Maddie collects all of her great hits

July 19, 2009

Maddie collects all of her great hits
Kristi Kates 7/20/09

Madonna’s currently working out the details for the last album she’ll record for Warner Bros. Records now that she’s transferred her deal to Live Nation. Her last WB set will be a greatest hits album, which is set to hit stores in September, and for which Maddie is reportedly planning to record some new music as well. Madonna’s already released two previous best-of sets - 1990’s The Immaculate Collection* and 2001’s GHV2: Greatest Hits Vol. 2, not to mention the ballads best-of Something to Remember - but with a career as extensive as Madonna’s, what’s one more...
Incubus were set to put together a best-of collection as well, as an obligation to their record company - a project that Incubus guitarist Michael Einzinger told Billboard the band “wasn’t excited” about - but now that they’ve put some work into the collection, it’s become not only an honor, according to Einzinger, but also the catalyst for an Incubus summer tour. The hits disc, titled Monuments and Melodies, is still awaiting an exact release date, but while fans wait for the album, they can catch Incubus on tour this month. Another benefit - the band is also likely to start writing songs for a brand new Incubus album once they get inspired by their road work...
Aussie American Idol runner-up Michael Johns - one of the perhaps half-dozen Idol competitors over the years that have a shot at credible indie-pop or indie-rock status - has completed his first post-Idol album, which includes songs penned by Johns, Dave Cobb, and British singer-songwriter James Morrison. To add to that potential indie cred, Johns has also signed a record deal with TRP Records, which is distributed by Downtown/Atlantic, home to Gnarls Barkley and indie-rockers Cold War Kids, among others; early listens to Johns’ new material indicate a sound more like James Blunt or Ray LaMontagne than the usual glossed-up Idol-composed radio pop. Johns’ Hold Back My Heart is in-stores now...

Modern soulster Raphael Saadiq is set to release his first-ever concert DVD, Raphael Saadiq: Live from the Artists Den in a couple of weeks; the original show was broadcast on PBS, and to Saadiq’s surprise, was seen and remembered by a great deal of viewers, which should bode well for his DVD sales. The 18-track show was filmed on December 3rd of last year during a show at the Harvard Club; portions of the show were aired on PBS’ Artists Den show, but the DVD is set to feature bonus clips, interview footage, and a few tracks not included in the TV broadcast...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Organizers are putting together a 40th anniversary celebration to honor the original Woodstock via a new website that will act as both a social concerts network and Woodstock scrapbook; the launch of the new site is set for... well, right about now, at www.woodstock.com...

MINI BUZZ:
Speaking of Madonna (which we did earlier, of course), she’s just confirmed September 1 as the last stop on her current world tour, and will perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, where her upcoming visit was recently front page news in the local media, since most major pop artists don’t play that part of the world...
The lineup keeps expanding for the 2009 San Diego Street Scene Festival, set for August 28th and 29th in downtown San Diego; this year’s bill so far includes The Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, Cake, The Dead Weather, Silversun Pickups, Devendra Banhart, Ra Ra Riot, Conor Oberst, and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings...
Dinosaur Jr.’s newest album, Farm, is just in stores, and the band has just scheduled a special performance for August 16th in NYC as part of the City’s Central Park Summerstage outdoor concert series...
Wheat are set to offer up a new album this month - their White Ink, Black Ink will be released on July 21st, complete with songs “My Warning Song,” “Everything Falls,” and “I Want Less”...
Old-school pop-rockers The Zombies, The Yardbirds, and Spencer Davis Group have teamed up for a series of North American tour dates this summer on what’s being called the “Rock Royalty” tour...
Nike has commissioned a new album from De La Soul as the fifth installment in Nike’s series of seamless albums made specifically for runners; the De La Soul set, titled Are You In?, follows similar albums by A-Trak, LCD Soundsystem, and Crystal Method...
And these albums/discs are new this week, too, whether you’re running, walking, or sitting still... ON CD: Black Eyed Peas’ The Lowdown... Daughtry’s Leave This Town... Time and Distance’s Gravity... and The Dead Weather’s Horehound... ON DVD: David Bowie’s VH1 Storytellers ... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

Questions, comments, rants, raves, suggestions on this column or your favorite musicians? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com