Roger Waters, best known for his work with Pink Floyd, has announced the global film and music release of This Is Not A Drill - Live from Prague The Movie. Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision will release the film worldwide beginning on July 23, with tickets on sale beginning June 12 at rogerwaters.film.
Originally recorded and filmed during Waters’ live show at the O2 Arena in the Czech Republic on May 25, 2023, this new edit is directed by his long-term collaborative partner, Sean Evans. Check out a performance clip of “Wish You Were Here” below.
Billed as his “first ever Farewell Tour,” the show is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive and is dedicated to “our brothers and sisters all over the world who are engaged in the existential battle for the soul of humanity”.
The release will give fans the chance to see and hear his critically acclaimed live show in full cinematic glory and includes 20 classic Pink Floyd and Roger Waters songs, including: “Us & Them,” “Comfortably Numb,” “Wish You Were Here,” and “Is This The Life We Really Want?” Additionally, Waters performs his highly celebrated new song, “The Bar.” Together, the production is an extraordinary assault on the senses - musically, visually, politically and philosophically.
The accompanying music is set to be released on Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, on August 1, 2025, and will see the performance presented on a four LP set/Blu-Ray/2 CD/DVD/Digital Audio.
This Is Not A Drill - Live from Prague The Movie is filmed in 8k, providing exceptional detail and clarity, and features an enhanced audio mix. For the production, Waters was joined on stage by his outstanding band of musicians: Jonathan Wilson, Dave Kilminster, Jon Carin, Gus Seyffert, Joey Waronker, Robert Walter, Shanay Johnson, Amanda Belair and Seamus Blake.
Blues-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist Walter Trout has shared his new single, “Artificial” from his upcoming album Sign Of The Times, which will be released on September 5 via Provogue. You can watch the video of “Artificial” below.
In his half-century as a street-level social observer and scaldingly honest songwriter, Trout has never told his fans what to think, how to feel, or where to stand politically. But in an era when his home nation – and the wider world – is ripping at the seams over the battlelines of modern life, the iconic U.S. bluesman’s hard-rocking new album, Sign Of The Times, is a primal scream and pressure valve for all of us.
“I wanted to reflect upon what’s going on in the world,” explains the 74-year-old. “For me, writing these songs is therapy. They’re not just about what’s happening out there, but how it affects you in your head. Sign Of The Times just became the obvious title…”
The album explodes to life with the first single and opening song, “Artificial”: a scornful, satirical, harmonica-spiced rebuke of the fake world we risk creating. “We got artificial photos, artificial music, you could go on and on,” considers the bluesman. “I’m freaked out by AI. I read articles about how it’s gonna do all these wonderful things in the medical world. Then I hear Bill Gates say that eighty percent of jobs are gonna disappear. What happens then?”
It feels like the amps have barely cooled from 2024’s Broken, which debuted in Billboard at #1. But the era-chronicling songs from Sign Of The Times wouldn’t wait, these urgent riffs flying off the guitarist’s fingers, assisted once again by Marie, Walter’s wife, manager and co-writer, who penned the lyrics for some of the tracks.
“This album flowed pretty easily,” he reflects of the writing process. “I had so many song ideas and pages of lyrics from Marie. We could have kept going and made a triple album.”
With 10 new songs written and arranged, Trout was ready to call up his studio band – longtime drummer Michael Leasure, bassist John Avila and keys man Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis – for the recording sessions at Strawhorse Studios in Los Angeles. Immediately, the tinderbox subject matter sparked one of the toughest-sounding records in his catalogue. Self-producing, and having the material mixed by sonic genius, J.J. Blair, added yet another bit of edge to the sound.
“Let me put it this way, I really felt like rocking on this album. We had heavy things to talk about, and we went for it musically too,” Trout says.
The recent death of British blues godfather John Mayall has naturally brought Trout’s mid-’80s tenure with the Bluesbreakers into sharp focus.
“His influence on my life, I can’t overstate,” reflects the guitarist. As a man who has always been open about his past agonies, pain is never far away. “’Hurt No More’ is my recovery song, with cutting yourself representing killing yourself with drugs and booze,” he says of the dust-blown rocker.
With its dancing guitar lick and undeniable chorus, “I Remember” is also a moment of respite from the album’s stormier subject matter. “That song is a longing for when life was simpler,” he explains. “Like, when I was 20 and starting out. Or when Marie and I had just got together, and we had no money and were pawning guitars, but we were madly in love and the future was ahead of us.”
The combustible title track is one of the most experimental cuts in Trout’s half-century studio output, “I wanted it to be dissonant. Dissonance is a sign of the times. Marie came to me with a set of lyrics, and I realized it fit the song perfectly,” he says. Whilst “No Strings Attached” skewers hypocrisy, bigotry, and hatred, the album is no one-note diatribe.
For Trout – who survived an eleventh-hour liver transplant in 2014 – his second chance at life still holds joy, beauty and pain. “’Mona Lisa Smile’ came to me in a dream,” he says of the gorgeous, bucolic acoustic strum decorated by accordion, mandolin and violin from famed string arranger Stevie Blacke (Snoop Dog, Joe Cocker, Alice in Chains). “Y’know, Marie is strong and potent – but there’s another side to her which makes me love her even more. That song is about when I see her vulnerability, or her moments of self-doubt and sadness.”
Even by Trout’s standards, Sign Of The Times is a record that puts you through the emotional wringer. But as long as there’s poignant and relevant music, we have a fighting chance. The complete track listing features “Artificial,” “Blood On My Pillow,” “Sign Of The Times,” “Mona Lisa Smile,” “Hurt No More,” “No Strings Attached,” “I Remember,” “Hightech Woman,” “Too Bad,” “Struggle To Believe.”
As a lifelong road warrior, Trout will be taking the Sign Of The Times material to global audiences throughout 2025. And for those glorious two hours of playing to audiences, political divides and culture wars will crumble as a crowd with little else in common melts into a communion of souls. “I could be on social media, writing very explicit posts,” he considers. “But I don’t want to contribute to the division. When I’m up onstage playing a minor-key blues, and I look down at the front row and there’s a burly biker – and he’s crying – at that moment, I’m hitting him in our common humanity, and it doesn’t matter who he voted for. At that moment, we are all in this together…”
Al Jardine, co-founding singer, songwriter and guitarist of The Beach Boys, has just released his first new collection of songs in 15 years with the eclectic new 4-song digital EP, Islands In The Sun.
Available to stream and download, the EP is chock full of Jardine’s sharp songwriting, iconic, summery voice and the type of good vibes and trademark harmonies that only a Beach Boy can provide. The album was recorded at Jardine’s home studio on the California coast and produced by alongside Stevie Heger (co-producer of Jardine’s debut studio album, A Postcard From California) and longtime Beach Boys / Brian Wilson sound engineer Jeff Peters.
The EP debuts with a vintage postcard-themed lyric video for the titular track, “Islands In The Sun,” a friendly nod to “Kokomo.” Featuring lead vocals from Jardine and his son Matt, plus a guest vocal from Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and a children’s choir from three local elementary schools, the song is a Caribbean-flavored fantasy that falls somewhere between the Beach Boys and Belafonte that perfectly captures the mood and tropical lifestyle of the West Indies. “‘Islands In The Sun’ captures that special magic we felt and sang about on Beach Boys songs like ‘Island Girl’ and ‘Kokomo,’” says Jardine. “It was inspired by the enchanting calypso sounds of Harry Belafonte and Bob Marley’s laid-back reggae vibe. Now wouldn’t it be fun if we could bottle up the sun!”
The second track, “My Plane Leaves Tomorrow (Au Revoir),” is a duet with Neil Young that Jardine first started working on during the recording sessions for his 2010 debut solo album, A Postcard from California, and has now been completed nearly a decade and a half later. Young recorded his vocals at the same session that he recorded Postcard’s “A California Saga” with his old bandmates, David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
In the poignant new song, Jardine and Young share the same sentiment about sending our troops off to foreign wars. The track includes a portion of the melancholy military bugle call “Taps,” performed by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who laid down his contribution when he also provided bass for “Help Me Rhonda” for the Postcard album.
“Highway 101 (Rosarita Beach Café),” a joyful romp to the border, is Al’s Mexico-inspired version of the Leiber/Stoller classic, “Smokey Joe’s Café.” The original, a classic by The Coasters from 1956, was one of Al’s favorite songs when he was growing up and almost 70 years later, Al got permission from Mike Stoller to rewrite the lyrics. This new interpretation features long-standing Beach Boys touring band members Ed Carter on bass and Mike Kowalski on drums, Michael Lent (Barry Manilow’s guitarist for over 25 years) on lead guitar and Steve Douglas from the legendary Wrecking Crew on sax.
The EP concludes with “Crumple Car,” an updated version of the forgotten tune from the 1978 classic surf movie, “Big Wednesday.” Originally written by surfer Denny Aaberg with Phil Pritchard, the song was brought to Jardine’s attention years ago by Ed Carter (who was friends with Denny) and has been reimagined as a folky, fingerpicked ode to Al’s love of the ocean and his desire to keep the coastlines clean and safe from harmful manmade pollution. With Denny’s blessing, Jardine’s new version features Ed on lead guitar finger-picking style with backing vocals from Al’s son, Adam Jardine, plus Al on lead whistle.
Al Jardine will embark on a summer tour with seasoned members of Brian Wilson’s longtime touring band that he has reunited as The Pet Sounds Band. In addition to performing the classic Beach Boys’ hits, Jardine and The Pet Sounds Band will be performing radio singles and fan favorites from The Beach Boys’ critically acclaimed ‘70s albums like 15 Big Ones, The Beach Boys Love You and the M.I.U. Album, which was produced by Jardine in 1978, plus a song or two from Islands In The Sun, along with rarities and deep cuts. Jardine will be joined by his son Matt, who toured with him, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys for decades, keyboardist Darian Sahanaja, drummer Michael D’Amico, bassist Bob Lizik, pianist Gary Griffin, guitarist Rob Bonfiglio, horn player Paul Von Mertens, and keyboardist Debbie Shair.
AL JARDINE AND THE PET SOUNDS BAND ON TOUR
July 4 – Lake, MN @ Mystic Amphitheater at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel
July 18 – Cohasset, MA @ South Shore Music Circus
July 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
July 24 – Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
August 23 – Des Plaines, IL @ The Des Plaines Theatre
August 24 – St. Charles, IL @ The Arcada Theatre
September 5 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
September 7 – Concord, NY @ Chubb Theatre at Capitol Center for the Arts
In a landmark acquisition for music collectors and Beatles fans alike, Rockaway Records, an appointment-only showroom in Los Angeles that specializes in rock and roll memorabilia, has secured a trio of 1968 The Beatles (AKA White Album) LPs, numbered 007, 008, and 009.
Valued collectively at $250,000, this set not only includes the lowest three-digit U.S. number to ever surface (“007”), but is also believed to be the lowest sequentially numbered group of The Beatles (AKA White Album) copies ever offered for sale anywhere in the world.
According to noted Beatles experts and authors Frank Daniels and Bruce Spizer, these "three-digit" White Albums were made as a test run for the number stamper at Bert-Co in Los Angeles, where the cover slicks and inserts were printed. Low numbered copies of The Beatles (AKA White Album) from the US and UK are extremely collectable, with numbers less than 100 selling for tens of thousands of dollars each. Numbers less than 10 are virtually unheard of, with an extreme example being Ringo Starr's personal UK mono pressing "No. 0000001" -- which sold in 2015 for almost $800,000.
"In our nearly 50 years in business, we have had countless amazing Beatles artifacts," said Rockaway Records co-founder Wayne Johnson, "but never a White Album with such a low number, let alone three consecutive low numbers."
The set of The Beatles (AKA White Album) LPs is valued at $250,000 and available to purchase at Rockaway Records.
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