Author: Lauren Leadingham

A couple days ago, a Change.org petition was created urging Mike Love’s Beach Boys to drop out of the concert scheduled at the Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada on February 5th. The organization encourages trophy hunting for endangered species. Donald Trump Jr. will be its keynote speaker. Brian Wilson himself has taken to social media in support of this this, hoping that others will join him in signing a petition addressed to Elliott Lott, the Beach Boys’ manager. The petition states: “We the undersigned pledge to stop buying or downloading all Beach Boys music, going to Beach Boys concerts,…

Ivan Král, a former member of Patti Smith Group, has passed away at the age of 71. He died at his home in Michigan on Sunday, following a battle with cancer.  The Czech guitarist and producer played with Blondie in 1974, just before teaming up with Patti Smith Group as a founding member. He wrote for and played guitar/bass on some of Patti Smith’s most influential albums: Horses from 1975, Radio Ethiopia from 1976, and Easter from 1978. Ivan filmed a documentary on the New York punk scene with Amos Poe called The Blank Generation, and he also wrote songs performed by…

Poguetry will embark on a tour in the U.S. starting at the end of February and ending in the middle of March

The Strokes have added a trio of North American tour dates ahead of their South American and European festival slots. They will be headed to Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 5th; Seattle on March 9th; and Los Angeles on March 14th on this short run. However, you can catch them in Miami at Mana Wynwood on May 1st. General tickets for the L.A. show go on sale Friday, January 31st at 10 a.m. PT, and the Seattle and Vancouver dates follow at noon PT. Citi card members can access a pre-sale for Seattle and L.A. “Surprise. 2020 here we come. We…

Elvis Costello earned his second GRAMMY win last night at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. Elvis & The Imposters have won the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category for his thirtieth studio album, Look Now (Concord Records), the latest with longtime band The Imposters. The nomination of this album was Costello’s fifteenth to date. His first GRAMMY win was in 1998 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “I Still Have That Other Girl,” a duet with Burt Bacharach. The singer-songwriter nonpareil did not know Look Now had been entered into the category until he got the nomination. Costello is among a class…

Pearl Jam have returned! And they’ve announced a North American tour in support of their new album, Gigaton, slated for a March 27th release via their own Monkeywrench Records. Gigaton is the band’s 11th studio album and their first in seven years. “Making this record was a long journey. It was emotionally dark and confusing at times, but also an exciting and experimental road map to musical redemption. Collaborating with my bandmates on Gigaton ultimately gave me greater love, awareness and knowledge of the need for human connection in these times,” lead guitarist Mike McCready said in a statement.…

Roger Waters has announced his summer tour dates for a North American tour he aptly designates This Is Not a Drill. This comes just over a year after his Us + Them Tour, which garnered rave reviews. The former Pink Floyd co-founder will commence This Is Not a Drill, an “all-new show,” in Pittsburgh on July 8th; he’ll trek west then central before ending in Dallas on October 3rd. “As the clock ticks faster and faster and faster down to extinction, it seemed like a good thing to make a fuss about it, so that’s why I’m going on the…

Sam Cooke, the King of Soul, would have turned 89 today. Accordingly, on January 24th, ABKCO Music & Records will launch a yearlong campaign leading up to the 90th anniversary of his birth with the release of The Complete Keen Years (1957 – 1960) CD Box Set. ABKCO announces a series of eight vinyl editions, including several Tracey Limited titles back in print restored with the original artwork. This box set anthologizes Cooke’s body of work during the years he spent with John and Alex Siamas’s Keen label from 1957 to 1960. Sam had seen great success as a gospel…

For some of us, including myself, the nostalgia of the ‘90s will live on forever. One of the bands that rouse my sentiment for the decade is Spin Doctors. The 1991 album Pocket Full of Kryptonite was paradigmatic of just how musically dynamic the ‘90s could be. The Spins’ melange of pop hooks, funk, neo-hippie jam, rock, and blues, turned the alternative world on its ear. And I know my ears still perk up at the intro drum fill of “Two Princes” every time, like clockwork.  The girl in me, with sloppy braids daydreaming out the car window to a Pocket…

“It was so beautiful it went up in flames,” Robbie Robertson says of the Band’s story. From executive producers Martin Scorsese, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard and director Daniel Roher is the latest Band documentary, which touches extensively on Robertson’s own journey. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band comes to theaters on February 21. Also interviewed are Robertson’s collaborators and friends: Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Scorsese himself, and others. “Once Were Brothers” refers to a song on Robbie’s sixth solo album, Sinematic, which features Citizen Cope and Frederic Yonnet. Magnolia Pictures trailer: https://youtu.be/ZYTpMZjZxwI