music
Lamb of God’s Willie Adler Talks Coffee, Bill & Ted, and Livestream Shows
Lamb of God’s Willie Adler, photo by Antonio Marino Jr. During a pandemic that’s drastically altered the day-to-day operations of the music industry, Lamb of God have forged ahead. The metal veterans released their new self-titled studio album in June, despite not being able to tour in support of the LP. And the decision brought much-needed joy to metal fans everywhere, as the album ranks among Lamb of God’s finest works. Upon completing the album, the band was then commissioned to write a song for Bill & Ted Face the Music. The film’s music supervisor handpicked the Lamb of God, who delivered “The Death of Us”, a crushing anthem to friendship that cemented 2020 as a veritably productive year artistically for the band. With one full-length and a major soundtrack appearance in the...
War on Women Announce New Album Wonderful Hell, Share Title Track: Stream
Baltimore outfit War on Women have announced their third full-length album, Wonderful Hell, will arrive on October 30th. The politically charged hardcore band have also shared the LP’s ferocious title track. War on Women make no mistake about their views on modern society or the state of politics in the United States. Their songs read like a manifesto, and “Wonderful Hell” is no different. Singer Shawna Potter wrote the song during a period when she felt especially “exhausted and overwhelmed by the Trump era.” “I can’t ignore what’s in front of me/ That fear is real, but not the enemy,” shouts Potter. In the lyric video, there is a notebook emblazoned with the hashtag “#VOTE”. It’s at the core message of the song. “I think it expresses something that a lot of people are feeling,” Potter sa...
The Cure Finished Their New Album While in Lockdown
For all intents and purposes, the pandemic and ensuing lockdown has sucked. But there are a few positives to come out of our multi-month in-home sequester: our sanitary skills are much improved, carbon emissions are down by as much as 17%, and lots of people learned how to play guitar. Oh, and The Cure finished their new album. The Cure’s Robert Smith has been teasing new music for a while now, but the time in lockdown apparently gave him the opportunity to finish a number of projects without distraction. Along with a new album from The Cure, Smith said he’s been working on a solo record. “Our whole idea for this year was really finishing off the album we started last year, me finishing off the solo album and also, finishing digitising decades of stuff in order to make this film with Tim P...
R.I.P. Sid McCray, Original Bad Brains Singer Dies
Sid McCray, the original singer of legendary punk band Bad Brains, has died. Affectionately known as SidMac, he passed away on September 9th. No cause of death has yet been revealed. McCray led the band from 1977 to 1978, when they were still a jazz fusion outfit known as Mind Power. He’s credited with introducing his bandmates to punk rock, specifically through albums by Sex Pistols and Ramones. Eventually, the band took on the name Bad Brains in reference to the Ramones song of the same name. McCray wrote early Bad Brains songs like “The Regulator”, but ultimately stepped aside as frontman to let his friend and guitarist H.R. take over. “I sung with the band for a little while, but I fizzled out because I saw H.R. was a much better singer,” McCray said in the H.R. documentary F...
Phoebe Bridgers Performs Three Punisher Songs on CBS This Morning: Watch
Phoebe Bridgers has kept up her prolific streak into September. After taking part in a Daniel Johnston livestream tribute, playing a Tiny Desk (Home) concert in a miniature Oval Office, and covering Radiohead in a church, Bridgers stopped by CBS This Morning over the weekend for a Saturday Sessions performance. Bridgers delivered a trio of tracks off her latest full-length, Punisher, one of our favorite albums of the year thus far. Dressed in her now familiar skeleton suit, she sang “Garden Song”, “I Know the End”, and one of 2020’s best songs, “Kyoto”. Watch all three performances below. Earlier this summer, Bridgers contributed to a voters’ rights compilation alongside R.E.M., Hayley Williams, Angel Olsen, and others; teamed with Courtney Barnett to cover Gillian Welch’s “Everything...
10 Almost Famous Quotes You Probably Say All the Time
When Cameron Crowe put us on the tour bus with William Miller, Penny Lane, and Stillwater 20 years ago, he did more than just make us a fly on the wall for the circus, pump us full of great music, and make us believe that we’re cool. After we came back to the real world after 122 minutes of thinkpieces, Band Aids, and golden gods, we had a new language to describe our own realities — and love of music. So, here we are, two decades later, long after Doris has been retired; drunk on the booze of friendship; dark and mysterious as ever; totally, utterly uncool; and still tossing about the following lines as if we first saw Almost Famous just yesterday. Don’t “fecking” judge us. Anyway, it’s all happening. “One day … you’ll be cool.” <img data-attachment-id="1069223" data-permalin...
Pearl Jam Announce Vote-by-Mail Initiative, Reissue MTV Unplugged Live Album
Eddie Vedder recently joined Instagram to teach people how to vote by mail, but he isn’t stopping his political efforts there. This week, Pearl Jam have launched a vote-by-mail initiative called “Take-Three Pledge: Vote by Mail, Recruit Three Friends, and Don’t Wait” to encourage fans nationwide to take part in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. The three-step pledge is quick and easy to do. After registering to vote (or indicating that they already are), fans are shown city- and state-specific information regarding their upcoming elections. From there, they’re encouraged to forward the pledge to three other people. Head to PearlJam.com/Vote or text “PJVotes” to 52886 to join in the effort. For this initiative, Pearl Jam have partnered with People For the American Way, The ...
Vinyl Sales Surpass CD Sales for the First Time in 34 Years
It’s been a long time coming, but now it’s officially official: vinyl sales have surpassed CD sales in the US. According to a new report from The Recording Industry Association of America, vinyl records accounted for $232.1 million of music sales in the first six months of 2020, whereas CDs have only brought in $129.9 million. This is the first time since 1986 — 34 years! — that vinyl has outsold CDs. Physical sales overall dropped by 23% in the first half of this year, likely because fewer people are leaving their homes, nevermind to visit music stores. However, CD sales declined by 48% whereas vinyl sales started to climb, particularly during the week of Record Store Day “Drops” when 802,000 records were sold. Unsurprisingly, digital sales continued to decrease by 22%, accounting for $35...
Marilyn Manson Releases New Album WE ARE CHAOS: Stream
Marilyn Manson is back with his 11th studio album, WE ARE CHAOS, which is now available to stream in full below. The LP follows 2017’s Heaven Upside Down. The 10-song album was produced by Shooter Jennings, and finds Manson exploring his various influences from ’70s glam rock to ’80s new wave. The LP’s release was preceded by two singles — the title track and “DON’T CHASE THE DEAD”. While the album was completed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Manson told us in our recent interview that he hopes the themes of WE ARE CHAOS help people cope during these difficult times: “A lot of people interpret some of the themes or particularly [the song] ‘WE ARE CHAOS’ as being related to what we’re going through right now. But I think the song was probably written a year and a half ago or so, lyrically....
The Flaming Lips Unveil New Album American Head: Stream
The Flaming Lips have released their new album, American Head. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. The effort is the 21st (!) record from the Oklahoma psych-rock heroes, following their 2019 album King’s Mouth and their collaborative album with Deap Valley from earlier this year. As its title implies, American Head is the Lips’ embracing their identity as an American band. When they announced the album back in June, frontman Wayne Coyne published a short essay about how they always considered their homebase to be “Earth”, but that they wanted to see what would happen when they consciously channeled so-called traditional American rock ‘n’ roll. All of the album’s many singles — “Dinosaurs On The Mountain”, “My Religion Is You”, “You n Me Sellin’ Weed”, “Mother P...
Marilyn Manson Masterfully Embraces His Influences on WE ARE CHAOS: Review
The Lowdown: While Marilyn Manson has developed a signature sound over the past 30 years, it never manages to get stale. One reason for this is the revolving door of musicians and producers with whom he has worked throughout his career. Manson is back with his 11th album, WE ARE CHAOS, and he recruited Shooter Jennings — son of legendary country artists Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter — as his new musical compatriot. The two met when Manson was working on the TV show Sons of Anarchy and, according to Manson, have wanted to work together for a while. With Tyler Bates at the production helm on Manson’s critically acclaimed albums The Pale Emperor (2015) and Heaven Upside Down (2017), one might be concerned about this change in the ranks. Have no fear, though, as the resulting collaboration ...
Miley Cyrus Performs “Midnight Sky” and Covers “Maneater” on Fallon: Watch
Even during the era of social distancing, no one does late night like Miley Cyrus. The pop star was a guest on Thursday night’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and from her interview atop a Peter Shire throne to her dazzling, full-stage performance of “Midnight Sky”, it was as glamorous as pandemic entertainment can get. Talking with Fallon from her geometric chair set in a pitch black void, Cyrus discussed keeping herself centered amidst her crazy career and her recent VMAs performance. She also touched on asking Stevie Nicks for permission to sample “Edge of Seventeen” on “Midnight Sky”. “I have the coolest letter ever from Stevie, too,” she revealed. “I sent her the song, and I said, ‘I have an alternate melody. If you don’t want me to pay tribute to you and your greatness and h...
