Sending cards and letters are one of the few ways to get your feelings and intentions across to someone. Fan letters to idols are no strangers as K-pop stars receive them almost every day whenever they may public appearances where fans can attend.
However, if you’re BTS’ Jin in the military, trying to serve active duty on behalf of your country, the influx of packages and letters coming in from all over the world can be quite overwhelming from fans who miss you.
Earlier today (January 5), BigHit Music released a statement sharing their concerns, asking fans to refrain from sending any more letters and packages to the military training center to where the “Astronaut” singer is based. In addition, the Korean music label also asked fans to not crowd or visit the military base as it may distract and disrupt the duties of other military personnel on site.
In an alternative solution to physically sending letters, the company suggested fans to send warm messages on the group’s message board on WeVerse using the hashtag #Dear_Jin_from_ARMY and reassured ARMY they would assist Jin in checking them all.
Check out the full statement from BigHit, translated by Soompi, below.
“Hello,
This is BIGHIT MUSIC.
Thank you to all the fans who always give their love to BTS. Thanks to your kind consideration and support, BTS member Jin has entered the military in December and is now performing his duties responsibly at the training camp.
Thank you for showing your interest and support on the day of his enlistment. We would like to share additional information for fans to keep note of throughout Jin’s military service period.
Jin is stationed at a training center designated specifically for military training together with regular military personnel. If a large number of letters and gifts from the fans arrive at the center all at once, it would be difficult to store them, and they could be easily lost. We ask that you please refrain from sending anything by mail. BIGHIT MUSIC will assist in making sure that Jin is able to check himself all the warm messages that fans leave on Weverse using the hashtag #Dear_Jin_from_ARMY.
Please refrain from sending letters and gifts even after he finishes his military recruit training and gets stationed at his military base.
We would also like to ask for your cooperation during Jin’s recruit training graduation ceremony. In order to prevent any issues that might occur from crowding, we ask fans to please refrain from visiting the site. Instead, we ask you to keep your heartwarming words of support and farewell in your hearts.
We ask for your continued love and support for Jin until he finishes his military service and comes back in good health. Our company will also strive to provide all support he needs during this time.
Thank you.”
Jin enlisted into the military as an active-duty soldier on December 13 of last year. According to reports, he is part of the 5th Infantry Division recruit training center in Yeoncheon County of Gyeonggi Province.
Natasha Lyonne is very good at portraying characters who flirt with death. This was the case in a more morbid sense on Orange Is The New Black, but that penchant went Groundhog Day-esque in the treasure-filled Russian Doll, in which her character got stuck in an existential death loop. Now Lyonne is jumping from Netflix over to Peacock for even more death-defying business, only she’s solving some crimes. Mind you, she’s not an actual detective, but she can’t help but be a “death magnet” who has a knack for figuring dark sh*t out.
As well, Rian Johnson is hot off his latest murder-involved project, Glass Onion, to team up with Lyonne for an idea that they apparently conceived while enjoying not-French fries. And Johnson was thrilled to reveal this “case-of-the-week mystery show” (which is definitely not-Columbo) trailer on Twitter.
Natasha’s Charlie character will solve her crimes by way of a Plymouth Barracuda, so she’s even cooler than Lincoln Lawyer. As well, the trailer shows off Chloë Sevigny as a rock star, and Dascha Polanco will pop in because she and Natasha can’t quit each other. The show also features Tim Blake Nelson as a race car driver as well as Ron Perlman, Nick Nolte, Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Barkin, and Tim Meadows.
This morning, January 5, the Recording Academy announced which musical icons will be honored with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as relayed by The Hollywood Reporter: Nirvana, Ma Rainey, Slick Rick, The Supremes, Nile Rodgers, Bobby McFerrin, and Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson of Heart.
The publication additionally pointed out that the awards will be given posthumously to Rainey, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and The Supremes’ Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard. Diana Ross was previously given the Lifetime Achievement Award as a solo artist in 2012. Ross is also nominated for the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category for Thank You, released in November 2021 as her first solo release since I Love You in 2006 and first original material since 1999’s Every Day Is A New Day.
The Special Merit Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, February 4 at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
The 2023 Grammys will air live on CBS (and stream live on Paramount+) from LA’s Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, February 5.
“A lot of what I would suggest is what I’ve heard [Recording Academy CEO] Harvey [Mason Jr.] talk about: trying to create a Grammys where the music reflects the awards show and the awards show reflects the music,” Noah told Billboard of what he would change about the Grammys. “Oftentimes [with] award shows, there may be a disconnect between the general public who are consuming music and the people who are voting on the music. It’s important for every award show [that] wishes to maintain its relevance to understand that difference. The audience isn’t wrong in having different tastes or a preference on whom they wish to see. I think in music as a whole, you have to acknowledge that, and the Grammys has, albeit slowly.”
After Jeremy Renner survived a terrifying freak accident that reportedly caused “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries” after his snow plow rolled over him, the Marvel star’s sense of humor appears to be on the mend. On Thursday morning, Renner shared a sweet, lighthearted video where his mother and sister can be seen caring for the actor who’s still in a hospital bed.
Calling it a “spa day,” the slowly recovering Renner can be seen thanking his mom and sister for the love. He even joked that it’s the first shower he’s had in a “week or so” as they help to clean some of the blood from his near-fatal accident.
You can see the touching video below:
A “not no great” ICU DAY, turned to amazing spa day with my sis and mama. Thank you sooooo much pic.twitter.com/pvu1aWeEXY
The video received an outpouring of love from fans, which Renner has definitely appreciated on his road to recovery. The first update he gave from the hospital thanked everyone for the kind words after news of the accident broke. That post sparked a round of well wishes from his fellow Avengers. Via Variety:
“Speedy recovery buddy,” replied Chris Hemsworth, who is one of the six original Avengers actors along with Renner. “Sending love your way!”
Chris Evans, another original Avenger star, wrote, “Tough as nails. Love you buddy.”
“Continued prayers your way brutha,” Chris Pratt added. Pratt leads Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.
The incident has already been cleared of foul play and authorities say Renner was not impaired in what is being called a “freak tragic accident.” The snow plow was hauled from the scene and will be inspected for mechanical failures that could’ve caused it to roll forward after Renner exited the vehicle to talk to a family member who was trapped in the snow.
It’s honestly shocking that Nicolas Cage has gone this long into his career without playing Dracula. It just seems like one day, he would wake up and tell his pet crow, “I want to be Dracula.” A two-month shoot in Transylvania later, he would wrap another movie and have enough money to buy a dinosaur skull (well, another dinosaur skull).
Cage got halfway there with Vampire’s Kiss, but the Oscar winner will finally go full Count Dracula in Renfield, a horror-comedy starring Nicholas Hoult as Dracula’s servant Renfield and Cage as the most famous blood sucker of them all.
You can watch the campy trailer above.
Evil doesn’t span eternity without a little help. In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss, Dracula (Nicolas Cage). Renfield is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency.
Renfield is directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War, The LEGO Batman Movie) from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty) and based on an original idea by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. It also stars Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz.
After the huge success of WWE’s Clash at the Castle last year in Wales, WWE announced on Thursday that it is bringing its first premium live event back to London for the first time in two decades with Money in the Bank on July 1.
“The O2 is one of the world’s premier venues and the perfect home for Money In The Bank. We are excited to bring one of our ‘Big 5’ events to the UK and look forward to welcoming the WWE Universe to London on July 1,” said Dan Ventrelle, EVP, Talent at WWE, in the release.
The announcement comes after the success of Clash at the Castle in September 2022, where 60,000 fans packed into Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, for the first major stadium event to be held in the United Kingdom in more than 30 years. WWE’s first major return to the UK since 1992 was historic, breaking numerous records including the most-watched international premium live event in WWE history, with the largest European gate ever and the best-selling merchandise for a non-WrestleMania event.
Ahead of Clash at the Castle, WWE’s Drew McIntyre told Uproxx Sports he believed in the potential of WWE hosting another premium event in the UK down the road, calling that event “phase one”
“Once the world gets to see this show, the incredible visuals, I think it’s going to lead to a SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and potentially a WrestleMania down the line,” McIntyre said before his match with Roman Reigns. “I’m so happy that it’s been so well received. For me personally, obviously, the UK is a special one.”
2022 was an unusual year for music. Despite more records being released than ever before, there were only a handful of new hits; Billboard recorded only a dozen new No. 1 singles, while only new 23 albums reached the top of the Billboard 200. Those numbers reflected a dip from prior years, thanks to many of the songs and albums that topped the charts reigning for weeks at a time.
Meanwhile, the Recording Industry Association of America recently welcomed its “class of 2022” — the artists who earned their first Gold or Platinum certification last year. Among the 39 performers are TikTok favorites like Armani White, Bella Poarch, and GAYLE, while runaway success GloRilla stayed “F.N.F.” all the way to her own first certification. International artists also broke in a big way stateside with Afrobeats crooners Fireboy DML and Rema joining K-pop girl group TWICE in racking up the plaques.
A Gold certification denotes 500,000 units sold, while a Platinum record has sold 1,000,000 units. In the streaming era, one album sale is calculated as 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams, which also counts as 10 track sales. In order for a qualifying track or album to be certified, often a label must request certification, so technically there might be one or two songs out there that qualify but were not certified. You can see the full list of singles courtesy of RIAA’s Twitter account below.
The health and status of Damar Hamlin has been at the front of mind for the sports world since he collapsed on the field during Monday Night Football and went into cardiac arrest. The Bills defensive back had his heartbeat restored on the field after receiving CPR and has been in critical condition at the UC Medical Center in Cincinnati since Monday night.
Hamlin was moved from 100 percent oxygen to 50 percent oxygen recently, a sign of some improvement in his condition, and Thursday brought another positive update on his condition from the Bills. The team released a statement on Thursday morning indicating that he has continued to make “steady progress” in his recovery and has showed signs of being neurologically intact.
Hamlin opened his eyes on Wednesday night and has been able to grip the hands of loved ones in the hospital, per reports, as he shows signs of improvement while remaining in critical condition.
Damar Hamlin has been gripping the hands of those close to him. Another very positive sign. https://t.co/GpabbnqTWm
Good news continues to be shared by those close to Damar Hamlin. I’m told doctors are very happy with his progress and believe he’s even ahead of schedule in his recovery. Damar has even been able to hold/grip hands with some family & friends. #Bills
Hopefully Hamlin will continue to improve and, in the coming days and weeks, can become more fully responsive and be moved out of the ICU. For now, we will welcome the positive update on what was one of the most terrifying moments in professional sports history, and offer continued support to Hamlin and his family.
When Miley Cyrus shared her New Year’s resolution with Hoda Kotb last week, she failed to mention that she planned to rock her fans’ collective world before the first week of January concluded. Yet, here we are. During her Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC special on Saturday, December 31, Cyrus subtly revealed that her new single, “Flowers,” is dropping on January 13 — Liam Hemsworth’s birthday, for those who care. Today, January 5, we received even more exciting news.
Cyrus, it would appear, is not making vague statements about her past relationship with Hemsworth; she’s rolling out an album that is described in a press release as “her love letter to LA,” recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin, Mike Will Made-It, and Tyler Johnson. Endless Summer Vacation, Cyrus’ eighth studio album and first since 2020’s rocking Plastic Hearts, is due out March 10. Cyrus officially announced it with a trippy teaser trailer.
The video begins with Cyrus lounging in a pool, surrounded by palm trees under the sun, and progressively shows glimpses of the album’s cover art.
“We met each other on the neon dingy, past the manta rays and palm trees,” she narrates. “Glowing creatures beamed down from great heights. Electric eels and red venom. In the sky, we could see the riders on horseback. On comets. Coming toward us, kicking up with laughter. My friend, Big Twitchy, rode the boat to the light. Surfed the north break. We danced until there was nothing left. Just me and Twitchy, ’cause that’s all we knew.”
The Endless Summer Vacation tease slots seamlessly within the snippets of “Flowers” that Cyrus has already shared across her socials, including the presumed hook, “I can love me better than you can.”
Fans have been on high alert since December. Mysterious posters spotted in different cities promised, “New Year, New Miley.” Cyrus amplified the posters’ significance on December 19 by acknowledging them and adding a countdown clock to her official website. Now, everyone can safely circle March 10 on their calendars.
In the meantime, “Flowers” is available to pre-save here.
See album’s cover below, photographed by Brianna Capozzi and “fully executed by Miley without visual effects.”
Brianna Capozzi
Endless Summer Vacation is out 3/10 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.
Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at [email protected].
Last year you wrote an article asking whether Foo Fighters would (or could) continue without Taylor Hawkins. Now the band has confirmed that they will carry on and apparently tour in 2023. What do you think about this decision, and who should replace him? — Jerry from Minneapolis
As I wrote in the aftermath of Taylor Hawkins’ death last April, I don’t think there is a “right” choice in terms of a band carrying on after a tragedy of this magnitude. If moving forward feels right in the Foos camp — or even just in Dave Grohl’s mind — then it’s the right choice. If a fan can’t conceive of Foo Fighters without Taylor Hawkins, they have every right to check out at this point. But if it’s your band, it’s your decision, not the public’s. To me, it’s that simple.
I will say that I’m not surprised. The logistics at play aren’t hard to figure out. Foo Fighters are the rare contemporary rock band that can play stadiums. Grohl is the most famous rock star of his generation. His band conceivably has another 20 years of albums and tours ahead of it. And that might be a conservative estimate — Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are in their 80s, and they hardly missed a beat with the Rolling Stones’ most recent tour after losing their iconic drummer, Charlie Watts. By that metric, Foo Fighters are still squarely in their prime. In stadium-rock years, they’re still young pups!
When they staged the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts this summer, it felt like a necessary public gesture providing the closure they needed to get here. I hope that doesn’t come across as cold or cynical — what made those shows (particularly the one in London) so memorable is that they were a sincere and appropriate recognition of Hawkins’ place in the band as well as a reflection of his infectious personality. For all of the obvious emotion on display, the overall mood was celebratory. What might have been a maudlin affair instead was an uplifting and even fun homage to Hawkins’ record collection, a virtual “Classic Rock: The Concert”-style party. The capper of course was Shane Hawkins’ instant-classic performance on “My Hero,” a legendary arena-rock event for the ages, a “passing-the-torch” moment so perfect that it felt scripted and yet somehow it wasn’t.
So: What now? Fans have been speculating this week on Hawkins’ replacement, and unsurprisingly the chatter has centered on session-drummer extraordinaire Josh Freese, who played at the tribute concert. The problem with Freese is that he has played in seemingly every aging legacy rock band, from Devo (his current gig) to Guns N’ Roses to The Replacements to Nine Inch Nails to Paramore. Would the ultimate free-agent timekeeper ever commit to one band? Based on his history, I find it hard to believe.
In my column from last year, I suggested a rotating cast of famous friends guesting behind the kit — including ringers like Chad Smith, Stephen Perkins, and Stewart Copeland — but that’s not really a tenable long-term solution. And then there’s the biggest dark horse of them all, the band’s original drummer, the jilted William Goldsmith. Now there’s a fun thought experiment! Justice for Goldsmith 26 years after The Colour And The Shape! Alas, there’s zero chance of it happening, as all parties have moved on.
The most logical choice is probably Rufus Taylor of The Darkness and Queen + Adam Lambert. Taylor also performed at the tribute concerts, and he seems like a natural hire given his preexisting relationship with Hawkins and the rest of the band. There’s no question in my mind that fans would accept him. If Hawkins himself had a vote, I suspect that he would find being replaced by Roger Taylor’s son extremely cool. For those reasons, if I had to bet, I would put my money on Rufus.
But he’s not my ultimate choice. Let’s say Dave Grohl called me up and said, “Hey Steve, who should I hire to be my new drummer?” Here is what I would say: “Dave, I think you should pick the best drummer available. A person who has elevated every album he has ever played on. A guy who can pack an arena full of people who only want to see him pound the hell out of a snare. A dude who kept time on some of the most beloved rock songs of the last 30 years. One of the very greatest drummers of all time. Dave, you should hire … yourself!”
Will that happen? I doubt it. But speaking as someone who doesn’t have a vote: Dave Grohl is always the guy I want playing drums in any band. Why not the Foos? Would anyone really rather him play guitar? Especially in a band that already has two other guitar players?
I was saddened this week by the death of Jeremiah Green of Modest Mouse from cancer at the age of 45. I enjoyed the oral history you recently put together of The Lonesome Crowded West. On Twitter you called him one of the all-time great indie-rock drummers. What made Green an all-time great? — Lorraine from Chicago
I regret not talking to Jeremiah Green for that oral history. Aside from Calvin Johnson, he was the only pivotal figure from the making of that record I wasn’t able to interview. It wasn’t for lack of trying — I was actually scheduled to speak with him a few times, but he kept backing out via Modest Mouse’s publicist. I was told he was sick, though not given any further details. I assumed it was the flu or possibly Covid, but obviously it was far more serious.
It’s sad when any person dies, but Green was only six months older than I am. And in my mind, when I listen to those classic Modest Mouse records from the ’90s, he’s still the gangly teenager who plays with an aggressively vicious swing. Either way, Jeremiah Green was a young man. He should have had many years and a lot more music ahead of him. I feel terrible for his friends and family. My thoughts are with them at this time.
Modest Mouse typically is framed as a vehicle for Isaac Brock’s songwriting. But when I revisited The Lonesome Crowded West for my oral history, what most blew me away was the chemistry between Brock and the rhythm section composed of Green and bassist Eric Judy. Their smoking interplay places the record outside the modern continuum of indie rock. For all of their limitations as individual players, those guys complemented each other perfectly as a unit. And you just don’t hear that as much now, when it’s common for a singer-songwriter to come to prominence with home-recorded music and then hire a band when it’s time to tour. The original Modest Mouse in contrast had an arc more akin to a classic-rock act, in that they played together for countless hours before anyone heard or cared about their music. It’s that very honed-to-excellence instrumental prowess that makes an album like The Lonesome Crowded West sound as timeless as it does.
Brock himself put it best in my column: “Jeremy and Eric didn’t fucking need me. They could lock in and do things pretty great whether I was there or not. And that’s helpful because then when I was involved — and obviously I was fucking involved — I could get pretty squirrely with what I did because those guys were so locked in. I didn’t even have to be in tune some of the time. As long as it sounded like they were doing the right thing, if I steered way out of the lane, it was going to be fine.”
As for what specifically made Green such a great drummer, he had that quality that all brilliant musicians have: His feel is instantly recognizable. Play a short snippet of one of his grooves and you know right away that it’s him. The drum pattern from “Truckers Atlas” is as distinctively Jeremiah Green as the opening lick from “When The Levee Breaks” is distinctively John Bonham. Couple that with the degree of difficulty that comes with playing in Modest Mouse — Green’s job was to create rhythms that could simultaneously convey the mania of Brock’s lyrics and melodies while also supplying a coherent foundation that made people want to dance. As Brock suggested, Green and Judy often supplied the most musical and even catchiest parts of Modest Mouse songs. They weren’t merely accompanying their lead singer and guitarist; they actually made sense of the music for the audience.
Foo Fighters are moving forward without their drummer. Can Modest Mouse? That’s a question I can’t even begin to ponder right now.
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. Thank you sooooo much 
Only 3⃣9⃣ artists earned first-time 
Gold or Platinum 
awards in 2022. Did your favorite act make the cut? See the full list of artists + 
