It’s been over a year since the release of Cass McCombs‘ ninth studio record Tip Of The Sphere. But on Wednesday, the singer returned with a surprise: McCombs shared the haunting standalone single “The Wine Of Lebanon” in partnership with Universal Audio’s brand-new recording system, LUNA.

The single opens with a jarring composition before suddenly unfolding and moving into a poetic anthem. “After the flood, what remains? / The wine of Lebanon,” McCombs sings over a cascade of harmonies.

In a statement, McCombs detailed the inspiration behind his track and described how engineers were still coding LUNA while he was in the process of recording:

“‘The Wine of Lebanon’ is a song that centers around the line: ‘what can I offer you?’ It is about ritual offerings to the departed and wine as an allegory for life. The band comprised of Dan Iead on electric guitar and pedal steel, Frank Locrasto on Rhodes and synth, Noga Shefi on bass, Yoni Shelig on drums and myself on piano. they were still writing the code for LUNA in the control room as we were recording, which was thrilling. It felt a little, I mean very little, like being part of the crew of a space shuttle launch. Everyone’s guts were in knots. The ashtrays were overflowing. A nervous nation watched on live television. Families embraced in anticipation, fearing the worst. I jest. The recording went smooth and was a blast to do.”

Listen to “The Wine Of Lebanon” above.

Italy is still reeling from a long economic and social lockdown. The country went into a full shutdown on March 4th and only started (very slowly) reopening this week. That would have serious repercussions anywhere, but it’s particularly painful for a country that’s heavily reliant on tourism dollars to spur its economy. Tourism is responsible for roughly 13% of Italy’s total GDP and the country is fifth in total international tourism arrivals (the top four — France, Spain, China, and the US — are all significantly bigger, geographically).

With summer rapidly approaching and Italy’s economy in tatters, regional governments are trying to find a way to both open safely in a post-COVID-19 reality and draw people to their hotels, beaches, museums, and restaurants so the country can stay afloat. As part of this initiative, the government of Sicily — the sun-kissed island in the south of Italy — is offering a program to subsidize tourism this summer. The Sicilian government has set aside €75 million ($81 million) to buy hotel rooms and tickets to cultural and heritage sites around the island and give them away to tourists. In short, the government plans to offer people a third night for free in hotels after paying for two. If you book six nights, you’ll get two of those nights covered.

The funds will also go towards handing tourists free tickets to archaeological sites, museums, and other cultural destinations. There’s even talk of using the funds to pay for flight costs to get to the island. The overall plan is to make these deals available via the main Visit Sicily homepage as they become available.

These subsidies come with a strict set of social distancing guidelines that’ll be in place across Sicily (and Italy) for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the country’s lockdown of non-essential business and travel activities is slated to continue until May 18th.

While this initiative is mostly focused on domestic tourism and tourists based in Europe, it offers an interesting model for other regions around the world. How well it will work in Sicily this summer — and whether it will lead to a second wave of the outbreak — remains to be seen. Tourist crowds flocking to the island is a precarious proposition for locals; as is the continued closure of the tourism industry. The nation (and many others) will have to strike a balance while erring on the side of precaution.

(Via The Guardian)

Sad news today as deathmatch legend Supreme, former Xtreme Pro Wrestling champion and two-time winner of their King of the Deathmatch tournament, has died. He was only 49 years old.

Supreme (real name Lester Perfors), known as the ‘Human Horror Film,’ held the XPW King of the Deathmatch Title a total of four times during XPW’s heyday and is generally considered to be their greatest champion. The Hollywood native debuted in 1995, and his tough as nails approach to in-ring violence took him across the United States, as well as Mexico and Japan. His most recent match — a “House of Horrors” match — happened against Matt Tremont at GCW’s Road to Survival in 2017. Supreme’s presence and personality made him a southern California favorite and inspired a generation of SoCal athletes, leading to him being the first inductee into Santino Bros. wrestling’s Southern California Death Match Hall of Fame in 2019.

If you aren’t familiar with Supreme’s work, we’ve included a few videos below (viewer discretion is advised in the strongest sense of the word), as well as memories from his fans and peers. Even most of the well wishes contain brutal violence, just like Supreme would’ve liked it. Our condolences go out to his family and friends, as well. Rest in peace to a SoCal hardcore legend.

Rap retirement announcements have become about as common as clamshells at the beach ever since Jay-Z pump-faked the world with The Black Album in 2003 but that hasn’t stopped rappers from making them. Perhaps it’s owed to rap fans’ propensity for discarding rappers after a few solid years in the game early on in the genre’s history, but even though rappers like Jay himself, Nas, Snoop Dogg, and others have made it clear that there’s plenty of interest in elder-statesman roles in hip-hop, young rappers still dream of bowing out gracefully.

The latest rapper to announce his retirement while still in his prime is Denzel Curry, who told XXL in a recent interview that he’s on the clock with three more albums to go before hanging up his mic. “I always liked my album short,” he elaborated. “Ten tracks is enough. Enough to listen to… I just want you to enjoy my music the way you enjoy a film. It’s meant to be consumed that way. It’s not meant to be like fast food. It’s meant to be like, damn, what did I just have? A full course meal.”

For what it’s worth, the 25-year-old South Florida native has reason to be burned out despite his relative youth. He was, after all, a foundational member in the blog rap collective Raider Klan in 2012, back when Curry was just 17 years old. While many rappers before him entered the game around the same age themselves, many, like LL Cool J, Will Smith, and others, had successfully transitioned to film and TV after a decade in rap. Curry told XXL that in his next phase of life, he’d like to be a cartoonist and a writer.

However, that doesn’t mean he’s in a rush to punch the clock. He says he wants to take his time and “actually use real instruments” on his next project, name-checking André 3000, Flying Lotus, Madlib, and Terrace Martin as collaborators on his wish list. Hopefully, that results in music that will hold up long after he’s done recording new material, although there’s another, more likely outcome — like the many, many rappers before him who said they’d quit, he’ll find that he never really can say goodbye.

Read XXL‘s full profile on Denzel Curry here.

Live sports will return to Europe sometime soon. Following Germany’s federal and state governments deeming it safe for sports to conditionally resume on Wednesday, it was determined that the nation’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga, will resume play sometime later this month. The exact return date of the league, which has not taken the pitch since March 8 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is still to be determined.

The news of the Bundesliga and its second division, 2.Bundesliga, relaunching comes after France’s top league, Ligue 1, called its season, while the top league in the Netherlands, the Eredivisie, cancelled its campaign altogether. Additionally, England is in the midst of trying to figure out what to do with the Premier League, something that applies for Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s La Liga, and the major European competitions, the Champions League and Europa League. In a statement, Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert said “Today’s decision is good news for the Bundesliga and the Bundesliga 2. It is associated with a great responsibility for the clubs and their employees to implement the medical and organisational requirements in a disciplined manner.”

Due to Germany’s ban on mass gatherings that extends through August 31, fans will not be in attendance for matches, something that Seifert acknowledged is necessary, albeit “not an ideal solution.” Currently, the plan is for the league’s nine remaining matchdays to be played out between now and June 30, an important day in the global football calendar as it is the last day that players are under contract with their various clubs.

There is, of course, serious concern about making sure everyone is safe while these games are underway, even if fans are not around. The novel coronavirus does not discriminate, as evidenced by testing that has recently occurred, but there is no demand for clubs to isolate all of their players should someone test positive.

Via ESPN:

Players and staff have been tested for the coronavirus, and in a first wave, 1,724 tests were conducted on all 36 clubs of the upper two tiers late last week. Ten cases of COVID-19 were identified and reported to health authorities. Not all cases were made public, as the DFL asked clubs not to report cases individually. Full results from a second round of testing have yet to be released, although on the eve of Wednesday’s decision, second-division club Erzgebirge Aue put their entire squad in home isolation after a member of staff tested positive.

Infected people must isolate, but the DFL’s plan does not require full-squad isolation. The league has asked clubs to go into the final part of the season with a squad that can be filled with reserve or under-19 players.

The Bundesliga is perhaps the most compelling domestic league on earth. Many of the teams play an aggressive, up-tempo style of football, while its race to crown a champion has been a joy to watch all year. Currently, Bayern Munich sits atop the table on 55 points, with four teams in shouting distance of taking down the German giants: Borussia Dortmund (51 points), RB Leipzig (50 points), Borussia Monchengladbach (49 points), and Bayer Leverkeusen (47 points).

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a huge wrench in a lot of album release cycles. Some artists have pushed their albums back, while others have moved their releases up. One big question has been the release of Lady Gaga’s Chromatica, as she has yet to offer a new release date for her upcoming record since postponing it (the album was previously scheduled for April). Now, though, she has, and it’s coming soon: Gaga took to Twitter today to reveal that her next album will be released on May 29.

A couple weeks ago, some big info about the album found its way online thanks to a Target pre-order page that accidentally spilled the beans. Most interestingly, it was revealed that the album will feature collaborations with Ariana Grande, Elton John, and Blackpink. The full 16-song tracklist was revealed, and some editions of the album (like the Target CD release) will have three bonus tracks.

Gaga, who is not a member of the Church Of Satan, is fresh off a huge charity fundraising campaign: He organized the Together At Home livestream concert event, which raised over $125 million for pandemic relief and featured performance from some of music’s biggest names, like Billie Eilish, Lizzo, and of course, Gaga herself.

Chromatica is out 5/29 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

While many musicians are coping in quarantine by performing their songs in livestreams on their social media accounts, The 1975’s Matty Healy is cooking up something different. The singer instead tapped fellow indie musicians, like Clairo and Phoebe Bridgers, to perform covers of his band’s music for a tribute livestream concert.

Healy is currently staging a takeover of UK’s The Face magazine. For their website, the singer had the chance to interview other musicians like Kim Gordon, Stevie Nicks, and Brian Eno. Now, the singer is teaming up with the magazine to invite some of his favorite artists to cover popular songs from The 1975’s discography for a virtual tribute night.

During the stream, Palewaves, Cavetown, Beabadoobee, and Gracie Abrams will kick off the concert with covers. Clairo will then be performing a rendition of the band’s song “Robbers.” Phoebe Bridgers will follow with a cover of “Girls” and Rina Sawayama will close out the stream by taking on “Love It If We Made It.”

Check out the full schedule above.

Ahead of the livestream’s announcement, Healy opened up to The Face about their upcoming 22-track record, Notes On A Conditional Form: “I think that the question on this record is: can the center hold with all of this sh*t? Politically, economically, climate-wise — it feels like we’re getting under a lot of pressure. So there’s that on the record. And there’s also just a lot of personal stuff about me.”

The livestream kicks off 5/7 at 11 a.m. ET. Watch it here.

In an appearance on Jorge Sedano’s ESPN Los Angeles radio show on Tuesday, Hall of Fame inductee Charles Barkley reminisced on the surreal experience of being part of the star-studded Dream Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, adding new details about what it took just for the team to travel from place to place.

The celebrity status of Michael Jordan enveloped all members of the team, as the walk between the hotel and the bus was a circus.

“To leave the hotel and get on the bus was probably about 20 feet, and there was probably 5,000 to 10,000 people out there every single day just screaming when guys would walk to get on the bus,” Barkley said.

Then the team needed a full-blown motorcade just to get through the city, flush with machine gun-using men barreling down the street alongside the team bus.

“Wherever we were going, there was a helicopter above the bus, a police escort in front and in back, and on each side of the bus, there was two guys on motorcycles and each one of them had a machine gun.”

Though fans rarely could get very close to the players, they would line up along the highway to get a look at the squad’s biggest stars, saying that “there was people standing along the highway holding up signs for, obviously Magic [Johnson], Larry [Bird], and Michael got most of the signs, but it was flat-out amazing.”

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Bring. On. The. Shine.

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