Hip Hop honors, Celebrate De La Soul, Cypress Hill

Sept. 14, 2008

VH1’s Hip Hop Honors show is now set to air on October 7, with comedian/actor host Tracy Morgan, and will recognize (appropriately) five acts at this year’s fifth annual ceremony. Honored for their “significant contributions to hip hop culture, and for helping to elevate hip hop into a truly global phenomenon” will be De La Soul, Too $hort, Slick Rick, Naughty by Nature, and Cypress Hill; fans can also check online through VH1 for a dedicated Hip Hop Honors website, on the way soon...
In an unusual meeting of music and food, the National Cooperative Grocers Association is set to host “Co-ops Rock!” in Seattle to benefit the Northcountry Cooperative Develop Fund Foundation’s Cooperative Disaster Relief Fund, proceeds of which will help out farmers in Iowa, Wisconsin, and other states who were affected this summer by flooding. In addition to presentations and videos by organic farmers, live concert performances on-site at the Moore Theater will take place by indie-rockers The National and Portland, Oregon post-rock trio Menomena...
Hip-hopsters The Roots have announced a headlining tour, on which they’ll be teamed up with opening acts Gym Class Heroes and Estelle. The tour will take the band throughout Europe for a plethora of festival dates before bringing them back stateside for the SOCO Music Experience; additional U.S. dates will include stops in Atlanta (10/6), Austin, TX (10/12), Phoenix, AZ (10/14), Las Vegas (10/19), Chicago (10/24), and Detroit (10/25)...
David Gilmour’s upcoming concert set, which was originally intended to be a live album covering the extent of his recent tour, has ended up being more of a focused album - focused, specifically, on Gilmour’s set in the Polish city of Gdansk. The night Gilmour played there - a night that coincidentally also marked the 26th anniversary of the founding of the Solidarity Trade Union, saw the musician accompanied by a 40-piece string section from the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony, conducted by the same conductor who had done the orchestral arrangements on Gilmour’s latest solo album, On An Island. After trying to select songs from different nights on the tour, it became apparant that most of the magic had happened in Gdansk, so Live in Gdansk the album became, and is now due out on September 16 in both CD and DVD versions...


MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Tired of those blank spots on your iTunes? Don’t feel like scanning in all those missing album covers? Then check out www.itunescovers.com online - they’ll find the covers for you and all you have to do is drag n’ drop ‘em into iTunes. It’s an easy and cool way to make your iTunes look all organized again...
MINI BUZZ:
Singer-songwriter Sebastien Grainger, who previously worked in dance-punk bands, is changing his tune to become a solo artist, releasing the more rockin’ set Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains on Saddle Creek Records this upcoming October...
Smiths frontman Morrissey’s next album, previously due in September, has now been pushed back to 2009; fans will be able to snag his Years of Refusal early next year...
Psychedelic rockers Crystal Stilts have a new album on the way, too - their Alight of Night will hit stores on October 28, complete with tracks “Departure,” “The Dazzled,” and “Bright Night”...
Forward, Russia have announced that they’ll be taking a “lengthy break”, and have already cancelled a series of previously booked gigs set to take place this fall; a final show at the Brainwash Festival in Leeds, England, on October 17 is the only remaining live date left for the band...
Brooklyn indie-rockers Takka Takka, fresh off a lineup of U.S. and UK performances and a successful stop at SXSW, have released their sophomore album, Migration...
And retro-’80s singer Chris de Burgh, still popular in the Middle East, is set to perform live in Tehran, Iran in late November; he’ll play alongside an Iranian pop band during what will be the first pop concert in the country in nearly 30 years...
Playing soon on a CD/DVD player near you (provided you purchase them, of course) are this week’s new releases... ON CD: The Dark Romantics’ Heartbreaker... Joan Baez’ Day After Tomorrow... Calexico’s Carried to Dust... Robin Thicke’s Something Else... Okkervil River’s The Stand Ins... and Metallica’s cheery Death Magnetic... ON DVD: Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman..., Soundstage Presents: Sheryl Crow Live... Willie Nelson’s The Unforeseen ... and Santana - Broadcasting Live... 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