Classic Rock 93.9

Black Crowes start their opening gig for Aerosmith‘s Peace Out tour this Saturday, September 2, but they’ve also got some plans for their back catalog.

A limited-edition box set of the band’s second album, The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion, is now available for preorder; it ships December 1.

On Instagram, the band writes, “We revisited the archives alongside our friend [and producer] George Drakoulias and created an incredibly special, super deluxe edition of our sophomore album.” 

Among the goodies you’ll find are unreleased studio recordings; rare B sides; a live performance from Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Texas, on February 6, 1993; and a newly remastered version of the original album.

The four-LP and three-CD versions of the box set come with a reproduction of the original 132-page promotional hymn book that came with the album. Also included are insights on the record from Chris and Rich Robinson, as well as a set of lithographs of classic images from the original album photo sessions, plus the sheet music for the nine songs the brothers co-wrote.

The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion was first released in May 1992. It topped the Billboard album chart and featured four songs that topped the publication’s rock charts: “Remedy,” “Hotel Illness,” “Sting Me” and “Thorn In My Pride.”

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In a sequel to that ’90s movie Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, we now have Metallica Bound: The Incredibly Metal Journey.

Star of said journey is Storm, a dog who sneaked out of their human’s house and into the Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium during one of Metallica’s concerts at the venue as part of their ongoing M72 tour.

“You might have heard we had a four-legged fan join us for #M72LA!” Metallica writes in a Facebook post alongside a truly adorable photo of Storm sitting in the stadium’s seats. “Despite reports to the contrary, our friend Storm snuck out of her home adjacent to SoFi Stadium and made her way to the gig all by herself.”

The reports to which Metallica is referring came from LA’s Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation, which first posted that the dog had been abandoned at SoFi before the situation was cleared up.

“After a full night taking in the show with her #MetallicaFamily, Storm was safely reunited with her actual family the next day,” Metallica’s post continues. “She had a great time listening to her favorite songs, including ‘Barx Æterna,’ ‘Master of Puppies,’ and ‘The Mailman That Never Comes.'”

In addition to flexing their strong pun game, Metallica adds, “And in case you were wondering, no. You definitely shouldn’t bring your furry friends to the #M72 World Tour. But this dog sure did have her day.”

Notably, Metallica’s SoFi shows, which took place August 25 and 27, broke the stadium’s single-show attendance record. Could Storm have been the one who put them over the top? We can only hope.

And while nothing else matters except for the dog at the Metallica show, the song “Nothing Else Matters” has passed 1 billion streams on Spotify.

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The Rolling Stones teases continue.

On Friday, September 1, the “Gimme Shelter” rockers shared new videos on Facebook and Instagram directing you to their newly launched website, HackneyDiamonds.com, which fans are speculating is hinting at a new album titled Hackney Diamonds. The posts feature the Stones’ lips logo made up of broken diamond pieces and rising from the street and the beach.

“A new Stones era,” the captions to the posts reads. “Worldwide September 6th.”

Notably, the HackneyDiamonds.com site features a countdown clock that will hit zero on September 6.

Meanwhile, both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have shared similar teasers on Instagram. Mick’s post also includes the beach video, as well as a clip of the Lips logo rising from a glacier, while Keith’s features footage of a New York City Subway station.

Should Hackney Diamonds indeed be a new Rolling Stones album, it’ll be their first since their 2016 blues covers compilation Blue & Lonesome. The most recent original Stones record is 2005’s A Bigger Bang.

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Pearl Jam launched their U.S. tour Thursday, August 31, in St. Paul, Minnesota, marking Eddie Vedder and company’s first live performance of 2023.

The grunge icons shared a photo of the show’s set list in a Facebook post, which included such classics as “Even Flow,” “Alive,” “Yellow Ledbetter” and “Daughter,” as well as several tracks off their latest album, 2020’s Gigaton.

Attendees were also treated with a performance of the Binaural track “Insignificance,” which, according to the PJ website, was last played live in 2016.

Pearl Jam’s tour continues with a second show in St. Paul on Saturday, September 2, followed by stops in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Fort Worth and Austin, Texas.

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On This Day, September 1, 1973 …

Paul McCartney and Wings began recording what would become the album Band on the Run in Lagos, Nigeria.

Just ahead of the sessions, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough quit, leaving McCartney to make the album with just his wife Linda McCartney and Denny Laine.

McCartney faced several challenges during the recording of the album; the quality of the studio was poor, he and Linda were robbed at knifepoint, and he was accused of “stealing” African music by legendary Nigerian singer Fela Kuti.

Despite it all, Band on the Run was a massive success and went to #1 on the Billboard 200, spending four weeks on top of the chart. It wound up becoming McCartney’s bestselling and most-acclaimed post-Beatles release.

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Queen is known for having plenty of songs that will get the crowd singing along, like “We Will Rock You” and “Radio Gaga,” but it’s not just the hits that get the fans belting out lyrics at the top of their lungs. 

In episode 31 of the band’s weekly YouTube series, Queen The Greatest Live, the band once again focuses on their fans. They shared a clip of them singing along to one of their deeper cuts, “In The Lap Of The Gods,” from their 1974 album, Sheer Heart Attack.

The archival footage is from Queen’s 1975 Christmas Eve concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, with the fans happily joining frontman Freddie Mercury for the sing-along. 

Next week on Queen The Greatest Live: “Vocal Games.”

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After 50 years together, Aerosmith is ready to start their long farewell to the road. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will launch their Peace Out final tour on Saturday, September 2, at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, featuring special guests The Black Crowes.

“It’s not goodbye it’s PEACE OUT!” the band shared when they announced the tour. “Get ready and walk this way, you’re going to get the best show of our lives.”

Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford are all on board for the trek, although drummer Joey Kramer is sitting this one out “to focus his full attention on his family and health.” The band noted, “Joey’s unmistakable and legendary presence behind the drum kit will be sorely missed.”

And it certainly sounds like Aerosmith is going all out for this one. They shared on Instagram that the tour is their biggest production ever and needs “133 person crew, 22 semi trucks, 158 rigging points, 10 tour busses.” It will also consist of “over 600 lights, 67 guitars, 10 basses, 5 scarves and 4 legends of rock.”

The tour is Aerosmith’s first full-scale trek since the 2017-18 Aero-Vederci Baby! Tour. In 2019 they debuted their Deuces Are Wild residency, with dates in Las Vegas, Maryland and Massachusetts. It lasted until September 2022, with dates scheduled for December of that year canceled when Tyler went to rehab.

As of now, the Peace Out tour is set to run until January 26 in Montreal, Canada. The tour also includes a very special New Year’s Eve show in the band’s home city of Boston, Massachusetts. A complete list of dates can be found at aerosmith.com.

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Foo Fighters have reached a new Billboard chart milestone with their latest single, “Under You.”

The track has hit #8 on the Alternative Airplay ranking, giving Dave Grohl and company a total of 30 top-10 hits on the tally. Not only does that extend the Foos record for the most Alternative Airplay top 10s, it also makes them the first act in the chart’s 35-year history to have 30 singles reach the top 10.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are in second place, with 28.

“Under You” appears on the new Foo Fighters album, But Here We Are, their first record since the 2022 death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. They’ve been touring over the spring and summer playing one-off festival and headlining shows with new drummer Josh Freese.

The next Foo Fighters show takes place September 3 in Aspen, Colorado.

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Paul McCartney will launch a new leg of his Got Back tour in Australia in October, which means a lot of traveling for the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. And he has some specific ways he likes to pass the time.

In a new Q&A posted to his website, McCartney was asked how he keeps himself busy while traveling on a plane, with the fan wondering if he has hobbies like “reading, watching TV, or knitting…?” McCartney says he’s not a knitter, although he notes, “I imagine that would be quite cool, actually … it must be a great release of tension.”

“But I watch movies,” he says. “So when I travel from London to New York, its [sic] normally a seven-hour journey so I end up watching about three movies, and in the middle of it all I try and have a meal.”

For long car rides, McCartney says he’ll watch movies or TV shows on his iPad, revealing, “I’m currently on Better Call Saul and it’s a good one.”  

One thing he doesn’t do is read, leaving that instead for just before he goes to bed. “I try to read biographies, which can be a little bit dry,” he says. “After a few pages you start you yawn, the page goes fuzzy, so it’s light off and straight to sleep. I like that!” 

Paul McCartney’s Got Back tour kicks off October 18 in Adelaide, Australia. He’s also announced dates in Brazil and Mexico City. A complete list of dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.

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Aerosmith‘s hits are still popular with fans. The band’s recent Greatest Hits compilation tops the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart this week.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers moved 19,000 equivalent album units, 10,000 of which were from album sales, to land at #1. It’s their second chart-topper on the Rock Albums chart following 2012’s Music From Another Dimension, which was their last album of original songs.

Greatest Hits also lands at #4 on the Top Rock Albums chart and #7 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. It’s at #36 on the all genre Billboard 200 chart, their 31st album on that chart.

But this isn’t the first time Aerosmith has released a greatest hits package. In 1980 Columbia released Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits, which was then reissued in 1997 with hits they accumulated through 1988. They also released Big Ones in 1994, O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits in 2002 and Devil’s Got A New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith in 2006.

The latest Greatest Hits album was released ahead of Aerosmith’s Peace Out tour, which will be their goodbye to the road. It launches Saturday, September 2, in Philadelphia. A complete list of dates can be found at aerosmith.com.

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