At some point in the past couple of years, Usher has started hand-feeding cherries to female fans in the crowd at his shows. It’s a simple enough gag, but it’s made multiple headlines: Last month, rumors spread that one cherry recipient was leaving her husband due to her spicy public moment with Usher, but she later cleared the air by saying she hadn’t spoken to the singer since the show and she wasn’t even married anyway. A few shows later, Usher apologized to the crowd at his Abu Dhabi show, saying he couldn’t feed cherries due to the UAE’s strict public decency laws. Many awkward moments have occurred due to Usher’s cherry-feeding frenzy.

Like their fellow Irishmen Kneecap, post-punk band the Murder Capital have been facing some pushback over their public advocacy for Palestine and their condemnation of the Israeli government’s ongoing genocide. During recent shows, they’ve been waving a Palestinian flag onstage, and that’s apparently been getting them into some hot water with certain venues. After the Gretchen Club in Berlin said the Murder Capital couldn’t mention Palestine during their scheduled show last night, the band gave a statement outside the venue about their choice to not perform there. Here’s what James McGovern said:

Since they began touring their latest album Only God Was Above Us, Vampire Weekend have been enjoying doing multiple shortened covers toward the end of their sets. Those are usually audience requests, performed unpracticed with various degrees of success. Last night they headlined Just Like Heaven at Pasadena’s Brookside Park, a festival known for booking 2000s/2010s indie hitmakers. And so instead of taking requests, Vampire Weekend did a “salute to indie,” covering their blog-rock peers in Phoenix (“Lisztomania”), Tame Impala (“The Less I Know the Better”), Beach House (“Space Song”), Grizzly Bear (“Two Weeks”), and TV On The Radio (“Wolf Like Me”).

Turnstile’s new album Never Enough is arriving next month. Before it’s out, the Baltimore hardcore band has a few of US shows planned, including stops in Los Angeles, Oxnard, and Brooklyn. Last night they did live debuts of some of the LP singles during an epic free hometown show at the Wyman Park Dell, where there was apparently no barricades, no security, free water, and ample opportunities to donate to Healthcare For The Homeless.

Earlier this week, André 3000 surprise-dropped an improvisational piano EP and showed up to the Met Gala with an entire piano on his back. It serves as the follow-up to his 2023 flute album New Blue Sun, but jazz pianist Matthew Shipp is not a fan.

Earlier this week, HEALTH returned with the Chelsea Wolfe collab “MEAN.” On Thursday (May 8), the Los Angeles band’s frontman Jake Duzsik joined mainstream metal band Bad Omens during their Sonic Temple set to perform their song “The Drain.”

The Simpsons did a ska episode. On Sunday (May 4), episode 16 of season 36 aired and starred a character named Maximillian von Wonthelm, who’s a member of a ska band called the Skankfurters. It featured music cues from Hepcat.

Waxahatchee is currently on tour, playing headline shows and opening for Wilco. On Friday (May 9), she played Tennessee at the Pinnacle and had Brennan Wedl join her for a cover of Kathleen Edwards’ “Six O’Clock News.”

This week marks one year since the death of Steve Albini. On Friday (May 9), the legendary recording engineer’s estate launched a sale of his archives, including books, records, CDs, shirts, flyers, zines, and more.

New type of pope dropped. Harry was in apparently in Vatican City for the announcement? But streets are saying Leo is more of a second wave emo fan.