Rock
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Welcome to the jungle — in Sacramento’s Discovery Park! The 2023 Aftershock music festival announced on Tuesday (March 14) that rock heavyweights Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Avenged Sevenfold and Korn are set to headline the annual event.
The festival, which will be held Oct. 5-8, will also feature Godsmack, Pantera, Queens of the Stone Age, Rancid, The Cult and many more. According to the press release, more than 95 bands are set to perform. Jose “Metal Ambassador” Mangin is set to host for the second year in a row.
Avenged Sevenfold will be the opening day headliner, while GnR will close the event Oct. 8.
“Godsmack is coming in hot this year. Come join us and Guns N’ Roses! Tool! Korn! and so many other killer bands at this year’s massive AFTERSHOCK!” Godsmack frontman Sully Erna said in a statement. “We can’t wait for everyone to hear our new album Lighting Up the Sky, which just came out! LET’S DO THIS!!!”
Danny Hayes, the CEO of Danny Wimmer Presents — which is producing the festival — also shared his enthusiasm for this year’s event and lineup. “We are so excited for what will be the biggest Aftershock in the festival’s 11-year history,” he said in a statement. “We are grateful for our partnership with the city and county of Sacramento and together we have built an amazing brand that showcases Sacramento to attendees from all over the globe.”
Passes are already on sale at AftershockFestival.com, starting at $10 down.
See the full lineup below:
Thursday, Oct. 5:
Avenged Sevenfold, Incubus, Turnstile, The Cult, AFI, Pennywise, Nothing But Thieves, L7, White Reaper, Senses Fail, Don Broco, The Bronx, Nothing, Nowhere., DeathByRomy, Beauty School Dropout, Bob Vylan, Holding Absence, Pinkshift, Thousand Below, Starbenders, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Static Dress, Letdown.
Friday, Oct. 6:
Tool, Godsmack, Limp Bizkit, Megadeth, Coheed and Cambria, Skillet, Bad Omens, The Hu, Deafheaven, Memphis May Fire, Converge, Fire From the Gods, Polaris, Rain City Drive, Gideon, Currents, Varials, Strange Kids, Dragged Under, Tallah, HANABIE., Widow7, Death Valley Dreams
Saturday, Oct. 7:
Korn, Pantera, 311, Corey Taylor, Parkway Drive, Babymetal, Polyphia, Dethklok, Avatar, Fever 333, The Amity Affliction, Sleep Token, Escape the Fate, Boston Manor, Fame on Fire, Catch Your Breath, Ten56., Reddstar, Holy Wars, ’68, Ithaca, Devil’s Cut, Traitors, Fox Lake, All Waves, As You Were
Sunday, Oct. 8:
Guns N’ Roses, Queens of the Stone Age, Rancid, I Prevail, Dance Gavin Dance, Daughtry, Badflower, Billy Talent, Mayday Parade, Suicide Silence, Movements, Ayron Jones, You Me At Six, Dead Poet Society, Austin Meade, Alpha Wolf, Jehnny Beth, Redlight King, Tigercub, Call Me Karizma, Ryan Oakes, Gnome, Luna Aura, Asava
While playing Wheel of Musical Impressions on Jimmy Fallon’s That’s My Jam on an upcoming episode, Sarah Hyland is put to the ultimate test — sing a Christina Aguilera song as if she were Avril Lavigne — and she passed with flying covers.
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In a preview video of the Tuesday (March 14 episode), the Modern Family actress started out a little nervous, especially when she saw the randomly generated pair of artists she needed to pay tribute to. “They’re my two favorites, I love them!” she exclaimed anxiously after receiving her prompt: perform “Genie in a Bottle” in the pop-punk style of Lavigne.
It took Hyland a moment to get comfortable singing with the show’s band accompanying her, but by the time she got to the song’s chorus, she was fully rocking out. “If you wanna be with me/ Baby, there’s a price to pay,” she belted as Fallon and fellow guests Darren Criss, Patti LaBelle and Billy Porter cheered her on.
“I’m a genie in a bottle/ You gotta rub me the right way,” she continued, fully embracing the challenge. “If you wanna be with me / I can make your wish come true.”
Released in 1999, “Genie in a Bottle” was the lead single off Aguilera’s self-titled debut album. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, marking the pop star’s first career No. 1.
Watch Sarah Hyland show off her Avril Lavigne impression while singing Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” above.
That’s My Jam airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
Courtney Love is going for credit in the real world. The Hole frontwoman is calling out what she feels is the lack of female representation in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in an Instagram carousel shared March 10.
Citing a tweet from author Jessica Hopper, from the same date, in which the journalist criticized the institution’s programs celebrating Women’s History Month, Love captions a screengrab of Hopper’s post, “So over these ole boys. #fixtherockandrollhalloffame.”
The author’s original post says that of the 719 Rock Hall inductees, only 61 — roughly 8.5 percent — are women. Hopper goes on to report that the representation of women in the Rock Hall is “worse than women-artists-on-country-radio numbers (10%) and women headliners at major music festivals (13%).”
“Thanks so much @msjesshopp I’ve been begging someone to do this math for decades,” Love added.
In 2020, ahead of the year’s Rock Hall induction ceremony, NPR reported on a similar — though lower — percentage. That year, according to the nonprofit media organization, less than 8 percent of inductees were women.
Janet Jackson also spoke out on the lack of women in the Rock Hall during her 2019 induction speech, closing with, “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, please: 2020, induct more women.” Whitney Houston, Pat Benatar and Chaka Khan (with Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan) were nominated for the 2020 class. Of the three, only Houston was inducted that year.
In the second image of her carousel post, the Grammy-nominated rocker shares what appears to be a text message she sent to Dave Grohl, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2021 with the Foo Fighters, and in 2014 with Nirvana. “Have fun at rock hall Dave. Make sure and hold the seats of Tina turner & carole king, both who have been eligible for 30! Years each,” her text reads. (Both Turner and King were inducted as solo performers in the 2021 class; the former was previously inducted as part of Ike & Tina Turner in 1991, while the latter was inducted as part of the songwriting duo Goffin/King in 1990.)
Billboard has reached out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Grohl’s rep declined to comment.
Six women have been nominated for the Rock Hall’s class of 2023: Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Cyndi Lauper, Gillian Gilbert (with New Order) and Meg White (as part of The White Stripes). The inductees are set to be revealed in May; the ceremony will happen in the fall.
Check out Love’s Instagram post below:
The National is No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay for the first time since 2017 thanks to “Tropic Morning News,” which rules the ranking dated March 18.
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“News” is the Matt Berninger-fronted band’s second Adult Alternative Airplay leader. It follows “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” which reigned for seven weeks beginning in August 2017.
In between, the group charted five entries on Adult Alternative Airplay, with three top 10s in that span, paced by the Bon Iver-featuring “Weird Goodbyes” (No. 6 last November).
Concurrently, “News” bullets at No. 31 on Alternative Airplay, having hit No. 28 two weeks earlier. It’s the veteran rockers’ highest-ranking song yet, surpassing the No. 33 peak of “Darkness” in 2017.
On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “News” pushes 27-25 with 1.3 million audience impressions, a gain of 4%, March 3-9, according to Luminate. That’s also the band’s career best, outperforming “Darkness” (No. 29).
“News” is the lead single from First Two Pages of Frankenstein, The National’s ninth studio album. Due April 28, it features guest spots from Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens. Its predecessor, I Am Easy to Find, debuted and peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart in June 2019 and has earned 144,000 equivalent album units since its release.
All March 18-dated Billboard charts will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, March 14.
Linkin Park is back at No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for the first time in eight and a half years, as “Lost” lifts from No. 2 to the top of the March 18-dated survey.
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“Lost” is Linkin Park’s ninth No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay and first since “Until It’s Gone” ruled for a week in September 2014.
The band first led with “Somewhere I Belong” in 2003.
As it tops Mainstream Rock Airplay in just its fourth week, “Lost” ties “What I’ve Done” in 2007 for the band’s quickest climb to No. 1.
“Lost” is a posthumous No. 1 for vocalist Chester Bennington, who died in 2017. The song was recorded during the sessions for 2003’s Meteora and is part of the 20th anniversary reissue of the LP, due April 7. The last song to lead Mainstream Rock Airplay by a deceased singer was Chris Cornell’s “Promise” in October 2020.
Concurrently, “Lost” leads the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay list for a fourth week, after launching at No. 1, with 9.2 million audience impressions, up 4%, March 3-9, according to Luminate. It ranks at its No. 2 high on Alternative Airplay for a second straight frame.
On the most recently published, March 11-dated Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, “Lost” ranked at No. 1 on the strength of 3.4 million official U.S. streams and 2,000 downloads sold in addition to its radio airplay.
Meteora ruled the Billboard 200 for two weeks in April 2003. It has earned 8.5 million equivalent album units to date, including 6.5 million in album sales.
All March 18-dated Billboard charts will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, March 14.
At some point, music fans of a certain age inevitably ask the same question: why do shows have to start so late? Maybe you’re too cool to admit it, but Oscar-nominee Jamie Lee Curtis isn’t. The 64-year-old acting legend recently told The Hollywood Reporter on the Independent Spirit Awards red carpet and the Today show that as an early riser, she’s annoyed that there are no rock show matinees.
“I would love to go see Coldplay. I would love it,” she said. “The problem is, I’m not going to see Coldplay if they start their show at 9 and there’s an opening act. I want to hear Coldplay at 1 p.m.” Coldplay, on break from their mega Music of the Spheres world tour — which, for the record, has them taking the stage around 9 p.m. most nights — could not be reached for comment at press time.
The Halloween star has a point, though. So, since she asked, Billboard reached out to some prominent venue owners and promoters to ask them why JLC can’t sing a “Hymn For the Weekend” and still be home in time for the evening news.
“Just like when Jamie Lee Curtis’ movies play in theaters, they need to sell popcorn. Most of our margin is on drinks,” says Peter Shapiro, owner of Relix magazine, as well as the Brooklyn Bowl venues in New York, Las Vegas and Nashville and a number of other clubs. “It’s hard to sell drinks at 1 p.m.”
Shapiro says with the majority of ticket revenue and service fees going to the band (and ticketing agencies), the headliners take home most of the night’s haul, leaving the venue to live off ancillary revenue, most of which comes from the bar.
And while drinks play a huge part in keeping the lights on, Shapiro says there is another crucial element keeping shows after dark: mystique. “You can see a show in the afternoon, but at the end of the arc of the day it works going to a show in darkness,” he says. “The lights, being indoors… that’s all part of the impact. The lighting just doesn’t work as well at 1 p.m.”
After all, when Curtis is on set, she needs proper lighting to make a scene pop, just like headliners need their strobes and lasers to help amp up that going-out energy. “It’s the arc of the day, the moon… rock n’ roll lives at night. It’s in the DNA of rock n’ roll,” says Shapiro.
In a twist that might make JLC feel Everything Everywhere All At Once, however, that might slowly be changing, according Sound Talent Group agent John Pantle. As artists and their teams increasingly dive into the data behind their audience’s preferences, he says STG has found that some of his clients — and their fans — are into daytime gigs.
“Those shows are easier and cheaper to put together and through the use of metrics and social data, artists are better understanding the psychographics of their fanbases and tailoring performances to where those audiences are,” he says. As an example, he pointed to a recent sold-out show at L.A.’s Echoplex by Japanese metal band Nemophila, at which the headliner promptly started at 8 p.m.
“Younger audiences and teen audiences like that and we do matinee shows as well as headliner shows,” he says. “I have no problem doing an afternoon show because that proves artists are getting smarter about understanding their fanbase,” he says, adding, “it’s not all just working Joes who get off at 7 p.m.”
One of the few upsides of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Pantle, is that there is a greater understanding of the work-from-home atmosphere and how we’ve all gotten a better handle on how we want to spend our time playing. “The days of concerts being solely for an all-night experience and leaving at 1:30 in the morning are over,” he says, noting that by wrapping before 11 or midnight, the bands and their crews can load-out earlier and get on the road at a decent hour.
He’s seen the results by booking a number of earlier gigs for acts such as Japanese rockers Radwimps, virtual pop star Hatsune Miku and singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas. “I know the Hatsune Miku crowd, I know their demos, so not all shows are gonna be starting at 11 p.m. and not all shows are gonna be at 1 p.m. But data reflects audience. And if artist’s actions don’t reflect audience, artists will lose audience.”
That’s all fine and good for shows that might appeal to a younger, less hard-drinking crowd, but what about the midnight marauding EDM audience, who are used to, and expect, the party to go all night long?
Sorry, that’s changing too, according to veteran dance promoter James “Disco” Donnie Estopinal of Disco Donnie Presents. “When I first started doing shows in the ’90s they used to go until 8 a.m. and you can imagine how that looked… it was like The Walking Dead before that show even existed.” Lately, the DDP boss has slowly been moving up the end time of some of his festivals and events to midnight, or even 10 p.m., “depending on what I can get away with.”
Estopinal says so far he hasn’t seen any effect on attendance numbers, and, like Pantle, he also loves getting his team and venue staff home earlier. “Most people know you probably can’t get a venue in the middle of a city that will let you go until 2 a.m.,” he says, noting that there are, of course, exceptions such as Eric Prydz, whose legendarily trippy 3D hologram images just won’t fly at lunchtime.
He also says there is a younger audience of EDM fans who grew up going to Las Vegas daytime pool parties — or as his college-age son has informed him, “dartys” — that are a win-win for artists and crews used to breaking gear down when the sun comes up; the up-charge on drinks at such Vegas events doesn’t hurt the house’s bottom line, either. “I was just in New Orleans for Mardi Gras where we did two shows and I took a nap before both shows so I could make it until 4 a.m. and people made fun of me,” he jokes. “But I told them ‘I’m not gonna make it unless I get that nap.’”
Shapiro is already prepping the next generation of hard-dartyers for their turn with his long-running series called “Rock and Roll Playhouse.” The series has brought the music of Prince, Queen, The Beatles and Taylor Swift to more than two dozen venues around the country for morning and early afternoon shows at 500-1,500-capacity rooms that would otherwise be idle at that time.
“The weekend afternoon shows are a nice augmentation to Saturday night shows and it’s a good intro to cue the next generation into rock n’ roll,” Shapiro says. “But it’s an addition. It can never replace the DNA [of nighttime shows]… people won’t come at 3 and drink a bunch of beers, and that’s the money that powers the venues and the way venues can pay artists more money.”
So, take heart Jamie Lee — you might be getting your darty wish after all.
Pop-punk trio Meet Me @ the Altar arrived during the pandemic as a vibrant newcomer to the scene — and has been eager to release its debut album ever since. “I’m done waiting,” vocalist Edith Victoria tells Billboard in late February, in a tone that fuses excitement with exasperation. “I’m really over it.”
Fortunately, the wait is over as Past // Present // Future arrives today (March 10) on Fueled by Ramen. It’s the culmination of an effort that the band — comprised of Victoria and guitarist/bassist Téa Campbell, both 22, and drummer Ada Juarez, 24 — began writing in mid-2021.
With a tense-themed title that nods to the genre’s pivotal players throughout the past few decades and teases where the band will take it from here. Single “Kool,” backed by crunchy guitar, turns its title into an approximately nine-syllable word; “Thx 4 Nothin’” could fit seamlessly onto the Jonas Brothers’ 2008 album, A Little Bit Longer; and album closer “King of Everything” rolls its grunge-based production into a head-banging chorus. “We didn’t want to trap ourselves in the box of genre,” Campbell says. “It’s our art at the end, and we want to make the music that makes us happy.”
And though the group is intent on providing more than just nostalgia, its members aren’t afraid to tug on heartstrings: During its tour opener at New York’s Gramercy Theatre at the top of March, the band performed a medley of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” into Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” into the Freaky Friday battle of the bands classic, “Take Me Away.” (Plus, Victoria noted during the show that the vulnerable “T.M.I” draws inspiration from P!nk’s 2001 hit “Don’t Let Me Get Me.”)
Over the course of the roughly hourlong set (Meet Me @ the Altar’s first headlining show, and its first of 23 stops on tour), the trio took turns marveling at the crowd and offering an early listen of some Past // Present // Future hits.
“That’s such a big aspect in releasing anything. People really come to understand [new music] after they see it played live,” Victoria says. “I’ve even experienced that as a music lover. Not really liking a song, and then after I see it live, I’m like, ‘I love that song.’ I’m really excited for that.”
Below, Victoria, Campbell and Juarez discuss how they made an experimental — yet cohesive — body of work, wanting to tour arenas with the Jonas Brothers and more.
The release of Past // Present // Future comes just before the fifth anniversary of your first EP as a trio, Changing States. How has your creation process evolved since?
Campbell: I always forget that we even have Changing States. As time goes on, you understand each other’s visions, and we’re always communicating and talking about what we want for this band and what directions we want to go. We’ve gotten a lot better at visualizing our vision. Before, we were kind of just doing whatever. Now, we’re really locking in on what we want to be making.
What conversations inspired the sonic direction of this debut?
Victoria: We wanted for it to be a little bit experimental because it’s our first record. If fans end up liking those songs, we have so many different avenues we can take for the second [album] — and not have our fan base be so confused as to where the heck it came from.
Campbell: Right. We didn’t want to trap ourselves in the box of genre, which a lot of artists do and a lot of fans inflict on bands, too, which is kind of messed up. It’s our art at the end of the day, and we want to make the music that makes us happy. If other people like it, that is great. But if they don’t, it’s still music for us. Like Edith said, we want to be able to go any direction [while] still keeping it rock-based. An example of a band who did it perfectly was Paramore: Their records all sound different, but it’s still them. Some people take a while to get with it, and that’s alright. That happens any time anyone changes anything. But they’ll get over it.
Victoria: One thing I’ve always hated about the music industry is that fans don’t see their favorite artists as lovers of music that can like multiple things. It’s so unfortunate because I remember when Paramore released After Laughter everyone was freaking out and I was like, “This is so good, though!”
You’ve previously discussed wanting to create an album that sounded like a cohesive body of work. Why was that an important focus?
Victoria: [With] us being huge music-lovers and listening to a lot of different types of records, it’s always really hard to find the sweet spot between having a diverse record but also keeping it cohesive. Because you can listen to an album and then four songs in you’ll be like, “Well, I’ve already heard this.” We had to find out how to keep it diverse but also keep it cohesive. That’s what we would like to see in other artists, so we want that for our band, too.
Were there moments when you thought the project was finished and then you’d listen back later and think, “You know, we’ve heard this song already”?
Juarez: So many times.
Campbell: We thought we were done in April and didn’t get done until November. In the beginning, there were so many swaps because we weren’t really sure of what specific sound we wanted this album to have. As we had more writing sessions and fell in love with more songs, we started to really understand, so then those would beat out some of the other ones that we didn’t really feel fit that cohesive vibe. We recorded the album in April and then we had a last-minute session and flew out to L.A., wrote a couple more songs and had to put them on the album. We swapped those out last second.
How many songs do you think were written for the album in total?
Victoria: Around 30? There are some songs that I refuse to ever … we’re taking those to our grave.
Juarez: Those our deepest, darkest secrets. It’s just going to be us knowing those songs.
John Fields (Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato) helmed the album’s production. How did that come together?
Victoria: I made a playlist of early 2000s throwback pop-rock songs — Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers, all those people. We were all listening to it during the process, and when we were seeing how the record was going to shape up, we had to decide who [was going] to produce it. I was looking through that playlist and I saw John Fields’ name under “Get Back” by Demi Lovato, and that’s one of our favorite songs. I was like, “He’s probably going to be a million dollars a song, it’s not going to work out.” But we had dinner with our A&R and he was like, “I’ll just reach out and see what happens.” John really liked us and it all worked out.
Juarez: Long live John Fields. He was the perfect person for this album.
The first line on the album opener and lead single, “Say It (To My Face),” immediately addresses being an industry plant. Why did you decide to kick it off with that?
Victoria: That’s the leading insult that people say to us, and we wanted to start this album rollout with an in-your-face moment. We’ve heard it so much since signing to the label; just people saying sh-t for no reason. We still get that. We get that more now than I think we ever have.
Campbell: In between [August 2021 EP] Model Citizen and “Say It,” we had all that time to see what people were saying. It was like, “We’ve been gone for a while, but we’re back. We saw what you were saying while we were gone! We’re going to address it and we’re moving on.”
You’ve been signed to Fueled by Ramen for a few years now. What are some of the bigger goals the label has helped you accomplish?
Campbell: First of all, we have the best publicists in the world. That has contributed to so much of our blowup. Everyone on the label genuinely cares, and it’s so nice to feel taken care of and listened to because that’s hard to come by, especially in our experience.
It’s also funny because — I’ve seen this recently — people assume that when a band changes anything, it’s because a label is making them. It’s all us. If you don’t like that, that sucks because it’s our idea. The label never forces us to do anything. Everything is our choice.
Victoria: It’s so funny. Especially since we kind of shifted gears with our sound, everyone is like, “Oh, the label is changing them.” They’re not.
Juarez: Funny enough, we would’ve done it sooner. Almost did.
Victoria: We almost did. Model Citizen almost sounded more like this.
You’re on your first headlining tour. As a band that has supported so many icons on the road, what were you eager to apply to your own shows?
Campbell: Every time we tour with someone, we’re out there [in the crowd]. To be able to tour with bands like Coheed and Cambria, The Used and Green Day who have been doing this for so long, we really studied those acts because they alter their songs around the show and alter their show around the songs. It makes you think of, like, “Oh, I could be doing this kind of moment” — whether it be a clapping thing or whatever — in our own songs. We really tried to absorb as much as we could.
Now that the album is out, what are the band’s biggest goals moving forward?
Juarez: Taking over the world.
Campbell: I want to tour with the Jonas Brothers!
Juarez: I want to do a big arena tour so bad. Manifesting.
Victoria: Yeah, I’d really want us to open up for an arena tour. The Green Day shows that we played in Europe were amazing. But Jonas Brothers, yes. They have a new album coming out, too…
If you had to designate one song on the album in each of the “past,” “present” and “future” categories, which would you choose?
Campbell: I would say “T.M.I” is past because I feel like that song has a vibe most similar to “Bigger Than Me.” Like, that era of MMATA.
Victoria: I feel like “Try,” too.
Juarez: For future, “Kool” has to be there. That’s that futuristic type sh-t. People haven’t even thought of it yet.
Campbell: Present would probably be “Say It.”
Victoria: Also, it could be “Rocket Science” from a lyrical sense. We’re experiencing so many new things and I think we’re going to have to remind ourselves—
Campbell: It isn’t rocket science!
Victoria: Yeah! It’s a whole new era for us, in every single way. First album, new sound, new vibes. We might have to remind ourselves a couple of times to chill and not overthink [things]. Like, “Oh yeah. We did that.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the March 11, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Ethereal rock meets ’90s punk on Florence + The Machine‘s new cover of No Doubt‘s classic “Just a Girl,” recorded for the highly anticipated upcoming second season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets.
The cover is also heavily used throughout the brand new trailer for Yellowjackets season two, both of which dropped Thursday (March 9). Based on the trailer, No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani‘s spunky 1995 lyrics perfectly match the show’s coming-of-age and survival themes, while Florence Welch’s haunted vocals and sinister production bring out Yellowjacket‘s horror-inspired texture.
“I’m such a huge fan of Yellowjackets and this era of music, and this song especially had a huge impact on me growing up, so I was thrilled to be asked to interpret it in a ‘deeply unsettling’ way for the show,” Welch said of the cover in a statement. “We tried to really add some horror elements to this iconic song to fit the tone of the show. And as someone whose first musical love was pop punk and Gwen Stefani it was a dream job.”
Available for streaming March 24, the second season of Yellowjackets will continue the Emmy-nominated thriller’s harrowing story of a girls’ soccer team fighting for survival after a plane crash leaves them stranded in the wilderness. “As they confront the horrible truth of what survival entails, the real nightmare for each of them will be to figure out who they are — and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive,” reads a release about the upcoming season.
Meanwhile, Welch is currently in the middle of her world tour in support of Dance Fever, Florence + The Machine’s fifth studio album released in May last year. The “Just a Girl” cover comes exactly three months after Welch and Ethel Cain dropped a duet version of “Morning Elvis,” the final track on Dance Fever.
Stream Florence + The Machine’s cover of “Just A Girl” and watch the trailer for Yellowjackets Season 2 below:
The Cure announced their first run of North American dates in more than four years on Thursday (March 9). The Robert Smith-led band’s Shows of a Lost World Tour is slated to kick off on May 10 at the Smoothie Center in New Orleans and take the goth rock icons through Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal and Atlanta before wrapping up at Miami-Dade Arena in Miami, FL on July 1.
The run — their first extensive U.S. dates since 23019 — will include a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles (May 23, 24, 25) as well as a triple-play at New York’s Madison Square Garden (June 20, 21, 22); The Twilight Sad will open all the shows.
Tickets for all 30 dates will go on sale via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program beginning March 15; pre-registration is required and registration will close on March 13 at 10 a.m. PT. In the wake of ticket sale snafus affecting Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny onsales, in a message to fans, the Cure wrote, “we have priced tickets to benefit fans and our efforts to block scalpers and limited inflated resale prices are being supported by our ticketing partners.”
At press time there was no information about new music from the band, though Smith has been promising a follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream for several years.
Check out the dates for The Cure’s Shows of a Lost World 2023 North American Tour below.
May 10 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King CenterMay 12 — Houston, TX @ Toyota CenterMay 13 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis PavilionMay 14 — Austin, TX @ Moody CenterMay 16 — Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta AmphitheaterMay 18 — Phoenix, AZ @ Desert Diamond ArenaMay 20 — San Diego, CA @ NICU AmphitheatreMay 23 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood BowlMay 24 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood BowlMay 25 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood BowlMay 27 — San Francisco, CA @ Shoreline AmphitheatreJune 1 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge ArenaJune 2 — Vancouver, British Columbia @ Rogers ArenaJune 4 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home ArenaJune 6 — Greenwood Village, CO @ Fiddler’s Green AmphitheatreJune 8 — Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy CenterJune 10 — Chicago, IL @ United CenterJune 11 — Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music CenterJune 13 — Detroit, MI @ Pine Knob Music TheatreJune 14 — Toronto, Ontario @ Budweiser StageJune 16 — Montreal, Quebec @ Bell CentreJune 18 — Boston, MA @ Xfinity CenterJune 20 — New York, NY @ Madison Square GardenJune 21 — New York, NY @ Madison Square GardenJune 22 — New York, NY @ Madison Square GardenJune 24 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo CenterJune 25 — Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post PavilionJune 27 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm ArenaJune 29 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie ArenaJuly 1 — Miami, FL @ Miami-Dade Arena
Gorillaz and Godsmack lead Billboard’s rock album charts dated March 11 with the new sets Cracker Island and Lighting Up the Sky, respectively.
Gorillaz’s Island bows at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums tallies with 64,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. A total of 49,000 of those units are via album sales.
It’s the virtual band’s third No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums and first since 2017’s Humanz. Prior to that, Plastic Beach ruled in 2010. (The chart began in 2006.)
Concurrently, Island crowns Top Album Sales, becoming the act’s second leader (after Humanz) and tops Vinyl Albums with 32,000 sold on vinyl.
On the all-genre Billboard 200, as previously reported, Island starts at No. 3, marking Gorillaz’s sixth top 10 and best rank since Humanz reached No. 2.
Seven songs from Island reach the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart dated March 11, led by “Tormenta,” featuring Bad Bunny, at No. 9, thanks to 5.1 million official U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads sold. It’s followed by current radio single “New Gold,” featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, up 42-22 (2.8 million streams, 1.1 million radio audience impressions). “Gold” currently rises to No. 16 on Alternative Airplay.
Thanks to “Tormenta,” Bad Bunny scores his first entry and top 10 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. He boasts a record 59 top 10s on Hot Latin Songs.
Meanwhile, Godsmack’s Lighting Up the Sky launches at No. 1 on Top Hard Rock Albums on the strength of 21,000 units (18,000 in album sales).
The Sully Erna-fronted band boasts four No. 1s dating to the chart’s 2007 inception, including three in a row, with Sky following 2018’s When Legends Rise and 2014’s 1000Hp. The group first led with The Oracle in 2010.
Sky also begins at No. 3 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums. On the Billboard 200, it opens at No. 19, marking the band’s 11th entry, dating to its initial appearance with its self-titled set in 1999.
The new album’s lead single, “Soul on Fire,” enters Hot Hard Rock Songs at No. 17 (883,000 streams; 478,000 airplay audience impressions) and starts at No. 30 on Mainstream Rock Airplay.