State Champ Radio Rock
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The Foo Fighters are a month away from returning to the stage for the first time since the shocking death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March and on Wednesday (April 12) they gave fans something more to get excited about with a snippet of a new song.
The unnamed track was posted to the group’s socials and though it is only 12 seconds of instrumental rocking, it features the Foos’ classic mix of thundering drums and stadium-ready, air-punching guitar energy. The surprise drop didn’t provide any additional information about the song or where it will end up, but it was accompanied by the question, “are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
While the world has no idea what the Foos are thinking at the moment, fellow rocker Jack Black had a quick response, “I think so.”
Apart from announcing 25 U.S. and European festival and headliner dates for this summer and fall, the band has kept a tight lid on their plans to solider on without Hawkins. To date they have not announced who will replace the energetic, beloved timekeeper whose death at 50 while on tour in South America devastated the group and their fans. It was unclear at press time who plays drums on the track, what it is called or when it will be released; a spokesperson for the group had not returned a request for additional details at press time.
The band already has one of the greatest drummers in rock history in the fold in singer/guitarist Dave Grohl, but speculation about who will fill Hawkins’ seat has run rampant since the veteran rockers announced their plans to return to the road.
The upcoming outing is slated to kick off on May 24 with a show at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, NH and is currently expected to keep them on the road through an October 5 show at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, TX. Just this week the band added a headliner slot at this fall’s Ohana Festival at Doheny State Beach alongside the Killers, The Chicks, HAIM, Father John Misty and more. They also added six more dates to their tour roster this week with summer and fall shows in Spokane, Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe, Virginia Beach, Phoenix and El Paso.
The band’s most recent album was the groove-influenced 2021 release Medicine at Midnight.
Check out the Foos’ post below.
After postponing a planned reunion tour due to drummer Travis Barker‘s finger injuries, the reunited classic line-up of Blink-182 will debut on Friday (April 14) on the first night of this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. The schedule for this year’s fest was revealed on the event’s Instagram on Thursday morning (April 13) with the caption “Take off your pants and jacket,” which is, of course, a reference to the cheeky title of Blink’s 2001 fourth album of the same name.
The group fronted by singer/bassist Mark Hoppus and returning member guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge is slated to take the Sahara stage for a 6:45 dinnertime slot, sandwiched between Vintage Culture and followed by Jamie Jones on the stage that will be closed out that night by Metro Boomin’.
The slot is the first show by the reunited lineup since they announced they were welcoming DeLonge back into the fold for a third time after the Angels & Airwaves leader split the band in 2015; he had also previously left the group in 2005, before returning in 2009 and then leaving again six years later.
Blink had plotted a South American swing to mark their get-back with DeLonge, which was slated to kick off on March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico. But Barker injured his ring finger twice in two months, requiring surgery that pushed back their return.
Barker first injured the finger on Feb. 7 during rehearsals for the pop-punk trio’s tour. “I was playing the drums at rehearsals yesterday and I smashed my finger so hard I dislocated it and tore the ligaments,” Barker tweeted on Feb. 8. Then, on Feb. 20, Barker shared an Instagram Story in which he showed off his swollen, bruised knuckle, captioning the image “again.”
Hoppus, Barker and DeLonge announced in October that they were reuniting the band’s classic lineup for the 2023-24 world tour and then released the new single “Edging” late last year. On Christmas Eve, DeLonge teased that the trio were working on “the best album we’ve ever made.”
Friday night’s Coachella lineup will also feature the Chemical Brothers, Kaytranada, Burna Boy, Gorillaz and Bad Bunny and another last-minute addition, British singer/songwriter James Blake, who will play the Do Lab stage at 8:30 p.m.
Check out the Friday night Coachella lineup below.
We live in interesting times. Need proof? Look no further than the multiple lives of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.”
The track, which tips in at eight minutes and 30-odd seconds, arrived fully formed in 1986, a time when a new breed of cheesy music was dominating the sales charts and hair metal was growing unchecked.
The title track from Metallica’s third studio album feels like an extension of the band’s opus “One,” a thrash-metal monster that could be used as a device to destroy enemies.
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That’s exactly what happened when Eddie Munson wielded his guitar and unleashed fury in one unforgettable moment in Stranger Things. So unforgettable, “Master Of Puppets” caught fire on DSPs and the track became a bonafide hit, along the way cracking the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time.
The Bay Arena metal legends are residents this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live. After performing new cut “Lux Æterna” on Monday, then The Black Album number “Holier Than Thou”, the four-piece hammered out “Master Of Puppets” in full on Wednesday. It’s apparently the longest song ever performed on Kimmel’s late-night TV show. If you don’t find yourself throwing horns and your head, call the doctor.
On night one, frontman James Hetfield said syncing the song to Stranger Things was an easy decision to make, and that he’s “blown away” that it still turns people on. “It’s like a nine-minute heavy metal song from 1986 that probably predates most of these people by 25, 30 years,” drummer Lars Ulrich added. “It’s just insane. Who would have thought?”
The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band’s four-night stand is a celebration of their forthcoming 12th studio album, 72 Seasons, due out Friday (April 14).
Watch the performance below.
The National unveiled a music video for “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” their new single with Phoebe Bridgers, on Wednesday (April 12).
On the track, Matt Berninger and the Punisher singer harmonize as they intone, “Don’t you understand?/ Your mind is not your friend again/ It takes you by the hand/ And leaves you nowhere/ You are like a child/ You’re gonna flip your lid again/ Don’t you understand?/ Your mind is not your friend” on the wistful chorus.
In an interview with Hanuman Welch on Apple Music 1, the frontman explained how the collab came together, saying, “This one came later in the phase when I was kind of climbing out of a long phase of writer’s block and depression and just kind of self-disgust. I didn’t even want to write or think about myself for a long time, and my wife was repeating to me over the course of that long period, telling me that ‘This is just a phase. This is not really you.’”
Berninger also praised Bridgers’ contribution to the final product, adding, “I kind of felt like it needed that presence of another voice or another person, and Phoebe jumped in. She was just perfect for that. And because her voice is just such a tender just warm hug, and so it added that sort of dimension to it, which was crucial for it to work.”
“Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” follows “Tropic Morning News,” “New Order T-Shirt” and “Eucalyptus” as the fourth single from The National’s latest album First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Bridgers, meanwhile, just released Boygenius’ The Record with pals and bandmates Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus and will join Taylor Swift next month as an opener on The Eras Tour.
Watch the music video for “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” below.
Melanie Martinez and boygenius snag the top debuts on Billboard’s rock and alternative album charts dated April 15.
Martinez’s Portals opens at No. 1 on both Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Alternative Albums thanks to 142,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 99,000 units are via album sales, while 42,000 come from streaming units, with the remaining 1,000 from track equivalent albums.
The sales and streaming counts are the best for any album on Top Rock & Alternative Albums in 2023.
Martinez notches her first No. 1 on the chart since it shifted to a model allowing for alternative-leaning albums not necessarily within the rock genre. On Top Alternative Albums, Portals becomes her third ruler, following K-12 in 2019 and Cry Baby in 2015.
On the all-genre Billboard 200, Portals starts at No. 2, Martinez’s best rank, surpassing the No. 3 debut and peak of K-12. She also earns her first leader on Top Album Sales.
Meanwhile, boygenius – the rock group consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus – starts at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums with its debut full-length The Record. It snagged 67,000 units, with 53,000 from album sales and 14,000 from streaming units.
The Record is boygenius’ first Top Rock Albums leader as well as the first No. 1 visit for any of the individual band members on the list. Baker boasted the previous best, with 2021’s Little Oblivions having debuted and peaked at No. 4.
The trio’s LP also starts at No. 2 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Alternative Albums, behind Martinez, as well as No. 1 on Americana/Folk Albums. Baker previous led the lattermost list with Little Oblivions.
On Vinyl Albums, The Record launches at No. 1 with 45,000 vinyl copies sold.
Both albums spur multiple appearances on the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, paced by Martinez’s “Void,” which vaults 40-5 in its second week on the tally. In the March 31-April 6 tracking week, “Void” earned 8.7 million official U.S. streams and 100,000 radio audience impressions and sold 1,000 downloads. The former count gets Martinez onto the all-format Streaming Songs list for the first time, at No. 42.
In all, 13 Martinez songs reach Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, with the top debut of the group being “The Contortionist” at No. 10 (5.4 million streams).
Boygenius, meanwhile, sports four appearances on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, led by “Not Strong Enough” at No. 33 (2.1 million streams, 952,000 audience impressions, 1,000 sold). “Strong” also rises into the top 10 of Adult Alternative Airplay at No. 10, marking the threesome’s first top 10, and 40-36 on Alternative Airplay.
Disney+ dropped the trailer for The Muppets Mayhem on Wednesday (April 12) featuring appearances by Lil Nas X, Tommy Lee and more.
The teaser kicks off with a parade of famous faces praising Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem for their influence and place in rock history in the style of a retrospective documentary. “The Mayhem? They taught Mötley Crüe how to shred and party!” Lee exclaims in a confessional. “They tattooed their name on me when I was passed out! What?”
“I grew up idolizing Dr. Teeth,” adds Lil Nas X. “I bought gold grills just to be like him!”
However, there’s just one problem: In their nearly 50 years together, the Muppets band never recorded a single album. Cue the entrance of Lilly Singh as an ambitious exec from the fictional Wax Town Records, who’s determined to help Dr. Teeth, Janice, Animal, Floyd Pepper, Zoot and Lips finally record their long-awaited debut.
“How ’bout a hot music collab, huh?” she suggests, trotting the likes of Zedd, Deadmau5 and Kesha into the studio to work with the band. From there, mayhem ensues — whether it’s Animal going viral on TikTok, Janice discovering the power of a ring light or Dr. Teeth accidentally starting a feud with the many fandoms of pop music with a single rogue tweet.
The Muppets Mayhem also stars Tahj Mowry and Saara Chaudry with guest appearances by everyone from Paula Abdul, Steve Aoki and Sofia Carson to Chris Stapleton, Ziggy Marley, Ryan Seacrest and more. All 10 episodes are slated to hit Disney+ on May 10.
Watch the trailer for The Muppets Mayhem below.
Missed out on seeing Machine Gun Kelly on tour? Fans now have the next best thing, as the rock star’s Cleveland stop of his Mainstream Sellout Tour will be coming to theaters next month.
Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era will follow Kelly as he performs a sold out concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium on Aug. 13, 2022. Directed by Sam Cahill, who helmed Kelly’s Hulu documentary Life in Pink, the film will see the star performing tracks such as “Bloody Valentine,” “Lonely,” “El Diablo,” “My Ex’s Best Friend,” “Till I Die,” “I Think I’m Okay,” and more. The film will also feature behind the scenes moments and likely a few cameos from the celebrities who joined Machine Gun Kelly onstage during the show (Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, Willow, Trippie Redd).
“Machine Gun Kelly’s remarkable journey from Cleveland to meteoric superstardom and back to where it all began gives us an unfiltered look at the emotion and rawness of coming home,” Kymberli Frueh, svp of programming and content acquisitions for Trafalgar Releasing, said in a statement. “We are so lucky that this moment was captured so it can be shared with fans across the globe.”
Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live From Cleveland: The Pink Era will be in theaters for one night only on May 13. Theater locations and tickets are available at MainstreamSelloutMovie.com.
Watch the trailer above.
John Mayer is speaking out about one of his much talked-about songs. At a recent concert, the 45-year-old singer-guitarist conceded that his 2013 track “Paper Doll” — widely believed to have been written about Taylor Swift — may have come from a slightly angry place.
“I wonder if people don’t like it because it sounds a little pissed off,” he told his crowd at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., while nonchalantly strumming on his guitar during the stop on his Solo acoustic tour. “I don’t really like ‘pissed off’ as a song. I think it was more [about] hurt.”
“Is there something about it that’s a little b-tchy?” he continued. “There might be. I try not to give b-tchiness in the songs, it happens sometimes. I guess I don’t do it very well — sarcastic b-tch — but I didn’t really see it. I guess it is sort of a little bit like, ‘Meehhh.’”
Since its release, the public has generally believed that “Paper Doll” was written about the pop superstar. Swift and the “Your Body is Wonderland” singer dated briefly in 2009 when she was 19 years old, and afterward seemed to sing about the breakup in her Speak Now ballad “Dear John.”
“I’ll look back and regret how I ignored when they said ‘run as fast as you can,’” Swift sings on the track, which Mayer later called “cheap songwriting” in an interview.
So, when Mayer sang about someone who was “22 girls in one, and none of them know what they’re runnin’ from” on “Paper Doll,” fans thought he was shading Swift. And now that she and Joe Alwyn have reportedly split after six years, some Swifties think the timing of Mayer’s performance of the song might have been a little pointed.
“You know who the real enemy here is? John Mayer….Guy literally played Paper Doll on the day of the breakup rumours,” tweeted one Swiftie, while another wrote that his song choice was “filling me with rage.”
The “New Light” singer did, however, say in a 2019 Instagram Live that “Paper Doll” actually wasn’t about the person that “100% of people” believed to be the song’s inspiration. “The person they thought it was about brought a certain amount of superficial pop culture back-and-forth about it. But the song was not about that person, and I could never tell anybody that’s not true because then I would be breaking my rule that songwriters don’t say who their songs are about or not about.”
This isn’t the first time Mayer has turned heads by performing a song linked to Swift on his ongoing acoustic tour. In March, he performed “Half of My Heart,” a duet originally recorded with the 33-year-old singer-songwriter, for the first time in years that fans could recall.
Watch Mayer discuss “Paper Doll” in a fan-captured video below:
Paul Simon is preparing to follow-up 2018’s rarities collection In the Blue Light with a continuous seven-song musical suite entitled Seven Psalms. Intended to be listened to in its entirety, the 33-minute, seven-movement all-acoustic composition is slated for release on May 19.
According to a release, it is predominantly performed by Simon and it captures the legendary pop singer/songwriter’s “craft at its finest and most captivating, simply with his voice and guitar.”
In a preview trailer, Simon, 81, explains that in Jan. 2019 he had a dream that told him he was working on a piece called Seven Psalms. “The dream was so strong that I got up and I wrote it down, but I had no idea what that meant,” he says over gently picked acoustic guitars. “Gradually, information would come,” he adds, noting that he began waking up between 3:30 and 5 a.m. “and words would come. I’d write ’em down and start to put it together.”
The album is described as, “a stunning, intricately layered work” that establishes “an engaging and meditative, almost hymnal soundscape, with Paul’s lyrics providing the gravitational center for constellations of sound woven from guitar strings and other acoustic instrumentation.” In a nod to the origin of psalms — which the release notes were originally hymns meant to be sung rather than spoken — Seven Psalms represents a call-back to the genesis of folk music in King David’s Psalms.
Among the guests are the British vocal ensemble VOCES8 and Simon’s wife, singer Edie Brickell, who is seen in the video singing alongside the folk icon, holding hands as they harmonize. The album was produced by Simon and Kyle Crusham.
“People say, ‘why is it that you always want to change your sound?,’” Simon says of questions he gets about his restless musical heart. “I’m not thinking that way at all. I’m looking for the edge of what you can hear. I can just about hear it but I can’t quite. That’s the thing I want.”
See the Seven Psalms tracklist and watch the preview trailer below.
Seven Psalms track list:
1. “The Lord”
2. “Love Is Like A Braid”
3. “My Professional Opinion”
4. “Your Forgiveness”
5. “Trail of Volcanoes”
6. “The Sacred Harp”
7. “Wait”
You know Lizzo loves to rock. The “About Damn Time” singer proved it this summer when she covered German metal maniacs Rammstein‘s signature hit “Du Hast” while on tour in Berlin. And on Monday night (April 11) Nickelback reminded us that she once heaped praise on them on Canadian network CBC Music’s “Jam or Not Jam” segment in 2020 in an Instagram post in which they thanked her for the kind words.
“Thank you @lizzobeating for the kind words!,” they wrote alongside of a clip from the show. “Open invite any show any time… maybe see you in Houston this summer?”
The bit’s conceit revolves around the artist listening to a series of songs while wearing headphones and proclaiming the song a “jam” or “not jam.” When the strains of Nickelback’s 2001 Silver Side Up rock anthem “How You Remind Me” bubble up, Lizzo wastes no time singing along to Chad Kroeger’s grunting vocals, proclaiming, “it has a beautiful climax.”
“Why do people not like Nickelback? I feel like Nickelback gets way too much s–t,” she says, alluding to the frequent scorn heaped on the Canadian band. “I think that this is a jam.”
“Here we go, five, six, seven, eight,” the classically trained flutist counts off as the song builds to said climax and she begins banging her head, even as she admits she doesn’t know all the lyrics. “I like you… sorry,” she sings in her best strained Kroeger impression, fumbling the words, but praising the inescapable melody. “The beat drop-out, b—h?”
So, why does Lizzo think Nickelback get so much s–t? “Because he [Kroeger] had a curly blond perm,” she opines. “That’s the only reason they get s–t, because this is an amazing song.”
In the rest of the segment, she freaks out over the slam-dunk jam, Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps,” gets hyped to hear BTS for the first time on their “ocean jam” collab with Halsey, “Boy With Love” and has to give it up to the Canadian pop queen Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” if only for the “whimsical” pan flute opening.
Watch Lizzo rock out to Nickelback below (“How You Remind Me” bit begins at the :30 second mark).
