Eminem‘s new song with Skylar Grey – which also features Polo G and Mozzy – for the Venom 2 soundtrack has been released – you can listen to ‘Last One Standing’ below.
The track will feature in the upcoming Marvel Comics film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the sequel to the Tom Hardy-starring Venom of 2018.
READ MORE: Eminem’s ‘Music To Be Murdered By – Side B’: the big talking points
After being teased by the rapper yesterday (September 29), Eminem’s feature on ‘Last One Standing’ has now been released.
The Skylar Grey track also features Polo G and Mozzy, with Grey saying of the song: “Over the past year I’ve been very selective about the projects I work on, outside of working on my album. I’ve really been putting focus on finding the right collaborations and the right film/TV projects. The way this song came together was kind of the perfect storm.”
Grey added: “Venom is one of my favourite superheroes because he’s an antihero and I relate to that. Also Tom Hardy is one of my favourite actors. So I’m honoured to be a part of this.”
Eminem previously contributed his ‘Kamikaze’ track ‘Venom’ to the 2018 film of the same name.
Yesterday saw Eminem opening a new pop-up diner called Mom’s Spaghetti in his native Detroit.
The name of the restaurant was inspired by the lyrics from his 2002 hit ‘Lose Yourself’, which featured on the 8 Mile soundtrack: “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy / There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.”
The post Listen to Eminem team up with Skylar Grey, Polo G and Mozzy for new ‘Venom 2’ song appeared first on NME.
Phoebe Bridgers is being sued for defamation by record producer Chris Nelson of Sound Space Studios, who claims the singer falsely accused him of abusive behaviour in October last year.
The Los Angeles producer – who is not credited as having worked professionally with Bridgers – is seeking $3.8million (£2.8million) in damages from the singer-songwriter. He claims Bridgers “intentionally used her high-profile public platform on Instagram to publish false and defamatory statements” about Nelson “in order to destroy his reputation”.
NME has reached out to Bridgers’ publicists for comment.
As People reports, the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims that Nelson and his then-girlfriend Emily Bannon “began having consensual sexual encounters” with Bridgers in 2018. According to Nelson, he and Bannon broke up in fall 2019, but Bridgers and Bannon continued their relationship.
It’s alleged that in October 2020, Bridgers wrote on Instagram that she had “witnessed and can personally verify much of the abuse (grooming, stealing, violence) perpetuated by Chris Nelson”. Nelson has categorised these comments as “false and misleading statements”.
Bridgers allegedly pointed her followers to Bannon’s own account, where Bannon accused Nelson of “racially motivated hate crimes” that included “[beating] a young Latinx man to death”. Bannon is also said to have accused Nelson of hacking women’s email accounts and fraudulent activity.
According to Nelson’s lawsuit, these claims were made “maliciously and intentionally” and as part of a “vendetta” that Bridgers and Bannon had against him. Nelson filed a similar lawsuit against Bannon in December last year, also accusing her of defamation.
As Pitchfork notes, Nelson also filed a lawsuit against musician, actress and director Noël Wells in December last year.
Nelson, who worked with Wells on her 2019 debut album ‘It’s So Nice!’, is also accusing the musician of defamation, saying that she told an artist manager with whom Nelson had a working relationship that he had committed “an ‘incredibly predatory move on [her]’” and exhibited ‘incredibly predatory behavior… toward young females including young female musicians’”.
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The UK’s grassroots music venues are facing £90million of debt due to the spiralling costs incurred by the coronavirus pandemic and being shut during lockdown.
READ MORE Get £10 off Fightback Lager and help save UK music venues
It has been a tumultuous 18 months for grassroots music venues across the UK. At the start of the pandemic last March, there was the very real threat of over 500 venues facing closure. However, the vast majority have been saved thanks to public support and donations to the Music Venue Trust’s #SaveOurVenues campaign, along with pressure being put on the government and a number being saved by the Cultural Recovery Fund.
Despite the MVT’s largely successful efforts to “reopen every venue safely” with the hard work of people on the ground, it now seems that many venues remain in a difficult financial situation.
“The grassroots music venue sector is more than £90million in debt,” MVT CEO Mark Davyd told NME. “Getting that paid off isn’t going to be done this year, it likely won’t be done next year and might not be until 2024 or 2025 if things keep going as they are.
“The average debt they’re emerging with is around £80,000-£120,000 per venue – some are in much more significant debt than that.”
Music Venue Trust launches Save Our Venues Red Alert campaign
Davyd said that these debts were down to “landlords, suppliers, services and money that’s owed within their supply chain,” and that the best response would be for music fans to return to venues when they feel ready. He went on to praise venues’ efforts for making their spaces more COVID-safe, and for fans for taking precautionary measures – with around 95 per cent of gig-goers surveyed either being double vaccinated, having taken a COVID test before a show or having proof of immunity.
“Venues took on a lot of work and effort to try and understand what they should do to make their spaces safe, and then they went out and did it,” Davyd told NME. “The facts are that case numbers were rising significantly and very, very high – right up until the ‘freedom day’ of July 19. Venues then opened on July 19 and, in the following six weeks, case rates went down week on week.
“The most surprising statistic of all is that they went down by 29 per cent across the country, but of the 100 grassroots music venues that we tracked in different locations it went down by 38 per cent in the locality of those venues.”
He continued: “If you like science and believe in correlation rather than causality, you could argue that if you want to reduce transmission rates then you should open more grassroots music venues. The proof is in the evidence and the fact that grassroots music venues have contributed very little to the rise in transmissions. They’ve really managed this very well with air filtration, air quality, risk management and by working incredibly hard.”
Husky Loops performing live on stage at The Lexington in London. Credit: Roger Garfield/Alamy Live News
Davyd said that the best way to help venues through this period was to get back to shows, and to take a test and stay safe before doing do.
“One of the key messages of our #TakeATest campaign is that the artists, the crew, the bar and venue staff are all taking a test to make sure these shows can go ahead,” he said. “It’s only reasonable for them to expect the audience to do the same thing. Tests are free, you can get them easily from an NHS website, it takes minutes of your time and I can’t think of any reason why anyone wouldn’t do that if they want to go and see a band that they love.”
He went on: “The number one thing that people can do is go out there, go and see a show, put your money in a venue, because they know how to use it best to recover from this. If everyone who cares about live music went to one extra grassroots show a month it would completely revolutionise the economics of this sector. Just go and take a chance on something you haven’t seen before, fill up those gigs that are currently half full.”
The artists are taking a test. The crew are taking a test. The staff are taking a test. That just leaves you, the audience to make your decision.
Please play your part and help us to Reopen Every Venue Safely. #TakeATest pic.twitter.com/LfoL8TTpI8
— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) July 19, 2021
Davyd added: “If anyone’s feeling a bit vulnerable or not quite confident enough to get back out there, there are plenty of opportunities to go and see some live bands on a Tuesday night in somewhere like Bromsgrove with about 30 people, and you can practice your own social distancing and look after yourself. Not every gig is sold out and there are plenty of different ways to see a live band in a way that feels safe for you.”
Speaking to NME at the end of last year, Davyd put the saviour of UK music venues down to “people power”.
“When we look at where donations are coming from and when they spike, it is very closely linked to the coverage we receive from the NME,” said Davyd. “What that means is that NME readers are taking action and making a huge difference to keep these venues alive. We want to make it incredibly clear to the NME and its readers that the Music Venue Trust are merely standing in front of the work done by the public, by artists and by good Samaritans.”
He continued: “This is the result of people power. When Music Venue Trust and NME were first talking about this crisis in March [2020], we were looking at the very real closure of 500 venues. It’s quite an astonishing achievement, and it belongs as much to the writers and readers of the NME as anyone.”
Visit here for information on how to help or donate the #SaveOurVenues campaign.
Meanwhile, NME will act as media partner at this year’s Venues Day presented by the Music Venue Trust next week – which, for the first time, will be a ‘Hybrid’ celebration to bring together the national and international communities. Visit here for tickets and more information.
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Fans of girl group LOONA have turned to Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a bid to save the K-pop act.
READ MORE: Key – ‘Bad Love’ review: for this K-pop veteran, everything old is new again
Earlier this week, South Korean news outlet reported that LOONA’s agency Blockberry Creative was allegedly facing debts amounting to “billions of won”, potentially putting the group’s future at risk. LOONA fans (also known as Orbits) since taken to Twitter to ask the billionaire tech entrepreneur to “save” and “fund” the girl group.
Notably, Elon Musk, who is currently the richest person in the world with a net worth of USD202.2billion per Forbes’ ‘The World’s Real-Time Billionaires’ list as at 5pm KST on September 3, had previously shown love to the girl group in 2018.
At the time, the businessman tweeted about the group in response to a post by his then-partner, singer-songwriter Grimes, who has been promoting her collaboration with LOONA sub-unit yyxy on ‘love4eva’.
Loona
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2018
Additionally, Grimes had previously alleged that LOONA member Gowon was the godmother of the couple’s son, X Æ A-12, as archived by Koreaboo. Check out some of the fans’ tweets to Musk below.
PLEASE SAVE LOONA https://t.co/oGXD6vBczv
— Yozzzzzz.Save Loona (@moonfloweryou) September 29, 2021
fund LOONA bestie pic.twitter.com/QNjtyJu97j
— sky ferreiras secret twin (@kw_rogers) September 28, 2021
Blockberry Creative’s reported financial position includes payments to several external contractors, among them are stylists as well as personnel crucial for the production of LOONA’s music, who have allegedly worked for months “without compensation”.
It is currently unclear how Blockberry Creative’s alleged financial situation will affect LOONA’s future moving forward. In June, LOONA released their fourth mini-album ‘[&]’ alongside the lead single ‘PTT (Paint The Town)’.
In a three-star review of ‘[&]’, NME’s Ruby C called the mini-album “points at a group that is unafraid to experiment with music, even if it doesn’t always work out”. She added that “this inclination to look beyond the routine will, undoubtedly, continue to set the girl group apart in the years to come.”
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The Rolling Stones have shared a previously unreleased track – watch the video for ‘Troubles A’ Comin’ below.
The cover of the Chi-Lites is set to appear on the band’s forthcoming 40th anniversary edition of their 1981 album ‘Tattoo You’, which will feature a number of previously unreleased tracks.
READ MORE: The Rolling Stones – their 10 best songs
The newly remastered and expanded reissue is set to arrive on October 22, and will include nine extra songs as part of a ‘Lost & Found: Rarities’ disc, recorded during the same era as the original 11-track album.
Watch the video for ‘Troubles A’ Comin’, which will appear on the ‘Lost & Found’ disc, below:
Last week (September 23), the band shared another preview of the album in the form of a video for ‘Living in the Heart of Love’, which they dedicated to their late drummer, Charlie Watts.
Watts, who performed with the band for 58 years, died on August 24, aged 80. Last week, The Rolling Stones’ first show of the year was dedicated to their bandmate.
During the show, which kicked off the band’s No Filter US stadium tour, Mick Jagger addressed the crowd, saying: “It’s a bit of a poignant night for us because it’s the first tour we’ve done in 59 years without our lovely Charlie Watts.” The band also released a tribute video to Watts in the days following his death.
Last month, it was announced that the band were set to play their upcoming US tour dates as planned despite the death of Watts.
It was announced prior to Watts’ death that the drummer wouldn’t join the band on their autumn ‘No Filter’ tour dates, with his bandmates sharing messages of support. Longtime Stones associate Steve Jordan was announced to be replacing him on drums for the 13-date tour.
Watts then sadly died aged 80 earlier this week, prompting tributes to pour in from across the music world.
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Loona
