Paramore teases a partnership with A24 to release a 16-track Stop Making Sense tribute album

Hayley Williams and her Paramore band members have a tape they’d like to play for you. Not long after parting ways with Atlantic Records to become an independent rock band, Paramore is teasing a partnership with A24 to release a 16-track Stop Making Sense tribute album inspired by the life-altering album and concert performance by the Talking Heads. While details remain a mystery, the project teases “16 tracks from 16 artists.”

Paramore is singer Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York, and drummer Zac Farro. Recently, the band created a panic among its fanbase when rumors about them breaking up circulated online. The nail-biting occurred when the band removed its website and scrubbed its social media platforms. However, the band has no intention of parting ways—quite the opposite. In addition to announcing the Stop Making Sense tribute album, Paramore will support Taylor Swift on her sold-out Eras arena tour in 2024.

In a teaser clip posted on both Paramore and A24’s social channels, Williams receives a box in the mail containing a replica of the jacket David Byrne wears on the album’s original artwork. At the end of the clip, Paramore offers a sample of their cover of Talking Heads’ 1963 single “Burning Down the House.”

We've got a tape we'd like to play you. 16 tracks from 16 artists. Track 1: Paramore. Coming soon pic.twitter.com/8fM6OLzrkY

— A24 (@A24) January 10, 2024

A24 holds the worldwide rights to Stop Making Sense, the “greatest concert film of all time” directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia). The 40th-anniversary release of the film became Imax’s highest-grossing live event, earning $640,839 and selling out 25 screens spread across 165 Imax locations in North America.

Stop Making Sense stars core band members David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, P-Funk Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steve Scales, Lynn Mabry, and Edna Holt. Shot over three nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre in December 1983, the elaborate set features memorable Talking Heads songs like “Psycho Killer,” “Life During Wartime,” “Found a Job,” “Slippery People,” Burning Down the House,” “Making Flippy Floppy,” “This Must Be the Place,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Take Me to the River,” and more. The band changes formation several times throughout the performance, with Byrne using his rubber limbs and big suits to entertain the crowd.

Director Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense is my favorite concert experience ever captured on film. I watched it for the first time three weeks after my father passed away. He was a major Talking Heads fan, and Stop Making Sense triggered a torrent of emotions on my way to ATP (All Tomorrow’s Parties). That weekend, I saw My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill, Meat Puppets, Thurston Moore, Tortoise, Bardo Pond, Shellac, Polvo, Fuck Buttons, Autolux, Wooden Shjips, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Mercury Rev, Yo La Tengo, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and more. I was never the same after that.

Paramore’s Stop Making Sense tribute album is “Coming Soon.”