Billie Eilish announced this week she will release a new song next week called “my future” on July 31st. This will be the first new track from the game-changing 18-year old phenom since her James Bon theme “No Time to Die” was released in February. It’s unclear if this new song is the first tease for a full album or a standalone single.
2020 is just kicking our ass, isn’t it? The quarantine takes a heavy toll. The widespread stress of waiting for a vaccine, resolutions on social justice issues, and the fear of economic impacts on our daily lives is overwhelming. Alternative music has always been the sharpest and most impressionable genre of music for those introspective times. This is the reality that we are in and we must push ahead with compassion, discipline, and patience.
These songs have been selected mostly based on evoking the feelings we are facing now and how we need to find a way through it, no matter how hard it may seem. Many 101WKQX contributed to this on Twitter which we appreciate so very much. It’s worth noting these tracks are not ranked in any order but rather a collection together.
You can watch all of these songs as individual videos below or stream the playlist I put together on Spotify here. They are not ranked, because they serve a purpose together. Let us know what you think about it on social media.
Green Day – Waiting
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment to come”. Are we all not waiting for the good news right?
Tame Impala – Patience
This song from 2019 touches on the idea of reflecting and thinking of the concept of ‘it’s been how long since I did that’ to the present induced anxiety of “I can’t wait to do that thing again”. Also, this song puts the fun in funky despite the desperation evoked in the lyrics.
U2 – Beautiful Day
The album “All That You Can Not Leave Behind” was recorded before the tragedy of 911 but it became this emotional vessel for people. U2 singer Bono said that “if a song is any good, you never really do know where it could end up”. This song about the wonder of life when living feels trying and draining, that’s a refreshing revival of the soul. It’s corny but it just gives you the striking light in a dark tunnel.
U2 performed the track on the grand stage of Super Bowl halftime in 2002 and it was the right band with the right song at the right time. This NFL documentary covers that process.
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
This one is on the nose but quarantine has broken up our lives in this way we don’t fully understand yet. Maybe you have heard about relationships getting severed in the last few months and the consistent loneliness that many have imposed on ourselves. This song is all of that and more.
The Killers – The World That We Live In
The title says it all, and like Brandon Flowers sings “I gotta believe it’s worth”, we need to know how to adapt to it all. Bop your head to this walking beat with your face mask on.
Smashing Pumpkins – Today
When your day seems as bleak as possible, like giving up is just the easier option, it’s not the option you should go with. That struggle is laid out in one of the Pumpkin’s definitive anthem for enduring the tough times.
Paramore – Ain’t No More
This upbeat tune is a slap to the back of the head, reminding us that we are not the center of the universe and we have been resilient to the trap of developing a selfish mindset. The video also looks just joyful, doesn’t it?
Nine Inch Nails – We’re in this together
Trent Reznor has gracefully taken us through many depressing experiences in his outstanding catalog but this is one blares amidst the confusion, it demands we pick each other up and charge ahead. This song from 1999’s ‘the Fragile’ may seem obvious on the surface, and even Reznor has said he did not like that but felt it mattered after spending two weeks exclusively on this masterpiece.
Biffy Clyro – Instant History
We are all having an extensional crisis at the same time. BC’s Simon Neil says the song wants us to wake up to a compassionate world, So let’s try to do that, shall we?
Rise Against – Survive
This song is loudly saying we can get past this. It calls out for collective positivity with a proclamation “how we survive is what makes us who we are”. We can be better for each other. We can shape ourselves to not be jerks in this uncertain process. It still gives me goosebumps when the bridge kicks in, unintentionally painting the picture of the beauty of us all learning the vaccine is here. The phone rings, Tim belting out “a perfect world, on a perfect day” and we can get there. Note there are some dirty words here, so maybe crank it up with headphones on.
Foo Fighters – ‘Times Like These’
Recently this week I heard one someone says that Dave Grohl is the Tom Hanks of rock music. Hanks has grown to become the ‘Dad of America’, a voice of touching reason that everyone somehow trusts. Grohl has assumed that that same cultural role to give us these songs that embrace our doubts and give us a gravity when it feels like every day is more anxious than the last.
Twenty one pilots – ‘Level of Concern’
This song is only a few months old and was crafting in quarantine by the band with every lyric from Tyler Joseph expressing our worry. The first time I heard it was around 6am on a Sunday about to get on air on 101WKQX. It instantly made me dance, think every word was what we were dealing with, and maybe cry a tear or two. It’s THE song of 2020.
Joywave – ‘Half Your Age’
“You’ve been waiting for a sign / Something clear to bring the meaning back to life / Wondering when it’ll be your time / Or If it passed before it came and you’re expired’
Metric – ‘Help I’m Alive’
This late 2000’s alt gem was originally composed about the expectations that others put on you and the internalized pressure that develops from that. Now we all don’t know what to expect and our hearts ‘keep beating like a hammer’.
The Head and the Heart – ‘Let’s Be Still’
‘The World is spinning a little too fast’.
Check out our at-home session with the Head and the Heart.
This word blast of a tune originally released in 1987 has seen a new audience since the beginning of the pandemic with 48% increase in streams. It’s all the sarcasm you could ask for as you scroll through the news and a Facebook feed where everyone seemingly has something to say.
Daft Punk – ‘Touch; (feat. Paul Willaims)
On the surface, this may seem like a stretch that the electronic dance music wizards combining with an acclaimed singer-songwriter for a bizarre sci-fi synth journey would frame our current dilemmas but it does so in epic fashion. The song lays out of how we all feel out of place while longing for human contact that spark of being with our friends and family.
Oliver Tree – ‘Let Me Down’
Besides his penchant to be the loudest personality with bowl cut hair cut and scooter stunts that send him to the hospital, Oliver Tree has a way to make sense of things. This song was crafted as a way of Tree acknowledging to his fans that his long-awaited debut album was coming and that he understood it could a bummer. So why is it here? We don’t want to be let down’ by anything or anyone anymore. We want society to collectively kick all these problems. Also, what do you think of this latest version with Blink-182?
Ben Gibbard – ‘Life in Quarantine’
Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard wrote this one during the initial months of the COVID-19 outbreak, and first shared it on his “Live From Home” live stream series. It encapsulates the panic, the stress, and the worry about how ‘no one is going anywhere any time soon’.
Grouplove – ‘Deleter’
We are all questioning everything. We are questioning our government officials and every piece of news we read. That uncertainty is laid out with a bouncing bass underneath in this anthem produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Stiek and it makes us dance while we see a mind-boggling headline scroll on the screen.
The Tik Tok challenge that is lighting up our morning is the Subway toasted challenge. It’s pretty simple, you just keep asking them to toast your sandwich until they tell you to stop!
The FDA has recalled more than 75 brands of hand sanitizer after toxic levels of methanol were found in more products sold at national retailers including Walmart and Costco.
Make sure your hand sanitizer is safe to use! These chemicals when absorbed through skin can cause, nausea, seizure and blindness.
The pandemic has delayed basically everything. Variety reported today Disney is delaying the release for the next Star Wars trilogy and Avatar sequels. This comes with a nationwide surge in new COVID-19 cases and several movie theater companies delaying their reopening plans.
December 22nd, 2023 is when we can expect the next yet-to-be-titled Star Wars, with the next two films also being delayed a year to December 19th, 2025 and the third hitting December 17th 2027. That is not just ‘a galaxy far, far away’ that’s a time frame that feels like a century from now with the way the world feels right now. This would put a four-year break between Star Wars films.
Avatar’s two sequels have been in the works for a long time, but now it looks the wait will be even longer. Now, Avatar 2 will hit theaters on December 16th, 2022, with three more sequels due out December 20th, 2024; December 18th, 2026; and December 22nd, 2028.
The blockbuster movie business moves have been coming at a fast and rapid pace with Beyond the Trailer digging into all of the changed release dates in this video. How is the ‘New Mutants’ movie that has been stuck in studio holdups since 2016 is still coming out this summer?
PAWS Chicago to host innovative Virtual Beach Party for pet lovers and their four-legged friends,
while raising money for homeless pets!
WHO: PAWS Chicago, the city’s largest No Kill humane organization, will host its 18th Annual Beach Party virtually on Thursday, July 23. The event will be emceed by FOX 32’s Jake Hamilton and Brittney Payton, along with several other celebrity supporters.
WHAT: PAWS Chicago’s popular Beach Party event is one of the city’s largest pet-friendly social gathering that raises money for homeless animals. Due to the pandemic, PAWS Chicago has reimagined the event on a virtual platform that animal lovers from near and far can enjoy.
The hour-long, free-to-attend program will feature a fun mixology lesson, adoptable pets, raffle, pet photo contests, surprise celebrity guests, and a silent auction!
WHY: This annual event is critically important in funding life-saving programs at PAWS Chicago. Vulnerable animals need us more now than ever! We are often their last chance. During the COVID-19 crisis, PAWS Chicago never closed its doors to pets in need. PAWS Chicago must rely on innovative fundraisers that empower the community to come together to support homeless pets.
Proceeds from the event helps PAWS save homeless dogs and cats who are still at risk, and ensures every rescued pet receives the individualized, nurturing care they need for a happy, healthy life. PAWS Chicago’s work is 100% reliant on the support of the community.
After a long time of talking major garbage online TRAPT’s newest album ‘Shadow Work’ only sold 600 copies in the first week.
That is a little under their 5,400 copy prediction they put out there while arguing with people on twitter…
With all your genius marketing, why doesn’t your new album come up first when “Shadow Work Album” is googled? I can’t wait to come back in a month and hear the excuses for another failure. What do you think, 2700 first week?
You thought you had the internet figured out. You were wrong.
It is a vast and scary place.
From weird pointer websites, websites that force you to tweet it out, even strange Oprah websites, there are just so many weird fun websites out there.
You need to check out these 25 strange websites that exist here.
Don’t worry they won’t steal your credit card information… we’re pretty sure they won’t at least.
Drive-in theaters have seen a revival with their natural ability to offer social distancing in our current pandemic circumstances, but now a new way to watch a movie with friends will become available. Beyond Cinema is an Australian company that before the pandemic successfully hosted floating theaters with boats. Now those sanitized boats will come to the United States. Each screening will have 12 to 24 boats according to Consequence of Sound.
