NELSON, YOUNG, MELLENCAMP, MATTHEWS: Farm Aid Turns 40
Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds will headline the 40th anniversary edition of Farm Aid. The annual benefit concert will be held in Minneapolis for the first time on September 20th at Huntington Bank Stadium. Tickets go on sale Friday. Other acts on the bill include Margo Price, Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Trampled by Turtles, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards and more to be announced.
Willie Nelson says, "For 40 years, Farm Aid and our partners have stood with farmers, supporting them to stay on their land even when corporate power, bad policies and broken promises make it harder to keep going. This year, we’re proud to bring Farm Aid to Minnesota to celebrate the farmers who sustain us and to fight for a food system that works for all of us. Family farmers aren’t backing down, and neither are we.” The first Farm Aid concert was held September 22nd, 1985 in Champaign, Illinois.
PEARL JAM: Blu-Rays, Mariners and Archives
Pearl Jam has a reissue on tap, a baseball night and a new video out from the archives. The reissue is a 25th anniversary edition of Binaural on Blu-ray June 6th. The disc comes with a new high resolution stereo mix and a new spatial audio mix.
The baseball night happens when the Seattle Mariners play the St. Louis Cardinals September 10th. The special Ten Club Night packages come with a limited-edition Mariners-themed Pearl Jam jacket. And $10 of every ticket sold will benefit Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation.
The video is the band's performance at the PinkPop festival in The Netherlands from 1992. The video has been widely bootlegged, but this new version on YouTube is straight from the PinkPop archives.
Hammett Uboxes Metallica's Load
Metallica have shared a video of Kirk Hammett unboxing their massive Load box set, which is due out on June 13th. The box set contains six pieces of vinyl, 15 CDs, four DVDs and a 128-page book. Watch Hammett take it all in on YouTube.
KISS: They Made a Promise
It's no secret that KISS famously soldiered on after completing their farewell tour in 2001.
So, it's not surprising that there are many skeptics who don't believe that the final show of their End of the Road tour on December 2nd, 2023 was really their last. But, while they can do the odd reunion here and there, Gene Simmons says that contractually they can no longer tour. "When we sold the IP (Intellectual Property) to Pophouse we promised we would never tour again because while you're on top, get out of the ring. Don't wait for some chump to knock you out. We've all seen boxers and rockers and everything that's stayed around to long. 50 years -- half a century -- is plenty of time." Simmons says there is a film of their last show in the works along with the avatar show that Pophouse is producing. That's slated to open in 2027.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: Kiedis the Coffee Maker
Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers is the latest musican to get into the world of coffee.
Kiedis and his friend Shane Powers teamed up to start JOLENE, which sells two different flavors of coffee in a can -- cold brew and oat milk latte. The cans will be available in stores in New York City and Los Angeles at first. Live Nation has invested in the company and will sell the cans at 40 of its amphitheaters and at its festivals. Kiedis told Forbes that he and Powers could have ended up doing something else besides coffee. "Shane and I wanted to do something fun together, that we could enjoy life together doing. We weren’t going to come up with a computer chip for alien intelligence. Instead, we decided to get in a kitchen and figure out the best possible approach to selling coffee so that we could take trips and go to high-altitude coffee farms and hang out with farmers and drink coffee and make mistakes and breathe the morning fog.”
BOB DYLAN: 21 Years Later?
It's taken 21 years, but Bob Dylan has reportedly finished writing part-two of his memoirs,
Chronicles II. Actor Sean Penn, who narrated the abridged audiobook version of Chronicles: Volume One, said, during an appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, that he's "about to do" the audiobook for "the second one."
In an interview in 2012, Dylan suggested that in the second book he would take a closer look at some of his early albums, including 1963's The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and 1964's Another Side of Bob Dylan. “It would definitely start with records," said Dylan. "I stumbled into a strategy of going into the future and into the past … The whole early part of the first Chronicles
was supposed to be based on some old record – maybe Another Side of Bob Dylan.. Someplace in the 1960s. I was going to use that [record] and then I could go into the future. “Well, what happened was that I … kind of just stayed there, and didn’t really go into the future. When I started writing about the early days in New York, I found it all extremely interesting. When you start doing that, it amazes you what you uncover without even trying.” Of course, what you may be reading may not be the truth as Dylan has said that he takes a “novelistic” approach to writing. And that was the case with the first book with Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin saying, “I enjoy Chronicles as a work of literature, but it has as much basis in reality as Masked and Anonymous [the 2003 movie Dylan was in], and why shouldn’t it? He’s not the first guy to write a biography that’s a pack of lies.” No word from Dylan's camp on when the book will be published.
Queens Of The Stone Age announce 'Alive In The Catacombs' live movie of first ever concert staged there
Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the Catacombs is a unique and intimate experience that captures the band in a once-in-a-lifetime performance in the Catacombs of Paris. The setlist features reimagined songs from the band's catalog, played in a stripped-down manner to match the atmosphere of the Catacombs. With no electricity and only a car battery to power the electric piano, the recording captures the acoustics and ambient sounds of the space, creating a darkly atmospheric and immersive experience. Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the Catacombs will be released on June 5 and is available for pre-order now at qotsa.com. Orders made by June 7th will receive exclusive behind-the-scenes footage along with full streaming and download access.
Stevie Nicks' Former Beachfront Home for Sale at $3.9 Million
A beachfront condo previously owned by Stevie Nicks is on the market for $3.9 million in Marina del Rey, California. The three-bedroom unit offers stunning ocean views and features a spacious living room with a fireplace, a gourmet kitchen, and a rooftop patio. Nicks owned the property in the '70s and '80s during her time with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. Nicks is currently working on her first album since 2011 and has upcoming performances scheduled with Billy Joel and a solo tour in August.
IN OTHER NEWS
Eddie Vedder has shared a teaser for his documentary A Matter of Time, which will premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York City on June 12th. Check it out on Instagram.
Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road" is the soundtrack for the Nobody 2 trailer. The sequel, which stars Bob Odenkirk, features "Nobody" taking his family on vacation. Watch it on
YouTube. And this Wednesday on YouTube, Buckingham will release the second episode of Lindsey + Leelee React, his series with his oldest daughter, Leelee. This time out they will examine Charli XCX’s video for “Von Dutch.” The debut video was for Buckingham’s "Slow Dancing" off his second album, 1984's Go Insane.
The Mick Jagger-produced film about Miles Davis, Miles & Julitette, has been cast. Damson Idris, from the Netflix drama Snowfall, will portray the jazz great.
James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen's wife Patti Scialfa, and Rodney Crowell are among the artists performing at Trisha Yearwood and Friends Celebrate Linda Ronstadt and Los Angeles Country-Rock, July 22nd at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater in Nashville.
Al Stewart of "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages" fame is the latest artist to announce a farewell tour. The first leg starts August 30th in Old Saybrook, Connecticut and wraps up September 9th in New York City.