Photons, the Paris-based electro-jazz quartet led by pianist Gauthier Toux, delivered a full live set for KEXP at ESMA in Rennes, France, during Trans Musicales 2025. The performance captures the four-piece, Toux on keyboards, Julien Loutelier on drums, Samuel F’hima on bass, and Giani Caserotto on guitar, doing what they do best: blurring every line between jazz improvisation and electronic club music in real time. Viewers are calling it one of the most hypnotic KEXP sessions in recent memory, a locked-in, floor-leveling forty minutes that earns every second of its runtime.
Gavin Adcock Rounds Up Country Music’s Next Generation For Classic Covers Album ‘Country Never Dies’
Gavin Adcock is stepping into a new role. The Georgia-born artist, whose ‘Own Worst Enemy’ debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 Country Chart, now adds Executive Producer to his resume with ‘Country Never Dies,’ a ten-artist collaborative covers project releasing March 13th.
The album is Adcock’s tribute to the country legends who shaped him. “I came up with the idea of this album one day when I was listening to some country music and realized that I’m never going to get to hear any new music from some of the artists, because they’re not with us anymore,” he says. “I grew up listening to a bunch of these artists, and some of them are the main reason I’m in Country music.”
The first track is out now. Adcock opens the project with “Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line,” made famous by Waylon Jennings, and the response has been immediate and electric, with listeners calling it a love letter to everything country music was built on. He is joined across the album by Hudson Westbrook, Jake Worthington, Ashley Cooke, Braxton Keith, Lanie Gardner, Vincent Mason, The Creekers, Austin Snell, and Shelby Stone.
TRACK LISTING: ‘Country Never Dies’:
- “Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line” (Gavin Adcock) — originally performed by Waylon Jennings
- “Slow Hand” (Hudson Westbrook) — originally performed by The Pointer Sisters / Conway Twitty
- “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (Jake Worthington) — originally performed by George Jones
- “Southern Nights” (Ashley Cooke) — originally performed by Glen Campbell
- “Slide Off Your Satin Sheets” (Braxton Keith) — originally performed by Johnny Paycheck
- “Wayfaring Stranger” (Lanie Gardner) — American folk song, performed by Johnny Cash
- “You Win Again” (Vincent Mason) — originally performed by Hank Williams
- “Kentucky Bluebird” (The Creekers) — originally performed by Keith Whitley
- “Simple Man” (Austin Snell) — originally performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd
- “Big City Blues” (Shelby Stone) — originally performed by Keith Gattis
- “Mama Tried” (Gavin Adcock) — originally performed by Merle Haggard
The Greatest Album Opening Tracks of All Time
An album opener is a contract. It tells you exactly what kind of relationship you are about to have with the next forty-five minutes of your life. Get it right and the listener is locked in before the first chorus. Get it wrong and you are fighting uphill for the rest of the record. The greatest opening tracks in history do not ease you in. They grab you, orient you, and make you feel like you have arrived somewhere specific. Here are some of the most inarguable examples of that contract being honored in full.
“Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones (‘Let It Bleed’) opens with a guitar figure that sounds like the world ending at half speed, and by the time Keith Richards and Merry Clayton are trading vocals, you are not listening to a rock song anymore. You are inside a document of civilization coming apart at the seams. No album in the Stones’ catalog needed a stronger opening statement, and nothing in rock music has ever quite matched it.
“Plainsong” by The Cure (‘Disintegration’) is one of the great slow reveals in rock history. Wind chimes and icy synths draw you in gently, volume creeping up, and then the guitars arrive like a weather system. Two and a half minutes pass before Robert Smith sings a single word, and by then the album’s entire emotional world has already been built around you. One commenter described it as “hope and despair at the same time.” That is exactly right.
“Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath (‘Black Sabbath’) is three minutes and forty seconds that changed the course of music. A tritone riff, a rainstorm, and a bell toll later, heavy metal existed as a genre. Everything that followed, from doom to thrash to death metal to sludge, traces a direct line back to this track. It did not just open an album. It opened a door that has never been closed.
“Battery” by Metallica (‘Master of Puppets’) opens with a passage of clean, delicate acoustic guitar that lulls you into a false sense of security before detonating into one of the most ferocious riffs the band ever wrote. The structural contrast is breathtaking even now, forty years on, and it sets up an album that remains the high-water mark of thrash metal without any real competition.
“Cherub Rock” by Smashing Pumpkins (‘Siamese Dream’) announces itself with a feedback swell and then launches into a riff so confident and fully formed it sounds like Billy Corgan had been saving it his entire life. The song is a statement of artistic independence delivered at maximum volume, and it remains one of the most exciting first sixty seconds in alternative rock history.
“Disorder” by Joy Division (‘Unknown Pleasures’) is a first album, first track moment that very few bands have ever replicated. Bernard Sumner’s guitar, Stephen Morris’s drums and Ian Curtis’s voice arrive fully formed on a debut record, as if the band had skipped the developmental phase entirely and gone straight to making something that sounded like no one else on earth.
“Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead (‘Kid A’) signaled one of the most dramatic pivots in popular music. After ‘The Bends’ and ‘OK Computer’ had made them the most important guitar band in the world, the opening track of ‘Kid A’ contained almost no guitar at all. Thom Yorke’s voice, processed and looped over shifting keyboards, told you immediately that Radiohead had no interest in repeating themselves.
“Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” by Elton John (‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’) is eleven minutes of Elton at his most unrestrained and ambitious, an orchestral rock suite that opens one of the greatest double albums ever made. It demonstrated that Elton John in 1973 was operating on a scale that most of his contemporaries could not even conceptualize.
“Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones (‘Let It Bleed’) opens with a guitar figure that sounds like the world ending at half speed, and by the time Keith Richards and Merry Clayton are trading vocals, you are not listening to a rock song anymore. You are inside a document of civilization coming apart at the seams.
“Hell’s Bells” by AC/DC (‘Back in Black’) carries extra weight that no amount of critical analysis can fully capture. Released less than a year after Bon Scott’s death, the tolling bell that opens the track and the album is both a tribute and a declaration that the band intended to survive. It remains one of the most emotionally loaded album openers in rock history.
“London Calling” by The Clash (‘London Calling’) opens with four beats and a bass line and immediately sounds like an emergency broadcast. Joe Strummer’s voice carries genuine urgency, the kind that most punk bands performed but The Clash actually felt, and the song’s apocalyptic imagery has only grown more resonant with time.
“Only Shallow” by My Bloody Valentine (‘Loveless’) opens with a drum fill that sounds like it was recorded inside a hurricane and then collapses into the most gorgeous wall of noise ever committed to tape. Kevin Shields built an entire sonic universe on that album, and “Only Shallow” drops you into the deep end of it without warning or apology.
“Plainsong” by The Cure aside, few openers match the sheer audacity of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd (‘Wish You Were Here’), a nine-minute instrumental tribute to Syd Barrett that asks the listener to simply surrender to it. Pink Floyd in 1975 had enough confidence to open an album with something that does not resolve for nearly ten minutes, and the gamble paid off completely.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (‘Nevermind’) is the most culturally seismic album opener of the 1990s and possibly of any decade since the 1960s. The quiet-loud dynamic, the riff, Kurt Cobain’s voice arriving like a distress signal: within four minutes, the landscape of popular music had shifted in a way nobody in the music industry had fully anticipated.
“Tom Sawyer” by Rush (‘Moving Pictures’) opens with a synthesizer swell that in 1981 sounded like the future arriving ahead of schedule. Neil Peart’s drums, Geddy Lee’s bass and Alex Lifeson’s guitar lock into a groove that is somehow simultaneously technical and completely physical, and the track remains the definitive argument for why Rush belong in any serious conversation about the greatest rock bands of all time.
“Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2 (‘The Joshua Tree’) builds for nearly a minute on organ before the guitar and drums arrive, and when they do the sensation is close to physical. Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois at the peak of their powers alongside a band operating at the absolute height of their ambition, it is one of the great examples of recorded music being engineered to feel enormous.
Adult Swim’s ‘Smiling Friends’ to End After Season 3 Despite Previous Renewal for Two More Seasons
Adult Swim’s animated comedy ‘Smiling Friends’ is ending after Season 3, with creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel announcing the decision in a video posted to Adult Swim’s social media. “This is not a bit, this is not a joke,” Hadel said. “Michael and I are here to announce that Smiling Friends will be ending after Season 3 is done.” The show had previously been renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and ranked among HBO Max’s top 10 series during its Season 2 premiere, but Cusack and Hadel say finishing Season 3 left them feeling both accomplished and burned out. “We wouldn’t want to be doing more seasons half-hearted or burnt out,” Hadel said. “That’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to the audience.”
‘Smiling Friends’ debuted in 2022 and quickly built a devoted following around its premise of co-workers Charlie (voiced by Hadel) and Pim (Cusack) attempting to bring positivity into the lives of others. The show became one of Adult Swim’s top-performing properties, ranking among HBO Max’s top 10 series during its Season 2 premiere and earning a reputation for bold, boundary-pushing comedy that reflected the singular creative vision of its two co-creators. Adult Swim had already renewed it for Seasons 4 and 5 as recently as August 2025, making the announcement all the more surprising. “Everyone at Adult Swim is incredibly proud of what Michael and Zach built,” the network said in a statement. “Like fans, we are sad to see this series come to an end.”
The decision was entirely Cusack and Hadel’s own, and Adult Swim has been fully supportive. Cusack cited the Beatles ending on ‘Abbey Road’ as the model they aspired to, telling The Hollywood Reporter earlier this season that “leaving the audience wanting more is the best.” Two final Season 3 episodes will air April 12 on Adult Swim, with the door left open for a potential return if the pair feel genuinely inspired to revisit the show. “We could come back in the future and make more episodes if we want,” Cusack said. “But it’s got to be right, and it’s got to be done right.”
Morgan Freeman Tells Jimmy Fallon Why He Doesn’t Think His Voice Is Special and How Clint Eastwood Taught Him to Stay Young
Morgan Freeman stops by The Tonight Show for an extended conversation with Jimmy Fallon that covers more ground than the average late-night visit. Freeman dismisses the near-universal reverence for his voice, shares the secret to aging that Clint Eastwood passed along to him, and opens up about the true story behind his produced series ‘The Gray House’ and his work narrating Steven Spielberg’s docuseries ‘The Dinosaurs.’ It is the kind of relaxed, candid sit-down that Freeman makes look effortless, which is perhaps the whole point.
“The Wire” Actor Bobby J. Brown Dies At 62
Bobby J. Brown, the character actor who brought lived-in authority to HBO’s landmark crime drama The Wire, has died at 62 following a tragic barn fire in Maryland. His passing closes the chapter on a performer whose presence carried weight the moment he stepped on screen.
Brown appeared in 12 episodes of The Wire as Officer Bobby Brown, a Baltimore city police officer whose grounded performance added texture to one of television’s most revered series. He also appeared in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and We Own This City, extending his association with hard-edged, procedural storytelling rooted in realism.
Before acting, Brown was a Golden Gloves champion, a background that translated into physical command and composure on camera. That history shaped the stillness he brought to his roles. His performances carried credibility that elevated every scene he entered.
His representative, Albert Bramante, said in a statement, “Bobby J. Brown was a uniquely talented actor and a man of great character. From his deep roots as a Golden Gloves champion to his impactful performances on screen, Bobby brought an unmistakable authenticity to everything he did.” Brown is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Canadian Media Icon Rick Campanelli Reveals All in Bombshell New Memoir ‘Tempted’
Rick Campanelli has written the book that many who followed his career never saw coming. ‘Tempted,’ co-written with John Meyer, is the memoir from the beloved Canadian media personality known to millions as “Rick the Temp,” the Hamilton kid who won a nationwide contest to become a MuchMusic VJ and quickly became one of the most recognizable faces on Canadian television.
“Tempted” is set to be published on September 1.
Warm, affable and seemingly an open book for over three decades in the public eye, Campanelli is now revealing the full story, including the secret demons he battled behind the scenes that nearly destroyed his life. “People think they know me pretty well,” he writes, “but it’s time to shed light on a few deep dark secrets that will shock many.”
‘Tempted’ is framed as both a celebration and a cautionary tale, tracing the arc from his breakthrough at MuchMusic through the highs of a national public profile and into the private struggles that ran parallel to all of it. Campanelli describes it as “a story of accomplishments and living life to the fullest but not without mistakes along the way,” and promises a full accounting of his life, flaws and all.
Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” Gets Reborn on a 1920s Dutch Street Organ and It’s Absolutely Glorious
Someone took “Get Lucky” and encoded it onto perforated sheets of cardboard to be played on a vintage Dutch street organ dating back to the 1920s, and the internet has been losing its mind over it ever since. The Mechanical Music Man’s rendition of the Daft Punk hit strips away the electronics and replaces them with the wheezing, mechanical charm of a century-old instrument, and the result is somehow both absurd and completely wonderful. The comments say it all: “nice to see older robots engaging with the music of newer robots” and “analogue MIDI track” are among the top responses, which feels about right for a video that makes you hear one of the most familiar songs of the past decade as if for the first time.
Bob Odenkirk, Lena Headey and Henry Winkler Star in Neo-Western Thriller ‘Normal’ in Theaters April 17
‘Normal’ arrives in theaters April 17, and directed by Ben Wheatley (Free Fire, High Rise), written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, with Nobody producer Marc Provissiero on board, the kinetic neo-Western stars Bob Odenkirk as Ulysses, an unassuming substitute sheriff with a troubled past who relocates to the quiet Midwestern town of Normal looking for a fresh start. A botched bank robbery changes everything, pulling him into something far darker than anything the town’s placid surface suggested. Lena Headey and Henry Winkler co-star, and the combination of Wheatley’s direction, Kolstad’s instinct for propulsive genre storytelling and Odenkirk’s proven action credibility makes this one of the more anticipated theatrical releases of the spring.
Djo Delivers a Stunning Cover of HAIM’s “Gasoline” for Triple J’s Like A Version
Djo took on HAIM’s “Gasoline” for triple j’s Like A Version, the beloved Australian radio segment where artists perform one of their own songs alongside a cover of something they love. Backed by a full band including Adam Thein on keys, Sam Jordan on guitar, Javi Reyes on guitar and keys, Trent Prall on bass, Wesley Toledo on drums, and Teddy Mathews on e-kit and percussion, the Chicago art-pop artist brings a warm, expansive reading to the HAIM track that feels entirely his own while honoring everything that made the original resonate.