U2 gave away their new album Songs of Innocence, with the record automatically appearing in the music libraries of some 500 million iTunes users.
The album, the 13th studio release from the Irish rockers, included the lead single “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone),” which was featured in a TV ad for Apple. Other singles included “Every Breaking Wave” and “Song for Someone.”
But not everyone wanted Songs of Innocence. In fact, angry Apple customers compared the unwanted album to “spam” or “junk mail,” and Apple was forced to create a way for users to delete it from their accounts.
Bono later apologized, taking “full responsibility” for the stunt.
The music of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings is being explored in a new collection.
Simply titled Wings, the anthology, personally overseen by McCartney, will be released digitally and as a three-LP or two-CD set. It features remastered versions of such Wings classics as “Band on the Run, “Live and Let Die,” “Jet, “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘Em In” and more.
There will also be a three-LP, limited edition color vinyl version; a Blu-ray that will feature the first ever Dolby Atmos mixes of the songs; a one-LP and a one-CD version.
In addition to the music, the physical releases will feature a 32-page booklet with trivia, photos and paintings, as well as original artwork created by Humphrey Ocean, the artist in residence for Wings’ 1976 tour. There are also extensive notes on the artwork, written by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of Hipgnosis, the design studio responsible for the covers of seven Wings albums.
The anthology will come out just days after McCartney releases a new book about his Wings era: Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run will be released Nov. 4.
‘Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…’ album artwork. Run For Cover Records
AFI has released a new song called “Holy Visions,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…
Like the record’s previously released lead single, “Behind the Clock,” “Holy Visions” explores the ’80s goth side of the “Miss Murder” outfit’s sound. You can watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.
“Getting to work with Gilbert on two videos was a joy,” frontman Davey Havok says of director Gilbert Trejo, who also directed the “Behind the Clock” video. “‘Holy Visions’ is the perfect visual sublimation of the song.”
Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… is due out Oct. 3. It’s the follow-up to 2021’s Bodies.
AFI will launch a U.S. headlining tour Sept. 30 in Madison, Wisconsin.
In addition to taking home her first Moon Person for best country for “Am I Okay?” at Sunday’s VMAs, Megan Moroney treated the New York audience to a performance of her latest radio single, “6 Months Later.”
“It makes me realize that we all have bad taste in men and women,” she jokes. “I think it’s a funny song and it was, like, very therapeutic to write. It’s so fun to sing live, so I love that my fans love it, too.”
Even though it has just started its climb up the chart, Megan says it’s already a concert favorite.
“That is like a peak in the Am I Okay? Tour show,” she tells ABC Audio. “I don’t announce it. And I’m just like, ‘So let’s play this next one.’ And then they lose it when they hear like the drum hits, so it’s very fun.”
Megan’s tour continues through mid-October, with “6 Months Later” expected to be on her follow-up to 2024’s Am I Okay? album.
The Zombies’ ‘Odessey and Oracle’/Beechwood Park Records
The Zombies are set to reissue their iconic sophomore album, Odessey and Oracle,on Sept. 26, and members of the band will celebrate the release with some special events in England.
Frontman Colin Blunstone and bassist/co-songwriter Chris White are set to appear at two events: an acoustic performance and Q&A on Sept. 25 at EartH Theatre in London, and a listening party and Q&A at Pioneer Club in the band’s hometown of St. Albans.
After Odessey and Oracle was recorded in 1967,the album was remixed in a then-new stereo format. According to a press release, that “sacrificed key elements from the mono recording.” The new reissue will be in mono, with the band noting in an Instagram post that it allows fans a chance to “experience the album the way it was intended to be heard and seen: raw, rich and timeless.”
Released in April 1968, Odessey and Oracle was not a commercial success when it came out. In fact, The Zombies has already broken up by the time the album was released. But the album’s third single, “Time of the Season,” became a hit in the U.S. almost a year later, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It went on to become an iconic song for the band.
Lorde performs during day three of Glastonbury festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 27, 2025 in Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
Lorde is still on a journey when it comes to her gender expression.
The singer previously said in an interview for Rolling Stone that she feels “in the middle gender-wise,” and in a new interview with DAZED magazine she talks more about what that means for her.
“[S]ome days, I can’t wear women’s clothes,” she says. “I’ve had to figure out how to have my make-up done in a way that doesn’t make me feel trapped or tight or like the wrong thing. Now I just tell people, ‘Treat it like male grooming.’”
Lorde says she came into an understanding of herself after she taped her chest for the first time in 2023 while envisioning how she would perform the song “Man of the Year.” In doing so, she “felt a very pure version of myself present.” But she explains she’s not changing her pronouns right now.
“It’s all a journey,” she says. “I have no idea where it’s gonna go; it doesn’t feel like I’ve arrived anywhere permanent at all. I’m sure it’ll keep unfurling, the way these things do. It really took me by surprise how much shame I felt – feeling all that come up wasn’t easy.”
“I just think it takes time to metabolize and find itself. I’m excited to find out where that lands, if it ever does land,” she adds. “Your whole life it keeps unfurling.”
‘Fa La La Family’ by Scott & Mark Hoying (Henry Holt and Co./Artwork by Steph Lew)
Scott Hoying of Pentatonix has got a lot going on at the moment: He was just announced as a contestant on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and he and his husband Mark Hoying just released their second children’s book, Fa La La Family— and a whole children’s holiday album to go with it.
Scott tells ABC Audio that he and Mark wrote Fa La La Family over a year ago, but about a month ago, Mark suggested they do an album. The couple turned the book’s text into a song, and then wrote and recorded the album, M.Y. F.A.M.I.L.Y., which features their pal Meghan Trainor.
“It came together quickly … in, like, a magical way,” Scott says — and this is just the beginning.
“Every picture book we ever write will probably have a song that goes with it … especially since picture books are so song-like,” he says, comparing it to “like building our own little Marvel universe.”
Fa La La Family shows families of all kinds and nationalities celebrating Christmas.
“You always hear people be like, ‘Christmas isn’t my favorite time of year because I don’t get to go home to family,’ or ‘I was kicked out of the house’ or ‘I’m not close to my family,'” Scott says. “And we think … the definition of family is just love.” In fact, Scott and Mark are in the process of becoming parents themselves.
Meanwhile, Scott’s getting ready to hit the ballroom Sept. 16. He says his Dancing with the Stars costumes are better than the giant sushi roll costume he wore when Pentatonix competed on The Masked Singer.
“I had to have two people help me walk if I ever had to go to the bathroom,” he laughs. “…But now I get to wear a glittery, form-fitting suit, which is what I would wear every day!”
Lzzy Hale of Halestorm performs at Pine Knob Music Theatre on August 19, 2025 in Clarkston, Michigan. (Scott Legato/Getty Images)
Halestorm will launch their U.S. nEVEREST tour in support of their new album, Everest, Thursday in Salem, Virginia. As frontwoman Lzzy Hale tells ABC Audio, the band plans on “upping the ante with our production” for the trek.
“[We’re] having a lot of fun with it and really kind of digging into the visuals and the fantasy aspect of the artwork and how the songs coincide with that,” Hale says.
Notably, Everest is the first Halestorm record not to feature an image of Hale or her bandmates on the cover. Instead, the “I Miss the Misery” rockers channel a more ’80s metal vibe with an image of a demon looming over a naked woman lying on the ground.
As for what that all means, well, that’s the point.
“We have this … looming darkness in the background and then we have the mountain, and there’s a staircase, which, where does that lead?” Hale asks. “I don’t know.”
“Why is there a woman on the slab, and why is she cold?” she continues. “Why is she naked? We don’t know!”
While the artwork and production may be more fantastical, on the music side, Halestorm promises a classic rock ‘n’ roll experience.
“We’re still a bare-bones band,” Hale says. “We don’t play with a click or with backing tracks or anything, and we switch up the set every night because we have some crazy superfans that come and see every single show.”
“We’re looking forward to just kind of raising the bar a little bit with everything that we do and giving the people that come and see us a real show,” she continues. “I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Halestorm’s tour will also feature violinist Lindsey Stirling and cello metallers Apocalyptica on the bill.
CheapTrick’s Rick Nielsen and Daxx Nielsen, Toto’s Steve Porcaro and The Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin are among the artists taking part in the upcoming Freezing Man concerts, raising support for epilepsy research and education.
The concerts, put on by the nonprofit Joey’s Song, will take place Jan. 9 and 10 at The Sylvee in Madison, Wisconsin, and will feature all-star collaborations from over 35 artists.
Other artists on this year’s bill include The Bangles‘ Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson, Garbage’s Butch Vig and Duke Erikson, and members of such bands as Silversun Pickups, Belly, Letters To Cleo, Portugal. The Man and Eve 6.
Freezing Man will consist of two different shows, an unplugged night on Jan. 9 and an electric show on Jan. 10, with Vig acting as musical director and his covers group The Know-It-All Boyfriends acting as the house band.
Tickets for the shows go on sale Friday at JoeysSong.org.
The organization Joey’s Song was founded 15 years ago in memory of a young boy named Joey Gomoll (Gum-ahl), who passed away before turning 5 after a battle with a severe form of epilepsy. Previous benefit concerts have raised more than $1.5 million for epilepsy research and education.
Thomas Rhett‘s new radio single is “Ain’t a Bad Life,” which features Jordan Davis. It follows “After All the Bars Are Closed,” which is the 24th #1 of his career.
Emily Ann Roberts‘ seven-track Memory Lane EP arrives Oct. 3, featuring the track “Jack & Jill Daniel’s,” which is out now.
“Every Piece,” the new track from Hunter Hayes, is set to arrive Sept. 19.
