Billboard Names Earth Day’s Greenest Musicians
Last week’s Earth Day celebrations prompted Billboard to count down the “Greenest” musicians of the last 12 months, and it’s quite a lineup. Among those honored were The Roots, who gave away autographed compost bins at this year’s pre-Grammy Awards jam session; Radiohead, who delivered their latest album as a price-optional digital download, preventing the manufacture of thousands of CDs, and who choose to only tour minimally and selectively, help reduce their carbon footprint; singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, who worked with her record label to create a 100% post-consumer waste recycled and chlorine-free package for her sophomore album and who tours on a biodiesel-fueled tour bus; Dave Matthews Band, who purchase renewable energy credits through NativeEnergy to compensate for their CO2 emissions while on tour; Mexican rock quartet Mana, who advocate environmental causes from endangered species to reforestation through their own nonprofit Selva Negra Foundation; and Jack Johnson, whose Brushfire Records studio was recently refurbished to be solar-powered...
This year’s edition of the oh-so-groovy Tribeca Film Festival looks to be pretty music-centric, with live performances scheduled from The Hold Steady, Regina Spektor, Joseph Arthur, Sondre Lerche, and Nick Lowe, among others, with The Hold Steady set to be featured at the festival’s May 2“Breaking the Band” event. Music-related films will make a big showing, too; highlights will include Playing for Change: Peace Through Music which examines street performer culture; 90 Millas El Documental, which chronicles the recording of Gloria Estefan’s latest album; and Lou Reed’s Berlin, a live performance film that the Velvet Underground musician filmed in 2006...
Death Cab for Cutie made their latest video shoot quite the challenge, the result of which is the epic, 9-minute-long vid for “I Will Possess Your Heart,” which premiered last week on MTV, VH1, and MTV2. Ten cities were used for the video’s story footage, which portrays a girl traveling through a variety of cities including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Bangkok, and Siem Reap in Cambodia, in order to portray director Aaron Stewart-Ahn’s video themes of “solo travel and running away.” The band didn’t get to do all that globe-hopping, though - instead, they were put into temporary cold storage, literally. Shawn Kim filmed the performance parts of the video, in which he filmed the band in a giant freezer in order to see the band’s breath while they performed. The catch? Band members had to keep being rotated in and out of the freezer to prevent them falling ill, and a medic was on constant standby on set...
And a number of rockers banded together in NYC for a concert to mark the 10th anniversary of Road Recovery, an organization that helps former alcoholic and drug-addicted teens and young adults get past their addictions through music. Satellite Party’s Perry Farrell, Slash, Tom Morello, Joseph Arthur, and The Wallflowers’ Jakob Dylan were among the performers, who jammed in various configurations on stage and invited several recovered Road Recovery members to jam with their rock heroes as well. Morello, of course, had to make at least one political statement, in which he introduced his performance of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” by saying that he’s envisioning a day after George W. Bush leaves office, when “the entire city of New York will get together and sing this song.” The finale of the night was a cover of the Guns n’ Roses track “Paradise City” by the entire cast...
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Chronicle Books is releasing a nifty book of photos of R.E.M. taken by David Belisle (who’s worked with the band for the past six years) - the book, dubbed R.E.M.: HELLO will be out in June, but you can check out the book’s official mini-website, which has blog posts from the road, digital downloads, and more, at www.chroniclebooks.com/rem...
MINI BUZZ:
‘80s er, rockers A Flock of Seagulls, The Human League, and Belinda Carlisle have more in common than just those giant cans of Aqua-Net - they’ll be embarking together on a 2008 summer concert series called The Regeneration Tour, which kicks off on August 1...
David Byrne is collaborating again with Brian Eno for the first time in almost 30 years; their new project is expected for release by the end of the year through Nonesuch Records...
UK band The Music have announced a UK tour in support of their new album, Strength in Numbers - their tour stops will include Sheffield (6/20), Oxford (6/27), Manchester (7/1), and London (7/4)...
Also in the UK, Madonna, Jack White’s Raconteurs, Editors, and The Kooks will serve as headliners for this year’s Radio 1 One Big Weekend in Kent, which will run May 10-11; Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, The Zutons, and We Are Scientists are also on the bill...
The Replacements’ first three albums have just been reissued, with principal band members Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson stating that there may still be a possibility of a Replacements reunion, provided the “timing is right”...
And the first single, “Pork and Beans,” from Weezer’s new album has just been released to radio...
Just being released to multimedia stores this week are these new discs... ON CD: Atmosphere’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That S**t Gold... Portishead’s Third... The Roots’ Rising Down... Carly Simon’s This Kind of Love... 65 Days of Static’s The Distant and Mechanized Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties...and Madonna’s Hard Candy... ON DVD: John Lennon: Classic Album - The Plastic Ono Band... Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine... Farm Aid: 20th Anniversary... and Ian Gillan Live in Anaheim... 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
Last week’s Earth Day celebrations prompted Billboard to count down the “Greenest” musicians of the last 12 months, and it’s quite a lineup. Among those honored were The Roots, who gave away autographed compost bins at this year’s pre-Grammy Awards jam session; Radiohead, who delivered their latest album as a price-optional digital download, preventing the manufacture of thousands of CDs, and who choose to only tour minimally and selectively, help reduce their carbon footprint; singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, who worked with her record label to create a 100% post-consumer waste recycled and chlorine-free package for her sophomore album and who tours on a biodiesel-fueled tour bus; Dave Matthews Band, who purchase renewable energy credits through NativeEnergy to compensate for their CO2 emissions while on tour; Mexican rock quartet Mana, who advocate environmental causes from endangered species to reforestation through their own nonprofit Selva Negra Foundation; and Jack Johnson, whose Brushfire Records studio was recently refurbished to be solar-powered...
This year’s edition of the oh-so-groovy Tribeca Film Festival looks to be pretty music-centric, with live performances scheduled from The Hold Steady, Regina Spektor, Joseph Arthur, Sondre Lerche, and Nick Lowe, among others, with The Hold Steady set to be featured at the festival’s May 2“Breaking the Band” event. Music-related films will make a big showing, too; highlights will include Playing for Change: Peace Through Music which examines street performer culture; 90 Millas El Documental, which chronicles the recording of Gloria Estefan’s latest album; and Lou Reed’s Berlin, a live performance film that the Velvet Underground musician filmed in 2006...
Death Cab for Cutie made their latest video shoot quite the challenge, the result of which is the epic, 9-minute-long vid for “I Will Possess Your Heart,” which premiered last week on MTV, VH1, and MTV2. Ten cities were used for the video’s story footage, which portrays a girl traveling through a variety of cities including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Bangkok, and Siem Reap in Cambodia, in order to portray director Aaron Stewart-Ahn’s video themes of “solo travel and running away.” The band didn’t get to do all that globe-hopping, though - instead, they were put into temporary cold storage, literally. Shawn Kim filmed the performance parts of the video, in which he filmed the band in a giant freezer in order to see the band’s breath while they performed. The catch? Band members had to keep being rotated in and out of the freezer to prevent them falling ill, and a medic was on constant standby on set...
And a number of rockers banded together in NYC for a concert to mark the 10th anniversary of Road Recovery, an organization that helps former alcoholic and drug-addicted teens and young adults get past their addictions through music. Satellite Party’s Perry Farrell, Slash, Tom Morello, Joseph Arthur, and The Wallflowers’ Jakob Dylan were among the performers, who jammed in various configurations on stage and invited several recovered Road Recovery members to jam with their rock heroes as well. Morello, of course, had to make at least one political statement, in which he introduced his performance of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” by saying that he’s envisioning a day after George W. Bush leaves office, when “the entire city of New York will get together and sing this song.” The finale of the night was a cover of the Guns n’ Roses track “Paradise City” by the entire cast...
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Chronicle Books is releasing a nifty book of photos of R.E.M. taken by David Belisle (who’s worked with the band for the past six years) - the book, dubbed R.E.M.: HELLO will be out in June, but you can check out the book’s official mini-website, which has blog posts from the road, digital downloads, and more, at www.chroniclebooks.com/rem...
MINI BUZZ:
‘80s er, rockers A Flock of Seagulls, The Human League, and Belinda Carlisle have more in common than just those giant cans of Aqua-Net - they’ll be embarking together on a 2008 summer concert series called The Regeneration Tour, which kicks off on August 1...
David Byrne is collaborating again with Brian Eno for the first time in almost 30 years; their new project is expected for release by the end of the year through Nonesuch Records...
UK band The Music have announced a UK tour in support of their new album, Strength in Numbers - their tour stops will include Sheffield (6/20), Oxford (6/27), Manchester (7/1), and London (7/4)...
Also in the UK, Madonna, Jack White’s Raconteurs, Editors, and The Kooks will serve as headliners for this year’s Radio 1 One Big Weekend in Kent, which will run May 10-11; Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, The Zutons, and We Are Scientists are also on the bill...
The Replacements’ first three albums have just been reissued, with principal band members Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson stating that there may still be a possibility of a Replacements reunion, provided the “timing is right”...
And the first single, “Pork and Beans,” from Weezer’s new album has just been released to radio...
Just being released to multimedia stores this week are these new discs... ON CD: Atmosphere’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That S**t Gold... Portishead’s Third... The Roots’ Rising Down... Carly Simon’s This Kind of Love... 65 Days of Static’s The Distant and Mechanized Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties...and Madonna’s Hard Candy... ON DVD: John Lennon: Classic Album - The Plastic Ono Band... Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine... Farm Aid: 20th Anniversary... and Ian Gillan Live in Anaheim... 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
