A fire during a nightclub show in Kocani, North Macedonia killed 59 people early Sunday morning, the AP reports. Video footage shows sparklers from the stage hitting the ceiling, resulting a blaze that caused a portion of the one-story club’s roof to collapse.
Denis Leary doesn’t like R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People.” He proclaimed as much way back in 1992, the year after the Out Of Time single came out, when he did an MTV spot based on his standup routine poking fun at the state of rock ‘n’ roll. “R.E.M. ‘Shiiiiiny haaaaapy people’… hey, hey, hey, pull that bus over to the side of the Pretentiousness Turnpike…,” the comedian seethed in the promo. “I got two words for Michael Stipe: Steve. Tyler.” That sounds a bit harsh, but even Stipe has expressed some mixed feelings about the polarizing bubblegum hit, which featured the B-52s’ Kate Pierson, got R.E.M. invited to Sesame Street, and reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. The R.E.M. frontman told Space Ghost “I hate that song” back in 1995 and explained to The Quietus in 2011 that “it’s just a little bit embarrassing that it became as big a hit as it did.”
Rolling Loud California is currently underway. Headliner A$AP Rocky performed Saturday night, and he made quite a spectacle out of it, rapping from a helicopter with the words “Don’t Be Dumb” on it — the name of his long-delayed new album — before being lowered onto the stage. He did some new songs too.
You’ve no doubt heard about Gelo by now. He’s a Chino Hills, CA rapper whose real name is LiAngelo Ball. His brothers, Lonzo Ball and LaMelo Ball, are starting point guards in the NBA. “Ball” is their real last name. That’s incredible. Anyway, Gelo didn’t get quite as lucky in the hoops department, but that’s OK because his January debut single “Tweaker” went viral and landed him a massive record deal with Def Jam. In the weeks since, he’s teamed up with Lil Wayne and GloRilla. And over the weekend, he did his first-ever proper gig in front of a big-ass crowd at Rolling Loud California, where he also performed a couple of unreleased songs.
Shudder To Think, the great D.C. alt-rock band whose first few albums arrived via Dischord Records, have made a couple of brief reunions since they initially disbanded in 1998. One of those brief reunions just so happened to occur on Saturday, when they played two gigs at Los Angeles’ Permanent Records Roadhouse. It was their first show since 2013.
San Francisco’s Badvril were the first shoegaze band to play a federal prison, at least according to their TikTok. The group has been releasing loud, dreamy tunes since 2023, and on Friday (March 14) they shared their debut album In Heaven.
Earlier this month, Puddle Of Mudd frontman Wes Scantlin made headlines for giving a disastrous performance and then claiming he was roofied by his bandmate. Today, TMZ is reporting that the singer was arrested for domestic violence on Tuesday (March 11).
SXSW is going down in Austin. On Thursday (March 13), Julien Baker and Torres — who have a collaborative album called Send A Prayer My Way arriving soon — are having fun. On Thursday (March 13), the pair covered Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” at Willie Nelson’s ranch’s SXSW-adjacent Luck Reunion. There, they also debuted the unreleased LP track “Showdown.”
Last month, That Mexican OT was honored by his Texas hometown of Bay City. The mayor declared the rapper’s birthday, Feb. 2, will officially be known as “That Mexican OT Day.” Now, he’s back with a new song called “Check Please.”
In January, Marianne Faithfull tragically passed away at age 78. On Friday (March 14), the singer and actress’ former label Decca announced a posthumous four-track EP titled Burning Moonlight arriving in June.