The Witzard's "Highlights Reel" from [adult swim] Festival 2020 Featuring Run The Jewels, Deftones with Mike Shinoda & Mastodon

[adult swim] Festival 2020 held virtually this past weekend, Novemeber 13-14th, was billed as "MUSIC, COMEDY, AND MAYHEM FROM YOUR COUCH!" and was streamed exclusively on YouTube in real-time. Broken down into separate categories such as Music, Watch Party, Live, and Giveaway, [as] Fest's performers included D∆WN, J.I.D. KAYTRANADA, Mastodon, Open Mike Eagle, Robyn, Run The Jewels, Colin Stetson (Bon Iver,) Thundercat & Ariana Grande, Tycho, and Kamasi Washington. With said performances, appearances, DJ sets, premieres, and specials being streaming online from about 2:00pm-12:20am Friday and 10:00am-11:50 Saturday, we decided to set some Reminders for specific performances that interested us most. Although, now, both full-day live sets are streaming on YouTube in their entirety, as well as separate segments for each respective artist, performer, or special.

So, for purposes of this specific feature, we decided to focus on a number of particular performances that stood out to us from this past weekends's [adult swim] Festival. First and foremost, Run The Jewels (being billed as The Yankee & The Brave) hosted an impromptu Q&A and "live-action" music video premiere for their latest single, "No Save Point." Released separately as a stand-along single Thursday afternoon, "No Save Point" will be featured within upcoming eagerly-awaited video game, Cyberpunk 2077. "Getting the opportunity to drop my favorite rappers into the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was a dream come true," says director Mike "D" Diva. "My team at Lord Danger and I truly poured our hearts into making this video a love letter to all the things Cyberpunk/Run The Jewels and I hope everyone enjoys watching it as much as we did making it."

So, in addition to their own phenomenal album RTJ4 released earlier this year, now, El-P & Killer Mike have made an appearance in yet another video game and cooked up a special non-album track just for the occasion. Apparently, about 20 years in-the-making, Deftones have announced a cleverly-titled remix album titled Black Stallion to go along with a 20th anniversary edition of their third album, White Pony. After unveiling Purity Ring's remix of "Knife P(a)rty" late last month, Deftones let loose a second remix from Black Stallion early Friday morning. Billed as a "Galactic Premiere," [adult swim] Festival hosted the debut of a remix Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park, Fort Minor) had cooked up for "Passenger" featuring Maynard James Keenan from Tool. Shinoda's re-imagined track was accompanied by a music video directed by Aaron Hymes, all of which premiered during [adult swim] Festival's first day at 12:12am.

It's a grim, dimly-lit music video, which works as the perfect visual accompaniment for Mike Shinoda's eerie stripped down gradually building "Passenger" Remix. Another set from this past weekend's we enjoyed enough to write about was Mastodon's Friday night set. Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher & Troy Sanders played a nearly 30-minute mini-concert sporting Day-Glo colored face paint and make-up under a black light. Mastodon's late night set included impassioned renditions of "Asleep In The Deep" & "The Motherload," from Once More 'Round The Sun (2014,) "Thickening" from The Hunter (2011,) "Steambreather" from Emperor of Sand (2017,) and "Blood & Thunder" from Levithan (2004.) Nothing was played from Mastodon's latest odds & ends-style comp. Medium Rarities, but they played some great jams from throughout their storied career backed by scantily-clad dancers during stand-out, "The Motherload."

In other non-Mastadon-related news, both Troy Sanders' long-standing super-groups Gone Is Gone and Killer Be Killed have slowly been rolling out new music this year; with Gone Is Gone releasing a series of digital singles entitled "Everything Is Wonderfall," "Sometimes I Feel," "Breaks," and "Death of a Dream," while Killer Be Killed has pumped out three surprise-released singles, "Deconstructing Self-Destruction," "Dream Gone Bad," and "Inner Calm from Outer Storms." All of the materila mentioned above is now viewable or streaming online with [adult swim] Festival 2020's full-day live sets from both Friday, November 13th and Saturday, November 14th now available on YouTube.

"Let Me Shine for You:" Lindsay Lohan for Playboy (Winter 2011-12 Leak)

Lindsay Lohan essentially embodies exactly "What NOT to Do In Hollywood :" Fame, fortune, success... sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll . Within a fairly short period of time, Lohan somehow managed to obtain a plentiful helping of POWER @ a very young age. This gradual rise-downfall was captured on film; Between 1998-2010, she portrayed a wide array of roles across the silver screen in movies including: Mean Girls, Bobby , Herbie Fully Loaded , Georgia Rule, Machete , and Freaky Friday . Between rapid-paced film shoots, Lindsay Lohan also found time to record 2 Pop Rock albums for Casablanca , Speak (2004) and A Litter More Personal-Raw (2005). Needless to say, Lindsay Lohan has gotten roped up in a lot of troubles and woes with the law over the last 3-5 years... a vicious cycle of drugs, arrest, court, rehab, "daddy issues," jail time [Repeat]. That's the pure basics of it - But Google that shit for additional info, if necessary. Towards the end of

[W]reckless, Topless American Youth: Lana del Rey - "Born 2 Die" (Britney Spears Birthday 30)

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra

Liberty Bell Cracked In 1/2: Ween - "Freedom of '76" (Gene Ween's Final Send-Off)

Chocolate & Cheese (1994) was one of the first albums I bought with my own money. I was in some sort of BMG Music Club , where you'd buy 5 CD's and then get 10 for "FREE." It was all sent through mail order and you picked the titles from some special booklet. I'm almost positive that Chocolate & Cheese's side boob-baring album cover was what initially drew me in... mind you, I was 12-15 and the zany Ween logo/middle finger CD graphic really didn't hurt either. Honestly, I forget how I really felt about it @ the time, but a few years later, my older cousin Josh told me that Ween were this BIG college "jam band." CKY did some sort pf 93.3 radio takeover to promote their new album and played "Freedom of '76" late that night on air. Needless to say, I re-visited Chocolate & Cheese @ about 20-something this go 'round and I fucking loved it! Ween were really weird, yet talented... almost too talented. I can vaguel

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