music
R.I.P. Pierre Kezdy, Naked Raygun Bassist Dead at 58
Naked Raygun bassist Pierre Kezdy has died at the age of 58 following a battle with cancer. According to the Chicago Sun Times, Kezdy passed away early Friday (Oct. 9th) at a hospice in Glenview, Illinois. A legend of the Chicago punk rock scene, Kezdy had served as Naked Raygun’s bassist since 1985. He’s also credited with writing some of the band’s seminal songs, including “Home” and “Vanilla Blue”. Years later, Naked Raygun’s impact is still widely felt. Everyone from Foo Fighters to Fall Out Boy to Alkaline Trio has cited the band’s music as a major influence on their own. In addition to Naked Raygun, Kezdy was a founding member of the short-lived, but influential punk band Strike Under. He also played in Pegboy and Arsenal. In 2011, Kezdy suffered a stroke that briefly rendered h...
Tool’s Maynard James Keenan Had COVID-19 and Still Has Lung Damage Months Later
Tool singer Maynard James Keenan has revealed that he contracted COVID-19 back in February. Moreover, he is still feeling the effects months later, as he deals with lung damage and coughing fits. While speaking to the Arizona Republic about his band Puscifer’s upcoming album, Existential Reckoning, Keenan was asked about Tool having to shut down their tour plans due to the pandemic. He responded, “I was still recovering from having gotten COVID at the end of February. I’m still dealing with the residual effects. But it was ugly. I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty. So I definitely had to deal with that.” When the interviewer expressed surprise at the singer’s revelation, Keenan explained, “I kind of didn’t want to run around screaming it. But it’s real. And there’s after-effects. I had to ...
Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, 9th Wonder Serve Up New Dinner Party Album Dessert: Stream
Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper (photo by Philip Cosores), Robert Glasper (photo by Todd Copper) Over the summer, Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and 9th Wonder cooked up their self-titled debut album as Dinner Party. But the jazz-funk supergroup isn’t quite done feasting: Dinner Party are back at the table to serve up a new dish titled Dessert. As its name suggests, this project is closely tied to the tasty meal that was Dinner Party; it features all seven tracks of that first album, but reworked with the help of new guest “chefs” Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, Bilal, Tank and the Bangas, Cordae, and Rapsody. Buddy, Punch, and Alex Isley also jump in the musical kitchen to lend a helping hand. Phoelix, who sang on the original debut LP, still has vocals throu...
Killer Be Killed Unveil New Song “Dream Gone Bad”: Stream
Supergroup Killer Be Killed are readying the release of their new album, Reluctant Hero, due out on November 20th. The band has now shared the music video for the latest single, “Dream Gone Bad”. Killer Be Killed touts one of the strongest lineups of any heavy metal supergroup in recent memory: vocalist Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan; Soulfly and ex-Sepultura leader Max Cavalera; Mastodon singer-bassist Troy Sanders; and Converge drummer Ben Koller. Not surprisingly, its makes for a crushing collaboration on “Dream Gone Bad” as propulsive guitars give way to epic vocals. Sanders handles most of the singing on this track. Mastodon fans take note. “Dissecting the idea of uncertainty and how you pull from that to find your way,” Sanders said in a press release. “‘Dream Gone Bad’ wa...
New Joy Division and New Order Podcast to Feature Surviving Band Members, Bono, Damon Albarn, Jonny Greenwood, More
Mark those calendars because a new podcast focused on the origins of Joy Division and New Order is set to debut later this month. Transmissions: The Definitive Story will trace the story of the two iconic and closely linked bands — from Joy Division’s formation up until New Order’s release of the 1983 hit single “Blue Monday”. Of course, the tragic death of Ian Curtis in 1980, and the subsequent split Joy Division, will receive substantial coverage. Fittingly, this history will be told by those who actually lived it — surviving band members such as Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert. The pod will also feature interviews with special guest musicians like Damon Albarn, Radiohead’s Jonny and Colin Greenwood, U2’s Bono, Liam Gallagher, Johnny Marr, and Karen O. Add...
BABYMETAL Announce Mysterious 10th Anniversary Best-Of Collection, Unveil “BxMxC” Video: Watch
BABYMETAL have been around for 10 years, and they’re celebrating with a mysterious new best-of collection. In addition, the Japanese pop-metal sensations just unveiled a music video for their song “BxMxC”. As young as founding members Su-metal and Moametal still are, it’s hard to fathom that BABYMETAL are celebrating their 10-year anniversary. At the time of their formation in 2010, the two singer-dancers were roughly aged 12 and 11. Now, to mark a decade of BABYMETAL, the band has announced a greatest-hits collection dubbed 10 BABYMETAL Years. The compilation is due December 23rd, and will be available in 10 different editions. Where it gets interesting is that the tracklist for at least one edition will be determined by fan vote, thanks to a bracket-style tournament. There will also be a...
Benny the Butcher Announces New Album Burden of Proof, Drops Lil Wayne and Big Sean Collaboration “Timeless”: Stream
Benny the Butcher (photo by Setor TsiKudo), Lil Wayne (photo by Ben Kaye), and Big Sean (photo by Philip Cosores) Benny the Butcher has announced a new album called Burden of Proof, due out next week. As an early look, the Griselda rapper is sharing a collaboration with fellow rap veterans Lil Wayne and Big Sean that’s appropriately titled “Timeless”. Benny’s prolific label mates, Conway the Machine and Westside Gunn, have each already dropped three albums (!) in 2020 alone, but the New York-bred MC is slowly but surely catching up: Burden of Proof marks his second effort of the year following his joint record with DJ Drama from July. Clearly going for a quality over quantity approach, Benny enlisted renowned beatmaker Hit-Boy (Kanye West, Beyoncé) to produce the entire project. ...
Mannequin Pussy Cover Rilo Kiley’s “The Execution of All Things”: Stream
Mannequin Pussy (photo by Marcus Maddox) and Rilo Kiley (photo courtesy of the band) A handful of indie and punk artists have come together to cover Rilo Kiley’s 2002 album, The Execution of All Things, in its entirety. The new project — officially dubbed No Bad Words for the Coast Today: The Execution of All Things — is due out next month, but is being previewed now with Mannequin Pussy’s take on the title track. Like Rilo Kiley, Mannequin Pussy are a band with a diverse stylistic palette. Just as The Execution of All Things shifts between peppy, fuzzy indie rock and twee, piano-driven indie pop, Mannequin Pussy’s 2019 album Patience swung between shoegaze, power-pop, hardcore punk, and more. For their cover today, Mannequin Pussy continue to channel that ve...
Duff McKagan and Jerry Cantrell Pay Tribute to Jimmy Carter with Acoustic Performance: Watch
Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Alice in Chains guitarist-singer Jerry Cantrell have teamed up for an acoustic performance in tribute to former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who turned 96 on October 1st. The two rock legends played a cover of “A Satisfied Mind”, penned by Joe “Red” Hayes and Jack Rhodes, while sitting on the couch. It’s a peaceful and serene rendition of the song, and a worthy cover choice for the longest-living president. “We want to say happy birthday to Jimmy Carter,” McKagan said in the video’s introduction, going on to address Carter directly. “We’re here for a couple reasons … how strongly you fought for arts in school. We were exactly the right age.” “Beneficiaries for sure,” Cantrell added. “Almost half my classes were arts. When I graduated, they kind o...
Future Islands’ As Long as You Are Is Familiar yet Captivating: Review
The Lowdown: Future Islands first truly caught the world’s attention with the Letterman performance of “Seasons (Waiting on You)” that brought lead vocalist Samuel T. Herring’s confident and expressive singing style into the viral limelight. This coincided with the release of Singles, their most polished album thus far and an encapsulation of all their post-wave aspirations. Now, two albums and six years later, they’re back again with As Long as You Are, a twinkling and pulsating slow burn that finds them employing many approaches that by now feel familiar to their sound, but still cohesive and captivating. [embedded content] The Good: It opens with seagulls and it ends with the coast. This is an album that deals with expanse and immensity that feels difficult to conceive of, let alone to ...
Tame Impala Covers John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” : Watch
Today, October 9th, would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday. As a tribute to the late Beatles legend, Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker has shared a bedroom cover of the iconic Imagine song “Jealous Guy”. When we say bedroom cover we mean it quite literally. In a video posted to the Tame Impala Instagram account, Parker is seen singing and strumming along to the 1971 tune while lounging in his big comfy bed. In the original version of the song, Lennon’s vocals are bolstered by a full band’s worth of instruments, but Parker manages to translate the track’s timeless beauty with just his voice and an acoustic guitar. Props to him for having a bedroom with surprisingly great natural reverb, because even though this was probably shot on an iPhone the sound quality is pretty great. Watch d...
Linkin Park Unveil Long-Lost Song “Pictureboard” as Part of Hybrid Theory 20th Anniversary Edition: Stream
Linkin Park have just released a 20th anniversary edition of their multiplatinum debut album, Hybrid Theory. Among the highlights on the extensive tracklist is the previously unreleased song “Pictureboard”. “Pictureboard” has some lore among Linkin Park fans, who’ve known it existed thanks to early live performances of the song — back when the band called itself Xero. As part of the Hybrid Theory: 20th Anniversary Edition super deluxe box set, the track appears on disc dubbed “Forgotten Demos”. While the song features the signature trade-off vocals between late singer Chester Bennington and rapper Mike Shinoda, it lacks the powerful punch of Hybrid Theory‘s multiple chart-toppers like “One Step Closer”, “Crawling”, and “In the End”. The recording is listed as a demo, and it’s evident that ...
