Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Rock band Cage the Elephant emerge from loss and hospitalization with new album ‘Neon Pill’
NEW YORK | To say Cage the Elephant’s latest album had a turbulent birth would be an understatement. The band dealt with the deaths of loved ones, the pandemic and their lead singer’s arrest and hospitalization.
“It’s no secret that I had a medical crisis,” Matt Shultz tells The Associated Press from Nashville on the eve of the Friday release of the 12-track “Neon Pill.” “I’m fully recovered. It definitely left a scar, but it’s one that can be walked away from.”
In January 2023, the Kentucky raised singer-songwriter was charged with criminal possession of firearms after police found Shultz’s guns inside his room at the Bowery Hotel in Lower Manhattan.
Shultz says that in the aftermath he discovered that for the previous three years or so he’d been having a bad reaction to a set of prescribed medications (Shultz didn’t specify which), leading to episodes of psychosis.
“It’s shocking how night and day the difference is from being on whatever medication is causing psychosis and being off of it,” he says. “As I got off the medication, I went back to my normal self. And that was very odd because it was like having your life hijacked by another person.”
That so-called other person had contributed to the five-year recording of “Neon Pill” and it was up to Shultz — who was hospitalized for two months and had about six months of outpatient therapy — to untangle the music.
“I went back to the lyrics, obviously to finish the album, and it was like reading the words of a totally different person and trying to decode what they meant,” he says. “A lot of it was going back and trying to find the sentiment of what I was trying to communicate.”
Shultz avoided jail time by pleading guilty to three weapons charges.
“I’m so blessed it wasn’t worse than it was,” he says. “And blessed that I got the medical attention I needed. I’m incredibly blessed to be surrounded by my family, my wife. Definitely, God got me through it for sure. I would be dead several times over.”
“Neon Pill” sees the band reunited with producer John Hill, who worked on their last 2019’s Grammy-winning “Social Cues,” and offers a kaleidoscope of rock, from the strutting glam of “Ball and Chain” to the piano ballad of “Out Loud” and the airy alt-rock of “Float Into the Sky.” One song, “Rainbow,” is infectiously poppy, as if Cage did a Dead or Alive track.
“It was very much like a culmination of all the Cage records combined,” says Shultz. “John Hill definitely had a greater impact on this album, for sure. Not that he didn’t have an impact on ‘Social Cues,’ but with this one, he definitely was pushing us harder to reach within ourselves and to write the best material that we possibly could.”
The album doesn’t shy away from Shultz’s experiences and the title track drives straight into them, with the lyrics “Double-crossed by a neon pill/Like a loaded gun, my love, I lost control of the wheel.” The song has become the band’s 11th No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart.
“We definitely felt like that was the title track once everything came to be,” says Shultz, whose bandmates are his guitarist brother, Brad; bassist Daniel Tichenor; drummer Jared Champion; guitarist Nick Bockrath; and keyboardist Matthan Minster.
Two songs connect to Matt and Brad’s father, Brad Shultz Sr., including “Out Loud,” which is based on the time the elder Shultz and his father had a terrible fight and their dad ran away, hitchhiking all the way to Florida. Feeling remorseful after a year, the younger man wrote a song of apology and hitchhiked back to Kentucky to play it for his father.
Matt Shultz says he was moved by the story and “so I wrote a song about the song he wrote.” That song has the lines: “Man, I really messed up now/ Clipped those wings and I came back home/Tried my best just to carry on.”
The album’s last track, “Over Your Shoulder,” mourns his father’s death in 2020. The Shultz brothers inherited milk crates with hundreds of their dad’s songs on old cassette tapes. A new original Cage song emerged, similar to their dad’s style, with the lyrics: “Don’t look back over your shoulder/I’m not saying don’t ask/When it feels like it gets colder/Every season will pass.”
Matt Shultz says the entire album marks a bit of a departure for a band who he admits often in the past wore their influences on their sleeves.
“We would be in the studio and definitely at times trying to imitate and emulate. But with this record, I think, we were just really relaxed into ourselves and reaching to make something that we love.”
Drake leads the 2024 BET Awards nominations with seven
Drake is the leading nominee for next month’s BET Awards, followed closely by Nicki Minaj.
The Canadian rapper received seven nominations Thursday, including an album of the year nod for his eighth studio album, “For All the Dogs.” One of the awards he’s up for is the music video for “First Person Shooter,” his collaboration with J. Cole that may have been the catalyst for his recent beef with rapper Kendrick Lamar.
Minaj received six nominations, including for album of the year for her highly anticipated “Pink Friday 2” release. Two of her nominations were for her song with Ice Spice, “Barbie World,” part of the blockbuster “Barbie” soundtrack.
Victoria Monét, one of several artists to receive five nominations, is scheduled to perform at the show, which will be held June 30 in Los Angeles.
Beyoncé, received four nominations, including for best female R&B/pop artist as well as recognition for two “Cowboy Carter” tracks, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.”
Her collaboration with Lamar, “America Has a Problem (Remix),” is competing against songs by Minaj, Usher, Cardi B and Drake.
Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy,” which features SZA and Sexyy Red, is competing for the best collaboration and two other awards.
The BET Awards extend beyond music with honors for film, acting and sports figures.
“Renaissance,” the Beyoncé tour film that was released in theaters late last year, is also nominated for best movie.
Super Bowl headliner Usher is among the artists vying for four awards, along with 21 Savage, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and Tyla, who won the inaugural best African music performance honor at the Grammy Awards.
Joining Monét, the best new artist Grammy winner, with five nominations apiece are J. Cole, Sexyy Red and SZA.
Sexyy Red will also perform during the show, as will Muni Long, Latto, Glorilla and Shaboozey.
The film nominees this year are: “American Fiction”; “Bob Marley: One Love”; “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé”; “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”; “The Book of Clarence”; “The Color Purple”; “The Equalizer 3” and “The Little Mermaid.”
Simone Biles, Naomi Asaka, Steph Curry, Lebron James and Patrick Mahomes are among the sports stars competing for awards.
Hawaii native Gankiewicz crowned Miss USA after the previous winner resigned
Savannah Gankiewicz of Hawaii was crowned Miss USA 2023 on Wednesday, more than a week after the previous titleholder resigned citing her mental health.
Gankiewicz, a model who leads a female empowerment nonprofit, will hold the title until August — the remainder of the pageant’s term, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
“I am ready to make a positive impact with this organization that I hold dear to my heart,” said Gankiewicz, of Maui, during a ceremony at the Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach.
As the first runner-up, Gankiewicz was announced as the replacement for former Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt, who stepped aside May 6. In a statement, Voigt thanked her fans and wrote, “Never compromise your physical and mental well-being.”
Voigt, a former Miss Utah, was crowned in September 2023.
Miss Teen USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, also resigned her title within days of Voigt’s resignation in a shock to the Miss Universe Organization, which runs both pageants.
Srivastava, the former Miss New Jersey Teen USA, wrote in a statement that her personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization.”
The Mirage casino, which ushered in an era of Las Vegas Strip megaresorts in the ’90s, is closing
LAS VEGAS | The iconic Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip will shut its doors this summer, the end of an era for a property credited with helping transform Sin City into an ultra-luxury resort destination.
The July 17 closure will clear the way for major renovations and construction on the 80-acre property, which is to reopen in 2027 as the Hard Rock Las Vegas, featuring a hotel tower in the shape of a guitar soaring nearly 700 feet above the heart of the Strip.
“We’d like to thank the Las Vegas community and team members for warmly welcoming Hard Rock after enjoying 34 years at The Mirage,” Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, said Wednesday in a statement announcing the closure.
It will be the second time this year that a Strip casino shutters. The Tropicana Las Vegas closed in April after 67 years to make room for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium planned as the future home of the relocating Oakland A’s.
Developed by former casino mogul Steve Wynn, the Mirage opened with a Polynesian theme as the Strip’s first megaresort in 1989, spurring a building boom on the famous boulevard through the 1990s.
Its volcano fountain was one of the first sidewalk attractions, predating the Venetian’s canals and the Bellagio’s dancing fountains. It was known as a venue where tourists could see Siegfried and Roy taming white tigers or a Cirque du Soleil act set to a Beatles soundtrack.
The final curtain on the Beatles-themed show, which brought Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr back together for public appearances throughout its 18-year run, also comes down in July.
Hard Rock International said Wednesday that more than 3,000 employees will be laid off and it expects to pay out $80 million in severance.
The Culinary Workers Union, which has represented about 1,700 employees at the Mirage since it opened, said in a statement that the contract it won last year ensures laid-off workers will get $2,000 for each year of service. The contract also gives them the option of being called back to work and maintaining their seniority when the hotel reopens.
“Culinary Union will continue to ensure workers are protected and centered in the property’s future,” the statement said.
The Mirage became the first Strip property to be run by a Native American tribe in 2022, after Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, purchased it from MGM Resorts in a cash deal worth nearly $1.1 billion.
Hard Rock said at the time that the property would remain open and operate under the Mirage brand for several years while it finalized renovation plans.
The Mirage is accepting no bookings for after July 14 and said any reservations past that date will be canceled and refunded.
—From AP reports
