Tom Breihan

It’s been a little more than two years since the Weeknd released his last album, the excellent Dawn FM. He’s been plenty busy since then — touring, making a bad TV show, feuding with Drake, etc. Now, the Weeknd is building up to a new album, which he says will be the last one that comes out under the name he’s been using since House Of Balloons. This morning, he’s shared three and a half minutes of new music, which may or may not appear on this mysterious upcoming LP.

From the outside, it looks like Journey are among classic rock’s most indestructible battleships. Iconic howler Steve Perry hasn’t been in the band since 1998, and they haven’t hard a chart hit since two years before that. Still, “Don’t Stop Believin'” keeps going through revival after revival, and Journey can continue to headline arenas, no matter who’s in the current lineup. But Journey do have one crucial problem: The two longtime guitarists who can’t stop suing each other over access to the band’s credit card. If that happens enough times, it’ll inevitably interfere with your touring plans.

Last year, Christopher Clark, the producer known to most of us as just-plain Clark, released his album Sus Dog and its companion piece Cave Dog. Thom Yorke was the executive producer of Sus Dog, and now Clark has scored Yorke into the world of film scoring. Clark did the music for In Camera, a British indie film that had its debut at the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year. Now, he’s getting ready to release that score as an album.

The legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert has had one hell of a life in music. Consider: This guy co-wrote “Wonderful World” for Sam Cooke, and he did that 64 years ago. In the ’60s, Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, his big band, sold a whole lot of horny easy-listening instrumental music. Their album Whipped Cream And Other Delights was the biggest-selling LP of 1966. (Alpert actually had three of that year’s five most successful albums; his only competition was the Sound Of Music soundtrack and Revolver.) Alpert landed his first #1 hit when he sang Burt Bacharach’s “This Guy’s In Love With You” in 1968, and his funky 1979 instrumental smash “Rise” became the basis of Biggie Smalls’ “Hypnotize.” Alpert also co-founded A&M Records, and he was still making hits with A&M star Janet Jackson deep into the ’80s. He’s still going now. Amazing.

Last year, the grimy Seattle punks Filth Is Eternal released their album Find Out. Earlier this summer, I saw them open for Baroness and Ruby The Hatchet, and it was a sick-ass show. Now, Filth Is Eternal have shared their version Hole’s “Violet,” an all-time classic of ’90s alt-rock.

The St. Louis hardcore band Squint released their first two EPs, Feel It and Wash Away, in 2022, and both of them kick absolute fucking ass. Last year, they dropped the one-off single “All” and made our list of favorite new bands. Today, Squint drop another one-off track on us, and it’s another banger.

Lael Neale Shares New Single "Electricity": Listen

This past weekend’s Newport Folk Festival opened with Beck covering Bob Dylan in a surprise set, and it ended with Conan O’Brien playing music with his friends. O’Brien is having a great year, with a new HBO travel show and a a viral Hot Ones episode reminding the world that he’s one of the funniest people around. O’Brien told a few jokes at Newport, but he wasn’t there for that. He was there to play a show.

Last week, MUNA lead singer Katie Gavin announced her debut solo album What A Relief and dropped the lead single “Aftertaste.” On Saturday night, Gavin previewed the album with a solo-acoustic set at the Newport Folk Festival. This wasn’t Gavin’s first time playing solo — there’s video of her playing the Evanston venue SPACE way the hell back in 2011 — but it was her first solo show since MUNA started in 2013.

A few weeks ago, Big Thief announced the departure of bassist Max Oleartchik, citing only vague “interpersonal reasons.” That’s a huge change for a band that seems to communicate on a telepathic level, especially while onstage. Last night, a new Big Thief lineup headlined Portland’s Project Pabst festival. This was the group’s first show in nearly a year, and it was the world’s first glimpse of how they might sound going forward. Big Thief marked the occasion by playing a set that was almost entirely new material.