I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Hulu, The Circus, Made In A Day, Benee, James Bay, April / 月音, James Brown, Tom Morello, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, and Count on Controversy: Inside the Electoral College.
- Here is the Hulu fall schedule. Click the name to view the trailer (if available):
Series
Woke (September 9)
PEN15 (September 18, half season)
Monsterland (October 2)
Helstrom (October 16)
Eater's Guide to the World (November 11)
No Man's Land (Novmber 18)
Film
The Binge (August 28)
Books of Blood (October 7)
Bad Hair (October 23)
I Am Greta (November 13)
Family
Find Me in Paris (August 21)
Madagascar: A Little World (September 7, half season)
The Mighty Ones (November 9)
Animaniacs (November 20)
- THE CIRCUS: INSIDE THE CRAZIEST POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ON EARTH resumes its fifth season this Sunday with an inside look at Joe Biden's history-making selection of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate in the 2020 presidential race. Hosts John Heilemann, Alex Wagner and Mark McKinnon, along with guest contributor Jennifer Palmieri, are back on the campaign trail to explore all sides of the Biden veepstakes rollout, what it means for the Democratic Party's convention next week and the state of the race amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. For a preview, go to: https://youtu.be/e1pM-lqoRzs.
- The iconic, American-made instrument brand, Gibson has been creating, inspiring, and contributing to the ‘share of sound’ for 126 years. After more than a century, Gibson artists, players and fans continue to experience the #1 guitar brand rejuvenated. Gibson is played by the best and brightest artists, across generations and genres and has emerged as the most relevant, most played, and most loved guitar brand around the world. Filmed on location in the Fall of 2019, National Geographic will take viewers inside the Gibson USA Factory at the brand’s headquarters in Nashville, TN for Made In A Day. Made In A Day, Episode 2 featuring Gibson guitars will air in the U.S. on Saturday, August 15, 2020 at 9:30am EDT/CDT. Internationally, Made In A Day will launch in the U.K. on Thursday, August 13 (see list below for worldwide dates and check local listings for air times).
- New Zealand’s sensation BENEE unveils her new single “Snail”—listen HERE! On the feel-good summer hit, an upbeat bass line bounces between keyboard bliss as BENEE’s vocals groove into a chantable hook, “I’m like a snail, you’re a guy, kinda mad I can’t fly.” Electronic production, quirky nuances and entrancing delivery make this yet another unpredictable and undeniable anthem from the Platinum songstress.
- James Bay announces his collaboration with Apple Music as part of their latest installment of the Apple Music At Home Session series. For the special edition of the series James covers “Don’t Look Back In Anger” by Oasis and “Trouble” by Coldplay. Take a listen to Apple Music’s At Home With James Bay Session Here! On the collaboration Bay said: "It's funny, I didn't really like Oasis or Coldplay as a kid. I picked up a guitar at 11 years old and wanted to be The Rolling Stones, Clapton, Hendrix. But as I got deeper and deeper into songwriting and studying great songs, I came to love Oasis, Coldplay and more great modern songwriters. I totally fell in love with the music. So much so that I now sit and play their songs to myself on guitar, that's why I chose them, they're just so timeless and brilliant."
- Having last month announced news of her new album April / 月音 that will be released on October 9th via Bella Union and shared the track "Dandelions / Liminal", today Emmy The Great has shared new single “Mary”. Listen to it HERE. Of the track Emmy says: “Mary is named for a Hong Kong fortune teller I met in Kowloon, who gave me the wrong fortune when I mixed up my Cantonese words. It was written in 2017, when I wandered Hong Kong’s neon-lit streets looking to explore my relationship with the city of my birth, unaware that this was the last moment of calm before the city changed beyond recognition with the protests that began in the summer of 2019. Maybe that’s why the song is about a fortune teller who can’t tell the future. The song was later recorded in Brooklyn, with Jo Lampert, my friend and an astonishing singer who played the lead in David Byrne’s Joan of Arc, as ‘Mary’.”
- Urban Legends, a division of UMe, Universal Music Group’s global catalog company, is continuing to spotlight one of the greatest artists of all-time, “The Godfather of Soul” James Brown, with the second installment of the animated mini-series Get Down, The Influence of James Brown. On September 1, 2020 James Brown’s official YouTube Channel will unveil Funky President, episode two of the new three-part series, following the first episode, Funky Drummer, released on July 10th. Narrated by Questlove (The Roots, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), and featuring Lord Finesse and Co-founder/former EIC of Wax Poetics Magazine, Andre Torres, the three-part series was created by UMe along with Dreambear and explores the sonic DNA of James Brown whose music is continually sampled and whose trademark vocal phrasing is deeply woven into the fabric of Hip-Hop.
- For the first time, Tom Morello’s remarkable life as a guitarist, songwriter, singer and political activist is captured in Whatever It Takes. This hardback photo memoir will be released in bookstores on October 13th 2020. As the cofounder and guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and Prophets of Rage, and as a solo artist and collaborator with artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen and Wu-Tang Clan, few musicians have been as groundbreaking as Tom Morello. Documenting his late start in learning the guitar and early bands, through to forming Rage Against the Machine, his transition into working with the melodic vocals of Chris Cornell in Audioslave, his solo work and collaborations, and on to Prophets of Rage. Throughout the book Morello reflects on how his 'calling' of activism drives his work. He recounts the protests and controversies that he has encountered in his mission to use his guitar as a means to share ideas worth fighting for.
- Yusuf/Cat Stevens has released “On The Road To Find Out," newly recorded and reimagined for the upcoming Tea for the Tillerman² album release, due September 18th via UMe in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the era-defining, multi-platinum selling album. Inspired by a journey of self-discovery and personal transformation, the new arrangement presents a deeper reflective tone and stark contrast to the original acoustic-folk 1970 recording. As a hypnotic groove unfolds, Yusuf explores R&B’s African desert influences, as soulful guitar riffs and Hammond organ drive like a rambling caravan across an expansive, wide open sonic landscape. Yusuf delivers a rich and gritty lead vocal in a lower register than some fans may be used to. His lyrics seem to carry more weight through the wisdom and worldly experience Yusuf has acquired since he began his metaphysical journey.
- Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election despite losing the popular vote by more than three million votes. Could it happen again in 2020? In Count on Controversy: Inside the Electoral College which airs August 15th at 10pm ET, CNN’s John Berman walks viewers through one of the most maligned, highly scrutinized and resilient government institutions of the past two hundred years, the Electoral College. Major challenges to the College come up in this journey of historical significance, including a novel court fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court because of the stand several electors took trying to keep Donald Trump out of office. In collaboration with the alternative rock group,They Might Be Giants, CNN takes viewers through the hallways of the Electoral College in a highly-entertaining, "Schoolhouse Rock"-style animated history lesson. We explore the origin of the EC from our Founding Fathers, and provide a much-needed face to the identity of the people who actually elect our President.
