NEWS
Janelle Monáe has been added to the already stacked cast in the forthcoming musical from Pharrell Williams.
Universal Pictures announced on Thursday (May 2) that the “Tightrope” singer will star in the Michel Gondry-directed and Pharrell-produced film.
The film is reportedly set in Virginia Beach in the summer of 1977, inspired by the neighborhood where Williams grew up, particularly the Atlantis Apartments.
Other actors set to be featured in the film include Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Halle Bailey, Brian Tyree Henry and rap legend Missy Elliott.
Fans who can’t wait to see Missy Elliott in the movie can check her out on tour this summer.
Last month, the pioneering rapper announced the Out of This World Tour with support from Busta Rhymes, Timbaland, and Ciara.
Missy’s first-ever headlining tour, the 24-city trek will take the quartet across North America this summer, beginning July 4 in Vancouver.
From there, Missy and co. will make stops in cities such as Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, New York, and Toronto before closing things out on August 22 in Rosemont, Illinois.
A comedic trailer for the tour showed Missy, Busta, and CiCi walking out of a colossal spaceship dressed in extraterrestrial outfits, with a narrator saying: “The year 2024, these three icons come together to show you something you’ve never seen before.”
However, the trio quickly realized they landed on the wrong planet, with Bus-a-Bus taking the blame: “Ah shit! I done bust the wrong turn at Mars real quick.”
Missy then called up Timbo before rerouting their voyage to its intended destination: Earth.
The trailer was directed by Dave Meyers, the award-winning director behind iconic Missy videos like “Get Ur Freak On” and “One Minute Man.”
“This is an incredible time in my life as I am experiencing so many milestone ‘firsts,’” Elliott said in a press release. “Being the FIRST female Hip Hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and now going out on my FIRST headline tour.
“Fans have been asking me to tour forever but I wanted to wait until I felt the time was right because I knew if I was ever going to do it, I had to do it big, and I had to do it with family!”
“So get ready to be taken OUT OF THIS WORLD with me, Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and Timbaland! We can’t wait to share this experience with the fans!”
NEWS
Steve Albini‘s bands Shellac and Big Black now have their catalogues available for listening on Spotify.
Albini passed away aged 61 earlier this month due to a heart attack. He was well known for being the producer of major albums such as Nirvana’s ‘In Utero‘, Pixies’ ‘Surfer Rosa’, PJ Harvey’s ‘Rid of Me’, Manic Street Preachers‘ ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ and more.
Back in 2022, the late producer took his music off the streaming platform. He had previously criticised the company for platforming anti-vaxxers such as Joe Rogan, and tweeted later that they were a “terrible company”, adding: “I don’t want to be part of their business”.
He later told Attack Magazine that Spotify was “one of the few places outside of record stores where recorded music can earn anything at all, and for bands [with] more generous, honest relationships with independent labels not part of the ownership trust, then the payments from Spotify, though meager per-play, can add up to a viable income stream. Nobody’s getting rich, but it could pay for the groceries.”
Now, it appears that Albini’s work with his bands Shellac and Big Black are now available to stream on Spotify. This include’s Shellac’s final album ‘To All Trains’, which was announced shortly before Albini’s death and was released last Friday (May 17).
Tributes have poured in for the legendary producer since the announcement of his death. Our NME obituary hailed him as “a lone voice of anti-industry punk scene ethics, even as he worked with major labels on some of the biggest names in alternative rock.”
Meanwhile, Foo Fighters dedicated a rendition of ‘My Hero’ to the late producer in Charlotte, North Carolina last week.
“Tonight I’d like to dedicate this song to a friend that we lost the other day, who I’ve known a long, long time,” Foos frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd. “He left us much too soon. He’s touched all of your lives, I’m sure. I’m talking about Steve Albini. For those of you who know, you know. For those of you who don’t know, just remember that name: Steve Albini. Let’s sing this one for him.”
PJ Harvey also said he “changed the course of my life” during sessions for her 1993 LP ‘Rid Of Me’., and Joanna Newsom dedicated a version of her song ‘Cosmia’ to him, who engineered her 2006 album ‘Ys’. See further tributes here.
Elsewhere, Yourcodenameis:milo spoke to NME about how the 20th anniversary of their LP ‘All Roads To Fault’ was made all the more profound by the passing of Albini, who engineered the album.
Remembering their time with the punk and production legend, Lockey said: “We paid attention, saw everything he did, asked questions that he would gladly spend ages answering”.
“He once stopped the session and proceeded to give us a lecture on how the peanut built America. He schooled us in billiards, then showed us his favourite cooking shows that he’d recorded. It was all so natural and encouraging, we could do what the fuck we wanted and he’d capture it. That’s the deal, and we fucking loved it.”
