.

Day in Pop Report for 03/31/2015


Norman Greenbaum Critically Injured in Fatal Accident
(Radio.com) Singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum, most well known for the 1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky," was critically injured Saturday in a fatal traffic accident near Santa Rosa, Calif., according to CBS San Francisco.

A motorcyclist, Ihab Usama Halaweh, 20, of Santa Rosa, was killed in the accident. Greenbaum was a passenger in a car that hit the motorcycle. The driver of the car, Bonita Perea, 62, of Santa Rosa, was not injured and alcohol was not a factor in the accident, according to local police.

Greenbaum and Perea were both transported to the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and both were in critical condition as of Sunday afternoon. Read more here.

More on Norman Greenbaum - Norman Greenbaum Music, DVDs, Books and more - Norman Greenbaum T-shirts and Posters

One Direction's Tomlinson In Twitter Feud With Naughty Boy
(Radio.com) The train of drama following Zayn Malik's departure from One Direction just keeps a-rollin'. Now it involves Malik's former bandmate Louis Tomlinson and the producer Naughty Boy, with whom Malik has recorded music (though their initial sessions came before his departure from the boy band).

It stemmed from a tweet Naughty Boy retweeted of a video many purport to claim that the producer "saved" Zayn from One Direction and that the former One Directioner would "rise" (the "Zaughty" in the video in question is thought to stand for Zayn/Naughty).

Tomlinson saw the retweet and was unhappy with Naughty Boy promoting the video, calling him "inconsiderate" and telling him to "grow up." When Naughty Boy tweeted back saying that he was getting upset about a tweet he says was about Louis Walsh, a judge on Britain's X Factor (on which One Direction were contestants), Tomlinson shot back that he was not upset about anything to do with Walsh but the video he retweeted.

Later, Naughty Boy tweeted that "time will tell the real story guys" and maintained his innocence. Read more including the tweets here.

More on One Direction - One Direction Music, DVDs, Books and more - One Direction T-shirts and Posters

Diplo and Robert Plant Collaboration Coming?
(Radio.com) Diplo and Robert Plant are not two names you'd expect to find in the same sentence but that is changing now: The two musicians have announced a mystery collaboration.

Over the weekend on Instagram, Diplo posted a selfie with the Led Zeppelin singer and the concise caption, "Collab coming soon," leaving a whole lot of questions.

Is Plant working on another album? Is Diplo on it? Or will Plant appear on Diplo's next album? Will Plant have a cameo on Major Lazer's next album? Are they just trolling the world? Read more here.

More on Robert Plant - Robert Plant Music, DVDs, Books and more - Robert Plant T-shirts and Posters

Ariana Grande Extends Honeymoon Tour
(Radio.com) Missed Ariana Grande on her first go-round behind My Everything? Fret not: more chances are coming this summer and fall. The singer will embark on another leg of her Honeymoon Tour starting this summer, with Prince Royce coming along as a special guest.

The tour kicks off July 16 in Tampa, Fla., with an end date scheduled for Oct. 15 in El Paso, Texas. Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Brooklyn are also among the spots hit, the latter with a date at Barclays Center on Sept. 26.

Grande continues to tour behind My Everything, her second studio album, released last August. The album has spawned five top 20 singles, including the collaborative hit "Bang Bang" with Nicki Minaj and Jessie J. See the dates here.

More on Ariana Grande - Ariana Grande Music, DVDs, Books and more - Ariana Grande T-shirts and Posters

Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show' Replacement Revealed
(Radio.com) Comedy Central has announced that 31-year-old South African comedian Trevor Noah will be taking Jon Stewart's position as the host of The Daily Show.

In February, Stewart revealed that he'll be stepping down as host of the show at some point later this year, and there had been much speculation as to who would replace him.

Noah has previously appeared on the show as a correspondent, making his debut in December and appearing only three times on the series. But while some will question whether Noah is ready to head up such an iconic show, Stewart knows the biracial comedian who speaks some half-dozen languages is the man for the job.

'I'm thrilled for the show and for Trevor," Stewart said in a statement. 'He's a tremendous comic and talent that we've loved working with." Read more here.

More on Jon Stewart - Jon Stewart DVDs and Blu-Rays

Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves Lead Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic
(Radio.com) The 42nd edition of Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic will return to Austin, Texas for the first time in four years for a stacked day of music, that includes the expected headliner of Willie Nelson closing out his namesake festival.

Also booked for the one-day event, which will be held at the Circuit of The Americas' Austin360 Amphitheater are Eric Church, Merle Haggard, Kacey Musgraves, Sturgill Simpson, Asleep At The Wheel, Jamey Johnson, Jason Isbell, Leon Russell, and many more.

"I got the idea from Woodstock about how music could bring people from different places together," Nelson said in a press release. "I had just moved to Austin and had come to realize what a great music center it was and could be. I thought it would be a nice idea to, this year have it back in Austin, but at a more comfortable venue for the fans AND the pickers." Read more here.

More on Eric Church - Eric Church Music, DVDs, Books and more - Eric Church T-shirts and Posters

Fifth Harmony Release 'Worth It' Video
(Radio.com) In Fifth Harmony's latest video for "Worth It" they become the wolves of Wall Street. It's just another day at the office for Fifth Harmony, playing a little golf and adding up the numbers while showing off their power suits.

Besides throwing around a lot of sass, the ladies even throw in a nod to feminism with the ticker making it clear they are going to break that glass ceiling.

The ladies of the Fifth Harmony only take a break to let Kid Ink take the mic, who stops by to encourage them to "bring it back like you left something." Watch it here.

More on Fifth Harmony - Fifth Harmony Music, DVDs, Books and more - Fifth Harmony T-shirts and Posters

Christina Aguilera, Brooks & Dunn, Nick Jonas Added to ACM Awards
(Radio.com) Country music's party of the year will be packed with many surprise performances, and additional artists have been announced to perform at the 50th Academy of Country Music Awards on April 19 in Texas.

It won't all be traditional country music either as pop star Christina Aguilera will perform a surprise duet while Nick Jonas will collaborate with Dan + Shay at the awards show.

Additionally, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town and Rascal Flatts have been added to the list of performances.

Brooks & Dunn will take the stage for their first televised performance together since 2010. Read more here.

More on Christina Aguilera - Christina Aguilera Music, DVDs, Books and more - Christina Aguilera T-shirts and Posters

Martin Garrix Debuts 'Rewind Repeat It' Featuring Ed Sheeran
(Radio.com) Pop stars featuring on big dance singles is hardly a new thing, so to hear that Ed Sheeran is now on more than one is not surprising at all. Sheeran recorded vocals for Martin Garrix's song "Rewind Repeat It," which was debuted this past weekend at Ultra Music Festival in Miami.

As pointed out by Dancing Astronaut, the track was seven months in the making from when Sheeran first posted about it on Instagram, saying, 'Finished up my very first EDM song with Martin Garrix, brilliant experience, looking forward to you all hearing it."

But since that announcement, Garrix was able to put the finishing touches on it and debut it in a live capacity, with a top quality video rip of the song now making the rounds from Ultra. Check out video here.

More on Martin Garrix - Martin Garrix Music, DVDs, Books and more - Martin Garrix T-shirts and Posters

Deadmau5 Vs Krewella Over Ultra Appearance
(Radio.com) This year's edition of the Ultra Music Festival in Miami was as eventful as they come, with surprise appearances from a slew of music stars including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Puff Daddy.

Among all of the weekend's festivities, perpetually cranky EDM producer Deadmau5 (who didn't perform, but was apparently watching via live stream) took a swipe at festival act Krewella, claiming that the sisters weren't actually playing live.

He based his accusations on images of the duo during their set where it appears that the digital turntables (AKA CDJs) are not plugged into the mixer.

He tweeted, "Aw man. Krewellas got them new completely wireless DJMs??? I'm jealous." and followed up with "Oh come on. Don't act all surprised. That's kinda a given... I just figured they might hide their backline a little bit better. Still lolls."

Deadmau5 continued with a profanity-laced tirade against Krewella, who eventually fired back at the producer with a tweet kindly asking him to take a closer look and see that USBs were actually plugged in connecting the CDJs and the mixer.

Undaunted, Deadmau5 continued to fire shots at the duo. Read more here.

More on Deadmau5 - Deadmau5 Music, DVDs, Books and more - Deadmau5 T-shirts and Posters

Karrueche Tran Talks Rocky Relationship with Chris Brown
(Radio.com) Chris Brown's ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran appeared with the life coach and spiritual advisor Iyanla Vanzant for the OWN special Iyanla Exclusive: Karrueche Tran.

Tran discussed her long, tortured history with the controversial R&B star, up to and including their recent breakup after news broke that Brown had a baby with another woman.

Tran also discussed their first date and their love triangle with Rihanna. 'I want my voice to be heard. For a long time, I kept it very mute just because that's the way I preferred it," Tran explained. 'I think there are a lot of misconceptions about me--I don't think, I know there are. And I want to be able to clear it up and tell my side."

Tran called out Brown for his 'betrayal and lying and cheating." She claims that he sent her flowers to try and repair their relationship after she found out about his 9-month-old daughter through social media, but that she's not interested. 'Right now, I'm saying no," she said. Read more here.

More on Chris Brown - Chris Brown Music, DVDs, Books and more - Chris Brown T-shirts and Posters

Singled Out: Mercies' Deep Sleeper
Today Sammy Dent from Mercies tells us about the song "Deep Sleeper" from their brand new sophomore album "Blue Against Green," which was released today. Here is the story:

Deep Sleeper began with the guitar riff that starts the song. Once we had that, it started us off on a path where we wanted to write something that was more upbeat and straight forward compared to some of the other songs we were working on at the time. Funnily enough, Deep Sleeper probably ended up going through more revisions and tweaks than any other song on the record.

A lot of the growing pains during the writing process were alleviated once we stopped trying to complicate things. I think during pre-production we were a little apprehensive about writing such a straight forward song. Even though that was the original intention, the desire to make it more "interesting" or "artistic" kept creeping in. These desires always ended up undermining the song and the final cohesion didn't come until we were in the studio.

We recorded this song initially as part of our record label's compilation series. One of the stipulations of the series is that the song has to be recorded in one day. So, almost everything in the final version that's heard on Blue Against Green comes from that single day session (we ended up re-recording the crowd vocals because we slightly altered the melody). I think this impulsive energy also helped the song. A entire song recorded in one day is a lot of work! We had to move fast.

The resulting drums, bass, and rhythm guitar were all recorded together in the same take. The endless combinations of overdubbed acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and keyboards finally came into focus as we decided to keep things simple. That became the mantra for Deep Sleeper, "keep it simple". Every song is its own beast with its own challenges. Even ones that pass by comfortably in just under 3 minutes

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

More on Mercies - Mercies Music, DVDs, Books and more - Mercies T-shirts and Posters



Wait there is more!

Read Today's Day in Rock report for even more music news!

Share this article

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it Share on Reddit email this article



Click here to read today's full Day in Rock report

tell a friend about this article

.


...end