Rolling Stone Nov-05-15

EXCLUSIVE THE ZOMBIES RETURN Watch a three-part episode of our video series “The Encore,” chronicling the rise, fall and resurgence of one of the best psychedelic acts of the Sixties – including interviews with founders Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone about their new album. LIST THE HISTORY OF HAIR METAL Our experts rank and tell the stories behind the 50 best LPs from the hair-metal craze of the Eighties – from Def Leppard to Mötley Crüe, Stryper to Dokken. VIDEO THE ART OF BOB DYLAN Go behind the scenes with rock scholar Bob Egan and get the real stories of classic Dylan album covers like Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Q&A DAVE GAHAN STRETCHES OUT The Depeche Mode frontman discusses Angels & Ghosts, his moody new LP with his collaborators Soulsavers – and drops some hints about what’s next…

Love Letters & Advice The RS Interview THERE WASN’T AN OBSERVAtion by President Obama that didn’t ring true for me, both as an American citizen and a citizen of the world [“Obama Takes on Climate Change: The Rolling Stone Interview,” RS 1245]. Climate change is a daunting, depressing challenge, but we have the technologies to make positive changes for future generations. Andre Schwegler, Basalt, CO GREAT INTERVIEW BY JEFF Goodell, in which he held Obama’s feet to the fire. The Clean Power Plan doesn’t go far enough, but I’m glad the president is now taking formal steps to reduce planet-killing emissions. Ray Rollins, via the Internet AS OBAMA TALKED ABOUT carbon reduction and fossil fuels, I wondered why no one is addressing animal agriculture, the industry responsible for the largest percentage of greenhouse gases emitted into…

1. Arcade Fire “Get Right” 2013’s Reflektor was a fantastic voyage into a disco underworld. But Arcade Fire didn’t forget how to rock – check this bluesy, Stones-like outtake from their new reissue of the album. Extra bonus: Halfway through, it flips into a sweet instrumental anthem à la Floyd. 2. Selena Gomez “Hands to Myself” This fun flirty Max Martin joint is the catchiest tune on Gomez’s new album, Revival: “You’re metaphorical gin ’n juice,” she sings, “so come on, give me a taste.” 3. Elvis Costello “April 5th” Costello trades verses with Kris Kristofferson and Rosanne Cash on this moving unreleased ballad from 2008, which he’s unearthed to go with his new autobiography. 4 . Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson “Say Say Say (2015 Remix)” Some McCartney fans hate this song; others of us have…

Five Songs I Wish I’d Written The Aussie country star – whose single “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” is hitting big – says these tunes speak to him as a songwriter. Waylon Jennings “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” “Lord, it’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitar/Where do we take it from here?” Those two lines alone hit upon the need to keep country music evolving for me. Lucinda Williams “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” This one’s timeless. I love Lucinda’s cryptic style of songwriting. It makes it feel so personal. David Bowie “Changes” I’ve been getting back into Bowie recently. The pop architecture in his songwriting here is really exquisite. I still find it mind-blowing. Kurt Vile “Pretty Pimpin” I don’t know how he wrote it, but it sounds like pure stream of…

THERE IS THE RECLUsive young man laying down early acoustic versions of his songs into a cassette machine, the giddy adolescent making silly-voice radio ads for his new band, and the keen experimenter building sound collages and storms of guitar distortion. There is also the serious writer recounting an early suicide attempt with performance-artist resolve, the unabashed romantic covering the Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” and the besieged rock star singing about his anguish and insecurity from the edge of oblivion. They are all Kurt Cobain. And they are all on one record: the soundtrack to Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, writer-director Brett Morgen’s HBO documentary about the late Nirvana singer-guitarist. To be released by Universal on November 13th in a variety of formats, including a 31-track deluxe edition, Montage of…

‘The Happy Guitar’ A young, cheerful Cobain plays a jaunty folk-blues number on acoustic guitar like he’s holding down the stage in a mid-Sixties Greenwich Village coffeehouse. When Morgen says you can hear Cobain smiling on the early tapes, this is what he means. ‘Rehash’ Cobain revs up the distortion for an upstairs-downstairs riff that suggests Black Sabbath in their prime and pushes his voice up to a manic, shredded falsetto. But there is a genuine song – clearly indebted to Cobain’s Northwest-punk idols the Melvins – coming through the turbulence. At points, Cobain shouts “Solo!” and “Chorus!” where he plans to put more noise and ideas later. ‘And I Love Her’ The grunge-rock avenger often cited as the John Lennon of his generation covers this Paul McCartney ballad – originally recorded by the Beatles…