Bill Orcutt’s urgent, improvisational guitar music radiates inexplicability. Initially inspired by the blues, the Miami-born, San Francisco-based artist rose to cult legend status as a member of the noisy, experimental punk band Harry Pussy in the 1990s. After that act dissolved in 1997, following Orcutt’s divorce with romantic and creative partner Adris Hoyos, he moved to the Bay Area and shifted focus to filmmaking. Orcutt returned to music towards the end of the 2000s, rolling out dozens of confrontational instrumental solo records and collaborations at a steady clip, in addition to running the groundbreaking label Palilalia Records. He also designed the software Cracked, a live coding program that yields glitchy electronic textures. Across partnerships with the likes of Chris Corsano, Circuit des Yeux, and Okkyung Lee, Orcutt has emphasized an ability to straddle provocation and surrealism — his output is typically aurally demanding, while always evoking the beautiful chaos of flower petals blowing in spring wind.

Jack Black has broken a record. A Minecraft Movie came out earlier this month, and its soundtrack features a 34-second song called “Steve’s Lava Chicken.” That is now the shortest song to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100, closely followed by Kid Cudi’s 37-second “Beautiful Trip.”

Last week, Kneecap said that they’ve been facing a “coordinated smear campaign” since their advocacy for Palestine during their Coachella set to bring awareness to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The UK government has now condemned the Northern Irish rap trio, and today Kneecap made a statement in response.

Cameron Winter is offering salvation. The Geese frontman stole indie rock fans’ hearts with his idiosyncratic solo debut Heavy Metal in December, garnering praise from Nick Cave and performing on Kimmel in the meantime. Now he’s back with “LSD.”

The #3 single in America, slowly climbing out of the looming shadows of “Die With A Smile” and the still-charting “Pink Pony Club,” is a pop-rock song called “Ordinary.” The track sounds instantly familiar: a towering edifice of sound with multitracked, devotional-coded vocals in a perpetual rousing chorus, lyrics that equate the wife-guy lifestyle to breathless religious surrender, and a voice that projects more gravitas than the fratty-looking zoomer that’s intoning it. It pointedly aspires to couples dances and wedding tributes — there’s a separate “Wedding Version,” for the besotted among you.

Following a string of some promising new singles, Haim are celebrating the June release of their forthcoming album I quit by… going to work. They’ve announced a big run of 2025 tour dates today that’ll kick off in the spring and go through October, primarily in North America and the UK. They also have some previously announced festival appearances at Primavera Sound in Spain and Portugal and Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Dora Jar will be supporting some of their headlining shows in the US.

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has unveiled its latest class of inductees, again on an episode of American Idol. (Hall Of Famer James Taylor was the show’s guest judge tonight.) Seven artists are heading into the Hall as performers in 2025, and four of them are first-time nominees: Outkast, Chubby Checker, Bad Company, and Joe Cocker. Three past nominees also make the cut this year: The White Stripes, Soundgarden, and Cyndi Lauper.

Neil Young, who has been incredibly busy with his new band the Chrome Hearts as of late, is gearing up for a big world tour this year. But first, he played at the Autism Speaks Light Up The Blues 7 Concert at LA’s Greek Theatre on Saturday. Sticking to his recent habit of dusting off deep cuts he hadn’t performed live in decades, he played “Ordinary People” for the first time since 1989.

Eleven people died and 20 more were injured on Saturday after a someone drove an SUV through a crowd at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day Block Party. The incident occurred around 8 p.m., after Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.de.Ap had finished his headlining DJ set and organizers were beginning to take down equipment. The festival, celebrating Filipino-Canadian culture and named after the revolutionary Indigenous leader, drew a crowd of up to 100,000 at its peak time, with hundreds of attendees still present when the tragedy happened.