Author: Debbie Carr

NME

London trio Saint Etienne have shared an ethereal new single for the holidays by the name of ‘Her Winter Coat’, which features on a four-track EP of the same name.

• READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Saint Etienne

The EP consists of two versions of ‘Her Winter Coat’ – both the sprawling six-and-a-half-minute song and an edited down version – alongside fellow Christmas-influenced numbers ‘Lillehammer’ and ‘A Kiss Like This’. All four tracks are available to stream now, via Heavenly Recordings.

Speaking of ‘Her Winter Coat’, the single, keyboardist Bob Stanley said: “We love Christmas, as you probably know, and it feels like it’s been a while since our last really Christmassy Christmas record. But I think Pete has done a properly beautiful, icy, frosted, festive job on ‘Her Winter Coat’.”

Listen to the EP below.

Multi-instrumentalist Pete Wiggs added, “To complement ‘Her Winter Coat’, Sarah [Cracknell, vocalist] and Gus Bousfield have come up with the incredibly catchy ‘A Kiss Like This’,  laden with swirling hibernal synths, and for a touch of Cold War frost we have the brooding melancholy instrumental ‘Lillehammer’ to complete the package. Hope you love ’em all!”

The single arrives with a short film directed by longstanding collaborator Alasdair McLellan, who took inspiration from the Western Isles of Scotland and set out to “tell the story of a girl running away from her troubles on the mainland and escape all the way to Iona on a spiritual journey to give herself some time to think.”

McLellan’s short film acts as a “vague continuation” of the film he created for Saint Etienne’s latest studio album, ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’. Take a look at the most recent instalment below.

‘Her Winter Coat’ comes just a short few months after the release of Saint Etienne’s tenth album, ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’.

A Blu-Ray edition of the album’s supporting short film is set to be released on December 6, with additional films for ‘Her Winter Coat’, ‘Hello Holly’, ‘Escalade’ and ‘Access To All Alone/Infinity 21’. The Blu-Ray will also include an interview with Stanley and McLellan about the making of the films and essays from Saint Etienne.

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NME

Meek Mill has announced he’ll be releasing the fifth and final mixtape in his ‘Dreamchasers’ series as an NFT.

• READ MORE: Burning Banksys and rubbish tweets: these are the most WTF NFTs so far

The ‘Expensive Pain’ rapper took to Instagram to share a snippet of new music, whilst penning “#DCPOUNDCAKE LAST DREAMCHASER MIXTAPE A NFT …. LOYALTY CLUB STARTS JANUARY.1st 2022”.

No other details have been provided about what Mill’s Loyalty Club will entail, aside from that “you can invest merch albums and shows and get marketed.”

Mill’s ‘Dreamchasers’ mixtape series has run since 2011 with the last edition having dropped in 2016. The final tape marks the Philly rapper’s first foray into the world of NFTs.

Meek Mill released his latest album ‘Expensive Pain’ last month, lead by singles ‘Flamerz Flow’, ‘Sharing Locations’ and ‘Blue Notes 2’. The 18-track collection featured a string of guest vocals from Lil Uzi Vert, Kehlani, A$AP Ferg and more. ‘Expensive Pain’ is Meek Mill’s fifth studio album, arriving three years after ‘Championships’.

NME gave ‘Expensive Pain’ a two-star review, noting the album and its rollout felt “rushed and haphazard”.

“From the record’s announcement to the hurried delivery and sloppy sequencing, it all feels disorganised and unusually chaotic for the Philly rapper,” NME writer Will Lavin said.

Earlier this month, Universal Music announced the creation of a new NFT band, made entirely of virtual apes. The project, in collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, involves one band member – the golden ape – that is currently valued at over $300,000 USD.

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NME

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak have continued riding the wave of their collaborative album ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’ with new grin-inducing performances of ‘Fly As Me’ and ‘Smokin’ Out The Window’.

• READ MORE: Silk Sonic – ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’ review: an unashamedly retro delight

The newly minted duo Silk Sonic opened the 2021 BET Soul Train Awards with two vintage-influenced live performances, which both took place at the Apollo Theater in New York.

This marks the latest of a string of live appearances the pair have made over the course of the album’s cycle, with Silk Sonic previously taking ‘Smokin’ Out The Window’ to the stage for last week’s American Music Awards.

Watch both performances at the 2021 BET Soul Train Awards below.

The duo made their live debut earlier this year at the 2021 Grammys with ‘Leave The Door Open’, before going on to perform at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Their inaugural collaborative album ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’ was originally slated for release in January 2022, however, it arrived ahead of schedule on November 12.

NME awarded Mars and Paak’s effort a full five stars, with writer Sophie Williams labelling Silk Sonic “an impeccably in-sync alliance”. The review praises their tongue-in-cheek punchlines and “extraordinary care” in crafting the album.

“Mars and .Paak’s deliberate approach to pastiche is consistently validated by their extreme attention to detail, meaning that their debut album, ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’, is far from a two-man recreation of a specific era,” Williams writes.

“The record’s nine rich and colourful tracks delight in all-out pop hooks, lush harmonies and conversational verses that occasionally – but knowingly – lean towards musical theatre.”

This month also saw the launch of Anderson .Paak’s own record label, APESHIT INC. The LA-based label is an imprint of UMG and will focus on working with and signing “a new generation of artists, who can play while performing.”

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NME

Dave Grohl has kicked off another round of ‘Hanukkah Sessions’ this year, covering Dallas native Lisa Loeb’s breakthrough hit ‘Stay (I Missed You)’.

• READ MORE: The 10 most ripping yarns from Dave Grohl’s new book ‘The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music’

Whilst Grohl himself isn’t Jewish, he has partnered with producer Greg Kurstin once again, who is. The series sees the Foo Fighters frontman share back-to-back covers of exclusively Jewish artists for the eight days of Hanukkah.

“Welcome back to the menorah, y’all,” Foo Fighters posted on Twitter last night (November 28), the first night of Hanukkah.

“Let’s kick it this year’s Hanukkah sessions with one of Dallas, Texas’s favourite Jewish daughters. So put on your coffee shop spectacles and your Betsey Johnson dress and HAVA listen to this…”

Last year’s ‘Hanukkah Sessions’ saw Grohl cover Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’, Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ and Peaches‘ ‘Fuck The Pain Away’, amongst others. Take a look at the full series here.

On the final day of last year’s instalment, Grohl shared a cover of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Rock And Roll’ alongside a caption that read: “As 2020 comes to a close and another Hanukkah ends (my first!) I am reminded of the two things that have gotten me through this year: music and hope.

“This project, which initially began as a silly idea, grew to represent something much more important to me. It showed me that the simple gesture of spreading joy and happiness goes a long way, and as we look forward, we should all make an effort to do so, no matter how many candles are left to light on the menorah.”

Grohl is set to continue releasing covers daily this year, up to the final day of Hanukkah on December 6.

Earlier this month, Foo Fighters shared a new music video for their latest single ‘Love Dies Young’, featuring Ted Lasso‘s Jason Sudeikis. The humourous release sees Sudeikis star as a synchronised swimming coach, with the band’s faces superimposed on the swimmers’ bodies.

‘Love Dies Young’ appears on Foo Fighters’ tenth studio album ‘Medicine At Midnight’, which was released back in February.

The post Dave Grohl delivers a metal-inspired cover of Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay (I Missed You)’ appeared first on NME.

NME

Atlanta R&B singer-songwriter Summer Walker has covered neo-soul pioneer and mentor Erykah Badu on BBC Radio’s latest Live Lounge.

• READ MORE: Summer Walker – ‘Still Over It’ review: flawless follow-up turns relationship problems into R&B gold

Walker – fresh from the release of her second studio album ‘Still Over It’ – stopped by to perform a short but soulful rendition of ‘Bad Lady’, pulled from Badu’s sophomore album ‘Mama’s Gun’.

Watch Summer Walker cover Erykah Badu’s ‘Bag Lady’ below:

Walker and Badu are known to be fans of each other’s music, with Walker noting she grew up on Badu’s highly acclaimed work from the 90s. The pair discussed their careers and finding their place in a 2020 interview featured on Rolling Stone.

“When I used to watch you perform a lot, I just would always say, “Oh, my God, look at this confidence.” The way that you would command a room, command either your band or your space. Woman to woman, I want to be like that, to have that type of confidence,” Walker said of Badu.

Elsewhere in her BBC Radio stint, Walker played ‘Toxic’ from her most recent body of work. She also gave fans a smooth live version of ‘Playing Games’, her breakthrough single from 2019 debut ‘Over It’.

Summer Walker received a glowing five-star review from NME for ‘Still Over It’, with writer Kyann-Sian Williams claiming the artist “thrives in her newfound autonomy” on the empowered break-up album.

“A certain darkness has descended on the once-pink fluffiness that memorably featured on ‘Over It’s album cover, with ‘Still Over It’ instead displaying a whirlwind of emotions. Walker has a song here for every feeling following a crushing break-up, from confusion to anger to outright pettiness – and it’s the kind of unwavering quality that we all love her for,” NME writes.

‘Still Over It’ features a star-studded list of contributions from the likes of Cardi B, Pharrell, SZA, Ciara, Lil Durk and more.

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NME

The trailer for ‘Anonymous Club’, a documentary centred on the private life of Courtney Barnett during the release of her second album, has been released.

• READ MORE: How ‘Anonymous Club’, the intimate new documentary about Courtney Barnett, was made

Shot over three years on 16mm film, ‘Anonymous Club’ lets viewers into the world of Barnett as she tours and promotes 2018’s ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’. The documentary shares its title with an older song of Barnett’s, appearing on 2013’s ‘The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas’.

“I woke up having one of those, like, just feeling sad days,” Barnett can be heard saying. “I think sometimes it’s OK to feel sad and keep on going with what you’re doing.”

The trailer, shared by Film Art Media, shows Barnett in many forms, from introspective musings on mental health and panic attacks to performance footage from major festival stages across the world. Take a look below.

‘Anonymous Club’ is narrated by Barnett herself via a series of dictaphone recordings and Kodak film footage from director Danny Cohen; the latter of which clocked in at around 25 to 30 hours of footage before being trimmed down to 83 minutes.

Creating the feature exposed Cohen to “a side of Courtney I didn’t know”, adding “I knew she had a lot of depth, but I didn’t know that she felt that way. Hearing her talk like that, it moved me. I really connected with it.”

The documentary premiered earlier this year at the Melbourne International Film Festival before receiving screenings at both Brisbane International Film Festival and, most recently, Sydney Film Festival.

‘Anonymous Club’ is slated for theatrical release in Australia in March 2022, with global dates still to be confirmed.

Courtney Barnett released her third studio album ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ last Friday (November 12) via Milk! Records. NME awarded the release four stars, praising the album’s “tender focus” in dissecting a relationship breakdown and the arrival of a global pandemic, amongst other inconveniences.

“True to title ‘Things Take Time, Time Time’s unshowy songs take hold more slowly, but Barnett’s small snatches of happiness grip you all the same,” NME writes.

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NME

Ezra Blount, the nine-year-old who was injured at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival and subsequently placed in a medically induced coma, has died.

Blount, who became a fan of Scott through the rapper’s appearance in Fortnite, attended the festival with his father earlier this month. The pair were reportedly caught up in a “mass-casualty” crowd crush that injured hundreds and led to 17 people being hospitalised.

Once Scott’s headline set began, Blount was reportedly knocked to the ground and trampled while his father fell unconscious. The boy was eventually taken to hospital and placed in a medically-induced coma, following critical injury to major internal organs, including his heart, brain, kidney and liver.

Ezra died the evening of November 14. His passing was announced by Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, reports the New York Times. “Our city tonight prays for his mom, dad, grandparents, other family members and classmates at this time,” he wrote. “They will need all of our support in the months and years to come. May God give them strength.”

Ben Crump, who is one of the attorneys representing the boy’s family in a lawsuit against Scott and Live Nation, among other Astroworld organisers, issued a statement earlier today (November 15).

“The Blount family tonight is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son. This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration,” Crump wrote in a statement.

“Ezra’s death is absolutely heartbreaking. We are committed to seeking answers and justice for the Blount family. But tonight we stand in solidarity with the family, in grief, and in prayer.”

With Ezra’s passing, the number of deaths resulting from the Astroworld Festival tragedy has climbed to 10.

Ezra’s father Treston had made his first public statement about the incident over the weekend, saying in an interview with ABC13: “Just to see him in that condition… I just wasn’t ready for that…It was like a horrified [sic] movie.”

The Blount family have filed a negligence lawsuit against Travis Scott and Live Nation Entertainment, alleging improper crowd control and failure to provide proper medical attention, which they say “contributed to Ezra’s death”.

The lawsuit also names Scoremore Management, Cactus Jack Records and others as defendants.

Last week, Travis Scott’s team released a statement asking families of Astroworld’s victims to get in touch via email. Representatives say Scott is “distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid” to those affected.

In a statement previously provided to ABC News, Live Nation said it was cooperating with authorities and will “address all legal matters at the appropriate time”.

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NME

Kanye West live-streamed a new Sunday Service session on Sunday (November 14), hours before releasing the deluxe edition of his album ‘Donda’.

The hourlong service opened with the MUSYCA Children’s Choir singing ‘Donda’ and ‘Jesus Lord’. The Sunday Service choir went on to perform other ‘Donda’ cuts, including ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’.

• READ MORE: Kanye West – ‘DONDA’ review: some gems among lots – and lots – of filler

Also featured in the new performance was a selection of tracks from the Sunday Service Choir’s own 2020 ‘Emmanuel’ EP: ‘O Mira Nox’, ‘Gloria’, ‘Requiem Aeternam’ and ‘Puer’. The latter of the songs, ‘Puer’, received new lyrics in this performance, as well as a reprise to close the service.

Watch the latest Sunday Service below, which begins around the 44:50 mark.

A few hours ago, West (who is now legally known as Ye) released ‘Donda (Deluxe)’, an expanded version of the album that sees a new song order and an additional five tracks listed, including ‘Life Of The Party’ featuring André 3000, which was left off the original tracklist.

This new Sunday Service follows Ye’s emotional Sunday Service last week, which he dedicated to the victims of Travis Scott‘s Astroworld tragedy. The “mass-casualty” incident was the result of a deadly crowd surge that left at least nine people dead and hundreds injured.

West also closed out October with a controversial Sunday Service performance that featured Marilyn Manson, who also appeared at a Chicago launch event for ‘Donda’ and is credited as a co-writer on two ‘Donda’ songs. Manson has been accused of sexual assault, misconduct and abuse by multiple women, and is facing lawsuits over some of those allegations. Manson has denied all the allegations so far.

The post Watch Kanye West’s latest Sunday Service, featuring ‘Donda’ cuts ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’ appeared first on NME.

NME

Singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Youngr has created a mega-mix of Manchester’s finest, weaving together a selection of Oasis‘ greatest hits.

The mashup runs for almost four minutes and ranges from ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’ to ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Some Might Say’.

Keeping in theme, the mix also features a small cameo from The Stone Roses, which Youngr teased on Twitter by saying, “10 points if you tell me the other legendary manc band I’ve sampled…”

Take a look at the mashup below:

August saw the release of Youngr’s latest single ‘Hotter Than Hawaii’. The laidback summer anthem was written with Tim Woodcock back in 2016, on a particularly hot day in a West London studio.

Speaking of the track, Youngr wrote on his website: “As I was getting on the Underground someone handed me the daily paper and the headline read “It’s Hotter Than Hawaii! Temperatures soar past 36ºC in London today” I remember thinking, ‘well, that’s today’s song sorted!’

“So we met up and basically had the MOST amount of fun writing this song about that particular summer, the Rio Olympics had just started, everyone was outside playing Pokémon Go on their phones, I was living in Clapham Common at the time with everyone on the park hanging out, blasting tunes out, drinking beer, doing Yoga (and there was also an incredibly tasty Japanese restaurant that served up the best Yakisoba!).”

‘Hotter Than Hawaii’ was released via Armada Music, Armin Van Buuren’s record label.

A football shirt worn by Noel Gallagher and a tambourine used by Liam are amongst a selection of music memorabilia going up for auction next month on November 2.

The former, a deep magenta shirt, was worn by Noel for a charity football game back in 1996. It features both Oasis’ logo and his name, and has been listed with a guide price of £1,000-1,500. The tambourine was played by Liam during the recording of Oasis’ second album, ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’ (1995) and is expected to sell around the £300-500 mark.

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NME

Nirvana have beat a lawsuit that claims one of their most recognisable T-shirt designs is based on a copyrighted illustration of Dante’s ‘Inferno’.

On Thursday (October 21), U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer ruled to dismiss the case against Nirvana and Live Nation’s merchandise unit, which concerned the band’s ‘Vestibule’ t-shirt.

The shirt design features a map of the circles of hell, as described by 14th century writer Dante Alighieri in the Inferno section of his epic poem The Divine Comedy. It was first released back in 1989, coinciding with the band’s debut album ‘Bleach’.

• READ MORE: Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’: the original NME album review

Back in May, Jocelyn Susan Bundy filed a suit against Nirvana for copyright infringement, alleging that her grandfather Charles-Wilfrid Scott-Giles created the image as part of his 20th century academic work on heraldry.

Bundy was officially suing the distribution of the T-shirt and image in question from 1997, despite its initial release eight years prior. Her lawsuit claimed the ‘Vestibule’ image was “virtually identical” to her grandfather’s ‘Inferno’-inspired illustration, titled ‘Upper Hell’.

Thursday’s court hearing saw Judge Fischer state the case would be better suited to the British legal system, than a Californian court room. He wrote: “Given that one of the core disputes in this case concerns ownership of the copyright in the Illustration, which is governed by UK law, the UK likely has a stronger interest, on balance, in this case.”

Inge De Bruyn – Bundy’s attorney – told Billboard they are “currently evaluating all options, including refiling the case in UK court.”

Back in August, Nirvana was sued by Spencer Elden who, as a baby, posed on the cover art of 1991 release ‘Nevermind’. Elden opened up the lawsuit against the surviving members of the band, along with the estate of Kurt Cobain, amongst others, alleging use of that image was “commercial child sexual exploitation”.

As of last month (September), Elden’s demands included Universal Music censoring the image of his genitals from the cover of the 30th anniversary reissue of ‘Nevermind’, with his lawyer requesting the label “end this child exploitation and violation of privacy.”

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