Moby: first pop star in space

Dec. 28, 2005

In some space-meets-music news, electronica guru Moby is set to become the first pop musician in space now that he’s shelled out $207,000 for a ticket on the premiere flight of Richard Branson’s upcoming Virgin Galactic spaceliner.  Set to depart somewhere between 2008 and 2010, the first trip of Branson’s rocket will fly a limited number of passengers 70 miles into space to orbit the Earth.  Other musicians are looking to follow suit, too - Jane’s Addiction guitarist/INXS Rock Star “judge” Dave Navarro has signed up for a later flight, and Britpop star Robbie Williams has also expressed interest.  For those who also have the rock-star-level budget (or are at least willing to save up), the philosophy of Virgin Galactic is “space tourism for everybody,” so check out the details (and info on their first spacecraft, dubbed the “VSS Enterprise,” of course) at www.virgingalactic.com ...
Jeff and Tim Buckley will be the subjects of a mostly indie-band Rykodisc tribute album called Dream Brother: The Songs of Jeff & Tim Buckley that will include 13 tracks by the talented son and his father as interpreted by other musicians, mostly American and UK bands. Among those covering the songs of Jeff will be Adem (“Mojo Pin”), King Creosote (“Grace”), and Matthew Herbert with Dani Siciliano (“Everybody Here Wants You”), and among those covering Tim’s songs will be The Magic Numbers (“Sing a Song For You”), Engineers (“Song to the Siren”), and Michigan’s own Sufjan Stevens (“She Is”).  Dream Brother... will hit stores on January 31...
Another tribute disc is due out on January 31, too - this one paying homage to the songs of now-defunct influential Chicago band Smashing Pumpkins. Originally released through online retailers, the set has done so well on the internet that it’s now being released on CD.  Most of the songs are interpreted by heavy rock bands such as A Static Lullaby (“The Everlasting Gaze”), Vaux (“1979”), 32 Leaves (“Zero”), Armor For Sleep (“Today”), Poison The Well (“Soma”) and Hopesfall (“Eye”) -  you’ll be able to pick up The Killer In You: A Tribute To Smashing Pumpkins in stores the end of next month...
 
And alt-country-rockers My Morning Jacket, in an attempt to express their displeasure over Sony/BMG’s attempts to curb CD piracy via copy-protection software, have been trying to respond to the many emails their fans have been sending in about the situation, and have finally come up with a My Morning Jacket solution - the band has been personally burning copy-protection-free copies of the album and sending them to fans who have already purchased a copy of their disc “Z.”  To date, the band has sent out over 100 copies of the disc to fans who bought the disc and weren’t able to properly enjoy the music - who knows how long they’ll keep it up, but it’s an interesting and heart-warming way to deal with the Sony snafu...
MINI BUZZ:
U2’s Bono has been named one of Time Magazine’s “Persons of the Year” and will join billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates on the mag’s cover...
The Strokes, Super Furry Animals, and The Darkness are among the acts confirmed to perform at the One Earth environmental benefit concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on January 28...
The 5th Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is set for June 16-18 at its same site in Manchester, Tennessee, and festival organizers have reduced the allowed festival’s capacity by 10,000 people to keep better control of things and maintain the festival’s feel, so get those tickets early...
Legendary Irish rockers The Pogues are in the midst of booking a North American tour that will see them stateside in March 2006 and will feature the classic Pogues lineup as fronted by Shane McGowan - the band, probably not coincidentally, is also planning a March release for the live CD/DVD...
Cool bluegrass/jazz/popster Bela Fleck, along with his band The Flecktones, will be releasing their latest disc, The Hidden Land, on January 31 and will also be embarking on a serious roster of tour dates all the way through next September...
And for those who haven’t had a chance to check out All American Rejects on tour, you can check out a little of their tour life by going online to www.RUCingular.com/aar , where the band is posting a half-dozen video diary entries and a blog...
In stores this week, here’s the stuff you can spend your leftover holiday money on... ON CD:  The Corrs’ two-CD edition of All the Way Home: A History of the Corrs Plus Live in Geneva...  Muse’s Hullabaloo Soundtrack... Various Artists’ The Complete Sounds of Katamari... Ryan Adams’ 29... Various Artists on the Casanova soundtrack... and Sevendust’s Best of Sevendust (Chapter One: 1997-2004)... ON DVD:  Johnny Cash - Live from Austin TX... Phish’s Live in Brooklyn... The BBC’s The Story of Gospel Music... and Stomp Out Loud...  that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock... and Happy Holidays to you all!

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

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