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Toad the Wet Sprocket Reimagine Nearly Four Decades of Songs on ‘Rings: The Acoustic Sessions’

Eric Alper
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Toad the Wet Sprocket Reimagine Nearly Four Decades of Songs on ‘Rings: The Acoustic Sessions’

Toad the Wet Sprocket have never been a band content to simply look back, and ‘Rings: The Acoustic Sessions’ makes that unmistakably clear. Out now on double vinyl, CD, and digital via TP, the fourteen-track collection takes their most powerful and enduring songs and rebuilds them from the ground up, produced by the band alongside Sean McCue. This is not a nostalgia record. It’s a living document of a band still deeply invested in their own catalog.

Bassist Dean Dinning framed the approach with a question worth sitting with: “People always think of an acoustic record as stripped down, but what if it wasn’t?” The answer runs through every track. Guitarist Todd Nichols reworked electric parts for acoustic without losing their original force, and Glen Phillips delivers vocals that carry the same longing and hope they always have, only deeper, more settled, and more earned. Hits like “All I Want,” “Walk On the Ocean,” and “Something’s Always Wrong” sit alongside deep cuts like “Inside” and “Little Heaven,” and the newer material holds its own without leaning on the advantage of familiarity. Phillips captured the intent plainly: “I love that we were able to take songs from every album and find a way to bring them together to work as a unified piece.”

The summer tour launches July 12th in Bethlehem, PA, with most dates featuring Men at Work and Shonen Knife opening. ‘Rings: The Acoustic Sessions’ is out now, and this is exactly the kind of record that rewards repeated listening.

2026 Tour Dates:

Jul 12 — MusikFest Cafe, Bethlehem, PA

Jul 14 — Charleston Music Hall, Charleston, SC

Jul 16 — Pompano Beach Amphitheater, Pompano Beach, FL*

Jul 17 — The St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine, FL*

Jul 18 — The BayCare Sound, Clearwater, FL*

Jul 21 — Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Atlanta, GA*

Jul 22 — BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove, Southaven, MS*

Jul 23 — The Pinnacle, Nashville, TN*

Jul 24 — Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI*

Jul 26 — The Music Circus, Cohasset, MA*

Jul 28 — The Whittemore Center, Durham, NH*

Jul 29 — Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor, ME*

Jul 31 — Borgata Hotel Casino Event Center, Atlantic City, NJ^

Aug 1 — Delaware State Fair, Harrington, DE*

Aug 6 — Grossinger Motors Arena, Bloomington, IL*

Aug 7 — Performing Arts Pavilion at The Commons, New Lenox, IL*

Aug 8 — Stir Cove At Harrah’s Casino, Council Bluffs, IA*

Aug 10 — Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts, Salina, KS*

Aug 14 — Remlinger Farms, Carnation, WA*

Aug 18 — Silver Legacy Resort Casino, Reno, NV*

Aug 20 — The United Theater on Broadway, Los Angeles, CA*

*with Men at Work, Shonen Knife opening

^with Men at Work

Magnolia Park Expand Their Dystopian Universe with Deluxe Album ‘Nights After Vamp’

Eric Alper
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Magnolia Park Expand Their Dystopian Universe with Deluxe Album ‘Nights After Vamp’

Magnolia Park are back inside the world of Nocturne Nexus, and they’ve brought six more tracks with them. ‘Nights After Vamp,’ the deluxe expansion of their concept album ‘VAMP,’ arrives March 13th via Epitaph, picking up the dystopian narrative with the same explosive energy that made the original such a singular listen. Seventeen tracks total, one relentless sonic universe, and a band that refuses to think small.

The preview comes in the form of “HIGH,” a smoldering new single featuring alt-rockers Arrows in Action. Vocalist Joshua Roberts leads with soulful R&B instincts over alt-metal muscle, bouncy rhythms, and pummeling drums. The band described the track’s drive directly: “We wanted to explore the initial rush of finding new love and the innate desire of lust that comes with it.” It hits exactly as hard as that sounds.

The production muscle behind ‘Nights After Vamp’ is formidable. Andrew Wade (A Day To Remember, Wage War), Hiram Hernandez (blessthefall), and Andy Karpovck (408, Taylor Acorn) handled production alongside the band’s in-house team, with Zakk Cervini (Bad Omens, Bring Me The Horizon) on mixing duties. The result is a record that stacks whirring electronics and industrial undertones against sledgehammer breakdowns and walls of detuned guitars, all of it filtered through a narrative inspired by Vampire Hunter D, Star Wars, Dracula, and Joseph Campbell’s monomyth.

Hard rock, punk, nu-metal, hip-hop, and metalcore, Magnolia Park pulls from all of it without losing the thread. ‘Nights After Vamp’ is a multisensory experience built by a band that knows exactly what kind of world they’re creating.

Genre-Defying Rockers Enter Shikari Announce Their Biggest Ever UK and European Arena Tour

Eric Alper
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Genre-Defying Rockers Enter Shikari Announce Their Biggest Ever UK and European Arena Tour

Enter Shikari are thinking bigger than ever, and the numbers back it up. The genre-defying rockers have announced their largest headline tour to date, a full UK and European arena run this November, capped by two consecutive nights at London’s Alexandra Palace. This is a band that debuted at Wembley Arena on their last UK run and has kept raising the ceiling ever since.

The European leg opens November 3rd at Sporthalle in Hamburg, including the band’s largest-ever German headline show at Düsseldorf’s Mitsubishi Halle, capacity 7,500. The UK leg launches November 13th in Nottingham and moves through Cardiff, Hull, Glasgow, and Manchester before landing at Alexandra Palace for the closing two-night stand. Support across both legs comes from Holding Absence and The Callous Daoboys. Frontman Rou Reynolds didn’t undersell it: “November will bring our biggest arena tour ever. With a completely new show. To get to play Ally Pally two nights in a row is going to be something of a fantasy.”

Enter Shikari were the first artists to implement a £1 per ticket donation to the Music Venue Trust on a large-scale arena tour, a grassroots support initiative later adopted by Sam Fender and Coldplay. Every UK ticket sold for this run continues that commitment. A band operating at arena scale that still puts grassroots venues first, that’s worth paying attention to.

Ahead of November, Enter Shikari tour Australia with grandson supporting most dates, hitting Newcastle, Frankston, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Tickets for the UK and EU dates are on sale now.

Enter Shikari 2026 UK Tour Dates:

Nov 13 — Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham

Nov 14 — Utilita Arena, Cardiff

Nov 15 — Connexin Live, Hull

Nov 18 — OVO Hydro, Glasgow

Nov 19 — Co-Op Live, Manchester

Nov 20 — Alexandra Palace, London

Nov 21 — Alexandra Palace, London

The Cranberries Reissue the Rare and Remastered Pre-Fame EP ‘Uncertain’

Eric Alper
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The Cranberries Reissue the Rare and Remastered Pre-Fame EP ‘Uncertain’

Before “Dreams.” Before “Linger.” Before “Zombie” racked up 1.7 billion views and cemented them as one of the defining alt-rock bands of their generation, The Cranberries were four young people from Ireland recording their first EP. ‘Uncertain,’ originally released in October 1991 in a run of roughly 5,000 copies, is out now via Island/Ume as a limited edition, numbered, lightly remastered reissue pressed on cranberry-colored vinyl.

The four-song EP captures Dolores O’Riordan at 19 years old, her voice already unmistakable, already carrying something rare. Drummer Fergal Lawler puts it plainly: “You can really hear it in Dolores’s voice. She was just 19 years old then.” The reissue is a 45-RPM 12″ that preserves the youthful energy of a band on the edge of everything, two years before their debut album ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’ would introduce them to the world.

The tracks hold up with real strength. The title track ebbs and flows around Dolores’ ethereal vocals, “Nothing Left At All” pairs heartbreak with a driving, hopeful beat, and “Pathetic Senses” foreshadows the post-punk edge that would later define “Zombie” and “Promises.” Noel Hogan reflects with genuine surprise: “I’m surprised by how well it’s held up. You can hear small hints of how the band would eventually sound.” The closing track “Them,” a live favorite in the band’s early days, remains the most powerful of the four.

This is a document of a band before the world caught up to them. Essential listening for longtime fans, and a remarkable entry point for anyone still discovering what made The Cranberries so singular.

Dance Music Powerhouse Gryffin Returns for His Sixth Consecutive Wynn Las Vegas Residency

Eric Alper
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Dance Music Powerhouse Gryffin Returns for His Sixth Consecutive Wynn Las Vegas Residency

Six consecutive years. That’s the statement Gryffin makes simply by returning to Wynn Las Vegas for another dozen dates across Encore Beach Club and XS Nightclub. Since launching the residency in 2020, he has become one of the defining presences in Wynn Nightlife’s programming, and the 2026 run builds on that foundation with the confidence of an artist fully at home on one of the world’s most influential stages.

Gryffin’s ability to fuse uplifting melodic moments with festival-scale energy is exactly what makes these club sets work. The performances consistently draw sold-out crowds, and his 2025 run reinforced why, with genre-defying collaborations alongside Kaskade, Excision, Griz, and Lavern, plus headline appearances at Ultra Music Festival and Lollapalooza. The momentum he carries into 2026 is real and earned.

The residency runs from April through August, splitting time between the nightlife environment of XS Nightclub and the daylife energy of Encore Beach Club. Twelve dates, two iconic venues, one artist who has spent six years making this city his second home. Gryffin doesn’t just perform in Las Vegas, he belongs there.

Tickets are on sale now.

2026 Wynn Las Vegas Dates:

Apr 3 — XS Nightclub

May 15 — Encore Beach Club

June 19 — XS Nightclub

July 3 — Encore Beach Club

July 11 — Encore Beach Club

July 17 — XS Nightclub

July 31 — XS Nightclub

Aug 7 — Encore Beach Club

Aug 14 — Encore Beach Club

My Morning Jacket’s Acoustic Album ‘Peacelands’ Channels Hope, History, and Humanity for a Vital Cause

Eric Alper
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My Morning Jacket’s Acoustic Album ‘Peacelands’ Channels Hope, History, and Humanity for a Vital Cause

My Morning Jacket have released ‘Peacelands,’ a 14-track acoustic album available now on Bandcamp, with all proceeds benefiting the ACLU, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Rescue Committee. This is a band putting their music directly in service of something larger than itself, and the result is one of the most quietly powerful releases in their catalog.

Recorded by six-time Grammy Award-winner Shawn Everett at EastWest Studios’ famed Studio Three in Hollywood, the album strips everything back to its core. Stripped-down versions of My Morning Jacket and Jim James solo favorites sit alongside covers of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind,” Brian Wilson’s “Love and Mercy,” The Velvet Underground’s “I Found A Reason,” and Woody Guthrie and Jim James’ “Changing World.” The selections feel deliberate and deeply felt, each one earning its place.

Jim James drew the album’s title from Louisville artist Mark Anthony Mulligan’s concept of an imaginary land built on peace, friendship, and equality. “I think about this word Peacelands in our world all of the time, especially in troubled times,” James says. “We believe that it’s still possible for us to achieve Mark’s vision, a world of love and friendship, if only we can learn to listen, love, and forgive.” The statement lands with real weight, and the music delivers on every word of it.

‘Peacelands’ is acoustic music with genuine emotional stakes, warm, unhurried, and rooted in a tradition of songs that have always meant something. Fourteen tracks that ask the right questions at exactly the right moment.

‘Peacelands’ Track Listing:

  1. Why Can’t We Live Together (Timmy Thomas)
  2. New World Coming (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil)
  3. Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson)
  4. Here In Spirit (Jim James)
  5. Rainbow Power (Timmy Thomas)
  6. I’m Amazed (Jim James)
  7. Don’t Lose Your Eye (Sonny Boy Williamson)
  8. Changing World (Woody Guthrie and Jim James)
  9. State Of The Art (Jim James)
  10. Blowin’ In The Wind (Bob Dylan)
  11. Everything Must Change (Bernard Ighner)
  12. In The Moment (Jim James)
  13. Together Again (Buck Owens)
  14. I Found A Reason (Lou Reed)

The ‘Bridgerton Season 4’ Soundtrack Arrives with Orchestral Covers of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Paramore

Eric Alper
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The ‘Bridgerton Season 4’ Soundtrack Arrives with Orchestral Covers of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Paramore

Capitol Records has released the ‘Bridgerton Season 4’ soundtrack, and it delivers exactly the kind of lush, inventive orchestral reimagining the series has made its signature. Streaming now via Capitol Records, the Part 1 soundtrack features modern pop classics transformed into sweeping period-appropriate arrangements, anchored by an original score from Oscar-winning composer Kris Bowers.

The tracklist moves with real momentum. Episodes 401 and 402 open with previously announced covers from Coldplay, Usher featuring Pitbull, and Third Eye Blind, before Joseph William Morgan delivers a jaw-dropping rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted.” Episode 403 brings the Vitamin String Quartet’s rock-classical take on Paramore’s “All I Wanted,” and Episode 404 closes Part 1 with Caleb Chan’s playful interpretation of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Bad Idea Right?” Cover to cover, it’s a playlist that earns its runtime.

The Bridgerton musical universe has reshaped how audiences engage with classical arrangements. The Vitamin String Quartet saw a 350 percent streaming increase when the show first aired, and previous season tracks produced staggering spikes, with “Happier Than Ever” climbing 11,000 percent on Spotify alone. This is a franchise that has genuinely moved the cultural needle on string quartet music, and Season 4 keeps that tradition fully intact.

The vinyl release is a two-disc set pressed on exclusive white silk vinyl, available via Capitol Records. Season 4 follows Benedict Bridgerton, played by Luke Thompson, as the bohemian second son unexpectedly meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball. Great television, great music, and a physical release worth owning.

Atmospheric Doom Metal Veterans Pantheist Sign to Argonauta Records and Announce New Double-Vinyl Album

Eric Alper
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Atmospheric Doom Metal Veterans Pantheist Sign to Argonauta Records and Announce New Double-Vinyl Album

Pantheist have found their label home, and the timing couldn’t be better. The atmospheric funeral doom pioneers have signed to Argonauta Records and are currently recording their seventh studio album, a double-vinyl release expected in Autumn 2026. Over two decades into one of the genre’s most respected careers, they’re moving forward with full creative focus and the right partner behind them.

The band was direct about what the signing means: “Navigating the music industry alone has been challenging, but now we have found the right partner to sail alongside. This collaboration will allow us to fully focus on our creative vision.” That creative vision now includes professional soprano Linda Dumitru, a powerful new addition to a lineup already capable of serious sonic depth and emotional weight.

Formed in 2000, Pantheist built their reputation the hard way, six full-length albums, over 100 live performances across 15 countries, and shared stages with Tiamat, Arcturus, Esoteric, Skepticism, and Evoken, among others. Their debut ‘O Solitude’ remains a benchmark in atmospheric doom and continues to pull new listeners into the catalog.

Performances are already booked throughout 2026 and 2027, including appearances at NorthWest Doom Fest in the UK and Symphonic Metal Echoes in Romania. A new album, a new label, a new voice in the lineup. Pantheist are building toward something significant, and the doom metal world is paying attention.

Dave Matthews Band Captures a Once-in-a-Lifetime Gorge Performance on ‘Take Me Back Live From the Gorge’

Eric Alper
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Dave Matthews Band Captures a Once-in-a-Lifetime Gorge Performance on ‘Take Me Back Live From the Gorge’

Some nights at the Gorge are special. August 30th, 2025 was historic. Dave Matthews Band performed ‘Before These Crowded Streets’ in its entirety for the first and only time in concert, 95 minutes of bold improvisation and deep exploration of one of the most ambitious records in their catalog. ‘Take Me Back Live From the Gorge’ captures that night completely, and it’s the kind of document that reminds you why live music matters.

The digital release is out now via ATO Records, with CD and LP arriving May 22nd. The set opened with a rare reading of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” before the band moved into the full 1998 album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and is now certified quadruple platinum. Béla Fleck and the Flecktones made a surprise early appearance on “#41,” returned for “The Last Stop” and “Don’t Drink the Water,” and the long-rumored closer “Spoon” delivered one of the evening’s defining moments. Jake Simpson joined on violin for “Satellite” and “Tripping Billies,” and the encore closed with “What Would You Say.”

The three 2025 Gorge shows air on Volta from February 13-15, with a Director’s Cut and multiview options available. Dave Matthews Band has headlined the Gorge 76 times, and this performance stands apart from all of them.

The summer U.S. headline tour kicks off May 8th at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX, including a milestone 50th headlining performance at Saratoga Springs’ SPAC and a stop at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Greenwood Village, CO. The band returns to the Gorge September 4-6, with Stephen Wilson Jr., Infinity Song, Watchhouse, Jonah Kagen, Jesse Welles, and Sierra Hull supporting across the weekend. Seventy-six headlining performances at one of America’s greatest venues, and they just delivered the most singular night of all of them.

Triumph Launch First Tour in 30 Years with a Make-A-Wish Benefit Concert

Eric Alper
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Triumph Launch First Tour in 30 Years with a Make-A-Wish Benefit Concert

Triumph are back, and they’re doing it right. The iconic Canadian trio kicks off their first tour in three decades on April 10th at Hard Rock Live Universal Orlando, with one hundred percent of net proceeds going directly to Make-A-Wish to create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Thirty years away, and they return leading with purpose and generosity. That says everything about who these three are.

Formed in Toronto in 1975, Triumph built a legacy on virtuoso musicianship, soaring melodies, and arena-filling anthems like “Lay It On the Line,” “Fight the Good Fight,” and “Hold On.” Sixteen albums, 25 gold and platinum awards, and a co-headline slot at the US Festival before nearly 500,000 fans. Multiple Hall of Fame inductions. A 50-year legacy that still hits with full force.

The April 10th show is part of the 23rd annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival, the world’s largest exotic car charity event. Founder and drummer Gil Moore captured the spirit of it simply: “We are excited to kick off our Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded Tour in Orlando on April 10th, and fight the good fight together with our fans to create life-changing wishes for children.”

The Triumph 50th Anniversary Tour, produced by Live Nation, continues April 22nd. The original three members, Rik Emmett, Mike Levine, and Gil Moore, take the stage alongside Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X, Todd Kerns on bass, and Brent Fitz on drums. One of rock’s greatest trios, expanded and ready to deliver.

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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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