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Garcia Hand Picked Cannabis Returns to California With Emerald Triangle Farm Partners and a Summer Tour

Eric Alper
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Garcia Hand Picked Cannabis Returns to California With Emerald Triangle Farm Partners and a Summer Tour

Garcia Hand Picked, the cannabis brand created by the Garcia Family to honor Jerry Garcia’s enduring legacy, returns to California on June 5, distributed statewide through Kiva Sales & Service. The brand launched in California in 2020 before expanding elsewhere, and this return brings it back to the state that shaped Jerry’s artistic identity and counterculture spirit.

The California line launches with 5-pack pre-rolls, Double Doobies 2-packs, and whole bud flower, all sourced from small, sun-grown legacy farms in the Emerald Triangle. 5 partner farms each contribute a distinct strain: Canna Country Farm’s Lavender Sunrise sativa, Greenshock Farms’ Skunk Gas indica, Galactic Farms’ Under the Stars indica, Rebel Grown’s Rebel Sour sativa and Double OG Chem hybrid, and Sunrise Gardens’ Tropicanna Cherry sativa.

“We’re excited for Garcia Hand Picked to return to its roots,” says Trixie Garcia, daughter of the late Jerry Garcia. “California has always been a special place in our family. It shaped our dad’s artistic inspiration as both a musician and a visual artist. The state’s counterculture fostered community and creativity, often shared with a joint in hand.”

The Summer 2026 CA Tour runs alongside the product launch, bringing free community events to dispensaries and cannabis consumption lounges across the state. Highlights include photography from Jay Blakesberg’s collection, DJ Dark Star Dan spinning Jerry Garcia tributes in San Francisco, and Eric Krasno performing a Jerry Garcia-inspired acoustic set in Los Angeles.

Summer 2026 CA Tour Events:

June 7 – Berkeley @ Chapel of the Flowers / CBCB Berkeley’s Garcia Hand Picked “Shakedown” launch event, 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm

June 11 – San Francisco @ Urbana (Geary Street), 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

June 18 – Los Angeles @ The Woods, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

June 25 – San Diego @ Sessions by the Bay, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Video: Underworld’s 2016 Berlin Show Captured a Creative Rebirth in Full Flight

Eric Alper
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Video: Underworld’s 2016 Berlin Show Captured a Creative Rebirth in Full Flight

Columbiahalle in Berlin on March 17, 2016 became exactly the kind of space Underworld were built for. Captured by Telekom Electronic Beats, the performance landed one day before the release of ‘Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future’, making it one of the first full live outings for new material alongside classics like “Born Slippy (Nuxx)” and “Push Upstairs.” Rick Smith’s precision-engineered beats and soaring synth textures drive the whole thing forward while Karl Hyde works the room as only he can, stream-of-consciousness lyrics and ecstatic movement turning the vast hall into something that feels much more personal than its size suggests.

Video: OneRepublic’s 2019 Basel Show Captures the Band at Their Most Emotionally Charged

Eric Alper
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Video: OneRepublic’s 2019 Basel Show Captures the Band at Their Most Emotionally Charged

A full recording of OneRepublic’s 2019 performance at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland is now available, and it’s a strong document of the band in their ‘Human’ era. Ryan Tedder leads the group through a set built on live instrumentation and real crowd connection, with “Counting Stars” landing as the emotional centerpiece. Hits from across their catalog fill out a show that moves between pop-rock energy and genuine intimacy, the combination that’s defined OneRepublic since “Apologize” put them on the map in 2007.

Video: The Killers’ Lollapalooza Brazil 2018 Headline Set Proves Why They Own a Stadium

Eric Alper
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Video: The Killers’ Lollapalooza Brazil 2018 Headline Set Proves Why They Own a Stadium

A full recording of The Killers closing out Lollapalooza Brazil 2018 in São Paulo is now available, and it’s a reminder of exactly what Brandon Flowers and company do better than almost anyone in modern rock. Opening with “The Man” and never letting the energy drop, the set moves through “Somebody Told Me,” “Spaceman,” and “Human” with a São Paulo crowd singing back every word. New wave instincts, Americana heart, and 15-plus years of stage craft in one headline performance.

Video: Paramore’s First-Ever Norway Show From 2008 Is a Raw Snapshot of a Band on the Rise

Eric Alper
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Video: Paramore’s First-Ever Norway Show From 2008 Is a Raw Snapshot of a Band on the Rise

A 2008 Paramore performance at the Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo has surfaced, and it’s a compelling time capsule. Captured at Frognerbadet during the band’s first-ever visit to Norway, the show finds Hayley Williams and company deep in their ‘Riot!’ era, playing to a crowd that was watching a young band become something much larger in real time. The setlist pulls from both ‘All We Know Is Falling’ and the platinum-selling ‘Riot!’, including “Pressure,” “Emergency,” and “Misery Business,” alongside rarer live cuts like “Stop This Song” and “Miracle.” It’s an unfiltered look at a band with everything to prove, delivering exactly that.

Spotify Rolls Out Playlist Folders on Mobile, Bulk Editing, and Smarter Offline Listening

Eric Alper
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Spotify Rolls Out Playlist Folders on Mobile, Bulk Editing, and Smarter Offline Listening

Spotify has rolled out a series of platform updates focused on everyday usability, and several of them address features listeners have been requesting for a long time. The changes are live now or rolling out globally across free and Premium tiers.

The biggest quality-of-life addition is playlist folders on mobile. Long available on desktop, the feature lets users group playlists by mood, activity, or genre directly from their phone. It’s available now for all users globally, and for anyone with a library that’s grown unwieldy over years of listening, it’s a meaningful organizational upgrade.

Playlist management gets sharper across the board with in-playlist bulk actions, allowing users to edit and reorganize multiple tracks, audiobooks, or podcast episodes at the same time. Premium users also get back the ability to select and manage multiple songs in their play queue at once, a feature that had been missing and is now restored.

Offline listening becomes more dependable with background downloads on iOS, now rolling out for Premium users globally. Music and podcasts download even when the app is closed, with progress notifications keeping users informed. The result is a more reliable offline experience for flights, commutes, and anywhere else connectivity drops.

A reshuffle button rounds out the update, giving Premium users on mobile a single tap to generate a new shuffle sequence without toggling the feature off and back on. It’s a small addition that makes rediscovering a familiar playlist considerably more satisfying.

These are just a few ways they’re improving Spotify, so you can spend less time managing your music and more time enjoying it. Make sure your app is up to date to get the latest features.

Spotify Launches Narrated Articles Feature With Over 650 Long-Form Magazine Stories

Eric Alper
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Spotify Launches Narrated Articles Feature With Over 650 Long-Form Magazine Stories

Spotify has launched a new content format called Articles, bringing narrated long-form magazine journalism to the platform for the first time. Starting today, over 650 English-language articles from publications including Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, WIRED, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork are available to stream, produced by Spotify’s in-house team, Spotify Audiobooks.

Each narrated Article is under two hours long and available within Premium users’ monthly audiobooks allowance, alongside their existing audiobook library. Free users can purchase individual articles for $1.99 each.   

“With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a natural extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks people already come to Spotify for,” says Colleen Prendergast, Licensing Lead at Spotify Audiobooks. “By bringing shorter form content into the mix, we’re meeting audiences where they are to help build healthy listening habits, ultimately growing engagement with books over time.”

Rolling Stone is among the launch partners, and its CEO Julian Holguin frames the collaboration as a natural fit. “This allows us to deepen the connection between our readers and the artists, stories, and features they care about, while also providing an opportunity for discovery,” he says. “By making Rolling Stone’s journalism more accessible on Spotify, we’re excited to bring our storytelling to an even wider audience.”

The logic behind the format mirrors what Spotify has seen with podcasts: shorter, less intimidating listens opening the door to longer-form engagement over time. Since launching audiobooks just over 2 years ago, Spotify has expanded into 22 markets, reached tens of millions of new readers, and grown listening hours 60% year over year. Articles adds another entry point to that ecosystem, sitting alongside existing features like Page Match, Recaps, and Follow Along.

For music and culture fans already living inside the Spotify ecosystem, Articles represents a direct pipeline from the artists they follow to the journalism written about them, surfaced through the platform’s personalization and discovery tools.

Spotify Reveals Its 2026 Songs of Summer Predictions and Lets Fans Vote for the First Time

Eric Alper
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Spotify Reveals Its 2026 Songs of Summer Predictions and Lets Fans Vote for the First Time

Spotify’s global editors have unveiled their 2026 Songs of Summer predictions, a 30-track list spanning pop, dance, country, Afrobeats, and everything in between. And for the first time, they’re letting listeners predict the song they think will be the season’s biggest hit with in-app voting. Just tap “Vote” at the top of the Songs of Summer playlist, then share your pick on social media or via Spotify Messages.

“I think above everything, we all know that a song of the summer is about the vibes,” says Talia Kraines, Editorial Lead, Pop at Spotify. “It’s a song that makes you feel good, that you can listen to outside in the sunshine with your friends, and that has the ability to travel across genres, people, and countries.”

Dance music leads the charge with a strong nostalgic lean. “New Religion” from Bebe Rexha and Faithless and “Jamaican (Bam Bam)” from HUGEL and SOLTO sample sounds from summers past, while “Talk To You” from ANOTR and 54 Ultra and “DANCE…” from Slayyyter pull from disco, ’90s house, and early 2000s French electronica.

The list reaches across borders for its party-ready energy. “Kakalika” by DopeNation fuses Ghanaian azonto with South African Amapiano, while “CHÉVERE” by ARIA VEGA and Ryan Castro brings Caribbean and Latin Afrobeats into the mix. Country storytelling enters through Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” and STELLA LEFTY’s “Boston,” both rooted in specific places and the warmth of long summer nights.

A sadboy summer thread runs alongside the upbeat material. “Freakin’ Out” by Dexter and The Moonrocks, “Babydoll” by Dominic Fike, and “Earrings” by Malcolm Todd offer something moodier for the nights that call for it.

The full predictions list, in alphabetical order by artist:

“Talk To You (ft. 54 Ultra)” – ANOTR, 54 Ultra

“CHÉVERE (premium_remix)” – ARIA VEGA, Ryan Castro

“hate that i made you love me” – Ariana Grande

“New Religion” – Bebe Rexha, Faithless

“Kingdom of Fear” – Cameron Whitcomb

“Bangaranga” – DARA

“Raindance (feat. Tems)” – Dave, Tems

“Freakin’ Out” – Dexter and The Moonrocks

“Babydoll” – Dominic Fike

“E85” – Don Toliver

“Kakalika” – DopeNation

“Janice STFU” – Drake

“Choosin’ Texas” – Ella Langley

“NOBLE” – F3miii

“L.U.C.K.Y” – Fcukers

“Jamaican (Bam Bam)” – HUGEL, SOLTO

“Mexico Honey” – Kacey Musgraves

“Earrings” – Malcolm Todd

“Maladie” – Mauvais djo

“Doors” – Noah Kahan

“drop dead” – Olivia Rodrigo

“KOKO” – Omar Courtz

“Girl Like Me” – PinkPantheress

“Free Your Mind” – Prospa, Cloonee

“Rein Me In (with Olivia Dean)” – Sam Fender, Olivia Dean

“DANCE…” – Slayyyter

“Boston” – STELLA LEFTY

“Dracula – JENNIE Remix” – Tame Impala, JENNIE

“Self Aware” – Temper City

“Midnight Sun” – Zara Larsson

Photo Gallery: Cake at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre on May 28, 2026

Eric Alper
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Photo Gallery: Cake at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre on May 28, 2026

All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her through Instagram or X.

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Finnish Modern Death-Rock Force Post Pulse Reinvent Themselves Again on New Album ‘Lupaus’

Eric Alper
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Finnish Modern Death-Rock Force Post Pulse Reinvent Themselves Again on New Album ‘Lupaus’

Post Pulse have released ‘Lupaus’, their third full-length album, out now via Almots Records. The Finnish metal band continues pushing their sound into new territory, and ‘Lupaus’ (Finnish for “Promise”) represents their boldest move yet, leaning toward rock rather than death metal, with clean vocals, distinct melodies, and oppressively heavy tempos taking the place of relentless speed.

The album runs 5 tracks across 45 minutes, culminating in closing track “The Hole,” a 22-minute metal monolith that anchors the entire record. It’s the kind of commitment to a single idea that separates serious albums from collections of singles, and Post Pulse deliver it without flinching.

The genesis of ‘Lupaus’ began with chief songwriter Antti Karhu feeling completely drained following ‘Return to the Halls’ (2024), with no clear direction for what would come next. The only certainty was that the same album wouldn’t be made twice. What followed came in a burst: the seed of a 20-minute metal composition that eventually became “The Hole” unlocked everything else, and the album came together quickly from there.

Thematically, ‘Lupaus’ moves through the weight of daily news and social reality: war, domestic violence, depression, substance abuse, and social exclusion. The album doesn’t offer easy resolutions. It sits with the difficulty and lets the music carry the emotional weight, which it does with significant force.

The production reflects the same ambition. Mixed by Juhis Kauppinen, known as vocalist of Merta, and mastered by Miro Kiiski, the album’s sound is bigger and more melodic than anything Post Pulse have put their name on before. The cover artwork is a painting by artist Juuso Laatio.

Post Pulse celebrated the release tonight with an album release show at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki, joined by Sisin and Sounds of Delusion.

‘Lupaus’ Track Listing:

  1. Not My War (6:19)
  2. Lupaus (6:38)
  3. Incredible Creatures (4:43)
  4. A Strategy of Peace (6:18)
  5. The Hole (21:44)
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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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