Radiohead became unlikely Bond theme favourites
Who among us hasn’t fantasised about Thom Yorke curling his falsetto around an icy electronic beat while Daniel Craig somersaults over bullets in slow-motion, wearing a suit? Oh, was that just me? Apparently not, according to bookies William Hill – they decided on Tuesday to suspend betting on the singer of the next James Bond theme song, after some absolute joker placed £15,000 on Radiohead’s chances.
Ted Nugent is onboard with Cecil the Lion’s killer
The cowboy hat-toting rocker decided to step up and ally himself with the guy who killed Cecil the Lion. In Nugent’s eyes, dentist Walter Palmer did the right thing when he paid $50,000 to track and kill a lion in Zimbabwe after luring it beyond the safe confines of a national park. “The whole story is a lie,” Nugent wrote on Facebook. “It was a wild lion from a ‘park’ where hunting is legal & ESSENTIAL beyond the park borders. All animals reproduce every year & would run out of room/food to live w/o hunting.” Er, not sure about the science behind that one, Nugent, but we’ll keep an eye out for the “full piece” you’re writing about it. That ought to have all the facts, right?
Azealia Banks tweeted about ‘violent’ Australian crowds
Banks rapped her way through a full set at Byron Bay festival Splendour in the Grass. For an artist who has cut short more than one Australian gig in the past, after punters allegedly hurled full beer cans on stage, that’s almost a news story in itself. When a local radio broadcaster chose to point that out in a snarky tweet to Banks, she replied, calling Aussie crowds terrible, violent and belligerent.
@brownypaul @SITG because in all actuality. You guys are terrible crowds to play for. You're violent and belligerent and I simply
— AZEALIA BANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) July 27, 2015
Dr Dre’s new album is meant to come out this weekend
Before any Dre fans get excited, I’m not talking about long-awaited and still unreleased album, Detox. Rather, Dre is meant to be putting out music inspired by forthcoming music biopic, Straight Outta Compton – and, according to Ice Cube, the album may come out on 1 August. Rolling Stone begs to differ, attributing confirmation of a later release date to “multiple sources”, but the point is, we’ve still not heard a new studio album from Dre in 16 years and that madness has to stop.
Marching protesters turned a Kendrick song into a chant
A protest against police brutality at Cleveland State university turned musical, when activists started chanting the chorus hook to Kendrick Lamar’s Alright. The song, off sprawling album To Pimp a Butterfly, features lyrics about black people being killed at the hands of the police, and the mantra that through it all: “we gon’ be alright”. Fittingly, the marching protesters repurposed the song, reminding us all that before hip-hop went pop, it was a form of protest music that gave a voice to the multi-faceted struggles of disenfranchised black and brown men in the US.
The Happy Birthday song isn’t under copyright after all
Birthday scenes in films tend to be expensive. Not because of intricate cake designs, but because the happy birthday song that most of us recognise was under copyright to a music publishing company. But no more. A newly discovered 1927 songbook has now essentially placed the song back in the public domain – though the specific arrangement copyrighted by Warner Chappell will still be under pricey lock and key. Rejoice, makers of family-centric films. Rejoice.
Drake destroyed rapper Meek Mill, on two separate tracks
Meek Mill and Drake, two rappers who generally seemed to get along, indulged in a spot of classic rap beefing this week. Unlike the more violent beefs of days past, their disagreement revolved around Twitter (ugh, what else?). It started with Meek Mill claiming that Drake doesn’t write all his own lyrics, and ended decisively when Drake recorded and released two diss tracks aimed at Meek. If Frank Ocean orchestrated both the Taylor Swift vs Nicki Minaj and Drake vs Meek Mill Twitter spats to distract us from the fact that he did not, in fact, release a new album this month, then I applaud the effort.
Bono said we should claim the Beatles as Irish
You know that feeling, when you’re giving a presentation at work and start to lose your way, so end up going off-book completely and rambling into the middle distance? Bono basically did the speech version of that on Wednesday. In a tribute to the 40th anniversary of John Lennon obtaining his US green card, Bono went from honouring the struggle of immigrants to saying we should claim all the Beatles as not only immigrants, but Irish.
Paul McCartney said the Beatles forgot their own songs
Speaking of the newly Irish band, Macca spoke about the dozens of Beatles songs that never saw the light of day. Before all the luxury of portable recording devices, he and John Lennon just had to remember the ditties before getting into a studio and recording them. Simpler times.
Bobbi Kristina Brown died, aged 22
Whitney Houston’s daughter died, almost seven months after she was placed in an induced coma in January. She had been found unresponsive in her bathtub in Atlanta, and moved to hospice care in late June. Bobbi Kristina was Houston and singer Bobbi Brown’s only child.
