Rock
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AC/DC have done it all in the rock ‘n’ roll, from dropping multi-million selling albums, filling stadiums around the globe, induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Heck, even Iron Man is a fan.
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Now, the Aussie rock titans are playing a different note, with a children’s picture book.
Angus Young and Co. signed off on The AC/DC AB/CD High-Voltage Alphabet, available in-stores from Nov. 11 and online at lovepolicebooks.com.
Illustrated by Paul “The Mayor” McNeil, it’s the fourth in a series of kid’s picture books released by Australian merch and lifestyle company, Love Police, after Never Mind Your Ps and Qs, Here’s the Punk Alphabet, M Is For Metal, and the Country and Western Alphabet Book.
“From the greatest rock n roll band in history, comes the most rockin’ alphabet book ever,” reads the blurb on the new page-turner, priced at A$24.95 ($15.80).
“Join Angus, Malcolm, Bon, Brian and the boys for a classic stroll through the alphabet. Every page leaps out with color, humor and the band’s history as you wind down the Highway To Spell.”
The latest look at Akka Dakka, as they’re known in these parts, came about when Young got his hands on M is for Metal while in Australian during the pandemic. He contacted Love Police chief Brian Taranto, and conversations moved from rock ‘n’ roll tales to the written word.
“What an honor it is to work on this book, and to have had a connection to Angus for the real deal stuff makes it even more wild and special,” comments Taranto. “Yeah, it’s a kid’s book, but any AC/DC or music fan will find something on every page.
The Mayor “has done a sweet and rockin’ job. We are looking forward to educating another generation of rock and rollers.”
AC/DC has already educated several generations. The band’s 17th and latest studio album, 2020’s Power Up, went straight to the top in the U.S. (their third leader), the U.K. (fourth No. 1) and Australia (sixth). The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame at its inaugural edition, in 1988, and into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge announced their plans earlier this week to reunite for a brand-new album and a world tour, leaving fans to wonder the fate of Matt Skiba.
The Alkaline Trio frontman filled in for DeLonge and became an official member of the band in 2015, recording the 2016 album California with the group. While its unclear what Skiba’s plans post-Blink are, DeLonge personally reached out to him to express his gratitude for filling in during his absence.
DeLonge shared a personal note he wrote to Skiba via Instagram on Thursday (Oct. 13), captioning a screenshot of his message, “I sent this to Matt personally, but it’s important for the world to know that I honor him. Thank you, @matttskiba.”
The note reads: “Hi Matt, Tom DeLonge here. 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. I think you are enormously talented (I still love to listen to your band to this day). You have always been so kind to me, not only in the press, but also to others. I really noticed. Emotions between the three of us in Blink have always been complicated, but Mark’s cancer really put things in perspective. 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. So from my heart to yours, thank you for being a member of our band.”
Blink-182’s new era is kicking off with a bang — in addition to an international tour, which will see the trio heading to North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand — the members plan to release a new, yet-untitled album. The forthcoming album’s lead single, “Edging,” will be released Friday.
See DeLonge’s Instagram post below.
The Killers reach No. 1 on Billboard‘s Adult Alternative Airplay chart (dated Oct. 15) with “Boy,” their third leader on the list.
The song is the Brandon Flowers-fronted act’s first No. 1 on the survey since “The Man,” which ruled for a week in 2017. The group first led with “Read My Mind” for six weeks in 2007.
In between “The Man” and “Boy,” The Killers appeared on Adult Alternative Airplay five times, paced by the No. 2-peaking “Caution” in 2020.
“Boy” has ruled three Billboard airplay charts, including two individual-format tallies. The song tops Adult Alternative Airplay as it begins descending Alternative Airplay, where it falls to No. 3 after six weeks at No. 1. “Boy” is The Killers’ first song to lead both Alternative Airplay and Adult Alternative Airplay; the band also boasts three rulers on the former, with “Boy” preceded by “Caution” in 2020 and “When You Were Young” in 2006.
On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “Boy” led for five weeks and currently ranks at No. 3 with 3.6 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
Elsewhere, “Boy” places at No. 23 on the multi-metric Hot Alternative Songs chart and No. 38 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, after reaching Nos. 12 and 17, respectively, upon its August debut. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 594,000 official U.S. streams in the tracking week ending Oct. 6.
“Boy” has also crossed over to Adult Pop Airplay, where it bullets at No. 33, after reaching No. 32 the week before. It’s the band’s eighth entry on the chart.
The song is currently a standalone single, having been recorded during the sessions for The Killers’ previous album, 2021’s Pressure Machine. The band is currently working on its eighth studio set.
TikTok’s growing role in popular culture has caused countless songs to be resurrected over the past few years – including some recognizable rock from over a decade ago. While many of the app’s Gen Z users have been exposed to 2000s mainstays like Paramore and Arctic Monkeys thanks to recent releases, several tracks that were released years ago, and were classics to millennials, have found a new life on TikTok.
Some of these songs have soundtracked iconic television and film scenes, and now find themselves being discovered by a new audience; they’ve also inspired listeners already familiar with their charms to reminisce on simpler times, get up and dance. While some of these artists have taken breaks to embark on solo careers or focus on their mental health, their music lives on and encourages fans, new and old, to keep engaging.
Here are 10 rock songs from the mid-00’s that TikTok has revived.
Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach‘s side project, The Arcs, will release their first album in 8 years in early 2023. Electronic Chronic — the follow-up to the band’s 2015 debut, Yours, Dreamily — is due out on Jan. 27 through Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label.
The band previewed the 12-track album on Thursday (Oct. 13) the the funky first single, “Keep on Dreamin’,” which dropped along with a psychedelic, pinball-themed animated video directed and illustrated by Robert Schober, with character design by El Oms. The collection was produced by Auerbach and bandmate guitarist/keyboardist Leon Michels and it features contributions from late drummer Richard Swift.
In a press release announcing the project, Auerbach said, “whether it was New York city or Nashville or L.A., or Swift’s hometown of Cottage Grove, Oregon, wherever we were, we would always get in the studio together. It was our favorite thing to do. It’s rare that you meet a group of people that you click with like that, who you instantly bond with. We were just having fun, making sounds, making music. It was an amazing time for me.”
Michels added that the band — which also includes bassist Nick Movshon and drummer Homer Steinweiss — laid down between 80 and 100 tracks in what he described as near-constant recording sessions after the release of Dreamily. “It was so so much fun to be in the studio once again, so we were just making music all the time,” he said. “I think there was always a plan to make a follow-up record.”
Auerbach said Chronic is “all about” honoring Swift, who died in July 2018 from complications from hepatitis and liver/kidney distress. “It’s a way for us to say goodbye to him, by revisiting him playing and laughing,” he said. “It was heavy at times, but I think it was really helpful to do it.”
Check out the “Keep on Dreamin’” video and the Electronic Chronic track list below.
Track list:
“Keep on Dreamin’”“Eyez”“Heaven Is a Place”“Califone Interlude”“River”“Sunshine”“A Man Will Do Wrong”“Behind the Eyes”“Backstage Mess”“Sporting Girls Interlude”“Love Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”“Only One For Me”
After teasing the discovery of a previously unheard song featuring vocals from late singer Freddie Mercury earlier this summer, Queen finally unwrapped “Face It Alone” on Thursday (Oct. 13). The dramatic, emotionally affecting song was recorded during the 1988 sessions for the band’s penultimate album with Mercury, 1989’s The Miracle.
Recorded three years before Mercury died at 45 from AIDS-related complications, the wistful track opens with Mercury softly singing, “When something so near and dear to life/ Explodes inside/ You feel your soul is set on fire,” over guitarist Brian May’s banjo-like plucking. By the second verse, Mercury climbs into a more forceful, urgent register with the lines, “When something so deep and so far and wide/ Falls down beside your cries can be heard/ So loud and clear.”
The singer then leans into the melodic, solitary chorus, “You life is your own/ You’re in charge of yourself/ Master of your home/ In the end, in the end/ You have to face it all alone.”
In a BBC Radio 2 interview in June, May and drummer Roger Taylor revealed that they’d discovered the song while working on the massive re-issue of The Miracle. “We did find a little gem from Freddie that we’d kind of forgotten about,” Taylor, 72, told BBC Radio 2 host Zoe Ball in the chat. “And it’s wonderful. Actually, it was a real discovery.”
May said he and Taylor have been considering the release of the song for a while. “It was kind of hiding in plain sight,” May said. “We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that.’” But they went back again this year and with some help from studio wizards May said they were able to spruce up what he described at the time as a “very passionate piece.”
The song — the first new track featuring Mercury vocals in more than 8 years — is the lead single from the upcoming Nov. 18 re-release of the band’s 13th album, which will be available as the 8-disc Queen The Miracle Collector’s Edition box set. The collection will feature an hour-plus disc of previously unreleased recordings, including six unpublished songs, according to a release announcing the box.
The set will also feature audio of the band’s “candid spoken exchanges on the studio floor in London and Montreaux,” giving a peek into the group’s “creative process and the joy, in-jokes and banter on their return to working together”; it will also reinstate the song “Too Much Love Will Kill You,” which was removed from the original album at the last minute due to publishing issues. Other extras include outtakes, instrumentals, a 76-page hardback book with unseen photos, original handwritten fan-club letters from the band, press reviews, videos and interviews, including the last chat with former bassist John Deacon.
Watch the “Face It Alone” lyric video below.
“That was a burden to carry that secret for so long,” the rocker revealed in a new interview.