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.
In April, Blondie drummer Clem Burke passed away at age 70 after a private battle with cancer. The legendary band was already slated to release a new album this year, and now they’ve revealed it’ll be coming out in the last quarter of 2025.
Last month Daniel Caesar was one of many guests on the sprawling Blood Orange single “The Field,” and more recently he had production credits on Justin Bieber’s SWAG. Now the Toronto R&B singer-songwriter is teasing his own new album called Son Of Spergy, which features Bon Iver, Clairo, Dev Hynes, Sampha, and more.
The Belgian EDM festival Tomorrowland was off to a horrific start when the main stage burned down the day before the event was supposed to begin. However, Metallica have come to the rescue by offering the stage from their M72 World Tour.
Katy Perry’s Lifetimes Tour has been a nightmare. A few weeks ago the singer got trapped inside a malfunctioning metal sphere at a show in Australia. Last night she nearly fell off a malfunctioning butterfly prop as she soared above the crowd in San Francisco.
