Alice in Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell has shared another preview off his upcoming solo album, Brighten.
The latest cut is titled “Siren Song,” and you can download it now via digital outlets. It’s the third track to be released from Brighten, following the lead single “Atone” and the title track.
Brighten, which marks Cantrell’s first full-length solo offering in nearly 20 years, arrives in full on October 29. The album features Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses on bass.
Cantrell will launch a U.S. tour in support of Brighten in March 2022.
The new documentary Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowerswill get its worldwide release on November 11 as a free streaming event shown in 4K resolution on Tom Petty‘s official YouTube channel as part of the YouTube Originals series.
As previously reported, the movie focuses on the creatively fruitful period from 1993 to 1995, during which Petty made his acclaimed 1994 solo studio effort, Wildflowers, and recorded many other songs that weren’t initially released on the album. The film features previously unseen 16-millimeter footage shot during the making of Wildflowers, archival commentary from Tom, and new interviews with producer Rick Rubin and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell — who both co-produced the album with Tom — as well as with Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench.
A new trailer for the documentary has debuted at Petty’s YouTube channel. The two-minute promo features footage of Petty in the studio and on a tour bus and onstage, vintage photos, and clips of Tench and Campbell discussing Wildflowers. You also hear Tom talking about the project and reflecting on his approach to making the record.
Somewhere You Feel Free premiered in March as part of the virtual South by Southwest Film Festival, and the documentary got its theatrical release as a global screening event on Wednesday, October 20 — coinciding with what would’ve been Petty’s 71st birthday.
The film was directed by Mary Wharton, whose credits also include last year’s Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President.
Petty initially had planned for Wildflowers to be a double album, but was convinced by his record label to release it as a single disc. The many extra tracks he recorded during the sessions, along with a bevy of outtakes, finally were released last year on the Wildflowers & All the Rest box set.
Green Day has announced a new live album, The BBC Sessions.
The 16-track set collects each of the punk trio’s four performances at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, recorded in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001, together for the first time on one album. It’ll be released December 10.
Leading up to the record’s arrival, Green Day will be dropping one song from The BBC Sessions each week. The first selection is the 1994 rendition of the song “2000 Light Years Away,” which you can download now via digital outlets.
Last month, Green Day wrapped their Hella Mega stadium tour alongside Weezer and Fall Out Boy. The band’s most recent album is 2020’s Father of All…
Here’s the track list for The BBC Sessions:
“She” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“When I Come Around” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“Basket Case” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“2000 Light Years Away” (Live at the BBC June 8 1994)
“Geek Stink Breath” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Brain Stew/Jaded” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Walking Contradiction” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Stuck with Me” (Live at the BBC November 3 1996)
“Hitchin’ a Ride” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Nice Guys Finish Last” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Prosthetic Head” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Redundant” (Live at the BBC February 12 1998)
“Castaway” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
“Church on Sunday” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
“Minority” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
“Waiting” (Live at the BBC August 28 2001)
A copyright case involving a Nirvana t-shirt design has been dismissed by a California federal judge, Billboard reports.
Earlier this year, the grunge icons were sued by Jocelyn Susan Bundy, who claimed that her grandfather, English writer C.W. Scott-Giles, had created the design seen on Nirvana’s so-called “Vestibule” shirt, which was inspired by the “circles of Hell” depicted in Dante‘s Inferno.
Bundy said that her grandfather’s artwork was created in 1949 and is protected by British copyright law. In arguing for dismissal, lawyers for Nirvana and fellow defendant Live Nation Merchandise maintained that a suit involving U.K. law should not be decided by a California court. Indeed, the judge dismissed the case Thursday on those grounds.
“Given that one of the core disputes in this case concerns ownership of the copyright in the Illustration, which is governed by U.K. law, the U.K. likely has a stronger interest, on balance, in this case,” the ruling reads.
However, as Billboard notes, Nirvana may not be completely done with the case, since it could continue in the U.K. A condition of the judge’s dismissal is that Nirvana must agree to allow the case to continue in the U.K. and have it heard by a British court, should Bundy decide to refile the suit.
Since 2018, Nirvana has been involved in a lawsuit against fashion label Marc Jacobs, alleging that the label infringed on the copyright of the band’s smiley-face logo.
Meanwhile, Nirvana was sued just this past August by Spencer Elden, who was photographed as a baby for the now-iconic album cover for Nevermind. Elden alleges that the photo constitutes child pornography.
In non-lawsuit Nirvana happenings, a 30th anniversary reissue of Nevermind will be released November 12.
Expanded and remastered versions of The Band‘s fourth album, Cahoots, will be released on December 10, in commemoration of its recent 50th anniversary.
Released in September 1971, Cahoots peaked at #21 on the Billboard 200 and featured such notable tunes as “Life Is a Carnival,” the Canadian-American roots-rock group’s rendition of Bob Dylan‘s “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” and the Van Morrison collaboration “4% Pantomime.”
Among the versions of the 50th anniversary Cahoots reissue is a Super Deluxe box set featuring two CDs, a 180-gram vinyl LP, a Blu-ray disc, a 7-inch vinyl single, a photo booklet and more.
The updated version of the album was mixed by lauded engineer Bob Clearmountain, and overseen by Band guitarist/main songwriter Robbie Robertson.
Robertson explains, “I told Bob, ‘There are no rules. So, every mix we do, I want to start from scratch. I don’t even want to listen to the original. I want to listen to the way we hear it now and be fearless and experimental with it.”
The expanded reissue also features alternate versions of six of the album’s songs, two outtakes from the sessions, and 11 performances from a May 1971 concert at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.
The LP features the remastered original album, while the Blu-ray includes three mixes of Cahoots and some of the bonus tracks — a Dolby Atmos, a 5.1 surround sound and the new stereo mix. The seven-inch single features “Life Is a Carnival” backed with “The Moon Struck One.”
The Cahoots reissue, which you can pre-order now, is also coming out as a two-CD set, digitally, and on vinyl.
Here’s the track list of the reissue’s CDs:
CD 1:
“Life Is a Carnival”
“When I Paint My Masterpiece”
“Last of the Blacksmiths”
“Where Do We Go from Here?”
“4% Pantomime”
“Shoot Out in Chinatown”
“The Moon Struck One”
“Thinkin’ Out Loud”
“Smoke Signal”
“Volcano”
“The River Hymn”
Bonus Tracks
“Endless Highway” (Early Studio Take, 2021 Mix)
“When I Paint My Masterpiece” (Alternate Take, 2021 Mix)
“4% Pantomime” (Takes 1 & 2)
“Don’t Do It” (Outtake — Studio Version, 2021 Mix)
“Bessie Smith” (Outtake)
CD 2:*
Live at The Olympia Theatre, Paris, May 1971 (Bootleg, Partial Concert)
“The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show”
“We Can Talk”
“Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
“Across the Great Divide”
“The Unfaithful Servant”
“Don’t Do It”
“The Genetic Method”
“Chest Fever”
“Rag Mama Rag”
“Slippin’ and Slidin'”
Bonus Tracks
“Life Is a Carnival” (Instrumental)
“Volcano” (Instrumental)
“Thinkin’ Out Loud” (Stripped Down Mix)
Slash has announced a new album with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators.
The fourth studio effort from the Guns N’ Roses shredder and his solo band is fittingly titled 4, and will arrive February 11, 2022.
Our first preview of 4 is the previously teased single “The River Is Rising,” which you can download now via digital outlets.
Slash and company will launch a U.S. tour next year in support of 4 starting February 8 in Portland, Oregon. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting next Friday, October 29, at 10 a.m. local time, with various pre-sales happening throughout the week.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit SlashOnline.com.
Here’s the 4 track list:
“The River Is Rising”
“Whatever Gets You By”
“C’est la Vie”
“The Path Less Followed”
“Actions Speak Louder than Words”
“Spirit Love”
“Fill My World”
“April Fool”
“Call Off the Dogs”
“Fall Back to Earth”
Are you ready to rock ‘n’ roll with Ringo Starr? The famed ex-Beatles drummer has debuted a music video for his new cover of the Bill Haley and His Comets classic “Rock Around the Clock,” which appears on Starr’s recently released Change the World EP.
The tune features Ringo’s brother-in-law, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, ripping through a couple of wailing solos.
The video, which you can check out on YouTube, features footage shot at Starr’s Roccabella West home studio of Ringo singing and playing drums, as well as Walsh doing his thing on guitar.
Session bassist Nathan East and Starr’s frequent studio collaborator Bruce Sugar also appear in the clip. The track also features backing vocals from Amy Keys and Windy Wagner.
Ringo says he decided to record his own version of “Rock Around the Clock” because he was reminiscing about the impression the song had on him when he first heard it on his 15th birthday. His grandparents took him to see the movie Blackboard Jungle in a theater then while he was recovering from tuberculosis.
Starr recalls that when the song came on, the audience “ripped up the cinema!!! They just threw the chairs and went crazy. I thought, ‘WOW this is great!’ I remember that moment like it was yesterday, it was incredible. And the song just rocks.”
“Rock Around the Clock” is one of four songs featured on Change the World, along with “Let’s Change the World,” “Coming Undone” and “Just That Way.” The EP is available now on CD, cassette and digitally. A 10-inch vinyl version will be released on November 16, and can be pre-ordered now.
Guns N’ Roses are cashing another major paycheck after wrapping the U.S. leg of their 2021 Tour.
Billboardreports that the hard-rock legends sold a whopping 363,000 tickets during their rescheduled tour, which was postponed last year when COVID-19 shut down the entertainment industry. That number of tickets sold amounts to a $50 million payday for GN’R.
Originally called the 2020 Tour, the outing started on Super Bowl Weekend in January of last year at American Airlines Arena in Miami. About 11,200 tickets were sold for the event, which translated into $2.7 million in cold hard cash.
GN’R eventually pumped the brakes as the pandemic worsened and the tour was moved to summer 2021. However, the delay did little to dampen the cash flow because when the tour picked up again on July 31 at Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark Stadium, the outing made history at the time for becoming the concert with the best single-night earnings during the pandemic-era. That summer concert earned a resounding $2.3 million in ticket sales.
As the tour went on, that record was continually broken — for example, the band raked in $4.5 million at New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium on August 5.
Now, with their U.S. leg in the rearview mirror, the band is taking a breather before hitting the road again next year for the third leg of their tour, which kicks off in Lisbon, Portugal on June 4.
The tour is slated to wrap December 10, 2022 in Auckland, New Zealand.
That said, it’ll be awhile before we find out how their pandemic-era trek measures up to their previous Not in This Lifetime… Tour, which ran for four years and earned $584.2 million in ticket sales — making it the third highest-grossing concert tour in history.
Don McLean‘s classic anthem “American Pie” and album of the same name were released 50 years ago this Sunday, October 24.
With “American Pie,” which was the album’s lead track and centerpiece, McLean used the tragic 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper — referred to in the tune as “the day the music died” –as a launching point to metaphorically trace the history of rock ‘n’ roll through the turbulent 1960s, while also reflecting on the loss of innocence America experienced during the era.
“American Pie” spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1972, while the album topped the Billboard 200 for seven weeks around that time. American Pie also featured a second hit, the acoustic ballad “Vincent,” an homage to painter Vincent Van Gogh that peaked at #12 on the Hot 100.
“American Pie,” of course, has become among the most enduring songs of its time.
“It’s been a hit record on steroids,” McLean tells ABC Audio. “[O]ther hits have been forgotten that were around or…if you listen to them now, they sound silly…This song is majestic and it continues to grow.”
Reflecting on the song, Don says, “[I]t’s entertaining on a number of levels…I had a blast writing it and thinking about it and laughing and thinking, ‘Oh, this is funny, I’ll do this,’ or ‘I won’t do that.'”
As for “Vincent,” McLean notes with a laugh, “I hear people saying that the song has actually made [Van Gogh] famous, more famous than he was before. That makes me feel funny…because he was already a god, really, in [the realm of art].”
As previously reported, McLean will launch a 50th anniversary American Pietour this January in Honolulu.
For many years, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and his friend, sports artist Scott Medlock, teamed up to organize an annual celebrity golf tournament and all-star concert to benefit the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. However, with Medlock himself battling cancer, this year’s edition of the event will feature Krieger joined by various musical friends at a special show to raise money for Scott’s medical bills.
The event, dubbed the “Celebration of Friendship” All-Star Concert — Scotty, Robby & Friends, takes place this Sunday, October 24, at Bogie’s Bar in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village, California.
“Unfortunately, Scotty has got cancer and it’s gotten…bad,” Krieger tells ABC Audio. “So we’re just doing it for him and his family this year, trying to raise some money for them, because it’s amazing how much drug companies will charge for chemotherapy.”
While an official lineup for the show hasn’t been announced, Krieger reveals that the event will feature performances by “a lot of cool people,” including ex-Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine and his current group, a couple of members of Boston, and former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora and his collaborator and one-time girlfriend Orianthi.
“It should be fun,” Robby says.
You can check out the various tickets and VIP packages that are available for the benefit concert by visiting TheMedlockKrieger.org and Eventbrite.com.
