Rock The Bells takes Hip-Hop Festival on the road

May 4, 2008

Ten major U.S. cities will play host to this year’s edition of the Rock the Bells festival tour, bringing along an eclectic roster of acts that is a real cross-section of different genres of hip-hop. After the stateside performances have wrapped, the whole fest will travel overseas for Rock the Bells events in Europe and Japan, in an attempt to widen the audiences for the Rock the Bells artists. On the bill this year are Mos Def, De La Soul, Rakim, Nas, The Cool Kids, and A Tribe Called Quest, among others; tour stops will include Chicago (7/19), Toronto (7/20), Philly (8/3), and Vancouver (8/30)...
U2 are currently recording at their home studio in Dublin, Ireland with Brian Eno on board. U2’s guitarist, The Edge, recently told the press not to expect a new album any time soon, as the band intends to focus on “the indulgence of making music” as opposed to rushing to meet any deadlines. That doesn’t mean they’re not serious, though - the recording that they’re doing is indeed slated for a new U2 album, they apperantly just don’t want to be pinned down on exactly what or when yet. In the meantime, The Edge’s co-founded charity, Music Rising, which benefits those who lost musicial equipment in Hurricane Katrina, is going strong, and The Edge himself just donated two Gibson guitars to a Music Rising auction...
Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith just wrapped a short tour with fellow singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, playing shows in Texas, Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and now his fans will just have to wait until he releases his next album - but they won’t have to wait long. Sexsmith’s Exit Strategy of the Soul is set for release on July 8, complete with a horn section, production by Martin Terefe, and a song that Sexsmith co-wrote with Feist (“Brandy Alexander,” which appears on Feist’s 2007 album, The Reminder). Exit... is Sexsmith’s first album for Yep Roc Records...
The 23-city Music Builds Tour is focusing on Christian rock for its late-summer jaunt, kicking off on August 21 in Detroit at the DTE Energy theater, and keeping its roster of bands on the road until mid-October. The amphitheater tour will feature the likes of Jars of Clay, Third Day, and Robert Randolph on the main stage, plus a side stage of newbie bands. Other tour stops will include Chicago (8/23), Washington DC (9/14), Atlanta (9/20), Phoenix AZ (9/25), San Diego (9/27), and Minneapolis (10/10). MySpace is set to be the exclusive online partner for the tour, with a portion of the proceeds slated to benefit Habitat for Humanity affiliates in tour cities; some of the band members will even grab tools and help build some Habitat for Humanity houses along the way...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Created by Toronto production studio CRUSH, the new video for R.E.M.’s latest single, “Hollow Man,” is now streaming at the band’s official website (www.remhq.com), with the Hollow Man himself represented as three people - a live person, a roughly-drawn representation, and a digital avatar...

MINI BUZZ:
Arcade Fire and Superchunk teamed up to play two special “Change Rocks” shows in North Carolina last week in support of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama...
Stereolab’s first studio album in four years, Chemical Chords, will hit the U.S. on August 19 on 4AD Records, complete with tracks “Neon Beanbag,” “Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1),” and “Self Portrait with Electric Brain”...
The Strokes are just beginning work on their fourth album, working out the “technical kinks” first, as bass player Nikolai Fraiture puts it; in the meantime, Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is prepping to release his second solo disc, Como Te Llama, later this year...
The Eden Sessions shows are busily confirming acts for this summer; among them so far are The Raconteurs, KT Tunstall, and Kaiser Chiefs...
The Goo Goo Dolls are getting ready to start
recording their next CD, too, which they say they’ll approach from more of a live performance, under-production angle this time; they hope to have the disc ready by the end of the year...
Yep, it’s true - New Kids on the Block - now a little, er, less “new” than when they disbanded in 1994 - have indeed announced a reunion, and will be embarking on tour; check out www.nkotb.com for details...
And new in stores and download sites this week are these releases... ON CD: Augustana’s Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt... Neil Diamond’s Home Before Dark... Firewater’s The Golden Hour... No Age’s Nouns... Ja Rule’s The Mirror... and Gavin DeGraw’s Gavin DeGraw... ON DVD: Stanley Jordan Trio: The Paris Concert... All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music... Justin Timberlake’s Live from Madison Square Garden... and Wynton Marsalis and JALC Orchestra: Congo Square... 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