Swerving into another music fest

Sept. 12, 2007

Swerving Into Another Music Fest
The first annual Swerve Festival, a Los Angeles-based event that’s set to combine music, film, and art into yet another weekend extravaganza, is now set to take place at L.A.’s Barnsdall Art Park on September 28 - 30. The event will include live sets from bands Black Angels, Oh No! Oh My!, Illinois (fresh off of their Lollapalooza appearance), and Snowden, among others; art will be contributed by the likes of Thomas Campbell, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, and Mike Mills; and films will include the U.S. premiere of The Man Who Souled the World and Anton Corbijn’s biopic Control. Get tix and find out more at www.swervefestival.com...
 
In other festival news, if you prefer Spain to L.A., then check out the strangely-named but full-of-great-bands Tanned Tin Festival, which will be taking place in Castellon from October 31 - November 4. Set to appear at the Spanish fest so far are Xiu Xiu, The Sea and Cake, Wolf Eyes, Papercuts, Grouper, For Against, and many more; the performances will take place at various venues throughout the city, including Theatre Principal and Casino Antiguo...
 
A new double-DVD set featuring punk legends The Ramones will be out on October 2; titled It’s Alive: 1974-1996, the DVDs will feature 4 hours of rare and previously unreleased performances, as supervised by Tommy Ramone himself. Arranged chronologically and featuring more than 100 songs, the DVD will also feature 14 songs in 5.1 Surround Sound from the band’s 1977 London show and 1982 US Festival appearance in California...
 
Tepid mainstream TV shows often, strangely, offer up decent musical soundtracks, and the upcoming soundtrack for the TV series House is no exception. Set to hit stores on September 18, the collection, which will benefit various non-profit organizations, will include music from Sarah McLachlan (her cover of XTC’s “Dear God”), Elvis Costello (his previously unreleased track “Beautiful”), and other songs from the likes of Gomez, Massive Attack, Ben Harper, and Michael Penn. Back in the realm of the tepid, House actor Hugh Laurie and various other TV actors, including The Bachelor’s Bob Guiney, Desperate Housewives’ James Denton, and a what-is-he-doing-with-this-crowd Greg Grunberg of Heroes also contribute a karaoke-level cover of the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:  One more festival for this week! San Francisco is welcoming a new fest to their region, the piratey-named Treasure Island Music Festival, which is set for the weekend of September 15 and 16, and will offer up sets from Thievery Corporation, Ghostland Observatory, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Modest Mouse, Spoon, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and more; tix are on sale now, so check it out, yarrrr, at www.treasureislandfestival.com...
MINI BUZZ:
Bloc Party are on their way to producer Jacknife Lee’s home base in Southeast England to begin work on their next album...
While fellow UK band The Twilight Sad are prepping to trek across the U.S. for two weeks in September, after opening up for the Smashing Pumpkins in Glasgow, Scotland the end of this month...
The Pop Montreal Fest will present Hot Hot Heat at Club Soda as one of their featured festival events;  HHH will hit the stage on October 7, and prior to their festival appearance, will release their latest album, Happiness Ltd., in September...
Collective Soul and Live have regrouped after their summer tour dates, and have announced that they’ll kick off a new round of tours for fall that will include stops in Boston (9/21), Philly (9/23), Dallas (10/3), and Denver, Colorado (10/7) - additional Collective Soul dates are also expected...
Canada’s Silverstein have announced that they’ll be embarking on their own series of headlining U.S. and European dates in support of their latest album, Arrivals and Departures...
And UK duo Soulsavers will drop their second disc, It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s the Way You Land on October 16 in the U.S...

Letting their own discs fall into a multimedia store near you this week are these artists and their new releases... ON CD:  Collective Soul’s Afterwords (only available at Target stores)... Northern State’s Can I Keep This Pen?... Ben Harper’s Lifelines... Liars’ Liars... Figurines’ When the Deer Wore Blue... and The Go! Team’s Proof of Youth... ON DVD: David Bowie in the re-release of Labryinth... White Stripes: The Document ... Fleetwood Mac: Videobiography ... and the chock-full-of-bands SXSW Live 2007... 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.