DVD return of The Clash

July 19, 2006

The legendary 1980 fictional documentary about The Clash, Rude Boy, is set to make its debut on DVD on August 1. The story centers around a working class man who quits his job to become a roadie for the band - the plethora of musical footage was filmed during actual Clash tours of the UK, and includes performances of “White Riot,” “Tommy Gun,” “Clash City Rockers,” and much more. Other special DVD features include the original theatrical trailer for the film, plus a photo gallery, several deleted scenes, and several interviews, making it a must-have for Clash fans..

The Mars Volta, who are set to hit the road for a series of tour dates with the Red Hot Chili Peppers later this summer, have both finalized the tracklisting for their new album and finalized the cover art for the disc. For their snazzy cover, they’ve selected artist Jeff Jordan to design some custom artwork just for the band, and for the tracks, they’ve picked eight, among them “Viscera Eyes,” “Meccamputechture,” “Tetra-grammation,” and “Day of the Baphomets.” An exact release date isn’t confirmed, but the album is expected in August...

Meanwhile, George Harrison’s Living in the Material World is set to be reissued both on CD and as a deluxe CD/DVD set. The remastered CD will now include two additional B-side tracks, “Deep Blue” and “Miss O’Dell,” and the DVD will bring together rare performance footage from Harrison’s 1991 Japanese tour, plus some nifty behind-the-scenes footage and other bonuses. The whole shebang will hit stores on September 26 on Capitol/EMI Records...
French singer Charlotte Gainsbourg is readying her new album, C5:55,*which includes a full complement of collaborators including the French electronica-chill duo Air and Pulp vocalist Jarvis Cocker, plus additional lyrics as written by The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, and string arrangements by Beck’s father, David Campbell. No release date has been set yet for C5:55 in the U.S., but it will likely hit Stateside after it passes its release dates of August 28 in Europe and September 4 in England...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK: The Reverend Horton Heat kicked off an extensive tour this week, and will stay on the road through the end of August; check out their tour dates and more Horton Heat happenings at their official website,
www.reverendhortonheat.com...

MINI BUZZ:
New York’s French Kicks are hopping on the tour bus for a U.S./Canada headlining tour beginning this month in promotion of their new album, Two Thousand, due out this week...Primal Scream’s new album, Riot City Blues, will hit U.S. stores in August, specifically August 22 on Columbia Records...Velvet Revolver have named their upcoming new album Libertad (Spanish for “liberty”), and, with luck, fans can expect to see the disc in stores by the end of this year...Glasgow’s
indie-pop band Camera Obscura have just kicked off a North American tour that will criss-cross the U.S. throughout the rest of this month and will wrap up in the Southeast at the end of July...Singer Annie Lennox is currently in the writing stages for a new album project, and is planning 12 songs for the new disc, which has no planned release date yet...And a 30th anniversary deluxe edition of Lou Reed’s 1976 album Coney Island Baby will be released on August 15 on RCA Records...

ON CD:
Sufjan Stevens’ The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album...
Ben Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly, Vol. 3...
Soul Asylum’s Silver Lining... Various Artists including Daniel Powter, The Fray, Teddy Geiger, and KT Tunstall on NOW 22...
The Backyardigans’ Backyardigans Groove to the Music... Mark McGuinn’s One Man’s Crazy... ON DVD: Phish: Live in Brooklyn... The Gipsy Kings Live... Chuck Berry’s Hail! Hail! Rock n’ Roll... and The Smiths: Under Review... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

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