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RNR News and Notes

Foo Fighters Briefly Cover Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" at Bonnaroo: Watch

Foo Fighters closed out Bonaroo 2023 with an epic 19 song set (at this point what FF set isn't epic though).  But in addition to a Taylor Hawkins tribute and a guest appearance by Paramore's Hayley Williams - the band found time to squeeze in a short cover of the Beastie Boys classic - Sabotage.  

 

“Fuck, let’s do it — go, Nate, go,” Dave Grohl cued bassist Nate Mendel to kick off the song’s opening riff with Grohl doing his best Ad-Rock impersonation.

 

He only made it a few lines before pulling the plug, saying “I can’t fucking rap and I don’t know the song, though I love it ... Next year, we’ll come back to Bonnaroo, we’ll play at the fucking ‘Wha-What Stage’ and we’ll do a whole Beastie Boys set, how about that?”  

 

Talk about what we want :P 

 

 

Taylor Hawkins' Son Shane Joined Foo Fighters for 'I'll Stick Around' at Boston Calling - Watch

The Foo Fighters just launched their first tour since the passing of their drummer - Taylor Hawkins - and during their headlining gig at the Boston Calling festival - the band paid tribute to him by bringing out his son Shane ... 

 

“How about we do a song with one of my favorite drummers in the world? Would you guys please welcome Shane Hawkins,” Grohl told the crowd before the band — after some extensive tinkering on the drum set — launched into Foo Fighters’ “I’ll Stick Around.”

 

 

 

“We’ve been in this band so long, we really are a family,” Dave Grohl said during the set. “And our families are with us tonight, because we need to do this together.”

Watch The Cure Debut '90s Outtake "Another Happy Birthday" In LA

The Cure are on their first  North American tour since 2016 and while their setlists have been heavy on the hits, Robert Smith & co. have  been slipping in some surprises along the way.  This week - at the Hollywood Bowl -  the band  debuted a ’90s outtake called “Another Happy Birthday,” which has only existed in instrumental demo form before this.

 

 

 

In an old MTV News interview with Smith from 1997, he mentioned “Another Happy Birthday” and said it was “unlike anything the Cure have done before” and that “it’s not a verse-chorus-verse type of song, but more fluid.”

Noel Gallagher Debunks Oasis Reunion Rumor, Calls 1975 Frontman Matty Healy a "slack-jawed fuckwit"

The ever feuding Gallagher brothers were back in the news this week  British tabloid The Sun published a report saying that an Oasis reunion was in the works, with the brothers Gallagher planning to get back together for a four-night run of concerts in 2025. Not long after that report came out, Noel Gallagher was asked about the possibility of a reunion  and was quick to debunk the rumor - 

 

“Well, I put it out there. [Liam] won’t call… I mean, he should call me, because he’s like, he’s forever going on about it,” he said. “You’d have thought by now, he’d have some kind of plan…” 

 

“He doesn’t have to speak to me. He won’t speak to me, he’s a coward,” Noel continued. “So he should get some of his people, his agent, to call my people and say, ‘Look, this is what we’re thinking.’ And then we’ll have a conversation about it. Until then, he’s being a little bit disingenuous.”

 

Liam - not one to be outdone - replied via Twitter: 

“I don’t wish AIDS on people I turn up and play the MUSIC for the people of MANCHESTER who have just had a terror attack while you sit on your dingy sipping champagne and you got the audacity to call me a COWARD sit down you ???? end” 

 

And in the replies, he went in deeper: “Exactly soon as the witch ????‍?? has took HALF hell be the 1 doing the calling” and when someone responded that the reunion was dead in the water, Liam said: “Reunion he hates oasis fans he’s full of shit” and emphasized the same message in another reply: “He’s full of shit he HATES oasis fans doesn’t mind them buying his records.”

 

So how does The 1975 fit into this feud? A few months ago, the band’s singer Matty Healy said that the Gallagher brothers should “stop marding” and get back together.  When asked about the comments in a SPIN interview, Noel  responsed: “Oh, that fucking slack-jawed fuckwit. What did he say?” Upon learning what Healy said, Noel continues: “He would never be able to imagine [Oasis remaining broken up]. He needs to go over how shit his band is and split up.”

 

I for one think the Gallagher marding is more entertaining than an Oasis reunion

 

 

 

Joni Mitchell Releases "Both Sides Now" from Upcoming New Live LP, 'At Newport,'

 

At last summer's Newport Folk Festival, Joni Mitchell stunned attendees when she returned to the stage for the first time in 20 years and now we have learned the 13 song set will be featured on a new  Brandi Carlile produced live album - At Newport, due out July 28.  

 

The album includes linear notes from rock journalist Cameron Crowe, who said - 

“Mitchell emerged from the side of the stage, swaying smoothly, in fine summer-style with beret and sunglasses. Her good-natured mood instantly set the tone. This performance would be an intimate gathering of friends, not unlike the Joni Jams she’d been hosting in her own living room over the last few years of recovery ... Smiling broadly, Mitchell made her surprise appearance, taking her on-stage seat alongside Carlile. Within minutes, the news had rocketed around the globe. Mitchell was back, sparkling with enthusiasm, delivering a tender and passionate set of 13 songs, ending with a joyful sing-along of ‘The Circle Game' ...” 

 

 

 

Pretenders Announce New Album, Share New Song: Listen

Pretenders have announced their first new album in three years -  Relentless.   The album isn't out until September 1 but this week they released lead single “Let the Sun Come In” - stream it below 

 

 

Hynde stated of the album’s title in a press release - 

“I enjoy seeing the various meanings and origins of a word .. And I liked the definition: ‘showing no abatement of intensity.’ So when it came to an album title, it seemed fitting. You know… to keep doing it. I think anyone in a band is constantly questioning if they should keep going. It starts as a youthful pursuit and eventually, it makes you wonder, why am I doing this? It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.”

 

On the album's closing track “I Think About You Daily” which includes a string section arranged and conducted by Radiohead and the Smile’s Jonny Greenwood - Hynde said - 

 

“I met Jonny a couple of times and we’re obviously big fans of him because he’s done some incredible music over the years.  I saw him at the Phantom Thread premiere where the film was running on screen with a live orchestra playing. And we spoke afterward and he expressed an interest in doing something one day. I was thrilled and very surprised. So when we had the idea of getting strings on ‘I Think About You Daily,’ he was first choice. Legend!”

 

 

 

Relentless:

01 Losing My Sense of Taste
02 A Love
03 Domestic Silence
04 The Copa
05 Promise of Love
06 Merry Widow
07 Let the Sun Come In
08 Look Away
09 Your House Is on Fire
10 Just Let It Go
11 Vainglorious
12 I Think About You Daily

The White Stripes' Lyrics Collected in New Book

Lyrics to The White Stripes’ impressive song catalog are getting the book treatment this year, via The White Stripes Complete Lyrics due out in October  from Third Man Books.  Check out a preview HERE

Jack White’s words to his catalog with drummer Meg White will be presented with photos, alternate versions, and rough drafts, along with essays from Hanif Abdurraqib, Caroline Randall Williams, and Ben Blackwell.  

Billy Strings Shares Collaborative Single with Willie Nelson On Legend's 90th Birthday

Country music legend Willie Nelson just turned 90 and is showing no signs of slowing down.  He celebrated his birthday with two star-studded concerts in Los Angeles and will hit the road yet again this summer with his Outlaw Music Festival.  

 

One of the musicians appearing at Willie's bday is bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings who just released a new collaborative single with the legenge titled “California Sober.”

 

 

Posting on social media, Strings expressed his gratitude for getting to record with Nelson and shared a heartfelt tribute to the country music icon:

 

“I’m so honored to have made this song with Willie Nelson. We’re gearing up to celebrate this living legend’s 90th birthday this weekend in L.A. and he’s still out here kicking ass. What an absolute treasure and inspiration to us all. I can’t really find the right words to describe how much this means to me.  Like most of us, I grew up exposed to Willie’s music, a little boy hearing my dad sing ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ at the request of grandpa Bill sitting there with a cold beer in one hand and one of his lil’ pinner joints in the other with a big smile through the whiskers on his red face. I wish grandpa was still alive. We’d be kicking up a fuss!!”

Watch The White Stripes' 2005 'From the Basement' in full

In the late 2000s - Nigel Godrich started a  web series featuring live sets from an amazing array of musicians.  From White Denim to Warpaint - From the Basement is a who's who of rock and roll.  Godrich has been uploading the performances to YouTube - including the series first episode from 2005  with The White Stripes.

 

The Get Behind Me Satan heavy set also includes their cover of Captain Beefheart's "Party of Special Things to Do."

 

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Godrich said, "The dream of From the Basement is to capture great performances with the most direct and beautiful coverage possible, both sonically and visually. We were so fortunate early on to have the support of Jack and Meg who instinctively understood the concept of the show and so came to be part of it. As a result, we have this amazing snapshot of their fantastic energy and style. It’s an intimate and direct performance, something magic, powerful and special. A day I will not forget."

 

Jack White said "It was beautifully filmed and the sound quality makes a performance on a regular TV show sound like a wax cylinder recording...No host. Thank God."

 

Watch it below -

 

Tickets for The Cure's 2023 US Tour Will Be 'affordable for all fans'

Getting your hands on highly sought after concert tickets has been a struggle lately - with scalpers, bots, and website crashes (can we just go back to camping out the night before?) 

 

This week, when The Cure announced a 2023 North American Tour - they include some details on how they are going to make their tickets accessible to their fans: 

 

"apart from a few Hollywood Bowl charity seats, there will be no ‘platinum’ or ‘dynamically priced’ tickets on this tour... We want the tour to be affordable for all fans, and we have a very wide (and we think very fair) range of pricing at every show.  Our ticketing partners have agreed to help us stop scalpers from getting in the way; to help minimise resale and keep prices at face value, tickets for this tour will not be transferable. If something comes up that prevents a fan from being able to use a ticket they have purchased, they will be able resell it on a face value ticket exchange.

 

 

 

"Unfortunately, despite our desire to protect our low ticket prices for fans, the states of NY, IL and CO make this very difficult.  They actually have laws in place that protect scalpers! For shows in these states we urge fans to buy or sell tickets to one another on face value exchanges like twickets.live and cashortrade.org. Fans should avoid buying tickets that are being resold at inflated prices by scalpers, and the sites that host these scalpers should refrain from reselling tickets for our shows."

 

 

Dave Grohl Preps For Super Bowl Commercial By 'Learning Something New'

Dave Grohl is  set to be a part of Super Bowl LVII ... unfortunatley not performing at halftime (c'mon NFL) but in a commercial for Crown Royal  ... the whiskey brand has released a teaser of the commercial - that will air in the thir quarter of the big game - where Dave 'learns something new' ... the internet is buzzing with theories - many of which point to - Dave learns things that were invented in Canada 

 

Check it out below:

 

Listen to U2's Re-Recorded version of 'With Or Without You' from 'Songs Of Surrender'

This March - U2 will release ‘Songs Of Surrender’  -  an album of “reimagined and re-recorded” songs from across their catalog.  This week - the band has  U2 shared the second song from the set -  a modern spin on their classic hit ‘With Or Without You'  ... The song was initially released in March of 1987 as the lead single from their fifth album, ‘The Joshua Tree’.  

 

Take a listen below: 

 

Jack White's Daughter Joins Him on Stage for 'The Hardest Button to Button': Watch

On Jan. 16, Jack White welcomed his 16-year-old daughter, Scarlet, on stage during an intimate show at The Blue Room of Third Man Records in Nashville, Tenn.

 

This was not the first collaboration between the father-daughter duo. Scarlet is credited for playing bass on the track “Into the Twilight,” from Jack White’s Fear of the Dawn album.  

 

Karen Elson - Jack's ex-wife- posted footage of the performance on IG, sayong - “What a sweet moment with her papa bear.” See below

 

 

 

 

Hear Green Day's Cover of Elvis Costello's "Alison" from Nimrod 25th Anniversary Box Set

Ahead of the release of the Nimrod 25 – 25th Anniversary Edition, a retrospective box set celebrating their 1997 album - Green Day have released on of the demos from the set that didn't make the album - a cover of Elvis Costello’s 1977 ballad “Alison.”

 

Billie Joe Armstrong - the Green Day frontman - notably performed “Alison” alongside Elvis Costello during a 2006 taping of the VH1 Classic series Decades Rock Live.

 

 

Dave Grohl Plays Foo Fighters/Nirvana Rarity "Marigold" For The First Time In 12 Years- WATCH

 Letters To Santa: The 24 Hour Comedy And Music Marathon has been an annual Chicago charitable tradition since 2002. This year’s installment ran from 6pm on December 19-20, with performers including Jeff Tweedy, Ty Segall, Bonnie “Prince” Billy,  among others. Dave Grohl was also recruited to do a virtual performance at the gig.... and Dave went deep into the vault for this special night - performing "Marigold" (the only song released by both Nirvana and Foo Fighters) and “New Way Home”

 

 

 

 

“New Way Home” was from the Foo's album The Colour And The Shape while "Marigold" was first released in 1992 under Grohl’s pseudonym Late!, then released as the B-side to Nirvana's “Heart-Shaped Box” single in 1993 and finally it was on the Foo's 2006 acoustic live album Skin And Bones, making it the only track to be released by both Nirvana and Foo Fighters and the only Nirvana song Grohl sings on.

 

Oh and by the way - he played the whole thing using his daughter Violet's guitar ;)

Christmas Memory - Stream Foo Fighters SNL Christmas Medley

Five years ago - Foo Fighters were the musical guest on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and performed a Christmas medley full of classics new and old.

 

 Foo Fighters performed twice, the second of which was a Christmas medley which included their classic track ‘Everlong’, ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’, and ‘Linus and Lucy’.

 

David Byrne Debuts New Holiday Song "Fat Man's Comin'": Stream

We are always on the lookout for new holiday music to pair the tried and true classics - and this year we've got a new one - thanks to David Byrne and his newly-released song called “Fat Man’s Comin’.”

Byrne recalls writing the bones of the track  about ten years ago while he was working on his collaborative album with St. Vincent’s Annie Clark but a song telling  “the story of a fat man in rather odd attire who breaks into people’s homes and leaves mysterious packages” wasn’t quite right for that project.  

 

“I always wanted to write a holiday song.  I wouldn’t call it a Christmas song, as the visitation of Santa (formerly known as St. Nicholas, who mainly did punishing) seems to have evolved to be a more secular consumer moment than a religious or spiritual affair.”

 

“Fat Man’s Comin'” is exclusively available on Bandcamp through the end of December - with a pay-what-you-can model ... and keeping in the holiday spirit - all proceeds will go to Byrne's good news only publication - Reasons to Be Cheerful

 

 

Read Dana Spiotta's Introduction to the New Novel - Kurt Cobain: The Last Interview

Nirvana lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain changed American music in just the 7 short years the band was together.  He was also a  feminist, LGBTQ+ ally, antiracist, and champion of eccentric musical visionaries. 

In the new book - Kurt Cobain: The Last Interview - Melville House compiles released and never before heard interviews - showing the grunge god's funny, thoughtful, sarcastic, impassioned, and even kind sides.  It is a collection of interviews that provides a look at a man who was too often misunderstood.

 

The book will make a perfect holiday gift for the music fan in your life - or yourself (get it HERE).  Read Dana Spiotta's intro to the book below: 

 

It is one of the jobs of the young to rail against the failures of the previous generation. You can trace a particular line of concern from Holden Caulfield in 1951 to Nirvana in 1991: phonies, conformists, squares, the establishment, the Man, the mainstream, yuppies, corporate culture, poseurs, fakes, sell-outs. The concern comes down to an ideal of authenticity, with maybe the worst sin being hypocrisy. Capitalism has always absorbed and appropriated dissent and resistance, which is why they have to constantly be reinvented in subculture. Nirvana and Kurt Cobain’s version in the 1990s was perhaps an apex, and also when tensions within that concern became unsustainable. Afterward, future critiques would have to be differently conceived.

 

Cobain, like other kids growing up after Vietnam, after Watergate, after the counterculture, absorbed a jaded, knowing quality. An obsession with irony coexisted with an obsession with authenticity. Satire became ubiquitous: Mad magazine (full of “take-offs” ridiculing everything from blockbuster films to TV ads), Wacky Packages (stickers on cards that kids collected that had fake advertisements for joke versions of products) and Saturday Night Live, which in 1975, its inaugural year, featured Jerry Rubin, the Yippie, in a fake commercial selling wallpaper with hippie and anti-establishment slogans on it. The joke was that Jerry Rubin had sold out, and somehow his knowingness made it okay, but that cynical stance contained a form of surrender. That version of the left seemed to give up. And in fact, Reagan and Thatcher were just around the corner.

 

Punk rock offered a giant refusal to that cynicism while still cloaking itself in irony. In 1977 the Sex Pistols released the ironically titled single, “God Save the Queen.” Johnny Rotten famously sneered as he asked his audience, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” The sneer insured that the joke was complicated: the Pistols were cheating the audience because they defiantly refused to please, but also that the culture had cheated all of them and left them with a kind of nihilism. There was a lot of spitting going on: gobs at the band and gobs back to the audience. As punk developed, it retained its nihilist refusal, but it also had a more egalitarian side. Lester Bangs wrote about the Clash inviting their fans to share their hotel room with them. They were not arena-rock gods, they were just a garage band. Virtuosity on your instrument was not the point, but being politically virtuous was. And it is this strain of punk purity that carried into the 1980s as a counter to the materialist corporate culture of the Reagan years. 

 

There were always traps contained in that youthful fervor for authenticity: how to identify authenticity, first of all, and then how easily markers of authenticity can become just another pose, full of clichés (the hallmarks of hackery). Kurt Cobain, in these interviews that start in 1990, the year before Nirvana made the big time, and end two months before he died in 1994, had internalized the punk rock of the 1980s in the indie/alternative “underground,” and we see him grapple with trying to be true to his punk-rock ethics. But it was impossible: one must have the irony, the ambivalence of not caring, of admitting your own complicity in the system. At the same time, one had to care, and follow very strict rules for not selling out. You had to be like Calvin Johnson, maybe, obscure but respected. Kurt Cobain might have been the last person who believed in punk, and he grew weary navigating these tensions. Besides, there was something art-school and elitist in cultivated obscurity, wasn’t there? Punk should not be elite (this is the problem with a subculture often defined by what it is not). 

 

One of my favorite threads of punk ethos perhaps came from the Stooges and was picked up on by the Replacements: proud loser-dom. It was a sly form of anti-capitalism, of resistance to the 1980s worship of avarice and material, amoral success. This is illustrated in the famous Sub Pop T-shirt that said loser in all caps and extends to Beck’s 1994 hit, “Loser.” And we can hear this self-deprecation when Cobain says Nirvana is “lazy” and “illiterate” and would lose an argument about any topic because they “took too much acid and smoked too much pot.” This is self-deprecation as liberation and subversion—the bullied kids appropriating the words that once were hurled at them. But it is also a kind of pose, as if they didn’t want to get caught caring about anything too much. You can’t criticize my songs ’cause I already said I suck and can’t play. Like all of these threads, it’s complicated. Kurt Cobain may not have been schooled in music or literature, but he was good. He was proud of the albums, if not proud of anything else. 

 

But his humility was also real. After the traumatic divorce of his parents (“the legendary divorce is such a bore” he professed in “Serve the Servants”), he led an itinerant existence, even living in his car sometimes. He was a high school dropout, worked as a janitor, but was mostly unemployed. The thing that saved him, the place he began and finished, was music. He was a true believer in music as a space where he could be himself. He began with total commitment to writing songs, playing his guitar, and performing. And he knew how he wanted the music to sound. He wanted it to be like the music he loved: raw and hard but with pop hooks and lyrics you could hear over and over and still find oddness and interest in them. As much like the Beatles as Black Flag, which turned out to be very appealing to a big audience. The problem was what the world did with the music, with selling the music, and with promoting the music. Ultimately, in his interviews, you can see him trying to work that part of it out. He doesn’t want an “image.” And, as in his lyrics, he manages sarcasm and ambivalence while also exposing how much he cared, a lot, about everything, and constantly. While this worked in his songs, it was harder to pull off in his life. In interviews, he often lied or obscured while also being almost compulsively honest, vulnerable, a person in pain who kept confessing and pouring his heart out even as he felt betrayed by the press and unnerved by his fans.

He continued to do interviews even after the infamous Vanity Fair article that portrayed his relationship with Courtney Love in a cruel, harsh light. He became wary, defensive, angry, yet he still kind of believed that he could break through, regain control. He passionately voiced his complaints. Why didn’t he just shut it all out, become a recluse? He must have wanted, on some very deep level, to be understood. He must have believed that he could be understood. He could not be indifferent or ambivalent no matter how he professed it.

He denied he had ambition, but then admitted it. He wanted to make records and have an audience. He just wanted to do it on his terms, like his punk heroes. At first, his terms meant being on an indie label versus a major label. But this felt unsustainable. Nirvana were not some coddled middleclass kids in suburban garages. They were not even vaguely making a living on Sub Pop. And distribution (a now vintage consideration) sucked. Nirvana thought they could stay true to their vision while getting the advantages of a major label. That worked for Sonic Youth, who also signed with Geffen Records and gained just enough success to still maintain their indie cred, but Nirvana instantly became world-wide superstars selling millions of records, which was hard to reconcile with punk-rock bona fides. Nirvana complained about MTV but wanted to use MTV as much as MTV used them. They complained of playing big stadiums (arena rock, yuck) and the lack of intimacy and connection. But their audiences were too big now. And who exactly was in the audience? Those same kids that used to bully them when they were in high school. Cobain goes back and forth about this new audience: at first, they are not his true fans. They frighten him. Then he tries to control them. After the runaway success of Nevermind, he even puts this in the liner notes to Insecticide:

 

If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us—leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.

 

And this points to what was probably the most interesting and enduring and new thing about Kurt Cobain’s punk ethos. He really wasn’t going to be just another rock god, he wasn’t going to exploit women, he wasn’t going to dog-whistle the cliches of rock and roll masculinity. He was a backwater white boy, but he was not a stereotype, not racist or sexist or homophobic. His sensibility was gay, he declared, and he liked strong, smart women. He was fragile, in constant physical pain, and he admitted it. He was highly married and he didn’t date models. He liked being a dad. It even extended to how he looked, or how he presented himself. Like Johnny Rotten, Cobain had great style, but it came out of his own contradictions. He was very pretty, but he didn’t comb his hair, and he wore grandpa sweaters. He wore dresses—not sleek glamour man-dresses like Bowie had once worn, but thrift-store castoffs. And he also wore hospital gowns (his own, which, come on, is really punk). So his style, as it were, came out of his vulnerability, his wearing it all on his sleeve. Or on his T-shirt. He famously wore a T-shirt on the cover of Rolling Stone that said corporate magazines still suck. (Does that give him cover? No, not really. Is self-reflexivity ever really an out? But it is better than nothing.) He also used his shirts as billboards for other, lesser-known artists. As if to say, if you are all going to stare at me, I might as well use the space for good. He wore a Daniel Johnston T-shirt, and when he was on MTV Unplugged, he wore a T-shirt for the proto-riot grrrl band Frightwig. Like REM before him, Nirvana used their fame to promote other artists while also giving credit to their influences (and proving their own cred). Despite MTV wanting the grunge hits and Pearl Jam cameos for Nirvana’s Unplugged set, Cobain insisted on playing three Meat Puppets songs and having them join the set. He also covered songs he learned from the Vaselines, and Leadbelly, and sang (what was then) a more obscure Bowie track. You could hear devotion in his singing: heart out, heartbroken, heartfelt. He tried to accept his contradictions vis-à-vis MTV, interviews, and his own fans. “Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be.” In his last interview, he said, “I get a few hours to try and subvert the way they view the world.” These tensions are never really resolved. They must be lived in. Or through.

 

In the 2020s, punk is sometimes seen as just another retro “aesthetic,” like goth or glam. One pose among many, and it is an expression of sensibility more than ethos. And, of course, artists are expected to pay even more attention to image, marketing, and self-promotion. The always contradictory notion of authenticity is not just quaint, but not even legible. Selling a lot of songs/books/tickets is a sign of quality, and it is fine to do ads, consider yourself a brand, make Marvel movies, etc., because you need to reach people in a noisy world, and you need to make a living if you want to continue being a maker/creator. And there is something refreshing in the lack of pretense about being commodified (not just your work, but you, the maker/creator). Resistance and subculture no longer have to be obscure because there are other values involved beyond the sense of self: virtual communities with horizontal reach that don’t need to breakthrough mainstream gatekeepers to be viable. There is the possibility of a real egalitarian leveling of access, which is subversive and anti-corporate. You can take the “sub” out of subculture, or you can say everything is subculture, that there is no mainstream to rail against. Maybe there are just streams: streams of music, of films, and somehow, for some people, streams of revenue. Is it better to be an artist now, or was it better to be stuck on the 120 minutes that MTV allowed late at night for “alternative” music? The answer is, I’m afraid, that it is never a good time to be an artist. But here is 1990s-era Kurt Cobain to tell you that there was something valuable at stake in the struggle to live inside those underlying tensions and contradictions.

Watch: Nandi Bushell and Shane Hawkins Jam to "Everlong," "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and More

Earlier this fall - rock royalty gathered at London's Wembley Stadium to pay tribute to Taylor Hawkins  ...  Nandi Bushell - the tween drumming sensation - who caught Dave Grohl's attention - was among those paying tribute  took to the late drummer.  This week  - she shared  a heartfelt shoutout to another young musical prodigy: Hawkins’ 16-year-old son Shane.

 

Check out this video montage of the two jamming to the Foo Fighters’ classic “Everlong” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” — incidentally enough, both songs feature Dave Grohl drumming on their studio versions.

 

Watch: Brandi Carlile Performs with Elton John at his Dodger Stadium for Farewell Show

Elton John played his last American show at Dodger Stadium last night (Nov. 20) and he brought out a host of famous friends to help say farewell - including  Brandi Carlile. 

 

Carlile joined Sir Elton John for “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” -  From his  1974 album Caribou.  

 

 

“To feel the energy from the best fans, not only in Dodger Stadium again, but this time around the world from those watching live at home, will be truly extra special for me,” John said in a statement about the final Dodger Stadium show. “I’m thrilled to celebrate this momentous evening globally. I hope everyone feels the power and joy of performing on a stage as iconic as Dodger’s. Just like I did almost 50 years ago.”

 

Jack White shares 'Seven Nation Army' live video from rooftop Soho gig and announces live album

Jack White has announced a new live album of his 2021 Soho rooftop performance in London.  Last September, White played a surprise set on the rooftop of Damien Hirst to celebrate the grand opening of his new Third Man Records store down the road

 

The ‘Live From Marshall Street’ bonus LP is released alongside his two solo albums – ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ and Entering Heaven Alive’ – in a triple vinyl collectors’ set and can be ordered here.

Here's a  clip of ‘Seven Nation Army’ from the gig -

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Rough Trade (@roughtrade)

Watch The Breeders Play Pixies' Gigantic With Dave Grohl At VetsAid

Joe Walsh put together an all-star lineup of Ohio musicians over the weekend for a big ol' jam at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.  The show - a benefit for VetsAid, the veterans’ charity he founded in 2017 - featured  Walsh’s James Gang (playing their first full set in 16 years), Nine Inch Nails, the Black Keys, and the Breeders.   Oh yeah - Dave Grohl, a native of Warren, Ohio, was on hand to sit in with some of the performances. 

Grohl played guitar and did backing vocals during the Breeders opening set  - as Kim Deal sang her Pixies classic “Gigantic” 

 

 

Grohl also played a second drum set on two of the four songs from Walsh’s finale set -  “Life’s Been Good” and “Rocky Mountain Way” and with the James Gang for their set-closing rendition of “Funk #49.”

 

 

 

 

Dave Grohl Makes Surprise Appearance During Lionel Richie's Rock Hall Performance

After being introduced into the Rock and Roll of Fame by Lenny Kravitz, Lionel Richie, the Commodores musician and American Idol judge, began the his musical medley with “Hello” on piano ... but he quickly switched the mood  - jumping  into the Commodores’ “Easy,”  with a surprise appearance by his buddy Dave Grohl.  Check out the performance below  - 

 

 

Grohl has been a longtime fan of Richie’s, the two most recently worked togeher on  Foo Fighters’ comedy-horror film Studio 666 where Richie chastised Grohl for stealing “Hello.” 

Future Islands add their signature spin on new cover of Wham!'s 'Last Christmas'

November 1 has (somehow) become the new first day of Christmas season.   The jack-o’-lanterns still haven't finished rotting on the stoop  - but peppermint spice lattes are out, they are selling christmas trees, and bands are releasing holiday songs.   This year ( to save you from tears) Future Islands have dropped a new cover of Wham!'s 1984 classic, “Last Christmas.”

 

Staying true to the original version for the most part, but it's vocalist Samuel T. Herring distinctive style that gives the cover it's flare.  Check out Future Island’s “Last Christmas” below and go ahead and check out of Whamageddon before December even starts ! 

 

 

Uh - have you been pronouncing Adele's name wrong?

Adele is one of the most famous musicians in the world - and it turns out many of us have been pronouncing her name wrong ... 

 

Druing a recent Q&A to promote the release of the video for her new song "I Drink Wine" - the 34 year old Emmy, Grammy and Oscar winner set the record straight about her moniker.  

 

After a fan  asked her a question about songwriting - she quipped - "Love that - She said my name perfectly!"  Turns out the correct pronunciation is "uh-dale," not "ah-dell"  ... and now we know

 

check out the video for I Drink Wine -