HBO puts on a show

Dec. 27, 2006

HBO Puts on a show
HBO has just previewed a new music show, set to begin airing next year, that’ll be hosted by Dave Stewart (best known for his work with Eurythmics) and is patterning itself after the famed Inside the Actors Studio program that delves into the details of actors’ lives. The new show, called Off the Record, will be taking that same interview-in-front-of-a-live-audience approach, with various musicians and bands talking about their creative processes, songwriting, and more; the kickoff preview show featured U2’s Bono and The Edge; this preview will be the only episode aired this year, until the regular series schedule begins in 2007 - keep an eye on the upcoming show schedule at http://www.hbo.com/offtherecord/...

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who have been busy, er, clapping away in the studio, have finally wrapped work on their latest full-length album, which will serve as the follow-up to their eponymously titled debut disc. Set for release on January 30 - although early purchasers can receive a preview digital version of the album on January 16 - the album has been dubbed Some Loud Thunder, and you can preview several tracks from the new set on the band’s MySpace page...

Canadian singer Avril Lavigne has titled her third studio album “The Best Damn Thing,” and plans to have the disc in stores this spring on RCA Records, to be prefaced by first single “Girlfriend,” which you should be hearing on U.S. radio in February. A more up-tempo set than previous efforts, Lavigne says that the peppier songs were inspired by all of the time she’s spent over the past year playing live shows. Fans not willing to wait until spring can catch Lavigne’s song “Keep Holding On” now on the RCA soundtrack for the feature film Eragon, which just opened in theaters last week...

And also putting out a new disc is Brit singer-songwriter Matt Hales, better known as Aqualung, whose first disc, Strange and Beautiful, has sold almost a quarter-million copies in the U.S. and garnered him a slot on the Lollapalooza lineup this past August. Aqualung’s much-anticipated second disc, Memory Man, is due out on March 6 on Columbia Records and is set to include songs “Cinderella,” “Broken Bones,” and “Outside”...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK: Bjork, Keith Richards, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, David Bowie, Beck, Jack White, George Harrison, Iggy Pop... what do all these musicians have in common? Well, they can all be seen “singing” the new U2 song, “Window in the Skies,” in the band’s new sentimental and daring music video - check it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VskbxuehP3I...

MINI BUZZ:
Badly Drawn Boy has announced a new set of March U.S. tour dates in support of his indie hit new release, Born in the UK - he’ll be making stops in, among other places, Washington, DC (3/6), Detroit (3/9), Chicago (3/10), and San Diego (3/21)...
Garbage will be playing their first live show in 18 months at the Alex Theater in Glendale, California; it will be an acoustic show to benefit ill fellow musician Wally Ingram...
Another gig of note in California will be the December 30 appearance of NYC pop-punk icons Blondie, who will play at Hollywood’s Key Club, playing an overview of their hits over the past several decades...
Grant-Lee Phillips has almost completed work on his latest disc, his 5th solo album, which has been dubbed Strangelet, features a little help from R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, and should hit stores on March 27...
Madonna’s The Confessions Tour DVD is now set for release in Europe on January 22 and in the U.S. on January 23...
And a sad farewell to legendary Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away last week at the age of 83 after being instrumental in the careers of such musicians as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, James Blunt, and Gnarls Barkley...

ON CD: Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” (the theme to the movie Casino Royale)... Neil Young’s Living with War... Tom Verlaine’s Cover... My Chemical Romance’s Black Parade... Paul Revere and the Raiders’ Greatest Hits Live... and Switchfoot’s Oh! Gravity... ON DVD: Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now... Porcupine Tree’s Arriving Somewhere... Ricky Martin: MTV Unplugged... and Neko Case’s Live from Austin, Texas... 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.