New Song Alert: The Cockroaches (aka The Rolling Stones) Release Vinyl-Only “Rough And Twisted” – I Got One!!

The rumors of a new Stones album, the follow-up to the wonderful late career Hackney Diamonds in 2023, have been flying around for a while now. Hackney was their first album in 18 years so to think after only three years we’d see another LP coming out was almost far fetched only a few years ago.

But then things started to pop up on “the socials,” (social media for the olds). There were references to a band called The Cockroaches. Pretty soon there was a website with a countdown to today, April 11, 2026. A screen shot of the website is above. Posters for the Cockroaches started popping up in London…

For those of us Stones fanatics – and obviously, I’m one, they are my alpha & omega – we knew that in the old days, when the Stones were going to do a secret one-off theater gig to tune up before a tour, they’d bill themselves as the Cockroaches. They certainly used that name for the famous El Mocambo show in Toronto. I read somewhere they also used the name the Strolling Bones but that might be apocryphal.

And lets not kid ourselves, using the “Cockroach” moniker has to be seen as a wink toward the old adage that after civilization collapsed the only thing left would be cockroaches and well… Keith Richards. Well played, lads, well played.

Finally this week the news broke. The Stones are coming out with a new album, Foreign Tongues (imagine what the artwork will look like!), on July 10th of this year. The “official” first single will be titled “Mr. Charm.”

However, following on this marketing for the Cockroaches, today the Stones released a vinyl-only single “Rough And Twisted” billed to the Cockroaches. That’s right, you can only hear the new track if you were lucky enough to get your hands on the new vinyl single. You can’t stream it. I’m sure someone will post the audio on YouTube by the end of the day.

I woke up this morning determined but pessimistic about my chances of getting one of these vinyl copies of the song. I knew from the Cockroaches website that one of my local vinyl stores would have a few copies. I was hearing most places only got like, 5 or 6 copies.

How I figured out my local store would have it was actually on the website. There was a graphic of the single and it’s plain white cover (like the old bootlegs) and if you flipped it over you saw longitude and latitude coordinates. Someone online translated those to the cities that the coordinates pointed to. When I saw KC was one of them, I plugged it into my maps app… and voila, my local store!

The Rock Chick drove me over to the store and there were four like minded music nuts lined up outside the store. I walked up and one of them said, “You’re five you’re in luck.” He seemed to believe there were only five copies at the store. Since I was fifth in line, I just hoped he was right!

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun this was. I felt like I was in high school, sleeping out for concert tickets. Although I was only there about 40 minutes, it wasn’t an all night thing and I was sober. The camaraderie amongst the music nerds was strong and many a vinyl conversation was had. For this one short period we all shared the same universe, a brief but intense connection.

Finally the owner of the store showed up. By then there was one more guy behind me. She asked us who were the first five folks. We counted off. I’ve never been happier to say, “Five.” The guy behind, with his kid in tow, exclaimed, “God dammit.” She said, “I’ve got five copies.”

When the store opened we all filed in, in an orderly fashion no less, and each grabbed our copy. Mine is numbered 286 and cost $10.07, which coincides with the release date (July 10th). Here it is:

I know there are Stones fans who gave up on them after Brian Jones left. Or those who think they should have hung it up after Exile On Main Street. Or perhaps after Charlie Watts passed. Fools. I’ve been grooving on the Stones’ music my entire life… well since I was 13 or 14. They’ve missed out on a lot of great music. Would anybody have said something similar to Muddy Waters – “Give it up Muddy” – I think not. But then Muddy might have had a razor in his shoe.

I got home and dropped the needle and I have to say, I dig it. It’s very bluesy. It almost would have fit in nicely to their album of blues covers, Blue And Lonesome, but obviously this is an original.

The track starts with a driving, raunchy riff from Keef. Oh yes! Ronnie comes in with wonderful stabbing slide guitar. Mick’s voice, per the Rock Chick, has never changed or diminished in quality. Mick plays a ton of harmonica on the song and that’s always a good thing. It’s like all three remaining members do what they do best on the track.

The song is a tale of what sounds like a crazy roadtrip down a “Rough and Twisted” road. They name check the aforementioned Muddy Waters. “Why won’t you take me where I wanna go,” exclaims Mick. Oh boys, you’re taking me right where I want to go. Andrew Watt produced this and he’s taking these guys to their roots.

I really like the song, but after a number of repeated spins, I’ll say that it doesn’t sound like a first single. It’s more of a stomping bluesy deep track, or maybe a B-side. I don’t want to diminish the track but it’s not an attention seeker like say, “Angry” was on the last record. I hear there’s a video coming…

There is some thought this track is a one off and will remain a “Cockroaches” track. Which is an interesting theory. I’m guessing it’s on the record. And if it’s a harbinger of what’s to come, bring it on!!

I for one am ecstatic to have a new Stones, hard to get vinyl-only single in my hands. Who’d have thought in 2026, a new Stones’ song! I’m so happy new Stones LP is on the way. It’s going to be a Stones’ summer. With new albums from Ringo and Paul McCartney on the way, and new Stones, it’s like it’s 1972 out there! And that’s a good thing! All we need is a great Neil Young record to go along with all of this…

Cheers!