Eddie Vedder and Paul Shaffer, Letterman’s longtime bandleader, teamed up at the Kennedy Center Honors to perform a thoughtful cover of Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart” in tribute to David Letterman, who received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The choice of song and performers felt entirely right. Vedder and Letterman share a long and genuine friendship built across multiple Late Show appearances, including a special visit during Letterman’s final week on air, and Letterman later returned the gesture by inducting Pearl Jam into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Watch U2’s First Ever Television Performance As The Hype On Irish TV In 1978
Before they were U2, they were The Hype, and this is the footage to prove it. Aired on March 2, 1978 on RTÉ’s teen-oriented show Youngline, this performance marks the band’s first ever television appearance, captured just weeks before they would head to Limerick for the talent contest where they would change their name to U2. The four-piece lineup still included Dik Evans, who would officially leave the band shortly after, having been largely unavailable due to his engineering studies. The band talked their way onto the show by convincing a producer to attend a rehearsal, where they performed the Ramones’ “Glad to See You Go” and, when asked if they had written it, Bono claimed they had. It worked.
Nathaniel Rateliff And Tedeschi Trucks Band Open Joe Cocker’s Rock Hall Tribute With A Raw Take On “The Letter”
Nathaniel Rateliff and Tedeschi Trucks Band opened the Joe Cocker tribute at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles with a soul-drenched performance of “The Letter,” the song that gave Cocker his first top 10 hit in the U.S. when his Mad Dogs & Englishmen version reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. Susan Tedeschi’s vocals kicked things off before Rateliff joined in, the two voices meeting somewhere between Sheffield and Denver, both carrying the kind of raw, ragged soul that Cocker built his entire career on. No band has carried Cocker’s legacy more deeply than TTB, who recreated the entire ‘Mad Dogs & Englishmen’ album at the 2015 LOCKN’ Festival with surviving members of Cocker’s original touring band including Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, and Claudia Lennear, a performance finally released as ‘Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited (Live At LOCKN’)’ just two months before the ceremony. The tribute continued with Teddy Swims on “Feelin’ Alright” before closing with an all-star finale of “With a Little Help From My Friends” featuring TTB, Rateliff, Swims, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, and Chris Robinson.
Video: Teddy Swims And Tedeschi Trucks Band Deliver A Gut-Punch Tribute To Joe Cocker With “Feelin’ Alright” At The Rock Hall
Teddy Swims and Tedeschi Trucks Band delivered one of the standout moments of the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles with a raw, gut-punch performance of Joe Cocker’s “Feelin’ Alright,” the second song in an all-star tribute to the newly inducted Cocker. The pairing was instinctively right. Swims built his career the same way Cocker did, taking other people’s songs and making them feel entirely his own, starting with YouTube covers in 2019 that racked up hundreds of millions of views before signing with Warner Records. On the red carpet, Swims was direct about the influence: “As somebody that’s come up doing covers on YouTube and started my career that way, as somebody who made so many covers famous, I’ve even modeled my own career after him.” The tribute set opened with Nathaniel Rateliff and Tedeschi Trucks Band on “The Letter” before Swims took the stage, leading into an all-star finale of “With a Little Help From My Friends” featuring Tedeschi Trucks Band, Rateliff, Swims, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, and Chris Robinson. Adams, who inducted Cocker earlier in the evening, framed his legacy plainly: “It’s one thing to cover a song, but it’s another to make it your own. And that’s what Joe could do.”
Video: RAYE And Cyndi Lauper Unite On “Time After Time” In A Defining Moment At The 2025 Rock Hall Induction
RAYE joined Cyndi Lauper on stage at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles for a stunning duet on “Time After Time,” the second song in Lauper’s induction set, performed with the room still glowing from phone flashlights carried over from an emotionally charged rendition of “True Colors” moments before. With Gina Schock of the Go-Go’s on drums and Lisa Coleman on keys, the two traded lines and came together on the chorus, RAYE taking the lower harmonies as their voices intertwined across a generational bridge that captured everything the night was about. RAYE, the British singer-songwriter who broke the all-time record at the 2024 BRIT Awards with six wins in a single night including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, was one of several artists joining Lauper’s all-female set alongside Avril Lavigne and Salt-N-Pepa. Lauper was inducted by Chappell Roan, who said of the honoree: “Tonight, we honor a woman who redefined what a pop star could look like, sound like, sing like, and be.”
Dark Folk Trio Saltaire Release Instrumental Single “Slip Jigs & Jenny’s” From Debut EP ‘Only Moonlight’
Saltaire, the Dublin-based dark folk trio of singer and cellist Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz, guitarist Ian Kinsella, and bodhrán and bouzouki player Conor Lyons, have released “Slip Jigs & Jenny’s,” the latest single from their debut EP ‘Only Moonlight,’ out now. Following their RTÉ Radio 1 Recommends debut original “The Axe” and their rendition of “Matty Groves,” the new single shifts the focus to the traditional instrumental dimension of what Saltaire offers, with Cullen-Verhauz’s cello taking the lead melody before flute by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, banjo by Ryan McAuley, and piano by Catherine McHugh each take over in turn, layering over a foundation built by Kinsella and Lyons on guitar, bouzouki, and bodhrán.
The set of tunes has a history that stretches back to 2021, when Cullen-Verhauz, Kinsella, and McAuley performed together representing Ireland at the World Expo in Dubai, where the first two slip jigs, “Fig For A Kiss” and “The Foxhunter,” were fixtures in their set. Back in Ireland, Cullen-Verhauz brought the tunes to sessions with Lyons and Ó Ceannabháin, who added a third slip jig, “Elizabeth Kelly’s Delight,” before “Jenny’s Chickens” rounded out what the band began calling “the slip jigs and jenny’s.” Cullen-Verhauz reflects on what the track means to her: “Playing with this particular group of heads feels like a particularly appropriate love and thank you letter to a greater community that has given me so much. The arrangement came together rather organically as each instrument layers, weaving over and under one another, building momentum that ebbs and flows from start to finish.”
Saltaire’s combined experience runs deep. Cullen-Verhauz performs with 2025 RTÉ Folk Award winners Natalie Nà Chasaide and Iarfhlaith Ó Domhnaill and has played with Frankie Gavin and De Dannan alongside Kinsella. Lyons is a founding member of The Bonny Men, and all three appear on Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin’s debut solo album ‘The Deepest Breath,’ awarded four stars by The Irish Times. The trio have performed at Whelan’s, The Duncairn, The Cobblestone, and the Button Factory, and graced the main stages of Vantastival, Wild Roots, and the St. Patrick’s Day Festival at Collins Barracks, among many others.
New Jersey Rockers The Melancholy Kings Release Pynchon-Inspired Psychedelic Single “UV” From Album ‘Her Favorite Disguise’
The Melancholy Kings have released “UV,” the latest single from their sophomore album ‘Her Favorite Disguise,’ out now via Magic Door Record Label. A quasi-psychedelic musical journey drawing from Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern novel “V,” the track weaves rock, psychedelia, rap, and classical strings into a kaleidoscopic whole, featuring trumpet improvisations from Mac Gollehon (David Bowie, Al Jarreau, Duran Duran, Mick Jagger, Hall and Oates), cello arrangements by Carolyn Jeselsohn, and soulful vocals from Olivia Selig. Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ray Ketchem (Guided by Voices, Luna, Elk City) at Magic Door Recording Studio in Montclair, New Jersey, the album also features Elk City vocalist Reneé LoBue, accordionist Carl Riehl, and Ketchem on percussion.
The core of The Melancholy Kings is singer-guitarist Mike Potenza and bassist Scott Selig, Manhattan corporate world colleagues who discovered a shared history in the nineties and early 2000s NYC indie scene before rededicated themselves to music, rounding out their lineup with drummer Paul Andrew and guitarist Peter Horvath. Potenza is direct about the ambition behind “UV”: “I wanted both the music and lyrics to embrace multiple genres like the book and the main character, who transforms in many unexpected ways. So we worked in rock, psychedelic, some rap and a classical vibe with the strings, and the lyrics being purposefully impressionistic. This kind of mixture with a lot of different things happening, but in the end comes together.” Selig adds that from the start they wanted “a kaleidoscope of aural ear candy, with trippy effects, multiple guitar layers, electric piano, strings and horns.”
The accompanying video juxtaposes colourful outdoor band performance footage with black and white vignettes shot on 16mm film, featuring filmmaker Madeleine Grace Smith as a V-like figure moving through indeterminate time periods in and around New York City, ultimately joined by beatniks, punks, flappers, and intellectual revolutionaries in a bacchanalian nod to the novel’s Whole Sick Crew, with cinematography by Jordan Miller. ‘Her Favorite Disguise’ is available now on limited edition 12″ vinyl and all digital platforms, with The Melancholy Kings playing their official album release show at The Meat Locker in Montclair, New Jersey on March 21.
The Melancholy Kings Tour Dates:
March 21 – Montclair, NJ – The Meat Locker
Kraut-Psych-Rock Collective Bad Mothers Union Unleash Explosive New Single “God’s Intercom”
Bad Mothers Union have released “God’s Intercom,” a euphoric, unbridled kraut-psych-rock single that explodes from its opening bar and never quite lets go. Established in Kilkenny by frontman Conor Kavanagh, the band operates as a musical collective, thriving on collaboration and the distinct voice each player brings to their sound. The current lineup of Kavanagh (vocals, guitar), Shay English (bass), James O’Neill (drums, percussion), Tim Flood (bass), Céin O’Dowd (guitar, bouzouki), and Ethan Corcoran (synth, bass, vocals) is joined on the single by Joel Pitcher, Michael Lanigan, and Aaron Harbourne, with Brandon Murphy of Peer Pleasure contributing vocals during the staccato middle section and Fiachra Carey on saxophone, who, when recording his parts, dressed like a member of Madness. Because of course.
“God’s Intercom” was initially conceived during a jam session in a Methodist Church in Kilkenny, hanging around in various forms for years until Michael Lanigan pushed up the BPM and transformed it into the celestial force it is today. There is no verse-chorus-verse structure here. Aaron’s drums propel the track forward while guitars swirl untethered around each other, Shay’s bass keeping things anchored with a driving pulse before erupting into a flurry of notes that sounds like Entwhistle and Butler fighting each other as things take off again. Kavanagh’s lyrics are stream of consciousness, pulling in characters from his youth alongside insecurities, self-doubt, and teenage reminiscence, while Murphy’s lines during the middle section, “I’ve been looking at you while you’ve been laughing at me and I’ve been laughing at you this whole entire time,” land like how a conversation with God might actually go, should he ever answer that intercom.
Drawing on Sonic Youth, The Osees, Mogwai, and Primal Scream alongside the surrealist influence of David Lynch, Bad Mothers Union create music that feels like an unrelenting, infinite spiralling force of energy, unperturbed by what the outside world thinks. “God’s Intercom” is exactly that, a track that builds to crescendo, drops to recharge, and then takes off again, blissful euphoria concocted from voice, drums, bass, guitar, and some ska saxophone.
Post-Punk Icons Inca Babies Share “Superior Spectre” From Reinvented Back Catalogue Album ‘Reincarnation’
Manchester post-punk outfit Inca Babies have shared “Superior Spectre,” a single from their recently released album ‘Reincarnation,’ a project that sees the band re-record and re-envision select tracks from across their back catalogue. A live favourite and a cornerstone of the band’s goth credentials, “Superior Spectre” was originally included in their 1984 John Peel Session and later appeared on their 2014 ‘Scatter’ EP. The accompanying video was largely filmed in Rome by photographer Jandi Moreno and directed by Harry Stafford, with live footage drawn from a recent Manchester gig at Big Hands.
‘Reincarnation’ was recorded and mixed over two years at 6Db Studios in Salford by renowned producer Simon “Ding” Archer (The Fall, PJ Harvey) and Harry Stafford, with Ding contributing sonic and dub flourishes throughout. Mastering was handled by Marco Butcher at Boombox Studio in North Carolina. Stafford is clear about the motivation behind the project: “Looking through our back catalogue, it occurred to me that there were tracks that should again be made available in some manner and others that would benefit from reinvention. This whole project was to be an innovative re-imagining of old tunes, re-invented for contemporary consideration. All of them re-awakened and Re-inca-rnated.” In the lead-up to the album, the band shared two singles in A/B-side format, “Candy Mountain” and “Two Rails To Nowhere,” the latter featuring an expanded version with guitarist Vincent O’Brien alongside the original 1988 uptempo version featuring Inspiral Carpets’ Clint Boon.
Formed in 1983 in Manchester’s now-legendary Hulme deck-access flats, Inca Babies were a vibrant part of Britain’s early post-punk and death-rock scene, amassing a following through intensive touring, six singles, four albums, and four BBC John Peel Sessions between 1984 and 1988, all charting on the UK Indie Charts. After reforming in 2007, the band has released four more albums and toured three continents, continuing to explore goth, punk, death-rock, and jazz-blues with a current lineup that includes guitarist Jim Adama, bassist Dave Carmichael, and drummer Rob Haynes (The Membranes, Goldblade). Their journey since reformation was documented in the 2024 film ‘The Making of Ghost Mechanic Nine.’
Post-Punk Duo Lowsunday Return With First New Material In 25 Years On ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP’
Lowsunday have returned with ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP,’ their first record of all-new material since 1999, out now via Projekt Records on digital platforms and as a limited vinyl pressing of 200 copies. The Pittsburgh duo of Shane Sahene (vocals, guitar, synth, bass, drums) and Bobby Spell (bass, guitar, drums) have been blurring the lines between post-punk, shoegaze, dreampop, and darkwave since 1994, and this five-track EP serves as both a reflection on that three-decade legacy and a genuine resurgence. Delving into emotional isolation with a counterbalance of escapism, dreamlike sounds, drones, feedback, and carefully placed melodic hooks, the EP pushes atmospheres to the limits of noise at its most expansive and into a dream-pop air of deeper melancholia at its most delicate.
The ‘White EP’ is the first of a two-EP series via Projekt, and arrives on the heels of the extended 30th anniversary remaster of their debut album ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine,’ a two-CD release pairing the original nine tracks with a second disc of seven unreleased tracks, remixes, and reinterpretations. Projekt also released the 25th anniversary remaster of their sophomore album ‘Elesgiem’ in 2024. Alongside the EP announcement, the band has shared a new video for “Love Language,” offering a visual entry point into the record’s layered, arsenic-laced sonic world.
Sahene and Spell distill years of exploration into classic post-punk rhythms, guitar-driven atmospheres, synth textures, and stripped-down drum beats, using those elements to express simple, fundamental emotion with bittersweet and emotive vocals at the centre. The ‘White EP’ demonstrates a confident connection to the band’s history while expanding naturally into darker, more expansive territory, making Lowsunday’s return one of the more quietly essential releases in the post-punk and shoegaze underground this year.