Classic Rock 93.9

A new Jimi Hendrix Experience live album is coming this fall.

Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hollywood Bowl August 18, 1967 features a live performance recorded five days before the band released their debut album, Are You Experienced, when they were the opening act for The Mamas & The Papas.

The concert featured performances of such classics as “Purple Haze,” “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Foxey Lady,” along with covers of The Beatles‘ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Bob Dylan‘s “Like a Rolling Stone” and others. The first track released from the record is a performance of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.” 

You can listen to “Killing Floor” now via digital outlets and on YouTube.

The album is being released November 10 on CD, vinyl and digitally; it will be the first time the concert has ever been officially released. It is available for preorder now.

To coincide with the live album announcement, a new mini-documentary, Monterey Pop To The Hollywood Bowl, has just been released, chronicling how the band went from their U.S. debut at the Monterey Pop Festival to being booked to open for the Mamas & The Papas at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Dave Grohl is reuniting with his first band.

The Foo Fighters frontman contributes to the upcoming new album from the D.C. hardcore punk outfit Scream. The record, titled DC Special, will be released on November 10.

DC Special marks the first new music from Scream since 2011, as well as the group’s first full-length effort since 1993’s Fumble. It was recorded by the classic Still Screaming lineup — vocalist Pete Stahl, guitarist Franz Stahl, bassist Skeeter Thompson and drummer Kent Stax — and also features Fugazi‘s Ian MacKaye.

The first DC Special single, “DC Special Sha La La,” is out now.

Grohl started playing in Scream in 1986 following the departure of Stax. As the legend goes, the then-17-year-old Grohl lied about his age so that he could join the band.

After Scream’s initial breakup in 1990, Grohl would go on to play drums in a little band called Nirvana. He then formed Foo Fighters after the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain.

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R.E.M.’s 11th studio album, Up, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, the band is reissuing the album with lots of extras for fans.

Dropping November 10, the reissue will be released in a variety of formats, including a two-CD/Blu-ray deluxe edition, which includes a remastered version of the album, along with a previously unreleased 11-song set the band recorded in 1999 at Los Angeles’ Palace Theatre for the Fox show Party of Five. One of those performances, of the track “Daysleeper,” is now available digitally and on YouTube. 

The deluxe edition also includes a Blu-ray with HD music videos of the album’s singles, along with Uptake, a six-song Up-era performance recorded at a London studio. It also includes hi-resolution audio and surround sound versions of the album. The whole set comes housed in a 32-page hardcover book, with new liner notes and new interviews with the band. 

The Up reissue will also be released as a two-CD set, with both the album and Party of Five performance, and digitally. There’s also a two-LP vinyl edition on 180-gram black vinyl, along with a limited-edition green marble vinyl, the latter of which is only available on the band’s website.

All formats are available for preorder now.

Released October 26, 1998, Up was R.E.M.’s first album following the October 1997 retirement of drummer Bill Berry.  It featured the popular singles “Daysleeper,” “Lotus” and “At My Most Beautiful.”

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Living Colour is calling out Jann Wenner for his recent comments in The New York Times, in which he suggested Black and female artists weren’t “articulate enough” to be included in his new book, The Masters.

“The very idea of a book called The Masters‘ which blatantly omits the essential contributions of Black, people of color and women to Rock & Pop Culture speaks to a much larger and more systemic problem,” the “Cult of Personality” rockers wrote on social media. “His New York Times interview statement that African American and female artists are not ‘articulate’ enough to express themselves about their own work is absurd on its face.”

They contend the comments from Wenner, who co-founded Rolling Stone in 1967, are “an insult to those of us who sit at the feet of these overlooked geniuses.”

“To hear that he believes Stevie Wonder isn’t articulate enough to express his thoughts on any given subject is quite frankly, insulting,” they add. “To hear that Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Tina Turner, or any of the many Woman artists that he chooses not to mention, are not worthy of the status of ‘Master’, smacks of sexist gatekeeping, and exclusionary behavior.”

The band then disregards Wenner’s attempt at an apology, noting, “That his book is a reflection of his worldview suggests that it is narrow & small indeed.”

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Ozzy Osbourne is hoping his next neck surgery will be his last.

The Prince of Darkness has undergone several procedures over the last few years after falling in his home in 2019, which aggravated injuries he suffered in a 2003 ATV accident. In the latest episode of the newly relaunched The Osbournes podcast, which premiered Tuesday, September 19, Ozzy shares, “Tomorrow, I have my final surgery on my neck.”

“It is gonna be the final surgery, because I can’t do it anymore,” Ozzy says. “Regardless of the way it ends after tomorrow, I’m not doing it anymore.”

Ozzy’s health, which has also been impacted by Parkinson’s disease, has kept him from playing a full live show for nearly five years. That wait was set to end at the upcoming Power Trip festival in October, but Ozzy dropped off the bill in July, saying, “My body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet.”

We’ll surely get an update on the outcome of the surgery in the next episode of The Osbournes, which airs weekly on Tuesdays. The podcast also features Ozzy’s wife, Sharon, and their children Jack and Kelly.

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On This Day, September 19, 1979…

A series of five star-studded concerts opposing nuclear energy kicked off at New York’s Madison Square Garden. 

Organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy, an activist group made up of Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and John Hall, the concerts featured performances by Browne, Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Tom Petty and more. 

Two of the nights were recorded, with a triple album released in November 1979, followed by a documentary film, released in July of 1980.

Springsteen and The E Street Band also released a live album of their performance, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts, in November 2021.

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n 2022, Bryan Adams performed at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall for three nights, performing one of his classic albums in its entirety on each night. Now the entire experience is being made available as a live album, scheduled for a December 8 release.

Live At The Royal Albert Hall collects Bryan’s live performances of his albums Cuts Like a Knife, Into the Fire and Waking Up the Neighbours — a total of 35 songs. The package also comes with a Blu-ray of the performances, as well as a 32-page photo book.

The box set is available on four vinyl LPs, or on three CDs.  

A couple of preview videos are now available. They show Bryan and his band performing the title track of Into the Fire, as well as the song “Rebel” from that album, during what appears to be an onstage soundcheck at the Albert Hall.

Among the tracks in the box set are live performances of hits like “Cuts Like a Knife,” “Straight from the Heart,” “Everything I Do (I Do It For You),” “Heat of the Night” and “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started.”

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Desmond Child has helped artists like Bon Jovi, KISS, Cher and Aerosmith tell their stories through countless hit songs. Now he’s ready to tell his story with the release of his new memoir, Livin’ On A Prayer: Big Songs Big Life, dropping Tuesday, September 19. 

“It was part of this whole plan that I decided to do, which was to really focus on my legacy,” he tells ABC Audio about his decision to write his memoir. “And, you know, it was just that time.”

In addition to countless stories about songwriting, the book delves into Desmond’s “hardscrabble life,” as he describes it, being the son of a Cuban immigrant and single mother who, unlike her famous son, was a struggling songwriter. In fact, her struggles were part of what motivated Desmond.

“I swore that I’d succeed and take care of her. So that was my impetus,” he says. “I really wanted to be an artist because she was an artist. It wasn’t just about success.”

Desmond found that success writing for a variety of artists, in all different musical genres, though he says he doesn’t really have a favorite. “What I do concentrate on is the story, and I see a human being that wants to tell their story, and I concentrate on that,” he shares.

Desmond says there are a lot of artists he’d still love to work with, including Dua Lipa and Sam Smith, but he’d also be happy to reteam with musicians he’s worked with before, like Steven Tyler or Alice Cooper. 

“I have a great relationship with the artists I’ve worked with, and I never tire of seeing them anew,” he says. “How do we keep telling their story and transforming it into something fresh and new?” 

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Joe Walsh’s annual VetsAid concert is happening in November, and he’s giving fans a chance to come see it for free and to meet him, as well. 

The Eagles guitarist just launched a new contest where one lucky winner and a guest will get a VIP trip to San Diego for the show, including airfare and hotel. The prize also includes a meet-and-greet with Walsh, plus a signed merch package.

This year’s VetsAid is happening November 12 at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in San Diego, with a lineup that includes Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Walsh and special guest Stephen Stills, along with The War On Drugs, The Flaming Lips and Lucius.

To enter, fans need to donate $10 in support of VetsAid, which raises money for charities helping veterans. This year’s concert will specifically help organizations based in, or with operations on the ground in, Southern California.

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Singer Janis Ian has responded to the comments made by Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner in The New York Times, in which he suggested female artists weren’t “articulate enough” to be included in his new book, The Masters.

“Gee, guess I was never articulate enough for Jann,” she wrote on Facebook. “Guess (Joan) Baez wasn’t. Certainly Liz Phair, Dolly Parton have no way with words…” 

She writes about living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when the magazine first started, noting it was “like reading the old NY Post.” 

“I enjoyed a lot of it when it began, but some years later a friend who worked there told us ‘All Jann cares about now is landing the Volkswagen account. Forget it,'” she shares. “Money and being allowed to hang with ‘the boys’ were the important things, I suppose.”

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone magazine is distancing itself from its co-founder, making sure people know he “has not been directly involved in our operations since 2019.”

“Our purpose, especially since his departure, has been to tell stories that reflect the diversity of voices and experiences that shape our world,” they write on social media. “At Rolling Stone‘s core is the understanding that music above all can bring us together, not divide us.”

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