Here come the dream robots

Nov. 30, 2005

You might have seen news releases about these little fellas earlier this year - called QRIOs, or “dream robots,” the ‘bots were developed by Sony Japan, and are now quietly taking on roles in the latest music video for singer-songwriter Beck. The robots aren’t due to be on the market for another three-four years, but Beck - being Beck, of course - was able to pull some strings to get them to appear. Director Garth Jennings, who earlier this year directed the big-screen adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, took on directing duties for the unique Beck video, which was shot with four of the QRIOs in Los Angeles. Beck and the director worked with Sony Japan to program elaborately choreographed numbers for the robots - which, although very robot-like in surface appearance, look remarkably human in movement - and they also decided to relegate Beck’s own appearance in the video to nothing more than a ghostly (but, of course, hip) hologram. Look for Beck and the QRIOs’ “Hell Yes” video to hit MTV and similar music video outlets soon...

Silverchair, finally done with their extended break from the limelight, are reportedly currently in rehearsals in Australia, with plans to break for the holidays and then reconvene to continue rehearsing in the hopes of recording a new album and possibly road-testing some of their new songs with a bit of touring in 2006. The band’s last live appearance was at the Waveaid Tsumani Benefit Concert earlier this year in Sydney, Australia, at which their performance was part of the catalyst for bringing the band back together. The upcoming CD, expected in late 2006 or early 2007, will be their first since 2002’s Diorama...
In more music-meets-the-movies news, David Bowie is in negotiations to possibly play inventor Nikola Tesla (the real-life Serbian-American who discovered the rotating magnetic field) in the upcoming big-budget film The Prestige, a thriller from director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins.) The $40 million dollar movie is scheduled to begin shooting this upcoming January, with a script written by Nolan himself, and will include co-stars Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, and the latest Batman, Christian Bale, in a story of rival magicians in early 20th-century London...

The Flies, with Sean Cook re-emerging as the band’s lead singer, have reworked their popular live version (and cult fave track) of The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday” into a downloadable video format that’s out and available this week - The Flies are the first band to release a track exclusively as a digital video download. There will be no CD or DVD of this particular song, and the download will cease to be available after the end of this year, so get more info on how to get it now at www.the-flies.com...

MINI BUZZ:
Sigur Ros, currently on tour in the UK, are scheduled to head over to Europe for a series of shows, and then will be in the U.S. for almost a month’s worth of dates in February, including stops in Boston (2/7), Grand Rapids, MI (2/18), and Indianapolis (2/20)...
The Foo Fighters will release an EP that will be exclusively available beginning this week at Best Buy stores, and will contain exactly what its title says - Five Songs and a Cover...
Singer Kylie Minogue is currently pondering a return to the live stage with a possible tour set to begin at the end of 2006...
The Cribs are returning to the U.S. for a few live dates in late November, and will be performing with Giant Drag as openers...
Supergrass are making plans for a U.S. tour of their own, 15 dates that will begin in Toronto on February 6 and will include stops in Boston (2/10), Chicago (2/14), and Dallas, Texas (2/18)...
And INXS will be publishing an authorized account of their lives as a band - the book “INXS: Story to Story” - through Random House books on December 1...
Coming in through various other labels are this week’s CD and DVD releases... ON CD: Ray Davies’ Thanksgiving Day EP... Queens of the Stone Age’s Over the Years and Through the Woods Live... The Darkness’ One Way Ticket to Hell and Back... The Mob’s The Mob... The Moody Blues’ Lovely to See You: Live from the Greek... and Billy Joel’s My Lives box set... ON DVD: Dave Matthews’ Weekend on the Rocks... Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Shoot the Neds! In Concert... Ray Charles: 50 Years in Music... and Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi - Rock Forever!... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

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