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With their earthy, blues-drenched sound, The Teskey Brothers could be from anywhere, any time.
The siblings, Josh and Sam Teskey, actually hail from Warrandyte, Victoria, a short drive from Melbourne. And right now, their third and latest studio album, The Winding Way, is having an effect on fans everywhere.
The Teskeys’ sound is untouched by modern life, and unlike anything else pumping on radio — guitars, drums, sometimes keys, and Josh’s distinctive vocals.
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Produced by Grammy Award-winner Eric J Dubowsky, known for his work with artists such as Flume, Kylie Minogue, and Tones and I, The Winding Way was shaped by lockdowns, growing families, and attention to detail.
That style, as though the tracks were unearthed from a time capsule, was no accident.
The Winding Way, a nod to the group’s old recording studio, on a street called Winding Way in Melbourne, was recorded on tape at Sydney’s Hercules Street Studios.
That old-school approach was something the brothers had tested on earlier, live recordings.
“By simplifying” the process, says Sam Teskey, himself a Grammy-nominated engineer (best engineered album, non-classical) for Run Home Slow, “I think it has actually brought a lot of authenticity and character to the sound. And I think people resonate with that.”
Returning to analog has brought in fans, he tells Billboard, folks who “really dig that sort of music and just enjoy the chillness of it. It’s more relaxed to listen to.”
Those fans in the U.K. and Europe are getting a taste of it right now. The Teskeys have been on the road throughout the warmer northern months, and includes support slots for Bruce Springsteen and Hozier. They’ll tick off another bucket-list item this Sunday (June 25) with a performance on the Other Stage at Glastonbury Festival.
North American concerts follow from early August, with a 13-date national headline tour of Australia and New Zealand kicking off in November.
The Winding Way is the followup to 2019’s Run Home Slow, which peaked at No. 2 on the national chart and won three ARIA Awards, including best group, and their debut from 2017, Half Mile Harvest, both of which were recorded at the now-shuttered Half Mile Harvest Studios in Warrandyte.
As the pandemic forced bands off the road, the Teskeys enjoyed a rare moment to savor when Live at the Forum went to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart — their first leader. And with that feat, a circle completed. The last homegrown live album to climb the summit on the national chart was AC/DC Live back in 1992, a group that cut many seminal records in that audio laboratory on Hercules Street.
Released through Ivy League in ANZ and Glassnote in North America, The Winding Way features the previously-released cuts “Remember The Time,” “London Bridge,” “Take My Heart,” and “Oceans of Emotions”.
It was “unintentional,” notes Josh, ”but the album slowly became all about those ‘growing up’ themes of nostalgia, connection, displacement, and finding a path through the winding way of life. I think we discovered that we’re not kids anymore.”
The Winding Way is out now and can be streamed in full below below. And click here for the Teskey Brothers cover story in the June edition of Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
Kate Bush is running up another record.
The English alternative-pop legend clears the one billion streams milestone on Spotify with “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” her mid-1980s classic which enjoyed a second life following its sync to season four of Stranger Things.
By doing so, “Running Up That Hill” becomes the first solo recording by a female artist from that decade to pass one billion streams on the platform.
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“A billion streams,” she writes on her official Website. “I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries — a billion streams — on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you… Thank you! Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away.”
Bush is one of just a handful of artists from that era to hit join Spotify’s “Billions” club, whose members include Tears For Fears (“Everybody Wants to Rule The World”), Toto (“Africa”), A-ha (“Take on Me”) and The Police (“Every Breath You Take”).
Powered by Netflix’s hit sci-fi series, Bush’s 1985 hit roared to No. 1 in the U.K., Australia, and the Billboard Global 200 chart for the first time, and lifted to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, for her first career Top 10 appearance in the U.S. With its U.K. chart supremacy, Bush broke three long-standing records.
In a rare interview last year for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Bush remarked: “I mean, it’s such a great series. I thought that the track would get some attention, but I never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. It’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? The whole world’s gone mad.”
Since “Running” blew up a second time on sales charts around the globe, and reignited interest in the influential singer, Bush was announced to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame class of 2023.
Adele proved, yet again, that she’s really one of us when she forgot the lyrics to one of her own songs. Unlike us, her space-cadet moment happened on stage during the superstar singer’s Weekends with Adele residency at The Colosseum in Las Vegas.
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In a clip captured last weekend by a fan and shared on social media, Adele stumbles on one line and lets everyone know about it. “I forgot the f***ing lyrics,” she says, immediately killing the music. Her moment didn’t kill the vibe, however. “Bloody hell, $50 dollars that cost me last night,” she continued, as laughter filled the room.
Adele doesn’t need a teleprompter, not when her fans in the front row know every lyric to every song, and are keen to help out – as they did on cue.
“Alright,” she continued, “let’s reset and start that one again, shall we?” As the production team cranked-up for the restart, Adele killed time with some impromptu jokes, though keeping the “filthy” one a secret.
“I Drink Wine” is no forgettable number. The track cracked the top 10 in Adele’s homeland, peaking at No. 4 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, impacting the top 10 on Australia’s ARIA Chart and cracking the top 40 (No. 18) on the Billboard Hot 100. Its parent, 30, dominated charts and finished 2022 atop the IFPI’s year-end lists, as the No. 1 on the Global Album All Format Chart, the Global Album Sales Chart, and the first-ever Global Vinyl Album Chart.
Adele doesn’t hold much back when she’s in the flow. During one recent performance, she shared a recent diagnosis that came from way out leftfield.
“My face is sweating… my t–s are sweating… I sweat a lot and it doesn’t go anywhere, so I basically am just sitting in my own sweat,” the singer told the crowd at her show in a separate video shared by fans. “So my doctor gave me [a diagnosis of] jock itch,” she added about her unexpected fungal friend.
“Do you guys know what that is? Jock itch?,” she continued. Now they do.
But wait, there’s more. “Do you know what my doctor gave me? It is a bit crude, but I never knew it existed,” Adele said. “Obviously when I do my shows I wear Spanx to keep it all in and make it all fit me… So my doctor gave me jock itch [cream].”
Adele’s Vegas residency is slated to run through Nov. 4.
When Australians woke to the news Wednesday morning (June 21) that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour would head Down Under next February, one detail jumped off the page – her two shows at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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Swift’s run opens with concerts Feb. 16 and 17, 2024 at the MCG, followed by dates at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Feb. 23, 24 and 25.
The imposing stadium is the biggest of its kind in these parts, and has more history than a subscription to National Geographic. Built in 1853, the venue hosted the 1956 Olympic Games, and is used year-round. During the winter, it’s AFL and soccer, during the summer, cricket. And sometimes, concerts.
Few acts in the world can fill the MCG. Ed Sheeran can, and he did it twice during his visit to the Victorian capital in March for his The Mathematics Tour, setting a swag of national records.
The English pop superstar broke the Australian record for attendance at a ticketed concert with the first of those dates, with upwards of 105,000 tickets sold. The following night, he lifted the bar again when 109,500 Sheerios filled the stadium.
The combined attendance across those two shows, at almost 215,000, will take some beating, Billboard noted at the time.
Swift, with concerts at the same venue, over consecutive nights, could be the one to beat the record set by her bestie, Sheeran. Frontier Touring produced Sheeran’s tour of these parts, and is also behind Swift’s forthcoming trek.
As it stands, the two-city itinerary is a break from a typical Swift visit to Australia. Her last long haul, the Live Nation-produced Reputation Tour, visited stadiums in five cities across Australia and New Zealand in 2018, including Brisbane, Perth and Auckland.
TayTay’s return is bound to be a blockbuster; she smashes chart records here for a jolly.
Along the way, she became the first artist to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ARIA album, single and national airplay; and she has landed the most debuts in the top 10 of an ARIA Singles Chart with 9 of the top 10. Her most recent album, Midnights, was Swift’s 10th No. 1 album in Australia. Following its release last October, Midnight became the most streamed album in a week in ARIA history, while notching the biggest vinyl sales debut ever, selling over 10,000 vinyl units in week one.
American singer and actress Sabrina Carpenter is special guest artist on Swift’s tour of Australia.
The general on-sale starts Friday, June 30, and pre-sales open from Wednesday, June 28; VIP packages will be available from Monday, June 26.
Taylor Swift’s 2024 Australian dates:
Feb. 16 — Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)Feb. 17 — Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)Feb. 23 — Accor Stadium, SydneyFeb. 24 — Accor Stadium, SydneyFeb. 25 — Accor Stadium, Sydney
Dani Kerr’s dream briefly became a nightmare when she auditioned on America’s Got Talent, before her stint on stage finishing like a fairytale.
During Tuesday night’s (June 20) episode, the 23-year-old from Statesville, North Carolina explained that she’d had a lifelong fascination with music, throwing herself into creating songs just six years ago.
When asked by judge Simon Cowell her thoughts on singer-songwriters’ place in the contemporary music industry, her answer was well-considered. “I feel like a lot of people have gotten away from being real humans in music and I’m just here to do that. And let people know we’re still human, we’re still us, plus it’s not all robots doing it.”
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Kerr is very much human, with all the frailties that bother many of us. Over the years, she’s faced several challenges, including homelessness during the last couple years of high school, and crippling stage fright.
Clearly displaying nerves before NBC’s cameras, she admitted she’d come a long way. “When I was little, I never thought I would have the courage to sing in front of one person,” she explained. “It’s so crazy to be here. It’s a dream come true.”
Not so fast.
Before reaching the chorus of her original number, the country hopeful was stopped by Cowell, his hand raised in the air. “Did you bring another song with you?”
As it turns out, yes. Yes she did. She hit another original, “November.” As she reached the end, the tears flowed, as the crowded roared its approval.
“You’re amazing,” Howie Mandel enthused. “You remind me of, like, a Stevie Nicks.”
“I hear a little Dolly (Parton), a little Miley (Cyrus),” Heidi Klum chimed in. “Thank-you so much for being here. You’re wonderful,” added Mandel.
“I love your songs,” remarked Cowell. “I think you’re a great writer. Authentic and importantly your voice is so distinctive. Not only distinctive but you have a beautiful voice. You have one of my favorite voices this year. I really like you.”
It was yeses all the way down the judges table.
Watch below.
When Terry Crews is feeling it, you can bet everyone feels it.
That happened during Tuesday night’s (June 20) edition of America’s Got Talent, when a collective from Los Angeles, going by the name of Freedom Singers, told their story and shared their talents.
The singers have lived in the impoverished side of Los Angeles, known as “Skid Row,” rubbing shoulders with the homeless and destitute. Performing together is just one way to lift the spirits.
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Its eight core members came together in the Arts and Culture department at the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), an organization that exists to help the needy.
“Skid Row is in the heart of downtown Los Angeles where five people per day die on the streets, houseless people,” explained one of the male singers. “So, for us, Freedom Singing brings us close together; it is that medium that we’ve always used to come together as America.
And with that as the background, the singers launched into a gospel rendition of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ early ’90s hit “Under The Bridge,” an apt song from the California act about sleeping rough.
The performance inspired the entire audience, and all four judges, to stand and applaud. There were tears in the room, and on stage.
“You have a powerful voice, powerful message, it was beautiful, it gave me goosebumps, it made me emotional,” Heidi Klum enthused. “This was a great audition.”
Homelessness, noted Howie Mandel, “you have given it a voice, you have given us a purpose, and it’s a message. This was more than just a song, more than an audition, it was needed. Thank you for informing, entertaining and blowing the roof off this place.”
Sofia Vergara noted, “I think you guys are going to go very far in this competition.”
The performance, concluded Simon Cowell, “was brilliant, it was raw, it was real, I loved the vocals, I loved your chemistry, your friendship. This was a really special audition, I loved it.”
So too did AGT host Crews who, as he thanked the singers backstage, shed some tears.
For the record, the performance earned four yeses.
Watch below.
Bebe Rexha shares an update after being attacked by a phone while performing in NYC. Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are expecting their first child together. Billboard News caught up with Tinashe before she hit the stage at WeHo Pride, where she opened up about “Stars on Mars,” working with Britney Spears and her connection […]
Dr. Dre, the trailblazing hip-hop hitmaker, will blaze a new trail at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, where he will receive the very first ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award.
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Announced today (June 20), Dre will be honored at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards Celebration of 50 Years of Hip-Hop, set to take place in his hometown, Los Angeles on Thursday, June 22.
“Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking early work laid a foundation for hip-hop as we know it today. As a champion for some of today’s biggest artists and a successful entrepreneur, he changed the culture around hip-hop,” comments ASCAP chairman of the board and president Paul Williams.
The award is presented to ASCAP members whose musical contributions have made an indelible impact on the art and culture of hip-hop. Currently, ASCAP’s membership includes 920,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.
Dre “continues to be a pivotal figure in the music industry,” adds Williams, “and we are thrilled to recognize him with the inaugural ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award as we mark 50 years of hip-hop.”
In the electrifying world of hip-hop, which this year celebrates its half-century and is now recognized as the U.S. market share leader, Dre has done it all.
A founding member of Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees N.W.A, Dre is recognized as one of the genre’s pre-eminent producers, as well as a rapper and songwriter who has worked with some of the most iconic R&B and hip-hop artists of all time, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 2Pac, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.
After changing the game with seminal gangsta rap outfit N.W.A in the 1980s, Dre released his first solo album, The Chronic, in 1992, a classic that’s regarded as one of hip-hop’s finest and a beacon for the West Coast G-Funk movement.
His three studio albums, which include 2001 and Compton, have amassed some 20 million album consumption units.
Dre also established Aftermath Entertainment, his own imprint through Interscope, through which he would sign Eminem, 50 Cent, Lamar and Anderson .Paak, among others.
In 2006, Dre co-founded Beats Electronics alongside Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine. Later, in 2014, the business evolved with a streaming service, Beats Audio, and was subsequently acquired by Apple for upwards of $3 billion, turning Dre into hip-hop’s first billionaire.
N.W.A was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2016, a year after the Straight Outta Compton biopic hit theaters around the globe. In February 2022, another career highlight when Dre teamed up with Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent for the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show.
Grammy Award-winner DJ Kid Capri will provide the music on ASCAP’s big night, organizers say. Visit ASCAP for more.
Life is full of whats, ifs, and maybes. Just ask Tom Grennan, who’s on the brink of another U.K. chart crown.
The English singer and songwriter’s third studio album What Ifs & Maybes (via Insanity) leads an all-new top 4 on the midweek chart. If it holds its place, Grennan will bag a second leader, following 2021’s Evering Road, and third consecutive top 10, dating back to his 2018 debut Lighting Matches, which peaked at No. 5.
Grennan will be closely watching the form of Queens of the Stone Age, whose eighth studio album In Times New Roman (Matador) is set to start at No. 2. QOTSA already has five U.K. top 10 LPs.
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Completing the podium at the midweek stage is Pet Shop Boys’ career retrospective SMASH: The Singles 1985-2020 (Parlophone). It’s new at No. 3, and should give the synthpop duo an 18th U.K. top 10 appearance on the chart proper.
Coming in at No. 4 on the Official Chart Update is Far From Saints’ eponymously titled LP (via Ignition). It’s the first release from the group, led by Kelly Jones, frontman of Welsh rockers Stereophonics, plus Patty Lynn and Dwight Baker of U.S. band The Wind and The Wave.
Also new to the top 10 on the chart blast is K-pop group ATEEZ, with The World Ep.2: Outlaw (KQ Entertainment), new at No. 6; Texas’s hits collection The Very Best Of – 1989-2023 (PIAS Recordings) at No. 7; and English singer, songwriter and composer Ben Howard’s Is It? (Island), new at No. 8.
A 20th anniversary reissue of Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground (Polydor/UMR) could see the band’s debut return to the top 10. It blasts to No. 9 on the chart update. The first full-length LP from Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Cheryl Tweedy, Kimberley Walsh and the late Sarah Harding peaked at No. 2 following its release in 2003.
Just outside the top 10 is Dannii Minogue’s Neon Nights (London Stream Music), which also enjoys a lift due to a 20th anniversary treatment. The Australian pop singer’s fourth studio set, which peaked at No. 8 following its original release, sits at No. 11 on the midweek chart.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, June 23.
Leigh-Anne’s solo career should get away to a good start with “Don’t Say Love”.
The Little Mix singer’s debut solo single dropped last Friday, June 16, and is poised for a top five bow on the U.K. chart.
Based on midweek sales and streaming data captured by the Official Charts Company, “Don’t Say Love” (via Warner Records) could start at No. 4, for what should be the highest new arrival.
As a member of Little Mix, Leigh-Anne has already collected 19 top 10 appearances in her homeland, including five leaders.
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There’s jostling at the front of the chart race. Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s “Miracle” (Columbia) appeared to be on track for a ninth non-consecutive week at No. 1, following the first 48 hours in the chart cycle.
Now, at the halfway point, it’s Dave and Central Cee’s “Sprinter” (Live Yours/Neighbourhood) which retakes the lead. “Sprinter” has led the chart for the past two weeks, opening with an all-time record volume of streams for a rap track.
Completing the midweek podium is J Hus and Drake’s “Who Told You” (Black Butter/OVO/Republic), dipping 2-3.
Meanwhile, Kylie Minogue’s comeback is gathering pace as the slinky “Padam Padam” (BMG) moves on up the Official Chart Update. The Aussie pop veteran’s electronic number rises 12-8 on the chart blast. You’d have to go back to 2010’s “All The Lovers” – and its No. 3 peak position – to find a Kylie track that has performed better on the U.K. chart.
Germany-based, South Korean DJ and producer Peggy Gou could snag her first appearance in the U.K. top 40 with the throwback house track “(It Goes Like) Nanana” (XL Recordings). It’s new at No. 20 on the chart blast.
Finally, Doja Cat could pounce on a 14th top 40 appearance with “Attention” (Ministry of Sound). It’s new at No. 36 on the chart update.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday, June 23.