Alternative Rock
Tom DeLonge Is Selling Blink-182 and Angels and Airwaves Gear on Reverb
Tom DeLonge has partnered with Reverb to sell his Blink-182 and Angels and Airwaves gear. The Official Tom DeLonge Reverb Shop goes live on March 24th. Over 100 items used in the studio and on tour will be up for grabs, including synthesizers, keyboards, amps, pedals, road cases, and more. For fans of Blink-182, there’s a few priceless artifacts, like the Marshall JMP-1 and Mesa Boogie Triaxis amps the band toured with beginning in 2000. “A lot of these still have the original settings for the songs they were used on,” DeLonge said in a press release. The veteran musician simply has too much stuff, and it’s time to make space. Reverb hosted a similar sale with Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, who sold much of his stock within the first days of launching. DeLonge is the latest major artist to sell...
Teenage Fanclub Share New Single “The Sun Won’t Shine on Me”: Stream
Teenage Fanclub have released a new song from Endless Arcade ahead of the album’s April 30th release. It’s called “The Sun Won’t Shine on Me” and it’s an absolutely gorgeous number to brighten an otherwise dreary Monday. Stream it below. This is the fourth song Teenage Fanclub have shared from their upcoming studio full-length, following the lead single “Home”, the downtrodden track “Everything Is Falling Apart”, and the jittery festival-primed song “I’m More Inclined”. Combined, it colors in Endless Arcade as an album that’s equally full of despair, positivity, and a laid-back approach to life. “The Sun Won’t Shine on Me” is a gorgeous, gentle song penned by Norman Blake. Over the course of the track’s three-minute-long runtime, Teenage Fanclub build from shimmering guitar riffs...
The Strokes Win First-Ever Grammy for Best Rock Album
20 years into their celebrated career, The Strokes are finally Grammy winners. The New York greats took home Best Rock Album for The New Abnormal, and they gave as hilariously abnormal an acceptance speech as you’d hope they would. Despite a number of albums that many music fans would deem classics, The Strokes had never even been nominated for a Grammy prior to this year. Winning a golden gramophone after such a distinguished career was, understandably, an exciting moment for the group, who Zoomed in to accept the award from what appeared to be their personal basement pool hall. Amazingly, the group appeared to not catch the announcement at first, as Julian Casablancas, Nikolai Fraiture, and Fabrizio Moretti leaned into their computer to hear the winner. “Wow! Damn! Sorry we couldn’t hear...
Danny Elfman Shares New Song “Kick Me”: Stream
Danny Elfman is keeping his promise to release a new song every month this year. Following January’s “Sorry” and last month’s “Love in the Time of COVID”, the beloved composer has returned with another new tune called “Kick Me”. After releasing his first solo song in 36 years last fall, the 67-year-old got the bug and pledged to unleash a brand new recording on the 11th day of each month. His previous two songs met at the crossroads of progressive metal and Broadway pageantry, but “Kick Me” is his shortest, heaviest, and most straightforward yet. Featuring frenetic drumming and punk-ish guitars, it sounds like a cross between System of a Down, Primus, and one of his Tim Burton scores. Meanwhile, its lyrics see Elfman playing the part of a tone-deaf celebrity, unloading narcissistic pleas f...
Claudio Sanchez Announces New The Prize Fighter Inferno Album, Shares Origins of “Sweet Talker”: Stream
Our new music feature Origins tasks artists with providing some behind-the-process insights into their latest single. Today, Claudio Sanchez returns to his The Prize Fighter Inferno moniker for “Sweet Talker”. With work on Coheed and Cambria’s next record on hold during COVID-19, frontman Claudio Sanchez turned towards a project that had been largely dormant for nearly 15 years: The Prize Fighter Inferno. Writing new solo material became an outlet for dark times, as the trauma of the pandemic was compounded by Sanchez’s grandfather falling ill and his wife being diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. Out of that isolation comes The City Introvert, the first Prize Fighter Inferno full-length since the moniker’s 2006 debut, My Brother’s Blood Machine. Out April 23rd via Evil Ink Records...
Tash Sultana: “You Can Never Have Enough Guitar”
Kyle Meredith With… Tash Sultana Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Tash Sultana grabs some hang time with Kyle Meredith to talk about Terra Firma, a record that finds them collaborating with other writers and musicians for the first time on an album. The Australian groove artist tells us about having a new Fender guitar line and being a saxophonist in their high school band. Sultana also talks about finding their center while writing these songs after losing focus of themself while traveling the globe, and being absolutely in love with their partner. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wed...
Song of the Week: Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak Play It Smooth as Silk Sonic on “Leave the Door Open”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks 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, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak dropped their first single as Silk Sonic. Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak have teamed up under the name Silk Sonic, which seems to have been a good name choice. Their first single, “Leave the Door Open”, is nothing if not luxurious, velvety goodness. The full-length project, An Evening with Silk Sonic, reunites the two artists who previously toured together with .Paak as an opening act on Bruno Mars’ 2017 “24K Magic World Tour”. Sonically, “Leave the Door Open” is a return to form for Bruno Mars, who ha...
Kings of Leon Unveil New Album When You See Yourself: Stream
Kings of Leon have unveiled their first album in five years, When You See Yourself. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The 11-song effort is the Nashville-bred band’s first full-length since 2016’s WALLS. They previewed the album with three singles — “The Bandit”, “100,000 People”, and “Echoing” — but the most compelling aspect of the rollout process had nothing to do with the sound of the music (which is quite good). Earlier this week, the group announced that they were going to be the first band to ever release an entire album in NFT form — that’s “non-fungible token” for those who aren’t aware. NFT’s are essentially a cryptocurrency for art: images, videos, music, and even items like concert tickets that are sold on an online marketplace like Bitcoin. In add...
The Lemonhead’s Evan Dando Performed in a Walgreens That Found His Wallet
The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando performed a short set in a Cape Cod Walgreens after the location found his lost wallet. After Dando misplaced his wallet on February 27th, he did what any Gen X rock icon with a devoted local following would do: he pleaded for help on Twitter. “I dropped my wallet with my drivers license and two debit cards in it,” he wrote. “I was walking from the mariner hotel to the palmer lot…. please have a look if you are on them streets.” At the height of his desperation, he even resorted to the caps-lock bittpm, typing, “HOTEL MAIN STREET FALMOUTH TO THE PALMER LOT.” Remarkably, it helped. “I work at Walgreens in Falmouth and your wallet was just turned in to us,” local hero Mike Ghelfi replied. “I’ll keep it in the office safe until you can get it.” Editors’ Picks ...
10 Artists Worth Bringing Back VH1 Storytellers For
Kendrick Lamar photo by Amy Price; St. Vincent photo by David Brendan Hall; Janelle Monáe photo by Philip Cosores VH1 Storytellers was such a cool show. It borrowed the idea of MTV Unplugged — a hugely popular act performing a stripped-down set in front of an intimate audience — and took it one step further. Audiences could see and hear artists in a more relaxed setting, dishing on their careers and telling stories about creating the songs we know and love. Storytellers first aired 25 years ago in late February 1996; Kinks mastermind Ray Davies was the first performer. It ran for 97 more episodes, the last starring Ed Sheeran in 2015. In between, there was a veritable Who’s Who of talent, from classic rock gods like David Bowie and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to ‘90s stars like Pearl ...
Wolfgang Van Halen Hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Chart with Debut Single “Distance”
Wolfgang Van Halen’s debut single “Distance” has reached No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The track was released under Wolfgang’s Mammoth WVH solo moniker as a tribute to his late father Eddie Van Halen, who personally loved the song and had a few No. 1 hits of his own with Van Halen. The single was accompanied by a touching music video featuring home movies of Eddie and Wolfgang. Since its release, the video has over 4 million views on YouTube. “The response to ‘Distance’ has been incredibly overwhelming,” Wolfgang said in a press release. “The immense support from everyone at radio who played the song and all of the fans who called requesting it has been more than I could have imagined. Thank you to everyone who helped me get my first #1 song. I wish Pop was here to ...
Kings of Leon Are Releasing Their New Album as an NFT
Kings of Leon are about to do something revolutionary. On Friday, the Grammy-winning alt-rock band will release their new album When You See Yourself as an NFT, making them the first band to ever release their album in this burgeoning cryptocurrency format. For those who aren’t up on their crypto lingo, NFT is an acronym for non-fungible token. They’re essentially a form of digital currency like Bitcoin, except instead of a monetary value, they contain art, music, or even something unique like a concert ticket. Throughout the last few months, their popularity has soared immensely in the music community — and so has their value. Over the weekend, Grimes sold a collection that contained exclusive songs and art that earned her $6 million via auction. In addition to releasing When Yo...
