Around the Tubes: April 17, 2021

       

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 Shrill, Cinema Toast, The Kings, Lord Huron, Paula Fuga, Lionel Ritchie, NOW That’s What I Call Music!, Cusp, and A Cinderella Story: Starstuck.

- Hulu's Shrill trailer has arrived, ready or not!  The final season premieres Friday, May 7, only on Hulu.  SYNOPSIS: Season three of Shrill finds Annie (Aidy Bryant) energized by her breakup with dud boyfriend Ryan and her newfound momentum at work. Annie feels like everything is finally falling into place for her, but does she actually know how to get what she wants?

-  SHOWTIME has announced that the new anthology series CINEMA TOAST will premiere all 10 episodes on the SHOWTIME on-demand streaming and partner platforms on Tuesday, April 20. Created by Jeff Baena and produced by the Duplass Brothers, CINEMA TOAST is a post-modernist reinvention of older movies that turns pre-existing imagery from the public domain on its head to tell brand new unique stories. Directors include Baena, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alex Ross Perry, Marta Cunningham, Aubrey Plaza, Numa Perrier, Jordan Firstman, Kris Rey and David Lowery. The episodes are voiced by actors including Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, John Early, Christina Ricci, Megan Mullally, Chloe Fineman and Chris Meloni.
- In boxing, it is said that styles make fights. From 1980 through 1989, it was the style of four great fighters that not only made legendary fights, it ushered in a boxing renaissance. The fierce rivalry between world champions and future Hall of Famers known as the “Four Kings” – Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Durán, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard – produced a Golden Age defined by the nine world championship fights between them and solidified their place among the greatest to ever live.  SHOWTIME SPORTS DOCUMENTARY FILMS today announced THE KINGS, a four-part series chronicling the four fighters' dramatic and divergent ascents to greatness and the legendary matches they produced. The weekly series premieres on Sunday, June 6 at 8 p.m. ET /PT on SHOWTIME, with all episodes being made available across the network’s on-demand and streaming platforms at premiere.
- Deepening the mystery of their current chapter, Lord Huron unveil a new song entitled “Long Lost” today. It stands out as the title track of their anxiously awaited fourth full-length album, LONG LOST, out May 21^st via Whispering Pines Studios Inc./Republic Records. Listen to "Long Lost" HERE & watch the lyric video HERE.  Pre-order Long Lost HERE.
- Paula Fuga announces new album Rain on Sunday, available June 18^th through all digital services. “If Ever”, the lead track, available today along with a lyric video, is a duet with Jack Johnson featuring musician Ben Harper. Listen to “If Ever” and watch the accompanying lyric video here and to purchase, view here.  Rain on Sunday is Fuga’s much-anticipated second full-length album and also her debut album on Jack Johnson’s own Brushfire Records and Republic Records. In bringing Rain on Sunday to life, Fuga worked with producer Mike Love, recording live with her longtime bandmates and infusing every song with a kinetic and joyful energy. For the album’s creation, everything was tracked live, playing in a room together, which was of most importance to Fuga.
- While Lionel Richie and his American Idol colleagues continue their mission to discover music’s next superstar, today marks the 25^th anniversary of Louder Than Words, the Top-30 Billboard album that ushered in a new chapter for one of the most successful Pop and R&B artists of all time. Island Def Jam Music Group/UMe will celebrate this era in Lionel Richie’s illustrious career with digital deluxe editions of multiple albums throughout 2021, including Just For You (May 7) and Time (June 25). Each of the bonus tracks on the digital deluxe editions of Louder Than Words, Just For You and Time will make their streaming debut.  Kicking off these releases will be the 25^th anniversary expanded digital deluxe edition of Louder Than Words, Richie’s fourth solo studio album and first for Mercury/Island Records, originally available on April 16, 1996. Available here, Louder Than Words, which at the time was Richie’s first full album in 10 years, features “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” co-written by Lionel Richie, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Also featured are “I Wanna Take You Down,” “Paradise,” “Climbing,” “Ordinary Girl,” and Lionel Richie’s work with Babyface and David Foster. The bonus tracks include rare Spanish and Italian language versions of “Still In Love,” the radio version of “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” and non-album cuts “What Do They Know” and “Now You’re Gone.” Louder Than Words enhances Richie’s smooth R&B style with traces of funk and hip-hop for an emotional journey through heartbreak, anticipation and romance that speaks volumes.
- NOW That’s What I Call Music!, the world’s bestselling multiple-artist album series, showcases today's biggest hits across chart-topping numbered volumes and themed releases. NOW’s latest numbered volume, NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 78, will be released April 30 on CD and digitally. On the same date, NOW That’s What I Call A Decade! 1990s will also be available on CD and digitally.  Preorder NOW:  NOW That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 78 (CD, Digital): https://now.lnk.to/NOW78  NOW That’s What I Call A Decade! 1990s (CD, Digital): https://now.lnk.to/Decade1990s
- SHOWTIME Documentary Films announced that it has acquired worldwide rights to CUSP, the documentary feature from directors Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt, winners of the Emerging Filmmaker Special Jury Award at the Sundance^® Film Festival, where the film premiered earlier this year. Set in a small military town in Texas, CUSP chases three wild-spirited teenage girls as they live out a fever-dream summer, when the strictures of adolescence clash with the growing desire for personal agency. SHOWTIME is planning a theatrical release ahead of a network premiere later this year.  Shot in vérité style, CUSP captures authentic moments of female friendship while examining what it means to grow up in a culture of toxic masculinity. Though the girls’ experiences are completely unique to their upbringing, CUSP is also a strikingly universal coming-of-age tale — and true-to-life, at turns funny, tragic, complicated and stirring.
- Lights, Camera, Action! Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will have you singing and dancing in your seat with the release of A Cinderella Story: Starstuck, on Digital beginning June 29^th, and on DVD on July 13^th. The all-new musical film set in Dreary, Idaho stars Bailee Madison (A Week Away) as our modern-day heroine Finley Tremain and Michael Evans Behling (All American) as her charming romantic interest, Jackson Stone. Other featured actors include April Telek (Chris Watts: Confession of a Killer) as the cruel stepmother, Valerian, and step-siblings Saffron and Kale, played respectively by Lillian Doucet-Roche (A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish) and Richard Harmon (The 100).  A Cinderella Story: Starstruck will be available on Digital for $14.99 SRP ($14.99 in Canada), and on DVD for $19.98 SRP ($24.98 in Canada).