical festival in mind. A festival that celebrated collaboration, cross-genre and musicianship, the cornerstones of the label. It is beyond my wildest dreams that it’s actually happening now and in Gravenhurst.” Says Miranda: “This town has been my favourite spot for my entire life – I was brought there in utero! My great great Grandfather Charles Mickle believed in the power of the Arts when he had the Opera House built on the main street. It was called “Mickle’s Folly” at the time but it is still going strong after 115 years. I’m so excited to be reinforcing his testament to the necessity of music, art and culture in our society with the inaugural Sawdust City Music Festival.”
Dwayne Johnson Honors His ‘Second Dad’ Ex-Boston Drummer Sib Hashian
Today I Learned Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has had a long relationship with former Boston drummer Sib Hashian’s daughter. Dwayne offers a particularly poignant tribute on Instagram, calling him his “second dad.”