Long awaited new Charlatans UK studio album arrives in October

The Charlatans UK's 14th studio album, We Are Love, is due out Oct. 31, via BMG. frontman Tim Burgess describes the title track as "like an open-top car ride in the credits of your favorite movie, driving along the coast to somewhere amazing."

One of the first tracks to emerge as the Manchester band was writing, it became a pathfinder for the record, as guitarist Mark Collins explains: "Early on, we thought it felt right. And it turned out that way: first single, title track, second song on the album. And things started forming around 'We Are Love.' There was a certain energy to it that drove us forward.”

LISTEN TO "WE ARE LOVE"
PRE-ORDER WE ARE LOVE

The Charlatans UK's career spans 13 albums, 22 Top 40 UK singles, and three Number One UK albums. 

An eight-year gap between albums is the longest ever for one of the UK’s most enduring bands. A combination of covid, solo projects, life’s complexities and the fact that its five members - Tim Burgess (vocals) Martin Blunt (bass), Mark Collins (guitar), Tony Rogers (keyboards) and Pete Salisbury (drums) - live scattered across Europe, meant that it took longer than usual for the stars to align at the right place, right time, right vibe. 

They took the time to carefully select a recording A-team of production duo Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange) and Fred Macpherson, plus legendary producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries). 

Recorded at two places that are totemic in The Charlatans UK's history - Rockfield in Wales and their own Big Mushroom space in Middlewich, Cheshire - Burgess cites hauntology and psychogeography as two concepts that swirled in his head as the band dug into the album making. 

For one thing, their return to storied farm studio Rockfield for the first time in almost 30 years, since they made their fifth album Tellin’ Stories, was an important step. As a band, they hadn’t been there since keyboard player Rob Collins was killed, in the middle of that album’s sessions, in a car crash at the bottom of the track leading to the farm. 

“The whole idea of hauntology and psychogeography is represented by us going back to Rockfield, where so much history has happened for The Charlatans," says Burgess. "That was important as a way of honoring every member who's played in the band. So we’re honouring ourselves, our past, feeling that energy and reincarnating it, doing something fresh, brand new.”

Track list:

Kingdom of Ours

We Are Love
Many A Day A Heartache
For The Girls
You Can’t Push The River
Deeper and Deeper
Appetite
Salt Water
Out On Our Own
Glad You Grabbed Me
Now Everything

Last Dinner Party return with new album in October

Female alt-rock quintet The Last Dinner Party will release From The Pyre, their second studio album, on Oct. 17 via Island Records.

The first single is “This Is The Killer Speaking”. Watch the video here and listen to the track here. Pre-order on all formats here.

The band collectively share about their new album:

“This record is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. ‘The Pyre’ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light.

“The songs are character driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”

“This record feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated an opulent table. It also feels metatextual and cheeky in places, like a knowing look reflected back at ourselves.”

The Last Dinner Party will perform at Connecticut’s Soundside Festival, as well as both NYC and Washington DC editions of All Things Go Festival. Tickets for all dates are available here.

For From The Pyre, the London musicians - Abigail Morris (vocals), Lizzie Mayland (vocals, guitar), Emily Roberts (lead guitar, mandolin, flute), Georgia Davies (bass) and Aurora Nishevci (keyboards, vocals) - headed into the studio early 2025 with Grammy Award winning producer Markus Dravs (Wolf Alice, Florence & The Machine, Bjork) to start work on the follow-up to their number 1 debut album, 2023’s Prelude to Ecstasy. 

The band has won two BRIT Awards (including Breakthrough Artist earlier this year).

Track listing:

1. Agnus Dei

2. Count The Ways
3. Second Best
4. This Is The Killer Speaking
5. Rifle
6. Woman Is A Tree
7. I Hold Your Anger
8. Sail Away
9. The Scythe
10. Inferno

U.S. festival appearances:

Sep 26 All Things Go Washington, DC, USA

Sep 27 Soundside Music Festival Bridgeport, CT, USA

Sep 28 All Things Go Forest Hills, NY, USA

Robert Plant news

Robert Plant has announced the release of Saving Grace: the first album featuring a new band which he calls "a song book of the lost and found." Arriving Sept. 26 on Nonesuch Records, the genesis of Saving Grace began during the COVID-19 lockdown in "The Shire."

While his recent adventures have centred around Nashville, having reunited with Alison Krauss for 2021's chart-topping, multi GRAMMY-nominated Raise The Roof, it was in the English countryside that Robert Plant connected closely to this group of musicians.

Plant and Saving Grace – vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, cellist Barney Morse-Brown – have spent the past six years growing into a wide-ranging workshop of styles and personalities, weaving through time and circumstance with joy and abandon.

"We laugh a lot, really. I think that suits me. I like laughing," Plant says. "You know, I can't find any reason to be too serious about anything. I'm not jaded. The sweetness of the whole thing…These are sweet people and they are playing out all the stuff that they could never get out before. They have become unique stylists and together they seem to have landed in a most interesting place."

Following his previous acclaimed releases on Nonesuch Records – 2014's lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar and 2017's Carry Fire – Saving Grace brings yet another chapter. Produced by Robert Plant and Saving Grace – and recorded between April 2019 and January 2025 in the Cotswolds and on the Welsh Borders – Saving Grace breathes fresh life into a collection of century-old music. A treasury of songs featured back in time by Memphis Minnie, Bob Mosley (Moby Grape), Blind Willie Johnson, The Low Anthem, Martha Scanlan, Sarah Siskind, and Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk's Low.

Listen to Robert Plant and Saving Grace's reimagined rendition of Low's "Everybody's Song," out today

After touring extensively across the UK and Europe in recent months and years, Robert Plant and Saving Grace will perform for the first time in the US this fall, with an initial run of a dozen North American shows. Find the full list below, and tickets at robertplant.com/#tour.

Pre-Order Saving Grace

Track list:

Chevrolet
As I Roved Out
It's A Beautiful Day Today
Soul Of A Man
Ticket Taker
I Never Will Marry
Higher Rock
Too Far From You
Everybody's Song
Gospel Plough

Robert Plant & Saving Grace U.S. Tour Dates:

October 30 - Wheeling, WV - Capitol Theatre Wheeling
November 2 - Charlottesville, VA - The Paramount Theater of Charlottesville
November 3 - Washington, DC - Lincoln Theatre
November 5 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
November 6 - Boston, MA - Boch Center Shubert Theatre
November 8 - Port Chester, NY - Capitol Theatre
November 10 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
November 12 - Chicago, IL - The Vic
November 13 - Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk Music
November 15 - Denver, CO - Ellie Caulkins Opera House
November 18 - Seattle, WA - The Moore Theatre
November 19 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre
November 21 - Oakland, CA - The Fox
November 22 - Los Angeles, CA - United Theater on Broadway

Dramarama concert review: Fontana, Calif.

Concert Review

Dramarama

Stage Red, Fontana, Calif. 

July 11

Stage Red, among the Inland Empire’s newest concert venues located in Fontana, officially launched in June 2024 with a concert by Sammy Hagar. His branding agents partnered with officials from his hometown and local musician IZ Avila to open it (Hagar’s name adorns the marquee). I finally had an opportunity to check out the establishment on July 11 when Dramarama headlined and was impressed.  

The intimate venue, with a capacity of around 350, is owned by the City of Fontana. Originally built as a 1937 Art Deco movie house, it more recently served as the Center Stage Theater until closing in 2022 for major renovations.

Ticketing options include general admission/standing room pit, premium general admission and the VIP balcony level which overlooks the stage. There is a bar on the main GA level and some food is available. I spotted some early arrivals sharing a pepperoni pizza. Entering the parking garage located behind the venue was easy with an attendant ($10; a total bargain these days).  

In the merch area, various live photos and posters of Hagar adorn the walls. Patrons can buy copies of his and Guy Fieri’s book Sammy Hagar’s Cocktail Hits, plus Red Rocker shirts, hats and bags. The sound and lighting systems were good; the spacious stage is positioned high enough for decent vantage points around the general admission area.

Dramarama kicked off the high energy, 75-minute set with frenetic rocker “Some Crazy Dame” (off debut album “Cinema Verite” – marking its 40^th anniversary this year). Fans were excited from the get-go. Sporting three original members (singer John Easdale, guitarists Mark Englert and Peter Wood), plus long-serving drummer Tony Snow and bassist Mike Davis, the alt-rock band proved it still has plenty of firepower.   

The exciting “Spare Change” and “Out in the Rain” were early highlights. It’s always fun to watch how newcomers react to the lyrical list of retro shows Easdale sings about during “70’s TV” (from 1989 gem “Stuck in Wonderamaland”), where Wood’s guitar work was prominent. Englert, laser focused as always, came across the most riveting amid “Ain’t It the Truth,” the harrowing “Prayer” and “It’s Only Money.” The latter track and a fierce, mildly politically minded “Up to Here” are both off 2020’s exceptional “Color TV” album. Meanwhile, Snow often held down the beat and Davis, the bottom end, with fury.

At one point mid-set, a concertgoer apparently yelled out for the band to play its rousing signature song “Anything Anything (I’ll Give You).” Easdale replied that it was too soon. “I did that when I was 14,” he joked, meaning that they save the most vocally taxing tune in the catalog for last. Another time, the singer quipped to diehard Dramarama fans, “You might have noticed I’m not drinking Tab” cola (his usual onstage beverage of choice) tonight – “or maybe not.”

Elsewhere, modern rock radio hits like “Haven’t Got a Clue,” the socially conscious “Work for Food” and rave up “Last Cigarette” had many people singing along loudly. Finally, it was time for the careening “Anything Anything (I’ll Give You)” and fans came through vocally again, matching the musicians’ energy.

Orange County Darkwave group Felix & the Foreshadow opened the Stage Red show. Engaging mohawked singer Felix Duenas continually prowled the stage and prompted audience interaction. “To Live and Die in L.A.” (not the Wang Chung song) came across like a spikier Placebo, while “Spell’s on Me” was somewhat reminiscent of Ministry. The best part of its set though came when Duenas strapped on an electric guitar for a chance of pace because their regular axe man was absent. Then they concluded with cool cover’s of B-Movie’s “Nowhere Girl,” plus bits of New Order’s “Blue Monday” and Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll.”

Selected upcoming Stage Red shows:

Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel, July 19

Julian Marley, July 24

The Village People, Aug. 1

The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Aug. 2

Steve Earle, Aug. 10

Judy Collins, Aug. 30

Shawn Mullins, Sept. 4

Pablo Cruise, Sept. 12

The Nelsons, Sept. 20

Reverend Horton Heat, Sept. 21

Drake White, Sept. 26

Orianthi, Oct. 2

Stephen Kellogg, Jon McLaughlin, Oct. 4

Spyro Gyra, Oct. 11

Five for Fighting, Oct. 24

Ambrosia, Dec. 21

Upcoming Dramarama shows:

8/9-10 Wonder Bar, Asbury Park, NJ

9/5 La Mirada Theatre, La Mirada, CA (with Missing Persons)

10/24 Pechanga Theater, Temecula, CA (with Oingo Boingo Former Members, Untouchables)

Upcoming Felix & the Foreshadow shows:

7/24 OC Fair Plaza Stage, Costa Mesa, CA

9/12 Whisky a Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA (with Powerman 5000)

11/1 The Canyon, Agoura Hills, CA (with Oingo Boingo Former Members)

For complete Stage Red show listings, go to stageredfontana.com.

dramarama.us.

felixandtheforeshadow.com

Dramarama photo courtesy Harvey Star/Pasadena Records

Rob Thomas of matchbox 20 has a new album in September, with tour later this summer

On his sixth solo album All Night Days, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Rob Thomas worked with producer Gregg Wattenberg (Goo Goo Dolls) and Grant Michaels for a project that marks his first release on Universal Records. It will be available on all platforms September 5. Listen to lead focus single “Hard To Be Happy” and acoustic B-side “Thrill Me” now here, and pre-order the album, including signed copies and exclusive color vinyl, here.

Speaking about the lead single, Rob says:

"I wanted to write a song that felt happy. More than ever, we live in a time where personal and mental wellness can become a focus in your life. For that to happen, it needs to be acceptable to say, ‘I’m not happy right now; I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin.’ The song itself is very no-filler. It shows, ‘It’s alright to be unhappy,’ but it’s wrapped up in a happy tune. The message is, ‘I’m going to be fine, but leave me alone for this second."

Rob will tour the US, Australia, and New Zealand, marking his first full tour since Matchbox Twenty’s “Slow Dream Tour,” and first headlining tour since 2019’s “Chip Tooth Tour.” For tickets and more information about “The All Night Days Tour,” visit https://robthomasmusic.com/events/.

About the new album, Thomas also adds, “I hope you see yourself in my music,” noting, “The great songs I listen to are the ones where I’m the hero of the story in my head, even if I don’t know the writer. There are a lot of ‘Saturday Night’ and ‘Sunday Morning’ songs on All Night Days. Maybe one of these tunes becomes a part of your life.”

Track listing:

1. Hand In My Hand

2. All Night Days
3. Hard To Be Happy
4. I Believe It
5. Thrill Me
6. Picture Perfect
7. Machine
8. No Good At Loving You
9. Ghost
10. Losing My Mind
11. Back To The Start

U.S. Tour:

Aug 1- Atlanta, GA - Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park
Aug 2 - Jacksonville, FL - Daily’s Place
Aug 3 - Boca Raton, FL - Mizner Park Amphitheater
Aug 5 - Nashville, TN - Ascend Amphitheater
Aug 6 - Raleigh, NC - Red Hat Amphitheater
Aug 8 - Richmond, VA - Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront
Aug 9 - Philadelphia, PA - TD Pavilion at the Mann
Aug 10 - Washington, DC - The Theater at MGM National Harbor
Aug 12 - New York, NY - Rooftop Pier 17
Aug 13 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug 15 - Boston, MA - Leader Bank Pavilion
Aug 16 - Bridgeport, CT - Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
Aug 18 - Dayton, OH - Rose Music Center @ The Heights
Aug 20 - Chicago, IL - Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Aug 22 - Indianapolis, IN - Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park
Aug 23 - Cincinnati, OH - PNC Pavilion at Riverbend Music Center
Aug 24 - Detroit, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
Aug 26 - St. Louis, MO - Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Aug 27 - Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre
Aug 29 - Irving, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Aug 30 - Houston, TX - Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
Sept 2 - Denver, CO - Bellco Theatre
Sept 4 - Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theatre
Sept 5 - Las Vegas, NV - Fontainebleau
Sept 6 - Los Angeles, CA - YouTube Theater

David Bowie box set 'I Can't Give Everything Away' covers final four studio albums and more in September

Parlophone Records in England has announced DAVID BOWIE 6. I CAN’T GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY (2002 – 2016), the sixth in a series of box sets spanning Bowie’s career from 1969.

The new set is the latest instalment in the award-winning and critically acclaimed series that includes DAVID BOWIE 1. FIVE YEARS (1969 – 1973), DAVID BOWIE 2. WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974 – 1976), DAVID BOWIE 3. A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977 – 1982), DAVID BOWIE 4. LOVING THE ALIEN (1983-1988) and DAVID BOWIE 5. BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992-2001) and will be released on Sept. 12.

DAVID BOWIE 6. I CAN’T GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY (2002 – 2016) is a twelve-CD, eighteen-piece vinyl and standard digital download/streaming box set named after the closing track on ★ (BLACKSTAR), Bowie’s final studio album. The box sets include newly remastered versions (except ★ and No Plan), with input from David’s co-producer Tony Visconti.

On Bowie’s birthday in Jan. 2017, the NO PLAN EP brought together the original songs written for Bowie's Off-Broadway play, LAZARUS, including the titular ‘Lazarus’, ‘No Plan’, ‘Killing A Little Time’, and ‘When I Met You’, all recorded during the sessions for ★ (BLACKSTAR).

Exclusive to each of the box sets are MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL and RE:CALL 6. The former was recorded on the 18th of July 2002 at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival and among the 31 tracks features a full performance bar one song of one of Bowie’s most revered albums, LOW. RE:CALL 6 features 41 non-album / alternative versions / b-sides and soundtrack songs, including tracks never previously available on CD or vinyl over 3CDs and 4LPs.

The physical box sets accompanying book, 128 pages in the CD box and 84 in the vinyl set, feature previously unseen notes, drawings and handwritten lyrics from Bowie and photos by Sukita (who took the set’s cover shot), Jimmy King, Frank W. Ockenfels 3, Markus Klinko, Mark ‘Blammo’ Adams and more as well as memorabilia, technical notes about the albums from co-producer Tony Visconti and design notes from Jonathan Barnbrook.

The CD box set will include faithfully reproduced mini-vinyl versions of the original albums where applicable, and the CDs will be gold-coloured rather than the usual silver. The vinyl box set has the same content as the CD set and is pressed on audiophile quality 180g vinyl.

Pre order here: David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away

Go to davidbowie.com for full track listings.

New album from '90s Brit pop band Cast due in January; select U.S. tour dates in the fall

Having kicked off the summer with the first two shows opening for Oasis, there’s still much more to come from Cast before the year is out, including their first US dates in 29 years, with Oasis and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and a just-announced headline show at New York’s Sony Hall on September 3. 

Cast are set to continue into 2026 with the news that they will release their new album, ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’, on January 30 via the Manchester-based independent label, Scruff of the Neck Records. New single ‘Poison Vine’ features soul legend, P.P. Arnold.

Frontman John Power had written some song ideas, but an unexpected opportunity to start recording emerged late in 2024 - months before he had originally planned to hit the studio. He travelled to Spain with bandmates Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson (guitar) and Keith O’Neill (drums), where the trio recorded the set with producer, Youth (The Verve, Primal Scream), at his Space Mountain studio. 

John says, “‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ just arrived out of the blue. There was a window of opportunity - Youth was free, the studio was free, and the band were free - and I thought, let providence prevail. No one had heard the songs apart from myself and (Creation Records founder) Alan McGee, but we both thought that we had something. You could feel it, even though none of the songs were really finished, and so we decided to roll with it and record them. It was more than just trying to capture a vibe - it was about trying to record something majestic, which is how Youth describes the record.”

John admits to being blown away by P.P. Arnold's delivery.

“There’s an angst to ‘Poison Vine’ that wrote itself: ‘Something deep inside you want me to find.’ It’s got a groove and a sassiness throughout the track, but when I heard them two vocals kicking in on the chorus, then I just knew we had it! I thought, that’s it, that’s the real thing.””

A Sixties soul survivor, Arnold is enjoying a new spell in the spotlight following her sensational Glastonbury set. The London-based American artist rose to prominence with classic solo hits such as ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ and ‘Angel of the Morning’, but she has played a part in all manner of famous moments, including Ike & Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High’, as well as collaborators with everyone from Small Faces and Nick Drake to Peter Gabriel and Rogers Waters, through to The KLF and Oasis. She first met Youth at a gig just a few days prior to recording ‘Poison Vine’ and will also feature on a second song on the 'Yeah Yeah Yeah' album.

‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ is available to pre-order HERE. It will be released on vinyl, CD, cassette and all digital formats. The most eye-catching format is a mouthwash effect liquid-filled 12” vinyl, which has been signed by the band and is limited to just 100 copies. The first 500 orders of any physical product from the band’s official store will also receive a signed print.

U.S. Tour dates:

SEPTEMBER

1st - East Rutherford, NJ - MetLife Stadium (special guests to Oasis)
3rd - New York, NY - Sony Hall (headliners)
6th - Los Angeles, CA - Rose Bowl Stadium (special guests to Oasis)
7th - Los Angeles, CA - Rose Bowl Stadium (special guests to Oasis)
9th - New York, Webster Hall (special guests to The Brian Jonestown Massacre)
10th - Philadelphia, Union Transfer (special guests to The Brian Jonestown Massacre)