It's time to step into summer with some help from our friends Slightly Stoopid. Don't miss a special performance and interview from the band inside the Helpful Honda Sound Space, now playing above.

The band is set to bring their good vibes across the country with their Step Into The Sun tour, kicking off this month with help from Iration and Little Stranger, but first they talk with Kevin Ryder and perform for a room of listeners in our Helpful Honda Sound Space.

"Honestly, we have a lot of music coming and we're going to debut 3 songs today live that are for the record," shared Miles before the performance. "We're even learning it ourselves just because recording is different than playing live. We waited, they've waited so long for music, so we're just going to start dropping singles until the record comes out."

"We're excited honestly. It's been a long time and in all honesty, all of us started families, and we've dedicated our lives on the road. To take time to actually enjoy your families as well, because we used to spend 200 days a year on the road, just partying with all you guys, and so we took that time to actually enjoy some of those things that everyone gets to enjoy as well and and now we're ready to release music."

Check out the complete conversation and performance from Slightly Stoopid above.

The Hives are back and once again pulling no punches. Following their roaring return with the song, "Enough Is Enough," featuring an all-time opening line of "everyone's a little f***ing b****," the band stopped by the Helpful Honda Sound Space in Los Angeles to perform, talk about their longevity, and even pass along some wisdom from The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger.

Set to arrive in August, 'The Hives Forever Forever The Hives,' is the latest album from The Hives, this time featuriing an assist from Rock royalty with Mike D of the Beastie Boys and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age both having a hand in the project.

"It was really helpful," singer Pelle Almqvist shares on their influence and involvement. "I mean, we were thinking about who has cool sounding records, and that's the Beastie Boys. So we figured if our record's gonna sound cool, we should get him involved. He flew over and stuff and also sent us some stuff, which was great.

"And Josh more kind of in a cheerleader capacity. When we were trying to work on the quality, he said it's already good. And that was very helpful because we can kind of shoot above the goal sometimes, like you can't make it too good. We got to keep a balance of popular and good, which is really hard. You want to be so popular they can keep doing it, but not so popular that the music sucks. Which is a hard balance to tread."

The band also took a hilarious look back through their over-30-year career, sharing stories of the scene and even some advice from the iconic Mick Jagger. "Never buy your own yacht, always borrow a friend's," the Stones frontman sagely said. "Invaluable information, because we were just about to buy a yacht each," Pelle explains. "So that really helped."

Wet Leg is back, as the band prepares to unleash their second album upon the world, 3 years after their debut LP made the group a GRAMMY-winning force. But first, they join us in the Helpful Honda Sound Space in Los Angeles to talk with Megan Holiday, and perform for a few select fans.

"It was pretty overwhelming," says Rhian Teasdale of the success of the band's debut. "But we were so new to it all and so naive that you just kind of, would like take one step and then take another step."

The first taste of the sophomore effort, 'moisturizer,' is "catch these fists," an angular assault that still takes time to wink between calls to fight. "It was funny actually, because we had like the whole, we had so many songs written and we were kind of ready to like, 'OK, shall we like record them now,' and it just kind of like slipped on in there at the end," reveals Rhian. "It was probably I think it was the last song."

To hear more from Wet Leg, listen to the full interview from the Helpful Honda Sound Space above.

The Lumineers joined KROQ hosts Klein and Ally, along with a room full of lucky listeners, at Audacy’s Helpful Honda Sound Space in Los Angeles to celebrate the release of the group’s 2025 album, Automatic, and give us a taste of what’s ahead on their upcoming world tour.

The Lumineers recently revealed details surrounding the highly-anticipated North American leg of their Automatic 2025 World Tour -- with dates beginning July 3. As the band gets set to drop by stadiums, arenas, and amphitheaters across the US and Canada through mid-October in celebration of their 2025 album Automatic, Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz gave fans a taste of what's to come with a special set recorded live in Los Angeles.

Sitting down to chat with one half of the duo, Wesley Schultz, during the event, Klein began by questioning him about a crime that is mentioned in their track “Same Old Song,” which he believes took place when the band last visited KROQ. “Wesley, are we responsible for you losing your mom's guitar forever?” Klein wondered.

“It was 2011 actually, so you guys wouldn't have played us back then, sadly,” Wes explains. “We were filming a takeaway show, where you would show up and it was one take, so you couldn't edit, and you couldn't fix anything. We went into La Brea Park by the tar pits and we -- I think the only instrument we have is a mandolin -- so we're playing that song ‘Classy Girls,’ and our friend was filming us. We came back to the minivan and it was like 3:30 in the afternoon, and the trunk had been just popped open… Anyway, we were just confused. Like, we opened up the trunk and we're like, ‘Oh, where are they?’ That’s funny, where are the instruments?’ Because it's just daytime you don't think, and it's a really busy street. Yeah, they took everything, but they left the keys behind, meaning they left the keyboard because that was too heavy for them, or too big. Too worthless. I don't know.”

“I wrote a lot of those songs on my mom's guitar that they took, so it was kind of sad,” he adds. “We filled out a police report and on the top right, it has your number of the day of crime and we were like 1,472 of that, and the cop was like, ‘You're not gonna see that.’”

“The other cool thing,” Wes continues, “We had three more weeks to tour and everyone along that tour lent us instruments. I remember one of the cities, the guy from the 4 Non Blondes who played acoustic guitar gave us a guitar for that gig. Everywhere we went with a cello, with guitars, with bass guitars… You know, a side of people that were so kind for the rest, and we were again nobodies. They [KROQ] weren't playing us,” he jokes. “I don't know if I said that before.”

Touching on the new record, Automatic, which arrived Valentine's Day 2025, Wes tells us the band didn’t initially intend on releasing the album on the lover’s holiday, “But in our first music video for this album, on ‘Same Old Song,” Jerry [Fraites] was drumming with roses that were attached to his sticks.” Followers quickly surmised that the band was alluding to a release date. “They were actually correct,” he says, “because it was coming out on Valentine's Day, but no we're not that well planned out.”

But don’t be fooled, Wesley definitely has a romantic side, explaining how his wife, Brandy, technically co-wrote the album track “Dead Sea.” “She said, ‘You're like my dead sea,’” he says. “We were just dating at the time and I was like, ‘Did you come up with that?’ Then on Valentine's Day, I actually gave her a demo of that and I snuck it into a box of chocolates. I cut out a CD shape, put the CD and hid it in the box. I did it to kind of roast her, because she said she hates people that give boxes of chocolates as a gift. We were apart, I was recording, and I sent it to her, and she didn't even open it. She's so mad, like ‘He doesn't listen to me,’ and I was like, ‘Well did you open it?’ She turned around, opened it up, and ...

Sum 41 joined us for a special performance and interview from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles, giving us a taste of their 2024 live set as they continue the second North American leg of their Tour of the Setting Sum -- and speaking with us about how the outing has been going so far.

It truly was a historic night at KROQ, with Sum 41 joining the station that has been with the band for all 23 years of their epic run, now as they give fans one more go before packing things up for good.

Just months ago, the band released their final album Heaven X Hell, with Heaven representing their Pop-punk side and Hell focusing on the heavier side of their songwriting -- two equally tense worlds that the group has brilliantly straddled since the start.

“I don't know if we call it tension,” says frontman Deryk Whibley. “We're fans of that kind of music and other kinds of music as well. I think we just, I don't know, I don't think we ever really talked about it or thought about it, we just did stuff. Even with this record, ‘Heaven and Hell,’ we didn't say, ‘Let's make a double record.’ The music was just there, and we all collectively listened to it separately, but came up with the same idea.”

This year has been feeling like a throwback to 2001 for the band members as they make the press rounds amid their current tour. “I think the funniest thing that I think back to is that it doesn't feel like it was that long ago,” Deryck says. “It really just feels like a couple of years ago.”

Back then he adds, “It was a lot of work and it was a lot of fun -- everything was happening so fast. It's kind of the only difference now with everything happening so fast and so much going on is that we're old enough to recognize it and take it in because back then you're just like, onto the next thing, onto the next thing, and you kind of forget. You don't take those moments in.”

Calling it quits after this record Deryck explains “was never the plan. Nothing was ever thought of this whole record. Like I said, the songs are by accident. The idea was just a thing that the music spoke to us, and then I think once the record was finished and it was mixed and recorded, the whole thing was done is when that hit me. I felt like this to me was the record that we've always been trying to make -- this encapsulates everything that we've always wanted to do.”

“That's the sound of Sum 41 from the beginning to now,” he says. “It just kind of made too much sense for this to be the final one.”

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Kevan Kenney

Earlier this month, host Miles the DJ was joined by current Sublime frontman Jakob Nowell's solo band -- Jakobs Castle -- for a special performance and interview live from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles.

Jakobs Castle’s 2024 debut, Enter The Castle, was released in April coinciding with frontman Jakob Nowell’s Coachella performances -- not only with Sublime -- but also a pre-party held with his solo band. “It was a lot of fun out there, Coachella,” Jakob tells us. “Super excited to be playing with my dad's band Sublime and continuing to do Jakobs Castle all together. It's one big family out there, let me tell you!”

“To keep that vibe,” Nowell explains, “every single Sublime show I play, you know, obviously a lot bigger and stuff, I always try to go out into the audience and just have fun and romp around a little bit.” Gesturing off stage to his friend, “My boy Mark over there saved me from drowning on three occasions,” he laughs. “I like to usually like jump in the water if we're playing by a beach or in a pool.”

Following Sublime's second Coachella weekend set, fans may have noticed Jakob screaming to the crowd when the microphones were cut. “I think I was just trying to incite chaos if I remember correctly, that's usually my goal,” he says.

Though both weekends were amazing and “different in their own ways," he tells us of his time with Sublime, “The more we play shows, the more we just get locked into that vibe and we get more comfortable with one another," describing it as “totally a surreal experience.”

“It's so amazing,” he continues, “how many people's lives have been touched by that music and that sound, and this amazing, amazing scene we have here in Southern California, the best place to be in the f***ing world.”

“It's so beautiful because every show I play, whether it's a Sublime show or Jakobs Castle show, people come up to me with amazing stories and ways that that music has affected their life and continues to do it,” Jakob explains. “I think playing with my uncles like that has just sort of strengthened our relationship, and it's challenged me as a musician, and its shown me that music goes beyond just the sounds that we make and the fun events that we do. It's the memories that we create here, you know, all these things that we do -- we do it because those are the memories that no one can take away from us.”

Stepping into the Castle today, a place that would exist “somewhere in the present that's also rooted in history,” according to the band’s bio, Jakob states further, “To be my most authentic self, I have to draw from where I come from -- the sounds of the past. That's sort of referencing the entire Skunk Records scene in Long Beach in general, in Southern California, but with also an eye towards the future, and innovation, and all the amazing musicians in many different scenes, and many different genres, that have also been inspired by that.”

Imagine Dragons joined us for a special performance and interview in the Helpful Honda Sound Space to give fans a preview of their brand new album LOOM, upcoming tour dates, and more.

With the arrival of their brand new, sixth studio album LOOM, Imagine Dragons dropped by Audacy's KROQ in Los Angeles to give fans a taste of the new record, as well as what to expect from the band on their impending tour which kicks off at the end of July. LOOM is available now.

Looking back on the band's relationship with KROQ, frontman Dan Reynolds remembers the first time he heard their music played on the radio back in 2012, recalling they were driving from Las Vegas to L.A. to play a show. “We were just getting in range to pick up the station and -- this sounds like such a made-up story, it's so dramatic -- it was fuzzy," he says as their single "It's Time," came through the speakers. "We were just racing as fast as we could to kind of get a better signal to hear it. It was straight out of a movie. We were all just like, ‘This feels too weird.’”

12 years after their debut, the group just released their sixth studio album, LOOM, and are feeling familiar excitement and relief now that it’s finally been delivered.

“You know, when you make a record -- you're working on it for over a year, sometimes two years," Reynolds says. "So, we've been sitting with this music for a long time, and it's really hard for us to sit on that. I hate it, I'm always anxious about it, waiting. So we've been counting down the days for a long time… It's a relief and we also are really proud and excited about this record and we hope everybody likes it as much as we do.”

“You have given me purpose and a place to sing and dance,” Dan stated when announcing the new offering. “You have continually stood by our side now for over a decade. in return we will always be here singing along with you. I always and only hope that it helps you feel less alone. It brings you joy. makes you cry. makes you angry. makes you dance. makes you FEEL something.”

“I've just spent a lot of my life numb,” he tells us. “I had a hard time expressing myself. That's why I turned to music in the first place -- I found that it was something I could always turn to and feel any emotion. I'm kind of one of those people who doesn't cry for a long time and then when you cry, you just cry really hard in a long time. Or, when you get angry you're really angry because you've been holding it in, and that's really unhealthy. I did that for a long time,” he admits.

“Now I'm just angry all the time, I cry all the time,” he laughs. “But only a little bit angry,” bassist Ben McGee adds.

Guitarist Wayne Sermon says of the new record, “The album cover itself, you don't even know if it's necessarily a sunrise or a sunset… The word ‘Loom,’ it can be a positive or negative connotation just depending on what's going on. I think o ...

311 joined host Nicole Alvarez for a special interview and performance recorded live at the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles giving fans a preview of what the band has in store on their upcoming Unity Tour.

“You can't spell community without unity… So we keep a spirit of love and we have to be ready to communicate openly,” frontman Nick Hexum says of the group's longevity. “We're very grateful to get to do this,” he adds now approaching 34 years as a band. “We know we're very lucky. We keep an attitude of gratitude and just appreciate these wonderful fans.”

Getting into the band’s brand new single “You're Gonna Get It,” Hexum explains, “For my portion of the lyrics, putting myself in the mindset that we had back in like 1990… just when you're young and dumb, and feeling indestructible. For example, when we would play trashcan bowling with Chad's Buick Monte Carlo and crash into trash cans. Just stuff like that.”

311 will be touring this summer beginning on July 20 in Cincinnati, OH with AWOLNATION and Neon Trees as opening support. Tickets and VIP Meet & Greet packages are available now. Take a look at the full list of scheduled dates below.

311 2024 Tour Dates:

July 20 l Cincinnati, OH
July 21 l Chicago, IL
July 23 l Indianapolis, IN
July 24 l Huber Heights, OH
July 26 l Interlochen, MI
July 27 l Sterling Heights, MI
July 28 l Cleveland, OH
July 31 l Niagara Falls, ON
August 2 l Scranton, PA
August 3 l Bridgeport, CT
August 4 l Columbia, MD
August 6 l Gilford, NH
August 7 l Boston, MA
August 9 l Outer Banks, NC
August 10 l Raleigh, NC
August 11 l Charlotte, NC
August 13 l North Charleston, SC
August 14 l Atlanta, GA
August 15 l Albertville, AL
August 17 l St. Augustine, FL
August 18 l Tampa, FL
August 20 l Houston, TX
August 21 l Austin, TX
August 22 l Grand Prairie, TX
August 24 l Phoenix, AZ
August 25 l San Diego, CA
August 27 l Costa Mesa, CA
August 29 l Bend, OR
August 30 l Troutdale, OR
August 31 l Redmond, WA

Listen to Nicole's full interview with 311 above and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez