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Beginning in the 1980s, Mike Burkett—a.k.a. Fat Mike—has been pouring his energy into punk rock. He co-founded the beloved band NOFX in 1983 and the San Francisco-based record label Fat Wreck Chords in 1990. Ever since, he’s been signing bands, playing shows, writing books, creating documentaries, and he even started a company that makes panties for straight men. Most recently, in 2023, he co-created the Las Vegas-based Punk Rock Museum. Earlier this year, Vegas decreed April 1 to be Punk Rock Day (what Mike calls a “punk proc,” short for punk proclamation). It all comes together to mark the culmination of a life dedicated to the music he says saved his life.

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Nathaniel Rateliff is still curious after all these years. The singer/songwriter who made his bones in Denver and is now a globally famous artist, is still on the hunt for good songs—even if he is at something of a strange crossroads.

In one way, Rateliff has never been more successful. Ever since 2015 when “S.O.B.,” the single with his band The Night Sweats became a phenomenon, he’s been growing his footprint. He’s played Saturday Night Live, earned praise from Robert Plant and placed songs in major movies and HBO television shows. He’s played late-night TV and toured the world.

But at 45, Rateliff is still evolving. He’s dealing with his relationship to drinking, he’s coping with the realities of death and divorce, and confronting the pressures of stardom. And these are all the subjects of the new Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats LP South of Here, out Friday (June 28).

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Parisalexa, co-writer of the newest K-Pop hit “Supernova” from the group aespa, doesn’t like to fly. But when the Los Angeles-via-Seattle songwriter/performer was invited on a trip to South Korea to collaborate on music, she took the chance. “A 15-hour flight across the world didn’t seem super exciting to me,” she says, “especially with people I didn’t necessarily know super well.”

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For many, the best show on television right now is the new Marvel series X-Men ’97. The cartoon, which just aired its season finale this week on Disney+, was already trending on X in a matter of hours. The original X-Men animated series first aired in the early 1990s and the new offering is a continuation. But while much of the ’97 series has remained the same, some of it has been updated. One of those updates is the show’s theme song, written by the musical group The Newton Brothers.

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It takes a lot to be yourself. Paradoxically, it’s not something that comes easily to many. You have to find yourself first. We grow up beholden to a life of outside expectations. Inescapable diversions. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, as they say. But there always remains a chance for self-realization. A crack in the mirror through which we can see our true selves on the other side—as we’re meant to be, as we want to be, deep down. 

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When asked what he’s focusing on today, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee says more than anything else, he’s just trying to be better. For the notorious music icon who seems to have lived as many lives as he has hit records, the purpose of life as he sees it now is to exist in the moment and be better than he was before, whether that was last year or last decade. For Lee, whose band released its newest single “Dogs of War” today (April 26) along with a new music video, the hope is to push ahead with a little more grace than he had previously.

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When you’re young, says 76-year-old singer/songwriter T Bone Burnett, everything in life is a mystery. As you get older, things get clearer and simpler. Nevertheless, for Burnett, who has worked with the likes of Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, and Brandi Carlile throughout his illustrious career, even at a young age he says he was “audio-oriented.” He knew early on that he loved sound more than anything. More than painting, more than mathematics. That much was clear.

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Lenny Kravitz‘s brand new single, “Human,” begins with a rattle. And either by choice or by divine intervention (or maybe both), it’s the perfect opening. The rattle, if considering the new track philosophically, can be thought of as a soul-stirring awakening. The jolt of bones, the spark of a spirit inside. A rattle, too, is almost always a person’s first toy, doubling also as our first musical instrument.

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When you’re a rock legend, chances are you have some harrowing experiences to share. Pearl Jam’s lead guitarist Mike McCready not only has stories to tell but also is ready to tell them in a new way. The Seattle-born artist has been playing his instrument since he was 12 years old, starting around 1979. From there, he saw the rise of the Pacific Northwest grunge rock scene and witnessed some of his closest friends and musical cohorts die as the result of fame and drug abuse. He’s since come out the other side, surviving his own health issues and struggles with addiction, to become a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. Now, McCready says, he’s working on a script and soundtrack for a new rock opera that will tell the stories of his city and display the range of emotions many encountered on their paths to fame.  

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Taking a mental health break in Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains a couple years ago may have saved actor/pop star Kevin Quinn’s life. At least, his creative one. For Quinn, 26, who auditioned for American Idol just two weeks after his 15th birthday and rose to fame thanks to his work as an actor on the Disney Channel, it was a chance to get out of the public spotlight and change and reframe his future.

While checked into a facility in Arizona, Quinn says he was able to wake up free of professional responsibility, go for jogs, take in the air and witness the majesty of the mountains. Now, that recent refresh has helped him write his new EP Real Me, which is out Friday (January 19).

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For the Japanese-born Renaissance man Yoshiki, risk is an essential aspect of his creativity. The piano player, kimono designer (highlighted at Paris Fashion Week), Golden Globes theme composer — and more — knows that to achieve anything, to make any kind of unique mark, one needs to find new ground. Explore new territory, both inwardly and outwardly. That’s the recipe, if there is one, to success. And Yoshiki is continuing to test that important maxim. This fall, he made his directorial debut with the music documentary, Yoshiki: Under The Sky, which also features the likes of St. Vincent and the Chainsmokers. He then held performances in honor of the doc in New York, L.A., London and Tokyo in a matter of days. There will be no resting on laurels.

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On Friday (November 10), when the recent Grammy nominees were announced, Americana star Allison Russell was out for a jog. And that was a good thing, she says, because if she had been hyper-aware of the nominations, she may have driven herself mad with anticipation.

Of course, Russell, whose debut solo album, Outside Child, was also nominated for multiple Grammy awards two years ago, and who has garnered other nominations since then, is no stranger to accolades these days. Even if there was a time earlier in her life when she never thought she’d see it.

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