Yorn hits the Road

June 14, 2006

Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn is going to have quite the busy summer, as he’s both releasing his newest (and third) studio album, Nightcrawler, and is also embarking on his first ever solo acoustic tour.  Yorn’s inaugural road trek is planned out for about two months, in which Yorn will play live in clubs and small venues in around 35 cities, including Long Beach, CA (6/23), Indianapolis (7/5), Columbus OH (7/6), Boston MA (7/12), Minneapolis (7/22), and Philadelphia (8/11)... tickets for Yorn’s summer shows are now on sale...
 
Guster are going to have a full schedule this summer, too - the band’s fifth album, Ganging Up on the Sun, will hit stores on June 20, and, according to preview listens, it’s chock-full of infectious pop tracks that might just top what the band has released to date.  You can catch the band on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 27, and then the guys will play a few solo tour dates before kicking off a huge co-headlining tour with Ray LaMontagne that will take them all coast-to-coast across the U.S., including stops in Detroit (6/18), Philadelphia (7/13), Atlanta GA (7/21), Detroit (7/26), Chicago (7/28), Indianapolis (7/29), and at Michigan’s famed Interlochen Center for the Arts on July 25;  you can also check out a six-part making-of-the-album documentary on the band’s official website, www.guster.com...
 
The Smiths, Morrissey included, of course, were offered big bucks to reunite and perform at this year’s Coachella Festival, but Morrissey didn’t bite then and doesn’t intend to.  Morrissey states that he’s worked very hard since the demise of the band, and doesn’t feel that he should hand them the extra attention that they haven’t worked for since the band broke up - in other words, there will be no riding on Morrissey’s coattails, thank you very much.   So guess we can’t expect a Smiths reunion any time soon or ever, for that matter...
 
The Scissor Sisters are set to release their latest album, Ta-Dah, on September 26, and have loaded the disc with plenty of new Scissor Sisters songs, many of which fans will have already heard during the band’s live performances, such as “Everybody Wants the Same Thing,” “Monkey Baby,” and “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” which the band recorded with Elton John.  Speaking of the Sisters’ live performances, they’re also set to play at several festivals this year, including Belgium’s Rock Werchter Fest on July 2, and the Siren Festival at Brooklyn, New York’s Coney Island on July 15...
 
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:  Hey, Dashboard Confessional fans - hop on to AOL Music (http://music.aol.com) to exclusively check out the band’s brand new video for their single, “Don’t Wait,” off the band’s new album, Dusk and Summer, which will hit stores June 27...

MINI BUZZ:
The Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival in Seattle, set for September 2-4, keeps adding acts; among the newest additions are Particle, The Veronicas, Great Big Sea, Hawthorne Heights, Alejandro Escovedo, and Badly Drawn Boy...
Aussie songstress Kylie Minogue is recovering well from the cancer she was diagnosed with last year and is now getting back into the recording studio to work on a new single; she’s also planning out some live dates set to begin this November...
Nada Surf have put together an iTunes digital live EP that includes songs from a KEXP Acoustic Session they did last February; the EP includes the band’s cover of The Smiths’ “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”, and you can snag it at the iTunes music store...
Tegan and Sara have finished putting together their first DVD, which they’ve titled It’s Not Fun. Don’t Do It!, and that same DVD will be in-stores on August 8, including footage from one of the duo’s recent performances in Toronto...
Guitarist/singer Jonny Lang’s fans will have to wait for a new album, as the musician has announced that he won’t be hitting the recording studio until later this year, but they will be able to see him live, as he’s hitting the concert circuit hard this summer...
Pearl Jam’s concert last week at New York City’s Avalon has been taped and will premiere on VH1 on July 1 as an episode of the VH1 Storytellers series...
 
And here are more “episodes” in the lives of your favorite musicians... namely, this week’s new releases... ON CD:   Keb’ Mo’s Suitcase...  The Bouncing Souls’ The Gold Record... Three Days Grace’s One X... Huey Lewis and the News’ Greatest Hits... Billy Joel’s 12 Gardens Live... and Widespread Panic’s Earth to America...  ON DVD:  The Replacements: Bastards of Young... Phish’s Live in Brooklyn... The Gipsy Kings Live... and Black Uhuru with Sly and Robbie: Dubbin’ It Live... 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!