genre rock
Billie Joe Armstrong made a surprise appearance during the Go-Go’s afternoon set at Coachella 2025 on Saturday (April 12).
Ahead of Green Day’s headlining performance that evening, the band’s frontman joined the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group for a rendition of their 1984 hit song “Head Over Heels.”
In the hours leading up to the collaboration, Armstrong teased a “special surprise” on Green Day’s Instagram account. “Go see the go gos,” he wrote alongside a photo of the festival’s three-day lineup poster.
Following the Go-Go’s set on the Outdoor Theatre stage, Armstrong returned to social media to celebrate the moment.
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“Head over heels after playing with @officialgogos at @coachella,” the singer-songwriter captioned a backstage photo with the band on Instagram. His post also featured a carousel of snapshots from the performance, including an official setlist.
The Go-Go’s responded with a post of their own, sharing a photo on Instagram with Armstrong and writing, “We had the time of our lives!”
This year’s two-weekend Coachella festival runs April 11–13 and April 18–20. Saturday lineups are headlined by Green Day, with additional performances from Charli XCX, Anitta, Clairo, ENHYPEN, Jimmy Eat World, T-Pain, and more.
“Death, taxes and… rock n roll,” Armstrong told Billboard ahead of Green Day’s foray into the desert. “In this world gone sideways we know one thing for certain – rock n roll is forever, and its spirit is needed now more than ever. So bring your rage, your hope, and your loudest voice. Coachella, let’s have the time of our lives.”
The festival’s opening day on April 11 delivered standout moments from Lady Gaga, Tyla, LISA, Mustard, and more. Read Billboard’s full recap of day one here.
Benson Boone made a memorable Coachella debut on Friday (April 11), lighting up the main stage with surprise guest Brian May for a powerful rendition of Queen’s iconic 1975 hit “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Wearing a white-and-blue outfit reminiscent of Freddie Mercury’s classic look, the 22-year-old singer delivered a high-energy set complete with his signature backflips. Midway through the performance, Boone sat at the piano to begin “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and moments later, May emerged dramatically from the top of the stage, guitar in hand, to join him.
The legendary Queen guitarist stuck around for Boone’s final song, “Beautiful Things,” adding signature Queen-style riffs to the emotional track, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024.
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“It has changed my life this year and I hope you enjoy it,” Boon said prior to hit set, which was filled with fireworks and pyrotechnics.
May had teased the surprise appearance by posting a photo of himself and Boone on a plane headed to Palm Springs. “Look who I bumped into – on the way to the fabled Palm Springs,” May wrote on Instagram. “Maybe something will happen ?!”
Boone replied with a playful comment: “What are you doing with Pedro Pascal.” P!nk also joined in, commenting, “Perfect combo right here.”
During his set, Boone also announced that his second album, American Heart, is dropping on June 20. He premiered the title track and revealed the cover art, which shows him standing in front of an American flag.
Coachella’s opening day was packed with standout moments, including sets from Lady Gaga, Tyla, LISA, Mustard, and more. Catch Billboard’s full recap of day one here.
Congratulations are in order — and overdue — for Mick Jagger and his longtime parter Melanie Hamrick, who are engaged.
Hamrick confirmed the news to Paris Match, revealing that the Rolling Stones frontman has been her fiancé for “two or three years.” On the topic of marriage, she shared, “Maybe one day we’ll marry, maybe not. We are so happy in our current life that I would be too afraid to change anything.”
Jagger and Hamrick, a former ballerina and choreographer at American Ballet Theatre, have been together since 2014. She says their love was a slow burn, as Jagger was still dating the late model L’Wren Scott when they met in Japan, where the Stones and the American Ballet Theatre were both touring at the time. “We didn’t even exchange phone numbers,” she recalled. “At the time, I wasn’t in a relationship, but he was.”
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The couple share eight-year-old son Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger, and the sweet boy is often featured on his mother’s Instagram account.
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Jagger has seven other children, welcoming his eldest daughter, Karis, 54, with actress Marsha Hunt in 1970. The year after, he married ex-wife Bianca Jagger and the couple welcomed their daughter Jade, 53. With his ex-wife Jerry Hall, Jagger shares four children — daughters Elizabeth, 41, and Georgia May, 33, as well as sons James, 39, and Gabriel, 27. He also shares son Lucas, 25, with model Luciana Morad Gimenez.
Duo Soft Palms has returned with new single “Radio” from their upcoming sophomore album. The track marks the first new music from the wife and husband pair of Julia Kugel (The Coathangers, Julia Julia) and Scott Montoya (former member of The Growlers) since their debut self-titled album in 2020.
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“Radio” kicks off with Montoya on the drums before Kugel joins in a boisterous guitar riff that drives the track. The song is about the divisive nature of media and the alienation that results from the echo chamber of negativity, hearing secondhand information and the perception of persecution.
The track’s release is accompanied by a music video featuring the duo in night vision and serves as a reflection of the lyrics’ sentiment with surveillance cameras and projected messages that reflect the idea of being watched and judged.
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The Southern California couple have been making music together and separately for decades, and have decided to take their careers to what Montoya calls the “next logical step” of attempting to win a Grammy.
“Julia and I have over 40 years combined experience in music. ‘Radio’ will be our combined 352nd track on our combined 46th release, but it’s the first time we’ve ever thought to submit our work to the Recording Academy for Grammy consideration,” Montoya tells Billboard. Coming from the independent side of the music industry, he explains, the Grammys have “a stigma of being specifically for pop artists and for mainstream music, but it’s really not the case.”
The duo has also spent years strengthening their local music scene through their free annual festival, Happy Sundays, in Long Beach, Calif. The three-day event is scheduled to return this summer to several locations in the city between Aug. 23-25.
They also run non-profit Studios for Schools that provides equipment and funding for building recording/production studios in schools.
“Radio” was recorded and mixed by Kugel and Montoya at their home studio Centre of Mental Arts (COMA) in Long Beach, Calif., and mastered by BAFTA winner Mick Boggis. The entirety of the record is expected out later this year via Everloving Records.
Check out the video below.
Mariah Carey fans have been waiting for the moment the chanteuse will unveil Someone’s Ugly Daughter, the alt-rock LP she worked on with her band in 1995 while simultaneously recording her album Daydream. Now that the superstar is nominated for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, it seems fitting for her grunge album to see the light of day.
“I mean, I really want to [release it], but I want to do videos, and I have just so many ideas for that,” she told Associated Press in a new interview. “I don’t think I’ll be able to pull it together by the summer (before the Rock Hall ceremony) but maybe, maybe I’ll release a few songs from it.”
As for her Rock Hall nomination, she gushed, “That’s a huge honor. I don’t know if I’m going to win it, so I don’t want to get too excited about it. So, I just want to say that, again, it’s a huge honor and I guess I didn’t expect it. I wasn’t really thinking about it. And here we are.”
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The Grammy-winning singer detailed in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, that she and her band wrote and recorded Someone’s Ugly Daughter to blow off steam while working on Daydream. She initially wanted to drop it as it was, but ended up releasing it under the pseudonym Chick with her friend Clarissa Dane on lead vocals.
Carey later confirmed to Rolling Stone Music Now in 2020 that she’d uncovered the original version of the record with her voice at the forefront. “I think this unearthed version will become something that, yes, we should hear,” she said at the time. “But also, I’m working on a version of something where there’ll be another artist working on this with me as well … Possibly something built around the album. I’m just full of surprises.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s The Class of 2025 will be revealed in late April, and the induction ceremony will take place in Los Angeles this fall, with more details to be announced in the coming months.
Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon has always done things his way, and the roll-out of the singer’s latest album, Sable, Fable, is no exception. In addition to the LP that dropped on Friday (April 11), Vernon has lined up dozens of unique product tie-ins ranging from bespoke pink cashmere hoodies and beanies from designer Todd Snyder to fragrances, notebooks, signature cocktails, ice cream and more.
The exhaustive list of products includes the Allpress Espresso “SABLE, fABLE Spritz” cold brew (featuring San Bitters, citrus, orange bitters and soda), as well as the Billy Van Creamy SABLE SORBET featuring vegan salted olive oil and grapefruit sorbet with vegan sour jube, as well as a non-vegan option that will be served with salmon roe.
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You can also check out Canyon Coffee’s SABLE Black Sesame Hojicha Latte (with hojicha tea, black sesame, pistachio milk and Japanese brown sugar), the fABLE Hibiscus Milk Tea (with hibiscus tea, strawberry simple syrup and your choice of milk) and Courage Bagels’ bon iver salmon SABLE plate with wild hot smoke salmon, cream cheese, capeberries, onion, dill, tomato and olive oil.
The collabs are are available at his partners’ retail outlets on Friday, including a special Earl of East “immersive” scent inspired by sound, the Fables Bar & Cafe walk home hot chocolate, Fell + Cole SABLE whiskey ice cream, Field Notes SABLE, fABLE notebooks, Fishwife’s SABLE, fABLE smoked salmon duo and the Gravely Brewing Co.’s SABLE dark cream ale brew.
The exhaustive list of items inspired by the new album also includes listening lounges, signature cocktails, sourdough salmon pastries, a fresh peach puree matcha, a different stacked bagel sandwich, a gravlax pizza, smoothie bowl, salmon colored roses and bouquets, coffee blends, flash temporary tattoos (salmon and double hearts), a “Short Story Shortcake” and more unique offers inspired by the album’s color scheme and title.
All of Friday’s experiences will be available while supplies last at outlets stretching from Manchester, U.K. to Melbourne, Australia, L.A., Wisconsin, South Korea, Detroit, Louisville, Jakarta, Amsterdam, Malaysia, Chicago, Singapore, India and Mexico City, among many other spots; click here for the full list of collaborations and locations.
In addition to the avalanche of tie-ins, Vernon also released a cabin-core-to-coast video for “There’s a Rhythm/ Au Revoir” on Friday. In addition to all that, Vernon will hit L.A.’s Terasaki Budokan sports/community center on Saturday (April 12) for the “Live Inside This State Fair” event featuring the three-game SABLES vs. fABLES basketball tournament, art displays, games, vinyl and food and drink from his collab partners.
Check out the “There’s a Rhythm” video, as well as pictures and a full list of the collabs here and below.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour will fire up again this weekend when he brings a roster of heavy hitters with him to Los Angeles’s Gloria Molina Grand Park. In addition to the firebrand Vermont independent, the event will also feature his tour mate, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Neil Young, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers.
Others slated to perform at the rally include: Jeff Rosenstock, Dirty Projectors, Indigo De Souza, The Red Pears and the Raise Gospel Choir.
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Sanders has been very vocal in his disdain for the Trump administration’s ruinous tariff policies this week in the midst of a stock market meltdown that has spurred fears of a global recession, or possible depression, as a result of the President’s unpredictable threats and retreats on international trade policy. During a CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, Sanders lambasted Trump’s pugilistic approach to foreign policy, saying, “We don’t have to hate China. We don’t have to hate other people. Let’s figure out a way to work together.”
With Trump threatening greatly increased tariffs on most countries in the world, then doing a sudden about-face just hours before they were slated to go into effect this week — while boosting tariffs on China to 125% — Sanders, 83, added, “The goal has got to be to break down these barriers that separate us as human beings — come together as Americans and come together globally as human beings.”
The whipsawing of the markets has touched nearly every aspect of the economy, including music stocks, which saw large declines last week after the President’s so-called “Liberation Day” imposition of tariffs on all U.S. trading partners. The ensuing Wall Street bloodbath kicked off a massive decline across a number of stock indices, with a wide range of music stocks suffering major declines ranging from 6.8% for MSG Entertainment to 13.9% for Sphere Entertainment Co. last Thursday.
Sanders and AOC have been barnstorming across the country on their tour, drawing thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands, at rallies in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. At a March 7 event in Kenosha, WI, Sanders invited Laura Jane Grace on stage to perform a new song called “Your God (God’s D–k),” which caused some outrage online about its profane lyrics and religious themes.
in the song, Grace notes that some while religious conservatives are struggling to use the proper pronouns for trans people, they have no problem when it comes to gendering a deity. “Does your god have a big fat d–k?/ ‘Cause it feels like he’s f—ing me,” Grace sings on the track. “Are his b–ls filled with lightning?/ Do they dangle like heaven’s keys?”
Check out the poster for the event below.
Los Angeles: this Saturday join our rally with music from Neil Young, Maggie Rogers, Joan Baez, Dirty Projectors, Jeff Rosenstock, Indigo de Souza, The Red Pears, and Raise Gospel Choir.Doors at 9am. Together, we can defeat the oligarchy. RSVP here: https://t.co/GSszH3hIhG pic.twitter.com/A8svdPCLge— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 9, 2025
Paramore fans got a very rare treat this week when singer Hayley Williams performed “Teenagers,” her contribution to the super emo soundtrack to the 2009 Megan Fox horror comedy Jennifer’s Body live for the first time ever. Seated on the floor while strumming an acoustic guitar and rocking green shades, Williams, 36, sang, “I’m gonna go on like I never met you/ And it’ll feel wrong at first, but I think I can forget you/ Ignore the fact that we sleep no more than three feet apart/ I feel you now, you’re all around me, underneath me.”
Bobbing her head and clearly into it, she quick-strummed her way into the chorus: “Well, how was I to know that what we carved in stone/ Would be so temporary?/ Well, how was I to know that my first crack in love/ Would not be the last? It won’t be the last,” she sang.
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The caption to the performance read “#selfserenades wrote this for the jennifer’s body soundtrack when I was still a teenager,” adding to the tale in her Stories, writing, “lore behind this one is so ridiculous i cant tell if tellin it would make the song better or worse anyway, first self-serenade in years… hope its fine by you.”
In case you forgot, the soundtrack to the movie was a who’s who of emo at the time, including tracks from Panic! at the Disco, Dashboard Confessional, Cute Is What We Aim For, Cobra Starship, All Time Low and The Sword, as well as songs from Florence + the Machine, Little Boots, Screeching Weasel, Silversun Pickups and Lissy Trullie.
In addition to the performance, Williams also made an urgent call to action about the climate crisis, noting that the weather in Nashville when she recorded the performance was “glorious” after multiple tornado threats, flooding and “a sleepless night hiding in the basement. have come a little too close to multiple natural disasters this year. they continue to get worse and more frequent.”
Severe storms raked Nashville and Middle Tennessee last week, spawning multiple tornado warnings, one suspected tornado, as well as torrential rains and high winds that caused widespread flooding. Williams pulled no punches in describing the urgency she feels about climate change at a time when the Trump administration is touting efforts to revive the highly polluting coal industry and working to roll back many of the crucial green initiatives passed by the Biden administration to put the country on a path to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“Climate crisis is definitely here and the ppl in power dont give a rats ass,” she wrote. The singer encouraged her fans to follow Mister Rogers’ sage advice to “look for the helpers,” with a shout-out to @supportandfeed, the organization founded by Billie Eilish’s mom, Maggie Baird, that is working to mitigate climate change and increase food security by promoting plant-based food options.
She also gave some love to @reverb_org, which has been striving for more than 20 years to green the touring industry.
Check out Williams’ performance below.
Maroon 5 vocalist Adam Levine has reflected on Paul McCartney’s reaction to his band covering The Beatles on television more than a decade ago.
Levine’s comments were made during his recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, where he and guitarist James Valentine were discussing a special televised event from February 2014. Broadcast by CBS, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles was a star-studded performance held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Alongside performances from McCartney and Ringo Starr, the event featured the likes of Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, and John Legend and Alicia Keys all covering original Beatles songs. The night opened with Maroon 5, who shared their own renditions of “All My Loving” and “Ticket to Ride.”
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“ I was scared s–tless,” Valentine told Stern of the performance, with Levine adding, “I told you I’ve been scared a handful of f–king times in my life, that was definitely one of them. “I was like, ‘Holy s–t.’ I’m sorry man, but it’s just like, you can be too cool, but not always. It’s Ringo Star and Paul McCartney. F–k off if you’re gonna try and be cool about that.
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“Afterwards, I see Paul and Paul kind of took me in close and he goes, ‘You know, we did it better,’” Levine remembered while laughing. “I thought it was so funny. And I cracked up and I’m like, ‘Yeah, no s–t, you’re Paul McCartney, you’re The Beatles.’”
Levine then added how the interaction took an even stranger turn when McCartney tried to get his attention at a party some months later, using the opportunity to apologize for any bad blood his initial comments may have caused.
“He’s like, ‘Hey man, I just wanted to let you know, if that bothered you, I’ve been thinking about this, I didn’t want to insult you or anything,’” Levine recalled. “It was something like that. Like, ‘If I insulted you, I apologize.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Like, you’re good. Dude, you’re Paul F–king McCartney.
“But it kind of shattered in a great way this whole thing about your heroes being who they are,” Levine concluded. “It’s like, he’s a human being with a beating heart and a really beautiful soul who actually was thoughtful enough to even take into account that maybe for some reason my feelings might have been hurt, but of course they were not.”
Levine’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show wasn’t his only big media appearance this week, with Monday night’s (April 7) episode of The Tonight Show seeing him confirm that Maroon 5 will be making a musical comeback in 2025
“The rumors are correct. There are details. I cannot divulge all the details,” Levine explained. “But the details are basically, roughly, there’s a single coming at the end of the month-ish. I’m really excited about it. An album is coming over the summer. Non-specifically around the summertime. And then, even more non-specifically, there is a tour coming in the fall-ish.”
Just one week after bandmate Michael Clifford announced a solo career, 5 Seconds of Summer bassist Calum Hood has followed in kind, sharing his debut solo single ahead of a full-length record.
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Hood’s solo venture has officially launched with the release of “Don’t Forget You Love Me,” which is described as the emotional cornerstone of its accompanying album, ORDER chaos ORDER.
Written and produced alongside English production team TMS and Jack LaFrantz, “Don’t Forget You Love Me” is a darker pop cut, boasting a sense of vulnerability and heartbreak that appears to underline the more melancholic approach that Hood has taken on the forthcoming album. The single also comes accompanied by a Andy DeLuca-directed and Sarah Eiseman-produced visual which places a pensieve Hood in myriad locations as rain begins to pour down.
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ORDER chaos ORDER is scheduled to release via Capitol Records on June 13, with Hood explaining that the album sees him breaking new ground on his musical journey, yet maintaining a sense of sincerity as he approaches a far more raw and tender aesthetic.
“This album was made in a tumble dryer of knowing and not knowing,” Hood explains. “I started out with a vision—order—but quickly became overwhelmed by the process—chaos. Eventually, I learned to embrace both, and that balance became the heart of the record.”
“There are things I’ve never been able to sing about in the band—my upbringing, my family, the places life has taken me,” he adds. “This album is about laying those things to rest and allowing listeners to connect in their own way.”
5 Seconds of Summer first formed in Sydney, Australia in 2011 and released their self-titled debut album in 2014. All five of the band’s albums have peaked atop the Australia ARIA charts, while only 2020’s Calm and 2022’s 5SOS5 prevented the same feat on the Billboard 200, with the records reaching a very respectable peak of No. 2.
Members of the six-time ARIA Award-winning group began launching solo careers following the release of Calm, with drummer Ashton Irwin releasing his Superbloom album in 2020, with second album Blood on the Drums arriving in July 2024.
Vocalist and rhythm guitarist Luke Hemmings would follow suit in 2021 with his debut album When Facing the Things We Turn Away From, following it up with the Boy EP in April 2024. Just last week, guitarist Clifford shared his own solo debut, with “COOL” set to appear on his forthcoming album, SIDEQUEST.