Jack White ended his March 15th show in Tokyo by bringing out Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder to help him cover the Neil Young classic, “Rockin in the Free World.”
This version the two performed together was loud and percussive and everything you want out a song with the world ‘rockin’ in it. It also featured a brief Jack White guitar solo at the end, and Eddie Vedder improvising one line in the last verse. (Before this, White had played The White Stripes songs “Hypnotize” and “Seven Nation Army” as part of the encore.)
White himself performed the song as part of the Saturday Night Live 50th concert last month and Vedder and Pearl Jam have ended many a show with the song and have played it with Young several times.
Jack White will be back in the US for the next leg of his tour, beginning April 3rd in St Louis. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam will be kicking off their next run of shows, starting April 24th in Hollywood, Florida.
Cloth are twins Rachael & Paul Swinton from Glasgow, Scotland. Hot on the heels of their well-received winter 2024 single release ‘Polaroid’, Glasgow-based twin-sibling duo Cloth are back with third album ‘Pink Silence’, out on Mogwai’s Rock Action Records. Exploring universal themes of relationships, heartbreak, loss and self-acceptance, ‘Pink Silence’ sees the band move into poppier, upbeat territory whilst retaining their trademark haunting, ethereal vocals. Recorded in Bristol with producer Ali Chant, and featuring contributions from Adrian Utley, Owen Pallet and Stuart Braithwaite, ‘Pink Silence’ is the follow up to 2023’s critically acclaimed ‘Secret Measure’ .
The single is featured on their sophomore album, “No Obligation”, The Linda Lindas have released a music video for “Don’t Think,” a technicolor-tinged video with lyrics that critique the pressure of conforming to societal norms. The Kiki Banta and Marlowe Taylor-directed clip was filmed over two weekends in the backyard and home of one of the bandmates.
“This video was really fun because we got to work with filmmaking friends who are also our age,” drummer Mila de la Garza said in a statement. She added that the video they released was the directing duo’s first draft. “‘Don’t Think’ is about being lost in identities, and Kiki and Marlowe’s video reflects that with all these different surreal elements.”
“Don’t Think” follows “No Obligation’s” previously released singles “Too Many Things,” “Resolution/Revolution,” “All in My Head,” “Yo Me Estreso,” “No Obligation,” and “Nothing Would Change.”
“Don’t Think” appears on the Linda Lindas album, “No Obligation”, which the band — guitarists Bela Salazar and Lucia de la Garza, bassist-pianist Eloise Wong, and drummer Mila de la Garza — wrote and recorded during scheduled school breaks and weekends. The LP draws inspiration from Sleater-Kinney, Jawbreaker, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Paramore, with one single, “Lose Yourself,” reminiscent of “Green Day by way of Blondie,” .
The Linda Lindas embark on their tour in support of “No Obligation” Special guests throughout the trek include Be Your Own Pet and Pinkshift.
Kim Gordon and Kim Deal joined forces on the latest episode of Netflix talk show Everybody’s Live for their debut joint live performance. Gordon took the stage first, performing her song “Bye Bye,” while Deal followed with her own track “Nobody Loves You More.” The pair then collaborated on “Little Trouble Girl,” a Sonic Youth song Deal contributed vocals to on the band’s 1995 LP “Washing Machine”. Host John Mulaney emphasized that the moody rendition was the pair’s “first time performing together, anywhere.”
“Little Trouble Girl” marks the only time Deal and Gordon have previously worked together. Deal appeared in the song’s music video, but she apparently never played the track live with Sonic Youth before they disbanded in 2011.
Kim Deal released her debut solo LP, “Nobody Loves You More“, in November, while Gordon veiled her second solo album, “The Collective”, last March. In December, the pair teamed up for a conversation in Interview magazine, which saw them reflecting on their parallel careers and their approaches to writing and recording songs.
In the interview, Deal explained that there is no difference to how she approaches a solo track as opposed to one for the Breeders. “That never occurs to me,” she told Gordon. “The only thing that occurs to me is like, ‘I haven’t played a keyboard in a while. I’m going to put it through the Marshall and see if anything sounds cool.’”
KimGordon, meanwhile, said that her solo albums have been a different way to express herself than Sonic Youth. “I’m not a natural singer,” she said. “I know what works for me in the sense of using rhythm and space, and I really do like working off rhythms. I really just wanted to do more of that. I feel much freer in what I’m singing about in a certain way. I don’t feel like I have to hold myself back in some way.”
She added that there is currently no interest in a Sonic Youth reunion, noting that, “It would never be as good as it was.”
Eddie Vedder and Stephen Marley have shared new covers of two Neil Young classics from “Harvest” for an upcoming tribute album benefitting the Bridge School.
While “Rockin’ in the Free World” has become a Pearl Jam live staple, for his contribution, Vedder covered “The Needle and The Damage Done,” Young’s devastating 1972 song about heroin addiction. The Pearl Jam frontman plays the cover pretty straight (not that that’s a bad thing), with just acoustic guitar accompaniment and a vocal performance that’s distinctly reminiscent of Young’s soft, quivering tenor.
Marley, meanwhile, has turned in a reggae-infused rendition of “Old Man,” injecting Young’s ode to the caretaker of the Northern California ranch he purchased in the early Seventies with an atmospheric rocksteady energy.
Vedder’s “The Needle and the Damage Done” and Marley’s “Old Man” mark the third and fourth offerings from from “Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young”, following, Courtney Barnett’s rendition of “Lotta Love” and Chris Pierce’s interpretation of “Southern Man.”
The upcoming compilation will also feature contributions from Fiona Apple, Mumford & Sons, Brandi Carlile, Sharon Van Etten, Lumineers, Steve Earle, and the Doobie Brothers with Allison Russell. Artists for volume two haven’t been announced yet.
Proceeds from “Heart of Gold” will benefit the Bridge School, which Young’s late ex-wife Pegi co-founded to help individuals with severe speech and physical impairments.
“Heart of Gold” arrives April 25th, and it’s set to be the first volume of a two-album project.
“Nothing Sticks” is a bold leap forward for bass-guitar virtuoso and evocative lyricist Pictoria Vark. Her dynamic studio album explores impermanence through intricate arrangements and compelling narratives, blending chamber pop, sludge-metal intensity, and breezy acoustic moments. Co-produced with Gavin Caine and Bradford Krieger, the record features an all-star cast of musicians and innovative production techniques. With its fearless songwriting and sonic depth, “Nothing Sticks” is a testament to Victoria Park’s singular voice and her evolving artistry.
Pictoria Vark is the spoonerism alias of the young singer-songwriter Victoria Park, who turned heads with her 2022 debut album “The Parts I Dread”. She aims even higher on her excellent new album release “Nothing Sticks” — it’s the perfect road-trip indie-rock album you didn’t realize you deserved, full of soft-spoken guitar haze and emotional travelogues.
The album unfolds like the journal of a wandering young heart who rambles from town to town, from feeling to feeling, but without feeling connected anywhere. As she sings in the witty “San Diego,” “I’m wherever I go.”
Vark grew up in New Jersey as a suburban emo kid, picking up the bass because she got obsessed with Carol Kaye’s playing on the Beach Boys’ classic “Pet Sounds“. She still writes her songs on bass, giving them a spacious, reflective tone. She crafted her own bedroom-pop style, sounding at first like a shy wallflower learning to speak up. But she’s full of sly wit and matter-of-fact candor.
She goes deep into 20-something ennui with “I Sing What I See,” confessing, “I put my money on the wrong things/Ambulances and my broken strings/Or a thought that’s stupidly clinging.”
Most of these songs take place in the indie-rock milieu, where your home is whatever floor you’re crashing on tonight, your friends are the blank faces you see staring at the gig, and your past is whatever hungover memories you manage to hold on to. In “I Pushed It Down,” Vark laments “trying to make it in those bands, waiting for someone to understand.”
The conceit works brilliantly in gems like “We’re Musicians” (“we’re not actors”) and “Other Things,” where she uses the indie-rock hustle as her metaphor for romantic struggles. As she sings, “Every verse becomes a chorus/With each subsequent performance/I know you like I know the routine/I miss you most when you’re next to me.” She makes the day-to-day chaos of playing in the band sound like the mirror image for anybody’s youthful upheavals, in the great tradition of the Replacements’ “Left of the Dial,” the White Stripes’ “Little Room,”.
She stretches out on guitar for “Other Things” and “San Diego,” along with her usual bass. The fantastic “Lucky Superstar” is full of shoegaze guitar, with a Smashing Pumpkins-style sense of rock grandeur, as she sings about taking aim at somebody’s heart, with sly lines like “I could never hurt you/Unless I really tried.” “San Diego” she tops it with “I blacked out singing this.”
As the title suggests, “Nothing Sticks” is full of songs where she faces up to how transient youth is, chasing moments of romance or inspiration that get her hopes up for a minute or two, then fizzle out. As she sings bluntly in “We’re Musicians,” “Thank god for good days in bad luck/The times when both are getting fucked.” In these songs, you can hear her wonder if she’ll ever find her places to belong, or whether she’s just kidding herself. But when the songs are this great, Vark makes you hope she keeps on searching — and turns all her heartache into an adventure worth joining.
A transformative journey, the album promises to captivate and resonate.
Pictoria Vark – ‘Nothing Sticks’ out March 21st, 2025
Mike Scott and Brother Paul have created a video to accompany a newly-discovered Waterboys studio recording of Woody Guthrie’s classic song, “This Land Is Your Land”, recorded at Spiddal House, Ireland in 1988. The video shows great souls, activists and artists of the USA, individuals who’ve inspired millions of peoples’ love for the country – and on this auspicious day we wish to celebrate them. The song itself will be included on a double album of previously lost “Fisherman’s Blues” recordings scheduled for Spring 2026 release.
newly-discovered recording by The Waterboys (1988), copyright Blue Raincoat Music. Song composed by Woody Guthrie,
The Waterboys have recruited Fiona Apple as the narrator of their latest single “Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend”. The record, written by Mike Scott & performed by Fiona , will appear on the forthcoming Waterboys concept album ‘Life, Death & Dennis Hopper’, due out April 4th.
Fiona appears among a staked slate of guest stars on the album. Others include Bruce Springsteen (“TenYears Gone”), Steve Earle (“Kansas”), British artist Barny Fletcher (“The Tourist”) & Nashville singer Anana Kaye (“Katherine”). Sugarfoot, Patti Palladin & The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine also make guest appearances.
“Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend” follows the previous singles “Hopper’s On Top (Genius),” “Andy (A Guy Like You)” and “I Don’t Know How I Made It” with Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith.
“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” Scott said about Dennis Hopper in a statement. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, & I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth.”
Produced by Mike & the band’s Famous James & Brother Paul, ‘Life, Death & Dennis Hopper’ marks The Waterboys’ first album since 2022’s ‘All Souls Hill’.
Deacon Blue will release their 12th studio album, “The Great Western Road“, on the 21st March.
2025 marks 40 years since the formation of Deacon Blue and we’re told that “The Great Western Road” will reflect “the journey the band has taken” and be “honest to the age and experience” that the band share. Frontman Ricky Ross says the album is “the next part of the adventure” which remains “as exciting now as it was back in 1988”.
“The Great Western Road” sees Ross, and guitarist Gregor Philp, on production duties, having produced the band’s last studio album. The album was recorded by Matt Butler, who worked with the band on their classic debut album “Raintown”.
The 12-track album is available on vinyl, CD and cassette, although the cassette is an exclusive on the official Deacon Blue shop, which also has signed bundles. On vinyl, “The Great Western Road” is available in a number of coloured pressings including transparent blue and an official shop white marble pressing.
Hey everyone! Just me again letting you know my new EP, “Northern Star” is out now wherever you get your music! I really really hope you love these songs. They started with writing “Go Be Free” for the movie Last Breath, and myself and Liz Horsman were so inspired by all the things that spilled out when writing that we wrote a whole EP. For me it’s about how we are connected with nature and that life is a circle, but I hope you find your own messages in there somewhere.
My EP ‘Northern Star’ is officially yours and “Little Light” is the final single from it. This video includes all the little lights of ours.
I wrote the last track with the one and only best person ever Alfie and we filmed a little visualiser that you can watch on youtube now!
The Fat Angel Sings 