all the noise that's fit to blog
Each year we look forward by looking back and noticing which albums two decades ago will hit their anniversaries.
Sometimes artists will do something special like play those now-classic records in their entireties, which often surfaces songs they haven't performed live since the record debuted.
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As we presented last week with Top Setlists of 2025, based on how many setlists fans looked up, here are the Top Festivals of this year derived from the same calculation.
Which is really the most scientific metric, if you think about it.
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Portugal. The Man was joined by “Weird Al” Yankovic at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday (12/02) for a chaotic, funny, and surprisingly fierce one-two punch that closed with a Rage Against the Machine cover.
The 650 in attendance at the intimate venue had already seen quite a show where the first half was the band's excellent new album, SHISH, in its entirety, followed by a second set of more familiar bangers.
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Zac Brown gambled on himself on his Vegas residency at The Sphere, which has appeared to pay off thanks to sold out shows.
The most technological venue on the planet, known for its high-end sound and mind-blowing visuals, was a little too realistic for some who are now complaining that some of the "demonic" graphics sat with them in uncomfortable ways.
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“I can’t quite believe it. We’ve been a band for the last 15 years and I never thought this would happen," Ellie Rowsell proclaimed, basically pinching herself, on opening night of their two-night headlining run at the O2 Arena in London on Tuesday (12/2).
"This is just the best day ever," she beamed, which may have been premature because the following day Rolling Stone called her group, Wolf Alice, Britain's Boldest Band in their five-star review.
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Tiny Desk is NPR’s scrappy little musical engine that could: a live‑performance series shot in the cramped Washington, D.C. office where staffers actually work, then beamed out to millions through its digital channels and YouTube.
Born from an offhand joke by NPR’s Stephen Thompson that singer Laura Gibson should “just play at Bob’s desk” after a too‑quiet SXSW set, Bob Boilen and Thompson invited her into the office in 2008, filmed the intimate performance, and accidentally created the template for what would become Tiny Desk.
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Each year we must say goodbye to some of our favorite people. Sadly, 2025 was no exception.
While this list could have gone on, with no disrespect to those not on here, but these are eight we choose to spotlight today, whose contributions to music we are grateful for.
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And you may ask yourself, how did they get all those people behind the Tiny Desk?
After all these decades we should know one thing by now: David Byrne is magic. For someone who comes across as a bicycle-riding nerd, he's so hip. For a '77 square, his band was one of the vanguards of several of the legendary NYC punk clubs.
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Limp Bizkit opened their Mexico City show on Saturday (11/29) with a tribute video to their founding bassist Sam Rivers, whose tragic death on October 18 at age 48 was announced by the band the following day.
“Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” they wrote in a long, touching message on their IG.
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Thanksgiving's NFL halftime shows were full of top notch musical talent this year but the treatment of one of the artists have many fans and viewers yelling Hey!
The early game between the Lions and the Packers got the biggest reaction after Eminem made a surprise appearance during Jack White's set.
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On a cold, dreary night at an intimate club in Chicago, The Smashing Pumpkins performed what was advertised, and sure seemed like, their last show ever on December 2, 2000.
It was a week that began with a triumphant 27-song show at the United Center, the 18,000 seat home of the Chicago Bulls; and concluded tearfully with a 37-song epic gig at the 1,100 capacity Metro on the Northside of the city.
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Two Detroit legends, Jack White and Eminem, wowed the home crowd when they joined forced Thanksgiving afternoon (11/27) with a mini concert during halftime at Ford Field.
White, the announced performer, kicked off the set with “That’s How I’m Feeling” from his most recent solo album No Name, and then segued into “Hello Operator” from the White Stripes' De Stijl which is currently celebrating it's 25th anniversary.
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