SURPRISE!
For being one of the most scrutinized couples in the world, Beyoncé and Jay-Z sure are good at sneaking out new music. Over the weekend, they surreptitiously dropped the LP Everything Is Love on Jay-Z's streaming service Tidal; it's also now available to Apple Music and Spotify Premium subscribers. This is their first album-length collaboration, and perhaps the final entry in a trilogy of records (following Beyoncé's Lemonade and Jay-Z's 4:44) intimately exploring the supposed infidelity in their marriage. The album is already receiving raves, and its first single "Apeshit" comes with an austere music video filmed inside the Louvre. (NATHAN WEINBENDER)
THIRSTY FOR MEDALS
The Washington Beer Awards were recently announced during a festival in King County, and four Spokane breweries came home with medals, including new kid on the block Hidden Mother Brewery. The annual competition had 1,297 beers submitted throughout the state. Check out how our local breweries fared below:
Gold
Iron Goat Brewing Co. Oatmeal Brown (American-Style Brown Ale)
The Hidden Mother Brewery Pine Tree Peppercorn Saison (Experimental Beer)
Silver
No-Li Brewhouse Born & Raised IPA (Double Red Ale)
The Hidden Mother Brewery Morel Mushroom Red (Experimental Beer)
Bronze
River City Brewing Colonel Crusher (Barleywine)
(DEREK HARRISON)
ON THIS WEEK'S PLAYLIST
Some noteworthy new music arrives online and in stores June 22. To wit:
DAWES, Passwords. These Los Angeles folk rockers write some killer songs and remain criminally underappreciated.
DEATH GRIPS, Year of the Snitch. The aggro Sacramento experimental duo is not for the faint of heart.
KAMASI WASHINGTON, Heaven and Earth. The boundary-pushing saxophonist and composer has become an unlikely festival favorite. His latest is a double album.
NINE INCH NAILS, Bad Witch. Trent Reznor's first full-length under the NIN name in five years. (DAN NAILEN)
BARTLETT II
ICYMI, the folks behind the Bartlett, Karli and Caleb Ingersoll, announced they're aiming to open a second, larger venue in the space that formerly housed the Sunset Junction bar in Browne's Addition. We don't know the name of the new spot yet, although we like Inlander staffer Daniel Walters' suggestion: the Bart. We do know they're trying to raise $40,000 through donations, auctions and various incentive programs at an event, Kickstart the Bartlett 2.0, at the Bartlett on Thursday, June 28. You can find out more and buy tickets to the fundraiser at thebartlettspokane.com. (DAN NAILEN)
BLUTHS ARE BACK
The fourth season of Arrested Development, revived for Netflix in 2013, took away the central elements of what made the show such a hit in the 2000s. By focusing episodes on just one character, the show was stripped of its sharp comedic timing. And while Gob Bluth is hilarious in small doses, he doesn't necessarily carry an entire episode. Season five, released in May, fixes that problem, going back to the same chronological structure that helped make the show funny in the first place. The end product is as good as any Arrested Development fan can expect a decade past the show's prime. (WILSON CRISCIONE)
