Latest news with #TalkingHeads'
Daily Mirror
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Man gets on stage for sudden performance with band, then audience realise who it is
A man got on stage for an impromptu performance with a band during a gig, and when audience members realised who it actually was they were delighted and shocked A man's impromptu stage performance with a band has left audiences thrilled once they realised his identity. A TikTok video has gone viral after being shared on social media platform X. The crowd was in for a surprise when Talking Heads frontman and Academy Award winner David Byrne took to the stage, belting out one of his iconic tracks to an unsuspecting audience. David Byrne 's unexpected appearance has sent shockwaves through the crowd as the Psycho Killer and Once in a Lifetime legend performed another beloved tune. The seasoned performer is set to grace Manchester with his presence early next year, showcasing his new album Who is the Sky? during a series of gigs. Social media users have been buzzing about the event, with one post on X humorously describing it as "another David Byrne side quest." The public's reaction to Byrne's spontaneous gig continues to be one of astonishment and admiration. TikTok user @simonenorman1 captured the 73-year-old artist performing the classic hit This Must Be the Place, from Talking Heads' album Speaking in Tongues. This Must Be the Place has made its mark in cinema, featuring in films such as Wall Street and Lars and the Real Girl, and even lending its name to the Sean Penn film This Must Be the Place, where Byrne makes an appearance performing the song. The cultural resonance of This Must Be the Place is undeniable, with the public lauding Byrne for his spontaneous rendition. Social media users were thrilled when @simonenorman1 shared: "Ok so David Byrne got on stage at the Brass Queens show at C'mon Everybody [in Brooklyn, New York] out of nowhere and it was unreal." The unexpected performance by the iconic singer left fans claiming they would have been "bawling their eyes out" at the "incredible" show. A TikTok user expressed their excitement, writing: "I would be bawling my eyes out from joy! Amazing!!!" Another fan was in awe, commenting: "This is incredible." A third admirer added: "I've watched this three times. I love him. I would have loved to be there. Yay for you! ! !". The surprise gig has earned Byrne heaps of praise, with one person calling him "a treasure". Another remarked on his enduring talent, noting: "He's still got it." One commenter admired how well his voice has aged: "His voice has aged so well." Fans are now hopeful that Byrne will continue making spontaneous appearances. One enthusiast suggested he should make a habit of surprising audiences worldwide with his presence. They humorously proposed: "David Byrne should just wander the earth, dropping in on live sets all over the world." Another fan compared him to Bill Murray, saying: "David Byrne is the Bill Murray of music." Bill Murray is famed for his impromptu drop-ins at various locations around the world, often serving drinks at bars and crashing house parties without any explanation of his presence. Byrne is set to tour the US, UK, and Ireland this year and the next, with tickets for his Manchester and London concerts nearly sold out.
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
David Byrne and Hayley Williams Soundtrack Netflix's ‘The Twits' With Original Songs
Netflix's The Twits is moving classic Roald Dahl book characters from the page to the screen. The vibrant animation of the upcoming film, out Oct. 17, will bring the complexities of Jim and Credenza Twit and their unruly amusement park, Twitlandia, to life. So will its soundtrack of original music from Talking Heads' David Byrne, with an appearance from Paramore's Hayley Williams. 'I still can't quite believe that I spent the last few years collaborating with David Byrne, a musical hero of mine since I was 13,' The Twits director, writer, and producer Phil Johnston shared in a statement. 'From the first demo he sent me, on which the featured instrument was a 100-year-old banjolele, I knew I was going to love the songs he wrote. Throughout the process, my collaboration with David has been incredibly fun and surprisingly easy, probably because I've been stealing from him for so long.' More from Rolling Stone Hayley Williams Is the Biggest Star in the 'Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party' Video How Two Songwriters From K-Pop and Musical Theater Built This Summer's Surprise Chart Smash The Perpetual Pop-Punk Love Affair: Why Both Genres Keep Coming Back for More Byrne worked with Johnston to clearly understand 'what each song needed to express and what the character was feeling at that moment,' the musician said. 'This was a fun project. Like other Roald Dahl books, this one has its share of dreadful characters – this time, two of them are front and center. Kids (and adults) love that they can vicariously imagine their own worst impulses played out, harmlessly, in a punky fun story. So when I was approached to write some songs for this movie, I immediately sai,d 'let me give it a try and see if you like what I come up with.'' Nailing the song to close the film, a song titled 'Open the Door,' was essential. 'When David and I started talking about an end-credit song, the first potential collaborator David brought up was Hayley Williams,' Johnston said. 'The first word I said was 'yes.' Followed by 'please.' I still can't quite believe that two of my favorite songwriters wrote a song together for The Twits. The saying, 'never meet your heroes' simply does not apply here. I met two of them, and boy howdy, it's been a dream come true.' 'Being a part of this movie is like one pinch-me moment after another,' Williams shared. 'My favorite Roald Dahl book growing up was The Twits. I'm drawn to learning about twisted characters like Mr. and Mrs. Twit and The Wormwoods from Matilda. The way Phil and Daisy adapted the original story was really exciting to me, as was the animation style. It feels like a cautionary tale – and also a really lovely depiction of chosen family and community, which is one of my favorite topics. I owe David Byrne for pulling me into the music for this. It was so fun and so surreal starting a song from scratch with him.' Bryne and Williams thought the end credits song 'should serve to remind us that there is heart and connection in the story after all the unpleasantness depicted by Mr. and Mrs. Twit,' the Talking Heads frontman said. 'Hayley was inspired by Beesha's story and came up with some lyric ideas and I set them to tune and boom.' A synopsis of The Twits described the film as 'a story for our times, about the never-ending battle between cruelty and empathy.' The cast of the film — featuring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Ryan Lopez, Timothy Simons, Nicole Byer, Jason Mantzoukas, Alan Tudyk, Mark Proksch, Rebecca Wisocky, and Charlie Berens, and more — performs three of Bryne's creations, titled 'We're Not Like Ev'ryone Else,' 'Lullaby,' and 'The Problem Is You.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
New Talking Heads book: Band's song roots, breakups and makeups
For a band that broke up under a cloud of bitterness, Talking Heads still appreciate a good celebration. The belated first video for the band's 1977 cult favorite 'Psycho Killer' debuted in early June; a live rendition of their thumping rendition of Al Green's 'Take Me to the River' from 1978 just landed; and a new CD box set, 'More Songs About Buildings and Food (Super Deluxe Edition)' is due July 25 to celebrate the quartet's 50th anniversary. The recently released biography 'Burning Down the House' (HarperCollins, 512 pages) from New Yorker contributor Jonathan Gould ('Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America'), takes its name from Talking Heads' biggest hit, an idiosyncratic Parliament Funkadelic-inspired slice of New Wave funk. The book's 42 chapters dutifully cover the journey of singer David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth – who met at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1975, moved to New York and recruited guitarist Jerry Harrison – through years of fractured existence until they disbanded in 1991. But Gould also digs into the grimy club scene of Lower Manhattan in the 1970s, with colorful reminders of Max's Kansas City – a club where musicians including Velvet Underground, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel played foundational shows – and the illustrious CBGB, an art rock/punk playground for Patti Smith, Debbie Harry and a burgeoning Talking Heads. 'This could be our Cavern Club,' Frantz said when the band played a four-night stand at CBGB in 1977, likening it to The Beatles' formative haunt in Liverpool. Major albums augmented by a visual boost from MTV ('Speaking in Tongues' with 'Burning Down the House,' 'Little Creatures' with 'And She Was') and a landmark 1984 live concert film from Jonathan Demme ('Stop Making Sense,' which revived the singles 'Girlfriend is Better' and 'Once in a Lifetime') solidified Talking Heads' worthiness as Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. Here are a few book highlights that showcase how they got there. More: ABBA book revelations: AC/DC connection, the unlikely inspiration for 'Mamma Mia!', more The biblical roots of 'Once in a Lifetime' Gould explores how the band's fourth studio album, 1980's 'Remain in Light,' was sequenced dichotomously. The first side of the album brought 'a dance party unlike any dance party ever heard on a commercial recording before,' he writes. But a flip to Side 2 spotlighted Byrne's influences from months of Bible study for his esoteric solo project with Brian Eno, 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.' 'Once in a Lifetime,' the first song of the album's second half, is delivered as a sermon almost by default, with each lyric prefaced with Byrne's spoke-sung, 'and you may find yourself …' before the inevitable big question of, 'how did I get here?' Gould also points out the religious metaphor of the song's chorus, 'letting the days go by, let the water hold me down' as well as its famous repeated refrain, 'same as it ever was,' which provides a 'born-again edge.' By the time Byrne completes this existential exercise, he's looking back at his choices and exclaiming, 'My God! What have I done?' The Tom Tom Club offered an escape from Talking Heads In 1981, Frantz and Weymouth – who married in 1977 – splintered from home base to create Tom Tom Club, named for the Bahamian club where they rehearsed for the first time while on break from Talking Heads. The spinoff that included Weymouth's sisters and King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew formed because, as Frantz says in the book. 'We wanted to make a real musical anti-snob record, because we're fed up to here with all of the seriousness that surrounds Taking Heads.' The musical approach inspired by the 'happier … Island people,' as well as the kitschy spirit of The B-52s, yielded the dance hit 'Wordy Rappinghood,' anchored by Weymouth's delivery which Gould describes as, 'prim elocution of a grade-school teacher intent on imbuing her students with a lifelong love of words.' But the lasting takeaway from the project is 'Genius of Love,' a blipping ditty that skitters through a lyrical tribute to Bootsy Collins, Smokey Robinson, Bob Marley and James Brown. Its clever hook has been interpolated for decades, from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's 'It's Nasty' in 1981 to Mariah Carey's mega-selling 'Fantasy' in 1995 to Latto's 2021 resurrection of the sample in 'Big Energy.' More: New music documentaries rock the big screen at Tribeca A Talking Heads breakup, and brief makeup The band essentially dissolved in 1991 when Byrne abruptly left, which Frantz says he and Weymouth discovered by reading about it in the Los Angeles Times ('David never called us to say we broke up,' Weymouth recalls). Predictably, lawsuits over trademark use of the band's name followed, along with the equally predictable acrimony between Byrne and the rest of the band. But a 1999 anniversary screening of 'Stop Making Sense' provided a brief ceasefire, although the foursome never made eye contact while sitting on a panel to discuss the film. In 2001, their first year of eligibility, Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Following tradition, a live performance was expected, which would be their first in 18 years. For three songs – 'Psycho Killer,' 'Life During Wartime' and 'Burning Down the House' – a truce was in place, sparking a standing ovation from the audience filled with music-industry types, the very people, Gould says, whom the proudly eccentric band 'had done their best to have as little as possible to do with over the course of their professional careers.'
Ottawa Citizen
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Dunlevy: Mavis Staples kicks off 45th Montreal jazz fest with a whole lotta soul
Article content It was a cool night for a hot start to the 45th Montreal International Jazz Festival as Chicago soul legend Mavis Staples showed tens of thousands of music fans how it's done in the opening night free outdoor blowout. Article content Temperatures hovered just under the 20-degree mark, which wasn't so bad, but coming off an oppressive early-summer heat wave, it felt almost like fall. That wasn't enough to stop the throngs from taking in the sights and sounds on the free stages early in the evening. Or to prevent everyone from gathering in front of the main TD stage just after sunset. Article content Article content Staples made her entrance just after 9:30 p.m., bringing along a lifetime of soul singing that started with her siblings when she was just a little girl. Her dad was pals with Martin Luther King, Jr., leading the family band The Staple Singers (of which she is the last surviving member) to become closely associated with the civil rights movement. Article content Article content 'Montreal!' Staples shouted a few songs in, to enthusiastic cheers and an impromptu call and response. 'Yeah!' she called out. 'Yeah!' the audience called back. Article content 'Oh my,' Staples continued. 'We're so happy to be with you, so happy to see all these smiling faces. Yes indeed. I tell you, we've been trying to get here; we finally made it. Well now, we bring you greetings from the Windy City — Chicago, Ill. We've come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.' She did all that and then some. It was two weeks before her 87th birthday and Staples was in fine form, and fine voice. Her trademark rasp hasn't lost any of its depth, and she let it rip on such songs as her 1996 Gospel number I'll Fly Away From Here, love jam I'm Just Another Soldier and an appropriately rugged rendition of Tom Waits's Chicago. Article content She sounded righteous in delivering her old band's 1984 cover of Talking Heads' 1983 hit Slippery People, bringing out the song's Gospel influences without omitting its new wave edge. Article content And she took us back to the '60s while performing the Staple Singers' downright funky 1967 version of Buffalo Springfield's 1966 peace anthem For What It's Worth. Far from mere nostalgia, Staples delivered her lines like she was belting them out for the first time — with passion and feeling. Article content She unleashed another heartfelt 'Yeah!' at song's end. 'Y'all feel alright? Do you feel alright? OK, I feel pretty good myself.'
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
David Byrne Stars in ‘The Art of Sound,' L-Acoustics' New Documentary on ‘Audio's Hidden Language'
Professional audio technology specialists L-Acoustics, in collaboration with Black Meteor, have launched 'The Art of Sound,' a three-part documentary series that merges scientific discovery with artistic insight to explore sound's fundamental role in human evolution and its continuing influence. David Byrne stars in the season premiere, 'Sound Is Fundamental,' which was directed by Andrew Lancaster ('Accidents Happen,' 'The Lost Aviator') and debuts today on 'The Art of Sound by L-Acoustics' channel on YouTube. Also featuring researchers Robyn Landau (Kinda Studios) and Dr. Erica Warp as they investigate our primal connection to sound and its fundamental role in human experience. Through EEG research conducted at L-Acoustics London, the episode reveals how our brains and emotions respond to various soundscapes and their impact on humans' wellbeing. More from Variety David Byrne Announces New Album, 'Who Is the Sky?,' and World Tour Saoirse Ronan Goes Feral in Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer' Video: Director Mike Mills Says 'I Don't Know How She Didn't Just Shrivel Up at the End' David Byrne Regrets Talking Heads' Bitter Split: 'I Was a Little Tyrant' 'It's remarkable how much we can orient ourselves based on sound,' said Byrne. 'We can't close off our ears because that way, we can tell if something or someone is approaching. With your eyes closed, you can tell what kind of space you're in, what kind of room you're in, and what kind of landscape you're in. I think sound probably affects us emotionally and physically. You can sense something you can't see.' Amber Mundinger, Global Director of Creative Engagement at L-Acoustics, added, 'With the release of 'The Art of Sound,' we aim to take viewers on a journey that not only celebrates the artistic and scientific elements of sound but emphasizes its profound impact on our collective experience. Sound is everywhere – it shapes our emotions, influences our well-being, and connects us as a community. As we explore how our relationship with sound influences everything from architecture to entertainment, we invite audiences to reflect on the often-overlooked power of this invisible force and its ability to bring us together.' To view 'Sound is Fundamental,' visit Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
