Lana Del Rey equals Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead and Blur’s record for UK Number One albums

Posted on March 31, 2023 by HD Radio Network

Lana Del Rey has shot straight to Number One in the UK albums chart with ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’.

The singer-songwriter beat off competition from Depeche Mode‘s 15th full-length effort, ‘Memento Mori’ to score her sixth chart topping album, tying herself level Arctic Monkeys, Blur and Radiohead on the list of acts with the most UK Number One records to their name.

Del Rey also ranks as the female solo artist with the fifth-most chart topping albums in the UK after Madonna (12), Taylor Swift (9), Kylie Minogue (8) and Barbra Streisand (7).

She previously hit the top spot with ‘Born To Die’ (2012), ‘Ultraviolence’ (2014), ‘Lust For Life’ (2017), ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ (2019) and ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ (2021).

‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ also tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, proving the most popular record of the week on wax, and is the week’s most-purchased LP in independent record shops, too.

Martin Gore and Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode. CREDIT: Gina Wetzler/Getty Images

Reviewing Del Rey’s album, NME wrote: “As she steps into new lyrical territory here, so too does Lana enter new sonic worlds. Her ninth album merges the soulful, classic, timeless sounds of a singer-songwriter from a distant time and the vocal melodies and techniques of an old Hollywood starlet (it’s not hard to imagine the likes of Audrey Hepburn singing parts on songs like ‘Sweet’) with trap beats, speaker-wobbling bass and spoken word tracks edited with a sense of Warholian spirit.”

‘Memento Mori’, meanwhile, gave Depeche Mode their highest-peaking record in 10 years (2013’s ‘Delta Machine’ reached Number Two, while the 2017 follow-up ‘Spirit’ came in at Number Five).

Meanwhile, Del Rey recently said it was “unfathomable” to her that she is headlining the Other Stage at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

The singer-songwriter was recently announced as part of the first wave of acts for this summer’s Worthy Farm event, which will be headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John.

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Listen to King Krule’s unreleased tour flexi disc songs

Posted on March 31, 2023 by HD Radio Network

King Krule songs that were only available via flexi discs sold on tour can now be found online.

Archy Marshall, also known as King Krule, is on The Sssh Tour – a series of intimate gigs across the EU and UK. The singer created new merch in the form of exclusive flexi discs that could only be purchased at shows. These discs featured new unreleased tracks that have since been making their rounds on the internet.

The discs include songs such as ‘It’s All Soup Now’, ‘Flimsier’, ‘Achtung’, and ‘Time For Slurp’ – which are now readily available to listen to after fans uploaded the tracks to YouTube.

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Fans have taken to Reddit to discuss the releases. One fan commented how “people think that some of these songs could just be demos and that Archy is putting some like ‘Flimsier’ and ‘…Soup’ onto the [next] record. But officially, Archy put on his Insta story that these are never to be released.”

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These songs are the first signs of new music since the singer-songwriters’s fourth album, ‘Man Alive!’. In a four-star view of the album, NME said: “King Krule fans will find their hero to be far more accessible on ‘Man Alive!’. The Krulean gloom is beginning to lift and, with this newfound paternal responsibility and a more optimistic worldview in place, Marshall’s creativity is shining for all the world to see.”

Earlier this year, King Krule released the audio from his 2019 short film Hey World! to streaming platforms for the first time.

The lo-fi film, directed by his partner Charlotte Patmore, captured Archy Marshall in the Cheshire countryside. He performed four songs from 2020 album ‘Man Alive!’ – ‘Perfecto Miserable’, ‘Alone, Omen 3’, ‘(Don’t Let The Dragon) Draag On’ and ‘Energy Fleets’ – which were, at the time, unreleased.

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David Lee Roth returns to stage for Las Vegas Performance

Posted on March 31, 2023 by HD Radio Network

David Lee Roth returned to the stage this week with the all-star cover band Royal Machines for a one-off live performance of Van Halen‘s ‘Panama’.

The show was a corporate event for Home Depot sales managers that took place at the Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas earlier this week.

“Are we having a good time so far?” asked Roth as he led the group through a lively cover of ‘Panama’ including his signature ad-libs.

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Roth was not the only rock icon to grace the stage that night. Throughout their set, Royal Machine were also joined by Billy Idol, Linda Perry and Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels.

The singer announced his retirement back in 2021. “I am throwing in the shoes. I’m retiring. This is the first, and only, official announcement… You’ve got the news. Share it with the world,” he said at the time.

The news came almost a year after the death of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who passed away from a stroke on October 6, 2020. Roth noted that he’d recently been thinking about his late bandmate, and was “encouraged and compelled to really come to grips with how short time is, and my time is probably even shorter”.

The announcement was followed by a farewell Las Vegas residency that was cancelled shortly after due to the omicron variant of COVID.

Recently, Roth shared a solo version of the 1980 Van Halen hit ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’. It arrived just a few months after another unreleased track, ‘Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway’, making fans a bit skeptical of the singer’s retirement.

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Watch 100 gecs play a remix of System Of A Down’s ‘Toxicity’

Posted on March 31, 2023 by HD Radio Network

100 gecs recently aired a remix of System Of A Down‘s nu-metal classic ‘Toxicity’ at a DJ set in California. Check it out below.

The duo – made up of Laura Les and Dylan Brady – revealed the remix during their 64-song Boiler Room set in Los Angeles. The set also featured songs from a variety of artists such as Van Halen, Aaliyah, Smash Mouth, Cascada and more.

‘Toxicity’ was one of the final three remixes of the night. Their take on the song transformed the System Of A Down hit into a hyper-pop fantasy, laced with big drops and a dubstep flow.

.@100gecs debuting their remix of “Toxicity” by System of a Down at Boiler Room in Los Angeles (2023)pic.twitter.com/eVvkbCuji9

— crazy ass moments in nu metal history (@numetal_moment) March 28, 2023

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Both 100 gecs and System of a Down are set to play Sick New World festival in Las Vegas this May.

Earlier this month, the duo released their second album ‘10,000 gecs’. In a five-star review, NME saw “the trailblazing duo completely upend their own formula.”

NME continued: “They come roaring out the gates here with a playful chasm of nu-metal, pop-punk and ska flavours (of course supplemented with the sticky hooks and wonky beats that made 100 gecs a major emerging force), drawing a wealth of inspiration from ’90s greats like Limp Bizkit, Green Day and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.”

100 gecs also celebrated the release of their new album by sharing a video for ‘Dumbest Girl Alive’.

The duo are also set to begin a North American headlining tour starting next month. The tour will kick off in San Jose in early April. From there, they will embark on an additional 29 dates throughout the region, all of which will be opened by Machine Girl.

Speaking of their discography in a 2020 interview with NME, Les said: “People think that we’ve staked our entire career on the fact that we can be ironic really well… We’re not joking all the time… sometimes. A little bit. We’re having fun – we’re not fucking being ironic.”

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Los Campesinos! want to commission writers “to foster their community”

Posted on March 31, 2023 by HD Radio Network

Los Campesinos! shared that they want to commission writers as a way to continue to foster their fanbase community.

The band took to Twitter to announce the idea of working closely with writers to create in-depth pieces that fans would enjoy.

They shared: “Our recent experiences are that very few outlets will cover our band anymore (no hard feelings, I get it!). But we want to continue to foster this community outside of social media, and it seems we’ve an ever-growing fanbase that want to hear about our band.”

Our recent experiences are that very few outlets will cover our band anymore (no hard feelings, I get it!).
But we want to continue to foster this community outside of social media, and it seems we’ve an ever-growing fanbase that want to hear about our band.

— Los Campesinos! (@LosCampesinos) March 29, 2023

They added: “I’ve spoken to plenty of talented writers who feel restricted having to write “for clicks” and who have to chase for months to get their invoices paid. The current norm doesn’t seem to work perfectly for artists, journos or fans.”

The band have made a point to highlight that they plan to pay these writers “well and on time, to publish in-depth pieces to be enjoyed by fans, outside of the restrictive ‘album cycle’ PR pattern.”

I’ve spoken to plenty of talented writers who feel restricted having to write “for clicks” and who have to chase for months to get their invoices paid.
The current norm doesn’t seem to work perfectly for artists, journos or fans.

— Los Campesinos! (@LosCampesinos) March 29, 2023

We’d like to work directly with writers, pay them well and on time, to publish in-depth pieces to be enjoyed by fans, outside of the restrictive ‘album cycle’ PR pattern.
Maybe a bad idea? Could be fun and rewarding though, let’s see!

— Los Campesinos! (@LosCampesinos) March 29, 2023

They also noted that they are looking for writers of all kinds, not only music writers. “Anyone who could be interested in writing something about/around LC! would be fantastic. Variety is great,” they added.

This is not the first time Los Campesinos! have fostered their community spirit. Last year, the band released a 28-track charity compilation of Los Campesinos! tracks via Scottish DIY indie label Heavenly Creature.

All proceeds from the compilation go to Gendered Intelligence, a registered charity that works to increase understanding of gender diversity and improve the lives of trans people. On the first day of release, the record raised over £2000.

In 2020, the band offered to help their UK fans who were unable to afford the cost of joining a union related to their profession by paying for their first month’s subscription fee.

The band’s latest release was 2021’s ‘Whole Damn Body’ EP.

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