Five years off the road had done nothing to dull System Of A Down’s edge, and their 2011 headlining set at Rock am Ring in Nürburg, Germany proved it immediately. Captured in a high-quality professional recording now streaming at OnlyLiveConcert.com, the performance documents the Armenian-American metal icons at a pivotal moment, their first major return to the stage after a lengthy hiatus, delivering a career-spanning setlist to a massive Nürburgring crowd that had been waiting years for exactly this. From the politically charged fury of “B.Y.O.B.” to the soaring melodic weight of “Aerials,” Serj Tankian’s operatic vocals, Daron Malakian’s electrifying guitar work, and the locked-in rhythm section of Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan remind you why no band in heavy music has ever sounded quite like this one.
Misty Copeland and Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s Andreas C. Dracopoulos to Be Honored at Lincoln Center’s 2026 Summer Gala
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has announced the honorees for its 2026 Summer Gala, and the choices reflect two distinct but complementary legacies of civic commitment to the arts. Groundbreaking dancer, author, and advocate Misty Copeland and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Co-President Andreas C. Dracopoulos will both be recognized at the event on Monday, June 1 at David Geffen Hall. The evening opens the door to Lincoln Center’s beloved Summer for the City festival, which launches across the full campus on June 10.
Copeland receives the inaugural Lincoln Center Luminary Award, a newly established honor created to recognize artists who demonstrate both extraordinary talent on stage and a genuine civic vision, artists who create, convene, and actively care for communities. The award will be presented with remarks from Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. Copeland’s record speaks for itself. In 2015 she became the first Black woman promoted to Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theatre, a milestone that resonated well beyond the dance world. She’s a New York Times bestselling author, a Lincoln Center board member, and the founder of the Misty Copeland Foundation, whose flagship BE BOLD program works to expand access, diversity, and inclusion in dance, with a particular focus on ballet. Few artists have matched her ability to command a stage and simultaneously reshape the institutions around her.
Dracopoulos has been a foundational force behind Lincoln Center’s most ambitious public-facing initiatives over the past decade and a half. As Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, he was a driving force behind Restart Stages, the outdoor performing arts center created on campus in 2021 to help New Yorkers safely gather and help the performing arts sector find its footing again after the pandemic. He’s also been the lead supporter of Summer for the City’s free programming since the festival launched in 2022, a festival that has now welcomed more than 1.6 million visitors. SNF’s support of the ongoing SNF Lincoln Center West Initiative, a project launched in 2023 to open up the Amsterdam Avenue side of campus with public gardens, welcoming entrances, and a world-class amphitheater, adds another chapter to a relationship between the foundation and Lincoln Center that stretches back to 2009, and in fact to the 1960s through SNF’s founder.
“The arts are a powerful force for inspiration and connection, fundamental to who we are as a city,” said Lincoln Center President and CEO Mariko Silver. “We are grateful and honored to celebrate the extraordinary talent, vision, and civic leadership of Misty Copeland and the remarkable leadership of Andreas C. Dracopoulos.”
Tickets for the performance portion of the Summer Gala go on sale to Lincoln Center members on May 13 at 12pm and to the general public on May 20 at 12pm through Lincoln Center’s Choose-What-You-Pay model. Performers and participants will be announced in the coming weeks. Full details at LincolnCenter.org.
Spotify Connects to Claude for Personalized Music and Podcast Recommendations
Spotify is now available inside Claude, and the integration is more useful than it might sound at first. Starting today, Spotify users can connect their account directly to Claude and get personalized music and podcast recommendations drawn from their actual listening history and taste profile. Ask for a playlist for your morning run, a podcast for your commute, or something new from an artist you already love, and Claude pulls from Spotify’s personalization technology and catalog expertise to deliver it. Both Free and Premium listeners have access, with Premium users also able to describe a mood or vibe and get a playlist built around it on the spot.
The integration goes further than simple recommendations. Once you find something you want, you can preview or save it, play it directly inside Claude, or open it in the Spotify app. Claude also supports Spotify Connect, meaning you can see where Spotify is currently playing across your devices and switch or control playback without ever leaving the conversation. Moving from your phone to your laptop to a speaker without breaking the flow is the kind of friction-free experience that makes a feature actually worth using day to day.
On the data side, Spotify is clear that it does not share any music, podcasts, or other audio or video content with Anthropic for training purposes. Users control whether Spotify is connected and can disconnect at any time. The integration is available now globally for Free, Pro, and Max Claude users on web, mobile (iOS and Android), and desktop. For artists and podcasters, it’s one more way to get their work in front of listeners at the exact moment they’re looking for something new.
Niall Horan Shares Heartfelt New Single “Little More Time” Ahead of Fourth Album ‘Dinner Party’
Today, Niall Horan shared his poignant new single, “Little More Time,” which he describes as his “favorite song” from Dinner Party, his fourth studio album. Listen to “Little More Time” HERE. Dinner Party, which will be released on June 5 via Capitol Records, is available for pre-order /pre-save HERE.
“‘Little More Time’ is a song about wanting time to stand still. If you could just press pause and the world would stop yet you could still live within the world like no one was watching,” explained Niall Horan. “I spend a lot of time away from home. So having found roots and wanting to be at home more, I felt compelled to write a song about the smaller moments and wishing that you could just stay in them.”
GQ observed, “[‘Little More Time’] may as well be an anthem for any 30something looking down the barrel of midlife. In the nostalgic early-aughts jam, Horan sings about turning clocks upside down, stretches out each melody and verse like it’s stuck in honey, and begs for one more song like a reveler coming to terms with last call at their favorite karaoke bar—a Bernard’s Watch for the adults in the room.”
Horan will perform on the plaza at New York City’s Rockefeller Center on June 12 as part of the Citi Concert Series on “TODAY.” While in the States, he’ll also play co-headlining stadium shows with Thomas Rhett at Nashville’s GEODIS Park (July 9) and Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, PA (July 18). He’ll kick off the UK/EU leg of Dinner Party Live On Tour on September 22 in Birmingham, England at Utilita Arena Birmingham. For further details, visit https://niallhoran.com/pages/tour.
There’s something about sharing a table that feels like sharing a future and Dinner Party brings the listener into that experience with warmth, wit and sincerity. The album is cinematic and organic, with songs that play like memories being gently created. Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, Horan’s longtime collaborators, served as executive producers. His other creative partners and co-writers included Afterhrs, Amy Allen, Ian Franzino, Andrew Haas, Steph Jones, Rocky Block and Joel Little.
In April, Horan shared the intimate title track – the nucleus of the album. Clash said, “‘Dinner Party’ is all lush guitar effervescence and dulcet, 90s tinged production. It feels a little like a lost Crowded House track, a mid-tempo mover that gives Niall space to dial into the thrill of connection.” Horan recently spoke about the album during a visit to “Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!” and in an NME “In Conversation” feature that celebrated his 10 years as a solo artist.
The multi-Platinum-selling singer/songwriter first rose to prominence as part of the internationally acclaimed One Direction and has since firmly established himself as a powerhouse solo artist, selling over 90 million records worldwide. He launched his solo career with the Platinum-certified album Flicker, which featured the triple-Platinum hit “Slow Hands.” Horan has since released three additional albums —Heartbreak Weather, which ranked No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart and the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart, The Show, which topped the same two charts, and The Show: Encore. His 2024 global headline trek “THE SHOW” LIVE ON TOUR brought his music to packed arenas across multiple continents, culminating in a sold-out North American run and over 1.2 million tickets sold worldwide.
Austin Experimental Heavy Trio Portrayal of Guilt Drop “Total Black” Ahead of New Album ‘…Beginning of the End’
Portrayal of Guilt have released “Total Black,” the final single ahead of their fourth studio album ‘…Beginning of the End,’ out this Friday via Run For Cover. The Austin trio have spent a decade building one of the most uncompromising catalogs in heavy music, and the new album finds them pulling from every dark corner they’ve explored, combining groove and avant-garde with nu-metal, trip hop, dark ambient, and black metal into something that sounds fully and unmistakably their own. Listen here.
“Total Black” is a pummeling closer to the album’s preview campaign, arriving with a visualizer and landing in the company of critical praise that’s been building since the record was first announced. Stereogum called an earlier track “an even more deranged Korn,” Revolver went with “eerily sensual and supremely screamy,” and Bandcamp praised the band’s “hallmark raw intensity.” Premier Guitar described the record as testing the boundaries of black metal while sinking deeper into the sounds of sadness. That’s a wide range of reactions, which is exactly what Portrayal of Guilt tends to produce.
The band made an immediate impact in underground circles with their debut ‘Let Pain Be Your Guide,’ mixing nihilistic hardcore, black metal, screamo, and imaginative textures into something that felt genuinely new. ‘We Are Always Alone’ and ‘CHRISTFCKER’ followed in 2021, corroding genre boundaries further with industrial music, post-metal, and sludge. More recent releases pushed even further, with the ‘Devil Music’ EP reimagining their sound classically and ‘CHRISTFCKER II’ diving into EBM and goth territory. ‘…Beginning of the End’ feels like the synthesis of all of it, a band that has fully internalized a decade of restless experimentation and channeled it into a single focused statement.
The album was recorded and mixed by Phillip Odom between March and June 2025, with mastering by Will Yip. Touchstones cited in the band’s orbit include Deftones, Massive Attack, Dystopia, Deathspell Omega, Celtic Frost, and Cursed. That’s not posturing. It’s an accurate map of where this record lives.
‘…Beginning of the End’ drops Friday. A North American headline tour kicks off May 9 with a hometown send-off at Mohawk in Austin, running through early June with support from Street Sects, pageninetynine, Taraneh, Halloween, and The Infinity Ring on select dates. Tickets are on sale now.
‘…Beginning of the End’ Tracklist:
- Backstabber
- Human Terror
- Heaven’s Gate
- Under Siege
- Ecstasy
- Death From Above
- God Will Never Hear Me
- Chamber of Misery Pt. IV (feat. Slim Guerilla)
- Total Black
- Object of Pain
- The Last Judgement
Portrayal of Guilt Tour Dates:
May 9, Mohawk, Austin, TX (w/ Street Sects and pageninetynine)
May 12, Siberia, New Orleans, LA (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 14, Minglewood Hall – 1884 Lounge, Memphis, TN (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 15, TrimTab Brewing, Birmingham, AL (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 16, The Boneyard, Chattanooga, TN (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 17, Portal, Louisville, KY (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 19, Off Broadway, St. Louis, MO (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 20, X-Ray Arcade, Cudahy, WI (w/ Street Sects and Taraneh)
May 21, Zhora Darling, Minneapolis, MN (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 22, Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 24, Black Circle Brewing, Indianapolis, IN (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 26, Mahall’s, Cleveland, OH (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 27, Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids, MI (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 28, Lager House, Detroit, MI (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 29, Bridgeworks, Hamilton, ON (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
May 30, Prepare the Ground – The Cave, Toronto, ON
May 31, Sotterenea, Montreal, QC (w/ Street Sects and Halloween)
June 1, Deep Cuts, Medford, MA (w/ Street Sects and The Infinity Ring)
June 2, Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY (w/ Street Sects and The Infinity Ring)
June 3, Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA (w/ Street Sects and The Infinity Ring)
June 4, DC9, Washington, DC (w/ Street Sects and The Infinity Ring)
June 5, Stanczyks, Durham, NC (w/ Street Sects and The Infinity Ring)
June 6, Dog Days Fest, Savannah, GA
June 7, The Earl, Atlanta, GA (w/ Street Sects and The Infinity Ring)
Dokken Guitar Legend George Lynch Assembles All-Star Band for “A Night of Dokken” 2027 Tour
George Lynch is bringing Dokken’s catalog back to the stage in a big way. The guitar hero has announced “On the Rise of Decades: Performing a Night of Dokken,” a 2027 tour kicking off New Year’s Eve in Fort Myers, FL and running through January 10 in Birmingham, AL. Ten dates have been confirmed so far, with more on the way.
The band Lynch has assembled for the run is stacked. Current Great White singer Brett Carlisle and founding XYZ vocalist Terry Ilous, who also has his own history with Great White, share frontman duties. Rounding out the lineup are current Lynch Mob singer Gabriel, bassist Jaron Gulino, and drummer Brian Tichy, whose resume includes Whitesnake and Gene Simmons. This isn’t a nostalgia cash-grab. It’s a serious lineup built to do justice to a serious catalog.
Lynch appeared on Dokken’s first six studio albums, from 1981’s ‘Breakin’ the Chains’ through 1997’s ‘Shadowlife,’ before leaving the band over creative and personal differences with singer Don Dokken. The split defined a large part of both men’s public narratives for years, but time has a way of softening things. Since 2020, Lynch has made occasional guest appearances at Dokken shows, joining Don for special encore performances. “We’re too old to bicker and fight,” Dokken said in 2025. “We’re both gray haired now.”
Lynch has kept an impressively active pace since leaving Dokken, releasing more than a dozen albums under his own name or as the leader of the Lynch Mob, and joining supergroups including T&N, The End Machine, KMX, and Sweet & Lynch, frequently alongside former Dokken bandmate and current Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson. He announced a Lynch Mob farewell tour in 2025, then kept going anyway. “My agent talked me, as agents do, out of quitting Lynch Mob touring,” Lynch explained in October 2025. “So here we are, we’re still touring, we’re still putting out records.”
That 2025 Lynch Mob run produced a live album, The Final Ride (Live), arriving May 29. The “Night of Dokken” tour follows in the new year.
“A Night of Dokken” 2027 Tour Dates:
December 31, 2026, Fort Myers, FL
January 1, TBD, FL
January 2, Boca Raton, FL
January 3, Sebastian, FL
January 4, Mount Dora, FL
January 6, Saint Augustine, FL
January 7, Savannah, GA
January 8, Atlanta, GA
January 9, Chattanooga, TN
January 10, Birmingham, AL
German Electronic Pioneers Cluster Get Vinyl Reissues of ‘Zuckerzeit’ and ‘Sowiesoso’ on Bureau B
Two landmark albums from German experimental electronic duo Cluster are getting the vinyl treatment they deserve. Hamburg label Bureau B releases anniversary reissues of ‘Zuckerzeit’ and ‘Sowiesoso’ on June 12, both originally recorded at the band’s self-built home studio in Forst, a small village on the river Weser where Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius retreated from Berlin in the early 1970s to build something entirely their own.
‘Zuckerzeit,’ originally released in 1974, arrives as a special Anniversary Edition on 180g vinyl, hand-numbered and limited to 1,000 copies. Co-produced with Michael Rother and finished at Conny Plank’s studio, the album was a genuine turning point, introducing analogue rhythm machines and triggered synths into Cluster’s sound in a way that felt light and melodic rather than heavy or abstract. It still sounds like nothing else from that era.
‘Sowiesoso’ from 1976 follows in parallel as a vinyl-only reissue, and it’s the more minimal of the two, recorded entirely at home on a four-track tape machine, two Revox A77 stereo decks, and an 8-channel mixer. No guest musicians, no engineers, no outside pressure. The result is one of the most purely realized records in the Krautrock canon, a quiet, transparent, rhythmic document of two musicians who had fully found their own language.
Video: Taylor Swift’s First-Ever Brazil Performance Captured in Intimate 2012 Citibank Hall Concert Film
Before the stadium tours and record-breaking Eras runs, there was this: Taylor Swift’s first-ever performance in Brazil, a promotional acoustic show at Rio de Janeiro’s Citibank Hall on September 13, 2012, just ahead of the release of ‘Red.’ The intimate venue held around a thousand fans, and Swift delivered a guitar-and-banjo-driven set featuring “Sparks Fly,” “You Belong With Me,” “Love Story,” and the then-new “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” capped by a first-ever live duet of “Long Live” with Brazilian artist Paula Fernandes.
Spotify Names Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” the Greatest Pop Song of the Streaming Era
Spotify has released its list of the 100 Greatest Pop Songs of the Streaming Era, and Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” sits at #1. The ranking was assembled by a cross-disciplinary team of Spotify editors guided by criteria including cultural impact, musicality, and artist storytelling, covering songs released on the platform from 2015 to the present.
“drivers license” arrived in January 2021 and broke Spotify’s record for most streams in a single day for a non-holiday song, then broke it again the following day. Spotify’s editors describe it as a song that reminded us what it felt like to watch a star be born in real time, a deceptively simple ballad that distilled heartbreak, melodrama, and coming-of-age into something instantly classic.
Chappell Roan lands two songs in the top 2, with “Pink Pony Club” at #2 and “Good Luck, Babe!” at #11. Taylor Swift claims 3 spots in the top 10 alone, with “Cruel Summer” at #3, “august” at #68, and “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” at #49. Billie Eilish places 3 songs in the top 25, including “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” at #9, “bad guy” at #22, and “ocean eyes” at #14.
The list reflects the full arc of streaming-era pop, from Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” at #4 and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Run Away With Me” at #5, to foundational moments like Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” at #32 and Drake’s “Hotline Bling” at #21. Tyla’s “Water” at #50 and Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” at #29 represent the growing global reach of Afrobeats in the mainstream, while Charli xcx places 3 tracks across the list.
The full 100 is below.
Spotify’s 100 Greatest Pop Songs of the Streaming Era:
- “drivers license,” Olivia Rodrigo
- “Pink Pony Club,” Chappell Roan
- “Cruel Summer,” Taylor Swift
- “Don’t Start Now,” Dua Lipa
- “Run Away With Me,” Carly Rae Jepsen
- “Sorry,” Justin Bieber
- “Green Light,” Lorde
- “One Dance,” Drake, Wizkid, and Kyla
- “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” Billie Eilish
- “no tears left to cry,” Ariana Grande
- “Good Luck, Babe!,” Chappell Roan
- “Can’t Feel My Face,” The Weeknd
- “Sunflower,” Post Malone and Swae Lee
- “ocean eyes,” Billie Eilish
- “Delicate,” Taylor Swift
- “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” Ariana Grande
- “Closer,” The Chainsmokers and Halsey
- “Blinding Lights,” The Weeknd
- “Espresso,” Sabrina Carpenter
- “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus
- “Hotline Bling,” Drake
- “bad guy,” Billie Eilish
- “deja vu,” Olivia Rodrigo
- “New Rules,” Dua Lipa
- “Kill Bill,” SZA
- “Please Please Please,” Sabrina Carpenter
- “Watermelon Sugar,” Harry Styles
- “Von dutch,” Charli xcx
- “Calm Down,” Rema and Selena Gomez
- “Cut To The Feeling,” Carly Rae Jepsen
- “Without Me,” Halsey
- “Shape of You,” Ed Sheeran
- “What Was I Made For?,” Billie Eilish
- “Despacito – Remix,” Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber
- “Die With A Smile,” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars
- “Love On The Brain,” Rihanna
- “As It Was,” Harry Styles
- “Hello,” Adele
- “Circles,” Post Malone
- “Say So,” Doja Cat
- “Wild Thoughts,” DJ Khaled, Rihanna, and Bryson Tiller
- “Be the One,” Dua Lipa
- “Escapism.,” RAYE and 070 Shake
- “The Middle,” Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey
- “Butterflies,” Kacey Musgraves
- “CUFF IT,” Beyoncé
- “Havana,” Camila Cabello and Young Thug
- “Into You,” Ariana Grande
- “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version),” Taylor Swift
- “Water,” Tyla
- “Woman,” Doja Cat
- “STAY,” The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber
- “thank u, next,” Ariana Grande
- “Eastside,” benny blanco, Halsey, and Khalid
- “Bad Liar,” Selena Gomez
- “HOT TO GO!,” Chappell Roan
- “Lover,” Taylor Swift
- “good 4 u,” Olivia Rodrigo
- “Vroom Vroom,” Charli xcx
- “When We Were Young,” Adele
- “I Took A Pill In Ibiza (Seeb Remix),” Mike Posner and Seeb
- “I Know A Place,” MUNA
- “Perfect,” Ed Sheeran
- “APT.,” ROSÉ and Bruno Mars
- “Never Really Over,” Katy Perry
- “About You,” The 1975
- “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart,” Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus
- “august,” Taylor Swift
- “Rainbow,” Kacey Musgraves
- “Ever Again,” Robyn
- “Good as Hell,” Lizzo
- “Heart to Break,” Kim Petras
- “Now I’m In It,” HAIM
- “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde,” Charli xcx and Lorde
- “Midnight Rain,” Taylor Swift
- “Cheap Thrills,” Sia and Sean Paul
- “Rush,” Troye Sivan
- “Headphones On,” Addison Rae
- “Stick Season,” Noah Kahan
- “Lush Life,” Zara Larsson
- “Issues,” Julia Michaels
- “Levitating,” Dua Lipa and DaBaby
- “Bruises,” Lewis Capaldi
- “Supercut,” Lorde
- “Happy World,” Debbii Dawson
- “Kiss Me More,” Doja Cat
- “21st Century Cool Girl,” Chloe Qisha
- “Lost In Japan,” Shawn Mendes
- “Love Me Not,” Ravyn Lenae
- “Lose You To Love Me,” Selena Gomez
- “So Easy (To Fall In Love),” Olivia Dean
- “California,” Grimes
- “Sports car,” Tate McRae
- “Just for Me,” PinkPantheress
- “Rain On Me,” Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
- “Motivation,” Normani
- “Angel Of My Dreams,” JADE
- “If the World Was Ending,” JP Saxe and Julia Michaels
- “Slow Hands,” Niall Horan
- “Cool for the Summer,” Demi Lovato

