‘Hound Dog: A Poet’s Memoir of Rock, Revolution, and Redemption’ is out March 10, a heartfelt and wide-ranging memoir from award-winning Detroit poet M.L. Liebler, with contributions from Ed Sanders. Moving through fifty-plus years of artistic life with Elvis, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Hüsker Dü, and Eminem as guideposts, Liebler uses music to chart a life defined by creative conviction, deep personal faith, and an unwavering commitment to championing artistic expression in all its forms.
Hip-Hop Pioneer and Cultural Architect Fab 5 Freddy Tells His Extraordinary Story in ‘Everybody’s Fly’
Fab 5 Freddy’s memoir ‘Everybody’s Fly: A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture,’ written with Mark Rozzo, is out March 10 via Penguin Random House. It is the story of one of the most genuinely consequential creative figures of the last half century, told by the man himself. The New Yorker called him “the coolest person in New York.” The resume backs it up completely.
Fred Brathwaite was among the first graffiti artists to move subway tags into fine art galleries. He was the visionary behind Wild Style, the first hip-hop film. He was the bridge between Jean-Michel Basquiat and the downtown new wave scene. He was the first person to take rap global on MTV as the original host of Yo! MTV Raps. And he is literally in the opening lines of Blondie’s Number 1 hit “Rapture,” the song that carried hip-hop from New York streets into mainstream culture worldwide.
‘Everybody’s Fly’ moves from a book-and-jazz-filled Brooklyn childhood through the creative explosions of New York in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. His circle included Basquiat, Keith Haring, Grandmaster Flash, Andy Warhol, and The Clash. He directed music videos for Snoop Dogg, Nas, and Queen Latifah. He painted subway cars that became moving masterpieces and brought hip-hop into downtown clubs for the first time. At every inflection point in the culture, Brathwaite was not just present, he was pushing.
This is a memoir that doubles as a panoramic cultural history of one of the most creatively fertile periods in American urban life. Fast-moving, deeply personal, and compulsively readable, ‘Everybody’s Fly’ is essential reading for anyone serious about understanding where hip-hop, street art, and downtown New York culture came from and how they took over the world.
Seattle Indie Rockers SHe Said Deliver an Intimate and Electrifying Live Set for KEXP
KEXP has released the full studio performance from SHe Said, hosted by Cheryl Waters. The four-song set moves through “Like Lions,” “Over The Marionette,” “The Reins,” and “The Real Thing,” giving the six-piece band room to stretch out and demonstrate exactly why they are worth paying close attention to. Fronted by Jen Ayers on lead vocals and electric piano, with Kathy Moore and R L Heyer on guitars, Richard Davidson on bass, Geoff Reading on drums, and Melissa Montalto on keyboards, SHe Said fills the KEXP studio with a sound that is layered, dynamic, and completely alive.
Danish Jazz-Techno Trio Smag På Dig Selv Delivers Their Most Focused and Fearless Album Yet With ‘This Is Why We Lost’
Smag På Dig Selv have released ‘This Is Why We Lost,’ their highly anticipated second album, out now via Stunt Records. The Danish trio, comprised of saxophonists Oliver Lauridsen and Thorbjørn Øllgaard alongside drummer Albert Holberg, have built one of the most genuinely singular sounds in contemporary music, blending acoustic instrumentation with techno structures, punk energy, and deep references to 90s dance culture. This album is their most confident and focused statement yet.
The core ambition was to create music that functions inside a trance or club setting while carrying a strong melodic and narrative arc. It works completely. Clash Magazine awarded it a 9/10, calling it impossible not to be physically moved by, while Notion described it as balancing “hypnotic, trance-ready propulsion with melodic vulnerability.” Produced by TMI Tammi, the album features the band’s mothers, a nod to minimalist composer Kali Malone, and a Palestinian folk song, different voices finding space together without losing the thread.
Recent singles include the Radio X-championed “Like A Word I Never Knew,” the Dutch Gabber-inspired “Vik’s Rawcore” featuring vibraphonist Viktoria Søndergaard, and the acoustic techno of “Let’s Go!” The album also carries a direct political dimension, confronting the global rise of right-wing politics with the kind of self-examination that goes beyond easy criticism. “As much as the left wing is good at criticizing the right wing, we should also look inwards,” the band explains.
Since forming in 2018, SPDS have performed at major European festivals, SummerStage in Central Park, SXSW, The Great Escape, and Eurosonic. The international touring reputation they have built is formidable, and ‘This Is Why We Lost’ arrives as the record that fully justifies it.
An extensive international tour runs through spring 2026, with dates across Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the UK, and beyond.
2026 Tour Dates:
April 15 – Pustervik – Göteborg, SE
April 16 – Blaa – Oslo, NO
April 17 – Debaser – Stockholm, SE
April 18 – Plan B – Malmø, SE
April 22 – Lark – Berlin, DE
April 25 – Atelier Café – Cluj, RO
April 26 – Control Club – Bucharest, RO
April 29 – A38 – Budapest, HU
May 6 – Gazarte Ground Stage – Athens, GR
May 7 – Soul Skg – Thessaloniki, GR
May 16 – Rough Trade – London, UK
May 20 – Hug and Pint – Glasgow, UK
May 21 – Voodoo Daddy’s – Norwich, UK
May 22 – Shindig – Charlton Park, UK
May 23 – Bearded Theory – UK
Harry Styles Brings ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’ to Netflix in a Stunning One-Night Manchester Concert Film
Harry Styles’ One Night in Manchester is now streaming globally on Netflix, capturing the full live performance of his fourth studio album ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’ filmed at Co-op Live Arena in front of 20,500 fans on the day of the album’s release. Every track from the record is performed in sequence, making this a complete album experience delivered at full concert scale.
The setlist closes with five songs that cement exactly why Styles commands rooms this size. “Golden,” “Watermelon Sugar,” “As It Was,” and “Sign of the Times” close the main set before “Aperture” returns for a second performance as the final note of the night. It is a generous, considered send-off from an artist who clearly understands how to leave an audience.
The one-night-only release show is a tradition Styles has honored for each of his albums, and this Manchester performance is the most ambitious installment yet. It also precedes Together, Together, his record-breaking global residency across seven cities and 67 shows worldwide in 2026, making One Night in Manchester both a celebration of the new album and a preview of what that touring run will deliver at scale.
The film is available now on Netflix for anyone who wants to watch a complete, fully realized concert performance of one of 2026’s most anticipated pop releases.
Setlist:
- Aperture
- American Girls
- Ready, Steady, Go!
- Are You Listening Yet?
- Taste Back
- The Waiting Game
- Season 2 Weight Loss
- Coming Up Roses
- Pop
- Dance No More
- Paint By Numbers
- Carla’s Song
Encore:
- From the Dining Table
- Golden
- Watermelon Sugar
- As It Was
- Sign of the Times
- Aperture (Again)
Irish Composer BK Pepper Confronts a Fractured World on Ambitious New Album ‘Pagan’
Irish composer and producer BK Pepper has released “Common Ground,” the lead single from his forthcoming second album ‘Pagan,’ arriving April 24 via London-based label Bigo & Twigetti. The single is out now, and it announces an album of genuine scale and ambition, recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, The Glasshouse Ensemble, and acclaimed violinist Viktor Orri Árnason.
“Common Ground” opens ‘Pagan’ with a piece that pairs orchestral sweep with intimate layered vocals and hushed brass textures. It builds deliberately, mirroring the slow work of genuine human understanding. “Common Ground came from a need to believe that connection is still possible,” Pepper shares. “There is so much noise and division in the world, but underneath it all I think we are far more alike than we admit.” The restraint in the arrangement is as powerful as any of its larger moments.
‘Pagan’ follows Pepper’s critically acclaimed 2020 debut ‘Territories’ and widens the lens considerably. Where that album turned inward, this one confronts systems of belief, religious, political, and personal, and what happens when they fracture. “I was drawn to the idea of the pagan as someone outside the dominant narrative, someone questioning, resisting or searching,” Pepper explains. The album moves between cinematic orchestration and stripped-back vulnerability throughout, both collective and deeply personal in equal measure.
Pepper has recorded at Abbey Road Studios and in unconventional spaces including converted swimming pools. His recent score for the 2024 feature film ‘Swing Bout’ is currently streaming on Apple TV. His live performance film ‘From An Empty Castle’ from 2021 demonstrated his ability to merge striking visual environments with immersive sound.
‘Pagan’ is one of the more compelling orchestral releases on the 2026 calendar, arriving April 24 via Bigo & Twigetti.
Michael Stipe and Andrew Watt Deliver a Stunning “I Played The Fool” for HBO’s “Rooster”
WaterTower Music has released “I Played The Fool (Main Title Theme)” from the new HBO Original series Rooster, performed by Michael Stipe and Andrew Watt and available now on all major streaming platforms. The track marks Stipe’s first new song in three years, a return that carries real weight for anyone who grew up with R.E.M. Paired with Watt’s bold contemporary production, the result is cinematic, emotionally immediate, and impossible to shake.
The collaboration brings together two Grammy Award-winning artists for the first time. Watt produced and co-performed the track, with Travis Barker of Blink-182 on drums and Josh Klinghoffer on guitar and piano. Barker’s driving percussion and Klinghoffer’s atmospheric playing give the song a modern rock foundation while leaving full room for Stipe’s unmistakable voice to do what only it can do.
The enthusiasm from everyone involved is genuine and audible. “Michael Stipe is a hero of mine,” Watt says. “He is one of the true great songwriters of this lifetime.” Series co-creator Bill Lawrence describes watching Watt partner with “one of my favorite songwriter/singers of all time” as a career highlight. Co-creator Matt Tarses, a lifelong R.E.M. devotee, put it simply: when he heard the early demo, he cried.
Rooster is a comedy set on a college campus, centered on the complicated relationship between an author played by Steve Carell and his daughter, played by Charly Clive. Co-created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses and executive produced alongside Jonathan Krisel and Steve Carell among others, the series also stars Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, John C. McGinley, and Lauren Tsai. The 10-episode season debuted March 8 on HBO and streams on HBO Max, with new episodes weekly through May 10.
“I Played The Fool” establishes the tone of Rooster with a blend of raw emotion, modern rock energy, and songwriting that lands hard from the opening seconds. Andrew Watt called it “the best clapping TV theme song since Friends.” That is a bold claim. Listen once and it is difficult to argue.
Alice Cooper Sets the Record Straight in Definitive New Autobiography ‘Devil on My Shoulder’
Alice Cooper is finally telling his own story, on his own terms. ‘Devil on My Shoulder,’ published by Penguin Books on October 8, is the definitive autobiography from the Godfather of Shock Rock, a full accounting of six decades in music, myth, addiction, survival, and faith from one of the most singular figures rock has ever produced. After sixty-plus years of embellishments, elaborations, and outright fabrications circling his name, Cooper is sorting reality from legend himself.
The book covers everything. The slaughtered chickens. The bans and record burnings. The blackout years and the creative process fueled by alcohol, drugs, and round-the-clock television. His feelings of guilt after people got hurt or died. How he stayed married for half a century. And, perhaps most surprisingly, God. “I just want to describe how it is that I found Him dwelling in me,” Cooper writes. That is not a sentence anyone saw coming from Alice Cooper, and that unpredictability is precisely what makes this book essential reading.
The autobiography traces the full arc of a career built on over 50 million albums sold, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. His catalog includes platinum landmarks from ‘Killer’ and ‘School’s Out’ through ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and ‘Trash.’ His collaborators have included Vincent Price, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Jon Bon Jovi, and Johnny Depp, with whom he co-founded Hollywood Vampires alongside Joe Perry. His 2025 album ‘The Revenge Of Alice Cooper’ reunited the surviving original band members to widespread critical acclaim.
Cooper has been covered by Etta James, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Megadeth. He appeared in Wayne’s World, The Muppets, That 70s Show, and starred alongside John Legend and Sara Bareilles in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. The reach of this man’s career across popular culture is genuinely staggering, and ‘Devil on My Shoulder’ promises to account for all of it.
This is the book rock fans have been waiting decades for, written by the only person qualified to tell it.
The Devil Wears Nada Swings Hard With Explosive New Single “Brat With A Baseball Bat”
The Devil Wears Nada has released “Brat With A Baseball Bat,” the lead single from their upcoming sophomore album ‘In Lust We Thrust,’ arriving July 3, 2026 on CD and limited-edition colored vinyl via Eönian Records. Pre-orders launch in late spring at eonianrecords.com. The single arrives with a lyric video and announces a band operating at full throttle, arena-sized hooks, unapologetic swagger, and a chorus built to ignite rooms.
The track sits squarely in the tradition of classic Scandinavian hard rock, carrying the anthemic grandeur of Europe and the bombastic punch of KISS while sharpening both with modern production. Thematically it moves through confrontation, betrayal, and the surge of reclaiming control, and it does all of that without once losing momentum. “Big melodies, sharp edges, and a heartbeat that feels like it might explode at any second,” says drummer and founder Ludvig Alfvén. “That’s THE DEVIL WEARS NADA in its purest form.”
The band hails from Falköping, Sweden, and draws theatrical energy from Alice Cooper, Ghost, and Lordi while rooting their sound in the melodic hard rock and glam metal of the mid-1980s through early 1990s. Their debut album ‘Postalgia,’ originally released under the name Adecence in a pressing of just 100 CDs, was remastered and reissued under the current name with expanded packaging and two new studio recordings, becoming one of Eönian Records’ best-selling titles.
‘In Lust We Thrust’ features 11 tracks including “Victoria,” which features Evan Stanley as a guest. Guitarist Henrik Westergren frames the band’s creative core directly: “Take the raw pulse of the ’70s and ’80s hard rock and glam metal, and mix it with our fascination for the macabre and the dramatic. That’s where THE DEVIL WEARS NADA lives.” Fans of Nestor, Da Vinci, 220 Volt, and FM will find exactly what they are looking for here, and then some.
This is melodic rock built from genuine passion and delivered without apology. ‘In Lust We Thrust’ is one of the more exciting hard rock releases on the 2026 calendar.
Kurt Deimer Gets Personal and Twangy on Heartfelt New Single “Always There”
Kurt Deimer releases “Always There” today, the latest single from his forthcoming sophomore album ‘A Grog Is Born,’ due May 8 via his own Bald Man Records. The track pulls toward country-rock, a twangy, emotionally grounded departure that sits apart from the harder material in his catalog. It is also, by his own account, his favorite song on the record.
The song draws directly from Deimer’s life. “I went through a lot of trouble in my life. I had addictions when I was younger. I had anxiety when I was younger,” he shares. “But I had those core people, like the best mom and dad, that helped me get through those very bad times. Without giving up hope on me or kind of throwing me to the side, they were always there.” That kind of specificity is what separates a good song from a lasting one.
‘A Grog Is Born’ was produced by five-time GRAMMY-winning producer Chris Lord-Alge, whose credits include Green Day and Breaking Benjamin. The 12-track album spans bruising hard rock, epic balladry, and everything between, while connecting Deimer the singer to Grog, the scene-stealing character he portrays in his horror comedy film ‘Scared To Death.’ The film, starring Lin Shaye and Bill Moseley, hits theaters March 13. The album’s title track doubles as the film’s lead single.
The record features serious guest appearances. Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd appears on “In Deep,” already a Top 40 Active Rock radio single. Queensrÿche legend Geoff Tate joins for a reinvention of “Silent Lucidity.” The album also includes a heavy reimagining of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight,” directed by Paul Boyd, who also wrote and directed the film.
Deimer is operating on multiple creative fronts simultaneously, and pulling it off. ‘A Grog Is Born’ is out May 8.