Rockers go Acoustic

Nov. 29, 2006

A set of special acoustic shows are coming up for the lucky folks in Los Angeles (or those of you visiting Los Angeles over the holiday season) - it’s two big nights of the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, an annual West Coast event that draws hipster music fans over the weekend of December 9 and 10. This year, the Friday show will feature sets from Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Wolfmother, and the Saturday show will showcase Beck, The Raconteurs, The Killers, Foo Fighters, Gnarls Barkley, and Panic! At The Disco.  Angels and Airwaves and Incubus are also scheduled to appear, although their night has yet to be confirmed...
 
Speaking of The Raconteurs - which is, of course, Detroiter Jack White of the White Stripes “other” band - they’ve been touring for most of the year, which is leaving Stripes fans wondering about the fate of the Jack and Meg duo. In a recent interview, Jack White told fans of both bands not to fear, and that he’s pretty much divided “50/50” between both bands, which he considers a luxury as a songwriter, being able to channel his music through two different projects.  White has been working on a new White Stripes record with Meg in between Raconteurs tour breaks, so chances are fans will have either a live show or a disc from either band to keep ’em busy for quite some time to come...
 
French rocktronica duo Air have been working hard on their next album, and it’s now been titled and given a release date. The new 12-track disc, dubbed Pocket Symphony, is a bit of a change in direction for Air, as they’ve added some classical Asian instruments to the mix (band member Nicolas Godin learned the shamisen and the Koto from a Japanese master) and have also added vocals from both The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker. Serving as the follow-up to Air’s 2004 disc, Talkie Walkie, the new album is set for release on March 6
via Astralwerks Records, and Air is also planning a European tour for mid-March and a set of U.S. dates to begin in early May...
 
U2’s new compilation disc, U218 Singles is out this week, and there will be a plethora of great U2 tunes on the disc in addition to the previously announced Green Day-collaborative single “The Saints Are Coming.”  Along with the audio disc, fans can expect a DVD collecting videos for the songs included on U218. The audio disc will include (not in any particular order) U2 songs such as “New Year’s Day,” “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “Elevation,” “Sweetest Thing,” “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” and “Vertigo” - speaking of which, a 3-D concert film following U2’s Vertigo tour is now planned to hit the big screen some time in 2007...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
A team of Aussie scientists have announced the development of a shirt that plays guitar riffs based on your very own flailing-arm air-guitar motions - they call it the WIS (Wearable Instrument Shirt) and you can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwvKGJXvHZA - although be forewarned that the shirt is way cooler in person (as in, when you’re actually wearing one) than as it appears on the video...
 
MINI BUZZ:
Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson is working hard on her first solo album, which is due out sometime in 2007, and she’s got some pretty talented pals helping her pretty talented self on the disc, including Jack White, Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan, and Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan...
Fellow Scots Snow Patrol have announced a U.S. tour set to kick off on March 3; the jaunt will run through April 6 when the tour winds up in Minneapolis...
Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith has just penned a U.S. deal with Ironworks music to bring his Time Being album to the States on January 9;  Sexsmith is planning to embark on a full tour next year as well, beginning January 8 in Buffalo NY...
New West Records will be
dropping an album on January 9, too, namely a live CD chron-icling a 1997 Austin City Limits appearance by Johnny Cash (which includes Cash faves “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues”) and a 2003 appearance by Neko Case...
Composer Danny Elfman, best known for his instrumental work
on such films as Beetlejuice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Batman, has released his first classical concert work, Serenada Schizophrana, out now...
UK indie rockers The Magic Numbers will release their soph-omore disc, Those the Brokes, February 20; currently touring Europe through mid-December...

ON CD: The Beatles’ Love, a fascinating reworking of Beatles classic songs by none other than famed Beatles producer George Martin... Oasis’ Stop the Clocks... Jarvis Cocker’s Jarvis... Loreena McKennit’s An Ancient Muse... U2’s aforementioned U218 Singles... and All-American Rejects’ It Ends Tonight...ON DVD: Gorillaz - Slow Boat to Hades... Johnny Cash Live in Ireland... Elvis Costello and Alain Toussaint’s Hot as a Pistol, Slow as a Blade...and Great Big Sea’s Courage & Patience & Grit: Great Big Sea in Concert... 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!