Replacement replaces themselves

April 19, 2006

A Replacements best-of compilation is set to hit stores in June, which is great news for Replacements fans - but even better news might be that the, er, compiling of the compilation has induced the Replacements’ surviving original members - namely Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars - to reunite in order to record two new tracks that will be included on the best-of disc.  The remaining trio got together at Flowers Studio in Minneapolis to put the songs “Message to the Boys” and “Pool & Dive” - both written by Westerberg - to tape, as produced by Ed Ackerson. The 20-track CD, titled Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of The Replacements, will arrive in stores on June 13 on Rhino Records, and will include such legendary must-listen Replacements tunes as “Kiss Me on the Bus,” “I’ll Be You,” and “Alex Chilton”...
 
Brit rockers Gomez are set to kick off a two-month tour of the U.S. on May 3, in conjunction with the May 2 release of their brand new ATO Records disc, How We Operate, which was recorded with producer Gil Norton (Foo Fighters, Pixies).  The tour will be broken into two halves, the first running through the end of May, and the second seeing Gomez return to the U.S. in mid-June after the band completes a short UK tour.  Gomez’ U.S. stops in May will include New Orleans (5/5), Detroit (5/10), Chicago (5/11, at the Vic Theater), Minneapolis (5/12), Boulder CO (5/16), and San Francisco (5/24)...
 
Chicago indie-rockers Them vs. Them, whose lead singer, JAQ, was featured on MTV’s “Scratch and Burn,” released a 9-song disc at the beginning of this year, and now the group, comprised of the aforementioned JAQ plus his bandmates - Ig on the organ, “their mate Bish” on drums, and Casey Kannenberg on guitars - is taking their Elvis Costello-meets-the-Beastie Boys show on the road.  Them vs. Them will be touring the U.S. throughout May and June, including a stop in Traverse City, MI (5/13 at The Loading Dock) - and they’ll be bringing yet another new as-yet-untitled 13-track album with them on the road for fans to snag at their live shows.  You can find out more about Them vs. Them on their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/themvsthem , or at their new www.themvsthem.com website...
 
And The Rolling Stones played their first show in China last Saturday at the Shanghai Grand Stage, a show that began with a Chinese government ban on several of the Stones’ songs, including “Brown Sugar” and “Honky Tonk Woman.”  Ever the rebels, the Stones, of course, squeezed in a few also-questionable (at least for the Chinese government) tunes, including “Sympathy for the Devil,” and frontman Mick Jagger practiced his language skills on the crowd, welcoming them and thanking them for attending the show in Chinese. The Stones played 18 songs in total for the 8,000-strong audience, which comprised part of their A Bigger Bang World Tour, supporting their album of the same name...
 
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:  California indie-rockers Irving have teamed up with Filter Magazine to bring you a prize pack all your friends will be jealous of - a hipster Irving-logo’ed tote bag filled with Irving pins and other goodies, plus the band’s new album, Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers. The contest ends on May 2, so head on over to http://www.filter-mag.com/contests/interior.351.html to enter, and, in the meantime, check out Irving’s newest single, “Situation,” via the link on the bottom of the page...
 
MINI BUZZ:
British pop-rocker Robbie Williams joins the ranks of the few pop stars to have their own branded mobile phone - T-Mobile International/Sony Ericsson are launching the clamshell-shaped “Robbie Williams Edition” phone, complete with a Robbie logo, ringtone, animation clip, and a Robbie sound bite that signals reception of a text message...
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has completed work (with two other London collaborators) on the first episodes of the animated comedy show “Empire Square,” which will debut next week on the Fuse network...
Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon will be performing an acoustic version of their new song, “What a Waste,” on the season finale of the WB cult hit TV drama Gilmore Girls...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are portraying several groups across the entire history of rock n’ roll in their new video for their single, “Dani California,” and, in other Peppers news, they’ve got three months of touring booked, on which their opening act will be the Mars Volta...
Singer-songwriter Joan Osborne is reportedly veering away from the modern folk-rock she first became known with, and will record a country (!) album later this spring that will be released early next year...
And ‘80s anthem-rockers The Alarm will return on June 13 with their brand new studio album, which they’ve titled Under Attack...

This week’s new editions are brand new, too, of course - and headed to a multimedia store near you...  ON CD:  The Beatles’ The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 Box Set... The Streets’ The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living... the Deluxe Tour Edition of The Killers’ Hot Fuss... The Charlatans’ Simpatico... Rhett Miller’s The Believer... and the soundtrack for V for Vendetta,  ON DVD:  Johnny Cash - Singing At His Best... Queen’s The Making of A Night at the Opera... Coachella: The Film... and Glenn Tilbrook’s One for the Road... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.
 
Questions, comments, rants, raves, suggestions about this column or your fave musicians?  Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com! 

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