Goldenvoice has a proven track record of putting on killer festivals, as they’re behind events like Coachella, Day N Vegas, and Stagecoach. Now, they’re adding a new fest to that list: This Ain’t No Picnic is going down on August 27 and 28, 2022 at Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
The two-day, six-stage lineup has a rock and alternative lean to it, as the 2022 headliners are The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, and Le Tigre performing what is currently set to be their first and only reunion show of the year. Also on the bill are Beach House, Caroline Polachek, Courtney Barnett, Dawn Richard, Deafheaven, Earl Sweatshirt, Four Tet + Floating Points, Genesis Owusu, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Idles, Indigo De Souza, Isaiah Rashad, Jorja Smith, Kaytranada, Kelly Lee Owens, Mac DeMarco, Magdalena Bay, Mdou Moctar, Michelle, Phoebe Bridgers, Romy, Slowthai, Tinashe, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Ying Yang Twins, and Yves Tumor, among others.
This Ain
If the festival’s name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s a throwback to the original Goldenvoice festival of the same name. The initial This Ain’t No Picnic debuted in 1999, continued in 2000, and after having to skip 2001, came back for the last time in 2002. A fair amount of artists on those lineups actually wouldn’t feel out of place on this year’s bill, by the way: Sleater-Kinney, Beck, Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse, and El-P were involved.
Learn more about the fest here and check out the poster above.
Doja Cat’sPlanet Her is one of 2021’s biggest albums and it all starts with the opener, “Woman.” The song quickly became one of the album’s favorites and now, Doja had gone ahead and made a video for it.
The Teyana Taylor-featuring video sees Doja flaunting her femininity on Planet Her as she dances to the Afrobeats track. At one point, she borrows a page out of the “WAP” playbook by dancing in a shallow pool of water. Overall, the clip is full of striking environments and costumes, making for an aesthetic visual to accompany the rhythmic song.
As for the song (which she co-wrote with Jidenna), it sees Doja offering praise of the fairer sex, as she kicks off the opening verse, “What you need? / She give tenfold, come here, papa, plant your seed / She can grow it from her womb, a family / Provide lovin’ overlooked and unappreciated, you see.” She later stands up for the roadblocks that women face: “Gotta face a lot of people of the opposite / ‘Cause the world told me, ‘We ain’t got the common sense’ / Gotta prove it to myself that I’m on top of sh*t / And you will never know a god without the goddesses.”
Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi are more or less a year removed from the release of their most recent albums, those being Positions and Man On The Moon III: The Chosen. In the months that have followed, both artists have contributed to a collection of songs, and now, Grande and Cudi connect for their first collaboration. The track is titled “Just Look Up” and it appears in the newly-released Netflix film, ironically titled Don’t Look Up. The track is quite the majestic and captivating release that makes for an very satisfying combination from two artists who are quite different.
Don’t Look Up arrives on Netflix complete with an A-list cast that includes Grande, Cudi, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, and more. Lawrence spoke about meeting Grande while shooting the film during a conversation with Vanity Fair. Lawrence said Grande “plays a pop star named Riley Bina And that was, like, one of the coolest days of my life. I took a picture with her—I looked like a radio contest winner. She couldn’t be nicer.”
Elsewhere, Grande also delivered a great cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did It Again.” As for Cudi, he recently honored the late Virgil Abloh with a touching Instagram post. He also teamed up with Willow and Travis Barker for a remix of their “Transparent” collaboration.
You can listen to “Just Look Up” in the video above
Coming into its fifth anniversary, Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival is already one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, bringing nearly 200,000 revelers to the sprawling Valdebebas urban open space venue. The initial 2022 lineup was announced in June and was heavy on the rock and roll acts with Metallica, Muse, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Pixies, Faith No More, Twenty One Pilots, and Placebo leading the way.
They took it a step further in October adding a fifth day to the summer fest and artists like Haim, Florence + The Machine, and Nathy Peluso. Now they’ve beefed the lineup up one final time adding Jack White as the fifth day headliner and infusing the lineup with more big name acts like Stormzy, London Grammar, Modest Mouse, Two Door Cinema Club, Local Natives, and Mura Masa.
It brings the grand total to 144 artists playing across the festival’s five nights. Other artists playing on this comprehensive bill include St. Vincent, The War On Drugs, Beabadoobee, Arlo Parks, Phoebe Bridgers, Leon Bridges, Animal Collective, Tinashe, Glass Animals, Carly Rae Jepsen, Chvrches, Wolf Alice, and loads more.
Mad Cool Festival festival goes down from July 6 to 10, 2022. Tickets are on-sale here.
Mad Cool
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The flood of year-end music round-ups has started over the past few days, as websites (like Uproxx) have shared their year-end lists and Spotify Wrapped has made the rounds. Now Billboard has chimed in with their year-end charts, and some expected figures have found themselves atop the ranks.
Drake was 2021’s top artist and following him on the list are, in order, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, and Morgan Wallen. As for Top New Artists, Rodrigo tops that list and is followed by The Kid Laroi, Giveon, Pooh Shiesty, and 24kGoldn. There’s also a lists of top artists that are duos or groups, and that’s led by BTS, as well as Glass Animals, Dan + Shay, Fleetwood Mac, and AJR.
When it comes to Billboard 200 albums, Morgan Wallen reigns supreme with Dangerous: The Double Album, ahead of Rodrigo’s Sour, Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon, Swift’s Evermore, and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy. Meanwhile, Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” leads the Hot 100 Songs chart, followed by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Save Your Tears,” The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” 24kGoldn and Iann Dior’s “Mood,” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U.”
Check out all of the year-end charts here and below.
Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in December. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.
Friday, December 3
1K Phew & Lecrae — No Church In A While (Reach Records)
Aisha Badru — The Way Back Home EP (Nettwerk Records)
Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge — Remixes JID010 (Jazz is Dead)
Andrew Gabbard — Homemade (Colemine Records)
Arca — Kick iii (XL Recordings)
Arca — Kick iiii (XL Recordings)
Berner — Gotti (Bern One Entertainment)
Carleigh Aikins — Junk Jewelry (SilverDoor)
Cold Collective — Weathervane (Rise Records)
Deep Throat Choir — In Order To Know You (Bella Union)
Emilia Anastazja — Flower House EP (Young and Aspiring)
Failure — Wild Type Droid (Failure Music)
Fruit Juice — Mirke vs. The Dreamy LLC (Easy Street Records)
Full Bush — Movie Night EP (Brutal Panda Records)
G’emma — Types of Water EP (Sonar Kollektiv)
Jason Boland — The Light Saw Me (Proud Souls Ent.)
Jesse Cook — Libre (Outside Music/Redeye)
Kathryn Williams & Carol Ann Duffy — Midnight Chorus (One Little Independent)
Kenny G — New Standards (Concord Records)
Khalid — Scenic Drive (Right Hand Music)
LP — Churches (PIAS Recordings)
Luttrell — Music For My Memories (Anjunadeep)
MadeinTYO and UnoTheActivist — Yokohama (Private Club Records)
Marissa Paternoster — Peace Meter (Don Giovanni Records)
Mike Block — Planispheres (Bright Shiny Things)
The Mother Hips — Glowing Lantern (Blue Rose)
Nardo Wick — Who Is Nardo Wick? (RCA)
New Found Glory — December’s Here (Hopeless Records)
Nils Frahm — Old Friends New Friends (LEITER)
NLE Choppa — Me Vs. Me EP (No Love Entertainment/Warner)
No Rome — It’s All Smiles (Dirty Hit)
Pepper Lewis — She Told Me To Sing My Heart Out EP (AWAL)
Pick A Piper — Sea Steps EP (Tin Angel)
Polo G — Hall of Fame 2.0 (Columbia Records)
Quinn Christopherson — I Am Bubblegum EP (4AD)
Rival Consoles — Overflow (Erased Tapes)
Sky H1 — Azure (AD 93)
So Hideous — None But a Pure Heart Can Sing (Silent Pendulum)
Tom Morello — The Atlas Underground Flood (Mom + Pop Music)
Treetop Flyers — Old Habits (Loose Music)
Trini Lopez — The Rare Reprise Singles (Omnivore Recordings)
Volbeat — Servant Of The Mind (Republic Records)
Wajatta — Do You Even Care Anymore? (Brainfeeder)
Friday, December 10
Aeon Station — Observatory (Sub Pop Records)
Big Boi and Sleepy Brown — The Big Sleepover (HITCO)
Buck Owens and Susan Raye — Together Again (Omnivore)
Clear Mortifee — Fairies: Act II EP (AntiFragile)
Fela Kuti — Vinyl Box Set #5 (Knitting Factory Records)
Green Day — The BBC Sessions (Warner Records)
Herman Dune — Santa Cruz Gold (Yaya Tova)
Honey Guide — A Tidy Room Is A Tidy Mind EP (Bam Bam Records)
Horse Show — Falsterbo EP (PNKSLM Recordings)
Jeff Parker — Forfolks (International Anthem/Nonesuch)
Jlin — Embryo EP (Planet Mu)
Joan Avant — Dies Irae (Red Masque Records)
Juice WRLD — Fighting Demons (Grade A Productions/Interscope Records)
Kid Dad — Bloom EP (Long Branch Records)
Majid Soula — Chant Amazigh (Habibi Funk Records)
Mercury X — Imprisoned (Frontiers Music)
Michot’s Melody Makers — Tiny Island EP (Nouveau Electric Records)
Monsta X — The Dreaming (Starship Entertainment Co. Ltd./Intertwine Music)
Moses Sumney — Live From Blackalachia (Tuntum)
Mouth Congress — Waiting For Henry (Captured Tracks)
Nalan — I’m Good. The Crying Tape (Mansions and Millions)
Nicole Atkins — Memphis Ice (Single Lock Records)
The O’My’s — No Swimming EP (ADA/Warner Music Group)
Rick Ross — Richer Than I Ever Been (Maybach Music Group)
San Fermin — In This House (Better Company)
Spell Songs — Spell Songs II: Let The Light In (Thirty Tigers)
International art fair Art Basel is once again taking place in person in Miami this year. Along with exhibitions from artists across the globe, this year’s event will also feature a special musical performance by none other than Lizzo. To promote her upcoming set this weekend, Lizzo got creative. Taking inspiration from the experimental nature of the works seen at Art Basel, Lizzo made a painting of a butterfly using her booty as a paint brush.
The singer shared a video showing the painting’s process on TikTok. “Hey y’all, it’s your girl Lizzy Picasso here,” she announced, adopting the new moniker to create her masterpiece. The video shows Lizzo creating her colorful painting on an easel before an assistant lathers her backside in royal blue paint.
“I think I need to make more ass art,” she wrote in the caption alongside her video.
There’s good new for those who want to own Lizzo’s actual painting. During a livestream of her performance at Art Basel on December 4, fans will be able to bid on the artwork and one lucky buyer will get to take it home.
Watch Lizzo paint a picture of a “bootyfly” above.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While K-pop may have had some of YouTube’s most-watched videos in 2020, rappers definitely dominated in 2021. It may seem given that the top-trending music video on the platform would be by an established artist. But this year, the top slot was actually taken by a relatively new act: 22-year-old Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty had the top YouTube music video of 2021 with bigger artists following behind him.
Shiesty’s video for his Lil Durk collaboration “Back In Blood” was No. 1 for 2021 with 211.5 million views. While it wasn’t the most-viewed content of the year, it did stay trending on the platform for a while. Other rappers like Polo G, Rod Wave, and Cardi B made the list while Olivia Rodrigo’s buzzworthy video to her debut single “Drivers License” landed at No. 9.
Check out the full list below, as well as YouTube’s other top-trending lists.
Even if the aspiring artist in your life already has all the gear they need, there are still some goodies and novelties that will surely be appreciated. So, we’ve rounded up some of our favorites and the list includes things like a terrific DIY recording kit, accessories that bring convenience to the life of a nomadic artist, and a few fun things that are are more low-key but surprisingly useful. So, if you’re looking for inspiration ahead of the end-of-year holidays, keep reading.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo Studio Pack
Guitar Center
If there’s an aspiring artist in your life who has the talent to create amazing music but doesn’t have the resources to make some decent-sounding recordings, this kit could be a perfect start for them. There’s a large diaphragm condenser mic to capture their performance, a pair of headphones so they can really hear what they’re doing, and a USB audio interface to manage all the inputs and outputs. Pair this with a laptop that has even a simple digital audio workstation program and your up-and-comer has a chance to create something great.
That previous kit is great, but if you’re looking for something more compact or your budget is a bit tighter, this little Fender device could be a perfect alternative. What we have here is a guitar headphone amplifier and a recording interface that can be used to record over USB, stream Bluetooth audio to make it easy to play along to a backing track, and mess with amp, effect, and EQ settings. That’s quite a bit considering it all comes in a pocket-sized package.
Buy a guitar and it’ll usually come with some dinky strap that is good enough, but if you want to treat yourself with something more reliable, getting something of a higher quality is a justifiable expense. Fender has a great model that’s made with the same leather they use in baseball gloves, perhaps the piece of sporting gear most famous for lasting for years. Between the heavy-duty contrast stitching and the strap’s adjustability, you can’t go wrong here.
Similar story here: Guitars can come with a case, but it’s usually flimsy and should really be considered a temporary solution. If you want something less ephemeral, this gig bag is a fine way to protect and transport your acoustic six-string. It has 10.5 mm padding throughout, a weather-resistant exterior, and a bottom rubber guard, so this case offers fantastic protection whether you’re out and about or just storing your guitar at home.
Getting to play music on stage on a regular basis is the dream for a lot of performers, but the nightmare that often comes later on is hearing loss. Fortunately, that is easily preventable with a simple-but-effective pair of ear plugs. This pair from Hearos promises to deliver “flat attenuation,” which allows you to “hear the music just as it was intended, but with the elimination of up to 12 decibels of potentially damaging noise.” If you find yourself in an overly loud environment, music-related or not, these are a must-have.
If you’re shopping for somebody who already has all the gear they can handle, a fun novelty isn’t a bad idea for a stocking-stuffer. These audio jack key-holders are better than most novelties in that they actually serve a useful purpose, both by keeping keys organized and letting guests in your home know in a fun way where your passion is.
Cheap microphones can get the job done in a pinch, especially if you’ve adopted a DIY aesthetic. For those who want something cleaner and more professional-sounding, though, something like this Shure mic, which has nearly 300 5-star ratings on Guitar Center’s website, is sure to be an upgrade. This model boasts “internal ‘air suspension’ shock isolation” and a built-in pop filter, getting rid of audio distractions and letting whatever it is you’re recording shine, whether it’s music, podcasts, or whatever you can think of.
There’s some quality recording equipment on this list, but fancy gear can only do so much of the acoustics of the room you’re playing in are trash. This set of acoustic panels take care of that issue really quickly, as they can cover your walls and take care of errant reverb and other acoustic issues for relatively cheap. Considering how drastically acoustic panels can improve the quality of your recordings, these are beyond a worthwhile pick-up.
A sturdy stool is a versatile tool for pretty much everybody in the band and PDP makes a great one for under $100. This one ought to come through when it counts, too, thanks to features like its double-braced legs and slip-resistant feet. For just a few bucks, this is a rock-solid gift that will see a bunch of use and hold up for years to come.
Orange Amplifiers Crush Mini 3W 1×4 Guitar Combo Amp
Guitar Center
A quality primary amp is an essential investment, but having a smaller secondary one is an excellent accessory to keep handy, too. This one is a mini version of the classic Orange amp, which makes it perfect for situations when portability and convenience are paramount, whether you’re busking on the street, practicing on the road, or working on your next great musical idea in your bedroom.
If you’ve been on social media today, you’re probably well aware that Spotify unveiled the annual Spotify Wrapped feature today, where music fans see lists of the songs, artists, genres, and more that they most engaged with on the streaming platform over the past year. While it’s an opportunity for fans to look back on 2021, it’s also a neat chance for artists to see just how music their work was appreciated. So, as Wrapped started making the rounds today, artists shared their reactions.
Bad Bunny’s reaction wasn’t on social media, but in real life. As he was told in-person that he was the year’s most-streamed artist worldwide, he was all smiles. He was asked what fans can look forward to in 2022 and he said, “The same! I don’t go into it to be the No. 1 most streamed artist. I just make music. I just enjoy my ‘work.’ I hope 2022 is going to be great.”
millions of you opened up the floodgates of your hearts to my art this year. This year I learnt to embrace myself, my sensitivities, my inner fractures, my arms, my instinctive softness – the vision remains the same – to stay true. Thank you for embracing me as I am@Spotifypic.twitter.com/s0T7NZ0XY3
Our fans are amazing! Thank you for all of the streams / shares / playlists and helping us get our music around the world! How about some more new music in 2022?! @spotifypic.twitter.com/D8PeMQHg2s
Thanks to all 23.2 million of you listening across 174 countries on @SpotifyUK this year. This is wild. We’re at https://t.co/xX9kYDv5h2 if you’ve not found us there yet.
WHO WANTS A BOOTYFLY?
WATCH ME PERFORM IN MIAMI LIVE – TIX HERE: 
wow y’all. Thank you so much for listening. I am so honored. Cheers to another great year! 
Thanks to all 23.2 million of you listening across 174 countries on 
WORLDWIDE!
Her music has been streamed to over 177 countries this year and streamed 452.5M times! Muchas Gracias!