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Showing posts from July, 2017

Fleet Foxes: Crack-Up Album Review

In the six years since Fleet Foxes’ last album, their former drummer has eclipsed them in the public eye by embracing a flamboyant persona fluent in sex, drugs, self-awareness, and sarcasm, like a not-so-subtle referendum on his previous gig. None of Josh Tillman’s jokes have been crueler than the unmistakable alliteration embedded in the title of the first Father John Misty album: Fear Fun . Considering the lengths folkies like Tillman, Justin Vernon, and Marcus Mumford have gone to ensure their beards no longer speak on their behalf, it’s all the more amazing that Robin Pecknold hasn’t tried to counteract the earnest, unglamorous perception of him and Fleet Foxes. He has actually embraced it. While Fleet Foxes’ music has grown increasingly more complex and less crowd-pleasing, Pecknold’s personal trajectory has strangely aged in reverse—the old-soul serenity of Fleet Foxes gave way to the post-grad anxieties of Helplessness Blues , and now we...

Zimmer homers in Indians' 6-2 loss to Red Sox Monday night

BOSTON (AP) — Doug Fister took a shutout into the eighth inning, rookie Rafael Devers went 4 for 4 and drove in a run and the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 6-2 on Monday night. Mookie Betts stopped his mini-slump by driving in three runs with two singles, and Eduardo Nunez added three hits and two RBIs for the Red Sox, who won for the third time in nine games. Bradley Zimmer hit a two-run homer for AL Central-leading Cleveland, which lost its second straight after a season-high nine-game winning streak. Fister (1-5), claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels on June 23, was pulled after giving up Zimmer’s homer with two outs in the eighth. He allowed two runs and five hits, walking two and striking out five. Brandon Workman got the final four outs. Mike Clevinger (5-4) gave up five runs on seven hits in three innings. Betts, the runner-up for last season’s AL MVP award, flied out with the bases loaded to end a loss Sunday and was 3 for his la...

JAY-Z Shares '4:44' Bonus Tracks, Featuring Collaborations With James Blake And Blue Ivy @ARTISTdirect

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Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:40:09 JAY-Z dropped his 14th chart-topping album 4:44 only a few weeks ago, but ever since its release rumors regarding a trio of bonus tracks have been swirling. Now those songs are finally available to stream. One of the tracks, "Adnis", we'd already heard via a music video featuring Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and Lupita Nyong'o. The song also appeared in the first trailer for 4:44 , long before anyone new it was the next JAY-Z album. In addition to Adins, Hov dropped his collaboration with James Blake, called "MaNyfaCedGod" and "Blue's Freestyle / We Family", which features the rap debut of Beyonce and Shawn Carter's five-year old daughter Blue Ivy Carter. All are now available to stream via TIDAL. James Blake has been making a habit of collaborating with a variety of the world's biggest rappers. Most recently he worked with Vince Staples on his Prima Donna EP. In the past he has worked with Chance the Ra...

Los Angeles awarded Olympics as IOC hits panic button

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Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics, in part because the International Olympic Committee, one of the globe’s greatest con artists, couldn’t guarantee that any other city on Earth would be willing to do it. You have to credit the IOC here … it certainly know its market. It forecast its future. It had a stretch where it could sell global prestige to the dreamers, the desperate and the despots. It produced ridiculous host cities such as Sochi and Rio and nearly (until they wimped out) Almaty, Kazakhstan. Back then it could snub its nose at Paris (three times a loser since 1992), Madrid (three times a loser since 2012), New York (2012), Chicago (2016) and others. There was always someone on the edge willing to promise more, spend more, perhaps even grease the skids more. Those days appear over. The IOC has left a string of past host cities strewn around the globe dealing with decaying facilities and enormous debt. So now the parade ...

2017 Panorama Festival Features Big Improvements and Hip-Hop's Best Hitting the Stage

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Panorama Music Festival (3) The 2017 Panorama Music Festival is officially over. The three-day long music extravaganza produced by Goldenvoice—the same company that puts on the Coachella Festival every year—returned to Randall’s Island in New York City for its sophomore year. The inaugural festival kicked off in 2016, to much success, and for year two, the full experience was a step in the right direction. The outdoor space meant there was plenty of room for fans to see their favorite artists perform plus a multitude of activities in between sets such as an open-air club called The Point and an interactive, museum-quality exhibition space with immersive art installations called THE LAB. One of the standout aspects of the festival was the atmosphere. This year’s Panorama Fest separated itself from its much more expansive and establish sibling, Coachella. Rather than trying to duplicate the already wildly successful predecessor, Panorama u...

Stoke Set to Reignite Interest in Andriy Yarmolenko as They Look to Replace Marko Arnautovic

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Stoke Set to Reignite Interest in Andriy Yarmolenko as They Look to Replace Marko Arnautovic | SI.com Top Events NBA NFL MLB NHL NCAAF NCAAB Soccer Search © 2017 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. Source link

French Montana's 'Unforgettable' Gets a Latin Remix With J Balvin

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French Montana’s intercontinental co-signs continue with a remix of his biggest hit, “Unforgettable,” which adds Latin star J Balvin to Swae Lee’s guest appearance. The country’s No. 1 song is the Spanish-speaking “Despacito,” so the release does make sense for a thirsty hitmaker like French. Listen to the “Unforgettable” remix, premiered by Zane Lowe, below. This article was originally published on Spin.  Source link

MLB trade: Cubs land Justin Wilson and Alex Avila from Tigers

The Chicago Cubs  acquired lefty reliever  Justin Wilson  and catcher Alex Avila from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for third baseman Jeimer Candelario  and minor-league shortstop/third baseman Isaac Paredes, the teams announced on Monday. Wilson, 29, is in the midst of a great season for the Tigers. He took over as closer and has saved 13 games in 15 tries with a 2.68 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 55 strikeouts against 16 walks in 40 1/3 innings.  Is Justin Wilson headed to the north side of Chicago? USATSI Where Wilson fits in the Cubs' bullpen is a fun topic. Wade Davis remains the closer, but Maddon has a bevy of guys he employs in late-inning, high-leverage situations, including Carl Edwards Jr., Pedro Strop , Koji Uehara , Hector Rondon and lefty Brian Duensing . Mike Montgomery is a lefty like Duensing and Wilson, but he remains the long guy. Justin Grimm may be in trouble of being designated for assignment here, as he's the...

Delayed Again: 'Star Citizen' Alpha 3 Now Won't Hit Until September

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The massively multiplayer space exploration game,  Star Citizen, has suffered another setback. Alpha 3.0 has been pushed back from August to September, developer Cloud Imperium Games announced. The Alpha has suffered several delays by this point. Originally expected in late August, Alpha 3.0 is now expected for an early September launch, with the developer aiming for the week of September 4. Originally shown off last year at Germany's Gamescom, 3.0 will add in the ability for players to seamlessly fly to, land upon and explore the planets in the game – no small feat, surely. But it looks like getting this out the door is causing the developer several issues. "This week, we entered the optimization, polish and bug fixing phase for the 3.0 feature set," the developer said. "As there have been so many features and content implemented, we've encountered some stability issues that we want to address before going to a wider test audience. The ongoing work on the ...

Adrian Beltre, the toughest ballplayer alive, has a bump or bruise for all 3,000 hits

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So the head thing. It’s real, Adrian Beltre swears, real in the same way the word moist sends a shiver down the spine of some people and clowns terrify others. He doesn’t want it to be this way. One of these offseasons, Beltre said, he’s going to let his family members touch the top of his head, his Kryptonite, maybe once a day, then twice, then more, so when he gets to spring training and his teammates sneak attack him with a head pat, he can stand there and act like nothing is happening. “It’s my fault,” Beltre said, with some faux regret, because the head thing, like the back-knee swing, like the on-field playfulness, like the death stares that could bore holes through tungsten, is part of his oeuvre, which now is packed with two decades of excellence. Reaching 3,000 hits, as Beltre did when he uncorked his million-moving-pieces swing Sunday and ripped a double down the left-field line, always prompts a celebration of a player’s legacy, and h...