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“The power of love is the album’s overall theme—in response to these chaotic times and the hatred spread by social media,” Raffi tells us.

The post Raffi Opens Up About Democracy, Music, and Love in Divisive Times appeared first on Rockmommy.com.

A song exploring self-acceptance and the challenges of finding happiness

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He thanked Robb Flynn for supporting him through a difficult family situation

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Rock icons Deep Purple have released a video for the irresistibly groovy title track of this year’s Splat! album, which was released in July.

Earlier this year, Purple frontman Ian Gillan told Classic Rock that ‘Splat!‘ was a word he’d scribbled in a notebook years ago as a potential album title after thinking about the old joke in which a bug flies into a car’s windscreen and the last thing that goes through its mind is its arse.

“I thought of me hitting the car’s windscreen, and through my skull flew King Arthur and the Roman Empire, and every other aspect of humanity that had existed,” Gillan told us, in typically fanciful fashion. “All in the form of chess pieces. And then they pixelated, gravitated towards each other, and faffed off towards the next form of human energy, but without arms and legs and bodies.

“The whole point of it is we’d become disembodied and part of a collective. All of the experience of a quarter of a million years of humanity lumped together as a smouldering energy force. My vivid imagination, basically. I’ve no idea what the hell’s going to happen.”

Splat! (the song) is the fourth single to be released from Splat! (the album), following Guilt Trippin’, Arrogant Boy and Diablo. Deep Purple are currently on tour in Europe and will arrive in the UK for a run of shows in November. The band will also play several South American and Mexican shows in the run-up to Christmas. Full dates below.

Deep Purple: Splat! tour dates

Oct 23: Antwerp Lotto Arena, Belgium
Oct 25: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Oct 26: Stockholm Avicii Arena, Sweden
Oct 28: Oslo Spektrum Arena, Norway
Oct 29: Gothenburg Scandinavium, Sweden
Oct 31: Leipzig QI Arena, Germany
Nov 01: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany
Nov 03: Dortmund Westfalenhalle, Germany
Nov 04: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany
Nov 06: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Nov 07: Nuremberg Arena, Germany
Nov 09: Amsterdam Ziggodome, Netherlands
Nov 10: Strasbourg Zenith, France
Nov 12: Bordeaux Arkéa Arena, France
Nov 13: Nantes Zenith, France
Nov 15: Lyon LDLC Arena, France
Nov 18: Newcastle Utilita Arena, UK
Nov 19: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Nov 21: Birmingham BP Pulse Arena, UK
Nov 22: Manchester AO Arena, UK
Nov 24: London Eventim Apollo, UK
Nov 25: London Royal Albert Hall, UK

Dec 05: Sao Paulo Suhai Hall, Brazil
Dec 08: Santiago Movistar Arena, Chile
Dec 10: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, Argentina
Dec 13: Monterrey Arena, Mexico
Dec 16: Guadalajara Arena, Mexico
Dec 19: Mexico City Estadio Fray Nano, Mexico

Find Deep Purple tickets.

Exhaustion has become such an ordinary feature of daily life that we have practically mistaken it for a personality. The calendar stays full, the messages keep coming, and the future starts to resemble a corridor lined with doors that have all been locked from the other side. Carry on long enough and even the promise of escape begins to sound like another item on the to-do list.

Louisville, Kentucky industrial punk trio VIRGIN BIRTH give that predicament a particularly bruising accompaniment with The Dead End, the title track from their newly released six-song EP, with a video by the band’s own Phillip Olympia. Their fascination with electronic music’s darker corners and punk’s abrasive economy takes an increasingly personal turn, bringing the effects of a deteriorating world into the cramped confines of an exhausted mind.

The song opens with eerie electronic tones before a sizzling hi-hat pattern ushers in a restless beat reminiscent of The Prodigy. A kick drum lands with a heavy thud beneath the percussion’s rapid shuffle, while growling guitars bear down on the arrangement. Their harsh attack against the programmed rhythm recalls Ministry’s Stigmata, giving the track a sense of force held to a precise, punishing tempo.

Olympia spits out the vocal with an acidic, grunge-inflected bite, his delivery recalling Trent Reznor’s agitated intimacy and Bill Leeb’s severity. Spoken-word murmurs and anxious synth pulses add to the discomfort, drawing the ear toward smaller disturbances within the mix. The hi-hats keep sizzling around that blunt kick, the guitars crowd the available space, and the voice sounds frayed by the machinery surrounding it.

Olympia’s visuals extend that unease through a largely monochrome collage of overlapping faces, cloud formations, blurred performance footage, and vintage exercise routines. Heads and hands leave smeared trails across the image as the musicians appear to split into multiple versions of themselves. Faces push toward the camera, lose definition, and disappear beneath another layer of movement, with occasional glimpses of instruments anchoring the confusion.

The exercise footage supplies a peculiar, bitter joke. Women in leotards work through synchronized routines, their carefully repeated movements carrying the familiar promise that enough effort will eventually make everything better. Against the song’s accumulating strain, that orderly exertion starts to resemble another exhausting obligation. The bodies keep moving, the beat keeps counting, and relief remains conspicuously absent.

Watch the video for The Dead End below:

VIRGIN BIRTH is comprised of Phillip Olympia on vocals, synthesizers, and drum machines; Jake Miller on guitars and synthesizers; and Matt Haas on bass. All three have deep roots in punk and indie rock, having played in various bands over the years. A shared appreciation for the industrial music of the 1980s and 1990s sparked conversations that eventually led to experiments with drum machines, synthesizers, and sampling.

Across The Dead End, their focus moves from the wider collapse examined on previous releases toward exhaustion, isolation, dread, and the private consequences of living with an ever-narrowing set of possibilities. The EP’s six songs offer industrial punk for a world running on its last reserves, with no reassuring resolution attached.

The Dead End is available now on all major digital platforms. Listen to the EP below and order it here.

Follow VIRGIN BIRTH:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Bandcamp

The post Louisville Industrial Punk Trio VIRGIN BIRTH Run on Fumes in Their Video for “The Dead End” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

They hope to return in the future

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Out December 15 via Time To Kill Records

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Their North American tour begins November 6

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Featuring nearly 150 artists across five stages at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio

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ALEX GRYCZANOWSKI | Go Venue Magazine

Indie folk-rock band Bright Eyes has played their fair share of homecoming shows in Omaha, Nebraska. Their Tuesday return was nothing short of a celebration of their roots, seen throughout the large crowd of local fans, songs about playing music and growing up in Nebraska, and in pre-show parties.

On Oct. 20, 2026, Bright Eyes made their third return of the year. Their other Omaha shows this year included Maha Festival in August and their intimate pre-Riot Fest performance at The Waiting Room Lounge earlier this month.

Before The Admiral’s doors even opened, PLUS1, Omaha ForUs and Poison Oak Project partnered to host a pre-show backyard barbecue from 4:30-7:30 p.m. and provided free food, drinks and merch to select fans drawn from a list of RSVPs. The only requirement? To bring an item to donate to Omaha ForUs.

Lullaby for the Working Class took the stage first at 7:30 p.m., featuring members of Bright Eyes as well. Ted Stevens sang and played guitar, Nate Walcott played keys, A.J. Mogis plucked an upright bass, Megan Siebe played cello and mandolin, Mike Mogis strummed a banjo, Shane Aspergren held it down on the drums and Tiffany Osborn played violin. 

Lullaby for the Working Class’s set was tastefully well-mixed live, warming The Admiral’s nostalgic ambiance while Mike Mogis’ banjo strums stuck out over the myriad of instruments among the band.

Conor Oberst, Bright Eyes’ vocalist and guitarist, joined Lullaby for the Working Class on stage for “Queen of the Long-Legged Insects” and “Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H)” to close out the band’s set.

Between sets, Oberst took a moment to speak and invited Nebraska’s independent candidate for U.S. Senate, Dan Osborn, to take the stage. Osborn was also campaigning at the show with an information booth set up by the merch. Osborn encouraged attendees to vote in the midterm elections this year.

“Democracy is at stake,” Osborn said. “In the great words of Conor Oberst, ‘I’m not sure how all this got started, but I’m goddamn certain how it’s gonna end.’ It’s going to end with us taking our democracy back.”

Bright Eyes came on stage soon after Osborn’s speech, opening with “Don’t Know When But a Day is Gonna Come,” “False Advertising” and “Classic Cars.” “Classic Cars” was played live for the first time since 2009 earlier this year at Maha Festival, and fans were ecstatic to hear it again, bursting in cheers when the song began.

Bright Eyes featured a similar arrangement of a band as Lullaby for the Working Class, this time with Oberst fronting rather than Stevens, who sang backup vocals and played guitar throughout Bright Eyes’ set.

With both bands having early roots in the establishment of Saddle Creek Records and collaborating throughout the evening, it felt like watching a group of friends celebrate their Nebraskan roots through their craft. It made the set beautifully relatable as fans got lost in the music.

Mike Mogis stood out throughout the night, putting so much passion into the riffs he played on stage as he danced around behind Oberst.

Bright Eyes’ songs are organized incredibly, and they shone live, starting slowly while building up to an emotionally charged breakdown where members of the band riffed on their instruments, letting the built-up emotions created from a song ring throughout The Admiral.

As the set began to wrap, Oberst interacted with fans and tossed flowers from a bouquet into the audience. 

“I’d expect nothing less, Omaha,” Oberst said after fans sang back to him during “Laura Laurent.”

During Bright Eyes’ four-song encore, Stevens joined Oberst at the front of the stage to perform “Fiery House,” a new song from Lullaby for the Working Class.

Bright Eyes

[See image gallery at www.govenuemagazine.com]

Lullaby for the Working Class

[See image gallery at www.govenuemagazine.com] All images © Alex Gryczanowski

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The post LIVE REVIEW: Bright Eyes Mesmerizes Omaha for Third Hometown Show this Year appeared first on Go Venue Magazine.