Katy Perry said that if she were to rewrite her breakout Number One hit “I Kissed a Girl” today, she would change some lyrics to get rid of “a couple of stereotypes.” In a new interview with Glamour published on Tuesday, Perry revisited some of her singles as part of a video in which she watches fan covers of her songs and compliments their interpretations of her work. After praising an acoustic rendition of “I Kissed a Girl” by Ramona Rox...
Howard Stern has recruited artists like Garbage, Billy Corgan, Car Seat Headrest and Greta Van Fleet to record David Bowie songs for an all-star tribute to the late icon. Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Bleachers, Daryl Hall, Peter Frampton and Todd Rundgren are also among the 25 artists to contribute Bowie tracks to The Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie special, which premieres February 9th on SiriusXM’s Howard 101 channel. “When I got into rock & roll music, one...
Lil Uzi Vert made his late-night debut on Monday, performing his emo-rap ballad “The Way Life Goes” on The Late Show. Lil Uzi Vert is famous for his hectic, daredevil live performances. Last May, he dove into a festival crowd from an estimated height of 20 feet above the ground. But during his visit to The Late Show, admittedly a more contained environment, the rapper was solemn and borderline lethargic. He slowly patrolled the stage, singing along indifferently to “The Way Life...
The planned, estate-approved Frank Zappa hologram tour has recruited its band of former Mothers for the “Bizarre World of Frank Zappa” trek. The tour kicks off later this year. The Mothers alumni set to make special appearances on the hologram tour include longtime Zappa collaborators Steve Vai, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ian Underwood and Joe’s Garage vets Warren Cuccurullo, Vinnie Colaiuta, Arthur Barrow and Ed Mann. The touring unit itself boasts guitarists Ray White and Mike Keneally, bassist Scott Thunes,...
Six top female music industry executives called the Recording Academy “woefully out of touch” in a joint letter marking the latest fallout following Neil Portnow’s controversial “step up” remarks. While the letter to the Recording Academy’s board of trustees didn’t call for Portnow’s removal as president, the women – including Epic Records president Sylvia Rhone and Roc Nation chief operating officer Desiree Perez, the New York Times reported – condemned his comments after the...
British band Alt-J have carved a spring tour around their upcoming North American music festival dates. The jaunt comes in two waves: First, Alt-J will tour the West Coast in April around their two Coachella sets. In June, the band returns for an East Coast trek revolving around Bonnaroo, Mountain Jam and Firefly gigs. The June tour also includes a June 15th stop at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, the largest North American venue the Relaxer band has headlined so far....
It’s been 14 years since A Perfect Circle last put out a new album, and frontman Maynard James Keenan is acutely aware of this fact. So much so that he found himself asking a litany of philosophical questions when making the group’s upcoming full-length, Eat the Elephant. “Do you reinvent yourself and try to look to the future?” he posits to Rolling Stone. “Do you do what you did before to satisfy the people who were there before? And when...
Rae Sremmurd‘s third album, Sr3mm, appears to be imminent as the Mississippi brothers released the lead single off forthcoming album, “T’d Up.” They debuted the song at Super Bowl Live over the weekend. Swae Lee co-produced the single alongside Metro Boomin. The song carries the same syrup-y, sleepy beat of Sremmurd’s last few singles, including the hit “Black Beatles.” Lee handles the half-sung boastful chorus. “I t’d up/ I don’t see no speed bump,” he repeats. Keeping with the...
Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon announced his final tour this spring will be the “Homeward Bound – The Farewell Tour.” “I’ve often wondered what it would feel like to reach the point where I’d consider bringing my performing career to a natural end. Now I know: it feels a little unsettling, a touch exhilarating and something of a relief,” Simon said in a statement. “I love making music, my voice is still strong, and my band is a tight, extraordinary group of gifted...
Dev Hynes released two new songs under his Blood Orange moniker. “Christopher & 6th” and “June 12th” are the musician’s first new solo songs since he released Freetown Sound in 2016. “Christopher & 6th” — presumably a nod to the Manhattan corner not too far off from where the Stonewall riots occurred — is the more lo-fi of the two tracks, as he focuses on mostly delivering the song through his tender upper register. On “June 12th,” Hynes mostly talks...
Pink delivered a strong rendition of the National Anthem ahead of Super Bowl LII Sunday night despite battling the flu. The singer, a self-professed Philadelphia Eagles fan, is from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which is about 30 miles outside Philadelphia. Flanked by members of the military and an American flag, the Beautiful Trauma singer started with a smile and the disposal of her chewing gum. With striking power, she hit the notes without strain and completed the song in just under one minute and...
A year after Migos’ Culture debuted atop the Billboard 200, the Atlanta trio repeated the feat as their Culture II opened at Number One with 199,000 total copies sold. However, of Culture II‘s 199,000 total copies sold, only 38,000 were from traditional album sales, with streaming equivalent albums (SEAs) responsible for 150,000 copies. With a 24-song track list, the album seems specifically engineered to amplify streaming totals, which it did successfully: Culture II had the Billboard 200’s most opening-week streams...
LCD Soundsystem made their Austin City Limits debut Saturday with an hour-long episode. The concert, filmed on November 1st at Austin’s Moody Theatre, featured eight of the dance-rock act’s songs, including five tracks from James Murphy and company’s comeback LP American Dream, one of Rolling Stone‘s 50 Best Albums of 2017. 50 Best Albums of 2017 Taylor Swift clapped back, Kendrick Lamar got personal, Lorde threw a high-concept party and more “When LCD played their ‘last show’ at Madison Square...
Dua Lipa made her Saturday Night Live debut on the show’s Natalie Portman-hosted episode with a pair of tracks from the breakout British singer’s self-titled 2017 album. The 22-year-old singer opened her musical guest spot by showcasing her “New Rules.” Later, Lipa delivered the ballad “Homesick,” co-written by Coldplay’s Chris Martin. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lipa labeled her music as “dance-crying.” “It’s a thing!” she said. “Lyrically, it’s really...
Police in Orlando, acting on a “credible threat,” arrested a man outside of a Lana Del Rey concert Saturday night on charges that he planned to kidnap the singer. Michael Hunt, a 43-year-old man from Riverview, Florida, was arrested a block from Orlando’s Amway Center – where Del Rey was scheduled to perform – on charges of aggravated stalking and attempted kidnapping after Hunt made threatening posts and videos involving Del Rey on social media. At the time of his...
The night before Dave Matthews Band perform at a pre-Super Bowl show in Minneapolis, the group’s longtime violinist Boyd Tinsley announced he is taking “a break” from the band and touring. “I need to take a break from the band & touring 2 focus on my family & my health 4 a while,” Tinsley tweeted Friday night, less than 24 hours before the group’s The Night Before gig at the Xcel Energy Center. “I will miss you guys & my...
Snoop Dogg delivered on his promise to record a gospel album, Bible of Love. The 32-track double album, which features artists like Tye Tribbet, the Clark Sisters, Faith Evans and Rance Allen, is due out March 16th according to the record’s iTunes preorder page. Snoop Dogg also unveiled the new video for the album’s seven-minute closing track, “Words Are Few,” featuring B Slade and Snoop performing the song in church. The rapper originally released the inspirational single in September. Snoop Dogg...
Dennis Edwards, who joined the Temptations in 1968 and sang on a string of the group’s hits including “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “Ball of Confusion” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” in an initial tenure that stretched to 1977, has died. His family confirmed the news to CBS News, saying he was in Chicago at the time of his death, though did not disclose a cause of death. He was 74. Edwards, who was born February 3rd, 1932...
Albert Hammond Jr. announced his new album Francis Trouble, an LP inspired in part by the stillborn death of the Strokes guitarist’s twin. According to Hammond Jr., the album is about “the lingering effects that event has had in his life and music. In November of 1979, Hammond Jr.’s mother, Claudia, miscarried. Although they rushed to the hospital, Claudia and Albert Hammond Sr. were told that the baby was far too premature to live. Albert continued to grow inside of...
Justin Timberlake, Man of the Woods“Justin Timberlake continues to stay dedicated to Timbaland/Neptunes futuresex beats and his familiar lovesound come-ons that have made him the biggest male pop star of his generation,” Christopher R. Weingarten writes about the Super Bowl halftime show headliner’s fifth album. “But, as its title implies, much of Man of the Woods also comes with the moonshine-and-mason-jar glisten of country, blues and folk. … To Timberlake, ‘rustic’ means...