Benji and Joel Madden’s Veeps Livestreaming Platform Unveils New Round of Apps, Concerts

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEarly 21 st century New York rockers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — singer Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Jay Chase — have announced new music and tour dates in the summer and fall. The group, which recently signed with indie powerhouse Secretly Canadian, say they will have new music in the fall.The group will play a brace of dates in Europe and Australia in the summer before hitting North America, with dates at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium and the Hollywood Bowl in October, where they will be joined by high school punk rockers the Linda Lindas on both dates and (in Los Angeles) by Japanese Breakfast.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Red Hot Chili Peppers paid tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at Jazz Fest in New Orleans on Sunday while frontman Dave Grohl, Hawkins’ widow Alison, and other members of the Foo Fighters looked on from the wings, according to reports in nola.com and on social media.Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, a close friend of Hawkins, had “Taylor” spelled out on his bass drum, emblazoned with a hawk silhouette, similar to one on Hawkins’ arm.Foo Fighters were originally scheduled to headline Jazz Fest but canceled all tour dates in the wake of Hawkins’ death on March 25. Grohl’s presence in town sparked unfounded rumors that he might perform.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFrom the Beatles to the Backstreet Boys to Billie and BTS and beyond, the teen-centric pop concert is both timeless and definitively contemporary, from the screaming and sing-along/shout-alongs to the masses of similarly dressed fans — looking almost military in matching merch — to the indulging attendant parents and, these days, the selfies and social overload. And it was the latter, along with the overwhelmingly pre-drinking age audience, that made Olivia Rodrigo’s concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday the most definitively 2020s teen-centric concert of all: a near-total, two-hour-long wi-fi blackout in the venue so extensive that Russia could have launched a cyber attack and most of the crowd would have assumed it was simply due to thousands of kids posting selfies and video.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorGrammy-winning, multi-platinum-selling, two-time Variety cover star Lil Nas X has performed on some of the biggest stages in television, but incredibly he has never toured — but all that will change this fall when he embarks on the “Long Live Montero” tour, which will make stops across North America and Europe.The North American leg kicks off at The Fillmore in Detroit on Tuesday, September 6, and will make stops in Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping up in San Francisco, CA at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Sunday, October 23. The European leg begins Tuesday, November 8 in Amsterdam and concludes Thursday, November 17 in Barcelona, Spain. See full list of dates below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith a hit single in “About Damn Time” and a new album, “Special,” due in July, Lizzo has unveiled dates for her tour in support of the album, with support from special guest, Atlanta rapper Latto.Produced by Live Nation, the tour kicks off on September 23rd in Sunrise, FL and runs through November with stops including New York City on October 2nd and Los Angeles on November 18th, full routing is available below. Public onsale will begin Friday, April 29th at 10 a.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCynthia Albritton, a.k.a. Cynthia Plaster Caster, the legendary artist and “recovering groupie” renowned for the plaster casts she took of many top musicians’ erect penises and other body parts, has died after a long illness, her rep confirms to Variety. She was 74.Her collection included Jimi Hendrix, Wayne Kramer of MC5, Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys as well as female breasts from the likes of Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, Sally Timms of the Mekons, Peaches, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMTV announced that the 2022 VMAs will air live and around the world in more than 170 countries on Sunday, August 28th from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.“We are thrilled to be back in New Jersey for this year’s VMAs live from Prudential Center,” said Bruce Gillmer, president of music, music talent, programming & events, Paramount and chief content officer, music, Paramount+. “Our 2019 show in Newark was undoubtedly one of our biggest and most successful shows yet and we’re excited to bring back the incredible fan energy for one of music’s most anticipated and iconic nights.”“New Jersey is honored to once again host the MTV Video Music Awards at one of our many world-class entertainment and sports venues,” said Governor Phil Murphy.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Midem conference, which ran for 55 years before its owner canceled the 2022 edition, will return in 2023, according to a report in Music Business Worldwide.While the 2022 event was officially canceled by Reed Midem in December, it was reported at the time that the city of Cannes, which has hosted the event since its inception, would take it over, and that appears to be the case: according to the report, the Midem brand was recently sold to the City of Cannes Municipality by RX France, Reed Midem’s parent company.“In order to rediscover this emblematic event on the Cannes calendar, the City of Cannes is taking over the Midem so that it once again becomes the essential meeting place for music professionals from all over the world,” said the city’s mayor, David Lisnard, in a statement cited by MBW. “Maintaining this show in Cannes represents an economic challenge for local employment and attractiveness for the destination.” Lisnard said the city consulted with “several professionals” representing the French and global musical businesses, including major and independent record labels, concert promoters, streaming platforms and others “in order to offer a qualitative program [for Midem] that is as close as possible to the realities and developments in the [music] sector.”The city’s statement added that “the health crisis, as well as the reorganization of the activity of the RX company led [the firm] to give up the organization of Midem.”The conference launched in Cannes in 1967 and for decades was a showcase for the world’s biggest artists and executives.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFrom the T.S.A. to the Coachella festival, from your local supermarket to your local music club, mask and vaccination mandates continue to fall across the country, in the face of all credible scientific evidence that yet another coronavirus surge is not only taking place, but raging.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLorde covered Rosalía‘s track “Hentai” during her concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Monday night — and Rosalia gave her a big thumbs-up for her version in her Instagram story.The song is from Rosalía’s innovative latest album “Motomami,” which has earned rave reviews almost across the board, including from Variety.Fuckin hell @lorde covering @rosalia I can die now pic.twitter.com/vANjLYG7nM— Austin Rieders (@RiedersDigest) April 19, 2022Early Tuesday, Rosalía shared footage of Lorde’s performance on her Instagram Stories this afternoon and wrote: “Lorde que bonitaaaaaa” [how beautiful].As noted by NME, Lorde raved about “Motomami” in a recent letter to fans. “I’ve listened to the Rosalía album every day since it came out, fuck, it’s so good,” she wrote.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFormat, a new festival merging the worlds of music, art and technology, will hold its premiere event on September 23-25, 2022, on the private Sugar Creek Airstrip in Bentonville, Arkansas.The three-day event will feature more than 50 music artists, including Rüfüs Du Sol, Phoenix, Khruangbin, Beach House, The War On Drugs, Nile Rodgers & Chic, the Flaming Lips, Jungle, and Herbie Hancock — along with integrated performances, installations, and art experiences from world-renowned artists including Doug Aitken, Nick Cave (NOTE: not the singer Nick Cave), Jacolby Satterwhite, Pia Camil, Marinella Senatore, Maurizio Cattelan’s Toiletpaper Magazine, John Gerrard in collaboration with Richie Hawtin, Justin Lowe & Jonah Freeman, Sissel Tolaas, Charlap Hyman & Herrero, and many more. Tickets will go on sale Friday, April 22 at www.format-festival.com.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpanish singer Rosalia has announced dates for a massive world tour in support of her breakthrough album “Motomami,” which launches with 12 dates in Spain in July and covers a total of 46 shows in 15 countries in Europe, North and Latin America and will see her through the rest of the year. Dates appear below.Variety called “Motomami,” Rosalia’s third album, “as musically innovative an album as we’ve heard in the past year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLizzo got a workout not seen since Donald Glover did double-duty as host and musical guest on “Saturday Night Live,” performing two songs from her forthcoming album “Special,” showing impressive comic timing and stamina by appearing in nearly every sketch — she even played flute twice, once while twerking (in fact, the entire sketch was framed around an orchestra learning to twerk while playing their instruments).For the first musical performance, she introduced herself as “Ladies and gentlemen, me!,” and sang her latest single, the discofied groove “About That Time,” accompanied by a drummer, bassist and of course her dancers, the Big Grrls — who are themselves the subject of an Amazon reality show, “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” (a commercial for which aired just before the first song).

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEarly Sunday morning, BTS announced a new album with the tagline “We Are Bulletproof” coming on June 10, in a teaser video posted on social media. The group usually releases information gradually and this is no exception, as there is no further information in the video except a series of images.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor“The only way that this could be more elegant,” said Father John Misty as he surveyed the crowd in New York’s legendary Rainbow Room, a venue that epitomizes elegance, “is if we had three tables heaped with shrimp cocktails.”He wasn’t wrong. The opulent venue, opened in 1934 and located on the 65th floor of 30 Rock, has multiple chandeliers, a sunken, circular dancefloor and a 15 or so floor-to-ceiling windows offering breathtaking views of Midtown Manhattan and beyond, with the Empire State Building’s nightly light show occasionally distracting from the performance onstage.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPhoebe Bridgers has dropped “Sidelines,” her first original song since her Grammy-nominated 2020 album “Punisher.” The moody and low-key track is from Hulu’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s low-key blockbuster novel “Conversations With Friends.” According to the announcement, it will be Bridgers’ only new original song of 2022, although she’s released multiple covers and reworked versions of “Punisher” songs over the past few months.Bridgers will be making her first-ever appearance at the Coachella festival this and next weekend, and then will launch a long tour of North America and Europe through the end of August; dates appear below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRepublic Records is relaunching the Mercury imprint as an “extension” of the label, the company announced Monday. The move is similar to Atlantic’s relaunch of Elektra and Interscope’s of Geffen, an effort to split the parent label’s large roster so that artists receive more attention.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLorde, Mitski and Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers will headline the 2022 All Things Go Music Festival, which returns to the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland on October 1. The festival, which will host 16 artists across three stages, will also feature King Princess, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Maude Latour, Bartees Strange and more.Tickets go on sale Friday, April 15 at 10 a.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt is perhaps a telling sign of this strange era that one of the breakout music acts of the past 12 months was formed for a laugh by a pair of friends — singer-guitarists Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers — who had for years been trying to perform more “serious” music, mostly unsuccessfully. (Oddest of all, they didn’t even break through via TikTok.)But within weeks of sending around a private link containing four songs with their now-trademark new wave bounce and hilariously deadpan vocals, the deliberately ridiculously named Wet Leg had top management and a record deal.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorClive Davis doesn’t do anything by half, and his 90th birthday is no exception. Not only will there be a star-studded party tonight at Cipriani in Lower Manhattan, there’s a four-part music-and-interview series on Paramount Plus culled from last year’s virtual pre-Grammy galas; a Clive Davis Gallery with personal items from across his career at New York University’s Brooklyn location; an interview on the “Rock & Roll High School With Pete Ganbarg” podcast airing April 14; a talk at the 92 St.