The Neighbourhood’s Jesse® Rutherford Inks New Solo Deal With Atlantic Records

EXCLUSIVE: A+E Studios is getting into business with Curate Management and its founder Britton Rizzio. The studio has signed a first-look deal with the company to develop scripted series for broadcast and streaming in the U.S. and international space. Curate says the deal reinforces the company’s commitment to producing content that reflects unique perspectives and stories. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Drake is no stranger to taking jabs in his songs, and in his new single “Search & Rescue,” he’s apparently taking one at his frenemy Kanye West: The song features dialogue of West’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, apparently talking about divorce. “I didn’t come this far, just to come this far and not be happy,” Kardashian’s vocal fry-laden voice is heard speaking to her mother, Kris Jenner, on their reality show. “Okay, that’s fair,” Jenner replies. Kardashian then says, “Yep, I saw it on the internet.” The song’s lyrics are standard Drake fare about the travails of being a rich superstar looking for love: “I need someone to be patient with me/ Someone to get money with, not take it from me/ Look, they don’t even need to be as famous as me/ I don’t think I’ll meet them at the places I be,” raps Drake for the song’s chorus.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Vivian Trimble, a multi-instrumentalist and singer best known for her 1990s work with Luscious Jackson, died Tuesday after a battle with cancer, a rep for the band confirms to Variety. She was 59. A dancer and choreographer as well as a musician, Trimble (pictured above, far right, with the group in 1995), also released collaboration albums with Luscious Jackson singer-bassist Jill Cunniff in 1995 as the Kostars, and an album with Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs as Dusty Trails, which featured guest vocals from Emmylou Harris.A post shared by lusciousjackson (@lusciousjackson) Born to classical musicians, Trimble was raised in France and the U.S. and spoke three languages. She attended Oberlin College and met Cunniff in 1991 when both were teaching GED adult education classes in New York.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Over the past few weeks it’s been mortifying, amusing and ultimately inspiring to witness the almost real-time reactions of the Cure’s founder/frontman Robert Smith to the hell-on-earth that is the concert-ticket purchasing process — and roll up his sleeves and do something about it. While high prices, availability issues and a bevy of vaguely defined “service fees” could be expected for such box-office record-breakers as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, Smith was as surprised as anyone to see the prices on his group’s “Lost World” tour, its first for several years. While the group had managed to avoid such controversial policies as platinum packages and variable pricing, Smith was appalled to see hefty service fees added to the cost of “Verified Fan” tickets, which are intended to protect fans by keeping tickets out of the hands of scalpers, for the tour.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and 13-Time Grammy winner Pharrell Williams will be honored by the Recording Academy at its annual Grammys on the Hill Awards, taking place on April 26. The event is intended to bring together congressional leaders and music makers to recognize those who have led the fight for creators’ rights, and the three will be honored for their contributions to support music creators. Special guests and attendees will be announced in the coming weeks.  “Grammys on the Hill is a celebration like no other, spotlighting music’s unifying power as we bring together our nation’s leaders with some of the most renowned artists in the world,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “It’s a privilege to honor Pharrell alongside Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senator Cassidy, all of whom have fought tirelessly for pro-music policy that protects the creatives that make up our community.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor On May 30, Foo Fighters will headline the opening night of a new Washington D.C. venue called the Atlantis, an intimate 450-capacity room opened by independent promoter I.M.P., which also owns and operates area venues the 9:30 Club and the Anthem and operates the Lincoln Theatre and Merriweather Post Pavilion. The venue kicks off the season with a robust opening lineup that includes Maggie Rogers, Parliament Funkadelic, Yo La Tengo, Darius Rucker, Joan Jett, Tove Lo, Jeff Tweedy, Tank and the Bangas, Portugal. The Man, and Billy Idol, among others (full lineup below). The new club was accidentally announced by D.C.-area native Dave Grohl in September of 2021, when Foo Fighters played the re-opening night of the long-running 9:30 Club after months of pandemic shutdown. He said I.M.P. was going to open a new, smaller venue fashioned as a near replica of the original 9:30 Club, where he got his start. He gave no additional details but added, “We’ll probably be the band that opens that place, too, right?”

Thania Garcia On the heels of the Band Perry’s hiatus announcement, co-founder Kimberly Perry has signed to Records Nashville/Columbia Records in pursuit of a solo career. “From the moment I met the team at Records, their appreciation for my journey and my vision for the future as a solo artist has been overwhelming,” Perry commented about the signing. “Everything came together so organically, and it felt right from the very start.” Based in Nashville, Perry will release a new body of work that “promises to be her most honest and intimate,” per the press release. 

Little Mix‘s Perrie Edwards has announced that she is working on new solo music, but has “no deadline” set on when it’ll be released.Edwards was a part of the multi-platinum award-winning girl group, who are currently “taking a break” since last year.Prior to Little Mix’s hiatus, Jesy Nelson left the group and embarked on her own solo career, releasing the Nicki Minaj-assisted ‘Boyz’ that sparked some online controversy.The remaining girls – Leigh-Ann Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall – have all done a solo project. Pinnock was a protagonist in the Christmas movie Boxing Day and has since signed to Warner Records.

Mubi is adding over 50 features from the Sony Pictures’ library to its U.S. streaming service. The mix of studio and arthouse fare includes Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, The Last Picture Show by Peter Bogdanovich and films from Wes Anderson, Pedro Almodovar and Guillermo Del Toro.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Laurence Fishburne will present a workshop of his new solo stage show Like They Do In The Movies this July as part of the New York Stage and Film Summer Season at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor While an official announcement is not expected until later in the week, multiple sources tell Variety that Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Tool and Iron Maiden headline a new festival called Power Trip from Coachella founders Goldenvoice. The sources say the festival will take place at Coachella’s home base, Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., in October. The news was previously reported by Hits, Desert Sun and the music blog the Scenestar, and a remarkably unsubtle teaser campaign apparently from the organizers. Despite the Coachella connection, the festival is more like a hard rock version of Goldenvoice’s 2016 Desert Trip festival, which featured a classic-rock dream team of Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Scott Borchetta — founder of Big Machine Label Group, the company that originally signed Taylor Swift — was involved in an accident Sunday while racing in the Trans Am Series. According to a statement from the label, he was taken to the hostpital for examination and is currently in stable condition. His wife, Sandy Spika Borchetta, who is also an executive VP at the company, and other family members are with him. “We ask everyone to please respect the Borchetta family’s privacy during this time,” the announcement concludes. Borchetta had to be extracted from his car after it went off course in the high-braking Turn 1 of the 12-turn course, according to a report on the TobyChristie.com website. Shortly after the accident, the Trans Am broadcast team reported, “I can tell you [Scott] is okay. He is conscious, and he’s been talking to his team, but he is on his way to the hospital. It was a big hit, but I am glad to say he is now in good care and being taken to the hospital.”

The end of an MTV era. Chanel West Coast is officially leaving Ridiculousness after 12 years as a cohost after signing a new overall deal with Paramount Media Networks.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jay-Z’s net worth has soared to $2.5 billion, according to a new Forbes report published Friday. While the report is slim on details, it notes that the fortune of the man born Shawn Carter 53 years reached far beyond music. “Even in a year without a tour or album release, Jay-Z mints millions from his Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Usse cognac,” it says. “The Brooklyn-born rapper was crowned hip-hop’s first billionaire by Forbes in 2019, thanks to a sprawling and diversified empire,” noting assets from his Roc Nation entertainment and sports empire to a fine-art collection including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

What’s the worst-case scenario for an extramarital affair? Divorce? Ruined families and reputations? Murder? Such is the backdrop to “Love & Death,” an upcoming HBO Max original limited series. READ MORE: Elizabeth Olsen Says Scarlet Witch Could Appear In ‘Agatha’ Series: “I Think I’ll Be Back” Based on the real-life case of Candy Montgomery, “Love & Death” follows two church-going couples, Candy and Pat Montgomery and Betty and Allen Gore, whose once-quiet lives get upturned when Candy decides to pursue an affair with Allen and, soon enough, someone is picking up an axe… Elisabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons star in the new series from “Ally McBeal” and “Big Little Lies” scribe David E.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The newly launched independent music publishing, rights management, and catalog marketing company AMR Songs has acquired by catalogs of former Lovin’ Spoonful frontmany John Sebastian — including such songs as “Daydream,” “Summer in the City,” “Do You Believe in Magic” and “Wecome Back” — as well as Grammy-winning reggae group Soja. Founded by industry veteran/ CEO Tamara Conniff and private equity professional/ CFO Steve Reinstadlter, the Los Angeles and New York-based company has acquired an undisclosed interest in Sebastian’s entire catalog, including his publishing and artist royalties from the Lovin’ Spoonful, which also include “Younger Girl,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” and “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?,” among others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor To call “Spinning Gold” a labor of love is an understatement completely uncharacteristic of its subject: the late Neil Bogart, the larger-than-life founder of Casablanca Records, the famously freewheeling 1970s powerhouse that brought the world Kiss, Donna Summer, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Village People in less than five years. Some 25 years in the making, the biopic was written, produced and directed by Bogart’s eldest son Tim (who’s worked in those roles on many TV series, from “Majors & Minors” to “The Jungle Book”) with music supervision from his youngest son, Evan (a songwriter and music publisher who co-wrote Beyonce’s “Halo,” among many other hits), and other family members as producers. Out March 31, it features Tony and Grammy-nominated Broadway star Jeremy Jordan (“Newsies,” “Rock of Ages,” “Waitress”) as Bogart, Michelle Monaghan as his first wife, Lyndsy Fonseca as his second, rapper Wiz Khalifa as P-Funk’s George Clinton, singers Ledisi as Gladys Knight and Tayla Parx as Summer, among many others.

Skydance Television announced an exclusive, first-look deal with world’s best-selling author James Patterson to develop a slate of premium series based on his top selling book series “Women’s Murder Club” and “Michael Bennett” Tuesday morning.The “Womans Murder Club” series watches a group of women with different jobs investigate crimes and team up to solve murders. “The “Michael Bennett” series follows an NYPD detective who solves crimes while simultaneously raising 10 adopted children.Other projects include adapting the internationally acclaimed book series “Private” and the soon-to-be published books “Jane Smith” and “Holmes, Miss Marple and “Poe.” “Private” follows an elite private investigation agency run by Jack Morgan, a former CIA agent.

EXCLUSIVE: Sharp Objects developer/executive producer Marti Noxon is reuniting with eOne, the indie studio behind the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, with a two-year exclusive first-look deal for television and new media.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor One of the ironies about the rise of 100 Gecs — who have become poster children for “hyper-pop,” whether they want to be or not — is the fact that their hyperactive music, which is filled with lyrical and sonic pranks, changes direction every few seconds and has melodies that are like bubblegum pop through a garish Instagram filter, is being feted for its pretty undeniable brilliance. Critics slather over them, they signed a deal with Atlantic Records, were the subject of in-depth profiles in the New Yorker and the New York Times, and were even artists in residence at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. While it’s not hard to imagine the hardly-serious duo of Laura Les and Dylan Brady doubled over with laughter when these things started happening, now it’s almost like the joke’s on them.