State Champ Radio Rock
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Boygenius brought songs from their long-awaited debut album, The Record, to Studio 8H. Fresh off a whopping six Grammy nominations, the supergroup — helmed by Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — gave rocking performances of “Not Strong Enough” and “Satanist” during its Saturday Night Live debut on Nov. 11. With an introduction from […]
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a dressing room in New York City, the members of Boygenius — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — cannot seem to stop smiling at one another. It could be because they just finished a rehearsal for their performance on Saturday Night Live this weekend (Nov. 11). Or it could be that they just earned a bunch of 2024 Grammy nominations.
On Friday (Nov. 10), the trio found out that they were nominated for a whopping six awards at the 2024 Grammy Awards, including nods for both album and record of the year for the record and “Not Strong Enough,” respectively. Bridgers, earning a seventh nomination for her work with SZA on the song “Ghost in the Machine,” ties Victoria Monét and engineer Serban Ghenea as the second-most nominated artist at the annual ceremony, with SZA leading at nine nominations.
“It feels like I’m in a simultaneous come-up and come-down from a high,” Dacus tells Billboard, looking to her bandmates with a smile and a confounded expression. The group posted a photo of themselves on Instagram, where all three hug one another after finding out about their album of the year nomination. In their dressing room, Bridgers, Baker and Dacus regularly reach around to grab each other’s hands, still processing the news.
Below, Billboard chats with Boygenius about their six nominations, their preparations for SNL, what it means to be nominated alongside rock greats like the Rolling Stones and the Foo Fighters, and why LGBTQ+ representation at the Grammys matters — but not nearly as much as LGBTQ+ rights.
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Before we even get into the Grammys of it all, how have SNL rehearsals with Timothée Chalamet been going so far?
Lucy Dacus: Pretty good, we have another one tonight.
Phoebe Bridgers: It’s scary, it’s like The Imp of the Perverse.
Julien Baker: Yeah, it’s all really live.
Bridgers: You’re like, “I could do something that people will see across the nation.” Well, actually, that’s guaranteed. But I could do something bad, like trying to drive your car into the median.
Well, congratulations on the Grammys nominations! How are each of you doing after finding out?
Baker: I was like, “If it happens, we’ll get one, maybe.” But no, we got six.
Dacus: Well, it’s seven if you count the sound engineering one [best engineered album, non-classical].
Bridgers: I mean, it’s not our names, but the people who helped make our collective Boygenius project. But yes, we are over-caffeinated, f—ed-up, and I’m gonna take a nap after this.
Baker: You know when you get so excited that you just have to go to sleep? It’s like when a fuse bursts and then there’s just no power. It’s a power surge, for sure.
You’re nominated for record and album of the year alongside artists like Taylor Swift, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo, while also being nominated in the rock categories with icons like The Rolling Stones and the Foo Fighters. What does being in that kind of company mean for the three of you?
Bridgers: Pretty dope. I think we’re gonna have to fight Dave Grohl in the parking lot.
Baker: Yo, we should do that. We should challenge him to beef.
Dacus: Hey, I’ve seen in-person how hard he hits the drums; I’m not gonna fight Dave Grohl. His arms are something else. Like, he’s got the muscle and he’s scrappy.
For Lucy and Julien, these are your first-ever nominations at the Grammys—
Baker: And last! [Laughs] No, this is a thing that is completely not able to be conceptualized. Like, this is a fake dream, almost. You’re like, “One day, I’m gonna hit the big time.” And then we play The Wiltern, and it’s like, “Okay, cool, that seems pretty good and achievable.” And then we got nominated for a Grammy, and I’m like, “That’s actually what people fake aspire to.”
Dacus: Yeah, I feel like I need a whole new bucket list.
Bridgers: It is pretty sick, to have a dream when you’re f—ing 15 that you achieve, and then you go, “What weird sh– can I do next?”
I also want to congratulate you three on leading the pack of LGBTQ+ nominees this year, alongside artists like Victoria Monét, Miley Cyrus and Brandy Clark. What does that mean for you, as a group, to see that level of representation in the nominations?
Baker: It’s cool, because when you’re saying “this class of people,” or “this demographic of folks” … it’s like, if there’s enough people that fit that category within the organization, it stops becoming a novelty.
Bridgers: Yeah, or even just as much of a commodity.
Baker: Exactly, it allows all of those people to be individuated more.
Dacus: It would be so sick if the way all queer people were treated got more normal too. Like, we have a friend that, during Pride Month, said, “It’s cool to see the rainbow on this Shell gas station sign. Why am I still getting looked at funny as a trans woman walking around?” Like, it’s cool that there’s more queer people getting nominated for Grammys, but it would also be super cool if more queer people had their full rights and were treated like people.
These nominations come after a huge year for Boygenius, between putting out the record and the massive tour you just wrapped up. Where do you feel these nominations rank among the other cool things you’ve gotten to do this year?
Dacus: Honestly? I don’t know yet because it just happened. [Laughs]
Bridgers: We haven’t fully processed, and Julien keeps pointing out that sh– keeps happening to us, where you are then confronted with each other or other people being like, “How sick is that?!” Like, I haven’t even had a single private thought about how sick this is yet.
Baker: Right, “Tell us how special this is!” And I’m sitting here like, “Dude, I don’t know!”
Bridgers: But it’s been really cool. We all got to FaceTime special people in our lives.
Baker: Yeah, we FaceTimed Catherine [Marks], our producer, and texted with people who worked on the record. I will say, that felt really nice, because it’s not just a momentary thing. All of the shows we’ve done always feel so sick in the moment, and I’m very much the one who’s like, “I’m just ready to play the gig.” But it’s cool to have so many people who are attached to the physical work, to the master we created, getting acknowledged.
Dacus: For sure, and I’d even say that, even when it’s something like a photo shoot that’s the three of us, we get sick of our own faces. But to have this event that overtly recognizes everyone behind the scenes — like with the engineering award the album was nominated for — that feels even more special.
Beartooth reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for the first time, as “Might Love Myself” rises to the top of the Nov. 18-dated survey.
The song is the Columbus, Ohio, band’s 11th entry on Mainstream Rock Airplay. The Caleb Shomo-fronted act first reached the chart in 2015 with “Beaten In Lips,” which peaked at No. 33 that February. Prior to “Might Love Myself,” Beartooth snagged a pair of top 10s: “Hated” (No. 6, April 2017) and “Disease” (No. 9, December 2018).
Beartooth becomes the first act to score a first Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1 since Avatar, whose “The Dirt I’m Buried In” led in September. Three acts in all have nabbed their premiere rulers in 2023, with Beartooth and Avatar joined by Bad Omens with “Just Pretend” in March. Four such acts, via three songs, accomplished the feat as lead artists in 2022: Nita Strauss and David Draiman (both on “Dead Inside,” that January), Jelly Roll (“Dead Man Walking,” May) and Motionless in White (“Masterpiece,” October).
Concurrently, “Might Love Myself” holds at its No. 11 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.5 million audience impressions, up 6%, Nov. 3-9, according to Luminate. The song is Beartooth’s top-ranking career hit on the ranking.
On the most recent multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (Nov. 11), “Might Love Myself” ranked at its No. 9 best. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 495,000 official U.S. streams Oct. 27-Nov. 2.
The track is the second single, following “Riptide,” from The Surface, Beartooth’s fifth studio album. The set started at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart dated Oct. 28 and has earned 53,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 18 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
Green Day lands its seventh leader on Billboard’s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart thanks to “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” which rises from No. 2 to No. 1 on the Nov. 18-dated list.
The song reigns in just its third week on the tally via 9.5 million audience impressions, up 10%, Nov. 3-9, according to Luminate.
The song completes the quickest rise to No. 1 on Rock & Alternative Airplay since Linkin Park’s “Lost” debuted atop the Feb. 25-dated ranking. It’s Green Day’s fastest since “Oh Love” launched at No. 1 in August 2012.
With seven No. 1s, Green Day breaks out of a tie for the most rulers in the history of Rock & Alternative Airplay, which began in 2009 (with Green Day’s “Know Your Enemy” the inaugural leader). Foo Fighters lead all acts with 11 No. 1s.
Most No. 1s, Rock & Alternative Airplay:11, Foo Fighters7, Green Day6, Cage the Elephant6, twenty one pilots5, The Black Keys5, Imagine Dragons4, Linkin Park4, Red Hot Chili Peppers3, Weezer
Green Day had last led Rock & Alternative Airplay with “Oh Yeah!,” a two-week No. 1 in April 2020.
Concurrently, “The American Dream Is Killing Me” rises 3-2 on Alternative Airplay and 5-3 on Mainstream Rock Airplay, the Greatest Gainer award winner on both charts. It also zooms 34-21 on Adult Alternative Airplay.
The song debuted at No. 22 on the most recently published multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs survey (dated Nov. 11); in addition to its radio airplay, it earned 1.1 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads Oct. 27-Nov. 2, its first full week of tracking following its Oct. 24 release.
“The American Dream Is Killing Me” is the lead single from Saviors, Green Day’s 14th studio album, due Jan. 19, 2024. Another song from the set, “Look Ma, No Brains!,” arrived Nov. 2.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 18 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
Slightly Stoopid has released their first new song in six years, the rhythmic and lustrous new single “Got Me On The Run” featuring longtime collaborators and friends Stick Figure and Pepper. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Both Stick Figure and Pepper will be performing with Slightly […]
Who needs a metronome when you have your newborn baby’s heartbeat? That appears to be Travis Barker‘s line of thinking based on a new video uploaded to TikTok on Thursday (Nov. 9).
“Practicing to my babies heartbeat 🥁,” the blink-182 drummer captioned the post — which featured him beating a drum pad with a rapid rhythm based on the sound of his newborn’s heartbeat. Barker sits in what looks to be a hospital room or doctor’s office, with medical equipment all around him in the clip, driving home the recent arrival of his latest bundle of joy.
On Nov. 4, sources confirmed to People that Kourtney Kardashian had given birth to her first child with husband Barker. A baby boy, the couple’s first child joins Kardashian’s three elder children from a years-long relationship with reality TV personality Scott Disick: son Mason, 13, daughter Penelope, 11, and son Reign, 8. Barker has two older children from a previous marriage to model Shanna Moakler: son Landon, 19, and daughter Alabama, 17, as well as stepdaughter Atiana.
In the days leading up to their baby boy’s arrival, Barker visited the One Life One Chance podcast to reveal that he and Kardashian had chosen to name him Rocky Thirteen Barker. “I was like, ‘He’s going to come out of my wife’s vagina doing front kicks and push-ups,’” Barker quipped, also confirming that his wife was due on Halloween or “the first week of November.”
That projected due date happened to include two very special milestones for Barker. In addition to the birth of his baby boy, the 47-year-old rocker collected a bevy of new Billboard chart achievements. On the Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 4, Blink-182’s One More Time bowed at the summit with 125,000 equivalent album units.
With that lofty debut, the pop-punk icons now have a Billboard 200-topping album for each decade of the 2000s so far: 2002’s Take Off Your Pants, 2016’s California and this year’s One More Time. The new set also features two back-to-back Alternative Airplay No. 1 hits in “Edging” and its title track, cementing the One More Time era as something of a third career wind for the beloved rockers.
Check out Travis Barker’s heartwarming new TikTok below:
The Beatles return to the top 10 of a Billboard airplay chart for the first time in 28 years thanks to “Now and Then,” which debuts at No. 9 on the Adult Alternative Airplay tally dated Nov. 18.
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The song marks the legends’ first time in the top 10 of a radio ranking since “Free As a Bird” debuted and peaked at No. 8, in the song’s lone week in the top 10, on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated Dec. 9, 1995.
The Beatles chart their first top 10 on Adult Alternative Airplay, which began in 1996. The Beatles placed on the inaugural tally (dated Jan. 20, 1996) with “Free As a Bird,” which peaked at No. 11; follow-up “Real Love” peaked at No. 16 that March, marking the other of their three charted titles on the survey.
Concurrently, “Now and Then” bounds 37-23 in its second week on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart; it debuted on the Nov. 11 ranking following one day of airplay, logged on its release on Nov. 2. The song earned 1.7 million audience impressions in its first full week (Nov. 3-9), according to Luminate. (It drew 1.1 million in reach Nov. 2.)
That first day of streams, airplay and sales enabled “Now and Then” to debut at No. 11 on the Nov. 11-dated Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. In addition to its radio airplay, the song garnered 2.3 million official U.S. streams and sold 17,000 downloads Nov. 2.
The first full week of activity for “Now and Then” (Nov. 3-9) will be reflected on the Nov. 18-dated Billboard charts, which will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
“Now and Then” is billed as the final Beatles song, first recorded as a demo in 1977 by John Lennon and initially meant for the band’s three-edition Anthology series in the mid-‘90s before being shelved by the surviving members of the band. (“Free As a Bird” and “Real Love” were released from the first and second Anthology editions, respectively.) It was completed and released this year after new technology helped extract Lennon’s vocals from the original demo while also using guitar recordings from George Harrison from the initial attempt to finish the song.
U2 returns to the top of Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart for the first time since 2017 and pulls ahead of Coldplay for the most leaders in the chart’s history as “Atomic City” jumps from No. 3 to No. 1 on the ranking dated Nov. 18. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See […]
Kevin Martin knew there was a chance he might come off ungrateful detailing his many qualms with the music business on the 30th anniversary of Candlebox‘s debut album and its monster single “Far Behind.”
But he did it anyway.
“The industry is completely f***ed,” the 54-year founder and sole original member of the American rock group explained, laying out a litany of indignities and double-standards ruining rock and irritating him as he makes his final trek across the U.S. for Candlebox’s Long Goodbye Tour.
“This tour bus is costing me $1,500 a f***ing day. It’s bullshit. I would’ve paid $400 for this 10 years ago,” he said during an interview with Billboard while parked at the Orange County fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Calif. “The air conditioning doesn’t work and they hadn’t cleaned the vents or changed the carpets ever. I’m living in a petri dish and it’s disgusting. But of course I’m really grateful for everything,” he jokingly trails off, laughing and smiling as he acknowledges the moment.
Martin then clarifies that he is genuinely grateful to his core fans who have long supported the band, his wife and adult son who he spends months away from each year, and the guys in his band who recorded Candlebox’s seventh and final album, also named The Long Goodbye, which Martin believes is some of the group’s best work.
“I want it to be the defining moment of the band’s career, whatever the f*** that means,” Martin says.
“I don’t know what legacy means in this band’s whole realm because Candlebox has seen so many different incarnations and been pulled in so many different directions.”
Martin grew up in San Antonio and moved to Seattle in 1983 at the age of 14, eventually meeting Scott Mercado and then later guitarist Peter Klett and bassist Bardi Martin. Candlebox was signed by Guy Oseary to Madonna’s Maverick records in 1992 and released their self-titled debut album in 1993, eventually going quadruple platinum, selling more than 4 million albums thanks to heavy radio and MTV play for megahits “Cover Me,” “You” and “Far Behind.”
Despite their success, Seattle’s music scene didnt openly embrace the group with some labeling the band as derivative of the grunge rock scene, while others falsely claimed the band had moved to Seattle to ride the coattails of bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Martin says that it was Oseary who filled the role of mentor and champion of the band, which Candlebox needed early on.
“As an artist I was at top of my game in the nineties and Maverick was killing it for Candlebox,” Martin said. But drug and alcohol abuse by bandmates “very quickly snuffed out our career” and after recording two more albums – 1995’s Lucy and 1998’s Happy Pills, the band decided to break up. Thanks to a key man clause in Martin’s contract that required him to turn in a fourth album, Martin became trapped in a legal battle for his band and a larger fight between Warner and Maverick. Martin today owns the band and makes decent money collecting royalties but says it took him 13 years to repay Warner Music to recoup a $250,000 advance.
Today, most Candlebox revenue comes from the $2.5 million per year the band generates on tour, playing headline shows and opening for bands like Three Doors Down, who’s support of former President Donald Trump is a frequent punchline on Martin’s bus.
Between the cost of his bus, the wages he pays to his band members and crew, and the non-stop nickel-and-diming he says he faces on a daily basis, he estimates his take home will be between $125,000 to $175,000.
“That’s a pretty shitty return,” he says. “I can’t take it anymore, missing my wife and my son, for this?”
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He adds that he finds rock radio to be “pretty vanilla” noting, “You want to know why rock radio sucks? Because every f***ing band on it sucks.” As for labels like Round Hill where Candlebox found a new home, Martin comments that “they’re fine but no one does actual A&R work these days.”
Martin says he doesn’t plan to stop writing music and says the songs on Candlebox’s final album The Long Goodbye, like the track “Cell Phone Jesus,” are a preview of what’s ahead.
“Organized religion to me is the most fucked up thing in the world,” he explains. “We’re more concerned about drag queens than we are about kids getting murdered in f***ing school with assault weapons. It’s terrible we allow kids to go through that because we’re so desensitized by it now. The advice to the artist is don’t say anything . Don’t take a stand. Well I don’t care. F *** you. It’s my last record. What are you going to do to me?”
Linkin Park is facing a lawsuit that claims it has refused to credit or pay royalties to an ex-bassist who played with the band in the late 1990s — a legal battle triggered by an anniversary re-release of the band’s smash hit 2000 debut album.
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In a complaint filed Wednesday (Nov. 8) federal court, Kyle Christner says he helped creating many songs that were included on the 2020 box-set edition of Hybrid Theory, which holds the lofty distinction as the best-selling rock album of the 21st century. But he says his contributions have been effectively erased.
“Christner has never been paid a penny for his work with Linkin Park, nor has he been properly credited, even as defendants have benefitted from his creative efforts,” his lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
Christner claims he was a member of Linkin Park for several months in 1999, until he was “abruptly informed” that he had been fired shortly before the band signed a record deal with Warner Records. But before his exit, Christner claims he played bass on a self-released EP and on several demo recordings, some of which he says he “helped compose.”
His lawsuit claims that as many as 20 of those recordings were released as goodies on the 2020 re-release, making him “a joint creator of many tracks in the box set.” That includes a song called “Could Have Been,” a never-before-released demo track that has amassed 949,000 views on YouTube.
According to Christner, the situation came to a head earlier this year when he was contacted by a Linkin Park representative offering him royalties for the Hybrid Theory re-release. The email allegedly read: “You get mechanical royalties for 3 demos and the 6-song Hybrid Theory EP that you performed on.”
Christner responded by pressing the band for a more detailed explanation of his royalty breakdown, and arguing that he was entitled to a cut from a greater number of tracks — “more than twenty songs.” He later told the band: “If you do not believe I deserve writing credits on these songs, please state your reasons for that in your response.”
Later, after lawyers got involved, Christner says the band backtracked, denying that his work appeared in the box set at all.
“In other words, after admitting that Christner played on at least some tracks included in the box set and admitting that Christner was entitled to at least some ‘mechanical’ royalties, which are royalties paid for compositions, defendants repudiated Christner’s co-authorship and co-ownership of the works at issue,” his lawyers wrote in Wednesday’s complaint.
In technical terms, the lawsuit is asking a judge to issue a so-called declaratory judgment that says Christner is a co-author and co-owner of the copyrights in question, and to weigh in on the “rights and obligations of the parties” — meaning, whether the band owes him a cut of royalties and how much. He also is asking for a court-ordered accounting of royalties for the disputed songs.
As defendants, the lawsuit personally names Linkin Park’s living members (Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson and Joseph Hahn), as well as its business entity, Machine Shop Entertainment LLC, and the band’s label Warner Records.
A rep for Linkin Park did not immediately return a request for comment.
