R.E.M.’s Peter Buck releases second album with singer Joseph Arthur

R.E.M.’s Peter Buck releases second album with singer Joseph Arthur
Cover of ‘Arthur Buck 2’/(Lonely Astronaut )

R.E.M.’s Peter Buck has once again collaborated with musician Joseph Arthur under the moniker Buck Arthur, releasing their second album, Arthur Buck 2.

Coinciding with the album’s Friday release, Buck Arthur has dropped a video for the track “Where Did You Go?,” a black-and-white clip that follows Arthur as he runs down a tree-lined road while singing the song.

Arthur Buck 2 is the follow-up to the artists’ 2018 self-titled release. The new album was produced by Jacknife Lee, who produced R.E.M.’s 2008 album, Accelerate, as well as their final album, 2011’s Collapse Into Now.

But that’s not the only music we’re getting from Buck. He is part of the new band Drink The Sea, which also features Screaming Trees‘ Barrett Martin, Eleven‘s Alain Johannes and others. The second part of their self-titled debut album, Drink The Sea II, is out now. It features 11 new songs recorded at the same time as Drink The Sea I, which was released in September.

The group is set to launch a U.S. tour in 2026, kicking off Jan. 30 in Seattle. 

 

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George Harrison tries ‘to do a Smokey’ on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’

George Harrison tries ‘to do a Smokey’ on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
The Beatles ‘Anthology Collection’ cover/(Capitol Records)

 

The Beatles have shared yet another tune from their upcoming Anthology reissue.

The legendary band has released an alternate take on the classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” the George Harrison-penned track that originally appeared on 1968’s The Beatles aka the White Album.

The clip, titled “While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Take 27),” opens with Harrison giving someone his meal order. He says, “I’ll just have cheese and lettuce and Marmite sandwich and coffee.” It ends with the band cutting the song short after Harrison tries to hit a high note, with Harrison joking, “It’s OK, I sang, tried to do a Smokey and I just aren’t Smokey.”

A post on Instagram explains that this version has Harrison “attempting to channel his musical hero Smokey Robinson.

This is the second bonus track The Beatles have shared from the upcoming Anthology rerelease. They previously released “Helter Skelter (Second Version – Take 17).”

The Beatles will release the Anthology Collection box set on Nov. 21, featuring the original three Anthology albums, plus a new fourth installment, Anthology 4, that includes 13 previously unreleased tracks. The set will be released digitally and as a 12-LP or eight-CD collection.

Anthology 4 will also be released on its own, as a three-LP or two-CD set, featuring 36 tracks, including the previously unreleased recordings.

All formats are available for preorder now.

In addition to the Anthology music collection, a restored and remastered version of the eight-part Anthology documentary, which aired on ABC in 1995, will debut Nov. 26 on Disney+ with a new ninth episode. A 25th anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology book will be released Oct. 1.

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Guns N’ Roses to reissue 1999 live album, ‘Guns N’ Roses – Live Era ’87-’93’

Guns N’ Roses to reissue 1999 live album, ‘Guns N’ Roses – Live Era ’87-’93’
Cover of ‘Guns N’ Roses – Live Era ’87-93’/(UMe/Geffen)

Guns N’ Roses is set to reissue their first-ever live album.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will drop Guns N’ Roses – Live Era ’87-’93 on Nov. 21, featuring a newly remastered version of the live album, originally released in 1999. The set features 23 live tracks, including performances of such hits as “November Rain,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Welcome To the Jungle,” “Don’t Cry” and “Paradise City.”

The album, remastered from the original stereo analog master tapes, will be released in a variety of formats, including standard four-LP and premium four-LP colored vinyl, the latter coming in an embossed slipcase, with a poster.

The album will also be released digitally, featuring the remastered album, along with the bonus track “Coma,” which was previously only available on the 1999 vinyl release and as a Japan-exclusive bonus track. This will mark the first time the performance is getting a digital release.

Guns N’ Roses – Live Era ’87-’93 is available for preorder now.

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Bruce Springsteen recalls his first and only karaoke experience

Bruce Springsteen recalls his first and only karaoke experience
Bruce Springsteen and Jeremy Allen White on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’/(ABC/Randy Holmes)

 You’d think folks would be excited to see Bruce Springsteen taking part in some karaoke, but apparently that just wasn’t the case.

Springsteen appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday, where he shared the story of his first and only karaoke experience, noting it happened in a small bar in London.

“I decided I was going to do The Temptations‘ ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,’” The Boss said. “And so I assume, I’m gonna get up there, I’m going to sing a few notes and this place is going to go wild. So I got up there, I started singing and they thought I was just another a****** who got up onstage and was trying to do karaoke.”

He added, “So it was really disappointing. I’ve never done it again.”

Springsteen was on Kimmel with Jeremy Allen White, who plays him in the upcoming movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Springsteen was a constant presence on the film’s set and said he feels a little bad about.

“I felt a little guilty about that because I was on the set quite a bit,” Springsteen said. “And I’m going, here’s the guy, the guy’s not only trying, playing me, but he’s got to play me while my stupid a** is sitting in the chair next to him.”

Springsteen then apologized to White, adding, “You did a great job. He really tolerated me on the set.”

But Jeremy said that while he first felt nervous about Bruce being around, “I very quickly realized, like, his presence was permission. And, you know, it would have been strange if he was so close to us the whole time and he wasn’t with us while we were filming. So I’m very grateful for it.”

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere opens Oct. 24.

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On This Day, Oct. 3, 1980: The Police releases their third studio album ‘Zenyattà Mondatta’

On This Day, Oct. 3, 1980: The Police releases their third studio album ‘Zenyattà Mondatta’

On This Day, Oct. 3, 1990…

The Police released their third studio album, Zenyattà Mondatta, which peaked at #5 on the U.S. charts, making it the band’s highest charting album in the U.S. at that time.

The album produced two hit singles, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” which both peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the band’s first two top-10 hits.

Although not released as singles, two other tracks became popular with fans: “Driven to Tears,” which became a top-40 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, and “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around,” which hit #3 on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart.

Zenyattà Mondatta, which was certified double Platinum by the RIAA, earned The Police two Grammy wins: best rock performance by a duo or group for “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” and best rock instrumental performance for the album track “Behind They Came.”

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Green Day announces 25th anniversary ’Warning’ reissue

Green Day announces 25th anniversary ’Warning’ reissue
‘Warning’ album artwork. (Reprise Records)

As previously teased, Green Day has announced a 25th anniversary reissue of their 2000 album, Warning.

The expanded set is due out Nov. 14 as five-LP vinyl and four-CD packages, as well as digitally. The track list includes the original album remastered, along with various demos, rarities and alternate mixes, plus a live recording from a 2001 show in Tokyo.

You can listen to the demo of a song called “Castaway” now.

Warning was first released Oct. 3, 2000, 25 years ago Friday. Although initially considered a commercial disappointment — it was the first Green Day album to not get certified at least Platinum by the RIAA since their Diamond breakout album Dookie was released in 1994 — Warning has since undergone a critical reevaluation, and spawned one of the band’s most played live songs in “Minority.”

Whatever commercial failings Warning might have had at the time, Green Day reestablished themselves as one of rock’s biggest bands with their follow-up album, 2004’s seminal American Idiot.

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Foo Fighters release ‘Are Playing Where??? Vol. I’ live EP

Foo Fighters release ‘Are Playing Where??? Vol. I’ live EP
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (ABC/Randy Holmes)

Foo Fighters have released a new live EP called Are Playing Where??? Vol. I.

The six-track set was recorded during Dave Grohl and company’s recent run of last-minute pop-up shows, which took place in San Luis Obispo and Santa Ana, California, Washington, D.C. and New Haven, Connecticut.

Those concerts marked the Foos’ first with new drummer Ilan Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails. Rubin replaced drummer Josh Freese, who was let go from the band in May after joining in 2023 following the 2022 death of Taylor Hawkins.

Freese, incidentally, has returned to Nine Inch Nails, with whom he’d previously played from 2005 to 2008.

You can listen to Are Playing Where??? Vol. I now via Bandcamp.

Foo Fighters are currently on tour in Asia.

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Paul McCartney to release limited-edition copies of new Wings book

Paul McCartney to release limited-edition copies of new Wings book
Cover of ‘Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run’/(Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company)

Paul McCartney is set to revisit his post-Beatles career with the new book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, and now fans have a chance to get their hands on a very special edition of the release.

The book’s publisher, Liveright, has announced that 175 numbered copies of the book signed by McCartney will be available throughout the U.S., although getting your hands on one may not be easy.

Liveright has released the list of stores that will carry copies of this rare signed book. Some stores will be auctioning it off, others are making it available for presale and at least one is asking those interested to register for a chance to buy it.

Each limited-edition copy will come in a cloth case with a screen print, and will include a booklet of Wings-era album and single artwork. There’s also an exclusive color vinyl of the upcoming Wings compilation LP, and a special enamel pin and embroidered patch.

Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, out Nov. 4, is described as “a landmark account” of McCartney’s “triumphant musical reinvention in the 1970s and the subsequent rise of one of the decade’s most iconic bands.” It contains over 150 photographs, including some never-before-seen shots, as well as memorabilia, like handwritten lyrics and pages from Paul’s diary.

McCartney is also celebrating Wings with a new anthology album, simply titled Wings, that will be released Nov. 24 digitally and as a three-LP or two-CD set. There will also be a three-LP, limited-edition color vinyl version; a Blu-ray that will feature the first-ever Dolby Atmos mixes of the songs; and one-LP and one-CD versions of the album.

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‘Buckingham Nicks’ debuts in top 5 on several ‘Billboard’ charts

‘Buckingham Nicks’ debuts in top 5 on several ‘Billboard’ charts
Cover of 1973’s ‘Buckingham Nicks’/(Rhino Records)

When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham released their debut album, Buckingham Nicks, in 1973, it failed to make any sort of significant appearance on the album charts. But more than 50 years later, that has all changed.

According to Billboard, the recent reissue of Buckingham Nicks has made an appearance on several charts, including the Top Album Sales chart, where it debuted at #3 after moving 30,000 copies in the U.S.

Buckingham Nicks did even better on several other charts, including the Top Rock Albums, Indie Store Album Sales and Catalog Albums charts, where it debuted at #1, and the Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Vinyl Albums charts, where it landed at #2.

As for the all-genre Billboard 200, Buckingham Nicks just missed the top 10, debuting at #11.

Buckingham Nicks is the only album the former couple released as a duo. It eventually led to them being invited to join Fleetwood Mac.

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The Yardbirds’ Chris Dreja dies at age 79

The Yardbirds’ Chris Dreja dies at age 79
English rock group The Yardbirds posed by the gates of Marble Arch in London in 1967. Members of the group are, from left, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf, Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja. (Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns)

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page is paying tribute to Chris Dreja, his former bandmate in the Yardbirds, who has passed away at age 79.

“I heard today of the passing of musician Chris Dreja, who passionately played with the iconic Yardbirds, on rhythm guitar and then the bass,” Page wrote on Instagram. “I hadn’t seen him in a while, and I wish I had. RIP Chris.”

Dreja was a co-founder of the Yardbirds, which formed in London in 1963. In addition to Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were early members of the group, although they both eventually left. Other members included vocalist/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith.

For Your Love, the band’s debut album in the U.S., was released in 1965. The title track became a top-10 hit. Other hit songs by the band include “Heart Full of Soul,” “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down.”

Dreja, who co-authored several of the band’s songs, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992. He was part of the reformation of the group in 1992 and continued to perform with them until 2012, when he suffered a series of strokes that left him unable to perform.

Outside of music, Dreja had a career as a photographer. He is responsible for the photo on the back cover of Led Zeppelin’s debut album. He also worked with Andy Warhol, and photographed such artists as Bob Dylan, the Righteous Brothers, and Ike and Tina Turner.

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