Famed producer Trevor Horn’s residential studio in the Los Angeles hills — a six-bedroom home and state-of-the-art recording facility above Bel Air — is among the hundreds of structures lost in the devastating wildfires currently tearing across Southern California. Horn has vowed to rebuild the facility.
Scott McCaughey, leader of the Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5, and who spent 17 years as a touring guitarist and multi-instrumentalist for R.E.M., suffered a stroke while on a tour of the West Coast with Alejandro Escovedo, his wife announced today. He is in stable condition, but a long recovery is expected.
We here at Slicing Up Eyeballs HQ are, admittedly, not fans of sport, but were nevertheless duly impressed to see the jumbotron operator at a Washington Wizards basketball game this past week throw the camera onto local fan Guy Picciotto, an icon of D.C.’s post-hardcore scene after his pivotal role in both Rites of Spring and Fugazi.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds today revealed that Conway Savage, who plays piano and organ, and provides backing vocals, has been absent from this year’s Bad Seeds tour because he underwent surgery that was “largely a success” for a recently diagnosed brain tumor. Read the full statement from the band.
Police in Athens, Ga., this week arrested a former contractor accused of stealing $20,000 in audio gear from the 40 Watt Club, a burglary that had drawn offers of more than $15,000 in rewards from members of R.E.M., Camper Van Beethoven and others. The gear has been recovered, police said.
The legendary 40 Watt Club in Athens, Ga. — an early home base for college-rock mainstays R.E.M., The B-52s, Pylon, Love Tractor, Guadalcanal Diary and more — was burglarized Friday, with dozens of pieces of equipment stolen related to the venue’s PA system. Members of R.E.M. and Cracker have offered rewards.
Musicians and fans from around the world are standing in solidarity today with the people of Manchester, site of an Islamic State-claimed suicide bombing that killed at least 22 fans leaving an Ariana Grande arena concert last night. We’ve rounded up reactions from Johnny Marr, Peter Hook, Alison Moyet, Pet Shop Boys and more.
As part of the promotion for its new album and tour, Depeche Mode has been letting a different fan take over the band’s Facebook page each day for a year, and, well, some of those fans — like skateboard legend Tony Hawk — are more well-known than others.
Morrissey has announced, through his customary outlet, the quasi-official fansite True To You, that his 30-year publishing deal with Warner-Chappell Music “has come to an end” — and that he’s now shopping his solo catalog and The Smiths’ catalog to any new publishers that might be interested.
On this holiest of holy days — Record Store Day, of course — Johnny Marr took to Facebook to lament the ongoing loss of record stores, calling them “a very important kind of shop,” and blaming greedy landlords for pricing music more and more retailers “out of their premises and livelihoods, and our culture.”
Warner Music UK today launched a new official website for The Smiths, an timeline dubbed “The Interactive Sound of The Smiths: 1982-1987” that lets visitors scroll through the history of the band as presented through its discography, with each single and full album available to stream via Spotify.
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