“Who’s Madeline?” is still the year’s preeminent pop-music question. But coming up close behind that: “Where the eff is Randy Newman on the New York Times’ list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters?” Or, you can fill in that blank with some other name of your chagrined choosing, like Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Billy […]

On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, in our Cover Story segment, Variety’s Chris Willman details his interview with country star Kacey Musgraves as she begins a new chapter of her life and her career. It’s a revealing interview, just like Musgraves’ new album “Middle of Nowhere,” which bows May 1. Willman, Variety‘s chief music […]

In his Army jacket and lollipop-blue round sunglasses, with shaggy long sideburns, Lennon gives off a fascinating air of self-involved indifference, which is expressed in the fact that he’s chewing gum for the entire concert. Maybe that was his way of calming his nerves, but the upshot was to give him a disaffected air that’s almost Lou Reed adjacent. He and Yoko and the band perform 15 songs, and in certain ones he’s doggedly sincere, yet he’s also got the Lennon cheek (“Welcome to the rehearsal,” he warns the audience at the afternoon show), and also the Lennon detachment, that underlying vibe of “Who gives a fuck, really?”

DIY habits die hard, even when you’re a major-label artist

Attorneys allege a “complex conspiracy to murder” the rapper

Watch an atmospheric, grayscale video for the new single “Song for the Messenger”

The country singer-songwriter will bring her new album on the road this fall

The reworked Sexistential track comes with a synchronized dance video

MIKE himself will be also perform as the Brooklyn festival returns this summer

Police said the reality star was cuffed with her wrists in front of her body due to her small stature, with officers double-locking the restraints.