Kelly Clarkson was the most recent guest on the culture/comedy podcast Las Culturistas, hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. Towards the end of each episode, there’s a segment called “I Don’t Think So Honey,” where the guest has one minute to fire off a hot take or rant about whatever they choose. On Clarkson’s episode, which dropped yesterday, Sept. 30, she talked about loving AI but argues that humans should have a separate Billboard chart from, in her words, “AI artists.”
Dublin indie rockers Pillow Queens were a Stereogum Band To Watch back in 2021, and their most recent album Name Your Sorrow came out in 2024. That same year, they became a trio with the departure of drummer Rachel Lyons, and they started messing with drum machines and loops. Last year, they released the one-off single “Be A Big Girl.” Yesterday, they came back with “Kiss Kiss,” another one-off that mixes ragged guitars with gleaming keyboards. I probably don’t need to tell you that it’s not a Chris Brown cover. Here’s what the band says about it:
If you’re a fan of blistering, heartfelt hardcore that deftly juggles and synthesizes spastic chaos, melodic harshness and fierce political stance rooted in hands on, visceral experience, then, as the band’s PR people said to me, and I’m saying to you, “You gotta check out NØ MAN!” The quartet hail from Washington, D.C. — if living that close to the epicentre of the mess the US is currently mired in wouldn’t spurn a ferocious political bent, then what would?! — and stirred up a storm in the punk scene with their 2024 debut Glitter and Spit and are about to return with follow-up, Between the Sword and the Neck. Today, we’re giving y’all a sneak peak into the new record, which is set to be issued by Iodine Recordings on October 30th, with the lead single, “In Spite.” Of the song, vocalist Maha Shami says: “This is a love song to Kat Hidalgo of FAIM and Jenna Pup of HIRS. It’s about being erased or gaslit out of your own narrative, refusing to disappear anyway, and surviving in spite of the people trying to write you out.”
When the Toronto punk band Cult Crime got started and released their 2023 demo, they weren’t really a band; they were a solo project for Psychic Void’s Matthew Menard. Since then, Cult Crime have grown into a four-piece, adding on members of groups like Chain Whip, Imploders, and the Vapids. Last year, Cult Crime released their self-titled full-length debut, a commendable collection of snotty, trashy ’70s and ’80s-style punk rock. They’re already coming back with another one.
Former HAVOK and MACHINE HEAD guitarist Reece Scruggs has launched a new death-thrash project, BURNING HAMMER, alongside bassist Noah Martin and drummer Stefen Burns. The trio have signed with NEFARIOUS INDUSTRIES and introduced themselves with debut single “Rabid Lycanthropy”, while work on their first full-length is nearing completion for an early 2027 release. Conceived as […]
With their November tour looming, Enter Shikari (who we most recently saw at Glasgow Barrowlands) have released the following statement which we’ve reproduced in full: Many of you will have seen Rou’s video from last week. He mentions that we’ve been discussing our future as a band. Now that some decisions have been made, and … Continue reading Enter Shikari make statement on band’s future, tour dates next month
Peter Gabriel has announced that he will release his eleventh studio album, o\i, through Real World on November 27.
The three-year gap between this and 2023’s i/o album represents the shortest between his studio albums since the early 1980s.
As he did for i/o, which forms a collaborative 25-track joint project with o\i, Gabriel has been releasing single tracks every full moon for the past year, which have pondered our relationship with nature, the passing of time, the increasing influence of technology in our lives and our place in the world; “Trying to get a handle on where you fit in life, that’s what I write about a lot,” Gabriel says. “This record has been more of a marathon than a sprint – it’s the longest album I have ever put out, with 13 tracks that complete the i/o / o\i 25-track joint project.
“The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings,” he continues. “I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves: AI, quantum computing and the brain-computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.
“We are not, and have never been, the exclusively self-determining, independent beings that we imagine we are. We have had a sense of entitlement that everything exists for our benefit – that we’ve been given the run of the world to exploit as we see fit.
“We are something else, a part of nature, a part of everything and when we feel that connection, shake our booty and give and receive a little love, it can help us find our proper place – and put a big smile on our faces. “This is how I see the lumpy bits – i/o: the inside has a new way out and o\i: the outside has a new way in.
o\i features long-standing band members, guitarist David Rhodes, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché, supplemented by other members of the i/o touring band Richard Evans, Josh Shpak and Don E and Real World staffers Faye Dolle and Katie May, as well as Brian Eno, guitarists Leo Nocentelli and Tony Berg, drummer and percussionist Abe Rounds, pianist Tom Cawley, trumpeter Paolo Fresu, cellist Linnea Olsson and multi-instrumentalist Evan Smith. Once again Gabriel’s daughter Melanie provides vocal support.
o\i will be available as a four-CD pack featuring both the Bright-Side mixes by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent and the Dark-Side mixes by Tchad Blake of all 13 tracks, as well as separately as double vinyl albums. The digital-only Dolby Atmos In-Side mix is again shaped by Hans-Martin Buff, who won Best Immersive Mix Engineer at the Grammys for his work on i/o.
CD | Digital 1. Been Undone 2. Put the Bucket Down 3. What Lies Ahead 4. Till Your Mind Is Shining 5. Won’t Stand Down 6. Who Are We Talking To? 7. Yes, It Will Go 8. One by One 9. A Hard Lesson 10. Face the Wall 11.I Belong to the Sky 12. Looking for the Happy 13. Sacrament
Vinyl
SIDE A 1. Been Undone 2. Put the Bucket Down 3. What Lies Ahead 4. Till Your Mind Is Shining
SIDE B 1. Won’t Stand Down 2. Who Are We Talking To? 3. Yes, It Will Go
SIDE C 1. One by One 2. A Hard Lesson 3. Face the Wall
SIDE D 1. I Belong to the Sky 2. Looking for the Happy 3. Sacrament
