Around the Tubes: May 14, 2022

              

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting.  This post includes blurbs on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Jack Johnson, James Bay, Florence + the Machine, Rolling Stones, Owl City, Ella Fitzgerald, Cold War Kids, and Joy Oladokun.

- Hey Aqua Teen Fam! Everyone’s favorite fast-food trio from Adult Swim creators Dave Willis (“Squidbillies,” “Space Ghost Coast to Coast”) and Matt Maiellaro (“Space Ghost Coast to Coast,” “12 oz. Mouse”) are coming together for the first time on DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment with a complete collection including all 140 episodes from the hit series 11 season run, as well as the first theatrical film titled Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, plus hours of bonus content. With over 30 hours of content to binge on, Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Baffler Meal Complete Collection is priced to own at $112.99 SRP for the DVD ($129.99 in Canada). Aqua Teen Hunger Force is also available to own on Digital via purchase from digital retailers.  Three unique detectives, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, share a rental house in New Jersey. This mystery-solving trio is comprised of human-sized food products: Master Shake, the big-mouthed, self-appointed team leader with a short attention span and no work ethic; Frylock, the only reasonable member of the group, who happens to be a box of French-fried potatoes--spuds with power; and Meatwad, a talented round mound of meat who can take the shape of a hot dog or an igloo. Together, this triple threat tackles unusual cases from the luxury of a neighbor's swimming pool--unless they're confronted by danger. Then, of course, the three run like hell.

- Multi-platinum recording artist Jack Johnson released a second song and title track to his upcoming June 24^th release, Meet The Moonlight, alongside a beautiful new video directed by acclaimed filmmaker Morgan Maassen.  Stream “Meet The Moonlight” here  and view the video here.  The album’s centerpiece, “Meet The Moonlight” presents a quietly hypnotic number that producer Blake Mills refers to as “one of the most spiritually interesting things I’ve ever worked on.” With its sweetly languid rhythms, mantra-like vocal delivery, and otherworldly guitar work, “Meet The Moonlight” serves as a lovely respite from the outside world as Johnson shares another gentle reminder for living well. The track’s spacious arrangement leaves a lot of room for the mystical. Adding to the track’s inspiration, “Whenever I walk outside at night and look up at the stars, it’s always a way to be present instead of worrying about the future or dwelling on the past,” said Johnson. Mills adds, “There’s a chord in the song that wasn’t part of the initial composition; it happened by mistake when we were first playing it. In the end we kept it, because what that chord suggested was all the mystery. To me it represents the whole process of us finding a common ground and working together to keep all those little idiosyncrasies tucked into the mix.”

- Three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated and BRIT Award-winning multi-platinum singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist James Bay will release his highly anticipated third full-length album, Leap, on July 8th via Mercury/Republic Records. Pre-order and pre-save Leap—HERE.  For Leap, Bay worked with some of the most sought after producers and songwriters in a mixture of in person and remote sessions in Nashville & London including Foy Vance [Ed Sheeran], Dave Cobb [Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton], Ian Fitchuk [Kacey Musgraves, Brett Eldredge], Joel Little [Lorde, Taylor Swift] & Finneas [Billie Eilish, The Knocks]. Check out the full tracklist below! 

- Dance Fever, the highly anticipated new album from Florence + the Machine, is out today. Listen here. The album, her first since 2018, features previously released tracks“My Love”, "Free", “King” and “Heaven is Here,” all of which arrived alongside videos from acclaimed director Autumn De Wilde. Florence appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” this week – watch her perform “My Love” and “King” and chat with Fallon here.

- A legendary event in the incredible 60-year history of the Rolling Stones is released in full for the first time today, Friday, May 13^th, via UMe. Live At The El Mocambo marks the first official appearance of the group's two famous secret concerts at the 300-capacity Toronto club in March 1977.  The album is available on double CD, 4 LP Black Vinyl, 4 LP Neon Vinyl and digitally. It features the Stones' full set from the March 5 show, plus three bonus tracks from the March 4 gig, newly mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Only four of the performances found their way onto the Love You Live album that followed in September 1977, which was dominated by tracks captured on the band's 1975 and '76 tours, with the full set having never been heard before.  As the Rolling Stones gear up for their 60^th anniversary celebrations, Live At The El Mocambo is available now, listen here.

- UMe/Interscope Records releases “All Star (Owl City Remix),” Owl City’s bold reimagining of Smash Mouth’s iconic 1999 hit single, on all digital formats. This fresh take on a perennial classic adds a new layer of sunny electronic pep to a song recognized worldwide for its inherently joyful get-up-and-go disposition. Click HERE to listen now.  Paul Delisle of Smash Mouth states, “It’s a wonderfully creative and unique reimagining of one of our best songs. We Have Always Admired Adam, and it’s an honor to have him remix the mighty ‘All Star’ in his distinctive Owl City sound.”

-  On August 16, 1958, just a few months after Ella Fitzgerald recorded her now-classic album, Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Songbook, The First Lady Of Song performed selections from that album live at the Hollywood Bowl to an adoring, sold-out crowd. Conducted and arranged by Paul Weston, who also arranged and conducted the studio sessions, this concert marked the only time that Ella performed these iconic arrangements live with a full orchestra.  Widely considered her greatest achievement, Ella’s Songbook records, with peerless renditions of the best songs by America’s greatest composers, are the cornerstone of the Verve catalog and the undisputed standard for jazz vocal recordings. At the inaugural Grammy Awards, her Irving Berlin album won Ella her first Grammy for “Best Vocal Performance, Female,” and was also nominated for “Album Of The Year.” Aside from the lucky audience at the Hollywood Bowl that night, it wasn’t generally known, until the discovery of these tapes, that Ella had ever performed any of the Songbook arrangements in concert, let alone that such a pristine and sonically sumptuous recording existed.  Pre-order the album here: https://EllaFitzgerald.lnk.to/HollywoodBowlPR

- Arkells share their brand new single “Past Life” featuring Cold War Kids, out today on Virgin Music Label. The release is accompanied by their brand new music video, featuring a hilarious guest starring appearance from SNL alum and MacGruber star, Will Forte. Check out the must-see video here.  DOWNLOAD/STREAM “PAST LIFE” HERE.  OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO FOR “PAST LIFE” OUT NOW

- Breakthrough artist Joy Oladokun’s new single, “Purple Haze,” is out today on Amigo Records/Verve Forecast/Republic Records (stream/purchase HERE). The song, about love and the end of the world, made its debut last week on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (watch HERE).  Of the song, Oladokun shares, “I wrote ‘Purple Haze’ while I was in LA after some wildfires, and I noticed the sky was not the color that it should be. It made me think about the world we live in and all the information we get on a daily basis. It almost feels like we might be on our way out as a species but there are wonderful things like family, friends, partners, dogs - things that inspire us towards beauty and excitement. Even if this all ends, it was worth the experience.”

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 8, 2022

  

Fear the Walking Dead:  Oh Luciana, why are you lying to Daniel about his daughter just moments after the guy literally murdered a dude who lied about his daughter.  But to be honest, I have no clue what happen to his daughter and part of me thinks she could very well end up in the tower.

 

The First Lady:  I found it interesting that there were multiple wheelchairs in the episode, Betty’s student and Michelle’s dad, but none in the timeline with possibly the most famous wheelchair user.  But I found it odd that this was the marriage origin episode but Franklin did not show up until the scene before the wedding.  Instead Eleanor spends most of the episode at boarding school.  And he was the only actor who played a husband that I actually recognized (reuniting him with his Looking for Alaska co-star who played young Betty).  I wonder if we will get more episodes with the younger versions in future episodes, there are still decades until they move into the White House, but on the other hand, you have Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson, are you really going to sideline them for multiple episode.  But then again, maybe the reason they signed on for a ten episode season was they would get a few episodes off.

 

I did break my one rule of watching based on real events shows/movies, going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole while watching.  I was stuck that Eleanor’s maiden name was also Roosevelt I just had to look right away to see if she married her cousin.  Later in the episode FDR made it a point to mention they were just fifth cousins.  I kind of forgot Teddy, who was actually Eleanor’s uncle, and Franklin were distantly related.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:  Honestly, I am kind of more interested with what happened to Newton when he arrived on this planet.  So the scientists took his eyes, when crazy and killed all but one of them.  When is that flashback episode?

 

The Endgame:  Well, at least we learned why the evil lady hated Elana, but I feel like that reveal should have come earlier.  The president seemed like a more formidable big bad.  To learn he was just a puppet just fell flat.

 

The Girl from Plainville:  Elle Fanning was great in the show, but ultimately, this story was not really worthy of an eight episode series when all you have are basically a bunch of text to base the show on.  If you are going to stretch this story to eight episodes, you really needed to have more musical number / dream sequences. 

 

Moon Knight:  If Layla’s sprit animal is a Hippo, why did she get budget Wonder Women wings?  I guess being really hungry would be a lame superpower I guess.  But again, the blackouts were fun in the first episode was funny, but how do you yadda yadda the final battle?  Did they just do that to save the reveal everyone knew coming for the post credit scenes? 

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  Oh Julie, not only are you a bigger mess than when you were first time in New Orleans, you got caught admitting you are playing things up for the cameras.  Number one rule of reality television, do not get caught manufacturing drama for camera time.  

 

Survivor:  So we do not get a reaction from Drea about RocksRoy’s all dude’s alliance.  Oh well.But this seems the episode where you really have to put Omar as the frontrunner to win.  Will anyone realize he is playing all sides before it is too late?

 

The Flight Attendant: Guess my prediction that the two kidnappers were the ones who were found in the lake.  So I guess those two are going to be someone we are not familiar with.  But there are certainly trying to make it seem like Cassie’s handler is a bad guy but I am just not buying it.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  Yet another episode over an hour.  They really could have cut the homelife storyline, which adds nothing to the show.

 

Halo:  It was a bit strange to have a whole episode without Master Chief, especially after the bif reveal of The Halo last week.  Well no real Master Chief, just a fever dream of him.  I did like there was a video game homage with Kwan keep on respawning after he kills her.  But I missed where Swhere Soren left the planet, and then just showed back up this week.  But I got a good laugh where he got shot, the bunker that was supposed to protect him from the blast has slits that let the flames in, but still managed to walk out of the bunker all right.

 

Big Sky:  Didn’t Jenny just join the force?  A bit weird she became the defacto leader after the chief got shot.  Is there no one with more seniority?

 

The Blacklist:  I am glad they revealed that Aram was still under the influence shortly after Park died, because I pegged it a dream when he was happily riding his bike  It was weird they kept going from Aram’s dream to real life all episode.  I wonder if Samar will be haunting Aram for a couple more episodes because she was there at the end and it would be strange to bring her back just for basically one scene.

Around the Tubes: May 7, 2022

                 

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting.  This post includes blurbs on The Valet, Emergency, Maggie, The Chi, John Coltrane, Def Leppard, Kira Kosarin, and Animal Sun.

- "The Valet" premieres on Hulu and across Disney streaming services globally on May 20th, 2022.  In “The Valet,” world famous movie star, Olivia (Samara Weaving) faces a PR disaster when a paparazzi snaps a photo of her with her married lover, Vincent (Max Greenfield). The hard-working valet Antonio (Eugenio Derbez) accidentally appears in the same photo and is enlisted to pose as Olivia’s new boyfriend as a cover up. This ruse with Olivia thrusts Antonio into the spotlight and unexpected chaos. In this fish out of water romantic comedy, two worlds and cultures collide as both Olivia and Antonio start to see themselves more clearly than ever before. “The Valet,” directed by Richard Wong and written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, is the English-language remake of the hit French film.

- Amazon Studios will release EMERGENCY in select theaters May 20th and on Prime Video May 27th.  Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and his best friend, Sean (RJ Cyler), are both seniors in college about to embark on an epic night of Spring Break parties. Sean has the whole night planned out, including every party they will hit on their “legendary tour.” Kunle is down, yet mostly concerned with finishing up his mold experiment in his lab, as his acceptance to Princeton is hinging on the results. They return to their apartment to pre-game, yet find that their roommate, Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), left the door open. As they enter with trepidation, Sean and Kunle discover a drunk, semi-conscious White female they don’t know on the floor and an oblivious Carlos, who didn’t hear her come in over the videogame blaring in his ears. Kunle wants to call the cops but Sean vehemently opposes the idea concerned how it will look when the cops show up (two Black men, one Latino man and a passed out White woman).

- Hulu Original Series "Maggie" premieres all episodes on Wednesday, July 6th.  Dating is hard enough - it’s even harder when you also happen to be a psychic. Maggie’s gift allows her to see into the future of her friends, parents, clients, and random people on the street. But when she begins to see glimpses of her own destiny after meeting an unexpected stranger, her romantic life suddenly gets a lot more complicated. Can you let yourself fall in love when you think you know how it ends? She probably should have seen this coming… 

-  SHOWTIME has released the official trailer for the highly anticipated fifth season of its hit drama series THE CHI, which will return with its first new episode on Friday, June 24, available on streaming and on demand for all SHOWTIME subscribers, before making its on-air debut on Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. THE CHI, from 20^th Television (HOMELAND), is currently in production on 10 episodes in Chicago. 

-  Since launching in 2020, Verve/UMe’s all-analog vinyl reissue series, Acoustic Sounds, has provided definitive, best-in-class audiophile grade pressings of some of the most important and beloved jazz records of all time, each mastered from the original tapes and produced with the utmost care. The nearly two dozen releases to date feature many of the timeless, classic albums from the Verve Label Group’s stable of labels including Decca, EmArcy, Impulse! Records, Philips Records and Verve, and thus far have included Bill Evans’ Trio ‘64, Clifford Brown and Max Roach’s A Study In Brown, Gil Evans Orchestra’s Out of the Cool, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Ballads, Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson’s Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson, Nina Simone’s I Put a Spell on You and Pastel Blues, Oliver Nelson’s Blues And The Abstract Truth, Peggy Lee’s Black Coffee and Sarah Vaughan’s Sarah Vaughan, and Stan Getz and João Gilberto’s Getz/Gilberto.  In 2021, the Acoustic Sounds series yearlong spotlight was on Impulse! Records as they celebrated their 60^th anniversary. In 2022, the series continues to have a strong focus on Impulse! but will also feature several important albums released by Verve between 1956-65. The third year of the highly popular series kicked off in January with two albums by John Coltrane, the legendary Live At The Village Vanguard (1962) and the epic, meditative Crescent (1964). It was followed by Coltrane’s sublime collaboration with Duke Ellington on their joint LP, Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1963), and the latest release in the series, Coltrane’s landmark album with vocalist Johnny Hartman, John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman, released on April 29.  All four titles are available to order here:

John Coltrane – Crescent: https://UMe.lnk.to/ColtraneCrescent

John Coltrane – Live at the Village Vanguard: https://UMe.lnk.to/JCLATVV

John Coltrane & Duke Ellington – Duke Ellington & John Coltrane: https://UMe.lnk.to/JCDukeEllington

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman – John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman: https://Verve.lnk.to/ColtraneAndHartman

- SiriusXM announced today that legendary rock band, Def Leppard, will play a special invitation-only concert in Los Angeles at the Whiskey a Go Go for SiriusXM listeners. The intimate performance, part of SiriusXM’s Small Stage Series, will take place on Thursday May 26, in celebration of Def Leppard’s forthcoming album Diamond Star Halos which is scheduled to be released on Friday, May 27. On June 16, Def Leppard is set to kick off “The Stadium Tour” which will hit 36 major cities across North America. Def Leppard will be joined by Motely Crüe, Poison, and Joan Jett for this massive and highly anticipated stadium run. Prior to Def Leppard’s tour, this will be the first-time fans can see the band perform new songs live from their latest album live in addition to the stadium anthem hits that cemented them as rock icons. The performance will premiere on SiriusXM’s Def Leppard Radio and Howard 101 on Friday, May 27 at 5:00 pm ET and PT. Additionally, the concert will broadcast throughout June on Classic Rewind (ch. 25) and 80’s on 8.  For information on how to attend SiriusXM’s Small Stage Series, featuring Def Leppard please visit:www.siriusxm.com/DefLeppardLA. 

- After making a name for herself as a successful actress and independent artist, Kira Kosarin is bringing her music to the forefront in 2022. Today, the 24-year-old singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist releases a new song “parachute (plan b),” which marks the second release from her forthcoming EP.  Listen to “parachute (plan b)”—HERE.  On the track, delicate acoustic guitar wraps around her soft vocals. Above sparse airy production, she delivers a tender promise, “You’re all I need. I don’t want a plan b.” It illuminates the eloquence of her songwriting and dynamics of her powerhouse voice.

- Indie pop quartet Animal Sun have released the music video for their catchy and hard-hitting collaboration with Dreamers “I’m Already Dead.” Produced and co-written by Kenny Carkeet (ex-AWOLNATION) and co-produced by Aaron “Zeus” Zepeda, the track is the second release off of Animal Sun’s upcoming sophomore album Generation Waiting, due this Summer. Animal Sun is also currently on a nationwide tour with Kelsy Karter through May 11.  “I’m Already Dead” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1E6Z3DU4ko

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 1, 2022

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  I was not expecting this show to do a teen rom-com episode.  That was weird.  Though one of the teens died and the other one is dying.  At first I thought June and Charlie were playing up the sickness to get the dude to turn off the beckon, but it turns out she really is sick.  Which would make her the second main character seemingly with a terminal diagnosis.  Though, maybe I should use main in quotations because I spent most of the episode trying to remember when the last time we saw Charlie was.  I think she may have been with the group who were holed up in the fort after the bomb went off, but I do not remember her ever being around Morgan since the explosion.

 

The First Lady:  I forgot how racist the media was against Michelle Obama.  She was so beloved during her time as First Lady; it was shocking to remember how some tried to portray her as the “angry black woman.  Oof.

 

The Endgame:  Elena has panned everything out so meticulously, but she did not have a plan in place for the president to just say fork it and bury her alive?  You would think she would have Snow White monitoring the place in case she was ever removed from Fort Tottem.  How do you not see that coming?

 

The Girl from Plainville:  Involuntary intoxication… I may have to remember that one.  Though I guess it is not a great defense if there is a warning at the start of the episode basically saying very few professionals believe it is a thing.  And though I could see it coming from a mile away, the title of the episode was Teenage Dirtbag, but seeing a bunch of grade schoolers sing the song to Michelle was creepy but still fairly entertaining.

 

Moon Knight:  While it is not uncommon for people to create a new persona when dealing with trauma, I was under the impression the primary creates the new persona to deal with the grief, not to be the one who only remembers their mother and a nice and caring person.  That was a little weird.  But R.I.P. Steven?  Though if Mark created him once, I guess he could do it again when he makes it to the land of the living again.

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  Oh no, it looks like Julie was trying to make up for the months she did not drink during her first visit to New Orleans in one night.  But why doesn’t Tokyo just leave?  Danny also wanted to stay, let her be his problem and let them get an Uber later.

 

Survivor:  Oh joy, another special episode.  But what makes Drea look bad was that she voted out Chantelle and was talking about stealing Maryanne’s Idol.  Seems like she was perfectly fine with getting rid of half of the black people left, she just got mad when he closest black ally got voted out.  I do wonder if anyone will explain to her the reason why Rocksroy was booted was because he was trying to start an all dudes alliance. Then Maryanne was perfectly fine going to Tribal and voting out another black person when the last Tribal she went to another one was voted out then had to be told by Drea why she should be offended.

 

But I was sure Tori would be the first successful person to play the Shot in the Dark.  I have been talking all season we knew Tori would not go home because the opening montage showed her find something so I was extremely shocked that she went home before she found anything.  I re-watched that opening montage and Jeff talked about the dumb phrase advantage while there was a close up of Tori making a shocked face but it seems like I just somehow morphed that into that she found something.

 

The Flight Attendant: So are the two bodies found in the lake the two people who were in Cassie’s house?  And did fake Cassie alert someone to the bodies being there so they would be found?  But doesn’t Cassie have a pretty good alibi of being in Iceland at the time?  Sure, she was not on the manifest, but her FBI buddy and the person who seat she took can vouch for her.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  I know this is based on re al events, but the show does not need a murder mystery, the Mormon family drama in the eighties is interesting enough.  I could do without the cop stuff.  With both episodes going over an hour, I definitely could have also down without the Joseph Smith flashbacks too.  Then the second had way too much dog murder.

 

Made for Love:  Did they really think they could do weeks of treatments without someone noticing?  I understand dude is a bit of a recluse, but wouldn’t he need to go to the grocery store eventually or pick up his meds?  He is just never going to go for a walk?  At least he figured it out by the end of the episode.

 

Halo:  After the big battle last week, this week was a bit of a letdown.  I did like when Master Chef locked the doctor up to see if she put a failsafe in Cortana, but the rest fell flat, especially the reveal of the titular place which really means nothing to someone like me who never played the game.

 

The Blacklist:  So Red basically started the episode working through if Mr. Kaplan was really and how silly it sounds that she could be the one be to kill Lizzie, basically saying pretty much what I said last week.  But I am now thinking that the sister is behind it all.  They did make a point to say how much she looks like her sister.  But how convenient that neither Red nor Harold bothered to join the raid.  I knew that place was going to blow up the moment neither got out of the car.

 

Around the Tubes: April 30, 2022

                

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting.  This post includes blurbs on Showtime Free Preview, Schitt’s Creek, The Beach Boys, Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, Sheryl, Neneh Cherry, and AccuWeather NOW.  

- SHOWTIME today launches a Free Preview with select distributors through Monday, May 2. Viewers can now access the network's award-winning programming on the Apple TV app for free — no subscription necessary. Viewers can simply visit apple.co/Showtime on iPhone, iPad or Mac to be directed right to the Free Preview, log in with their Apple ID*, and press play. Viewers can also watch the SHOWTIME Free Preview on the Apple TV app on Apple TV 4K and HD, or supported smart TVs, gaming consoles, and cable set-top boxes.  The SHOWTIME Free Preview is also available on other participating distributors, including Cox Communications, Mediacom, Liberty Communications of PR, Breezeline, Hotwire Communications, WOW!, Cincinnati Bell (now altafiber), TDS, BendBroadband, Service Electric Cablevision, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, Buckeye Broadband and more in 157 markets across the U.S.

- Hulu announced that it will be the dedicated subscription video on-demand destination for critically acclaimed and fan favorite series “Schitt’s Creek” in the U.S. beginning October 3, 2022.  “Based on the number of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ GIFs we Slack every day, it’s no surprise that we are absolutely thrilled to welcome Johnny, Moira, Alexis, ‘Daviiid’ and the wonderfully unique residents of Schitt’s Creek to Hulu,” said Joe Earley, President of Hulu. “We can’t wait to share the award-winning, blisteringly-funny, yet heartwarming series and characters with our subscribers. We know they’ll fit in nicely.”  “Schitt’s Creek” centers on an outrageously wealthy video store magnate, Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy); his former soap-star wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara); and their two adult children – the self-described black sheep of the family David (Daniel Levy) and career socialite Alexis (Annie Murphy). When the family suddenly find themselves broke, they have no choice but to move to Schitt's Creek, a small-town Johnny once bought as a joke. Forced to live out of a motel, with their pampered lives a memory, they struggle to find jobs and relationships and, most importantly, figure out what it means to be a family in the loveable town they’ve reluctantly come to call home. 

- Upon signing to Capitol Records in 1962 and releasing their first album, Surfin’ Safari, that same year, the three young brothers, cousin, and friend from Hawthorne, Calif., known simply as The Beach Boys, soared to popularity with their ebullient sound that embodied the Southern California beach lifestyle with sunshiny vocal harmonies, twangy guitars, upbeat songs about surf culture, and their youthful exuberance. Propelled by the hits “Surfin’” and “Surfin’ Safari,” the album, which uncommon for its day, featured mostly original songs, spent 37 weeks on the Billboard chart and set the course for one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, who have gone on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. With each album, The Beach Boys refined their songwriting and production skills, rapidly evolving from their early surf beginnings to create some of the most sonically exquisite and most important and beloved music ever made.  Sixty years after first transmitting their good vibrations around the globe, The Beach Boys, the first American pop band to reach the 60-year milestone, remain one of the most legendary and influential groups to date, with their timeless music reverberating through modern culture today as strong as ever. In celebration of their 60^th anniversary, UMe, the global catalog company of UMG, is pleased to be a part of some of the major initiatives planned to celebrate “America’s Band” throughout 2022-23. To kick off the yearlong celebration and provide the perfect summer soundtrack, Capitol Records and UMe will release a newly remastered and expanded edition of The Beach Boys career-spanning greatest hits collection, Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys, on June 17. Originally released in 2003, the album soared to no. 16 in the US and stayed on the chart for 104 weeks. Now certified 4x platinum for sales of nearly four and a half million albums, the collection has been updated in both number of songs and audio quality, expanding the original 30-track best of with 50 more of the band’s most beloved songs for a total of 80 tracks that span their earliest hits to deeper fan-favorite cuts and from their 1962 debut album, Surfin’ Safari through to 1989’s Still Cruisin’.

- Craft Recordings, Concord Originals and Marathan Films are excited to announce the production of the documentary concert feature film Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, directed by two-time GRAMMY® Award winner Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology and Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies) and narrated by Academy Award®-winning actor Jeff Bridges, who like his iconic character “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski, is a fan of the band. The film features the ONLY full concert footage of the original Creedence Clearwater Revival to ever be released.

- On March 11, a full-length documentary film directed by Amy Scott, entitled Sheryl about the singer-songwriter's life and career, premiered at SXSW, ahead of the May 6 premiere on SHOWTIME. An intimate story of song and sacrifice, Sheryl navigates an iconic yet arduous musical career while the artist battles sexism, ageism, depression, cancer, and the price of fame, before harnessing the power of her gift.  In conjunction, UMe/Big Machine Records will release a new album called Sheryl: Music From The Feature Documentary digitally and on 2CD on May 6. The release features Sheryl Crow’s biggest hits, including "If It Makes You Happy," "Soak Up The Sun, "All I Wanna Do, "My Favorite Mistake, "Redemption Day," and many more, as well as deep tracks and three newly recorded songs. To preorder Sheryl: Music From The Feature Documentary, click HERE

- Neneh Cherry announces a new project titled The Versions out June 10^th, a collaboration album of covers from her expansive catalogue by an all-female line-up of some of the most exciting and revered artists of our time. Listen to superstar songwriter Sia’s version of Neneh’s hit “Manchild” out today below.  LISTEN TO “MANCHILD” BY SIA HERE.  WATCH THE LYRIC VIDEO HERE.  PRE-ORDER THE VERSIONS HERE.  The Versions is a 10-track album featuring Neneh Cherry reworks from artists that have a personal connection to the artist and her music. Sia expresses her love for Neneh and her family saying, “Neneh was my favorite artist when she hit the scene. I saved my pocket money for red filas and dreamt one day we would meet. When I was struggling with my mental health in my early twenties, I somehow ended up in their house being taken care of as if I was one of their own children. I called her husband during a suicide attempt, who had been mentoring me as an incredible music producer, and they gave me all the love I could have dreamt of. I owe them a huge thanks and would sing ‘a-b-c’ for them if they asked. Neneh, my very first queen, Cameron my bonus dad, I love you forever amen!”

- AccuWeather NOW^TM, the new video streaming product from AccuWeather, the proven leader in weather forecast accuracy, announced it has officially launched on Amazon Freevee, a free ad-supported streaming service that delivers premium content without having to purchase a subscription.  Amazon Freevee viewers will now have to access AccuWeather’s forecasts as well as 24/7, continuous daily programming, dedicated to all things weather, including extreme and natural events, global forecasts, climate and weather-related news impacting our changing world and long-and short-form documentaries through the streaming platform, accessible and free to watch and stream from any device.  Amazon Freevee is free, customizable and includes critical weather information from AccuWeather NOW^TM streaming service into their platform listing.