Here’s a free guitar lesson from Johnny Marr in the form of an advertisement for Fender guitars and amps. The former Smiths guitarist uses this 8-minute video to first perform then teach viewers how to play “The Headmaster Ritual,” the iconic opening track to 1985’s Meat is Murder. Watch it right here.
The House of Love’s Guy Chadwick today played a 13-song, 48-minute solo set from his home in Sussex, England, that was broadcast “live from isolation” via Facebook, a way to reach out to fans as the band is now sidelined like so much else in this world by the coronavirus. Watch it right here.
David Byrne returned to “Saturday Night Live” last night for his third appearance in four decades, performing the Talking Heads classic “Once in a Lifetime” and the far more obscure cut “Toe Jam,” which he recorded in 2008 with Fatboy Slim’s The Brighton Port Authority project. Watch those clips and more right here.
Alice Bag, co-founder of the iconic first-generation Los Angeles punk act The Bags, this spring will release her third solo album, a collection called Sister Dynamite that is being described as a return to the “full-throttle punk” that her late-’70s band perfected. Full tour dates and a music video right here.
Clan of Xymox has debuted a video for its suitably dark new single “She” — released this month ahead of a planned 2020 studio album — and will return to the U.S. in March for another round of concerts in California and across the southern reaches of the country. Full dates and details right here.
Musician and activist Amanda Palmer has just released a rush-recorded, eight-song charity album in response to the devastating Australian bushfires, and you can hear its lead-off single — a cover of Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning” with vocals by Missy Higgins — right here. Full details and such.
Dream-pop favorites The Ocean Blue this week shared a gorgeous music video for the equally gorgeous song “Love Doesn’t Make It Easy On Us,” off their 2019 album Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves, as the band prepares to play a run of sporadic tour dates through May. Full details right here.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 