March 19, 2024

WB covers album features black Keys, Sandler, Branch

March 1, 2009
Covered, A Revolution in Sound: Warner Bros. Records is the wordy title of a new covers CD from - who else? - Warner Brothers Records, on which a plethora of Warner musicians each cover a classic song from the label’s back catalog. Sharp-eared music fans may have already heard one of the tracks from the set, namely Adam Sandler’s cover of Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane,” which he performed recently on David Letterman’s Late Show. Also on the tracklisting for Covered... are The Used, who cover Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House”; Flaming Lips, who cover Madonna’s “Borderline”; Michelle Branch, who does her take on Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You”; and James Otto, who interprets Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic.” The album hits stores this week...
Speaking of classics, the legendary Stevie Wonder was honored last week as this year’s recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. One of Wonder’s fans - namely our own President Barack Obama - presented the prize to Wonder, who was additionally honored by performances from the likes of Tony Bennett, will.i.am, and others. The event can be viewed as a PBS broadcast. Congrats, Stevie...
Other congrats are going out to this year’s Brit Award winners, of which singer Duffy was the top honoree. Duffy snagged three Brit trophies at last week’s ceremonies for Best British Female, British Breakthrough Act, and Best British Album, beating the likes of Adele, Estelle, M.I.A., and Beth Rowley in the British Female category. Other winners at the Brits included Kings of Leon (Best International Group, Best International Album), Girls Aloud (Best British Single, which was decided by mobile phone votes), and Elbow, who beat Coldplay in the Best British Group category...
U2 are celebrating the release of their newest album, No Line on the Horizon, with a surprise five-nights-in-a-row set of performances on The Late Show with David Letterman. U2 have already begun promo duties for the new disc - they recently played the album’s first single, “Get On Your Boots,” at both the Grammys and the aforementioned Brit Awards - but the five-night appearance on Letterman is an unusual one. U2 will be performing on the Letterman show March 2 through the 6...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
The White Stripes - yes, both Jack and Meg White - performed together in NYC last week for the first time since 2007 when they appeared on Conan O’Brien’s talk show as a favor to O’Brien, whose final TV appearance as the NBC late night host was last Friday (O’Brien is moving on to Los Angeles to take over Jay Leno’s spot on The Tonight Show.) The pair played an understated version of their classic tune, “We’re Going to be Friends,” with, strangely, Meg on guitar as well as Jack. Check out a vid of the performance at www.nme.com/news/the-white-stripes/42947...

MINI BUZZ:
A.R. Rahman won two Academy Awards last week for his musical work on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack; Rahman won both Best Original Score and Best Song for the tune Jai Ho...
Mexico City’s Indie-o’-Fest is set to run through March 7 this year, with performances from Clinic, Los Campesinos, and No Age...
Australian avant-popsters Architecture in Helsinki have just released their first single in 18 months; “That Beep” is available now via Polyvinyl Records...
Kelly Clarkson has wrapped work on her fourth album, and has titled it “All I Ever Wanted”; the set is due out on March 17 on RCA Records...
Indie-rockers Takka Takka and Canadian band Sister Suvi will team up for a two-week tour this upcoming March; they’ll be playing shows in NYC (3/15), Austin, TX (3/19-21), Chicago (3/26), Pontiac, MI (3/27), and Toronto (3/28) ...
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel showed up unexpectedly at a surprise reunion show last week at NYC’s Beacon Theater, which was reopening after a seven-month renovation; Garfunkel flew in from an earlier Key Largo performance, and the duo played several songs together during the encore of Simon’s already-scheduled show...
And playing their own tunes these week are the musicians offering up these new releases... ON CD: Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone... Jesse Harris’ Watching the Sky... Pete Doherty’s latest (title TBA)... Justin Townes Earle’s Midnight at the Movies... Burn Halo’s Burn Halo... and U2’s No Line on the Horizon ON DVD: U2’s No Line on the Horizon: Deluxe Box Edition... Ned’s Atomic Dustbin: Lunatic Magnets... and Various Artists’ Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia ... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.
Questions, comments, rants, raves, suggestions on this column? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com

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