March 29, 2024

Beach Boy Brian offers up Lucky Old Sun

May 25, 2008
Following the release of other recent work on Nonesuch and Rhino Records, the incomparable Brian Wilson is back at Capitol Records for his next album, That Lucky Old Sun, which is due out on September 2. Eleven new songs plus four spoken narratives will be included on the set, which was premiered last September at London’s Royal Festival Hall; track titles include “Oxygen,” “Southern California,” “Forever My Surfer Girl,” “Morning Beat,” and the title track, which surfaces in both song form and as a narrative. Wilson worked with longtime collaborator Van Dyke Parks on the set, which serves as his first new studio album since 2004; fans can also catch Wilson on a few North American and UK tour dates this upcoming summer, including stops in Niagara Falls, Canada (7/8), Hampton Beach, NH (7/13), and at the Hollywood Bowl (9/12-14)...
Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann is prepping to release her latest, too - namely, her 7 solo album, which has the unusual title of @#%&! Smilers. She’s also planning a special release party-slash-art show for the album to take place on May 31 in Los Angeles, at which 17 original illustrations by visual artist Gary Taxali - whose work has been seen in Time Magazine, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone - will be showcased. The illustrations will be included in the packaging for Mann’s new CD. She will also be touring through the summer and fall in support of her new disc, with tour dates in Minneapolis (6/12), Milwaukee (6/13), Seattle (7/16), Philadelphia (8/5), Toronto (8/28), and Royal Oak, MI (8/29)...
Coldplay have purchased a $5,000 Kemble piano for a Gloucestershire, UK primary school after seeing photos of the school’s piano floating in a water-filled hallway, a sad result of the floods of 2007. Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman is a neighbor of one of the school’s teaching support workers, which is how they heard about the damage to the school, whose instruments, including keyboards, drums, recorders, and handbells, were destroyed when water swept through the school’s corridors last July. The 320-pupil school responded with a thank-you letter to the band and a promise to send photos of the new piano in use...
And George Harrison’s wife has put together a special garden at the UK’s Chelsea Flower Show in memory of her late husband; Harrison was a regular attendee to the event, which takes place annually in West London. Olivia Harrison called it a “joyful” thing to do for George. The garden was created alongside garden designer Yvonne Innes, and was planned to be a “reflection of George’s spirituality” - it will take visitors on a “tour” of Harrison’s life, from his Liverpool birthplace through to the Beatles’ height of popularity. Fellow Beatle Ringo Starr officially unveiled the garden on May 20...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Beck is premiering a new tune from his collaboration with producer Danger Mouse - the track, “Chemtrails,” aired for the first time last week on BBC Radio 1, and you can hear it now as a streaming track on Beck’s website, www.beck.com...

MINI BUZZ:
As a response to the hot radio popularity of Weezer’s latest single, “Pork and Beans,” the band’s label, Geffen, has decided to push up the full album release to June 3 from its original June 24 release date; the album, Weezer’s third eponymous effort, has also been dubbed The Red Album...
Oasis haven’t titled their new album yet, but they have confirmed that it will be on shelves this September; earlier internet-leaked songs “Stop the Clocks,” “I Wanna Live a Dream,” and “Nothing On Me” have not been confirmed for inclusion on the new set...
Psychedelic pop-rockers The Black Angels are kicking off a tour in their home state of Texas to help promote their new album, Directions to See a Ghost - they’ll be making stops in Seattle (6/11), Minneapolis (6/18), Chicago (6/20), Detroit (6/23), and Toronto (6/26), among other cities...
The Hold Steady are touring too, traversing the U.S. from June to August; their tour dates include Pontiac, MI (7/18), Chicago (7/19), and Minneapolis (7/22)...
The Goo Goo Dolls are releasing a two-disc CD/DVD set on August 5 - Greatest Hits Volume Two will include previously unreleased tracks plus live performances, rarities, and eight cover songs, including the Goos’ takes on tunes by Supertramp, Fleetwood Mac, and The Plimsouls...
And Coldplay-influenced singer-songwriter-pianist Josiah Leming - the surprisingly talented American Idol reject who was showcased on the TV program living out of his car - has gotten the last laugh, as he’s signed with Warner Brothers for a recording and publishing deal; he’s already begun work on his first album...
And here are more discs for you to spend your economic stimulus payment on...ON CD: Jakob Dylan’s Seeing Things... N.E.R.D.’s Seeing Sounds... Quitzow’s Art College... Island’s Arm’s Way... Alanis Morissette’s Entanglement... and Setting Sun’s Children of the Wild... ON DVD: Carlos Santana Plays Blues at Montreux... Castanets: Tendrils... T. Rex: Live in Concert... and John Lennon: Classic Album - Plastic Ono Band... 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

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