Rolling Stone is one of Australia’s longest-running magazines. Since 1971 it has been the premier music & entertainment magazine in Australia. It reflects both global and Australian popular culture with passion, honesty and attitude.
“When Siri can get more than 10 per cent of the things I ask her correct, come back and talk to me about new life forms.” We Be Jammin’ JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I knew everything there was to know about Pearl Jam’s classic album, you go and prove me wrong. Thanks Paul Brannigan for renewing my love for this amazing, life-changing album. If you haven’t listened to it recently, I recommend digging it out for a spin. Ben Young, Ballina, NSW Into the Frey DAVID BOWIE GETS A LARGE feature when he dies, Lemmy gets a full story, even Jon English gets a page, yet Glenn Frey gets a couple of paragraphs as issued by the Eagles with a disclaimer at the bottom saying he died too close to…
Havana’s Newest Hitmakers “Good evening to my Cuban people,” said Mick Jagger as he surveyed more than 500,000 fans packed into Ciudad Deportiva in Havana for a free show. “This is a new time.” After decades of rock music being taboo under the Castro regime, the Stones made history ripping through tunes like “Out of Control” and “Gimme Shelter”. The night before, the band dined on rice and beans at a private Havana club, and Jagger danced the rumba. Said Keith Richards, “This is amazing. Maybe I’ll just stay here forever!” STADIUM DAZE Luke Hemmings of 5 Seconds of Summer looks overwhelmed by the crowd at their London O2 Arena show. SCHOOL OF ROCK For the 50th anniversary of ABC’s iconic children’s TV show Play School, Aussie musicians like You…
‘THE QUESTION IS, ARE WE rock & roll?” Ice Cube asked the crowd at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center during N.W.A’s induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8th. He was referring to Gene Simmons’ recent claim that hip-hop acts like N.W.A don’t belong in the institution. “I say, ‘You goddamn right we rock & roll!’” Cube continued. “Rock & roll is not an instrument. Rock & roll is not even a style of music. Rock & roll is a spirit.” Moments earlier, the surviving members of N.W.A had joined together onstage to become the fifth hip-hop act to enter the Hall of Fame. Said Compton native Kendrick Lamar in his induction speech, “The fact that a famous group can look just like one of us and dress…
One of the night’s most surprising moments came when Steve Miller launched into a backstage rant against the music industry and the Hall of Fame itself. “This get-together you guys have here is like a private boys’ club, and it’s a bunch of jackasses and jerks and fucking gangsters and crooks,” he said. Hall of Fame president and CEO Joel Peresman issued a point-by-point rebuttal to Miller, who claimed, among other things, that his band didn’t receive free seats to the show. “He should have looked at the night as a celebration of his music and just gone from there,” Peresman said. (Disclosure: ROLLING STONE editor and publisher Jann Wenner is chairman of the Rock Hall Foundation.) The Black Keys, who inducted Miller, were baffled by his behaviour. “The first…
BY JULY LAST YEAR, PAUL SIMON had been working on his 13th solo album for more than three years. But he still felt it needed a more modern touch. So while on tour in Milan, he made a pit stop to visit the obscure Italian dance-music artist Clap! Clap! “My 23-year-old son, Adrian, is a composer, and he told me about him,” says Simon. “He’s hardly known here in America, but he takes African samples and puts digital dance grooves behind it. He makes music sound new and old at the same time.” Clap! Clap! ended up adding beats to three songs on Simon’s Stranger to Stranger (due June 3rd), e-mailing his contributions from his studio in Sardinia. With his help, Simon was able to realise the adventurous sound he…
A year and a half after releasing Songs of Innocence, U2 are still hammering away in a Los Angeles studio for the companion album, Songs of Experience. They’ve considered 50 song ideas so far; now, according to the Edge, they’re concentrating on 20 songs they’re “actually really excited about”. The difficult part is being “brutal” in their elimination process, but, the guitarist says, “Things are still in their rough state but sounding really great.” The bandmates are still at work recording without any time frame for releasing Songs of Experience, and they may even head out on tour before the record gets released. “We’re definitely still in the weeds here,” Edge says. “We’re not booking the pressing plant just yet.”…
