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Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Culture That Made Me: Cork-born singer Biig Piig selects her touchstones
Jessica Smyth, known by her stage name Biig Piig, was born in Cork in 1998. From the age of four, she grew up in Marbella, Spain, later moving to London. While still a teenager, she began releasing singles and quickly gathered acclaim as an impressive new trip-hop voice. She released her debut album, entitled 11:11, earlier this year. She will perform at Cork's Cyprus Avenue on Thursday, July 17. See: Leonard Cohen Growing up, my dad was always playing a Leonard Cohen CD, Songs from a Room. I love his songwriting. It's gorgeous. Obviously, some of it's very dark, but it's so beautiful. He's so romantic. The baritone in his voice is amazing. It's like you've bumped into an old head at the back of the bar and he's telling you his life story in a very poetic, smoky way. Gabrielle My mom couldn't stand Leonard Cohen! She loved more upbeat music like Gabrielle. There were quite dramatic ends of the spectrum going on in our house. There were no in-betweens. Gabrielle's Sunshine was our song. Driving to school, she would play that song and it would bring her so much joy. It's a beautiful thing to watch when you can see a song bring someone into such a joyful place. Leonard Cohen was a companion to my dad, and Gabrielle felt like a companion to my mom. Ben Harper I discovered Ben Harper when I came to London. I loved his lyricism and his guitar-playing. Also, I was feeling quite an angsty teenager and lonely. Songs like Another Lonely Day and Diamonds on the Inside are bangers. Obviously, we were living in such different realities. I was a 14-year-old girl living in London. He was in America somewhere and he'd had a whole life, but weirdly, even with that, I found my companion in him, listening to his lyrics. I felt like he was talking about my life. He was my first love when it came to an artist. Bowling for Soup I love a bit of punk pop. Going to see Bowling for Soup was my first big gig. There was a big mosh pit. It was the best thing ever, being in there, so much fun. I remember there was a big, bald guy in his 40s running and bouncing around. I love when music connects like that to so many different people and you're all throwing yourself into it. Obviously, sometimes in a mosh pit it's a bit oh-God, but for the most part it feels exciting there's no barrier between everyone, which is great. Erykah Badu I was late to the party with Erykah Badu, but once I found her – at about 16 – I listened to her on repeat. I remember I was at a jam my friend was having. It was my first introduction to freestyles and beats. I fell in love with ciphering and some of the beats they were playing, including Erykah Badu instrumentals. A lot of it is piano-based or light instrumentation, but it has such a swing to it. There's so much space in it you could float around in. I fell in love with her voice, explaining her perspective on her world. It's so conversational, and at the same time, so beautifully put and it sounds effortless. I love her music and her melodies. Salimata Salimata is an incredible New York rapper. I've been coming back to her a lot. She's great because of her selection of samples and beats. She's got a style of rap I love, and that New York thing I love. It's effortless. Lexa Gates Lexa Gates is very good at telling stories in a way that rolls off the tongue. There's a 'steez', a style to it. Obviously, New York is known as a concrete jungle. It's mad. Every corner has a story. Whenever I go there, there's so many characters. A lot of those rappers, like Lexa Gates, you can hear it in their voice. There's so much going on. I love the opening lines to her song, Lately, Nothing. It's like she's chilling in a room with a friend. It's very casual: 'I might just smoke this shit to make my man mad/Need that love, I had a bad dad/Finally got some bread and my own pad/But I don't even got no one to bring back.' Van Morrison Van Morrison My dad brought me to see Van Morrison at a place down in West Kensington called Nell's Jazz and Blues Bar. It's an intimate venue. I was maybe 16-17 years' old. He's obviously a very serious character. He gets up and he commands the stage. Every musician on stage with him, you know they're gonna be the best of the best. The way he can nod and change things in a second if he wants to. He's got such great control, yet it feels like anything could happen, which is cool. The songs are so beautiful. When he starts singing, it hits you somewhere different. It was a special gig. Just Kids I love autobiographies. I loved Patti Smith's Just Kids. It's about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer, and being an artist in the late '60s, her life story and their love story. It's about how much you sacrifice for art and for love. It's a powerful story, and it's such a big story about friendship – how much they put on the line for each other and how much they were there for each other, even after all the pain. It's such a gorgeous story, and there are so many amazing characters that come into it, other artists, the Chelsea Hotel, and life in New York at the time. It's an amazing book. Open Water I loved Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water. It's a beautiful read. He's an author from London. The book is a love story based in London, but it's also about the black experience and about growing up in London. It's based in modern times. I love the music references in it. His language is so poetic. He has a great way of painting with his words. I love that book. Gaspar Noé A scene from Love, by Gaspar Noé. I love the movie Love by Gaspar Noé. It's quite intense. It opens on an intense scene. It's a very French noir film. It's about this guy who's retracing his steps. He's dealing with addiction, and he has done so for a very long time. There is a love story, too. It shows how he ended up where he was. It's a very passionate movie. It's great. Searching for Sugar Man Searching for Sugar Man, about Sixto Rodriguez, is an excellent documentary. It's a good representation of how the industry has left so many artists behind and fucked them over. He spends a lot of his life working as a carpenter. He has no idea that he's changing a lot of lives with his music. I went to see him live before he passed. It was in London at The Royal Albert Hall. His two daughters walked him out. It was hard-hitting, one of the most incredible shows I was ever at.
New York Post
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Warped Tour 2025: See all the performers in Washington, DC
The iconic Vans Warped Tour is finally back this year in celebration of its 30th anniversary. This year Warped Tour has chosen three lucky cities to host one weekend each. Washington, DC saw headliners like MGK and Avril Lavigne take to the stage to celebrate the revival of the biggest festival in emo history. 2 of 55 MGK Jacquelyn Kozak 3 of 55 Avril Lavigne The Washington Post via Getty Im 4 of 55 Nathaniel Motte of 3OH3! Jacquelyn Kozak 5 of 55 Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls Jacquelyn Kozak 6 of 55 Jason Aalon Butler of letlive. Jacquelyn Kozak 7 of 55 Zack Merrick of All Time Low The Washington Post via Getty Im 8 of 55 Hunter Thomsen of We The Kings Jacquelyn Kozak 9 of 55 Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack Jacquelyn Kozak 10 of 55 Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup Jacquelyn Kozak 11 of 55 MGK Jacquelyn Kozak 12 of 55 Nathaniel Motte of 3OH3! Jacquelyn Kozak 13 of 55 Ryan Scott Graham of State Champs Jacquelyn Kozak 14 of 55 John Keefe of Boys Like Girls Jacquelyn Kozak 15 of 55 Craig Owens of Chiodos Jacquelyn Kozak 16 of 55 MGK Jacquelyn Kozak 17 of 55 Less Than Jake Jacquelyn Kozak 18 of 55 Ronnie Winter of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Jacquelyn Kozak 19 of 55 Gideon Jacquelyn Kozak 20 of 55 Buddy Schaub of Less Than Jake Jacquelyn Kozak 21 of 55 Yung Gravy Jacquelyn Kozak 22 of 55 Christian Jacobs of The Aquabats! (L) Jacquelyn Kozak 23 of 55 State Champs Jacquelyn Kozak 24 of 55 Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail Jacquelyn Kozak 25 of 55 Mike Brown of Streetlight Manifesto Jacquelyn Kozak 26 of 55 Matti Hoffman and Erik Jensen of Escape the Fate Jacquelyn Kozak 27 of 55 Motion City Soundtrack Jacquelyn Kozak 28 of 55 Alan Day of Four Year Strong Jacquelyn Kozak 29 of 55 Kat Moss of Scowl Jacquelyn Kozak 30 of 55 Jake Luhrs of August Burns Red Jacquelyn Kozak 31 of 55 JR Wasilewski of Less Than Jake Jacquelyn Kozak 32 of 55 nothing, nowhere. Jacquelyn Kozak 33 of 55 letlive. Jacquelyn Kozak 34 of 55 Shane Told of Silverstein Jacquelyn Kozak 35 of 55 Dan 'Soupy' Campbell of The Wonder Years Jacquelyn Kozak 36 of 55 Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto Jacquelyn Kozak 37 of 55 Joseph Mulherin of nothing, nowhere. Jacquelyn Kozak 38 of 55 The Aquabats! Jacquelyn Kozak 39 of 55 Dave Carroll and John James Ryan of Keep Flying Jacquelyn Kozak 40 of 55 Jason Aalon Butler of letlive. Jacquelyn Kozak 41 of 55 Craig Owens of Chiodos Jacquelyn Kozak 42 of 55 Henry Menzel of Keep Flying Jacquelyn Kozak 43 of 55 Craig Mabbit of Escape the Fate Jacquelyn Kozak 44 of 55 Derek DiScanio and Ryan Scott Graham of State Champs Jacquelyn Kozak 45 of 55 Jake Luhrs and Matt Greiner of August Burns Red Jacquelyn Kozak 46 of 55 Yung Gravy Jacquelyn Kozak 47 of 55 Shane Told of Silverstein Jacquelyn Kozak 48 of 55 Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills The Washington Post via Getty Im 49 of 55 Jakob Nowell of Sublime The Washington Post via Getty Im 50 of 55 Fans watch Bowling for Soup The Washington Post via Getty Im 51 of 55 Kevin Lyman The Washington Post via Getty Im 52 of 55 Matty Mullins Jacquelyn Kozak 53 of 55 Yung Gravy Jacquelyn Kozak 54 of 55 Fans of 3OH3! Jacquelyn Kozak
Los Angeles Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
After 10 years, ‘Phineas and Ferb' returns with a new season and more musical moments
Jaret Reddick remembers the first time he met Dan Povenmire and Jeff 'Swampy' Marsh. He had flown to L.A. because Povenmire and Marsh were hoping Reddick, the lead singer of the pop-punk band Bowling for Soup, would sing the theme song for their new animated series, 'Phineas and Ferb.' The meeting went well and Reddick not only got to sing the show's theme song, 'Today's Gonna Be a Great Day,' but he was also cast as the voice of Danny, the lead singer of the show's fictional band Love Händel. 'I walked out of there going, 'Man I love those guys. I really hope this show does well for them,'' Reddick recalls. And done well it has. Since its premiere in 2007, 'Phineas and Ferb' has become the most successful animated series for children and tweens in Disney Television Animation history. The series about two brothers — Phineas (Vincent Martella) and Ferb (David Errigo Jr.) — trying to make the most of their 104 days of summer vacation ran for four seasons and spawned multiple movies including 2020's 'Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe.' Now, 10 years after the show's fourth season ended, the series returns for a fifth season Thursday at 8 p.m. PT on the Disney Channel. The first 10 episodes of the new season will also debut Friday on Disney+. Most of the main voice cast has returned, including Martella, Ashley Tisdale — who voices the continually exasperated older sister, Candace — and Caroline Rhea, the boys' ever serene mother, Linda. For this new batch of episodes, Povenmire and Marsh embraced the show's successful formula where the boys come up with new and always increasingly creative ways to entertain themselves. 'I think there's probably a bunch of episodes this season that are going to be people's favorite episodes that they have ever seen,' says Povenmire, who also voices the show's inept nemesis Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Just like how Phineas always knows what he and Ferb are going to do today, Marsh knew what Disney was expecting with the show's return. 'They really just wanted more of the same,' Marsh says. 'The show always worked before and it was always sort of timeless. It was not anything that relied on current events or the current zeitgeist. We really just had to keep doing what we are doing and keep pushing the envelope into new areas and do it without violating the framework that we had set up.' One thing that has changed for the new season is the writers' room, which now includes writers who grew up watching the show. And Olivia Olson — you may remember her as Joanna, the little girl singing 'All I Want for Christmas is You' at the end of 'Love Actually' — who voices Vanessa Doofenshmirtz on the series, has also come on board as a writer. Olson says this new role formalizes the unofficial one she had shadowing her dad, Martin Olson, who wrote for the series during its original run. Now they're a writing team on the series. 'There's a lot more Vanessa in this new season,' she says with a laugh. 'It's really cool to write for my own character and see the stories I wanted to have for her play out and I just learned so much. To come back and write with my dad is really cool.' Since the beginning, the show's music has set the series apart. 'Phineas and Ferb do something completely out of the box and different every day,' Olson says. 'The music just mirrors that.' Marsh recalls an early episode featuring the song 'Let's Take a Rocket Ship to Space,' which was an homage to Frank Sinatra. Executives were worried the show's target audience wouldn't get it, but that wasn't the case. As the show grew in popularity, so did the music, which crosses multiple genres. 'Country songs, rock songs, pop songs, operatics, big band, rap stuff — it's all over the map,' Marsh says. 'The songs move the story along, hopefully they bring humor as well as telling us something about the characters.' Reddick says during Bowling for Soup concerts, in addition to the band's biggest hits like 'Girl All the Bad Guys Want' or '1985,' fans demand to hear the show's theme song. 'It's so infectious,' he says. 'We managed to record a song that is just accepted by everybody. Everyone loves it.' When the show was first starting out, Povenmire and Marsh would tell series composer and song producer Danny Jacob to not pick up the phone when they called so they could leave a message on his answering machine with their latest song. 'We sounded like a bunch of college frat boys singing into a tape recorder,' Marsh says. While the technology they use has improved, their approach to the show's music has not changed. Jay Stutler, senior vice president of music at Disney Television Animation, has been with the show since the first episode. 'That pilot was the most fun pilot I've ever worked on,' he says. Povenmire and Marsh brought a musical aesthetic that 'took chances and leaned into some really obscure musical references from around the world.' 'What this show did better than any other show was establish that the song can be whatever it needs to be,' he adds. One of the stories from this season's sixth episode, 'Lord of the Firesides,' finds the show's Girl Scout-like troop, the Fireside Girls, going completely feral, like in the famous William Golding novel. It features the song 'Watch It Burn.' 'It's a really thrashing screaming song for the sweetest little girls in the world,' Povenmire says. 'It's the hardest-rocking song that would ever be on the Disney Channel.' Tisdale, who also starred in the 'High School Musical' franchise, jokes that her new edict to her agent is 'iconic stuff only please.' Tisdale, who lent her voice to some of the show's most memorable songs including 'Busted' and 'Gitchee Gitchee Goo,' is delighted to be back voicing Candace. 'She's so fun. She's just a crazy sister trying to bust her brothers. I truly just feel like she wants to be seen.' In the fifth season, Candace is now 16, a year older than she was during the original run. In addition to her updated cellphone, the new season finds Candace getting her driver's license and going to therapy, 'which she totally needs to do,' Tisdale says. In addition to the returning main voice cast, Povenmire and Marsh lined up many guest stars — they marvel at who they were able to get: Brendan Hunt, Alan Cumming, John Stamos, Leslie Jones, Anna Faris, Cristo Fernández, Megan Rapinoe, Meghan Trainor, Jonathan Banks, Rhys Darby, Ruth Negga and Michael Bublé. Bublé plays himself and serenades an audience during a beach concert. Povenmire recalls Bublé texting him, 'You would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting with my manager when I told him what I really wanted to do at this point in my career is sing a song called 'Tropey McTropeface.'' The musical guest stars have always been a highlight of the show. Povenmire fondly recalls the time they wrote 'I Believe We Can,' which featured performances from Clay Aiken and Chaka Khan for the 2010 episode 'Summer Belongs to You,' and then realized they had to actually get Aiken and Khan for the joke to work. They did. Although they joke around, the series' return packs an emotional punch for the duo, who famously pitched the series for 13 years before Disney picked it up. 'I watched the first episode and came back into the writers' room and I was crying,' Povenmire says. 'It feels like 'Phineas and Ferb' are back. That's what I want people to feel. This show is back with a vengeance.'
Irish Post
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
On the record - the best of Ireland's new music releases
NEVER judge a music act by their name. One might think that Louth/Meath seven-piece The Cacks (yes, I know…) and their debut album, Celebrity , offer a juvenile blend of Blink-182 or Bowling for Soup – over-the-hill frat boys taking the mickey out of subjects that some people regard as almost untouchable. Not a bit of it. Recorded in Black Mountain Studios, (which rests high up in the Cooley Mountains), Celebrity is one of those pleasant surprises that pop up unannounced and with no fanfare. In other words, it's grounded work from grounded people — although we'd like to know which member of the band was brave enough to pose for the album cover. Between songs that veer from rootsy (Remedy, When I Am to Die), reggae (Nom Nom Nom), Americana (Lava Beds, Two Weeks) and pop/funk (the title track, Two Weeks), The Cacks, as befits their name, are all mouth and trousers. The Cacks have released Celebrity One songwriter who has been up against the wall is Seán Mulrooney, whose latest album, This Is My Prayer , is the result of many years of living, loving, making music and having your heart shattered into tiny pieces. Irish music fans with firm memories will know of Mulrooney largely through his involvement with Humanzi, who left Dublin for Berlin many years ago. Mulrooney stayed in the German capital for 13 years, returning home to not only self-care following the breakdown of a relationship but also to reconnect with his rooted native influences. As such, the songs are fine examples of folk music infused with hazy psychedelic sensibilities and just the right measure of trad flourishes. Sean Mulrooney "Every thought is a prayer, every word is a spell," he sings on Ag Músclaighacht, one of eight compelling tracks on an album that is worth your time and attention. You can say the same for indie folk band Norabelle and their second album, The Mountain Blinks . Some 14 years have passed since the band's 2011 debut album (Wren), so you could safely guess that life and its sometimes messy details have got in the way. Inevitably, the deeply personal songs explore (as lead singer Ken Clarke says) 'themes of memory, grief, and the fragility of life… my own experiences of loss and how those memories shape us, even when they're fleeting or unreliable.' Norabelle's The Mountain Blinks Brief or untrustworthy though those memories may be, you can't say the same about the songs, each of which unfolds slowly, truthfully, and elegantly. In essence, this is mood music, perfect for quiet, reflective moments best experienced at the dimming of the day. There is history and the usual consequences of lives being lived when it comes to certain bands. Take Belfast's The Adventures, for instance. In the late '70s, some of the core members used to be in the punk/pop band The Starjets. When tastes changed in the early '80s, The Adventures formed with moderate success, creeping to a halt in 1993. The Adventures Fast forward a few decades, and the band's new album, Once More with Feeling , delivers, to the credit of all involved, much more than nostalgia or (even worse) a thirst for former glories. The songs are sprightly, contemporary, and imbued with an intuitive knack for memorable melodies, perhaps most obviously on tracks such as L.U.C.Y., Song for You, and the impressively Beatles-esque To Whom It Concerns. New adventures start here? It would seem so. Explorations of the sonic variety continue with Somebody's Child and their second album When Youth Fades Away . Cian Godfrey, as he's known to his family and the passport authorities, has been tipping around the fringes for about eight years (we recall single tracks by Somebody's Child being released in 2018/2019), but for some unexplainable reason, he hasn't yet dented the mainstream. We say 'inexplicable' because (and despite close to 20 million streams on Spotify) there isn't anything on this album that would spook even the wariest of horses. Somebody's Child Rather, there is a radio-friendly sheen to the songs that make you think of the following: sold-out venues, sold-out venues and sold-out venues. The songs also make you think of music acts like The Killers, Kraftwerk, The National, and the quieter moments of Bruce Springsteen. It adds up to the kind of album that should, by rights, lead to far bigger things for someone who has been knocking on the door too often to be ignored for much longer. See More: Ireland, Music, Releases
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Simple Plan will bring a taste of Warped Tour to MN, even if the punk fest revival isn't coming
Gone are the days of Warped Tour bringing Vans-wielding kids to the Metrodome parking lot, and Minnesota isn't getting one of the three Warped Tour revival dates that start this summer. However, a few bands that will be joining Warped Tour are coming to town. Simple Plan is bringing its Bigger Than You Think! tour to The Armory in Minneapolis on Aug. 19. The tour will kick off in August after the band wraps up an opening stint with Avril Lavigne. "It's hard to believe, but these will be our first proper U.S. headline shows in more than 8 years," drummer Chuck Comeau said in a statement. "To mark this very special milestone of 25 years of Simple Plan, we will be putting on the biggest shows of our lives, playing everything from our biggest hits to songs we haven't performed in years, and bringing the most elaborate stage production we've ever had!" The band behind "Perfect" will be joined by Bowling for Soup, 3OH!3, and LØLØ, all of which will be appearing in at least one of the three Warped Tour dates. Tickets for Simple Plan's pitstop in Minneapolis go on sale Friday, Feb. 28.
