Music

Pop and R&B icons remember the career of George Michael in a brief teaser for George Michael: Freedom, a new documentary on the singer. Michael died on December 25th, 2016 at age 53. Michael worked on the documentary before his death, narrating the film and co-directing it. The brief trailer …

Leonard Cohen‘s final book of poetry, The Flame, will be published in October 2018, the Guardian reports. Cohen finished the book just months before his death, in November 2016, at age 82. The collection will include mostly new material, according to the publisher, Canongate. Cohen’sformer manager and the trustee of …

By the dawn of the Nineties, R.E.M. had become that rarest of musical breeds: a globally famous rock band with integrity to match. During the course of the previous decade they parlayed their success as relentlessly gigging college-radio darlings into something far bigger, selling out stadiums while simultaneously avoiding the …

Pastoral synthesizer landscapist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith broke out last year with Ears, an acclaimed set of Terry Riley-esque gurgles and flutters, using noise to evoke nature. On her sixth LP, The Kid, a concept album about the human life cycle, she paints an even lusher world using cosmic swoops, squelches …

Tom Petty, the dynamic and iconoclastic frontman who led the band the Heartbreakers, died Monday. He was 66.Petty’s death was confirmed by Tony Dimitriades, longtime manager of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, on behalf of the family. “On behalf of the Tom Petty family, we are devastated to announce the …

The Long Way Back, a new Sublime documentary, details how drug addiction ravaged the California ska-punk band after frontman Bradley Nowell’s 1996 death from a heroin overdose. The film premieres October 17th via VOD platforms, including iTunes and Amazon. The doc’s gripping trailer, premiering at Rolling Stone, highlights how Nowell’s …

Jack Johnson unearthed a song from his high school-era Minor Threat cover band during a visit to Mike D’s Beats 1 radio show The Echo Chamber. As Johnson told the Beastie Boys rapper, he and his band Limber Chicken initially planned on starting a Fugazi cover band before realizing that …

There are film snobs who like to feel superior to meat-and-potatoes action thrillers, favoring only art films meant to be deconstructed over high tea. They can screw off. My feeling is when gung-ho escapism is dished out with the enthusiasm and expertise of American Assassin, why resist? Directed by Michael …

Grant Hart, drummer and singer of the seminal alternative rock band Hüsker Dü, has died at 56 after being diagnosed with liver cancer. The news wasconfirmed by his bandmate Bob Mould on Facebook. “The tragic news of Grant’s passing was not unexpected to me,” Mould wrote. “My deepest condolences and …

Stevie Wonder delivered a rousing rendition of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” to open the Hand in Hand telethon to benefit victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Prior to his performance, Wonder delivered a poignant message about equality and unity, as well as a sharp remark about climate change: …