Rock
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Courtney Love knows all about the vicissitudes of dating high-profile partners, from the constant tabloid whispers and innuendo to the line-by-line dissection of lyrics in search of clues about romantic break-ups and make-ups. So it makes sense that when asked by The Standard if she feels like people are “trying too hard” to decipher her […]
Linkin Park makes history by monopolizing the entire top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart dated Nov. 30 with songs from the band’s comeback album, From Zero.
The set, released Nov. 15, concurrently launches atop four rock-based Billboard album charts, with 97,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 21, according to Luminate.
Linkin Park lands its sixth No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, which began in 2006, and first since One More Light, From Zero’s predecessor, led for two weeks in 2017.
From Zero also becomes the band’s ninth No. 1 on Top Hard Rock Albums, which began in 2007 – breaking Linkin Park out of a tie with Pearl Jam for the most in the chart’s history. The new album dethrones Linkin Park’s own 2024 greatest hits package Papercuts, which spent the preceding seven weeks on top and has reigned for 18 weeks total this year.
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The new set additionally debuts at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums, where it’s Linkin Park’s seventh No. 1, and Top Alternative Albums, marking its fifth.
From Zero also bows at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200, becoming Linkin Park’s 12th top 10, as previously reported.
The set’s 11 songs infuse the top 10 of Hot Hard Rock Songs, marking the first time that an act has swept the region since the chart began in 2020. Previously, Linkin Park became the first act to take up the entire top five, on the Sept. 21 and 28 surveys on the strength of From Zero lead single “The Emptiness Machine” and tracks from the band’s catalog that resurged following its reunion and subsequent celebratory concert and tour and album announcement that month.
“The Emptiness Machine” leads the way on the Nov. 30 Hot Hard Rock Songs tally for an 11th total and consecutive week. In the week ending Nov. 21, it earned 6.1 million radio impressions and 5.6 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads. It concurrently ranks atop the Rock & Alternative Airplay and Hard Rock Streaming Songs charts.
The top Hot Hard Rock Songs debut of the group, “Cut the Bridge” (as Nos. 1-4 already logged chart history as they were released before the release of From Zero), arrives at No. 5 with 3 million streams.
Lead single “The Emptiness Machine” topped the Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay tallies for six weeks apiece. Follow-up “Heavy Is the Crown” jumps 21-13 on the latest Mainstream Rock Airplay survey and is bubbling under Alternative Airplay.
From Zero is Linkin Park’s first album with new co-lead singer Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain. Former co-vocalist Chester Bennington died in 2017, while longtime drummer Rob Bourdon left the band in between One More Light and From Zero.
The 2025 Outbreak Fest lineup has officially arrived, and for the first time in its history, the festival will host editions in both Manchester and London. Leading the pack in Manchester — the original home of the hardcore and punk-focused event — is headliners Knocked Loose, who will be joined by special guests Slowdive alongside […]
Liam Gallagher has shared a response to a series of comments that original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock made about Oasis in a wide-ranging new interview.
Speaking to NME over the weekend, the 68-year-old described Oasis’ live show as “boring,” claiming that he would “never” go and see them perform again. He also compared the Manchester band to classic rock band Status Quo, saying that “to hear one song once is enough.”
Oasis are currently set to kick off their Oasis Live ‘25 reunion tour next summer, starting at Principality Stadium, Cardiff (July 4) before performing dates in major cities across the U.K., Ireland, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Asia. The run will mark the first time the Gallagher brothers have performed together since 2009, following years of public rivalry.
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“If you’re a fan, it’s understandable. They’ve got lots of fans,” Matlock said of the excitement around the forthcoming reunion, before later opening up on his time in Sex Pistols, as well as sharing his thoughts on Danny Boyle’s “cheesy” Pistol TV biopic for Disney+.
“I’ve always seen Oasis as a bit Status Quo,” he continued of the long-running U.K rock band best known for such hits as “Pictures of Matchstick Men” and “Down Down.” “[With Quo], to hear one song once was enough. It’s a bit like that with Oasis: to hear one song once is enough. I just find them kind of samey. I know the guys. Nice blokes. I’ve gotta be careful what I say because I bump into Noel [Gallagher] quite a lot. He lives around the corner from me.”He added: “I think Liam is fantastic. He sings great – he’s like Johnny Rotten, but can carry a tune. He’s got a magnetic stage personality: he can just stand there and it’s riveting. The rest of the guys? No. I think they’re boring live. I’d never go to see ‘em.”
When asked if Matlock had seen Oasis live in the past, he responded by saying that in the mid 1990s, he left a London show of theirs early. “I got invited to see ‘em at Earl’s Court. I left. It was boring. I went again to see ‘em in upstate New York with [Blondie’s] Clem Burke. Nah – I couldn’t wait to go.”
Now, Gallagher has responded to Matlock via Twitter/X. “F–K HIM SID WAS THE PISTOLS,” he posted, referring to Sid Vicious, the legendarily outrageous bassist who performed with the Sex Pistols after Matlock initially left the band in 1977.
The Oasis singer, meanwhile, is known to be a huge fan of the Sex Pistols, even naming his adopted kittens Sid and Nancy after the band’s late member and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
“It’s been very difficult, especially for me, to develop a sense of self-worth that is not attached to one’s career, because we’re taught we are what we do,” Don Henley told Billboard in 1994. “But it must be done at some point, and it generally comes later in life.”
On the Nov. 26, 1994-dated Billboard 200, the Eagles’ reunion album Hell Freezes Over sizzled in at No. 1 with 267,000 copies sold, according to Luminate.
The set, which led for two weeks, marking the Eagles’ fifth Billboard 200 No. 1, returned the band to the chart’s summit after a break of nearly 15 years. The group logged its first four leaders consecutively in 1975-79: One of These Nights, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, Hotel California and The Long Run. The best-of set is the top-selling album of all time, according to the RIAA, with 38 million certified units.
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Following The Long Run, the Eagles – then comprising Henley, fellow co-founder Glenn Frey, Don Felder, Timothy B. Schmit and Joe Walsh – parted (acrimoniously enough, famously, to eventually inspire the wry Hell Freezes Over album title). They combined for seven top 40-charting solo albums on the Billboard 200 in between The Long Run and Hell Freezes Over, including Henley’s 1989 top 10 The End of the Innocence. Frey tallied two Billboard Hot 100 top 10s in that span – the No. 2-peaking anthems “The Heat Is On” and “You Belong to the City,” both in 1985 – while Henley notched five top 10s, reaching a No. 3 best with “Dirty Laundry” in 1982.
The group’s reformation was sparked in part by the five members’ appearance in Travis Tritt’s video for his version of the Eagles’ 1972 classic “Take It Easy.” The remake, from 1993’s Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, hit No. 21 on Hot Country Songs in March 1994, after the set had run up a 13-week reign on Top Country Albums.
Hell Freezes Over introduced four new Eagles songs, mixed with 10 of the group’s ‘70s favorites and Henley’s The End of the Innocence single “New York Minute” performed live on MTV in April 1994. “For the record, we never broke up … we just took a 14-year vacation,” Frey winked during the set.
All four new tracks reached Billboard songs charts: first single “Get Over It,” with Henley on lead vocals, hit No. 4 on Mainstream Rock Airplay and No. 31 on the Hot 100; “Love Will Keep Us Alive” (Schmit) crowned Adult Contemporary for three weeks; “Learn To Be Still” (Henley) rose to No. 15 on AC; and “The Girl From Yesterday” (Frey) reached No. 58 on Hot Country Songs.
In Henley’s 1994 interview with Billboard, he predicted that the Eagles’ reunion would be temporary. “We’ve grown in different directions now, as people should,” he mused, “and so we’ll finish our obligations and go our separate ways again.” He added with a chuckle, “And frankly, I’m looking forward to that.”
Still, the band continued to add to its legacy, and catalog, including the top five AC hits “Hole in the World” in 2003 and “No More Cloudy Days” in 2005. In 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since The Long Run. Led by the AC top 10 and top 25 Hot Country Songs hit “How Long,” Long Road Out of Eden launched as the Eagles’ sixth and most recent Billboard 200 No. 1, moving 711,000 copies in its first week, the best frame for an album by the band since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.
Following Frey’s passing in 2016, the Eagles have remained a touring force, with his son Deacon and longtime country hitmaker Vince Gill since having become staples of their lineup in concert. As announced today (Nov. 26), four more shows have been added to the Eagles’ residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, extending its run, which began Sept. 20, through April 12, 2025.
Dating to the Eagles’ 1994 reunion, they have earned $1.5 billion in concert grosses and sold 11.6 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore. Their The Long Goodbye Tour, which began in September 2023, has grossed $138.1 million and sold 486,000 tickets over its first 40 shows. Their Sphere residency has grossed $42.2 million and sold 131,000 tickets over its first eight shows.
In a blaze of green neon, Fontaines D.C.’s fourth LP, Romance, tumbled down to Earth in August, ushering in a majestic new era for an act ready to level up in all aspects of its career.
In the months that have followed, the groundswell of adoration behind the Dublin band has felt formidable: A cursory scroll through TikTok will show videos of young fans mimicking the five-piece’s space-grunge aesthetic, clad in baggy, brightly colored sportswear while belting out the band’s songs from the heart of the mosh pit. Fontaines D.C.’s story has been one of resolve, of growing in confidence and spirit and always trying to stand taller than before.
This sea change in the band’s global popularity has signaled a crossroads for the group in more ways than one. Upon release, Romance charted at No. 97 in the U.S. – the band’s highest entry to date on the Billboard 200 – while earlier this month, the group was nominated for two Grammys (best rock album; best alternative music performance for lead single “Starburster.”) Fontaines D.C. has invested the resources afforded by a new deal with seminal label XL Recordings (FKA Twigs, King Krule) into exploring the depths of its creativity, expanding on the gnarly, tender guitar anthems of the band’s first three records by leaning into elements of pop and nu-metal.
Fontaines at Alexandra Palace on Nov. 22, 2024.
Pooneh Ghana
When the band first emerged onto the festival touring circuit with 2019 debut Dogrel, Fontaines D.C. often looked uneasy on stage, permitting only the briefest of smiles. Frontman Grian Chatten would grasp the air, stare into the middle distance and swing his feet in small, lolling circles — vibrating with discomfort and nervous energy, barely muttering a word to his audience. The feeling remained, though, that these early shows were only speed bumps on the road to somewhere else.
Five years on, as Fontaines D.C. headlined the first of two nights at London’s Alexandra Palace on Nov. 22, the chat may have remained at a minimum, but elevated stage production added to a rich, ubiquitous feeling of a band in its imperial phase. The addition of touring member Chilli Jesson on keyboard and backing guitar, too, only deepened the songs’ darkness.
These were the very best moments from the night.
There’d Better Be a Mirrorball
Father John Misty saw all the jokes and the conspiracy theories on Friday (Nov. 22) about how his album release schedule has eerily been synched up with Kendrick Lamar‘s music drops over the past 12 years and he responded in the only way he knows how: with a diss track and jokes.
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Okay, not a diss track in the Drake sense, but rather the first wide release of the shaggy folk rocker “God’s Plan,” which he originally issued on Bandcamp last month and which fans gleefully suggested was a soft rock shot fired at the Pulitzer Prize-winning MC. FJM uploaded it to his Instagram on Saturday with no commentary and lyrics that didn’t provide much direct linkage to Lamar. “A man’s life, God’s trash/ There’s no law but the old law, baby/ Pettiful, nothing dies/ Said by ass-drawn kamikaze/ Year zero in the summertime,” FJM sings on the track; he reposted it on X, adding three coffin emoji.
The comments did the heavy lifting: “the heart part 7,” wrote one fan in a joking reference to Lamar’s new track “Heart Pt. 6” (itself a response to rival Drake’s “The Heart Pt. 6” diss track about Lamar), with another adding, “Kendrick diss track?,” and a third admitting, “A Kendrick FJM beef is something I would’ve said could’ve only come to my imagination in a fever dream and yet here we are. Life is beautiful folks.” Leaning into the fake beef, commenters also wondered why Lamar was “real quiet since this post,” warning “u have 24 hours to respond” and asking “@kendricklamar you’ll let this slide???”
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Fans immediately heaped meaning on the post, considering that sleuths did the math and figured out that Father John and K.Dot have released new albums in the same year for more than a decade, including in 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 — though not on the same day — until now.
On Friday, Lamar dropped the instant classic GNX with no advance notice, stealing some thunder from FJM’s new LP, Mahashmashana. Misty got the joke, writing on X on Friday, “Not now I’m furiously scribbling my seeming response” to the odd coincidence, adding, “It’s okay only other times it’s happened was 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2022.” He also showed he had a good sense of humor about the unbalanced chart competition, writing, “Hm how do I tell em my albums don’t chart.”
In addition to the tweets and song, FJM had some more fun with the Freaky Friday release date action, reposting DJ Bean’s mash-up cover featuring the artwork from both men’s LPs and a second in which he was PhotoShopped into Kendrick’s car. Even Misty’s label, Sub Pop Records, got into the action, uploading an edit of the cover to the singer’s album with the Lamar DAMN. font.
The eternally arch, laconic Misty took the whole thing in stride, though Lil Wayne appeared to respond to a lyrical reference on the opening GNX track “wacced out murals” with a bit of heat. On the song, Lamar references his love for Wayne’s classic Tha Carter III album and wonders if his hard work — which includes landing the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show slot in Weezy’s hometown of New Orleans next year — had “let down” the fellow MC.
“Man wtf I do?!” Wayne wrote in his response on X. “I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”
Listen to FJM’s “God’s Trash” below.
After earning its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart in over two decades earlier this year, Sum 41 scores another as “Dopamine” rises a spot to No. 1 on the Nov. 30-dated survey. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The song follows the two-week Alternative […]
Linkin Park has scored its fourth No. 1 LP in the U.K. with From Zero, their first full-length release since the passing of former lead vocalist Chester Bennington in 2017. The nu-metal band’s eighth studio album is also the first to feature new members Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain. It joins 2003’s Meteora, 2007’s Minutes […]
The reunion tour rolls on: Oasis have announced a trio of shows to take place in Asia next year, the latest gigs added to their Live ‘25 reunion tour. The Gallagher brothers will head to Seoul, South Korea on Oct. 21. for a show at the Goyang Stadium before heading to Tokyo, Japan for a […]