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A year on, and the death of Tom Petty still feels like a tremendous loss to rock fans (including our very own Michael Roffman, who waxed poetic about the singer’s works on the one-year anniversary of his passing). Still, his incredible catalog of catchy jams and wailing ballads lingers on. Last week brought the release of the posthumous box set An American Treasure, featuring 60 tracks culled from the rock icon’s extensive catalog. Now, Geffen Reccords and UME have set a November 16th release for a new greatest hits collection called The Best of Everything. The 38-track set serves as a microcosm of Petty’s career, featuring remastered tracks from The Heartbreakers, his first band Mudcrutch, and even to his solo work. The box set also contains two previously unreleased tracks, “For Real,” and an alternate version of “The Best of Everything” that includes a heretofore-unheard second verse originally meant for the Heartbreakers’ 1985 album Southern Accents. Stream the latter via Spotify below. (Read: Reliving My Greatest Hits with Tom Petty) The album will be released in a 2-CD box set and digital formats, and is packaged with a heartfelt essay on Petty from Cameron Crowe. Die-hard vinyl-heads can also pick it up in black and clear vinyl versions on December 7th. Check out the artwork and tracklist below. The Best of Everything Cover Art: The Best of Everything Tracklist: Disc 1 01. Free Fallin’ 02. Mary Jane’s Last Dance 03. You Wreck Me 04. I Won’t Back Down 05. Saving Grace 06. You Don’t Know How It Feels 07. Don’t Do Me Like That 08. Listen To Her Heart 09. Breakdown 10. Walls (Circus) 11. The Waiting 12. Don’t Come Around Here No More 13. Southern Accents 14. Angel Dream (No. 2) 15. Dreamville 16. I Should Have Known It 17. Refugee 18. American Girl 19. The Best Of Everything (Alt. Version) Disc 2 01. Wildflowers 02. Learning To Fly 03. Here Comes My Girl 04. The Last DJ 05. I Need To Know 06. Scare Easy 07. You Got Lucky 08. Runnin’ Down A Dream 09. American Dream Plan B 10. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (feat. Stevie Nicks) 11. Trailer 12. Into The Great Wide Open 13. Room At The Top 14. Square One 15. Jammin’ Me 16. Even The Losers 17. Hungry No More 18. I Forgive It All 19. For Real Source

Setting the Stage: Upon approaching the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on Wednesday night (October 3rd), a line of trucks were parked along the side of the venue, as often is the case when a band rolls into town. What you don’t usually see is the legendary frontman of an iconic punk band standing inside one of those trucks sporting boxing gloves and pounding away at a heavy bag. But that’s exactly what Mike Ness was doing a few hours before Social Distortion were scheduled to take the stage. Opening acts Pony Bradshaw and Will Hoge had to compete with the New York Yankees playing a wildcard playoff game against the Oakland A’s that night, as the Capitol Theatre’s side bar Garcia’s was packed with fans glued to the television. But with the Yanks comfortably up 6-0 around the time Social D took the stage at 10 p.m., the main venue was filled up with fans ready to soak in the punk-rock goodness that Ness and company were about to bring. Taking the Stage: Mike Ness has made no secret about his love for Tom Petty, so it wasn’t a surprise that he and the rest of Social Distortion walked out as “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” played through the PA system. He strapped on his guitar and the band launched into “Reach for the Sky” off 2004’s Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Five songs in, Social D delivered one of their biggest hits, “Bad Luck” from 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, and then took it all the way back to the beginning, with the one-two punch of the title track and “Another State of Mind” off their 1983 debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster. It’s been nearly eight years since Social D released their last album, 2011’s Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, but Ness assured the crowd that work would begin in earnest on a new album once the tour ends, which was met with a roar from the fans. Ness then asked the audience if there was anyone who was recently dumped in a relationship before launching into the new song “Over You”, which had a punked-up ’50s doo-wop vibe. Social Distortion’s Mike Ness, photo by Antonio Marino Jr. Before playing “Don’t Drag Me Down” to close out the main set, Ness explained that he wrote the song in the early ’90s when he witnessed acts of racism going on at his shows. He added that he never thought it would still be relevant in 2017, likely referring to incidents like the notorious one in Charlottesville that happened last year. Social Distortion would return to the stage for a four-song encore, including another new cut, the hard-hitting “Born to Kill”. Ness and company closed out the night with a double dose of Johnny Cash covers — first “Folsom Prison Blues” and then the band’s own classic rendition of “Ring of Fire”. It was during “Ring of Fire” that Ness brought up some young kids who were in the audience, interviewing them onstage. When he asked one 11-year-old boy named Vegas what he wanted to be when he grew up, the youngster said, “I wanna be a bass player in a rock ‘n’ roll band,” bringing a smile to Ness’ face and a loud cheer from the audience. After saying goodbye to the kids, the band finished up “Ring of Fire”, bringing a close to the night. Notably absent from the set were signature songs like “Ball and Chain” and “Story of My Life” — with only “She’s a Knockout” representing the band’s breakthrough 1990 self-titled disc — but the crowd didn’t seem to mind. Scanning the audience, this was literally a show for all ages, as gray-haired elders were seen singing along to all the words alongside a new generation of fans who are just discovering the music of a legendary punk band who’s been going strong for nearly 40 years. Social Distortion’s Mike Ness, photo by Antonio Marino Jr. Setlist: Reach for the Sky Highway 101 Don’t Take Me For Granted She’s a Knockout Bad Luck Mommy’s Little Monster Another State of Mind Machine Gun Blues Over You Far Behind California (Hustle and Flow) Don’t Drag Me Down Encore: Born to Kill Angel’s Wings Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash cover) Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash cover) Source

Sony and Mattel have been trying to get a Barbie movie off the ground for years now, and they might have found their perfect lead in Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie, who The Hollywood Reporter says is in “early talks” with the studio. A Robbie-focused Barbie movie, however, will likely play a bit differently than the version they were previously trying to develop. Update: Per THR, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is “circling” the project, but “no substantive talks or offers” have taken place. In 2016, Amy Schumer was slated to play Barbie in a live-action satire described as “a contemporary spin on beauty, feminism, and identity.” In that version, Schumer’s Barbie is just one Barbie in a land of them. After realizing that she doesn’t quite fit in, she’s kicked out of that world and into our own, where it’s okay to be different. They could still tell that story, but the hook previously was that Schumer didn’t fit the Barbie mold; Robbie, on the other hand, does. The story, then, takes on a different resonance. (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Films of Fall 2018) Schumer dropped out soon after, citing “scheduling conflicts,” and Anne Hathaway stepped into the role. Since then, the film’s release date has been pushed back from June of 2018 to May of 2020. There’s no word as to whether Hathaway is still involved in the project. Robbie’s got quite the slate lined up. She’ll reprise her Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey and a relationship comedy with Jared Leto’s The Joker, and she’s currently at work as doomed actress Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. This fall, she’ll star in Mary Queen of Scots. Source

Download | Listen and subscribe via Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Radio Public | Stitcher | RSS The Lowdown: As winter turns to spring, as the phoenix dies to be reborn, so does old intellectual property become new again. A Star Is Born was made in 1937 and remade as musicals in 1954 and 1976. Bradley Cooper steps into the leading man’s guitar strap, last worn by Kris Kristofferson, and the first few songs of the soundtrack belong to his surprisingly soulful voice. His country rock stylings are soon joined by Lady Gaga in a role previously played by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. Soon Lady Gaga takes over the album, and then the guitars give way to glittering synthesizers. There are songs of love and strife and loss. In the end, the instrumentation is stripped away until all that’s left is a piano, a voice, and a handful of heavy words. The soundtrack tells pretty much the whole movie — for better mostly, but sometimes for worse. The Good: There are a handful of bands today that would happily swap their lead singer for Cooper. He has, perhaps, a below-average professional voice, but make no mistake: it’s a professional-quality voice. Cooper sings the hell out of “Black Eyes”, a song he co-wrote with Lukas Nelson, son of Willie. And the best track on the album might be a Cooper cut: “Maybe It’s Time”, a quiet look at a changing world, written by Jason Isbell. But the real star was always going to be Lady Gaga, and the great fun of A Star Is Born is hearing her play in different musical sandboxes. Lady Gaga is a music nerd, with a nerd’s love of genres. She loves synth pop. She loves outlaw country. She loves disco, funk, and seventies rock, and she gets to have it all in A Star Is Born. She belts out “Is That Alright” like a big Broadway ballad — this is a musical, after all — and you can easily imagine her leaning over Evita’s balcony or “Defying Gravity” in green face paint. “Diggin’ My Grave” could have been a Reba McEntire duet, and Bradley Cooper could have been Billy Ray Cyrus. “Look What I Found” is funky piano pop. “Why Did You Do That” is horny and dressed for the clubs. Still, the very best moments are when Cooper’s whiskey tones join Gaga’s blasting trumpet, like on “Diggin’ My Grave” or the wonderful, Oscar-baiting “Shallow”, which works because there’s real chemistry between the two leads, helped along by a mournful violin and enormous, crashing drums. The Bad: Lots of bits of dialogue are scattered throughout the soundtrack to provide background for the tunes. Sometimes, these scenelets add emotional weight, transforming pop songs into Shakespearean monologues. Other times, it’s just two people talking. Frequently, these skits kill the emotional energy building between songs. There are far too many empty tracks. “Out of Time” is just a fairly competent guitar solo, presented without context or justification. And while Lady Gaga’s “La Vie En Rose” may be important to the story of the movie, it’s hard to appreciate a cover of an oft-covered song when there’s so much stunning original work on the other side of the <skip> button. The Verdict: Yes, the listening experience would have been improved with tighter editing, but there are a great many sins in the world, and a soundtrack being too-faithful to the movie is hardly the worst. There’s real joy in this music — real pleasure in the making of art. Bradley Cooper is a delightful surprise, and Lady Gaga adds to her legend. A Star Is Born is a story familiar to audiences and personal to the people making it. It’s all in the service of fiction, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. Essential Tracks: “Diggin’ My Grave”, “Shallow”, and “Maybe It’s Time” Source

In news that should surprise virtually nobody, Blumhouse has confirmed that there will be more Halloween for everyone. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jason Blum expressed his trademark enthusiasm for the future of the franchise. “Yeah, for sure, for sure, 100 percent,” Blumhouse insisted. “Let me tell you, if we got six movies out of [Paranormal Activity] — they found new footage five times in a row! — I feel like we can figure out the next chapter. But we’ll see. “I think the same creative muscle that you use to [sequelize] IP that already exists is exactly the same muscle that you exercise for sequels [of our own films],” he continued. “So Purge 2, 3, 4; Insidious 2, 3, 4; Ouija 2; Paranormal 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 — anything that’s after 1 is the exact same thing. “So we’ve done a lot of movies from existing IP, it just happens to be our own existing IP, so it felt very familiar. It felt like making one of our sequels, which is always the same conundrum, which is how do you make it feel original enough that people feel like it’s worth seeing, but not too original that it’s not connected to the previous chapters?” Listen and subscribe via iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | Podchaser | RSS Again, this isn’t surprising. As Blum essentially confesses here, he’s in the business of making money from horror, and he’s done a damn good job at it, so it was only natural that they would continue mining more from Michael Myers. What’s more, Danny McBride, who co-wrote the forthcoming Halloween with director David Gordon Green, has already hinted that they’ve played around with the idea of more sequels. “David and I definitely had some ideas at the beginning of this of what we would do if there was an appetite for it,” he recently told Comic Book Movie. “We have some ideas, so now we’re just sort of exploring them to see if they have enough legs to kind of warrant it. I know that Jason Blum, I bet you he’d be stoked to make some more. (But) I think he’s been on the same mindset we’ve been of, ‘Let’s just wait and see what people think.'” Seeing how the new film is already tracking to be the biggest hit of the franchise, there’s no way this sucker doesn’t get two or three more chapters down the line. The problem is the setup of this current installment. Listen and subscribe via iTunes | Stitcher | Google Play | RSS For starters, Michael Myers is already in his sixties, and even worse, he’s been locked up since the ’70s. In other words, they can’t prequelize this one, and they’ll have to go down the same rabbit hole involving the Strodes. Further complicating matters is that Myers is supposed to be more human in this chapter, which essentially nullifies the idea of making him this unstoppable movie monster as he was in the past films. So, where they go from here will be one tricky pumpkin to carve. In the meantime, stay tuned to Halloweenies, our monthly Michael Myers podcast, as they weigh in on these developments as they’re sure to come. Halloween hits theaters on October 19th. Source

Listen and download via iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | YouTube | RSS Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman of The Byrds discuss the 50th anniversary of their old band’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo record. They also talk about The Byrds shifting towards Americana music, covering Bob Dylan, and working with the late Tom Petty. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Each episode, Meredith digs deep into an artist’s work to find out how the music is made and where their journey is going, from legendary artists like Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, U2 and Bryan Ferry, to the newer class of The National, St. Vincent, Arctic Monkeys, Haim, and Father John Misty. Check back Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for new episodes. Rate the series now via iTunes. Follow on Facebook | Podchaser | Twitter Source

Disturbed will embark on their first-ever USO tour for U.S. military personnel. The Chicago hard rockers will perform two special USO concerts in Nevada at the Airmen at Creech and Nellis Air Force Bases in Indian Springs and Las Vegas, respectively, on October 23rd and 24th, where they’ll also engage with the military members. “We are honored every time we are able to perform for our troops and pay our respects to our service men & women,” Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan said in a statement. “They sacrifice so much for their love of our country & we look forward to partnering with the USO for the first time as a Force Behind the Forces to bring them a moment of escape from all that they do for us on a daily basis!” “Disturbed has an enthusiastic military fan base, and we at the USO are excited to bring them directly to the fans who appreciate them so much,” added Mari Villalobos, the USO’s director of entertainment relationships. “We hope this will be the first of many partnerships with them and other Warner Bros. Records artists as we continue to keep service members connected to family, home and country.” The band is gearing up to release the new album, Evolution, on Oct. 19. The band’s first single off the album, “Are You Ready,” recently hit No. 1 at rock radio and marks the group’s 12th No. 1 single. The group also recently released an acoustic ballad off the album called “A Reason to Fight,” which the band says is about the struggles of addiction. Disturbed will hit the road in 2019 to support Evolution and have revealed the initial cities for their early 2019 tour, although venues and dates have yet to be announced. Metallica’s Top 5 Songs Tool’s Top 5 Music Videos Behemoth's Top 5 Songs Alice in Chains' Top 5 Videos Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” Annotated Video Source

Migos member Quavo has announced his debut solo album, and it’s coming very soon. Titled Quavo Huncho, it’s expected to drop next Friday, October 12th. The LP follows Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, his collaborative album with Travis Scott, released earlier this year. It also proceeds “No Brainer”, the posse cut featuring DJ Khaled, Chance the Rapper, and Justin Bieber. (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Tours of Fall 2018) In August, Quavo shared a trio of solo songs which will likely appear on the new record: “Bubblegum”, “Lamb Talk”, and “Workin Me”. The Atlanta rapper performed a medley of the latter two tracks on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday in anticipation of the album. He also participated in Fallon’s “Catchphrase” game alongside Billy Crystal and Gisele Bündchen. Check out clips of his late-night appearance below, followed by the freaky artwork for Quavo Huncho. 10 12 18 pic.twitter.com/AopcVzlroX — QuavoYRN (@QuavoStuntin) October 5, 2018 Migos’ put out their sprawling Culture II album back in February. Migos’ Top Songs Wiz Khalifa & Rae Sremmurd’s Dazed &; Blazed Hotline Tour The Come Up: Closed Sessions Childish Gambino’s Top 5 Songs Janelle Monae’s Top 5 Songs Nicki Minaj's Top 5 Verses Source

Each week we break down our favorite song, highlight our honorable mentions, and wrap them all up with other staff recommendations into a playlist just for you. It’s not every week that a four-year-old promise gets kept, so whether you have a mouth chock-full of diamonds or are just hoping nobody notices your Invisalign adult braces, you were likely all smiles this week as Lil Wayne returned with Tha Carter V. While the game has no doubt changed since previous Carters, Weezy doesn’t catch himself chasing next-gen fads. Instead, “Mona Lisa” sees Wayne return (sans pen or pad) to his notoriously challenging rhyme schemes, delectable wordplay (“I smoke color purple/ I’m up in here feelin’ like Celie”), humbling gift for narrative, and ability to spit nice with others — in this case, the reigning king himself, Kendrick Lamar. It’s an escalating two-sided account so hot that it’ll melt all those who had themselves cryogenically frozen until the next Carter finally dropped. –Regan Bexler Contributing Writer _________________________________________________________ Honorable Mentions Sharon Van Etten – “Comeback Kid” “Comeback Kid” has a sound drawn straight from the ’80s, with heavy synths and rolling drums constantly picking up around the stage-rock magnetism of Sharon Van Etten’s voice. –Laura Dzubay Four Fists – “6666” With a jumpy, twinkling beat and impassioned vocals, “6666” is a strong release by Four Fists, creatively blending hip-hop with dance-floor pop while building toward a firm and optimistic conclusion: “I ain’t dead yet.” –Laura Dzubay Courtney Barnett – “Small Talk” Courtney Barnett gets wonderfully fed up in “Small Talk”, alternating wry, twangy verses of casual, meaningless conversation with a playful chorus that cuts right to the chase: the feeling of being at a party and only wanting to talk to that one person on the other side of the room. –Laura Dzubay St. Vincent – “Slow Slow Disco” Remix Stripped down to Annie Clark’s smooth, wide-ranging voice against a single gentle piano, “Slow Slow Disco” sounds like exactly what it describes, in the best possible way: “dancin’ with a ghost.” –Laura Dzubay _________________________________________________________ Other Songs We’re Spinning Joe Strummer – “London Is Burning” Not enough people realize that Joe Strummer continued making defiant, eclectic, and undeniable music right up until his passing in 2002, and his Joe Strummer 001 collection should be right next to Tom Petty and Prince’s recent releases on your shopping list essentials. –Matt Melis Cat Power – “Woman” ft. Lana Del Rey Chan Marshall’s new Cat Power record may be called Wanderer, but she brought a number of friends along for the journey, and none make a more striking traveling partner than Lana Del Rey on the defiantly smoky “Woman”. –Regan Bexler DeM atlaS – “Can It Fall” As we continue to mourn the loss of Aretha Franklin, a singer who could fill up every square foot of a room with her once-in-a-lifetime voice, DeM atlaS reminds us that sometimes real emotion can also linger in the corners where light barely reaches. –Matt Melis John Prine – “I Just Called to Say I Love You” This tender folk reimagining cuts right to the heart of “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, staying faithful to Stevie Wonder’s classic ballad without relinquishing the gravelly acoustic style of John Prine. –Laura Dzubay Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – “I Won’t Back Down” (Live at the Filmore, San Francisco, CA, 2/4/87) At the end of a week that marked one year since Tom Petty’s passing, it feels reassuring to remind ourselves that whether our golden boy of summer is out in that “great wide open” or stood up at the gates of Hell, he won’t be backing down — and neither should we as this world tries to drag us down. –Matt Melis _________________________________________________________ This Week’s Playlist Source

The Situation’s legal, well, situation has finally come to a close, as the Jersey Shore star has been sentenced to eight months in prison for tax evasion. Mike Sorrentino’s woes started in 2014, when he and his brother Marc were first charged with multiple accounts of tax evasion. Further charges were levied last year, leading to a guilty plea for one count of tax evasion in January of this year. According to the charges, Sorrentino and his brother concealed nearly $9 million in income from the Jersey Shore and other earnings. After serving eight months behind bars, Sorrentino will remain under a supervised release for two years. His brother, Marc Sorrentino, fared even worse, as he’ll spend two years in prison and pay a fine of $75,000. Despite these legal hiccups, The Situation managed to appear on both seasons of MTV’s recent Jersey Shore reboot, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. Several of his fellow Jersey Shore cast members were on hand for today’s sentencing, which MTV was reportedly filming for an upcoming episode. Sorrentino is also planning to marry his longtime girlfriend Lauren Pesce in the coming weeks. “We are praying for a positive result on that day,” said the 36-year-old in an interview prior to sentencing. “I’m not going to know until that day but I live my life one day at a time and I try to be the better version of myself. For today, I am ceasing{sp) the day and on that particular day I will hold my head high and hope to put that behind me.” Jersey Shore Cast Supports Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino at Court in NJ as He Faces Prison https://t.co/6Gb4wgnoyE https://t.co/AmP4HXA6k9 pic.twitter.com/fCfGicHezA — Free Views (@9999999999views) October 5, 2018 Source

Guns N’ Roses’ “Not In This Lifetime Tour”, the live trek that brought guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan back into the fold, is still soldiering on with upcoming previously announced dates scheduled in Mexico, the Philippines, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. Exciting as those are, the group’s forthcoming North American date this year is an equally historic one. It’s just been announced that GN’R will be playing live in Hawaii for the first time ever,. The legendary hard rockers will be venturing to the 50th state to perform at Aloha Stadium on December 8th, with tickets going on sale to the general public on October 12th at 10am HST (or 1pm PST/4pm EST). The GN’R tour has been busy in 2018, with the band hitting a bunch of stadiums earlier this year, as well as scoring five headlining spots at festivals throughout Europe this past summer. Yet, through all the touring that the band has done in its 30-plus years of existence, they’ve never made a stop in the Aloha State. The lineup for this version of GN’R has remained constant through this long tour schedule, as well, with singer Axl Rose and founding members Slash and McKagan joined by keyboardist Dizzy Reed, who joined the group prior to the recording of Use Your Illusion I & II, and newer members Richard Fortus on rhythm guitar, keyboardist Melissa Reese and drummer Frank Ferrer. Guns N’ Roses’ Fall 2018 Not In This Lifetime Tour Dates: 11/03 — Monterrey, MX @ Mother of all Festivals (Parque Fundidora) 11/08 — Jakarta, ID @ GBK Stadium 11/11 — Manila, PH @ Philippine Arena 11/14 — Kuala Lumpur, MY @ Surf Beach, Sunway Lagoon 11/17 — Taipei, TW @ Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium 11/20 — Hong Kong, HK @ Asia World Expo Arena 11/21 — Hong Kong, HK @ Asia World Expo Arena 11/25 — Abu Dhabi, AE @ Du Arena 11/29 — Johannesburg, ZA @ FNB Stadium 12/08 — Honolulu, HI @ Aloha Stadium Metallica’s Top 5 Songs Tool’s Top 5 Music Videos Behemoth's Top 5 Songs Alice in Chains' Top 5 Videos Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” Annotated Video Source

While they may never make music together again, the members of Rush are making sure that the sound that they did make during their 50-year lifespan remains in circulation. To that end, the Canadian trio has announced the forthcoming 40th anniversary reissue of their sixth studio album Hemispheres in a variety of formats and configurations. The Super Deluxe Edition boasts a remastered edition of the album on both CD and vinyl, as well as a Blu-ray disc featuring the music mixed for 5.1 surround sound and four music videos. The set also includes a recording of a live performance from that era captured at the 1979 edition of the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands, minus their version of “2112” as apparently the engineer at the fest didn’t hit record for the first few minutes. So, to make it a complete package they’ve added in a recording of that tune from the Tucson, Arizona, stop of the Hemispheres tour. Rounding out the Super Deluxe Edition are, among other goodies, a hardcover book with never-before-seen photos and an essay from music writer Rob Bowman, a replica of the Hemispheres tour program, and an iron-on patch for your denim jacket. Rush are also releasing this new version of Hemispheres as a 180-gram three LP set and as a double CD set with the remastered album and the live material. Both will include some of the photos from the Super Deluxe version and an edited version of Bowman’s essay. Naturally, the music will also be available for digital download. Released in 1978, it was a record that proved to be a bridge between the expansive prog-rock epics of their breakthrough release 2112 and the more pop-leaning sound heard on ‘80s classics Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. If nothing else, Hemispheres is best known as the home of “La Villa Strangiato,” the nine-minute, 12-part instrumental that incorporated elements of Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” and was allegedly based on nightmares that guitarist Alex Lifeson was having at the time. “Hemispheres was one of our most challenging and demanding records to make,” Lifeson said in a statement. “From its inception in a Wales farmhouse where it was written over a 4 week span to the very difficult mixing sessions in two London recording studios, it stands as a key transitional album in Rush’s long recording history.” The various 40th anniversary editions of Hemispheres will be released on November 16th. Click here to pre-order a copy, and see an unboxing video and tracklists below: Hemispheres – 40th Anniversary Editions – Tracklists: SUPER DELUXE EDITION CD – DISC 1 Original Album – Produced by Rush and Terry Brown Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Circumstances The Trees La Villa Strangiato CD – DISC 2 Live at Pinkpop Festival – June 4, 1979 A Passage To Bangkok* Xanadu* The Trees* Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres – The Sphere A Kind Of Dream* Closer To The Heart* La Villa Strangiato* In The Mood* Drum Solo* Something For Nothing* Live in Arizona – November 20, 1978 2112* BLU-RAY AUDIO – DISC 3 96kHz 24-bit 5.1 Surround Mix 96kHz 24-bit Original Stereo Analog 2015 Remaster Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres* Circumstances* The Trees* La Villa Strangiato* Bonus Promo Videos 48kHz 24-bit Stereo Only Circumstances (1978 Promo Video)* The Trees (1978 Promo Video)* La Villa Strangiato (1978 Promo Video)* La Villa Strangiato (Live at Pinkpop Festival: June 4, 1979)* 3-LP VINYL LP 1 – SIDE A Original Album – Produced by Rush and Terry Brown 1. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres LP 1 – SIDE B Circumstances The Trees La Villa Strangiato LP 2 – SIDE C Live at Pinkpop Festival – June 4, 1979 A Passage To Bangkok* Xanadu* LP 2 – SIDE D The Trees* Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres – The Sphere A Kind Of Dream* Closer To The Heart* La Villa Strangiato* LP 3 – SIDE E In The Mood* Drum Solo* Something For Nothing* LP 3 – SIDE F Live in Arizona – November 20, 1978 2112* 2CD DELUXE EDITION / DELUXE DIGITAL EDITION DISC 1 Original Album – Produced by Rush and Terry Brown Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Circumstances The Trees La Villa Strangiato DISC 2 Live at Pinkpop Festival – June 4, 1979 A Passage To Bangkok* Xanadu* The Trees* Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres – The Sphere A Kind Of Dream* Closer To The Heart* La Villa Strangiato* In The Mood* Drum Solo* Something For Nothing* Live in Arizona – November 20, 1978 2112* *Previously unreleased Source

Austin City Limits will live stream a number of this weekend’s performances on Redbull.tv. You can also watch it below. Over 40 acts are scheduled to appear across three channels. Among the highlights: Paul McCartney, Metallica, Arctic Monkeys, Travis Scott, Deftones, St. Vincent, Janelle Monáe, BROCKHAMPTON, Father John Misty, Greta Van Fleet, Blood Orange, Natalie Prass, Nelly, Japanese Breakfast, Manchester Orchestra, Parquet Courts, Molly Burch, and more. See the full schedule below (note: all times are CST). * All times are CST Friday, October 5th: 02:10 – Asleep at the Wheel (1) 02:10 – Topaz Jones (2) 02:55 – Sir Sly (2) 03:00 – The Coronas (1) 03:50 – Cuco (1) 04:00 – Natalie Prass (2) 04:45 – Greta Van Fleet (2) 05:45 – The Coronas (Encore) (2) 06:15 – Cuco (Encore) (2) 07:00 – The National (1) 07:15 – Gang of Youths (2) 08:05 – BROCKHAMPTON (1) 08:15 – Manchester Orchestra (2) 09:10 – Father John Misty (1) 09:15 – Hozier (2) Saturday, October 6th: 02:10 – Durand Jones & The Indications (1) 02:10 – NÄM (2) 02:10 – slenderbodies (3) 02:30 – Mon Laferte (2) 03:00 – Alice Morton (1) 03:20 – PARIS (3) 03:50 – IAMDDB (1) 04:10 – VÉRITÉ (3) 04:30 – Highly Suspect (2) 04:55 – Brandi Carlile (1) 4:55 – Japanese Breakfast (3) 06:00 – Blood Orange (1) 06:15 – Deftones (2) 07:05 – CHVRCHES (1) 07:15 – Nelly (2) 07:15 – Manchester Orchestra (Encore) (3) 08:15 – Metallica (1) 08:15 – St. Vincent (2) 08:15 – Father John Misty (Encore) (3) 09:15 – Justice (2) 09:15 – St. Vincent (Encore) (3) Sunday, October 7th: 02:10 – A R I Z O N A (1) 02:10 – Sailor Poon (2) 02:10 – Wilderado (3) 02:55 – Shame (3) 03:00 – Parquet Courts (1) 03:00 – Bahamas (2) 03:40 – Mt. Joy (3) 04:00 – Twin Shadow (2) 04:05 – X Ambassadors (1) 04:45 – Elle Kind (2) 04:45 – Amen Dunes (3) 05:15 – Janelle Monáe (1) 05:45 – Houndmouth (2) 06:25 – Paul McCartney (1) 06:45 – Camila Cabello (2) 07:00 – Illenium (3) 07:45 – Shakey Graves (2) 08:00 – Sylvan Esso (3) 09:00 – Travis Scott (1) 09:00 – Arctic Monkeys (2) Source

Blood Orange’s masterful Negro Swan, a record we lauded for its “grand vision,” arrived back in August, but today marks the album’s physical release. In conjunction, Dev Hynes has shared a music video he directed for soulful, surprising single “Chewing Gum”. The clip finds Hynes and A$AP Rocky, who guests on the song, tearing up the desert on ATVs. Hynes deftly captures the landscape’s dusky grandeur, exploring it at daytime, nighttime, and, most strikingly, sunset. Watch it below. Hynes previously shared the music video for “Saint”. He’s been supporting Negro Swan on an ongoing fall tour. Rocky dropped his own LP, Testing, back in June, and he recently covered Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay”. Source

Lady Gaga appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday to promote A Star Is Born. However, discussion of her feature film debut and its accompanying soundtrack took a backseat to a much more pressing subject: her support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, one of the women who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. The pop star has never been one to hide her political views, especially when it concerns women, the LGBTQ+ community, and survivors of sexual assault. Speaking to Colbert, Lady Gaga — herself a survivor — went into detail about how sexual assault can change the way one thinks and processes such a traumatic event. “The brain changes and literally what it does is it takes the trauma and it puts it in a box and it files it away and shuts it so that we can survive the pain,” she explained. (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2018) Lady Gaga said sexual assault “also does a lot of other things, it can cause body pain, it can cause, you know, baseline elevations in anxiety.” She added, “It can cause complete avoidance of wanting to even remember or think about what happened to you.” At a rally in Mississippi earlier this week, Donald Trump mocked Dr. Ford’s memory loss following her alleged sexual assault. “It’s one of the most upsetting things I have ever witnessed,” Lady Gaga remarked to Colbert. On Ford’s willingness to come forward with her allegations, despite her trauma, Lady Gaga said, “…She was brave enough to share it with the world to protect this country.” Watch the full interview below. #ImWithDrFord pic.twitter.com/yyEOOttCli — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) September 28, 2018 Previously, Lady Gaga contributed the track “Til It Happens To You” to The Hunting Ground, a documentary about campus sexual assault. She staged a powerful performance of the song at the Academy Awards, where she was accompanied by over 50 survivors of sexual assault. A Star Is Born opens in theaters today; it is quite, quite good. The soundtrack is streaming in full here. Source

Today marks the release of Toronto hardcore outfit Fucked Up’s latest opus, Dose Your Dreams. Subscribers of Apple Music and Spotify can stream it below. A follow-up to 2014’s Glass Boys, the 18-track album is more aligned with 2011’s David Comes To Life in scope, narrative, and character. In an interview with Billboard, frontman Damian Abraham called it “the Fucked Up opus, I think, in a very real way,” noting that the majority of the album’s music, concept, and lyrics came from guitarist Mike Haliechuk. “When it came to everything Mike proposed I was like, ‘let’s try it, I’m not going to fight you on anything on this record,’” he said. Later, he added, “When I look back at this record I’m like, ‘Thank God I didn’t fight him on any of this stuff,’ because this is his opus.” (Read: The 50 Albums That Shaped Punk Rock) Owen Pallett, who contributed string arrangements to the record, was equally enamored with the album. In a bio written for the band, he wrote, “I was sent an unfinished version of Dose Your Dreams so that I might contribute string parts. I couldn’t stop listening to the rough mixes I received. A friend asked me how the record was. I replied, “My God, Fucked Up have made their [Primal Scream’s] Screamadelica.” He continued, “And psych-rock-groove it is. The drums mixed wide, propensity for drones, for delay pedal, for repetition, groove. The politics and aesthetics of hardcore married to an ‘open format’ approach to genre. Elements of doo-wop, krautrock, groove, digital hardcore.” The band previously shared music videos for pre-release singles “Raise Your Voice Joyce” and “Normal People”. Dose Your Dreams Artwork: Dose Your Dreams Tracklist: 01. None of Your Business Man 02. Raise Your Voice Joyce 03. Tell Me What You See 04. Normal People 05. Torch to Light 06. Talking Pictures 07. House of Keys 08. Dose Your Dreams 09. Living in a Simulation 10. I Don’t Wanna Live in this World Anymore 11. How to Die Happy 12. Two I’s Closed 13. The One I Want Will Come For Me 14. Mechanical Bull 15. Accelerate 16. Came Down Wrong 17. Love Is An Island in the Sea 18. Joy Stops Time Fucked Up 2018 Tour Dates: 10/19 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern 11/03 – Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club 11/04 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa 11/05 – Burlington, VT @ ArtsRiot 11/06 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall 11/08 – Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel 11/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church 11/10 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel 11/11 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings 11/12 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade 11/13 – Nashville, TN @ The High Watt 12/04 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom 12/05 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar 12/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex 12/07 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House 12/08 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone 12/10 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios 12/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile 12/12 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret Source

Troubadour Matthew Houck, aka Phosphorescent, has released his new album, C’est La Vie. It’s available to stream in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. Due out through Dead Oceans, the effort marks his seventh full-length overall and first in five years following 2013’s excellent Muchacho. Its nine tracks reflect on a marked period of transition for Houck, during which he started a family, left New York for Nashville (where he built his own Spirit Sounds Studio), and overcame a life-threatening illness. As a press release put it, Houck sought to balance “the earthy and the incandescent, the troubled and the serene.” (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2018) “In the past, I really resisted allowing my personal life to be part of the Phosphorescent narrative,” he told Rolling Stone recently. “This time, I kind of just was like, ‘Well, sure, let’s do it. Let’s talk about my life, I guess.’ I’m still not 100 percent percent comfortable with it.” As early previews, Houck previously shared “New Birth in New England” and “Christmas Down Under”. He also appeared on the Late Late Show with James Corden. Beginning October 14th, Houck will bring C’est La Vie on the road across Europe and North America; find his full tour schedule here. C’est La Vie Artwork: C’est La Vie Tracklist: 01. Black Moon / Silver Waves 02. C’est La Vie No. 2 03. New Birth in New England 04. There From Here 05. Around The Horn 06. Christmas Down Under 07. My Beautiful Boy 08. These Rocks 09. Black Waves / Silver Moon Source

Come January, Conan O’Brien will be slimming his TBS show down to 30 minutes, doing away with any musical guests. Apparently, part of that change now includes parting ways with his longtime house band, Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band. In a rather surprising turn of events, last night marked the end of the band’s tenure on the series, and O’Brien tearfully sent them off. “I can say this with confidence—I have been graced with the most versatile, loyal, and joyously effervescent band in the history of television,” he confessed, adding: “To put it very simply, I love these guys.” (Read: Conan O’Brien’s 10 Most Memorable Musical Performances) Later on, O’Brien hopped on stage to close things out with a cover of Chuck Berry’s “40 Days”. “The guys asked me if we could do one number that we did on the road, what, eight or nine years ago,” O’Brien explained, referring to his post-Tonight Show run of dates dubbed, ‘The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour’. “This is what we always closed the show with and it’s a little bit of a barn burner.” He wasn’t lying. Watch the clips below. This is quite a shakeup for O’Brien. The band’s been a part of his programming since the very beginning at NBC’s Late Night, back when they were led by E Street drummer Max Weinberg and called the Max Weinberg 7. Vivino eventually took over the band when Weinberg jumped ship following O’Brien’s short tenure on The Tonight Show, and they’ve since been soundtracking every episode. Next up, O’Brien will return to the road this November and December for a handful of stand-up dates in what he’s called, “Conan & Friends: An Evening of Stand-Up and Investment Tips”. He’s also starting a new podcast called Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and also plans on unlocking all of his sweet, sweet archival content in celebration of his 25th anniversary hosting a late night show. Source

Greta Van Fleet are feeling rather generous in the lead up to their much-anticipated debut full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, having just released a fourth song off the effort — the sweet acoustic ballad “Anthem” (listen below). Following the unveiling of the rocking tracks “When the Curtain Falls”, “Watching Over” and “Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)”, the acoustic “Anthem” provides a change of pace, with youthful singer Josh Kiszka’s vocals front and center over mid-tempo strumming by his guitarist brother Jake. There’s no denying Greta Van Fleet’s retro sound, and “Anthem” gives off a ’60s vibe that would have sounded right at home at the original Woodstock or the Newport Folk Festival. The track ends with a choral rendition of the chorus that should keep the song stuck in listeners’ heads long after the final note. Anthem of the Peaceful Army arrives on October 19th, with pre-orders available here. Greta Van Fleet finish up a North American tour October 11th in Madison, Wisconsin, before heading to Europe later this month, only to return to the States for a number of gigs beginning in late November. See their full itinerary here. Source

Lil Pump may need to serve time in prison soon, but that hasn’t stopped him from living large and celebrating his riches. The “Gucci Gang” rapper has linked up with Lil Uzi Vert on a new track called “Multi Millionaire”. (Read: The 20 Richest Rappers in the World) Produced by Hanzo, Danny Wolf & Dilip, it features the two MCs boasting about lovers located all over the globe, pricey loads of drugs, and even more expensive rides. My personal favorite line from Lil Pump sees him taking a last-minute jet to satisfy a food craving: “And I got hungry for some Wingstop so I took a flight.” If that’s not baller, I don’t know what is. Take a listen below. “Multi Millionaire” is believed to be off Lil Pump’s upcoming second album, Harverd Dropout. He previously joined forces with Kanye West on “I Love It”. Lil Pump might have to serve time behind bars after violating his probation over the summer. He was arrested in Miami in August for driving without a license. Police also said the license plate on Lil Pump’s Rolls-Royce belonged to a Mini Cooper. As a result of his legal issues, the rapper was forced to cancel his “Harverd Dropout Tour”. Source

Today marks the release of Coheed and Cambria’s new album, The Unheavenly Creatures. Subscribers of Apple Music and Spotify can stream it below. Spanning 15 tracks, the self-produced album clocks in at 78 minutes and finds frontman Claudio Sanchez returning to the conceptual science-fiction narrative of The Amory Wars, a story Sanchez has sought to tell through his music, a novel, and a comic book series. The band’s last album, 2015’s The Color Before The Sun, was the first to deviate from the narrative, and this reinvigorated return to the story marks what’s, in this writer’s opinion, their best album in a decade. It’s got hooks galore and a compellingly bombastic tone that matches the grandeur of Sanchez’s narrative, which brims with a healthy dose of heart. The Unheavenly Creatures is part one of the five-part Vaxis series, and Sanchez elaborated a bit on how it fits in a new interview with Heavy Consequence. “It’s sort of a new story, but as the stories come out with Vaxis, the later records II and III, we sort of unveil where this story truly fits within the timeline and how these characters are related to Coheed and Cambria’s arc. So, right now, it’s really kind of an introduction to a new set of characters within the mythos and after the continuation of the Good Apollo Two story, No World for Tomorrow, just the fact that it is a pentalogy and the idea resembles the symbol number five.” The concept, he says, helped inform the songwriting. “I was just trying everything, but when I got to ‘Old Flames’, for example, that was the first song where I started to really visualize what the concept was. The visual I had was the cover of the album, the two of them embracing, creature and sister as the sub servers were rising up to meet their makeshift army and having to support them on their ascent out the ‘Dark Sentencer’ the prison planet that they were inside of. I started writing that song on piano and I noticed my son started singing the melody after I played it maybe three times just working through it, so I thought it was speaking to him and I’m getting this tuneful visual of a climax of a movie or a book, I let that stuff tell me when the song was the song.” The Unheavenly Creatures Artwork: The Unheavenly Creatures Artwork: The Unheavenly Creatures Tracklist: 01. Prologue 02. The Dark Sentencer 03. Unheavenly Creatures 04. Toys 05. Black Sunday 06. Queen Of The dark 07. True Ugly 08. Love Protocol 09. The Pavilion (A Long Way Back) 10. Night-Time Walkers 11. The Gutter 12. All On Fire 13. It Walks Among US 14. Old Flames 15. Lucky Stars Source

Austin’s different now. Use that as your Point A, and pick just about any other moment as your Point B, and it’ll still be true. The sentiment’s become an eye-rolling truism for locals, whose responses range from elegiac and academic (the writers of The End of Austin) to world-weary (the Austin American-Statesman‘s Amanda O’Donnell, whose response to a 2017 survey naming Austin as America’s most-changed city of the last 10 years can be summed up as “yeah, we know.”) There’s plenty to bemoan when a city changes, and even more when that change comes so rapidly. And yet, some things stay (mostly, or secretly) the same. This week marks the 44th season premiere of Austin City Limits, the live-music television program that’s been a PBS staple since its first full season in 1976. This weekend and next, Austin’s Zilker Park will also welcome the Austin City Limits Music Festival for the 17th time. Though they share a name and city and little else these days, both the show and the festival are institutions. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music program in American history, the only television show ever awarded the Presidential Medal of the Arts, and a cultural touchstone that took outlaw country nationwide and shaped the production ethos of everything from MTV Unplugged to the musical performances on Saturday Night Live. Meanwhile, ACL is one of America’s mega-festivals, one that rivals New York’s Governors Ball, Chicago’s Lollapalooza, or Southern California’s Coachella for primacy atop the year’s festival calendars. This year, that means an appearance by the legendary Paul McCartney, who ACL booker Amy Corbin called “the biggest act we’ve ever booked.” In a changing city, it’s nice to find a little predictability. However, as we approach one of the most significant weeks in a city already known for its musical significance (we see you, SXSW), it’s worth taking a moment to track what has changed and hasn’t about the world of Austin City Limits and how the show and the festival have spurred on each other’s evolutions over the course of the last two decades. The Rise of Austin City Limits (The Show) Let’s start in 1974. Because there’s nothing new under the sun, it comes as little surprise that the hype surrounding Austin isn’t even close to a recent phenomenon; things were already buzzing when a writer for Time noted, in a September article entitled “Groover’s Paradise”, that “rock is no longer a dirty word in Austin,” before going on to say that “within the past two years, following the lead of such veterans as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker, more than 200 musicians, vocalists and songwriters have moved to the Texas capital.” Attracted by then-new clubs like the Armadillo World Headquarters, these musicians infused country music with a rebellious, frill-free raucousness. “If the Austin sound has a common trait,” Time concluded, “it is the lack, onstage, of show business antics or, in the recording studio, of slick electronic techniques. Leading musicians concertize and make records the way they drink — quickly, while everybody is looking, with few rehearsals and fewer regrets.” This scene might’ve stayed relatively regional if not for the help of an unlikely country-rock patron: public television. At the same time that Austin’s music scene began earning national attention, the powers that be at the University of Texas-affiliated KLRN were seeking innovative, local ways to use the new studio complex that had recently been built (using state money) by the school’s communication department. Enter program director Bill Arhos, producer Paul Bosar, and director (and cosmic country scenester) Bruce Scafe, three KLRN employees who came up with a pretty good idea. In her book Austin City Limits: A History, author Tracey E.W. Laird credits the trio with landing on a formula, born half out of necessity and half out of opportunity, perfectly suited to the challenge at hand: a intimate live music program, stripped of the expected television glitz, that was both cheap to produce and indicative of the Austin scene’s own shaggy bonhomie, one that gave both the time and the space needed for genuine performances and featured performers drawn from the city’s deepening well of buzz-worthy local players, as well as regional, national, and international musicians drawn to the city’s burgeoning reputation. If you watch the pilot for Austin City Limits today, you’ll be struck by a few things. You’ll probably think, “Woah, Willie Nelson looks so young!” and then simultaneously remember what a killer song “Bloody Mary Morning” is. You’ll also spot some excellent ’70s fashion statements within the in-the-round crowd. Mostly, though, you’ll be struck by the sense of continuity that runs from Nelson’s performance then to the new ones that appear on PBS stations every fall and winter. There are a few noticeable differences now, sure; the famous Austin skyline backdrop isn’t in place yet, the lighting’s a little more complicated (though not by modern standards), and the audience is still crowded into the old Studio 6A at UT-Austin rather than the purpose-built theater that it now inhabits downtown. Otherwise, it’s remarkably easy to see the same unguarded ease of performance you’d find in, say, a Whiskeytown appearance from 1998 or the same ripples of audience excitement running through Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 set. In other words, it’s easy to see what executive producer Terry Lickona described in a 25th anniversary retrospective interview with the Christian Science Monitor in 1999: “We’re public television … and except for pledge drives, it’s not interrupted. So, it’s really, as Alan Jackson put it, the closest you can get to the experience of watching a full-length concert, even if it is edited down to half an hour or an hour.” Maybe those through lines shouldn’t come as a surprise. Austin City Limits has become a home for many of its principal creators; Lickona has been with the show since 1979 and director Gary Menotti since 1983. Over the course of those years, they’ve helped the show navigate the challenges that come with longevity: the funding challenges associated with public broadcasting, the balancing act required to appeal to local and national viewers at the same time, the ebb and flow of Austin’s music scene that once led booking agent Mike Mordecai to tell the Austin American-Statesman in 1985 that “there’s not a band on Sixth Street that could have played here 10 years ago.” By then, Austin City Limits had entered the form it would keep for most of the rest of the 20th century: after moving away from simply championing local bands, the show became what Laird describes as “less like a megaphone and more like a satellite,” an outpost where Austin up-and-comers mingled with regional and national stars of country, Americana, and roots music, as well as the occasional out-of-genre appearance from undeniable guests (from B.B. King and Ray Charles to Tom Waits). Viewed from the outside, the success of Austin City Limits can seemingly be boiled down to steady leadership figuring out what can change and what can’t and then sticking to that. For ACL, the things that can’t change are, roughly, authenticity and intimacy. As long as the show continues to uphold its commitment to unfiltered, unpretentious performances that bring the energy of an Austin music venue to communities across America, then everything else (venues, featured genres, staging decisions) has room to adjust. The Rise of Austin City Limits (The Festival) At the turn of the millennium, Austin City Limits had solidified its position in American musical heritage. However, its future still hinged on capturing the attention of future fans with a product destined to remain low-key. Thus, as the Austin American-Statesman noted in 2002, the show’s home station (now called KLRU) commissioned a “Future of Austin City Limits” committee to help steer the show into the 21st century. That committee’s most famous decision, led by co-promoters Charlie Jones (of Capital Sports & Entertainment) and Charles Attal (of Charles Attal Presents), sounded like yet another foolproof formula: an outdoor music festival held in the fall to bookend SXSW and inspired by its namesake show along with the venerable New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, booked as a showcase of local and regional acts that fit at both the heart and the edges of ACL’s usual sounds. After earning the blessing of Lickona (who was brought on board as a booking consultant) and the city, the inaugural ACL was a go. Though the festival’s staggering outdoor scope made the kind of intimacy offered by the typical Austin City Limits set impossible, the fest came with its own kind of coziness. Unlike its contemporaries Bonnaroo and Coachella, ACL eschewed the trend of then-new festivals locating themselves in the middle of nowhere, instead following the lead of civic fests like Seattle’s Bumbershoot and Milwaukee’s Summerfest and their locations situated within living urban spaces. Zilker Park got what writer Michael Corcoran described as “a co-headlining credit,” one that brought concertgoers into the community rather than just the festival grounds, and its close proximity to Austin’s famous music clubs made the possibility of late-night after-shows an easily realizable dream. The festival also earned high marks for authenticity. At the first few editions of ACL, it was always easy to tell you were in Austin. Those early lineups were anchored by multiple generations of the city’s performers, as well as other big-time acts in the Texas tradition; in those days, you could expect to catch a legacy act that could’ve appeared on Austin City Limits’ inaugural season (or, in the case of Asleep at the Wheel, did), country showmen in their prime (Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, Robert Earl Keen), or next-gen talents from the Lone Star State’s indie ranks (Spoon, The Black Angels, Old 97s, among many, many others). The festival knew its audience; as co-founder Jones put it on the eve of the inaugural fest, “certain acts are just not going to fly under [the Austin City Limits] banner.” The early success of ACL set Attal and Jones on the path to becoming festival magnates (they would eventually help Perry Farrell resurrect Lollapalooza in Chicago in 2005) and helped Austin City Limits cement its name in the minds of a new generation. Tracey Laird traces the highest point of those early days to the festival’s fifth edition in 2006, where a headlining spot by Willie Nelson passed the torch and “a three-decades-wide musical circle closed.” During a triumphant headlining set, Nelson opened with the same song (“Whiskey River”) that night as he had 32 years prior on the pilot episode of Austin City Limits in 1974. It was a moment that gave the festival, and the show, symbolic license to continue evolving while still keeping its twin commitments to authenticity and intimacy. Since then, there have been other, less symbolic changes; in 2012, the festival joined Coachella in expanding to two weekends, and in 2014, its parent company, C3 Presents, sold a controlling interest to corporate concert behemoth LiveNation. The 2006 edition of the festival was also the last to boast a lineup featuring Texas artists in a third or more of the slots; after hitting 36% that year, the fest’s local content dwindled, dropping into the low teens by the beginning of the ’10s. Taken together, you might expect those factors to irrevocably alter the festival’s makeup, but it hasn’t totally played out like that. Despite growing to encompass three times the days of the inaugural fest, ACL has never outgrown the civic intimacy of Zilker Park. While the “rave DJ or gangsta rapper” feared by the Austin American-Statesman in 2002 eventually came in one form or another (starting with Bassnectar in 2009 and advancing more aggressively with the arrival of EDM in 2011), the weight of the Austin City Limits legacy also prevented the festival from ever straying too far from its roots in the local music scene. This stubborn connection also had the effect of preserving ACL’s identity at a time when other big festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza are struggling to settle on a satisfying redefinition. Even this year, when the festival’s top line might leave it resembling nothing more than Lolla South, the underlying numbers are good; by my rough math, 21% of the performers at ACL have musical roots in Texas. By comparison, this year’s Lollapalooza sourced only 7% of its artists from Illinois. It’s not what it was in 2002, but it’s also not bad. You can also trace a line from the festival’s broadening interests to the latter-day diversity of the television series. After more than a quarter-century of focus on a narrow but deep pool of sounds, Austin City Limits’ booking philosophy has grown to mirror that of the festival it inspired; in the early-to-mid-aughts, that meant a shift away from established country songwriters and towards indie rockers from Rilo Kiley to the reunited Pixies, while later, it foretold an eclecticism that widened to include everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Sam Smith to the aforementioned Kendrick Lamar. In addition to befitting the show’s natural evolution from local upstart to internationally respected tastemaker, this diversity also benefits the artists involved, giving them a rare opportunity to stretch their legs in a smaller room where the focus is more on craft than it is on spectacle. Those are big changes. Big, but not foundational, not threatening to the hard work that’s come before. There will be more to come. Austin will continue to warp. The city that welcomes music fans this weekend will not be the same one that does so next year or the year after that. However, amidst all that upheaval, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to count on this: for a little while every October, whether in Zilker Park or in front of a television screen, you’ll catch a whiff of the weirdo Austin tradition kicked off by that Willie Nelson concert all those years ago and the unspooling strains of music that followed on after. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to count on Austin City Limits and the shared belief that sometimes, even if it’s only for an hour or so, music’s the only kind of anchor that anybody needs. Source

This one’s been a long time coming, with the plethora of amazingly shot and produced dance music based films it seems only necessary that we compile a short list of the ones you have to watch either because they’re disgustingly bad, or like slightly better than terrible. This is a short list because we’re not about to force you into watching many of these, heck you don’t have to watch any of them to be honest. Just read the bloody list. The Good: It’s All Gone Pete Tong (2004) Probably our favourite of the lot, ‘It’s All Gone Pete Tong’ is a bit of a dark comedy about a DJ at the top of their game who loses his hearing and as such struggles to exist as a professional DJ. It’s widely regarded as one of the better dance music movies. This has a couple of laughs and a bit of sadness, but is ultimately a bit of a fun one that lets you laugh at the exaggerated DJ culture of the time. Berlin Calling (2008) Berlin Calling follows a DJ who has a mental breakdown at the peak of his career. It’s another dark comedy, but does well to highlight the scene at the time which is pretty neat! It gets a bit intense at times, but is definitely worth a watch! The Bad: XOXO (2017) I’m not going to lie to you all, I’ve personally watched this all the way through. I couldn’t tell you why I did that, but I can tell you that it sucks. Following a young fezzie girl and a young producer who are fated to meet at this huge festival XOXO. It’s full of corny cliche and low-key ruins a somewhat cool raver/festival movement that had been happening around the time. I don’t suggest anyone to ever watch this. Kevin And Perry Go Large (2000) Alright, let’s be real this one isn’t good because it’s good, it’s good because it’s so bad you can’t help but love it. It follows some ’15 year old’ sex crazed kids who go to Ibiza to try and get laid and progress their music careers. Known for the classic line “YOU ARE NOT MY MATE AND YOU ARE NOT MY FELLOW DEE-JAY” a real climactic part of the movie that become a meme. Probably worth a check just so you can get the context of that iconic line. The Somewhere In-Between: We Are Your Friends (2015) This one is not as bad as it sounds. It’s about a (you guessed) young producer and DJ trying to make it in the music industry against the odds. Yes it stars Zac Effron, and yes it’s a little corny, but it’s not about 15 year olds so that’s a win in my book. There’s a bit of adult drama in it and a bit of somewhat relatable DJ life which is why it slides into the ‘Somewhere In-Between’ category. Ibiza (2018) This one’s another one of those, ‘not as bad as it seems’ ones. So take it with a grain of salt, have a bit of a laugh, realise that it’s just Hollywood being dumb. It follows some girls trying to seek out a hot DJ in Spain and well it’s a bit of dumb fun and nothing more. So there are some movies if you’re feeling bored and like a laugh on a Friday night Source

Today marks the release of Wanderer, the new album from Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power. Stream it in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. Wanderer serves as the musician’s tenth overall and first since 2012’s stellar Sun. The 11-track effort chronicles “my journey so far,” according to the Marshall. “The course my life has taken in this journey – going from town to town, with my guitar, telling my tale; with reverence to the people who did this generations before me. Folk singers, blues singers, and everything in between.” (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2018) Writing sessions for the LP took place in Miami and Los Angeles over the course of the last few years, and feature contributions from Marhall’s “longtime friends and compatriots.” One of those is the one and only Lana Del Rey, who guests on “Woman”. Another early preview of the album was her cover of the Rihanna hit “Stay”, which we crowned as one of our favorite songs of the week. In her glowing review of the album, Consequence of Sound’s own Katie Moulton wrote: “Wanderer is neither as harrowing as Moon Pix nor as kaleidoscopic as Sun, but it shows a mature artist who rides the waves of tumultuous experience — no less excellent for containing her multitudes.” To support Wanderer, Marshall has planned out a busy tour schedule, which includes a US run at the end of the year. Find her full itinerary here, then grab tickets here. Wanderer Artwork: Wanderer Tracklist: 01. Wanderer 02. In Your Face 03. You Get 04. Woman (feat. Lana Del Rey) 05. Horizon 06. Stay 07. Black 08. Robbin Hood 09. Nothing Really Matters 10. Me Voy 11. Wanderer / Exit Source

Former Journey singer Steve Perry has returned at long last to reclaim the rock ‘n’ roll throne with his first studio album in 24 years. Titled Traces, the long-awaited follow-up to 1994’s For the Love of Strange Medicine, has dropped and you can stream it in full via Apple Music and Spotify below. Co-produced alongside Thom Flowers, Traces collects nine original new tracks in addition to a cover of The Beatles’ “I Need You”. Perry has previously stated the album was inspired by the death of his girlfriend in 2013: “I met someone and I fell in love with this person, and I lost this person to breast cancer four years ago. In the midst of that, I had written some songs, and before I met her I had sketched some. And so about a year ago, I started recording.” In a press release for Traces, Perry further digresses on the emotionalism of the album, admitting: “Putting 30 years into 10 songs has certainly been an emotional experience for me. I started writing and recording these songs with the creative freedom that I was the only one who would ever hear them. Along the way, I rediscovered my love for music. Each track represents traces of my past, but is also a hopeful look into the future. I invite you to listen with an open heart.” Much of this comeback can be attributed to Mark Oliver Everett of Eels, who encouraged Perry to returned to the stage in 2014 after being absent for nearly 20 years. In 2017, he reunited with Journey for the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but opted against joining his former bandmates on stage. Traces Artwork: Traces Tracklist: 01. No Erasin’ 02. We’re Still Here 03. Most of All 04. No More Cryin’ 05. In the Rain 06. Sun Shines Gray 07. You Belong to Me 08. Easy to Love 09. I Need You 10. We Fly Source