Saturday, June 13, 2020

Around the Tubes: June 13, 2020


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 NASCAR, BENEE, Lenny Kravitz, Flikka, Paul McCartney, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, The Ed Sullivan Show, RingsideAtticaPonpu, 2020 Concert for Love and Acceptance, Love, Victor and Taste the Nation.


- Just two days after Bubba Wallace made a statement saying he felt NASCAR should ban fans from flying the Confederate flag at tracks, a ban has been permanently put into effect at all events and properties of the auto-racing giant. On Sunday, Bubba Wallace, the only African American driver racing full-time in any of NASCAR’s top three series wore a shirt that said “I can’t breathe” in honor of George Floyd’s last words as he was killed on May 25th in Minneapolis. After Wallace wore the shirt for pre-race ceremonies and the national anthem, NASCAR held a moment of silence before the green flag as president Steve Phelps spoke to drivers and teams over the radio about racial injustice and the move for social change.

- BENEE ft. Gus Dapperton: Supalonely:


- Lenny Kravitz: Believe (The Tonight Show: At Home Edition):


Following her Gotts Street Park collaboration "Favourite Kind of Girl"Stockholm-based singer-songwriter Flikka today has shared her new single "Stop Me From" via Blue Flowers (Nilufer Yanya, Puma Blue, Westerman). Listen to it HERE.  Produced by Leon Michels aka El Michels Affair, Flikka explains the inspiration behind the song: “I wrote this song while going through a difficult time,” the artist explains. “I had a lot of anxiety and regret and I couldn't sleep. I remember calling up my father in the middle of the night asking what to do with the state I was in. He told me to pick up my guitar and so I did, and this song happened. This was the first song I wrote for the Flikka project and its really about  looking for love in the wrong places. It's one of my most personal songs, which makes it hard to talk about. Sometimes you trust people who you shouldn't trust. It's kind of funny how some people can treat you like shit and make you feel guilty about it.”

Paul McCartney proudly announces the thirteenth installment in his GRAMMY Award-winning Archive Collection: On July 31, Paul’s critically acclaimed and universally beloved tenth solo album Flaming Pie will be the latest to receive the Archive Collection treatment, being released on formats including a 5CD/2DVD/4LP Collector’s Edition, a 5CD/2DVD Deluxe Edition, plus 3LP, 2LP and 2CD editions.  All digital pre-orders for the Archive Collection release of Flaming Pie will include YOUNG BOY. Also available as a stand-alone for digital download & streaming, the EP recreates the 1997 “Young Boy” maxi single and features the remastered Flaming Pie single “Young Boy," a home-recorded version of the song, the original B-side “Looking For You,” and excerpts of “Oobu Joobu Part 1,” also from the original single. The two music videos for the track have been restored and will also be published on the same day.  Two additional EPs will be available with “The World Tonight” arriving on June 26 and “Beautiful Night” on July 17.

Yusuf / Cat Stevens today releases a 2020 reimagination of his ‘70s classic ecological anthem, “Where Do The Children Play?” - A first glimpse into the forthcoming album Tea for the Tillerman² (Out September 18th on UMe).  50 years later, “Where Do The Children Play?” still depicts a chilling reality of modern man’s disregard for nature and its disastrous implications for our future on this precious planet. Its original release on Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens’ multi-platinum selling album - made a giant imprint on the consciousness of the seventies generation and is set to do so all over again, this time accompanied by an allegorical and visually arresting animated video by director Chris Hopewell, whose previous credits include Radiohead’s “Burn The Witch.” Watch here.

Nearly 50 years after The Ed Sullivan Show wrapped its final episode and charmed TV viewers for the final time on Sunday night June 6, 1971, it officially joins the streaming universe and lives on forever. UMe today announced an agreement with SOFA Entertainment Inc. for the global digital rights to The Ed Sullivan Show library, which encompasses the influential television program’s historic 23-year primetime run on CBS. This marks the first time that Ed Sullivan Show performance and guest segments will be officially available in their entirety across streaming services worldwide. Launching today on The Ed Sullivan Show’s official YouTube channel, the first segments showcase landmark live musical performances.

SHOWTIME has released a first look at its upcoming award-winning documentary RINGSIDE, premiering on Friday, June 12 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT. Filmed over the course of nine years by award-winning director Andre Hörmann, RINGSIDE chronicles the dramatic upbringing of two boxing prodigies and follows the divergent paths they take as they navigate life’s uncertainties on the South Side of Chicago. The never-before-seen clip illustrates the separate paths of Destyne Butler Jr. and Kenneth Sims Jr. In an emotional letter to his father, Butler reflects from a correctional center in Shawnee, Ill. upon the mistakes he’s made, while Sims travels the country fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a prosperous professional boxer. To watch or share the first look, go to: https://youtu.be/yjC2AoiYPP8

SHOWTIME Documentary Films announced ATTICA, a new feature-length film from acclaimed Emmy-winning documentarian Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, The Murder of Emmett Till). The project details the five-day prison rebellion that transpired in the fall of 1971 in upstate New York and still stands as the largest and deadliest the country has ever witnessed. The film is set to premiere on SHOWTIME in 2021, the 50th anniversary of the uprising. The announcement was made by Vinnie Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Nonfiction Programming, Showtime Networks Inc. More than a simple recounting of the five days of rebellion, ATTICA will also offer a broader understanding of the Attica tragedy in the crosscurrents of politics, race, power and punishment during the early 1970s. Through expert voices and archival images of urban and suburban life, the film explores the tensions between a young, radicalized population of mostly Black and Latino inmates, and correctional officers from a predominately white company town, where the Attica prison was the primary employer for generations of families. ATTICA examines inmates’ demands for recognition of their humanity at the culmination of a moment where racial justice activists embraced prisoner rights as an extension of their fight for civil rights. Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, will serve as the lead historical consultant on the project.


Developer Purple Tree Studio and publisher Zordix today announced that due to overwhelming fan demand, their upcoming four-player duck-on-duck destruction game Ponpu will feature both local and online multiplayer when it releases for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam, and Xbox One this Fall. The all-seeing Duck God has had enough and the world has run out of time. Every 2 billion years the world must be refreshed through divine destruction and he has sent you, a Ponpu, as his herald. But, a nasty bump on the head during a crash landing took your memory and now you find yourself working against the Duck God in a carnage-fueled battle against other Ponpu to save the very world you were sent to destroy. 

- The Academy of Country Music’s charitable arm ACM Lifting Lives®, CMT, GLAAD, and country music star and philanthropist Ty Herndon today announced new appearances and performances for the upcoming 2020 Concert for Love and Acceptance, set to take place as an online event amid the ongoing COVID19 crisis. Musicians Lauren Alaina, Lewis Brice, Terri Clark, Billy Gilman, Dennis Quaid, Kalie Shorr, and Rita Wilson will join the performance lineup, which already includes two-time 2020 Grammy® winner Tanya Tucker, who is set to open the show. In addition, singer Mickey Guyton will make a special appearance, as will actor, producer, and director Matt Bomer, who will introduce Wilson. The event will be live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and at www.F4LA.org/concert, with additional appearances and performances to be announced. 

- This coming June 19 -- Juneteenth  -- will mark 155 years since slavery was abolished in America. This date represents an important turning point for our nation and for human rights, and we believe that now, more than ever, it deserves to have its own day in the spotlight.  For this reason, we are shifting the premiere dates for our new original series, Love, Victor and Taste the Nation, to June 17th and 18th, respectively.

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