Music

Hot on the heels of her Nice Life/Atlantic Records debut album “Cuz I Love You” (which got a rave review in Variety last week) and her two Coachella performances, Lizzo has announced dates for a huge North American tour, billed “Cuz I Love You Too.” Produced by Live Nation, the tour begins July 18 in Portland,
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Ariana Grande knows how to make up for a lost opportunity. After facing near disastrous sound issues during Nicki Minaj’s guest appearance for Grande’s weekend one Coachella set, the “Sweetener” singer brought out Justin Bieber for his first stage appearance in two years for her weekend two closing set. After a performance that was relatively
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Ian Hunter borrowed a bit of Easter imagery for “Roll Away the Stone,” the closing number from Mott the Hoople’s final studio album in 1974. He didn’t take the religious symbolism much further for a song that is a jubilant paean to enduring love and, implicitly, to the power of music itself. But if you
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April 21, 2019 10:56AM PT Kanye West’s Sunday Service wasn’t the only big draw on the last day of Coachella. Ye’s worship-inspired merchandise boasted lines that stretched across the field. The self-proclaimed “church clothes” were available for purchase during the musician’s morning performance. The collection was made up of neutral-hued items each bearing various god-fearing
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It is difficult to think of a more impossible task than attempting to rate the 60 all-time greatest Motown songs. Founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy, not only has the label — originally a small independent out of Detroit — spawned more classics in the 60 years since its launch than many corporate-giant-owned major record
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April 21, 2019 1:18AM PT After a lackluster weekend one performance, Kid Cudi brought out the big guns — or gun, singular — for his weekend two set. Everyone’s problematic fave Kanye West made a “surprise” appearance at the very start of Cudi’s closing Sahara tent set, riling up the crowd with an opening performance
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Not all the surprise collaborations happened at Coachella this weekend. Seattle’s foremost male and female musical exports, Brandi Carlile and Dave Grohl, teamed up for a mini-set Saturday afternoon in their hometown, setting up shop as buskers in front of the popular shopping site Pike Place Market. Unlike most of weekend 2 of Coachella, this
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The troubled Woodstock 50 festival has run into more difficulties, as multiple sources told Variety late Friday that the April 22 on-sale date for the event has been postponed. Agents for artists scheduled to perform at the festival — which include Jay-Z, Dead & Company, Chance the Rapper, Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons and Halsey —
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April 19, 2019 4:22PM PT The inaugural SYNTHPLEX Music Conference, held in Burbank on March 28 through 31, drew more than 2,500 electronic music enthusiasts. The confab included performances, lectures and, most importantly, hands-on time with instrument manufacturers — from marquee names like Roland and Elektron down to smaller, more boutique modular companies. Among the
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It ain’t over till it’s over — and Coachella isn’t over until there’s been a rerun, with a second weekend that mirrors the first. The schedule is exactly the same (with one notable exception),   but that replication on paper still leaves lots of room for surprises out on the fields and in the tents,
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April 19, 2019 8:07AM PT Jade Bird is a 21-year-old London-spawned singer-songwriter with a voice that can shift from soft sweetness to blow-your-hair-back belting in the course of two syllables. It’s a talent uses strategically in her songwriting: Many songs on this, her debut full-length, find their payoff with a sudden blast of vocal volume
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“Socially conscious” isn’t the first term that is usually associated with smart-ass rapper Lil Dicky, but the dude has doubled down on calling in superstar friends to accompany him on his pro-ecology anthem “Earth”: The song and video feature the voices of some 30 people, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Halsey, Zac Brown, Brendon Urie, Hailee Steinfeld, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop
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