Rock Music Report. The place for Rock and roll news.

This week, the rock world lost punk impresario Malcolm McLaren, who passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. In addition to managing the Sex Pistols and sculpting the look and sound of the punk era, McLaren was a successful musician in his own right, introducing African music and the hip-hop sound to the U.K. with “Double Dutch,” which you can watch above.

In a statement released today, Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones said of McLaren, “I was upset when I heard the news, as I’ve always had a soft spot for Malcolm. I knew him since I was 17 before the Pistols formed — I used to drive him around in Vivienne Westwood’s car to the tailors in London in the days of the ‘Let It Rock’ clothing store. Malcolm was definitely the Brian Epstein of punk — without him it wouldn’t have happened the way it did. But my fondest memory of Malcolm, and I loved the guy, was his birthday gift to me when I turned 21 — he got me a hooker and some heroin.”

Below, watch the video for McLaren’s offbeat hit single “Madame Butterfly,” based on the opera of the same name, and more of McLaren’s work.

“Soweto”

“Buffalo Gals”

“Duck Rock”

It’s been a good year for Buzzcocks fans: Not only has the influential punk band reissued their classic first three albums, but today also brings news that they’ll embark on a 22-date North American tour starting this May. On the trek, Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle and company will perform their first two albums, Another Music In a Different Kitchen and Love Bites, in their entirety, along with other tracks from their catalog.
Photo: Thorne/Redferns

To celebrate this announcement, this week’s Flashback rewinds to a pair of great Buzzcocks performances from decades ago. Up top, watch the band fire on all cylinders on Another Music closer “Moving From the Pulsebeat” and below, check out “Autonomy” and Buzzcocks’ 2010 tour dates.

Buzzcocks
May 11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
May 12 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
May 13 – New York, NY @ The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
May 14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
May 15 – Farmingdale, NY @ Crazy Donkey
May 17 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
May 18 – Montreal, QC @ Le National
May 19 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House
May 21 – Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s
May 22 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
May 23 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
May 24 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café
May 26 – Winnipeg, MB @ Pyramid Cabaret
May 28 – Edmonton, AB @ New City Compound
May 29 – Calgary, AB @ Republik
May 31 – Vancouver, BC @ Venue
June 1 – Portland, OR @ Berbati’s Pan
June 2 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
June 4 – Oakland, CA @ Uptown
June 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Club Nokia at L.A. Live
June 6 – Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues
June 7 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues

This week the rock world lost Alex Chilton, so we’re devoting our Flashback to covers of Big Star songs by artists ranging from Beck to Wilco to the Bangles, who perform the classic “September Gurls” in the video above. As Rob Sheffield wrote in his remembrance of Chilton, the singer was “the ultimate indie cult hero”, who despite “years of hard living, always seemed indestructible — and thanks to his music, he always will be.”

Below, watch four artists — Beck, Bat for Lashes, This Mortal Coil and Jeff Buckley — take on Third/Sister Lovers’s “Kanga Roo,” while Wilco, Garbage and Elliott Smith each cover “Thirteen.”

Beck – “Kanga Roo”

Bat for Lashes – “Kanga Roo”

Jeff Buckley – “Kanga Roo”

This Mortal Coil – “Kanga Roo”

Wilco – “Thirteen”

Elliott Smith – “Thirteen”

Garbage – “Thirteen”

Green Day’s American Idiot begins previews on Broadway in two weeks and we’re stoked (obviously) but that’s not the only musical we’ve got our eyes on this spring. Next month the Berkeley Repertory Theater will premiere Girlfriend, a new show built around the perfect pop confections of Matthew Sweet’s 1991 album — a.k.a. the best power-pop album of all time. (Seriously. It’s amazing. We wouldn’t joke about power-pop.)

The musical is actually a boy-meets-boy love story, so we’re curious how they’ll spin the title song. The album’s other star single, “I’ve Been Waiting,” on the other hand, bypasses personal pronouns entirely, so no rewriting there. Check out the videos for these two “rock and roll valentines” and lap up the chiming guitars, layered harmonies and wickedly infectious melodies. For all you manga fans out there, “Girlfriend” features animated clips from the movie Space Adventure Cobra, and “I’ve Been Waiting” uses clips of Lum Invader, a character from the series Urusei Yatsura. Plus, check out Sweet and Susanna Hoff’s Live at Rolling Stone set.

In this week’s Flashback, we present not one but two fantastically lip-synched performances by one of the most underrated bands of the ’80s, Talk Talk. With all the reunions revving up, from Public Image Ltd. to Faith No More to Devo, we keep hoping that Mark Hollis and crew will get back together for the first time since 1991’s Laughing Stock, but with Hollis gone underground in recent years, it seems unlikely. Up top is Talk Talk’s mouthed performance of “Life What’s You Make It” from a 1986 Top of the Pops, while after the jump we have Talk Talk’s last television appearance, a lip-synched, edited version of the Spirit of Eden classic “I Believe in You.” And to the festival that somehow coaxes these guys out of retirement, consider us your first ticket buyers.