Vivian Trimble, the keyboardist and vocalist of Luscious Jackson, has died. The band revealed the news on Facebook, writing that she died of a complication after years of battling cancer. Trimble was 59.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved friend and band member Viv on Tuesday,” the band’s statement reads. “We were not expecting this. She was a great friend and a gifted musician and choreographer, but it was being a partner to David and a mother to Nate and Rebecca that gave her the greatest joy. We are devastated beyond words to lose our graceful sister.”
Luscious Jackson formed in 1991 as a trio composed of Jill Cunniff, Gabby Glaser, and Trimble. Drummer Kate Schellenbach joined them shortly after, and together they released one EP and two albums – 1994’s Natural Ingredients and 1996’s Fever In Fever Out – on the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label. Trimble left the band prior to the release of their 1999 LP Electric Honey. While Luscious Jackson reunited in 2011, Trimble opted not to join.
In addition to Luscious Jackson, Trimble and Cunniff formed a band called Kostars that released an album called Klassics With A “K” in 1996. It was produced by Breeders bassist Josephine Riggs, with whom Trimble had a duo called Dusty Trails. They released a self-titled album in 2000.
With a Hammer slips into unknowable territory. Yaeji’s past work has done that too – the Korean-American artist’s 2020 mixtape What We Drew, her first for the storied UK label XL, veered away from the club-oriented dance music of previous releases and into something more ambient, introspective, and diffuse. Even as her musical instincts once again guide her in different directions, her debut album, like What We Drew, chronicles the push-and-pull between anxiety and confidence, community and solitude, weaving catharsis out of the most uncertain corners of that internalized space. Take the lead single ‘For Granted’, whose emotional core – fluctuating as it does between sincere gratitude and unease around the unexpected goodness of her life – feels like such a continuation of the reflections on What We Drew that it feels wrong to call the With a Hammer a departure. It’s only a different, more solidified kind of arrival, one that still stirs up more questions than it answers.
What is the emotion that Yaeji wields on the record? “It’s abstractly about how anger is shapeshifting and how it passed through me,” she said in a recent interview. If anger is the closest approximation, how long has it been there, and what new forms can it take? Does channeling it imply destruction as literal as the album’s title, or is it more about the silence it leaves behind, somehow freer than the silence of repression? This probing is a slippery practice, but since Yaeji understands the task at hand, the songs on With a Hammer bristle, as she promised, with intention. And that consciousness transforms into a sense of purpose, which she lays out on ‘Done (Let’s Get It)’: “Isn’t it our mission this life to break the cycles/ Make it make you/ Mend the cycles.” Introducing the album’s themes, ‘Submerge FM’ opens with fluttering orchestration that’s both playful and immersive, making the futures we can’t see, the stuff of dreams, feel livable.
While With a Hammer coheres together, the logic it follows is non-linear, and any defiance it offers is more cheeky than resolute. It’s a drifting record, and it only drifts into bubbly escapism once, on ‘Away x5’, which serves as a lovely late-album treat rather than a centerpiece. ‘Ready or Not’ is subtler than you’d imagine any electronic track built around the line “Ready or not, here I come,” but it embodies the disorientating shift from stifling isolation to reentering the world with both urgency and vulnerability. “Ever since I was young/ My mood swings depended on weather/ Here/ I learned mother nature/ I’m sorry/ I’m powerless,” she sings on highlight ‘Passed Me By’, switching between Korean and English as she traces back the confusion of identifying with forces beyond her control – and most people’s perception. The track is dreamy and vaporous at first, but as she finds ways to ground the sensation (“I like flipping the pages and feeling the physical weight of how much time has passed me by”), it becomes kinetic and booming, her wispy vocals barely catching up.
Even when there’s clarity on the other end, the most visible, present version of Yaeji doesn’t completely overshadow her past selves, or those deeper down. But reshaping them can be illuminating. In the blissfully sparse environment of ‘I’ll Remember for Me, I’ll Remember for You’, where remembering is framed as an act of personal freedom, a sort of creeping thought arises, encased in parentheses: “(I wrote it down for you.)” Then it’s liberated, and the song is split generously in two, self no longer masking the other. You can feel the weight of frustration permeating the title track – “There were days I gave up/ And put a mask on my face, brain, and heart” – but the more she repeats it, the more she’s told to take a break from dreaming, the lighter, weirder, and gentler her dance grows. It sounds like reanimating a broken cycle.
As the record progresses, it starts to resemble a study in contrasts. The sonic distance between the hard-hitting ‘Michin’ and the searching melancholy of the Loraine James-assisted ‘1 Thing 2 Smash’ makes breezing through the couple of tracks between them feel like time travel. The euphoric ‘Happy’, featuring Nourished by Time, is an invitation to surrender to both ourselves and those around us, relaxing into the joy of communal and self-directed love. It could easily be the closing track, but easy is not the path Yaeji takes. She leaves us with ‘Be Alone in This’, a song about, well, not wanting to be alone in this. But just as it spirals inward, it seems to change course. “That’s how you lose track of,” she keeps singing, manipulating her vocals to mirror the feeling. Maybe it’s ambivalent – is it loneliness distorting time or finding the courage to step into yourself? Creativity spilling out, falling in love? With each repetition, the boundaries grow porous, as if to stop us questioning. Maybe, then, it can happen to you.
Esther Rose has released a new song her upcoming LP Safe to Run. Following previous offering ‘Chet Baker’ and the title track, ‘Spider’ arrives with an accompanying video directed by Anthony Simpkins. Check it out below.
Speaking about the song, Rose said: “As I was writing this, I remember thinking ‘This. Is. My. Final. Word!!!’ My drummer Lonnie calls this one an ‘emotional dump truck.’ We tracked vocals live and tried to redo them later, but they didn’t hit as hard as the original take. There’s something kind of deranged happening in the third verse, the situational complexities, you can feel it. It’s our favourite to play live.”
Anthony Simpkins added, “When Esther approached me to make this video, she had an idea to involve a boxing match. I thought, why not film it at a real MMA event? I love the stark contrast in the on-screen action and Esther’s song. It is somehow both the polar opposite and perfectly matching the journey each person is going through from the beginning of the night to the end of the fight. Love, anxiety, pain, triumph, anger, defeat… you feel everything at a fight. Esther captures the same emotions in her songs.”
The Hold Steady rolled through Late Night With Seth Meyers last night (April 5), performing their single ‘Sideways Skull’. Watch it happen below.
‘Sideways Skull’ is taken from the band’s ninth studio album, The Price of Progress, which was released last week. Back in October, the Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn appeared on Seth Meyers to perform his solo track ‘The Amarillo Kid’.
Andy Bell has announced a new album called Tidal Love Numbers, a collaborative effort with the Essex-based duo Masal. It’s out May 19 via Sonic Cathedral, and today, Bell has shared an edit of the track ‘Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard’. Check out Jean de Oliveira‘s video for it below.
“It’s the closest we have come to a conventional arrangement,” Bell said of the single in a statement. “It has a recognisable riff and a beat, but still floats free of it most of the time.”
Andy Bell’s last album, Flicker, came out last year.
Tidal Love Numbers Cover Artwork:
Tidal Love Numbers Tracklist:
1. Murmuration Of Warm Dappled Light On Her Back After Swimming
2. The Slight Unease Of Seeing A Crescent Moon In Blue Midday Sky
3. Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard
4. A Pyramid Hidden By Centuries Of Neon Green Undergrowth
Peter Gabriel has unveiled ‘i/o’, the title track from his forthcoming album. The single features the Soweto Gospel Choir and follows previous cuts ‘Panopticom’, ‘The Court’, and ‘Playing for Time’. Listen to the Bright-Side Mix of the song below.
“This month the song is ‘i/o’ and ‘i/o’ means input / output,” Gabriel explained in a press release. “You see it on the back of a lot of electrical equipment and it just triggered some ideas about the stuff we put in and pull out of ourselves, in physical and non-physical ways. That was the starting point of this idea and then trying to talk about the interconnectedness of everything. The older I get, I probably don’t get any smarter, but I have learned a few things and it makes a lot of sense to me that we are not these independent islands that we like to think we are, that we are part of a whole. If we can see ourselves as better connected, still messed up individuals, but as part of a whole, then maybe there’s something to learn?”
A release date for i/o has not yet been announced.
Jenny Owen Youngs has announced a new ambient album titled from the forest floor. The 12-track LP will be out May 5 via OFFAIR Records. Along with the announcement, she’s shared the single ‘sunrise mtn’, which you can hear below.
“This song is named for a peak in the Kittatinny Mountains in north Jersey, that lies along the Appalachian Trail in Stokes State Forest,” Youngs explained in a statement. “Standing at the top, you can see New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York spread out below; it’s a popular place to watch the sun come up. This piece is an invitation to look up and to look out, towards the clean slate of another tomorrow coming up over the horizon line. It was a pleasure to work with John Mark Nelson on this piece (and across the entire album) for many reasons, especially because he’s kind of like a human sunrise, and finds a way to infuse light into every song he touches.”
from the forest floor Tracklist:
1. sunrise mtn [feat. John Mark Nelson]
2. dove island [feat. John Mark Nelson]
3. skylands [feat. John Mark Nelson]
4. tannery falls [feat. John Mark Nelson]
5. ambrosia [feat. John Mark Nelson & Hrishikesh Hirway]
6. hemlock shade [feat. John Mark Nelson]
7. dusk [feat. John Mark Nelson & Tancred]
8. night-blooming [feat. John Mark Nelson]
9. forager in the fern grove [feat. John Mark Nelson & Tancred]
10. moon moth [feat. John Mark Nelson & Tancred]
11. echolocation [feat. John Mark Nelson]
12. blue hour [feat. John Mark Nelson]
Madison Cunningham has announced the deluxe edition of her album Revealer, which will arrive May 5 via Verve Forecast. It includes demos of the songs ‘Who Are You Now’ and ‘Life According to Raechel’, the new version of ‘Hospital’ featuring Remi Wolf, and a previously unreleased song called ‘Inventing the Wheel’, which is out now. Listen to it below.
“It was one of those songs that, once realized, was able to write itself,” Cunningham said of ”Inventing the Wheel’ in a statement. “I think it’s kind of a revelation that happens when you finally look outside of yourself and see that you’re not the first or the last to feel limited by your emotional bandwidth. And with that revelation, you see your peers, your family, your idols, your enemies, all standing at ground zero looking up, scratching at the same questions. There’s a heavy emphasis on the idea of loss on Revealer, and this song helped complete that thought in me in some way.”
The popularity of Korean pop music has been growing year after year, and designer brands are taking advantage of this development by tapping K-pop stars to front their international campaigns. Some brands have even made drastic changes to their marketing strategy in order to get a piece of the K-pop magic. On March 30, Bottega Veneta creative director Matthieu Blazy took to Instagram to announce that BTS leader RM is the new face of the brand. This marks an important and surprising milestone for the luxury brand, since RM is the first and only official celebrity ambassador for Bottega Veneta.
But apart from fashion houses, even luxury jewelry brands have been scrambling to sign some of the biggest K-pop stars to front their respective campaigns. There is a huge market for luxury goods in Korea, and since K-pop fans worldwide have a propensity for selling out everything that their favorite stars wear or use, this move makes a lot of sense for brands who want to up their game in the competitive fashion industry. Here are the K-pop singers who have been recently assigned as ambassadors for prominent jewelry labels.
BTS’ Park Jimin for Tiffany & Co.
RM’s bandmate, Park Jimin, is known as the It Boy of South Korea as the star has consistently topped the country’s K-pop boy group brand value rankings for years. It’s no wonder that heritage jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. has signed Jimin as their new global ambassador. The BTS vocalist was officially announced as the jeweler’s ambassador on March 2, and under the partnership, he will be appearing in campaigns for Tiffany and will attend prestigious branding events.
Prior to this partnership, Jimin has always been known for his love of jewelry, often sporting chunky rings, dangling earrings, and even personalized pieces such as gold name necklaces. He has also designed a pair of earrings as part of the Artist-Made Collection By BTS, and the earrings sold out within mere seconds after being released last year. Apart from Tiffany, the vocalist was also announced as Dior’s global ambassador back in January, and this makes him the first male ambassador for the brand.
New Jeans’ Minji for Chanel
K-pop girl group New Jeans just made their debut last year, but they certainly made an impact as their fresh sound and Y2K-centric aesthetics captured the interest of music fans worldwide. It’s uncommon for K-pop rookies to be named as ambassadors for major brands, but New Jeans is certainly one step ahead of their contemporaries as almost all of the group’s members have been signed to front campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, and Chanel. The group’s leader, Minji, was recently appointed as Chanel’s newest ambassador, and according to the brand, she will be representing their beauty, fashion, watches, and jewelry categories.
Blackpink’s Jisoo for Cartier
Fashion houses love all the girls of Blackpink as members Jisoo, Lisa, Jennie, and Rose have all secured campaigns for various luxury brands. One of the most talked-about partnerships that they got last year was Jisoo’s as the K-pop star was named as Cartier’s global ambassador for their Panthere de Cartier jewelry line. According to reports, the luxury brand went to extreme lengths to secure the partnership with Jisoo since Dior also wanted to sign her for an ambassadorship. It was reported that Cartier doubled Dior’s contract fee to ensure that Jisoo will represent their jewelry line.
K-pop singers are getting the star treatment from luxury jewelry brands. It’s likely that we’ll see more partnerships in the future as K-pop continues to gain massive amounts of engagement and fans worldwide.
Moses Sumney and Halsey have joined the cast of the A24 horror film MaXXXine. The third installment of West’s X franchise, the movie also stars Mia Goth, Kevin Bacon, Lily Collins, Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Monaghan, and Giancarlo Esposito. Check out a teaser for it below.
Sumney is also set to appear in The Idol, the forthcoming HBO series from The Weeknd. Back in 2018, Halsey made a cameo as herself in the movie A Star Is Born.
