R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe gives update on debut solo album: “It’s taken longer than I wanted” The singer has only released a handful of songs under his own name since his former band split amicably in 2011, including ‘I Played The Fool’ with Andrew Watt, Josh Klinghoffer and Travis Barker earlier this week for the new show Rooster.
He has said he hopes the record will be released before the end of 2026, He has, been working on his first solo album for several years and in a new interview with The Times, he has given fans some significant updates on the record’s progress. I took five years but I got pulled back into music. It’s been a struggle. That’s the main thing. I want it to be great, but I’ve got the pressure of having been in R.E.M. and it’s a high bar, because I want this to be as good as that, and that’s near impossible.”
The interview also revealed that Stipe has still got eight songs to finish before the record is complete, but he is working to a deadline and he hopes that it will be released before the end of 2026.
The GRAMMY-winning artist, singer/songwriter and R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe collaborates with Louis Cato and The Great Big Joy Machine on a brand new, unreleased track from his upcoming debut solo album.
Keep up with all of Michael Stipe’s projects, including his four recent photography books, at https://www.michaelstipe.com.
The Waterboys have announced “Atlantic Rain”, a set of outtakes and extended tracks from the “Fisherman’s Blues” sessions, due for release in July.
Anyone who thought 2013’s six-disc, 121-track “Fisherman’s” Box Set and the 2017 ‘collectors edition’ were the last word when it came to the sessions, think again. “Atlantic Rain” came about when Mike Scott went through around 80 reels from the sessions that hadn’t been labelled correctly and discovered dozens of forgotten tracks.
As well as previously unreleased covers of artists such as Bob Dylan (‘Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground’), Prince (‘When Doves Cry’ – released to Patreon subscribers last year) and The Rolling Stones (‘No Expectations’), Scott’s archival work uncovered several unreleased originals, including ‘Come Back To Galway’, ‘Light Shine On Me’, ‘Endless Store’ and ‘Man With The Wind At His Heels’.
“Atlantic Rain” compiles 25 of these tracks (all never before released, with seven extended versions) across three discs – the tracklisting is the same on the 3CD and 3LP vinyl editions– and comes with a book featuring a 15,000 word essay from Scott and unseen photos.
The band are also releasing “Strange Boat“, an official shop-exclusive companion EP on either CD or 10-inch vinyl, featuring a further six tracks from the sessions. All are unreleased, with “two of them ‘new’ and four of them variations on familiar songs”.
“Fisherman’s Blues Sessions” must be some of the most extensive in rock/pop history! ‘Atlantic Rain’ is a new release with 17 previously unreleased tracks and 7 extended versions of tracks from the old box set. 3CD and 3LP versions with companion EP available (with 6 more tracks)
“Atlantic Rain” is out on 17th July 2026, via Chrysalis Records
IAN SWEET is the chosen shape Jilian Medford often steps into—and sometimes dissolves inside of. What began 10 years ago as a solo project that launched her to indie-critical-darling status, over time has evolved into something more atmospheric and less containable: a porous altar, a mirror, a weather system. There are stretches when the line between Jilian and “IAN SWEET” disappears entirely—this time around a very real life trifecta of battling industry pressures, the ending of a 3-year relationship, and a return to living in her native city of Los Angeles. These serve as the backdrop under which “Shiverstruck“, her fifth album as IAN SWEET, has found its way into the world.
“Shiverstruck” arrives from a place of deliberate separation. Where earlier works collapsed the distance between Jilian and IAN SWEET, this record gently reestablishes it. The writing process became an act of surrender and an intentional relinquishing of control. “I was thinking about how easy it is to mistake survival for connection,” Medford explains about “Shiverstruck” album opener “987.” “Music has pushed me to be more empathetic, to pay attention to emotions and experiences that aren’t always comfortable, and channel that into something that feels authentic.” Rather than meticulously sculpting every emotion, she allowed the songs to assume their own architecture. In doing so, she discovered a new softness—a compassion for herself that doesn’t require total collapse to feel human.
Across her career, Medford has cultivated a body of work defined by emotional precision and dynamic force—guitars that lurch from whisper to rupture, melodies that carry both ache and defiance. Her songs interrogate identity not as a fixed condition, but as something negotiated daily. Often associated with a lineage of confessional indie rock, she has been labeled a “sad girl,” an archetype she once embraced, whether as armor or proof of depth. But her trajectory has never been about sadness itself; it has been about understanding it, metabolizing it, and ultimately refusing to be reduced by it. “Shiverstruck” was written during her second year living in New York City, a period that shaped her in ways both profound and messy. In 2023, to make ends meet amidst the increasingly unsustainable economies of touring and streaming as an independent musician, Medford put her strengths as a songwriter to the test, taking an unexpected job working with children. “Singing to babies, leading classes, playing guitar, dancing in circles, singing about sheep, frogs, trains, trees…you name it. It was absurd in one register but transformative in another,” Medford expounds “Watching children respond to music for the first time; their faces lighting up completely unselfconscious, it rewires your brain as a songwriter and steers you more towards honesty. Everything felt immediate and real.”
Simultaneously, Medford was confronting the less visible pressures of the industry around her. There were moments that tested not just her career, but her sense of agency as a working musician within it. She saw AI-generated IAN SWEET soundalikes impersonating her music show up as official IAN SWEET releases on streaming platforms and had to fight off confusion among fans. In another instance, Medford found out that her music was being used by a popular production house for a film trailer, without permission or payment for its licensing. Upon confronting them, she was only then offered compensation if she signed an NDA, agreeing to not mention the situation had ever occurred at all (Medford declined).
Although these experiences proved frustrating, they clarified something: Medford would not ascribe to the unspoken expectation for women in music to stay agreeable and absorb the impact quietly. This sentiment lends itself to the album single “Wildheart.” “I used to define myself by sadness, and would wear the ‘saddest girl in the room’ superlative like a badge of honor,” Medford explains, “But I’ve let that go. I exist beyond that narrative, even while still feeling deeply. The ‘wild heart’ idea is what keeps me moving through fear, doubt, and the pressure of this industry. I’m just trying to exist beyond my insecurities and beyond what anyone else thinks of me.” That shift shaped “Shiverstruck” into something that began to feel less like documentation and more like manifestation—intuitive signals pointing toward changes she hadn’t yet consciously named.
“It was the hardest I’ve worked and ruminated on lyrics,” says Medford. The writing was the heart of everything and had to feel really grounded. I put in crazy amounts of time and energy to make them feel like the truest reflection of who I am and where I’m at in my life right now.” By the time Medford got to Maze Studios in Atlanta to work with “Shiverstruck” producer Ben H. Allen (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Soccer Mommy), the song’s foundations were already solid. From there, Medford and Allen worked together with drummer Harold Brown and engineer Ben Etter to build them into ten thoughtfully constructed tracks.
In their completion, something came into focus, what had once been abstract became undeniable. As Medford was wrapping up production on the album, she ended a long term relationship, a decision that arrived with a sense of clarity the songs themselves seemed to foreshadow–the “wreckage” referenced in “987,” or the thrill of reliving nostalgic emotions for someone as heard on the propulsive lead single “Criminal Kissing.”
In a way, the album’s focal point naturally falls to “Jilian,” written by Medford in tribute to all of the pitfalls and lessons learned from her time living in New York. “Sad singer, such an idiot. Bad sex, cigarettes, all the little mistakes that make life feel cruel and hilarious at the same time,” says Medford. “I know I sound dramatic and maybe I am (yeah, I am). My time living in New York made every mistake and every misstep feel larger than life. This song is messy, self-aware and full of the contradictions that make me who I am.” In the aftermath, she relocated back to Los Angeles, returning to the place she felt most at home. “New York is incredible. It pulls something out of you and expands you in ways you can’t anticipate,” Medford elaborates. “I think everyone should experience that. But for me, I kind of always knew I’d return home to LA to rejoin forces with myself.” The process of making “Shiverstruck” had quietly set that return in motion. What followed was not a reinvention, but a recognition: a coming back to herself with greater honesty, and a deeper trust in what that self requires.
Francis of Delirium aka Luxembourg-based musician Jana Bahrich—is releasing a new album, “Run, Run Pure Beauty“, on May 29th via Dalliance Recordings. This week she shared another song from it, “Requiem for a Dying Day,” via a self-directed, stop-motion video.
Bahrich had this to say in a press release: “‘Requiem for a Dying Day’ began after reading about Katy Perry going to space and then developed into this pre-emptive mourning and grief for our future. I wanted the video to be done in clay mation because the form itself is a celebration of process and slowness. All the work that has been put into it is blatantly on display, every thumbprint and every minor adjustment. We are hurtling towards our future without much pause or forethought. I wanted this video to be an attempt at the opposite, so I chose the most painstaking medium I could think of.”
“Run, Run Pure Beauty” is her second album. Bahrich produced the album with long time collaborator Chris Hewett. Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Silver Jews) mixed it. Live, Bahrich plays guitar and sings vocals and is joined by Jeff Hennico (bass), and Denis Schumacher (drums).
Francis of Delirium follows up her acclaimed debut album with Run, Run Pure Beauty. Featuring the singles ‘Little Black Dress’ and ‘It’s a Beautiful Life’, it serves as an excavation of hope in bleak times. Recorded after coming off tours with both Bôa and Blondshell, the album was produced by Jana Bahrich (Francis of Delirium herself) and long time collaborator Chris Hewett, and mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Silver Jews, Wild Nothing). Its eleven songs of discovery, despair and perseverance ultimately serve as a mirror on its creator and is a brilliant next installment in the Francis of Delirium arc.
An artist who seeks to connect with her listeners on a deeper level, she’s made hope and inner strength central themes on her new album, Run, Run Pure Beauty. Jana says the title track is “an imagining of the world after it has been destroyed by humans and technology. Thrashing against what humans have left behind, ultimately the pure beauty of nature wins out.” Wanting to bring different perspectives into her songwriting with this record – informed by both her travels and the tumultuous times we find ourselves in – she’s also brought about a progression in her sound with these new songs somehow sounding larger, with undeniable harmonies and more orchestration.
“Jana Bahrich seems too young for this tremendous debut’s ambitious anthems…” Uncut, 8/10 ‘Lighthouse’ Album Review
“Capturing a similar melancholy sparkle to indie favourites such as Japanese Breakfast and Snail Mail, Lighthouse’s 11 tracks encapsulate both bittersweet, desperate yearning and a breathless new romance; throughout, the golden-hour world they live in is astonishingly vivid. Bahrich’s choruses, almost every one, are lump-in-your-throat gorgeous.” NME
“There’s a bit of Pixies and Snail Mail and the Beths in there, and maybe some Lomelda and Lucy Dacus and Built To Spill. You know, that really f*cking good shit.” Stereogum
“In a time when the world often feels fragmented, Francis of Delirium offers a message of hope and unity.” Dork
The second volume of this highly collectable series, covering the pivotal years of 1969-70.
The Island Book of Records Volume II documents the years 1969-70, during which Island sought to build on its success with the Spencer Davis Group by seeking out new British rock talent. By the end of the period, Island was emerging as a major British label, one that could boast releases from Jethro Tull, Nick Drake, King Crimson, John and Beverley Martyn, Fairport Convention and Cat Stevens.
Featuring material from recent interviews and from media interviews of the time, and including a comprehensive discography of 45s, The Island Book of Records Volume II is lavishly illustrated with gig adverts (very many at venues that no longer exist), concert tickets, flyers, international LP variants, labels, LP and 45 adverts and other ephemera collector’s dream.
‘In a word this is perfection in print’ Grahame Bent, Shindig! magazine
‘I could spend hours poring over Neil Storey’s handsomely designed Island Book of Records Volume II, the continuing story of one of Britain’s greatest independent record labels.’ Neil McCormick, The Telegraph ‘best music books of 2024’
‘Packed with new interviews, artefacts and delicious details’ Jim Wirth, MOJO
‘A rich and lovingly curated look at a particularly prolific year in Island Records history.’ Roisin O’Connor, The Independent
In celebration of this year’s 20th anniversary of the album “Passover”, the legendary debut long player from The Black Angels, we’re honored to present a new limited editions of the album featuring the double LP housed in a beautiful silver and gold foil gatefold jacket.
10-songs deep, “Passover” has come again. Reflecting and questioning the intergenerational psychosis of American social life that surrounds us, The Black Angels put forth their answers in song. It’s a “Call To Arms” for those ready to join the good fight, a rock ‘n’ roll salvation during the times we need it the most. As Maas bellows on “Young Man Dead,” “Fire for the hills, pick up speed, and let’s go…”
2xLP deluxe foil gatefold, on colour vinyl, each with 1 of 4 flexis – each a unique track from their legendary 2006 KEXP live session.
This Edition is limited to just 500 copies – shipping in early May – and yes we’ll have copies at AUSTIN PSYCH FEST, where the band will mark two decades of the album with an anniversary performance – in just two weeks, on May 9th, 2026.
Meet the new Uncut Magazine and this month’s cover stars, The Smiths. 40 years on, band members, collaborators and associates hymn “The Queen Is Dead”: “It just shows you the level of prowess, we were firing on all cylinders.” Comes with a FREE 15-track new music CD! In shops Friday or order now: bit.ly/UncutJune2026
Inside our mag: Ringo Starr on childhood heroes, Nashville jams and Fab times… Springsteen goes to war… the secrets of Talk Talk’s masterpiece “Spirit Of Eden” unearthed… The Lemon Twigs power pop freakout detonates >>>
Laurie Anderson on her pioneering run of albums… Ed O’Brien talks inspiration, innovation and what next for Radiohead… the making of “Being Boiled” by The Human League… Chris Isaak’s favourite records… ’80s Glastonbury revisited >>>
Plus! Jeff Parker, Aldous Harding, Kevin Morby, Angélique Kidjo, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Handsome Family, Kraftwerk, Funkadelic, My Bloody Valentine, Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Del Fuegos… and Frank ‘the Wild Jalopeno’ Rodarte! In shops Friday
Lenny Kaye releases his first solo album, Goin’ Local, after more than fifty years as a key figure alongside Patti Smith, as well as his work compiling Nuggets and producing records for artists including Suzanne Vega and Kristen Hersh.
Here, Kaye takes centre stage, handling guitar and pedal steel, backed by local rhythm sections. The album features a handful of collaborators: Patti Smith appears on ‘Solstice’, pianist Matthew Shipp joins ‘Let’s Make a Memory’, and Tim Carbone contributes violin to ‘Pennsylvania Girls’, with David Mansfield providing strings on ‘Yes I Will’.
I feel like I’m a new artist,” laughs Lenny Kaye, on the eve of the release of his debut solo album, “Goin’ Local”.
“I think this album will surprise those who think they know me from what I’ve done previously. The songs are personal, written over a period of years, and I’ve kept them to myself. I believe a song exists because there is a need for it to be written, to explain the dynamics of the human relationship, to look at yourself as if in a mirror and get in touch with a deeper emotion, one that needs to be sung.”
In a career spanning more than half a century, one thing is certain: Lenny’s ability to be uncategorizable, to move through genres and settings, giving each their individual place in his musical evolution. Though best known for being a founding member of Patti Smith’s band, recently celebrating fifty years of their epochal “Horses” album, as well as curating the landmark Nuggets album of Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era, he has been a successful record producer (Suzanne Vega, Soul Asylum, James, Microdisney, Kristin Hersh, Jessi Colter, Allen Ginsberg), as well as time well spent as a member of Jim Carroll’s band, and playing pedal steel in a New York country-billy combo, the Lonesome Prairie Dogs.
Equally known as a writer, he scribed Waylon Jennings’ Autobiography, took a deep dive into the soundscape of the 1920s and 1930s in You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon, and traversed the changing modes of rock and roll in Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments, making himself a minor character bearing witness to the music’s generational progression. “I believe there is rhythm and melody in a sentence, as well as a narrative arc in a guitar solo, and it is my privilege to combine both of these means of expression. Writing is very solitary, not a performance art like music, and to move between each is a way for me to understand what it is I’m playing, and why it is I’m writing.”
“Goin’ Local” began with sessions co-produced by Lenny’s long time bandmate Tony Shanahan, whom he met at casual jam sessions in their shared home town of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the 1990s, and who later became the bassist in Patti Smith and Her Band. Six of the tracks they worked on became the starting point of the album, including the title song, “Goin’ Local”; but it wasn’t until two years ago that he determined to complete the record he’d begun, adding songs written in the interval, many of which began acoustically.
“I’m a true Capricorn,” he smiles with a nod, “I waited until I had a sense of who I was comfortable with becoming as a solo artist. I have the ability to be a shape-shifter, seeing how to augment and collaborate in a variety of musical settings, but it was important to be faithful to myself, to be one-on-one with the songs that were materializing out of the speakers.”
The included tracks come from diverse inspirations and influences. “To try and specify where each protagonist in a song emerges takes away from the universal aspect of the togetherness we share when entering into the fortunes/misfortunes of human companionship.” He’d rather leave the bittersweet details within lyrics to conjecture: “We’ve all been there, loves lost, loves found, loves that are ill-fated, loves eternal, loves one never forgets, moments to treasure and relive, if only in memory.”
Some of the songs have more definable roots. “World Book Night” was originally written for a short-lived literary holiday where publishers gave out free volumes for volunteers to hand out randomly on the street. As a writer, Lenny is more than happy to celebrate the written word in all its forms. “Pennsylvania Girls” is about the state he now resides in, and as a native New Yorker, his delight in finding a Pennsylvania Girl of his own. “The Things You Leave Behind” has a resonance that strikes home with everyone who amasses cultural objects and memorabilia, amidst the collecting instinct of what-to-do-with that inevitably results.
“A Friend Like You” is his English language version of a hit song by French-Swiss artist Stephan Eicher, which Kaye first heard on a trip to Paris in the 1990s, and adapted lyrically. “Solstice” was written with Patti Smith, in an ongoing collaboration that has encompassed many of their classics, from “Free Money” to “Ghost Dance” to “Radio Ethiopia” to “Southern Cross.” What more needs to be said?
The most poignant song on the album is “Yes I Will,” whose lyrics were composed by his uncle, LarryKusik. “I owe so much to him,” says Lenny. “In 1966, knowing I was starting out in a band at the time, he asked me to assume the persona of Link Cromwell and sing a folk-protest song he’d written in the wake of ‘Eve of Destruction’ called ‘Crazy Like a Fox.’ It was my first time in a recording studio, and though the resulting 45 on Hollywood Records was a non-hit, thankfully so because my life would have taken a much different path for sure, it did give me encouragement that I could be a part of this music that has become my life. And I’m still crazy!”
There is a postscript to this tale. His uncle was a noted songwriter, nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics to “Speak Softly Love,” the Love Theme from The Godfather, as well as “A Time for Us,” the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet (“he specialized in Love Themes,” Lenny laughs), and somewhere around the turn of the millennium, on their weekly lunch dates, Kaye asked him for some lyrics. “My uncle was in the hospital for several months, and I kept asking his family when I could see him. They wanted to wait until he was better, but I knew he wasn’t going to be. One day, despairing of his condition, I put the lyrics to ‘Yes I Will’ on the music stand, the chords fell to hand, and I burst out weeping as the title circled in the coda. I insisted I needed to see him, and when I visited, sang him the song. He whispered ‘Thank you’ and the next day he passed from this mortal coil. I was so happy to give him some respect and gratitude at the end.”
“Yes I Will” is dedicated to Andy Paley, who was the lead singer in one of Kaye’s first productions, the Sidewinders, and who went on to work with Brian Wilson and on Spongebob Squarepants. He was originally slated to orchestrate the song, but sadly died before his arrangement ideas could be made manifest; a task ably taken up by multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield. Other guests on the album include Tim Carbone (of Railroad Earth) playing violins on “Pennsylvania Girls,” renowned jazz pianist Matthew Shipp on “Let’s Make a Memory” along with background vocalist Lisa Burns of The Lovin’ Kind, John Jackson of the Jayhawks on mandolin (“Every Now and Then”); Lou Rogai (mellotron) and his son Julian (double bass); drummers Mark Sacco, Jeff Barg, and Patti Smith cohort Jay Dee Daugherty.
“It is a great blessing to be able to make music at this time in my life for the pure enjoyment and enlightenment it gifts me, the freedom of playing without expectation, to take on new challenges knowing that the work itself is its own reward.
“I’ve always loved the local, its intimacy and camaraderie, the you-are-there and then taken somewhere. It’s what Lightning Striking is about, when a new moment in time and space reveals itself, figuring out its next trajectory. I’ve learned how to be myself, to be at one with my instrument, with my creative spirit, and I guess the truest “Goin’ Local” is the privilege to go inside my own head, and hear how I sound to me.”
releases July 17th, 2026
A long-overdue solo statement, “Goin’ Local” draws together a lifetime spent shaping and celebrating underground music.
SRC were fixtures of the Grande Ballroom scene alongside The Stooges, MC5 and Alice Cooper, yet their anglophile streak set them apart. Championed by Peter Gabriel and John Peel, the band blended UK pop finesse in the vein of The Zombies with the inventive garage bite of The Pretty Things, plus a dose of Blue Cheer heft.
On their second album, “Milestones”, SRC widened the palette, threading funk, prog and heavy rock into a taut, theatrical balance. The songs still hit hard with hooks, anchored by Gary Quackenbush’s searing lead guitar and the keystone keyboards of his brother Glenn, but now carried a broader, more ambitious sweep.
SRC’s second album isn’t radically different from their debut, but it certainly captures the group in more comfortable and energized form. Rather than go back into the studio, the members of SRC used their recording advance to build a recording setup in their rehearsal space, and on “Milestones”, the group seems more willing to push the songs in a harder and faster direction without losing touch with their psychedelic and progressive influences. Gary Quackenbush steps farther into the forefront with his lead guitar on “Milestones”, demonstrating why he was one of the most acclaimed soloists on the Detroit scene in the 1960s, and he bounces his lines off keyboard man Glenn Quackenbush and rhythm guitarist Steve Lyman with skill and fire.
Scott Richardson’s vocals are also in excellent form on this album, and he performs with greater passion and increased imagination on SRC’s second effort, though he can’t quite overcome some of the lesser material. And SRC were writing songs with a harder and more physical edge for “Milestones”, most notably “Checkmate” and “No Secret Destination,” though if the album has a flaw, it’s the presence of not one but two adaptations of the works of Edvard Grieg — “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “The Angel Song,”
Some might argue that SRC was best off leaving this sort of thing to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but while the band can’t quite rise above the material, they do sound far better and more comfortable performing Grieg than anyone would have a right to expect. If in many respects, “Milestones” was an experiment, it was a successful one, though it unfortunately didn’t sell as well as the first album, leading to the first steps toward SRC’s eventual breakup.
LP on Jackpot. Cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. All analogue process (AAA) from the original master tapes. Edition of 1000 copies
The Fat Angel Sings 