Classic Rock 93.9

They’re definitely not the target demo, but it appears that even Rock & Roll Hall of Famers in their 70s can’t resist the lure of Barbie.

The Kinks‘ Dave Davies posted a video on his socials that shows him inside an animated Barbie movie digital frame. As it moves, the 76-year-old rocker appears to be holding up a little pink flower.  The video is set to The Kinks’ 1964 version of Chuck Berry‘s “Too Much Monkey Business.”

“I had a lot of fun watching Barbie,” Davies writes in the caption. “I’m a big fan of Ryan Gosling.. he had a quirky part. Nice to see Michael Cera as Allen.”

Fans seemed to appreciate the post, with one writing, “Dave is the real g. Keeping up with the youngsters.”  Another wrote, “This Ken is an iconic guitarist,” while another raved, “This is the greatest post I’ve ever seen.”

No word on whether or not Davies caught a “Barbenheimer” double feature while he was at the theater.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Metallic Spheres, a 2010 collaborative album by Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour and the British ambient techno act The Orb, is getting a fresh look.

The album has been “reimagined” and remixed, and will be released on September 29 as Metallic Spheres In Colour. The new version has been overseen by The Orb founder Alex Paterson and Youth, who produced the original album.

In a statement, Youth says, “The idea for Metallic Spheres In Colour, was that Alex Paterson could have done more on the first version, and he didn’t really have the opportunity because we had a philosophy of making the music like the Blade Runner soundtrack meets Wish You Were Here. So, I asked him, ‘Why don’t we remix it and make it like an Orb classic?’ And in doing that, it’s almost like a completely different album.”

An excerpt from one of the album’s suites, “Metallic Spheres In Colour: Movement 1,” is now available. It comes with a trippy animated video created by Kavi Karnapuradas, who is both a graphic designer and a Hare Krishna monk.

The original album came from a musical project Gilmour was involved in that was designed to raise money to support the case of Gary McKinnon, a British hacker who was facing extradition to the U.S. The proceeds from Metallic Spheres, the album that grew out of that project, were donated to that effort; the extradition was later overturned and McKinnon escaped prosecution in the U.K.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Nita Strauss is known as a guitar virtuoso, but she didn’t take her first guitar lesson until after she joined Alice Cooper‘s band.

In an interview with Guitar Player, Strauss shares that she decided to take lessons after a conversation she had with longtime Cooper producer Bob Ezrin when she first joined the band in 2014.

“He said, ‘Alice Cooper doesn’t need a shred guitar player. He needs a rock guitar player. Can you become a rock guitar player in time?'” Strauss recalls. “I said, ‘Absolutely. I know I can do it.'”

“This was two weeks before the start of the Alice Cooper-Mötley Crüe tour,” she continues. “When I hung up the phone, I was in a daze. I remember looking at my phone and thinking, Wow… Bob Ezrin just told me I don’t know how to play rock guitar.”

While that conversation didn’t necessarily boost Strauss’ confidence, it did lead her to search for a guitar teacher.

“I was like, ‘I need to figure out what he means — a ‘rock guitar player,”” Strauss says. “I called around and found a great teacher. I came in and showed him my audition videos. I said, ‘What the f*** does he mean?'”

“My teacher was the first person to really teach me how to incorporate blues licks into my playing, like adding the blues note into the minor pentatonic scale — these little licks and things,” Strauss explains. “AC/DC riffs, KISS riffs and licks. Ace Frehley’s stuff worked seamlessly with my style of playing, but they added that extra nuance that made it feel a bit more like a classic-rock vibe.”

Alice Cooper is currently on tour with Rob Zombie. The “School’s Out” rocker released a new album, Road, in August.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.