Beach House will replace Iggy Pop as the final night headliner at the upcoming Desert Daze festival near Lake Perris, Calif., after Pop’s French-based band was unable to enter the United States due to visa complications. The performance was to be Pop’s only one in North America this year. “I am disappointed to announce the cancellation of my appearance at the Desert Daze Festival,” says Pop. “Due to a confluence of world events, we have had unprecedented visa issues for my French band way beyond our control, and the band can’t enter the United States in time for the date. I am frustrated to let my U.S. fans down. I’ve left no stone unturned to be there with you on October 2nd, but now I can only plan to play this wonderful festival again in the future.” Pop’s next album was produced by And...
Iggy Pop, Descendents and Parquet Courts top the bill for the first Destination Chaos festival, which will take place Jan. 28-Feb. 4 at the Senator Resort on Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. Tickets for what’s described as “all-inclusive week of music, comedy, booze, culinary madness and tropical debauchery” go on sale Saturday (Aug. 20). “Join us for seven raging nights of live music and laughs across three stages,” organizers wrote on the event Web site. It’s time to leave your suburban home for a holiday in the sun!” Destination Chaos’ lineup further boasts Gogol Bordello, Peter Hook & the Light performing Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures in its entirety, Amyl & the Sniffers, Bouncing Souls, Shame and The Bronx, among others. Comedians Josh Adam Meyers, Eddie Pepitone, Jo...
Clem Burke, most well known as the drummer for Blondie, has truly lived it up. Even though he thought he’d be retired by 30, he’s still going, and living it up, with a soon-to-be-released memoir to boot. He has been the drummer for four different bands inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—including Blondie, the Ramones, the Go-Go’s, and 2022 inductees the Eurythmics—and has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Gloucestershire for his Clem Burke Drumming Project. The man just won’t stop. I caught up with Clem a few months back, as he was getting off stage playing Cruel World Fest in Pasadena with Blondie. He told me all about his many adventures on tour, starting with playing with Iggy Pop in the late ‘70s. Clem Burke (in white T-shirt) with Chris Stein (...
Iggy Pop, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan and Mavis Staples are among the heavy hitters appearing on the new Leonard Cohen tribute album Here It Is, which will arrive Oct. 14 from Blue Note. The 12-track project was produced by longtime Cohen friend Larry Klein and is led by Taylor’s cover of “Coming Back to You,” originally found on Cohen’s 1984 album Various Positions. “Leonard Cohen had been a friend since 1982 or so, and in the last 15 years of his life, he became a close friend,” Klein says. “He was possibly the wisest and funniest friend that I had, and someone that I enjoyed, immensely, in every way. After he passed away, I found myself frequently covering his songs with other artists that I was working with. One reason, of course, is that the songs are so ...
When you’re doing a DIY tour, sometimes you’re SOL. Such is the case for Ravagers singer Alex Hagen, pumping gas into a rented box truck, while other band members are somewhere up on the road up ahead. The band’s 2003 Ford Econoline wagon didn’t enjoy the sandstorm between Tempe, Arizona and Austin, and it protested with a cracked head gasket. It’s not exactly what they wanted on the tour supporting their badass Badlands LP on Brooklyn label Spaghetty Town Records — a debut album the band self-describes as “an auditory onslaught of filth and fun, of catchiness and catastrophe.” Stepped in the coolness of the distant punk rock past (Iggy Pop, the Dead Boys) and the more recent past (Turbonegro), but charging into the future with tightly crafted songs, Ravagers even made a concession this to...
Desert Daze is back for its 10th edition — and it’s quite a lineup. Tame Impala will mark the 10th anniversary of its Lonerism by heading to the California desert to play the album in full. Iggy Pop is also playing what’s billed as his only North American show in 2022 at the festival. The punk legend is currently on tour in Europe. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will also be on hand and are gearing up to play an “Exclusive Southern California Set.” Other artists featured include Chicano Batman, The Marías, Sky Ferreira, BADBADNOTGOOD, JPEGMAFIA, Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding, and Men I Trust among many more. As usual, Desert Daze will feature a number of video artists and art installations including work by Tarik Barri, Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show, and Slim Reaper. The festival ta...
Gucci model, COVID–anthem creator and punk Godfather Iggy Pop teamed with storied Hammond B-3 organist Dr. Lonnie Smith to cover Donovan’s 1966 hit “Sunshine Superman.” The song will appear on Smith’s forthcoming album Breathe, which arrives March 26 on Blue Note. “I was playing with my trio at Arts Garage in Delray Beach in Florida,” Smith said a statement. “Iggy would come by and say he wanted to play with me. I let him play slaparoo and he loved it. He enjoyed playing with us. We thought about recording a few songs, so we went in with my trio backing us up, and it worked.” It is the companion album to Smith’s 2018 LP All in My Mind. Smith was a member of the George Benson quartet in the 1960s, and has performed with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight and Etta James. The eight...
Iggy Pop is feeling inspired by the travesty of 2020, and it’s resulted in the new single, “Dirty Little Virus.” If you ever wanted to hear a punk/rock icon stoically singing “COVID-19,” now you can. There are a bunch of… interesting one-liners, including the opening lyric: “COVID-19 is on the scene.” It’s all very detached and matter-of-fact. “I was moved to write a direct lyric, not something too emotional or deep,” Pop said in a video, “more like journalism: ‘who, what, when where?’ I left out the ‘why’ because that gets too complex, but I put in how I felt about it.” Another odd point-blank lyric: “She’s only 19 but she can kill ya.” He’s not wrong. Playing guitar and bass on the cut is Ari Teitel, while the tune’s co-writer Leron Thomas is credited with “editing, trumpet wor...
Punk Renaissance man Iggy Pop has shared a French rendition of Elvis Costello’s “No Flag,” a single from Costello’s Hey Clockface album. The en Français cover is accompanied by an animated music video hand-drawn by Arlo McFurlow and Eamon Singer. The legendary musicians, who first met in 1977, recently reminisced via Zoom about the past, present and future for Rolling Stone. Costello mentioned that “No Flag” was one of the first songs recorded for his album, which dropped on Oct. 30: “It shared one word and one letter with a famous song of yours [“No Fun”],” he said, “but nobody spotted where it was drawing from, because nobody expects me to take a cue from you.” Pop recalls the first time he heard Costello: “When I heard your music, I felt like you were the only thing comi...
The unofficial queen of covers has a few originals ready to go. Music trailblazer Miley Cyrus announced her upcoming seventh studio album, Plastic Hearts, on Friday, set to release on Nov. 27 via RCA. The album follows her 2019 EP She is Coming and her 2017 album Younger Now. The new release, originally rumored to be called She is Miley Cyrus, will feature lead single “Midnight Sky” and Cyrus’ covers of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and The Cranberries’ “Zombie.” The record will include 12 original tracks from the “Wrecking Ball” singer. “Just when I thought this body of work was finished, it was all erased,” Cyrus wrote of the album. “Including most of the music’s relevance. Because everything had changed. Nature did what I now see as a favor and destroyed what I couldn’...