Steven Colbert plans a hipster holiday

Oct. 19, 2008

Stephen Colbert Plans Hipster Holiday
Witty Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert - subject, of course, of the song “Stephen, Stephen” by indie-rockers Apples in Stereo - is upping his hip quotient even more by putting together his very own Colbert’s Christmas Special, complete with songs written by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger. Appearing on the show, among others, will be the John Legend, Feist and Elvis Costello, the latter of whose song “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding” is rumored to be the TV show’s finale in sing-a-long form. The show will air on Comedy Central, November 23, with a DVD release two days later. proceeds will benefit the hunger-fighting organization, Feeding America...
Another charity based event, the 2008 Bridge School Benefit will be held this year October 25 and 26 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. The fest, co-founded by Neil Young to benefit the Bridge School, will feature performances from Wilco, Jack Johnson, Death Cab For Cutie and Norah Jones on day one. all of the above, minus Jones, plus Josh Groban and Smashing Pumpkins will perform on day two. This year’s show happens to fall in the midst of Young’s own fall North American tour, on which he brings along Death Cab and Wilco as opening acts...
Yet another sign of MTV’s rapidly - growing irreverance in an era of music that leans less on record companies and more on indie efforts, the MTV countdown/interview/gossip show, Total Request Live is set to close its stage after 10 years on the air. The network claims that the show “isn’t ending for good,” but given the constant grumblings of viewers that the “M” in MTV no longer stands for music, it seems their focus has changed to other kinds of reality programming. The final Total Request Live show will air in a two-hour special on an upcoming Saturday afternoon in November this year. TRL, as it’s known, first debuted in September, 1998 and helped promote such acts as N’Sync and The Backstreet Boys...
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are working on their latest studio album, which they tentatively have planned for release next spring. Serving as a follow up to the four-song political benefit, EP, that they released a few weeks ago, the new set has already mostly been written, according to Leo, and the band has even finished recording some of the songs. In the meantime, fans can snag the aforementioned Rapid Response EP, which Leo and crew put together as a response to the bullying of protestors that occurred at the recent Republican National Convention. EP track “Mourning in America” is already slated for inclusion on the new full-length album. Proceeds from the sales of the EP will be split between Minneapolis’ Food Not Bombs group and Democracy Now!...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Sloan has a new song out with pal band, The Country French that you can hear for free on Sloan’s website. the song, “Push Pins,” was recorded in Toronto in September, and you’ll even get a free virtual CD sleeve with that song download.

MINI BUZZ:
Ryan Adams and The Cardinals will drop a new album next week via Lost Highway Records; look for Cardinology in stores October 28...
Foo Fighters are just wrapping up a full year’s worth of touring, and have decided to take a break from the road for a while; in the meantime, Foo fans can check out Foo guitarist Chris Shiflett’s album with his other project-band, Jackson United...
The All-American Rejects will be releasing their first studio album in three years in November; look for When the World Comes Down in-stores November 18on Interscope Records...
And, still more new album news this week, as Wilco have announced they’ll begin recording the follow-up to their 2007 set, Sky Blue Sky this week; the new Wilco record is planned for a spring release date...
U2’s Bono and The Edge have contributed to what will be retro-crooner Tom Jones’ first CD release in 15 years. Jones’ 24 Hours will arrive on November 12, with Jones having written over half of the album himself...
Castanets have a new album on the way in October; look for the project’s City of Refuge in stores soon, complete with overdubs from Sufjan Stevens and Souled American guitarist Scott Tuma...
And, out right now are these discs for you to peruse... ON CD: Electric Six’s Flashy... Social Code’s He Said, She Said... Queen and Paul Rodgers’ The Cosmos Rocks... Hospital Ships’ Ramona... and Stereophonics’ U.S. releases of Word Gets Around and J.E.E.P. (Just Enough Education to Perform)... ON DVD: Genesis 1970-1975... and Cyndi Lauper - Live at Last ... 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