A couple of weeks ago Deftones announced that they’d be releasing their 10th studio album private music next month. The alt-metal icons have already mapped out a big arena tour for the album’s release, and today they’ve officially added one more to their schedule: Their sixth annual Día De Los Deftones, returning to San Diego’s Petco Park on Nov. 1.
In 2006, only two years before he died, Isaac Hayes quit South Park over an episode called “Trapped In The Closet,” which criticized Scientology. Now his son, Isaac Hayes III, is setting the record straight about his dad’s departure from the show, claiming he was pressured by fellow Scientologists to leave.
The Who’s Roger Daltrey is down on his knees. No, seriously. Last night, the Who played their first show of their “The Song Is Over” farewell tour at Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola Sul Brenta, Italy. The group played a 20-song set. Towards the end, according to setlist.fm, Daltrey knelt while singing “See Me, Feel Me” due to leg cramps.
We’re in the middle of the dog days. As brutal heatwaves and endless thunderstorms alternate their grip on our throats, we keep pressing play on track after track, hoping what comes from the speakers justifies the sweat pouring off our bodies. Debate rages on social media about the “Song Of The Summer”: Who’s made it? Who needs to make it? Does it even exist? When the country had a more unified pop culture that revolved around radio countdowns and 5 o’clock traffic jams, the answers to those questions came more easily. Decisions were made for us. Now, in the fractured attention span landscape, too many bangers appear for us to process adequately. Perhaps we’ve moved on from needing an anthem for the season. It stays warmer later in the year, after all.
Earlier this year Billy Joel canceled all of his upcoming concerts after being diagnosed with a brain condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus. That’s certainly some worrying news, but we’ve had a few nuggets of hope in the meantime: Last month Howard Stern said on his SiriusXM show that Joel was doing pretty well when they had dinner together recently, and on a new episode of — sigh — Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast filmed at Joel’s home, Joel said he feels “fine,” though his “balance sucks.”
Last month Titanic, the experimental duo of Mabe Fratti and Héctor Tosta (aka I. la Católica), announced their new album Hagen and shared its lead single “Gotera,” which ruled. They’ve followed it up today with another advance track, “La dueña.” The song is a swooning traditional ballad steeped in melodrama, but with chaos breaking out around the edges. It’s a bit less abrasive than Titanic’s prior single but no less dynamic.
In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.
July has been a big month for megastars dropping albums on incredibly short notice. Just two days after announcing it at the final show of his four-night stand in NYC, Tyler, The Creator’s new album Don’t Tap The Glass has arrived.
Turns out Gerard Way does a pretty good Billy Corgan impression. My Chemical Romance just kicked off a stadium tour celebrating the imminent 20th anniversary of their emo-pop classic The Black Parade, where they’ll be playing the album in full each night. But they play a few extra non-Black Parade songs, too, and last night at San Francisco’s Oracle Park, they did a cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 single “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” It’s the first time MCR have covered that song, but now I’m wondering if it inspired the title of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. They kind of nailed it?
Dirt Buyer, the kinda-emo, kinda-folk project of Joe Sutkowski, played Knockdown Center in Queens last night. It was a highly stacked bill the onetime Album Of The Week honoree shared with fellow indie rockers Greg Freeman and This Is Lorelei. During Dirt Buyer’s set, Sutkowski did a pretty killer cover of the Goo Goo Dolls’ certified crowd-pleaser “Iris.” (Maybe Demi Lovato gave them the idea.) Watch a clip of that cover below.