I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post includes blurbs on Shameless The Weeknd, James Bay, Lyn Lapid, Wings, The Strike, and Grand Theft Hamlet.
- From Executive Producer John Wells (“ER,” “The West Wing”), Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment will be newly releasing Shameless: The Complete Series, the critically acclaimed, long-running series in one complete set for the first time ever on DVD! Get ready to binge on all 134 episodes from the 11 incredible seasons of Showtimes Emmy® award-winning original series, along with all the previously released special features. The American comedy-drama television series based on the British series of the same name, will be available to purchase on March 18. Pre-order your copy today. Shameless stars Emmy® Award Winner William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Emmy® Award Winner Jeremy Allen White, Cameron Monaghan, Emma Kenney, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Noel Fisher and special guest star Joan Cusack.
- The Weeknd has officially released his highly anticipated studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow via XO / Republic Records. The new album follows a record breaking 2024, during which The Weeknd became the first artist in history to have 27 songs with over 1 billion streams each on Spotify. Hurry Up Tomorrow serves as the final and most personal chapter of the diamond-certified artist’s acclaimed trilogy series following After Hours (2020) and Dawn FM (2022). Check out the full tracklisting below. The Weeknd appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this evening and performed a unique version of “Open Hearts”. Watch it HERE.
- Back with a bright, bold, and brilliant anthem for 2025, three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated and BRIT Award-winning multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Bay shares a brand new single entitled “Sunshine In The Room” featuring Jon Batiste available now. It stands out as his very first collaboration with 5x-GRAMMY® Award winner, EMMY® Award winner, and Academy® Award winner Batiste. Listen HERE. Regarding the song, Bay said, “Working with Jon Batiste for ‘Sunshine In The Room’ is an experience I will never ever forget. He literally burst into the studio like a ray of sunshine and brought so much joy to the sound of the record and the work. He’s a total inspiration, and I hope we can work together again. The song is about having someone in your life who truly lights up the room as soon as they walk in.”
- Rising indie-pop singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Lyn Lapid kicks off 2025 with her new single “Coraline,” released today via Mercury Records alongside the official music video—listen HERE & watch HERE. The infectiously bouncy beat of “Coraline” juxtaposes with the song’s vulnerable and all-too-relatable lyrics, as Lyn searches for belonging and a sense of home. Sharing its name with the cult-favorite animated horror film, “Coraline” was inspired by the feeling of putting yourself in situations time and time again that ultimately leave you feeling empty and isolated, despite hoping for a different outcome every time. Lyn shares, “‘Coraline’ is the beginning of the story for my debut album. It’s representative of what my entire first year living in LA was like: very lonely, very cyclical. Every week or so I’d find myself at another party or another club with my roommates and their friends, in an attempt to make my own friends or find a sense of belonging. Every time, I was always surrounded by people so I was never physically alone, but I had never felt so lonely. Everything that was home and familiar was a country away, and the new city I wanted to make home always felt oddly unsettling. ‘Coraline’ is for anyone who’s struggled to find a sense of belonging in a new place or city or situation, because that just might mean that place or city is not for you.”
- MPL and UMe commemorate the 50th anniversary of Wings’ fourth studio album, Venus and Mars half-speed master edition, out on March 21, 2025. Pre-order here. One of the world’s most beloved rock outfits, Wings came to define the era of 1970s arena rock while dominating the airwaves with no fewer than 14 US Top 10 hits and 12 Top 10 hits in the UK. Following their 1973 masterpiece Band on the Run, Venus and Mars would represent another peak of Wings’ creative and commercial heyday. The band’s fourth studio album was released on May 27, 1975, ahead of the legendary Wings Over the World tour. Preceded by the US Number One single “Listen To What The Man Said” and featuring “Letting Go,” a fan favorite in Paul’s live set to this day, Venus and Mars hit Number One in the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic and went on to sell over 4 million copies worldwide. This special 50th-anniversary vinyl edition was cut at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original master tapes from 1975 by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The album is presented as a meticulous reproduction of the original UK pressing, with recreations of the original “Venus and Mars are alright tonight” circular sticker and “comparative sizes of sun and planets” bookmark sticker and comes with two posters with photography by Aubrey Powell and Sylvia de Swaan. The iconic album artwork by Hipgnosis has been meticulously recreated and presented in a gatefold sleeve.
- Amidst the redwood trees on the California-Oregon border sits one of the most infamous prisons in US history. Pelican Bay is a labyrinthine construction of solid cement blocks – a supermax prison – opened in 1989 and designed specifically for mass-scale solitary confinement. For decades, it held mostly Black and Brown men alone in tiny cells for indefinite periods based on questionable evidence. Then one day in 2013, 30,000 prisoners went on hunger strike. THE STRIKE weaves together, thread-by-thread, a half century of personal and criminal justice history into a single, compelling narrative around the drama of the 2013 hunger strike to end indefinite isolation. Grounded in testimonies from the hunger strikers themselves, the film details how the protest was conceived from a whisper inside the halls of Pelican Bay to a colossal feat across California prisons. With unprecedented access to state prison officials and never-before-seen footage from inside Pelican Bay, THE STRIKE reveals the panic that gripped the highest echelons of state government. PREMIERES MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd ON PBS.ORG, THE PBS APP & PBS YOUTUBE
- In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, two out-of-work actors, Sam and Mark, face a bleak future. Desperate for purpose, they stumble upon an idea: stage Shakespeare's Hamlet within the ultra-violent world of Grand Theft Auto Online. Shot entirely in-game, GRAND THEFT HAMLET explores their attempt to merge classical theatre with a chaotic digital landscape. With stunning visuals and unexpected moments of reflection, this engaging documentary examines how ancient cultural narratives can still resonate in new, virtual spaces, raising questions about art, isolation, and the digital world’s potential for storytelling. Now playing in theaters and straming exclusively on Mubi February 21.
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