Rock
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Steve Albini, the legendarily exacting producer/engineer and frontman of the noisesome indie rock bands Shellac and Big Black has died at 61. According to a staff member at Albini’s Electric Audio Recordings studio in Chicago, Albini died of a heart attack on Tuesday night (May 7).
Though he disdained the term “producer,” preferring “engineer” instead, Albini said in a 2018 interview that worked on more than 2,000 albums, mostly for underground or indie bands, but also notably on projects by two of the most important and influential bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In addition to recording Nirvana’s final full studio album, 1993’s In Utero, he also worked on the beloved 1988 album Surfer Rosa by one of late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands, the Pixies. Constantly toggling between albums by A-list major label acts (PJ Harvey’s lashing 1993 album Rid of Me, Bush’s Razorblade Suitcase) and beloved indie bands from his native Chicago (Urge Overkill, The Jesus Lizard, Tar), Albini was also a prolific musicians in his own right with a series of hardcore and noise bands, including Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac.
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Born in Pasadena, Calif. on July 22, 1962, Albini positioned himself as a staunch outsider in the mainstream music industry, which he considered exploitative, refusing to accept the traditional producer royalties for any of the albums he recorded at his Chicago studio.
Shellac were poised to release their first album in a decade, To All Trains, next week, and had booked a series of shows in England in June, followed by a run of U.S. dates in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in July.
Often working on dozens of albums per year, Albini kept up his torrid pace recently, re-teaming with frequent collaborator folk singer Nina Nastasia in 2022, as well as working on albums by Black Midi, Spare Snare, Liturgy and Code Orange over the past two years.
This story will be updated.
When fans of Imagine Dragons got wind that the group was releasing a new version of their single “Eyes Closed” alongside J Balvin, some expressed trepidation. This, after all, is an important track: the lead single from the band’s upcoming sixth album (Loom, due out June 28). What the heck; was there really going to be reggaetón mixed in with Imagine Dragons’ usual pop-rock?
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Never fear. The resulting track, where Balvin completely eschews reggaetón beats for hard-hitting verses over the rock groove — with Imagine Dragons actually redoing a section of the song — has managed to strike all the right notes, and turn one plus one into 3.
“I didn’t know I needed this til I saw it AAAAAAA,” wrote @AsaltodeMedianoche on Youtube.”This is insane. I didn’t expect that this was gonna sound so epic with him,” wrote another fan.
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Which begs the question: How the heck did Imagine Dragons end up collaborating with J Balvin? And how does this remix sound so darn good?
Balvin and Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds spoke with Billboard and told us how it all went down.
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How It Started
Reynolds: I met with the guys [bassist Ben McKee and guitarist Wayne Sermon] when we were working on the song [late last year] and it just felt like something was missing when we were in the studio. We really don’t often do collaborations, but this song in particular, [we felt] it really needs something to complete it. The three of us were in a room and we talked about things we were listening to and what was inspiring to us, and all of us were like: ‘J, love his music.” We reached out to him and within a week [it came together].
Balvin: I was in Rumania in a concert, and Chris Knight from my management team said, check this out. He didn’t even say it was Imagine Dragons: He said “Yo, they want you on this song, tell me what you think.” And I said, “Play it.” And when I heard that voice — and the production is mind-blowing, the production is so ahead — I was like, “We’re recording this tomorrow.”
I was going through a dark moment — that [kind where] you don’t know how to handle a certain moment, and it was [like], “This is perfect for what I’m feeling now; and I can express myself really easily.” And also, normally when people think about doing songs with Latinos that do reggaetón, they thought I was going to switch the beat and put it in reggaetón, right? And of course that was the fear of a lot of fans. And when they heard the song they [found out], “Oh, they kept it in the same vibe.”
And it’s because I love to jump with different genres. In this case, I’m a big fan of Imagine Dragons and I gotta give my best and follow the vibe — and say the same thing they’re saying, but of course in Spanish. We don’t want to be talking about different topics in the same song.
I just needed to let it out! The best that could have happened to me is when I received that song. Oh, I have these feelings right now. Thank God someone just sent me a great song to let it out, and be open and honest about how in a certain moment of my career people wanted to see me fail, or I went to a dark moment that I thought that it was going to be — and then, I can do this with my eyes closed. I’ve been in this game so long that it makes me stronger every day. Doesn’t mean I’m the strongest; I still have a lot of weak things, I’m still healing. But now I know how to swim way more and better in the maze, with my eyes closed.
The Process
Reynolds: It was the first version. There were no changes. It was just like, he got it. I had a feeling he would catch the vision, just because I was familiar enough with his work to know that he can do a lot of different things. And sure enough, [the song] doesn’t need anything [after he finishes recording]. No changes. Mix it. Send it out.
Balvin: Sometimes less is more. And I felt that was what I wanted to say, those were the flows we wanted to bring. The verse was perfect to me. I love the song. And this is what I can give to them. It’s about the quality, not quantity. What if I gave another verse but it didn’t really stick out? I’d rather make one verse that is really concise and precise.
Reynolds: We just left openings throughout the song, showed him different versions and really left it up to him to go as long or short as he wanted. We’re like, “You do you.” And sure enough, he sent it back, and we were like, “That’s it.” The only thing I changed was, I rewrote the bridge after he sent his part back, because there was a specific melody in it that I really loved that he did in the pre chorus.
Balvin: We were super happy when we heard that melody. We were like, “He did that melody, man!”
Rapping in Spanish
Balvin: You know I’m always a big supporter of “just keep it in Spanish,” because that’s the way I connect with the people. And it’s not going to sound the same when you really want to express your feelings in your own language. So, of course Spanish, and the guys agreed with that. I think it’s all about feeling and even the people who don’t understand Spanish, they know that we really flow in that instrument the way it should be. And I feel super proud of it and I feel grateful that [I worked with] one of my favorite bands and, also to meet Dan.
Reynolds: The way this band has always operated is we always try to make music that we like and make decisions that feel good to us. Fans are always not going to love certain songs, that’s just part of life. And I think the worst thing you can do as an artist is try to cater to that. That’s when you fail as an artist. You try to create something a critic will like, something a fan will like, and then nobody likes it, and then you also feel bad about yourself because it wasn’t’ even honest. So, for us, it was, “Man it would be really cool to work with J on this song. And it would be really cool to have multiple languages in a song.”
I think It’s a reflection of where music is today. One of the blessings we have as a band is being able to play all over and experience all different people from different cultures and languages; even when people don’t know what I’m saying, they feel it as if English was their first language. The second I heard J’s verse I knew, even though my Spanish is three years of high school, the feeling that I got from it was all that matters.
Balvin: They were expecting maybe that I would bring some reggaetón, but to me it’s crazy, because I respect art and I know when I can add reggaetón. This is like the Mona Lisa, it’s a beautiful piece of art. Don’t touch it a lot. We gotta do music that we feel is right, otherwise you’re a sellout. I was honest with me, and I have no regrets about any word that I say in the song. This is what I wanted to do and I’m proud of it and I gave my 1000% percent.
Finally Meeting
Balvin: When I met Dan I had no expectations because you don’t know. Sometimes you don’t want to meet your idols, right? You get there, and he was super humble, and he’s huge [in height] so I was just looking up at him like, ‘Yo, what’s up.’ But he’s really down to earth and I’m grateful for the way you treated me, guys. I felt like home.
Reynolds: I think that really speaks to Jose and who he is as a person. You never know what to expect when you’re working with a really big artist. Are they going to have big egos, what’s that going to feel like? And it was obvious when I met him, “Oh this is just a really good, normal human being.” It was all about, “Do we make a great video together?” And we were both open to direction and guidance, and there were no diva vibes. It was really refreshing.
It didn’t surprise me, though. I’d done enough research about J to know a little of who he was and where his heart was and to see him in person felt like the unvierse just put this together. It was very serendipitous and easy. It was just two artists having fun together which is what it should be.
The Big Picture
Balvin: I’m just grateful because I’ve always been a huge fan and the guys gave me the opportunity to keep expanding our sound. Because it’s not about J Balvin, it’s about our culture. The fact that they care about a Latino artist, is something that makes me really proud about our culture.
Even rockers are Swifties! Pearl Jam’s frontman Eddie Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament joined Bill Simmons on his self-titled podcast this week, where they praised Taylor Swift — especially since Vedder attended Swift’s Eras tour with his wife and two daughters. “She’s an artist who’s respectful of her audience and I know from my daughter […]
The 30th anniversary edition of the TODAY Show‘s summer Citi Concert Series will kick off on May 24 with a show by rock trio Wallows. The long-running morning show event will feature an eclectic mix of rock, pop, country, Latin and hip-hop acts performing at TODAY Plaza at Rockefeller Center including Anitta, Meghan Trainor, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson, Gracie Abrams, Bleachers and Rauw Alejandro.
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Viewers interested in attending one of the shows can register for Fan passes beginning today (May 7) here; Fan Passes allow priority access to the show before general admission opens. Those without Fan Passes can queue up in the G.A. line on the morning of each show for admission if space allows.
Other acts slated to appear this summer include: Maggie Rogers, Little Big Town & Sugarland, Chance the Rapper, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton, LL Cool J and more acts to be announced at a later date.
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Last summer’s lineup was equally stacked with shows by the Jonas Brothers, Ed Sheeran, Niall Horan, Kim Petras, Karol G, Brad Paisley, TWICE, Reneé Rapp and Jung Kook, among others.
Check out the full announced list of the 2024 TODAY Show Citi Concert Series performers below.
May 24 Wallows
May 31 — Anitta
June 10 — Meghan Trainor
June 21 — Kehlani
June 25 — Lainey Wilson
June 28 — Gracie Abrams
July 4 — Bleachers
July 12 — Rauw Alejandro
August 9 — Maggie Rogers
August 12 — Little Big Town & Sugarland
August 16 — Chance The Rapper
August 23 — Thomas Rhett
Sept. 27 — Chris Stapleton
TBD — LL Cool J
Kelly Clarkson has the uncanny ability to find the soul pocket in just about any song. Take, for instance, her rumble through Metallica‘s “Sad But True” during the Kellyoke segment on Monday’s (May 6) episode of her eponymous daytime talk show. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Sure, […]
Australian post-punk rock act Trophy Eyes has spoken publicly for the first time following a devastating injury to a fan during a concert last week in Buffalo, NY.
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“As the result of a tragic accident on the night of April 30th, a Trophy Eyes fan was injured at our Buffalo NY show,” reads a post to X. The band “immediately shut down” the show as frontman John Floreani accompanied the supporter to hospital, joined with family.
That fan has now been identified as Bird Piché, whose family and friends have set up a GoFundMe to cover her medical costs. Piché, reads a statement on the fundraiser page, suffered a “catastrophic spinal cord injury” while attending the concert and has undergone extensive surgery.
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Currently, almost half the $100,000 target has been raised.
Bird now faces a lengthy recovery. “It is still too early to know what her prognosis is but after leaving the hospital she will need to go to a rehab facility. She will obviously not be able to work during this time,” reads the statement.
The incident reportedly occurred when Floreani dived from the stage at Mohawk Place.
Trophy Eyes are said to be “truly heartbroken” by the news. “This situation has shaken us all to our core, and we ask for patience while we look to help Bird navigate this difficult time,” the band’s message reads. “Please, keep Bird in your thoughts. We remain in close contact with them and will expand on this as news arrives,” the statement continues.
Hailing from Newcastle, Australia, Trophy Eyes has secured spots on the Vans Warped Tour, Reading, Leeds, Splendour In the Grass, Unify Gathering and other major festivals.
The band’s three studio albums, 2023’s Suicide and Sunshine, 2018’s The American Dream and 2016’s Chemical Miracle, all peaked at No. 8 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
Trophy Eyes’ North American tour continues Tuesday night, May 7 in Denver CO.
Donate to Bird’s GoFundMe here.
When Beatlemania first swept the United States in 1964, a moment pinpointed in time by the band’s first-ever televised performance on The Ed Sullivan Show that February, only four people knew exactly what it was like to be at the center of such a revolutionary cultural frenzy: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo […]
A Los Angeles judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee of sexually assaulting a woman in a helicopter in 2003, ruling that her case was filed too late.
The case against Lee, launched last year by an anonymous Jane Doe accuser, was filed under a newly enacted California law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for years-old sexual assaults – one of several such laws passed around the country in recent years.
But in a decision issued Monday, Judge Holly J. Fujie ruled that Lee’s accuser had failed to show that Lee’s alleged assault had been followed by any kind of “cover-up” – a key requirement under the provision she cited.
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“The court finds that plaintiff has not pled facts sufficient to support the theory of the necessary ‘cover up’ because plaintiff has not asserted facts evidencing defendants’ concerted effort to hide evidence relating to sexual assault,” the judge wrote. “Plaintiff instead makes vague allegations that the court finds insufficient to support the revival of a claim.”
Though the ruling is a setback for Lee’s accuser, the case is not yet over. The judge gave her and her attorneys 20 days to file an updated version of her complaint if she has additional information that would fix the flaws in her case. Her attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.
In her December complaint, the Jane Doe plaintiff claimed she had been “lured under false pretenses” by Lee’s personal helicopter pilot into taking a ride from San Diego to Los Angeles in February 2003. Once onboard, she claimed that Lee and the pilot “consumed several alcoholic beverages, smoked marijuana, and snorted cocaine” before the rock star assaulted her.
“Tommy Lee then proceeded to sexually assault plaintiff by forcibly groping, kissing, penetrating her with his fingers, and attempting to force her to perform oral copulation,” her lawyers wrote. “As a result of Tommy Lee’s sexual assault, Plaintiff has suffered severe emotional, physical, and psychological distress.”
The case, over an incident that allegedly occurred more than two decades ago, was filed under the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act – a California law that created a three-year window starting last year for alleged survivors to file sexual assault lawsuits that would normally be barred by the statute of limitations.
The case against Lee was one of many cases filed during the “look-back windows” created by similar statutes, including New York’s Adult Survivors Act. Just before that law expired in November, a flood of years-old abuse cases hit the courts, most notably against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
But such laws have strict requirements. In the case of the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, an alleged victim must show that the defendant “engaged in a cover up or attempted a cover up,” meaning a “concerted effort to hide evidence relating to a sexual assault or other inappropriate conduct” or conduct that “incentivizes individuals to remain silent.”
In her complaint, Lee’s accuser claimed that the drummer and other defendants “engaged in a concerted effort to prevent information or evidence of such sexual assaults from being made public or disclosed to anyone.” But in her ruling on Monday, Judge Fujie said that simply spelling out the statute’s requirement was not enough.
“These allegations are conclusory in nature and do not allege specific actions directed to plaintiff,” the judge wrote. “As such, plaintiff’s action as alleged is effectively time-barred.”
In a statement to Billboard, Lee’s attorney Sasha Frid said: “We applaud the court’s decision. The court got it right in finding that the plaintiff cannot assert a claim against Tommy Lee. From the outset, Mr. Lee has vehemently denied these false and bogus accusations.”
After notching its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart last November, Beartooth scores its second on the May 11-dated survey with “I Was Alive.”
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The song follows the group’s one-week rule with “Might Love Myself.”
The two No. 1s mark new heights for the band from Columbus, Ohio, on Mainstream Rock Airplay, which the act first hit with the No. 33-peaking “Beaten In Lips” in 2015. It logged two initial top 10s with “Hated” (No. 6, April 2017) and “Disease” (No. 9, December 2018). Beartooth boasts 12 total career entries on the chart, all on Red Bull Records.
Concurrently, “I Was Alive” ranks at No. 15, after reaching No. 13, on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, up 5% to a new weekly-best 2.6 million audience impressions April 26-May 2, according to Luminate. The track is Beartooth’s second-highest-ranking hit on the list, after “Might Love Myself” rose to No. 11 in November.
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On the most recent multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated May 4, reflecting data April 19-25), “I Was Alive” placed at No. 19, after reaching No. 10 in April. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 306,000 official U.S. streams in that span.
“I Was Alive” is the second single, after “Might Love Myself,” from The Surface, Beartooth’s fifth studio LP. It debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in October 2023 and has earned 91,000 equivalent album units since its release.
All Billboard charts dated May 11 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, May 7.
Following its ascent to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated April 27, Hozier’s “Too Sweet” rules its first radio chart.
The song crowns Adult Alternative Airplay, where Hozier earns his sixth leader – and his fourth in a row. It leaps 5-1 on the May 11-dated ranking, up 18% in plays at the format April 26-May 2, according to Luminate.
“Too Sweet” follows the Irish singer-songwriter’s reigns with Noah Kahan’s “Northern Attitude,” featuring Hozier (five weeks at No. 1 beginning in January), “Francesca” (one week, September 2023) and “Eat Your Young” (two weeks, May 2023).
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Four No. 1s in a row mark the longest streak for any act on Adult Alternative Airplay in more than a decade and a half, since Counting Crows achieved four consecutively in 2004-08. The all-time record belongs to U2, who strung together six straight in 2001-05.
Hozier has also topped Adult Alternative Airplay with “Nina Cried Power,” featuring Mavis Staples (two weeks, 2018), and his breakthrough hit “Take Me to Church” (one week, 2014).
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Concurrently, “Too Sweet” vaults 22-15 on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it zooms 14-7 with 3.3 million audience impressions, up 36%. It’s Hozier’s third top 10 on the latter list, following “Eat Your Young” (No. 7, 2023) and “Take Me to Church” (No. 3, 2014).
A multiformat hit beyond rock radio, “Too Sweet” also jumps 14-11 on Adult Pop Airplay as the chart’s Greatest Gainer (up 49%) and 17-15 on Pop Airplay. It brings Hozier’s best showing on the former since “Someone New” hit No. 10 in 2015. On the latter, it’s his second entry, after “Take Me to Church” rose to No. 2.
On the most recent multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart (dated May 4, reflecting data April 19-25), “Too Sweet” notched a fifth week at No. 1. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 29.5 million official U.S. streams and sold 6,000.
“Too Sweet” is from Hozier’s four-song set Unheard, a collection of previously unreleased material recorded for his 2023 full-length Unreal Unearth. The EP debuted at No. 3 on the Top Alternative Albums list dated April 6 and has earned 151,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated May 11 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, May 7.