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Remember when, during the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone got into little hobbies like baking sourdough or gardening? Well, for gothic punk icon Nick Cave, his Covid escape was, as it turns out, hand-crafted Staffordshire-style ceramic sculptures.

Yes, as strange as it may seem — or may not seem, if you’re up to date with his vibe on the British royal family — Cave has a genuine, “not ironic” passion for making the Victorian Era figurines, and has refined the practice into quite the art form. In 2022, he unveiled a 17-piece series titled “The Devil — A Life,” which is now on display at the Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, Netherlands.

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Speaking about his newfound work as a ceramist in an interview with The Art Newspaper, Cave explained that it came about as “a kind of yearning I had to get back to some sort of visual...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pj Harvey and Devo are among the artists who have contributed unreleased recordings to a new compilation for Los Angeles wildfire relief.

Jarvis Cocker, Primal Scream, Gary Numan, U.S. Girls, Cave’s side project Grinderman and a one-off supergroup led by Flea and John Frusciante also provide tracks to Los Angeles Rising, which was curated by Love & Rockets’ Kevin Haskins and producer Nick Launey, both of whom were forced to evacuate during the wildfires.

“As the wildfires were raging and...

Los Angeles Rising, a new benefit album for victims of the LA wildfires, has been released with contributions from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pj Harvey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Devo, Primal Scream, and more.

Masterminded by Kevin Haskins and producer Nick Launay, all proceeds from the compilation will go to Sweet Relief, which provides financial assistance to career musicians and music industry workers. Purchase it exclusively on Bandcamp.

Featuring 16 previously unreleased songs, some of the compilation’s highlights include a stripped-back cover of “California Dreamin'” by Jarvis Cocker and “Turn Into Redux,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ alternate take on the Show Your Bones cut.

“As the wildfires were raging and destroying thousands of homes around Los Angeles, both my neighborhood and Nick’s were instructed to evacuate. But we were the lucky ones,” Haskins said in a press statement. “The fire threatening our homes and recording studios was thankfully extinguished by firefighters just minutes away,...

Marianne Faithfull, the British singer who scored hits including “As Tears Go By” and “Broken English” as she went from a highly publicized romantic relationship with Mick Jagger to worldwide fame in her own right, died Thursday. She was 78.

Faithfull’s death in London was announced by her family in a statement to the BBC.

Faithfull also appeared in such films as I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967) and The Girl on the Motorcycle (1968) and on the stage in Three Sisters and Hamlet, though her career was curtailed in the 1970s by heroin addiction, alcoholism and homelessness.

She forged a dramatic comeback in 1979 with the album Broken English, which landed her a Grammy nomination for best female rock vocal performance. In 2011, she was awarded the Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s highest cultural honors.

Born on Dec. 29, 1946, in Hampstead, London, Faithfull was the daughter of...

Legendary English singer Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78.

According to a statement from her family, Faithfull “passed away peacefully” on Thursday, January 30th. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

A defining voice of the 1960s, Faithfull first rose to fame with the song “As Tears Go By,” which was written for her by The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She proceeded to release several more hit singles throughout the decade, but her career became largely overshadowed by her tumultuous personal life, which included a high-profile relationship with Jagger and battles with addiction. Several of The Rolling Stones’ songs were apparently inspired by Jagger and Faithfull’s relationship, including “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Wild Horses,” and “Sister Morphine.”

Jagger remembered Faithfull in a statement released shortly after her passing, writing: “She was so much part of my life for so long.

Marianne Faithfull, a pioneering artist who transcended “it girl” status in the Sixties for a stunning second act as a singer-songwriter with great depth, died Thursday at age 78.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” the singer’s rep said in a statement. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family.”

Faithfull became a breakout star in 1964 with her first single, the ballad “As Tears Go By.” The beloved track would be the...

The Bad Sisters have another murder mystery on their hands in Season 2 of the Apple TV+ dark comedy series.

Created by Sharon Horgan and based on Malin-Sarah Gozin’s 2012 series Clan, the murder mystery show returned for another installment following the death of John Paul Williams (Claes Bang), aka “The Prick” at the hands of Grace Garvey (Anne-Marie Duff) while her four sisters had been conspiring to kill him well before it actually went down.

Newcomers to Season 2 include Fiona Shaw, Thaddea Graham and Owen McDonnell and more. Several needle drops mark suspenseful and funny moments in the series, especially in episode 2.

Find the full Bad Sisters Season 2 soundtrack below:

Episode 1 – “Good Sisters”

“Everybody’s Gotta Live” by Love “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story” by Shirley Bassey “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen “Love and Affection” by Joan Armatrading Machine Gun Kelly” by Nancy Sinatra...

While the 2025 Sundance Film Festival is just around the corner, January also brings an opportunity to revisit one of the highlights that made a splash nearly three decades ago, now newly restored. Jim McKay’s feature debut Girls Town, which was written in collaboration with stars Lili Taylor, Bruklin Harris, and Anna Grace, also features an ensemble including Guillermo Diaz, Michael Imperioli, Stephanie Berry, Tom Gilroy, and John Ventimiglia. Newly restored in 4K by nonprofit lab IndieCollect, Film Movement Classics has acquired the film for a North American theatrical release which will begin January 17 at New York City’s IFC Center, followed by a national expansion and digital and home-entertainment debut.

Here’s the synopsis for the film, originally released by October Films: “When high school senior Nikki (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) commits suicide, her shocked friends set in search of the reasons why. Their discovery that Nikki had been raped but...

Courtney Love has shared more details about her upcoming solo album, including its collaborators — both the ones who said yes and the one who, apparently, ghosted her.

As she explained in a new interview with The Standard, Love didn’t “intend” for the album to be so collaborative. She’s choosing to keep most of its contributors close to the vest, but she did confirm Michael Stipe’s involvement. “Stipe mentioned our collaboration to The New York Times, so I can say it’s gorgeous,” Love explained. “I fell down weeping hearing his voice – it’s better than ever! I thought I knew the outcome, but I’m still the grasshopper while Michael is the sensei.”

She also confirmed that that Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant plays on the album. “Will Sergeant, my favorite guitarist on earth, from my favorite band agreed to work with me!,” Love said. “He’s such an icon.

Pj Harvey has offered a stirring cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” for Season 2 of the Apple TV+ original series Bad Sisters.

Recorded with composer Tim Phillips, the cover is Harvey’s latest for Bad Sisters; in addition collaborating on the series’ score, Harvey and Phillips recorded a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire” for Season 1, which also served as the show’s opening theme. They also joined forces for a cover of the traditional folk song “Run On” back in 2022 for the show.

Now, they’ve regrouped for the score of Season 2, which premiered on November 13th. The pair’s rendition of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” features Harvey’s enchanting vocals front and center, kaleidoscopic synths, and a vocoder part that begins to echo the chorus in the song’s final third. “Our version of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ is full...

On Monday 28 October 2024, BBC Two broadcasts Mastermind!

Season 22 Episode 10 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Mastermind” on BBC Two promises to be another exciting round of challenging questions and impressive knowledge. Clive Myrie will guide four new contenders as they take on their specialist subjects and general knowledge in this classic quiz format.

This week, the contenders will dive into a variety of intriguing topics. One contestant will explore the poetry of John Keats, delving into the works of this famous Romantic poet known for his vivid imagery and emotional depth. Another will showcase their expertise on the award-winning musician Pj Harvey, highlighting her contributions to music and her unique style.

The third contender will tackle the history of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, a figure known for his complex reign and significant impact on European history. Finally, the fourth contestant will focus on the films of David Fincher,...

Halsey has been so many different people over the past decade. The teenage pop rebel who spoke for a generation of “New Americana.” The Shakespearean conceptual artist who turned Romeo and Juliet into Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. The world-beating auteur of Manic. The industrial hate machine blasting Nine Inch Nails-produced aggression on If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power. But The Great Impersonator is her rawest, darkest incarnation yet. Halsey stands alone as she turns 30, confessing that she has no idea who she is anymore. As she sings in the opener,...

Halsey is releasing even more of her new record!

The 30-year-old superstar just dropped a new track called “I Never Loved You” on Thursday (October 10), ahead of the release of her forthcoming album The Great Impersonator.

The ’80s-inspired song was written by Halsey, and produced by Frank Ocean collaborator Michael Uzowuru and Miley Cyrus collaborator Tyler Johnson.

The track follows the release of her Top 40 hit “Ego,” and will appear on her forthcoming album, which will be released on October 25.

As a countdown to the album, Halsey revealed she will be impersonating a different icon every day and teasing a snippet of the song they inspired. You can find her impersonations of Dolly Parton, Pj Harvey, Kate Bush and more to come right on her Instagram!

Halsey will also perform in a special Halloween episode for the third season of Amazon Music Live. Get the details!

Head inside to listen now…...

Chvrches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry has shared a new solo single, “Something in the Air.” The musician previewed the anthemic track live last month before debuting it last night on BBC Radio 1.

The pop-rock number sees Mayberry crooning, “You come up with your stories/ conspiracy theories of why we’re all here/ oh, I just want to be someone/ someone who’s happy/ but why do you even care?”

“’Something in the Air’ is a song that really came out of nowhere,” Mayberry explained in a statement. “I was in...

Chvrches vocalist Lauren Mayberry is back with “Something in the Air,” her latest solo single that will appear on her forthcoming debut album Vicious Creature.

With a towering chorus and a bustling drum beat, “Something in the Air” is a cathartic, satisfying turn from Mayberry. A press release notes that in addition to ’90s icons Tori Amos, Pj Harvey, and Kathleen Hanna, Mayberry was also inspired by ’90s girl groups like All Saints and Sugababes for her solo album — “Something in the Air,” with its Britpop-adjecent arrangement, definitely feels aligned with the kind of open-hearted majesty that those girl groups boasted.

Meanwhile, Mayberry describes her frustration with conspiracy theories, rigid belief systems, and having a lack of control over the existential knowledge we crave. “You come up with your stories/ Conspiracy theories of why we’re all here/ Oh, I just want to be someone/ Someone who’s happy/ But why do you even care?...

Dozens of characters live and yearn in Pj Harvey’s songs. There’s the Devil-plagued stalker narrating “To Bring You My Love”; the “prettiest mess you’ve ever seen” in “Angelene”; and, most recently, the lost girl, Ira-Abel, beguiled by an oracle and a ghost-like Elvis figure in all the songs from Harvey’s 2023 album I Inside the Old Year Dying. She brings all of these characters to life with unique performances on her current tour, which kicked off a North American leg last week.

“This show is a theatrical piece,...

The late Steve Albini has been honored with a Chicago street in his name.

Earlier this month, an ordinance passed by Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa officially declared the 2600-2700 block of West Belmont Avenue in Avondale between North Rockwell Avenue and North California Avenue will now be known as “Steve Albini Way.”

Not coincidentally, this stretch of land is where Albini’s legendary recording studio, Electrical Audio, is located. Founded in 1997, its owner and staff helped build the two-studio complex brick-by-brick.

Albini died on May 8th, 2024 of a heart attack at 61 years old. Though he was born in Pasadena, California, and raised in Missoula, Montana, Albini established strong ties to the Chicago music scene after moving there to attend Northwestern University in 1980.

Besides helming classic albums such as Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, and Pj Harvey’s Rid of Me, Albini fronted rock bands including Shellac and Big Black.

To commemorate what would have been Steve Albini’s 62nd birthday, some of the musicians and people who knew him best — including Pj Harvey, Mogwai, and Shellac drummer Todd Trainer — have been posting tributes to the late Shellac frontman and acclaimed recording engineer on Monday.

Albini’s widow, Heather Whinna, asked her husband’s friends and admirers to honor him on social media with the hashtag #ThankYouSteveAlbini. “Share pictures of his albums that shaped you, concert memories, or even handwritten notes that resonated deeply,” she wrote in a note, circulated...

Gwendoline Christie has to be in the "mindset" of her characters before she arrives on set.The 'Game of Thrones' and 'Star Wars' actress will use music and certain fragrances to help her get into character.She told Total Film magazine: "I need to be thinking about my character from the moment I arrive on set: I find objects can be an endless supply of inspiration for that. I might take a photograph, use a certain scent, but often for me, it's usually music."There was a Pj Harvey track I used for one character and it was quite confronting. I found that listening to that endlessly would immediately put me into the character's mindset."The 45-year-old actress says that oftentimes friendships are formed extremely quickly on set and whenever she meets them again, no matter how much time has past, they instantly go back to how they were.Asked...

Chicago indie label Touch and Go Records has announced a social media campaign to celebrate the legacy of Steve Albini on what would have been the late producer’s birthday on Monday, July 22.

“Though we tragically lost Steve Albini on May 7, 2024, his indelible influence on music remains. Let’s turn his birthday, July 22nd, into a worldwide celebration to honor his life and legacy,” the label wrote on social media.

Using the hashtag #ThankYouSteveAlbini, Touch and Go asked fans to “flood stories and photos that capture the essence of Steve’s impact.

After nearly a decade as Big Thief’s bassist, Max Oleartchik is leaving the band. The group announced the news in an Instagram post on Thursday. “After many beautiful years together, Max is no longer in Big Thief,” the group wrote collectively. “Our love for each other is infinite, and we are so grateful for all we have shared these many years together since the beginning of our journey as a band. We wouldn’t be who we are without Max. This separation marks the end of an era, and...

Sweden’s Way Out West festival is taking a unique approach to ensuring the future viability of the fest by crafting a stage specifically for sperm and eggs bound for in vitro fertilization.

The festival and designer Love Hultén announced the Future Fan Stage project Wednesday, revealing they would play live recordings from this year’s Way Out West to the babies-in-waiting at Stockholm’s Eliva Ifv clinic.

As Way Out West noted in their accompanying video about the Future Fan Stage, “recent studies show that music improves the fertilization rate during an IVF process.

The late Mark Lanegan’s acclaimed 2004 album Bubblegum is receiving a deluxe 20th anniversary reissue, featuring loads of previously unreleased songs and demos, including a collaboration with Beck.

Titled Bubblegum Xx, the reissue arrives August 23rd, and marks the first posthumous release since Lanegan’s passing in February 2022.

The original Bubblegum album, which has been remastered for this reissue, features a who’s who of guest musicians, including Lanegan’s Queens of the Stone Age bandmates Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, and Troy Van Leeuwen, as well as The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli, and classic Guns N’ Roses members Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin, among others. Singer Pj Harvey also contributes vocals to two of the songs: “Hit the City” and “Come to Me.”

The collaboration with Beck, “Union Turnpike,” is a song that Lanegan had hoped to include on the original version of Bubblegum, but Beck was unable to contribute at the time,...

Way Out West, a music festival based out of Sweden, has added a new stage for… sperm and eggs?

Somehow, it’s true. The festival will set up a stage/IVF laboratory specifically for sperm and eggs in a fertilization process. Designed by Love Hultén, headlining performances from acts like Fred again.., Peggy Gou, Queens of the Stone Age, and Pulp will be streamed into the lab for the listening pleasure of the sperm and eggs.

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The festival cites a Spanish study from Institut Marquès that suggests music and vibrations increase the chances of IVF success by five percent as the reason behind the wild move. They also recognize the absurdity, however. “Above all, we’re doing this as a fun idea to highlight the importance of a vibrant live music scene, and the studies are used more as creative insight rather than scientific evidence,...

Wake up babe, new soundbites from one of the Gallagher brothers just dropped! In a recent interview with The Sun, Noel Gallagher expressed his frustration that Glastonbury has “gone woke” with “little fucking idiots waving flags around and making political statements.” Politics in art, imagine that!

“Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love Glastonbury,” the Oasis star said, “[But] it’s getting a bit woke now, that place, and a bit kind of preachy and a bit virtue-signaling. I don’t like it in music… bands taking the stage and saying, ‘Hey guys, isn’t war ­terrible, yeah? Let’s all boo war. F***k the Tories, man,’ and all that… It’s like, look — play your fucking tunes and get off.”

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Gallagher didn’t perform at this year’s edition of the legendary British music festival. He did, however, reportedly spend the weekend catching various sets,...

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Quick Answer: Livestream Glastonbury Festival 2024 online with ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

The 2024 Glastonbury Festival is in full swing, having kicked off Friday with Dua Lipa, LCD Soundsystem, Pj Harvey and K-pop stars Seventeen among the headliners for the night. Now, the festival is into the weekend with Coldplay, Shania Twain and Sza among the huge acts taking the stage at Worthy Farm near Somerset, England.

Want to watch Glastonbury online?...

Marina Abramović has never shied away from counterintuitive prompts, but her latest endeavor is her most oxymoronic yet — getting Glastonbury, a very loud music festival, to be silent for seven straight minutes.

Abramović completed the endeavor on Friday, the first formal day of Glastonbury, around 5:55pm, shortly before Pj Harvey’s set on the Pyramid Stage. The visual and performance artist intended for the event to be a “public intervention” instead of a performance, and wanted attendees to use the silence as a way to reflect on the current state of the world.

Speaking to The Guardian, Abramović previewed the event and explained why she was eager to capture this moment at such a highly-attended festival. “How can I keep the energy of silence? I’m not a singer, I’m there for another purpose, which is to figure out how we can create silence and reflect what is...

On July 17, 1989, Splash Mountain opened at Disneyland Park; three years later, a version of the same ride opened at Disney World. It was a problematic attraction from the onset — the ride had all the classic charm of other timeless Disney fare like Peter Pan’s Flight and Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, but this iteration was founded on a troubling principle.

The film the ride was based on, Song of the South, had been voluntarily removed from circulation by Disney three years before Splash Mountain ever opened. The film was widely known to be racist and was heavily criticized for romanticizing the plantation-era South in America, and for bolstering harmful stereotypes about Black people.

Now, over 30 years later, the uncomfortable subtext of Splash Mountain has been put to rest, and in its place splashes down something all the more charming, festive and fun.

Gone are the hillbilly-ish caricatures of Br’er Rabbit,...

Seventeen’s Jeonghan and Wonwoo have officially dropped their new collaborative project as JxW, This Man, and with it a music video for lead single, “Last Night.”

The track itself features a clever blend of delicate acoustic guitar — played by the celebrated South Korean musician Juwon Park — and thumping, club-ready electro pop. The lyrics find Jeonghan and Wonwoo pining for a lost love late at night, and searching for some kind of solace in their dreams.

The music video, directed by Hobin, picks up on that theme, with a story...

Primavera Sound Barcelona has long been renowned for brilliant lineups in an idyllic setting, the setting flanked by the Mediterranean Sea with the Spanish city as its backdrop. This year’s iteration was no exception, drawing an estimated 193,000 people from around the world to witness an eclectic mix of artists that included Lana Del Rey, Sza, Pulp, Troye Sivan, and Pj Harvey.

But Primavera’s appeal goes beyond the music. It serves as a reminder of what drew fans to festivals for decades prior: bonding over music, feeling a sense of community,...

During her Primavera performance this past weekend, Pj Harvey paid tribute to late musician and recording engineer Steve Albini, dedicating a rendition of Uh Huh Her’s “The Desperate Kingdom of Love” to him. “I would like to sing this next song in memory of Steve Albini,” she said. “Steve should have been here for this festival and it would be nice if we all think of him for this song.”

The audience quietly took in the song, which she played by herself with only an acoustic guitar before strapping...

The upcoming Paramount+ + documentary Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza traces the story of Perry Farrell’s alternative music extravaganza from its roots in 1991 as a Jane’s Addiction farewell tour all the way through its role today as one of the largest festivals on the planet. The three-part special, which features interviews with Farrell, Chance the Rapper, Flea, Trent Reznor, Ice-t, Tom Morello, Lars Ulrich, and Vernon Reid premieres May 21.

In this exclusive clip, Lollapalooza founders Perry Farrell and Marc Geiger talk about their efforts to revive the festival in 2004 as a tour featuring Morrissey,...

Steve Albini was an icon to many people, and his work and life was often synonymous with Chicago, the city he called home in his adult life — where he began recording musicians, built his Electrical Audio studio, and established his own bands Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac, all of whom released material on Chicago-based Touch and Go Records. Corey Rusk, owner of the renown indie label, wrote a tribute to his friend of 40 years following Albini’s untimely death at the age of 61 on Tuesday.

In a post shared on...

Joanna Newsom paid tribute to Steve Albini — the engineer on her acclaimed 2006 album Ys — during the singer’s set Friday at Utah’s Kilby Block Party.

Stereogum reports that prior to Newsom’s performance of “Cosmia,” one of the Ys tracks she recorded with Albini, the singer gave an emotional speech about how much the noise-rock pioneer meant to her.

“So the last few days have been pretty sad because of the loss of Steve Albini, who I love very, very much and admire in every possible way you can admire a person,...

Jimmy Page paid tribute to the late Steve Albini, who served as recording engineer and mixer for the 1998 album, Walking into Clarksdale, a collaboration between Page and his former Led Zeppelin bandmate, Robert Plant.

“I was very sad to hear of Steve Albini’s passing this week,” Page wrote in an Instagram post. “Robert and I worked with him in 1997 on our album, Walking Into Clarksdale — a record I’m still really proud of.

“I had a strong connection with Steve, we all did on that album, and he came...

Foo Fighters paid tribute to Steve Albini — who worked with Dave Grohl on Nirvana’s In Utero — Thursday night at the band’s concert in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Tonight, I’d like to dedicate this song to a friend we lost the other day, who I’ve known for a long, long time. And he left us much too soon,” Grohl told the audience at Foo Fighters’ first concert since Albini’s death Wednesday at the age of 61.

“He’s touched all of your lives, I’m sure. Talking about Steve Albini.

Dave Grohl honored Steve Albini during Foo Fighters’ concert in Charlotte on Thursday night by dedicating the band’s performance of “My Hero” to the In Utero producer.

“Tonight I’d like to dedicate this song to a friend that we lost the other day, who I’ve known a long, long time,” Grohl said. “He left us much too soon. He’s touched all of your lives, I’m sure. I’m talking about Steve Albini. For those of you who know, you know. For those of you who don’t know, just remember that name: Steve Albini. Let’s sing this one for him.”

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As a member of Nirvana, Grohl worked with Albini on the band’s third and final album, In Utero. Years later, Grohl featured Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in an episode of his docuseries Sonic Highways. The band also recorded “Something from Nothing,...

Starting in the Eighties, Butch Vig and Steve Albini, who died Tuesday at 61, had one of the most interesting symbiotic relationships in indie rock. Both were recording bands in their studios, in Milwaukee and Chicago, respectively. Both played in bands. “Neither of us went to recording school,” Vig says. “We just figured it out on the fly.”

Vig produced Nirvana’s Nevermind, but when the band wanted a less glossy sound for its follow-up, In Utero, they turned to Albini. The famously outspoken Albini wasn’t afraid to zing Vig...

Big Black guitarist Santiago Durango remembered his bandmate Steve Albini as a “caring and giving person” whose sudden death earlier this week “has left a huge hole in my life.”

In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, Durango said the news of Albini’s death from a heart attack at the age of 61 was a “total gut punch.” He was “too young,” Durango continued. “I always believed Steve would outlive me. It makes me happy to know Steve lived a full life doing what he wanted to do.”

Durango went on to say,...

If all Steve Albini ever did with music was complain about it, he still would have reigned as one of its most brilliant provocateurs. But Albini came to make noise — as a punk guitarist, as a producer, as a writer —with rock’s most notoriously savage sense of humor. “I like noise,” he declared in a hugely influential 1986 manifesto in the fanzine Forced Exposure. “I like big-ass vicious noise that makes my head spin. I wanna feel it whipping through me like a fucking jolt. We’re so dilapidated and...

Steve Albini, the revolutionary music engineer who helped define the sounds of the ‘80s and ‘90s, has passed away at 61. The cause of death has been ruled a heart attack.

Following a bout on the zine scene, Steve Albini hit the music world full force in the 1980s, founding pivotal punk band Big Black, which helped evolve the genre past expectations and was a seminal band of the post-hardcore movement. He, too, formed Shellac in the early ‘90s.

But outside of these bands, Steve Albini was by far better known to music lovers of the era for his work as an engineer. The first major record he worked on was the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa in 1988, an album so influential for Nirvana that they insisted on bringing Albini on board for their Nevermind follow-up, In Utero, with Kurt Cobain himself noting that the drums alone would be enough to change their sound.

Pj Harvey paid tribute to Steve Albini, who she recorded her acclaimed second album Rid of Me with, following the death of the noise-rock pioneer.

“Meeting Steve Albini and working with him changed the course of my life. He taught me so much about music, and life. Steve was a great friend – wise, kind and generous. I am so grateful,” the singer wrote on social media after Albini’s death at the age of 61. “My thoughts are with him and his family and friends as we suffer his loss.”

View...

News of Steve Albini’s unexpected passing on Wednesday, May 8th, has been met with an outpouring of tributes from fellow musicians, including those who had worked with him.

Cloud Nothings worked with Albini on their 2012 magnum opus, Attack on Memory. “steve touched countless lives and changed mine and many others for the better,” frontman Dylan Baldi wrote on Twitter. “a genuine, singular, principled person. spent the last 40 years helping people make art. there’s no reason for him to be gone and the world is less interesting without him. just a really sad day.”

Pj Harvey said working with Albini on 1992’s Dry “changed the course of my life. He taught me so much about music, and life. Steve was a great friend – wise, kind and generous. I am so grateful.”

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker collaborated with Albini on his 2009 solo album, Further Complications. “Working with Steve Albini was...

Steve Albini, a singer and guitarist best known for producing some of the most groundbreaking and influential albums of the alt-rock genre, died of a heart attack at his Chicago recording studio Electrical Audio. He was 61.

Albini’s death and cause of death was confirmed by Taylor Hales of Electrical Audio.

Born July 22, 1962, in Pasadena, Albini moved to the Chicago area after high school to study journalism at Northwestern University. While there, he began writing for local punk rock ‘zines and beginning to record and engineer albums for local bands.

Stubbornly opposed to the larger music industry and its exploitation of artists, Albini formed the Chicago-based band Big Black in 1981, recording the first of several albums, an EP for the Chicago label Ruthless Records, a label he co-managed. That band last until 1987.

From 1987 to 1988, Albini sang and played guitar for Rapeman, named after a Japanese comic book. The short-lived band broke up after one album,...

Steve Albini, the noise rock pioneer with Big Black and Shellac who also helped engineer some of the greatest alternative rock albums of all time — Nirvana’s In Utero and Pixies’ Surfer Rosa among them — has died at the age of 61.

Staff at Albini’s Electrical Audio Recording confirmed to Rolling Stone that Albini died Tuesday night, with the New York Times adding that the cause of death was a heart attack. Albini’s death comes just a week after his acclaimed noise rock project Shellac was set to release To All Trains,...

Steve Albini, the legendary record producer and engineer behind Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, and countless other classic alternative rock albums, has died of a heart attack. He was 61 years old.

News of Albini’s death was confirmed to Consequence via a staff member at his recording studio, Electrical Audio in Chicago.

Preferring the term “engineer” over “producer,” Albini was lauded for his minimalist approach to recording sessions and focus on capturing the natural sound of musicians’ performances. As a singer and guitarist in his own right, Albini also led the bands Shellac and Big Black.

Albini was born in Pasadena, California, on July 22nd in 1962. He went to college at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and spent most of his career based in Chicago, where he founded Electrical Audio.

His music career essentially started as singer-guitarist of Big Black, a band he formed while still a student at Northwestern.

Fiona Apple is the go-to songwriter for exorcising your romantic demons, ruing the ones you loved, the ones who didn’t love you back, the ones you pushed away amid yet another freefall of your own design. She’s also the go-to singer for three studio comedy auteurs: Michael Showalter, Judd Apatow, and Paul Feig.

Apple’s songs have featured in three of their films — Apple wrote the original song “Dull Tool” for Apatow’s “This Is 40,” capturing a decades-long marriage at its breaking point. Elsewhere, her epic ball of romantic resignation “Cosmonauts,” off the 2020 album “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” was also originally meant for that film. Meanwhile, her classic cabaret-inspired love song “Paper Bag,” about having too much emotional baggage to enter into a new relationship she wants “so bad, oh it kills,” featured in Feig’s “Bridesmaids” in a montage of Annie (Kristen Wiig) making cupcakes as...

Massive Attack, Kraftwerk, Pj Harvey, Duran Duran, Sting, and Janelle Monáe are among the acts set to play the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2024.

Now in its 58th year, the legendary event returns from July 5th-20th in Montreux, Switzerland.

The 2024 lineup also promises The National, Smashing Pumpkins, André 3000, Raye, Tyla, Justice, Air, Noname, Jon Batiste, Brittany Howard, Lenny Kravitz, Alice Cooper, Paolo Nutini, Deep Purple, Jessie Ware, Jungle, Michael Kiwanuka, Editors, Dionne Warwick, Laufey, Trombone Shorty, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Paloma Faith, and more.

A ticket pre-sale for Montreux Jazz Festival 2024 begins Thursday, April 18th via the festival’s website.

If you’re planning to attend Montreux Jazz Festival, you can save up to 15% on travel and accommodations with Booking.com.

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With a new BBC radio series now launched, Courtney Love is once again proving the power of the adage “go large or go home.”

In a wide ranging interview with the UK’s Standard today, the former Hole front woman puts forth her take on some of the biggest names in the music industry. Let’s just say, Love bites in deep in the newspaper, to quote from her 1998 tune “Celebrity Skin,” to get her pound of flesh from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Madonna and recent Coachella headliner Lana Del Rey.

“Taylor is not important,” the People vs. Larry Flint star says of the superstar.

“She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist,” Love added.

The contrarian opinion on Swift is a big shift from where Love was on the Folklore singer just over two years ago.

Courtney Love could have a cruel summer running into Swifties after saying their favorite artist Taylor Swift is neither important nor interesting.

In a new interview with The Standard promoting Love’s BBC Radio series celebrating women in music, the Hole singer didn’t have kind words to say about Swift. “Taylor is not important,” she said. “She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist.”

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Making room to piss off another fanbase, Love also said Beyoncé isn’t her cup of tea — though she appreciates the “concept” of Queen Bey’s latest album, Cowboy Carter. “I like the idea of Beyoncé doing a country record because it’s about Black women going into spaces where previously only white women have been allowed,” she explained. “I just don’t like her music.