Slayer and Rick Ware Racing have recently announced a collaboration, in which NASCAR driver JJ Yeley would be sporting Slayer's iconic logo on his car at the annual Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race. But, it seems the thrash-grandads are too scary for the team's liking, as they have been pulled as the primary sponsor "due […]
Matt Healy of the band the 1975 went into the crowd at their concert in Dubai on Wednesday and kissed a male fan on the lips. Homosexual sex is illegal in the United Arab Emirates and there have been arrests in the past for kissing in public. Videos shared online showed the band playing onstage […]
An album John Coltrane recorded with his Classic Quartet in 1964, between celebrated 'Crescent' and 'A Love Supreme', will be released for the first time September 27, Exclaim reports. 'Blue World' takes an unfamiliar route for Coltrane, comprising revisions of his earlier work (listen to the title track below). The album was made at the request of Canadian filmmaker […]
Metallica has donated €250,000 to support the construction of Romania’s first pediatric oncology hospital. Band made the donation ahead of their sold-out show Wednesday in Romania’s National Arena, Billboard reports. In other Metallica related news, Tom G. Warrior, Celtic Frost frontman said he wasn't happy at all with how Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo covered […]
Chance the Rapper is the first artist in the SoundCloud Premier program to earn a billion streams. His first music dropped on the platform eight years ago, he released his album 'Coloring Book' on SoundCloud for free, and his most recent album 'The Big Day' was released via the streaming service as well. All Hip Hop...
The Iowa masked band's sixth LP, 'We Are Not Your Kind' has gone straight in at the summit of UK chart, knocking Ed Sheeran's collaborations LP off the top spot. It is also the band's first chart-topping album for 18 years in the UK, after 2001's 'Iowa'. The last metal act to conquer the UK […]
On the Beaches of Portima, Portugal there were 20,000 people of African descent last weekend at Afro Nation, the first festival in the world to celebrate the African Diaspora. It was festival's first year, and in four days it saw live music from Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Jamaica, the UK and the US, performers like Burna […]
Nick Cave got a letter in his The Red Hand Files box from a fan asking him what his thoughts were on merchandising of art. Cave's answer is heartwarming and funny, a very nice read: "Would I wear a pair of merch socks myself? The answer is well, yeah, I do – when I do […]
Thousands of Beatles fans came to London yesterday, on 50th anniversary of photo shoot that made the cover of Beatles' 'Abbey Road' record. The Beatles were pictured striding across the road the album was named after on 8 August 1969, now, it is one of iconic pop-culture photos. In 1969 it was one of the […]
Sam Barker is one of the co-founders of Leisure System, the game-changing Berghain residency that explored rhythmic complexity, and this fall Barker is releasing his debut solo full-length. 'Utility' features sounds "aimed directly at the brain’s pleasure centers, exploring topics as diverse as dancefloor utilitarianism, transhumanism and the ethical use of narcotics and nanotechnology via a […]
Experimental rock New Yorkers Battles have a song out, 'Titanium 2 Step' (listen below), with a new album 'Juice B Crypts', their fourth, coming out October 18. Warp describes the album as “a sensory overload of information” filled with “synthesizer loops, cut-throat drum patterns, and cyclical riffs”, as Fact Magazine reports. It’s the first Battles […]
The Quietus has an interesting list - their writers tell about cover versions that acted as their gateway drugs to the work of the original artist. There's Muse covering Nina Simone, Nick Cave covering Leonard Cohen, and a perfect example - Saint Etienne covering Neil Young.
“Laced with leftfield house and cut-up sound collages... Lost words, twisted presets, voice collage, simple sounds - things that have been lost to technology’s current determinism” - Dais Records says about new album by Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. 'Um Dada' is his first solo work in over 35 years, and it is about "play", Fact […]
Neuroscience News reminds of some of the health benefits of heavy metal music: heavy metal fans are happier in their youth and better adjusted in middle age compared to their non-fan counterparts; fans who were made angry and then listened to heavy metal music did not increase their anger but increased their positive emotions (seems […]
Bon Iver' have released three new songs from 'i'i', the band’s fourth record, coming out August 30. Listen to 'iMi', featuring James Blake, Velvet Negroni, and others, 'We' and 'Holyfields,' below.
San Francisco music festival Outside Lands will allow cannabis sales and a designated smoking area on site for the first time ever. This weekend, festival-goers will be able to buy up to seven grams of non-concentrated cannabis and two grams of cannabis concentrates across all vendors at Outside, Consequence of Sound reports. Music to get […]
David Berman, the songwriter and poet best known for co-founding the indie rock band Silver Jews, has died at the age of 52, his publisher Drag City confirmed. The cause of death is unknown at this time. Last month, Berman released a new album with the band Purple Mountains, after a 10-year hiatus, Billboard reports. NPR has […]
NME saw New York hardcore band Show Me The Body live, and liked them a lot, for their sheer energy and honesty. They played three concerts in London, one at a desolate warehouse, but “That wasn’t a side show. We wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted to see us was able to” - […]
Tool have released the first song from their new album 'Fear Inoculum', their first studio material in 13 years, the Kerrang reports. The title track is similar in mood to 'Reflection' from 2001 album 'Lateralus' (listen below). In Revolver magazine interview the band discusses getting older and wiser - "It's making those choices that are […]
NME was at the Visions festival where they found that the new breed of British guitar bands prioritise intensity and weirdness. Scalping "blends techno, blackened punk and noise in a refreshing, boundary-crossing direction", Black Country, New Road play rip-roaring punk, Orville Peck is a kind of masked cowboy-cum-Elvis impersonator, Squid - "punk but not without […]
Influential and famous British record company Factory Records - home to Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, James - is celebrating its 40th anniversary with two box-sets and two major exhibitions, NME reports. Box-set ‘Use Hearing Protection’ compiles the first 10 records and memorabilia to receive a Factory Records catalogue number - including Joy Division’s […]
123 artists have submitted a brief fo San Francisco court in the closely watched copyright case over the opening guitar riff of Led Zeppelin's ‘Stairway To Heaven’. The case was brought to court by a descendant of Randy Craig Wolfe, former band member and songwriter of Spirit, whose song 'Taurus' Led Zeppelin have allegedly ripped […]
Two British electro music greats, Burial and The Bug, have reunited for a second collaborative EP, 'Flame 2' where they explore UK drill and dancehall. The two songs are dark, slow, atmospheric, with a signature dub layer. Listen to 'Flame 2' at Boomkat.
R. Kelly has been charged with engaging in prostitution charges by prosecutors in Minnesota, who allege he solicited a teenager who asked him for an autograph in 2001. According to county attorney Mike Freeman, Kelly invited the 17-year-old to his hotel room and offered her $200 (£164) to undress and dance with him, and after […]
The English folk musician had two critically acclaimed records - 2014's 'Nothing Important' and 2017's 'Peasant', and this years he returns with new album '2020', out October 11. On it he "introduces us to grand themes through small lives. His are portraits of human beings struggling with recognisable (and dare we say it, relatable) concerns, […]
Sophie's debut album 'Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides' reached many year-end best-of lists in 2018, and now the alt-pop Scottish electronic music producer has shared a remix album on 'Oil...' (listen the two part YouTube mix below). It features new versions of 'Oil...' songs, as well as new tracks.
It's refreshing to hear an epic instrumental of this caliber and ambition in the current musical climate - PopMatters really likes new song 'Epigenesis by the prog post-metal band Ghosts of Glaciers. The progressive elements are subtle but important, the metallic leanings played tastefully, the song comes out deeply melodic and yet sacrificing nothing in […]
Penguin Cafe have a new song 'At The Top Of The Hill, They Stood...' inspired by journeys taken by the band's leader Arthur Jeffes to Antarctica. The song comes out October 4 on album 'Handfuls Of Night' (listen below). The album began its life when Jeffes was commissioned by Greenpeace to write four pieces of […]
Soaring choruses, gorgeous vocal harmonies and well-tempered inspirational lyrics - PopMatters really likes new single by the Seattle pop-folk band Ivan & Alyosha. Well, it really is a hit (listen below).
The streaming platform has announced that it is placing some restrictions on free users of its streaming service. As they say on Medium.com, free listeners will be able to seek forward through mixes, to listen to the same mix three times within a two week period and will no longer have access to mixes that […]
