In its over a decade of existence, Hangout Festival has risen among the most notable mega music festivals in the South. Taking place on the glistening beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama, it’s a quintessential summer starter fest (they even have a stageside swimming pool) boasting a loaded lineup year in and year out. For 2023, Hangout Fest is coming in hot with the newly announced headlining slate of SZA, Paramore, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Calvin Harris. Both SZA and Paramore will be riding the high off of their new albums, S.O.S.and This Is Why, respectively. But the buck doesn’t stop there.
The festival takes place from May 19th – 21st and joining the headliners on the Hangout Fest 2023 lineup are gigantic acts in hip-hop, rock, EDM, and more. Lil Nas X, Skrillex, Flume, and the Kid LaRoi are damn near headliners themselves. While the rest of the thoroughly-curated lineup also includes Russ, Thundercat, GloRilla, Sabrina Carpenter, Kevin Gates, Tove Lo, Alison Wonderland, and more.
Ticketing pre-sale begins Friday, 12/09 at 10 am CT here. You can register for the pre-sale leading up to then. Check out the complete Hangout fest 2023 lineup poster below.
Hangout Fest
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
When Death Grips last toured in 2019, they were on the heels of their mysterious, abrasive, and compelling last album, Year Of The Snitch. The Sacramento-forged trio of Zach Hill, MC Ride, and Andy Morin blazed a trail for horrorcore-minded experimental rappers who could never quite replicate the visceral nature of Death Grips’ music. Now they’ve announced a new tour of North America for 2023, but no word yet on if this means a new album is on deck.
The tour begins on May 4th, 2023 in Portland and the band will be touring furiously through the Western US (with a Canadian date) that month, before starting an East Coast swing in September and October.
Tickets for the Death Grips 2023 tour go on sale Friday, 12/9 at 10 a.m. local time here. Check out the full list of Death Grips tour dates below.
05/04/2023 — Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
05/05/2023 — Vancouver, BC @ Harbour Event & Convention Centre
05/06/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
05/08/2023 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union Event Center
05/09/2023 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
05/11/2023 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
05/12/2023 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
05/13/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ New Metal Festival
05/16/2023 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
05/17/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
05/18/2023 — Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory Santa Ana
09/13/2023 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore
09/16/2023 — Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
09/17/2023 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
09/18/2023 — Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
09/20/2023 — Boston @ House of Blues
09/21/2023 — New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
09/23/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
09/25/2023 — Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
09/26/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
09/28/2023 — Orlando, FL @ The Vanguard
09/29/2023 — Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live at the Backyard
09/30/2023 — St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
10/02/2023 — New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans
10/03/2023 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
10/05/2023 — Austin, TX @ Emo’s
10/06/2023 — Dallas, TX @ Southside Ballroom
After nearly two weeks of Spotify dominating social media’s media algorithm, thanks to their annual Wrapped reveal and the third-party Instafest mock concert lineups, streaming platform Apple Music is looking to snatch back users’ attention.
In an announcement, Apple unveiled a new feature that would be headed to the platform later this month: Apple Music users will experience karaoke re-imagined thanks to the new feature Apple Music Sing. For avid music lovers, the recent subscription uptick may finally be paying off. Apple Music Sing will allow users an immersive experience with their favorite songs’ lyrics and instrumentals across Apple devices. The volume of the song’s lyrics can even be adjusted.
Apple’s Vice President of Apple Music and Beats, Oliver Schusser, spoke about the new feature in a statement, saying, “Apple Music’s lyrics experience is consistently one of the most popular features on our service. We already know our users all over the world love to follow along to their favorite songs, so we wanted to evolve this offering even further to enable even more engagement around music through singing. It’s really a lot of fun, our customers are going to love it.”
Apple Music Sing will allow fans to take the lead or backup to their favorite song and perform duets with their friends. In addition, Apple Music will launch 50 curated playlists featuring the platform’s most popular songs, duets, choruses, and anthems.
Yesterday, SZA revealed the official tracklist for her sophomore album, S.O.S. dropping on Friday. The record, which contains a whopping 23 songs, also shocked fans by the collaborations that are on it. While SZA is teaming up with Travis Scott once more on “Open Arms,” the real surprise came in the form of a Phoebe Bridgers appearance on the song “Ghost In The Machine.”
After the reveal, fans of both Bridgers and SZA were sent into an internet frenzy. It also left many wondering: Who will SZA feature on a song next? (And will it take another five years?)
One fan threw Paramore’s Hayley Williams as a potential collaborator. As it turns out, they weren’t too far off. “I talk to her more than you’d think lol,” SZA revealed in response.
This isn’t the first time Paramore and SZA have interacted, either. In 2018, the band did a mash-up of their song “Grow Up” with SZA’s “20 Something” during a live show. Then, in May 2020, Williams covered SZA’s song, “Drew Barrymore” — and has dropped references to “Go Gina” in her Instagram Story.
Other users have since shared that they want to see everyone from The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Kehlani, and more on future SZA albums. “you talk to kehlani too? lets get into this collab,” another fan wrote.
Yesterday (December 5), SZA unveiled the tracklist of her long-awaited upcoming album, S.O.S.. There was one feature that immediately stood out: Phoebe Bridgers on “Ghost In The Machine.” SZA and Bridgers don’t exactly travel in the same musical circles, but despite/because of that, people are super excited. Specifically, one person SZA knows couldn’t contain themselves after hearing the news.
Late last night/early this morning, SZA shared a video on Twitter and captioned it, “Response to having phoebe on the albums been pretty positive lol.” The video is a screen recording of her phone, which shows two brief audio messages she received. The first one is of a person intensely screaming, “Phoebe Bridgers! Phoebe Bridgers! Phoebe Bridgers!” In the second, they shout, “Yes! Yes!”
Yesterday was actually pretty major for Bridgers stans. Aside from the SZA news, it was also revealed that her boyfriend (or perhaps fiancé) Paul Mescal will be sitting down for a joint interview with Taylor Swift’s also-actor boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, as part of Vanity Fair‘s “Actors On Actors” series. That also garnered some enthusiastic responses on social media.
Check out some additional reactions to the Bridgers feature below.
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of September below.
Alex G — God Save The Animals
Domino
Uproxx’s Ian Cohen recently declared that God Save The Animals, the just-released new Alex G album, is the artist’s best. He wrote in part, “Folky Alex G, abstract Alex G, slowcore Alex G, rawk Alex G, it’s all here, but God Save The Animals manages to circle back to his origins placing the vocals higher than they’d ever been since Race or Rules.”
John Denver — Rocky Mountain High (50th Anniversary Reissue)
Windstar Records/Secretly Distribution
Rocky Mountain High is without a doubt one of John Denver’s defining albums and now that it turns 50 years old here in 2022, it’s getting a fresh rerelease. This limited edition is pressed on blue vinyl and in case you’re unfamiliar with the album, it of course features the famous title track as well as the underrated album-closing “Season Suite.”
Summer just ended, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about Christmas, Hanukkah, and the other end-of-year holidays. If you want to get your vinyl library ready, the new Holidays Rule collection is for you, as it features holidays tunes from Paul McCartney, The Shins, Sharon Van Etten, and a number of others.
With all the talk about the upcoming Barbie movie, now is a perfect time to revisit the classic Aqua hit “Barbie Girl.” There’s a terrific new opportunity to do that for vinyl lovers: Aquarium, the song’s parent album, turns 25 this year and has therefore gotten a new vinyl reissue, including a striking pink pressing.
The War On Drugs — I Don’t Live Here Anymore (Limited-Edition Deluxe Box Set)
It’s been nearly a year since The War On Drugs dropped their latest album, 2021’s I Don’t Live Here Anymore. To mark the occasion, they have a limited-edition deluxe box set available now, which includes unreleased tunes “Oceans of Darkness” and “Slow Ghost” on a 7-inch. They’ve even gone through the trouble of making an unboxing video for the release, so check that out above for more details about what’s included in the expansive set.
At 30 million copies sold, there are only a handful of albums that have ever outsold the ABBA Gold compilation. Well, more sales are incoming, as the best-of album just got a new 30th-anniversary reissue, pressed on lovely gold 180g vinyl and of course including all the hits that millions have come to love over the decades.
Sun Ra — The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra (60th Anniversary Edition)
Craft Recordings
For folks who have heard of jazz icon Sun Ra but haven’t yet taken the dive, this reissue of the 1963 album The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra is a good place to start. The project is considered one of Ra’s more accessible and this particular edition of it includes remastered audio and artwork.
Dead Kennedys — Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (2022 Mix)
Manifesto Records
Dead Kennedys started their run as one of the defining ’80s punk bands with their 1980 debut, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Now, the 42-year-old album has gotten a facelift via a new “2022 Mix,” which was made using the original multi-track tapes. Additionally, it comes with a 28-page booklet featuring rare archival photos and interviews.
Roxy Music put out a lot of worthwhile tunes during their run and they brought the best of them together under one roof on the 2011 compilation album The Best Of Roxy Music. Now they’ve reissued that collection on vinyl and it’s a great summation of the band, as it includes at least one song from each of their eight albums.
Bruce Springsteen — Nebraska (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)
Vinyl Me, Please
Nebraska, one of The Boss’ most esteemed albums, turns 40 this year. So, the folks at Vinyl Me, Please have come through with a striking reissue, mastered at half-speed and pressed on a lovely black smoke vinyl. As VMP releases do, this one also comes with a listening notes booklet.
Coolio, best known for his 1995 hit song “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died at age 59 earlier this week. Following the news, many in the music industry posted tributes to the late rapper. However, one post caught fans’ attention, from none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic — who Coolio had a documented beef with in the ’90s.
The tension between the two started after Yankovic wanted to parody Coolio’s song, which eventually was released as 1996’s “Amish Paradise.” Coolio originally denied Yankovic’s request for the song, but given fair use laws, he couldn’t stop a parody from happening. Thus, the beef began. Coolio even threw in a line about Yankovic in his song “Throwdown 2000,” which appeared to be a diss.
By some point around the 2000s, Coolio and Yankovic had hung out and eventually put their drama aside. Yankovic even wanted the rapper to appear in his 2006 movie, Al’s Brain, but Coolio declined due to the financial aspect of the deal. Prior to his passing, he even noted that he found Yankovic (and the parody of his song) hilarious.
“Let me say this: I apologized to Weird Al a long time ago and I was wrong,” Coolio told Vicein 2014. “Y’all remember that, everybody out there who reads this sh*t. Real men and real people should be able to admit when they’re wrong and I was wrong, bro. Come on, who the f*ck am I, bro?”
“He did parodies of Michael Jackson, he did parodies of all kinds of people and I took offense to it because I was being cocky and sh*t and being stupid and I was wrong and I should’ve embraced that sh*t and went with it,” he continued. “I listened to it a couple years after that and it’s actually funny as sh*t. It’s one of those things where I made a wrong call and nobody stopped me. That’s one thing I’m still upset about — my management at the time. Somebody should’ve stopped me from making that statement because it was dumb. And I think it hurt me a little bit. It made me seem stupid.”
Despite their beef history, Coolio and Yankovic still maintained a clear respect for one another.
Yesterday, the world learned that Coolio, the legendary rapper behind “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died at 59 years old. Reactions have since poured out, including a meaningful one from “Weird Al” Yankovic. He shared a photo of Coolio and himself (more on the picture in a bit) and wrote simply, “RIP Coolio.”
Coolio is of course a major part of Yankovic’s legacy thanks to the latter’s “Amish Paradise.” The song, a parody of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” is one of Yankovic’s biggest hits: It’s his most-streamed song on Spotify and one of a handful of Yankovic songs to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The rapper was initially not pleased with Yankovic’s parody but later expressed regret over his response to it on multiple occasions. In a 2011 interview, for example, he said, “I sat down, and I really thought it out. I was like, ‘Wait a minute.’ I was like, ‘Coolio, who the f*ck do you think you are? He did Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson didn’t get mad..’ […] I’ve since apologized to him. Again, that was so stupid. […] That was a stupid thing for me to do. That was one of the dumbest things I did in my career.”
As for the photo Yankovic chose to share, it’s a significant one. The pic shows the two hugging at the XM Satellite booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. As Vulture notes, this occasion marked the pair’s public reconciliation after years of tension between them due to “Amish Paradise.” Yankovic later said of the encounter, “I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly and after a minute, he was gone. I turned to the next person in line and said, ‘Did that really just happen?’”
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Each of the artists had a blurb written about them by another famous person. Jimmy Fallon, who will welcome Jack Harlow as co-host of The Tonight Show for an episode in October, wrote of Harlow, “‘What’s Poppin?’ That was the first time I heard Jack Harlow, and I couldn’t have pulled my phone out any faster to Shazam the song. That usually leads to a string of phone calls and emails to see if an artist is ready to perform or debut on The Tonight Show — and word back from his team was, ‘He’s ready.’ It’s been fun to ride with him — rom that race against time on Shazam, to his debut TV performance, to being part of his viral VMA opening, to his actually co-hosting The Tonight Show with me. And this is just the beginning for Jack Harlow.”
Actress Tommy Dorfman also said of Sawayama, “Rina Sawayama is magnificent. She puts in the work and it is paying off in a beautiful, organic way that I deeply admire. When you have the kind of artistic integrity that she has, you can’t fail. Because she’s not competing with anyone — she’s in a league of her own. Her music is so powerful and so danceable. She has such a warm and loving energy, so it’s always great to see her.”
Every day, across the globe, fans attend concerts for their favorite musicians. Particularly in regards to large-scale touring artists, when fans file into a stadium arena venue, they are likely only thinking about the countdown until the show begins — to see the lights, hear the setlist, and even possibly dance along with friends. After the show ends, the fans leave the venue. We get in our cars to head home, and considering if the show is on a weekday, prepare for work in the morning. Meanwhile, the musician(s) and their extensive touring crew is doing the same thing.
Most might not consider the logistics of everything that really goes into planning a tour. However, a recently uploaded video on YouTube by Wendover Productions breaks down the process for those who are interested.
Before the tour dates are even announced for fans to purchase tickets, a significant amount of planning happens prior. Agents tend to negotiate fees and revenue (the money brought in by the shows) with venues in the city that the artist or band wants to play. If the tour takes place in the summer, the video notes that “dates fill quickly” for that season, so the negotiations occur in the fall before.
After the dates and venues are confirmed, the tour manager then has the job of sending the artist’s schedule to various bus companies, in order to accommodate the crew, the equipment, and more, on the dates that are needed. “With the venues locked, stage managers, and production managers begin assembling advance sheets that outline every last technical detail about the venue, from bus and trailer parking, the office space and AV capabilities and hookups that the tour could possibly need to know beforehand,” the voiceover notes.
The tour manager is also in charge of finding and sending riders to hotels for each aspect of the touring party. At the beginning of the video, it is noted that tours are typically split into three groups: A Party (the artist/band and inner management circle), B Party (additional backup band, dancers, other performers), and the C Party (crew, techs, lighting, etc.). While the A Party will typically fly out of an airport to the next city, the rest will use tour buses and immediately head to the venue after a long drive. After plugging in the tour buses, the B and C parties stay at a hotel likely in close proximity to the venue to rest.
From there, they start setting up for the show. Most of the time at arenas, it will likely be a from-scratch assembly. They set up the stage and rig the lighting fixtures, with a large crew each contributing to their set jobs.
After the show is set up, is played, then ends, the turnaround time could be quick. Typically, tour dates in close proximity to other states have a 24-hour time crunch before the next show is set to take place. While the A & B parties head to the airport and respective buses, the C Party has to quickly dismantle the stage setup, while still being careful not to damage the equipment. It is loaded onto trailers for the next show.
The bus drivers are also carefully considered in the efficiency, as, according to the video, they sleep until the performer’s show is nearly finished. As they have a lengthy drive ahead, this sleep is required and essential.
Long story short, the larger an artist you’re going to see is, the more complex their tour operations are. Every member of the crew is essential in keeping the nightly (or every other night, depending) shows moving smoothly.
(@RandyRizzo_) 
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