Weekly digest #25

Featuring R.E.M., Soccer Mommy, New York Dolls, The Mars Volta, Lollapalooza, and more

📷 R.E.M. join Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and friends in Athens

Welcome to Fire Red Sky’s latest weekly digest of punk rock, alt rock and indie music news and writing.

It’s a light read, a quick catch up on the week that lands with you every weekend.

The links are mainly taken from my social media feeds, so if you want more of this sort of thing than you can follow me on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon (I’m also on Instagram).

Headlines

R.E.M.’s original members take the stage again in Athens (Spin) ahead of which Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey joined Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy's Fables of the Reconstruction tour in Portland (Brooklyn Vegan)

David Johansen, New York Dolls frontman, dies at 75 (Spin)

Watch official footage of surviving Nirvana members playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ with Post Malone for ‘SNL50’ (NME)

The Mars Volta debut as-yet-unannounced new album live while opening for Deftones (Consequence of Sound)

Vegyn announces reimagining of Air’s iconic Moon Safari (NME)

New releases

Vampire Slumber Party share new track 'Holes' (Punk News)

Swans announce new album Birthing, share sprawling new song 'I Am a Tower' (Consequence of Sound)

Garbage announce new album Let All That We Imagine Be the Light (Pitchfork)

Ed Kuepper (The Saints) and Jim White (The Dirty Three) to release an album together (Punk News)

Cheshire hardcore punks Kicked In The Teeth release new single and video (Louder Than War)

Listen/watch

Soccer Mommy performs stripped-down rendition of ‘Driver’ on Kimmel (Consequence of Sound)

Fontaines D.C. play new single 'It’s Amazing to be Young' live for the first time in Tokyo (Stereogum)

Deafheaven unleash new song 'Heathen' (Consequence of Sound)

Sparks detail new album Mad!, share new song 'JanSport Backpack' (Pitchfork)

Franz Ferdinand deliver another classic Britney Spears cover – this time an orchestral take on ‘Toxic’ (NME)

Long reads

Television’s unreleased fourth album previewed (Mojo)

How The Beatles, I Think You Should Leave, and more influenced Cloakroom’s new album Last Leg Of The Human Table (Stereogum)

5 albums I can’t live without: Gary Louris of The Jayhawks (Spin)

Deep Digs: Jim Smith of Cardiacs on their big book and new album (The Quietus)

“Perry was a fucking asshole, straight up”: read an exclusive excerpt from the new Lollapalooza oral history book (Stereogum)

Elsewhere on Substack

Where Dreams Go To Die

And finally…

Fatboy Slim once took violin lessons with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (NME)

Do you have a Substack article, news tip or other piece of writing you’d like to be considered for the digest? Send it to tangleofwires@gmail.com (same goes for press releases etc.)