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R.E.M. have released a five-track benefit EP featuring three remixes of their landmark 1981 debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” ahead of Saturday’s (May 3) World Press Freedom Day. The collection also features the song’s original b-side, “Sitting Still” and instrumental “Wh. Tornado,” a cassette-only song that is being issued on digital and vinyl for the first time. The Radio Free Europe 2025 EP is a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty services (RFE/RL), the broadcasting groups that have delivered uncensored news, analysis and cultural programming in a variety of languages in places lacking a free press since 1949.
The special package includes a never-before-released 2025 remix of “Radio Free Europe” by the band’s longtime collaborator, producer Jacknife Lee, as well as a 1981 remix of the song by the band’s original producer, Mitch Easter. RFE/RL currently broadcast in 27 languages to 23 countries to an audience of nearly 50 million people in places where a free press is either illegal or under threat, often serving as the only line to the outside word for people living under onerous government censorship.
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“Whether it’s music or a free press – censorship anywhere is a threat to the truth everywhere. On World Press Freedom Day, I’m sending a shout-out to the brave journalists at Radio Free Europe,” said singer Michael Stipe in a statement. The band’s effort comes one day after a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that, for now, the Trump administration can continue to withhold money from the RFE/RL — as well as Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks — temporarily reversing two earlier lower-court rulings that stopped the White House from cutting off funds from the outlets as part of its wide-ranging DOGE cost-cutting measures.
DOGE boss and Tesla/Space X CEO Elon Musk has been unequivocal in his disdain for the services, writing in February on X, “shut them down… Europe is free now… nobody listens to them anymore… it’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves.”
“Radio Free Europe’s journalists have been pissing off dictators for 75 years. You know you’re doing your job when you make the right enemies. Happy World Press Freedom Day to the ‘OG’ Radio Free Europe,” added bassist Mike Mills in a statement. While the band’s members did not directly reference the Trump administration’s efforts to defund the organizations, RFE/RL president and CEO Stephen Capus was more direct in his praise for the song and the group’s efforts to help shine a light on the services’ vital work.
“To me, R.E.M.’s music has always embodied a celebration of freedom: freedom of expression, lyrics that make us think, and melodies that inspire action,” said Capus. “Those are the very aims of our journalists at Radio Free Europe — to inform, inspire, and uphold freedoms often elusive to our audiences. We hold dictators accountable. They go to great lengths to silence us — blocking our websites, jamming our signals, and even imprisoning our colleagues.”
In an interview with CBS Mornings on Friday, Stipe said the band decided to honor the services because “we love journalism, we love freedom of speech… and we love the world.”
Stipe told CBS that when he got the call from the imperiled service asking for some help he said there was no hesitation at all. “It’s important to democracy and a fight against authoritarianism that they remain.” All of the proceeds from vinyl sales of the new remix will go to Radio Free Europe, which is still waiting for its frozen April and May funding as it soldiers on with is rapidly dwindling reserves.
The new EP is being released through Craft Recordings and was overseen by Easter, who first recorded the band at his Drive-In Studio during their first-ever road trip to a professional studio in April 1981; that original session produced “Radio Free Europe,” “Sitting Still” and the instrumental “Wh. Tornado.” In 2009, “Radio Free Europe” was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
Fans can stream and download the EP today and pre-order a limited-edition 10-inch orange vinyl pressing due to ship on Sept. 12 here. You can also click here to make a tax-deductible donation to RFE/RL here.
Listen to the jaunty Jacknife Lee remix and the full EP below.
Green Day got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday (May 1), with former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield serving as emcee for the ceremony in his first public appearance since suffering a massive stroke in January.
Dressed in rock-appropriate black leather motorcycle jackets — except for drummer Tre Cool, who opted for a traditional suit and tie — the band were introduced by an emotional Pinfield. Making his way to the stage holding a cane, Pinfield said, “What an honor it is to be here today with these three guys that I love. Love their music and love them as people.”
Praising them as “one of the greatest live bands in the world,” Pinfield honored the trio’s breakthrough 1994 classic, Dookie, which he said, “made so many young people pick up guitars, bass, and drums, and want to sing and write songs. And that is what rock ‘n’ roll, punk rock is all about. That beauty, that love, a passing on of that gift. And that’s the thing that’s so special about Green Day and why it’s such an honor to be here today.”
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The ceremony also featured a speech from Green Day’s longtime producer Rob Cavallo, who recalled hearing a demo of “Longview” in 1993 and thinking, “this is the greatest band I have ever heard.” Next up was Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, who jokingly called himself “the modern face of punk.” The star nodded to the band’s earliest days, when they were known as “Blood Rage” and “Sweet Children.”
He also told a story about being in the edit for the Deadpool & Wolverine movie a few years ago and how he imagined a poignant end credit sequence he wanted to express “warmth, gratitude and love.” Then, Green Day’s 1997 classic “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” came on and he realized he had his tune. “I’ve always loved this song. It isn’t just a song because anything that endures the way that this song, along with so many that these gentleman have blessed is with in the world, they endure because they’re a feeling as much as they are a story,” he said.
Reynolds said he wanted to thank singer Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and Cool for letting him use the song, so he found Armstrong’s number after the singer had attended a screening. “It’s cheating to use that song. You could set my colonoscopy to that song and people will weep,” he joked.
Earlier this week, Pinfield said he was “slowly but surely” recovering from the stroke he suffered on January 6 and looking forward to Thursday’s event. “Slowly but surely recovering.. lots of physical therapy.. Fighting my way back!!” he told fans in an update on his health last week. “One day at a time.”
The ceremony ended with the group taking the stage and Armstrong thanking his family and shouting out his mom, saying the Walk of Fame hoopla was like her “Super Bowl,” but also like “being at your own funeral.” He also thanked all the fans who buy their records and come to their shows, while Dirnt shouted out Armstrong’s mom for taking him in when he was a teen and his own mom for making him believe he could do anything.
“I hope everybody comes here and takes pictures for as long as you want to and as long as you can. We’ll never say thank you enough,” Dirnt said, getting choked up. Cool also thanked the fans who showed up and closed down the street for the event, as well as his bandmates, who he sweetly hugged. When the star was finally revealed, Green Day had an unexpected, surprise guest in the form of Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav, who ran up at the last minute and got down on the ground next to Cool so he could appear in the official pictures.
The Flav crash came two weeks after the rapper hopped on stage with the band on their second Coachella weekend on April 19 dressed as their iconic dirty drunk bunny mascot.
Watch the full Green Day Walk of Fame ceremony and some highlights below.
Ozzy Osbourne will definitely be on stage at the upcoming Back to the Beginning gig in his hometown of Birmingham, U.K. for what is being billed as Black Sabbath’s final-ever show. But given his recent run of ill health and surgeries, the 76-year-old rock icon said his madcap performance days are definitely over.
Speaking to the Guardian, Osbourne said, “I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.” The July 5 show at Villa Park is slated to feature a massive roster of metal acts paying tribute to Osbourne and the band’s iconic career, including Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Alice in Chains, Pantera, Gojira, Lamb of God, Mastodon and many more.
But after Tool singer Maynard James Keenan recently said that Osbourne — who hasn’t performed a full set since Dec. 31, 2018 — will need “modern miracles” to get on stage given his health issues, Ozzy said he is, indeed dealing with a lot. “You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong. You begin to think this is never going to end,” he said of a series of health setbacks including a 2019 fall that aggravated a previous spinal injury and required several surgeries, as well as pneumonia and the diagnosis of a form of Parkinson’s.
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Regardless, Osbourne has said he’s begun rigorous training to play the first show by the original Black Sabbath lineup in 20 years, where he’ll appear alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. “I do weights, bike riding, I’ve got a guy living at my house who’s working with me. It’s tough – I’ve been laid up for such a long time,” Osbourne said of his regimen. “I’ve been lying on my back doing nothing and the first thing to go is your strength. It’s like starting all over again. I’ve got a vocal coach coming round four days a week to keep my voice going. I have problems walking. I also get blood pressure issues, from blood clots on my legs. I’m used to doing two hours on stage, jumping and running around. I don’t think I’ll be doing much jumping or running around this time. I may be sitting down.”
Osbourne noted that the reunion concert was originally conceived by his wife/manager, Sharon Osbourne, as “something to give me a reason to get up in the morning.” That said, Ozzy confirmed that he won’t be performing a full set, but “only playing a couple songs each. I don’t want people thinking ‘we’re getting ripped off’, because it’s just going to be… what’s the word? … a sample, you’re going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath.”
Among the newly added acts who will be playing a few songs alongside Guns N’ Roses and members of Judas Priest, Limp Bizkit, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Ghost and more, according to Sharon Osbourne, are members of Soundgarden and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler.
Musical director Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine told the Guardian that there are also “some pretty great surprises that are not posted anywhere [yet].”
The show will raise funds for three charities: Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the Birmingham-based Acorns Children’s Hospice.
Just weeks after announcing the release of their sophomore LP, English duo Wet Leg have unveiled a run of North American tour dates.
The group’s tour will officially launch in the U.K. in May before a series of festival appearances throughout Europe across the summer. In September, the band will make their way back to North America, launching an 18-date tour in Seattle on Sept. 1, and wrapping up in Los Angeles on Oct. 17.
The Isle Of Wight-formed duo – made up of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers – will be hitting the road in support of their second album, Moisturizer, which releases on July 11 via Domino Records. The pair increased speculation of a new era in March, plotting a handful of U.S. dates before issuing their first new single since 2022, “Catch These Fists,” on April 1.
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“We were just kind of having fun and exploring,” said Chambers in a press release, describing the band’s creative process for Moisturizer, which involved decamping to Southwold, East Sussex, to write together in spring 2024. “We focused on: Is this going to be fun to play live? It was very natural that we would write the second record together,” added Teasdale.
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The new album was produced by Dan Carey, who also worked on Wet Leg’s debut, and features performances from the duo’s touring band: Ellis Durand (bass), Henry Holmes (drums) and Joshua Mobaraki (guitar, synth).
Wet Leg rose to fame in 2021 with the release of their debut single “Chaise Longue.” Reaching No. 15 and 21 on the Alternative Airplay and Rock Airplay charts respectively, the Mean Girls-referencing track was featured on the band’s self-titled debut LP in 2022, which reached No. 14 on the Billboard 200 upon its release.
Such was the success of Wet Leg that they scored a nomination for best new artist at the 2023 Grammys, with “Chaise Longue” taking home best alternative music performance and their LP winning best alternative music album. The group have also managed to snare high-profile support slots for the likes of Harry Styles and the Foo Fighters in stadiums around the world in recent years.
Wet Leg – 2025 North American Tour Dates
Sept. 1 – Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WASept. 3 – Malkin Bowl, Vancouver, BCSept. 5 – Revolution Hall, Portland, ORSept. 9 – First Avenue, Minneapolis, MNSept. 10 – Salt Shed, Chicago, ILSept. 12 – HISTORY, Toronto, ONSept. 13 – MTELUS, Montreal, QCSept. 14 – Roadrunner, Boston, MASept. 15 – Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PASept. 17 – Summerstage in Central Park, New York, NYSept. 19 – 9:30 Club, Washington, DCSept. 21 – Shaky Knees, Atlanta, GASept. 28 – Ohana Music Festival, Dana Point, CASept. 30 – Fox Theater, Oakland, CAOct. 3 – Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZOct. 7 – The Criterion, Oklahoma City, OKOct. 14 – Lowbrow Palace, El Paso, TXOct. 17 – The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Billie Joe Armstong still thinks an American Idiot movie could be in Green Day’s future. On Thursday (May 1), the rocker reflected on the long-planned musical film, which was slated to be an adaptation of the 2009 Broadway production based on the band’s 2004 album of the same name. “There was supposed to be [a […]
At the kick-off show of Sammy Hagar‘s Las Vegas residency, Kesha joined the rocker onstage at Dolby Live at Park MGM on Wednesday night for an especially charged performance of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.”
In footage from the night, bassist Michael Anthony is taking lead vocals on the 1978 track as usual, when the “Tik Tok” singer arrives for a cameo. Walking out with Hagar — who proclaims, “Kesha in the house!” — the pair provide backup vocals while hugging and spinning around together onstage.
Backstage, Kesha and the Red Rocker had a lovefest captured by a clip on the former’s Instagram Story. While hugging, Hagar tells the camera that his wife “Kari [Karte] even lets me love this girl.”
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“She’s my favorite child,” he adds, as Karte — to whom he’s been married since 1995 — jokingly proclaims out of frame, “But you can’t look at her naked pictures!”
“Sorry,” replies a laughing Kesha, who’s indeed been showing a bit of skin in her recent Instagram posts lately. “I’m going to block you on Instagram.”
The show marked the first of nine total shows of Hagar’s The Best of All Worlds residency, which has upcoming performances scheduled for Friday and Saturday night, as well as more dates May 7-17. Also during the kick-off, the band played “Love Walks In” from Van Halen’s 1986 album 5150 for the first time in more than 30 years.
The pop star’s cameo at Hagar’s show comes as she’s gearing up to drop new album .[Period], her first release on independent label Kesha Records. Featuring singles “Joyride” and “Delusional,” the project arrives July 4.
In a recent interview with Bob the Drag Queen for Paper, Kesha opened up about wanting the LP to be a “safe space for people to feel fully embodied and liberated,” specifically the trans community. “If you want to find your community and find a safe space for you to fully embody exactly who you are and be celebrated, I invite you to come join us,” she said at the time. “I would like to start a revolution of love. I want to create a traveling summer of love, a community of love. I want to give all of us a place to come and be ourselves.”
In case you haven’t been paying attention over the past few months, comedian John Mulaney is in the midst of one of the most bizarre late night comedy experiments since Conan O’Brien blew up the zone more than three decades ago with Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
The “wait, what?” meter hit a new high mark on Wednesday night (April 30) when Mulaney went over to his telescope for one of his usual neighborhood check-ins on his live Netflix series Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney. Whereas in past episodes his peek-in revealed murder most foul, this time the results were more mind-blowing then brain-smashing.
“It’s time to look through the old telescope!” Mulaney said mid-monologue on the episode whose theme was “Can Major Surgery Be Fun?” As he zeroed in, Mulaney focused on an apartment that looked just like the one from Seinfeld. Weird, but not nearly as weird as sidekick comedian Richard King pretending to be cranky KISS bassist Gene Simmons for a whole episode a few weeks ago.
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“Same couch, layout, there’s even a clunky landline,” Mulaney said. “Wait, is that Trey [Anastasio] from Phish? And that’s Mike Gordon from Phish.” Indeed, it was Anastasio dressed as Jerry Seinfeld and bassist Mike Gordon in a George Costanza wig. “Yeah, that’s definitely Trey! And, oh my God, it’s [drummer Jon] Fishman dressed as Elaine,” he added as Fishman walked through the iconic door in a long curly hair wig, flowery dress and lipstick.
“Oh, next you’re gonna tell me [keyboardist] Page [McConnell] is Kramer!” Kind shouted as McConnell burst through the door in a towering Kramer wig and signature striped bowling shirt. “Page is Kramer. What?” Mulaney exclaimed. “It’s all the guys from Phish wearing wigs, but Trey is not.” Kind implored his boss to “put it all together” and figure out what was going on.
“It’s Seinfeld, but it’s Phish,” Mulaney said, perplexed, as the sitcom’s bass-plucking theme song bubbled up along with the instantly recognizable red and yellow show logo, except this time it read “Phish.” After Kind wondered if it was too late to change that night’s theme, Mulaney dismissed the idea with a brusque, “Yeah, it is too late. Plus, we just saw it,” though in an extended video of the bit we actually see the band members acting out a perfectly on-brand Seinfeld bit about credit history as well as flubbing lines and entrances in a series of hilarious outtakes.
Why did they write this bit? As with so many gags on Mulaney’s show, comedy logic is not the point. But as the dedicated crew at Jambase noted, the appearance by the iconic jam band came 30 years after Phish made their late night TV debut on the Late Show With David Letterman in December 1994 alongside, you guessed it, Jerry Seinfeld.
Last month, Mulaney hosted Letterman — one of his absurdist late night heroes — on an episode focused on the lack of information men have about their height as part of a series-long gag about the phantom problem. A week later he invited on another comedy inspiration, O’Brien, to debate “Are Dinosaurs Put Together Correctly?” for an episode that explicitly paid homage to Conan’s legendarily bizarre late night antics.
Watch Phish as Seinfeld below.
With just 64 days left until Oasis kick off their eagerly anticipated 2025 reunion tour, we still know next to nothing about who will take the stage with the Gallagher brothers or what songs they plan to roll out on their first outing in 16 years. What we do know is that, as usual, singer […]
Bruce Springsteen continued to preview his upcoming expansive box set Tracks II: The Lost Albums on Thursday (May 1) with the haunting ballad “Faithless.” The song is described as the title track from a “long-lost soundtrack to a movie that was never made.” Like so many of The Boss’ iconic songs, this one takes us down to the river, where love is found.
“Well, I work by the rocks of the river/ Faithless, faithless, faithless/ Then I met you,” Springsteen sings in a hushed voice over gentle, high desert-style acoustic guitar backing. “I walked ‘neath the eaves of the garden/ Faithless, faithless, faithless/ Then I saw you,” he adds with a chorus of female voices echoing his own.
In a release announcing the song, it is called a “meditation on purpose, belief and acceptance” that was originally intended to accompany a “spiritual Western” film that never got made. Springsteen recorded much of the Faithless album between the end of the November 2005 Devils & Dust tour and the April 2006 release of the We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album.
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The Faithless LP — one of seven previously unreleased albums included in the set due out on June 27 from Sony Music — has four instrumental songs that were written as interstitials for the film on a collection that is said to explore Springsteen’s “unique vision of spirituality in the mythic American West, while working inside of his uncharted artistic medium.”
“This was a really unusual collection of songs,” Springsteen said in a statement of the score album that was composed in a “prolific” two weeks in Florida before a single frame of the movie was shot. “You could recognize details and maybe a character or two. But for the most part, I just wrote atmospheric music that I thought would fit,” he said. Mostly recorded as a solo effort, Faithless features appearances from producer Ron Aniello, touring members of The E Street Band Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Curtis King, Jr., Michelle Moore and Ada Dyer and the singer’s wife and fellow E Street Band member and solo performer Patti Scialfa, as well as the couple’s two adult sons, Evan and Sam Springsteen.
“Faithless” joins the other two pre-release songs previewing the Tracks II collection, the beat-heavy “Blind Spot” from the 10-track Streets of Philadelphia Sessions and the turbulent, “Rain in the River.”
The 83-track collection will “fill in rich chapters of Springsteen’s expansive career timeline — while offering invaluable insight into his life and work as an artist,” according to the initial release announcing the set, which noted that some of the albums got to the mixing stage before being shelved.
Among the other albums included are the lo-fi LA Garage Sessions ’83, the country-leaning Somewhere North of Nashville and the border tales LP Inyo, as well as the “orchestra-driven, mid-century noir” Twilight Hours. The box set covers the years 1983-2018 and will be issued in a limited-edition 9-LP set , as well as 7-CD and digital formats, with distinctive packaging for each. A 20-track compilation, Lost and Found: Selections From The Lost Albums, will also be released on June 27 on two LPs and one CD.
Listen to Springsteen’s “Faithless” below.
Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. Billy Corgan‘s suburban Chicago tea shop, Madame Zuzu’s was hit by a car for the second time. Six months after a vehicle smashed through the front window of the Highland Park tea spot and injured Corgan’s mother-in-law, the shop revealed that it had been struck again.
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“Earlier today, there was an accident outside of Madame Zuzu’s involving a vehicle that struck the front of the café,” read a statement on Madame Zuzu’s Instagram page on Wednesday (April 30). “Thankfully, no one was injured. Thank you to everyone who checked in and offered support.”
According to WGN, Smashing Pumpkins leader Corgan’s wife, Chloe Mendel Corgan, said the crash was an “honest accident” and no one was hurt, but the building did suffer some “exterior damage.” The outlet posted a picture of the aftermath, which appeared to show some damage to the bricks on the facade of the building.
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Corgan also posted a picture of the damage on X on Tuesday (April 29), writing, “thankfully no one was injured. Just more damage to the exterior/interior but the shop is open for the rest of the day.
Back in October, Corgan posted a note from his wife in which she said that a car had jumped the curb and smashed into the front window of the shop that opened in its current location in Sept. 2020. “This afternoon at Madame Zuzu’s, a car (in circumstances which remain under investigation) drove over the curb and into Madame Zuzu’s and sadly injuring one person — my mother, Jenny; who was spending the day and lunching with my son Augustus,” wrote Chloe Mendel Corgan after the first crash. “Thankfully, he was able to leap out of the way and was not injured.”
The Corgans welcoming their third child in March. Daughter June Corgan joins their son Augustus Juppiter, 9 and daughter Philomena Clementine, 6. Corgan will launch his 16-date solo tour with his new band, the Machines of God, on June 7 in Baltimore. The outing will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and the 25th anniversary of the 2000 albums Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.
Check out Madame Zuzu’s statement below.