No Idiot

June 28, 2006

No Idiot
Green Day’s latest album, American Idiot, is definitely full of political messages - but little did the band know that there was a life-saving message hidden within, as well. The cover of the California punkers’ disc - a red, black, and white graphic depicting a hand holding a heart-shaped hand grenade - recently helped 12-year-old Ruby Wilson of Halifax, England identify a live grenade in her yard when she identified it with the album art. She took the grenade in to her family, who called the police; the small munition was later identified as a World War II leftover and was detonated in a controlled explosion...

UK modern rockers Starsailor are set to drop their latest (and third) album, On the Outside, in North America. Loaded with twelve tracks plus a bonus song (“Empty Streets”) that won’t be included on the international version of the disc, the album was produced by Beck producer Rob Schnapf and was recorded in L.A. The album itself will arrive on August 22, and a 19-city Starsailor North American tour will begin in September in Montreal, with more dates TBA...

Fellow Brit-rockers Muse have finished work on their new album, too - their fourth, which they’ve dubbed Black Holes and Revelations, and which is set for U.S. release on July 11. The first single from the disc, “Knights of Cydonia,” has already hit radio and can also be heard on Muse’s MySpace page (www.myspace.com/muse) and the album’s release will be followed by a series of UK festival performances from the band at such events as the Reading and Leeds fests. Other songs set for inclusion on Black Holes... are “Supermassive Black Hole,” “Invincible,” and “City of Delusion”...

Pete Yorn’s very first acoustic tour may have sold out already, but ticketless fans may still be in luck - Yorn has now scheduled a number of additional free afternoon mini day-of-show concerts at local indie record stores along his tour route, with each of the in-store performacnes being recorded for a limited edition souvenir CD series. Shops participating in the event include Fingerprints (Long Beach, CA), The Singing Dog (Columbus, OH), Newbury Comics (Boston), and AKA (Philadelphia)...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK: Stop by the revamped Warped Tour website (http://www.warpedtour.com) for lots of exclusive content, including videos by The Plain White Ts and Motion City Soundtrack, and album streams from AFI and Joan Jett...


MINI BUZZ:
Embrace, currently at No. 3 on the UK singles chart with their official England world cup anthem “World at Your Feet,” have just signed up to play almost two dozen live dates in September and October of this year...
The Dixie Chicks have a surprisingly modern folk-pop sound to their aggressive new song, “Not Ready To Make Nice,” which arrived on VH1 this week complete with an edgy video by director Sophie Muller...
Sheryl Crow is back on the road this month, and will join forces with John Mayer for a joint tour that will kick off on August 24...
Detroiter Madonna is releasing her latest single and video on July 24; the single, “Get Together,” will be accompanied by an animated video of the Queen of Pop...
Speaking of animated, two “bandmates” of the group Gorillaz showed up at the Webby Awards last week to accept their award for Webby Artist of the Year, which honors the band’s website...
And, for those of you keeping track, American Idol runners-up Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, and Ace Young are all thisclose to signing record deals with RCA Music Group, which already signed Idol winner Taylor Hicks...

Already heading to a multimedia store near you are this week’s new releases... ON CD: Thievery Corporation’s Versions... Armin Van Buuren’s State of Trance 2006... The Melvins’ Houdini Live 2005... Miles Davis’ The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions... Madonna’s soundtrack for I’m Going to Tell You a Secret... and Luna’s The Best of Luna... ON DVD: Neil Young’s Heart of Gold as directed by Jonathan Demme... PJ Harvey On Tour - Please Leave Quietly... Pink’s Live in Europe... and The Best of Chris Isaak... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

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