Music News
Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, More to Play Jazz Foundation of America Livestream
Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray, Angelique Kidjo, Jon Batiste, and many others are participating in a livestream concert fundraiser benefiting the Jazz Foundation of America and its COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund. Taking place tonight (May 14th) beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET, the two-hour livestream will be hosted by actor/comedian Keegan-Michael Key and will feature celebrity appearances from Bruce Willis, Danny Glover, Jeffrey Wright, Rosie Perez, and Michael Imperioli. In between live performances from the aforementioned artists, there will also be archival performance footage featuring Patti Smith, Herbie Hancock, Brittany Howard, and August Greene featuring Common and Karriem Riggins A repeat videocast of the livestream will be shown at 10:00 p.m. ET and be available online f...
The Killers Dedicate “Caution” Performance on Fallon to Frontline Workers: Watch
The Killers may not be able to hit the road due to the pandemic, but they’ve certainly been making the rounds on the TV circuit. In support of forthcoming album Imploding the Mirage, Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and CBS This Morning. On Wednesday, the pair continued their streak by performing an at-home edition of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Broadcasting from a remote location, Flowers and Vannucci rolled out early single “Caution”. Though it was only just the two of them at the helms, their homemade, stripped-back rendition still captured the spark of The Killers’ songwriting prowess. Prior to the performance, Vannucci dedicated the song to workers “who are putting themselves out on the frontlines helping e...
Arkansas Concert Promoter Begrudgingly Agrees to Follow Reopening Guidelines
Arkansas’s governor is allowing America’s first post-quarantine concert to move forward after the promoter agreed to adhere to the state’s reopening guidelines. As previously reported, Bishop Gunn singer/guitarist Travis McCready was set to play a limited-capacity concert at TempleLive in Forth Smith, Arkansas on Friday, May 22nd, marking the first such live event to take place in the country since COVID-19 effectively shuttered the live music industry. However, after learning of the venue’s specific social distancing plans, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) hit the venue with a cease-and-desist order. Hutchinson’s main point of contention was over the timing of the event, as it was to take place three days prior to the date (May 18th) in which the governor previousl...
St. Vincent Performs “New York” Acoustic at BAM Virtual Gala: Watch
St. Vincent The annual Brooklyn Academy of Music’s annual gala went virtual on Wednesday as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While it wasn’t the usual red-carpeted banquet affair, the stars still came out to celebrate and raise money for the BAM community. The evening saw a number of special guest performers, but they saved the best for last. To conclude the fundraiser, St. Vincent hopped on video chat to play an acoustic version of her 2017 single “New York” with dark, moody visuals. The BAM Virtual Gala was a tribute to this year’s honorees: actress Cate Blanchett, writer Zadie Smith, and philanthropist Jeanne Donovan Fisher. After presenting special at-home versions of the previously scheduled choir, dance, and art performances, the hour-long event closed with Annie Clark’s in...
Prince and the Revolution Concert Film is Streaming on YouTube for Next 72 Hours
Turn those quarantine blues into “Computer Blue”. Prince’s unforgettable concert film Prince and the Revolution: Live, which gives you a front-row seat to his 1985 “Purple Rain Tour”, is streaming on YouTube for the next 72 hours. Grab your lighters or phone flashlights and stream it in full below. Recorded on March 30th, 1985, the concert film sees Prince dazzle the stage at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, with a 20-song setlist, as well as costume changes, a guitar battle, and his iconic dance antics. The High Priest of Pop masterfully belts out every song from Purple Rain, but the evening is also full of other crowd-pleasing hits, including “1999”, “Little Red Corvette”, and “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”, which is one of Prince’s more, uh, spicy songs. A 20-minute extended versi...
Members of Anthrax and Suicidal Tendencies Rock Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” While Social Distancing: Watch
Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante has kept sharp during the coronavirus pandemic by playing covers with fellow metal musicians while social distancing. He’s posted the performances on his YouTube channel, and for his latest video, he’s once again teamed with Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Diaz to play through Billie Eilish‘s pop hit “bad guy”. Benante (drums and guitar) and Diaz (bass) play along to Eilish’s vocals, and as expected, rock out a bit with the arrangement. For Eilish fans, it hints at what her music would sound like with more of hard rock vibe. As it is, Eilish has already shown her appreciation for heavy metal acts like Type O Negative and Rob Zombie with her onstage attire. The fandom goes both ways, with the longtime metal musicians Benante and Diaz both sharing their admirat...
Peter Hook to Stream Concert Film Featuring Joy Division’s Entire Catalog
This year marks both the 40th anniversary of Joy Division’s final album, Closer, and the death of late frontman Ian Curtis. The band’s surviving members are commemorating in a number of ways, including a vinyl reissue of the former and a tribute livestream event for the latter. Now we can add a new concert film to that list, as Peter Hook & The Light have announced a stream of the previously unreleased So This Is Permanent. The film captures an exclusive, 500-capacity show that Peter Hook & The Light’s played at Christ Church in Macclesfield, England, Curtis’ hometown in 2015. The special gig saw the the band run through Joy Division’s entire catalog to celebrate what was then the group’s 35th anniversary. Technically, three tracks were released from this show prior to now, but the...
BTS Announce Concert Livestream “BANG BANG CON The Live”
Even a pandemic can’t stop BTS from connecting with their devoted ARMY. The beloved K-pop outfit has just announced a virtual concert called “BANG BANG CON The Live”, set to take place next month. A paid livestream event, “BANG BANG CON The Live” will see BTS intimately “inviting fans into their room” for 90 minutes of flashy K-pop and dance moves. The digital concert officially airs online on June 14th at 6:00 p.m. KST/ 5:00 a.m. EDT, with additional details coming in the near future. Editors’ Picks This virtual concert follows a similarly titled online event, “BANG BANG CON”, which occurred last month and featured BTS concert footage from the last six years. With their entire world tour on hold due to coronavirus, “BANG BANG CON The Live” is the next best thing for devout foll...
Slipknot, Coheed and Cambria, and KISS Cruises Rescheduled for 2021
Slipknot (photo by Raymond Ahner); Coheed and Cambria (photo by Thaib A. Wahab); KISS (photo by Kevin RC Wilson Planned 2020 rock cruises led by Slipknot, Coheed and Cambria, and KISS have all been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced Thursday by the events’ producer Sixthman. A number of the production company’s other cruises and vacation festivals have also been moved to next year. Slipknot had already announced that their Knotfest at Sea cruise would be postponed, but now some specific details have been revealed. Instead of setting sail from Barcelona, Spain, as it was scheduled to do this August, Knotfest at Sea will now depart from Athens, Greece in August 2021. Exact dates will be announced shortly. In addition to Slipknot, the 2020 lineup was to feature Be...
El-P’s Debut Album Fantastic Damage Available on Streaming Services for First Time
Run the Jewels rapper El-P promised a massive reissue campaign throughout 2020, and today he’s delivered perhaps the project’s most notable release. In celebration of its 18th anniversary, the veteran rapper has made his seminal debut solo album, Fantastic Damage, available to stream on digital platforms for the very first time. Listen in below via Apple Music or Spotify. Originally released in 2002, the classic record launched El-P’s solo career following his time with New York collective Company Flow. It also set the tone for the MC’s burgeoning Definitive Jux label, which would later put out albums from Aesop Rock and Cannibal Ox. The 16-track Fantastic Damage was anchored by singles such as “Stepfather Factory”, “Deep Space 9mm”, and “Truancy”. Editors’ Picks “This album is ...
Pearl Jam Look Into Greta Thunberg’s Crystal Ball in “Retrograde” Video: Watch
Pearl Jam took a deep look at the world around us on their latest album, Gigaton. While they warned of a planet on the brink of cataclysm, they also presented messages of hope and potential triumph. Of course, in 2020, they’re not the only ones calling for change; for the video for the record’s latest single, “Retrograde”, they called on one of this generation’s most prominent — and youngest — environmentalist voices, Greta Thunberg. The animated clip finds a man driving to a strip mall occupied by a number of stores named after Pearl Jam albums. At the end of the row sits a psychic’s shop, where our protagonist goes to get a glimpse of not just his future, but all of ours. It turns out Thunberg is the prognosticator, and inside her crystal ball swirl images of the London Bridge and Eiffel...
Queen Streaming Legendary Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on YouTube
Queen are streaming their 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness to raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts. The show will be available to watch on the band’s YouTube page for 48 hours beginning Friday, May 15th at 2:00 p.m. ET. The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert originally took place back on April 20th, 1992 at London’s Wembley Stadium. Queen’s surviving members Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon wanted to perform in Mercury’s memory, as the third greatest singer of all time died months earlier from AIDS. They broke out classics and hits alike in his honor with help from guest vocalists including David Bowie, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Axl Rose, Elton John, Tony Iommi, James Hetfield, Seal, George Michael, and Liza Minnelli. Viewers are asked donate to ...
