Last month Kacey Musgraves did a surprise Brooks & Dunn tribute set at a Nashville bar, and now she’s been announced as a surprise performer for Coachella this weekend. Meanwhile she’s also parodying Trump’s AI Jesus post.
The post Kacey Musgraves Parodies Trump’s AI Jesus Post, Joins Coachella Weekend 2 Lineup appeared first on Stereogum.
In 2021, Michelle Zauner released the third Japanese Breakfast LP, Jubilee, and practically catapulted into fame. She went on The Tonight Show, played SNL, threw a first pitch at a Mets game, and was nominated for Grammys. Now, five years later, she earned her first gold record for that album.
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Synth-pop legend Howard Jones has announced the Things Can Only Get Better Tour, a North American summer run featuring fellow British 80s mainstays Wang Chung, The English Beat, and Modern English, with SiriusXM host Richard Blade emceeing.
Billed as “the biggest 80s event of the year,” the tour is curated and headlined by Jones himself, with all four artists performing full sets each night. Fans can expect a hit-heavy evening drawing from Jones’ “Things Can Only Get Better,” “What Is Love,” and “No One Is To Blame,” alongside Wang Chung’s “Dance Hall Days” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” The English Beat’s “Save It For Later” and “I Confess,” and Modern English’s “I Melt With You.”
Tickets are on sale now via Howard Jones’ official website.
In a statement, Jones said: “I dreamed of curating a tour with my favourite bands that could bring some positivity in our troubled times. I’m thrilled that this is actually happening this summer with the Things Can Only Get Better Tour. Joining me are my friends Wang Chung, The English Beat, Modern English, and Richard Blade. I’m so excited to be touring with these amazing talents. Our aim is to bring some joy with the banging pop anthems that we all know and love. ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ is a message of hope for a future that we can create, when we stand up for the world we want to live in. Can’t wait to see you this summer!”
More dates are expected to be announced.
For tickets and more information, go here.
July
August
The post Howard Jones Announces “Things Can Only Get Better” North American Tour with Wang Chung, The English Beat, and Modern English appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
The saga continues: Last week Kanye West was banned from the UK after he was announced as the headliner of London’s Wireless Festival, which led to the event’s cancelation. Now it looks like the rapper might be banned from France, too.
The post Kanye West May Be Banned From France Next appeared first on Stereogum.
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
There are certain musicians within the desert/stoner rock scene that you know will always deliver a top-quality performance, regardless of which band they are in, think Brant Bjork or Mario Lalli for example. Joining that triumvirate would be the irreplaceable drumming legend that is Alfredo Hernandez, who I was fortunate to catch playing a one-off specially curated set with Sons of Alpha Centauri at last year’s Desertfest, and it was amazing.
Due to clashes that day, I missed AVON, who are now back with their third album, “Black on Sunshine”, with Hernandez, bassist June Kato and James Childs on guitars/vocals. The music perfectly fills that void of psychedelic stoner rock, and the immense drumming quality is evident from the beginning of the album titled opening track. The guitar riffs are sublime and the 70’s inspired song oozes quality, before they get all warm and fuzzy on “Awkwardness” with a distinctive guitar style and catchy as hell bass lines from Kato.
These are toe tapping tunes that need to heard by the masses, and on “Spacebar” they go a bit trippy and psychedelic on a song which the band says is “conveying the uncomfortable sense of being watched”. The bass comes through loud and clear, leading to a rhythm which is smooth as silk, before you are mesmerised again by Kato on the lead into “Never in a Million Years”. What a song this is, all about Childs’ tale of rejection, but again, you won’t be able to stop nodding your head along to the incredible beat.
Their unmistakable style is evident throughout the album, showcasing three musicians totally at ease in each other’s company and playing music that is levels above many others in this genre. “Bandits” has a wonderful bluesy/desert rock guitar sound all over the rhythm, and a solo that punches through effectively. The drums aren’t overpowering, but you can’t help but notice just how damn good they are over the chanting chorus from Childs, before they get all dreamy and melodic on the pure desert rock song “Ninteen Bruises”.
One thing that I’m enjoying is that the songs don’t linger on too long, they are short enough to be impressive and long enough not be boring, and then you are hit with a piano introducing the wonderful expressive “Super Furry Antidote”. This is simply fabulous and was first recorded in 2003 with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow on drums, but it’s a happy, cheery number that bounces along and will almost certainly put a smile on the saddest of faces.
Another old song resurrected by Childs is “Doorway” a love song he wrote in the wake of the millennium, and at first it sort of sounds out of place, as it has an 80’s vibe to it, but they’ve given it that AVON overhaul and brought it back to life. “Strangest Love” was co-written with Nick Davinge, back in the 90’s, and he makes his second appearance on the record. You can feel the grunge era soundscape pouring out of the rhythm here instantly, as the song feels bigger and sounds louder, aided by a simple drum beat letting the guitars do their thing. The album concludes with “Oblivion”, a short punky blast of noise, which leaves you wanting more and pressing the repeat button to start the album over again.
The post Album Review: Avon – Black on Sunshine appeared first on The Razor's Edge.
SIVGA Audio is a Dongguan, China-based company founded in 2016, and they've built a pretty specific reputation in a pretty short amount of time. Their whole thing is taking premium material design — real solid wood, CNC-machined metal, quality leather — and making it attainable without charging excessive amounts of money for the privilege. They also have a sibling brand called Sendy Audio that pushes further upmarket, but SIVGA has always been the value-focused wing of the operation.
Their early headphones were good but didn't receive high acclaim until The Phoenix, the model that really put them on the audiophile community's radar. Since then, they've been steadily refining their approach. The Luan represents that ongoing refinement — arguably their cleanest and most cohesive effort yet in the open-back space.
The Luan is SIVGA's open-back dynamic driver headphone, sitting at $299 USD and aimed squarely at the mid-fi audiophile market. It uses large 50mm dynamic drivers with a nickel-based coating, a carbon-fiber dome, a copper coil, and a high-strength magnetic system. The carbon-fiber dome specifically is designed to absorb excess vibration and keep treble clean without getting harsh. The result is a headphone that markets itself as a do-it-all open-back — comfortable enough for hours of use, easy enough to power from anything, and pretty enough to make you feel a little fancy while you listen.
At this price, the competition is genuinely fierce. You're up against headphones like the Sennheiser HD600, the HiFiMAN Sundara, and the FiiO FT3 — all respected names that have been dominating the mid-fi open-back space for years. The Luan comes in swinging on two fronts that competitors can't match: aesthetics and comfort. Whether it beats them on sound alone is a more nuanced conversation — but the full package is hard to argue with.
This is genuinely where the Luan separates itself from almost everything else at $299 — and it's not even close. SIVGA has built something that doesn't feel like a budget decision in any way. There is no plastic anywhere on this headphone. The ear cups are solid wood, the yokes are CNC-machined metal, and the headband frame is aluminum. Everything about it communicates quality before you've even put it on your head.
The two available finishes — brown and black — each have their own personality. The brown is warmer and actually appears an amber color under most lighting, with a grain character that makes each pair slightly unique. The black is cleaner and more modern. Either way, you're getting a headphone that turns heads and looks far more expensive than it is.
The earpads are a particular highlight. They're made from a textured velvet-style material with memory foam underneath, and the combination of softness and depth is exceptional. The outer edge of the pad sits flush, while the inner surface — the part that actually contacts your head — is gently textured for grip and comfort. They conform to your head naturally and feel premium. This is not a small detail; pad quality has a massive impact on long-session comfort, and SIVGA nailed it.
Accessories round out the package well. A genuine leather hard case is included — something that most competitors at twice the price don't bother with. The stock cable matches the headphone's color scheme and has metal hardware at the connectors and splitter, but the rubber outer jacket gives it a coily memory that gets annoying fast. It does the job, but some may want to upgrade it. A 3.5mm to 6.35mm adapter is also included, and depending on where you purchase, a 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter may come along too.
The Luan has a warm, musical, and mid-forward sound signature that's built for enjoyment over long sessions. It doesn't try to be a clinical monitoring tool, and it doesn't pretend to be. This is a headphone that wants you to sit back, put on a record you love, and just get lost in it.
The low end on the Luan is warm, textured, and controlled, but it's not a basshead headphone. Mid-bass is the real story here — there's body, punch, and warmth that adds a pleasant fullness to instruments like acoustic bass, kick drums, and cello. Sub-bass, however, is where the trade-off becomes clear. Below around 60Hz, extension starts to roll off, and you lose some of that deeper pressure and rumble. For genres where that sub-bass weight is a defining characteristic of the music, you may want to do some EQ. For everything else, the bass feels musical and appropriately weighted rather than bloated or thin.
This is where the Luan excels. The midrange has a natural, organic quality that makes vocals and acoustic instruments sound convincingly real. There's a slight forward character to the upper mids that brings singers out of the mix in a flattering way without pushing them into harshness or sibilance. Both male and female vocals benefit — male voices have body and warmth, and female voices have presence and clarity. Acoustic guitar, piano, and horn instruments all sit in the mix with a believable tonality and good note definition. The Luan doesn't smear or blur midrange detail; it just presents it in a way that feels easy rather than clinical.
The treble on the Luan is politely detailed — there's enough air and extension to keep things interesting and prevent the sound from feeling closed-in, but it never crosses into harsh or fatiguing territory. High hats have shimmer, cymbals have a natural decay, and strings have presence without sounding glassy. The carbon fiber dome diaphragm is doing real work here, smoothing out what could otherwise become a spiky or uneven top end. One mild criticism is that the very top of the frequency range can feel slightly uneven in texture on certain tracks, but it's really a minor nitpick.
Timbre is one of Luan's strengths. Instruments sound like themselves — the wood housing contributes a natural resonance and organic character that synthetic materials just don't replicate as convincingly. Acoustic music especially benefits from this; there's a kind of realness to the presentation that keeps you engaged.
Soundstage on the Luan is wide and spacious for an open-back at this price, with a rounded, enveloping character rather than an artificially stretched, panoramic presentation. Height and depth are above average and gave me a genuine sense of three-dimensional space. Imaging is precise and well-organized — it's easy to locate instruments within the mix and track their movement through a recording. Instrument separation is good overall, though very dense, complex mixes can occasionally feel slightly congested when everything is firing at once. For most music, though, the spatial performance here is one of the best arguments for buying the Luan over comparably priced competition.
The comfort was my absolute favorite part of the SIVGA Luan. The first thing you notice when putting these on is that they are supremely comfortable. The Earpads feel like marshmallows and feel almost weightless against your head. As soon as I put the Luan on, I knew that these were the most comfortable earpads I've tried to date.
The suspension headband spreads pressure across the top of the head evenly, and the clamping force is firm enough to feel secure without creating any real pressure points. Most people should be able to wear these for two to three hours without discomfort, as I have. One thing worth calling out for glasses wearers: the soft, deep pads do a great job of accommodating temples without creating a pressure seal break, which is quite useful and not a given at this price point.
Isolation? There isn't any — this is an open-back headphone. Sound passes freely in both directions. The open-back architecture is precisely what enables that wide soundstage and airy presentation. Just know that this is strictly a home listening tool. Use it in a quiet room, and it's one of the most comfortable and immersive listening experiences under $300.
The HD 560S is one of the go-to neutral open-back recommendations in the budget space, and for good reason — it's accurate, well-tuned, and costs considerably less than the Luan. Sonically, the HD 560S leans more reference-neutral with a brighter top end and less mid-bass warmth. It's a more analytical listen compared to the Luan's musical, forgiving character. Build quality and comfort aren't in the same league — the HD 560S is lightweight plastic construction with decent but unremarkable pads. If budget is the primary driver and you want a clean, honest window into your music, the HD 560S is smart. If you want a more musical, warmer presentation wrapped in premium materials, the Luan is worth the extra spend.
This is an interesting matchup because the two headphones take very different approaches. The HE400SE is a planar magnetic design at a significantly lower price, and it competes hard on technical metrics — soundstage width, detail retrieval, and transient speed are all areas where planar technology tends to excel. However, the HE400SE has a mid-bass dip and an upper midrange character that some listeners find fatiguing or tonally thin over long sessions. The Luan is richer, warmer, and more natural-sounding by comparison — timbre in particular is noticeably more organic on the Luan. Build quality also isn't competitive; the HE400SE uses plastic cups and basic construction. If you're chasing technical performance per dollar, the HE400SE is hard to argue with. If you want a better-built headphone and warmer sound, the Luan wins.
The Fidelio X2HR has a loyal following and occupies a similar musical, warm-ish open-back niche. It's V-shaped — elevated bass and treble with a slightly recessed midrange — which makes it a bigger, punchier listen than the Luan, particularly for rock and electronic music. The Luan, by contrast, puts the midrange front and center, making it the better pick for vocal-focused genres and acoustic music. The X2HR's build quality is solid but doesn't match SIVGA's material quality in the Luan, and the accessories package on the Luan (especially the leather case) is in a different class entirely. If you want more low-end thump and a more exciting V-shaped signature, the X2HR makes sense — and at its current discounted street price, it's a strong value. For a smoother, more neutral-mid presentation with better build, the Luan wins.
At $299, the SIVGA Luan is one of the most well-rounded open-back headphones you can buy without spending significantly more. It won't unseat a Sennheiser HD 600 or HiFiMAN Sundara on pure technical grounds, but it sits close enough in sound quality while completely outclassing those options in terms of build quality, aesthetics, accessories, and comfort. The warm, musical tuning makes it one of the most enjoyable and forgiving headphones in its price class, and the soundstage and imaging performance genuinely impress.
SIVGA has built something that looks, feels, and sounds like it belongs in the $500-plus tier. That's a genuine achievement at $299 and makes the Luan a highly enjoyable headphone.
Thanks for reading!
24 years after their start, TERROR still reign as one of the most influential bands in hardcore. TERROR will release their tenth full length record, STILL SUFFER, on April 24 through Flatspot Records. Working with producer (and former guitarist) Todd Jones, the band created ten fast, aggressive, in-your-face tracks that embrace the themes that made […]Emperor with Blood Incantation Montreal, QC, March 28, 2026 Review by Adrien Begrand Photos courtesy of Susan Moss/Evenko. “Inno! Ah! Satanaaaaah!!!” Nowhere is a tour […]
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In the far northwest of County Donegal, where the Atlantic presses its weather against the land and the Irish language still shapes daily speech, Moya Brennan was born into a world where music passed easily between generations. She died at seventy-three, in Gaoth Dobhair, the place that had first given her voice its grounding and, later, its reach. A family statement said she died peacefully, “surrounded by loved ones.”
Born Máire Ní Bhraonáin on August 4, 1952, she was the eldest of nine children of Leo and Máire (Baba) Brennan. The family’s pub, Leo’s Tavern, functioned as both hearth and rehearsal room. Brennan, alongside her brothers Pól and Ciarán and their uncles Noel and Pádraig Ó Dúgáin, began performing in informal sessions that gradually gathered shape and intention. Among her younger siblings was Enya, whose later solo career would carry another branch of the family’s musical legacy to a vast international audience. By the early 1970s, those gatherings turned into Clannad, a group that would come to occupy a singular position in Irish music.
Their early success arrived with a win at the Letterkenny Folk Festival in 1973, an event that led to touring across Europe and the release of their self-titled debut that same year. At a moment when Irish-language folk remained largely local, Clannad carried it outward, allowing it to travel without diluting its character. Clannad built their reputation on a steadfast commitment to singing in Irish, even when that choice set them apart. “They regarded it as a poor man’s language,” Brennan told the Irish News in 2022, recalling a time when using it carried a quiet stigma. To sing in Irish, she said, “was like we were letting them down in some way, but we fell in love with Gaelic melodies, and Irish was my first language.”
In 1982, they performed Theme from Harry’s Game on Top of the Pops, becoming the first band to sing in Irish on the program. The song’s austere beauty found an audience far beyond Ireland, reaching the top five in both Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The 80s brought a widening horizon, as Clannad toured internationally and, in 1984, became the first Irish band to win a BAFTA for their work on the ITV television series Robin of Sherwood. Brennan’s voice, intimate and unbound by geography, became the group’s defining element.
Clannad’s music continued to evolve, incorporating contemporary textures while retaining its Gaelic core. Their 1986 single In a Lifetime, recorded with U2’s Bono, marked a point of convergence between Irish tradition and global pop.
In the years that followed, the band’s albums: Anam (1990) and Banba (1992), found a substantial audience in the United States, while their work on The Last of the Mohicans introduced their music to cinema-goers worldwide.
In 1992, Brennan stepped out on her own with Máire, an acclaimed debut that opened a solo chapter lasting more than three decades. That run continued through 2024, when she released Voices & Harps IV with Cormac de Barra. Beyond music, she devoted considerable energy to philanthropy, working with Christian Blind Mission Ireland in countries including the DRC, Rwanda, Brazil, and Tanzania, and supporting those affected by drug and alcohol dependency. That work carried a personal dimension: Brennan had spoken openly about her own struggles with addiction and about the role her faith played in helping her endure and recover.
Brennan’s influence extended to collaborations with figures such as Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, and The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan. Her style, often described as otherworldly, shaped the expectations of what Celtic music could be, and composers such as James Horner drew from its tonal palette. The success of Horner’s score for Titanic was, for many listeners, inseparable from the atmosphere Clannad had already established.
Clannad released their final studio album, Nádúr, in 2013, and completed their In A Lifetime farewell tour in 2024, marking five decades of activity. By then, their recordings had sold more than ten million copies worldwide.
In her later years, Brennan lived with pulmonary fibrosis and faced the prospect of a double lung transplant, a possibility that underscored the fragility of the instrument she had carried for so long.
She is survived by her husband, Tim Jarvis, and their two children, Aisling and Paul. The music she leaves behind remains tied to the place that formed it, even as it continues to move far beyond it, carried in a voice that seemed, from the beginning, to belong to more than one world at once.
In a statement shared to Clannad’s social media account, her brothers Pól and Ciarán wrote: “We are completely heartbroken at the passing of our dearest sister Máire (Moya)… Her voice was the signature sound of Clannad and will live on forever.”
Bono, reflecting on Brennan’s death, said, “She walked through this world like an angel, and now she’s back with her own kind. We love you, Moya.”
The post Moya Brennan, Clannad Co-Founder and Beloved Irish Singer, Passes Away at 73 appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
This Friday, April 17, Teen Suicide will release their new album, Nude descending staircase headless, on Run For Cover Records/Civilians. Today they’re sharing one more early preview with their buoyant new single Suffering (Mike’s Way). Nude descending staircase headless is Teen Suicide’s first ever proper studio recording and marks the start of a new chapter […]