Forget pickup lines and polite claps—this dad squad cranked Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” to 11 in full metal gear just to mortify their kid at the bus stop. That’s not just parenting… that’s power-chording fatherhood!
Bluegrass Version of ‘Star Trek: TNG’ Theme Boldly Goes Banjo
What do you get when a banjo beams aboard the USS Enterprise? Gordon Lustig’s bluegrass take on the Star Trek: The Next Generation theme! It’s twang, trek, and total joy—because even in deep space, the banjo boldly goes.
Sean Egan’s New Book ‘Long Agos and Worlds Apart’ Explores the Small Faces’ Legendary Legacy
The Small Faces epitomised the maxim, “Never mind the width, feel the quality.” In their brief original lifespan, they released just three official albums and a dozen-and-a-half authorised non-album singles and B-sides. Yet more than five decades after the London quartet’s split the phenomenal quality of that compact body of work has ensured a continuing and unassailable musical esteem bordering on legend.
Gut-bucket vocalist Steve Marriott brought a bluesy grit to both compositions of gravitas and effervescent pop numbers. Bassist Ronnie Lane collaborated with him to form one of the most formidable songwriting partnerships of the era. Ian McLagan was an exhilaratingly blurred-fingered keyboardist. Kenney Jones brought up the rear with blistering drum patterns, with his rolls often used to provide an explosive fanfare to Small Faces singles. Such a talent-oozing line-up was virtually predestined to conjure excellence. ‘Tin Soldier’, their exquisitely sophisticated psychedelic-soul release of 1967, regularly appears in polls to decide history’s greatest singles.
However, the band are just as much loved for rip-roaring power-pop like ‘Sha-La-La- La-Lee’ and ‘All or Nothing’ and storming instrumental B-sides such as ‘Grow Your Own’ and ‘Almost Grown’. Their acknowledged masterpiece is Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake (1968), an album that was not only artistically superb but boasted a second-side narrative suite that paved the way for rock operas such as the Pretty Things’ SF Sorrow and the Who’s Tommy. Regardless of style, quality and innovativeness, the Small Faces’ music was characterised by a life-affirming joyousness.
All this explains why their catalogue is endlessly recycled and why their oeuvre has been disproportionately inspirational. Long Agos and Worlds Apart covers the Small Faces’ full, tumultuous story. The book draws on lengthy new interviews, including ones with Jones, Lane’s close friend Pete Townshend and original Small Faces member Jimmy Winston.
It features contributions from many associates and intimates, including managers, agents, publicists, songwriters, auxiliary musicians, fan-club personnel, recording engineers, journalists, friends and wives. It also draws on numerous interviews the author conducted down the years with both Jones and McLagan, much of which material is previously unpublished. It is a revealing, impartial, exhaustive and definitive exploration of the corpus and career of a truly great band.
Jon Anderson And The Band Geeks Share Epic “Once Upon A Dream” Lyric Video
Today, to celebrate the start of the second leg of their 2025 North America tour, Jon Anderson And The Band Geeks are premiering the lyric video for “Once Upon A Dream.”
The 16-and-a-half-minute epic was the centerpiece track on the 2024 album ‘TRUE’ and will be performed nightly on the upcoming dates. The video was directed by Wayne Joyner.
Since the release of ‘TRUE,’ JON ANDERSON AND THE BAND GEEKS released the 2 CD/DVD live album ‘Perpetual Change’ from their 2023 tour. The package was also released as a stand-alone Blu-ray.
Leg two of the tour begins this Sunday, June 15th, at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC, and ends July 13th at the Factory in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dates for the 2025 Tour:
June 15 – Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre
June 18 – Ocala, FL @ Circle Square Cultural Center
June 20 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
June 23 – Dallas, TX @ Moody Performance Hall
June 25 – Austin, TX @ Paramount
June 27 – San Antonio, TX @ Tobin Center
July 01 – Macon, GA @ Auditorium
July 05 – Farmington, PA – Timber Rock Amphitheatre
July 07 – Ocean City, NJ – Ocean City Music Pier
July 11 – Nashville, IN @ Brown County Music Center
July 13 – St. Louis, MO @ The Factory
Between The Buried And Me Announce ‘The Blue Nowhere,’ Share Surreal New Video
Between The Buried And Me return their most immersive and eclectic record yet: The Blue Nowhere, out Sept. 12 via InsideOutMusic. The release also serves as the band’s debut for the label. The band offers fans a first feel for the new album with today’s release of “Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark” and its accompanying video.
Known for their conceptual albums, vocalist Tommy Rogers explains that the 10-track collection “exists in a world that’s not tied to a storyline. It’s more about a feeling, where the songs live for me.” He describes the lyrical approach to The Blue Nowhere as “journal entries, fleeting and introspective thoughts – chaotic at times, depending on the music.”
Director Miles Skarin shares insight into the clip: “For ‘Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark,’ we wanted to create the hotel from the album concept and artwork – we 3D-modeled the hotel based on the artwork and began to create shots of it at different times of day. Marigold is a theme across the record, so we have a scene where lots of marigold petals start to cover the hotel. This was quite an intense particle simulation that took 17 hours to process and render. We also added surreal elements to the video, including infinite hotel corridors and strange space sequences with the doors to the different rooms in the hotel. We’re really pleased with the final look and hope that everyone enjoys seeing the hotel come to life!”
“This track emerged from the maniac genius of Dan Briggs,” Rogers shares. “The song deals with the dark cloud that is ego, so I tried to vocally approach it with a different kind of confidence than normal, almost like a pop song… even though it takes you down crazy avenues, you can sit back and sing along.”
Dan Briggs adds: “It’s one of the rare songs I started around the bass and that foundational funky idea, while also maintaining a pretty straightforward melodic idea underneath everything, no matter how dense it got rhythmically. I love when we have arrangements that feel like they have a page turn into another dimension, but I thought it was important for this one to feel really seamless as it moved dynamically. Even when it gets heavy, I thought it’d be fun at the core to still feel like it was Prince’s band playing, keeping it funky.”
Produced by longtime collaborator Jamie King, The Blue Nowhere is also the first Between The Buried And Me album to feature an extensive string and horn section. It is available as a Special Edition CD, Gatefold 2LP, and digitally. A Deluxe Gatefold Special Colored 2LP + 2CD edition includes a bonus track on Side D, the full album and instrumentals across 2CDs, an exclusive door-hanger, and alternate artwork.
The Kinks Release Live “Sunny Afternoon” From 1993 Royal Albert Hall Show
“Sunny Afternoon,” was number 1 on July 7th, 1966, when England won the World Cup. The Kinks today release a live version recorded at their 1993 Royal Albert Hall show, taken from the last chapter of their Journey Trilogy’s celebrating the bands 60th anniversary
“As far as performances go, it was a high point achievement of the Kinks,” Dave Davies said of the Royal Albert Hall show. The Kinks, one of the most influential rock bands of all time, also release a remastered version of “A Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy” today. Talking about the song Ray Davies recalled: “There was a recession in America which influenced my lyrics.”
Dave called “A Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy” “a personal favourite” and admires “Ray’s sensitive portrait of a super fan based on his impressions of different people.”
The Journey – Part 3 features two discs compiled by the band. Disc 1 features 11 classic tracks from the band’s Arista period, remastered from the original production tapes.
Disc 2 is a very special release featuring recordings previously never released and discovered in the Kinks studio archive selected from their July 11, 1993 Royal Albert Hall show on their return from conquering the USA.
The Journey – Part 3 is due for release on 2LP 180g vinyl, 2CD, and digital formats on July 11th 2025.
Tyler Mahan Coe’s ‘Cocaine & Rhinestones’ Book Unveils the Real George & Tammy
From the creator of the acclaimed country music history podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones, comes the epic American saga of country music’s legendary royal couple—George Jones and Tammy Wynette.
By the early 1960s nearly everybody paying attention to country music agreed that George Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. After taking honky-tonk rockers like “White Lightning” all the way up the country charts, he revealed himself to be an unmatched virtuoso on “She Thinks I Still Care,” thus cementing his status as a living legend. That’s where the trouble started. Only at this new level of fame did Jones realize he suffered from extreme stage fright. His method of dealing with that involved great quantities of alcohol, which his audience soon discovered as Jones more often than not showed up to concerts falling-down drunk or failed to show up at all. But the fans always forgave him because he just kept singing so damn good. Then he got married to Tammy Wynette right around the time she became one of the most famous women alive with the release of “Stand by Your Man.”
Tammy Wynette grew up believing George Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. After deciding to become a country singer herself, she went to Nashville, got a record deal, then met and married her hero. With the pop crossover success of “Stand by Your Man” (and the international political drama surrounding the song’s lyrics) came a gigantic audience, who were sold a fairy tale image of a couple soon being called The King and Queen of Country Music. Many fans still believe that fairy tale today. The behind-the-scenes truth is very different from the images shown on album covers.
Illustrated throughout by singular artist Wayne White, Cocaine & Rhinestones is an unprecedented look at the lives of two indelible country icons, reframing their careers within country music as well as modern history itself.
Roger Waters’ Cinematic Farewell ‘This Is Not A Drill’ Hits Theatres July 23
Roger Waters, founding member and creative genius behind Pink Floyd, returns to cinemas with ‘This Is Not A Drill – Live from Prague The Movie’. Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision will release the film worldwide beginning on July 23. The official film trailer is unveiled today.
Tickets for cinema screenings worldwide are now on sale at www.rogerwaters.film.
Originally recorded and filmed during Waters’ live show at the O2 Arena in the Czech Republic on May 25, 2023 this breathtaking new edit is directed by his long-term collaborative partner, Sean Evans.
Billed as his “first ever Farewell Tour”, the show is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive and is dedicated to “our brothers and sisters all over the world who are engaged in the existential battle for the soul of humanity”.
The release will give fans the chance to see and hear his critically acclaimed live show in full cinematic glory and includes 20 classic Pink Floyd and Roger Waters songs, including: “Us & Them”, “Comfortably Numb”, “Wish You Were Here”, and “Is This The Life We Really Want?” Additionally, Waters performs his highly celebrated new song, “The Bar”. Together, the production is an extraordinary assault on the senses – musically, visually, politically and philosophically.
The accompanying music, available for preorder now, is set to be released on Legacy Recordings, the catalogue division of Sony Music Entertainment, on August 1, 2025, and will see the performance presented on a 4 LP set/Blu-Ray/2 CD/DVD/Digital Audio.
‘This Is Not A Drill – Live From Prague – The Movie’ is filmed in 8k, providing exceptional detail and clarity, and features an enhanced audio mix. For the production, Waters was joined on stage by his outstanding band of musicians: Jonathan Wilson, Dave Kilminster, Jon Carin, Gus Seyffert, Joey Waronker, Robert Walter, Shanay Johnson, Amanda Belair and Seamus Blake.
Collectively they deliver an unforgettable and powerful performance, with a call to action, to love, protect, and share our precious planet home.
Roger Waters says, “What do you want? A quote? Alright Errr… THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
Primal Fear Roars Back With “The Hunter” From Upcoming Album ‘Domination’
Less than three months before their new album Domination hits the shelves (September 5, 2025 via Reigning Phoenix Music), German metal frontrunners Primal Fear shift up another gear with “The Hunter”. The second single from the record tells a conceived story while it musically sounds the attack for the quintet’s upcoming record.
Being also the opening track of Domination, the track builds up tension with anthemic lead harmonies before bursting drums and guitars break through the idyll to set the tone for another highly melodic piece from PRIMAL FEAR’s musical forge. The single additionally cements the thoroughly positive impression the group left with first single “Far Away”, which saw them introduce their striking new line-up.
“Science fiction scenery, the beast is behind you, it’s me, I’m THE HUNTER, so better watch out, I smell your blood and I’m gonna get you!” warns vocalist Ralf Scheepers grinningly.
Picking up the dystopian theme of the single, director Patric Ullaeus (IN FLAMES, AMARANRATHE, EVERGREY etc.) placed the band — Scheepers, bassist/vocalist Mat Sinner, guitarists Thalìa Bellazecca and Magnus Karlsson, and drummer André Hilgers — in ruined environment to create a ‘metal as f**k’ music video where they find themselves surrounded by hellfire.
DOMINATION was recorded at Dennis Ward’s Kangaroo Studios (HELLOWEEN, ANGRA etc.) in autumn 2024, produced by Mat Sinner and co-produced by Ralf Scheepers as well as Magnus Karlsson. Rounded off by multiple PRIMAL FEAR mixing/mastering engineer Jacob Hansen (AMORPHIS, VOLBEAT etc.) at his own studios in Denmark, the album artwork was designed by Death.Milk.Designs.
Domination – Track Listing:
- The Hunter
- Destroyer
- Far Away
- I Am The Primal Fear
- Tears Of Fire
- Heroes And Gods
- Hallucinations
- Eden [feat. Melissa Bonny of AD INFINITUM]
- Scream
- The Dead Don’t Die
- Crossfire
- March Boy March
- A Tune I Won’t Forget
Bonus Track [physical only; excl. jewel case-CD]
- Bridges Will Burn
Going strong for nearly three decades, the band founded and still led by Mat Sinner (bass, vocals) and Ralf Scheepers (vocals) have never let down their global fanbase. Relentless and constantly pushing their limits, PRIMAL FEAR ensure that no two albums ever sound the same. After “Code Red” [2023] hit some of the highest chart positions of their career, expectations for the next release were higher than ever. Now joined by gifted guitarist Thalìa Bellazecca and former touring drummer André Hilgers, the quintet were more than up for the challenge. And as “Domination” makes clear, no obstacle is too great for PRIMAL FEAR’s powerhouse songwriting trio – Sinner, Scheepers, and guitarist Magnus Karlsson, who also rejoins the band’s live line-up after several years away.
From the hard-hitting opener ‘The Hunter’ and first single ‘Far Away,’ to the uplifting mid-tempo anthem ‘Tears Of Fire’ and the epic ballad ‘Eden’ – featuring a surprise guest appearance by AD INFINITUM’s Melissa Bonny – “Domination” delivers on all fronts. Add in neck-breakers like ‘Scream’ and ‘Crossfire,’ and the reflective, string-and-piano-driven closer ‘A Tune I Won’t Forget,’ and it’s clear: PRIMAL FEAR aren’t here to reclaim the crown – they’re here to prove they’ve never left the throne of heavy/power metal royalty.
The Doobie Brothers Perform Songs From ‘Walk This Road’ At SiriusXM Nashville
GRAMMY-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famers The Doobie Brothers performed an intimate set and spoke with fans at the SiriusXM Nashville studios. You can listen to the special anytime on demand on the SiriusXM app.
The Doobie Brothers:Live From SiriusXM NashvilleListen on the App
The exclusive performance was the first time that all band members – Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, Patrick Simmons, and John McFee – performed songs from the new “Walk This Road” album in front of an audience (SiriusXM subscribers who won the chance to attend this very special event)! The performance was captured on Tuesday, May 27 and was encored during The Doobie Brothers Takeover Weekend on Classic Vinyl (Friday, June 6 – Sunday, June 8).
This summer, Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band is going on tour with The Doobie Brothers. As a surprise, Coral Reefer Band lead vocalist and 10-time CMA winner Mac McAnally joined The Doobie Brothers in a crowd sing-along for the iconic hit “Listen To The Music.”
Before the song “Takin’ It To The Streets” was performed, Michael McDonald recalled how it was supposed to be a gospel choir kind of song when he originally wrote it as a young kid, but when he brought the song to The Doobie Brothers it took a completely different direction. Later, Tom Johnston discussed how “China Grove” came together while Pat Simmons reflected on recording “Black Water.”
The new “Walk This Road” album marks the first time in 47 years that Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, and Patrick Simmons all have sung on a record together. Pretty special.
And, there’s more! Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons will be Inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 12 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.
Click HERE for more information on The Doobie Brothers’ new album, ‘Walk This Road,’ and HERE for more on the band’s upcoming tour with special guests The Coral Reefer Band.