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JonasCon took place this past weekend in the Jonas Brothers’ home state of New Jersey, and we got into the huge event! From an interview with the brothers to their surprise concert and unexpected guests, keep watching to catch everything you missed at JonasCon. Did you attend JonasCon? Let us know in the comments Joe […]
Goose announced on Monday (March 24) that it is parting ways with its instrumentalist, Jeff Arevalo. Both sides shared statements via social media, implying that there were personal tensions within the band that led to the split.
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In Goose’s statement, the band cited “behavior in Jeff’s personal life that does not align with the band’s core values,” noting that it was an “incredibly unfortunate, unexpected situation,” without going into further detail.
“However, it is clear that this is the only way forward as we remain committed to upholding the values that define our community, particularly when it comes to respecting others and creating a safe environment,” the statement continues, adding that the band’s most recent tour was an “unexpected challenge to navigate,” but the group will continue as a foursome. See the full post here.
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In Arevalo’s statement, he shared his side of the story, revealing that in January, he “came to management with a personal crisis I was having,” which led to the musician taking a break from the tour. “I chose to take a mental health break and pursued a program in the great state of Washington,” he continued. “I studied emotional issues, spoke with many counselors and worked in a group therapy setting with an open heart and mind.”
Amid his program, Arevalo said that the “idea of a new and limitless future became much more enticing to me than returning to ‘the organization.’” He claims that after leaving the program he joined, he didn’t hear from his bandmates and instead “received an email from the band’s lawyer stating that I was being let go for ‘reported behavior and actions.’ I have had plenty of time to reflect upon my actions, relationships and values and I agree that we should go our separate ways.”
After expressing gratitude for the opportunity to be in the band and thanking fans, Arevalo explained that he did not feel “rightly respected, valued or properly utilized in my time with the organization,” adding that he had to “forgo severance” after refusing to sign an NDA. He concluded his statement by noting that he’s pursuing other opportunities, adding that he’s “been grossly mistreated and underestimated” despite having “a lot to offer.”
Read Arevalo’s statement here.
Arevalo joined Goose in 2020, and his departure comes just a month before the band is scheduled to release their latest album, Everything Must Go, on April 25.
Billboard Japan’s Women in Music initiative launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers, and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work, in the same spirit as Billboard’s annual Women in Music celebration since 2007. This interview series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry is one of the highlights of Japan’s WIM project.
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For the latest installment, the four members of ATARASHII GAKKO! — MIZYU, SUZUKA, RIN, and KANON — spoke with Billboard Japan at Amazon Music Studio Tokyo in Shibuya. There’s no other act quite like this unique group anywhere in the world, including its home country. Their concept is to “stand out” and true to this motto, the “Otona Blue” members put on fierce performances clad in their signature sailor-style school uniforms. Having toured internationally to great success and secured fans of various genders and nationalities, what’s their current mindset and where are they heading? The four young women who have been fearlessly standing out from boundaries over the years looked back on their careers and spoke about their future goals in this latest interview.
SUZUKA
Megumi Omori
The concept of ATARASHII GAKKO! has been to “stand out” from the beginning. Why did you choose this theme?
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SUZUKA: I think the premise was that “ordinary is boring.” We wanted to create something new instead of copying something made by someone else. When we explored that idea, we ended up with the concept of “standing out with our individualities and freedom.”
RIN: We were still in junior high and high school when we formed the group, so we were actual students. That’s why we really wanted to become leaders who were half a step ahead of other students. That feeling is also reflected in the “leaders” part of our group’s name. [Translator’s note: The group’s name in Japanese means “the new leaders in school.”]
Now that a decade has passed since the group’s formation, has your way of thinking about standing out changed?
KANON: I think my understanding of it has deepened. At first, I just sort of intuitively tried to stand out, but now I think about what I can do to push boundaries in a meaningful way.
SUZUKA: Yeah, standing out sounds easy but it’s actually quite hard. At first, I was simply rebellious, like, “I don’t like stuff that is exemplary,” but now I have respect for the background of why those boundaries were created. I often say, “It’s OK to stand out, but not to go overboard.” [Laughs] Instead of taking off on a stolen motorbike like the late Yutaka Ozaki sings in his classic song, “The Night,” our group places importance on inner freedom and liberation. We’ll follow rules but push boundaries and add our own new essence, that’s how we feel now.
RIN: In the past, we were like, “Let’s stand out!” on a single straight line that we’d drawn, but now that line has split and spread out in various directions and we look forward to it intersecting with various things.
KANON: To explain in sensory terms, it feels like it started out as a cool color, but now it’s become a warm color. Ten years ago, we were standing out in a pointed way, but now the way we stand out is like a permeating warmth.
KANON
Megumi Omori
What’s the public reaction been like to the way you’ve been standing out?
MIZYU: In Japan, it feels like if you’re even slightly different from the norm, people will ask you, “How come?” But I’ve always wondered who decides what is “normal.”
SUZUKA: We often use the phrase “intolerance is stifling” in our activities and this has been a theme since the group’s formation. There are rules in school and society that you have to follow, of course, but they include things that make you wonder, “Why isn’t this allowed?”
RIN: I think I’ve probably felt pressure to behave in a certain way because I’m a woman.
KANON: But we shouldn’t have to feel that pressure, you know? We want to convey through our music and performances how we can free ourselves from such pressures.
It takes courage to stand out from boundaries. What advice would you give to someone who can’t muster up that courage?
RIN: “Standing out” doesn’t necessarily mean sticking out, and taking that first step towards doing the things you like or want to do is what’s important. That small first step will lead you to your own unique way of standing out. This isn’t really advice, but I want to tell people to cherish the things they really like.SUZUKA: I think one of the main reasons why people can’t muster up the courage to do what they want is because they’re worried about what other people think. But the truth is, no one is really paying that much attention to you. [Laughs] If you do something you like and it’s within the rules, then the people around you have no choice but to accept it. So trust yourself more and do what you like.
RIN
Megumi Omori
So that’s the solid common understanding you all share.
KANON: What SUZUKA and RIN said has become the norm among the four of us. Because we’re accepted by the other members of the group, we can also accept everyone else. So when you come to our shows, you’ll understand what I mean. It’s a space where everyone becomes free and we can all say to each other, “This is the best!” We and all our fans have become a community that sticks out.
RIN: The members have completely different characters and our personalities and appearances are diverse as well. But because four such people got together and grew up respecting the things that we each like, the ATARASHII GAKKO! community has become a place where everyone can feel at ease. That’s why we can express ourselves with confidence even when we go out into the outside world.
MIZYU: I’ve never felt that I had to be the same as everyone else. If you like cute things, for example, you can pursue that to your heart’s content, and even if your tastes are different from the people around you, the important thing is to explore that. The members of our group can respect each other even if we can’t relate to certain aspects, and we’ve come this far because we can enjoy our differences.
MIZYU
Megumi Omori
As female artists, do you ever find yourself thinking about gender?
KANON: We’re women, but it’s a given that we don’t want to be bound by gender. Sometimes we wear sailor-style (girls’) school uniforms, sometimes we wear gakuran (school uniforms for boys), and we have male fans who wear sailor-style school uniforms. Both in Japan and elsewhere, many people express themselves in ways that transcend gender boundaries. We feel like we just express ourselves as human beings without being bound by gender.
MIZYU: Yeah, it seems like our fans freely choose what they like instead of thinking that men should be like this or women should be like that.
KANON: That’s why we want to live as individuals and as human beings instead of “being strong as women.” If people take our expression on a more essential level, like in their souls or senses, rather than being bound by our gender, that would make me happy.
SUZUKA: When I was little, I used to behave in ways that were so different from what was considered “girly” and really hated the feeling of being pushed into a stereotype of what a girl should be like. Now I’ve come to think that it’s fine to just be the way I am.
Is there anything the four of you want to take on in the future?
SUZUKA: I want to make my life wonderful, and I want to make everyone else’s lives wonderful, too. It could be about attaining happiness, or about accomplishing something amazing, but I want to make it so that I can look back and think, “That was one hell of a life!”
KANON: We often use the word “seishun” (youth), but for us, seishun isn’t about age, but about living life to the fullest right now. I want to keep living life to the fullest with these members.
This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.
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It’s been a few weeks since Jim Jones released his lates album At The Church’s Steps, and though 50 Cent and Cam’ron weren’t too impressed with his first week sales to say the least (they clowned him), Jones is mushing on and dropping off new work in support of his project.
Linking up with Keen Streetz and Mia Ariannaa for his visuals to “Walk With Me,” Jones returns to his hood in Harlem with enough ice to make the temp on the block drop a few degrees while Mia and Keen politic in and outside of the bodega.
Elsewhere Curren$y decides to do a little stuntin’ of his own and in his and Harry Fraud’s clip to “Duct Tape,” Curren$y pulls out the bright yellow Ferrari to show heads how he rolls before rolling up a fat spliff and enjoying one of the gifts the earth has given to man. We’re eternally thankful for that.
Check out the rest of today’s drops and some joints you might’ve missed over the weekend including work from Wiz Khalifa and Rakai, D Stunna featuring Aye West, and more.
JIM JONES FT. KEEN STREETZ & MIA ARIANNAA – “WALK WITH ME”
CURREN$Y & HARRY FRAUD – “DUCT TAPE”
WIZ KHALIFA & RAKAI – “WHAT YOU WAITING 4”
D STUNNA FT. AYE WEST – “GOOD TASTE”
MONEY MAN – “MAKE & MODEL”
MONEYBAGG YO – “CLOSE THE DOOR”
PEEZY – “6-7AM”
KOKANE – “WASN’T DOWN FOR ME”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQTbAAxWY0
Forest Hills Stadium in Queens says it’s planning to move ahead with its 2025 concert season, amid reports that the New York Police Department (NYPD) has revoked the venue’s permits due to an ongoing conflict over noise complaints between the stadium and its residential neighbors.
“Forest Hills Stadium is moving forward with our 2025 concert schedule as planned and our permitting timeline is on its standard schedule,” reads a statement from the New York venue that was posted to social media on Sunday (May 23). “As happens every season, the vocal NIMBY minority of Forest Hills Gardens are attempting to roadblock yet another enjoyable season of music.”
The statement follows a report from the New York Post published Sunday that claimed the stadium — which has long been plagued by noise complaints from neighbors and in 2023 was hit by a lawsuit from the local homeowners association, the Forest Hills Garden Corporation (FHGC), seeking to shut down its summer concert program — had its sound amplification permits revoked by the NYPD last week due to an impasse in the conflict between the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club, where the stadium is located. According to the article, the FHGC announced it would no longer grant the NYPD permission to close the streets around the stadium, which the FHGC privately owns, leaving the NYPD with no choice but to revoke the sound permits.
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Billboard has confirmed that the FHGC has refused to grant the NYPD permission to close the streets bordering the stadium for its upcoming summer concert season, essentially making it impossible for the department to do its job.
“This is a disagreement between the Forest Hills Garden Corporation (FHGC) and the West Side Tennis Club,” a spokesperson for the NYPD said in a statement provided to Billboard. “We understand that many people enjoy these concerts every summer, but we must be able to take appropriate action to keep people safe. We trust that the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club will be able to reach an appropriate compromise.”
Despite the standoff, the venue says it still intends to move forward with the upcoming concert season that would include performances from Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes, Tyler Childers and two nights of Phish.
In October 2024, a year after the FHGC filed its lawsuit, a judge dismissed five of the seven claims brought by the homeowners association, including claims that the West Side Tennis Club was in violation of its contract with the neighborhood and that it had unjustly profited from the stadium’s growing success. The ruling left only FHGC’s public and private nuisance claims intact, though the judge in the case, Joseph J. Esposito, did not find in FHGC’s favor on the merits of the nuisance claims. He merely held that they had stated a claim sufficient to survive the motion to dismiss, which they must now prove through discovery.
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Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is doing numbers, giving Ubisoft a much-needed win.
Take that haters. After plenty of rumbling and hoping Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be a massive flop for Ubisoft, the highly-anticipated next chapter in the Assassin’s Creed franchise is already a hit.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows reached 2 million players three days after its release. According to a post from Ubisoft, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey.”
This milestone follows after Shadows reached 1 million players in the first 24 hours of its release, easily eclipsing AC Valhalla’s record. According to Ubisoft, Valhalla was the biggest launch on PC when it was launched in 2020.
We zap five years later, and Shadows seemingly smashed that record.
What also could have contributed to that record was that Shadows was launched on Steam from day one and immediately verified for Steam Deck use. It took two whole years for Valhalla after its original release to land on Steam.
Currently, Shadows’ all-time peak concurrent numbers on Steam are at 64,825, officially putting it past Odyssey’s 62,069 but easily blowing past Origins (41,551) and Valhalla (15,679).
If Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues at this pace, it could become one of the biggest releases of the year. To put things in perspective, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which was a very well-reviewed title, took two weeks to hit the 2-million player mark; it only took days for Shadows to reach that goal.
Ubisoft Finally Gets A Win With Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Shadows’ performance is a much-needed win for Ubisoft, which has been reeling thanks to commercial flops like Star Wars Outlaws and Skull and Bones. This could be the shot in the arm the video game developer has been looking for.
It also showed that all the social discourse around Shadows, specifically about the game’s dual protagonist, Yasuke, the Black Samurai, and Naoe, the female shinobi assassin, didn’t matter in the end.
Hell, it might have even helped the game sell.
Who knows.
Well, we loved Shadows and wrote in our review of the game that “Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an exceptional entry into the franchise that brilliantly combines all of the good features from the games over the years and stuffed them into a game that doesn’t require you to play 100+ hours to complete. It’s so good that you want to spend as much time in its world as possible to uncover more of the story because it’s absolutely worth it.”
Congrats to the Ubisoft team for the successful launch. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
With classic hits like “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl” and “You Got Lucky,” guitarist Mike Campbell has been a key member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for over 40 years. And now Campbell is telling his story in their own words in a new book.
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On sale for $24.78 (reg. $32) on Amazon, Heartbreaker: A Memoir chronicles the start of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976 until the frontman’s death in 2017. It follows Campbell’s early life in Florida to stardom in rock and roll.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can order now and Heartbreaker: A Memoir will be delivered to your home in less than two days once it’s released, thanks to Prime Delivery.
Not a member? Sign up for a 30-day free trial to take advantage of all that Amazon Prime has to offer, including access to Prime Video, Prime Gaming and Amazon Photos; fast free shipping in less than two days with Prime Delivery; in-store discounts at Whole Foods Market; access to exclusive shopping events — such as Prime Day and Black Friday — and much more. Learn more about Amazon Prime and its benefits here.
The memoir is also available at BookShop.org for $29.76 (reg. $32), while Heartbreaker: A Memoir is buyable at Barnes & Noble priced at $29.
Grand Central Publishing
‘Heartbreaker: A Memoir’
by Mike Campbell
$24.78
$32
23% off
$29
$32
9% off
$29.76
$32
7% off
Meanwhile, Heartbreaker: A Memoir is also available as an Audible audiobook, which is only $0.99 for subscribers only.
If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial. But right now, Audible has a new promotion, which gives new subscribers three months of service for just $0.99 per month. But act fast and sign up now, this deal ends on Wednesday, April 30.
Throughout his career, Mike Campbell has been nominated for five Grammy Awards and one win, as a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the music video for “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” He’s currently the frontman and lead guitarist for Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs.
In the meantime, Heartbreaker: A Memoir is available for $24.78 (reg. $32) right now at Amazon.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
The long-awaited, oft-talked-about Nas and DJ Premier album may really be happening. Over the weekend, Nas posted a screenshot of his calendar to his Instagram Story to wish DJ Premier a happy 59th birthday. However, that’s not why he’s making headlines. Fans noticed that the Queens rapper has multiple weeks blocked off for recording sessions […]
Live Nation has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company failed to warn investors about the kind of anticompetitive behavior that ultimately led to the Justice Department’s sweeping antitrust case.
In a filing Friday (March 21) in California federal court, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the deal with Live Nation would provide a “fair, reasonable, and adequate result” for thousands of investors who could be covered by the settlement. Live Nation continues to deny any wrongdoing, according to the court filings.
The case, filed in August 2023 as a proposed class action, claimed that Live Nation had failed to disclose to investors that it had engaged in anticompetitive conduct that was “likely to incur regulatory scrutiny and face fines, penalties, and reputational harm.”
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“Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and omissions of material fact about the company’s compliance with antitrust laws, its cooperation with governmental investigations, and the regulatory risks it was currently facing,” attorneys for the investors wrote.
As the government’s antitrust investigation was slowly revealed in the press — and then the blockbuster case was finally filed in May — Live Nation’s share price dropped, allegedly causing investors to face “significant” losses.
“The gradual revelation of the truth about the company’s anticompetitive conduct in violation of antitrust laws, refusal to fully cooperate with investigators, and undisclosed risks of regulatory action caused precipitous declines in the market value of the company’s stock,” attorneys for the investors wrote.
The DOJ and dozens of states filed their case in May, with the aim of breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster over accusations that they form an illegal monopoly in the live music industry. The case, which remains pending, accuses the company of a wide range of wrongdoing, including coercing artists into using the company’s promotion services and retaliating against venues that opted not to use Ticketmaster.
According to the lawsuit filed by the investors, Live Nation’s stock dropped $7.92 per share, or 7.8 percent, when the feds filed their case. Even before the lawsuit was formally filed, media reports about the investigation — including that Live Nation had “stonewalled” a Senate probe — had caused similar decreases in price.
According to settlement papers submitted on Friday, experts for the investors estimated that a best-case scenario might net them a whopping $743 million in damages at the end of the lawsuit. But their lawyers said that continuing to litigate the case also posed “significant” downside risk.
“The settlement provides a favorable, immediate and guaranteed recovery and eliminates the risk, delay, and expense of continued litigation,” plaintiff’s lawyers wrote. “While a greater recovery might be a theoretical possibility, evaluating the benefits of settlement must be tempered by recognizing that any compromise involves concessions on the part of all parties.”
Under the terms of the deal, the attorneys who represented the plaintiffs will be able to seek as much as 33 percent of the settlement, meaning up to $6.6 million. The two named plaintiffs, shareholders Brian Donley and Gene Gress, will get an extra $5,000 each.
A spokeswoman for Live Nation and an attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately return requests for comment on the settlement.
Even LISA isn’t immune to Bieber Fever. In a recent interview about her favorite songs, the BLACKPINK star shouted out Justin Bieber‘s breakout hit before recalling how starstruck she was the first time they met. While speaking to The Guardian in a piece published Monday (March 24), LISA shared that the American pop star’s “Baby” […]