Table of contents for June 2, 2016 in Rolling Stone

The Rebel Poet i just finished mikal Gilmore’s cover story about Merle Haggard [“The Outlaw,” RS 1260]. I thought I knew a lot about Haggard, but Gil more schooled me. I don’t usually break down and cry after reading an article, but I did this time. Tim Podoll Rapid City, SD great remembrance. as a teenager, I never thought of listening to country & western until I heard the Rolling Stones’Beggars Banquet. I got curious, and the first country artist I checked out was Merle Haggard. His voice and poetry hooked me. Thank you, Mr. Haggard, for your gifts. Dave Synwolt Kalamazoo, MI thanx to jason fine for his great Merle Haggard piece [“The Running Kind,” RS 1260]. I followed Merle for 40 years. Great man, great life – ramble…

<div class="thick-border"></div> Beyoncé Through October 2nd TICKETS $45-$355 <div class="thin-border"></div> Beyoncé got a little emotional on the way to Miami’s Marlins Park before the start of her first-ever solo stadium tour on April 27th. “I’ve dreamed of this my whole life,” she said. Her Formation Tour is her most impressive yet: a politically charged spectacle built around her stunning new LP, Lemonade, and featuring darker versions of familiar hits, as well as a 50-foot-tall tower of video screens that shoots flames and projects psychedelic images. The 40-plus-date tour has already grossed more than $200 million. “It’s a home run,” says the tour’s promoter, Arthur Fogel. “It could be the most successful tour of the year.” <div class="thick-border"></div> Brian Wilson June 12th-October 15th TICKETS $14-$250 <div class="thin-border"></div> Not long ago, Wilson,…

The title of eric Clapton’s new album, I Still Do, comes from something his great-aunt Audrey told him before she died a couple of years ago. “I went to see her and said, ‘I want to thank you for being so kind to me when I was a little boy,’ ” says Clapton, who was born out of wedlock and raised by relatives outside London. “She said, ‘I liked you. And I still do.’ That’s blessed, really. It just says it all.”I Still Do is a classic-Clapton mix of roots, reflection and guitar solos; he covers Robert Johnson, Skip James and Bob Dylan. Clapton also revives an old partnership: The album was produced by Glyn Johns, who worked on the guitarist’s 1977 hit Slowhand. “He is still pretty aggressive and…

‘Iknew how to mix a molotov cocktail before I knew how to mix a Long Island iced tea,” says Lukas Forchhammer. The Danish singer-songwriter grew up in Copenhagen’s Christiania neighborhood, an autonomous commune founded by anarchist squatters, and routinely battled local police. “We threw rocks at them,” he says. “We used nails to make sure that their trucks’ tires were punctured. We did all sorts of crazy shit because we were so angry, and there was no place to vent that anger.” But instead of forming a leftist punk band, Forchhammer (who found his singing voice in the Copenhagen Boys Choir) ended up pursuing more-soothing soulful sounds. In 2010, he found a new outlet for his frustrations: a band, which he named Lukas Graham. Much of their self- titled debut…

Alittle more than a decade ago, Anderson Paak was a high school kid in Ventura, California, playing drums in his Baptist church and setting choppedup samples to homemade beats. A demo tape sparked deal meetings, and his dreams seemed to be taking solid form. “I thought I was going to be Kanye,” he says. “The producer that can rap too.” But what came next was a nightmare. His mom – a South Korean-born woman who’d been in the produce business – and his stepdad were sent to prison for tax-related issues during his senior year. Paak stopped making music and started bagging groceries. “Just working and trying to get some stability,” he says. By the time he was 21, Paak was back in the studio with a new perspective. “I…

Swmrs co-leader Cole Becker is hanging from the ceiling. The California punk rockers are charging through bracing, hook-y songs off their debut, Drive North, at a New York show. They even return to the stage after their allotted set time and keep rocking unplugged. Though just hitting their twenties, SWMRS have been playing clubs like this for years; they formed in elementary school and had assistance from their drummer Joey Armstrong’s father – Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. “When we were 13 to 14, he was telling us to text every time we wrote a song,” says singerguitarist Max Becker. Despite attaining early credibility, SWMRS (who released two albums in their teens as Emily’s Army) found the scene too bro-ish (“Aggressive dudes crowd-surfing on 14-year-old girls,” says Cole). One…

Drake Views Young Money/Cash Money/ Republic HHH ½ The best thing you can say about Drake is the worst thing, too: He’s a lightweight. That description suits his nimbleness at switching between flows and genres, and his stunning economy when crafting hooks. But his fourth album reveals him as a lightweight in other, frustrating ways: shallow in his thematic concerns, slender in the scope of his ambitions. It’s impossible not to compare with recent opuses by Drake’s pop -titan peers – Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Kanye West. Where those artists framed personal sagas within higherstakes issues of race, gender and class, Drake remains obses sively focused on one thing: Drake (his armada of girlfriends, his guilt and grievances, his lavishly insular world). The result is an occasionally excellent LP…

<div class="thick-border"></div> MUST-HAVES <div class="thin-border"></div> Dirty Mind 1980 For his third album and first masterpiece, he wanted to be more deliberately me, he told Rolling Stone at the time. So he stripped down his sound, and for the album cover, he stripped down to his underwear. Recorded at his home on Lake Minnetonka, outside Minneapolis (where he knocked out several songs in one night), Dirty Mind targeted New Wavers as much as funkateers. The sound was manic and spacious at the same time, and the songs were packed with sexual obsession. Prince euphorically sang about taboo subject matter: a threesome in “When You Were Mine,” incest in “Sister,” an all-races-welcome orgy in “Uptown” and the self-explanatory “Head,” in which a virgin bride goes down on him on the way…

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising Seth Rogen, Zac Efron Directed by Nicholas Stoller HH ½ how to build a sequel to 2014’s comedy smash Neighbors, in which new parents Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) waged war on the frat boys next door and their ab-fab leader, Teddy (Zac Efron)? Easy. Change the frat to a sorority. I’m not kidding. But the joke’s on us, because director Nicholas Stoller gets in wicked digs at 2.0 stoners and sexists. Rogen and Byrne are crazy-fun company. And the sorority sisters, led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), have a point about hating “super-rape-y” frats and wanting to go rogue. Rogen and Co. aren’t delivering anything fresh here, just more laughs. Efron gets his share as the aging hottie who takes a hit from…

You grew up in Spanish Harlem. What’s the most New York thing about you? I loved watching the black and Puerto Rican girls with their cigarettes and their high hair. We had a Jewish deli and a Chinese laundry. My father was white, and my mother was black and Indian. I thought it was great that everybody was dark – or not so dark. Who was your biggest hero? Frankie Lymon. When I heard “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” I loved his voice so much that I wanted to touch it. I grew up 15 blocks from him, and I didn’t know anybody with that kind of diction. But he had bad people around him. Before he died, he would run up to cars on 42nd Street and beg…

Toughest Get: Radiohead, Kanye Last year, Radiohead’s people called the promoters of Lollapalooza with good news: They were finally ready. In an extremely competitive environment where many major lineups are virtually identical, the band’s presence turned Lollapalooza 2016 into a must-see. Kanye West worked similar magic with Governors Ball in New York, which scored ’Ye’s only summer show: “He had a great experience when he headlined in 2013, and we had a great relationship,” says organizer Jordan Wolowitz. The Battle for New York City Governors Ball has established itself as New York City’s biggest festival. So organizers weren’t happy when news surfaced that another promoter, Goldenvoice, was planning a festival called Panorama at the same Randall’s Island location. Governors Ball planners petitioned Mayor Bill de Blasio to reject Panorama’s permit,…

Thousands of hours of material are contained in the vault of Paisley Park, some of it bootlegged online, much of it still uncataloged. Here are a few gems that could be released if the archive is made public. The Second Coming 1982 A live recording of the Minneapolis stop on the fiery Controversy tour – Prince romps through salacious classics like “Jack U Off ” and “Dirty Mind.” ‘In a Large Room With No Light’ 1986 This zigzagging, jazz-informed track was to be included on the unrealized Dream Factory album. Prince rerecorded the song himself in 2009, but the original remains unheard. ‘Can I Play With You’ 1986 When Miles Davis was working on his 1986 album Tutu, Prince sent him this unabashed party song, to which Davis added a…

Greta kline wants to meet at her high school hangout, the local diner where she and friends would loiter for a bit too long after class let out. At Eli’s Market on New York’s Upper West Side, the macaroni-and-cheese costs so much per pound it may as well be made of gold, and fussy toddlers crumble cookies into the laps of unruffled nannies. “Everyone came here after, like, prom,” says Kline, 22, slinking into her seat. She pulls the sleeves of her oversize vintage varsity jacket over her hands and seems to want to hide even in plain sight. “I was really shy as a kid,” she says by way of explanation. “I’m still really scared of being seen. I don’t like my face on display.” Shyness hasn’t kept Kline…

Sisters chloe and Halle Bailey are only 17 and 16, respectively, but they have Michelle Obama as a fan, and they appeared on the video album for Beyoncé’s Lemonade. “Magic was in the air in New Orleans,” says Halle of their work in the clip for “Freedom.” “We were saying, ‘What a time to be alive.’_” The sisters’ music is just as impressive as their endorsers. Their EP Sugar Symphony – selfproduced in their L.A. home – is an accomplished mix of R&B, jazz and alt-pop. “Our dad taught us to do everything on our own,” Chloe says. “This industry is so dominated by men and older people,” adds Halle. “You have to look into yourself and say, ‘I can have wonderful ideas.’ ”…

Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool HHHH½ Radiohead’s ninth LP was launched with the band erasing its social media and releasing a single (“Burn the Witch”) that featured classical musicians whacking wooden instruments. Welcome to the new, artisanal Radiohead: a semiunplugged, old-worldly antidote to the low-flying panic attacks of digital life. “Burn the Witch” opens their first proper LP in five years by evoking a lynch mob (of Internet shamers? North Carolina bathroom hysterics?), proving once again how well they tap our collective night sweats. Where Kid A and Amnesiac were defined by electronic music, this record is grounded in orchestral arrangements, presumably via moonlighting soundtrack composer Jonny Greenwood. Electronics remain, with magic in the blending; check the string coda, receding over static, on “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man…

“Soft & Wet” from For You 1978 The keyboard funk of his debut was too light to burn rubber, but the weird synth squiggles showed he was looking for new sounds from the start. “I Wanna Be Your Lover” from Prince 1979 His first R&B Number One hit introduced him to the world – bouncy keyboards, a disco groove and one request: “I wanna be the only one you come for.” “Scandalous” from Batman 1989 A bubble-bath slow jam sung in a pained falsetto that adds grit to the fantasy. “Joy in Repetition” from Graffiti Bridge 1990 Underwater soul rock in the style of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, cut during the sessions that yielded Sign ‘O’ the Times. “Loose!” from Come 1994 A techno fantasy with wild guitar – it’s…

From the very first time he heard Prince, as a high schooler in 1979, Lenny Kravitz was a huge fan. “Then he became a mentor,” he says. “When he left, a part of me went too.” “Head” Prince was hardly on the radio when this came out, but this song was a big hit on the street and at dance parties. The bass line was just so funky. “Controversy” This took everything to the next level. It sounded so funky and mysterious and scary. It was a monumental track for me. “Lady Cab Driver” I love the minimalist quality of this. There’s a drum machine going with an overdub of live drums, and real simple synths. It’s so funky. “Mountains” It’s a beautiful feeling that this song gives me. Wendy…

Joan Jett/Cheap Trick/Heart July 14th-Sept. 23rd The three bands – all recent Rock Hall inductees – will unite for the Rock Hall Three for All amphitheater tour. “It’s going to be a blast,” says Jett. 21 Pilots July 17th-Aug. 11th The chart-topping duo will tour arenas with a spectacle that includes stage dives and backflips. “These shows deserve to be special,” says singer Tyler Joseph. Jeff Beck/Buddy Guy July 19th-Aug. 20th Beck first saw Guy play in England in the early Sixties. “He blew my head off ,” says Beck. Now, the two team up for a summer shed run. Guy, who will turn 80 on the road, is out for blood. “If you don’t want me to put on a show, don’t bring me out,” he says. “I don’t…

‘Ijust had an epiphany!” says Carlos Santana, during a rehearsal at the Las Vegas House of Blues. His band, Santana, has just finished the raucous 1971 track “Everybody’s Everything.” “This song is like a nice filet mignon,” he continues. “We can play it in the set right after ‘Evil Ways’ and ‘Soul Sacrifice.’ ” The group starts “Love Makes the World Go Round,” from its new album, Santana IV, but Carlos stops it abruptly. It seems Michael Shrieve is hitting his drums a little too hard. “I don’t want it to sound like Bruce Spring steen,” Santana says. “Try it softer.” If the band sounds a bit rusty, there’s a good reason: It hasn’t played a full show together since 1971. After a nasty breakup, the members headed in all…

For decades, virtual reality has failed to deliver on its great promise. But on March 28th, Oculus Rift, a breakthrough VR system, debuted – finally heralding the arrival of a technology seemingly pulled from a sci-fi future. On a recent spring morning, in a soundproof studio on the San Mateo, California, campus of Facebook – just days before the $600 Rift’s release – I’m testing out the Oculus headset in a mountain-climbing simulation created by Crytek, a team of artists and coders that has spent the past year meticulously scanning and re-creating vistas from the Alps to Halong Bay, Vietnam. The experience, which teleports me to a jagged cliff in a virtual world spanning 50 square miles, is so realistic that I can barely look down – when I do,…

Will toledo is garage rock’s most promising young songwriter, but for years music was something he did by himself. He started out recording alone, in bedrooms, dorm rooms and – now somewhat famously – the family Subaru, parking after school with his guitar and laptop outside bigbox stores around his hometown of Leesburg, Virginia. He wrote couplets about avoiding the sun, about reading the Book of Job empathetically, about watching too much TV. When he settled on the name Car Seat Headrest, it was in tribute to his mobile confessional booth. Since then, the 23-year-old Toledo has had a dozen-odd releases. But 2016 is sure to be his biggest year: In May, having signed to the indie powerhouse label Matador, he’ll release the exhilarating Teens of Denial, his first LP…

‘Ilike casting spells,” James says. “Nina Simone, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Michael Jackson, Prince – people who are really powerful, they cast spells.” On his debut EP, Whutcha Want, the Harlem singer-songwriter lives up to that bravado with a futuristic blend of gutbucket soul and modern groove, recalling Elvis as much as Frank Ocean. James grew up in Albany, New York, the son of a prostitute. He learned to DJ by age 10, and by 17 he’d moved to New York City, where he started a performance group, the Harlem James Gang, that mixed singing, dancing and magic. The crew’s gigs included private shows for Madonna. But James eventually turned his focus to recording. “I like to meld the past with the future,” he says. “I’m trying to take moments that…

Brooklyn has become a top exporter of great synthpop bands in recent years. But Wet have set themselves apart with music that combines the elegant ache of Nineties R&B with the raw honesty of indie pop. “I feel like that’s a very pure thing,” singer Kelly Zutrau says. “When you can get as close as possible to a pure emotional intensity – that’s when people hear something real in it.” The songs on Wet’s debut LP, Don’t You, wring drama out of lyrics that often suggest snippets of actual relationship dialogue. Onstage, Zutrau delivers her confessional lyrics with an eyes-closed forcefulness that can be captivating and a little uncomfortable. The 28-year-old grew up a fan of Cat Power and TLC, dropping out of high school in Massachusetts to pursue art…

Bob Dylan Fallen Angels Columbia HHH ½ Bob Dylan loves to fully plumb his good ideas. So it’s unsurprising that Fallen Angels continues his foraging of the Great American Songbook via tunes made famous by Frank Sinatra, whose colloquial delivery Dylan evidently learned plenty from. Fallen Angels isn’t merely overstock from last year’s Shadows in the Night, though Dylan’s approach is similar. His phrasing remains spectacular, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, and the playing is sublime. The horns are gone – no big loss – and the core band is nicely expanded with session guitar legend Dean Parks. Dylan vet Donnie Herron steps up, adding Texas swing and Hawaiian flavors on steel guitar (“Young at Heart,” “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”) and using a viola to channel Hot Club jazziness. The…