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The Vans Warped Tour Guide Returns With 2025 Anniversary Revival

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

The Vans Warped Tour Guide Returns With 2025 Anniversary Revival

The Vans Warped Tour is making a highly anticipated return in 2025, celebrating its 30th anniversary with three major two-day festivals in Washington, D.C.; Long Beach, California; and Orlando, Florida. Also making its highly anticipated return is the Official Vans Warped Tour Program. 50,000 physical copies and 200,000+ digital editions will be distributed free to all ticketholders of the 2025 Vans Warped Tour.

Vans Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman tapped Josh Bernstein of Z2 Comics to produce these custom manga-sized collectible guides for fans, as Bernstein and his team had previously produced similar programs for the Warped, Mayhem, Uproar and Taste of Chaos Festivals.

“Back in the day, the Vans Warped Tour program was more than just a guide-it was a snapshot of a moment in music history. People used it to map their day, jot down set times, collect autographs, or just feel plugged into something bigger than themselves” says Kevin Lyman, Founder of Vans Warped Tour. “Bringing it back now isn’t just about honoring that past-it’s about making the experience whole again for a new generation that deserves something just as tangible.”

The Official Vans Warped Tour Guide features brand new cover art from Erik Rodriguez and Josh Bernstein reimagines a swinging ’60s-themed Warped pool party where all are welcome. This honors Kevin’s longtime tradition of aftershow BBQ parties and this cover features 2025 performers Avril Lavigne, Ice-T, Johnnie Guilbert, mgk, and members of A Day To Remember, All American Rejects, All Time Low, Black Veil Brides, Dance Hall Crashers, Dropkick Murphys, Falling In Reverse, Ice Nine Kills, mgk, Motionless In White, Rise Against, Simple Plan, Slaughter To Prevail, Sublime, The Funeral Portrait, The Interrupters and even the late Lou Dog. The BBQ is naturally headlined by Warped stalwarts, Pennywise.

“We can’t thank Kevin and the entire Insomniac Team enough for this opportunity” says Josh Bernstein of Z2. “Getting a chance to produce the Vans Warped Tour Guide again for all these fans and brands is a dream come true. Long live print!”

Edited and written by Vans Warped Tour Guide alums Rabab Al-Sharif and Mackenzie Hall, this 88-page guide features brand new interviews with 25+ bands, spotlights on brand new artists, charity partners, activities and things to do in each Warped city as selected by the Warped artists themselves. The guide also proudly features the art of Jimbo Phillips, who is responsible for all of the great 2025 Vans Warped Tour art and logos we’ve seen so far.

Z2 tapped famed underground cartoonist Luke McGarry to bring a series of “Warped Memories” back for some of the Vans Warped Tour’s most famous alumni, including brand new comics with Mark Hoppus of blink-182 showering with a hose, Hayley Williams of Paramore meeting Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Andy Biersack of Black Veil Brides meeting his future wife, Juliette Simms and the time Kevin Lyman kicked Sublime off the very first Vans Warped Tour for dog-biting.

Finally, Warped’s incredible legacy is perfectly encapsulated with the photo gallery and interview with Lisa Johnson, the Vans Warped Tour photographer since day one. Her iconic shots of My Chemical Romance, Rancid and Simple Plan perfectly capture the continuing spirit of Warped.

The Official Vans Warped Tour Guide would like to thank the following partners for their incredible support: American Musical Supply, Beatbox, CAA, Death Valley Dreams, Ernie Ball, Hopeless Records, Ghost Energy, Rise, Sumerian, Alternative Press, Jeffree Star, Killer Merch, Live Nation, Manic Panic, Marshall, Mercury Records, MNRK Music Group, The Music Experience, Punk Rock Museum, Slice, Thriller Records, The University of South Carolina, Vans, and Veeps.

The 2025 Official Vans Warped Tour Guide will be available free at the Washington, D.C., Long Beach, California, and Orlando, Florida, Vans Warped Tour weekends as well as the Z2 Booth at the San Diego Comic Con International (Booth #1529)

Soft Cell’s Strange Worlds Explored In Patrick Clarke ‘Bedsit Land’ Biography

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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Soft Cell’s Strange Worlds Explored In Patrick Clarke ‘Bedsit Land’ Biography

Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come.

In Bedsit land, Patrick Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho. From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain.

Bono Talks ‘Stories Of Surrender’ With Zane Lowe For An Hour

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

0

Bono Talks ‘Stories Of Surrender’ With Zane Lowe For An Hour

Bono reflects on life, legacy, and letting go in a candid sit-down with Zane Lowe, diving deep into his Apple TV+ documentary Stories of Surrender.

Metal Dad Band Shreds Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’ to Embarrass Son

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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Metal Dad Band Shreds Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’ to Embarrass Son

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

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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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

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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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

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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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

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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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

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

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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

Music

Eric Alper

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Jun 14, 2025

0

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.