Today, D.C. alternative quintet Merci release their new EP, Subtle Fiction I, via Rise Records: AVAILABLE HERE. Along with the EP, they also share the kaleidoscopic official video for their new single “City Haircut”: WATCH HERE.
“‘City Haircut’ is a song about those nights when you’ve had and said too much,” the band shared about the new single. “The song came together in almost a week and was one of the most intuitive tracks to write.”
Mercishared the first taste of the new EP in 2020 with their debut single “Foolish Me.” Earlier this year, they released the next single “Haunt Me,” along with its accompanying cinematic visual inspired by the Eggers Brothers’ film The Lighthouse. Full track listing can be found below.
Subtle Fiction I track listing:
The Palm
Never Coming Back
Haunt Me
City Haircut
Foolish Me
About Merci:
Washington, DC’s Merci (Seth Coggeshall [vocals, guitar], Nick Jones [guitar], Colby Witko [vocals, keys], Justin Mason [bass], and Jack Dunigan [drums]) funnel dreamy nocturnal pop through the lens of dyed-in-the-wool rock underpinned by live instrumentation. Having woven themselves into the fabric of the DMV music scene, playing in various groups separately and together for years, the five members officially joined forces as Merci in 2018 and immediately began prepping for their debut album–due out 2021 via Rise Records.
Carly Gibert is a 19-year-old house, R&B, and pop music artist, who recently was signed to 10:22PM/Def Jam Recordings. The bi-lingual, Spanish born singer just released her groovy single, “Interstellar,” which reflects on her move from Spain to LA. The disco-inspired bop appears on NOW Volume 79, and can be listened to HERE. Gibert has been making music since the age of four, and her passion for creating is evident in all of her releases. We sat down with the rising house star to speak about the inspiration behind her latest release, her songwriting process, and whats to come next in 2021.
What inspired you to write “Interstellar?”
“Interstellar” is about trying to make someone care for you as much as you care for them. You would do anything for the other person, but they only think about what’s best for them. When I moved to LA from Spain–where I was born and raised–I kind of started a new life, it felt like living in another universe. “Interstellar” actually means “living between stars,” and that is how LA felt to me. It only took me moving to the other side of the planet to realize that I wasn’t taking care of myself. It also references the movie Interstellar (which is one of my favorite movies of all time) with its theme of leaving your life behind and starting over in an entirely different setting.
How would you describe the sound of “Interstellar” in three words?
Futuristic, disco and progress.
What musicians influence your music style the most?
Not specifically for this song, but I grew up with and have always been very inspired by Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Mac Miller and Tyler the Creator. I definitely grew up on house music as well, since my dad would play it at home all the time; and I think you can actually hear that on “Interstellar.” The song has a kind of house vibe to it.
What does your song writing process usually look like? Was this process the same for the writing of “Interstellar”?
I usually start off with one of the 100,000 notes on my phone. I write notes every single day–anywhere, anytime. You never know when the inspiration is going to hit, so this is how I keep track of my thoughts. When I find a lyric idea or a concept that resonates with how I’m feeling, I start writing random lines around it. At first, it honestly doesn’t make any sense and nothing rhymes. At that point, it’s all about placing the right lines in the right places and making them fit into a melody. This was also the writing process of “Interstellar.” I sometimes like to start with the melodies, though, and just build the lyrics based on the melody.
If you could design your dream music festival where you were the headlining act, who would you choose to perform alongside?
If we’re talking about VERY ambitious dreams, I would obviously say Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Kanye. Then, of course, Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator, A$AP Rocky, Doja Cat, Audrey Nuna, SZA, BIA, Anderson .Paak, Rosalía, Saint Bodhi, Little Simz, Kali Uchis, Kaytranada, Rico Nasty, Tinashe, Ryan Beatty, Daniel Caesar, Miguel, Jorja Smith…there are too many great artists.
What has it been like being signed and working with 10:22PM/DefJam?
If someone told me 3 years ago that I would be working with the people I’m working with today, I wouldn’t believe them. The people I’ve met and am surrounded by are some of the people I look up to the most, and I’m so grateful for everyone who made it possible. I have a very close relationship with everyone on my team. I speak to my A&R literally every day, and I’m so lucky to be able to talk directly to the label if I ever need something. I’m super involved in all aspects of my career, so having a direct relationship with the label is very reassuring.
What is something about you or your music that fans might not expect?
I would definitely say singing in Spanish. It’s something I’ve never done before, and I’m so excited to do it. I don’t have any full songs in Spanish at the moment, but I do have some verses here and there. The next song I’m releasing actually includes Spanish verses. Growing up, I was very insecure about singing in Spanish because I thought my accent was weird. It didn’t flow as naturally as English did, even though Spanish is my first language. Through the years, I’ve been practicing improving my diction and I feel a lot more comfortable now. I guess I just had to make it my own and embrace the “Spanish person who can’t articulate Spanish” aspect of myself.
What is next to come from you in 2021?
I have two more songs that I really love coming out in the next couple of months. Hopefully an EP by the end of the year? (Nobody confirmed that—I just made it up—but I’m putting it out in the world). To be honest, all I want to do this year is release all the music I’ve been working on for the past 2 years. These songs are so special to me, and I can’t wait for everyone to listen to what I have to say.
Marta Klopf is graphic designer that works in web and brand design. When talking about her artwork Klopf says, “My projects focus on clear communication while highlighting the values, thoughts and stories behind a brand and translating conceptual ideas into cohesive visual worlds.” Originally from Italy, Klopf graduated from Minneapolis College of Art & Design and soon moved to New York City, quickly falling in love with the city and finding inspiration in it. She loves being able to help with change through her art and design. Klopf looks forward to getting back to creating art for local community focused organizations in the future. We had the opportunity to ask Marta Klopf about her artistic journey and what’s next for the artist:
How did you get into graphic design? Was graphic design always the direction you wanted to go?
I wasn’t one of those people who know as children what they are going to be when they grow up: for a long time I didn’t see a path that seemed right for me. I was always interested in a lot of things, and always wanted to follow new ideas and start new projects. What I did know was that I was interested in art, and that I was passionate about communicating. So I discovered design, which is at its very core visual communication. I moved to Minneapolis to pursue my BFA in graphic design and have worked in the field since. And I think it worked out, because design gives you the opportunity to be interested in a lot of things, to approach different projects with different ideas and interests.
Do you have a preference for working digitally or physically? Why?
I love working digitally: I feel like the digital world is where a lot of people today go to find information, learn things, discover brands, buy things, make connections, and therefore it is a dynamic place that is always evolving, which makes it exciting to be a part of it. I also think digital projects challenge you in a different way, because they need to make an impact while also remaining flexible and adaptable.
You stated: “New York is vibrant and makes you feel alive. You always feel like you are part of something big. It always pushes you creatively because there is always something new to inspire you.” What initially drew you to work in New York? Do you have a favorite thing in New York you always go back to for inspiration if you ever feel burnt out?
I think that, at first, what drew me to New York was the sheer quantity of creatives and creative endeavors, which gives you the opportunity to really find a path that works for you and matches your interests. But I didn’t expect to really fall for the city as much or as quickly as I did: I met a lot of inspiring designers and creatives who were pursuing their passions in so many different ways. I think the people are what always inspires me: it may be a bit cliché, but the energy that comes from surrounding yourself with other creative people can be very energizing. I also love to take long walks: you always end up somewhere new, and getting out of your usual environment and what is comfortable usually helps.
You’re a freelance graphic designer “with experience in web and brand design.” What is your favorite aspect of being a freelance artist? The most difficult?
I work for an agency and also do freelance projects, so I get the best and worst of both. I love the freedom of freelance work. You are in charge of what projects you take on, and the directness of working directly with the person who will use your work makes it empowering. The most difficult part would be that you are alone: you have to be the one who does all the organizing, the designing, the coordinating, the email writing, the zoom calls. Which I like, but can be quite a lot.
How do you begin your process of starting a new project with a brand?
The first thing I do is learn as much as I can about the project, first to determine whether it’s something I am able to take on, and then to find out what makes the project special. I would then typically meet with the client, talk about big picture things (their ideas and needs, their philosophy, and so on) as well as practical things (timeline, other people involved in the project, etc). Depending on the project I would then come up with a few ideas and see whether they will work and are well received. From there, it becomes a matter of getting more and more detailed and continuing to incorporate feedback from the client until the final product is ready.
Of the projects you’ve worked on, which is your favorite? What about it makes it so memorable/special for you?
I recently finished a website called letstech.at. It is geared towards kids 10-18 in age and is meant to be a science/engineering portal for them: get them interested in more scientific or technical subjects, present ideas through videos and blog articles, as well as show role models (especially female ones) who work in the field and be a place where they can find information about careers in engineering. I loved working on it both because it was a design challenge (trying to speak to a relatively broad age range), and because it truly is a great resource for kids: it feels great to be part of something that empowers them through learning and through highlighting female role models.
As someone who loves being able to help change the world through your artwork, which causes are you passionate about that you would want to design for in the future?
I try not to set limits on what want to do, but generally I feel strongly about projects that are of value to people: in the case of the project above, kids who want to learn, but also, for example, design for community based organizations who help women, minorities, or in any way empower people by offering them resources that may be otherwise difficult to access. As another example, I also was part of a mentoring program, where professional designers helped create logos for groups of high schoolers who wanted to pitch ideas to help their community to investors. I love being able to use my skills that way: making an impact through design.
With your artwork, what direction do you feel like you want to go in next? Is there any new pattern, style, process, person, media, etc, that you feel has grabbed your attention and inspired your work? Is there anything you’ve done in the past you want to continue with?
I feel that style changes constantly, and the more we focus on style the less longevity a project has. What matters to me the most are good ideas, and I think the time of the pandemic (having to stay home and mostly focus on work) really reinforced the idea of wanting to make work that has an impact. I always look at the work of Partner & Partners (where I used to work) and Hyperakt in New York as inspiration for beautiful work that is backed by great ideas and also makes an impact on the communities and the world we live in.
Marta Klopf is currently accepting freelance projects here.
Unfiltered and unapologetic, Toronto’s “bad gyal” Ebhoni shares her latest visual for “Rep It.”. Directed by Jake & Oliver Productions, “Rep It” showcases the 21-year-old in her truest and most authentic form as she commands the screen with her confident “bad bitch” demeanor on full display. Ebhoni channels 90’s R&B nostalgia giving viewers an inside look on Toronto fashion, glam and culture. Watch HERE.
Framing the dissolution of a relationship that never was, her honest lyrics are a candid complement to the track that generates an emotional resonance beyond it’s barely two-minute run time. A product of both faded nighttime and the melancholic reflection of the morning after, Ebhoni’s matter-of-fact verses remain in the same harshly ephemeral gleam that highlights her own personal heartbreak into an evocative anecdote that feels both universally relatable and unexpectedly transcendent.
About Ebhoni
Ebhoni is a Canadian musician and model. Originally from Toronto and moving to Oshawa after her parents’ divorce, she was a Youtuber, doing covers of Beyonce and Keyshia Cole songs before releasing her debut EP, Mood Rings at seventeen in 2017 and her next EP X earlier this year. She has also modeled for Savage X Fenty and Adidas.
3BREEZY RELEASES THE VIDEO FOR MESSAGE TO HER TODAY, WATCH HERE
Today newly-signed Capitol Records hip hop/RnB artist 3Breezy releases the video for Message To Her. The record, self-released by 3Breezy last November, already has 2,817,445 views, and overall in his short career 3Breezy has amassed nearly 25 million streams in the U.S. alone.
On Message to Her, Breezy tells the story of a woman who’s been neglected by her lover. Alternating between the woman’s perspective and his own, Breezy offers words of encouragement that are as tender as his vocals: Pick your head up, baby, know you got a purpose. Inspired by a direct message he received from a fan who wanted him to sing a story she couldn’t tell on her own, the song is both a literal embodiment of his mission to provide musical therapy for fans across the globe. The comments most shared from listeners are how the felt every word and that the song hits hard, As Breezy prepares his new project, Catch a Breeze, he’s just at the beginning of exploring this sensitive side of himself more fully.
3Breezy has only been making music for around a year, but already has a growing legion of fans ensnared by his crooning, hazy confessionals, and uplifting aphorisms. Raised in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, he grew up surrounded by sisters and aunts and did a lot of listening, the background soundtrack for Message to Her and his understanding of both a man and a woman’s perspective — a born shoulder to lean on.
Gifted with a reassuring baritone and the empathy of someone who listens more than he speaks, 3Breezy colors in tales of heartbreak and healing with smoky melodies and wide-eyed sincerity, creating optimistic anthems for lost souls in search of happy endings. After debuting his first song in October of 2020 he began a consistent pattern of releasing singles & his debut mixtape Murda She Wrote. His sincere lyrics and detailed story-telling quickly captivated audiences across Tik Tok, YouTube, & locally. Through his music 3Breezy hopes to uplift, empower, and spread positivity through crooning his hazy confessionals, and uplifting aphorisms.
Breezy’s burgeoning rap career was born from a global catastrophe, a dream deferred, and bad weather. Raised in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, the man born Nihee Wesley could see peers embracing the negative influences in the neighborhood, but he mostly kept to himself and steered clear of trouble in the process. By the time Breezy graduated, he planned on becoming a veterinarian technician, he realized he liked working with animals. Another reason was because I didn’t like working with people, he recalls with a laugh. After going to college for two years to get his vet assistant certification, Breezy was set to take on a job in his field. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic began and he was unable to do so.
One rainy day, after playing video games got old, Breezy noticed a TikTok user who said he’d recorded a song through his phone. After checking out the song and deciding it sounded pretty good, he downloaded GarageBand to his phone and got to work himself. Spitting over a dreamy guitar line, Breezy recorded his first song, the free-associative and casually braggadocious Kiss My Automatic. After creating the tune, he called his friend over to his house to see if he was hearing it right. After getting the cosign, he posted it to his TikTok account, which already had a sizable following, and proceeded to rack up likes and comments. Seeing the response to the song, Breezy began to consider new career possibilities. That was like one of my biggest videos I posted on TikTok,; he recalls. I’m like, What if I took this seriously?
By 2021, Breezy got his answer when he signed to Capitol Records and released Murda She Wrote, which, it should be said, he recorded entirely through his iPhone. While the first song he ever made was smooth for a debut, Murda She Wrote showcase a crystallized version of 3Breezy, one who’s not afraid to veer from the boasting to instead embrace his sensitivity. Growing up in a house with his aunts, he’d hear stories of their trials and tribulations in romance, and he’d get advice from his great-grandmother on how to speak to women. Songs like Message to Her and Mental Love reflect that upbringing. On newer releases like Move On and Message from Breezy (a spiritual sequel to Message to Her), he’s only doubled down on his emotional explorations, which heߣll surely continue to do on Catch a Breeze.
While he refers to himself as the voice of the heartbroken now, there was a time when he was afraid to embrace his emotions in song. I always had a thing for making this type of music, but I never really posted it because I didn’t want my homies to be like, Bro, why are you making this soft music? Nobody wants to hear you in your feelings, Breezy says. The second I stopped giving a fuck what anybody else thought and did what I liked is when I started seeing progress.
Global superstar Tones And I has announced her widely anticipated debut album, Welcome To The Madhouse, which will arrive worldwide on July 16th Tones And I has shared the forthcoming album’s lead single, “Cloudy Day,” which is available on all streaming platformsand accompanied by an animated video streaming on her official YouTube channel. Available for pre-ordertoday, Welcome To The Madhouse stands out as a deeply reflective and personal body of work for Tones And I, with the Australian artist writing the entire album by herself and co-producing every song.
Tones And I commented on the significance of Welcome To The Madhouse explaining, “This album for me is very up and down and reflects the forever changing emotions in me. There are songs on the album that were written before “Dance Monkey,” about not knowing if busking was right for me. There are songs about my good friend T passing away and not wanting to deal with those emotions. The ups and downs of life in lockdown and the mental challenges/struggles. Some songs make me laugh and some make me cry but there is no running theme or vibe to the album – the songs are unique to how I was feeling the day I wrote them.”
Regarding “Cloudy Day,” Tones And I elaborated on the single’s origins noting, “After my friend T passed away I was struggling to write any songs that were happy or that I even liked. I met up with a friend who told me this saying from his late mum: ‘On a cloudy day, look up into the sky and find the sun.’ I knew I wanted to use that as a lyric and the next time I went into the studio I wrote ‘Cloudy Day.'”
Tones And I Initially laid the foundation for Welcome To The Madhouse last year with the release of “Fly Away,” a poetic and powerful composition which has amassed over 190 million streams with Tones And I delivering performances of the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She followed it up in 2021 with the release of “Won’t Sleep,” which arrived alongside anofficial music video continuing what has become a tradition of highly unexpected and unforgettable visuals. Both tracks reflected the inimitable idiosyncrasies of Tones And I’s signature style, highlighting her clever lyricism, unpredictable songcraft, and indisputable knack for a hook.
Having had to postpone her global tour in 2020 due to COVID-19, Tones And I will be announcing new US, European and UK headline dates in the coming weeks. For more information on Tones And I’s tour dates and tickets to upcoming shows, click HERE.
Tones And I‘s global smash “Dance Monkey” officially became the 3rd most streamed song of all time on Spotify making the track the most streamed song ever by a female artist on the platform. The “Dance Monkey” official music video has surpassed 1.6 billion views on YouTube, while the track haseclipsed six billion streams globally and earned 4x platinum certification from the RIAA in the US as well as multi-platinum or diamond certification in sixteen other countries. Plus, “Dance Monkey” hit #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, making “Dance Monkey” the first top five Hot 100 hit solely written by a woman in over eight years. In Australia, “Dance Monkey” holds the all-time record for the most weeks spent at #1 on the ARIA Singles Chart, while in the UK “Dance Monkey” has made Tones And I the longest running #1 of all time by a female artist on the Official Singles Chart. The New York Times detailed the making of “Dance Monkey” in their Diary of a Song video series, speaking with Tones And I about her journey from local busker to global star.
About Tones and I
Originally from Australia’s Mornington Peninsula, Tones And I traveled to Byron Bay in early 2018 to take a chance at busking. On the first day she had crowds spilling onto the street. Tones quit her retail job and decided to make Byron her new home where she lived out of her van for a year, honing her songwriting and busking every weekend. A year later, she had one of the biggest songs in the world with her global smash “Dance Monkey.”
THE ROOT PREMIERES LYRIC VIDEO FOR JIMMY JAM & TERRY LEWIS’ NEWEST SINGLE Somewhat Loved (There You Go Breakin’ My Heart) with MARIAH CAREY, DEBUT ALBUM JAM & LEWIS VOLUME ONE PRE-ORDER NOW AVAILABLE SET FOR RELEASE JULY 9th
The Grammy-Award winning production duo recently turned artists, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis have debuted their latest single Somewhat Loved (There You Go Breakin’ My Heart) with Mariah Carey TODAY. Check out The Root’s lyric video premiere of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis x Mariah Carey’s Somewhat Loved (There You Go Breakin’ My Heart)HERE. Experience Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis like Never Before on their Debut Album Jam & Lewis Volume One set for release July 9th. Pre-order the album HERE.
Click HERE to listen to Somewhat Loved (There You Go Breakin’ My Heart)
Click HERE to watch the Somewhat Loved (There You Go Breakin’ My Heart) lyric video
For Somewhat Loved (There You Go Breakin My Heart) Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis team up with the multi-platinum, multiple Grammy award winning, New York Times #1 Best Selling author and global superstar Mariah Carey. The track continues a long history of collaboration between the producers and Carey, which includes the Billboard Hot 100 #1 smash Thank God I Found You. Together, they deliver another anthem punctuated by Carey’s legendary soaring vocals and the pair’s inimitable musicality.
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis have had an unprecedented career as producers, with five GRAMMY Awards, over 100 Platinum certifications, and 16 Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones. They’ve worked with legendary artists including Elton John, Lionel Richie, and Patti LaBelle, composed music for TBS and TNT networks’ NBA basketball broadcasts, as well as the theme to the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The duo has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, received an NAACP Image Award, star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and were recently nominated for a Primetime EMMY Award in Outstanding Music Direction.
THIRD MAN BOOKS ANNOUNCES TWO NEW TITLES: BOBBY GILLESPIE’S TENEMENT KID & WILL SERGEANT’S BUNNYMAN: POST-WAR KID TO POST-PUNK GUITARIST OF ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, PRIMAL SCREAM FRONTMAN & ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN GUITARIST MEMORIALIZE THEIR STORIED LIVES AND CAREERS WITH REVELATORY MEMOIRS, BOTH DUE IN STORES THIS FALL, GILLESPIE’S COLLABORATIVE ALBUM WITH JEHNNY BETH, UTOPIAN ASHES, OUT JULY 2
Third Man Books has announced new books from two of the foremost icons in British rock history — Bobby Gillespie’s Tenement Kid and Will Sergeant’s Bunnyman: Post-War Kid to Post-Punk Guitarist of Echo and the Bunnymen. Tenement Kid will arrive in stores this October, while Bunnyman will follow shortly afterward in November. Find pre-orders for Tenement Kid HERE, and for Bunnyman HERE.
Each title marks the first time that either musician — Gillespie being the beloved frontman of Primal Scream, and Sergeant being Echo and the Bunnymen’s groundbreaking original (and current) guitarist — has captured the details of their storied lives and musical careers in writing. Bunnyman is noteworthy as the first authorized written history of Echo and the Bunnymen by a member of the band, and each book translates its author’s unique voice, singular vision and incomparable life into an exciting, revelatory read.
Tenement Kid is but the latest landmark in a banner year for Gillespie, whose Utopian Ashes — a collaborative album with Savages vocalist and solo artist Jehnny Beth — arrives July 2 on Third Man Records.
About Tenement Kid
Fizzing with an infectious passion for the magic of rock music, Bobby Gillespie’s vivid and evocative new memoir, TENEMENT KID (Third Man Books | Oct. 2021), traces the Primal Scream frontman’s path from a post-war Glasgow tenement to the release of Screamadelica, the bandߣs psychedelic award-winning masterpiece that helped usher in the 1990s.
So much more than a rockstar’s memoir, Tenement Kid is also a book filled with the joy and wonder of a rock’n’roll apostle who radically reshaped the future sounds of fin de siècle British pop. Structured in four parts, Tenement Kid builds like a breakbeat crescendo from Gillespie’s working-class Glaswegian upbringing to the Second Summer of Love that saw the ’80s bleed into the ’90s and a new kind of electronic soul music starting to pulse through the Great Britain’s consciousness. In this book, Gillespie takes us through the release of Screamadelica and the tour that followed as Primal Scream become the most innovative British band of the new decade.
Published thirty years after the release of that seminal album, Tenement Kid cuts a righteous path through a decade lost to Thatcherism and saved by acid house. It’s a joyful, celebratory, and beautifully written book which will remind us of better times, just as we hope those better times might be returning.
Praise for Bobby Gillespie
Dance music threw open new wardrobes for British indieland an inveterate dresser-up like Bobby Gillespie could, and did, take full advantage – Pitchfork
A major influence on so many people; musicians and fans alike. – Rolling Stone
The length of Bobby Gillespie’s ambitions has never been a surprise. Who knew that the drummer in the Jesus and Mary Chain would go on to enjoy three decades in rock’n’roll and surpass the Stones at their own game? Bob did. – The Guardian
About Bunnyman
Post-War Kid to Post-Punk Guitarist of Echo and the Bunnymen
If songs like Bring on the Dancing Horses and Lips like Sugar don’t ring a bell, youߣll find Echo and the Bunnymen all over the soundtracks of television shows like Stranger Things and movies such as The Lost Boys, Pretty in Pink, Donnie Darko, and more. Will Sergeant, a founding member of the seminal post-punk band, tells the first authorized account of his and the band’s history in BUNNYMAN: Post-War Kid to Post-Punk Guitarist of Echo and the Bunnymen.
With wit and heart, Sergeant provides a detailed, first-hand account of the birth of the legendary post-punk band, as well as a social and musical history of post-WWII England, the effects of Thatcher-ism, English rock, the beginnings of punk.
It is a heady time of power cuts, strikes, flying pickets, bread shortages, skinhead gangs, IRA bomb scares, nuclear war fears, rock gigs, glam clothes, drowned motorbikes, explosives, dead-end jobs and the usual school lessons of chicken strangulation, Sergeant writes. With the help of music, I manage to navigate myself through the sinking sand of prog rock and into the safety of punk. My boots still muddy with a bad attitude, I head into the winter of discontent to become a post-punk trailblazer worshipped all over the world as a god. Well? An inventive and influential guitarist of some note at the very least.
Will Sergeant is best known for his work as songwriter and guitarist with Echo & The Bunnymen with whom he has recorded and performed world-wide for thirty years. He also has long-term ties with the experimental side of life, in the fields of performance, recording and the visual arts. He has produced solo and collaborative works since the 1980s, His first major solo art show My Own Worst Enemy debuted at the Liverpool Penny Lane Gallery in 2011 and at the Substrate Gallery in Los Angeles, California, 2012.
Microsoft products are used by billions of people worldwide. Historically, however, they are known to have many vulnerabilities that pose security risks to users of the software.
According to data presented by the Atlas VPN team, the total number of vulnerabilities in Microsoft products reached 1,268 in 2020—an increase of 181% in five years. Windows was the most vulnerability-ridden Microsoft product. It had a total of 907 issues, of which 132 were critical. However, Windows Server had the largest number of critical issues. In 2020, 902 vulnerabilities were detected in Windows Server, of which 138 were critical.
Issues were also found in other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. Together, these browsers had 92 vulnerabilities in 2020. In total, 61 or even 66% of these vulnerabilities were of critical level. Meanwhile, Microsoft Office had 79 vulnerabilities, 5 of which were critical.
Ruth Cizynski, the cybersecurity researcher and author at Atlas VPN, shares her thoughts on the situation :
“These numbers are a massive problem because every Microsoft product has millions of users. Therefore, it is important that consumers update their software applications on time. Software updates can include security patches that can fix vulnerabilities and save users from getting hacked.”
Elevation of privilege is the most common Microsoft vulnerability
A wide range of vulnerabilities was discovered in various Microsoft products last year. However, some types of vulnerabilities were more common than others. Elevation of privilege was the most frequently detected issue in Microsoft products. It was discovered 559 times and made up 44% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities in 2020.
Next up is remote code execution. In total, 345 such vulnerabilities were found last year, putting it in second place on the list. Remote code execution accounted for 27% of the total number of Microsoft vulnerabilities in 2020.
Information disclosure occupies the third spot on the list. There were 179 such issues discovered in 2020. Together, they made up 14% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities that year.
The team responsible for developing and launching the careers of everyone from the legendary Alicia Keys to Academy Award winner H.E.R. and more, MBK Entertainment, will identify, elevate and break the hottest superstars of tomorrow via its new reality competition series, MBK The Next Generation. The show provides a platform for up-and-coming artists to vie for a combination grand prize of a management deal with MBK Entertainment and a recording contract with MBK/RCA Records.
As a trusted artist management company and multimedia firm, MBK Entertainment filled a void during the Global Pandemic. Even with the world shutdown, they launched a series of artist showcases across Instagram and Clubhouse last year, eliciting a fervent response from audiences and giving new artists a stage when they needed it the most. This concept evolved into MBK The Next Generation. The series airs weekly on Clubhouse. For the first round, artists enter by auditioning on social media. If they advance, the second round happens in-person for a panel of industry visionaries, including MBK Entertainment C.E.O./Chairman Jeff Robinson, UMPGSenior VP Walter Jones, GRAMMY and Academy Award-winning singer and songwriter Tiara Thomas, MBK EntertainmentArtist Manager Jason Hobdy, MBK Entertainment Artist A&R Jordan Chatman, Epic Records artist LONR., RCA Records artist Tone Stith, and Roc Nation artist Maeta.
Each entrant receives maximum visibility by simply appearing on what promises to be one of music’s hottest new series. The victor lands a life-changing deal.
MBK Entertainment remains committed to artist development in its truest form. The company ignited and galvanized the careers of roster alumni such as Alicia Keys, Elle Varner, Tyrese, Keyshia Cole and more. Meanwhile, current clients include H.E.R., Tiara Thomas, LONR., Maeta, Jourden Cox, Abigail Furr and Tone Stith. Recently, H.E.R.took home an Academy Award in the category of “Best Original Song” for “Fight For You”in addition to picking up “Song of the Year” for “I Can’t Breathe”and “Best R&B Song”for “Better Than I Imagine” [with Robert Glasper & Meshell Ndegeocello] at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards.
MBK Entertainment also continues to make headlines. Rolling Stone featured President/Managing Partner Jeanine McLean-Williams, while Billboard named Jeff Robinson “Executive of the Week” earlier this spring.
Get ready for MBK Entertainment to introduce The Next Generation in 2021.
