News Round-Up: The War On Drugs, The White Stripes and more

The War On Drugs by Matthias Hesch

You’re in the right place if you’ve missed any of the week’s top news stories – here Live4ever’s News Round-Up presents a recap of the biggest and best headlines we featured during the last seven days…

The War On Drugs can easily be divided into two entities; the painstakingly crafted, multi-layered sound of Adam Granduciel in the studio, and the more considered, full band rock experience of their live shows.

It’s the evolution of that live sound over the course of the past decade which will be the focus of LIVE DRUGS, a new collection to be released on Granduciel’s own Super High Quality Records label on November 20th.

U2‘s 1987 monster The Joshua Tree has been voted as the greatest album of the 1980s by the listeners of BBC Radio 2.

“The Joshua Tree changed everything for us as a band,” The Edge has responded. “It was written in the mid-eighties, during the Reagan-Thatcher era of British and U.S. politics, a period when there was a lot of unrest. And it feels like we’re right back there in a way, politics are still so polarized.”

Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus, Phoebe Bridgers, Brittany Howard and Portugal. The Man are among the artists who’ll be performing concerts across the United States later this month in support of independent music venues.

YouTube Music has teamed up with the National Independent Venue Association for #SOSFest, when 35 gigs will be recorded at 25 independent venues across the US for broadcast between October 16th-18th. Those tuning in will be invited to donate to the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund.

Photo: Paul Bachmann

The White Stripes have announced the release of a greatest hits collection on December 4th.

The first such album to be compiled by Third Man since Jack and Meg parted ways nearly a decade ago (!), it’ll boast 26 songs on its as yet unconfirmed tracklist. Proudly luddite even 20 years ago, it’s no surprise that the age of streaming hasn’t put the band off taking this traditional route.

AC/DC have unleashed the full version of Shot In The Dark and confirmed their new album POWER UP will be released next month.

The return of Brian Johnson, Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams to the fold was confirmed earlier this month, Johnson back with Angus and Stevie Young after he was forced to step away from the Rock Or Bust tour back in 2016 on doctor’s orders.

Eddie Van Halen has died at the age of 65.

According to reports, Van Halen passed away surrounded by his family at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica, California following a long battle with throat cancer.