Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith sat down with Drumeo to tackle a Black Sabbath-inspired drum challenge built around a Bill Ward checklist, flams, signature hi-hat techniques, iconic grooves, and a drum solo in the style of “Rat Salad,” and the results are exactly as entertaining as that premise suggests. The video, which has already pulled nearly 2 million views, captures Smith across 2 takes, initial thoughts included, before revealing his final score and diving into why Black Sabbath has always held a special place in his drumming world. It’s part of Drumeo’s ongoing series with Smith, which has also seen him tackle Keith Moon and John Bonham, and it connects to his new Drumeo course, Legends of the ’70s.
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16-Year-Old Mandolin Prodigy Wyatt Ellis Honors His Roots With Stunning New Single “West Dakota Rose”
Wyatt Ellis is a 16-year-old mandolinist already playing with the kind of authority that takes most musicians decades to develop. His latest single “West Dakota Rose” is out now, and it’s a compelling ensemble bluegrass performance from a young musician who clearly understands the tradition he’s carrying forward.
The tune was written by Ellis’s longtime mentor Christopher Henry, and it’s become a modern instrumental standard with a firm place in the live sets of contemporary jam bands. Ellis first learned it directly from Henry at age 10, and it’s been a cornerstone of his live shows ever since. Recording it now, surrounded by the very players who shaped his development, carries real weight.
The track opens with Ellis’s mandolin before the melody passes to twin fiddles from Noah Goebel and Christian Ward, then to Kyle Tuttle on banjo, back to Ellis, and finally to a powerful guitar solo from Henry himself. Sarah Griffin’s bass holds the whole thing together, giving every soloist room to move. The result is a performance where each solo grows naturally out of the last, fluid and driving from start to finish.
The collaboration is a direct expression of bluegrass’s mentorship tradition, the hand-to-hand passing of craft that keeps the music vital across generations. Ellis steps into that circle here as both student and emerging force, and the recording makes clear he belongs exactly where he is.
“West Dakota Rose” is out now and worth every minute of your time.
Wyoming Singer-Songwriter Ben Musser Arrives as a One-Man Band on Debut LP ‘Sentimental Fever’
‘Sentimental Fever,’ the debut album from Wyoming singer-songwriter Ben Musser, is out now via Blackbird Record Label, and it’s a record that covers serious ground without once losing its footing.
Musser wrote every song and played nearly every instrument across the album, a demanding two-week session that produced something genuinely personal and sonically wide-ranging. The record moves through folk-rock, Americana, blues, classic pop, soul, and even 1950s doo-wop, all filtered through the lens of a man taking honest stock of his own life.
Lead single “Falling by the Wayside” sets the tone immediately. A propulsive, politically charged blues-rocker driven by Wurlitzer and slide guitar, it channels the spirit of Eric Clapton and Duane Allman’s 1970s heyday while delivering a pointed message about apathy and disengagement. “I’m sounding the alarm,” Musser says, “that the life and privileges enjoyed by Americans is ‘Falling by the Wayside’ because of apathy.”
GRAMMY-winning legend Scott Mathews plays drums on the track, moving between sparse alt-rock toms in the verses and full ride-cymbal rock on the choruses. It’s a master class in restraint and release, and Mathews brought the same instinct to his contributions across the album, adding drums, spinet, and background vocals to 2 tracks total.
The album was co-produced with Mathews, whose production credits span The Beach Boys, Mick Jagger, Van Morrison, and Roy Orbison. Mastering came from Jeff Lipton, whose resume includes Bob Mould, Andrew Bird, Madison Cunningham, and Stephen Malkmus. The pedigree surrounding ‘Sentimental Fever’ is considerable, and the record holds up to it.
Released under his own name for the first time (formerly recording as Benyaro), ‘Sentimental Fever’ is Musser being a good husband, a father, a man in love, a man with losses, and a citizen with something to say. The whole thing was recorded at his Jackson Hole, Wyoming homestead, and that sense of place runs through every track.
Transatlantic Folk Storytellers Sons of Town Hall Release ‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ and Head to the UK in June
‘Of Ghosts and Gods,’ the sophomore album from transatlantic duo Sons of Town Hall, is out now, and it delivers on nearly a decade of creative promise.
Ben Parker and David Berkeley first dreamed up the project in a London pub, and the result is one of the more genuinely distinctive folk records to arrive this year. Part storytelling adventure, part atmospheric song cycle, the album draws comparisons to Tom Waits-like lyricism and Everly Brothers-style harmonies, and earns both of them.
The album’s sonic architecture is rich and carefully constructed. Strings arranged by Will Robertson, horns from Jordan Katz (De La Soul, Father John Misty, Macy Gray), and percussion from Mathias Kunzli (Regina Spektor) give ‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ a cinematic sweep that never overreaches. The songs breathe inside it.
The duo has built an elaborate fictional world around the record. Parker inhabits George Ulysses Brown and Berkeley becomes Josiah Chester Jones, 2 Victorian-era travelers navigating the globe on a self-built mythical raft. Their live shows combine music, humor, and theatrical storytelling in a way that The Observer described as “seamless vocal harmonies, stories of sea voyages, betrayal and desolation.” NPR called it simply “one for the dreamers.”
Berkeley frames the project’s spirit plainly: “We are characters in a fiction we’ve dreamed up and re-create with our audiences every night. Given the woes of today’s world, it feels more important than ever to collectively imagine something better.” Parker adds that the costumes “somehow enable us to be more ourselves.” There’s genuine warmth and wit in how these 2 approach their craft.
The album’s universe extends beyond the record itself. The duo launched the Madmen Cross the Water podcast, hosted by fictional superfan Elias B. Worthington, played by British actor Oliver Maltman. Equal parts globe-spanning travelogue and classic radio theatre, it features original score, sound effects, and a script Folk Radio UK called “a splendour to behold.”
Sons of Town Hall return to England this June for a run of dates including a London show at Islington Assembly Hall with Police Dog Hogan.
‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ Tracklist:
- Gods
- How to Build a Boat
- Wild Winds
- The Lion’s Paw
- Whalebone
- The Rocky Shores of England
- Sirens
- Antarctica
- New Orleans
- Mutiny
- In My Arms Once More
- Ghosts (Instrumental)
2026 UK Tour Dates:
June 11 – Caroline Street Social Club – Shipley
June 14 – Kirkby Stephen Sports & Social Club – Kirkby Stephen
June 16 – Arts Hub – Ripon
June 17 – Greystones – Sheffield
June 18 – Islington Assembly Hall – London (w/ Police Dog Hogan)
June 20 – The Tolmen Centre – Constantine
3x Grammy Winner Billy Strings Brings the First-Ever Ionia Freak Fair to Michigan This August
Billy Strings is bringing something entirely new to Michigan this summer. The first-ever Ionia Freak Fair takes place August 28 and 29 at the Ionia County Fairgrounds, and the lineup assembled around him makes it an immediate must-attend event.
Hosted by Mark Lavengood, the 2-day festival features Greensky Bluegrass, Sierra Hull, Leftover Salmon, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Lindsay Lou, and Full Cord, alongside a Pyramid Scheme Pinball and Metal Tent. Tickets are on sale now, with limited RV parking passes available as an add-on through Ticketmaster.
The announcement comes on the heels of another landmark moment for Strings. His most recent album, ‘Highway Prayers,’ won Best Bluegrass Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, his second consecutive win in the category and third overall. Produced with Jon Brion and released via Reprise Records, the album debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales Chart, the first bluegrass album to do so in 22 years.
The praise has been widespread and emphatic. GQ called Strings “the hottest roots-music phenomenon in decades.” Pitchfork noted that he “expands his palette, exploring new textures and emotional registers while staying true to his beloved genre.” Neither description feels like an overstatement.
Beyond ‘Highway Prayers,’ Strings released a collaborative album with Bryan Sutton, ‘Live at the Legion,’ recorded live at Nashville’s American Legion Post 82 on April 7, 2024. The 20-song set pulls from traditional bluegrass and folk, including takes on Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and Doc Watson’s “Way Downtown.” An exclusive Apple Music Nashville Sessions EP featuring reworked album tracks followed shortly after.
Since his 2017 debut, Strings has stacked accolades at a remarkable pace: Artist of the Year at the 2022 and 2023 Americana Music Awards, and Entertainer of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2025. The live show has always been the engine driving all of it, and the current tour reflects just how far that reputation has spread.
Strings continues his extensive headline run through the summer, culminating in the Ionia Freak Fair.
2026 Tour Dates:
July 14 — Roanoke, VA — Berglund Center (SOLD OUT)
July 17 — Portsmouth, VA — Portsmouth Pavilion
July 18 — Portsmouth, VA — Portsmouth Pavilion (SOLD OUT)
July 21 — Boston, MA — Agganis Arena (SOLD OUT)
July 22 — Boston, MA — Agganis Arena
July 24 — Portland, ME — Cross Insurance Arena (SOLD OUT)
July 25 — Portland, ME — Cross Insurance Arena (SOLD OUT)
July 28 — Hartford, CT — PeoplesBank Arena
July 31 — Bethel, NY — Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
August 1 — Bethel, NY — Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (SOLD OUT)
August 28 — Ionia, MI — Ionia Freak Fair
August 29 — Ionia, MI — Ionia Freak Fair
Jesse Hector, Frontman of the Hammersmith Gorillas and Proto-Punk Pioneer, Dead at 78
Jesse Hector, the Kilburn-born guitarist, frontman, and cult rock figure who led proto-punk pioneers Crushed Butler and the Hammersmith Gorillas across more than 2 decades of London’s underground music scene, died on May 6, 2026. He was 78.
Hector picked up a guitar at 11 years old and never really put it down. Through the early 1960s he moved through Sun Records-influenced rock and roll and R&B, absorbing everything around him and developing the sideburned, extravagant stage presence that would define his public image for the rest of his career. By the late 1960s he had formed Crushed Butler, a short, sharp proto-punk three-piece whose savage songwriting lit up London clubs but failed to secure lasting label support despite brief flirtations with EMI, Dick James Music, and Decca.
After several name changes and lineup shifts through the early 1970s, Hector settled on the Hammersmith Gorillas, named with a knowing nod to the Hammersmith Guerillas, a pro-Castro activist group operating in London at the time. The band’s debut release was a cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” on the Penny Farthing label in 1974, produced by Larry Page and timed to mark the tenth anniversary of the original. It captured exactly what the Gorillas were: amplified, energetic pub rock with a raw edge that predated British punk by several years.
Signing to Chiswick Records, the band released a series of singles and built a loyal fanbase on London’s live circuit. In 1976, they played the Mont-de-Marsan Punk Festival in the south of France alongside the Damned and Eddie and the Hot Rods, a booking that confirmed their place in the lineage connecting pub rock to the punk explosion. Their only studio album, ‘Message to the World,’ arrived on Raw Records in 1978, a record that wore its influences proudly, including a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and a track performed in the style of Marc Bolan, 2 of Hector’s most cited heroes.
The Gorillas disbanded in 1981 after bassist Alan Butler died from injuries sustained in a horse riding accident. Hector continued performing through the 1990s with Jesse Hector & The Sound and later the Gatecrashers, contributing to retro-garage rock compilations and releasing an EP in 2000. In later years he worked as a cleaner at the Hackney Empire theatre and the Royal Horticultural Society, a detail that somehow only added to the mythology around him.
In 2008, director Caroline Catz made a full documentary about his life, ‘A Message To The World,’ screened at the Raindance festival and at the Barbican as part of its Pop Mavericks season. It introduced his story to a new generation and confirmed what those who’d followed him since the early days already knew: Jesse Hector was one of the genuine originals, a man who played the music he believed in without compromise or commercial calculation, for over 6 decades.
He was 78. The sideburns were magnificent.
The Haunted Youth’s ‘Boys Cry Too’ Arrives and Joachim Liebens Is Done Playing It Safe
‘Boys Cry Too,’ the second album from The Haunted Youth, is out now via Play It Again Sam, and it’s a deliberate, fully committed break from everything that came before.
Joachim Liebens built his debut ‘Dawn Of The Freak’ on fragile bedroom-pop innocence, a record that earned genuine cult status. This time, he’s kicked the door open. Live drums and guitars push to the front, distortion and aggression run through the DNA, and the emotional stakes are considerably higher across every track.
Liebens describes the shift without flinching: “I was a kid on ‘Dawn Of The Freak.’ It sounds almost like nursery rhymes to me, everything is so fragile and childlike, like a cry for attention. And now I’m angsty and kicking in doors.” That energy is all over ‘Boys Cry Too,’ from the towering 8-minute opener “in my head” to the closing track “ghost girl.”
Lead single “deathwish” features Orlando-based singer-songwriter Max Fry, and it arrives as a strong early indicator of where the album lives. The record moves through goth grunge thrash on “murder me,” icy morning-after regret on “wake up,” New Order-influenced propulsion on “i hear voices,” and the ground-leveling instrumental “falling to pieces.” The shadowy “castlevania” Liebens describes as “the perfect triangle of Nirvana, Alice In Chains and My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.” That’s a bold claim. The track earns it.
The album’s emotional architecture is deliberate and considered. “The first half of the record is basically how everyone sees a boy when he’s heartbroken: he puts his walls up, he’s paranoid, he’s angry, he’s aggressive,” Liebens explains. “But then the second half is this whole other story, it’s vulnerable. I want to show the vulnerable part of men and boys and celebrate it instead of making it this whole stigma that’s been going on for so long.”
Hip hop was a surprising but crucial influence during the writing process, with emo-rap outlier Lil Peep cited as a key reference point. Liebens took specific note of how hip hop lyrics resist resolution. “It’s so much more powerful to have these lines that people just instantly engage with,” he says. That instinct runs through ‘Boys Cry Too’ from start to finish.
The record was born from Liebens’ own pain, but he’s written it wide open, leaving room for listeners to bring their own experience into the songs. That generosity of spirit is what makes ‘Boys Cry Too’ land the way it does.
The Haunted Youth have festival dates ahead this summer.
2026 Festival Dates:
July 12th – Cactusfestival, Brugge
July 24th – Rock Olmen, Olmen
Canadian-Born Rock Powerhouse Sierra Levesque Delivers Cinematic New Single “Don’t Go”
Sierra Levesque’s new single “Don’t Go” is out now on all streaming platforms, and it’s already making noise where it counts, landing on Spotify’s editorial playlist “Rock Now” straight out of the gate. Listen here.
The track is a cinematic rock anthem built on soaring guitars and impassioned vocals, fully self-written and recorded by the 20-year-old Canadian-born artist. Produced, mixed, and mastered alongside legendary guitarist and producer Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, “Don’t Go” bridges classic rock influence with a sharp modern edge that feels entirely her own.
Levesque wrote the song from a deeply personal place. “I wrote this song about the moment you realize someone you love is slipping away, that desperate feeling of wanting to hold on just a little longer,” she explains. That emotional specificity is what separates “Don’t Go” from the pack. It’s urgent, immersive, and completely unguarded.
Born in Pembroke, Ontario and now based in Los Angeles, Levesque is currently studying Songwriting at Berklee College of Music while simultaneously building one of the most compelling independent rock careers of her generation. Guitar World Magazine has featured her, Guitar.com named her “Gen Z’s Most Ambitious New Guitarist,” and she’s been recognized among “10 Young Shredders Shaping Rock and Metal Today.”
Her live show is its own statement. Levesque performs vocals, lead guitar, and original fully self-recorded backing tracks simultaneously, a one-woman operation that has already taken her to stages like Whisky A Go Go and TD Place Arena. With over 3 million Spotify streams, more than 350,000 social media followers, and a debut album already under her belt from September 2025, the foundation is firmly in place.
“Don’t Go” is the clearest signal yet of where Sierra Levesque is headed, and the trajectory is straight up.
Pop-Punk Duo Teenage Joans Go Full Outlaw on New Country-Tinged Single “Bandits”
Teenage Joans have released “Bandits,” and it’s a genuine statement of where this Adelaide pop-punk duo is headed.
The track pairs their signature urgency with a country-tinged edge, a combination that sounds unexpected on paper and completely natural in practice. Written during a beachside writing trip in early 2025, “Bandits” channels the reckless devotion of a Bonnie and Clyde-style romance, all blind loyalty and chosen consequence.
The duo puts it directly: “We really wanted to blend a country vibe with our classic pop punk. The song is about feeling an intense connection to someone, so much so that you would do anything for them and rule out the worst because you love them so much.” That emotional core lands hard, and the production gives it room to breathe without softening the punch.
Cahli and Tahlia have been building toward this kind of creative leap since emerging in 2018. Their resume backs it up completely. Winners of triple j Unearthed High in 2020, back-to-back appearances in the triple j Hottest 100, a record-breaking 7 wins at the 2021 South Australian Music Awards, and three consecutive Best Punk Artist wins in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Their 2023 debut album ‘The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest,’ released via Domestic La La and UNIFIED, debuted across 7 ARIA chart categories and earned a nomination for Best Hard Rock and Heavy Album. A surreal short film accompanied the record, reimagining it through an Alice in Wonderland-inspired lens. The ambition has always been there.
Globally, they’ve shared stages with Foo Fighters, Sum 41, Sleeping with Sirens, PUP, and The Strokes, and have showcased at Music Matters Singapore and The Great Escape in London. “Bandits” arrives as a duo fully in command of their own evolution, expanding their sonic palette without losing a single volt of their live energy.
They’re currently on the road in the UK now.
2026 UK Tour Dates:
May 9 – Bristol – Rough Trade
May 12 – London – The Black Heart
May 13-16 – Brighton – The Great Escape
Chicago Avant-Woodwind Composer Emily Rach Beisel’s ‘Sumptuous Branching’ Is a Solo Album Like No Other
‘Sumptuous Branching,’ the second solo album from Chicago-based woodwind composer and improviser Emily Rach Beisel, is out now on Amalgam, and it’s one of the most conceptually rich records to emerge from the avant-garde this year.
Beisel performs everything here: bass clarinet, vocals, piccolo, and electronics, woven together in a singular, theatrical flow. The album was recorded at Marmalade in Chicago by Bill Harris, mixed by Harris and Beisel, and mastered by Edward Hamel. It’s a fully realized sonic world, and every element of it was deliberate.
The conceptual foundation runs deep. “Sumptuous Branching is born from late medieval chant,” Beisel explains. “Early chant doesn’t have strictly codified rules in place yet, so it has a wild freedom and rich density that I find so compelling. The work in Sumptuous Branching is my imagining of this replete style in my own voice.”
Lead single “Cantilevers” sets the tone immediately. Inspired by Mark Z. Danielewski’s ‘House of Leaves’ and the structural logic of chant, the track layers lines that stretch forward and overlap without ever resolving at a single shared point. Beisel describes it as “a kind of chant that doesn’t loop back on itself, does not end.” It’s as arresting in practice as it sounds in description.
The album draws from a remarkable range of source material: Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s ‘The Iliad,’ Guillaume de Machaut’s ‘La Messe de Nostre Dame,’ and Danielewski’s architectural fiction. Beisel moves through these influences with genuine command, never letting the conceptual framework overwhelm the music’s visceral immediacy.
A Jazz Noise captured it well: “heavy stuff, sounds retrieved from the deeper places… BEISEL pokes around in the sonic depths and brings leviathans out to play.” That description holds across every track on ‘Sumptuous Branching.’
Beisel, a 2024 3Arts Awardee in Music and Northwestern University graduate, approached this record differently than their debut, touring the material through Spring 2025 before entering the studio. “I love albums that offer an intentional journey and reward listening from beginning to end,” Beisel says. “This record very much falls into that category.”
The Midwest release tour continues now through May 12th.
‘Sumptuous Branching’ Tracklist:
- Introit
- To Rise In Arms
- Cantilevers
- Hollow Ships
- Her Still Singing Limbs
- We Who Behold The Bright Surface
- Sumptuous Branching
Sumptuous Branching Midwest Release Tour 2026:
May 9th – Carnegie Art Center – Mankato, MN
May 10th – The Pattern Room – Minneapolis, MN w/ Liz Draper
May 11th – University of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
May 12th – Art Lit Lab – Madison, WI