Monkeying Around

March 7, 2007

Arctic Monkeys are screeching back with their second Domino Records album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, which now has an April 23 international release date, and will hit U.S. shores on April 24. Called “heavier yet nice” by producer James Ford, the album will include tracks “D is for Dangerous,” “This House is a Circus,” and “If You Were There, Beware,” - and you can tell your ears to start listening for the disc’s first single, “Brianstorm” (nope, that’s not a typo), on radio as of early April. Arctic Monkeys have also just started confirming European festival dates for this upcoming summer, so hopefully some announcement of U.S. dates will be next...
 
Hope you’ve got a record player, Coldplay fans - because Coldplay have just announced that they’ll be releasing all 14 of their singles as a special edition first-time box set - but only on vinyl.  Dubbed The Singles 1999-2006, the set will hit stores on March 26, and will include all of the original artwork for such singles as “Clocks,” “Don’t Panic,” “What If,” and, of course, the track that started it all, “Yellow.”   In other non-vinyl Coldplay news, the band has now backtracked on their previous announcement of taking a five-year hiatus, and will instead begin preliminary work on their next album with superproducer Brian Eno...
 
’60s songwriter Scott Walker is set to be the subject of a new music documentary that will hit theaters through Verve Pictures late this April.  Titled 30 Century Man, the film will document Walker’s life from his early work as a bass player through his pop success and the making of his last album, The Drift - the picture will also include interviews with such Walker associates as Radiohead, David Bowie, Jarvis Cocker, Sting, Johnny Marr, and the aforementioned Brian Eno...
 
A former whiskey warehouse in the heart of Belfast, Ireland is set to be the site of a brand new music center that will serve as a center point for Belfast musicians, and the project itself is being spearheaded by the likes of Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody and Ash’s Tim Wheeler.  The building, which is being called the “Oh Yeah” building (the title of an Ash Top 10 hit song), will feature rehearsal space, a recording studio, office space, and a cafe, all of which Lightbody says is what he wished Snow Patrol had access to early on in their career, while Wheeler says that Belfast’s “wealth of musical talent” needs a hub like Oh Yeah...
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:  Bloc Party’s brand new album, A Weekend in the City, is just out in stores - but if you haven’t snagged the album yet (or, heck, even if you have), you can head over to PureVolume to download a free Bloc Party track titled “Vision of Heaven.”  Check it, yo at http://www.purevolume.com/videos/blocparty/istillremember...
 
MINI BUZZ:
This year’s NME Award nominees have been announced, and among ’em are the likes of Muse, Kasabian, Oasis, The Killers, We Are Scientists, and The Kooks...
In other awards news, the 2007 Meteor Ireland Music Awards were held last week in Dublin, with Snow Patrol winning four awards and International honors being handed out to Justin Timberlake and Arctic Monkeys, among others...
The Kaiser Chiefs played a secret show in their hometown of Leeds, England last week, at which fans were treated to the Chiefs’ previous singles as well as previews of songs from the band’s upcoming new album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob...
The 17th Annual Tibet House Benefit will be held this week at New York’s Carnegie Hall, with Sigur Ros, Ray Davies, Lou Reed, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry all scheduled
to appear...
Badly Drawn Boy has selected the winners of his Finest UK Chip Shops contest (that’s french fries, to you Yanks), and will play gigs with his band in the three top shops beginning at the end of this month...
Swedes Peter, Bjorn, and John release their buzz album, Writer’s Block, this week...
 
And if you’re looking for the rest of this week’s super new releases, here they are...
ON CD:  Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips’ Back Numbers... Idlewild’s Make Another World... Aerogramme’s My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go... Rickie Lee Jones’ The Ser-mon on Exposition Boulevard... Son Volt’s The Search... and Loney, Dear’s Loney, Noir...
ON DVD:  Natasha Bedingfield’s Live in New York City... Brit Awards 2007... Johnny Cash: Music in Review... and Sting: The Journey and the Labyrinth... 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