50 | Rolling Stone | July 2019
Never Making
a New Album
AY YOU’RE A classic-rock artist with a deep
arsenal of hits. You could play the classics at
arenas around the globe, release deluxe edi-
tions of your old albums, maybe even launch
a Vegas residency or produce a biopic about your life.
One thing you are unlikely to do, however, is make a
new album full of original songs. Chances are, it won’t
sell — fans simply prefer older hits to new songs. And as
this chart shows, many of the biggest names on the road
haven’t bothered to put out new music in years. Take
Fleetwood Mac, whose last album, 2003’s Say You Will,
underwhelmed. “Even if [a new Fleetwood album] had
great things, it isn’t going to sell,” Stevie Nicks told ROLL-
ING STONE in 2017. “What we do is go on the road, do
a ton of shows and make lots of money. We have a lot of
fun. Making a record isn’t all that much fun.” ANDY GREENEI
S
T’S A WEEKDAY
night in down-
town L.A. and
no one at this
bar is paying attention
to the movie star — not
because actors at L.A.
bars are familiar sights,
which of course they
are, but because at
this bar the focus is on
high-quality vinyl and
high-fidelity sound.
It’s called In Sheep’s
Clothing, and the movie
star, Chris Pine, is one
of 50-odd people who
have come here to bask
in the sound of the
two massive, $12,000
Klipsch Klipschorn
speakers as they pump
out vintage jazz, rock,
soul and ambient LPs
from two Garrard 301
turntables. Various pol-
icies dictate behavior:
no phone calls, no loud
voices, no Instagram-
ming and, in fact, no
photos at all.
In Sheep’s Clothing
is part of a new Cal-
ifornia trend, along-
side L.A.’s Gold Line,
and Bar Shiru, up in
Oakland. These places
take inspiration from
Japanese record bars,
known broadly as music
kissaten, where DJ-own-
ers pour whiskeys and
shochu while spinning
LPs. The people behind
the California kissaten
were sick of noisy
bars where, as a Shiru
co-owner has put it,
“music is either sonic
wallpaper, an after-
thought, or inaudible.”
The point isn’t to see
and be seen. It’s to hear
and — delightfully —
shut the fuck up.
JONAH WEINER
HOT LISTENING
ROOMSHOT CLASSIC-ROCK TRENDHi-Fi
Bars
Hot
Comic
Strip
Nancy
T’S HARD TO think
of an unlikelier
viral sensation than
Nancy, the ancient
comic strip (no,
not Cathy). But thanks to the
brilliance of its young new
writer-artist — pseudonymous
Olivia Jaimes — Nancymania
is real, with two compilation
books due in October. (Jaimes
is as surprised as anyone:
“My expectation was that no
one would notice.”) Jaimes’
is an absurdist, relentlessly
meta, social-media-savvy
take on the character, now
an avatar of our collective,
digitally induced slothfulness
and narcissism. (Nancy wants
to be famous as long as it
requires no work or talent,
and blames all criticism on
“bots.”) “I’m not worried about
running out of ideas,” says
Jaimes, “because the internet
will always find new ways to
torture me.” BRIAN HIATTTHE
HOTLISTCOURTE
SYO
F^ ANDREWSM
CMEEL^ SYNDI
CATIONI
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000Billy Joel River of DreamsBilly Joel
draws record
crowds even
though his
last album
came out in- “I still
write music,”
he says. “But
I don’t record
it. It’s for
my own
edification.”
In the past 15 years, Phil Collins
has launched a farewell solo tour,
reunited with Genesis for a brief run
of shows, and kicked off a come-
back solo tour that’s still going on.
One thing he hasn’t done is release
a single new original song. “I’ve
got lyrical ideas,” he said. “At some
point, I’ll get to them.”