Last week The Weeknd’s fifth record, After Hours landed atop the Billboard album charts, laying claim to the biggest opening week in 2020 so far, as well as the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album. It was his third No. 1 album and his fourth release to claim the top spot overall.

Now After Hours has once again hit No. 1 for a second straight week, reeling in a total of 138,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April. Of the total, 86,000 were streaming equivalent album units and 47,000 were pure album sales.

Elsewhere, 5 Seconds Of Summer’s latest album, Calm, scored the No. 2 spot, with 133,000 equivalent album units. However, it wasn’t the album’s maiden voyage on the charts; last week a clerical error resulted in 11,000 CDs inadvertently sent out to customers, a week earlier than expected. That resulted in Calm debuting all the way down at No. 62.

Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake fell down just a spot, selling 84,000 units and coming in at No. 3. Rounding out the top five, Dua Lipa earned her first Top 10 album, with Future Nostalgia arriving at No. 4, while Pearl Jam made their first appearance on the charts since 2013, with Gigaton hitting No. 5 with 63,000 units sold.

Read our review of After Hours here.

[via Billboard]

Kevin Owens provided one of WrestleMania 36 Night One’s most memorable moments that didn’t take place in a Boneyard when he jumped off the WrestleMania sign like a maniac. As crazy as that spot was, Owens revealed on Twitter today that if Mania had taken place in its original location, he wanted to do something even crazier.

A fan replied to one of Owens’ tweets that he wished this year’s WrestleMania had been “in the huge stadium in Tampa. You could have jumped off the Pirate ship!” with a picture of the huge pirate ship in Raymond James Stadium, where WM 36 was originally going to take place, attached. Owens responded, saying that he went to a show at the stadium in January and as soon as he saw the ship, “I told myself no matter what I was doing at Mania, I’d find a way to jump off that thing. I even took pics of it to figure out the best way to go about it. It didn’t work out but I found the next best thing!”

So add KO jumping off a pirate ship (and hopefully not dying in the process) to the list of iconic Pirate-mania pirate-y moments stolen from us by coronavirus, along with whatever Kairi Sane would have done for her entrance.

New things are still being learned about the novel coronavirus called Covid-19. One thing that only became clear recently is that the disease can be passed from humans to animals, although such cases are, as per the CDC, “rare.” Right now it seems to only go one way, from humans to animals, and on Sunday it was revealed, according to News 12 in the Bronx, that a tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the virus.

The infected animal is a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia, and she may not be the only one infected: Her sister, Azul, and two others have developed dry coughs. They are, however, expected to recover. The Bronx Zoo has been closed to the public since mid-March, and the first tiger didn’t signs of sickness until March 27.

According to a statement released by the United States Department of Agriculture, this is the first known case of a tiger being infected with Covid-19. They also advised that, while there haven’t been reports of any pets contracting the virus, anyone with symptoms should “restrict contact with animals, out of an abundance of caution including pets, during their illness, just as they would with other people.”

(Via News 12 The Bronx)

Aka most of us.

View Entire Post ›

View Entire Post ›

Be ready to make some difficult decisions.

View Entire Post ›

Continuing his own fight against the coronavirus, Bernie Sanders held a livestream Saturday night to discuss the virus and a relief package he hopes will pass through congress. As they have done before, both Soccer Mommy and Bon Iver appeared on the livestream to treat listeners to a few musical offerings. Both delivered their performances from the comfort of their own homes, but it was Bon Iver’s set that raised a few eyebrows thanks to his performance of an unreleased song.

In addition to performing his more recognized songs, “Towers” and “Blood Bank,” as well as a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God On Our Side” on the guitar, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon performed “Things Behind Things Behind Things,” a beautiful and tender track that may appear on the band’s future work.

Justin Vernon’s performance comes a bit more than a week after the group announced that its upcoming tour featuring shows in Europe and the UK would be delayed until January 2021. “The entire Bon Iver team has been closely monitoring this unprecedented worldwide health situation, and it is under the guidance of those more knowledgeable than us that we have determined rescheduling to be the safest path forward for all involved.”

On a much brighter note, The National’s Aaron Dessner revealed that new material for he and Vernon’s Big Red Machine duo was almost done. In a post to Instagram, Dessner responded to a gift from a friend saying, “Wow @heckpaul ….you just raised my spirits ….literally finishing new @bigredmachineadjv as we speak. THANK YOU.”

Tiger King is everywhere these days, even if you can only watch it on Netflix. The extraordinary tales of Joe Exotic and a wild cast of characters taking care of big cats and plotting murders might even have a new episode coming later this week, if you believe one of the people involved in the show.

If that never comes to pass, though, we’ll always have Joe Exotic’s music videos. We now know the voice we hear in them isn’t Joe, but that doesn’t mean the videos are any less insane. Exotic’s music videos have been available online, but Netflix took it to the next level by re-editing one of Exotic’s most popular songs, “I Saw A Tiger,” and adding a sing-a-long element.

The bottom of the video features the song’s lyrics, though you could probably guess them even if they weren’t actually there. Exotic is a man of wild tastes, but his songs aren’t exactly winning any Mark Twain Awards anytime soon. The bouncing cat that follows each word is a pretty great touch, though.

Now we just need one for “Here Kitty Kitty,” which would be the first diss track that ever came with a sing-a-long music video that I can remember ever existing.

View Entire Post ›

Dwyane Wade, like so many kids that grew up in the late 90s and early 00s, was a huge fan of Allen Iverson, which is among the reasons he wore the number 3.

As a rookie in 2003, Wade got the chance to meet Iverson for the first time down in Puerto Rico and learned Iverson’s generosity firsthand. On a recent episode of The Adam Lefkoe Show, Wade joined Lefkoe and fellow TNT Tuesday Night analyst Candace Parker to tell the story of going to a casino with Eddie Jones and having the Hall of Fame guard casually kick him a $1,000 chip so he could enjoy himself — and Wade made sure to keep a little of that for himself.

“Eddie Jones is like, ‘Young fella, come with me.’ Eddie Jones is my veteran. So I go with Eddie Jones, and he knew Allen Iverson was one of my favorite players, so he wanted to introduce me,” Wade said. “And he introduced me to Iverson right there while they were gambling, so Iverson’s gambling and I’m standing there the whole time. And he threw me a chip, he threw me a $1,000 chip and was like, ‘Yo, go play this, young fella.’ So I played $500, and I put the other $500 in my pocket, because I ain’t have money like that at the time.”

It’s a funny story, but also explains a lot about Iverson, who has long been one of the best veterans and past superstars when it comes to showing love to the next generation. Where many former players are critical of the modern game, Iverson has always been welcoming to the generations that have followed him, whether that’s offering them advice, praise, or, in the case of Wade, a little financial support so he can enjoy himself at the hotel casino.