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Justin Bieber Compares His ‘Anyone’ Music Video to This Movie (And No, It’s Not ‘Rocky’)

Justin Bieber Compares His ‘Anyone’ Music Video to This Movie (And No, It’s Not ‘Rocky’)

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In a new behind-the-scenes video, Justin Bieber and Colin Tilley, the director of his “Anyone” music video, drew back the curtain and revealed what rom-com Bieber compares his latest video to.

“I’ve always wanted to do a boxing video, and it made sense for this song being an ’80s power ballad,” Bieber wrote as part of the Vevo Footnotes clip titled “The Making of ‘Anyone.'”

Even though the 1960s-inspired music video drew numerous comparisons to critically acclaimed boxing flicks such as Rocky and Creed, which did serve as key references, there’s one particular movie he compares the feeling of the song to.

Taylor Swift Is a Winner at China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Awards

Taylor Swift Is a Winner at China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Awards

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Also in the lineup are Ann Bai, G.E.M., Hebe Tien, JJ Lin, Mayday, CORSAK, Sun Rui, Tia Ray, Silence Wang, Zhang Yunlei, Lai Meiyun and Jane Zhang.

The Tencent Music Entertainment Awards will be held at The Venetian Macao. The awards ceremony begins at 7 p.m. SGT (Singapore Time).

Swift could fill a museum just with the awards she has won in the U.S., including 10 Grammys, a record 32 American Music Awards, 23 Billboard Music Awards and 11 MTV Video Music Awards.

In addition, she has won dozens of awards around the world, including a Brit Award from the U.K., an ARIA Music Award from Australia, two Brave Otto Awards from Germany, three Telehit Awards from Mexico and six Hito Music Awards from Taiwan.

She deserves an award just for keeping them all straight in her acceptance speeches.

Swift was IFPI’s global recording artist of the year for both 2014 and 2019.

Concord Names Victor Zaraya COO, Ruth Martinez Chief People Officer

Concord Names Victor Zaraya COO, Ruth Martinez Chief People Officer

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“Vic is a skilled, experienced executive with solid operational abilities as a result of his years working across all business areas at Razor & Tie and KIDZ BOP,” said Pascucci in a statement. “I am confident that he will be an exceptional COO and I look forward to seeing what he will accomplish on behalf of our staff, artists, writers and other creative partners.”

“I want to thank Scott Pascucci, Bob Valentine [CFO], Jim Selby and the rest of the executive team for this opportunity,” added Zaraya. “Concord is a special company that has the resources and willingness to support the creativity of our songwriters, artists, composers and playwrights at the highest level. I will do everything in my power each and every day to ensure that Concord and its exceptional staff deliver on this commitment.”

Martinez, who will lead the global human resources team with a special focus on diversity, inclusion and talent development, first joined Concord in March 2019 as senior vp worldwide human resources. She will continue reporting to Pascucci, with whom she previously worked at Warner Music Group (WMG).

“I have known Ruth for years, since our work together at WMG,” said Pascucci. “She is an exceptionally talented HR executive who understands the importance of mentoring, training and the promulgation of healthy team dynamics. With her guidance, we will make Concord an even better place to work and flourish for everyone at the company.”

Martinez added, “Working to transform our company values into outcomes is something I’m passionate about. It is so gratifying to be in a position to architect what our future programs look like, in order to grow the talent capability of our employees. A big thank you to Scott, the executive team and our Board for this inspiring opportunity and humbling recognition.”

Zaraya formerly served as COO at Razor & Tie, which was acquired by Concord in 2015. During his time there, he helped transition the company — including its family-friendly music brand KIDZ BOP — from CDs into digital while also helping expand its business by launching a music publishing arm and negotiating touring partnerships, licensing, distribution and marketing deals. He currently serves on the SoundExchange board and previously served on the board of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). He is also a founding council member of the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).

At WMG, Martinez most recently served as vp human resources – global publishing, where she managed Warner Chappell’s HR efforts in 22 countries. She joined that company in 2011.

China’s Enlight Media Moving Ahead on $2

China’s Enlight Media Moving Ahead on $2.5 Billion Theme Park

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Chinese film and TV studio Enlight Media says it is moving ahead with development of a movie-inspired theme park in Yangzhou, eastern China. It has selected Hollywood firm Legacy Entertainment as the designer of the park’s core Enlight Epicenter component.

Plans for Enlight Movie World were first announced in 2018. And Enlight says that its first foray into location-based entertainment requires an investment of $2.5 billion (RMB16.4 billion). The company says that the park will eventually encompass a massive 651 acres (2.63 square kilometres), but it has not publicly confirmed a completion date.

The Enlight Epicenter will feature experiences and attractions inspired by Enlight’s popular animated film properties. Offerings will also include themed retail and dining experiences, anchored by a family entertainment center, and be connected by a series of so-called ‘Art Gardens.’

Subsequent phases will include a wide variety of uses, including a theme park and expansive film and television production facilities. Enlight has been responsible for hit films including “Ne Zha,” which grossed $580 million, and live action father and son drama “Looking Up,” which grossed $123 million in 2019.

“Unlike studio-themed parks in America and Europe which tend to look towards the past, the relative youth of China’s homegrown IP-based LBE industry is all about looking forward,” said Eric Carnagey, Legacy’s MD and co-owner, in a statement. “We get a unique chance to imagine and create the ‘film studio and movie theme park of tomorrow’ by utilizing Enlight’s prominent position as a China-based film production and distribution company alongside their widely recognized properties.”

Legacy has previously worked with China’s Hengdian World Studios, which claims to be the world’s largest film studio, on its recent expansions. Its Hengdian Shanghai Bund debuted in 2019 with a mix of theme park-style rides, shows, and production facilities. The company has also worked with the Cirque du Soleil.

Within Asia, Legacy has several past and upcoming developments. These include the Galaxy Macau Resort, Macau Studio City resort, Lotte World expansion in Korea, and the recently-opened Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park. Upcoming openings include the Lotte Magic Forest theme park in Busan, Korea, and Chimelong Marine Science Museum in China’s Zhuhai.

‘The Bachelor’ Recap: Tensions Brew Against Frontrunner Sarah Trott

‘The Bachelor’ Recap: Tensions Brew Against Frontrunner Sarah Trott

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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Jan 18. episode of “The Bachelor.”

Last week’s episode of “The Bachelor” ended on a dramatic cliffhanger, as Sarah Trott fainted mid-rose ceremony. She was whisked away by fellow contestant Bri Springs, and shortly joined by Matt James.

The action resumed with Matt comforting Sarah after her fall, including an additional sidebar between the two of them outside. While Sarah was “embarrassed” by the incident, the other women grew irritated of their time alone. The rose ceremony eventually re-started as well, and Matt handed out his remaining five roses, sending Marylynn Sienna, Alana Milne, Illeana Pennetto, Kristin Hopkins and Sydney Johnson home.

Marylynn was sent home after the conflict with season villain “Queen” Victoria Larson. After Victoria survived the rose ceremony, she pivoted her attacks to Sarah: “Marylynn’s gone and now Sarah needs to go,” she said.

The next day premiered a new slate of dates — the first of which was a 10-women group date outing. Matt prefaced that the date was organized by host Chris Harrison, with the theme of getting “uncomfortable being uncomfortable.” Rachael Kirkconnell, Lauren Maddox, Kit Keenan, Serena Chew, Khaylah Epps, Anna Redman, Kaili Anderson, Katie Thurston, Bri and Victoria attended.

The date kicked off with special guest and “Bachelor” alum Ashley Iaconetti reading excerpts of Harrison’s romantic novel, then challenged the women to write their own intimate story with Matt as the lead character. Each woman took turns sharing their excepts with the “live audience” made up of the other contestants who were not on the group date.

Matt’s story was the most PG of the group. The others were much more suggestive, with Katie — known for her sex-positive attitude after bringing a vibrator to the resort on night one — shared her exotic excerpt — and Victoria being the raciest. Victoria’s was mostly bleeped out, deemed unsuitable for TV.

While most of the women and the audience took the date in stride, Sarah started to unravel, expressing how difficult it was to hear about hypothetical situations between Matt and the other women.

Her stress levels came to fruition as she crashed the evening portion of the date. She arrived uninvited to the cocktail party, interrupting Katie and Matt’s conversation, to express her discomfort. She shared that she struggled with infidelity in the past and that the situation was hard for her to endure. Matt committed to comforting her, expressing his own feelings since their one-on-one date, and tells her to “not compare” their relationships with others.

In the other room, animosity brewed against Sarah from the other contestants. Several women were unable to speak to Matt during their date, for which they directly blamed her.

While Sarah came and apologized to the group, it was clear they had turned against her. The group all questioned her motives, and Katie and Victoria continued to interrogate her individually. The growing hostility against her forced Sarah to reevaluate her position on the show: “I’m really questioning if I can be here and if I can do this,” she said.

Matt ultimately handed the group date rose to Rachael.

The next morning, news of Sarah’s interruption spread to the remainder of the house. When Matt arrived to take Serena Pitt on her one-on-one date, he noted Sarah’s absence and went to go look for her.

He found her isolated in her bedroom, where she was napping away from the other contestants. His initiative only further agitated the women, but she took comfort in his attentiveness. He promised he’d comfort her “every day” and spent their conversation giving her affirmation. “After hearing that from him, I can’t leave,” she confessed to the cameras.

Despite the Sarah drama, Matt took Serena P. on their scheduled one-on-one. The two spent the afternoon horseback riding and enjoying a picnic together surrounded by horses and donkeys.

The two had plenty of lighthearted conversation, but also discussed their families and futures, as well as perceptions and expectations of others. Serena P. exposed her sense of humor and also revealed her depth during the night portion of the date. Matt shared how excited he was about their relationship, and demonstrated that with a rose.

Meanwhile, at the house, another date card arrived. Sarah emerged from her room for its reading, which the women used as an opportunity to attack her intentions and character. She apologized again for interrupting the group date and for isolating herself from the women, but none of the women had an interest in her excuses. They ganged up on her and told her that the remainder of her time at the resort would be uncomfortable.

Sarah — visibly upset — retreated again, until Katie reached out the next morning. Then, the two had an emotional discussion, specifically revolving around Sarah’s family and her dad’s terminal illness. Sarah shared her father’s diagnosis with ALS, and that it was a driving force for wanting to go home. While she had a sincere interest in Matt, the hostility in the house, paired with the need to return to her family, helped her make her decision — she would leave.

While Sarah packed her bags, Katie shared the news with the remained of the contestants, and some humility: “I want to remind everyone to stay classy in this process because we don’t know our stories,” Katie said. “What I don’t want is for her to think she was bullied out of here.”

Sarah then headed to Matt’s residence to share her decision with him. He attempted to convince her to stay, but despite his last-ditch efforts, she said she felt “called to go home.” The two said goodbye, wrapping the episode.

“The Bachelor” airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Phil Spector: When a Musical Hero Is a Moral Monster

Phil Spector: When a Musical Hero Is a Moral Monster

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If anyone ever wondered what it would have been like if Richard Wagner had perished in the age of web news and social media, we got an indication of that when Phil Spector died Sunday at the age of 81. Whether we were writing headlines or tweeting thoughts to friend circles, few of us proceeded without considering how his artistic legacy and the evil that came to overshadow it could be contained in the same breath. His career was historic, his genius undeniable. And still, in the moment, as the later parts of his largely sorry life flashed before our eyes, it almost felt wrong to speak anything but ill of the dead.

The BBC found this out when it led with an obituary headline characterizing the super-producer as “Brilliant But Flawed.” They apologetically rescinded it, having been reminded by readers that homicide is not a personality quirk. Variety got more bluntly to the point: “Phil Spector, Wall of Sound Music Producer and Murderer, Dies at 81.” Even then, there were those who felt we got the order wrong. But failing to immediately emphasize the most heinous part of Spector’s legacy would be a little like running an obit in the late 19th century with the head: “RIP, Richard Wagner, Scoundrel and Proud Anti-Semite — But ‘Valkyries’ … Oh, What a Ride!”

Honestly considering the Spector legacy leads to holding that thing we dread most: opposing thoughts. So here’s a pair of those: He was one of the few true musical geniuses of the last pop century, responsible not just for reinventing his own trade as a recognized artform but creating rich, ebullient, masterful records that brought untold joy into the lives of tens or even hundreds of millions of people over a last half-century. And it would be better that none of those records had ever existed, if it meant that Lana Clarkson would turn 59 this year.

No gods will entertain that transaction, so we’re left to consider what we do choose to do about the tainted greatness still sitting there for the taking or leaving. It’s an extreme variant of the eternal quandary we face when reminded that our other musical heroes had their own transgressions back in the day, be it becoming BFFs with the mob, preying on underage girls or just playing Sun City. (“It was a different time” is a defense enjoyed by many a former abuser turned 70-ish family man.) There’s some wisdom in the “Consider the art, not the artist” maxim. But some of us are fickle or inconsistent in our standards for which artists’ misdeeds can be overlooked for the sake of enjoying art. If I find out someone is a prick to fans or journalists, I can’t help but turn off a little to their records. Yet I’ve found myself returning to Spector’s early ’60s recordings, trying to reconcile that love with a full acceptance of why he became the most hated man in rock. Is it rank hypocrisy to turn off a little to Lou Reed because he could be brusque with people, but still want to obsessively drop the needle on a Christmas record bearing the name of a killer? It’s possible, with some squinting and inner moral contortions, to still think of a lot of those bad boys of the past as anti-heroes. Spector is a villain.

The case of Spector does leave a convenient out: Who was the artist on all those phenomenal 1960-67 sides? Spector would have said it was him, of course, and had a decent case, as the first actual pop music auteur. Alfred Hitchcock famously told Francois Truffaut that “actors are cattle,” and that was probably a higher regard than the respect with which Spector considered his revolving door of lead vocalists. But they weren’t dispensable, or interchangeable. In honoring those records, we honor the great singers who never got their due until much later in life, like Darlene Love, or those that got their proper fame but then saw it squashed, like Ronnie Spector. We honor the musicians who were more than just bricks in the Wall of Sound, sometimes playing the same part over and over again in all-night sessions until their fingers bled. We honor the engineers and arrangers who did a lot of the heavy lifting, like Jack Nitzsche (who had problems of his own — boy, did he have problems) or Larry Levine. And we honor the songwriting teams that put heart and soul into those yearning anthems, including Goffin/King, Mann/Weil and Greenwich/Barry. (Spector had songwriting talent, and certainly made strong contributions as a writer along the way — starting with his very first hit, “To Know Him Is to Love Him” — but also forced his name onto things where he was a writer in name and royalty check only.)

I’ve certainly taken this “It’s about everybody else, not Phil” mindset when, for a month or so every year, I return to my desert island disc, “A Christmas Gift for You” (among other titles his 1963 various-artists opus was released under). For the 17 years since Clarkson’s death, I’ve thought of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” one of the 10 greatest pop records ever made, as a Darlene Love/Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry record first and foremost, a Spector effort secondarily. Focusing on the Ronettes restored a reason for Xmas glee, as did the eternal game of imagining that I could pick Carol Kaye or Hal Blaine out of the mix. The finale has always had serious buzzkill potential, though. Any time the “Hello, this is Phil Spector!” spoken-word piece would be imminently coming on to close out Side 2, I couldn’t rush to the turntable fast enough to rip the needle off the turntable. That’s probably been true of anyone who’s put it on since 1963, but especially after 2003, it became difficult not to feel like you had to move quickly to keep Satan from grabbing the mic from Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans.

We can say that we allow ourselves to enjoy Spector’s records only because of the vast contributions the other singers, players, writers and arrangers made in this very collaborative medium, not their ringleader. But that isn’t just compartmentalization; it’s kind of a cop-out. Nearly everything Spector did — at least from the time he became master of his own destiny with the start of Phillies in 1960, up until the point he became more of a superstar man-for-hire a decade later, grafted his services onto Glyn Johns’ for his contentious re-do of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” — did lend itself to the auteur theory, and then some. You don’t put on the album that was eventually retitled “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album” and tell yourself it’s really all about the Crystals. To keep appreciating this and the jaw-dropping 45s that came for several years before and after is to work at thinking of Phil Spector again as a human being — a slippery slope when it comes to someone whose demeanor turned unforgivably demonic.

I’ve pored over several books about Spector, many years back and again this past weekend, on the hunt for redeeming or at least suitably explanatory qualities. (And by redeeming, I mean more than “great drinking buddy” — an allure Spector had in spades, as his legend as a great storyteller and tenure as John Lennon’s partner-in-crime during the elongated Lost Weekend of the mid-‘70s bears out.) I at least hoped to find hints of a youthful sweetness, before someone or something ruinous got to him. That search was, well, pretty much in vain; prevalent biographical anecdotes indicate that even pre-fame, he lacked emotional intelligence or any common sense of empathy, perfectly willing to use and abandon friends, lovers and colleagues, if not seriously gaslight them. The most altruistic anecdote that sticks with you is ow he was known to write Wrecking Crew piano perennial Leon Russell a $50 check, mid-song, if he was particularly tickled by a licks. He’d also leave $400 tips on small tabs — the way he did the barhopping night he met Lana Clarkson — in contrast to the deaf ears that greeted pleas from his most trusted studio associates for anything beyond a flat fee. Beyond the largess with waitresses and improvising pianists, evidence of benevolence gets thinner.

Spector, who admitted that he craved respect, not love, had an origin story with hints of how he came to be an entertaining, then frightening, control freak. When he was 9 and living in the Bronx, before the move to L.A.’s Fairfax district, his father committed suicide, without explanation. He, his mother and sister ended up in a perpetually combative triad; the sister’s institutionalization made him further consider that his depression was genetic. In later years Spector would tell journalists about the bipolar medications he was on, and even a prescription for a drug commonly used to treat schizophrenia, although he would add that he’d not been diagnosed with that condition. Be it nature or nurture, Spector’s extraordinarily controlling mother set patterns he was to forever follow. It’s not hard to trace the scary line from an angry matriarch’s strange bids to track a teenage boy’s every move to an adult Phil who would lock the doors and force the Ramones, Leonard Cohen and Michelle Phillips as well as untold numbers of party guests, girlfriends and wives to keep him company at gunpoint.

But Spector doesn’t get to beat the raps of a rampaging ego, extreme manipulation and being the worst NRA poster boy of all time just because of childhood traumas or psychiatrists’ diagnoses. Is rampant narcissism a true mental illness? It’s the question polite civilization has been asking for the last four years. In a way It’s poetic that we’d be discussing Spector exiting this earth in the same week that we’re talking about the Oval Office being vacated of a man who’s made that toxic N-word a never-ending national discussion.

This is not the place to provide a full accounting of Spector’s sins; there are so many books for that. (I especially recommend “Tearing Down the Wall of Sound,” by Mick Brown, the journalist who interviewed Spector for hours just a few weeks before Clarkson’s death, and went on to talk to seemingly everyone who’d ever known him. It gives him plenty of due — and is still a devastating read for a current or former fan.) But obituaries can’t just be lists of achievements when a powerful show business giant has caused so many in and out of his closest circles so much pain. No act of pettiness seemed too small for Spector along the way. There were bigger cruelties, obviously, but when Spector’s partner in Philles Records let himself be bought out for a weirdly small amount, Spector rewarded him by recording a taunt called “(Let’s Dance) The Screw,” just to twist the knife further into a guy who’d done him little wrong. And when he was ordered to pay his soon-to-be-ex-wife Ronnie Spector interim support — after she escaped what she characterized as literal imprisonment in their home — he had a Brink’s truck deliver $1,250 in nickels… followed by alimony checks bearing the recurring inscription “Fuck you,” right next to the spot she’d have to sign and show the teller. Small-scale sins, on the scale that runs up to absentee parenting and repeatedly terrorizing woman, but still the kind of stories that are hard to shake.

Even the adoration of a Brian Wilson was met with nastiness. In the last extensive interview Spector did just before the Clarkson killing, the subject came up of the other great studio auteur of the early and mid-‘60s, the Beach Boy who could always be counted on to retell the story of how he had to pull his car over in astonishment when “Be My Baby” first came on the radio. In 2003, what did Spector have to say in return about his most celebrated acolyte? “Maybe he’s overrated… Maybe Brian wasn’t that talented to begin with, and we’re burdening him with that. We make these people more than they are. I don’t feel sorry for Brian Wilson; I never thought he was that talented to begin with. I’m glad he idolizes me; I wish that Jimi Hendrix idolized me. I heard he did. I’d be more impressed if somebody with a brain idolized me.”

So who was the celebrity singing the praises of Spector most on Facebook this weekend? Brian Wilson… at least until commenters got so angry about anyone saying anything complimentary about Spector that Wilson was forced to delete his gentle (and obviously forgiving) appreciation.

Wilson wasn’t able to keep his admiration up for public view. But if he can find it to celebrate his one-time hero after those awful remarks, maybe it’s not beyond the pale to see if there are elements of his body of work we can feel justified in lifting up, too.

Condemnations of Wilson’s haywire moral compass inevitably turn to knee-jerk declarations that he was overrated as a producer. I even saw one commenter claiming the Wall of Sound amounted to “turning all the knobs to the right.” Spector’s know-how in the studio shouldn’t really require a defense, but here’s one anyway. There’s a way in which you can see the Wall of Sound as one of the last great stands for “live” record-making., And although you could reasonably argue that Spector was diminishing the role of instrumental individuality, when he hired such renowned jazz, classical and pop players and then blurred them all together into one giant wash, you can equally argue that Spector emphasized the utter humanness of his music by mostly eschewing overdubs (other than recording lead vocals later). Spector was proud of only having two tracks, to be merged into ultimately one monaural release. He would pack as many as 20 players at a time into Gold Star Studios in Hollywood to play as a unit… after hours of prep work to make sure an army of five guitarists, three sax players, two drummers and God knows how many strings, horns, chimes and castanets would move in unison. In movie lingo: It was the musical equivalent of a special effects expert creating all the FX “in-camera.”

And, coming through a transistor radio or a set of thousand-dollar speakers, it felt like all of humanity experiencing the same communal stirring.

Let’s talk about the casting. You could grouse about Spector’s practical disregard for vocalists — a cavalier-at-best attitude that led both the Ronettes and Love to successfully sue him for royalties in the ‘90s after being ridiculously underpaid for their efforts for close to three decades. And yes, his practice of keeping his singers waiting for hours on end while he fine-tuned his rock ‘n’ roll orchestra ultimately worked to his detriment (if that took until 1995, when Celine Dion, who did not suffer like a Darlene Love once would, just walked out on the ’95 project that should have been his comeback).

But he didn’t really consider the singers interchangeable, however much it might have seemed so. He knew that the teenaged Crystals sounded too young for the full-throated, womanly soul that only Love could provide, which is why she wound up ghosting the lead on two of the group’s greatest hits, “He’s a Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love.” Conversely, he originally recorded a version of “Da Doo Ron Ron” with Love as lead vocalist, then decided she sounded too mature for the part and gave it to the Ronettes, who he intuited could better sell the earnest silliness that song’s scat-singing naivete. (Love lost out, in a way, both times, but the audience won.)

But the thing that Spector deserves the most credit for — difficult as it is to reconcile with his failings outside the studio —  is the ineffable, resounding glory of these records. It’s not just a technical achievement. It’s not just the work of expert songwriters, or of an all-time great arranger like Nitzsche, though it’s so much these element, too. Spector is absolutely the controlling force of these records, and to a large degree it simply has to be because of him that they are warm. Jubilant. Open-hearted. Tender. And rapturous … from a man who seemed to rarely or never experience rapture outside the dingy confines of Gold Star Studios.

Or maybe it’s really just Spector’s overcompensating narcissism that we should hear in the grandiosity of that sound. Maybe, in creating a sound that felt as big and deep as an adolescent’s nervous longings and sweetness and elation, it was a case of “If you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.” But I don’t think so. That wall, which too briefly stood in the pre-JFK-assassination period as the signature sound of a hopeful American youth culture, was about locking out loneliness. We may not be eager now to find points of identification even with the scrawny, respect-starved young Spector, much less the later respect-demanding, victimizer Spector. But that dread of solitude is one thing a miscreant like Spector and the rest of us at least occasionally have in common. Tom Waits had a phrase for compartmentalizing these better angels: “innocent when you dream.” Inside those four confined studio walls, with his future, Ronnie’s and Lana’s all yet unwritten, the devil was a hell of a dreamer.

Weezer Announce New Album OK Human

Weezer Announce New Album OK Human

Weezer has announced a new album. OK Human arrives January 29 via Atlantic. A single titled “All My Favorite Songs” will arrive this Thursday. See the artwork and tracklist below.

Meanwhile, the band confirmed that their previously-announced album Van Weezer is still slated to arrive May 7. The band has shared three singles off that record: “The End of the Game,” “Hero,” and “Beginning of the End.”

OK Human:

01 All My Favorite Songs
02 Aloo Gobi
03 Grapes Of Wrath
04 Numbers
05 Playing My Piano
06 Mirror Image
07 Screens
08 Bird With A Broken Wing
09 Dead Roses
10 Everything Happens For A Reason
11 Here Comes The Rain
12 La Brea Tar Pits

Weezer Announce New Album OK Human
Listen to Smino’s New Song “MLK Dr”

Listen to Smino’s New Song “MLK Dr”

Smino has shared a new song titled “MLK Dr” in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In the animated video, the St. Louis rapper assists an extraterrestrial version of Dr. King with a flat tire and the pair share a joint before driving down Martin Luther King Blvd. Watch the visual, which is creatively directed by Brick and Smino and features animation by Oliver Fredericksen, below.

Last year, Smino appeared on a remix of Thundercat’s track “Dragonball Durag” and teamed up with J.I.D and Kenny Beats for a song called “Baguetti.”

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Alicia Keys, Summer Walker, Quavo, Offset, More Ask Biden for Racial Justice Commission

Alicia Keys, Summer Walker, Quavo, Offset, More Ask Biden for Racial Justice Commission

Seventeen artists including Alicia Keys, Summer Walker, Quavo, Offset, and more have filmed a campaign video calling for the launch of a U.S. Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation within the first 100 days of the Biden/Harris administration. The video, “17 More Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black in America,” calls attention to some of the lives lost to systemic racism over the past four years. It features contributions from Khalid, Asian Doll, 070 Shake, A$AP Ferg, Vic Mensa, Mary J Blige, T.I., and Rapsody. 

The video is a follow-up to Keys and Leigh Blake’s 2016 clip “23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black In America.” Stevie Wonder also voiced his support for the commission today in an emotional video tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. on Twitter. Check out all of those videos below.

The campaign, led by the #breathewithme Revolution and the Black Music Action Coalition, advocates for the incoming administration to document, address, and archive the United States’ history of slavery and racism. Legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and in the Senate by Senator Cory Booker. 

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Weezer Announces New Album ‘OK Human’

Weezer Announces New Album ‘OK Human’

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“‘All My Favorite Songs’ the first song from the album will be out this Thursday, 1/21 at 12am ET. Limited vinyl will be available for pre-order on weezerwebstore.com then too,” they posted, along with OK Human‘s cover art and track list.

“p.s. Van Weezer is still coming out on May 7th,” they added, referring to their previously announced other upcoming album, which the group has said will be in dedication to Eddie Van Halen.

See the OK Human announcement below.

Weezer’s OK Human Track List:

1. “All My Favorite Songs”
2. “Aloo Gobi”
3. “Grapes of Wrath”
4. “Numbers”
5. “Playing My Piano”
6. “Mirror Image”
7. “Screens”
8. “Bird With a Broken Wing”
9. “Dead Roses”
10. “Everything Happens for a Reason”
11. “Here Comes the Rain”
12. “La Brea Tar Pits”

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