Music

22 Mar 2023

Designer of Foo Fighters Pinball Machine Describes Band’s Input: ‘Nothing But ‘F–k Yeahs!’ Left and Right’

If you’re lucky in life you might land your dream job. And if you are way blessed you may score two good gigs. But pulling a dream double? That’s off-the-charts, go-play-the-lottery good luck.

That’s how pinball designer Jack Danger felt when he learned that his second-ever assignment for Stern Pinball was to create a Foo Fighters machine, complete with input from one of his favorite bands. “I was like ‘holy s–t!’,” Danger tells Billboard about his reaction when Stern asked him to get to work on one of their “cornerstone” titles — the handful of big-name games the company releases each year.

Danger says the band has “followed” him around his whole life, with many of the songs in the game holding deep meaning. “There’s me working at Subway making sandwiches [while listening to the Foo Fighters],” he says of the inclusion of 15 memory-sparking tracks including “All My Life,” “Best Of You,” “Breakout,” “Everlong,” “I’ll Stick Around,” “Learn to Fly,” “Monkey Wrench,” “My Hero and “This Is a Call,” among others. “And whenever a music game comes out it really speaks to fans of their music,” he says.

While he might have had an initial moment’s pause about working on “another music pinball machine,” the thought of having a hand in adding a new bone-rattling title to the roster of excellent ones out there already honoring bands including Rush, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and Metallica, sealed the deal.

“We wanted to approach this game differently than just playing music videos and having some call outs to the group,” he says as his black cat strolls lazily across his lap during a recent Zoom call, shooing it away with the tatted-up knuckles on his left hand. “Early on, the band was so gung-ho, like ‘let’s f–king make this as cool as can be!’”

In fact, the only upfront feedback the Dave Grohl-led Rock and Roll Hall of Famers gave was that they wanted the design to be about the Foos touring in a van. That made sense, since Danger began his work around the time the group released their 2021 documentary about the topic: What Drives Us. It also helped that he was working with an all-star team, including Deadpool game programmer Tanio Klyce and artist Zombie Yeti, known for his colorful, killer illustrations on Stern’s Godzilla and Avengers Infinity Quest machines, as well as some classic Foos concert posters.

“‘I get those two to work on this machine? That’s a double-whammy! Holy s–t! I get to work with these people who made machines I love?,’” Danger recalls thinking about his all-star crew. Taking a cue from some of Yeti’s previous posters, they landed on a story about aliens — the Foos’ name was inspired by a WWII term for UFOs — pretending to be humans by wearing terrible disguises. That morphed into the final story of a fictional cartoon series, Foo Fighters Saturday Morning Action Time!, in which the Foos fight aliens and go on a quest to save rock ‘n’ roll from from a mysterious alien overlord and his robot army.

The end result includes a backglass (the upright portion that faces the player) in which a giant alien holds the band’s members in his outstretched hand as Grohl leaps out of a space ship and illustrations on the sides of the cabinet of the Foos in their tricked-out van, with late drummer Taylor Hawkins rocking out in the front seat next to keyboard player Rami Jaffee; those three, as well as guitarists Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and bassist Nate Mendel, offered creative input on the two-years-in-the-making game and are featured all over the cabinet.

Erik Wurtenberger, co-founder of Cincinnati’s annual Pincinnati pinball tournament and show — where pinheads can play everything from vintage machines to the latest models — says he hasn’t had a chance to play the Foos game yet, but he’s very eager to get his hands on it. “It looks very promising,” he says. He also says that the current crop of rock games from Stern are all “very good. From Rush to AC/DC, Metallica, KISS, Aerosmith, etc., Stern has done a fantastic job making these games.”

Wurtenberger says the rock games have all done very well at Pincinnati and titles like the Foos one are definitely bringing more people to pinball.

Danger, 42, began to turn heads in the pinball world nearly a decade ago when he helped pioneer the notion of streaming pinball play on Twitch under his nom-de-play, Dead Flip, including making suggestions to manufacturers about what would make their gameplay even better. Those videos caught the attention of Stern after Danger posted about his first home-brewed pinball design, which led to a job offer from Stern EVP/Chief Creative Officer George Gomez.

“I had built the resume that every designer needs to get a job, so they asked me to do this Jurassic Park home model and that sold pretty well,” says Danger of his first design. So, 14 months ago he began working on the Foos machine and, he says proudly, “we spoke with them and they were all in on any weird-ass thing we came up with.”

As for the songs that made the cut, Danger says they needed to have the energy to match the action of a fast-moving machine, with each track carefully curated to keep up with the streaking silver ball and upper-deck playfields. “We wanted this game to feel like a Saturday morning cartoon… and everything had to be cohesive with what you’re seeing an hearing,” he says. That included bringing in Brendon Small, the voice actor and musician who co-created the Adult Swim hard rock cartoon series Metalocalypse to voice the game’s ominous bad guy overlord alien.

There were originally plans to work more closely with the band on specific aspects of the game, but when Hawkins died unexpectedly in March 2022 Danger forged ahead with their blessing and alien marching orders.

“There was a moment where we were like, ‘do we keep moving forward with this?’ But we decided to give them time to grieve and not bother them, but from a manufacturing standpoint we had to keep on the timeline,” Danger says. Even so, as the team forged ahead, Danger crows that it was, “nothing but ‘f–k yeahs left and right,’” from the band and their team, which might explain why the game has more four-letter words than your average title.

A Stern rep says the limited-edition version of the game (1,000 units at $12,999) has already sold out, but the premium ($9,699) and pro editions ($6,999) are still available. If those are too pricey, you can look for the the game at bars and arcades around the country soon.

Check out pics of the Foo Fighters game below.

Foo Fighters, Pinball Machine

Courtesy of Stern Pinball

Foo Fighters, Pinball Machine

Courtesy of Stern Pinball

Foo Fighters, Pinball Machine

Courtesy of Stern Pinball

22 Mar 2023

Kassi Ashton Puts Her Career in ‘Drive’ With New, Unflinching Single

It’s like audio caffeine.

Repeated listens to Kassi Ashton’s new single, “Drive You out of My Mind,” can create the same effect as too much coffee: elevating heart rates, rhythmically overstimulating the brain and infusing a general sense of urgency, all in the best way. It’s a relentless piece of work, an intense ball of focused energy.

“It is,” Ashton agrees, “a speeding ticket waiting to happen.”

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It’s also the result of a concentrated period in which the singer-songwriter tried to satisfy MCA Nashville/Interscope executives by writing an obvious single. Her recordings to that point were cohesive and agreeable, but she still needed to crack the commercial code. They gave her two and a half months.
“Panic ensues,” remembers Ashton. “I wrote six or seven days a week for 10 weeks trying to write singles, and I remember writing this one and going, ‘This is it. There’s no way that this is not.’ I remember being so excited and giddy because you feel released from the tension and the nerves trying to write to a specific spot.”

“Drive You out of My Mind” was composed across two appointments, the first taking place at the home studio of songwriter-producer Todd Clark, a New Zealand-born creative whose résumé spans both pop music (Dua Lipa, Gavin DeGraw) and country (Little Big Town, Tucker Beathard). Ashton arrived at that first session with a major piece of the musical foundation solved.

“I had almost the entire chorus melody,” Ashton says. “I think I had some sparse words about neon lights, you know, generic filler things. But I find sometimes the chorus melodies can be difficult for me. So when I had a whole melody, I was just so stoked.”

Songwriter Travis Wood, who has landed cuts with Jordan Davis and Jake Owen, contributed a title that fit the propulsive nature of her melody, though it took a bit to get there.

“We probably spent, Kassi and I, the first half of the day arguing about what to write,” recalls Wood. “Kassi and I are a little bit in opposition with each other creatively. But we also get along really well at the same time, so we were able to be very honest with each other about what we didn’t want to do. She’s a bit of a bulldozer. And I might be guilty of that sometimes.”

Wood had been carrying the title “Drive You out of My Mind” for two or three years, but he felt as if its word play — a twist on a common phrase, “You’re driving me out of my mind” — was out of step in many co-writes. It suited all three writers on this occasion, and they attacked the chorus first.

Clark placed it in a minor key and developed a descending chord progression. But where most repeating progressions in modern country use a four-chord pattern, this one covered six. Thus, when the chorus ran through that sequence twice, the section took a while to reach its finale.

“Part of the reason why the chorus is probably so long is because that chord progression is a long progression,” Clark says. “You felt like one round of the chorus wasn’t going to be enough.”

That also meant the verses would have to stay comparatively short. Spurred by her co-writers to name an uptempo country song by a female that influenced her in the last 10 years, Ashton mentioned the Miranda Lambert single “Mama’s Broken Heart.” They referenced it in the first verse and ended up creating a melodic structure with a similar vibe: a bouncy verse melody that contrasts with the straight-ahead flow of the chorus.

The text of “Drive” would include numerous images of a physical escape route experienced while trying to outrun a memory: a cloud of dust, “Chevy wild horses,” a ghost town, flashing blue lights and a “needle hittin’ 90.”

Ashton and Wood clashed particularly over the hook’s setup line, in which she contemplates what might happen if “this heart forgets to break.” They decided to keep it in place and readdress it in the second writing session. Wood ultimately agreed on their return that it was the right line.

“That’s the last line before the hook,” he says. “That’s generally the line that you spend the most time debating with any co-writer.”

Clark mapped out the demo, fitting it with indie-sounding guitars, then handing it off to producer Luke Laird (Kacey Musgraves, Sam Hunt). He cut the first master version of “Drive” on Feb. 26, 2021, at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, employing drummer Jerry Roe to insert some humanity into its tenacious percussion track alongside the rock guitar tones.

“It almost has like this disco feel,” says Laird, “but how do you do that and keep it not sounding just like an electronic drum track but bring the live thing? We were just, the whole time, trying to marry the two parts.”

Ashton was surprised when the label bypassed “Drive,” picking “Boys in Pickup Trucks” as her first radio-targeted single in 2021. But as she launched her radio promotion tour, programmers’ ears typically perked up when she played “Drive” acoustically. Their feedback validated her belief in it, and she had Clark take another crack at producing it. He called on guitarist Derek Wells to downplay the indie feel and imprint a hint of western sound with slide guitar parts. And Ashton, having grown more familiar with it, rerecorded her lead vocal, emphasizing different words and finding the most ideal places to breathe in those persistent choruses. She broke each chorus into smaller sections to accomplish that.

“She definitely leveled it up,” Clark says. “There’s just a different energy to it because it’s a lot of words. It’s a lot of fast singing, and you’re looking for moments in those vocals where you can put some juice into all the words. I think it definitely got better.”

The label “freaked out,” she says, over the most recent version and released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Feb. 23. Its caffeine-level energy, coupled with its inherent bite, gives “Drive” a lot of potential. “It’s got kind of that minory thing, but then it’s uptempo,” says Laird. “It’s kind of like when songs have a sad lyric, but it’s fun music. I like that juxtaposition. This song… it’s not sad, but it has that minor-y thing against the super-uptempo, which I think is just always a cool combo.”

Ashton believes “Drive You out of My Mind,” which she performed for Country Radio Seminar during a March 14 label showcase at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, will connect her with the audience more authentically than any of her previous releases.

“It’s not a new me,” she notes. “It’s the me that was under a bunch of shit that I had to dig up. It’s the me [from] where I started a long time ago, before I let trends or opinions [interfere]. And so that makes me really excited because that also makes it feel timeless.”

22 Mar 2023

Doja Cat Is ‘Healing Really Fast’ After Breast Reduction & Liposuction

Doja Cat is a new woman. In a series of tweets, the 27-year-old rap star shared that she’s days into the recovery process following a breast reduction and liposuction procedure.

The musician first updated fans on March 20 by simply tweeting that she’d gotten work done on her chest, which many of her followers automatically assumed meant she’d augmented her breasts to be larger. However, Doja quickly clarified that she’d actually done the opposite.

“nope. smaller,” she replied to one fan, revealing in another tweet that her new bra size is 32C.

The “Kiss Me More” artist also gave an update on how she’s feeling post-op, tweeting that she “feels ok.” “My thighs hurt a lot if i move too much,” she added. “but im healing really fast.”

And when one commenter suggested that “Lipo is when fat is transferred from 1 area to another,” Doja countered: “No it is not, dear. That is called a fat transfer. I did not get a fat transfer.”

She also told fans in a NSFW tweet on March 21 that her breasts look really “good” now.

The Grammy winner’s updates come about four months after she revealed in late November that she’d be having surgery “this winter.” “I just want my [breasts] pulled up cuz some of my tops don’t fit the way i want them to,” she tweeted at the time.

Between then and now, Doja made a couple headline-making appearances at Paris Fashion Week — at one point wearing a jaw-dropping look for which every visible inch of her skin was covered with red Swarovski crystals — before attending the Grammys in February.

See Doja Cat’s tweets about her recent procedures below:

22 Mar 2023

John Legend Thinks This Pop Star Could Play Chrissy Teigen in a Future Biopic

Though a John Legend biopic is a few decades away from happening, the “All of Me” singer has an idea about who would be cast in the major roles. Legend appeared on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday (March 22), and revealed who he thinks could be tasked with filling his and wife Chrissy Teigen’s shoes when it’s time to film the story of his life.

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The 44-year-old hilariously shared that if anyone were to play him, it would most likely be a baby. “Everyone puts their light-skinned babies up and they all think, ‘My baby looks like John Legend,’ because I have cheeks and dimples and a lot of babies look like me,” he explained to Cooper. “Basically, my biopic will happen 30 years from now, and one of the Internet babies will play me.” (The podcast host suggested that Regé-Jean Page of Netflix’s Bridgerton could play the 12-time Grammy winner.)

As for who would portray Teigen, Legend has a former Disney Channel star in mind. “Maybe Olivia Rodrigo or something?” he mused.

While the 20-year-old has primarily embraced her music career in recent years, she initially got her start with acting, and appeared in Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Like Teigen, the “Brutal” singer has Asian ancestry from one parent (Rodrigo is half Filipino, while Teigen is half Thai).

Legend’s also pondered having himself and Teigen in a future biopic, since they have some acting skills. “I don’t know how this works, because we kind of have acted,” he noted. “Do we play ourselves? 50 [Cent] played himself [in Get Rich or Die Tryin’].”

Watch Legend talk about his future biopic casting on Call Her Daddy below at the 18:41 mark.

22 Mar 2023

Nathy Peluso on the Freedom of Making Music ‘Without Being Constrained By Societal Expectations’

Armed with confidence, artistic prowess and infectious beats and lyrics, Nathy Peluso has quickly become one of the most fascinating artists of our time.

After releasing her first full-length album Calambre in 2020, which scored her a few Latin Grammy nominations, Peluso was catapulted to worldwide acclaim — thanks to a creative spirit that’s allowed her to thrive in different spaces, as a true chameleon in the industry. She’s taken genres such as salsa, bachata, R&B, pop and funk and effortlessly made them her own.

“The best advice I’ve received as a woman in music was from my mom, to never compromise my authenticity for anyone or anything,” the “Estás Buenísimo” singer tells Billboard.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Billboard kicked off its “Las Poderosas” series, featuring a select number of powerful Latinas who get real about the word “empowerment,” their space in Latin music, and more. The series launched Monday (March 20) with LALI, which you can read here.

Below, our exclusive Q&A with Peluso:

What does empowerment mean to you as an artist and as a woman?

Empowerment to me as an artist and as a woman means having the freedom to express myself, create my art, and make my own decisions without being constrained by societal expectations or prejudices. It’s about embracing my identity and my strength and inspiring others to do the same.

What does empowerment NOT mean to you?

Empowerment does NOT mean putting others down or diminishing their experiences. It’s not about being better than anyone else, but rather about recognizing and celebrating our unique qualities and using them to uplift and support each other.

What is the best advice you have received as a woman in music?

The best advice I’ve received as a woman in music was from my mom, to never compromise my authenticity for anyone or anything. Staying true to myself, my values, and my art has been key to my success and personal fulfillment. 

Which woman has served you as a mentor or role model? Who do you admire and why?

I have always admired J.Lo for her incredible talent, work ethic, and multifaceted career. She has broken barriers for Latinas in music, film, and business. 

Have things changed for Latin women in music in the last five years and how?

In the last five years, things have changed for Latin women in music in many ways. There is now more visibility, representation, and support for female artists in the industry. We have seen a rise in successful Latina singers and songwriters across various genres, breaking down stereotypes and challenging the status quo. While progress has been made, there’s still much work to be done to ensure equal opportunities and recognition for Latin women in music.

What is your favorite “girl power” song?

My favorite “girl power” song is “Respect” by Aretha Franklin. It’s a classic anthem that has inspired generations of women to stand up for themselves and demand the respect they deserve.

22 Mar 2023

Here’s Your First Look at Jason Isbell’s HBO Documentary ‘Running With Our Eyes Closed’

In the HBO Original documentary Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed, the multiple Grammy-winning artist strips down the recording process, but also reveals struggles outside of the studio. 

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“When I have a hard day I can’t just go home and have a drink. There’s no escape for me,” says Isbell, who has been sober for a decade, in this first look at the film’s trailer.

The film, directed by Sam Jones, largely chronicles Isbell recording his 2020 album Reunions with his band, The 400 Unit,  and takes its name from a song on the critically acclaimed set. The documentary, which debuts on HBO and streamer HBO Max on April 7, also shows Isbell, like many of us, figuring out how to navigate demons the pandemic lockdown conjures up.

Also weighing in is Isbell’s wife and frequent collaborator Amanda Shires, an acclaimed artist in her own right. “Most people don’t go to work with their wife,” states Isbell, as Shires gives him feedback on how to approach some of his material and he pushes back. “You’re fighting with all these voices inside your head,” she declares.

He also examines the creative process and, as he notes, “Once you write a song, your mind isn’t focused on creating, your mind is focused on re-creating. You can only create something once and if the tape’s not rolling, you’re just sh– out of luck.”

While focusing on the making of Reunions, the documentary also examines Isbell’s childhood in rural Alabama and his years with the Drive-By Truckers. In addition to Isbell and Shires, the film includes interviews with musicians Chad Gamble, Sadler Vaden, Jimbo Hart, Derry DeBorja and Patterson Hood; producer Dave Cobb; and manager Traci Thomas.

Jason Isbell

Courtesy of HBO Max

HBO Documentary Films made Running in association with Ringer Films, Duplass Brothers Productions and Beware Doll / GraySky. It is the latest installment of the Bill Simmons-created Music Box series, which focuses on pivotal moments in music.

The documentary’s release comes as Isbell and The 400 Unit prepare to release their latest album, Weathervanes, on June 9 via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers

22 Mar 2023

Ana Bárbara Becomes First Regional Mexican Songwriter to Receive Icon Award at 2023 BMI Latin Awards

It was a night of firsts at the BMI Latin Awards, which took place March 21 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.

Mexico’s Ana Bárbara, the dynamic singer known as the Grupera Queen, became the first regional Mexican songwriter to ever receive a BMI Icon Award.

And Edgar Barrera, the prolific songwriter who seamlessly navigates between genres, was given the first ever Impact award for his remarkable presence and influence across the charts of many genres.

The evening — hosted by BMI President/CEO Mike O’Neill and BMI Vice President, Creative, Latin Jesus Gonzalez — was also evening of encores. Tainy won the contemporary songwriter of the year award for the second year in a row, and Horacio Palencia also repeated his regional Mexican songwriter of the year award, this time tying with Edgar Barrera. Sony Music Publishing, home to Tainy and Barrera, took home the contemporary Latin publisher of the year award, marking the seventh time in 10 years that it does so.

Universal Music Publishing Group won Regional Mexican publisher of the year, and the smash “Pepas” — performed by Farruko and written by Víctor Cardenas VIIC, IAMCHINO, Axel Quezada “Ghetto” and Keriel K4G Quiróz — was named contemporary Latin song of the year. “Jugaste y Sufrí” by Daniel Balderrama Espinoza won the Regional Mexican song of the year.

But the belle of the ball was undoubtedly Bárbara. The Mexican singer, resplendent in a shimmering dress with a pink feathered skirt, delivered a set of her own compositions, backed by a her band and ending with “Lo Busqué,” during which she accompanied herself on guitar. The performance was a reminder of just how prolific Bárbara has been in her 30-year career, placing 16 hits on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart and 14 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.

“Songwriting was something I didn’t always speak about,” Bárbara told Billboard earlier. “I was always shy about my songwriting, from the time I wrote [her first major hit] ‘Quise Olvidar,’ because composing wasn’t common among women. Now, I believe in all my songs, and I believe they’re all for me.”

Her inspirations, said Bárbara, were the greats of Mexican music, including José Alfredo Jiménez; Joan Sebastian and Marco Antonio Solís, who both mentored her; and Ana Gabriel, also a singer and composer.

Now, Gabriel is also inspiring a new generation, as evidenced by the opening number of the night, a tribute to her music performed by young Mexican singers Adriana Ríos, Alisun Solís, Angélica Gallegos and Lupita Infante.

22 Mar 2023

After ‘Zero To 100’ Pandemic-Era Surge in Popularity, Indie Rockers Wednesday Ready Vivid & Visceral New Album

The Album

Rat Saw God, out 4/7 on Dead Oceans.

The Origin

As a kid growing up in Greensboro, N.C., Karly Hartzman “always wanted to be in a band, but wasn’t,” she tells Billboard. By “going to every show I could and photographing shows and making zines,” she eventually landed in a pop-punk band in high school – “just kind of noodling around” on a microKORG synthesizer – before taking up songwriting and performing in earnest as a student at University of North Carolina Asheville in the mid-’10s. After buying her friend’s guitar in junior year, Hartzman “just kind of fucked around until I made a sound that sounded good,” she says. “I taught myself on a combination of watching live videos of other bands on YouTube and learning covers. I still haven’t had a lesson really – so I’m just kind of flying by the seat of my pants.”

Hartzman conceived alt-country project Wednesday in 2017, subsequently turning to peers in Asheville’s robust indie circuit to make it a proper band. The following year’s self-released yep definitely served as a test run, before the band — by then comprised of Hartzman, Xandy Chelmis (lap steel), Alan Miller (drums), Margo Schultz (bass) and Daniel Gorham (guitar), released I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone (“our first album, like with a label that we were excited about”) on Orindal in February 2020.

“The first time we felt validly like, ‘We’re doing music, this is a record we have on vinyl’ was right before the pandemic,” Hartzman says. “Our release show got canceled because of the pandemic. And then we weren’t playing any shows, [so we] had no idea how people felt about the album.”

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The Sound

Wednesday fuses traditional alt-rock hooks with enveloping shoegaze and country twang for music that’s both familiar and singular, and Hartzman’s evocative, specific songwriting draws on great country music storytellers – Drive-By Truckers, Lucinda Williams, “a lot of the outlaw country people” – who she credits for producing “some of the most amazing lyricism in the world.” Hartzman spent her North Carolina youth “hearing country songwriters ambiently kind of against your will, whether you liked it or not,” and spent years keeping the music at arm’s length due to its conservative cultural connotations. But she reconsidered her stance after discovering artists, like the Truckers, who “[embodied] the fact that you can enjoy country music and promote social justice.”

In 2022, Wednesday released a covers album, Moving the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘Em Up, that epitomized the band’s diverse interests, with songs by country legends (Gary Stewart, Roger Miller), alt-country greats (Vic Chesnutt, Drive-By Truckers), The Smashing Pumpkins, and contemporary Brooklyn DIY upstarts Hotline TNT. “We take all of the genres we do have influence from very seriously, and we have a deep love and appreciate for all of that music,” says Hartzman, describing the set as “less of us trying to replicate a sound and more us trying to do justice to where we’re from and how it influenced our taste.”

Another key element: Chelmis’ lap steel work, which took on a distinct character after he accidentally routed it through a distortion pedal and liked the sound. “He’s really revolutionizing that instrument,” Hartzman says. “When you tour with an instrument that is not just a regular guitar, I think it is really engaging, because it brings some of the magic back into music. Not knowing how something works as an audience member is one of the most fun experiences you can have — watching someone who has mastered this mysterious thing.”

The Breakthrough

With the pandemic raging in 2020, and little bearing on how much IWTTDYTS was or wasn’t catching on with audiences, Wednesday scored discounted studio time in Asheville and recorded Twin Plagues, which it released in August 2021. (Gorham departed Wednesday before the sessions and was replaced by Jake Lenderman.) When touring restarted and the band hit the road in support of the record, it was shocked by the way positive internet buzz had grown its real-life audiences. “We were like, ‘What the hell? When did this happen?’” Hartzman recalls. “It was very zero to 100 … very surreal. It felt like it didn’t happen fast, because it was years of standing still with the pandemic — but if you put the show before the pandemic next to a show after the pandemic, it’s a huge jump.”

The attention attracted more than just fans: Soon, Wednesday signed with Dead Oceans, the prominent indie label that has in recent years helped catapult Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski and Japanese Breakfast to stardom. (With a laugh, Hartzman describes Dead Oceans as “our Harvard, our reach label. I was like, ‘There is no f—king way.’”) The band returned to Asheville and holed up in a “fancy-schmancy studio” to record its Dead Oceans debut.

The resulting album, Rat Saw God, expands Twin Plagues’ rootsy scuzz to epic proportions; Wednesday announced their Dead Oceans signing to the public with the release of the set’s lead single “Bull Believer,” a blistering, eight-and-a-half-minute opus that covers lyrical ground from Spanish bullfighting to Mortal Kombat before dissolving into squalls of distortion and Hartzman’s shrieks. But otherwise, Rat Saw God finds strength in concision, as sturdy hooks score Hartzman’s vivid and often unsettling verses, where characters might doze off watching Formula One racing, get their stomach pumped after tripping too hard on Benadryl, or overdose in a Planet Fitness parking lot.

While Rat Saw God is sonic step forward for the band, it’s an even bigger advancement for Hartzman’s personal, detailed lyricism, which shines throughout. Take brief and breezy album closer “TV in the Gas Pump” (out today), something of a travelogue documenting a recent two-week Wednesday tour.

“The lyrics for that one were collected in a phone note,” Hartzman says. “Anytime I would see something out the van window or we had an experience that stuck with me, I would write it down.” At one gig, Chelmis took more mushrooms than he planned for a microdose, and found himself overwhelmed in a dollar store across the street from the venue – forever immortalized in the song’s final verse as “Violently came up/ In a Dollar General/ You took too much.”

The Future

As the latest standard-bearers of North Carolina’s prolific indie-rock scene – embodied by revered Durham-based label Merge, and artists including Superchunk, Polvo and Archers of Loaf – Wednesday wants to help their talented peers get their due. Last fall, the band took Raleigh shredders Truth Club on tour as support, and one of Asheville’s most promising young artists lives within Wednesday’s ranks: Lenderman, Hartzman’s partner and Wednesday’s guitarist, released his acclaimed album Boat Songs as MJ Lenderman in April 2022. “I like the fact that we’re kind of coming up together,” says Hartzman, who frequently plays in Lenderman’s band on his solo tours. “It’s very exciting and fun.”

Hartzman’s excited to see how fans receive Wednesday’s new material live once they’ve had time to digest it, and she emphasizes how invigorating life on the road is for her creatively. That said, she cherishes returning home to North Carolina. “I’m glad I live out of the way, where people don’t really give a f—k about indie music a lot of the time,” she says. “My life at home will stay really normal, and then I can have my Hannah Montana moment on tour, and then come home and, like, be a person.”

The Piece of Equipment You Couldn’t Live Without

“I have like a ’90s Rat distortion pedal – I use that and a tuner on stage.”

The Artist You Believe Deserves More Attention

“Honestly, I feel like it’s time for Unwound to get their flowers, especially because they’re playing again [on a just-concluded reunion tour]. I feel like I don’t see people talking about them and how influential and how much their sound has affected a lot of [artists], especially Philly shoegaze sounds. I’m an Unwound head. It’s one of my favorite bands.”

The Piece of Advice Every New Indie Artist Needs to Hear

“Don’t think about the audience that is going to hear your song when you’re writing and just think about what you want to say.”

The Thing That Needs to Change in the Music Industry

“Oh lord. Everything? I think the first thing needs to be we need to change the way we pay opening bands. It’s really unsustainable for a band, especially if it’s a band in a van that’s trying to catch up with a band on a tour bus. It’s a really unsustainable practice.”

The Thing They Hope Fans Take Away From Their Album

“I just hope they hear this one and trust that I’m gonna keep making music. We’re signed to a bigger label and I think the sellout mentality, it scares a lot of people — but I feel like we are on a mission to stay very true to ourselves. I want them to trust that I’m going to keep doing whatever the f—k I want with my songs.”

22 Mar 2023

Ed Sheeran Has 5 More Albums Planned, Including a ‘Perfect’ Posthumous One He’s Already Working On

Some people make afterparty plans, Ed Sheeran makes after life ones. The singer told Rolling Stone that he’s already begun working on his final album. Though his upcoming May 5 release – (Subtract) will square the circle on his cycle of five mathematically themed studio albums, Sheeran said he’s sketched out his next five releases, as well as a posthumous collection that will be constantly updated during his life.

Sheeran, 32, told RS, “I want to slowly make this album that is quote-unquote ‘perfect’ for the rest of my life, adding songs here and there. And just have it in my will that after I die, it comes out.”

The singer also revealed that while working with his pal Taylor Swift’s recent collaborator The National’s Aaron Dessner on Subtract, the duo produced enough material for another album. After picking 14 tracks for the final maths album, Sheeran said he pulled three others that felt “too joyous” after realizing they felt like the start of a different musical journey.

“It was very quickly seen that we were making two different things,” Sheeran said, adding that he and Dessner then wrote an entire second album together that the in-demand producer is mixing right now. At press time no release date, or title, has been announced yet for that collection, with Sheeran explaining, “I have no goals for the record. I just want to put it out.”

Sheeran will, however, pull the curtain back on his journey to stardom, personal life and musical inspiration in the upcoming Disney+ docuseries Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All. The four-part series due out globally on May 3 is described as the story of “how an unlikely child with a stutter rose to fame to become one of the biggest global music superstars and how his chart-topping hits were born.”

The Disney+ original series will feature exclusive content from Sheeran’s personal archive, interviews with his loved ones and intimate performances. “I’ve always been very guarded in my personal and private life; the only documentary I’ve ever made has been one that focused on my songwriting,” Sheeran said in a press release. “Disney approached me to make a four-part documentary, and it felt like the right time to open the door and let people in. I hope people enjoy it.”

Sheeran’s will drop his new single, “Eyes Closed” on Friday (March 24), which RS described as being built “around a pinging pizzicato riff that builds to an octave-jumping chorus as big as anything in Sheeran’s catalog.” The magazine quoted lyrics including, “I’m dancing with my eyes closed/ ’Cause everywhere I look I still see you… I pictured this month a little bit different/ No one is ever ready.”

22 Mar 2023

Tekashi 6ix9ine Hospitalized After Attack in Gym Sauna in Florida

Controversial rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was reportedly hospitalized on Tuesday (March 21) after an alleged attack inside a South Florida gym. According to WPTV, an attorney for the 26-year-old “Stoopid” MC born Daniel Hernandez said he was beaten up in a gym sauna by “three or four thugs.”

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Lawyer Lance Lazzaro told the station that Hernandez suffered cuts to his face and bruises in the incident. “Employees heard the disturbance and the perpetrators fled,” Lazzaro said. “Police in South Florida were called and he [Hernandez] was transported via ambulance to a local hospital.”

At press time it was unclear what injuries Hernandez sustained and if he was still hospitalized. TMZ posted video of the alleged attack, in which an unidentified man can be seen punching and kicking Hernandez as the rapper struggles to evade the blows on the floor of what looks like a bathroom. Lazzaro told TMZ several men began attacking Hernandez — who did not have any security with him — without warning, with police and EMS responding to the scene before transporting the rapper to an undisclosed hospital.

The site posted pictures of Hernandez’s swollen, bloodied face and reported that he also suffered injuries to his back, ribs and jaw. At press time Lazarro could not be reached for comment on the incident. In the video, a bald man can be heard saying, “take a picture, I’m gonna be famous now,” as he grabs Hernandez by the hair while another man kicks him.

The unidentified person filming the video assures Hernandez “I’m a fan, homie,” as the rapper, his face dripping blood, exits the bathroom saying, “ya’ll jumped me, man.”

Speaking to TMZ, Lazarro said he is working on getting his client some protection given the rapper’s legal history; Hernandez was granted early release from federal prison in April 2020 following his arrest and sentencing to two years behind bars a year earlier on 9 charges, including drug trafficking, racketeering and firearms offenses tied to his involvement with the Nine Trey Bloods street gang. The rapper’s sentence was shortened after he cooperated with the feds in their cases against his former associates.