Ross “The Boss” Friedman, known for playing guitar in the Dictators and Manowar, has died. He passed away yesterday after a battle with ALS. He was 72.

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Last night, Hayley Williams kicked off her first-ever solo tour after her 2020 run for Petals For Armor was canceled because of the pandemic. At the Tabernacle in Atlanta, the singer-songwriter performed all of her latest record Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party, giving live debuts to most of the tracks. Her live band includes Paramore touring members Brian Robert Jones (guitar) and Joey Howard (bass).

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Like many bands of yesteryear, the Scottish rockers Big Country, makers of the 1983 hit “In A Big Country,” have splintered into various units on the touring circuit over the years. Also like many of those bands, they’re now fighting about who gets to use the band name.

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Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week. The eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight. You can hear this week’s picks below and on Stereogum’s Favorite New Music Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. (An expanded playlist of our new music picks is available to members on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)

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“Whore & Savior,” the latest single from LA alt-rock musician Forest, is loud, chaotic, and weirdly addictive. My speakers are staging a tiny mechanical meltdown. It’s all screech, physical and feral. But there’s something softer fueling the pummeling sound. “I really drew on experiences of first love, and teenagehood,” Forest shared in a press release. “I wanted…

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Joyce Manor released their fantastic new album I Used To Go To This Bar in January, and they’re out on the road supporting it right now. The Torrance trio will be pushing back their next two shows, though, due to a vocal cord tear for frontman Barry Johnson. Last night the band postponed their show at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall, and tonight they won’t be appearing as scheduled at Detroit’s Majestic Theatre. Those shows have been rescheduled for April 23 (Detroit) and April 24 (Toronto) at the start of the next leg of the tour. Johnson hopes to be ready to perform again by Saturday’s show at the Salt Shed in Chicago, the last show of the current stretch.

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Veteran singer-songwriter Ashley Monroe has had a long, checkered run in the Nashville country music business. She’s had a lot of success, partly as one third of Miranda Lambert’s great side project Pistol Annies, but she’s also bounced around from label to label, making her own deep and heartfelt music while singing backup on records…

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Sometimes a house is more than just a structure. It is a place that holds our desires and taste and the things that we love. It’s both physical space and a dream. Empress Of returns with a silky new single that captures such a building’s many layers. It’s a synth-pop balm where Lorely Rodriguez’ vocals…

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Ryan Graham plays guitar in the Albany pop-punk band State Champs and in the LA-based all-star side project Pile Of Love, and he also puts out solo music under the name Speak Low. Earlier this week, he shared the new single “One Good Look,” a spindly acoustic song about the kind of unspoken distance that can creep into a relationship. In the Guadalupe Bustos-directed video, Graham shaves his head on camera. Check it out below.

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