March 29, 2024

And the winner is....

Nov. 16, 2005
And the winner is...
The 12th Annual MTV Europe Music Awards just wrapped in Lisbon, Portugal, with Coldplay and Green Day sharing top honors as the big winners of the night. Coldplay snagged Best Song (for “Speed of Sound”) and also Best UK & Ireland Act, while Green Day was awarded Best Rock Act and saw their CD American Idiot win Best Album - both bands also performed at the event. Several other modern rockers won, too, including Robbie Williams (Best Male), Gorillaz (Best Group), and Bob Geldof (the mastermind of the Live 8 concerts) who was honored with the Free Your Mind Award. Nigerian artist 2 Face Idibia won the inaugural Best African Act award, which reflected MTV’s recent launch of their African MTV channel. Also performing at the event were the Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, and Madonna...

Brit singer/songwriter Beth Orton has finished work on over a dozen songs (working in-studio with producer Jim O’Rourke, who has also worked with Sonic Youth and Wilco), and will see her new album hit stores on February 7 on Astralwerks Records. Orton’s Comfort of Strangers, her fourth collection, features O’Rourke on bass, piano, and marimba, and features drumming from Chicago’s own session master Tim Barnes. Included on the disc will be new Orton tracks “Shadow of a Doubt,” “Countenance,” “A Place Aside,” and “Heart of Soul” - Orton is also planning out a slate of live dates to coincide with the album’s release...
Overzealous White Stripes fans are screeching “sellout!” as the news arrives that Stripe Jack White has been tapped to work with big-time sodamaker Coca-Cola on a new commercial - but White says he’s doing it to “get a message of love out to the world.” The commercial won’t be using any of the Stripes’ previously-released songs - as White says, that would “...seem strange...” - instead, he’s composing a brand new track along the theme of “love in a worldwide form,” and the result is apparantly a quite interesting commercial that is steps above the norm. And c’mon, folks - if you were offered a gajillion dollars to do something you enjoyed, wouldn’t you at least consider it? As in many things, it might just depend on the circumstances. While you’re forming your opinions, keep an eye on your TV for the new Jack White-graced Coke ad, and look for the Stripes on the road in the UK starting this week in London...

Former Kinks leader Ray Davies is releasing a special benefit EP later this month, with all the net proceeds going towards New Orleans music education programs. Titled Thanksgiving Day, the five-song disc will hit stores on November 22, and will also serve as an appetizer for Davies’ solo album, Other People’s Lives, which will be out on February 7. The title track from the Thanksgiving Day EP will be available as a preview track download on iTunes starting November 15, and the EP will also include a second new Davies composition and a new mix of Davies’ “London Song.” To mark the EP’s release, Davies will hit the little screen on - appropriately - Thanksgiving Day evening on NBC-TV’s Late Night with Conan O’ Brien...

MINI BUZZ:
Michigan’s Madonna, whose new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor is burning up the critics’ ears in a good way, is now considering another round of live dates to perform her new songs, possibly next summer...
Meanwhile, MTV personality Bam Margera is launching the Viva La Bands tour in a couple of weeks - the tour will include bands Finch, Fireball Ministry, and H.I.M., and will include Viva La Bam footage in between acts...
Also in a couple of weeks, singer-songwriter Kate Bush will release a new album, Aerial, her first studio disc in 12 years...
Queens Of The Stone Age are currently on the road, performing both as opening act for Nine Inch Nails and taking their off days to play what they’re calling their own “renegade shows” at bookstores, record stores, and even Army/Navy surplus outlets...
Foo Fighters will be the featured musical guest on this week’s Saturday Night Live, and they’ll follow that TV stop up with an appearance on the November 16 CBS TV special I Walk the Line: A Night For Johnny Cash...
And Michigan band Anchors For Reality pack up this week for their Midwestern tour, which will keep them on the road until mid-December...

Just being unloaded into a multi-media store near you are this week’s new releases: ON CD: Imogen Heap’s Speak For Yourself... Sun Kil Moon’s Tiny Cities...
Trey Anastasio’s Shine... Smallville: The Metropolis Mix Original TV Soundtrack, which includes songs from Stereophonics, The Dandy Warhols, Minnie Driver, and The All-American Rejects... the soundtrack for the new Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line... and the first single, “Hung Up,” from Detroiter Madonna’s new album, Confessions on a Dancefloor... ON DVD: The Who - Tommy and Quadrophenia Live... Peter Gabriel’s Still Growing Up - Live and Unwrapped... The Wonder Stuff’s Construction for the Modern Vidiot... and, for a little comic relief, The Best and Worst of American Idol... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

Questions, comments, rants, raves about this column or your fave musicians? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com!


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