Rock
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Every dog has its day. Today is Dogstar day.
Keanu Reeves’ SoCal indie rock act returns for Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees, Dogstar’s third studio album and first since 2000’s Happy Ending.
The Hollywood star is back on bass, alongside guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose and drummer Robert Mailhouse for Between the Power Lines, released through the band’s own label Dillon Street Records and distributed through ADA.
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Featuring the previously released singles “Everything Turns Around,” “Breach” and “Glimmer,” Somewhere Between the Power Lines represents a day few of us figured would arrived. Indeed, when the trio reunited earlier in the year and performed at BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in May, it marked their first performance as a unit in more than 20 years.
During a brief but bright run in the noughts and early 2000s, Dogstar captured a lot of international interest, much of it due to Reeves’ participation.
Starting with release of their 1996 four-track EP Quattro Formaggi, the trio hit their straps, toured the world, nabbed a spot at Glastonbury Festival, opened for David Bowie, and warmed up for Bon Jovi on a lap of Australia. A date in Japan in 2002 would be their last, before the bandmembers went their separate ways.
Now they’re back, and they’re out on the road in support of the new LP. This week, Dogstar kicked off the second leg of their 35-plus city headline tour, which includes gigs in St. Louis, Columbus, Niagra, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Brooklyn, Boston, Atlanta, Nashville and elsewhere. The first began Aug. 10 and included stops in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Denver before the band headed overseas for a three-date stretch in Japan.
Spread across 12 tracks, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees will be presented by way of a global livestream from the alternative rock act’s concert Tuesday, Oct. 10 at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Stream Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees below.
Paramore‘s update to its latest album is finally here. The pop-rock group — which consists of members Hayley Williams, Zac Farro and Taylor York — released Re: This Is Why on Friday (Oct. 6), a redux of an album that dropped in February of this year. The rock band explained that the purpose of the […]
Cradle of Filth’s bassist Jon Kennedy died after a car crash, frontman Dani Filth revealed on Facebook. He was 44 years old. “It is with much sadness that we hear about the untimely passing of our former bassist Jon Kennedy. He was a great bassist and singer who filled in for Cradle at a time of such […]
Blink-182 go full method in the video for their One More Time… (Oct. 20) single “Dance With Me” that dropped on Thursday (Oct. 5). The latest single from the pop-punk trio’s reunion album finds Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker dressing up in their finest Ramones cosplay outfits to channel the spirit of the punk godfathers in a clip directed by the Malloys that mostly recreates the brudders’ classic visual for their song “I Wanna Be Sedated.”
“The video serves as a love letter to the Ramones and finds the guys paying homage to one of their favorite iconic bands that came before them,” reads a description of the visual that opens with a clueless interviewer introducing the band and then asking, “what the hell is punk? And is it punk that I said hell?”
Channeling the Forest Hills, Queens-bred eff you attitude of their favorite band — while wearing Ramones-appropriate shag wigs, sunglasses and leather jackets — the guys offer sincerely annoyed answers before busting into a Ramones cosplay in which they recreate the band’s chaotic “Sedated” video.
As in the Ramones clip, the “Dance With Me” video finds the trio sitting glumly at a kitchen table as a whirlwind of crazy action swirls around them, with dozens of random dancers, brides, construction workers, doctors, cheerleaders, little kids and random weirdos running in and out of frame.
“Ole, ole, ole, ole, yeah we’re doin’ in it all night long/ Ole, ole, ole, ole, yeah we’re doing it all night long,” they sing on the raucous pop-punk tune’s chorus. The second set-up re-creates the legendarily grimy interior of the Ramones’ musical mecca, New York’s late lamented CBGB punk club, with drummer Travis Barker smashing his kit in front of a wall of graffiti and band posters while wearing a “Disco Sucks” t-shirt.
Guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge plays the hybrid part of lanky singer Joey Ramone and guitarist Johnny, while Mark Hoppus performs a more sedate take on bombastic bassist Dee Dee as a crowd of bespoke punks dance along to the galloping track. The trio also recreate the iconic low-budge brick wall album cover photo from the Ramones’ 1976 self-titled debut in the video.
Blink’s first album by the core trio in 11 years is due out on Oct. 20. The 17-song effort, produced by Barker, has already been advanced by the singles “Edging,” “More Than You Know” and the wistful title track ballad.
Watch the “Dance With Me” video below.
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Despite pursuing music early on — playing in a high school emo band (at the same Chicago suburban high school this writer attended) and releasing alternative-pop music in college, by his late 20s, the artist now known as Petey found himself feeling stuck in a minimum wage job without any upward mobility. “I was really confused on what direction to go in,” he recalls of 2019. “So I just decided to write and record a couple songs as an avenue or a way out of the spot that I was in. And it’s kind of crazy that that ended up being the thing, the only thing, that worked.”
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He quickly scored a record deal with the independent label Terrible Records and, as he puts it, “kept trucking” through the pandemic, largely thanks to his comedic TikTok skits that helped him gain a massive following of 1.5 million. In 2021 he released his debut album, the DIY and impassioned Lean Into Life (which boasts standout track “Don’t Tell The Boys”), and now, having signed with Capitol Records earlier this year, released his major label debut USA in September. The album debuted at No. 66 on Billboard’s Top Current Album Sales chart while Petey himself appears on this week’s Emerging Artists tally at No. 30.
“Before Lean Into Life, there was nothing. So it was just like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna throw music into the void and try and win over the entire internet,’” says the artist born Peter Martin, 31. “And then afterwards I had basically two years of people really responding positively to the album. I went on tour for the first time. All the shows we played supporting the album were sold out. So I really got to see who the fans were [and that] really informed how I was gonna start writing this album. It alleviated pressure.”
As did the luxury of time — and redos. While recording Lean Into Life, if he made a mistake he’d end up sticking with it: “Maybe that sort of challenge yielded some pretty endearing results in the last record, but this one it was really nice to be like, ‘You know what, we f–ked up today. Let’s go back and try again tomorrow,’” says Petey. “And to have the resources available to be able to make those mistakes and then take our time to figure out how to solve them…there was just so much care put into this record.”
FOUNDATION
Every year on Christmas Eve, Petey and his hometown friends gather at a local bar in the Chicago suburbs. In 2018, on the drive home with longtime friend Will Crane (whose birthday also happens to land on the holiday), Petey played two songs he had recently recorded. “He really liked them,” the artist says. “He dropped me off and then three weeks later, he sent me a text like, ‘Check your email, I just kind of wrote you a little plan that I think would be really fun.’”
Crane was about to move to Los Angeles himself, where Petey was already living, and suggested he help formalize a career path for his friend. “He was basically like, ‘Let’s give this the best shot that we can. Let’s at least try,’” recalls Petey. “It started with a music video. Looking back, it was so funny how seriously we took that process. But it gave us something to focus on and distract us from how ultimately stupid an endeavor like pursuing music is — because it’s just such a risky not-a-lot-of money situation.” Through the process, Crane not only became Petey’s manager but also his director – a two-for-one that became especially essential through the pandemic.
DISCOVERY
Petey says he and Crane started making TikTok videos out of boredom — and because they couldn’t tour through the pandemic. In the comedic clips, Petey plays multiple different characters of all different ages without ever really changing his look, and all of whom are navigating subtly absurd situations — from meeting with a lawyer who only uses a potato as a phone to being attacked by cats because a sniper is following him around. But the humor has had a serious impact.
Not only did the videos help Petey create a built-in following for his music, they also helped the major labels who eventually came calling understand his vision and approach — especially Capitol. “Everyone knew what was up and got the vibes,” says Petey. “I think a lot of the focus with the label is, ‘How can we help facilitate the transition of fans between just knowing the comedy stuff to knowing the comedy stuff and the music stuff.’ Capitol is just shining a light on what we’ve already been doing.”
The best example of exactly that is the music video for the album’s focus single, “Family of Six,” which Crane directed. “Even with all the major label stuff, we’re still getting scrappy,” says Petey. “We got to shoot [the video] ourselves and barely spend any money and just kind of like, run around doing funny, ridiculous stuff.” He adds he’s particularly proud of the song for the way it winds through his biggest influences while still sounding cohesive, which he credits to co-producers John DeBold and Aidan Spiro. “We had such insane chemistry,” he says. “[The album] was the most collaborative thing I’ve ever done.”
FUTURE
To celebrate the release of USA, Petey threw the first pitch at a hometown Chicago Cubs game (“I couldn’t have dreamed of a better situation – and it would have been the same dream as when I was a 6-year-old boy,” he says). Come November, he’ll hit the road for his Tour of the USA, playing 1,200-capacity rooms across the country. Unlike Lean Into Life, which he recorded with a lot of electronic elements then transformed into a rock heavy set with a full band, USA was made to be more “rock forward” from the jump. “I have the most fun when I’m going to see a pop-punk band that I fell in love with when I was 15,” he says. “Bands like Say Anything, Motion City Soundtrack … I just love the energy that it brings out of the audience. I love how it looks on stage. So I try to bring that feel to the live set.”
As it turns out, a member of one of the defining pop-punk bands is a major Petey fan. Blink-182 bassist and co-lead vocalist Mark Hoppus discovered Petey soon after Lean Into Life and has made his fandom known, even sending regular direct messages on Instagram. “Whenever he’s doing Instagram Lives backstage at the Blink shows, he’s playing Lean into Life,” laughs Petey. “He loves the [title track], which is hilarious because I have so much Blink inspired pop-punk leaning shit in my music, none of which is in that song at all.”
Looking ahead, Petey isn’t one for goals — he’s already played at festivals including Lollapalooza and Outside Lands. He does, however, have one sincere hope: “to keep this thing going. I really love this life. It gives me so much autonomy and freedom to do what I want and be where I want and spend a lot of time with people that I really care about … So if milestones like playing Coachella at a certain time slot or whatever, if that’s an indicator of my career going well and being able to keep doing this, then that’s great. I would love to be able to do this for another 10 years.”
A day after announcing a project that will revisit their sixth studio album, This Is Why, Paramore unwrapped the guest-packed track list for what they have referred to as an “almost” remix album, Re: This Is Why. Timed to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Why title track’s release, the new collection will feature remixed, […]
With good reason, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello has been spending the past week celebrating his mom Mary’s 100th birthday. The civil rights and anti-censorship activist who celebrated a century of raging against injustice on Sunday was feted on SiriusXM by her son in a special on Monday during which he played some […]
One thing’s for certain: There is no Fleetwood Mac without Christine McVie. In a recent interview, Stevie Nicks confirmed that she likely won’t continue performing under the label of her iconic rock band following the passing of her longtime best friend and bandmate last year.
“We did go out on the road and do a year-and-a-half tour with [Lindsey Buckingham replacements] Neil Finn and Mike Campbell,” Nicks told Vulture in a Monday (Oct. 2) Q&A. “We had a really great time and it was a huge tour. That was there in the realm of possibility. But when Christine died, I felt like you can’t replace her. You just can’t. Without her, what is it? You know what I mean?”
“She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac,” she added. “Christine was my best friend… Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
The “Edge of Seventeen” singer went on to compare her grief over McVie to Taylor Swift’s Midnights track “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” which she’s previously said has helped her mourn her late best friend. The Fleetwood Mac keyboardist died of a stroke in November last year at 79 years old, with a secondary cause of death listed as cancer.
“The line ‘you always have been,’ it was like, that was Christine and I,” Nicks explained. “We were on our own in that band. We always were. We protected each other.”
Nicks, who’s currently embarked on a solo tour as well as a joint tour with Billy Joel, recently unveiled her very own Barbie figure with Mattel. Decked out in a Rumours-esque black outfit and feathered ’70s hair, the doll will be released next month.
“I take a few photos of her in every city, which ends up being a two-hour photo session,” Nicks told the publication of her plastic mini-me, who she also revealed has an Elvis-inspired Ken doll boyfriend. “I named him Kenelvis, and I introduced Kenelvis to Stevie Barbie. I have photographs of these two that will absolutely knock the world’s socks off. They look at each other in a way that’s like they’ve been in love for centuries.”
As they wind down their current run of their Still… At Their Very Best tour, The 1975‘s singer, Matty Healy, issued yet another apology from the stage. The latest mea culpa came during Monday night’s (Oct. 2) show at the Hollywood Bowl, in which Healy told the audience he planned to “be better moving forward.”
In fan video of the non-specific blanket atonement, Healy said, “I think it is important to take inventory of yourself so you become aware when your intentions and your actions don’t align. So, because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologize to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward.” When the crowd applauded, Healy added, “give it up for the old apology.”
“But I think it’s also important I express my intentions so everybody knows there is no ill will coming from me,” he continued, smoke and drink in hand. “You see, as an artist [air quotes], I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally.”
Healy then explained that he doesn’t “go around singing my songs and apologizing” when he’s not onstage in a seeming attempt to create daylight between his performance persona and his off-stage one.
In February, Healy stirred up controversy when he made racist and sexist remarks about rapper Ice Spice on the Adam Friedland Show, during which he and the hosts made jokes about the rapper sounding like an “Inuit Spice Girl” and looking like a “chubby Chinese lady” before performing racist accents. After one of the men suggested Healy should have asked the MC about her ethnic background while dropping an Inuit ethnic slur, Healy called Ice Spice “dumb.”
In a recent Variety interview, Ice Spice said she was “confused” when she initially heard the podcast. “Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some s— like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’ First of all, I’m thick,” she said. “What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologized or whatever. And the whole time, I didn’t really care.”
Healy issued a tepid apology for his Spice-related comments in April from the stage in New Zealand, where he said, “I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you. Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d–k,” he added at the time. “I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry. I don’t want it to be misconstrued as mean. I don’t mind being a bit of a joker… but I am genuinely sorry if I’ve upset them because I f–king love them.”
At Monday’s show, Healy again attempted to explain his frequent verbal outbursts. “I’ve kind of performed exaggerated versions of myself on other stages, be it print or on podcasts and in an often misguided attempt at fulfilling the kind of character role of the 21st-century rock star, so, it’s complicated,” Healy said, without pointing to any specific incidents or comments.
“This might be cheesy, but sometimes playing pretend is the only way you can truly find out who you are, and you could probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy,” he continued. “But, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to better yourself, sometimes that just requires people who really know what they’re talking about.”
There were more scattered laughs before Healy performed a bit sending up the online therapy service BetterHelp, accompanied by an ad banner that ran on the screen as Healy leaned into the mockery by informing the crowd to use the code “Sorry75” to get a discount. At press time a spokesperson for The 1975 had not returned a request for further comment on Healy’s on-stage remarks.
Watch a fan video of the Healy speech below.
Paramore are feeling nostalgic about their most recent album, This Is Why. Which is why they are releasing a remix album featuring new versions of the songs from their sixth LP, which came out in February.
On Monday (Oct. 2), the band announced Re: This Is Why, which will drop on Friday (Oct. 6). While a track listing has not yet been revealed, in an Instagram post revealing the project, they explained, “We’ve long wanted to recognize the connection we have with some of the artists who’ve influenced us as a band and/or who have cited our band as an influence.”
They then, kind of, explained what fans can expect, saying that the Re: This Is Why re-imagining is “almost” a remix album. “Some of the songs have been remixed sort of classically, while others were reworked or rewritten. It’s incredible to hear all our worlds colliding,” they wrote. The comments section featured a tease of “+1 b-side,” which seemed to suggest the original 10-song album will be augmented by an extra track.
The news brought out a number of celebratory comments from some fellow artists, including Camila Cabello, who wrote simply, “harddddd,” while Remi Wolf gave it a heart emoji and the Linda Lindas tossed up four newspaper headline emoji. The big news came after the group posted a Notes app screen last week teasing three dates: something else titled “This Is Why” slated to arrive on Sept. 28, something titled “Why Is This?” due out on Oct. 2 and “Is This Why?” on Oct. 6.
The original This is Why marked the return of Hayley Williams, Zac Farro and Taylor York’s after a hiatus and their first album since 2017’s After Laughter. The band was forced to pull the plug on the final two dates of their U.S. tour in August after Williams was hit with a nasty lung infection.
In an Aug. 28 post, Williams first hinted that some fresh tracks might be in the offing, writing, “We’ve been off the road for a couple of weeks now…mainly in LA. Thankfully got some down time but we put some work in too. It felt good to get back into a studio. More of that once we get home to Nashville… Zac and Taylor and I also just want to get back to making things. Not only the creative process but the layer(s) of insulation that can come with the creative process.”
Check out the Re: This Is Why cover and announcement below.