Who will win Album of the Year

Aug. 9, 2006

Who will win “Album of the Year?”
The shortlist has been announced for this year’s Mercury Music Prize, the prestigious British/Irish album of the year as announced by the Mercury Music Prize’s 12-judge panel. Among the nominees are Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, who is up for his just-released solo debut disc The Eraser, plus additional musicians The Arctic Monkeys (for Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not), Editors (for The Back Room), Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan (for Ballad of the Broken Seas), Muse (for Black Holes & Revelations), and Guillemots (for Through the Windowpane). The prizewinner is set to be announced in London on September 4 with broadcast coverage on the BBC television and radio networks...
In other awards news, this year’s MTV Video Music Award nominees have been announced, and among them are the Red Hot Chili Peppers (seven nominations), Madonna (nominated for Video of the Year for “Hung Up”), Nelly Furtado, Shakira, and Panic! at the Disco, who will also be performing at the show. In addition to Panic!, there will be a host of other performers, including Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and The Killers, and, of course, a host yet to be announced; the show will be broadcast from New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on August 31...
The UK’s popular and longstanding V Festival is coming to the U.S., set to hit not one, but two venues, namely Baltimore (September 23) and Toronto (September 9/10), where the fest’s appearances will be its first ever outside of Britain. Tix will run around $100, which will get the attendee access to a plethora of live performances from the likes of The Flaming Lips, the Raconteurs, Scissor Sisters, Thievery Corporation, John Digweed, The Killers, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and headliners The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Who; tix are now set to go on sale on July 22...
And, joining the likes of My Chemical Romance, Street Fighter, and Alien, emo-punk-popsters Fall Out Boy have revealed that they’ll be immortalized in a set of Fall Out Boy action figures, coming soon to a Hot Topic store near you. Unveiled at the Comic-Con Convention last weekend in San Diego, the doll set includes all four members of the band, complete with “pivoting head and shoulders” (all the better for emoting, of course), and will retail for around $12 each, with part of the proceeds going to charity...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK: Oh, boy, it’s that unavoidable MySpace yet again - this week, it’s all about Beck, who’s posted a new music video for his song, “I Think I’m In Love,” at www.myspace.com/beck. Beck’s new album is set for release this fall...

MINI BUZZ:
Electronica DJ/producer Ferry Corsten has collaborated with Duran Duran singer Simon LeBon to craft the house/trance/electro single “Fire”...
Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi are offering up their latest album, Splurge, this week on Tofu Records; guests on the disc include Butch Walker, Jon Spencer, and The Offspring’s Dexter Holland...
Jazz-pop singer Madeleine Peyroux will be back with a new album this fall, namely Half the Perfect World, which will hit stores September 12 on Rounder Records...
Kylie Minogue is on her way back, too - she’ll be playing a coveted gig at London’s Wembley Arena next January as part of her “Showgirl: Homecoming” tour, and will begin a 20-date Australian tour this November 11...
Pink Floydian Roger Waters’ double-disc concert album and DVD, In the Flesh Live, will be packaged together for the first time in a new edition and will hit stores August 22...
Evanescence bass player Will Boyd has left the band, according to Evanescence singer Amy Lee; the search is already on for a replacement bassist, as the band’s new album, The Open Door, is due out on October 3...
And due out right about now are this week’s new releases... ON CD: Flogging Molly’s Whiskey on a Sunday... Jurassic 5’s Feedback... Edie Brickell and New Bohemians’ Stranger Things... Old Crow Medicine Show’s Down Home Girl... Gym Class Heroes’ As Cruel as School Children... and the New York Dolls’ special edition of *One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This... ON DVD: The Clash: VH1 Storytellers... Tegan and Sara’s It’s Not Fun Don’t Do It!... Black Label Society’s The European Invasion - Live 2005... and The Old Grey Whistle Test: The Complete 3-Disc Collection... 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!