Music News
Neil Young’s Unreleased 1975 Album Homegrown Finally Surfaces in June
Roughly 46 years after it was recorded, Neil Young‘s “lost” 1975 album Homegrown is finally getting released. The 12-track LP, which Young describes as “the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes A Time,” arrives June 19th via Reprise Records. Homegrown was recorded between June of 1974 and January of 1975 with a studio band featuring Levon Helm, Ben Keith, Karl T. Himmel, Tim Drummond, Stan Szelest, and Robbie Robertson. Emmylou Harris also makes an appearance. Five of the tracks — “Love Is A Rose,” “Homegrown,” “White Line,” “Little Wing,” and “Star Of Bethlehem” — would find a home on other albums. The other six songs, as well as the spoken word narration of “Florida”, have never been issued before. Below, you can hear one of those later tr...
New Band Mrs. Piss (Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie) Announce Debut Album, Share Two New Songs: Stream
Mrs. Piss, courtesy of Grandstand Media Singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe and multi-instrumentalist Jess Gowrie have formed a new band, the sardonically dubbed Mrs. Piss. The duo’s debut album, Self-Surgery, is out May 29th, and they’ve shared two new songs, “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” and “Knelt”. Mrs. Piss reconciles a long musical relationship between Wolfe and Gowrie, who once played together in a band called Red Host in the early 2000s. The idea to form a new band came when the two were touring together for Wolfe’s 2017 album, Hiss Spun. The two singles showcase the duo’s sonic diversity and are more urgent and abrasive than Wolfe’s folk-tinged output. “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” is a ripping post-punk track while “Knelt” is a droning wall of sludge, slower but no less heavy. For Wo...
Ben Gibbard Performs “Life Under Quarantine” on Colbert: Watch
If you put aside the disparities that always exist between societal strata and the political nonsense surrounding the health crisis, there’s something equalizing about the pandemic. Late night TV has provided somewhat a reflection of this, as the increasing delirium of hosts like Stephen Colbert mirrors our own stir-craziness, and guests have been reduced to the same Zoom calls in which everyone else is partaking. Take, for example, Ben Gibbard’s performance of “Life Under Quarantine” on A Late Show Wednesday night. The Death Cab for Cutie frontman debuted the new song back in March during a livestream for Seattle news outlet The Stranger’s “A Message to the City” series. Back then, he delivered the sad, strumming musing on our current trying situation while sitting squarely in f...
Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, More to Play Jazz Foundation of America Livestream
Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray, Angelique Kidjo, Jon Batiste, and many others are participating in a livestream concert fundraiser benefiting the Jazz Foundation of America and its COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund. Taking place tonight (May 14th) beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET, the two-hour livestream will be hosted by actor/comedian Keegan-Michael Key and will feature celebrity appearances from Bruce Willis, Danny Glover, Jeffrey Wright, Rosie Perez, and Michael Imperioli. In between live performances from the aforementioned artists, there will also be archival performance footage featuring Patti Smith, Herbie Hancock, Brittany Howard, and August Greene featuring Common and Karriem Riggins A repeat videocast of the livestream will be shown at 10:00 p.m. ET and be available online f...
The Killers Dedicate “Caution” Performance on Fallon to Frontline Workers: Watch
The Killers may not be able to hit the road due to the pandemic, but they’ve certainly been making the rounds on the TV circuit. In support of forthcoming album Imploding the Mirage, Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and CBS This Morning. On Wednesday, the pair continued their streak by performing an at-home edition of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Broadcasting from a remote location, Flowers and Vannucci rolled out early single “Caution”. Though it was only just the two of them at the helms, their homemade, stripped-back rendition still captured the spark of The Killers’ songwriting prowess. Prior to the performance, Vannucci dedicated the song to workers “who are putting themselves out on the frontlines helping e...
Arkansas Concert Promoter Begrudgingly Agrees to Follow Reopening Guidelines
Arkansas’s governor is allowing America’s first post-quarantine concert to move forward after the promoter agreed to adhere to the state’s reopening guidelines. As previously reported, Bishop Gunn singer/guitarist Travis McCready was set to play a limited-capacity concert at TempleLive in Forth Smith, Arkansas on Friday, May 22nd, marking the first such live event to take place in the country since COVID-19 effectively shuttered the live music industry. However, after learning of the venue’s specific social distancing plans, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) hit the venue with a cease-and-desist order. Hutchinson’s main point of contention was over the timing of the event, as it was to take place three days prior to the date (May 18th) in which the governor previousl...
St. Vincent Performs “New York” Acoustic at BAM Virtual Gala: Watch
St. Vincent The annual Brooklyn Academy of Music’s annual gala went virtual on Wednesday as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While it wasn’t the usual red-carpeted banquet affair, the stars still came out to celebrate and raise money for the BAM community. The evening saw a number of special guest performers, but they saved the best for last. To conclude the fundraiser, St. Vincent hopped on video chat to play an acoustic version of her 2017 single “New York” with dark, moody visuals. The BAM Virtual Gala was a tribute to this year’s honorees: actress Cate Blanchett, writer Zadie Smith, and philanthropist Jeanne Donovan Fisher. After presenting special at-home versions of the previously scheduled choir, dance, and art performances, the hour-long event closed with Annie Clark’s in...
Prince and the Revolution Concert Film is Streaming on YouTube for Next 72 Hours
Turn those quarantine blues into “Computer Blue”. Prince’s unforgettable concert film Prince and the Revolution: Live, which gives you a front-row seat to his 1985 “Purple Rain Tour”, is streaming on YouTube for the next 72 hours. Grab your lighters or phone flashlights and stream it in full below. Recorded on March 30th, 1985, the concert film sees Prince dazzle the stage at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, with a 20-song setlist, as well as costume changes, a guitar battle, and his iconic dance antics. The High Priest of Pop masterfully belts out every song from Purple Rain, but the evening is also full of other crowd-pleasing hits, including “1999”, “Little Red Corvette”, and “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”, which is one of Prince’s more, uh, spicy songs. A 20-minute extended versi...
Members of Anthrax and Suicidal Tendencies Rock Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” While Social Distancing: Watch
Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante has kept sharp during the coronavirus pandemic by playing covers with fellow metal musicians while social distancing. He’s posted the performances on his YouTube channel, and for his latest video, he’s once again teamed with Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Diaz to play through Billie Eilish‘s pop hit “bad guy”. Benante (drums and guitar) and Diaz (bass) play along to Eilish’s vocals, and as expected, rock out a bit with the arrangement. For Eilish fans, it hints at what her music would sound like with more of hard rock vibe. As it is, Eilish has already shown her appreciation for heavy metal acts like Type O Negative and Rob Zombie with her onstage attire. The fandom goes both ways, with the longtime metal musicians Benante and Diaz both sharing their admirat...
Peter Hook to Stream Concert Film Featuring Joy Division’s Entire Catalog
This year marks both the 40th anniversary of Joy Division’s final album, Closer, and the death of late frontman Ian Curtis. The band’s surviving members are commemorating in a number of ways, including a vinyl reissue of the former and a tribute livestream event for the latter. Now we can add a new concert film to that list, as Peter Hook & The Light have announced a stream of the previously unreleased So This Is Permanent. The film captures an exclusive, 500-capacity show that Peter Hook & The Light’s played at Christ Church in Macclesfield, England, Curtis’ hometown in 2015. The special gig saw the the band run through Joy Division’s entire catalog to celebrate what was then the group’s 35th anniversary. Technically, three tracks were released from this show prior to now, but the...
BTS Announce Concert Livestream “BANG BANG CON The Live”
Even a pandemic can’t stop BTS from connecting with their devoted ARMY. The beloved K-pop outfit has just announced a virtual concert called “BANG BANG CON The Live”, set to take place next month. A paid livestream event, “BANG BANG CON The Live” will see BTS intimately “inviting fans into their room” for 90 minutes of flashy K-pop and dance moves. The digital concert officially airs online on June 14th at 6:00 p.m. KST/ 5:00 a.m. EDT, with additional details coming in the near future. Editors’ Picks This virtual concert follows a similarly titled online event, “BANG BANG CON”, which occurred last month and featured BTS concert footage from the last six years. With their entire world tour on hold due to coronavirus, “BANG BANG CON The Live” is the next best thing for devout foll...
Slipknot, Coheed and Cambria, and KISS Cruises Rescheduled for 2021
Slipknot (photo by Raymond Ahner); Coheed and Cambria (photo by Thaib A. Wahab); KISS (photo by Kevin RC Wilson Planned 2020 rock cruises led by Slipknot, Coheed and Cambria, and KISS have all been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced Thursday by the events’ producer Sixthman. A number of the production company’s other cruises and vacation festivals have also been moved to next year. Slipknot had already announced that their Knotfest at Sea cruise would be postponed, but now some specific details have been revealed. Instead of setting sail from Barcelona, Spain, as it was scheduled to do this August, Knotfest at Sea will now depart from Athens, Greece in August 2021. Exact dates will be announced shortly. In addition to Slipknot, the 2020 lineup was to feature Be...
