Rock
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Metallica gave the first live performance of their new song “Lux Æterna” during the legendary rock band’s Helping Hands benefit concert in Los Angeles on Friday (Dec. 16).
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After releasing “Lux Æterna” in late November, the track launched at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart and topped Mainstream Rock Airplay. “Lux” previews the metal legends’ 11th studio album, 72 Reasons, which is scheduled for release on April 14, 2023.
“We thought that this is such a special gig here that we’d play ‘Lux Æterna,’ which is the first single from it,” Metallica’s James Hetfield told the roaring audience. “We’ll play that for the first time here live. How about that?”
The sold-out benefit show, held at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater, was hosted by late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel and featured an opening set by Greta Van Fleet.
During Metallica’s set, the band surprised concertgoers with acoustic covers of Thin Lizzy’s “Borderline” and UFO’s “It’s Killing Me.” The group was also joined onstage by special guest St. Vincent for a performance of “Nothing Else Matters.”
Proceeds from this year’s Helping Hands Concert & Auction will benefit Metallica’s All Within My Hands foundation, which focuses on creating sustainable communities by addressing issues such as hunger and workforce education.
72 Reasons is Metallica’s first studio album since 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, which debuted as the band’s sixth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The rockers will hit the road in support of the forthcoming album in April 2023.
Watch Metallica’s first live performance of “Lux Æterna” here.
Even with streaming services dominating music consumption, there ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby, and physical music – from vinyl to expansive box sets – is experiencing a resurgence that’s proving to be a boon for tactile superfans.
10 Best Box Sets of 2022
12/16/2022
Blondie fans were gifted with one of the best box sets in recent memory this year with Against the Odds: 1974-1982, which tracks the band’s unlikely evolution from scrappy CBGB mainstays to chart-topping pop powerhouses. One of the premier bands who funneled the energy and ethos of punk into punchy pop songs in the vein of Brill Building hits, Blondie was also the most successful act to emerge from the NYC punk scene, topping the Billboard Hot 100 four times from 1979-81.
Beyond rounding up the remastered albums from the band’s first era, Against the Odds boasts illuminating lo-fi demos from 1974-75 – including a Shangri-Las cover and irresistibly cheeky rarities such as “Puerto Rico” — as well as selections from an album they might have made with disco super-producer Giorgio Moroder in a different timeline. And the liner notes – oftentimes an exercise in rose-tinted adoration or an afterthought in some box sets – are perfectly executed by Erin Osmon, providing thoughtful context and wry anecdotes.
It’s no surprise that Against the Odds is up for best historical album at the 2023 Grammy Awards, for which voting recently began. But it might be a surprise that the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers (who could also make the Songwriters Hall of Fame next year) have yet to win a Grammy despite their undeniable impact on generations of musicians from numerous genres.
Riding high on the tide of Against the Odds, co-founders Debbie Harry and Chris Stein hopped on a Zoom with Billboard to discuss everything from TikTok to a “garage” of unreleased tapes they’re sitting on to almost working with Phil Spector back in the day.
So what was the impetus behind pulling together this massive box set. Was the label looking for something or did you guys feel like you needed to get this out?
Chris Stein: The label is not like it used to be. It’s not the serfdom it used to be where we were the serfs. It mostly came from having all the tapes, just a garage full of tapes that followed me around.
Debbie Harry: I think what happened was that Chris started to have everything digitized –
Chris: We were working at this studio called The Magic Shop downtown [Manhattan], where Bowie did Blackstar, all this amazing music came out of there. We were the last band in there as they closed — they got pushed out by rent. And the owner, Steve Rosenthal, has a digitizing company [MARS]. So we started talking, Tommy [Camuso] and me, about doing all the tapes that I have. I have a literal garage full of tapes and he has all that stuff and we’re going over it gradually.
Debbie: You mean there’s more! [laughs] Oh no.
So even now we’re just scratching the surface. What kind of material is left? Are we talking unreleased songs?
Chris: Probably, yeah? There’s more stuff. I was pleased that people gravitated toward the weird-ass demos and all these little odds and ends [on the box set]. It’s stuff that’s been in the back of our [gestures to head] whatever for years.
The first song on the first disc, which actually appears in two different versions on this set, is a cover of the Shangri-Las’ “Out in the Streets.” But in the liner notes, Chris, you said you initially weren’t all that into the girl group sound.
Chris: When I was a little kid I thought it was like Justin Bieber, I thought it was too commercial and I didn’t pay attention to it. Then I started the band situation and realized how brilliant all that stuff was. Now, I find it really weird that this whole generation of kids on TikTok is drawn to the one little phrase in “Walking In the Sand,” one of the Shangri-Las’ songs: “oh no, oh no, oh no no.” Most of the kids don’t even know what the f–k it is I’m sure. It’s a strange phenomenon to me.
You can certainly hear the influence of girl group on the early Blondie records. And aside from the New York Dolls, there weren’t a lot of other punk bands making explicit girl group references back then.
Debbie: The reason I got to sing on the Ramones record [“Go Lil’ Camaro Go”] was because of that. They told me they really liked that about my voice and we did do some kind of acknowledgment to those songs, and that’s why they put me on.
Chris: Debbie is the only female on a Ramones record.
What was that session like?
Debbie: Pretty straight ahead. It’s not really a complicated melody musically and it’s a song about a car. (laughs)
One thing this box set makes evident that people might not realize is how early “Heart of Glass” [released in 1979] was percolating in the band’s story, titled “Once I Had a Love” as far back as 1975 and then “The Disco Song” at one point. What made it take so long to get right?
Chris: It happens. Some of these songs I have on this new record we just finished are 10 years old. It just happens. Everybody – writers, directors – have germs that stay with them for long periods.
Did you ever think of just giving up on it?
Chris: We were always doing so much stuff simultaneously, and it was just always there.
Debbie: We were doing pre-production with Mike Chapman [on Parallel Lines] and we played him a bunch of songs, ran through everything, and Mike said, “Yeah, yeah, do you have anything else?” And that was it.
Courtesy Photo
In the liner notes, you describe how Chapman’s approach to Parallel Lines was a bit more intense than what you were used to on previous albums Blondie and Plastic Letters. You’re still making music, so what do you prefer to do these days – get it done quick, or obsess over take after take?
Chris: We work with John Congleton and he’s more immediate, but everyone’s skill set is different. We work with different musicians now and some of these guys are masters, more so than we were back then for sure. There’s a lot of variables. I don’t know if Chapman was quite at a Stanley Kubrick level with the takes but it felt like that occasionally.
Debbie: I think [Richard] Gottehrer [producer on Blondie and Plastic Letters] always recorded us much the way they record jazz bands — he went for that moment, that feeling, that interaction. And Chapman was the tone Meister. He was used to making things for radio and the pop format. He’d done all those bands in Europe and the U.K. and that was his method.
Chris: The first two records where much more live. The whole band would play and we’d do a couple overdubs. Parallel Lines was certainly pieced together, which I really enjoy: I like the layering process. It’s more precise and a different approach entirely. It was educational. Chapman had such a great bedside manner. He made it easier working really hard. He’s a funny, crazy guy. He’s a character in addition to having this ear and ability.
Giorgio Moroder, another producer you worked with [“Call Me”], certainly had an ear for radio. In the liner notes, Moroder said he was supposed to do an album with you guys but left because of the band’s in-fighting. Is that how you remember it?
Chris: Yeah, Giorgio just didn’t want to put up with our crazy bullsh-t.
Debbie: I think Giorgio was a much different – he was primarily a songwriter-producer, and he just cut to the chase. He didn’t want to deal with the subtleties or inner workings of a band. He made great stuff.
Do you have any regrets that album didn’t happen?
Debbie: No.
Chris: Yes, no, I don’t know. There’s lots of stuff. Phil Spector really wanted to do a record with us and I’m really glad we didn’t get into that. I heard all those insane stories about the Ramones and him.
You might have literally dodged a bullet.
Debbie: I don’t know, I sort of feel badly about what happened to him. There’s been a show on recently, a documentary [Spector on Showtime].
Chris: He shot that girl, no doubt.
Debbie: Yeah, I know. The people that worked with him said he reached a certain point and he lost it. He went to a bad place in his brain. And that’s a shame because he did some genius things and should be remembered for that.
Chris: There seems to be somebody else, a certain person in rap music, who’s having a public meltdown right now and should not have a lot of fan boys surrounding him and telling him how great he is all the time.
The box set also includes this crazy Christmas version of “Rapture” called “Yule Town Throw Down.” So… why is there a Christmas version of “Rapture”?
Chris: When we did the recording, we did it slower and decided it was too slow. I got the 2-inch tapes of the slower version and brought it into my studio and put myself, [Fab 5] Freddy and Debbie on it. It was for a British magazine called Flexipop! that had a little plastic disc with each issue and that was the Christmas issue. So that was floating around for a long time.
There’s also an alternate, slightly experimental version of “The Tide Is High” with Walter Steding on this set that’s beautiful.
Chris: He’s a really eccentric musician. There’s a violin on the original, the Paragons’ original, which is really interesting to me. I can’t think of another reggae song with a violin, period. And all the horn lines on our final version are based on that violin line. So it was referential.
“Union City Blue” is one of my favorite Blondie songs, but it wasn’t a hit. Do you have any favorite Blondie songs that you wish had been bigger?
Debbie: Well, this morning I woke up singing “Nothing Is Real But the Girl” [from No Exit] and I don’t know why. It’s funny how different songs come into my mind for no apparent reason. Some of those darker, less famous tracks are really great. I would love to be playing them live. It’s frustrating. We could do a three-hour show, and I’d probably die, but I’d love to play a lot of those songs. I’d love to do a thing where we’d stay at a club for a week and do a lot of material. That would be fun. There’s a lot of stuff.
Chris: Maybe we could get Bruce to come up instead of you. All his shows are like five hours, right?
He is the marathon man. You should do a residency! People would love that.
Debbie: We’ll see. Maybe it’ll happen.
The Hunter was the last Blondie album of that first era. It didn’t connect with fans in the same way your previous albums had. Did you care at the time?
Chris: I was mostly disappointed in the cover. [Smiling] The cover is bad. There’s some great stuff on there. It was a lower period for us personally. Things were in decline and it reflects that. If it had a better cover maybe people would see it as a breakup album or some bullsh-t.
Debbie: I don’t even remember what’s on there except for “The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game.”
Chris: “English Boys” is a good song. “Island of Lost Souls” was released in the U.K. as a single as the same time the f–king Falklands [an undeclared war between the U.K. and Argentina] were going on, and they all decided it was about that, even though it had nothing to do with that.
Debbie: We did okay with “War Child,” it was good for a show.
There’s a lot of great covers on this box set, too: The Doors, Johnny Cash. How did you decide what artists to cover?
Chris: Just what we liked. We covered so much stuff. We were always talking about doing a Pin Ups record of covers [like Bowie’s 1973 album]. We always did Stones songs over the years, we did that Beatles song, “Please Please Me.” We played that many times over the last 10 years.
Debbie: Especially when we get to Liverpool.
Chris: I always tell younger bands to do covers so if people aren’t familiar with your material, it’s an automatic connection.
Blondie songs are certainly still a part of the collective cultural consciousness.
Chris: Everything is about soundtracking now. We’re lucky we have songs that represent the period. I can’t believe we got a song [“The Tide Is High”] in Better Call Saul. Having a song in the Breaking Bad universe was f–king amazing.
Debbie: He can die now. (laughs)
Chris: And the thing in The Boys. [Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy] doing the rap [from “Rapture”] was great.
Debbie: Oh God, that was great.
So you pay attention when your songs crop up?
Chris: I do a lot of TV watching. More than listening to music. I get so much new music in front of me from looking at TikTok and Instagram Reels. And I have teenage daughters, too. There’s so much great modern stuff, it’s limitless.
Do you enjoy TikTok?
Chris: I wind up on Instagram more. What I hate about TikTok is that everybody makes a video and then they lure you in with “now look for part 2” and it’s impossible to find. There’s a lot of really great stuff on there. But also tons of garbage.
Certainly true of any medium. Against the Odds is up for best historical album at the 2023 Grammys. What would it mean to see that album win a Grammy?
Chris: It would be nice to get the thing. We got a Clio, an advertising award. It’s not even in EGOT.
You could say it’s in the CEGOT. After the box set was completed, what did it feel like seeing the band’s first period all laid out?
Debbie: I mean, great. A lot of good times. A lot of satisfaction. When you come up with something good it makes you feel great. The shows are really fun. I can’t imagine what my life would have been without it. I guess that’s a good sign.
Chris: Being any kind of an artist, it becomes such a large part of your make-up. I encourage everybody to become more creative.
Debbie, before this, you released a well-received memoir, Face It, in 2019. So you’ve done a good deal of looking back recently.
Debbie: Now, I’m reading a book [Don’t Call Me Home] by Alexa Auder, Viva’s daughter, and I love the way she deals with these deep emotional things. It almost makes me think I should have gone deeper. But Chris’ book is coming out — it will be really historical and great and full of insight. I’m looking forward to it, I’ve only read 50 pages. How far have you gotten?
Chris: It’s like 100,000 words at this point. I keep tweaking it. There’s so much stuff it’s nuts. I have this Zelig-like relationship to the music culture where I was in so many places at the right moment, including New York in the ‘70s and San Francisco in ’67, ’68, all of that stuff. It goes on and on.
Drummer Dino Danelli, an original member of 1960s New Jersey rock group The Rascals has died at 78. His death was confirmed by Rascals archivist and friend Joe Russo on Danelli’s Facebook page, where Russo wrote, “To know Dino, you must understand that art was his life. Art, music and film consumed his mind and his heart. He was an insomniac, sometimes staying awake for days, because he was always writing, reading, painting, drawing, watching films. He was beyond private and for someone who many consider one of the greatest drummers of all time, humble to a fault.”
Russo said the drummer who manned the kit for the Rascals from 1965-1971 — and also performed with E Street Band member and solo rocker “Little” Steven Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul from 1982-1984 — was the “most private person I knew.” While he did not disclose a cause of death, Russo wrote that Danelli was “acutely disappointed” about the “abrupt” conclusion of the Rascals’ 2013 “Once Upon a Dream” reunion tour and he noted that after it fell apart the timekeeper was “almost obsessed” with trying to find a way to “keep the ball rolling” as his health began to decline.
“When this project attempt failed, it seemed Dino’s intense artistic spirit began to drift away,” Russo wrote of the musician who was born in Jersey City on July 23, 1944 and formed the Young Rascals with singer Eddie Brigati, keyboardist Felix Cavaliere and guitarist Gene Cornish in 1964.
“Around this time in 2017, I noticed subtle changes in his movements and ability to walk steady. One day, he asked me to pick him up from a doctor’s visit. We returned to his apartment where he began indicating to me certain wishes he would like honored after his passing,” Russo continued. “It wasn’t alarming for a man his age to do so, but it seemed unusually sudden and out of left field.”
With his musical ventures drying up, Russo said Danelli’s desire and ability “to do the creative things he loved suddenly began dissipating. He stopped being ‘Dino.’ Almost overnight it seemed, a huge aspect of the the tremendous personality I knew since I was a teenager virtually began to vanish.” Russo said Danelli ended up in a hospital and then checked out in Dec. 2019, only to return in early 2022 to a rehab center where his condition quickly deteriorated.
“He’d spend every day there until his passing,” Russo explained. “His primary challenges were coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure, but there were many others. He had already required an angioplasty over a decade earlier.” (Read the full Facebook post here.)
Driven by Danelli’s swinging, high-energy drum sound, the Young Rascals (as they were originally known) scored nine Billboard Hot 100 singles, including their signature No. 1 1966 recording of Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick’s “Good Lovin’,” as well as the 1967 No. 1 “Groovin’,” and 1968’s chart-topping civil rights anthem “People Got to Be Free,” written by Brigati and Cavaliere in the wake of the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The band — who shortened their name to just The Rascals in 1968 as they moved away from their more eclectic garage soul vibe to a more psychedelic sound — was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
After the departure of Brigati and Cornish in the early 1970s, Danelli and Cavaliere carried on and released two more albums to diminishing returns before breaking up in 1971. Danelli formed the group Bulldog with Cornish that year and the duo released a pair of albums before breaking up three years later. Danelli then bounced around, playing with Mountain’s Leslie West and the short-lived power pop act Fotomaker before joining Van Zandt’s band in the early 1980s and playing on the groups first two records, 1982’s Men Without Women and 1984’s Voice of America.
The Rascals reformed in 1988 briefly, with all four original members on hand for their Rock Hall induction in 1997 and then again for a run of shows entitled “One Upon a Dream” in 2012-2013 — which was co-produced and co-written by Van Zandt — before taking that show on the road for a North American run. In a Facebook message, Cornish wrote, “It is with a broken heart that I must tell you of the passing of Dino Danelli. He was my brother and the greatest drummer I’ve ever seen. I am devastated at this moment. Rest In Peace Dino I love you brother.”
Van Zandt also paid tribute, tweeting, “RIP Dino Danelli. One of the greatest drummers of all time. Rascals 1965-1971. Disciples Of Soul 1982-1984. On Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater in Once Upon A Dream 2013.” While heartbroken over the inability to carry one with the Rascals, Russo said Danelli continued to work with him on video, art and photography projects as well as writing, recording and producing “entire albums worth of songs together” that have not been released.
“He was the epitome of ‘cool’ and never ceased to impress me with his seemingly endless reservoir of ideas and approaches,” Russo said of his friend and collaborator. “The word ‘artist’ is so commonly used to describe even the slightest level of self expression, but let me assure you Dino Danelli possessed a mindset, a creative philosophy and a set of skills as profound as any of the great artists you’ve ever read about.”
Watch the Young Rascals performing “Good Lovin’” on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 below.
Warning: You may experience strong emotions once you see the surprise performances Billie Eilish treated her crowd at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum to Thursday night (Dec. 15). The 20-year-old pop star carved out time in her Happier Than Ever, The World Tour setlist to bring out Dave Grohl for a stunning tribute to his late Foo Fighters bandmate Taylor Hawkins, and later, Phoebe Bridgers for a duet of “Motion Sickness,” one of the indie rocker’s biggest tearjerkers.
Eilish first welcomed Grohl onto her stage. “I would like to invite a friend of mine,” she said, while thousands of fans cheered as the former Nirvana drummer walked on stage.
Grohl went on to share with the crowd how he, his Foo Fighters bandmates and their families gathered earlier this year to watch the Grammys, at which Eilish — who wore a Taylor Hawkins T-shirt at the ceremony — was one of the performers. “The room was filled with real tears of love and gratitude,” Grohl recalled of the night, which was just over a week after Hawkins’ shocking death. “Let’s sing it for Taylor.”
Sitting on stools with Grohl playing guitar, the two went on to duet Foo Fighters’ 1998 track “My Hero.”
Later in the show, Bridgers came out on stage, nothing but an acoustic guitar in tow. “This is so cool. I’m, like, shaking,” the L.A. native confessed. “Everybody close their eyes and I’ll be way less nervous.”
She then started strumming her 2017 breakthrough hit “Motion Sickness,” with Eilish adding soft harmonies to Bridgers’ lead vocals. When the “Everything I Wanted” singer took the lead on the song’s second verse, her crowd let out a brief cheer of wild excitement before quieting down so that everyone could properly hear the performance.
The show marked the second of three concerts Eilish has lined up at the Kia Forum this December, with the final show slated for Friday (Dec. 16). At the concert prior to Bridgers’ and Grohl’s appearances, she invited Labrinth onstage to sing “I’ve Never Felt So Alone,” a song from the Euphoria soundtrack.
Watch clips from Eilish’s duets with Grohl and Bridgers below:
The stories about Casablanca Records are legendarily insane. Some center around the tall tales of the wildly successful independent label founded by producer Neil Bogart in 1973 that briefly shot to global dominance during the disco era thanks releasing landmark albums by everyone from Kiss to Donna Summer, the Village People, George Clinton’s Parliament and Cher. They also, invariably, lead to equally bonkers accounts of shady accounting, mountains of debt (and cocaine) and wild accounts of the lengths Bogart would go to promote his acts.
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Sounds like a movie, right? Well, on March 31 that biopic, Spinning Gold, will hit theaters with an all-star cast of characters re-telling the improbable tale of Bogart’s rocket ride to the heights, and depths, of the music business. The film’s official trailer dropped on Thursday (Dec. 15) and it gives just a little taste of the whirlwind ride Bogart took the industry on while providing sneak peeks at Wiz Khalifa as Clinton, Jeremy Jordan as the label boss, Ledisi as Gladys Knight, Jason DeRulo as Ronald Isley, Pink Sweat$ as Bill Withers and Tayla Parx as Summer.
The trailer for the film directed and written by Bogart’s’ son, Timothy Scott Bogart, opens with Casablanca’s jaw-dropping sales figures (200 million records), while showing a frizzy-haired Jordan strutting through the label’s chaotic offices while ticking off a list of the famous roster, including Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines), who blanches at her new bosses’ decision to change her name because “everything is hotter in the summer.”
With Kiss’ 1975 hit “Rock and Roll All Nite” blasting in the background, the fairy tale story quickly begins to unravel, though, as Bogart is seen facing more than $7 million of red ink, which, of course, inspires him to punch out the bearer of bad news, as one’s boss does. There are briefcases full of cash, threats of a hit put out by rival Motown Records, phone calls to the mafia to ask for a little help with that whole situation and Bogart placing a giant bet on a couple of kids from Queens (Kiss’ Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons) who had dreams of being the biggest rock stars in the world.
“Their mix of creative insanity, a total belief in each other and the music they were creating, shaped our culture and ultimately defined a generation,” reads a description of the film. “In a story so unbelievable that it can only be true, comes the motion picture event of the musical journey of Neil Bogart and how his Casablanca Records created the greatest soundtrack of our lives.”
Watch the Spinning Gold trailer below.
Hayley Williams is well-acquainted with the rigors of stardom in your teens. Which might explain why the Paramore singer — who was signed to her first production deal at 14 — can relate to the mind-bending journey Billie Eilish has been on over the past five years.
“We’ve spoken throughout the years since she kind of came onto the scene,” Williams, 33, told Sirius XM’s Alt Nation in a chat about her interactions with Eilish, 20. “The first thing I experienced or I witnessed of her was [2018’s] ‘When the Party’s Over,’ that video. And then I watched an interview with her and I felt like there was something inside of me that was watching me — slash us — as teenagers doing interviews and navigating this world.”
Williams was just 17 when Paramore’s All We Know Is Falling came out in 2005, while Eilish was 14 when she uploaded “Ocean Eyes,” the song that would catapult her to fame. Hayley said that’s one of the reasons watching Billie’s rise has felt very familiar to her.
“She does it on a level we’ve never experienced, but I just feel such a love towards her and her family and I think they’re so special,” said Williams, who recalled going to Billie’s house for Thanksgiving last year for a delicious meal of vegan cinnamon rolls made by Eilish’s mom. “We had already connected, I had connected with her mom too, just about their organization that they have. But ever since that Thanksgiving cinnamon roll treat, just, I mean… The rest is history. I feel like I would do anything for them,” she added, shouting out Eilish’s older brother and producer, Finneas, as well.
And as someone who has been doing it for more than half her life, Williams predicted, “I think they’re going to be around for a really long time.”
The mutual admiration society isn’t just virtual, either. Williams and Eilish teamed up earlier this year when they performed Paramore’s “Misery Business” and Billie’s “Happier Than Ever” together at Coachella.
Watch Williams’ interview below.
There has been so much to love about Netflix’s latest hit show Wednesday, from the coming-of-age storyline and deadpan demeanor of the titular Addams Family character (played by Jenna Ortega) to the goth style choices and supernatural mysteries surrounding the show’s Nevermore Academy setting. But what has captivated audiences just as much is the thrilling soundtrack. Within the show’s first season, there’s a tapestry of classic Latin ballads, string concertos and multiple generations of rock. The combination of the song choices themselves and the scenes they’re set to has stirred up conversation all over the internet.
While Netflix is no stranger to such virality (see how the streaming service revived Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”), it was thrilling to see Wednesday give a similar bump to The Cramps’ 1981 post-punk classic “Goo Goo Muck,” thanks to a dazzling dance scene in episode four where Ortega shows off some of her kookiest moves. Of course, it wasn’t long until TikTok users put their own spin on the quirky scene by dressing up as Ortega’s character and dancing to Lady Gaga’s 2011 track “Bloody Mary.” The trend has caught on so much so that Gaga’s song has re-entered the Billboard Global 200’s top 40, while even the pop star herself dressed up like Wednesday and danced to her Born This Way number.
Following the success of the series, Billboard spoke to music supervisors Jen Malone and Nicole Weisberg about setting the tone for the series, the Gaga TikTok craze and what Cramps song they almost used instead of “Goo Goo Muck.”
How did doing music supervision for shows like Yellowjackets and Euphoria help inform the process of putting together the soundtrack for Wednesday?
Jen: Each show is very different in terms of the overall vision, sound and tone. It’s really just a collaboration with the showrunners, as it is with each other show and each other team that we work with. On any show, music can be used in different ways. So it’s really just following their lead, and a lot of listening to how they see the character and how they see music as a character in the show. We’re really lucky in that in a lot of shows that we work on, music is a character, and I think that’s definitely the same for Wednesday.
How did you concept the sound for Wednesday?
Nicole: It was a very collaborative process, and the intention the whole time is to pay homage to Wednesday’s story. [Looking at it through] her lens to make all of these choices was such a fun way to approach an Addams Family project. So it was sort of a combination of just looking for that perfect vintage song that sounds [like] classic Addams Family, but is serious vintage cool that has a wink to it and feels like we’re still having fun.
What did you envision Wednesday listening to as a teen?
Nicole: We really leaned into a lot more vintage. Wednesday doesn’t have a phone, she doesn’t have social media. So we really leaned into a lot of the Latinx vintage and female vocals, but then also combined [that] with some of the later placements, like The Cramps [and] this goth, post-punk sound. Obviously, the chorus with the cello was a huge, huge part of our show.
What did the moodboard for the show’s soundtrack look like?
Jen: We really drew from the Addams Family in general, knowing that this is Wednesday’s story. We started with a big playlist of songs from anywhere and everywhere, that we thought could somehow somewhere fit into this series. It really ranged from several different genres and several different time periods. We also were also true to telling Wednesday’s story, and the Addams Family franchise is our cornerstone for the music story.
Wednesday’s solo dance scene to “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps has become a viral moment from the show. Was that song always meant to be used for that scene?
Jen: It was not scripted in. When we got to shooting that episode, we really collaborated with [creators] Al [Gough], Miles [Millar] and Tim [Burton] and got them a bunch of options that they would obviously also discuss with Jenna, who was going to be doing the choreography for the dance. We actually were talking about “Human Fly” from The Cramps, and those guys ended up coming back and they’re like, “Let’s do ‘Goo Goo Muck.’”
Nicole: These things unfold where we have the script, and then we’re figuring it out before it’s going to shoot, and we haven’t even worked on all the other episodes. It was a big moment to really ground the show. The Cramps were on our playlist from the beginning, and it just happened organically where we would go back and forth with the producers and Tim. Like Jen said, Jenna was a big part of taking the temperature on most of these big moments, because she just embodied Wednesday so much. It was like, if she feels like this would be natural for her to do, then we kind of got the green light. She was the pinnacle of every moment.
Jen: Even the cello pieces, Jenna was involved in those discussions. She actually had made her own cello playlist, which was really really cool.
It’s been a big year for Netflix’s viral music moments, especially following the resurgence of Kate Bush love after Stranger Things used “Running Up That Hill.” How do you balance those kinds of standout moments so that they feel organic?
Jen: Our job as music supervisors is to serve the director and the showrunner’s vision and serve the story. That’s the only thing that we focus on: collaborating and providing ideas to Al, Miles and Tim. Having moments go viral, that’s just the icing on the cake. That’s super exciting, but not something that we set out to do.
Wednesday‘s dance scene popularized Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” again, thanks to TikTok. How has that impacted the hype around the show?
Jen: It’s just so exciting to see how fans are reacting to the show and creating their own videos. I just like seeing the dances and the costumes they put together. It’s super fun to watch these kids create their own moments. It’s funny, you’re not seeing people watch TV. Now, you’re getting to watch your fans react in real-time to something. It’s definitely a surreal experience because we worked on the stuff a year ago, and you don’t think about this happening this way.
Lady Gaga has shown her support for Wednesday on social media and even made her own “Bloody Mary” dance video inspired by the show. Have you considered featuring a Gaga song next season?
Jen: We don’t know the long-term plan for the show, but I hope we will be able to create more notable music moments.
Obviously, Wednesday and her roommate Enid have such distinct personalities. How did that affect their music taste on-screen?
Nicole: That was always going to be polar opposites, just because of the nature of their characters. Enid is bright and fun-loving, so it was natural to fill her playlist with pop music and feel-good, uptempo [songs] — and then Wednesday is like, ‘I’m serious and I want vintage quality,’ and doesn’t care about Enid’s music taste very much. It was fun to play a contrast in those moments when they’re hanging out in their bedroom, and you can’t have both girls’ music playing at once.
What made you guys decide to use “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac during the Crackstone Memorial sequence?
Jen: I think that one actually came from Al, Miles and Tim.
Nicole: When the statue was on fire, [it was] building up to that moment. We loved the Metallica cover with the cello and everything was building up to that moment. Fleetwood Mac was intended to play contrast to all the darkness that’s about to come right after it. What I thought was carved out really nicely was when we had the Beach House song, right into Fleetwood, right into Vivaldi, right into Metallica. It just felt like a perfect storm of just setting up the rest of the season for the chaos that’s about to ensue.
Back catalogs are big business in this music industry. It seems as though every couple of months you read about another artist selling their music to an outside source, like Neil Young going to U.K. investment firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund (run by music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis) with 50% of his song catalog or Bob Dylan selling the masters of his works to longtime label Sony Music.
But when you consider how busy the catalog divisions of such revered companies as Sony, Universal and BMG are, it’s gauging out to be a symbiotic relationship where the fan wins out in the end. Especially when it comes to emptying out the vaults.
This year, in particular, seemed to teem with catalog-based titles from some of the biggest names in the industry. And not just rote ‘Greatest Hits’ collections, but immersive experiences that allow fans to explore inside the creation of favorite LP with audio rarities and visual ephemera. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be a fave, but rather an album so deep in an artist’s discography you forgot how much you dug it in the first place.
It wasn’t easy choosing just 10 box sets to include in this roundup. There was so much that came out this year from which to pick, given the grand carousel of Complete Recordings, Super Deluxe Editions and Bootleg Series-styled lost treasures on display. This carefully curated selection, however, will hopefully give you a good idea of the wealth of product available in 2022.
After only two weeks on the chart, Metallica’s “Lux Æterna” is No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay list dated Dec. 17.
The song climbs to the top after debuting at No. 2 on the Dec. 10 survey, the best start for any song in 16 years.
With its two-week trip to No. 1, “Lux” completes the quickest coronation in eight years. Foo Fighters’ “Something From Nothing” also took two frames in November 2014.
“Lux” and “Something” are the only two songs to need two or fewer weeks to reign in the entirety of the 2000s. Prior to “Something,” the last act to pull off the feat was Metallica with its cover of Bob Seger‘s “Turn the Page,” which hit No. 1 in its second week in November 1998.
Metallica snags its 11th Mainstream Rock Airplay leader and first since “All Within My Hands,” which crowned the ranking for four weeks in September 2020. In between “Hands” and “Lux,” the band reached No. 18 this August with the reserviced 1986 track “Master of Puppets,” following its synch in the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Metallica’s 11 No. 1s, which kicked off with “Until It Sleeps” in 1996, place the band in a three-way tie for sixth all time on Mainstream Rock Airplay, which began in 1981, alongside Disturbed and Foo Fighters. Shinedown leads all acts with 18 rulers.
Most No. 1s, Mainstream Rock Airplay
18, Shinedown
17, Three Days Grace
13, Five Finger Death Punch
13, Van Halen
12, Godsmack
11, Disturbed
11, Foo Fighters
11, Metallica
10, Tom Petty (solo and with the Heartbreakers)
10, Volbeat
Concurrently, “Lux” ranks at No. 2 for a second week on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 4.5 million audience impressions, according to Luminate. It also lifts 35-34 on Alternative Airplay.
“Lux” leads the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs list for a second week. In addition to its radio airplay, the song scored 2.5 million official U.S. streams and sold 2,000 downloads in the Dec. 2-8 tracking week.
Metallica’s 11th studio album, 72 Seasons, is due April 14, 2023.
Welcome to Rockville announced the lineup for its 2023 festival on Wednesday (Dec. 14), including Slipknot, Tool, Avenged Sevenfold and Pantera.
Next year’s iteration of the hard rock festival will take place May 18 to May 21 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Slipknot will headline the first day of the event with Rob Zombie, Queens of the Stone Age, Puscifer, Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine, Black Veil Brides and more are also on the roster.
Joining Avenged Sevenfold on day two will be Evanescence, Hardy, I Prevail, Motionless In White, Asking Alexandria and Sleeping with Sirens while Godsmack, Alice Cooper, Chevelle, Alter Bridge, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening, Knocked Loose and others will hit the stage on day three ahead of Pantera’s headlining set.
Finally, Tool will round out the headliners on day four with Deftones, Incubus, The Mars Volta and Coheed & Cambria also on the slate.
“We are so excited to be bringing this fantastic lineup to Welcome to Rockville,” said festival producer Danny Wimmer in a statement. “Our fans have been wanting Pantera and along with one of Avenged Sevenfold’s first live shows in five years, crowd favorite Slipknot, AND one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Tool, we are delivering a jam-packed weekend to the ‘The World Center of Rock.’ Can’t wait to see everyone in May!”
Both weekend passes and single-day tickets to Welcome to Rockville are now on sale to the general public via the festival’s official website. Layaway options are also available for attendees through the end of the year.
Check out Welcome to Rockville’s 2023 lineup announcement below.