Modern Rock: Twilight Sad return with sophmore set

Sept. 20, 2009

Modern Rock
Kristi Kates 9/21/09
Twilight Sad Return With Sophomore Set
The Twilight Sad are releasing their much-anticipated sophomore album this week - “Forget the Night Ahead” will hit stores on Tuesday, the “much darker” set having been produced by guitarist Andy MacFarlane with the assistance of Delgado’s Paul Savage. The album was recorded at the legendary Chem19 Studios, and will include tracks “Reflection of the Television,” “Made to Disappear,” “That Birthday Present,” “Scissors,” and “The Room”...
Singer-songwriter-Police-frontman Sting is set to return this fall with a new solo album, which will be his first since 2006. The new set, which Sting himself announced on his official website, will be inspired by what Sting calls his favorite season - winter - and will feature two retooled original songs plus several carols and traditional songs from England, following a sort of holiday theme. Dubbed If On a Winter’s Night..., the set will hit stores on October 27. As for The Police, we know that you wanna know what’s going on, but unfortunately there hasn’t even been a murmur of any potential future live dates since the band wrapped their reunion tour late last year...
Tokyo Police Club are on the way back, too - they spent part of their summer busily writing songs for the follow-up to last year’s Elephant Shell album, and are probably in the studio recording as you read this. If you’ve seen TPC in concert lately, you might’ve already heard a trio of the new tunes - they’ve been playing “End of a Spark,” “Favorite Color,” and “Breakneck Speed” live - but the rest of the new songs are pretty much a mystery, except for the band saying that this record is going to be “pretty different” from their last set...
And modern folksters The Dodos have nearly completed work on their latest album, which they’re recording with producer Phil Ek (The Shins, Fleet Foxes) at Seattle’s Bear Creek Studio and which is slated for a fall release. The biggest thing about the new songs, according to the band, is an electric vibraphone - a new instrument for the group. While they’re waiting for the album to hit stores, they’re continuing on with their busy schedule of tour dates, which will see them making various stops across England and Western Europe throughout September, with a full North American tour on the way this month...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
As for Ash, they’ll be releasing their next set of songs not on an album, but in a more unusual way - The A to Z Singles Collection will be released one single at a time, every two weeks, beginning this month. The band will begin, ‘natch, with “A,” and will continue through to “Z” in September, 2010. The tracks will be available on CD, vinyl, and as downloads you can buy via a subscription series on Ash’s website, www.ash-official.com...

MINI BUZZ:
Bright Eyes Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, songwriter M. Ward, and guitarist/producer Mike Mogis have teamed up to form a new music collective called The Monsters of Folk; their eponymous debut disc will hit stores on September 22...
Castanets have a new experimental country-rock set on the way on September 22, too - they’ve named their latest collection of tunes Texas Rose, the Thaw, and the Beasts...
Psychedelic-Tropicalia popsters Os Mutantes have just signed a new deal with Anti Records, with their new album - their first in 25 years - due out this week...
Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton is releasing an album of his own this week - namely his solo set, Central Market, which will arrive courtesy of Warp Records...
Metal veteran Ozzy Osbourne has completed his memoir, I Am Ozzy, and the book will be in stores on October 1...
The new White Stripes tour documentary that chronicles their 2007 Canadian tour has been dubbed White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights, and will debut at this week’s Toronto International Film Festival...
And under the, er, fluorescent lights of your local multi media store are this week’s new releases... ON CD: Big Star’s box set Keep An Eye on the Sky... Jay-Z’s Blueprint III... The Dodos’ new set... and Sparklehorse’s In the Fishtank... ON DVD: Genesis Live 1973-2007... and Duran Duran’s Live at the Hammersmith ‘82 ... 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