Last month, David Byrne announced that he'd be collaborating with Record Store Day ambassadors Paramore on a 12-inch single. While side B will be home to the trio's cover of "Burning Down the House," the record will be fronted by Byrne covering their track, "Hard Times." Now, Byrne is sharing his offering for the project a day early. If you hadn't heard the original, you might assume it was a recent Byrne track with its syncopated drums and horn sections. It makes it easier to understand how the original was inspired by Talking Heads — listen to it below. Paramore's cover of "Burning Down th ..read more

Showcased on a series of screens were animated images of Chun Li, one of Nicki Minaj's many personas, dressed in a medieval knight's armour among a sea of similarly dressed soldiers. It was as if she was embarking on a journey to battle — until she hopped in a luxury vehicle and sped to her private jet before finally speaking to the crowd: "This is your captain speaking."   The Pink Friday 2 World Tour is Minaj's journey through her fan-populated Gag City, a glossy, pink fairy tale land that encompasses Minaj's various eras and affords her a Barb-run haven from the outside world. Her Th ..read more

Earlier this month, it was reported that Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, his partner in the acclaimed production duo the Neptunes, were in a legal dispute over the rights to that name. Hugo had accused Williiams of violating their agreement to split all profits evenly by "fraudulently" attempting to gain sole control over trademarks to the Neptunes.  It might seem crazy, what I'm 'bout to say, but Williams has found himself embroiled in yet another legal battle. This time, it's high-flying pop star P!nk who has taken issue with Williams's attempt to register a trademark. He's trying to ..read more

One of my favourite bits of our very long-running Exclaim! Questionnaire interview series is seeing how artists answer the question, "What do you think of when you think of Canada?" For Americans in particular, it oftens seems to evoke a sense of something utopian — or just like, maple syrup or whatever. While they've yet to fill out the Questionnaire, MUNA seemingly fall into the former camp of US citizens yearning for our not-much-better situation on this side of the border.  On the latest episode of the indie pop trio's Gayotic podcast, they have Canadian astrologer Chani Nicholas on ..read more

The life of Caroline Slezak-Kawa — a.k.a. Care Failure of Die Mannequin — will be celebrated with Failurefest, a one-night event at Toronto's Bovine Sex Club on May 2. ACIIDZ, Fine Motor Control and Blackout Orchestra lead the bill, with a Die Mannequin supergroup featuring Ian D'Sa of Billy Talent on guitar also on deck. Kali-Ann Butala from Bad Waitress and Emily Bones and Valerie Knox of the Anti-Queens will also add guest vocals throughout the sets. The festival will be hosted by Leora CW of Bloody Mannequins and Mike Austin of Deepsix.  All ticket proceeds will be donated to Toront ..read more

Nas' classic debut album Illmatic celebrates its 30th anniversary today (April 19), and he's shared a new song with album collaborator DJ Premier to mark the occasion. Nas and Primo have teamed up for "Define My Name," which you can hear in the player below. A press release notes that the two will deliver a collaborative album later this year. DJ Premier contributed a trio of beats to Illmatic in 1994, producing "N.Y. State of Mind," "Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)" and "Represent." Last year, Nas shared albums Magic 2 and Magic 3, rounding out a trio of Magic albums recorded with Hit-Boy ..read more

We're nearing the halfway point of this decade, and it's hard to think of a moment of it that hasn't been dominated by Taylor Swift. Heading into 2020, her titanic album Lover was shaping up to be the touring event of the year — and when COVID lockdowns prevented that from happening, her quarantine twofer of folklore and evermore defined the moment. And once things opened back up, 2022's Midnights paved the way for her world-conquering Eras Tour, which is by far the hottest ticket in the business, coinciding with her re-recording her back catalogue. And here she is, once again, with The ..read more

For many kinds of people and the culture at large, today is The Tortured Poets Department day — which, at 2 a.m., Taylor Swift announced all rigour mortis-like was actually a double album. While her right-hand man Jack Antonoff produced the majority of the album proper (which is notably already 16 songs long), some of those and much of the additional The Anthology part saw the pop star reunite with the National's Aaron Dessner, who Swift first started working with on 2020's folklore. In a statement on the album release, Dessner revealed that Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche played on the record. T ..read more

With competitors like NEON, A24 and Blumhouse currently going toe-to-toe-to-toe in the prestige horror arena, the genre space sometimes feels a bit too self-serious nowadays. The 2024 spooky release calendar has been especially guilty, with recent scary outings like Immaculate, The First Omen, Imaginary, Night Swim and Late Night with the Devil all being too rigid to even crack a smile or attempt any sort of humour. Cue Abigail, the most recent project from filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, collectively known as Radio Silence, the same team responsible for Ready or Not, Scr ..read more

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats have a fourth album under their belt. South of Here will arrive June 28 via Stax Records. Recorded at Sonic Ranch outside El Paso, TX, South of Here is the follow-up to 2021's The Future. "These recordings were done together in a room with my closest friends," Rateliff shared via press release. "I hope these songs and stories give you an opportunity to better understand your own struggles whatever they may be." Alongside the announcement, the band has shared South of Here's lead single, "Heartless." Listen to it and check out the album's tracklist be ..read more