Rolling Stone November 30, 2017

MUSIC BEST POP- PUNK ALBUMS From Descendents to Blink-182 and beyond, we count down the classics of punk rock’s most lovelorn subgenre, including the albums that inspired Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and the Belfast band that lit a fire under a young Bono. MOVIES BEHIND ‘THREE BILLBOARDS’ Filmmaker Martin McDonagh on making the year’s best flick, and why Frances McDormand is the greatest actress alive. CULTURE POT LOVERS’ GIFT GUIDE 2017 A handy shopping list of the best weed products and accessories sure to light up the holiday season. GLIXEL HOW GAMES TACKLE NAZIS The creators behind shoot-’em-up Wolfenstein II discuss the game’s timely romp through a Nazi-ruled America. DYLAN’S GOSPEL YEARS Biographer Clinton Heylin, gospel singer Regina McCrary and drummer Jim Keltner join host Brian Hiatt and Andy Greene to weigh in on Bob Dylan’s most mysterious era, as he releases…

Fifty Years of Rolling Stone Photos RS 1299 ROCKS! ALL THE PICS from the past 50 years were amazing to view, and I gained some insights as well into their origins. Jonathan Roberts, Myrtle Beach, SC ALL THE GREAT PHOTOS brought back so many memories. One photo I really wish you would publish again is the 1974 cover photo of Karen and Richard Carpenter by the phenomenal Annie Leibovitz – it truly captured Karen’s joy of life. Pam Quiggle, Tempe, AZ IF “A PICTURE IS WORTH A thousand words” (and each word was worth $100), then the net worth of the Photo Issue is $6.5 million. Joe Braun, Carmel, CA WHILE THERE WERE MANY true icons in your photo selections, I was disgusted to see Kid Rock among them. He is to music what Cheez Whiz is…

1. U2 “Get Out of Your Own Way” “Love has got to fight for its existence,” Bono sings on this surging new single from U2’s next LP, Songs of Experience. To help drive the message home, Kendrick Lamar swings by to end the song with a powerful verse. 2. Mavis Staples “Little Bit” A highlight from the gospel-soul icon’s politically charged third album with producer-collaborator Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. “This life surrounds you/Guns are loaded,” Staples sings, as guitars burst like thrown bottles over a nasty groove. 3. N.E.R.D. feat. Rihanna “Lemon” Pharrell reactivates his funk-punk band N.E.R.D. for a throbbing track cranked sky-high by Rihanna’s on-fire rapping. 4. Porches “Find Me” Porches’ Aaron Maine gives vintage Chicago house music a sad, sweet makeover, crooning about his blissed-out aloneness over a track that’ll still have you bouncing around your room. 5. Charlotte…

The R.E.M. guitarist – who oversaw a new 25th-anniversary edition of Automatic for the People – played these songs on a recent Mexican vacation. Tom Petty “Here Comes My Girl” This could have been one of the greatest singles of 1966, but it had this modern drive to it. It’s a great song. The Rolling Stones “Child of the Moon” They recorded this B side after Satanic Majesties, but they didn’t go overboard with the goofball, fake-psychedelic shit. King Hannibal “The Truth Shall Make You Free” A wicked James Brown-Sly Stone funk song about being a heroin addict and finding God. It’s one of the most amazingly fucked-up songs ever. Sam Cooke “A Change Is Gonna Come” Every time I hear this, the hair stands up on my arms. Imagine if he lived to make a whole album about civil rights. Todd Rundgren “Couldn’t…

I decided to end his cancer treatments after learning the disease had spread too far to recover from. The very same week, he traveled to a Brooklyn soundstage to shoot a video for his new song “Lazarus,” the name of a biblical figure that Jesus brought back from the dead. Bowie spent the day in a hospital bed as cameras captured him with a bandage around his head. “Look up here, I’m in heaven,” he howled. “I’ve got scars that can’t be seen.” Footage from that day and recollections from those who were there make up one of the pivotal scenes in David Bowie: The Last Five Years, a revelatory new documentary directed by Francis Whately – who chronicled Bowie’s golden Seventies period in his 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years.…

W down for an October 15th segment on CBS This Morning, the normally press-shy singer’s solo debut was already five months old and he had no new tour dates to promote. But to experts, his timing was perfect – the Recording Academy had just mailed ballots to 12,000 Grammy voters to decide the nominees for the January ceremony. “Harry Styles is in the conversation for Album of the Year, so that gives him visibility during the voting period,” says a record-label source. Adds another, “Harry doing something for an older demographic like CBS This Morning is just what a good PR manager would advise: ‘We want voters to know you’re not one-fifth of a teen-pop band, you’re a serious artist.’ ” In recent years, Grammy contenders have been more aggressively campaigning…