Classic Rock News

There was a time when an Alice in Chains concert was the perfect place for a rom-com meet-cute.

That time was 1992, and that rom-com was Singles, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this Sunday. At the time, the Cameron Crowe-directed movie was simply the story of a group of 20-somethings looking for love, but has since become a touchstone of the grunge era thanks to its Seattle setting, fashion and, of course, the music.

Singles was filmed in 1991, before Nirvana made “grunge” a household term when Nevermind was released later that year. By the time Singles was released in ’92, bands including Nirvana and Pearl Jam were among the biggest names in music.

Thanks to being on the Singles set, actor Bill Pullman had a head start on the grunge craze.

“I got cued in [to grunge] by doing the movie and saying, ‘What is this?'” Pullman tells ABC Audio.

“I think I have a line in there — I can’t remember — ‘What is this music, this “grudge” music?'” the Independence Day star continues. “And that was new, that whole grunge thing, that was kinda catching the wave.”

The soundtrack for Singles, which was released ahead of the film, features Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden; members of all three grunge titans appear in the movie. PJ’s Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament portray members of Citizen D***, the band fronted by Matt Dillon‘s character, Cliff Poncier, whose song “Touch Me I’m D***” is a play on grunge pioneers Mudhoney‘s track “Touch Me I’m Sick.”

Singles also produced Chris Cornell‘s fabled Poncier EP, a collection of songs he’d written for the movie, including the solo track “Seasons” and the future Soundgarden classic “Spoonman.” The Poncier songs were included in the 2017 deluxe Singles soundtrack reissue.

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Official details have been announced about the live broadcast of the 2022 Farm Aid festival, which takes place September 24 in Raleigh, North Carolina, at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek.

The sold-out event, which will include headlining performances from Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson, will be broadcast live for the second consecutive year on the Circle Network.

The festival will air starting at 7 p.m. ET, and the broadcast will feature live and prerecorded segments. The Circle Network’s social channels will also livestream Farm Aid throughout the day.

Other artists on the bill include Sheryl Crow, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. Matthews will be playing as a duo with his longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds.

Farm Aid is an annual benefit show that raises money for family farmers in the U.S. Founders Nelson, Mellencamp and Neil Young debuted the event in 1985. Young has dropped off the festival’s performance lineup for the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and longtime partner Chloe Mendel are now engaged.

Mendel revealed the news in an Instagram post, sharing that her recent 30th birthday celebration ended with “a wedding proposal.”

“Of course I said yes,” Mendel writes.

Corgan, 55, and Mendel have been together since 2013. They have two children: Augustus Juppiter and Philomena Clementine.

In related news, Corgan has shared an update on the status of the next Smashing Pumpkins album. Corgan describes the upcoming effort as a “33 song, three-act rock opera” that will be a “sequel” to the Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina records.

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Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, is criticizing his bandmates for allegedly trying to make money off the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Lydon, whose lyrics for the classic 1977 Sex Pistols song “God Save the Queen” sneeringly mocked the monarch, has posted a message on his social media pages declaring he “wishes to distance himself from any Sex Pistols activity which aims to cash in on Queen Elizabeth II’s death.”

The note continues, “The musicians in the band and their management have approved a number of requests against John’s wishes … In John’s view, the timing for endorsing any Sex Pistols requests for commercial gain in connection with ‘God Save The Queen’ in particular is tasteless and disrespectful to the Queen and her family at this moment in time.”

The message concludes, “John wrote the lyrics to this historical song, and while he has never supported the monarchy, he feels that the family deserves some respect in this difficult time, as would be expected for any other person or family when someone close to them has died.”

Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook responded to Lydon’s comments by issuing a  statement, which was shared with Blabbermouth.net: “We cannot understand what he would be referring to. Other than a couple requests for use of imagery or audio in news reports on The Queen and her impact on culture, there’s nothing new relating to ‘God Save The Queen’ being promoted or released in any way.”

The song features the infamous line, “God save the Queen/ she ain’t no human being,” but Lydon has recently praised Queen Elizabeth in the press.

Following her death last week, Lydon posted a tribute on Facebook that reads, “Rest in Peace Queen Elizabeth II. Send her victorious.”

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Late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins posthumously appears on Ozzy Osbourne‘s new album Patient Number 9, and according to producer Andrew Watt, there’s more where that came from.

Watt tells Rolling Stone that Hawkins collaborated with Ozzy on several other recordings that didn’t make the final Patient Number 9 track list and hints that they will eventually see the light of day.

“There’s a bunch of other stuff with Ozzy and Taylor, as well, that’s going to be used for another thing,” Watt shares.

Along with Hawkins, Patient Number 9 includes contributions from Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo. The album is out now.

Earlier this month, Foo Fighters held the first of two all-star tribute concerts in honor of Hawkins in London. The second show takes place in Los Angeles on September 27.

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Aerosmith launched its 2022 Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency on Wednesday night at the Dolby Live theater at the Park MGM resort.

The concert is one of eight dates the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers are playing at the Sin City venue in September and early October; the band has another eight-show engagement scheduled there in late November and early December.

Aerosmith originally was supposed play its first 2022 Las Vegas stand in June and July, but those concerts were canceled in May when it was announced that frontman Steven Tyler had entered a treatment facility after relapsing while recovering from foot surgery.

According to People, Tyler was in fine form at Wednesday’s show. The magazine notes he seemingly eluded to his substance abuse issues when he commented to the audience, “It’s either too much or too little all the time. I’m a big fan of too much.”

According to Setlists.fm, the band played a hit-packed, 17-song set that included such classics as “Back in the Saddle,” “Love in an Elevator,” “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” “Sweet Emotion,” “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Dream On” and “Walk This Way.”

Aerosmith also included covers of The Shangri‐Las‘ “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” and Fleetwood Mac‘s “Stop Messin’ Around” in the show, which featured immersive Dolby Atmos audio technology and 12-inch screens displaying never-before-seen visuals.

Leading up to the launch of the residency, the band played concert on September 4 in Bangor, Maine and September 8 at Boston’s Fenway Park. Their next Vegas concert takes place this Saturday, September 17.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com/Aerosmith.

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The Grateful Dead‘s “Meet-Up at the Movies” screening events are set to return this year for the first time since 2019.

The latest edition of the cinematic gathering, dubbed “Grateful Dead Meet-Up 2022,” will take place at select theaters around the world on November 1, with additional screenings to be held in the U.S., Canada and other locations on November 5.

This year’s event will feature film of an April 17, 1972 show at the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark — a performance that was part of the band’s legendary Europe ’72 tour.

Tickets for the screenings go on sale on Friday, September 23 at 10 a.m. ET at MeetUpattheMovies.com.

The 90-minute performance was The Grateful Dead’s first concert ever to be broadcast live and was shown on Danish television. The footage has been restored and color corrected in high-def, and the audio has been mixed and mastered from the original master tapes.

The Dead’s lineup at the time featured Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Donna Jean Godchaux and Keith Godchaux.

The set included the first live performance of “He’s Gone” as well as renditions of such other songs as “Ramble on Rose,” “Jack Straw” and “One More Saturday Night.” You can check out a video of the “One More Saturday Night” performance now on The Grateful Dead’s YouTube channel.

The “Grateful Dead Meet-Up 2022” event will bring to an end a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the band’s Europe ’72 live album. The commemoration also included the release of remastered versions of the original album as well as a 24-LP box set, exclusively available at Dead.net, that documents four full concerts from the trek.

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Foo Fighters have announced a new best-of compilation.

The collection is titled The Essential Foo Fighters and is due out October 28. The track list includes selections from every Foo Fighters album from their 1995 self-titled debut to 2021’s Medicine at Midnight, except for 2014’s Sonic Highways.

The CD version consists of 19 tracks, while the vinyl edition features 21. Both formats include two versions of the Foo standard “Everlong”: the original Colour and the Shape recording and an acoustic rendition.

Foo Fighters previously released a best-of record, titled Greatest Hits, in 2009.

News of The Essential Foo Fighters comes in between the band’s two tribute concerts to late drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in March. The first show took place in London on September 3, and the second will be held in Los Angeles on September 27.

Here’s the track list for The Essential Foo Fighters:

“Everlong”
“Making a Fire”
“Times Like These”
“Rope”
“Monkey Wrench”
“My Hero”
“Cold Day in the Sun”
“Big Me”
“Long Road to Ruin”
“Shame Shame”
“Best of You”
“All My Life”
“The Pretender”
“This Is a Call”
“Waiting on a War”*
“Walk”
“Learn to Fly”
“The Sky Is a Neighborhood”
“Breakout”*
“These Days”
“Everlong (Acoustic)”

* = vinyl version only.

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The reissue of Pink Floyd‘s classic 1977 concept album Animals, featuring a 5.1 Surround Sound mix created in 2018, gets released in multiple formats this Friday, September 16.

Along with the updated mix, the reissue boasts a reimagined and updated version of Animals‘ memorable cover art, which featured a photo of London’s massive Battersea Power Station with a giant inflatable pig tied to its chimneys.

Both covers were created by Aubrey “Po” Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis, the graphic-design firm that has worked on most of the band’s albums.

The new cover features an ominous-looking recent photo of the building, which is covered in scaffolding, taken at night from a different angle than the original pic, with the pig added digitally.

Powell tells ABC Audio that he had to act fast to get a good current photo of the building because the site is in the middle of a “massive regeneration project” that’s obscuring the view of the station.

Powell says the new photo reflects Animals‘ cynical look at humanity, which was partly inspired by George Orwell‘s dystopian novel Animal Farm.

“I think the reflection of the image is very much related to the album, this Orwellian, dark, bleak, futuristic image,” he notes. “It’s almost sci-fi … Roger [Waters is] over the moon about it, and I think one of the reasons is because [it echoes] the period of time that we live in.”

Powell adds that Pink Floyd’s other members also think the new cover was great.

In addition, Powell says the cover reflects the edgier, more in-your-face new Animals mix, which, he maintains, “sounds so different and so good.”

The Animals reissue will be available Friday on CD, vinyl LP, Blu-ray and SACD. A deluxe multiple-disc package will follow on October 7.

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