Stevie Nicks, a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, is one of the first five musical guests booked on Saturday Night Live in the 50th season. She will be the musical guest on the October 12th episode, hosted by pop star Ariana Grande. Nicks previously appeared as a musical guest on SNL in 1983
Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks returned to Saturday Night Live for her first appearance on the show after 41 years, serving as the musical guest on the show’s October 12th episode hosted by Ariana Grande. The Fleetwood Mac singer performed her new single, “The Lighthouse,” along with her classic anthem, “Edge of Seventeen.”
Saturday’s appearance was only Nicks’ second time performing on SNL, and her first since 1983. That episode, hosted by comedian Flip Wilson, saw Nicks perform “Stand Back” and “Night Bird.”
As far as what’s next for Nicks, she recently confirmed a one-off stadium show with Billy Joel, which will take place in Detroit, Michigan in March 2025.
Kim Deal has shared a new song, “A Good Time Pushed,” from her debut solo album, “Nobody Loves You More”. The track features Deal’s Breeders bandmates Jim Macpherson and Kelley Deal, with engineering by the late Steve Albini.
Kim Deal, who left The Pixies in 2013 and has since focused on her work with the Breeders, announced the solo album in August with an Alex Da Corte–directed video for the track “Crystal Breath.” Before that, she released “Coast.” Breeders’ last album was “All Nerve”, released in 2018.
Over the years, former Pixies bassist and current Breeders vocalist Kim Deal has released some singles, but never a full solo album. That’s about to change next month with “Nobody Loves You More”, and the tracks released so far are enticing. “A Good Time Pushed” is the album’s closer. The track’s sparse, desperate lyrics, coupled with heavy guitar reverb, stand well enough on their own, but imagining what led to this point is what’s really piqued my curiosity. The track was engineered by the late, great Steve Albini, lending an it an even more melancholic vibe.
For the first time in almost a decade, brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith grace the cover of a Dawes record. It’s just the two of them this time, and as such, “Oh Brother” marks a distinctive new chapter for the California rock band – one that is both introspective and accessible, all while maintaining their beloved sense of sincerity. “Oh Brother” steers Dawes decidedly forward, honouring 15 years of Taylor and Griffin’s musical relationship, as well as the next era of their band.
Each of the nine songs began with just Taylor on guitar and vocals and Griffin on drums. They initially tracked each one live together, before adding in additional instrumentation and collaborating with touring guitarist Trevor Menear in the studio. Additionally, “Oh Brother” is the first record the brothers have co-produced, working along side longtime friend Mike Viola.
At this point in the Goldsmith’s career, Dawes has cemented itself as one of the most earnest, no-bullshit musical acts out there. They’re a band that can move seamlessly between folk rock, piano ballads, and sprawling jams while maintaining both an immediately recognizable sound and a freedom from expectations. Even as the Goldsmith brothers navigates new chapters in their personal and professional lives, “Oh Brother” shows how they remain creative, ambitious, and inspired – what it means to be lifers in a band together.
Elton John idolised her and she wrote hits for the likes of Barbra Streisand, but her musical ambitions were out of sync with the times. Now a new collection reveals her intense originality in full we are thrilled to announce “Hear My Song: The Collection 1966-1995”. A new 19-CD Box Set out December 6, 2024!
Collecting together all 10 of Laura’s studio albums alongside 6 live albums including 2 previously unreleased, her 1966 demo tape and an additional disc of rarities. At the centre of the set is a 90-page hardback coffee table book with liner notes from Vivien Goldman, foreword from Elton John and words from Charlie Calello, Jackson Browne, Clive Davis, Lou Adler, Randy Brecker, Bernard Purdie, Will Lee and many more.
The deepest dive yet into the phenomenal creativity of an idiosyncratic, unmistakable musical force. Nyro transformed a range of influences into her own kind of art song. She made vertiginous shifts from hushed reveries to ecstatic gospel-driven shout-ups with an intensity and a courage that, as Elton John would point out, left its mark on many contemporaries who achieved greater commercial success. As a teenager, she wrote “And When I Die” and “Stoney End”, songs that became hits for other artists. Her own enigmatically titled albums – “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession”, “New York Tendaberry”, “Christmas andthe Beads of Sweat” – showed a precociously sophisticated sensibility.
“She wrote songs that had no kind of fixed compass point. They remain as unique and absolutely spellbinding to this day as when I first heard them in the 1960s.” – Sir Elton John, 2024
Contains 10 original studio albums, 6 live albums (including 2 previously unreleased live concerts), Laura’s original demo tape from 1966 and a bonus disc of rarities including mono versions, alternative versions and live tracks. She made her anticipated UK debut at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1971, with her then-boyfriend, Jackson Browne, as the support act. Her final visit, 23 years later, was to the Union Chapel in Islington, a more intimate affair, where she performed as if to family or friends, bathed in an outpouring of warmth.
“Eli and the Thirteenth Confession” (1968) After a somewhat conservative debut album, her second effort – abetted by arranger and co-producer Charlie Calello – was an unstoppable display of musical and verbal fireworks, exploring the emotional extremes.
“New York Tendaberry” (1969) To the hardcore fan, her masterpiece. The mood is darker, the arrangements more minimalist, highlighting the sense of desperation fuelling a soul-baring urban song-cycle. The finest distillation of her allure.
“Gonna Take a Miracle” (1971) After four albums of original material, she and Labelle settled into Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound to record a joyful series of cover versions. Just hear how they turn the Originals’ The Bells into a soaring aria.
“Walk the Dog and Light the Light” (1993) More measured in its maturity but still filled with spirit and urgency, the last studio album released during her lifetime reflects her new range of feminist and ecological concerns.
“The Loom’s Desire” (2002) Recorded in front of adoring audiences at New York’s Bitter End in 1993-94, with a harmony trio providing support, this double set captures the warmth and intimacy of her final performances.
“American Dreamer” is released by Madfish
Presented in a lift-off lid box with 94-page coffee table book. All housed in a deluxe 12” sized box.
The Cure has released “A Fragile Thing,” the newest single from their upcoming album “Songs of the Lost World”.
The track begins with haunting piano before bass and drums kick in, giving it a fuller sound. A gradual build leads to Robert Smith’s opening vocals: “Every time you kiss me I could cry, she said / Don’t tell me how you miss me, I could die tonight of a broken heart / This loneliness has changed me, we’ve been too far apart.”
Smith’s distinctive croon continues to resonate throughout the heart-aching tune, leading to the emphatic chorus: “There’s nothing you can do to change it back, she said / Nothing you can do but sing / This love is a fragile thing.” An emotive guitar solo midway through the song echoes previous Cure classics, while the final chorus showcases the band’s unique balance of beauty and heartbreak.
“A Fragile Thing” is driven by the difficulties we face in choosing between mutually exclusive needs and how we deal with the futile regret that can follow these choices, however sure we are that the right choices have been made,” Smith explained in a press release accompanying the song. “It can often be very hard to be the person that you really need to be.”
“A Fragile Thing” is the second song to be released from the upcoming LP, following “Alone” which arrived in September. The Cure also previewed other new tunes which will be included on “Songs of the Lost World” during their 2022-’23 tour, among them: “Endsong,” “And Nothing Is Forever” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye.”
“Songs of the Lost World” has been many years in the making, and Smith blamed himself for the long wait. due for release on November 1st. It marks the Cure’s first new album since 2008’s “4:13 Dream“.
Hand Habits, the project of Los Angeles-based musician Meg Duffy announced a new collection of songs titled “Sugar The Bruise” via Fat PossumRecords. Inspired by month-long song writing class Duffy taught in the summer of 2021, they re-discovered, with newfound clarity, the generative capacity of embracing the unknown, and how essential collaboration and improvisation are for accessing the indescribable. Working with Luke Temple (Here We Go Magic, Art Feynman) and Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker, Cass McCombs), Duffy surrendered to the present moment, trusting that whatever sounds and words emerged were meant to emerge. With additional production, engineering and arranging from Jeremy Harris, Duffy created something which, in their words, “turned out nothing like I’d imagined it would.”
The result of this collective experiment, born equally from play and intention, is a radical gift for listeners: proof that our most vital processes, creation and destruction, are exquisitely entangled. The unanswerable and untenable suffering of experience is the fact of perpetual loss. And, yet, there is precious, vivid magic created by this condition. In “Sugar the Bruise”, grief folds in on itself and becomes laughter; language fades away into sonic expanses of the inexpressible; melodies melt into cacophonies; love songs surrender to loss; historic violence is supplanted by the disks of sunlight.
Rose City Band’s music is sun-kissed timeless country rock whose seemingly effortless momentum carries the joy of its creation without ignoring the darkness pervading our consciousness. Led by guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson, the music of Rose City Band is rooted in his love of private press records of the mid to late 70’s. The band, in addition to Johnson, features pedal steel guitarist Barry Walker, keyboardist Paul Hasenberg and drummer John Jeffrey who enmesh a keen sense of rhythmic drive and melody with gentler, sumptuous atmospheres. “Sol Y Sombra” digs its heels into insatiable grooves, its parade of catchy songs conjuring a sunset drive through an open desert, both a celebration of a sojourn and a reach for the warmth of home.
The contrasts of “Sol Y Sombra”, the musical equivalent of bright stars in a night sky, are to Johnson an inevitability. “With Rose City Band, I’m generally trying to make uplifting music, good time music,” says Johnson. “This time I couldn’t avoid the shadow being more of a presence. There’s no getting away from it. The shadow is always there. So, I left it in.” Like many genre-breaking private press albums, the melancholia-infused “Sol Y Sombra’s” contrasts equally enhance moments of joy and movement whilst elevating the music with its honesty and intimacy. Nuanced performances and interplay between players unfurl like desert flowers splashing color onto an arid landscape. The ensemble’s buoyant moments still glide with ease, but there is room to revel in respite of the shade of a dark cloud. For Johnson, the album finds places where the conscious meets the unconscious, the songs emanating the more mercurial and curious aspects of their sonic dream world, using darker hues to paint the panorama around them.
“Sol Y Sombra’s” opener “Lights on the Way” is halogen on the highways, a beam of light pressing onward past dashed lines and soaring with Johnson’s guitar work and lush harmonies. The album’s first half is rife with blissful Americana, from upbeat rollicks to ballads dripping with sweet molasses. Walker’s pedal steel speckles the slow-motion shuffle of “Evergreen” with glinting starlight. His playing throughout pairs perfectly with Johnson’s effervescent guitar lines, exuding the casual virtuosity of pedal steel country legends while lending remarkable modern twists to his graceful licks. Across the album, Johnson’s tasteful guitar interjections and soothing voice are met in kind with the versatile playing of Walker, Hasenberg, and Jeffery, with special guest performances by synthesist/vocalist Sanae Yamada. Album closer “The Walls” perfectly captures the band’s explorative and expansive songs, Hasenberg’s soulful organ driving the album to an emotionally cathartic conclusion.
Throughout his prolific career with Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo and now Rose City Band, Johnson’s music has consistently centered around exploration and discovery. “Sol Y Sombra” imbues his penchant for space and resplendent tonality with a denser amalgam of his influences. Johnson tactfully incorporates new elements with deftness and fluidity, while holding the band’s center intact. “One of my takeaways from making this record is that I spent a lot of energy trying to do things a little different but ended up back where I started in many ways,” notes Johnson. “And that’s OK.” Through a delicate balance of the somber and the serene, of subtle evolutions and familiar sounds, “Sol Y Sombra” makes for a holistically joyous experience, finding solace in both sun and shade.
releases January 24th, 2025
John Jeffrey: Drums, Percussion, Bass on Lights on the Way Barry Walker: Pedal Steel Guitar, Backing Vocals Paul Hasenberg: Keyboards Sanae Yamada: Backing Vocals; Synthesizer on La Mesa Ripley Johnson: Guitars, Vocals, Bass, Piano, Mandolin, Percussion
Chicago has dipped into its archives to issue a brilliant, previously unreleased 1971 performance in Washington, D.C. “Chicago At The John. F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (9/16/1971) arrived from Rhino, on 4-LPs and 3-CDs.
Chicago was one of the first groups to perform at the Kennedy Center. That historic concert has been newly re-mixed from the original multi-track tapes by Chicago founding member and trumpeter LeeLoughnane and engineer Tim Jessup. The Kennedy Center performance includes more than two hours of live music by Robert Lamm (keyboard, vocals), Terry Kath (guitar, vocals), Peter Cetera (vocals, bass), Danny Seraphine (drums), Loughnane (trumpet, vocals), James Pankow (trombone), and Walt Parazaider (woodwinds, vocals).
This 26-track live collection was recorded on September 16th, 1971, about a week after the venue opened in the nation’s capital. For more than 50 years, the concert has remained unreleased except for the performance of “Goodbye,” which debuted in 2018 on “Chicago: VI Decades Live“.
The show explores all three studio albums that Chicago released since their 1969 debut. The songs span a range of styles, underscoring the band’s ability to blend genres seamlessly. There are rockers (“25 or 6 to 4” and “I’m A Man”), The ballads (“Colour My World” and “Beginnings”), jazz-influenced tracks (“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”), and extended song suites (“Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon” and “It Better End Soon”).
The band would begin recording “Chicago V” a few days after the performance. Released in July 1972, the album marked a significant evolution in the band’s sound and would become Chicago’s first No1 album. To get ready for the studio, Loughnane says the band road-tested some new songs in D.C. “Case in point: we did ‘Saturday In The Park’ for the first time at the Kennedy Center show. You’ll notice that we hadn’t yet decided on who would sing the lead vocal. Also, Robert hadn’t written Part 2 of ‘Dialogue’ yet.”
The Doors will kick off their 60th anniversary in 2025 with a new anniversary logo, a series of physical releases, an anthology book, and more.
According to Rhino Records, which is spearheading the anniversary campaign that was announced on October 2024, here’s a rundown of what fans can expect: Firstly a 6-LP high-fidelity audio set featuring all six of the band’s original studio albums cut from the original analogue master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio—“The Doors 1967-1971” via Rhino.
A new book “The Doors Anthology” from Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger Titled Night Divides the Day, will be made available for pre-order and available in early 2025.
The Doors’ first-ever complete anthology book Night Divides the Day will illuminate the band’s archives like never before with rare photography, intimate interviews with Robby Krieger and John Densmore, and meticulously sourced archival text from Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. With unlimited access granted by the band, Night Divides the Day includes a unique collection of historical ephemera—including childhood photos, song lyrics, poster artwork, movie stills, and much more—which adds context to the wealth of rare photography that documents the band’s musical odyssey.
“Joining Robbie and John are a host of contributors, with a foreword by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, and afterword by maestro Gustavo Dudamel. The anthology is presented in a limited-edition of only 2,000 numbered boxed sets, each hand-signed by Densmore and Krieger. Each set includes the 344-page signed edition, a 7-inch vinyl record with rare demos of ‘Hello, I Love You’ and ‘Moonlight Drive,’ and other assorted historical memorabilia.”
“The Doors 1967-1971” 6-LP set will arrive as the latest installment in Rhino’s acclaimed High Fidelity audiophile vinyl series on November 22nd, featuring all six of the band’s original studio albums cut from the original analogue master tapes . The vinyl was pressed at Optimal Media and the box includes a heavyweight gatefold jacket featuring rare photos and liner notes by Doors archivist David Dutkowski. Only 3,000 copies of the limited-edition set will be available exclusively at thedoors.com and rhino.com.
According to the announcement from Rhino: In the Summer of 1965, Ray Manzarek had a chance encounter on Venice Beach with Jim Morrison, a young poet whom he knew when they were both students at UCLA’s film school. Jim told Ray he had been living on a friend’s rooftop writing songs. Though Morrison had never intended to be a singer, he sat down on the beach and sang the new songs to Ray, including ‘Moonlight Drive.’ Manzarek thought they were the best rock and roll lyrics he’d ever heard. At that moment, they both agreed to start a rock band and call it the Doors, taking their name from Aldous Huxley’s psychotropic monograph The Doors of Perception and William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
Guitar player Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, who’d played together in the Psychedelic Rangers, were recruited soon thereafter. After months of rehearsals, they landed a gig as the house band at a small Sunset Strip club called the London Fog. By May 1966, they had graduated to their dream gigas the house band at the Whisky a Go Go. Soon after, Elektra Records president Jac Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw the band performing at the Whisky and signed the Doors to the label.
Over the course of a week, the Doors recorded their debut album at Sunset Sound Recording Studios in Hollywood, putting on tape the songs they had been playing night after night at the Whisky. With an intoxicating, boundary-pushing sound, provocative and uncompromising lyrics, and mesmerizing stage presence, The Doors would go on to have a transformative impact on both music and culture.”
Also to be released recording of “The Doors—Live in Detroit” This will arrive on 4-LP vinyl for the first time ever for 2024’s Record Store Day Black Friday.
The Doors performance from Cobo Arena, 8th May, 1970 is available on 4-LP vinyl for the first time. Captured during the band’s “Roadhouse Blues” Tour, it was one of the band’s longer shows. In fact, the band played for an hour past curfew and were banned from the arena on future tours. The fiery set includes a number of Blues covers, including “I’m a King Bee”, “Back Door Man”, Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train” and “Crossroads” by Robert Johnson.
The Doors also tear through 17 minute-plus versions of “The End” and “When The Music’s Over“, as well as an over 19 minute version of “Light My Fire” and other rare tracks such as “Love Hides” and “Dead Cats, Dead Rats”. This collection captures the band at an absolute zenith.
The Fat Angel Sings 