Foreign Body Signs with Brutal PandaDate Signed: March 2026Label: Brutal PandaType of Music: Noise-Rock, PunkManagement: bob@brutalpandarecords.comBooking: bob@brutalpandarecords.comPublicity: dave@earsplitcompound.com A&R: bob@brutalpandarecords.comWeb: instagram.com/foreignbody_nyc

The members of Brooklyn-based grimy noise-rockers Foreign Body have been knocking around in different bands for the best part of a decade, often crossing paths during their college years. That’s where they met—at school in New York—and the idea of forming a band together took shape during COVID. Foreign Body was born.

“We wanted to try playing a style of music we felt not many other bands were approaching in a meaningful way,” they say.

They certainly achieved that. The music of Foreign Body is devastatingly ferocious and, dig beyond the uncompromising brutality, it’s also razor sharp and intelligent.

“We are a noise rock band that prioritizes aggression and immediacy,” they say. “Our influences lean towards the heavier, noisier, side of the genre. We have no use for Sonic Youth. When we first started playing there was a more overt post punk sound but that has been thoroughly rooted out over time. Now our sound is closer to orthodox blue collar noise rock bands like Flipper or even some power electronics than something like Unwound. In trimming a lot of the whiny moodiness, our sound has become more unified and intense in the process.”

Earlier this year, Foreign Body signed to Brutal Panda, known for its consistently excellent roster, and released the “Strung Out” single.

“It came about through word-of-mouth from our friends in Couch Slut who passed along the album to the team there,” they say. “Given the label’s roster, especially with bands like Cherubs, who we’ve always held as one of the best of our contemporaries, we thought it was a natural fit. Everyone at the label has been supportive of our music, art, and ideas for the release.”

The guys say that the “Strung Out” single is both the opening track of and the best distillation of their forthcoming full-length album.

“Despite being the first track, it was ultimately one of the last songs we wrote for the album, as we thought it needed something that felt more like a kick in the teeth to start,” they say. “We began working on the album almost immediately after our first album Fixed and in a lot of ways addressed the shortcomings of that record. The sound is simultaneously more dynamic and noisier while throwing in a couple of curveballs which we won’t spoil. Thematically it progresses naturally from themes present in the first—fantasy, vices, and a race to the bottom—while also diving further into subjectivity and a more profound sense of disgust.”The post Foreign Body Signs with Brutal Panda first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Diljit Dosanjh breaks his own record for biggest North American tour by a Punjabi artist with $32M Aura runLive Nation-promoted run sold more than 225,000 tickets, according to the concert giant.
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The Story Behind Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time" — The Idea Everyone Rejected FirstMax Martin wrote it half-asleep. TLC passed. The label wanted animation. Then 16-year-old Britney Spears had a better idea than everyone in the room — and "Baby One More Time" changed pop music forever.

Deezer’s new in-app remix feature lets users speed up and modify tracks by Céline Dion and other artists ‘with full rights compliance’Deezer says every remix is created with the explicit agreement of the artist, and that streams of remixed versions are attributed to the original work
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Assignments: Chris RogersonArtistic Director

The Bravo! Vail Music Festival

The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail) has announced composer Chris Rogerson as its next Artistic Director. Rogerson assumes the Artistic Director Designate role immediately and the Artistic Director title on September 1, 2026, for an initial three-year term. “Bravo! Vail represents the highest level of music-making in an incomparable natural setting. From its founding in 1987, it has served as a beacon of artistic integrity and a place of limitless artistic possibility,” said Rogerson.

For more, contact powens@bravovail.org.The post Assignments: Chris Rogerson first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

AllMusic Rated These 5 Whitney Houston Albums — And Clive Davis Would AgreeClive Davis signed Whitney Houston at 19 and shaped every major album of her career. Following his death on June 22, 2026, AllMusic rates 5 Whitney Houston albums that earned top-tier acclaim and which Davis himself would likely recognize as key chapters in a carefully built legacy

FILM - TV - THEATER - GAMES: PROPS AND OPPS FOR JUNE '26PROPS

Mega Ran, the GRAMMY-nominated rapper and educator known for pioneering nerdcore hip-hop and bringing the worlds of videogames and music closer together, returned to Morocco for a second national tour this spring. He was joined by rapper and gaming culture innovator Richie Branson, for a cross-country tour that brought the duo’s unique blend of hip-hop and video game culture to 12 cities. Through a partnership with the American Cultural Association and the American Language Centers, the tour was able to engage students and adults through live shows, workshops, and creative sessions focused on hip-hop fundamentals and game design for beginners. Together, the artists are using music and gaming as vehicles for storytelling, creative expression, and cross-cultural connection. Contact Jeff Moses at management@megaran.com for more information.

A live audience recording of Experiencing the Dream: MLK the Musical recently took place this spring at Greater Emmanuel Temple in Lynwood, California. Written by Kesha L. Ealy and co-written and composed by Marcus S. Mason, the 26-song production featured a 27-piece orchestra and explored the less-public side of the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King from their courtship through the civil rights movement. Rather than focusing solely on King's legacy, the musical takes a look at the fear, love, and personal sacrifice in his private life, inviting audiences to see his story as an unfinished, living call to purpose. For more information, contact Tim Choy at t.choy@dcpublicity.com.

Five-time Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal brought a newly imagined score for Fritz Lang's landmark 1927 silent film Metropolis to the stage at the Karlín Musical Theatre in Prague this past April. Conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in a live-to-picture performance, Beal wove electronic sound design into the orchestral presentation to create a fully immersive experience for the audience. The event served as a highlight of the 5th Edition of Composers Summit Prague, an international gathering of leading film, television, and video game music composers. Beal drew on the film's themes of wealth inequality, artificial intelligence, and humanity's relationship with technology to connect Lang's vision to the modern age. For further details, contact Rebekah Alperin at ralperin@costacomm.com.

Orchestral Soundtracks, a San Diego-based community orchestra devoted to video game and anime music, teamed up with Scarlet Moon recently to present their free 2026 Spring Concert at Canyon Crest Academy. Founded in 2023 by volunteer musicians from across San Diego County, the group offered free admission on a first-come, first-served basis. The program featured arrangements drawn from popular titles and series including Xenoblade Chronicles, Genshin Impact, Frieren, Arcane and Beastars, among others. San Diego game music labels Scarlet Moon Records and Streaming Arrow Records also participated in the event. The orchestra was created by musicians with a shared passion for soundtrack music and a desire to keep performing together after college. Contact Jayson Napolitano at jayson@scarletmoonpromotions.com for further details.

OPPS

July 30 is the deadline to submit your work (the registration deadline is July 24) to the Indie Film Music Contest, a competition that focuses on musical storytelling without giving consideration to sound quality, so beginners have a fair chance. The winner will be announced September 18. This international competition is open to amateur composers of all ages who will have the chance to get feedback on their work from professionals in the field. Learn more at indiefilmmusiccontest.com.

Though applications for professionals are closed, pre-professional dancers can still video audition until June 15 for the Laguna Dance Summer Stage Festival, August 7-9. Video submissions will be fully reviewed by the Laguna Dance Artistic Team and stand an equal chance as live auditions. Laguna Dance is a nonprofit arts organization that offers world-class dance performances across theaters, film, and public spaces. Apply at lagunadance.org/about.

The Small Plates Choreography Festival, open to both emerging and seasoned choreographers, will accept applications until August 1. The November 13 and 14 event in New York entails a series of two curated dance performances with facilitated dialogue between the artists and audience. Learn more about this unique festival and how to apply by visiting smallplatesdance.com/performances/nyc.

The post FILM - TV - THEATER - GAMES: PROPS AND OPPS FOR JUNE '26 first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

UMG’s Bravado targets A$AP Rocky merch bootleggers on ‘Don’t Be Dumb’ tour with trademark suit, seizure orderA trademark infringement complaint was filed on Thursday June 11
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The Rolling Stones Song Keith Richards Wrote in His Sleep — and Almost Refused to ReleaseKeith Richards woke up with no memory of writing it. He thought it was a joke. Then his manager released it without telling him — and he heard it on the radio in Omaha. The story behind "Satisfaction."

DPA Mics Play a Crucial Role in Groundbreaking Immersive Audio Live EventsAccording to recent news from DPA Microphones, "For the worldwide anniversary tour celebrating AIR’s iconic debut album, Moon Safari, the French musical duo set out to deliver a live experience that felt as rich, precise and atmospheric as the record itself. Monitor Engineers Julien Vouillon and Florentin Convert had two goals: to recreate a sound as close as possible to the album and provide a fully immersive listening experience. To achieve this, the pair relied heavily on the clarity, precision and natural imaging of DPA Microphones. The result was a mix of solid technical innovation and audio quality that AIR’s music deserves."

“Since the rise of in-ears, a concert has to sound like the record—both at front of house and in the monitors,” Vouillon says. “AIR’s music demands that level of detail and space. The system is centered around binaural processing via spatial audio processing software (SPAT Revolution), feeding the musicians a spatially accurate, responsive ‘room’ inside their in-ears. But the immersive mix only worked with captured ambience that was stunningly clean and true. That’s where DPA came in.”

“What surprised us was how the DPA mics gave us the same drum sound every night, no matter the venue. You really hear the instruments as they are, not some interpretation of them, which is what makes the immersive mix feel like a studio recording happening live,” said Convert.

“Our goal was to get the musicians to listen to their own album, live. With the DPA 5100 and SPAT Revolution, we recovered what is always missing from classic in-ears: the natural 3D of the room, the air and the space,” added Vouillon.

According to a statement, Convert "immediately recognized the microphone as the ideal match for their approach."

“It’s discreet, easy to use and reproduces the natural 3D of the room,” he explains. “With SPAT Revolution, it adds the air and space that are always missing in classic in-ears.”

"To complement the main surround capture, the team relied on several models from DPA’s pencil microphone lineup, including the 2012 Compact Cardioid, 2015 Wide Cardioid and 2017 Shotgun Microphones for the ambience feed," they say.

According to Vouillon, “A crucial point was minimizing the delay between front-of-house and the ambience. If the system was too offset, the musicians would feel it immediately. The solution was adding a pair of DPA 2015s in ORTF stereo format facing the stage, helping musicians feel grounded in the physical space.”

Of AIR's live album release, Vouillon said that, "The vinyl was created directly from the live stereo monitor mix combined with the DPA 5100 room capture, mixed live during the performances and not reworked in the studio afterward. The only post-production step was mastering by Alex Gopher. It’s a good demonstration of how accurately the immersive monitoring system translated the live experience."

Vouillon adds, “The real refinement came when we added pink noise into the sidechain. It keeps the compression active until just the right moment, making the audience reactions feel natural and alive.” Vouillon, who long relied on other ambient microphone solutions, says the transition to DPA felt like a breakthrough. “After Florentin introduced me to the DPA mics, I was blown away. The mics have perfect transients and depth, and zero artifacts. I’ve replaced all my old habits with the DPA range.”

For more information, visit dpamicrophones.com.The post DPA Mics Play a Crucial Role in Groundbreaking Immersive Audio Live Events first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Music industry leaders, megastars pay tribute to Clive DavisRob Stringer, Patti Smith, Alicia Keys, the Lipmans, Merck Mercuriadis, and more pay tribute to legendary record exec
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Why Bob Dylan's Most Famous Question From 1963 Still Has No AnswerBob Dylan wrote "Blowin' in the Wind" in ten minutes in 1962. Presidents have quoted it. Protestors have sung it. Philosophers have wrestled with it. The answer is still blowing in the wind.

The Freddie Mercury Quote That Had Nothing to Do With MusicFreddie Mercury had everything the world could offer — and called himself the loneliest man alive. The quote that reveals who he really was when no one was performing for.

"In Times of Dragons" by Tori AmosUniversal/FontanaProducer: Tori Amos

Tori Amos’ 18th album sees the alt-pop veteran in full myth-maker mode, spinning political dread into fire-breathing allegory, where tyrants lurk like serpentine villains and hope flickers stubbornly underneath. It’s a sprawling 76-minute velvet coup that demands total surrender to its intricate, moss-covered melodies and, despite the record’s sheer density and occasional self-indulgence, it impressively navigates that tension between ancient folklore and modern chaos. In essence, it’s shadowy and just unhinged enough to remind us why she remains a high priestess of the avant-garde. Few artists could craft a campfire story for the end of the world that feels quite this essential. 

The post "In Times of Dragons" by Tori Amos first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

From Lionel Richie’s voice trademark bid to the Michael Jackson biopic box-office record… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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