Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (ABC/Randy Holmes)
Foo Fighters have released a new live EP called Are Playing Where??? Vol. I.
The six-track set was recorded during Dave Grohl and company’s recent run of last-minute pop-up shows, which took place in San Luis Obispo and Santa Ana, California, Washington, D.C. and New Haven, Connecticut.
Those concerts marked the Foos’ first with new drummer Ilan Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails. Rubin replaced drummer Josh Freese, who was let go from the band in May after joining in 2023 following the 2022 death of Taylor Hawkins.
Freese, incidentally, has returned to Nine Inch Nails, with whom he’d previously played from 2005 to 2008.
You can listen to Are Playing Where??? Vol. I now via Bandcamp.
Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox & Joe Don Rooney (Disney/Connie Chornuk)
When Rascal Flatts decided to make Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets, an album that reimagined their past hits and songs from their catalog, recording a new song with the Jonas Brothers wasn’t part of the plan.
Still, when the siblings suggested “I Dare You,” Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney were all on board.
“We were going back through our catalog,” Gary explains. “And originally it was gonna be like 10 of our number ones or something like that. But then when this song came about, it gave us a chance to be back in the studio together and cuttin’ some new music.”
“Which we hadn’t done for, you know, since ‘How They Remember You,’ five years [ago],” Jay interjects.
“And that song, I just think it’s really special,” Joe Don adds.
Nick Jonas was one of the co-writers on “I Dare You” with Dan + Shay‘s Shay Mooney, which led him to suggest it as an alternative. It’s a move that’s certainly worked out, since the song’s now a top-20 hit.
Flatts resume their reunion tour Jan. 15 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Cover of ‘Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run’/(Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company)
Paul McCartney is set to revisit his post-Beatles career with the new book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, and now fans have a chance to get their hands on a very special edition of the release.
The book’s publisher, Liveright, has announced that 175 numbered copies of the book signed by McCartney will be available throughout the U.S., although getting your hands on one may not be easy.
Liveright has released the list of stores that will carry copies of this rare signed book. Some stores will be auctioning it off, others are making it available for presale and at least one is asking those interested to register for a chance to buy it.
Each limited-edition copy will come in a cloth case with a screen print, and will include a booklet of Wings-era album and single artwork. There’s also an exclusive color vinyl of the upcoming Wings compilation LP, and a special enamel pin and embroidered patch.
Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, out Nov. 4, is described as “a landmark account” of McCartney’s “triumphant musical reinvention in the 1970s and the subsequent rise of one of the decade’s most iconic bands.” It contains over 150 photographs, including some never-before-seen shots, as well as memorabilia, like handwritten lyrics and pages from Paul’s diary.
McCartney is also celebrating Wings with a new anthology album, simply titled Wings, that will be released Nov. 24 digitally and as a three-LP or two-CD set. 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; and one-LP and one-CD versions of the album.
AJR will wrap up their Somewhere in the Sky tour Saturday with a big show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and the Met brothers plan to go out with, ahem, a “BANG!”
“We love doing weird stuff onstage that we’ve sort of become known for, like the magic illusions, and the shadows coming to life and a narrative that keeps poking back throughout,” band member Ryan Met tells ABC Audio. “We’re just really big fans of Broadway, and so we like kind of bringing that into the concert space.”
Ahead of the tour’s launch in June, AJR announced that Adam Met will be missing shows in order to focus on his climate advocacy work. Jack Met says that performing without one of his brothers has “been a weird transition.”
“It definitely feels like there’s something missing,” Jack says. “But we’re just super proud of all the work that [Adam has] been doing and that he’s taking the time to work on this stuff.”
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” he continues. “We’ve been working together onstage for, what, 20 years now, so it’s strange.”
As for whether Adam might show up for the Hollywood Bowl finale, Jack teases, “He might pop up.”
AJR released a new EP, What No One’s Thinking, in September. Their most recent album is 2023’s The Maybe Man.
J.I.D. performs during the 2025 Dreamville Music Festival at Dorothea Dix Park on April 06, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)
J.I.D has worked with several artists throughout the course of his career, but he specifically calls his collaboration with Eminem “a blessing.”
“It kind of lets me know that I’ve been going in the right direction because my whole career has been full circle moments like that,” he tells XXL of teaming with Em on “Fuel,” from Em’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) album. “Everyone that I like really grew up to or just loved and admired and looked to for something of depth or whatever I was looking for, most of those artists have circled back around and tapped in, you know what I’m saying?”
“It kind of blows my mind that I have certain relationships I’m able to text some of these people on my phone, literally,” he continues.
J.I.D has been grinding in the music game for eight years, preparing for opportunities and leaving the rest up to the “will of the gods.”
“I put my best foot forward, you know what I’m saying? I feel like that’s when you leave it up to the will of the gods. After you put your best foot forward, you put yourself out there and let the fans or let the people who listen to it do whatever they want with it because it’s out your hands,” he says.
He does, however, have a goal he wants to accomplish: “I want a BET nomination,” J.I.D says.
His latest album, God Does Like Ugly, dropped in August.
Taylor Swift ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ (Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott/TAS Rights Management)
If you thought “So High School” and “The Alchemy” were about Travis Kelce, wait’ll you hear some of the songs on Taylor Swift‘s new album, The Life of a Showgirl.
The album of 12 “bangers,” as Taylor described it, is indeed upbeat pop music, but a bit more stripped down than Reputation, her last collaboration with Max Martin and Shellback. Most of the tracks on the album are love letters to her fiancé, mostly sweet, but occasionally raunchy. Let’s just say the Jackson Five-sounding throwback “Wood” isn’t about lumber.
On the sweet end of things, “Honey” finds Taylor admitting that she never liked anyone calling her pet names until she met Travis. “You give it different meaning, ’cause you mean it when you talk,” she sings.
On “Wi$h Li$t,” she reveals her personal desire: “I just want you/ Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you/ We tell the world to leave us thе f*** alone, and they do, wow/ Got me drеaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop.”
The first track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” describes how Travis saved her heart from ending up like Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “No longer drowning and deceived/ All because you came for me.” It also has the only football metaphor on the album, “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes.”
But what would a Taylor Swift album be without diss tracks? “Actually Romantic” appears to be a direct response to Charli XCX‘s song “Sympathy is a knife,” which was said to be about Taylor.
“Father Figure,” which interpolates the George Michael song of the same name, seems to be about Scott Borchetta, who signed Taylor to her first record deal and ultimately set the wheels in motion for the Scooter Braun fiasco. “You pulled the wrong trigger/ This empire belongs to me,” sings Taylor.
The final track, Taylor’s duet with Sabrina Carpenter, “The Life of a Showgirl,” is a metaphor for how these two modern-day showgirls learned the tricks of the trade from the women who came before them and succeeded beyond everyone’s wildest dreams.
“I paid my dues with every bruise/ I knew what to expect,” they sing. “And all the headshots on the walls of the dance hall are of the b*****/ Who wish I’d hurry up and die/ But, I’m immortal now, baby dolls.”
Fittingly, the song ends with Taylor thanking the crowd and Sabrina answering, “I love you, Taylor.” “That’s our show,” Taylor says as the album concludes. “We love you so much. Goodnight.“
Cover of 1973’s ‘Buckingham Nicks’/(Rhino Records)
When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham released their debut album, Buckingham Nicks, in 1973, it failed to make any sort of significant appearance on the album charts. But more than 50 years later, that has all changed.
According to Billboard, the recent reissue of Buckingham Nicks has made an appearance on several charts, including the Top Album Sales chart, where it debuted at #3 after moving 30,000 copies in the U.S.
Buckingham Nicks did even better on several other charts, including the Top Rock Albums, Indie Store Album Sales and Catalog Albums charts, where it debuted at #1, and the Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Vinyl Albums charts, where it landed at #2.
As for the all-genre Billboard 200, Buckingham Nicks just missed the top 10, debuting at #11.
Buckingham Nicks is the only album the former couple released as a duo. It eventually led to them being invited to join Fleetwood Mac.
Dave King of Flogging Molly perfoms live on stage during the first day of the Wacken Open Air festival on July 31, 2024 in Wacken, Germany. (Didier Messens/Redferns)
Flogging Molly has announced the 2026 edition of the band’s annual Salty Dog concert cruise.
The seafaring event will set sail from Miami on Oct. 25 and will make stops in Cozumel, Mexico, and Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, before returning Oct. 30.
Along with Flogging Molly, the lineup includes a port show kickoff concert by Bad Religion. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit FloggingMollyCruise.com.
Salty Dog 2026 will mark the return of frontman Dave King, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in January. He subsequently pulled out of the 2025 cruise and Flogging Molly’s tour was canceled.
“Hey, Salty Dog 2026 shipmates – [wife and Flogging Molly violinist] Bridget [Regan] and I are really looking forward to seeing you all,” King says. “It’s just what the doctor ordered!”
Pusha T and Malice of Clipse perform onstage during the 2025 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 16, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
It’s been nearly three months since Clipse released Let God Sort Em Out, and they’re quite pleased with the album’s reception. In an interview with Billboard, they shared their reactions to the project coming up in album-of-the-year conversations.
“I like it because it’s unanimous; it’s the consensus. Everywhere we go, people keep saying it,” Malice said. “Just that it hits everybody in that way. With that being the case, that just can’t be denied. It didn’t come from us saying it; it comes from the listener.”
Pusha T agreed, adding the response to the album is just a “testament of what we put into the music.”
“This is still art class for us,” he explained. “I was never in band or anything, but I feel like we attacked this music in such a way that it comes with that level of precision. There’s a level of expertise that is shown in the creation and displayed in the creation of this music. I’m glad that it comes across and hits people in that way.”
While he feels Clipse has “kind of cracked the ceiling” on rap being a young man’s sport, there is still one more goal they want to accomplish.
“The Grammys is definitely the high-water mark for musical achievement. And this is what you do it for. You don’t play the game just to get a participation trophy. So like, it would definitely mean a lot, for sure,” Malice said, with Pusha noting it would be “a well-deserved full-circle moment” and a “win for just brotherhood.”
Pharrell, who produced Let God Sort Em Out, argues it’s Clipse’s time and an opportunity for them to “bring it home for our parents.”
He also shared his desire for the duo to perform their song “Birds Don’t Sing” during the 2026 awards show.
L-R: Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson. (Dennis Leupold)
Former One Direction bandmates Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik are hitting the road together — not for a tour, but for a new road trip show coming to Netflix.
The two British singers will embark on a journey across the U.S. for the new three-part docuseries, which promises “a spontaneous adventure of reconnection, exploration, and a lot of laughter.”
According to a press release, the show will offer “a rare look inside the world of two of the most famous — and most private — men on the planet opening up about life, love, loss and fatherhood.”
