Singer, songwriter, producer and actress Debbie Gibson will release her long- awaited new pop album on August 20th—her first in 20 years. THE BODY REMEMBERS her 10th studio album (STARGIRL RECORDS), features 15 new tracks written or co-written by Gibson, along with a studio version remake of her 1989 hit power ballad “Lost in Your Eyes”—now a duet with Joey McIntyre.
“I’m in the zone musically on this album like never before,” says Gibson. “There’s a flow happening and it’s very exciting. I’m excited to be releasing an album that people of my generation can relate to that also feels modern.”
Gibson and Joey McIntyre will also headline a limited engagement at The Sands Showroom in The Venetian Resort Las Vegas this August and September. Debbie Gibson & Joey McIntyre Live from Las Vegas will feature their collective catalog of smash hits, covers, duets, as well as their duet version of Gibson’s “Lost in Your Eyes.” The four previously announced shows on August 26 through 29 are sold out, and a new run of dates just announced today, September 16 through 19, will go on sale to the public Wednesday, June 9th, with Artist presale starting Sunday, June 6th.
Rising anti-pop star Baby Queen enlists emerging Australian artist MAY-A for new track “American Dream,” out via Island Records/Slowplay.
Speaking about the track, Baby Queen aka South Africa-born Bella Latham reveals, “This song compares a childlike infatuation with the idea of the American dream, which in hindsight is a bit of a fallacy, but there were people that did get to experience it and reach the prosperity they’d heard about. I’m really into manifestation – not in a spiritual way, just in a very practical sense. I think if you put all your energy into something by talking about it all the time or thinking about it, the course of your life will naturally bend towards that thing. This song is me manifesting my dream to be with a certain person. It’s essentially a song about a childlike crush you are cheeky enough to plan out inside your own head.”
While MAY-A adds, “This song is super fun to be a part of. Bella and I were talking online for a bit about music. I was a big fan of her song ‘Want Me’, so I feel really psyched that she wanted to bring me on to this track. It’s a fun one to sing!”
The Philadelphia-based Moor Mother – AKA Camae Ayewa – has signed to ANTI- Records. Moor Mother is a holographic figment of an Afrotopian dream, all at once goddess and warrior, mystic and cyborg, griot and future time traveler, etching noisy pieces of reverie into our consciousness for decades now.
Today she has released the piercing new track “Zami”; produced by her frequent collaborator Madam Data, listen to the track and watch its new video HERE.
“ ‘No more master’s clock / we travel spaceways’; “Zami” speaks to a number of different themes,” Ayewa explains. “Using the lenses of Black Quantum Futurism, the lyrics speak to Time and Space, injustice, racism, erasure of African identity. “Zami” speaks of agency and something beyond freedom. It speaks of another future. It speaks about connections free from the stains of colonialism. It speaks about the expansive temporalities of Afro Diasporan people around the world.”
Moor Mother has released Fetish Bones, The Motionless Present, Crime Waves, and Clepsydra.
On Friday June 4, 2021 Wolf Alice released Blue Weekend. They’ve released the singles “No Hard Feelings”, “Smile”, “The Last Man on Earth” and today’s “How Can I Make It Ok?” Wolf Alice also is announcing their North American tour.
Wolf Alice are Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass) and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). It has been a decade since the band began as a duo of Ellie Rowsell and Joff Oddie, then later expanding to a four-piece, with Joel Amey and Theo Ellis joining the group. Since then, the band saw their 2015 debut album My Love Is Cool soar to #2 on the UK charts, their sophomore album Visions Of A Life win the 2018 Hyundai Mercury prize, and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Rock Performance. The band played a massive 187 shows on the Visions Of A Life world tour – including a sold out Alexandra Palace, 2 sold out dates at Brixton Academy, and a set on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
Billie Eilish continues to tease her highly anticipated sophomore studio album, Happier Than Ever (Darkroom/Interscope Records), with a new track, ‘Lost Cause,’ along with an official music video, also directed by the seven-time GRAMMY® award-winning, multi-platinum-selling artist. Watch HERE.
‘Lost Cause’ follows the announcement of her welcomed arena tour, Happier Than Ever, The World Tour, which has since sold out on all dates of the first leg in North America, Europe and the United Kingdom.
The seven-time GRAMMY® Award winning artist and songwriter has also confirmed she will be continuing her work with sustainability partner REVERB for her Happier Than Ever, The World Tour, with the fan-facing Billie Eilish Action Village at each show which will focus on climate action and climate justice, hosting and supporting BIPOC and women-led environmental organizations as well as a comprehensive program via REVERB’s forthcoming Music Climate Revolution campaign. In addition to reducing the tour’s environmental footprint, the initiative will support projects that directly and measurably eliminate greenhouse gases. These collective efforts will make the tour Climate Positive; eliminating significantly more emissions than the tour creates.
Yesterday CHVRCHES announced their highly anticipated fourth studio album Screen Violence arriving later this summer, alongside releasing the second single, “How Not To Drown,” featuring one of their musical heroes, Robert Smith. They also announced they are returning to the stage with an extensive North American tour this Fall.
The claustrophobic, film-noir imagery of the official video is a continuation of the aesthetic presented with the album’s debut single “He Said She Said”. Lead singer Lauren Mayberry explains, “We’ve been working with Scott on all the visual aspects of Screen Violence and this video is the second installment in a connected trilogy.” “How Not To Drown” is a dark, piano driven song that is based on the concept of staying conscious when you drown, and the video reflects the anxiety and fear the lyrics invoke. The perfect harmony of Mayberry and Robert Smiths’ vocals amplifies the urgency.
Screen Violence was recorded almost entirely remotely between Los Angeles and Glasgow, members Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty and Iain Cook self-produced and mixed the album via video calls and audio sharing programs to create something that is unique and special, but inherently CHVRCHES. The album will be released August 27, 2021 via EMI Records (UK) and Glassnote Records (US).
Screen Violence was originally conceived as a name for the band. A decade later, and during a pandemic when the reality of screen violence has never been more pertinent, struggling to make the people you love feel more than the characters on a TV show, and experiencing a world of trauma as if it were another, CHVRCHES revived the term for their forthcoming album title. Narrating the theme of screen violence in three main forms – on screen, by screens and through screens – the album touches on feelings of loneliness, disillusionment, fear, heartbreak and regret.
“I think for me it was helpful to go into the process with the idea that I could write something escapist almost,” Mayberry says of the album. “That felt freeing initially, to have concepts and stories to weave your own feelings and experiences through but in the end, all the lyrics were definitely still personal.” While Martin Doherty adds, “To me, the screen aspect was a bit more literal. When we were making the record, it was like half of our lives were lived through screens. What began as a concept was now a lifeline.”
The making of Screen Violence also marked a decade together for the band – a decade whose sound they have helped to create and define from their 2013 breakthrough The Bones of What You Believe and 2015’s Every Open Eye, to their most recent 2018’s Love is Dead.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
11/09/21 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
11/10 – 11/12/21 Austin, TX – ACL Live
11/14/21 Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
11/15/21 Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
11/17/21 Minneapolis, MN – Armory
11/18/21 Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater
11/19/21 Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
11/20/21 Columbus, OH – Express Live!
11/22/21 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
11/23/21 Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
11/26/21 New York, NY – Terminal 5
11/27/21 New York, NY – Terminal 5
11/30/21 Washington, DC – Anthem
12/01/21 Boston, MA – House of Blues
12/02/21 New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
12/03/21 Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
12/05/21 Cincinnati, OH – Ovation
12/06/21 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
12/08/21 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
12/09/21 Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
12/10/21 Salt Lake City, UT – Union
12/11/21 Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl
12/13/21 San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
12/14/21 San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
12/16/21 San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Spin Magazine