Blog Posts by Andy Greene

Click here to listen to Paul McCartney Discuss McCartney I and II 

In late 1969, tired of the endless infighting within the Beatles, Paul McCartney took a four-track recorder to his English home and began work on his first solo album - playing every single instrument. The Beatles broke up by the time it hit shelves, but McCartney's solo career was off to a strong start as "Maybe I'm Amazed" turned into a huge radio smash despite his questionable decision not to release it as a single. Ten years later McCartney found himself in a similar situation. Wings were on the verge of splitting up and he decided it was time for a sequel to his solo debut. This time around, McCartney embraced the music of the era and the result was significantly more experimental. It landed another hit on the charts with "Coming  Up." Both discs were re-releaed in super deluxe packages earlier this month.

Click above to listen to McCartney talk about the making of the two discs, why they're coming back out, his

Click here to listen to Yes' "We Can Fly"

Yes fans, rejoice: Your decade-long wait for new material from the prog giants is finally over. On July 12th, the band are releasing their new LP Fly From Here, but right now you can hear an exclusive stream of their new single "We Can Fly."

The LP is produced by Trevor Horn, who worked on the band's 1983 mega-hit "Owner Of A Lonely Heart." The track is a part of a much longer suite of music on the new album called "Fly From Here," which dates back over 30 years. "We played it live on the 1980 tour when it was just five minutes long," Yes bassist Chris Squire told Rolling Stone in March. "Now it's an extravaganza!"

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Yes have been through many changes since the release of their last studio album. Original lead singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman haven't played with the band since Yes wrapped up their 2004 summer tour. In 2008 Yes reformed with new singer

Carl Gardner, the lead singer of  the 1950s vocal group the Coasters whose tenor voice powered such classics as "Poison Ivy," "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown," "Young Blood" and "Searchin'," has died of unknown causes.  He was 83. Gardner co-founded the group in 1955 and is the only member in its every incarnation over the past 50 years - though in recent years health problems have kept him off the road. "Carl Gardner was one of the great lead voices of the rock and roll era," soul legend Sam Moore said in a statement.

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Despite singing some of the most popular rock songs of the late 1950s, Gardner never got the recognition that he deserved. "Someone stole all the money," he said in an interview with classicbands.com. "I don't know who the hell it was." Gardner also spent decades battling scores of impostor groups touring as the Coasters. "I started the group," he said. "I'll be damned if I'm gonna let someone steal

Saturday night, Buffalo Springfield will wrap up their seven-date reunion tour with a headlining slot at Bonnaroo. According to the group's singer and guitarist Richie Furay, fans who missed out on seeing them this time around will have plenty of chances later in the year. "The plan is to do 30 dates this fall," he tells Rolling Stone. "The anchors will be Los Angeles and New York. What the other cities are, I can't tell you right now - but we're almost certainly doing Red Rocks."

The plan is to play mostly large theaters, as opposed to arenas and amphitheaters. "We want to keep it a little more intimate," he says. "Rather than going out and playing a huge something . . . There have been people from Florida, Chicago and Texas saying to me, 'Hey, you gonna come my way?' I have to say that with 30 shows, we're gonna hit those cities."

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Furay became a born-again Christian in the mid-1970s, and since 1983 he's worked

Joe Perry has confirmed that Aerosmith are going to finally begin work on new album next month. "Whole band has plans to go into the studio with Jack Douglas second week of July to work on new Aero CD," he wrote on Twitter yesterday. Perry didn't bother showing up at Aerosmith's initial writing sessions earlier this year, and relations between him and Steven Tyler were so strained that a new album seemed unlikely. Perry's not speaking to the press, but his post shows he's gotten on board with the project. (Douglas produced many of the bands biggest albums of the 1970s, including Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic and Rocks.)

Earlier this year, Aerosmith recorded a series of demos in Los Angeles. Tentative track titles included "Bobbing For Piranha," "Asphalt" and "Legendary Child." "They still sound like Aerosmith," wrote Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt in a recent cover story about Tyler. "Slinky, riff-rock, big -chorused soul ballads, leaning more Seventies than Nineties." A

Most musicians would jump at the chance to fly to Hawaii and help Kanye West cut his new record. Justin Vernon (a.k.a. Bon Iver) tells contributing editor Josh Eells in the next issue of Rolling Stone that he had a different response: "Can't you see if he wants to come here?" Today, he laughs at the fact that he asks West to travel to Wisconsin. "I don't know why I said that," he says. "It was kind of dickish."

Amazingly, West was up for traveling into Wisconsin from Hawaii - until a snowstorm canceled his flight. "He called the next day and said, 'Why don't you just come here? It's, like, nice.'"

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Vernon decided that recording with West in Hawaii might not be a bad idea after all, and before he knew it he was smoking weed with Rick Ross, eating breakfast with Nicki Minaj and playing basketball with West at the Y. "I think he liked that I had a similar emotional approach to music," says Vernon. "And that I used

Tom Morello's alter-ego the Nightwatchman is releasing his third studio LP, World Rebel Songs, on August 30th. While much of the previous work by the Nightwatchman has been acoustic, this record features a full electric band. The debut single, "Save The Hammer For The Man," features Ben Harper on guitar and vocals. The disc hits stores on August 30th.

"Troubled times call out for troubled songs," Morello said in a statement. "World Wide Rebel Songs is an album of rousing hopelessness and this time the Nightwatchman has brought along his electric guitar to tip the scales."

Photos: Tom Morello Rocks Wisconsin Protestors

Meanwhile, rumors are swirling that Rage Against the Machine are gearing up to celebrate their 20th anniversary this year. So far, their only date is July 30th at the one-day festival L.A. Rising at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Other acts on the bill include Muse, Lauryn Hill and Rise Against. Rage Against the Machine have not released an album of new material since

Earlier this month, Brian Wilson said he was open to the possibility of a Beach Boys reunion to commemorate the group's 50th anniversary. "I'm considering it," he told the BBC. "I don't know yet, but I am considering it. Nothing's really holding me back. I just don't know if I want to be around those guys, you know? They're zany guys. They're crazy."

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When Rolling Stone spoke to Al Jardine in the summer of 2010, he said that at least one reunion show with surviving members Mike Love, Brian Johnston, Brian Wilson and himself was in the cards. "We're definitely doing at least one show - you heard it first," he said. "I don't know where it'll be yet. but it'll probably free. Golden Gate Park was mentioned, as was the [National] Mall in D.C."

Jardine had a lot less to say over the weekend. "Nothing to report..." he responded via email when asked about the status of the reunion. Brian Wilson's manager Jean Sievers had