Rock
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The endless cycle of bad things happening in the news can be, well, soul crushing, but here’s a scoop that’ll actually brighten your day: Paramore just dropped a new song. The punk-rock trio returned Thursday (Dec. 8) with “The News,” the second single off their upcoming album This Is Why, along with an angst-filled, horror-themed music video.
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In the three-minute track, frontwoman Hayley Williams rages against the “exploitative, performative” news circuit constantly occupying her devices, and laments over feeling useless that she can’t do anything to help crises happening miles away from her. Drummer Zac Farro and guitarist Taylor York don’t make an appearance in the music video — which centers on Williams writhing around spookily with iris-less eyeballs and bloody teeth — but their musical presence throughout the raucous new track shouts just as loud as her piercing vocals.
“The News” comes a little more than two months behind “This Is Why,” the lead single and title track of their first album in five years, which is slated for a February release. “It feels like a happy medium between classic Paramore angst and bringing in some influences we’ve always had but never exploited,” Williams said of the song in a statement. “Watching Zac track drums for this one was one of my favorite memories from the studio.”
“Lyrically, it probably explains itself,” she continued. “The 24-hour news cycle is just impossible to comprehend. And I feel a pang of guilt when I unplug to protect my headspace. The common reaction, or non-reaction, seems to be dissociation. Not one of us is innocent of that and who could blame us?”
Leading up to the release of the track, Paramore teased fans by DMing them pieces of the lyrics and even going as far as to mail them parts of the song on CD. In November, the band wrapped up a preliminary leg of its ongoing tour, which will resume in February.
On “The News” release day, the trio appeared on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music 1 Show to chat about the song, with Williams revealing why they chose this moment to explore more political themes in their music. “It started with just the pandemic,” the Nashville native explained. “There was George Floyd, there were all these uprisings, there were marches and protests that we went to. There was a bombing by a conspiracy theorist on Christmas Day in Nashville.”
“It’s like we’re experiencing it from whatever vantage point we’re at, and there’s something to say about it,” she continued. “And I’m hoping, I’m praying and hoping that the perspective and the lyrics that we’re presenting is personal enough and as much with respect to everyone’s specific or potential vantage point that maybe other people can relate to it in some way that we haven’t even intended.”
Check out Paramore’s new song and video, “The News,” above:
Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe are hitting the road for another co-headlining tour. On Thursday (Dec. 8), the rock bands announced that they will be trekking across the United States in 2023, with Alice Cooper as a special guest for the series of dates.
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“After finally getting back on the road this past summer, we’re beyond thrilled to bring this massive tour to a global audience including some special dates in America!” Joe Elliott of Def Leppard said in a statement.“We had an incredible time playing The Stadium Tour in North America this summer and we truly can’t wait to take the show around the globe with The WORLD Tour in 2023,” Mötley Crüe added in a joint statement. “Crüeheads, get ready because we have a few amazing U.S. dates set for you!”
The U.S. dates will commence on Aug. 5 with a show at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., and will make stops in Columbus, Ohio; Fargo, N.D.; Omaha, Neb.; and Tulsa, Okla. before concluding in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 18 at the Sun Bowl Stadium. The new set of dates are tacked onto the end of the bands’ previously announced global portion of The World Tour, which will kick off in February with a pair of dates in New Jersey before heading to Mexico, South America, Europe and the United Kingdom.Fans who wish to purchase presale tickets to The World Tour will need a Citi card; cardmembers will have presale access through the Citi Entertainment program starting on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, Dec. 15, at 10 p.m. local time. General on-sale to the public will begin on Friday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m. local time.
See the full list of dates for The World Tour below.
Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe Tour Dates:
Feb. 10 Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena ^
Feb. 11 Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena ^
Feb. 18 Mexico City, Mexico – Foro Sol ^
Feb. 21 Monterrey, Mexico – Estadio Banorte ^
Feb. 25 Bogotá, Colombia – Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park ^
Feb. 28 Lima, Peru – Estadio Nacional ^
March 3 Santiago, Chile – Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida ^
March 7 São Paulo, Brazil – Allianz Parque ^
May 22 Sheffield, England – Bramall Lane ^
May 25 Mönchengladbach, Germany – SparkassenPark ^
May 27 Munich, Germany – Koenigsplatz ^
May 29 Budapest, Hungary – MVM Dome ^
May 31 Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena Kraków ^
June 2 Prague, Czech Republic – Prague Rocks
June 3 Hannover, Germany – Expo Plaza ^
June 7 Solvesborg, Sweden – Sweden Rock Festival
June 9 Hyvinkää, Finland – RockFest
June 11 Trondheim, Norway – Trondheim Rocks
June 14 Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhell
June 18 Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Metal Meeting
June 20 Milan, Italy – Ippodromo SNAI San Siro ^
June 23 Lisbon, Portugal – Passeio Maritimo de Alges ^
June 24 Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain – Auditorio Miguel Ríos ^
June 27 Thun, Switzerland – Stockhorn Arena ^
July 1 London, England – Wembley Stadium ^
July 2 Lytham, England – Lytham Festival
July 4 Dublin, Ireland – Marlay Park ^
July 6 Glasgow, Scotland – Hampden Park ^
Aug. 5 Syracuse, NY – JMA Wireless Dome ^
Aug. 8 Columbus, OH – Ohio Stadium ^
Aug. 11 Fargo, ND – Fargodome ^
Aug. 13 Omaha, NE – Charles Schwab Field Omaha ^
Aug. 16 Tulsa, OK – H.A. Chapman Stadium ^
Aug. 18 El Paso, TX – Sun Bowl Stadium ^
^ with Alice Cooper
Metallica‘s “Lux Æterna” soars in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart dated Dec. 10.
Following its Nov. 28 premiere, the track bows with 5.3 million in radio audience, 3.3 million official U.S. streams and 4,000 sold through Dec. 1, according to Luminate.
“Lux” previews 72 Reasons, the band’s 11th studio album, due April 14, 2023.
Metallica previously topped Hot Hard Rock Songs (which began in 2020) for nine weeks starting in July with its 1986 classic “Master of Puppets,” sparked by its synch in Netflix’s Stranger Things.
“Lux” concurrently charges in at No. 2 on Mainstream Rock Airplay, the chart’s best debut since 2006, when Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ “Dani California” also began at No. 2. Metallica ties its highest arrival on the list, matching 2003’s “St. Anger.” The band now boasts 25 top 10s on the tally, dating to its first — “Enter Sandman,” in 1991.
“Lux” also opens at No. 2 on Rock & Alternative Airplay and becomes the group’s first Alternative Airplay entry since 2009 at No. 35.
The track debuts at No. 1 on Hard Rock Digital Song Sales (marking Metallica’s fifth ruler since the chart began in 2007 and second this year following “Puppets” [seven weeks]) and at No. 7 on Hard Rock Streaming Songs.
72 Reasons is Metallica’s first studio album since Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, which debuted as the band’s sixth No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart in December 2016. The group first led with its self-titled set in August 1991; the album spends a 688th week on the Dec. 10-dated survey, the fourth-longest run in the tally’s history, dating to 1956.
Aerosmith canceled the final two dates of their Las Vegas “Aerosmith: Duces Are Wild” residency on Thursday morning (Dec. 8) due to the undisclosed illness affecting singer Steven Tyler. “On the advice of doctors, Steven has to sit these out,” the band announced on Instagram of the shows slated to take place tonight and on Sunday (Dec. 11).
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Earlier this week, the veteran band scotched their Dec. 2 and 5 gigs at the Dolby Live in Park MGM due to an illness affecting the 74-year-old singer; at press time a spokesperson for the band could not be reached for comment on Tyler’s diagnosis. Tickets purchased through Ticketmaster will be automatically refunded, with refunds available at the point of purchase.
Earlier this summer, Aerosmith canceled some shows to allow Tyler to voluntarily enter a treatment program after the singer who has struggled with addiction issues in the past said he relapsed after using pain meds following foot surgery.
“As many of you know, our beloved brother Steven has worked on his sobriety for many years,” the band’s joint statement from may explained of the singer who has been open about his struggles with addiction issues in the past. “After foot surgery to prepare for the stage and the necessity of pain management during the process, he has recently relapsed and voluntarily entered a treatment program to concentrate on his health and recovery.”
Before kicked off their most recent run of Las Vegas shows the band performed a gig at Boston’s Fenway Park on Sept. 8 to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
See the band’s statement below.
From hip-hop to pop-punk, acting and now home cooking, Machine Gun Kelly likes to switch it up. Admittedly, his projects don’t always succeed.
The American artist stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night (Dec. 7) for a glimpse at his recent wins and losses.
First, the wins. MGK won favorite rock artist for second year straight at the 2022 American Music Awards last month, following the March release of Mainstream Sellout, his second-straight Billboard 200 chart leader.
In the losses column, MGK, born Colson Baker, shared a tale of his efforts to cook for his fiancée Megan Fox, who has some very specific dietary requirements. As the story goes, Baker attempted to create gluten-free, coconut-free cinnamon rolls from scratch, and called on his neighbor Michael B. Jordan for some essentials.
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Long story short, Fox said the goodies were fine, Baker disagreed and tossed them prematurely, to the chagrin of everyone in the place. He’s a Baker in name only.
Baker’s late-night stint was in support of his starring role in Taurus, Tim Sutton’s feature-length drama that he describes as “semi-autobiographical.” Acting opposite Fox, Baker plays Cole, a character traumatized by incidents from the past but “he’s a good soul who wants to make the right choices.”
In this spirit of sharing, Baker told Kimmel the nickname he was bullied with in fourth grade — “coleslaw.” “You’d be surprised how much that tormented me in my eight-year-old mind.”
MGK recently received his first Grammy nomination, earning a best rock album nod for Mainstream Sellout, he released the title cut for Taurus, and appears in the colorful campaign for Fox’s UN/DN LAQR nail brand.
Watch the late-night interview below.
After a record 31 years away, Iggy Pop is back on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“Frenzy,” the Godfather of Punk’s lead single from his upcoming album Every Loser, debuts at No. 38 on the ranking dated Dec. 10.
Iggy Pop makes his first appearance on the list since “Candy,” a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52’s, peaked at No. 30 in January 1991 and charted into that February.
In between “Candy” and “Frenzy,” Iggy Pop has stayed busy, releasing nine albums between 1993 and 2019. While none spurred singles that reached Mainstream Rock Airplay, he appeared on Alternative Airplay with two tracks (“Wild America,” No. 25, 1993; “Little Know It All,” No. 35, 2003) and Adult Alternative Airplay with one (“Gardenia,” No. 26, 2016).
Iggy Pop’s 31-year absence from Mainstream Rock Airplay breaks a record set earlier in 2022 by Jeff Beck. Beck had been away for 28 years, from his Seal co-bill “Manic Depression” in 1994 to his featured turn on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Patient Number 9” this year.
Longest Gaps Between Mainstream Rock Airplay Entries31 years, nine months, two weeks, Iggy Pop (1991-2022)28 years, four months, Jeff Beck (1994-2022)27 years, five months, Elton John (1992-2020)25 years, 11 months, three weeks, Brian May (1993-2019)23 years, four months, three weeks, Charlie Daniels (1987-2011)
“Frenzy” is Iggy Pop’s sixth Mainstream Rock Airplay appearance, dating to the chart’s 1981 inception. He achieved his best with “Real Wild Child,” which hit No. 27 in 1987.
Every Loser is due as one of 2023’s first album releases, on Jan. 6.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ video for “Californication” has officially reached one billion views, YouTube announced Wednesday (Dec. 7).
The now-classic visual, which finds the quartet replacing their own avatars in an open-world video game as California is shaken by a massive earthquake, becomes the Chili Peppers’ first video to achieve the viewership feat. According to YouTube, the video has so far averaged 290,000 daily views in 2022.
“It’s the edge of the world and all of Western civilization/ The sun may rise in the East at least it’s settled in a final location/ It’s understood that Hollywood sells Californication/ Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging/ Celebrity skin, is this your chin, or is that war you’re waging?” Anthony Kiedis croons on the opening verse as drummer Chad Smith’s character snowboards down a mountain shirtless in the video.
As title track off the rockers’ seventh album of the same name, the song was originally released in June 2000 as the fourth single off the studio set after “Scar Tissue,” “Around the World” and “Otherside,” and became their sixth chart-topper on the Alternative Airplay chart.
This year, Red Hot Chili Peppers returned from a six-year hiatus with not one, but two albums: April’s Unlimited Love and October’s Return of the Dream Canteen. Next year, they’re set to embark on a world tour filled with both festival and stadium gigs. They’ll be joined on the global trek by everyone from The Roots, Iggy Pop and The Strokes to The Mars Volta, St. Vincent, Thundercat, King Princess and more.
Revisit the music video for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Californication” below.
Music featured in the first season of Netflix’s new series Wednesday dot the Billboard charts dated Dec. 10 following the show’s Nov. 23 premiere.
That even includes a No. 1, as The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” rules the Alternative Digital Song Sales list on the strength of 2,000 downloads in the Nov. 25-Dec. 1 tracking week, according to Luminate, up 2,229% from a negligible amount the previous period.
The ruler marks The Cramps’ first No. 1 on a Billboard chart. The rockers, active for three decades until the death of singer Lux Interior in 2009, are often cited as inspirations partially in the psychobilly genre but had never found much chart success, scoring a lone appearance on the Alternative Airplay tally in 1990 with the No. 10-peaking “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns.”
“Muck,” which can be heard on the band’s 1981 sophomore effort Psychedelic Jungle and is a cover of a tune initially recorded by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads in the ‘60s, prominently features in an episode-four dance scene featuring Wednesday’s titular character, portrayed by Jenna Ortega.
In addition to its bump in sales, “Muck” earned 817,000 on-demand U.S. streams Nov. 25-Dec. 1, a bound of 2,705% from 29,000 Nov. 18-24.
While “Muck” is the only song featured in Wednesday to top a Billboard chart dated Dec. 10, it wasn’t the most streamed. That distinction belongs to Beach House’s 2015 offering “Space Song,” heard in episode three. The song earned 4 million streams, a 41% boost. Those metrics launch it onto Alternative Streaming Songs at No. 15, a new peak for the song and its first appearance since January and February of 2022, when it charted due to TikTok virality, and it also starts at Nos. 14, 16 and 20 on Hot Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, respectively, where older songs are able to appear if in the top half of chart points and with a meaningful reason for their re-entry.
Other major gains include those for Apocalyptica’s cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” which jumped 817% to 1,000 downloads and 506% to 166,000 streams; Edith Piaf’s “Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (179,000 streams, up 67%); and Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” (168,000 streams, up 55%).
And though it’s not heard in the series per se, Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” has received tangential gains due to TikTok edits of the aforementioned “Goo Goo Muck” dance scene in which creators replace the song with Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way cut.
From Nov. 25-Dec. 1, “Mary” earned 2 million streams, a 411% increase.
After launching the “Hanukkah Sessions” project during the pandemic, Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and producer Greg Kurstin brought their festival of lights celebration to life on Monday night (Dec. 5) at Los Angeles’ famed club Largo with an all-star cast of supporters.
According to Variety, the show — presented by director Judd Apatow — at the 250-capacity club featured a long list of stars singing songs by Jewish artists, with Grohl playing drums and Kurstin on keyboards. The night started off with Apatow singing Blood Sweat and Tears’ “Spinning Wheel,” which was reportedly inspired by a karaoke night in Hawaii with Grohl’s family.
In the midst of a concerning rise in antisemitic incidents and hate speech in the U.S., proceeds from the night went to the Anti-Defamation League. P!nk was on hand, proudly proclaiming, “my name’s Alecia. I’m a Jew” as the intro to her performance of “Get This Party Started,” followed by Kurstin’s The Bird and the Bee collaborator Inara George singings 10cc’s “The Things We Do For Love.”
Grohl’s 16-year-old daughter Violet strummed an acoustic guitar for Janis Ian’s “Edge of Seventeen,” with Beck performing his tune “E-Pro,” the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O singing her band’s “Heads Will Roll” and Jack Black ripping through Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio.” The night ended with Grohl on the mic singing Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” followed by an encore of David Lee Roth’s “Just a Gigolo.”
The inaugural 2020 “Sessions” featured covers of songs by he Beastie Boys, Drake, Mountain, Peaches, Bob Dylan, Elastica, The Knack and the Velvet Underground, while last year’s edition brought eight crazy nights of covers, including a black metal take on Lisa Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You),” as well as the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop,” Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana,” the Clash’s “Train in Vain,” Kiss’ “Rock and Roll All Night,” Van Halen’s “Jump,” Amy Winehouse’s “Take the Box” and Billy Joel’s “Big Shot.”
It’s been a whirlwind 18 months for Måneskin. After nabbing the trophy at Eurovision in May 2021, the Italian rockers notched a win that’s eluded most of that contest’s victors: they scored a Stateside hit on the Billboard Hot 100, via a furious garage rock revamp of the Four Seasons’ “Beggin’” no less. After that went on to top the Alternative Airplay and Rock & Alternative Airplay charts, they followed it up with another Alternative Airplay No. 1, the RHCP-flavored “Supermodel.”
Now, amidst their American leg of The Loud Kids Tour, the quartet is pulling off another trend-flaunting feat: They’re making teenagers care about a new rock band for the first time in years. Of course, this isn’t to say there aren’t rock concerts attracting Gen Z crowds or worthy newcomers netting fervent followings. But Måneskin are one of the few young rock bands making mainstream headway in America — especially among audiences that see the CD as a retro artifact.
Hell, if you Google “Måneskin concert,” the search engine’s first “people also ask” suggestion is, “How old do you have to be to go to a Måneskin concert?” And sure enough, for two sold-out nights at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom (Dec. 2-3), a predominantly teen and twentysomething crowd slathered in glitter gave a rabid response to the glam-sleaze rockers.
With good reason. Frontman Damiano David might pull you in with his lithe hip swings and shirtless stage prowling (the band puts the ‘skin’ in Måneskin), but he seals the deal with a controlled earthy growl that comes across like masterful auditory edging – particularly during “Touch Me,” a live highlight that has yet to see release on Spotify.
Similarly, while in NYC, guitarist Thomas Raggi ripped off a mesmerizing guitar odyssey during the encore that conjured up the shades of Eddie Hazel’s expressive, electric soloing on Funkadelic’s classic “Maggot Brain.”
But it’s not just technical prowess that makes Måneskin come across with crowds: simply put, they know how to put on a goddamn show. Whether it’s Raggi lying on the ground while slithering under bassist Victoria de Angelis or David feeding off drummer Ethan Torchio’s ominous and propulsive drumming during sinuous songs like “I Wanna Be Your Slave,” it’s hard to take your eyes away from the quartet as they feed off each other. And when “Slave” segues into a cover of the Stooges’ spiritual predecessor “I Wanna Be Your Dog” on stage, it’s a fittingly ferocious homage to the Italian band’s American god.
The band’s live prowess is no surprise for anyone who caught their performances at this year’s VMAs or SNL. But in a world where unimpugnable veteran rockers struggle to make their live show seem sexy and dangerous, it’s a bit of a godsend to find a band like Måneskin who remind us that rock can be unpredictable, sensual and showy – both onstage and onscreen.