Music

One of the many reverberations of the coronavirus pandemic is its decimation of the entertainment business as we knew it. Movie theaters across the nation are shut down, the box office is non-existent, and the year’s biggest summer blockbusters have been delayed. These desperate times clearly call for a music …

Brendan Benson has dropped a charming ode to family life, “Richest Man,” off his upcoming album, Dear Life, (out April 24th via Third Man Records). “I’ve got two beautiful babies/one hell of a good looking wife,” the Raconteurs guitarist sings over a sizzling guitar riff. “Got twice the love and …

Krzysztof Penderecki, the influential Polish composer and conductor whose work featured in The Shining and The Exorcist, has died at the age of 86. The Ludwig van Beethoven Association, founded by Penderecki’s wife, Elzbieta, confirmed to the Associated Press that Penderecki died at his home an Luslawice, Poland following “a …

Thursday night, the long-running concert series Austin City Limits hosted a special telethon fundraiser, ACL Stands With Austin, benefitting music and service industry workers hit hardest by the cancellation of South by Southwest and other live music events because of the coronavirus outbreak. The two-hour special featured performances from an …

Lakeith Stanfield plays it again with homages to Casablanca and Joker in the new video for “Fast Life,” his debut single under his music moniker, Htiekal. Directed by Three Dead Crows, the clip opens with an ode to Casablanca in which Stanfield re-creates a scene between Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and …

Kanye West wants to make the perfect hoodie. In his estimation, the 90-year-old garment “is arguably the most important piece of apparel of the last decade.” Kanye’s quest for said perfect sweatshirt is at the centerpiece of his recent WSJ Magazine cover story. According to writer Christina Brinkley’s description of …

Manu Dibango, the acclaimed Cameroonian saxophonist whose 1972 hit, “Soul Makossa,” would later be sampled by Michael Jackson, Kanye West, and dozens of other musicians, died Tuesday due to complications from COVID-19. He was 86. A note on Dibango’s Facebook page confirmed his death, as well as the cause (Dibango …

The afternoon before he released his latest album, the Weeknd put out a press release in which he offered a hopeful promise for his new work: “Let the music heal us all during these dark times.” Such communitarian concern hasn’t often been his hallmark. He’s always been one of pop’s …

In this time of self-isolation and social distancing, MTV has rebranded its Unplugged program as Unplugged at Home, an online series featuring artists performing acoustic sets from their own houses. Wyclef Jean delivered the series’ inaugural set Friday, with other artists to be announced in the coming weeks. Wyclef opened …

The Grand Ole Opry has been a musical tradition for nearly 95 years, and on Saturday, March 21st, the cherished institution will make history once again, with a special live performance from three of its long-serving members. Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, and Marty Stuart will take the Opry stage — …