Latest news with #AlabamaShakes
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Jessie Murph Brought ‘F-ck It and We'll See What Happens Energy' to Her Daring New Album
When Jessie Murph returns home to northern Alabama, she heads to the gas station for an oversize cup of boiled peanuts. It's one of several rituals she now enjoys when she comes back to the region that Murph despised growing up in and fled as a teenager. 'My relationship with home has changed so much since I've left,' says Murph, who grew up in a town called Athens (home to the Alabama Shakes). 'I really remember being 15, 16, even younger, and just knowing that I was not meant to be there. I didn't feel right there. But I go back and I'm so grateful to be there. There's something so sweet, something very nostalgic and beautiful, about the South.' More from Rolling Stone Jessie Murph and Teddy Swims Have No Mercy on Their Exes on 'Dirty' Duet The Only Thing Jessie Murph Cares About Right Now Is Music Jessie Murph and Jelly Roll Bring Their Thing For 'Wild Ones' to Jimmy Kimmel Murph can't find boiled peanuts in Los Angeles, where over the past few years she's launched her career as a fast-rising pop star who's collaborated with Jelly Roll, Diplo and BigXthaPlug. That rise will only accelerate with Sex Hysteria, her bold second album, due later this week. The record hops from Amy Winehouse-inspired classic R&B ('1965,' 'Touch Me Like a Gangster') to pop-rap earworms (the Top 20 hit 'Blue Strips') to downcast balladry that channels one of Murph's heroes, Lana Del Rey ('Heroin'). The album, which she says she boiled down from 100 or so songs she wrote for the record, features two of Murph's favorite artists, Lil Baby and Gucci Mane. Murph hopes that her daring new collection — with its ''fuck it and we'll see what happens' energy,' as she puts it — displays more sides of herself than she's previously shown, including her chops as a songwriter. The past year, she says, has been one of her most creative: She says she both wrote and recorded two of the album's tracks — 'A Little Too Drunk' and 'Blue Strips'— in a half-hour. 'I feel very misunderstood sometimes,' says Murph. 'I don't think people have seen the half of what I'm capable of.' Part of that is because, as Murph says herself, she's been reluctant to share all that much about her own life, including an Alabama upbringing that she's alluded to as having been very dark. She's thus far much preferred leaving her most vulnerable moments for her songs. Murph writes about this dynamic in 'Gucci Mane,' the album's opening track. The song alludes to the 'fucked up things' the narrator's father once did. 'I don't want to talk about it,' Murph sings in the chorus. 'I wanna write my way around it.' The most vulnerable moment on the record is 'The Man That Came Back,' a piano ballad addressed to a character who is seemingly a broken father who tries to redeem himself after inflicting pain and violence on his family. In it, Murph sings about a 'daughter who grew up trusting no one' left to deal with 'the bruises on her skin.' Murph wrote the song about three years ago. 'I've refused to put it out because it was too vulnerable, and this is the first time I've had enough balls to put it on a project,' she says. 'It's about things I would otherwise never talk about.' During a recent interview in Rolling Stone, Murph was guarded but self-reflective. But she's learning to take that armor off, at least in her music. 'You do receive pressure from the label and people on your team to be more autobiographical,' she says. 'So I had some talks before this album and that was a concern: 'You don't really talk about yourself.' And I realized they were right. I never really talked about the past, and I've had an interesting upbringing, so that's something I felt pressure to do a little bit on this album. Once I did, I realized it was something I was holding myself back from out of fear.' GROWING UP IN north Alabama, Murph was always finding a bogus rule she needed to break. 'Even when I was very little, in elementary school, I remember always being so pissed off about dress codes,' she says. 'I thought they were so stupid and so catered towards [men.]' She was forced to run laps when she posted songs online with curses. Adults around her policed the clothes she wore to gym as a teenage girl. All her friends around her dreamed of becoming housewives the moment they graduated high school. The Southern, conservative culture she grew up amid was, she felt from an early age, full of hypocrisy and double standards. She bristled against all of it, 'anything that felt like a dress code, is what I'm trying to say.' Murph fled town as a teenager, eventually making her way to Nashville. She'd grown up on Drake and Mac Miller and started incorporating rap and hip-hop into her music. Today, Murph is adjacent to contemporary country music, has collaborated with many of the genre's contemporary hitmakers, and, like Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll, is a white Southern artist singing music that borrows heavily from Black forms like R&B and sonic innovations like trap drums. But Murph is not a country artist: Though she briefly lived in Nashville, and had quite a bit of fun there, it was not, ultimately, for her. She didn't relate to the industry's standard of going to an office every day to write a new song with an anonymous songwriter, and she found some of those collaborators to be unwelcoming. 'In the bro country scene, sometimes they're a little hectic with women,' she says. 'I've definitely met rude people in sessions, and you can tell they just don't respect women. That's definitely a thing.' Murph is no longer in Nashville, but as she quickly emerges into the public's consciousness ('Blue Strips' is her first solo hit), she's now dealing with a whole new host of dress codes and expectations placed upon her as a young woman in the music industry. 'I started out at 16 or 17, and a big thing has been people being like, 'I miss the old Jessie' or shit like that,' she says. 'Some people want that version of you which is unhealthy and realistic.' 'I was really fucked up when I was 17,' she continues. 'I was very severely depressed, dealing with a lot of shit. I was really struggling and I think people like to have music they can relate to. I'm very grateful for the music I put out during that's just not … ' Murph trails off before collecting her thoughts. 'Thank God I'm past some of that.' Instead, Murph is already looking ahead at the future, at what she hopes will be a long career in which she's allowed to evolve. She wants to one day make a record that belongs alongside her shelf of vinyl albums by her favorites like Alicia Keys, J. Cole, Taylor Swift, SZA, Noah Kahan, and, of course, Amy Winehouse and Lana Del Rey. 'I want to make something that is completely and utterly timeless, like it could have been made 50 years ago,' she says. 'I'm very inspired by Elton John, Don McLean, Adele, stuff like that.' For now, Murph says, 'I'm having fun and experiencing life, but eventually I want to drop a very serious [record]. Not that this new one isn't serious, but I feel like I have a lot to show the world that people haven't seen yet. I think it'll come with time.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
UPI
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Miley Cyrus struts 'Walk of Fame' in new music video
1 of 5 | Miley Cyrus ( L) and Maxx Morando arrive for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March. Cyrus dropped a new music video Thursday. File Photo by Chris Chew/UPI | License Photo July 17 (UPI) -- Miley Cyrus has released a music video for her song "Walk of Fame," which features the Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard. The music video shows Cyrus strutting along the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame along in black boots and a short sliver dress. The video comes on the heels of news that Cyrus will be memorialized with her own star in an upcoming ceremony. The singer and actress recalled earlier this month how the Walk of Fame was a part of her life since childhood. "When I first came to LA from Nashville as a little girl, my family would stay at a hotel on Hollywood Blvd. I would go on late night walks with my dad when no one would recognize him," she said on Instagram earlier this month, referring to music star Billy Ray Cyrus. "Walk of Fame" appears on her album Something Beautiful, which dropped in May. Miley Cyrus' career: Music, fashion, red carpets Miley Cyrus arrives at the Teen Choice Awards in Universal City, Calif., on August 20, 2006. Cyrus' breakout role in "Hannah Montana" debuted on Disney Channel earlier that year. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Chicago Tribune
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Afternoon Briefing: Man working as peacekeeper shot in South Shore
Good afternoon, Chicago. Tumbo Brooks scrubbed the sweat from his face with a gray washcloth last night as he hurried down East 71st Street to the police tape. Arne Duncan stood at the intersection, staring south down South Ridgeland Avenue at 30 shell casings. The men caught one another in a quick hug and turned back to the tape. The person shot had been working as a peacekeeper, they said, meant to use his own close street relationships around South Shore to prevent further violence. They did not yet know how badly he had been hurt. He was the fourth peacekeeper to be shot over the last several weeks, Brooks said. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said today she would not run for a fourth term in 2026 as the state's top fiscal officer, opening the door for her to challenge Brandon Johnson in what would be her second bid for Chicago mayor. Read more here. More top news stories: The idea that Parkinson's could be linked to a virus had been theorized for years, but this is the first study to pinpoint a specific virus as more common in Parkinson's patients. Read more here. More top business stories: The Bears continued their offseason focus on the trenches when they drafted Texas A&M defensive tackle Shemar Turner with a second-round pick (No. 62) in April. Here's what Bears fans need to know about Turner before rookies report for training camp Saturday. Read more here. More top sports stories: Why rush the pace on a warm, humid evening? Alabama Shakes eased into its first scheduled show in eight years yesterday at the outside Fairgrounds at Salt Shed. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: For decades, proponents of psychedelic drugs have come to Washington with a provocative message: Illegal, mind-altering substances such as LSD and ecstasy should be approved for Americans grappling with depression, trauma and other hard-to-treat conditions. A presidential administration finally seems to agree. Read more here. More top stories from around the world:
Chicago Tribune
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: Alabama Shakes is back, reuniting for a Chicago audience outdoors at Salt Shed
Why rush the pace on a warm, humid evening? Alabama Shakes eased into its first scheduled show in eight years Tuesday at the outside Fairgrounds at Salt Shed. Performing the opening of a two-night stand and their first local gig since 2016, the reunited rock 'n' roll band received a warm welcome from a packed crowd. It returned the favor throughout a 90-minute concert that contained a few surprises sprinkled amid the familiar. In news that will shock no one, vocalist-guitarist Brittany Howard led the way. Wearing a smart pair of glasses and a hybrid overalls-dress ensemble, she flashed an ear-to-ear smile and openly channeled enthusiasm. And while the 36-year-old belter largely skipped the banter, she expressed gratitude in multiple ways, from blowing kisses to taking formal bows. Happy to be playing with her old friends, she evoked a small-town native who, after moving to the big city for a stretch as a young adult, gladly returned home to comfortable surroundings. While she's been receiving critical acclaim for her solo excursions, Howard looked jazzed to re-engage with her former mates and resurrect long-dormant songs. Save for a surprise one-off event in Alabama last December, the group has been on indefinite hiatus since early 2018. During the break, the two other current permanent members maintained a low profile. But former drummer Steve Johnson dealt with domestic violence issues and was arrested for suspicion of child abuse, a charge subsequently dropped. He's no longer with the band. Alabama Shakes keeps picking Chicago for key stops. During a spring 2015 tour well in advance of its sophomore 'Sound & Color' LP, the band previewed all the album's songs in a Chicago Theatre show for an audience unacquainted with the material. Months later, the group upped the ante with a celebrated set at Lollapalooza. Howard later chose the city to launch her 2024 tour at Thalia Hall with a pair of winter concerts that preceded the release of her most recent effort, the Grammy-nominated 'What Now.' 'What now' for Alabama Shakes is the past, and a small taste of the future. At this show, with pressure and anticipations at a peak, some spots of rust understandably emerged. Ditto a handful of pragmatic choices that can easily be amended and improved as things evolve. Namely, the flow of the set, which at times sagged, and the arrangement of the band onstage. The interplay between Howard and guitarist Heath Fogg helps separate the Alabama Shakes from many lesser bands. But by placing the primarily immobile Fogg behind and to the side of her front-and-center position, the group shut itself off from some spontaneous opportunities. Often, Alabama Shakes Version 2.0 bordered on being too cautious for a band that last issued new original music a decade ago. Chalk up the buttoned-down tactics to nerves, perhaps, or the simple desire to get their sea legs back. Whatever the reason, Howard and company never worked their fare into a sweaty lather or sustained any explosive energy longer than one tune. Three auxiliary instrumentalists (drummer Noah Bond, organist Ben Tanner, keyboardist Paul Horton) and a trio of backing vocalists fleshed out the arrangements, yet this inaugural showing favored restored symmetry over reignited chemistry. An abundance of diligent textures and delicate balladry, a shortage of let-it-all-hang-out looseness and fiery intensity. Of course, with Howard as the center of attention, sparks still flew. Present her a song and she'll stamp it with sincerity, personality and soul. Make that an extra helping of the latter. In complete control, Howard demonstrated a mega-watt range that veered from a quiet, ultra-high register only canines might detect to low, throaty howls that would command the respect of a street tough. She appreciated the role of subtlety, and the rule of 'less is more.' Howard preferred simmer to boil, sugar to sass, and never lacked spunk. Her alteration of one syllable in a verse or chorus usually changed the temperature of the song, and prompted the rhythms to follow suit. Bond and bassist Zac Cockrell held down the low end with workmanlike aptitude, leaving plenty of room for bluesy fills, fuzz-distortion accents and pregnant pauses to enter undetected. For all their graduate-level knowledge of roots rock, vintage R&B and Southern boogie, Alabama Shakes served notice they're just as much students of the art of the build — and of how tension inherently begets deeper grooves. Howard essentially narrated the approach on 'Hold On,' whose steady purr, knee-bending flexibility and slight funkiness contributed to its fabulous sense of restraint — to say nothing of its verbal push-pull tug between patience and pleasure, increasingly relevant in an age where instant gratification reigns supreme. Indicative of the title, 'Dunes' rose and fell akin to a coastal landscape, its ebbing melody threatening to drift away and requiring the band to reel it back as the three-piece vocal choir repeated the refrain. At other times, Howard pushed her singing until it teetered on an imaginary ledge, peering over precipices at once exhilarating and dangerous. Delivered in a scratchy tone, 'Don't Wanna Fight' strutted and swaggered even as it briefly snuck inside a disco club. Framed as a sentimental hymn, 'This Feeling' floated through static-charged air as Howard's soft, breathy shiver twined with minimalist percussion and twinkling keys. A waltzing 'Gimme All Your Love' found the singer begging and demanding, and tempos that bounced between similar extremes. The Alabama Shakes chased synesthesia on the big-sky shimmer of 'Sound & Color,' yet the brand-new 'Another Life' registered a more formidable impression. Its slinky, stacked-block architecture ultimately gave way to Howard testifying and a stomping outro. Another apparent debut, the haunted 'American Dream,' waded into psychedelic territories via dissonant elements and clashing themes. All told, a solid start to an Act 2 that needs a few tweaks — including the exchange of some mellow fare ('Someday,' 'Over My Head') for a couple of garage-rock howlers sitting on the shelf ('Heavy Chevy,' 'The Greatest'). Or an occasional stab at a rollicking cover or an attempt at a cut from Howard's side-project hardcore band, Kumite. Those shifts would grant Howard extra chances to turn her head from side to side, throw her head back and visibly vibrate with excitement. All signs of an impending eruption of uncontainable emotion and fierce determination. In the world of Alabama Shakes, that's always from the Salt Shed Fairgrounds on July 15: 'Future People' 'Don't Wanna Fight' 'I Ain't the Same' 'I Found You' 'Guess Who' 'Hang Loose' 'Hold On' 'This Feeling' 'Dunes' 'Another Life' (unreleased) 'Gimme All Your Love' 'Over My Head' 'Rise to the Sun' 'Shoegaze' 'Drive By Baby' 'Be Mine' 'American Dream' (unreleased) 'Gemini' Encore 'Sound & Color' 'Someday' 'Always Alright'
New York Post
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Miley Cyrus makes surprising nod to ex's father Arnold Schwarzenegger in new visual album
Miley Cyrus features one of her ex's parents in a major way in her new visual album. The 32-year-old musician premiered the movie musical, 'Something Beautiful,' which accompanies her ninth studio album of the same name, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Advertisement The film acts as a visual album, showcasing the record's 13 songs with visuals and music videos which enhance the album's overall message and theme. Among the visuals included in the film is Cyrus strutting down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, before lying down on top of 'The Terminator' star, Arnold Schwarzenegger's star on the historic sidewalk, as part of the music video for the song 'Walk of Fame,' featuring Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, per People. Cyrus famously dated the actor's son, Patrick Schwarzenegger, for one year, from 2014 to 2015. The 'Hannah Montana' star previously opened up about filming on The Hollywood Walk of Fame during an appearance on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' in which she told the talk show host her 'leg began to disintegrate' after filming. Advertisement 'And then the doctor goes, 'Do you have any idea why you would have such a brutal infection on your kneecap?' she said on the show. 'To have a surgeon look at you and say, 'Yuck…' They open up cadavers. They see inside the guts of humans and they're looking at me, telling me I'm disgusting. And they do brain operations!' 3 Miley Cyrus arriving at the premiere of 'Something Beautiful with Miley Cyrus' at the Tribecua Festival in New York City on June 6, 2025. Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images After the film's premiere on Friday, Cyrus sat down for a Q&A panel, where she was met with hecklers demanding she sing, with one fan shouting, 'We thought this was a concert! We paid $800!' as heard in a video posted to X. Following multiple other outbursts from fans, Cyrus began to sing her 2009 hit, 'The Climb,' and the whole thing turned into a sing-a-long, with the crowd joining in. Advertisement Since their breakup in 2015, Patrick has appeared in many projects, before starring in season three of 'The White Lotus,' telling Fox News Digital 'it's been a wild journey' since the show premiered. 3 Miley Cyrus and Patrick Schwarzenegger dated from 2014 to 2015. Photo byHe and his dad recently appeared on Variety's 'Actors on Actors' series in which they discussed their respective careers. 'It was a great conversation. It was kind of a really cool moment for me to be able to have that conversation with my dad, hear about his kind of journey at the beginning of his film career, and how our different careers differ,' he told Fox News Digital about the conversation. 'What it was like for him to work with certain directors and writers like James Cameron, how they differ from Mike White.' Advertisement His parents, the 'True Lies' star and journalist, Maria Shriver, separated in 2011 after 25 years of marriage after Arnold confessed to fathering a child with the family's housekeeper during their marriage. 3 Cyrus' musical album features a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock They have remained close, however, having been seen together on social media celebrating milestone events. Looking back at his own career, Patrick explained having the support of his parents throughout his journey has 'been a blessing.' 'They've been supporters of me on the sidelines for the past whatever years,' he said. 'They've been supportive through film projects that were extremely small and not seen by many, and then also through 'The White Lotus' that's seen by everyone, so it's been great to have them by my side.'
