Welcome back to The Weekly Rewind, our regular rundown of the biggest music news stories out there. Here’s what caught our ear this week.
R.I.P. soul icon Roberta Flack
We lost a music legend in Roberta Flack this week. The soul singer, pop star, and 2020 Lifetime Achievement winner at the Grammys was 88 years old. Known for her hits “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” Flack publicly announced she was diagnosed with ALS in 2022. Fans and musicians alike are mourning her loss; Jennifer Hudson called Robert Flack “one of the great soul singers of all time,” on X, Questlove wrote “Rest In Melody” on Instagram, and family friend Sean Lennon remembered the icon as her neighbor in New York City’s The Dakota apartment, “She was an incredibly kind woman. Uniquely talented. I am Eternally grateful to have known her. I’m heart broken she had to leave this earth.”
The Head and the Heart gets ready to hit the road
The Seattle modern rock band The Head and The Heart has been jamming and making music since 2009, and their new album Aperture is on the way, set to be released May 9th. To provide a sneak peak, the band released “After the Setting Sun,” which truly sets the tone for what to expect in a couple months. They are also readying a tour that launches May 31st in Detroit, traveling all over the country for a North American tour, and finishes October 10th in Knoxville, with a Philadelphia date at The Met on June 6th. (Read more at Consequence)
Wu-Tang’s farewell tour will end in Philly
One of the most respected hip-hop groups in history, Wu-Tang Clan has set the dates for their final North American tour, beginning June 6th in Baltimore and ending July 18th in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center. The band has a robust, three-decade-long catalog spanning 30 years, and to go out on a high note, they’ll be releasing their last album, Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman: Wu-Tang, The Saga Continues. The band will be accompanied not only by the surviving members of the original crew, but with the support of Run the Jewels as well. (Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer)
R.E.M. plays “Pretty Persuasion” at tribute show in Athens
It’s rare to get all four members of R.E.M. in the same place, but they appeared at an Athens, Georgia stop of Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy’s tribute tour, and played one of their classics together — “Pretty Persuasion” from Reckoning. (Read more at Brooklyn Vegan)
Garbage announces a new record
The modern rock hitmakers’ eighth studio album will be called Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, and frontperson Shirley Manson says “Going into making this record, I was determined to find a more hopeful, uplifting world to immerse myself in.” It’s out on May 30 via Stun Volume. (Read more at Pitchfork)
The Garden State tribute concert will change your life (and do a bit of good in the world)
For better or worse, Zach Braff wistfully emo love letter to his home of New Jersey, Garden State, reshaped the trajectory of indie in the aughties. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its film and highly popular soundtrack, The Shins, Frou Frou, Iron & Wine, and more will play Los Angeles theater The Greek on March 29th to raise money for the Los Angeles homeless shelter and services provider The Midnight Mission. The show is sold out, but will stream on Veeps so folks everywhere can support the cause and celebrate the music. (Read more at Brooklyn Vegan)
Pink Floyd’s Pompeii gets an IMAX upgrade
Arguably one of rock’s most memorable concert films, Pink Floyd at Pompeii is a cosmic 1971 exploration that finds the psych rock trailblazers making mind-bending sounds amid the ashy ruins of the Italian city of Pompeii, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. It’s a trip to watch if you’ve never seen it, and the film is getting a new 4K restoration that hits IMAX theaters worldwide on April 24th. (Read more at The Guardian)
Bob Dylan posts a Machine Gun Kelly video to his Instagram
Why? We’re not sure. But the Nobel Prize winning singer-songwriter and recent Academy Award Nominated biopic subject Bob Dylan shared a clip to his Insta of Machine Gun Kelly doing an instore performance his song “Blue Skies,” which The Fader says appears to be shot at Park Ave CDs in Orlando, Florida. “This was not on my 2025 bingo card,” wrote Kelly, who is in the midst of working on an album and says this gave him a jolt of creative inspiration. (Read more at The Fader)
Tori Amos is making a children’s book (and an album to go with it)
Singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos releases her first children’s book, Tori And The Muses, next Tuesday, March 4th, and now a soundtrack is in the cards. Listen to “S’Magic Day” below. Tori’s book tour for it launches next week as well, and though it does not come to Philadelphia, there are stops in New York and Baltimore. (Read more at Brooklyn Vegan)
