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Today’s Music News: Foo Fighters promise to visit Italian city that covered ‘Learn to Fly’

by Staff

August 02, 2015

Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters (courtesy the artists)

The city of Cesena in Italy recently staged a 1,000-member band playing a cover of the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly.” A video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube and quickly went viral, garnering more than 15 million views in three days. Among the viewers was Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl, who was so touched by the performance that he promises the people of Cesena — in their native tongue — that the Foo Fighters will visit Cesena, likely in November of this year. (Rolling Stone)

Country singer-songwriter Lynn Anderson died on Thursday, July 30, at a hospital in Nashville, Tenn., after suffering a heart attack. She is best-known for her 1970 mega-hit, “Rose Garden.” (Rolling Stone)

While performing in Nashville on July 2, Morrissey happened to cover “Rose Garden” in honor of Anderson, about which Anderson wrote “What a very cool compliment!” Morrissey shared his condolences in a recent blog post. (Stereogum) Here is his performance of “Rose Garden”:

Despite severe weather that required an evacuation of fans from Chicago's Grant Park (the first such incident since 2012), Lollapalooza still finished strong, as reported by Greg Kot and others on the Chicago Tribune's live blog of the event. (Chicago Tribune)

In more Lollapalooza-related news, during his Lolla set last Friday, Paul McCartney jammed with Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard on "Get Back." (Pitchfork)

Dr. Dre has announced that his upcoming album, Compton: A Soundtrack, will be released on Saturday, Aug. 7. Dre says the album is inspired by the forthcoming N.W.A. biopic, Straight Outta Compton. Dr. Dre's album features collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and many others. (Billboard)

Two women — one age 18 and the other 19 — are dead in what authorities suspect are drug overdoses after they were found unresponsive at the HARD Summer music festival in Pomona, Calif. The two-day festival's attendance was estimated at 65,000 people per day. (Southern California Public Radio)

Despite widespread production, distribution and listening to music, David Byrne is concerned about the future of the music industry. In an editorial in the New York Times, Byrne writes, "making a living in this new musical landscape seems impossible. I myself am doing O.K., but my concern is for the artists coming up: How will they make a life in music?" As a possible solution, Byrne encourages record labels and streaming services to be more transparent in how the royalty monies are divided among the various shareholders. (New York Times)

Motion City Soundtrack have debuted a new single, "Lose Control," off their forthcoming album Panic Stations. (The Current)

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