The Airborne Toxic Event Channel Bruce Springsteen on 'The Secret' - Song Premiere

Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett followed a simple philosophy while making the band's third album, Such Hot Blood. "I asked myself, 'What would Bruce Springsteen do?'" Jollett tells Rolling Stone. "If you want to do something that's important, you can't fake it. . . I watched the documentaries about making Born to Run and making Darkness on the Edge Of Town and there was a moment where Bruce says something along those lines."

The inspiration from this line was clear and immediate for Jollett. "I remember thinking, ‘You can do a lot more: you can learn to play piano for real, you can learn to sing for real, you can take what you know about songwriting and forget it and then remember it. You can learn other forms, you can rewrite your lyrics 20 times so they're exactly right," he says. "So yeah, it was a choice to try and grow and to push to grow."

Video: The Airborne Toxic Event Perform Live at Rolling Stone

Befitting an album crafted under the guise of Springsteen, the album's forceful opening track, "The Secret," is an anthemic, propulsive rocker that shifts tempos as smoothly as a Ferrari winding along the Pacific Coast Highway. You can listen to the song here in its exclusive premiere; it's also available on the four-song EP The Secret, out March 11th through Island Records.

The track was written in a bar after a night spent driving recklessly around L.A. "I pulled over to a bar somewhere 'cause I was driving along and I was trying to imagine what this song was about and I was like, 'It's about this, it's about this moment. It's about not knowing where I'm going, not knowing what the fuck I'm doing; it's about this moment of restlessness, feeling like I'm on this road and I don't know where it's gonna go and where it's gonna end."

That same exertion and euphoria is evident throughout the 10-song Such Hot Blood. It finds the band pushing themselves in a variety of directions, from the genteel opening of the sweet rocker "The Storm" to "Bride and Groom," an Irish-punk confessional that Jollett calls "maybe my favorite song I've ever written." "The Fifth Day" is ambitious and broad, a simple three-minute ditty that segues into four minutes of orchestration similar to U2's "40."

Regardless of what happens with the album, out this spring, Jollett is glad that Airborne stretched their abilities on it. "It'd be more terrifying to think that life would go on and you would say to yourself one day, 'Oh, I had this opportunity and I squandered it,'" he says. "At a certain point in my life, we had this band and this worldwide audience and there was a moment where you could've stood there and said the thing in front of everyone that you wanted to say and you didn't do it. That's scarier."

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The Airborne Toxic Event Channel Bruce Springsteen on 'The Secret' - Song Premiere

Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett followed a simple philosophy while making the band's third album, Such Hot Blood. "I asked myself, 'What would Bruce Springsteen do?'" Jollett tells Rolling Stone. "If you want to do something that's important, you can't fake it. . . I watched the documentaries about making Born to Run and making Darkness on the Edge Of Town and there was a moment where Bruce says something along those lines."

The inspiration from this line was clear and immediate for Jollett. "I remember thinking, ‘You can do a lot more: you can learn to play piano for real, you can learn to sing for real, you can take what you know about songwriting and forget it and then remember it. You can learn other forms, you can rewrite your lyrics 20 times so they're exactly right," he says. "So yeah, it was a choice to try and grow and to push to grow."

Video: The Airborne Toxic Event Perform Live at Rolling Stone

Befitting an album crafted under the guise of Springsteen, the album's forceful opening track, "The Secret," is an anthemic, propulsive rocker that shifts tempos as smoothly as a Ferrari winding along the Pacific Coast Highway. You can listen to the song here in its exclusive premiere; it's also available on the four-song EP The Secret, out March 11th through Island Records.

The track was written in a bar after a night spent driving recklessly around L.A. "I pulled over to a bar somewhere 'cause I was driving along and I was trying to imagine what this song was about and I was like, 'It's about this, it's about this moment. It's about not knowing where I'm going, not knowing what the fuck I'm doing; it's about this moment of restlessness, feeling like I'm on this road and I don't know where it's gonna go and where it's gonna end."

That same exertion and euphoria is evident throughout the 10-song Such Hot Blood. It finds the band pushing themselves in a variety of directions, from the genteel opening of the sweet rocker "The Storm" to "Bride and Groom," an Irish-punk confessional that Jollett calls "maybe my favorite song I've ever written." "The Fifth Day" is ambitious and broad, a simple three-minute ditty that segues into four minutes of orchestration similar to U2's "40."

Regardless of what happens with the album, out this spring, Jollett is glad that Airborne stretched their abilities on it. "It'd be more terrifying to think that life would go on and you would say to yourself one day, 'Oh, I had this opportunity and I squandered it,'" he says. "At a certain point in my life, we had this band and this worldwide audience and there was a moment where you could've stood there and said the thing in front of everyone that you wanted to say and you didn't do it. That's scarier."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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The Airborne Toxic Event Channel Bruce Springsteen on 'The Secret' - Song Premiere

Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett followed a simple philosophy while making the band's third album, Such Hot Blood. "I asked myself, 'What would Bruce Springsteen do?'" Jollett tells Rolling Stone. "If you want to do something that's important, you can't fake it. . . I watched the documentaries about making Born to Run and making Darkness on the Edge Of Town and there was a moment where Bruce says something along those lines."

The inspiration from this line was clear and immediate for Jollett. "I remember thinking, ‘You can do a lot more: you can learn to play piano for real, you can learn to sing for real, you can take what you know about songwriting and forget it and then remember it. You can learn other forms, you can rewrite your lyrics 20 times so they're exactly right," he says. "So yeah, it was a choice to try and grow and to push to grow."

Video: The Airborne Toxic Event Perform Live at Rolling Stone

Befitting an album crafted under the guise of Springsteen, the album's forceful opening track, "The Secret," is an anthemic, propulsive rocker that shifts tempos as smoothly as a Ferrari winding along the Pacific Coast Highway. You can listen to the song here in its exclusive premiere; it's also available on the four-song EP The Secret, out March 11th through Island Records.

The track was written in a bar after a night spent driving recklessly around L.A. "I pulled over to a bar somewhere 'cause I was driving along and I was trying to imagine what this song was about and I was like, 'It's about this, it's about this moment. It's about not knowing where I'm going, not knowing what the fuck I'm doing; it's about this moment of restlessness, feeling like I'm on this road and I don't know where it's gonna go and where it's gonna end."

That same exertion and euphoria is evident throughout the 10-song Such Hot Blood. It finds the band pushing themselves in a variety of directions, from the genteel opening of the sweet rocker "The Storm" to "Bride and Groom," an Irish-punk confessional that Jollett calls "maybe my favorite song I've ever written." "The Fifth Day" is ambitious and broad, a simple three-minute ditty that segues into four minutes of orchestration similar to U2's "40."

Regardless of what happens with the album, out this spring, Jollett is glad that Airborne stretched their abilities on it. "It'd be more terrifying to think that life would go on and you would say to yourself one day, 'Oh, I had this opportunity and I squandered it,'" he says. "At a certain point in my life, we had this band and this worldwide audience and there was a moment where you could've stood there and said the thing in front of everyone that you wanted to say and you didn't do it. That's scarier."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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The Airborne Toxic Event Channel Bruce Springsteen on 'The Secret' - Song Premiere

Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett followed a simple philosophy while making the band's third album, Such Hot Blood. "I asked myself, 'What would Bruce Springsteen do?'" Jollett tells Rolling Stone. "If you want to do something that's important, you can't fake it. . . I watched the documentaries about making Born to Run and making Darkness on the Edge Of Town and there was a moment where Bruce says something along those lines."

The inspiration from this line was clear and immediate for Jollett. "I remember thinking, ‘You can do a lot more: you can learn to play piano for real, you can learn to sing for real, you can take what you know about songwriting and forget it and then remember it. You can learn other forms, you can rewrite your lyrics 20 times so they're exactly right," he says. "So yeah, it was a choice to try and grow and to push to grow."

Video: The Airborne Toxic Event Perform Live at Rolling Stone

Befitting an album crafted under the guise of Springsteen, the album's forceful opening track, "The Secret," is an anthemic, propulsive rocker that shifts tempos as smoothly as a Ferrari winding along the Pacific Coast Highway. You can listen to the song here in its exclusive premiere; it's also available on the four-song EP The Secret, out March 11th through Island Records.

The track was written in a bar after a night spent driving recklessly around L.A. "I pulled over to a bar somewhere 'cause I was driving along and I was trying to imagine what this song was about and I was like, 'It's about this, it's about this moment. It's about not knowing where I'm going, not knowing what the fuck I'm doing; it's about this moment of restlessness, feeling like I'm on this road and I don't know where it's gonna go and where it's gonna end."

That same exertion and euphoria is evident throughout the 10-song Such Hot Blood. It finds the band pushing themselves in a variety of directions, from the genteel opening of the sweet rocker "The Storm" to "Bride and Groom," an Irish-punk confessional that Jollett calls "maybe my favorite song I've ever written." "The Fifth Day" is ambitious and broad, a simple three-minute ditty that segues into four minutes of orchestration similar to U2's "40."

Regardless of what happens with the album, out this spring, Jollett is glad that Airborne stretched their abilities on it. "It'd be more terrifying to think that life would go on and you would say to yourself one day, 'Oh, I had this opportunity and I squandered it,'" he says. "At a certain point in my life, we had this band and this worldwide audience and there was a moment where you could've stood there and said the thing in front of everyone that you wanted to say and you didn't do it. That's scarier."

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Q&A: David Bowie Guitarist Earl Slick on Secret New Album Sessions

David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick

David Bowie has worked with a lot of guitarists over the decades, but he always comes back to Earl Slick. They first teamed up in 1974 for the Diamond Dogs tour. When that wrapped, Slick entered the studio with Bowie to record Young Americans and Station to Station. When Stevie Ray Vaughan walked out of the Serious Moonlight tour at the last minute, Bowie called in Slick. After a long break, Slick reunited with Bowie in the early 2000s for Heathen and Reality and their supporting tours.

Bowie called Slick into the studio last summer for to work on his comeback album, The Next Day, but until this month Slick was forbidden to tell a soul about the secret sessions. Rolling Stone spoke to Slick about the new songs, the possibility of a tour and his memories from the famously debauched Station to Station sessions in 1975. 

David Bowie's 'The Next Day' Album: A Track-by-Track Preview

A few years ago, did you start to think that Bowie would never record again?
My mindset would go back and forth both ways. One thing I did know is that once you're an artist, you're an artist until the day you die. The urge is always going to be there. I was never sold on the idea that he was done. Never.

How did you first hear about this project?
I heard about it directly from David last May. We were talking on the phone and he goes, "What's your schedule like?" I said, "I'm around. What have you got in mind?" One conversation led to the other, and we scheduled to go into the studio in July.

How did that first session begin?
He had already been working on it, unbeknownst to me. He had already cut some tracks. On my first day it was myself, David, Tony Visconti and drummer Sterling Campbell. We cut some new ones. When we finished those up David played me bits and bobs from the rest of the record. He said, "Oh, what do you think about this or that?" We then picked out some songs for me to play on. 

The whole thing was very casual, and it's all done as a group effort. We'll sit down and he'll play me a song and I'll say if I have a part in mind. It's a very give-and-take, very casual way of working. Sometimes he'll play me a little rough sketch on the guitar and say, "That's the idea. Now take it where you want it to go."

How many days were you there?
I was only there for a week. I did all my work in a week.

When was that?
Last week of July, or something like that. All I know is that it was hot as hell outside.

Tony says the single "Where Are We Now" sounds radically different than the rest of the album.
I don't know what the final outcome of the album is, but I know a lot of the stuff I played on was very different than the single.

Are they at all similar to the songs on Heathen or Reality? How would you describe the sound of the songs?
Oh God, I don't know if that man has ever done a record in his life that sounded like the last record he did. Think about it. You do Young Americans and then less than a year later you do Station to Station. You're talking apples and oranges. Those records, they don't even . . . it's a typical Bowie thing. It's unmistakably David Bowie, but as usual, it's unlike . . . Obviously, there's flavors from everything. You might think, "Oh, that sounds like Station to Station and that one sounds a little like Low." But there's no overall sound other than I can tell you it's just another David Bowie album that sounds different than the last one.

Do you know how many songs he used you on?
I haven't heard the album yet, but I'm gonna guess I'm on anywhere from five to seven of those. I've seen the titles these past few days, but they don't mean anything to me. They all had working titles when I was in there. 

Can you describe the sound of the songs a little more?
Two of the songs sounded a little Stones-y in the same way the title track from Diamond Dogs had a very Stones-y sound, especially when we played it live. It's not a great secret that I'm a big lover of Keith Richards, so I do have a lot of that in my playing. I did do some rhythms on some of the tracks that were very reminiscent of that.

For the rest of the album, it's a touch of Bowie across the board. There's some rockers on there. I did probably hear some songs that didn't make the album, but there was one with a mid-tempo, almost an R&B feel. I can't even describe it, but it was really cool. It was almost the same tempo as "Wild Is the Wind." I played electric on it. 

You've worked with Bowie a lot over the years. Was the process of this one different at all from the other albums?
It hasn't changed in 40 years. I've worked with a ton of people, and he's always the easiest. He doesn't come with a strict, "This is what it is, and you have to play these exact notes through the amp this way." Some artists do that, and that's why I rarely do sessions. I'm just too belligerent.

There's a certain magic when I sit in a room with David. That's why you'll see different guitar players working with him. He doesn't expect me to do what Adrian Belew does. He doesn't expect Adrian to do what I do, or Gerry Leonard, or vice versa. When I'm there, he needs me to do what I do best. "Here's the basic guidelines. What are the chords? Oh, I think it's in the key of G. OK, great." So we sit down, we bang around a couple of acoustic guitars sitting around some espresso and biscotti in the control room, and we just talk it through for a couple of minutes. Then I strap my guitar on and play until we both are happy with what I hit on.

The big question: Any chance you guys play live?
I knew that was the next question. That's another mystery. I mean, the band would love to do it. Obviously, we'd love to go out and do some dates. With David, and this has always been the case, he does what he's gonna do when he's gonna do it. A lot of the time it just comes from nowhere. I mean, I wasn't terribly surprised to talk to him about making another record. I wouldn't be surprised if he did call about live dates, and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't get the call. I can tell you right now there's no touring plans that I've heard of.

Not enough people appreciated it at the time, but that last tour felt very special.
Out of every tour I've ever done in my life – and that includes David and my own tours – that, hands down, was the most fun I'd ever had. It was the best configuration of guys we'd ever had. 

If he calls you tomorrow and says, "Hey, I want to go on a huge 18-month tour," what do you say?
What do you think?

I presume you'd do it.
[Laughs] Of course.

Just a random question. I've read so much about the making of Station to Station over the years – all the drugs and the all-night sessions and the general madness. Is any of it myth?
No, it's not a myth at all.

What's your memory of the single strangest moment?
The whole damn thing was strange! I mean, at the time it seemed perfectly normal to me. But in hindsight . . . I remember one night where we didn't even have the studio booked. How old was I? Christ, I was 24. It was L.A., and we were out ranting and raving every night, just having a blast. I was at the Rainbow Bar and Grill. As we used to say, I was "under the weather." Suddenly one of the roadies comes in. They search the whole place and find me at a back table. He says, "Time to go to work." I say, "It's one in the morning and I'm drunk." He says, "That's OK. David's at the studio. There's a car outside." So I paid my tab, jumped in the car and worked all night. I mean, that was not an unusual thing to happen.

David claims to be unable to recall most any of it.
Trust me, there's a lot of blank spots for me as well. I was living at the Sunset Marquis ,and it would be daylight when I got back. I'd be sitting out on my balcony drinking a beer at 10 a.m., just getting back from work.

Roy Bittan from the E Street Band was on keyboards, right?
Yes. 

He always seemed so straight and professional to me. I can't imagine him in the middle of all that madness.
You know why? He's a New York boy, that's why. He's used to being around that. The first time I ever met Roy was in New York while I was working with some band called Tracks or something. I met Roy, and we became fast friends. We were doing Station and it came up that we needed a piano player. David asked everybody in the band and I said, "You know what? Bruce Springsteen and the guys are staying at my hotel. My friend Roy is in the band. Why don't I bring him down?" That's what happened with Roy. 

I've always wondered how that worked for him. It was directly in the middle of the Born to Run tour. How did he have time?
I can't swear to this because I have a lot of blanks myself, but I think it was when Springsteen did two nights at the Roxy. It was the same time he was on the cover of Time and Newsweek. He was just exploding, and he was in Los Angeles for a little while. We were all at the same hotel. Again, there's a lot of blank spots, and I don't know if Roy was only in the studio for a day or two.

It's pretty amazing that the album turned out so perfectly.
I gotta tell you, out of every record I've played on, and I've played on a few records, that is still one of my favorites. As crazy as it was, and I can't specifically remember a lot, the memories I have are good. [Laughs] It makes me feel good thinking of the album, so it must have been fun.

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Secret and Lies of the Bailout

It has been four long winters since the federal government, in the hulking, shaven-skulled, Alien Nation-esque form of then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, committed $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Wall Street from its own chicanery and greed. To listen to the bankers and their allies in Washington tell it, you'd think the bailout was the best thing to hit the American economy since the invention of the assembly line. Not only did it prevent another Great Depression, we've been told, but the money has all been paid back, and the government even made a profit. No harm, no foul – right?

Wrong.

It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it. The result is one of those deals where one wrong decision early on blossoms into a lush nightmare of unintended consequences. We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn.

How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform

But the most appalling part is the lying. The public has been lied to so shamelessly and so often in the course of the past four years that the failure to tell the truth to the general populace has become a kind of baked-in, official feature of the financial rescue. Money wasn't the only thing the government gave Wall Street – it also conferred the right to hide the truth from the rest of us. And it was all done in the name of helping regular people and creating jobs. "It is," says former bailout Inspector General Neil Barofsky, "the ultimate bait-and-switch."

The bailout deceptions came early, late and in between. There were lies told in the first moments of their inception, and others still being told four years later. The lies, in fact, were the most important mechanisms of the bailout. The only reason investors haven't run screaming from an obviously corrupt financial marketplace is because the government has gone to such extraordinary lengths to sell the narrative that the problems of 2008 have been fixed. Investors may not actually believe the lie, but they are impressed by how totally committed the government has been, from the very beginning, to selling it.

THEY LIED TO PASS THE BAILOUT

Today what few remember about the bailouts is that we had to approve them. It wasn't like Paulson could just go out and unilaterally commit trillions of public dollars to rescue Goldman Sachs and Citigroup from their own stupidity and bad management (although the government ended up doing just that, later on). Much as with a declaration of war, a similarly extreme and expensive commitment of public resources, Paulson needed at least a film of congressional approval. And much like the Iraq War resolution, which was only secured after George W. Bush ludicrously warned that Saddam was planning to send drones to spray poison over New York City, the bailouts were pushed through Congress with a series of threats and promises that ranged from the merely ridiculous to the outright deceptive. At one meeting to discuss the original bailout bill – at 11 a.m. on September 18th, 2008 – Paulson actually told members of Congress that $5.5 trillion in wealth would disappear by 2 p.m. that day unless the government took immediate action, and that the world economy would collapse "within 24 hours."

To be fair, Paulson started out by trying to tell the truth in his own ham-headed, narcissistic way. His first TARP proposal was a three-page absurdity pulled straight from a Beavis and Butt-Head episode – it was basically Paulson saying, "Can you, like, give me some money?" Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, remembers a call with Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. "We need $700 billion," they told Brown, "and we need it in three days." What's more, the plan stipulated, Paulson could spend the money however he pleased, without review "by any court of law or any administrative agency."

The White House and leaders of both parties actually agreed to this preposterous document, but it died in the House when 95 Democrats lined up against it. For an all-too-rare moment during the Bush administration, something resembling sanity prevailed in Washington.

So Paulson came up with a more convincing lie. On paper, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was simple: Treasury would buy $700 billion of troubled mortgages from the banks and then modify them to help struggling homeowners. Section 109 of the act, in fact, specifically empowered the Treasury secretary to "facilitate loan modifications to prevent avoidable foreclosures." With that promise on the table, wary Democrats finally approved the bailout on October 3rd, 2008. "That provision," says Barofsky, "is what got the bill passed."

But within days of passage, the Fed and the Treasury unilaterally decided to abandon the planned purchase of toxic assets in favor of direct injections of billions in cash into companies like Goldman and Citigroup. Overnight, Section 109 was unceremoniously ditched, and what was pitched as a bailout of both banks and homeowners instantly became a bank-only operation – marking the first in a long series of moves in which bailout officials either casually ignored or openly defied their own promises with regard to TARP.

Congress was furious. "We've been lied to," fumed Rep. David Scott, a Democrat from Georgia. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, raged at transparently douchey TARP administrator (and Goldman banker) Neel Kashkari, calling him a "chump" for the banks. And the anger was bipartisan: Republican senators David Vitter of Louisiana and James Inhofe of Oklahoma were so mad about the unilateral changes and lack of oversight that they sponsored a bill in January 2009 to cancel the remaining $350 billion of TARP.

So what did bailout officials do? They put together a proposal full of even bigger deceptions to get it past Congress a second time. That process began almost exactly four years ago – on January 12th and 15th, 2009 – when Larry Summers, the senior economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, sent a pair of letters to Congress. The pudgy, stubby­fingered former World Bank economist, who had been forced out as Harvard president for suggesting that women lack a natural aptitude for math and science, begged legislators to reject Vitter's bill and leave TARP alone.

In the letters, Summers laid out a five-point plan in which the bailout was pitched as a kind of giant populist program to help ordinary Americans. Obama, Summers vowed, would use the money to stimulate bank lending to put people back to work. He even went so far as to say that banks would be denied funding unless they agreed to "increase lending above baseline levels." He promised that "tough and transparent conditions" would be imposed on bailout recipients, who would not be allowed to use bailout funds toward "enriching shareholders or executives." As in the original TARP bill, he pledged that bailout money would be used to aid homeowners in foreclosure. And lastly, he promised that the bailouts would be temporary – with a "plan for exit of government intervention" implemented "as quickly as possible."

The reassurances worked. Once again, TARP survived in Congress – and once again, the bailouts were greenlighted with the aid of Democrats who fell for the old "it'll help ordinary people" sales pitch. "I feel like they've given me a lot of commitment on the housing front," explained Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat from Alaska.

But in the end, almost nothing Summers promised actually materialized. A small slice of TARP was earmarked for foreclosure relief, but the resultant aid programs for homeowners turned out to be riddled with problems, for the perfectly logical reason that none of the bailout's architects gave a shit about them. They were drawn up practically overnight and rushed out the door for purely political reasons – to trick Congress into handing over tons of instant cash for Wall Street, with no strings attached. "Without those assurances, the level of opposition would have remained the same," says Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a leading progressive who voted against TARP. The promise of housing aid, in particular, turned out to be a "paper tiger."

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The Secret Sisters Break Out on 'Hunger Games' Soundtrack

Lydia Rogers and Laura Rogers of The Secret Sisters perform in Berlin.

Two years ago, Laura and Lydia Rogers had no expectations for a life as professional musicians . Then Laura floored a producer at a Nashville audition and they became the Secret Sisters, a bluegrass duo in vintage dresses out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, who have recorded with T Bone Burnett and Jack White, toured the world, and last week walked the black carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games, which includes their haunting folk ballad "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder."

The song was produced by Burnett for his soundtrack of soulful Americana and distopian rock for the highly anticipated film, which opens nationwide on March 23rd. "It was the first movie premiere that we had ever gone to, so we were like a deer in the headlights," Laura Rogers, 25, told Rolling Stone of the scene, which had the sisters mingling with actors Jennifer Lawrence and Donald Sutherland, and singers Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift. "Of course the crowd weren’t screaming for us, but they were still screaming. We were like, Wow, what are they yelling about?"

The soundtrack album puts the Secret Sisters in the company of such established acts as Swift ("Safe & Sound"), Neko Case, the Decemberists, Arcade Fire and Kid Cudi. Their aching "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" is a song of tragedy and hope, drawing on the Sisters’ Appalachian roots in bluegrass and folk, and was initially inspired by tornados that ripped through Alabama last April. They watched the disaster on television from tour in Australia.

"That song came from real life struggle, and not knowing if you’re going to be able to go on to the next day," said Laura, sitting with her sister for morning coffee at their Los Angeles hotel. "We feel like that songs needs to be in as many places as it can, because it’s our message of 'we’re pulling for you.' We still are. Alabama is still struggling from that."

The song was recorded in a New York City studio with Burnett, who burned balsa wood in the room for atmosphere, as the Sisters harmonized: "It’s true I’ve seen it before / a brighter day is coming my way / yes, tomorrow will be kinder."

"You feel safe around him," Laura said of Burnett, who also executive produced their debut album, The Secret Sisters, released in late 2010. "His presence is so comforting."

"Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" fits with the pure harmonies of bluegrass, folk, mid-Sixties pop and classic country on their debut. But once word got out of the new song’s association with The Hunger Games, based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel about teen gladiators in post-apocalyptic North America, a new demographic suddenly became intensely interested in the Secret Sisters. Live performances of the song soon appeared online.

"It’s given us an opportunity for us to reach a much younger crowd, because our music naturally attracts an older crowd," said Laura. "Whenever we play shows, there is a lot of white hair, mostly older people that love the older music that we play."

Days after the premiere at L.A.’s Nokia Theater, the Rogers sisters were still in Los Angeles for songwriting sessions with Dan Wilson – the Semisonic frontman and co-writer of three songs on Adele’s Grammy-winning 21. They said the next Secret Sisters album will show more influence of the Everly Brothers and the Delta blues.

"These are our stories this time – they’re not the stories told by George Jones or Hank Williams or Buck Owens," says Laura of the songs they are writing. "We obviously still love all of that, but it was really important to us to establish ourselves as actual songwriters. On the first record we weren’t really able to do that because it was so whirlwind."

After the debut album was finished last year, the Secret Sisters were invited by Jack White to his Nashville studio, where they recorded a roaring cover of Johnny Cash’s "Big River," released as a single on White’s Third Man label. The singers belted out the tune while White shredded on electric guitar. "We were standing in the vocal booth and we could see him playing guitar," recalled Lydia, 23. "There were moments when we would forget to sing while he was playing. We were so amazed the whole time."

The next album will be recorded in either Nashville or Los Angeles, and most likely will be produced by Burnett, who has been like a protective, favorite uncle to the sisters. "He’s not moving knobs and being bossy," Laura said of his presence in the studio. "He’s really encouraging. He makes you feel like you can’t do anything wrong."

They’ve already seen and learned a lot in the two years since becoming the Secret Sisters. "T Bone’s crowd is very different from Jack’s crowd. With Jack, we got to kick our shoes off and get our feet dirty a little bit. And with T Bone, it was a warm, good way to present our music. It’s been nice to have that kind spectrum," said Laura. "We could not have asked for a better education."

Listen to "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" on Spotify.

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The Secret Sisters Break Out on 'Hunger Games' Soundtrack

Lydia Rogers and Laura Rogers of The Secret Sisters perform in Berlin.

Two years ago, Laura and Lydia Rogers had no expectations for a life as professional musicians . Then Laura floored a producer at a Nashville audition and they became the Secret Sisters, a bluegrass duo in vintage dresses out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, who have recorded with T Bone Burnett and Jack White, toured the world, and last week walked the black carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games, which includes their haunting folk ballad "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder."

The song was produced by Burnett for his soundtrack of soulful Americana and distopian rock for the highly anticipated film, which opens nationwide on March 23rd. "It was the first movie premiere that we had ever gone to, so we were like a deer in the headlights," Laura Rogers, 25, told Rolling Stone of the scene, which had the sisters mingling with actors Jennifer Lawrence and Donald Sutherland, and singers Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift. "Of course the crowd weren’t screaming for us, but they were still screaming. We were like, Wow, what are they yelling about?"

The soundtrack album puts the Secret Sisters in the company of such established acts as Swift ("Safe & Sound"), Neko Case, the Decemberists, Arcade Fire and Kid Cudi. Their aching "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" is a song of tragedy and hope, drawing on the Sisters’ Appalachian roots in bluegrass and folk, and was initially inspired by tornados that ripped through Alabama last April. They watched the disaster on television from tour in Australia.

"That song came from real life struggle, and not knowing if you’re going to be able to go on to the next day," said Laura, sitting with her sister for morning coffee at their Los Angeles hotel. "We feel like that songs needs to be in as many places as it can, because it’s our message of 'we’re pulling for you.' We still are. Alabama is still struggling from that."

The song was recorded in a New York City studio with Burnett, who burned balsa wood in the room for atmosphere, as the Sisters harmonized: "It’s true I’ve seen it before / a brighter day is coming my way / yes, tomorrow will be kinder."

"You feel safe around him," Laura said of Burnett, who also executive produced their debut album, The Secret Sisters, released in late 2010. "His presence is so comforting."

"Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" fits with the pure harmonies of bluegrass, folk, mid-Sixties pop and classic country on their debut. But once word got out of the new song’s association with The Hunger Games, based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel about teen gladiators in post-apocalyptic North America, a new demographic suddenly became intensely interested in the Secret Sisters. Live performances of the song soon appeared online.

"It’s given us an opportunity for us to reach a much younger crowd, because our music naturally attracts an older crowd," said Laura. "Whenever we play shows, there is a lot of white hair, mostly older people that love the older music that we play."

Days after the premiere at L.A.’s Nokia Theater, the Rogers sisters were still in Los Angeles for songwriting sessions with Dan Wilson – the Semisonic frontman and co-writer of three songs on Adele’s Grammy-winning 21. They said the next Secret Sisters album will show more influence of the Everly Brothers and the Delta blues.

"These are our stories this time – they’re not the stories told by George Jones or Hank Williams or Buck Owens," says Laura of the songs they are writing. "We obviously still love all of that, but it was really important to us to establish ourselves as actual songwriters. On the first record we weren’t really able to do that because it was so whirlwind."

After the debut album was finished last year, the Secret Sisters were invited by Jack White to his Nashville studio, where they recorded a roaring cover of Johnny Cash’s "Big River," released as a single on White’s Third Man label. The singers belted out the tune while White shredded on electric guitar. "We were standing in the vocal booth and we could see him playing guitar," recalled Lydia, 23. "There were moments when we would forget to sing while he was playing. We were so amazed the whole time."

The next album will be recorded in either Nashville or Los Angeles, and most likely will be produced by Burnett, who has been like a protective, favorite uncle to the sisters. "He’s not moving knobs and being bossy," Laura said of his presence in the studio. "He’s really encouraging. He makes you feel like you can’t do anything wrong."

They’ve already seen and learned a lot in the two years since becoming the Secret Sisters. "T Bone’s crowd is very different from Jack’s crowd. With Jack, we got to kick our shoes off and get our feet dirty a little bit. And with T Bone, it was a warm, good way to present our music. It’s been nice to have that kind spectrum," said Laura. "We could not have asked for a better education."

Listen to "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" on Spotify.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Michael Jackson Secret Video Lawsuit Settled

Michael Jackson waves from the tarmac at an airport leaving for tour.

A pair of attorneys have settled a lawsuit against the owner of a private jet company who secretly recorded their conversations with Michael Jackson as they flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara, California. Jeffrey Borer, owner of the now-defunct XtraJet, had attempted to sell the video – which contains no audio – to media outlets after Jackson turned himself in on child molestation charges in 2003.

Mark Geragos and his partner, who sued XtraJet on the grounds that the taping violated their privacy and attorney-client privilege, will receive $2.5 million. They were originally awarded $20 million, but an appeals court struck down that judgment.

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Michael Jackson Secret Video Lawsuit Settled

Michael Jackson waves from the tarmac at an airport leaving for tour.

A pair of attorneys have settled a lawsuit against the owner of a private jet company who secretly recorded their conversations with Michael Jackson as they flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara, California. Jeffrey Borer, owner of the now-defunct XtraJet, had attempted to sell the video – which contains no audio – to media outlets after Jackson turned himself in on child molestation charges in 2003.

Mark Geragos and his partner, who sued XtraJet on the grounds that the taping violated their privacy and attorney-client privilege, will receive $2.5 million. They were originally awarded $20 million, but an appeals court struck down that judgment.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Secret Policeman's Ball Hits Radio City Music Hall

Noel Fielding and Russell Brand attend Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

It's been four years since the last Secret Policeman's Ball, the U.K.-born benefit John Cleese and Amnesty International inaugurated in 1976 to promote free speech. Last night marked the first time the event was held on American shores.

"I'm only doing a little at the top because there's a billion more people coming on," Eddie Izzard assured the crowd at Radio City Music Hall upfront. Izzard's inclusion meant there'd be top-shelf entertainers from both sides of the Atlantic; having him open signified there was talent to burn.

The show moved along at a dizzying clip and, at nearly three hours, never felt overlong. As soon as one bit ended onstage, John Oliver was in the aisles doing an interstitial with those beloved balcony-dwelling Muppets, Statler and Waldorf. While the cantankerous social critics were their usual selves, it was a culture shock seeing them do gags about Twitter and Auto-tune.

Another pair of fictional social critics, Beavis and Butt-head, also appeared. Like most of the performers, they stayed on theme without being earnest. Sarah Silverman parodied the self-serious manner in which stories are often told at such benefits, citing a man not returning her calls as a kind of free-speech injustice. Russell Brand and the Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding ridiculed an audience member as a "selfish cow" and "a female Pol Pot" before taking her into custody – all because she admitted not being a member of Amnesty. Elsewhere, Jon Stewart ironically promised a jovial Kim Jong-Un (played by Entourage's Rex Lee) that he would allow the newly appointed dictator to be in a skit.

Many performers joked about the divide between America and Britain, making solid headway toward bridging it. Ben Stiller and David Williams had a bit about what words mean in each country (turns out most U.S. words are mammorial synonyms.) Russell Brand later found common ground by comparing the Daily Mail and Fox News. And Paul Rudd and The IT Crowd's Matt Berry bonded over their mutual hatred of sushi.

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross did an appealingly Mr. Show-esque triptych, segueing from stage banter into a self-aware game show sketch, which was then interrupted by a pre-taped bit. Bob and David still got it, even if they look like elder characters they might've played on Mr. Show nearly twenty years ago. They seemed to have nearly caught up in age with their spiritual predecessors in Monty Python, three of whose members made video appearances, all explaining the tragic circumstances that prevented them from showing up in person.

The biggest surprise of the night was that lesser known acts like Hannibal Buress and British comic Jimmy Carr killed, while that bastion of American comedy, Saturday Night Live, yielded kind of a mixed bag. The SNL highlight was Bill Hader bringing it as ever, with his creepy Julian Assange inserted as an audience plant.

A few musicians were on hand as well. Mumford & Sons gave an energetic rendition of "Little Lion Man" with all the band's members standing in a row, stomping their feet to the tune. When shy Marcus Mumford exhorted the crowd to stand up, some did. Nobody needed to be told to stand up for Coldplay, however, whose rafter-raising choruses might've lifted them anyway. Accompanied by giant laser-spewing spirographs, the band's arena-ready anthems sounded at home in Radio City. Reggie Watts also reached into his sonic grab bag of vocal tricks, which he performed over looped beatboxing. He appeared to have the best time on stage.

Finally, a couple of serious actors made appearances. Tim Roth, now indistinguishable from Lost's Ben Linus, had little to do, but Liam Neeson had the important job of introducing Maung Thura Zarganar, the most symbolically meaningful performer of the night. Zarganar is a Burmese comedian who was imprisoned for 11 years because of his jokes. At one point, he assured the crowd, "a night like this would be impossible in my country."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Read more »

Secret Policeman's Ball Hits Radio City Music Hall

Noel Fielding and Russell Brand attend Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

It's been four years since the last Secret Policeman's Ball, the U.K.-born benefit John Cleese and Amnesty International inaugurated in 1976 to promote free speech. Last night marked the first time the event was held on American shores.

"I'm only doing a little at the top because there's a billion more people coming on," Eddie Izzard assured the crowd at Radio City Music Hall upfront. Izzard's inclusion meant there'd be top-shelf entertainers from both sides of the Atlantic; having him open signified there was talent to burn.

The show moved along at a dizzying clip and, at nearly three hours, never felt overlong. As soon as one bit ended onstage, John Oliver was in the aisles doing an interstitial with those beloved balcony-dwelling Muppets, Statler and Waldorf. While the cantankerous social critics were their usual selves, it was a culture shock seeing them do gags about Twitter and Auto-tune.

Another pair of fictional social critics, Beavis and Butt-head, also appeared. Like most of the performers, they stayed on theme without being earnest. Sarah Silverman parodied the self-serious manner in which stories are often told at such benefits, citing a man not returning her calls as a kind of free-speech injustice. Russell Brand and the Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding ridiculed an audience member as a "selfish cow" and "a female Pol Pot" before taking her into custody – all because she admitted not being a member of Amnesty. Elsewhere, Jon Stewart ironically promised a jovial Kim Jong-Un (played by Entourage's Rex Lee) that he would allow the newly appointed dictator to be in a skit.

Many performers joked about the divide between America and Britain, making solid headway toward bridging it. Ben Stiller and David Williams had a bit about what words mean in each country (turns out most U.S. words are mammorial synonyms.) Russell Brand later found common ground by comparing the Daily Mail and Fox News. And Paul Rudd and The IT Crowd's Matt Berry bonded over their mutual hatred of sushi.

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross did an appealingly Mr. Show-esque triptych, segueing from stage banter into a self-aware game show sketch, which was then interrupted by a pre-taped bit. Bob and David still got it, even if they look like elder characters they might've played on Mr. Show nearly twenty years ago. They seemed to have nearly caught up in age with their spiritual predecessors in Monty Python, three of whose members made video appearances, all explaining the tragic circumstances that prevented them from showing up in person.

The biggest surprise of the night was that lesser known acts like Hannibal Buress and British comic Jimmy Carr killed, while that bastion of American comedy, Saturday Night Live, yielded kind of a mixed bag. The SNL highlight was Bill Hader bringing it as ever, with his creepy Julian Assange inserted as an audience plant.

A few musicians were on hand as well. Mumford & Sons gave an energetic rendition of "Little Lion Man" with all the band's members standing in a row, stomping their feet to the tune. When shy Marcus Mumford exhorted the crowd to stand up, some did. Nobody needed to be told to stand up for Coldplay, however, whose rafter-raising choruses might've lifted them anyway. Accompanied by giant laser-spewing spirographs, the band's arena-ready anthems sounded at home in Radio City. Reggie Watts also reached into his sonic grab bag of vocal tricks, which he performed over looped beatboxing. He appeared to have the best time on stage.

Finally, a couple of serious actors made appearances. Tim Roth, now indistinguishable from Lost's Ben Linus, had little to do, but Liam Neeson had the important job of introducing Maung Thura Zarganar, the most symbolically meaningful performer of the night. Zarganar is a Burmese comedian who was imprisoned for 11 years because of his jokes. At one point, he assured the crowd, "a night like this would be impossible in my country."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Mumford and Sons to Headline First Secret Policeman’s Ball in New York

The lineup is announced for the 1st U.S. Secret Policemen's Ball.Stephen Lovekin/Kevin Mazur/Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage/Getty

A much-loved British television tradition will travel across the pond this spring when Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Mumford & Sons stage the first Secret Policeman's Ball in New York.

The Stateside adaptation of the longstanding British benefit shows will be held March 4th at Radio City Music Hall. Like its English predecessors, it will raise money for Amnesty International and feature a varied roster of musicians and comedians. Standup comics Russell Brand and Reggie Watts are also scheduled to perform in the show, with more acts to be announced soon.

The British Secret Policeman's Balls, which launched in the 1970s, have featured such stars as U2, Sting, Duran Duran, the Monty Python troupe and Hugh Laurie. New York Secret Policeman's Ball organizer David Javerbaum, a former Daily Show producer, tells The New York Times that his event will be "in the same spirit, for the same cause" as its British counterpart, "and we're trying to do it with the same energy and élan." Tickets go on sale Monday.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Mumford and Sons to Headline First Secret Policeman’s Ball in New York

The lineup is announced for the 1st U.S. Secret Policemen's Ball.Stephen Lovekin/Kevin Mazur/Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage/Getty

A much-loved British television tradition will travel across the pond this spring when Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Mumford & Sons stage the first Secret Policeman's Ball in New York.

The Stateside adaptation of the longstanding British benefit shows will be held March 4th at Radio City Music Hall. Like its English predecessors, it will raise money for Amnesty International and feature a varied roster of musicians and comedians. Standup comics Russell Brand and Reggie Watts are also scheduled to perform in the show, with more acts to be announced soon.

The British Secret Policeman's Balls, which launched in the 1970s, have featured such stars as U2, Sting, Duran Duran, the Monty Python troupe and Hugh Laurie. New York Secret Policeman's Ball organizer David Javerbaum, a former Daily Show producer, tells The New York Times that his event will be "in the same spirit, for the same cause" as its British counterpart, "and we're trying to do it with the same energy and élan." Tickets go on sale Monday.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »