Jukebox – Music News Cuts – 12/20

Jukebox.

Blondie

Legendary singer Blondie is working with band co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein to release a new album. They’re deep in the works, and as of yet, no name has been released. On Bluesky, Stein mentioned it in a photo caption of a pic with John Congleton, who was a producer on Blondie’s most recent released album, 2017’s “Pollinator.”

Stein had confirmed the new project on BBC Radio 6. Her last album featured Joan Jett, Laurie Anderson and John Roberts. Charlie XCX was a co-writer.

Rock Tattoos

When it comes to rock band tattoos, a study by the tattoo shop LLTattoo in Switzerland found that Pink Floyd inspired the most rock band tattoos, followed by Guns N’ Roses and Rammstein in second and third, respectively. Pink Floyd, for tattoo ideas, was searched for 13,000 times a month, to Guns N’ Rose’s 10,600 monthly searches. Rammstein reached 10,500 searches.

The rest of the top ten are, in order, Metallica, Nirvana, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Twenty One Pilots, Iron Maiden, and Tool.

Mentor Dedaj of LLTattoo had this to say, “It’s very interesting to see which rock bands inspire the most tattoo pieces around the world. Rock music and ink are seemingly inseparable, and tats are almost obligatory to big rock heads,”

This study aligns with another study put out by TicketSource in 2023, although their second favorite was Slipknot. This study found that, overall, BTS, Harry Styles and Rhianna were the most popular music tattoos.

Slim Dunlop

Former lead guitarist for The Replacements Bob “Slim” Dunlop died on Wednesday, having been in ill health for years following a stroke in 2018. Dunlop joined The Replacements in 1987 and was with them through their original era, appearing on albums such as Don’t Tell a Soul and All Shook Down. His stroke roughly coincided with the band’s reunion, and they released an EP shortly thereafter to benefit his recovery.

Dunlop played in Twin Cities bands in the 70s, and had played with Curtis Almstead’s band Spooks, where he got noticed by The Replacements, namely Paul Westerberg, the lead singer.

In 1996, he toured with Dan Baird of Georgia Satellites. He released two solo albums to high praise by such people as Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams.