Alternative Rock
Tom Morello Admits He Doesn’t Know How to Use His Home Studio
Like many artists during the pandemic, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was forced to work remotely and record music from home during lockdowns. The only problem: He doesn’t know how to use his home studio. In a recent interview with Guitar World, Morello said, “For the first four months or so [of the pandemic] I was absolutely adrift. You know, I have a nice studio in my house, but I don’t know how to work it. Like, I don’t know how to move any of the buttons around. So I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to play shows. I’m not going to be able to record music.’” The lack of expertise with his gear didn’t stopped Morello from being extremely productive during the pandemic. In the past few months, he released two guest-heavy solo albums, The Altas Underground Fire and ...
Josh Klinghoffer Covers Golden Girls Theme Song in Honor of Betty White: Watch
Like most of us, Josh Klinghoffer is currently mourning the loss of Betty White, who died on New Year’s Eve just weeks before her 100th birthday. The former Red Hot Chili Peppers member honored the longtime TV icon by sharing a guitar cover of the theme song to Golden Girls, the sitcom that helped solidify White’s legendary status. “There has been a lot of loss lately, a lot of endings,” Klinghoffer wrote on Instagram. “It’s happening all the time everywhere, but these past few weeks have seen the loss of a few important people in my life. I rarely feel like I have any wisdom to share, but the son of the creator of the show I have included the theme song to said this, and I think it’s just brilliant. He said (something like), ‘We are all experts at being exactly who we were the day be...
Liam Gallagher Reviews Noel’s New Song: “Miserable Arse Cheer Up You Billionaire”
Even in this turbulent world, where seemingly every month brings a new crisis, at least one thing remains consistent: the Gallagher brothers’ sheer contempt for each other. On New Year’s Day, Noel Gallagher released a demo for a new song called “Trying to Find a World That’s Been and Gone: Part 1,” in which he sings longingly, “You give me the will to carry on/ In a place where I belong/ As we try to find a world that’s been and gone.” In response, Liam tweeted directly to his brother by writing, “Miserable arse cheer up you billionaire.” According to Noel, “Trying to Find a Word…” comes from his next album as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, which “I finished writing/demoing… about 10 days ago.” It will mark the band’s fourth solo album to date and the follow-up to Who Built the Moon? ...
Ezra Koenig Teases Vampire Weekend’s Next Album is “Close” to Completion
Could a new Vampire Weekend album be on the horizon? Frontman Ezra Koenig teased as much in a new interview this week. On Wednesday, the indie rocker stopped by Mark Hoppus’ After School Radio on Apple Music to discuss the progress he and his bandmates are currently making on their follow-up to Father of the Bride. “Yeah, we’ve been working on music and, yeah, we were just recording in England for a while, now back in L.A., working with everybody, and, yeah, I mean, I think we’re… I’m always hesitant to…Sometimes I oversell how close we are with the record because who really knows? But we almost have an album’s worth of songs,” he told the Blink-182 bassist. Advertisement Related Video Koenig continued: “And, as you well know, you could tinker with a song forever; change the arrangement, c...
Paramore’s 10 Best Songs
When Paramore released their first album, 2005’s All We Know is Falling, Hayley Williams was 16. Inspired by ’90s hardcore, the Nashville teenagers wrote earnest, emphatic emo, and quickly rode the wave of pop punk nostalgia that swept the 2000s. Across five albums, however, they went from Warped Tour stages to the Grammys, from a five-piece to a trio, and from pop punk to something undefinable. How did we get here? Paramore have always been more than the genre label thrust upon them. A zippy, energetic band with a fiery, earnest frontwoman drew them initial attention, but a darkness always lurked underneath the band’s singalong, Hot Topic-ready melodies. Advertisement Distrust of authorities and relationship drama colored the band’s early albums, released when its members were still in hi...
Chino Moreno’s ††† (Crosses) Unveil Cover of Q Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses”: Stream
A couple of days after revealing they signed a worldwide deal with Warner Records, ††† (Crosses) unveiled a new cover of the Q Lazzarus song “Goodbye Horses.” The duo, which consists of singer Chino Moreno (Deftones, Team Sleep) and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Lopez (Far), also revealed that new music will arrive in spring 2022. As previously reported, Lopez took to Instagram to share the news of the new record deal, writing, “Very happy to announce that @crossesmusic recently signed a worldwide deal with @warnerrecords. Looking forward to working with such an amazing crew. Hi fives to the bro @chinowmoreno, we did it.” The cover of “Goodbye Horses” features Moreno delivering clean vocals over an electronic instrumental, staying true to the new wave vibes of the 1988 original. Advertisemen...
Chino Moreno’s ††† (Crosses) Ink Deal With Warner Records Ahead of New Album
††† (Crosses), the electronic project of Deftones singer Chino Moreno and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Lopez (of the post-hardcore band Far), are currently working on new music. They’ve now found a label to release the upcoming album after inking a deal with Warner Records. The signing comes after the duo teased that they were in the studio together recording new material back in November. The last music we heard from the group was a one-off 2020 cover of Cause & Effect’s “The Beginning of the End” following six years of inactivity. Lopez shared the label news on Instagram, giving shoutouts to the project’s inner circle: “Very happy to announce that @crossesmusic recently signed a worldwide deal with @warnerrecords. Looking forward to working with such an amazing crew. Hi fives to the b...
The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special Aims for Nostalgia to Mixed Effect: Recap
Even after COVID forced LCD Soundsystem to cancel the remaining three shows of their 20-night Brooklyn Steel residency, the band hasn’t given up on trying to keep things jolly. On December 22nd, James Murphy and co. brought the holiday cheer to Amazon Prime Video with their part comedy, part concert film Christmas special, appropriately titled The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special. Directed by Eric Wareheim (of Tim & Eric fame), the hour-long special aims to capture nostalgia twofold. It opens with a parody of a ’90s sitcom titled “All My Friends,” in which Wareheim stands in as Murphy in a fictionalized version of LCD Soundsystem. With Macaulay Culkin portraying drummer Pat Mahoney, the band fumbles through assembling the perfect setlist for the night’s gig. Spanning their 2005 de...
R.I.P. Billy Conway, Morphine Drummer Dead at 65
Billy Conway, the drummer best known for his work in the jazz rock band Morphine and Boston group Treat Her Right, has died at the age of 65 from cancer. Vapors of Morphine, with whom Conway often played as a guest, shared the news on social media. “We are devastated to learn that our brother, Morphine drummer Billy Conway, has passed, finally succumbing to cancer after a long fight,” the group wrote. “Our deepest condolences go to his family and friends.” Conway’s friend and bandmate Jeffrey Foucault confirmed his death to Rolling Stone. “Billy Conway was one of the best drummers America produced in the second half of the twentieth century,” Foucault said in a statement. “With his uncanny empathy and sensitivity, his dedication to simplicity and restraint, and his impossible spiritual pow...
LCD Soundsystem to Continue Brooklyn Residency Amid Omicron Surge
In just a few short days, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has threatened to thwart any indoor plans for the winter months — especially in New York, where cases just cracked a new single-day record. But for LCD Soundsystem, who are in the midst of their 20-night residency at Brooklyn Steel, the show must go on: The band released a statement on social media this week explaining their decision to not cancel their upcoming shows. “For starters, we’ve all known that there are risks playing these shows,” James Murphy and company wrote. “When we planned them, we thought we’d be in better shape, COVID wise, by now, but it didn’t pan out… We know that we and our team (and the team at Brooklyn Steel), in many ways, face the most risk of getting rick, just by virtue of being at every one of our 20 sh...
Song of the Week: Best Coast and The Linda Lindas Collaborate on the Vibrant “Leading”
We’re taking a break from our Annual Report to highlight the Song of the Week. In this feature, we talk about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Best Coast is back with a little help from rising stars The Linda Lindas. Pop culture right now seems dominated by a certain amount of sentimentality. Rebooting and revamping have become the norm, and people are starting to push back on the oversaturation. Best Coast probably weren’t intending to jump into that exact discourse with their latest, “Leading,” but the opening line is a relatable statement nonetheless: “Nostalgia’s overrated, or maybe it’s just complicate...
Corey Taylor Calls Alice in Chains “One of the Greatest Rock Bands” Ever, Heaps High Praise on Layne Staley
Corey Taylor sung the praises of Alice in Chains during a recent in-person Q&A session with fans, calling the grunge goliaths “one of the greatest rock bands” of all time. The Slipknot frontman was asked to name his favorite of the “Big Four” Seattle grunge bands — Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam — and was quick to choose AIC, heaping praise on the band and its late singer Layne Staley. “Alice in Chains, to me, is one of the greatest rock bands that ever was,” Taylor said during the question-and-answer portion of a theater appearance in Columbus, Ohio, this past Monday (December 13th). “And I don’t just mean that from a grunge standpoint or metal or anything like that. They revolutionized so much musically and they inspired me to change the way I write music.” Adve...
