Around the Tubes: April 3, 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 Hootie & the Blowfish, Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal, Cream, and Bellator MMA.

- Sessions is excited to announce a new livestream performance by one of America’s most beloved bands, Grammy-winning Hootie & the Blowfish. The virtual performance will be an online presentation of the tour-closing performance from their hugely successful 2019 Group Therapy Tour, broadcast exclusively via Sessions Live on Friday, April 23 at 6PM PT/9PM ET.  Early-bird GA tickets priced at $15 are on sale now at SessionsLive.com/Hootie/tickets. GA ticket prices will increase to $20 on April 20 at 9 p.m. ET. VIP ticket packages priced at $250 are also available, which include access to the live stream as well as an autographed tour pass and access to an exclusive virtual afterparty Q&A session with the band.

 

- Eat, or be eaten! Kill, or be killed! Get into survival mode with Adult Swim’s #1 prehistoric animated series with the release of Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on June 1, 2021. The critically acclaimed series displays a perfect 100% rating by critics & 99% by audience on Rotten Tomatoes, and recently won 3 Juried Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Animation. Travel back in time and binge on all 10 fascinating episodes from the first season and go behind the scenes with interviews from the incredible talent from this wordless series. The edge-of-your-seat thriller is priced to own at $24.98 SRP for the DVD ($30.99 in Canada) and $29.98 SRP for the Blu-ray ($39.99 in Canada), which includes a Digital Copy (U.S. only). Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: The Complete First also available to own on Digital via purchase from digital retailers.

- UMe/Polydor is delighted to announce the limited edition, blue, 2LP release of Cream’s show Live at the Forum, recorded at the Los Angeles Forum during their Goodbye Tour of 1968. Taken from the 2020 full version of the 4-CD set of the Goodbye Tour 1968 and produced by Bill Levenson, this sumptuous 2LP set is the first authorized release of the full concert on vinyl. It captures Cream at their virtuosic best, at the end but also at the height of their career.  With Cream, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, set the template for not only the ‘supergroup’ but also the “power trio,” with their innate musical talent and brilliance. Only coming together as Cream in July 1966, they shone briefly but blindingly bright throughout two trailblazing years. 

- At just 17-years-old, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and ballerina, Claire Rosinkranz buzzed to the forefront of the conversation this Summer with the independent release of her debut EP, BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd in June 2020.  Her song “Backyard Boy” gained unprecedented traction on TikTok, inspiring nearly 3 million video recreations, and sparking a highly competitive signing effort from labels around the world.  In addition to generating over 103 million Spotify streams, it captured #1 on the Spotify Global and U.S. Viral 50 Charts, with the EP exceeding 405 million global streams. With outlets like BuzzFeed, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Coup de Main and Genius chronicling her rapid rise, not to mention The New York Times naming “Backyard Boy” one of their “Best Songs of 2020,” Claire Rosinkranz is poised to become one of the year’s most unexpected and significant breakout acts.  Get the BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd (Remixes) EP, which features guest appearances from artists including ROLE MODEL, Jeremy Zucker, Rakeem Miles & Hauskey, HERE. Listen to her recent collaboration with Sarcastic Sounds and Clinton Kane, “Change Ur Mind” HERE.

- SHOWTIME Sports and BELLATOR MMA will deliver its inaugural event, BELLATOR MMA 255: Pitbull vs. Sanchez 2, live for free to non-SHOWTIME subscribers across multiple streaming services, online platforms and cable television providers when the premier combat sports partnership debuts on Friday, April 2 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.  The main card, in addition to airing live on SHOWTIME for subscribers, will be available for free to millions across the United States on industry-leading streaming services Pluto TV, Hulu, YouTube and FuboTV, in addition to participating television providers Armstrong, Buckeye, Liberty, Optimum and Suddenlink without the need for a SHOWTIME subscription. The main card of BELLATOR MMA 255: Pitbull vs. Sanchez 2 features five high-stakes matchups and is headlined by the next round of the Featherweight World Grand Prix tournament, as BELLATOR’s reigning lightweight and featherweight champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (31-4) defends his 145-pound title against Emmanuel Sanchez (20-4) in a semifinal bout.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 28, 2021

 

Shameless:  Usually the Carl storyline is the best, but bringing back his first partner and making him boring killed that streak.  Though not that any of the other storylines were much better.  Okay, I will admit to laughing pretty hard at Papa Milcovich dating a Jew who ended up marrying a black man.

 

The Walking Dead:  Yeah, that was pretty easy to spot that was not really Ezekiel.  First off, the guard did not even notice he was there until he got punch?  Plus Ezekiel has never been that violent before.  Granted, the biggest red flag for me was why did he drop into the train car with no way of escaping?  That just seemed really dumb because there would be no way he knew that Princess found a way out?  Or did she?  I am not entirely sure she even left the car at all.  None of these new people knew there was a easily to remove wooden piece in the car?  Plus shortly after returning to the car, the new people have everyone lined up outside it before she reopened the door?  Unfortunately it may be a while before we get a conclusion to this cliffhanger, next week in the finale and the previously on focuses solely on Daryl and Carol.  Ugg, the pandemic shut down the show right before the season finale, so they added six more episodes and then end the season there.  I wish they just added the finale to the eleventh season and just air those together.  Oh well.  Then the week after that, we get the four final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead.  Now I got to try and remember what happened before the Coronapocalypse shut that show down.

 

Good Girls:  Okay, weird co-worker was pretty entertaining.  Give him and check-cash guy their own spin-off.  They have been low-key the best parts of the last two seasons. But just how does Dean get out of this?  Beth and FBI lady have to team up, they did kind of tease it there at the end.  But how do you tie that all to Rio?  And what about the hit on Rio?

 

Debris: So English agent hears American agent knows her father is alive and then seemingly orchestrates the brother in law break into storm to be with his family?  Am I getting this right?  If yes, then why?

 

The Challenge: Double Agents:  Poor Anessa, out again right before the final.  I went back and looked at her results and she went out first once, out the six episode another time, but other than that, she makes to at least the ninth episode every other time.  Well, now she is off to the Senior Tour where twelve twenty-two appeared in shows after her.

 

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:  Still no Sharon Carter and Baron Zemo only got a couple seconds at the end.  I wonder had it been better if they did not announce them if they are only going to be in about half the episodes.  Better than waiting for them to show up.  I thought for sure the stowaway in the truck was going to turn out to be Sharon.  Oh well.  But the biggest problem is it still feels like an elongated Marvel movie that just finished its first act.  Had this been an actual movie and Zemo and Sharon do not show up until the second act, I would be fine with that.  But not getting any substantial screen time until at least the third episode when there are only six feels weird.

 

The Blacklist:  Still no Lizzy?  But what I do not understand about this week is why the hostage still had her phone?  Isn’t that something you want to take so she cannot text someone and be tracked?  But that lady turned out to be John Wick who managed to kill four out of five armed men with just a self-made shiv.  Give that lady her own show.