Rock
Powderfinger Are Reuniting For a Fundraising Virtual Concert
BRISBANE — They’re back. Powderfinger, arguably Australia’s biggest guitar band of the century, are reuniting for a one-off fundraising virtual concert. Dubbed One Night Lonely, the gig will stream Saturday, May 23 on YouTube and will raise much needed money for Support Act, the national charity that helps artists, roadies and music workers in crisis, and Beyond Blue, an organization that provides advice and support on mental health issues. Rumors of a Powderfinger reunion are as regular as a hot Australian summer. A teaser on social media Wednesday confirmed something was up, and the official announcement dropped early Thursday. Testing… is this thing on? — Powderfinger (@powderfinger_au) May 13, 2020 It’s been a decade since the five-piece from Brisbane were an active outfit....
The Killers Bring the Energy, Dedicate ‘Caution’ to Frontline Workers on ‘Fallon’: Watch
The Killers hit the right note, with the right message, when they appeared on The Tonight Show on Wednesday night (May 13). Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci represented the Las Vegas pop-rock outfit for an at-home performance of “Caution,” lifted from their forthcoming set Imploding the Mirage. At the top, Vannucci dedicated the song to healthcare workers “who are putting themselves out on the frontlines helping everybody in need.” He added, “we can’t tell you how much we appreciate that and how heroic that is.” The pair brought the energy and filled it up on guitars, keys and a drum machine, with no gimmicks. “Caution” made chart history last month when it rose 2-1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs airplay survey, a full 13 years and six months after their last leader on the...
Bryan Adams Blasts ‘Wet Markets’ for COVID-19, Faces Accusations of Racism
Bryan Adams posted an acoustic quarantine video performance of his 1983 hit “Cuts Like a Knife” on Monday (May 11) on the day that he was slated to kick off a run of shows at the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London. But it was his angry rant about the COVID-19 pandemic that really caught people’s attention. “Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of a tenancy of gigs at the @royalalberthall, but thanks to some f—ing bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards, the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus,” Adams wrote, along with the hashtag #banwetmarkets, the latest in a series of wet market criticisms from the vegan musician. “My message to them other than &...
‘Rise Up New York!’ Telethon: The 10 Best Moments
“We care about our neighbors, and that’s why we want to help.” New York native and acting legend Robert De Niro kicked off Robin Hood and iHeartMedia’s Rise Up New York! telethon on Monday (May 11) with that simple reasoning about why the benefit show was happening. Since the coronavirus began spreading across the nation earlier this year, New York City has been the hardest hit, becoming the epicenter of the pandemic with more than 26,000 deaths to date and too many jobs lost. The telethon, hosted by Tina Fey from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, featured numerous famous faces with New York ties, from musicians to Broadway stars to chefs and beyond. Each offered messages of hope and urged viewers to donate to help the people of New York get back on their feet after the devasta...
On the Heels of ‘Level of Concern,’ Twenty One Pilots’ Tyler Joseph Says a New Album Is Coming Soon
Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots curated an “At Home With” playlist for Apple Music today (May 11) and dissected his picks with Zane Lowe while discussing what’s cued up next for him. Before the Ohio-based duo hit No. 1 again on Billboard‘s Alternative Songs airplay chart (dated May 9) with “Level of Concern,” Joseph disclosed there was a do-or-die pressure to put it out. “We really tasked everyone, all of our partners and everyone that helped us release this with, ‘Hey this needs to come out right now or it’s not coming out,'” he told Lowe in the interview. “I can’t tell you how many emails I got just from the Atlantic office that were saying, ‘Thank you for this because this is a reason for...
Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil on the Prospects of a Solo Album
Kyle Meredith With… Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil jumps into the Delorean with Kyle Meredith to revisit the Screaming Life/FOPP compilation, the “Room Without a View” single, and how the Seattle band found inspiration in The Melvins, Malfunkshun, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and The Beatles. The guitarist also recalls writing page-turner music for the Encarta 95 program, the label issuing the Alive in the Superunknown CD-ROM, and forming The No WTO Combo alongside Krist Novoselic and Jello Biafra. Upon their return to the present, Thayil also says he was about to do a tour with The Blasters’ Dave Alvin before t...
Little Richard Was a Quiet Civil Rights Pioneer Whose Concerts Helped Push Culture Past Segregation
“With Richard, although they still had the audiences segregated in the building, they were there together. And most times, before the end of the night, they would all be mixed together,” — producer H.B. Barnum in biography ‘The Life and Times of Little Richard.’ The early history of rock ‘n’ roll is a story of segregation — and Little Richard, who died of bone cancer at 87 on May 9, was a key player in the fight to destroy it. Because of Jim Crow laws, and racism in general, African-American musicians from Louis Armstrong to Charlie Parker to Motown revues traveling through the South spent much of the 20th century relegated to black hotels and black restaurants, denied entrance even to hotels where they were headlining. Ballrooms and auditoriums dr...
With Little Richard’s Death, Only Two Members of the Inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class Are Still Living
Rock’n’roll really does keep you young. But not immortal, sad to say. With Little Richard‘s death today (May 9) at age 87, now just two members of the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are still living — Jerry Lee Lewis, who is 84, and Don Everly, the older of The Everly Brothers, who is 83. The other members of the first class, from 1986, have all died. Three of them were inducted posthumously: Buddy Holly had died way back in 1959 (at age 22), Sam Cooke in 1964 (at age 33) and Elvis Presley in 1977 (at age 42). But all of the other members of the inaugural class lived to see their inductions and in fact made it into the 2000s, which suggests that rock’n’roll really does keep you young. But not immortal, sad to say: Ray Ch...
Here’s How Billboard Reviewed Little Richard’s ‘Tutti Frutti’ in 1955
The song was Little Richard’s first entry on a Billboard chart in 1955. There wasn’t much else like “Tutti Frutti” when Little Richard premiered the song in 1955. The risqué song about sex and dancing, helped Richard land performing slots in clubs, and later established him as a certified hitmaker. The track also earned him his first career Billboard chart entry in 1955, debuting at No. 12 on the Best Sellers in Stores chart in November 1955, and later reaching No. 17 on the Most Played in Juke Boxes tally in 1956. Before that, though, Billboard reviewed the song in the October 29, 1955 issue of the magazine, calling it “A cleverly styled novelty with nonsense words.” Here’s the full mini-review from the magazine, alongside other by The Cadillacs, Piano Red, Margie Day and Rollee McG...
Ranking: The Beatles’ Albums from Worst to Best
Almost everybody has a Beatles moment. Mine came when I was 10 years old, riding in the middle row of a 1994 Dodge Caravan on a family road trip from Indiana down to the Great Smoky Mountains. My step-brother had just gotten cassette copies of 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, better remembered as “The Red Album” and “The Blue Album” by anyone who grew up with parents who’d spent the ’60s as teenagers. We played those tapes non-stop from Kokomo to Gatlinburg and back again, the sounds of “Love Me Do” and “Ticket to Ride” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” on a continuous week-long loop. I remember tears welling in my eyes during “In My Life”, the hairs raising on the back of my neck at the start of “Eleanor Rigby”, the strange kaleidoscopic friendliness that radiated off of “Penny Lane” and “All Y...
Foo Fighters Share 2006 Skin and Bones Concert Film for Free: Watch
In 2006, the Foo Fighters performed an acoustic concert at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre. The show was packaged as a CD and film, both called Skin and Bones, and as a charity fundraiser the Foos have now released that iconic footage for free. Watch it below. The movie was directed by Danny Clinch, who appears on-stage during “Another Round” to play harmonica. In addition to the usual Foo crew of Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, and Chris Shiflett, frontman Dave Grohl was joined by the tour team of Petra Harden, Drew Hester, Rami Jeffee, and Pat Smear, the latter two of whom subsequently joined the band as full-time members. The performance at the Pantages Theatre had been proceeded by a lengthy acoustic tour. Before a rendition of “Next Year”, Grohl explained how that experience had chang...
Filter’s Richard Patrick Reflects on ‘Short Bus’ at 25: I Was Done Riding Trent Reznor’s Coattails
‘I had taken a risk that I was going to make it on my own, and not gain notoriety as the guitar player for Nine Inch Nails anymore.’ Richard Patrick spent the last weeks of the winter of 1994 with Ben Grosse at Pearl Sound in Canton, Mich., overseeing the final mixes for what would become his vitriolic industrial outfit’s inaugural offering, Short Bus. Cut off from the outside world, with his focus squarely on finishing his 1995 debut LP, the Filter frontman had no idea one of the unfinished record’s tracks was already in heavy rotation at rock radio stations nationwide thanks to a last-minute request from the producers of the soundtrack for an underknown Billy Zane-anchored horror film. The song, of course, was “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” which appeared in Tales From the Crypt ...
