music
Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) and Richie Kotzen Form New Outfit, Unveil “Taking My Chances”: Stream
Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and veteran rocker Richie Kotzen have joined forces for the new blues-rock project Smith/Kotzen. In announcing the new outfit, the pair have unveiled their debut single, “Taking My Chances”. Longtime friends and colleagues, Smith and Kotzen are a formidable guitar pairing and prove as much on the new song. This ain’t Maiden, but rather a love letter to the electric blues. Smith and Kotzen share a mutual love of the genre that can be traced back through the years, like the time Smith played and sang a cover of Cream’s iconic “Crossroads” at one of Kotzen’s birthday parties. A natural chemistry can be heard on “Taking My Chances”. “I think Richie and I complement each other really well,” Smith said in a press release. “He’s a virtuoso guitarist, but he...
Bladee And Mechatok Are Winning And Losing At The Same Time
By Eli Enis Bladee and Mechatok like to think of luck as a paradox. The 26-year-old cloud-rap icon and the 23-year-old producer are sitting in a Swedish hotel room talking about how their new album documents their simultaneous failure and success at creating perfect pop music. The eight-track project is simply titled Good Luck, but they don’t subscribe to the idiom’s optimistic connotations. “When you say ‘good luck’ to someone, you’re kind of implying that there’s a good chance that it might not work out,” Mechatok says with a smile. “You’re not saying that, if you’re confident, it’s going to be fine.” At the very least, the album’s existence is the result of some good fortune. The two artists met a few years back through a mutual connection in the London club scene. The Berlin-based Mech...
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou Announce New EP, Cover the Cranberries’ “Hollywood”: Stream
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou have announced a new surprise collaborative EP titled The Helm of Sorrow, which arrives January 15th via Sacred Bones. They’ve also shared new cover of The Cranberries‘ “Hollywood” and a separate short, “Elysian Fields”, created by Thou’s Mitch Wells. The four-song EP includes B-sides from the excellent 2020 album from Rundle and Thou, May Our Chambers Be Full. In fact, the tracks were included on Sacred Bones’ “diehard” edition of the Chambers, but will receive a widespread release as The Helm of Sorrow, a suitably metal title. The cover of “Hollywood” is as captivating as anything we’ve heard from the pairing. Perhaps the artists or label realized these songs were too good to languish on a limited, exclusive release. No complaints here. A far cry from the origin...
Greta Van Fleet Share New Video for “Age of Machine”: Watch
Greta Van Fleet have shared a video for their latest single, “Age of Machine”. The storyline of the seven-minute visual accompaniment is difficult to follow, but its press release insinuates that the narrative murkiness is intentional. Throughout the video, the classic rock nostalgists are seen admiring an ancient statue in the middle of an empty warehouse, cruising through a tunnel on motorcycles, and wandering around the desert in street clothes. Those seemingly unrelated shots of the band are interspersed with panoramas of oil fields, esoteric home videos with a ’70s-esque film quality, and vaguely Kubrick-like scenes of frontman Josh Kiszka receiving eye-drops in a medical facility. At one point, they take turns drilling and chipping away at the Greco-Roman statue they were admiri...
Amigo the Devil Premieres Video for New Song “Another Man’s Grave”: Watch
Amigo the Devil recently announced his sophomore full length album, Born Against. Now, the folk-rock troubadour is teaming up with Consequence of Sound to premiere the video for the LP’s first single, “Another Man’s Grave”. With “Another Man’s Grave”, Amigo continues his foray into dark Americana. Despite his music’s acoustic foundation, the songs have also resonated with metal and hard rock audiences, as he’s shared the stages with several heavy acts over the past few years. “This is very much a coming to terms song,” Amigo says of the new single. “It’s the realization that the habits and routine we’ve been living, the behaviors, and outlook displayed aren’t true to the person that we know exists somewhere within. It’s about the purgatory-like time between accepting this and the moment we...
Taylor Swift’s Evermore, A Folklore ‘Sister Record,’ Will Be Out Tonight
The opening lyrics of Led Zeppelin’s 1971 folk song “The Battle of Evermore” introduce a “Queen of Light” who “took her bow / And then she turned to go.” Taylor Swift, indisputably one of the queens of 2020 (in terms of album sales, acclaim, and adoration), is doing the opposite: At midnight tonight (December 11), she’ll release her second album of the year, Evermore, a “sister record” to her Folklore release, which dropped in July. “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” she wrote to announce the album on social media. “To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest ...
Australia’s Skegss Dissect the Origins of New Song “Wake Up”: Stream
In our new music feature Origins, artists dissect the influences that led to their latest single. Today, Skegss gently ask us to “Wake Up”. We all have that little voice in our head giving us advice or warnings, but it’s not always easy to listen to it. That’s because it’s usually not alone; the opinion of the world around us is always cross-talking, trying to drown out our own thoughts. On their new single “Wake Up”, Australian trio Skegss gently remind us that it’s okay to block out the chatter and heed your own conscience. Sounding like War Elephant-era Deer Tick with a surfy, garage rock edge, “Wake Up” rests on heavy piano notes and a strumming guitar. It comes together as a gentle reassurance, over which vocalist Ben Reed sings, “Been sifting out the dirt in the ground/ I’ve be...
PJ Harvey Announces Is This Desire? Vinyl Reissue, Shares Unearthed Video for “Angelene”: Watch
PJ Harvey has announced a vinyl reissue for her 1998 album Is This Desire?, the latest release as part of her year-long archival campaign. To accompany today’s news, she’s unearthed a previously unreleased music video for the album’s opening track, “Angelene”, as well as a demo version of the same song. So far this year, Harvey has reissued 1992 Dry, 1993’s Rid of Me, 1995’s To Bring You My Love, and 1996’s Dance Hall at Louise Point. As with these other release, Is This Desire? will come paired with a companion demo album. In a statement, director Maria Mochnacz said the video for “Angelene” was originally made 21 years ago, but was ultimately shelved. “We used a combination of video/16ml film and medium format Polaroids, curtains as backdrops to look like a ...
Chloe x Halle Perform NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert: Watch
The Bailey sisters Chloe x Halle took their Grammy-nominated album Ungodly Hour for a spin in a new NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert. While the performance took place in a studio setting, the ground was festooned with homey touches: plants, books, candle holders, and childhood memorabilia courtesy of the duo’s mother. After opening with “Don’t Make It Harder on Me”, elder sister Chloe paused to acknowledge the pandemic and the effect it’s had on everyone’s mental health. She said, “I know this year 2020 has been absolutely bonkers for all of us. For those moments where you kinda feel less than, and you’re not good enough, that’s why we wrote this song: for ourselves, as a mantra, to let ourselves know that whatever happens, we’ll be OK. And this is our world.” From there, the sisters...
Three Cheers! My Chemical Romance Now Have Their Own Makeup Line
My Chemical Romance’s highly anticipated reunion tour may have been postponed to next year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have your own emo night at home, black eyeliner, bleeding hearts and all. In fact, the band highly encourages it: MCR have announced their own makeup line inspired by their now-classic 2004 album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. A collaboration with cosmetic company HipDot, the new MCR line includes affordable products such as a double-ended liquid eyeliner ($12) and a nine-color eyeshadow palette ($24). Both should help with recreating frontman Gerard Way’s signature Three Cheers-era look — and even if it all runs because of your *~sad~* tears, that just means you’re officially An Emo Kid Who is Not Okay (You Promise). My Chemical Romance’s HipDot makeup collecti...
Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin Announce Hanukkah-Themed Song Series
Dave Grohl may have recently lost an epic drum battle to 10-year-old rock prodigy Nandi Bushell, but the Foo Fighters frontman’s cheery holiday spirit is still going strong. So much so, in fact, that he is planning to release a new song each night of Hanukkah in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin. The pair’s new music series is simply titled The Hanukkah Sessions and will see Grohl and Kurstin covering various renowned Jewish musicians. Running throughout the entirety of the Jewish holiday, the project officially begins tomorrow, December 10th and extends until next Friday, December 18th. “With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin & I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS...
Troye Sivan Taps Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson for “Easy” Remix: Stream
Kacey Musgraves (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), Troye Sivan (photo by Tim Ashton), and Mark Ronson Troye Sivan has called upon Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson for a new remix of his summer single “Easy”. The track originally appeared on the In a Dream EP. Sivan teased the collaboration last month, saying he “maybeeeeeee” had worked with “two of my fave artists of all time.” The lush reimagining has arrived, now a few beats per minute slower and with new, gorgeous instrumentation courtesy of super-producer Ronson. “Easy” comes with an epic music video that shows off Sivan’s new mullet. It features long car rides with Musgraves driving and Sivan riding shotgun, and you can check it out below. Editors’ Picks Musgraves and Sivan first worked together on “Glittery” from The Kacey Musgraves Chr...
