Superchunk released a compact new power-pop song titled “Erasure” on Tuesday. The track will appear next month on What a Time to Be Alive, out February 16th. “Erasure” is squarely within Superchunk tradition, centering around Laura Ballance’s chugging basslines and the rattling, hyperactive drumming of Jon Wurster. Mac McCaughan adds his nasal, keening vocals and Jim Wilbur contributes scraping guitar. Superchunk also enlisted Katie Crutchfield from Waxahatchee and Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields to...
The Breeders unveiled a deceptively punishing new song, “All Nerve,” the title track from the group’s first album in 10 years, out March 2nd via 4AD. “All Nerve” opens with Kim Deal crooning wistful lyrics over a sparse tangle of shuffling drums and crackling guitars. But the song takes a delightfully heavy turn with a barrage of down beats as ragged riffs as Deal’s voice leaps to a wail. All Nerve follows the Breeders’ 2008 album Mountain Battles, but notably...
Car Seat Headrest will release a re-recorded, reimagined version of his 2011 Bandcamp LP, Twin Fantasy, on February 16th via Matador. In a statement about the project, singer-songwriter Will Toledo described the original, lo-fi album as “never a finished work,” adding, “It wasn’t until last year that I figured out how to finish it.” That process involved utilizing his current live band, a bigger budget and more scheduling flexibility. Toledo previewed the updated Twin Fantasy with a self-directed video for...
The four members of the Michigan band Greta Van Fleet look, act and sound like they were grown in the lab of some classic-rock-loving mad scientist. How else to explain a group of kids who go around dropping references to Vanilla Fudge’s Carmine Appice and Free’s Paul Kossoff, who cover Fairport Convention and Howlin’ Wolf – and who, by the way, make huge, throwback, blues-riff-riding rock that often sounds preposterously, uncannily close to newly unearthed Led Zeppelin tracks? “We are...
James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt will unite this summer for a joint tour. Each artist will perform full sets throughout the U.S. trek, which launches May 8th in Jacksonville, Florida; the jaunt spans May and June, including a pair of back-to-back shows at L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl, and concludes July 1st in Buffalo, New York. All tickets for all dates go on sale January 19th at 10 a.m. local time – except the St. Paul, Minnesota show, which will be available...
Black Eyed Peas take aim at police brutality, the criminal justice system and immigration policy on “Street Livin,'” a sobering new boom bap song the group shared on Monday. The Black Eyed Peas became global superstars during the second half of the 2000s with a stream of turbocharged dance pop singles, but they abandon that sound on their latest track. Instead, the group returns to the sample-heavy, socially-conscious hip-hop they favored early in their career. The beat to “Street Livin'”...
Eminem, the Killers and Muse will headline this year’s Bonnaroo, scheduled to return to “the Farm” in Manchester, Tennessee from June 7th – 10th. Future, Bassnectar, Sturgill Simpson, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Sheryl Crow, Paramore and Khalid are also on this year’s lineup, which also features Bon Iver performing “two unique sets.” In addition, the 17th annual festival will feature Mavis Staples, Alt-J, Broken Social Scene, Kaskade, Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, Trombone Shorty & Orleans...
Kendrick Lamar staged the first halftime performance in College Football Playoffs history, performing a four-song set featuring three songs from the rapper’s acclaimed Damn. as well as new single “All the Stars.” 50 Best Albums of 2017 Taylor Swift clapped back, Kendrick Lamar got personal, Lorde threw a high-concept party and more The mini-concert took place outside near Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium; inside the stadium, Donald Trump watched as Alabama took on Georgia in the championship game. Despite the...
Lana Del Rey warned fans that her potential lawsuit with Radiohead could result in the singer removing “Get Free” – the song accused of resembling the band’s “Creep” – from future editions of her latest LP Lust for Life. On Sunday night, hours after Del Rey confirmed that she might end up in court after failing to reach a compromise with Radiohead over the song’s publishing, the singer talked about the legal situation during her Denver concert (via Pitchfork). Prior...
The Weeknd has severed ties with clothing retailer H&M after a controversial photo of a black child modeling a hoodie reading “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” appeared on the Swedish company’s website. The singer tweeted on Monday, “Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. I’m deeply offended and will not be working with H&M anymore.” woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore…...
Eminem fires back at his critics in a remix of Revival track “Chloraseptic,” featuring 2 Chainz and Phresher. “Not as raw as I was; ‘Walk on Water’ sucks; Bitch, suck my dick/ Y’all saw the track list and had a fit ‘fore you heard it,” he rhymes. “So you formed your verdict while you sat with your arms crossed/ Did your little reaction videos and talked over songs/ Nah, dog, y’all saying I lost it, your fucking marbles are gone.” Throughout,...
David Byrne announced his new album American Utopia, the former Talking Heads singer’s first solo LP in 14 years. Byrne also unveiled the animated video for the album’s first single “Everybody’s Coming to My House,” co-written by longtime collaborator Brian Eno and feautirng contributions from Sampha, TTY and Onyx Collectiv’s Happa Isaiah Barr. The track glides along on a polyrhythmic groove that has become a stalwart of Byrne’s work, with the singer delivering lines like “I welcome you to...
Last weekend, 150 of tech’s most gifted engineers traveled to an Arizona resort to spend three days at an event that, despite having never happened before, is called Reunion. The group ranged from the semi-famous, like PayPal founder Max Levchin and Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott, to the spectacularly promising, like Stanford junior Nancy Xu. There were a few panels, some company presentations, and a smattering of horseback rides and hikes in the afternoons. The retreat is the formal...
Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers announced a co-headlining North American summer tour, with the 37-date trek kicking off May 10th in Charlotte, North Carolina and wrapping July 14th in Bethel, New York. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, January 12th at 10 a.m. local time in most cities via the Live Nation website. Citi cardmembers can access a pre-sale for U.S. dates from Wednesday, January 10th at 10 a.m. local time through Thursday, January 11th...
Rod Stewart is set to spend another summer on the road as the two-time Rock Hall singer announced a 22-date North American tour. Like Stewart’s 2017 trek, Cyndi Lauper will once again serve as special guest on the tour, which begins June 25th at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. A month later, the tour picks up again on July 24th in Hollywood, Florida and weaves its away across the nation’s arenas and amphitheaters before concluding September 1st at Seattle’s White River...
Pink will sing the National Anthem at this year’s Super Bowl LII, which hits Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4th. The Beautiful Trauma singer joins artists like Lady Gaga, Luke Bryan, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Garth Brooks, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey as performers of the “Star-Spangled Banner” prior to the Super Bowl. “I’m really looking forward to 2018. I’m really excited about the Grammy’s. Tour. Some other stuff that’s a secret still and I...
An unreleased demo of David Bowie‘s “Let’s Dance” has been unearthed to celebrate what would have been the rock icon’s 71st birthday Monday. Bowie and Chic’s Nile Rodgers, who produced 1983’s Let’s Dance, recorded this stripped-down version of the hit single on December 19th and 20th, 1982 at Montreux, Switzerland’s Mountain Studios. Compared to the bombast of the final version, the demo presents “Let’s Dance” in its bare bones form, with Bowie’s singing thrust...
Justin Timberlake announced his Man of the Woods Tour, the singer’s 27-date North American trek in support of his upcoming new LP. “The outdoors is the inspiration for a lot of these songs. That’s the main idea. The tour will be able to bring the outside in. How can we bring that to life?” Timberlake says in the tour’s trailer. “I want people to see the inspiration for how it ended up sounding. I’ve never seen that done before: Bring the...
Joan Baez discusses the end of her touring career and how her “pretty fucking gloomy” worldview informed her first album in a decade. Dana Tynan When Joan Baez, who recently announced that she’d be retiring from the road at the end of the year, began choosing music for her new album, she slowly found herself connecting to songs with a very specific set of emotions. “The direction this album went is that is going to be my last year...
The Greatest Showman finished atop the first Billboard 200 of 2018 as the soundtrack for the circus musical climbed to Number One in its fourth week of availability. 50 Best Albums of 2017 Taylor Swift clapped back, Kendrick Lamar got personal, Lorde threw a high-concept party and more The soundtrack – featuring songs performed by Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron and Zendaya – sold 106,000 total copies as the album completed its four-week ascension from Number 71 to Number 63...
