Category Archives: Entertainment

Fall Out Boy reunites and delivers with new single, album and tour coming soon (music video inside)

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For the first time since 2008’s admittedly awesome change-of-pace effort Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy is reuniting for another record dubbed Save Rock and Roll. The lead single off their fifth studio album is the very wordy “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light Em Up)” and I’m happy to report that it’s way different from their previous material. Not that their first few albums were bad, but they were able to successfully revitalize their brand by going in a new direction with Folie à Deux so it stands to chance that Save Rock and Roll will do the same in 2013. “Light Em Up” is indeed an eclectic track that borrows inspiration from hip hop, hair-metal, and the group’s roots in alternative punk/pop rock. It all layers on top of each other nicely; longtime FOB fans should accept it with arms wide open and newcomers to the once overly emo punk band will be surprised to hear something unexpected.

Listen to the track in a fiery music video featuring rapper 2 Chainz in appearance only after the break.

Download “Light Em Up” at iTunes today. Save Rock and Roll releases in a few months on May 6, the same day in 2003 when Fall Out Boy dropped their debut album Take This To Your Grave. They are also going on tour from May 14 to June 30; check out the dates on their site.

It’s been ten years, FOB fans. Are you excited to hear more? Continue reading Fall Out Boy reunites and delivers with new single, album and tour coming soon (music video inside) →

Drake drops new single “Started From The Bottom” (music video inside)

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October’s Very Own is back with a new single off his upcoming third studio album. “Started From The Bottom” stars Drake the Rapper since the majority of the track features the former Degrassi star laying down hard rhymes as opposed to his usual crooning abilities. It’s not as bouncy as his previous singles “Take Care” and “The Motto” but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Drizzy gets real in this track as he takes listeners on a journey through his rise to fame.

He took to his blog to formally introduce his latest cut to fans. “I am proud of every part of my past and I’m excited for this song to find a place in your life as well. I didn’t feel I needed any interviews or radio or press to launch this song. It felt right to come back to the site that I started on and release it to the people that started here with me. Judging by this post, the tour that we’ve been planning, the conversations about new songs and album artwork…I think it’s safe to say we’re back together again. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.”

Listen to “Started From The Bottom” here. Download it at iTunes. An accompanying music video hangs after the break.

Continue reading Drake drops new single “Started From The Bottom” (music video inside) →

Discover new music: DDFRx

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This round you are being introduced to DDFRx (or Daily Dope Fix, and the Rx makes it a prescription “because you are guaranteed to become addicted to their sound” or so they say). The New York-based group consists of producers and rappers, namely beats maker Eric Ficocelli (who goes by the handle The Fics) and rappers Mike.M and R. Crooked Letter. Their latest creation “PAM,” produced by The Fics with creative direction from Corey Zaretsky (Beatstache), can be described as an electric fusion of dance music and hip hop. It’s got a flashy, positively schizophrenic beat that’s sprinkled with catchy samples provided by Kanye West’s “Mercy” and Trinidad James’ “All Gold Everything.” It’s the kind of music you’d want to hear at night clubs precisely when the night reaches that point of ecstasy.

Preview “PAM” in full below and download it for keeps at DDFRx’s SoundCloud page. There you will also find the group’s previously released track “Media Training” which features rhymes from Mike.M. Coming soon is a new Fics beat with Mike.M and R. Crooked Letter taking turns at the mic. As DDFRx continues to expand its exciting sound we’ll follow its steps.

SpeakSonic album reviews: Dropkick Murphys, Kidz Bop 23, 2013 Grammy Nominees & Destiny’s Child

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Dropkick Murphys–the punk rock band who delivered the Celtic chant “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”–are back with their eighth studio album Signed and Seal in Blood and it’s more of what fans are used to hearing from them. It seems like Kidz Bop has been going on forever just like its cousin Now That’s What I Call Music… but that’s for a good reason: even in its 23rd incarnation it manages to sell extremely well as its young target demographic eats it up. The Grammys air tonight; why not sample some of this year’s nominees in the award show’s compilation album. Destiny’s Child is back with Love Songs, their own compilation of romantic tunes that features one brand new track “Nuclear.”

SpeakSonic delivers with this week’s bite-sized album reviews.

TV reminder: ‘The Walking Dead’ resumes tonight at 9PM on AMC [Update: record ratings]

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War is brewing. It’s Rick and his Prison pack versus The Governor and the wily town of Woodbury. Before The Walking Dead‘s midseason break, Rick infiltrated Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie who had been kidnapped by Merle. Rick’s ambush was a success and his nemesis The Governor (who he hasn’t even met yet!) came out of it all with vengeance on his mind. Michonne killed his zombie daughter Penny right in front of him and then she gauged one his eyes out. (I think it’s now safe to say that The Governor will never see eye-to-eye with anyone from here on out.) The major cliffhanger, of course, was the surprising reunion of the Dixon brothers under not-so-ideal terms; The Governor blames Rick’s attack on the one-handed Merle, after all, because he had lied about taking out Michonne in the woods.

What will be the fate of the Dixons? What is Rick’s next move and will he continue to lose his mind during a strenuous time when he needs it most? Which side will Andrea end on when the dust settles; will she choose to stick with the one-eyed (don’t-call-him-Phillip) Governor or return to her original group at the Prison? After her battle with The Governor Michonne’s wasn’t acting like herself–has she gone soft? How will the latest addition to our group Tyrese factor into it all? The Walking Dead resumes the second half of its 16-episode third season tonight (2/10) at 9PM on AMC. Watch a preview here. The Talking Dead–now in a one-hour format airing immediately after TWD with special guests Steven Yeun and Kevin Smith–follows.

Note: Since Dead has been on hiatus, news broke that for the second time the series’ showrunner is departing. Like Frank Darabont before him, Glen Mazzara is leaving the show due to creative differences. However, you should know that Mazzara had his hand in the making of the back half of this season. His successor Scott M. Gimple (the show’s supervising producer/writer) takes the reins during the production of season 4.

Update (2/11): Back from another break and The Walking Dead reaches a new series high in ratings. Sunday night’s midseason premiere drew 12.3 million viewers, besting the previous record holder that was the season 3 premiere (that episode garnered 10.9 million viewers). Across the first 9PM airing and the three encores that AMC showed Sunday night, the midseason premiere attracted a grand total of 16.6 million viewers. That’s huge people.

“When you look at numbers like this, the first thing that comes to mind is how grateful we are to the fans of this show,” said AMC president Charlie Collier. “They embrace The Walking Dead in a way that we wanted to believe was possible but we never take for granted.The cast and crew put everything they have into making this show. They’re a phenomenally talented group who truly give their all. We congratulate everyone involved.”

Christina Applegate exits ‘Up All Night’

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Up All Night is tearing at the seams. After NBC pulled the show from it schedule in December, it decided to change the single-cam sitcom to multi-cam with a live audience and all and amidst the news of such a drastic revamp series creator Emily Spivey departed the show and original showrunner Jon Pollack stepped away as did his successor Tucker Cawley. And now, series star Christina Applegate is leaving.

“It’s been a great experience working on Up All Night, but the show has taken a different creative direction and I decided it was best for me to move on to other endeavors,” said Applegate. “Working with [executive producer] Lorne Michaels has been a dream come true and I am grateful he brought me into his TV family. I will miss the cast, producers and crew, and wish them the best always.”

Like Spivey before her, Applegate could not accept the massive creative changes happening at the show and so she bid it adieu. So what exactly does this mean for the show? NBC has yet to comment on the news, but according to Deadline the show is not dead yet and they’re looking at replacing Applegate’s with a new actress, possibly Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame.

NBC ordered five more episodes to round out Up All Night‘s second season. With an Applegate replaced it can technically live on to test its multi-cam experiment this spring. When the show’s overhaul was announced I was a bit skeptical about its future; now with Applegate out I don’t see it having one.

Update (2/12): According to Deadline, NBC has reduced the multi-cam episode order from 5 to 1 and the network is still interested in testing new waters even without the show’s star Christina Applegate. James Burrows is set to direct the episode.

[Via Deadline]

NBC cancels ‘Do No Harm’ after two episodes, benches ‘1600 Penn’

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After the extremely dismal ratings the Do No Harm pilot received, it is no surprise that the Jekyll and Hyde-esque medical drama was canned after its second airing. NBC’s midseason effort debuted to 3.1 million total viewers and a meager 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demo, making it the the lowest-rated in-season broadcast scripted series debut on any of the Big Four networks in history. Sealing its fate were its second week numbers: only 2.2 million viewers came back for more and its demo rating dropped 22% to a 0.7. This show had zero chance of survival from the get-go. Since the pilot wasn’t all that stimulating, here’s hoping that those who did tune in didn’t get too attached to this short-lived cast led by Steven Pasquale.

Not too long ago at the TCAs Do No Harm‘s executive producer David Schulner said, “I think ultimately you can only write the show that you want to watch, and this was a show that I wanted to see on TV. I wanted it to be fun. I wanted it to be thrilling. I wanted it to be a roller-coaster ride. And I wanted it to have stakes. I also wanted there to be a love story at the center of it. Hopefully those ingredients will make it different than what has come before.” Fail. And want to know the saddest part of all? All 13 episodes have been produced and the remaining 11 may never see the light of day.

Elsewhere on NBC, 1600 Penn is getting benched this week in favor of a double airing of departing comedy The Office. Now, Deadline reports that the move was made because the upcoming Valentine’s Day themed episode of The Office came in supersized and needed the extra schedule space to fit. However, you cannot shake the fact that the at-times uproariously funny, stuffed-with-heart White House sitcom is performing poorly in the ratings (most recently it scored a low 1.1 in the 18-49 demo); such a sudden pull from the schedule is certainly not a good sign.

J.J. Abrams and Valve’s Gabe Newell strike a deal to produce movies and games based on their respective projects [Update: video]

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At this year’s D.I.C.E. summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain), co-founder of game developer Valve conversed with filmmaker J.J. Abrams about collaborating on future projects. Gamers and sci-fi fanatics alike, perk up. Newell and Abrams have expressed their interest in bringing some of Valve’s most popular titles–Half-Life and Portal, specifically–to the big screen. “We’re going to try and figure out if we can make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together,” said Newell. Additionally, Abrams said that he’d be interesting in working with Valve to create video games inspired by Bad Robot films. Apparently this partnership has been in the making for awhile. “We sort of reached the point where we decided that we needed to do more than talk,” Newell admitted. Though details beyond these are sparse, this is something to definitely be excited about and when more comes through the pipeline you’ll know.

Update: The exciting announcement laid out above came at the very end of a rich 20-minute conversation during which the Bad Robot and Valve founders discussed storytelling methods in movies and video games. At first the two make friendly jabs at each other’s work but quickly the back-and-forth evolves into a stimulating discussion about the importance of the relationship between the viewer/player and the on-screen experience. Watch the full clip courtesy of D.I.C.E. after the break.

[Via Engadget; Joystiq] Continue reading J.J. Abrams and Valve’s Gabe Newell strike a deal to produce movies and games based on their respective projects [Update: video] →

iTunes Store reaches 25 billion downloads

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On February 6 Apple announced a new milestone for the company: more than 25 billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store. That’s an incredible feat, one that the App Store hit right around this time last year. Phillip Lüpke from Germany was the lucky person who nabbed the 25 billionth track–“Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch–and won himself a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card courtesy of Apple.

“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services. “Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists, including global sensations like Adele and Coldplay and new artists like The Lumineers, on a scale we never imagined possible.”

One wonders how long it will take until the Store surpasses 50 billion songs downloaded. Dubbed “the world’s most popular music store” I surmise the company will reach that goal sooner rather than later.

[Via Apple]

TV reminder: Tim Kring’s ‘Touch’ with Kiefer Sutherland returns tonight at 8PM on FOX

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After spending so many years as Jack Bauer on 24, Kiefer Sutherland has landed a softer, more philosophical role in FOX’s Touch from Heroes creator Tim Kring. Season 1 played like a symphony about human interconnectedness as each installment told a myriad of interesting stories from all around our tiny world. And at the end of each one, as much as the ball of red yarn twisted and stretched it found equilibrium and all wrongs were made right. Sutherland’s Martin Bohm has a gifted son named Jake (played incredibly by the silent narrator David Mazouz) and he can see the fractures in the universe and he uses his father as a source of might to restore balance to it. Though the first season introduced some serialized material when an unseen power wanted to tap into Jake’s gift for unknown purposes, what the show did best was offer exciting, visually stirring, emotional stories with a beginning, middle, and end each week.

Fans will notice some changes in season 2. First, the story picks up right where we left off. Fate has brought Martin and Jake to Lucy (Maria Bello) and together they will search for her gifted daughter Amelia. Kring promises a faster-paced, jolting journey for our characters, and answers. The Amelia Sequence and its ramifications on the nature of things is the more compelling serialized part of the series, after all. “[Lucy] only felt that her daughter was alive — like a mother’s intuition. So [Martin and Jake] absolutely reaffirm it,” says Kring. “The second season is very much about the search for Amelia and the fact that Maria Bello and Kiefer Sutherland’s characters are now joined together – two people who are searching for answers together.”

Maria Bello has been promoted to a series regular in season 2, but social worker and Martin’s partner-in-crime Clea Hopkins (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) will not be returning. Lucas Haas, a 24 alum (he played Andrew Paige in season 4), joins the cast as Calvin Norburg, a genius Aster Corps employee with special knowledge who will cross paths with our title characters.

If you missed out on the first season of Touch, don’t fret. Due to its typically procedural nature I’m sure the season 2 premiere will make it easy for first time viewers to jump right in. Kring has created a captiviating world here so don’t miss out. Touch premieres tonight (2/8) at 8PM on FOX with back-to-back episodes “Event Horizon” and “Closer.” Starting next week and for the remainder of the 13-episode season, it will air in its regular slot Friday at 9. Check out the official season 2 poster after the break. Continue reading TV reminder: Tim Kring’s ‘Touch’ with Kiefer Sutherland returns tonight at 8PM on FOX →

TV reminder: ‘Community’ premieres tonight at 8PM on NBC (at last!)

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Call it a miracle: October 19th February 7 has finally arrived!! After an excruciatingly long wait, Community is back in session tonight at 8PM on NBC. Creator Dan Harmon is out, Chevy Chase’s character will have exited the show by the end of the 13 episode fourth season, and so a waft of change is in the air as the Greendale gang return for another year of mind-blowing metatastic insanity. Tonight’s premiere is titled “History 101” and in it everyone’s favorite Dean Pelton will take charge of a school-wide competition he calls “The Hunger Deans.” You can get a taste for what’s in store tonight and beyond by watching the “Epic Trailer” that’s embedded above. (Chang is back and his name is Kevin?!)

Do you consider yourself a true Community fan? Well you better tune in tonight at 8 and show the show some love. If you want six seasons and a movie……..

‘Game of Thrones’ gets interactive: record your Night’s Watch oath today

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Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

That, my friends, is the Night’s Watch oath. It is required to be recited by those who give up their lives to join the Night’s Watch, a military force that guards the enormous Wall and serves to protect the people of the Seven Kingdoms from the mysteriousness that lives beyond it. The Watch and its oath were invented by author George R.R. Martin, the man behind A Song of Ice and Fire, a collection of fantasy novels that inspired the critically acclaimed HBO series Game of Thrones. In the show we’ve been introduced to the Night’s Watch and even witnessed Jon Snow, the bastard of Winterfell, be inducted into the cold group.

As we get closer to the third season premiere of Game of Thrones, HBO is promoting the series with a fun, interactive way to feel like you’re part of it all. At mywatchbegins.com you can hit record and recite the Night’s Watch oath along with Lord Snow as the words pass on the screen, karaoke style. Then you can hear it back and share the awesomeness with your friends. (Here’s my recording!) Though there really isn’t much to it, hearing your echo behind Snow’s oath…it’s epic and empowering.

Before you get started, watch the clip above to get reacquainted with the oath. Game of Thrones returns March 31.