Table of contents for May 18, 2017 in Rolling Stone

TOUR U2’S ‘JOSHUA TREE’ TOUR KICKOFF For the 30th anniversary of the album that made them superstars, U2 will play every track – from “Where the Streets Have No Name” to “Mothers of the Disappeared.” We’ll be in Seattle for the U.S. kickoff. AWARDS MTV MOVIE AND TV AWARDS The best, worst and WTF moments from this year’s show, which will include TV categories for the first time. Spoiler alert: Get Out is expected to go home happy. MUSIC FIRST LADIES OF HIP-HOP The Sequence’s 1979 track “Funk You Up” was the first hit by a female rap group and recently powered the bridge to Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.” So why can’t they get any props? LIST THE BEST ‘SNL’ POLITICAL ACTS We rank the top political sketches of decades…

The former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman is bringing his show Fortunate Son in Concert back to the Wynn Las Vegas in late May. Dale Hawkins “Susie Q” James Burton plays that great riff. The first time I heard it, I was sitting in my mom’s car. I went crazy and immediately began banging on the dashboard. Elvis Presley “My Baby Left Me” This song made me want to be a guitar player. As far as I’m concerned, Scotty Moore invented rock & roll guitar. The “5” Royales “The Slummer the Slum” This is Lowman Pauling. He plays in such a weird and wild way. When the solo comes, you know that all hell is gonna break loose. Stevie Ray Vaughan “Texas Flood” Great tone and great emotion. That sort of…

Julia louis-dreyfus was already a comedy legend before Veep – but it turns out she was just hitting her prime. She’s spent five years on HBO’s D.C. satire as foul-mouthed President Selina Meyer, who claws her way to the Oval Office just to lose it again. The 56-year-old actor started out on Saturday Night Live before reaching stardom as Elaine on Seinfeld, the most spongeworthy of sitcom heroines. In the new Veep season, she’s as fearsome as ever, snarling political observations like, “This election is going down like Eleanor Roosevelt at Dinah Shore Weekend.” “Dark is what we do,” Louis-Dreyfus says. “It’s our bread and butter. But that’s because funny is often in a dark place.” In the time Veep has been on the air, the political scene has taken…

Decades from now, if the planet is even inhabited by then, we will look back at one 72-hour period as the most crucial in the history of America’s last president, Donald John Trump. Between the days of April 5th and 7th, 2017, the Washington political establishment tried to reform our madman president and instead only made him infinitely more dangerous, pushing us closer to doomsday than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. Welcome to the Trump era, the flushing-toilet-bowl stage of America’s history, where every move any of us makes is part of a great swirling synergy sucking us with ever-greater alacrity down the hole of failure and destruction. Good news, bad news, it all heads in the same direction soon enough, after a spin or two around…

Kendrick Lamar Damn. Top Dawg/Aftermath HHHH½ Kendrick Lamar has already pushed the outer limits of hip-hop style, sound and social resonance. But Damn. takes a classicist road to rap glory; if his landmark To Pimp a Butterfly was the best hip-hop LP of 2015, this is the platonic ideal of the best rap album of 1995, a dazzling display of rhyme skills and bass-cracking beats. The rhymes on songs like “DNA.,” “Element.,” “Feel.,” “Humble.” and “XXX.” come fast, furious and almost purist in nature. In an era when “having bars” seems refreshingly old- fashioned, Lamar builds a bridge to the past. Unsurprisingly, Lamar takes his own complex path to get there. “XXX.,” which features a little melodic assistance from U2, is an ultraviolent revenge fantasy, à la his hero…

Soon after prince signed on to star in 1984’s Purple Rain, he got to work writing songs. Before filming even began, he had more than 100 ready. He obsessively recorded over the next nine months, at his home studio and in front of audiences at Minneapolis’ First Avenue. “We rehearsed for six months, and he documented everything,” says guitarist Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution. Only nine of those songs made it to the final soundtrack, and the unreleased material has tantalized fans for 33 years. Now, some of it will finally see official release. On June 9th, Warner Bros. will release an expanded edition of Purple Rain, with four discs including extended tracks, B sides, and a DVD of a March 1985 concert with the Revolution in Syracuse, New York…

Benjamin booker opened for Jack White and became a festival breakout around the release of his 2014 blues-punk debut LP. After a long tour, he visited Mexico City. “It was life-changing,” he says of the monthlong trip, which informed his new album, Witness. Booker keeps trip mementos at his L.A. home, from a Charles Bukowski T-shirt to a wood-carved tiger mask he bought from a woman who “must have been 100 years old.” Meanwhile, Booker’s move from New Orleans to Echo Park, where he relocated to be near his girlfriend, has changed his look: “I had a funkier style – crazy polka-dot shirts,” he says. “I guess now I’m in a relaxed, back-to-basics kind of phase.”…

It began with a single sentence in the September 8th, 1977, issue of Rolling Stone. Tucked into a Random Notes item about Joe Walsh’s new solo album was this line by writer Charles M. Young: “The rest of the Eagles, on their first vacation in three years, seem more interested in finding a softball team they can beat – having lost in recent weeks to teams fielded by Andrew Gold, Jimmy Buffett, employees of several San Francisco radio stations and their own road crew.” Singer-guitarist Glenn Frey fired off a response in the magazine. “What you have failed to mention is that the Eagles won two out of three games against Jimmy Buffett,” he wrote. “Anytime you pencil-pushing desk jockeys want to put on your spikes, we’ll kick your ass,…

1. Joe Grushecky and Bruce Springsteen “That’s What Makes Us Great” Bruce and an old buddy, singer-songwriter Grushecky, carve Trump a new one: “I never put my faith in a con man and his crooks,” Springsteen sings. They make anguished rage feel raised-fist rousing. 2. The War on Drugs “Thinking of a Place” The War on Drugs’ songs reimagine Dylan or Petty as sweetly forlorn indie rockers on a road trip to nowhere. Here they zone out for 11 beautiful minutes. We’d probably be cool if it went on for 20 more. 3. Frank Ocean feat. Travis Scott “Lens” Ocean in late-night ballad mode, unfurling a slow jam that goes down like a bleary lullaby. 4. RichGains feat. Freddie Gibbs, ZZ Ward, Nico Segal “7 Digits” Singer-producer Gains folds decades…

Even in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Valerie June stands out: star-studded sunglasses, a sparkly silver blouse and a plume of thick dreadlocks that sprout in all directions. At her favorite neighborhood bistro, she attracts the attention of a bald customer who approaches her table to hand her his business card. “Love your hair,” he says flirtatiously. “Maybe you could give me some.” “I might!” June replies with a laugh. June, 35, smiles again when asked about another compliment she received recently. In an interview posted on his website, Bob Dylan said he’d been listening to June, whose latest album, The Order of Time, is a blend of spacey hippie soul, blues and folk with June’s pinched, modern-Appalachian voice at the center. “I lost it,” June says of the Dylan shout-out. “My…

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Chris Stapleton From A Room: Volume 1 Mercury Nashville HHHH BY WILL HERMES He may appear to be a thick-bearded Seventies outlaw-country throwback, but make no mistake: Chris Stapleton is a soul singer, with a preternaturally creaky voice that can turn wizened or brawny, full of pained howls and distended vowels. His 2015 solo debut, Traveller, transformed him from an eclectically accomplished Nashville songwriter (for acts from Alison Krauss and Ashley Monroe to Adele; those are just the A’s) into an icon of artistic cred in a town starved for one. His gobsmacking Justin Timberlake duet at the 2015 Country Music Awards – which he swept, Adele-like – sealed the deal. The question, given country’s cookie-cutter tastes, was what comes next? Thankfully, the follow-up to Traveller is a taut,…

How do you relax when you’re at home in California? Usually I spend the afternoon hiking. I love Marin County because there are a couple of dozen beautiful hikes within 30 minutes. Then I usually do an hour-and-a-half yoga class with one of my girlfriends – either Skyping or at one of our houses. That’s been really keeping me in shape the last five years. I also like having friends over to watch Netflix at night. I try not to watch anything too political in the evening – I don’t want to get too upset right before bed. What did you take away from growing up Quaker? It’s part of the reason I’m drawn to spending so much time in nature. Unlike being in a cathedral or having to look…