Australia To Honor America’s R.E.M.

In 1995, Ugly Kid Joe released Menace To Sobriety, their second full-length album. A heavier, darker, and more muscular outing than their blockbuster debut America’s Least Wanted, Menace was hailed by Kerrang! as “the album of the year.” Yet, in the United States, the record received little to no label support, leaving frontman Whitfield Crane to famously declare that their label was quietly backing away.

Jack White didn’t just take aim at Donald Trump’s garish Oval Office makeover, he weaponised it. Posting to Instagram this week, he scoffed at the president’s golden revamp, likening it to “a vulgar, gold-leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler’s dressing room.” A fiery riposte, to say the least.

Ed Kuepper, twice inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as a founding member of both The Saints and Laughing Clowns, will finally bring his acclaimed collaboration with Dirty Three drummer Jim White to the United States for the first time this November. The pair will perform in Los Angeles on November 4 and New York on November 17, with support from none other than Mick Harvey of The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds.

Skunkhour will mark three decades since the release of one of Australia’s most enduring funk-rock singles with the Up To Our Necks In It national tour this October and November. The tour celebrates the 1995 breakthrough hit Up To Our Necks In It, a track that helped Skunkhour break from the Sydney underground into national recognition.

Split Enz, one of the most original and daring bands ever to come out of New Zealand, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their debut album Mental Notes with the release of Enzcyclopedia Volumes One & Two on November 14. The massive archival set arrives as a 5CD collection, a 3LP vinyl edition, and a Blu-Ray Atmos mix, offering fans the deepest dive yet into the early, experimental years of the band.

DEVO, the radical New Wave pioneers who turned art-school satire into international pop stardom, are back in the cultural conversation with the release of DEVO, a feature-length Netflix Original documentary. Directed by Chris Smith (Wham!, Fyre, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond), the film premiered to acclaim at Sundance 2024 and is now streaming globally, giving audiences a definitive portrait of one of music’s most original and eccentric bands.

Vernon Reid, the Grammy-winning guitarist best known for his incendiary work with Living Colour, has announced the release of his new solo album Hoodoo Telemetry, due October 3 via Artone / The Players Club Records. Ahead of the full release, Reid has unveiled the single Beautiful Bastard, a song he originally considered for his Yohimbe Brothers project but has now reclaimed for this collection.