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Luke Combs, Jennie, Noah Kahan, and Anderson Paak Land on Time100 Most Influential People 2026

Eric Alper
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Luke Combs, Jennie, Noah Kahan, and Anderson Paak Land on Time100 Most Influential People 2026

Time has dropped its Time100 Most Influential People 2026 list, and music is all over it. Seven musicians made the cut this year, spanning country, K-pop, reggaeton, indie folk, R&B, and beyond. With artists representing nearly 30 countries, the list reflects how broadly and boldly music is moving right now.

Luke Combs leads the charge on the country side, recognized for his authenticity and genre impact. Ed Sheeran wrote his tribute. It’s well-earned: Combs recently broke an Allegiant Stadium attendance record, outselling the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, and debuted his album ‘The Way I Am’ at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart. That’s not a moment, that’s a run.

Jennie of Blackpink earned her spot for her commanding solo presence, with Gracie Abrams penning her tribute. Rauw Alejandro was celebrated for pushing reggaeton and urban music forward, with Tainy doing the honors. Noah Kahan landed on the list for his breakthrough year and soulful songwriting, recognized by Marcus Mumford.

Rounding out the music contingent: Hilary Duff for her enduring cultural relevance (introduced by Nicole Richie), Coco Jones for her rising R&B influence (tribute by Jaylen Barron), and Anderson Paak for his multifaceted energy and talent, with Natasha Lyonne writing his entry. Seven artists. One list. All deserving.

Tesla’s ‘Homage’ Covers Album Honors Rock Royalty With a Few Surprises

Eric Alper
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Tesla’s ‘Homage’ Covers Album Honors Rock Royalty With a Few Surprises

Tesla’s got a new album coming, and it’s one worth paying attention to. ‘Homage’, due July 17th via Frontiers Music Srl, is a covers record with real weight behind it. These Sacramento rockers didn’t just pull together a quick tribute set. They went deep, drawing from Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Sam Cooke, Etta James, and James Brown, voices that defined what rock and soul could be.

The lead single is their take on Climax Blues Band’s “I Love You” (2026 Version), out now with an official video. It’s a warm, confident read on a classic, and it puts front man Jeff Keith’s vocal range front and center where it belongs. The band puts it plainly: the track “pays tribute to legends but gives us a chance to showcase our lead singer’s diversity.”

What makes ‘Homage’ more than a nostalgia exercise is the context. Tesla started as a covers band playing California clubs before selling millions of records on original material. This album is a genuine full-circle moment, not a marketing angle. It also arrives more than 20 years after the ‘Real to Reel’ series, and includes one original track, “Never Alone,” which grew directly out of that earlier project.

The tracklist runs 14 songs deep, pulling from Queen, Bob Seger, Supertramp, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more. The band calls it “a thank-you note written in sound.” That framing holds up. This is Tesla doing what they’ve always done well: connecting to the music that made them and making it their own.

This summer, they’re joining Motley Crue and Extreme on The Return of the Carnival of Sins Tour, kicking off July 17th in Burgettstown, PA.

‘Homage’ Track Listing:

Never Alone (Original Song)

Bring It On Home (Sam Cooke Cover)

Spread Your Wings (Queen Cover)

I Wish It Would Rain (The Temptations Cover)

Night Moves (Bob Seger Cover)

If I Can Dream (Elvis Presley Cover)

Come And Get It (Badfinger Cover)

I Got You (James Brown Cover)

Give A Little Bit (Supertramp Cover)

I Love You (2026 Version) (Climax Blues Band Cover)

The Ballad Of Curtis Loew (Lynyrd Skynyrd Cover)

Have You Ever Seen The Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival Cover)

I’d Rather Go Blind (Etta James Cover)

Mind Your Own Business (Hank Williams Sr. Cover)

2026 Tour Dates (with Motley Crue and Extreme):

July 17 – Burgettstown, PA

September 26 – Ridgefield, WA

If You’re a Musician and You’re Confused About AI, This Free Webinar Is for You

Eric Alper
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If You’re a Musician and You’re Confused About AI, This Free Webinar Is for You

Nobody in the music industry has been spared the AI conversation. It’s been everywhere — in the headlines, in the lawsuits, in the comment sections, and in the back of every artist’s mind when they sit down to create. But for all the noise, clear and practical answers have been hard to come by.

That’s starting to change.

On April 28 at 11:00 AM EDT, MIDiA Research is hosting a free live webinar called The State of AI and Music, and it’s one of the more grounded takes on the topic we’ve come across. MIDiA is a data and analysis firm that tracks the music industry closely, and this session is built around three questions that artists and industry professionals are actually asking right now.

Who is using generative and assistive AI tools today, and where is that heading? How will generative music platforms change the way people listen — and what does that mean for the value of your music? And beyond all the risks everyone keeps talking about, what opportunities are quietly emerging for artists?

The session is presented by Tatiana Cirisano, Vice President of Music Strategy, and Olivia Jones, Associate Music Analyst, and moderated by Ben Woods, Creator Economy Analyst at MIDiA Research. There’s a live Q&A at the end, which means you can bring your own questions into the room.

If you’ve been waiting for a conversation about AI that skips the panic and gets to the point, this is a good place to start.

April 28, 2026 | 11:00 AM EDT | Free to attend. Register Here

Madonna Announces ‘Confessions II’ for July 3rd Release With Producer Stuart Price

Eric Alper
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Madonna Announces ‘Confessions II’ for July 3rd Release With Producer Stuart Price

Madonna and Stuart Price are back in the room together, and the result is ‘Confessions II.’ The follow-up to 2005’s genre-defining ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ arrives July 3rd via Warner Records, and a trancelike visual teaser is out now offering the first taste of what’s coming. Pre-orders are live across vinyl, CD, and cassette configurations.

Twenty years on from the original, Madonna and Price approached ‘Confessions II’ with a clear creative manifesto rooted in something deeper than dancefloor nostalgia. “When Stuart Price and I first started working on this record, this was our manifesto,” Madonna explains, describing the dance floor as a ritualistic threshold where movement replaces language and bass frequencies alter consciousness. It’s a spiritual framework for electronic music, and it’s one she’s been circling her entire career.

Lead single “One Step Away” frames the album’s thesis directly: “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold.” The words carry the weight of someone who has spent five decades understanding exactly what dancefloors do to people and why that matters. Price, whose production on the original ‘Confessions’ remains one of the benchmark electronic pop records of the 2000s, is the ideal collaborator to push that vision further.

Dublin Alt-Rock Duo Burglar Release Captivating New Single “Star-Crossed” and Announce Debut UK Headline Tour

Eric Alper
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Dublin Alt-Rock Duo Burglar Release Captivating New Single “Star-Crossed” and Announce Debut UK Headline Tour

Burglar are moving fast. The Dublin-based alt-rock duo of Willow Hannon and Eduardo Pinheiro have released “Star-Crossed” via TULLE, their follow-up to January’s acclaimed single “Lovey,” and it arrives alongside the announcement of their debut UK headline tour later this month. Rolling Stone UK says the pair present “unique chemistry and plenty of excitement for the future.” Dork puts it even more directly: “Primed for a breakthrough.” Listen here.

Hannon and Pinheiro met in college, bonding over Stereolab and Smashing Pumpkins, but their individual backgrounds pull in genuinely different directions. Hannon came up through bedroom pop production as a teenager; Pinheiro was shaped by 1970s Brazilian popular music and the garage punk scene of his hometown Goiânia. The collision of those influences produces something tight, confessional, and immediately distinctive, built on interlocking vocals and a melodic instinct that’s hard to ignore.

“Star-Crossed” arrives with a pointed emotional thesis from Pinheiro: “I’m sick of right timings, and seeking inner-truths. You can stick around special people if they show up, there’s enough big changes out there.” It’s a song about resisting the pressure to constantly reinvent yourself, delivered with the kind of directness that cuts through. BBC 6 Music, NME, Loud & Quiet, and Crack Magazine have all taken notice, and the festival circuit beckons after the spring tour wraps.

Five UK dates run from April 26 through April 30, covering Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, and London. “Star-Crossed” is out now on all platforms via TULLE.

UK Tour Dates:

April 26, Bristol, UK @ Moor Brewing Co.

April 27, Manchester, UK @ The Castle Hotel

April 28, Glasgow, UK @ McChuills

April 29, Leeds, UK @ Headrow House

April 30, London, UK @ Our Mutual Friend, The Dublin Castle

John Mellencamp Announces ‘Dancing Words Tour’ and New Lyric Book Spanning 50 Years of Songwriting

Eric Alper
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John Mellencamp Announces ‘Dancing Words Tour’ and New Lyric Book Spanning 50 Years of Songwriting

John Mellencamp is doing two things at once this year, and both of them matter. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has announced the Dancing Words Tour, a 19-city greatest hits run produced by Live Nation beginning July 10, alongside the September 29 release of ‘John Mellencamp: The Songbook: 50 Years of Song and Poetry’ via Rizzoli New York. The tour marks the first time Mellencamp will perform all his most beloved songs in a single night, including tracks that haven’t been played live in years.

The book is the essential companion piece. With a foreword by Stephen King, ‘The Songbook’ pairs lyrics from Mellencamp’s most celebrated anthems with previously unpublished personal photographs, handwritten drafts, and archival notes spanning his entire career. It’s an intimate document from one of America’s most respected singer-songwriters, and pre-orders placed through Rizzoli Bookstore during April will support Farm Aid, the annual festival and organization Mellencamp co-founded with Willie Nelson and Neil Young in 1985. Pre-sale buyers in April are also automatically entered to win a signed copy.

The Dancing Words Tour hits iconic rooms from coast to coast, including the Hollywood Bowl, Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, and Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville. A cinematic tour trailer featuring Sean Penn is out now. Mellencamp was recently awarded the 2026 iHeartRadio Icon Award and performed at the ceremony, a fitting cap to a stretch that underlines just how deeply his catalog has embedded itself in American music.

Five decades of songs, one night to play them all. Tickets are on sale now.

John Mellencamp Dancing Words Tour Dates:

July 10, Grand Rapids, MI @ Acrisure Amphitheater

July 11, Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre

July 13, Kansas City, MO @ Morton Amphitheater

July 14, Shakopee, MN @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater

July 16, Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre

July 18, Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center

July 19, Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center

July 21, Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center

July 24, Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center

July 25, Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center

July 26, Wantagh, NY @ Northwell at Jones Beach Theater

July 29, Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live

July 30, Charlotte, NC @ Truliant Amphitheater

August 1, Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre

August 3, Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre

August 6, Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

August 9, Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre

August 10, Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

August 12, Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre

Damnation Festival 2026 Adds Cult of Luna, Satyricon, Carcass, and More to an Already Stacked Manchester Lineup

Eric Alper
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Damnation Festival 2026 Adds Cult of Luna, Satyricon, Carcass, and More to an Already Stacked Manchester Lineup

Damnation Festival just raised the bar considerably. The UK’s premier heavy music event has announced six major additions to its 2026 lineup, with Swedish post-metal titans Cult of Luna and Norwegian black metal pioneers Satyricon confirmed as headliners for the November 7-8 weekend at BEC Arena in Manchester. Satyricon’s appearance is a UK exclusive. Tickets are moving fast and the event is on course to sell out.

Cult of Luna close out Saturday night. Satyricon take Sunday. Joining them are extreme metal heavyweights Carcass, French experimental provocateurs Igorrr, US sludge icons Crowbar, and Swiss avant-garde metallers Triptykon. Six additions, every one of them headliner-caliber. Festival organiser Gavin McInally doesn’t undersell it: “All six of these bands could headline Damnation without raising an eyebrow, so to have them all play the same year is obscene.”

The new names slot in alongside previously announced acts Health, Walls of Jericho, Eyehategod, and Wolves in the Throne Room, building a lineup that spans black metal, death metal, sludge, post-metal, and experimental extremity with genuine depth at every level. McInally also confirms another 19 bands are still to be revealed, describing all of them as “gems.” With more than half of tickets already sold, the remaining inventory won’t last long.

Damnation Festival 2026 runs November 7-8 at BEC Arena in Manchester. Tickets and full details at the official Damnation website.

Damnation Festival 2026:

November 7, 2026, Manchester, UK @ BEC Arena

November 8, 2026, Manchester, UK @ BEC Arena

Drowning Pool Mark 25 Years of Platinum Debut ‘Sinner’ With Anniversary Vinyl and Expanded Digital Release

Eric Alper
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Drowning Pool Mark 25 Years of Platinum Debut ‘Sinner’ With Anniversary Vinyl and Expanded Digital Release

Twenty-five years on, “Bodies” still hits like a freight train. Craft Recordings is marking the silver anniversary of Drowning Pool’s Platinum debut ‘Sinner’ with a limited-edition vinyl reissue and an expanded digital release, both arriving June 5. The anniversary vinyl is pressed on Sea Ink Swirl, with exclusive Clear Smoke and Purple Smoke pressings available through Revolver and the band’s official website respectively. Pre-orders are live now.

‘Sinner’ debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 in June 2001 and went Platinum in under three months. “Bodies” hit the Top 10 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, cracked the Top 40 in the UK, and became one of the most immediately recognizable tracks of the nu-metal era, a fixture in sports arenas, film, gaming, and professional wrestling across WWE, ECW, and AEW. “Tear Away” and “Sinner” followed it into the WWE as theme songs. The album was produced by Jay Baumgardner (Slipknot, Papa Roach, Godsmack) and remains the only record to feature original frontman Dave Williams, who passed away suddenly in August 2002 from heart disease.

The expanded digital edition adds three bonus tracks: “Break You (Demo),” “The Man Without Fear (feat. Rob Zombie),” and “Bodies (Chris Vrenna’s XXX Tweaker Mix),” the latter of which is available to stream now. It’s a genuinely worthwhile addition, giving longtime fans something new while reintroducing the full album to anyone who missed it the first time around.

The band will perform ‘Sinner’ in its entirety on their current tour run, which covers the Americas, the UK, and Europe through the fall, wrapping at Aftershock in Sacramento in October. “We will be playing the Sinner record in its entirety and other fan-favorite songs as well,” the band shares. “Come celebrate Sinner with us.”

‘Sinner’ Track Listing (Vinyl):

Side A:

  1. Sinner
  2. Bodies
  3. Tear Away
  4. All Over Me
  5. Reminded
  6. Pity

Side B:

  1. Mute
  2. I Am
  3. Follow
  4. Told You So
  5. Sermon

‘Sinner’ Track Listing (Expanded Digital):

  1. Sinner
  2. Bodies
  3. Tear Away
  4. All Over Me
  5. Reminded
  6. Pity
  7. Mute
  8. I Am
  9. Follow
  10. Told You So
  11. Sermon
  12. Break You (Demo)
  13. The Man Without Fear (feat. Rob Zombie)
  14. Bodies (Chris Vrenna’s XXX Tweaker Mix)

Tour Dates:

April 17, Las Vegas, NV @ 1st Street Stage, Fremont Street Experience

April 18, San Antonio, TX @ Fiesta Oyster Bake

May 8, Daytona Beach, FL @ Welcome To Rockville

May 20, Bogotá, CO @ Ace of Spades

May 22, Lima, PE @ CC Leguia

May 24, Santiago, CL @ Teatro Caupolicán

May 26, Buenos Aires, AR @ Teatro Vorterix

May 29, Belo Horizonte, BR @ Mister Rock

May 30, São Paulo, BR @ Carioca Club

May 31, Curitiba, BR @ Tork N’ Roll

June 12, Derby, UK @ Download Festival 2026

June 14, Frome, UK @ Cheese and Grain

June 16, Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed

June 17, Guildford, UK @ G Live Guildford

June 18, Bexhill On Sea, UK @ De La Warr Pavilion

June 19, Dessel, BE @ Graspop Metal Meeting 2026

June 20, Dresden, DE @ Beatpol

June 23, Vienna, AT @ Flex

June 26, Pilsen, CZ @ Basinfirefest 2026

July 25, Cadillac, MI @ The Venue Event Center

August 7, Sturgis, SD @ Sturgis Buffalo Chip 2026

August 8, Ridgeville, OH @ The Afterburn Ohio Music Festival

October 2, Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock 2026

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Norfolk Singer-Songwriter Harry Jordan Steps Out Solo With Debut EP ‘This Beautiful Life’ and New Single “(When I Wasn’t) Electric”

Eric Alper
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Norfolk Singer-Songwriter Harry Jordan Steps Out Solo With Debut EP ‘This Beautiful Life’ and New Single “(When I Wasn’t) Electric”

Harry Jordan has spent a decade producing other people’s records, fronting cult indie bands, and quietly building one of the most impressive resumes in the UK independent music scene. Now it’s his turn. The Norfolk-based singer-songwriter, producer, and engineer releases his debut solo EP ‘This Beautiful Life’ on April 17, with new single “(When I Wasn’t) Electric” out now as a preview of what’s coming.

The EP collects six songs reflecting on Jordan’s years living in Leeds, recorded DIY in his old basement and finished at his own Bam Bam Studios. The sonic touchstones run deep: Wilco, Sparklehorse, Big Thief, Neil Young, Alex G, Justin Vernon. The approach is lean and deliberate, with thoughtful restraint across both composition and production. Jordan handles everything himself, writing, producing, engineering, and mixing, with drums handled by longtime collaborator Josh Ketch.

“(When I Wasn’t) Electric” is the EP’s emotional anchor. Written during the bleakest stretch of COVID lockdowns while separated from his now-wife Sophie, the track opens with introspective softness before building into fully distorted catharsis. Jordan describes it as being “about longing to be there with the person you love,” and the shifting tempos carry that emotional weight with real deftness. It’s the kind of song that sounds lived-in because it was.

Previously known as co-frontman of Eades, whose work earned acclaim from The Guardian, NME, FADER, and BBC 6 Music, Jordan brings that same critical pedigree into his solo work. ‘This Beautiful Life’ is out April 17. An EP launch show follows April 18 at Voodoo Daddy’s in Norwich.

‘This Beautiful Life’ Track Listing:

  1. All Again
  2. In A Minute
  3. Protected
  4. This Beautiful Life
  5. Unwind
  6. (When I Wasn’t) Electric

Upcoming Shows:

April 18, Norwich, UK @ Voodoo Daddy’s (EP Launch Show)

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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