Rolling Stone June 29, 2017

MUSIC LIST METAL’S GREATEST ALBUMS From Black Sabbath’s Paranoid to Metallica’s Master of Puppets, we rank the 100 most headbangable LPs in history. Ozzy Osbourne and members of Metallica, Judas Priest and Slipknot offer some of their favorites too. FESTIVAL MONTEREY POP TURNS 50 A full report on the anniversary concert, with artist interviews, including Phil Lesh, Norah Jones, Booker T. and more. MOVIES INSIDE ‘THE BEGUILED’ Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning on turning the Clint Eastwood classic into a feminist Western. MUSIC MAKING OF A RAP SUPERSTAR In our first “mixtape primer,” we chart Kendrick Lamar’s pre-fame output – from Hub City Threat to Overly Dedicated. ‘MUSIC NOW’ PODCAST Dan Auerbach talks to host Brian Hiatt about his solo album Waiting on a Song, the future of the Black Keys and the 15th anniversary of the band’s debut LP. Plus,…

Lorde’s Next Act and well-executed interview with Lorde [“Lorde’s Growing Pains,” RS 1288]. I love her music. And just like Rolling Stone, professional but not to the point of being boring. Bravo. Tony, Via the Internet Heroine,” but . . . the “album that changed pop”? Hardly. I’m not sure if it’s with naiveté or willful ignorance that she talks about how she “reinvented the wheel.” Maybe it’s just that she’s bought into her own hype. Chris Mirabueno , Via the Internet who’s not achieved a fraction of Lorde’s success, I can’t help but feel her artistic feats at such an early age are mainly due to being the child of an award-winning poet. How lucky can one person be? Ken McNeill, Via the Internet Montana Blues election in Montana [“The Battle for Montana,” RS 1288]. After a…

1. Arcade Fire “Everything Now” Arcade Fire’s epic dance rock usually tilts toward Berlin-Bowie-esque darkness. Not this time. From its ABBA pianos to its Village People group-chant vocals, the title track from their soon-to-be-out new LP is a glorious disco inferno. 2. Radiohead “I Promise” This bonus track from the new 20th-anniversary reissue of OK Computer dates back to 1996; it’s a stately Joy Division-like ballad that offers a fascinating glimpse of the Brit-pop outliers in the earliest days of one of rock’s greatest reinventions. 3. 2 Chainz, Travis Scott “4 AM” A Southern hip-hop ode to the good life that creeps along so sumptuously you’ll get lifted on contact. 4. Elton John and Jack White “Two Fingers of Whiskey” A raucous piano-blues duet from the new documentary series The American Epic Sessions – it’s like wandering into the glammiest roadhouse…

Thomas and his band Matchbox 20 are launching their first tour in four years this summer, featuring co-headliner Counting Crows. The Boomtown Rats “I Don’t Like Mondays” A lot of people don’t realize this is a song about a school shooting. You can see Bob Geldof’s social awareness coming out even back then. The Rolling Stones “Ruby Tuesday” This was a great experimental time for the Stones. There’s nothing special about a Tuesday, so you might as well start with this song. The Cure “Friday I’m in Love” This song is pure candy, especially for such a morose band. Robert Smith smiles through the whole video like a lunatic. Rob Thomas “Sunday Morning New York Blue” Stylistically, I was going back to the Eagles’ “New Kid in Town” with this. I’m bummed it never made it on a record. Sam Cooke “Another Saturday Night” To…

‘D James Hetfield asks Lars Ulrich with a hint of agitation in his voice. The two are facing each other in the “Tuning Room,” where they typically rehearse before a show. They’re trying to get their 1991 classic “Wherever I May Roam” right, but Ulrich is playing a strange off-kilter rhythm. Fifteen years ago, this might have resulted in a long, teary group-therapy session. But today, Hetfield drops the issue and lets Ulrich play the song his own way while exchanging grins with the rest of the band. This is how Metallica are operating on their first North American tour in eight years (and first stadium run in nearly 20): loose and easygoing, but also sensitive to one another’s feelings. “We know where all the nuclear buttons are with each other,…

Del McCoury Auerbach recently started having “picking parties” at his home in Nashville’s West End neighborhood. One guest was McCoury, 78. A veteran of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, he is one of the last living links to bluegrass’s golden era. “He flies Bill Monroe’s flag hard,” Auerbach says. “I was raised on the Stanley Brothers. I didn’t know that you can’t be in both camps – bluegrass beef, man.” Those parties pushed Auerbach to start writing on acoustic guitar. “It couldn’t be a fragment supported by studio magic,” he says. “I wanted to be able to sit down and just play ’em and have them work. I’ve never been able to do that.” Charlie Feathers Auerbach loves both garage-punk icons the Cramps and swamp-blues great Junior Kimbrough. Both have a common influence:…