Which James Bond Theme Will You Be Whistling?

March 16, 2008

Which James Bond Theme Will You Be Whistling?
James Bond will be returning to the big screen later this year, but in the meantime, an audiobook about Bond’s adventures is being released, and a Bond musical contest is taking place. Musicians were invited to submit ideas for the next Bond theme song at www.myspace.com/devilmaycarebook, and fans can vote for their favorite theme out of a whittled-down shortlist. But you’d better move fast if you want to put your two cents’ worth in - the winning theme will be announced this week, to give it a good head start on the book’s publication date in May...
Fans waiting for the release of R.E.M.’s 14th studio album, Accelerate, are being given a little something to tide them over. The band has posted a mini-website called Ninety Nights (www.ninetynights.com), on which visitors will be able to download and utilize a new high-def R.E.M. video snippet every day. And these aren’t your standard home videos (although, given as that it’s R.E.M., that might be pretty cool too) - nope, these clips were shot by French filmmaker Vincent Moon, whose previous work has included clips for The Shins and Arcade Fire, among others. If you miss a few days, you won’t be able to download, but you can still view all the clips in streaming format on the site’s archive. And to follow up this internet extravaganza, R.E.M. will be embarking on actual live, in-person tour dates, which will kick off in May; they’ll be bringing support acts The National and Modest Mouse along for the ride...
Thinking about heading to one of this summer’s music festivals? Then check out Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival, which is only charging $65 for three full days of music (July 18-20) as promoted by the famed All Tomorrow’s Parties. In addition to a full performance of Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back album (by Public Enemy themselves), music fans will also get to check out sets by the likes of Spiritualized, Boris, Dizzee Rascal, !!!, Atlas Sound, and this year’s (already) buzz band, Vampire Weekend, with plenty of additional bands and performers TBA. Keep an eye on the lineup and get your tix for this Union Park event at
www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com...
And New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was the locale for last week’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, which honored this year’s inductees, among them the Dave Clark Five, The Ventures, Leonard Cohen, and Detroit’s own Madonna. As Justin Timberlake (a recent Maddie collaborator) said at the ceremony, “She’s done it by working harder and being smarter than everybody else; she became the biggest name on the planet the old-fashioned way - she earned it.” After Madonna accepted her award, Iggy Pop and The Stooges ripped through rockin’ versions of several of Madonna’s tunes...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
A most excellent link this week for you, music fans - Xfm are giving away The Charlatans’ latest album, You Cross My Path, for free. You read that right - free. Go get it at this lengthy but worthy link: http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/2008/download-charlatans-new-album-for-free...

MINI BUZZ:
Madonna wasn’t the only one getting mad honors this week - Alanis Morissette just received a Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame during the Canadian Radio Music Awards last Friday...
Danger Mouse is keeping busy this spring, working with the likes of MF Doom, Stephen Malkmus, and Iggy Pop, among others; not to mention he’s in the early stages of working with Beck, which should prove to be interesting...
Daft Punk’s silent midnight movie Electroma is set for DVD/Blu-ray release on July 22, and will include a 40-page book of still photos and special steelbook packaging...
Jack Johnson is making his summer tour dates more green by launching his All at Once online community, so that fans can carpool to his shows; Johnson is also giving concertgoers the option of paying $1.50 to offset their carbon emissions on the way to his concerts, which will include stops in Detroit (6/18), Atlanta (8/13), Salt Lake City (8/18), and Vancouver, BC (8/21)...
Tindersticks will release their first full-length album since 2003; their The Hungry Saw set will hit stores in late April on the Beggars Banquet label, with the title track to preface in digital format...
And Ambulance LTD have announced a number of live dates to showcase some new songs; check ‘em out in Philly (4/5), Washington DC (4/7), and NYC (4/11), among other stops...
ON CD: Counting Crows’ Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings... Foals’ Antidote... Guillemots’ Red... Joseph Arthur’s Could We Survive... Presidents of the United States of America’s These Are the Good Times People (yes, they’re back)... and The Kills’ Midnight Boom... ON DVD: The High Kings: Live in Dublin... Daniel Lanois’ Here Is What Is... Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald at the Cote D’Azur with Joan Miro... and the musically-themed feature film August Rush... 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