Classic Rock News

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea is hosting a new podcast.

According to Rolling Stone, the upcoming series is titled This Little Light and will premiere March 30. Over its 15-episode run, Flea will be talking with guests including Patti Smith, producer Rick Rubin, actor and musician Cynthia Erivo and bass virtuoso Thundercat about how music factored into their early lives.

“I wanted to do This Little Light to benefit my music school, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music,” Flea says. “The idea behind it being music education, falling in love with music and embarking on a musical journey for your life. Everybody’s path is so different, and it’s fascinating to learn how every musician came to music and developed their study of it over time.”

In addition to hearing Flea on the podcast platform of your choice, you can also see him live on RHCP’s upcoming U.S. tour, launching in April. The group will be supporting their two 2022 albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen.

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Roger Waters‘ recent comments about the war in Ukraine and his alleged antisemitism haven’t just raised the ire of fans and his former bandmate David Gilmour: Germany isn’t too thrilled with him either.

The German news site DW.com reports that local politicians in Cologne, Germany, want to cancel a Waters concert scheduled to take place May 9. The city council’s members have sent an open letter to the manager of the venue where Waters is set to play, asking them to “do everything they can to prevent the concert” and questioning why the concert’s organizers would give Waters a platform.

It’s worth noting, though, that since the venue is private, the city council has no say in whether or not the concert takes place.

In addition, DW.com reports that an alliance of Jewish groups are calling for the cancellation of a Waters concert scheduled for Frankfurt in late May. In a statement, the alliance accuses Waters of antisemitic propaganda and of expressing “hostility toward Jews” at events. 

The alliance refers to Waters as an “antisemitic conspiracy theorist and Israel-hater” and argues that “protecting human dignity in the public sphere” outweighs “freedom of expression.”

The Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media told a local paper that she can’t ban Waters’ concerts, but she’d like to see concert promoters stop booking him — and if they can’t do that, she’d like to see him “play to empty halls.”

Waters has said, among other things, that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine was “provoked.” He has actively called on musicians not to perform in Israel.

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U2 is busy prepping a new album and a Las Vegas residency, but on Tuesday, Bono took time out from their busy schedule to present director Steven Spielberg with a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival.

According to Deadline, Bono gave Spielberg the festival’s Honorary Golden Bear and then launched into a detailed explanation of why he loves the director’s work so much.

He started by praising Spielberg’s 1974 film, The Sugarland Express, which stars Goldie Hawn as a mother who, desperate to reunite with her son, takes a policeman hostage.

“I watch the mother’s face and it’s projected 30 feet tall. The mother is played by the great Goldie Hawn, but all I see is my own mother, as I saw her as a child, gigantic, imperfect,” Bono recalled of watching the film. “I cry though my heart is full of joy because I know that my own mother will always come looking for me. That is pure cinema. No, that is pure Spielberg.”

The singer also professed his love for Spielberg’s film A.I., about a child robot who’s programmed to love the woman to whom he’s given.

“In A.I., the boy is a machine who develops a soul, so he can love his mother back to life. In the machine that is Hollywood. Steven Spielberg is the soul in the machine,” he noted.

Bono then said of Spielberg, “He’s kind of out of this world. He’s not really a celebrity, is he? Thank God for that. We know he’s one of the biggest of the big shots in Hollywood, but we get the sense he doesn’t quite belong there and we’re kind of relieved.”

Bono was at the film festival for the premiere of Kiss the Future, about U2’s 1997 concert in Sarajevo.

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As previously reported, Peter Gabriel is the executive editor of a new book called Reverberation: Do Everything Better with Music, for which he’s also penned a foreward. Now we have a release date for the project: March 14.

The book’s concept is that if you incorporate the right music into your life, you can sleep better, become more creative, be more productive and even have better sex. In fact, it promises to share “specific songs and techniques” to make this happen.

“Reverberation unlocks a world where we can all actively leverage the power of music to improve and enhance every aspect of your life,” according to the book’s website.

Reverberation is based on interviews with neuroscientists who are making “exciting breakthroughs” at the “intersection of music, science, technology and medicine.” Also included are interviews with musicians like David Byrne, Mick Fleetwood, Branford Marsalis and Sheila E.

You can check out some excerpts from the book at Reverberation.co, while you listen to Gabriel’s song “Lead a Normal Life” from his 1980 self-titled album aka Melt.

Gabriel is also prepping for the release his long-awaited new album i/o, though he has yet to reveal its release date. So far, he’s put out two songs from it: “The Court (Dark-Side Mix)” and “Panopticom.” When it arrives, i/o will be his first album of new original music in 20 years.

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Loaded, one of the most acclaimed Velvet Underground albums — and the band’s last with Lou Reed — has been repackaged into a massive nine-LP box set featuring demos, outtakes and live recordings, including some coming to vinyl for the first time.

The box set, due March 24, includes almost all the material from the 45th anniversary edition CD Loaded: Re-Loaded, released in 2015. Called LOADED (FULLY RELOADED), it’s limited to only 1,970 numbered copies available exclusively via Rhino.com.

Weighing in at a hefty $250, the package comes in a foil-wrapped slipcase containing the nine albums, a poster of the album’s cover art and an illustrated booklet with liner notes by writer and Patti Smith Group member Lenny Kaye. There are also four 7-inch singles that reproduce the official singles released from Loaded, including the classics “Rock & Roll” and “Sweet Jane.”

Among the nine LPs are three different versions of the original album: remastered stereo and mono mixes, plus a version that includes extended versions of “Sweet Jane,” “Rock & Roll” and “New Age.” The demos and alternate mixes include some songs that eventually appeared on Reed’s 1972 self-titled solo debut album.

The live tracks come from two different shows. One of them, recorded six months before Loaded‘s November 1970 release, features the band performing as a trio, as drummer Moe Tucker was pregnant. Those tracks include early versions of “Rock & Roll” and “New Age.”

The second batch of live tracks come from a show at New York’s Max’s Kansas City on August 23, 1970, the day Reed left the band. It includes live versions of Velvets staples like “White Light/White Heat,” “Pale Blue Eyes” and “I’m Waiting for The Man” as well as “Sweet Jane.”

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Foo Fighters are headlining Canada’s 2023 RBC Bluesfest, taking place July 6-16 in Ottawa.

The bill also includes Radiohead offshoot group The Smile, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Weezer, Death Cab for Cutie, Mumford & Sons, AJR and White Reaper.

For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit OttawaBluesfest.ca.

RBC Bluesfest is one of several festivals Foo Fighters are playing this year as part of their live comeback following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March. They’re also headlining Bonnaroo and Boston Calling, among others.

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Jethro Tull has released a new single from their forthcoming album RökFlöte, due out April 21.

Tull’s Ian Anderson previously explained that the songs on the album were inspired by “the characters and roles of some of the principle gods of the old Norse paganism.” On Instagram, he writes that the lyrics of the new song, called “The Navigators,” “explore the Norse god Njord, who was the god of wealth, fertility, the sea and seafaring.”

The animated video for the song takes place on the tempest-tossed, shark-filled sea, where Viking ships, and then a more modern vessel, attempt to survive a storm.

Anderson sings, “Lord of all the stormy deeps/the wealth of ages at his knee/Protects and nurtures navigators/Raiders bold who loot and plunder/Giving strength to hold at bay/the tallest wave, the savage thunder.”

“The Navigators” follows the first single released from the album, “Ginnungagap.”

RökFlöte is now available for preorder.

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In addition to reimagining 40 of their songs for their upcoming album Songs of Surrender, U2 have also reimagined the visuals to go with them.

On Tuesday, U2 posted a trailer on on its socials, captioned, “40 songs re-recorded by us, re-imagined by you. 40 artists and creators from across the globe were commissioned by the band to create a video piece for each track on Songs of Surrender.” 

The trailer is soundtracked to the Songs of Surrender version of “Stories for Boys,” which originally appeared on U2’s 1979 debut release, the U2 3 EP and was then rerecorded for their 1980 debut album Boy.

You can track the release of all the visuals on a dedicated YouTube playlist, which so far contains the videos for “Pride (In the Name of Love” and “With or Without You.” Both those videos involve dance — although, according to the trailer, others are animated, others feature stunning landscapes, and some include special effects.

Songs of Surrender arrives March 17. Meanwhile, U2’s Las Vegas residency — focused on the songs from Achtung Baby — starts this fall.

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Graham Nash has dropped a new single called “Right Now,” from his new album, simply titled Now. It’ll be out May 19 and is available to pre-order now.

This will be the legendary singer’s first new studio album since 2016’s This Path Tonight. Last year, he put out a live album that featured him performing his first two solo releases — Songs for Beginners and Wild Tales — in their entireties.

On Facebook, Nash says Now is “the most personal album I’ve ever recorded.” He adds, “My life is a dream. I wake up in the morning and get on with my life. I check the news around the world, check in with my friends and write about stuff that I need to write about. Here’s to another chapter.”

Nash will kick off a tour April 12 in Phoenixville, PA. Called Sixty Years of Songs and Stories, it’ll celebrate Nash’s six-decade career, starting from his first single with The Hollies.

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It’s the collaboration that every rock fan has dreamed of for 60 years: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones together on an album. Well, sort of. 

Multiple sources tell Variety that Paul McCartney has recorded bass parts for the album the Stones are working on, which is being produced by Ozzy Osbourne/Iggy Pop/Elton John producer Andrew Watt. What’s more, Ringo Starr is also set to play on the album. 

Of course, the Stones lost their drummer, Charlie Watts, in 2021, and they’ve been without a permanent bass player since Bill Wyman left the group after their 1989-1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour.

Variety reports that the sessions with McCartney took place in LA recently. It’s not definite which songs will actually make the final cut for the album or whether or not Ringo and Paul might play on the same songs. The publication reports that the album is getting close to its mixing phase, but it’s not clear when it’ll be released.

While the Stones, McCartney and Ringo have known each other since the ’60s, the catalyst for the collaboration might have been Watt: McCartney said in 2021 and 2022 that he’d been working with the Grammy-winning producer.

The new project, when it emerges, will be the Stones’ first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Their last new album, 2016’s Blue & Lonesome, was an album of blues covers.

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