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Jen Majura, a seasoned guitarist who has performed with bands such as Equilibrium, Knorkator and Evanescence, has announced her decision to “step away” from the music industry.
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Majura’s plans were shared on her Instagram account on Tuesday (June 10), explaining that she had come to the decision after “careful consideration, observing what‘s going on in the music industry, AI related developments and change in society.”
“Instead of wasting another year of my life constantly hoping for new energy, drive and creativity, I‘ve reached a point in my life where I can confidentially lean back in peace,” she wrote. “While time allowed me, I was able to collect an amazing amount of beautiful experiences, tours, shows, travels and moments! I am grateful for every bit of that, but the world has changed. I can confidently make up my mind to stop.
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“I am not saying that I will never create any music again, whether recorded or live – but for now I feel there are healthier and better things to fill my life with good vibes and not deal with the overwhelming amount of ridiculousness that comes with the music industry now days. I just can’t identify with today‘s attitude and values anymore.”
As Majura continued she shared her well wishes to “all the ambitious and remaining ‘creators’, young and old,” before offering four singles to her fans as something of a parting gift.
“As a final musical endeavor I wanna share 4 tracks with you,” she wrote. “Songs that were written over a decade ago together with the great guitarist Dennis Hormes. I found these old demo recordings while cleaning out stuff from my computer and thought they are too good to not be shared.”
A musician from an early age, Majura has performed professionally since 2000, with work as a guitarist and bassist in bands such as Equilibrium, Knorkator and Black Thunder Ladies, and a handful of solo albums to her name.
Majura came to widespread attention in 2015 when she took over from Terry Balsamo as the lead guitarist of Arkansas rockers Evanescence. Performing on the band’s most recent two albums (2017’s Synthesis and 2021’s The Bitter Truth), Majura’s exit from the band was announced in May 2022.
“It has been a very special chapter in the band with our dear friend Jen Majura, but we have decided it’s time to go our separate ways,” the group said at the time. “We will always love her and support her, and can’t wait to see what she does next! We are so grateful for the good times and great music we made all around the world together.”
Following her departure from Evanescence, Majura co-founded “crossover metal band” How We End, and also performed vocals on the track “Deep Inside,” from former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini’s Invisible Signs albums.
Douglas McCarthy, the co-founding vocalist of English industrial dance outfit Nitzer Ebb, has passed away at the age of 58.
McCarthy’s death was confirmed by Nitzer Ebb’s official social media account on Tuesday (June 11). “It is with a heavy heart that we regret to inform that Douglas McCarthy passed away this morning of June 11th, 2025,” a post read.
“We ask everyone to please be respectful of Douglas, his wife, and family in this difficult time,” it added. “We appreciate your understanding and will share more information soon.”
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McCarthy co-founded Nitzer Ebb in 1982 alongside school friends Vaughan ‘Bon’ Harris and David Gooday, with the group taking inspiration from the post-punk genre for their early single releases. That sound soon evolved with more industrial and electronic influences, with the band quickly becoming regarded as noted figures within the ‘electronic body music’ scene – a genre that combined elements of industrial and punk with dance music.
The group’s debut album, That Total Age, would be issued in May 1987, and though avoiding chart success, the single “Join the Chant” would reach No. 9 on the Dance Club Songs charts.
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Nitzer Ebb would remain a fixture of the chart in the coming years, with singles such as “Control I’m Here,” “Lightning Man,” and “Fun to Be Had” all appearing therein, with the latter giving the band their highest peak when it reached No. 5 in 1990. They would also impact the Alternative Airplay charts, with 1991’s “Family Man” giving them a career high when it reached No. 21.
While 1991’s Ebbhead would be their only record to reach the Billboard 200 (peaking at No. 146), their follow-up, 1995’s Big Hit, would be the band’s last for 15 years, with Nitzer Ebb splitting soon after its release.
McCarthy would contribute to Recol, the solo project of Depeche Mode‘s Alan Wilder throughout the ’90s, and later collaborate with French producer Terence Fixmer as one half of Fixmer/McCarthy. Nitzer Ebb would reform in 2006 and release their final album, Industrial Complex, in 2010. In 2013, McCarthy would release his only solo album, Kill Your Friends.
In recent years, McCarthy had suffered from noted ill health, with Harris taking over vocals for a series of 2021 performances after McCarthy collapsed before a show due to a “pre-existing” medical condition. In early 2024, McCarthy announced he would no longer be performing live after being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.
After almost two decades away, Yellowcard is back on a Billboard airplay chart. “Better Days,” the lead single from Yellowcard’s upcoming album of the same name, bows at No. 33 on the Alternative Airplay tally dated June 14. The song marks the Ryan Key-fronted band’s first appearance on any airplay ranking since 2007, when “Light […]
06/11/2025
Following the death of the legendary Brian Wilson, the absolute best from one of the greatest catalogs in rock or pop history.
06/11/2025
Brian Wilson, leader of The Beach Boys, widely acknowledged as one of America’s all-time greatest composers, a pioneer of advanced studio techniques, and one of the most sensitive chroniclers of the Californian experience, has died at age 82.
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His death was confirmed Wednesday (June 11) by a post shared across his social media accounts. “We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” the post read. “We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”
Wilson is survived by his daughters Carnie and Wendy from his 1964 marriage to Marilyn Rovell, as well as his five adopted children with his wife Melinda Ledbetter. (Ledbetter herself passed in early 2024.)
Wilson was born in Inglewood, California on June 20, 1942 to Audree Neva and Murry Wilson, a factory worker who became a songwriter and The Beach Boys’ early manager. At Hawthorne High School, Wilson was an athlete, but demonstrated an ear for harmony. In Summer 1961, he formed the Pendletones with younger brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Released on the local Calpix label, their rudimentary “Surfin’” became a regional hit under their new name, The Beach Boys, and their next recordings landed them a contract with Capitol Records.
The following year’s Surfin’ U.S.A. reached No. 2, and The Beach Boys became superstars. From ’63 to ‘65, the band released three studio albums each year while touring nearly nonstop. Earning full producer credit by September 1963’s Surfer Girl, Wilson made speedy progress as an arranger and sonic sculptor: Harmonies were overdubbed and perfected, and he often sang falsetto lead, particularly on ballads like “In My Room.” Although their instrumental chops also strengthened, Wilson soon augmented the Boys with session musicians. Even the British Invasion couldn’t squash their popularity: The Beach Boys were America’s biggest band.
Yet conflicts with Murry Wilson – who’d long bullied his sons – as well as pressure to maintain their constant schedule magnified Wilson’s anxieties. Following an inflight panic attack in late 1964, the songwriter stopped performing. During his first LSD trip, he composed July 1965’s “California Girls,” which marked the studio debut of his touring replacement, Bruce Johnston.
For May 1966’s expansive Pet Sounds, Wilson and lyricist Tony Asher created a song cycle documenting a passage from youthful innocence to mournful adulthood that the composer contrasted with delicately sophisticated yet openhearted orchestrations. Wilson recorded the band’s next single in several studios using even more unconventional instrumentation, but October 1966’s “Good Vibrations” became a worldwide smash.
Meanwhile, he and fellow experimentalist Van Dyke Parks toiled for many months on the even more ambitious Smile, but the project’s complexity overwhelmed its producer, who ultimately abandoned it in favor of September 1967’s simplified Smiley Smile, the first of several creative but commercially far less successful albums of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in which Wilson typically diminished his input. After 1974’s Endless Summer – the first of three consecutive compilations – unexpectedly reached No. 1, the band suddenly became the era’s top touring draw.
Marilyn Wilson hired celebrity shrink Eugene Landy to cure her husband’s mounting instability and addictions during 1976’s 15 Big Ones and ‘77’s Love You, which he both produced. After Landy’s dismissal, his condition worsened again; an overdose brought Landy back in 1983. The therapist’s control over Wilson’s life extended even to 1988’s debut solo album Brian Wilson and 1991’s autobiography, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, until a 1992 restraining order.
Wilson’s condition gradually improved; he married Ledbetter in 1995, when his output resumed, sometimes with stellar results: 2004’s Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a re-recording of the abandoned album, justly earned universal accolades. He returned to touring solo and, in 2012, with The Beach Boys. That year, the band released the Wilson-helmed That’s Why God Made the Radio, which brought back early guitarist David Marks and celebrated the group’s 50th anniversary.
In December of 2021, Wilson sold his publishing rights to Universal for more than $50 million, according to documents filed in a lawsuit by his ex-wife Mary Wilson-Rutherford. In recent years, Wilson suffered a marked decline in mental and physical health, leading to him being placed under a conservatorship in late 2024.
Although an acclaimed 2014 biopic, Love & Mercy, chronicled the musician’s rise, fall and return to relative stability, the magnitude of Wilson’s work towers above his legend as a troubled genius. Equally adept at celebrating sun, surf, cars, and girls as well as his own vulnerability, Wilson broadened rock’s scope while deepening its spiritual impact. God only knows what we’ll do without him.
One of two irreplaceable instruments stolen from the band Heart at a New Jersey venue two weeks ago has been retrieved. According to the Associated Press, on Tuesday (June 10), police in Atlantic City said they had recovered the purple baritone Telecaster guitar with ah hand-painted headstock belonging to guitarist Nancy Wilson from a woman […]
Noel Gallagher has teamed up with Mantra of the Cosmos, a supergroup composed of Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and Bez, Ride’s Andy Bell and former The Who drummer Zak Starkey, for a new song “Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous).”
The song was first teased earlier this year and released on a limited vinyl run, and is now available to listen to on streaming services. Speaking to The Times in January, Gallagher described the psych-rock song: “It’s Dylan, Dali, Ginsberg and a bit of cosmic jibber-jabber. Add in Bez, who dances on the tunes like Zak plays the drums and Andy Bell plays all things stringed, and you have it.”
The band celebrated the limited vinyl release back in January with a show at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where Starkey’s father Ringo Starr played early shows with The Beatles beginning in 1962.
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In a matter of weeks, Gallagher will kick off the Oasis reunion tour in Cardiff, Wales on July 4, with a run of shows in the U.K. and Ireland, North America, Asia and beyond. Bell is reported to join the Oasis lineup on bass, reprising a role he held between 1999 and 2009, appearing on three of their studio LPs. Starkey, who played in Oasis’ lineup from 2004 and 2008, appears to not be in the reunion tour, with Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) set to take on the drummer role.
Recently Starkey has been embroiled in an ongoing saga regarding his position as drummer of The Who. Starkey joined the band in 1996 and accompanied the Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend-led band on a number of global tours.
Following a gig in March, however, Starkey was seemingly axed by the band over his performance, particularly on the show’s final track “The Song Is Over.” Following reports of his sacking, The Who blamed “communication issues” which “had been happily aired” and that Starkey was, indeed, back in the band.
Weeks later in late May, Starkey’s tenure in the band seemingly came to an abrupt end, and he claimed on his Instagram that Daltrey had asked him to “retire” from the band. Speaking on BBC 6 Music on Monday (June. 9), Starkey claimed that the issue arose from “two dropped beats” in the performance, but that “I’ve watched the gig over and over again on YouTube and I can’t find them.”
The Who will embark on their final North American tour this summer, kicking off in Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL on Aug. 16.
Listen to “Domino Bones” below.
English progressive rock icons Yes have announced a new fall tour which will see them play their 1971 album Fragile in full.
Officially dubbed The Fragile Tour 2025, The Album Series, the newly-announced run of shows will launch on Oct. 1 and sees the band performing a total of 31 dates until Nov. 16. Per a press release, the tour setlist will include Fragile full along with a number of other “classic cuts.”
Released in November 1971, Fragile was the fourth album from the group, and their third to be released in a 16-month span. It also became their most successful release up to that point. Expanding upon the initial chart success that The Yes Album brought earlier in the year (reaching No. 40 on the Billboard 200), Fragile would peak at No. 4, only being bested by one position thanks to Close to the Edge the following year.
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The album’s lone single, “Roundabout,” would be issued in January 1972 and would reach No. 13 on the Hot 100. It remained their highest-charting single until “Owner of a Lonely Heart” hit No. 1 in 1983.
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Fragile would also be supported by a 115-date album tour, with the group returning to the U.S. in November 1971 – mere months after wrapping up their debut visit to the country. As a press release for the new run of dates explains, the record’s initial tour was a vital part of the band’s history, and marked the moment when Yes “became a headline act in the US.”
“All the band’s albums had a unique feel and approach,” explained guitarist Steve Howe. “After The Yes Album, so many things came together, with [co-producer] Eddie Offord steering the proceedings.
“While the band focused on only four main songs with full arrangements, each of us wrote and designed a solo piece, which was Bill [Bruford]’s great idea. It’s fairly ‘odd-ball,’ but we were at the height of our creativity, determined for success.
“It gave us confidence, further than our own in-stock belief, we’d crafted this unusual but noticeable musical twist to rock and what later became prog,” he added.
Of the original lineup which recorded Fragile in 1971, only Howe remains an active member. Drummer Bill Bruford would depart the group in 1992, while both vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman would depart in 2004. Bassist Chris Squire would remain with the band through all iterations until his passing in 2015.
Yes – The Fragile Tour 2025, The Album Series
Oct. 1 – Toyota Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford, CTOct. 2 – Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJOct. 4 – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena, Atlantic City, NJOct. 5 – The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NYOct. 7 – The Paramount, Huntington, NYOct. 8 – Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PAOct. 9 – Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PAOct. 11 – Appell Center for the Performing Arts, York, PAOct. 12 – Penn’s Peak, Jim Thorpe, PAOct. 14 – Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C.Oct. 16 – Carolina Theatre, Durham, NCOct. 18 – Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FLOct. 19 – Broward Center, Au-Rene Theater, Ft Lauderdale, FLOct. 21 – Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center, The Villages, FLOct. 22 – Charleston Music Hall, Charleston, SCOct. 24 – Coca-Cola Roxy, Atlanta, GAOct. 25 – Graceland Soundstage, Memphis, TNOct. 27 – The Louisville Palace, Louisville, KYOct. 28 – Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, OHOct. 30 – Murat Theatre at Old National Centre, Indianapolis, INOct. 31 – Des Plaines Theatre, Des Plaines, ILNov. 1 – The Arcada Theatre, St. Charles, ILNov. 3 – The Orpheum Theater, Madison, WINov. 4 – The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WINov. 6 – Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, MONov. 7 – Steelhouse Omaha, Omaha, NENov. 9 – Paramount Theatre, Denver, CONov. 11 – Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZNov. 13 – YouTube Theater, Inglewood, CANov. 14 – Viejas Casino, Alpine, CANov. 16 – Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, NV
Turnstile is hitting the road this fall in support of their new album Never Enough, launching Sept. 15 in Nashville. The tour includes support acts SPEED and Jane Remover and special appearances by guests Amyl & The Sniffers, Blood Orange and Mannequin Pussy. Last week, the band released their new record and companion film Turnstile: […]
MGK‘s next album will be a tribute to Americana, and it seems that he tapped one of the subculture’s biggest heroes, Bob Dylan, to narrate the project’s trailer.
In a clip previewing the August-slated LP posted Tuesday (June 10), a voice sounding very familiar to Dylan’s can be heard reading a description of the rapper-turned-rocker’s Lost Americana, calling it “a personal excavation of the American dream.”
“It’s a sonic map of forgotten places, a tribute to the spirit of reinvention and a quest to reclaim the essence of American freedom,” the Dylan-esque drawl says over fuzzy shots of MGK smoking, riding motorcycles, hanging out with friends, taking in a mountainous landscape in awe and walking the Las Vegas strip. “From the glow of neon diners to the rumble of the motorcycles, this is music that celebrates the beauty found in the in-between spaces. Where the past is reimagined, and the future is forged on your own terms.”
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MGK further teased that Dylan is in fact the featured voice by cheekily writing in the video’s caption, “narrated by …” without revealing any names. Later, the “My Ex’s Best Friend” artist not-so-randomly shared a black-and-white photo of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer on Instagram Stories Tuesday.
Billboard has reached out to Dylan’s reps for comment.
Arriving Aug. 8, Lost Americana will mark MGK’s seventh studio album, following 2022’s Billboard 200-topper Mainstream Sellout. Leading up to its release, the artist born Colson Baker has dropped singles “Your Name Forever” and “Cliche,” which followed his 2024 collaborations with Jelly Roll, “Lonely Road” and “Time of Day.”
And while a collaboration with the famously elusive Dylan might seem random, the Lost Americana trailer wouldn’t be the first time he and MGK’s worlds have collided (assuming that it really is the legend’s voice in the narration). In February, Dylan left fans confused when, without explanation, he posted an old video of the “I Think I’m Okay” artist rapping in a Florida music store in 2016 on Instagram.
Whether that was Dylan’s way of declaring that he’s a fan of MGK or just a random moment, the younger musician was amused by the post. “you having a phone is so rad,” MGK commented at the time.
See MGK’s Lost Americana trailer, seemingly featuring the voice of Bob Dylan, below.
