Gregg Allman, the soulful singer-songwriter and rock n' blues pioneer who founded the Allman Brothers Band with his late brother, Duane, and composed such classics as "Midnight Rider," "Melissa" and the epic concert jam "Whipping Post," has died at age 69, Billboard has learned. He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1999 and underwent a liver transplant in 2010. With his long blond hair, cool facade...
Frank Ocean is very particular about his typography, and he really doesn't like it when Forever 21 bites his fonts. Last night, as Pitchfork reports, he posted a photo of a storefront with "Pop-Up Shop" written in what appears to be the Blonde and Boys Don't Cry fonts on his Tumblr. He captioned it "uhh" and tagged the post #cease&desist;, although he later removed the tag. The picture was cropped,...
Among those who attended Chris Cornell's private memorial today were his Soundgarden bandmates Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron; Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament; Nirvana's Krist Novoselic; Metallica's James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich; Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro; Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, and Pat Smear; Bush’s Gavin Rossdale; Pharrell; Joe Walsh; Audioslave's Tom Morello;...
It was 50 years ago today: The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album of profound significance in the arc of modern music. On the most basic level, this was yet another batch of amazing Beatles songs in a career full of them, but its impact on music history is much deeper than that. Sgt. Pepper solidified the LP as not just a collection of singles and filler but a full-length...
Last week, Linkin Park released One More Light, their seventh studio album, assuming you don't count their two -- yes, two -- remix albums. One More Light marked yet another sonic shift for a group that, to their credit, were always ready to reinvent themselves. The Southern California band got started in the late '90s as a trio of Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Rob Bourdon, who established their dynamic...
Hitchhiker, a long-lost Neil Young album originally recorded in 1976, is reportedly coming out this summer. Neil Young fansite Thrasher's Wheat found a listing on Diverse Vinyl that says the album will be available on 7/14, and they also recently discovered what appears to be the cover art designed by Young's longtime art director Gary Burden. Hitchhiker is a collection of solo acoustic songs that...
Here's a genuinely moving response to the terrorist attack in Manchester this week: At a vigil today in St. Ann's Square, the crowd followed a minute of silence in honor of the victims by spontaneously joining voices to sing "Don't Look Back In Anger" by hometown heroes Oasis. As if this were a movie and not real life, it all started with one solitary voice and picked up steam from there. Watch below;...
St. Vincent supposedly has a new album coming out later this year, and it looks like Annie Clark worked with Bleachers' Jack Antonoff on some of it. In a new New York Times profile on Antonoff, they mention that he's "working on new music by the cult singer and guitarist St. Vincent" in addition to recording with more high-profile clients like Pink, Carly Rae Jepsen and the Killers. Those last three...
Nick Hakim’s sumptuous folk-soul-hop debut, Green Twins, seems destined to be one of those albums you hear everywhere this summer, from the hipper coffeeshops to cookouts to smoke-out and make-out sessions, and beyond. Co-produced by Andrew Sarlo, it’s a smart blend of dusted beats, finely plucked chords, and heady production you can get lost in,…
Matthew Barnes, the composer and producer behind the Forest Swords moniker, is the first to tell you that he doesn’t listen to all that much music. It’s a curious thing to admit, seeing how Barnes is not only in the business of beatmaking, but his work is an amalgamation of dub, experimental soundscapes, hip-hop, techno,…
Arguably the progenitor of EDM music and culture, DJ/producer Paul Oakenfold has no qualms about the hyper-colored, mainstream juggernaut he has spawned. In his 53rd year, Oakenfold is more interested in playing Mt. Everest then bemoaning a culture that has been co-opted by the likes of the Chainsmokers, flower crowns, and the disastrous Fyre Festival.
Speaking by phone from London, Darren Cunningham doesn’t initially want to explain the process behind his new album, AZD, the fifth he’s released under the name Actress. Given time, though, he starts to describe the album’s genesis with specificity, using different framing devices: the tools used, the colors suggested, the echoes of visual art. …
First day of school icebreakers are always awkward, but sometimes the most seemingly incongruous friendships are formed that way, and occasionally they’ll even lead to serendipitous creative partnerships. That’s how Trophy Dad got its start. On freshman year move-in day at the University Of Wisconsin–Madison, Abby Sherman and Jordan Zamansky went to a mandatory floor…
“You get to a certain age and you try to revert back to what it feels like to be young again.” This is the kind of thing one would expect Evan Weiss to say upon turning 33 and shifting his focus to Pet Symmetry, the punny pop-punk counterpoint to the autumnal indie rock of Into…
“I’m not sure whose water this is,” says Gail Greenwood right before taking a swig from a bottle she found on the stage of the Paradise Rock Club. “But it’s fine. I trust everyone here.” …
Ellen Kempner started Palehound as a freshman at Sarah Lawrence, and soon after dropped out of school and moved to and settled down in Boston, all of which led up to the release of her first full-length, 2015’s Dry Food. As her band became more established over the last couple of years, Kempner went…
Leslie Feist has a special type of charm. She speaks with a relaxing cadence, the same way she sings on her albums, and there’s an airy quality to her speech, like she could spring from her seat at any moment and begin to twirl playfully around the room. Feist’s voice carries the tone of someone…
Shamir Bailey, the 22-year-old Philly-via-Vegas polymath who goes only by his first name, made one of 2015’s best and brightest albums — and possibly its best debut — with the electro-disco revelation Ratchet. It was released via XL, home to Adele and Radiohead among others, and from his country covers and hip-house rapping, we always…
“Imagine a night where everything that you believed in was turned on its head. How would you feel?”
Just over a year ago, Damon Albarn was beginning, in earnest, to make the new Gorillaz album, Humanz. As he reached out to the predictably dizzying array of collaborators, that was the main question he…
Joan Shelley is looking for a table away from the music. “I don’t like listening to music and having a conversation,” says the Louisville singer-songwriter. “I can’t believe people can do that. When you’re eating, the music in a restaurant can be almost offensive. You can’t have a meal and a conversation because Third Eye…
“Yo, you ever put pepper on shit?” Alex Giannascoli asks me as he picks up a pepper shaker and begins seasoning the heaping plate of home fries a waiter just placed in front of him. “I like, just started putting pepper on my food. I never touched it before,” he continues. “My sister dumps it…
Corey Greenfield makes a mean taco. The drummer for Thunder Dreamer has toasted up tortillas, sliced radishes, and marinated a flank steak for three days. He’s made homemade guacamole, although he apologizes for not mixing in cilantro with the tomatoes and jalapeños; the bunches at the grocery store were too wilted. It’s a recipe he…
In a big way, Tei Shi’s Crawl Space is an album about confronting fears. The title originates from Valerie Teicher’s biggest phobia as a kid. Suffering from insomnia and a gripping fear of the dark, she decided to confront her fear by enduring the crawl space in her house. For Teicher, the crawl space has…
