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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced the inductees for its 2023 class this morning (May 3). Seven of the 14 performers nominated for this year were officially welcomed into the Rock Hall, along with six more artists and execs via the honorary awards — including two recipients of the Musical Influence Award, three of the Musical Excellence Award and one of the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
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This year’s honorees (and those left behind) largely fall in line with trends we’ve seen from the Rock Hall’s last handful of induction classes — but there are a handful of exceptions, as well as some examples of the museum’s standards perhaps changing faster than we even anticipated. Here are some of the more unexpected revelations from this year’s class.
SNUB: The White Stripes
Whoops: The artist we predicted as the most likely inductee among the 2023 nominees was nowhere to be found among the names announced this morning. Detroit garage rock duo The White Stripes, who became one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed rock acts of the ’00s, seemed like a bulls-eye pick for Rock Hall traditionalists — particularly given their own obvious reverence for the kind of rock history the museum tends to honor. But Jack and Meg White’s snub in their first year nominated perhaps indicates that the target has moved somewhat for Rock Hall voters in recent years.
It’s just the Stripes’ first year of eligibility, so it’s pretty likely they’ll be back on the ballot in years to come, and may still have a good chance of getting in. The last rock band who missed the cut after seeming like this clear a slam dunk for first-year induction was Radiohead, who lost out in 2018 and then were welcomed in the very next year. But it’s getting pretty clear that dead-center rock acts who simply feel like obvious Rock & Roll Hall of Famers can no longer be considered shoo-ins for induction — at least not in their first try.
SURPRISE: The Spinners
At the other pole of our February predictions was R&B quintet The Spinners, about whom we said, “The songs hold up, but the group itself likely remains a little too anonymous for inclusion — even on its fourth nomination.” Well, the voters disagreed this time around, as the ’70s soul hitmakers did indeed get through the Rock Hall’s doors on their fourth time out — making them the first vocal group to be inducted since The “5” Royales were brought in as an Early Influence in 2015, and the first to be voted in as a performer since Little Anthony & The Imperials in 2009.
It’s hard to know what specifically the Spinners owe their induction to — though certainly, no group with classic hits as timeless as “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love?” and “Games People Play” really needs to justify its inclusion in any such institution. The group may have additionally benefited from a combination of seniority and sentimentality; they were one of just three nominees from the ’60s and ’70s on the ballot this year (and the one with the biggest pop hits), and they were also one of just three acts who had already been nominated three times before (with the other two also getting in).
SURPRISE: Rage Against the MachineSNUB: Soundgarden
To be fair, it was pretty close to a coin flip between these two great ’90s alternative-era bands — whose names will forever linked due to members from each coming together in the ’00s to form the similarly successful supergroup Audioslave. It seemed like it was time for one of the two to get in this year; both had been nominated before and both have very Rock Hall-friendly resumés. We ultimately leaned towards Soundgarden in our predictions, saying that the Seattle quartet “cast a bit longer a shadow [than Rage Against the Machine] — partly because of their earlier start (as the first real sensations of the grunge era) and partly because of the specter of late frontman Chris Cornell, one of the most inimitable rock frontmen of the last 40 years.”
However, the voters leaned the other way this year: Rage Against the Machine was finally inducted in its fifth try since 2018, becoming the closest thing to a traditional rock band let through the Rock Hall’s doors in 2023. (And with a rapping frontman in Zack de la Rocha and a sound that’s as indebted to funk and hip-hop as punk and metal, they’re not all that traditional.) Rage’s voting profile probably got a boost from its 2022 reunion tour — which was unfortunately cut short after 11 dates due to de la Rocha suffering a leg injury, but still may have rekindled enough memories of the band’s greatness to get it over the hump this time around.
SURPRISE: George Michael and Missy Elliott
Neither is a surprise individually, but together (along with fellow 2023 inductees Kate Bush and Willie Nelson) George Michael and Missy Elliott getting in demonstrates just how much Rock Hall voters have begun drifting towards iconic solo artists, almost regardless of what genre they’re most associated with. George Michael’s music occasionally flirted with traditional rock, but he was also proudly pop — in ways Rock Hall voters have not always rewarded or even approved of — while rap great Missy Elliott has very little connection to guitar-based rock music to speak of.
However, George Michael and Missy Elliott are undeniably crucial figures of the last 40 years of popular music — with Michael becoming one of the most trailblazing superstars on radio and MTV in the ’80s and early ’90s, and Elliott evolving the sound and image of hip-hop with her innovative albums, singles and music videos. In 2023, it appears that such an outsized impact on the music and culture of the rock era is more important to Rock Hall voters than any kind of strictly defined quintessential rockness. (Of the five solo performers inducted this year, Sheryl Crow is the only conventional rock star — and she also spent significant parts of her career dabbling in other genres like pop and country.)
SNUB: A Tribe Called Quest
Neither a legendary solo hitmaker nor a traditional rock band, ’90s rap trio A Tribe Called Quest seems likely to keep getting stuck in the middle for Rock Hall voters. The influential New York group is now 0-2, having been nominated each of the last two years but not yet inducted. Affection for the group among hip-hop heads and critics of all stripes remains perennially strong, so they’re likely to at least stay in the mix for years to come, but it may take something of a concentrated push to actually get them through the doors at this point.
SURPRISE: Chaka Khan (Musical Excellence Award)
Welcome, Ms. Khan! The funk and R&B icon of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s had been nominated a staggering seven times as a performer — three times solo, four times along with her funk band Rufus — but had yet to be voted in, making her one of the institution’s preeminent bridesmaids. No longer: The Rock Hall finally took it out of the voters’ hands this year, making her one of three Musical Excellence Award recipients (along with storied studio musician Al Kooper and hitmaking songwriter/Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin). Khan’s honorary induction is unexpected — probably for no one more than the singer herself — but logical, following such multi-time snubs as Kraftwerk, Judas Priest and LL Cool J taking a similar path to Rock Hall entry via the honorary awards earlier this decade.
“Can you see it?”
Those were probably the last words Paul McCartney expected to hear after stepping into the cockpit of a plane carrying him and Wings bandmates Linda McCartney and Denny Laine to Lagos, Nigeria, in August 1973. Hoping to watch the landing from the front of the aircraft, McCartney – one of the most famous and successful musicians in the world — instead found himself helplessly standing by as the pilots went back and forth trying to locate the landing strip under the mist-covered jungle canopy. “Oh my God, are we even going to land?” McCartney later recalled of the panicky incident that marked the start of the sessions for Band on the Run, his 1973 masterpiece that turns 50 this December.
To record his fifth post-Beatles album and third LP with new band Wings, McCartney decided to relocate to Lagos for a change of scenery and musical inspiration. It was exactly the sort of bold gambit that his three former Beatle bandmates, just before the split, probably would have shot down without blinking. So, goodbye London, Beatles litigation and paparazzi; hello Africa, the warm sun, open air and Lagos’ music culture.
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In hindsight, perhaps what McCartney really needed was chaos and disorder, ingredients that often inspired his best work. Ready or not, that’s what Lagos and the Band on the Run sessions were about to give him, his wife and Laine — one dramatic complication after another, threatening to undermine an endeavor that was more shambolic and seat-of-the-pants than the average McCartney fan realized back in the ‘70s.
“In order to move forward, you have to try new things,” Laine tells Billboard in a phone interview from his home in Florida while describing how he thinks about the landmark album now. “It’s like being a gambler. You gamble with things because it’s more exciting. It’s more appealing. It’s not the normal, everyday 9-to-5 job, it’s more of a ‘Let’s try something new.’”
Even if Band on the Run was more of a gamble than McCartney anticipated – the plane landed safely, but it was far from his last brush with danger on the trip – he certainly needed a chance of pace. At that point, McCartney himself was very much a man on the run — from the shadow of The Beatles, and from the critics who’d knocked (if not savaged) his previous four efforts: McCartney, Ram, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. (Many critics now celebrate Ram as a masterpiece, with Rolling Stone naming it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2020.) Sure, he could move plenty of units in stores, but reviewers circa 1973 had grown accustomed to panning the writer of “Eleanor Rigby” and “Hey Jude” as lightweight and inconsequential.
The new lyrical ideas he’d started sketching spoke of imprisonment and the allure of freedom. “Stuck inside these four walls”; “If I ever get out of here”; “Climb on the back, and we’ll go for a ride in the sky”; and “I’ll come flying to your door.”
While he rhapsodized about freedom, though, life had other ideas. Following two defections from Wings just before they were all due to fly out to Nigeria, shrinking McCartney’s existing quintet down to a trio, Laine was now the only remaining member of the group with a surname other than McCartney. The English rocker remembers the finished album that emerged from the Lagos sessions as largely a grand adventure.
“I know why it was appreciated so much,” Laine says. “Because it had a certain feel. It was basically just me and Paul doing the backing tracks. And it was more of a relaxed approach to doing an album than if you’re going in with a band and there are all these parts. We were thrown into that as a last resort because two of the guys didn’t come to Lagos.”
When asked how he responded to the idea of a remote getaway for the project back in the day, Laine adds: “When (McCartney) said, ‘Let’s do it in Africa,’ I understood completely. We wanted to go somewhere where it was different. We’d be influenced by the music and the atmosphere, and it was far away from anything else we’d ever done. Because it was an EMI studio, I think they just put a pin in the map and said, ‘How about Africa?’ I just went: ‘Great, let’s do it.’”
Laine already knew McCartney prior to getting the call to join his post-Beatles band. “Because of his fame, of course, I was in the shadows more, but I wasn’t bothered by that at the time. I was traveling the world and learning a lot and having a good time in many ways. So from that point of view, it was easy for me. I’m very adaptable. When I’m around people who are not adaptable, I get a little bit nervous.”
He and the rest of the entourage couldn’t have foreseen it at the time, but adaptability was the personality trait above all others that would be required of Band on the Run players — who, in spite of everything, ended up producing an album that topped the Billboard 200, produced three Billboard Hot 100 top 10s (including the chart-topping title track) and attained triple-platinum certification.
McCartney would, in interviews over the years, laugh off the adversity that accompanied these sessions. But Band on the Run might represent the most danger he’s ever put himself in for the sake of his career. During his time in Lagos, for example, he and Linda were mugged at knifepoint while walking the streets, oblivious to the warnings they’d been given about wandering at night. Robbed of their belongings — including studio demo tapes – Wings would have to start all over again, redoing from memory what had already been recorded.
As McCartney engineer Geoff Emerick recounts in his memoir, meanwhile, a visa was required for entry into Nigeria — and a resulting visit to the authorities to obtain one revealed the prerequisite of getting yellow fever, typhoid and cholera shots (and that malaria tablets would need to be taken throughout the stay). The McCartneys and Laine were venturing into an area where maladies like typhoid and cholera were an endemic risk. Furthermore, Nigeria was under the control of a military general at the time, and public executions were not an uncommon occurrence in Lagos.
The EMI studio where McCartney and Laine worked overlooked a lagoon at 7 Wharf Road in the city — and it was here that one of the most frightening episodes of all unfolded. At one point, McCartney began struggling to catch his breath, stepped outside and then upon coming back in from the stifling heat, fainted and collapsed. A stunned and shouting Linda feared he was having a heart attack. (It was, rather, a smoking-related bronchial spasm.)
Once he’d returned home, McCartney deadpanned about it all at London’s Gatwick airport: “It was a great experience, and we had no problems whatsoever.”
From the listener’s point of view, none of that adversity is apparent – the record is peak McCartney songcraft. The Abbey Road-like medley of the title track gives way to the full-throated escapism of the rollicking “Jet,” which in turn prefaces the gently melodic “Bluebird,” with its chorus of tight, soaring harmonies. No fewer than three of the record’s tracks — “Band on the Run,” “Jet” and “Let Me Roll It” — would go on to become decades long staples of McCartney’s setlists.
“Me and Paul, we had the same influences musically and had known each other since the ’60s,” Laine says. “It was just easy. It was easy to get a good groove on each other’s songs, and I think that’s what made the album popular.
“We did it almost as though it was a home recording. A lot of the equipment that was out there really wasn’t workable. It was all hand-me-downs from EMI, and they really didn’t know what they were doing.” Fortunately, McCartney had brought along his own engineer, “And we kept it basic. No frills.”
“Normally,” Laine continues, “me and him would get together somewhere and write together — before we go in the studio. He’d come up with an idea, or I would, and then it would be a co-written thing. Or he would have written the songs and I would have known them before we go into the studio because we’d rehearsed them together. That’s what I really enjoyed about [Band on the Run]: the fact we were thrown in the deep end, and we had to swim, and we came up with that feel that we always had anyway.”
The critical and commercial acclaim that followed Band on the Run (it was nominated for the prestigious album of the year Grammy) prefaced the success of Venus and Mars two years later, which was the Wings album McCartney used to reestablish himself as a major touring artist. And there were still other benefits of his African sojourn, including a bit of unstinting praise from the most improbable voice of all: John Lennon. In 1975, Lennon told Rolling Stone that Band on the Run was “a great album,” adding, “It’s good Paul music.”
Rising singer-songwriter Paris Paloma remembers exactly when she realized she had something special with “Labour.” It was the last day in a week-long studio session with producer Justin Glasco in Los Angeles, and she was preparing to record vocals for the climactic bridge to the stormy alt-folk anthem, with fellow women backup singers Natalie Duque, Nolyn Ducich and Annabel Lee. “That was a moment where I was like, ‘This is coming together as a song now,’ ” she recalls. “Because us women, just all shouting in a room — I was like, ‘This is what it’s about.’ ”
“Labour” has inspired no shortage of women doing exactly that since its March release. The single initially became a sensation on TikTok for Paloma’s mighty vocals and powerful message about having to do all the emotional heavy lifting in a relationship — and to a lesser extent, for her strikingly British pronunciation of the word “capillaries” (cuh-pill-uh-rees). (“I stand by the British pronunciation of it!” she insists. “I don’t think the American one sounds nice, I’m sorry.”) It has quickly become the 23-year-old U.K. singer-songwriter’s breakout hit, debuting at No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot Alternative Songs chart (dated April 8) and No. 13 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales listing — while in her home country, it entered at No. 29 on the Official Songs Chart.
Hailing from Ashbourne, Derbyshire in England, Paloma began writing music when she was 14, and started recording and releasing her own work in 2020. At the beginning of the pandemic, she attracted the attention of High Plateau Productions owner/CEO David Fernandez when he was invited to virtually attend a songwriter session. “Paris was the first to sing and literally, as soon as she opened her mouth, I pinged her on Instagram,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Hey, look, I’m the weird dude in the room… let’s take a phone call.’ ”
Bora Aksu dress and coat.
Nicole Nodland
Fernandez officially came on as her manager in March 2021. “It was basically just me and her,” he remembers of their early days together. “With my limited knowledge of mixing and mastering, [we were] both learning Logic at the exact same time.” While Paloma’s voice is what immediately drew Fernandez in, he soon became even more enamored with her songwriting: “Just the content that she writes about, and the meaningfulness of her lyrics — it touches me as a music listener.”
Paloma scored a minor breakthrough in 2022 with her biblically framed relationship analysis “The Fruits,” attracting the attention of Nettwerk Records, who she signed with that fall. Her first time recording in a proper studio was last September for “Labour” — a song she’d originally written as two separate works, before realizing they shared a theme. “They’re [about] the same thing — putting too much labor into a relationship where you’re not having it returned,” she explains. “And how common of an experience that is for women, because of the way that we’ve been programmed to view heterosexual relationship dynamics. And it’s so normalized.”
Bora Aksu dress.
Nicole Nodland
Upon hearing the song’s demo for the first time, Fernandez insisted that it would need reinforcements beyond the two of them and a laptop: “I just knew if I could get her in with Justin [Glasco] and add [his] sprinkle of fairy dust on top of the thing — I had a really, really good feeling.” Even before they put it to tape, though, the song was already starting to garner interest, thanks to an early clip Paloma posted to TikTok in August, teasing lyrics for the song that she’d just penned.
“I often do videos whilst I’m songwriting, and I did that the first evening when I wrote the lyrics for what ended up being the bridge,” she says. “It was just a video of me in my room singing these words that I’d written like, 20 minutes before… but it gave me a little indicator that was like, ‘OK, I think this is something that I want to be heard, and I think people want to hear it.’ ”
Those early signs proved right on the money when the full song was released through Nettwerk in March, drawing not only millions of streams but countless responses on TikTok from fans who found the themes to be resonant — and not just from women. “I’ve got several messages from men who’ve realized [from the song] that they should be doing better in relationships,” Paloma says. “That’s amazing. Because I keep getting asked, ‘What can we do to solve this?’ And it’s not up to women: That’s the whole point. It’s up to men to listen and to take action.”
Bora Aksu dress and veil.
Nicole Nodland
Through the success of “Labour” and Paloma’s other songs, she has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok. But Fernandez is insistent that neither he nor Paloma want her to be seen as a “TikTok artist” — which is part of the reason they declined to release sped-up or slowed-down versions of “Labour,” instead opting to record a totally reimagined, more orchestral version of the song with production duo Myriot that’s dropping soon. “It’s just not falling into that trap of, ‘Let’s copy what everyone is doing right now,’ ” Fernandez says. “Let’s try to forge our own way. And if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
Paloma is now getting ready to play some live shows at 300-500-cap spaces in London and upcoming festival dates at Summerfest and Bonnaroo. She’s also beginning to think about a debut album, which Fernandez says fans can most likely expect in July or August. By then, it will have been about a year since she wrote “Labour.”
“It’s already been a lot of time in between,” she says. “In that time, I’ve written a lot newer music, which — not to say that it’s better, but you always think that your most recent stuff is the best, because it’s the most accurate reflection of where your creativity is. I’ve got so much work I want to get out.”
Paris Paloma (left) and David Fernandez photographed on April 18, 2023 in London.
Nicole Nodland
A version of this story will appear in the May 13, 2023, issue of Billboard.
First The Matrix, then Bill & Ted and now Dogstar? Keanu Reeves has been on a reboot run and the actor’s 1990s grunge trio appears to be next on the list. Last week, Reeves posed for a picture in which the Dog men gathered for some promo pics on a rooftop in Los Angeles in preparation for the band’s first new music in more than 20 years.
“Last set up on the roof in Lincoln Heights for @dogstarband photo shoot,” read the post featuring bassist/singer Reeves alongside singer/guitarist Bret Domrose and drummer Robert Mailhouse. “Exiting news coming soon. Thanks for being so patient.”
The band low key reunited last summer more than two decades after their final show in Oct. 2022. During their brief run, Dogstar expectedly garnered a lot of media attention due to Reeves’ participation, beginning with the release of their four-track EP Quattro Formaggi in 1996 after several years of playing gigs in the U.S. and overseas; a full-length album, Our Little Visionary, was only released in Japan.
Another album, 1999’s Happy Ending, would prove to be their swan song as all three moved on to other projects. Dogstar began teasing a return last July with a retro pic from their salad days and the message “We’re back.” That began nearly a year of periodic updates about the in-process recordings sessions with producer Dave Trumfio, including video of Reeves transposing arrangements and a post from August describing a “deep, layered, lush” record on the horizon.
By December, they said they were mixing and sneaking out for a private show for the crew who helped create the album, while promising a spring release date. “Thank you everyone for the kind comments. We are overjoyed to see such a response!” the band added in comments on the photo shoot post. “Honestly, didn’t expect this. It makes us want to play out even more. We will be rolling out some new music this summer, followed by some gigs. As soon as it’s all figured out we will let everyone know immediately. So much to do, but rest assured, we are on it and have assembled a fantastic team that are helping us. We are also going to make a music video to support our first tune… Can’t wait to share our new music with everyone. It’s the most satisfying and meaningful batch of songs we’ve ever done. Thanks again for being so patient with us. We truly have the best, most loyal fans!”
Back in 2019, Reeves spoke to GQ magazine about Dogstar and what he suspects is the general public’s feeling about his side project. “I guess it would have helped if our band was better,” he said at the time.
Check out Dogstar’s post and rehearsal footage below.
Tim Bachman, guitarist and co-founder of Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has died at age 71. The news was announced by Bachman’s son, Ryder, on Friday, who wrote in a Facebook post, “My Dad passed this afternoon. Thank You Everyone for the kind words. Grateful I got to spend some time with him at the end. Grab yer loved ones and hug em close, ya never know how long you have.”
In a previous post, Ryder revealed that he got a call from the care unit where his father was staying last Wednesday in which they informed him to pay his final respects after doctors found “cancer riddled all throughout his [Tim’s] brain.”
Tim Bachman co-founded the group commonly referred to as BTO in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1973 with his brothers, singer/guitarist Randy Bachman and drummer Robin Bachman; the latter died in January of this year at age 69. Tim performed on the band’s eponymous album and their breakthrough second collection, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, which dropped in December of that year and featured two of the band’s most beloved, hard-charging hits, “Let It Ride” and Billboard Hot 100 No. 12 hit “Takin’ Care of Business,” which Tim sang backing vocals on in addition to playing second lead guitar.
His run in the brotherly band would be short-lived, however, as he left in early 1974 shortly after the second album dropped, reportedly due to singer Randy’s strict rules prohibiting drugs, alcohol and premarital sex on the road. He was replaced by Blair Thornton, who played on the band’s third album, 1974’s Not Fragile, which included the No. 1 single “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and “Roll on Down the Highway.”
After a series of lineup changes — including the departure of singer Randy in 1977 — BTO reunited in 1983 with Randy and Tim leading the charge, with younger brother Robbie declining to participate. They released Bachman-Turner Overdrive in Sept. 1984 and a live album from their stint opening for Van Halen before Randy left again in 1986, which marked the last year of Tim Bachman’s run with the group as well. The group re-re-reformed in 1988 with Randy Bachman again taking lead along with Robbie on drums, but no Tim Bachman.
On Sunday, Ryder Bachman continued paying tribute to his dad, writing “The last words he said were, “I love you Paxton, Share the Music” and so I’ll honour Dad this afternoon by sharing songs, some he’s played a million times on stage; c’mon down and sing em with me, I bet u know the words.”
See Ryder Bachman’s post below.
Aerosmith announced the dates for their farewell North American tour on Monday morning (May 1). The veteran band’s Peace Out 40-date run is scheduled to kick off on Sept. 2 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA and keep them on the road through a Jan. 26, 2024 gig at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
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“It’s not goodbye it’s PEACE OUT! Get ready and walk this way, you’re going to get the best show of our lives,” the band said in a statement about the run that will feature opening act the Black Crowes. “Every night will celebrate the five decades of Aerosmith’s groundbreaking hits as they celebrate 50 years as America’s greatest rock band,” read the statement. “In addition, THX will bring their THX Certified Live! high-fidelity experience on the road, calibrating each arena with leading-edge technology so fans don’t miss a beat of Aerosmith’s classic rock tunes in quality audio.”
The Live Nation-produced North American run will feature a stop in the group’s hometown of Boston for New Year’s Eve gig at TD Garden. Aerosmith, who were formed in 1970 by singer Steven Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton will be without the services of founding drummer Joey Kramer, who did not join the band when they returned from a two-year hiatus in March 2022.
“While Joey Kramer remains a beloved founding member of Aerosmith, he has regrettably made the decision to sit out the currently scheduled touring dates to focus his full attention on his family and health,” read a statement, which did not announce who would be performing on the tour in Kramer’s stead. “Joey’s unmistakable and legendary presence behind the drum kit will be sorely missed.”
Aerosmith wrapped their Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency in late November. The general on sale for the Peace Out tour will begin on Friday (May 5) at 10 a.m. local time here.
Check out the dates for the tour below.
Sept. 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
Sept. 6 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
Sept. 9 – Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
Sept. 12 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Sept. 15 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
Sept. 18 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
Sept. 21 – Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Sept. 24 – Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
Sept. 27 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
Oct. 11 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
Oct. 14 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
Oct. 17 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
Oct. 20 – Sunrise, FL @ FLA Live Arena
Oct. 23 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center
Oct. 26 – St Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
Oct. 29 – Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Nov. 1 – San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Arena
Nov. 4 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
Nov. 7 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
Fri Nov 10 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
Nov. 13 – St Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
Nov. 16 – Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
Nov. 19 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
Nov. 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Arena
Nov. 25 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center
Nov. 28 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
Dec. 1 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
Dec. 4 – San Jose, CA @ SAP Center
Dec. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Kia Forum
Dec. 10 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
Dec. 28 – Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
Dec. 31 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Jan. 4 – Cincinnati, OH @ Heritage Bank Arena
Jan. 7 – Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
Jan. 10 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Jan. 13 – Knoxville, TN @ Thompson-Boling Arena
Jan. 16 – Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
Jan. 19 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Jan. 23 – Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
Jan. 26 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
George Michael came out on top of the fan voting when balloting wrapped up on Friday (April 28) for the list of 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees. While the fan vote is not a guarantee that Michael will be enshrined in Cleveland, the late Wham! and solo star’s decisive victory in the fan portion of the vote — which closed on Friday (April 28) — saw him getting more than one million votes (1,040,072), which put him comfortably in front of second placer Cyndi Lauper (928,113), as well as Warren Zevon (634,130) Iron Maiden (449,682) and Soundgarden (427,040).
All but one of the previous five fan vote winners have ended up being enshrined, with the exception of the Dave Matthews Band, who did not get in despite rolling up more than 100,000 votes in 2020. Fans will find out on Wednesday (May 3) if the “Careless Whisper” star will make the cut for induction this year when this year’s list of nominees will be announced.
Others waiting to hear if they will join the Rock Hall this year include five-time nominees Rage Against the Machine, four-time nominee Kate Bush, as well as second timers Soundgarden, Maiden, A Tribe Called Quest and The Spinners; this year’s first-timers include Missy Elliott and The White Stripes. Other nominees this year include Sheryl Crow, Joy Division/New Order and Willie Nelson.
To be eligible for the RRHOF, an artist’s first commercial release must have come out at least 25 years prior to the nomination year. This year’s induction ceremony will take place in the fall. The top five artists selected through fan voting will be tallied along with the ballots from the Rock Hall’s international voting body to determine the Class of 2023.
The National unleash something of a monster with First Two Pages of Frankenstein, the alternative rock band’s collaboration-stacked ninth studio album, one that pulls star power from Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens.
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Arriving at the stroke of midnight, Frankenstein stretches across 11 tracks and includes previously released cuts “Tropic Morning News,” “New Order T-Shirt,” “Eucalyptus” and “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” featuring Bridgers, a track which, according to reps, came to fruition when frontman Matt Berninger worked through a case of writer’s block with the help of “Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley’s classic novel which gives the album its name.
Swifties will no doubt show up for buzzy number “The Alcott,” which features Taylor Swift.
Guitarist, pianist and bass player and TayTay collaborator Aaron Dessner says “The Alcott” took its baby steps when Berninger wrote the main part to some music he’d already written. Swift heard it, she dug it, “so I thought it might be something she would really click with,” Dessner says.
“I sent it to her, and was a little nervous as I didn’t hear back for 20 minutes or so. By the time she responded, Taylor had written all her parts and recorded a voice memo with the lyrics she’d added in a dialogue with Matt,” he adds, “and everyone fell immediately in love with it.”
“The Alcott” is something a return of favor for Dessner, who worked closely with Swift on her pandemic-era 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore.
On it, Swift and Berninger duet on several verses. “I sit there silently waiting for you to look up/I see you smile when you see it’s me/ I had to do something to break into your golden thinking/ How many times will I do this and you’ll still believe?,” they sing.
First Two Pages of Frankenstein is the followup to I Am Easy to Find, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, and 2017’s Sleep Well Beast, which hit No. 2 on the national albums chart and won a Grammy Award for best alternative music album.
To give the new collection a nudge along, The National performed album track “Eucalyptus” late Thursday (April 27) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The National will perform the new album live when they hit the road for a North American trek, starting May 18 at Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, IL.
Watch the late-night performance below.
Blink-182 has been through a lot. Since forming in 1992, the rock band — a staple of the late ’90s, early 2000s punk takeover — has experienced several fallings-out, lineup changes, hiatuses and reunions that have kept fans on their toes for two decades and counting. For those keeping track, Travis Barker, Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, Scott Raynor and Matt Skiba have all been part of the group throughout its various iterations, but never more than three of them at a time.
But while many things have changed for the band over the years, one thing is for certain as far as fans are concerned: Whenever they are together, the guys of Blink-182 make some good music. They have the commercial success to prove it, too. According to Luminate, the group’s eight-album catalog has raked in a combined 15.3 million copies sold and nearly five billion on-demand official U.S. streams.
Not to mention its chart successes, which solidify the band’s status as pop-punk artists who have paved the way for several acts following in its footsteps. Blink-182 has topped both the Billboard 200 and the Album Sales charts twice, scored four No. 1s on the Alternative Airplay chart and notched eight songs in the Billboard Hot 100.
That’s why it was so exciting for fans when the band announced in October 2022 that after seven years away, DeLonge would be returning to Blink-182, restoring its classic lineup with Barker and Hoppus. The trio revealed plans to go on a reunion tour in 2023, dropped a new single in celebration of DeLonge’s homecoming titled “Edging” and went on to become impromptu headliners for Coachella 2023’s second weekend lineup after Frank Ocean dropped out.
Keep reading to take a look through the tumultuous history of Blink-182.
1992: Blinking Into Existence
The very first lineup of Blink-182 — back before that was even their name — included Scott Raynor, Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus. The story goes that San Diego natives Raynor and DeLonge first met after the latter was expelled from Poway High for being drunk at a basketball game and transferred to the former’s school, Rancho Bernardo High. They met Hoppus through a friend’s sister, who was dating the bassist at the time.
After experimenting with a handful of different titles, the band operated for years simply as “Blink,” releasing its demo album Buddha in 1992, and its official debut album Cheshire Cat in 1995 under that moniker.
1995: Blink Becomes Blink-182
Though the band has given many fanciful stories over the years when asked where the specific number in “Blink-182” came from — the number of times Al Pacino drops the F-bomb in Scarface, for example — Hoppus has stated that the guys picked it out completely at random.
Their label at the time, Cargo Records, had asked them to change their name because another group had the same moniker, Hoppus said during a chat with Amy Schumer. He, DeLonge and Raynor delayed the decision for so long, someone from the label spoke with them on the phone and said that if they didn’t pick something new before the call ended, Cargo would choose a name for them.
“We just made up the 182,” Hoppus told the comedian. “Ever since then, we’ve made up different stories all the time about what 182 means.”
By then, the trio had gained a sizeable following in Southern California and would begin embarking on tours of America and Australia, opening for the band Pennywise. They were also booked for the 1996 Warped Tour around this time.
1997: ‘Dude,’ It’s a Major Label Debut
Image Credit: Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/GI
Blink-182 recorded its sophomore LP, Dude Ranch, while still with Cargo, but signed to major label MCA as demand for the band boomed. The album earned Hoppus, DeLonge and Raynor their first entry onto the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 67 and spending 48 weeks on the chart.
1998: Enter Travis Barker
Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
Things got tense between Raynor and the rest of the band as Blink-182’s success continued mounting, and he was fired in 1998. Travis Barker, drummer for fellow Warped Tour band the Aquabats at the time, replaced him, forming what would become the group’s classic lineup.
1999: Mainstream Breakthrough With ‘Enema of the State’
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
Blink-182 became a household name with the massive success of Enema of the State, which became the group’s first Billboard 200 top 10 album in 1999. It spawned radio hits “What’s My Age Again?” and “All the Small Things,” which peaked at No. 58 and No. 6, respectively.
2001: ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’ Debuts at No. 1
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
One blockbuster album was followed by another when Blink-182 released Take Off Your Pants and Jacket two years after Enema of the State. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
2002: Tom DeLonge & Travis Barker Form Box Car Racer
Tom DeLonge conceived of a side project called Box Car Racer in 2002, wanting to expand his musical style beyond that of Blink-182. But after he had Travis Barker play drums on BCR’s self-titled debut album, tensions brewed between them and Mark Hoppus, who felt betrayed by his exclusion from the project.
“It was really hard for Mark,” DeLonge said in an archived interview with MTV. “He thought it was really lame Travis and I went and did that, but it was a totally benign thing on my part, because I only asked Travis to play drums because I didn’t want to pay for a studio drummer. It wasn’t meant to be a real band.”
Blink then regrouped to release their fifth LP in 2003, and the resulting self-titled record incorporated darker, more mature sounds reminiscent of BCR and Barker’s side work with the band Transplants.
2005: Hiatus
Image Credit: Denise Truscello/WireImage
Disagreements over scheduling, recording plans and personal issues eventually led the band to take an indefinite hiatus in 2005. In a statement, the band said it was taking a break to “to spend some time enjoying the fruits of their labors with loved ones.”
DeLonge largely disappeared from public eye, while Barker and Hoppus formed a side project of their own called +44. They released just one album together, 2006’s When Your Heart Stops Beating.
2008: Travis Barker Survives Plane Crash
Barker was the victim of a horrific plane crash in 2008 that killed four people. The drummer and his friend and collaborator DJ AM — the only other survivor of the accident, though he died from an overdose one year later — was taking off from South Carolina when the tragic incident happened.
As a result, Barker developed post-traumatic stress disorder — it would take him 13 years to board another plane — and spent many weeks in the hospital recovering from severe burns and injuries. While he was there, though, DeLonge reached out after years of strained communications between him and his bandmates, and a Blink-182 reunion was put into motion.
“Up until that point, I had zero hope for Blink,” Barker said of the crash’s aftermath in a 2011 interview with Daily Beast. “It was something that I had really put behind me. My accident definitely made everyone think about things a little more clearly, especially me.”
“It’s horrible that it took something like that for everyone to wake up, but we realized, ‘Man, life’s short!’” he added. “We were fighting about some bulls–t and not talking, and it wasn’t anything to be fighting over.”
2009: Reunion
Image Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
With Barker’s arm still in a sling after the plane crash, the guys of Blink-182 formally announced their reunion at the 2009 Grammy Awards. “We used to play music together, and we decided we’re going to play music together again,” the drummer told the audience, with the band also confirming a new album and reunion tour were in the works.
They would go on to release Neighborhoods in 2011, Blink’s first album in eight years, followed by a 2012 EP titled Dogs Eating Dogs.
2015: Enter Matt Skiba, Exit Tom DeLonge
Image Credit: Brian Gove/WireImage
Four years after Neighborhoods, DeLonge exited the band once more in a public, messy war of words. In January 2015, Barker and Hoppus announced the guitarist’s apparent resignation from the band and claimed that he “didn’t want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely, but would rather work on his other non-musical endeavors.”
Immediately afterward, DeLonge shared a statement saying he actually had not exited the group. “To all the fans, I never quit the band,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New York City at the time all these weird press releases started coming in… Apparently those releases were ‘sanctioned’ from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes.”
Barker and Hoppus then clapped back in a tell-all interview with Rolling Stone, claiming that DeLonge had expressed disinterest in recording music with them and only communicated with them over emails through his manager.
“When we did get back together after my plane crash, we only got back together, I don’t know, maybe because I almost died,” Barker said at the time. “But [DeLonge] didn’t even listen to mixes or masterings from that record. He didn’t even care about it. Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable.”
Regardless, DeLonge was out of the group — but Blink was still booked for a performance at Musink Festival in just a few weeks. To the rescue came Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio, who subbed in for DeLonge at the concert and stayed with the band in his place for many years afterward.
2016: ‘California’ Debuts at No. 1
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
With Skiba in the mix, Blink-182 scored its second No. 1 album with California. The project was nominated for best rock album at the 2017 Grammys (though it lost to Cage the Elephant’s Tell Me I’m Pretty) and its lead single, “Bored to Death,” reached No. 85 on the Hot 100.
2021: Cancer Battle
Hoppus revealed in June 2021 that he has cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for three months. “It sucks and I’m scared, and at the same time I’m blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this,” he shared on Twitter. “I still have months of treatment ahead of me but I’m trying to remain hopeful and positive.”
Soon after, DeLonge shared his support for his friend. “To add to his own words that he used today, I would also like to say that he is strong, and a super-human who is pushing through this difficult obstacle with a wide-open heart,” he tweeted. “#WeHaveHisBack.”
A month later, the singer-bassist shared that he was battling the same cancer that his mother had beaten — diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. “My blood’s trying to kill me,” the rocker shared in a Q&A.
But good news was to come. Hoppus shared at the end of September that his oncologist has declared him “cancer free.” He told fans on Twitter: “Still have to get scanned every six months and it’ll take me until the end of the year to get back to normal but today is an amazing day and I feel so blessed.”
2022: DeLonge Returns, Band Releases ‘Edging’
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
The classic Blink threesome was restored at last in 2022, when the band announced that DeLonge would be taking his place back from Skiba and returning to the lineup. The guitarist addressed a public letter to Skiba in light of the announcement, writing, “I wanted to take take a minute and say thank you for all that you have done to keep the band alive and thriving in my absence.”
“Emotions between the three of us in Blink have always been complicated, but Mark’s cancer really put things in perspective,” he continued. “But to be honest, the band would not even be here today if it were not for your ability to jump in and save the day.”
The trio also dropped “Edging” — its first single and music video together in years — revealed plans to release a new album and joined forces with Green Day to headline the 2023 When We Were Young Festival.
2022: Teasing New Music
Ahead of the holidays, DeLonge teased on his Instagram account that a new album would be “coming in a few months.” But that wasn’t all. Hoppus joined in on the merriness by declaring on his own account that the “new album is [fire emoji].”
Shortly after the new year, DeLonge once again shared his excitement for the upcoming Blink album. “This is the best album we’ve ever made,” he wrote on Instagram. “Buckle up.”
2023: Live in the Desert
This was no small thing! After delaying their reunion tour due to Barker’s finger injuries, the band was announced as a last-minute addition to the Coachella 2023 lineup.
During its April 14 set, the band rocked hits such as “What’s My Age Again,” “All the Small Things” and “Feelin’ This,” as well as its latest single, “Edging.”
It was Blink to the rescue the following weekend, when Frank Ocean dropped out days before his second headlining set. The band took over his main-stage spot on April 23.
Dave Vanian says Darkadelic, the title of the Damned’s new album, is meant to be both evocative and open-ended.
“What is it?” the vocalist and band co-founder muses to Billboard. “Perhaps a box of deluxe chocolates full of delicious and surprisingly delightful flavors, a journey to the id, self-expression or discovery. A dark tale of intrigue heavily laced with noir, romantic Gothic melodrama, a first kiss, a dangerous drug, dark love…. Truly it will represent a myriad of things to the individual and is, as it should be, defining but also undefined.”
Guitarist Captain Sensible (aka Raymond Burns) is more succinct, however. “I’m guessing it means it’s dark and it’s psychedelic,” he says with a laugh.
The Damned’s 12th studio album, and first in five years, was “pretty much finished” before the 2022 reunion tour of the original quartet, who were the first U.K. punk band to release a single (“New Rose” in October 1976) and to tour the U.S. Darkadelic reflects the band’s continuing musical evolution; its usual gothic-flavored drama is intact, but filled with intricate instrumental dynamics and textures — particularly on “Western Promise,” a song with soundscapes that are accented by trumpets and sonic nods to ’80s new romantic fare.
“For me, the only criteria was to have this album driven by more pronounced guitars,” says Vanian. “The album took on its own identity compared to our last (2018’s Evil Spirits). Plus, wanting it to sound sonically inspiring when heard on iPad or phone, a slightly more modern sound, if you will, without effecting or compromising what we do.” Sensible notes that, “We always set out to do something a little bit different. We get bored doing the same thing over and over. The first rule of the Damned is there are no rules.” The direction, he adds, “Wasn’t a conscious decision or anything. We just came together with our own demos and certain tracks got chosen and it did take on a life of its own, as they all do, and that’s the album.”
Sensible says Darkadelic was very much a band effort by the current quintet, with drummer Will Taylor making his first appearance on a Damned album. “We chose the tunes and started bashing them out, all five of us, just being a band,” says Sensible, who describes his long relationship with Vanian as friendly but “quite competitive.” “We were in there making our own holy din for most of the day for, I dunno, two weeks. It got quite hot in there.” But he and Taylor did spend some time working out arrangements for the 12 tracks during sessions with producer Thomas Mitchener (La Roux, the Futureheads) at studios near London.
“We actually sat down and we listened to a few Beatles songs, ’cause the songs were so beautifully arranged on those,” says Sensible. “Ringo (Starr), whatever anybody says about his drumming, I think the guy’s immense. He always did the right thing at the right time. We really arranged the drums for what’s right for the song. There was a lot of brainstorming during those two weeks of laying down the basic tracks.”
Sensible credits “quite a lot of jamming” for the “soundtracky” reach of “Western Skies,” while the first single, “The Invisible Man,” was influenced by an affinity for ’60s garage rock bands such as the Seeds and the Chocolate Watchband. “Follow Me” fuses a modern rockabilly verse with an anthemic chorus, while the explosive “Wake the Dead” came from Vanian and Sensible being 66 and 68 years old, respectively. “We’re of an age now when people you know start kicking the bucket,” the guitarist explains. “I go to funerals more often than I used to. I do dabble in the social networks and you see they played ‘Smash It Up’ at somebody’s funeral or, ‘We played ‘Love Song’ at my dad’s funeral. That was his favorite.’ So I thought, ‘Well, they’re playing these songs ’cause the deceased love the band. Why not write one actually for that purpose?’ So that was the idea, really. It’s a heroic kind of goth song because you’re laughing in the face of mortality. We’re all gonna go, so don’t get depressed about it and overthink it. I always celebrate the life rather than mourn the parting moment…so why not give them a really heroic, ‘F–k the Grim Reaper’ song?”
Also intriguing is the galloping “Leader of the Gang,” a not particularly veiled elegy to disgraced rocker Gary Glitter, who’s back in jail after violating probation conditions related to his child sexual abuse conviction.
“He got caught doing some really sh-t things and spent some time in prison — deservedly so,” Sensible says. “But the thing is the music was absolutely magnificent and so influential. They don’t play his music on the radio anymore in Britain, and for me that’s a shame. His band didn’t do anything wrong, and they can’t get a gig anymore. Do you ban the music or the art? If you ban one person you have to follow that and ban loads of people because some of these creatives have some some pretty sh-t stuff in their lives. [Some of them are] very, very famous people, film directors and politicians… where do you stop?”
After a European tour earlier this year, the Damned come across the pond for a half-dozen U.S. west coast dates starting May 20 in San Francisco before playing New Zealand and Australia during June and the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, England, in early August. “We haven’t done a lot of gigs with this lineup, so it’s nice things are opening up again,” Sensible says. “Live music’s really taken a hit and a lot of venues didn’t make it. The musicians are just the tip of the iceberg; you don’t see all the support people, the venue staff and the crews and the logistics people. It’s having to revive in a way.”
He’s also amenable to doing more gigs with original bandmates Brian James and Rat Scabies after last fall’s five-show run in the U.K. “They were an absolute revelation, to be quite honest — musically and socially,” Sensible says. “There was a point about 10 years ago when we all stopped slagging each other off; the fact we all made up and like each other again is just incredible to me because it was extremely bitter. (laughs) But we all got on. It was really strange backstage — everyone’s smiling at each other, arms around each other’s shoulders and stuff, really great. So I would love to work with them again, in that or another capacity.”