Tag: "the smiths"

Will it be five songs from Full Moon Fever, several selections off the Greatest Hits, and the singles from the last four records?: Oh, I kid. America’s subjectively greatest rock band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have announced a pair of “intimate” residencies at New York’s Beacon Teater and LA’s Fonda Theater. “There’s no telling what we’ll do,” Petty says.

Smiths and Stones: Last night at the NME Awards in London, Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones got up with ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to perform the latter’s classic “How Soon Is Now?” It was weird and good.

Yorke’s gotta dance: In the new video for Atoms For Peace‘s “Ingenue,” Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke busts out with some moves that put his performance in the “Lotus Flower” video to shame. It is also weird and good. Atoms For Peace is made up of Yorke, Nigel Godrich, Flea, Joey Waronker, and Mauro Refosco.

Johnny Marr has been involved in more than a handful of projects since parting ways with his brethren in The Smiths, but it has taken until 2013 for him to prepare a proper solo effort.

Scheduled for release next week, The Messenger showcases the wide variety of pop-ready hooks and post-punk guitars. It’s the culmination of a lifetime spent redefining what music means to countless people, and the lessons learned along the way. Rolling Stone has the official album premiere beginning today, so click here to stream the album in advance of its shelf date. If you need more convincing, click below to enjoy one of the album’s lead singles. Continue reading ‘Stream Johnny Marr’s new album, ‘The Messenger’’

There’s nothing better than the feeling of crawling into bed after a long night out. The way your body sinks into the mattress, and your pillow feels like a cloud of comfort beyond the capability of man to devise. So next time you fall into bed with heavy eyelids, keep this playlist in mind. Comprised of soft tunes to lull you into dreamland, it won’t be long before you’re catching some well deserved Z’s.

More like this:

• Soundtrax: Nighttime Driving
• Soundtrax: Songs For Early Winter

On the eve of resuming his previously postponed tour dates, Morrissey made a quick stop on the Late Show With David Letterman to perform a new song called “Action Is My Middle Name.” While it’s a far cry from the days of The Smiths, Morrissey has built a new and powerful persona over the years, reinventing himself as a different kind of torch singer, without relinquishing his unique and beautiful brand of pathos. His performance here is nothing short of alluring, as he belts his way through three and a half revitalized minutes of top-shelf melody, songcraft, and showmanship. You can view the video after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Morrissey Performs “Action Is My Middle Name” On ‘Letterman’’

After cancelling previous dates, it looks like Morrissey will be heading out on a US tour this January through March, beginning in Greenvale, NY. Among the tour’s stops will be Minneapolis, Atlanta, and a special Los Angeles show which will include performances by Patti Smith.

Check out all the dates after the jump. Will you be hitting one of Morrissey’s shows? Continue reading ‘Morrissey Announces 2013 Tour Dates’

Stephen Colbert isn’t exactly known for his subtleties, so it came as a bit of a shock when Morrissey agreed to not only perform on the The Colbert Report, but also sit down for a short interview. Hardly cracking a smile the entire time, Morrissey and Colbert battle it out for one of the more awkward five minute interviews I’ve seen, before Morrissey goes on to perform the fairly new and unreleased “People Are the Same Everywhere,” along with 2009’s “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris.”

You can watch Morrissey and Colbert’s banter on vegetarianism, royalty, and why The Smiths aren’t getting back together, along with both performances right here.

If you like Morrissey check out OurStage artist NRWO.

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• Watch Morrissey Perform On Jimmy Fallon
• Musicians And Their Controversial Politicking

Morrissey and his spokesperson have been undergoing some major rumor battling lately. The Smiths are reuniting, they aren’t reuniting….but maybe they are!

They definitely aren’t, and after helping squash those rumors into the ground, Morrissey found time to perform two songs on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

View a performance of  “You Have Killed Me” along with a cover of Frankie Valli’s “To Give (The Reason I Live)” here and catch Morrissey on tour this month. Continue reading ‘Watch Morrissey Perform On Jimmy Fallon’

Gays and lesbians have come a long way in entertainment since the days when George Michael had to have faith and pretend to want a woman in the “Father Figure” video to sell millions of albums. Although there’s no telling whether Queen would have been as successful in the ’70s and early ’80s had Freddie Mercury definitively outed himself as a lower-case queen, for the most part, today’s closeted male superstars don’t have to wait until they are about to succumb to an AIDS-related illness to publicly acknowledge their sexuality (like Rock Hudson did)—or not (like Liberace and, well, Mercury).

That doesn’t mean coming out of the closet still won’t have a negative effect on the bankability of gay music stars. This is why most of them still choose to wait until they don’t have too much to lose. Elton John, Ricky Martin, Clay Aiken, Savage Garden’s Darren Hayes and Michael all did it after their blockbuster days were over.

Though Hayes continues to release solo records that earn critical raves, it’s been years since he was A-list on the charts. John is a superstar for life, but his most notable post-coming out success (the 33 million-selling worldwide No. 1 single “Candle in the Wind ’97″) was with a song he sang to a dearly departed princess. How gay! Rufus Wainwright, despite critical plaudits, has never had gold album in the US.

Then there is Adam Lambert, the perfect example of how to be an out and gay pop star. He has a vociferous fan base, but his commercial performance isn’t commensurate with his level of fan devotion. He should be selling as many singles as Justin Bieber, but his last one, “Better Than I Know Myself,” was a chart dud (No. 76 on Billboard’s Hot 100), resulting in Trespassing, his sophomore album, being pushed back from March to a May 15 release date. Do we blame it on a weak single, or a pop constituency that’s still skittish about fully embracing a proudly out singer? Continue reading ‘Sound and Vision: Wanted: An Out and Proud Gay Or Lesbian Chart Phenomenon!’

A US Presidential election, Summer Olympics mania (London’s calling—again!), Rihanna’s film debut (in Battleship, out May 18) and the possible end of the world. Those are a few of the things I won’t be looking forward to in the coming year. Fortunately, music will offer enough thrills to distract us from all that we’d rather forget. Here’s what’s topping my 2012 anticipation list:

1. Madonna makes fiftysomething fabulous all over again. Although I’m curious to hear what Madonna does with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. on the final cut of “Gimme All Your Luvin’” when the single is released the last week of January, that’s not the main reason I’m excited about her upcoming twelfth studio album (due in late March), her first since turning fifty in 2008.  “Masterpiece,” a new song featured in the Madonna-directed W.E. (which goes into wide release on February 3, two days before her Super Bowl XLVI performance) and her reunion with her Ray of Light producer William Orbit, is an achingly beautiful ballad that recalls the best of ’90s Madonna while gently proving that she can still create pop magic all on her own.

2. Madonna vs. Elton John vs. Mary J. Blige vs. Chris Cornell vs. Glenn Close (!) at the Golden Globes. Too bad the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has disqualified Madonna’s “Masterpiece” from competition at the February 27 Oscars. Why? Because it’s the second song featured during the closing credits, and eligible songs must either be in the body of the film, or the tune that plays when the credits start to roll. Oscar’s loss. The January 15 Golden Globes showdown featuring five monsters of pop, rock and soul and acting will be just as star-studded—and as tough to call—as George Clooney vs. Brad Pitt vs. Leonardo DiCaprio vs. Ryan Gosling in Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.

Continue reading ‘Sound And Vision: 10 Things to Look Forward to in 2012 (Featuring Soundgarden, the Stone Roses and Freddie Mercury — Alive Again!)’

The holiday season is supposed to appeal to all of our finer instincts as sentient earthlings —at least that’s the idea that’s been inculcated in us practically since birth. So why is its annual arrival commonly greeted with the kind of dull-eyed existential dread otherwise reserved for tax audits, traffic court and other such frivolities? Maybe it’s because of the stress that comes along with finding just the right gifts for all the loved ones on our lists. After all, some folks are a snap—another Xbox game, Scotch bottle or sweater, and they’re set—but everyone’s holiday shopping list always contains at least one or two of the type we’ll term “The Difficult Ones.” Their tastes are micro-specific, and they usually seem to want nothing, already have everything or both. With that in mind, in the interest of sucking some of the stress out of the season, here are a few humble holiday gift suggestions for “The Difficult Ones” in your own life, conveniently organized by personality type.

The Classic Rockers

Jimi Hendrix – Winterland

Do you have a dude in your life—and in this context, “dude” couldn’t be a more appropriate designation—whose idea of extreme sports is playing air guitar to Bachman-Turner Overdrive while pedaling his exercise bike? Someone whose TV remote has somehow been programmed to never depart from the VH1 Classic channel? He may already have every classic-rock reissue, remaster and repackaging you could conceive of, but he hasn’t gotten around to this one yet—five live discs featuring Jimi Hendrix in his prime at the legendary Winterland Ballroom. Iit’ll send any card-carrying Classic Rocker into a state of six-string ecstasy.

Continue reading ‘Riffs, Rants & Rumors: Rockin’ Holiday Gift Guide’