Minogue tours U.S., seeks movie roles

June 7, 2009

Minogue Tours U.S.,
Seeks Movie Roles
Kristi Kates 6/8/09

Kylie Minogue is spending much of her summer prepping for her first North American tour, which kicks off in California on September 30 and will take the Aussie singer to Chicago, Toronto, New York and Las Vegas, among other stops. Minogue, who has also begun work on her 11th studio album, is pondering changing up her musical style a little, and is also exploring ways to pursue more film roles, a process that she says is a “dream” for her. Stateside recognition has so far mostly eluded Minogue, in spite of her stardom in Australia, Britain, Europe, and Asia (where she’s simply known as “Kylie”), but she says that although she’s looking forward to seeing her U.S. fans, she’s perfectly happy with her success to date...
Kanye West’s empire still isn’t big enough for his ego yet, apparantly; the rapper, whose Nike-collaborated sneaker line, “Air Yeezys,” recently sold out, is expanding his brand even more. West will be working with GURU Beverages on a development project to put out a new drink “inspired by his own personal artistic vision” - the drink is expected to hit stores later this year - and he’s also just signed an agreement with Parlux Fragrances to put out his own branded colognes and perfumes. Guess it’s only a matter of time before we see if West makes any forays into presliced lunchmeats, hair products, or dishwashing detergents...
Rockers Aerosmith are teaming up with their Guitar Hero sponsors to offer fans the chance to be the opening act on their massive Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Presents Aerosmith tour. And you don’t even have to be a musician to win - you simply have to prove your skills on - what else? - Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Two victorious videogamers will perform on stage prior to Aerosmith’s opening act, playing the game and songs in front of huge audiences; one grand prize winner will be chosen from Aerosmith’s YouTube channel (to enter, you have to upload a video of yourself); and others will win via participating local radio stations. Winners also receive two tix to the show, a gaming prize package, and a pre-show meet n’ greet with members of Aerosmith themselves...
And in other music-videogame news, Activision is releasing three new music-based games this year - Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and DJ Hero, for which the controller will be a single turntable device with colored buttons similar to the fret buttons on the guitar controller for the Guitar Hero games. Band Hero obviously focuses on a band format (and will also feature mostly Top 40 chart hits), while Guitar Hero 5 continues the Guitar Hero legacy, but with the ability to change up band members, instruments and difficulty levels while the game is in-progress. Also expected from Activision is Guitar Hero: Van Halen - although details as far as which band members will appear as avatars (and who’s gonna care) are still sketchy...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
U2 have placed their latest music video, for their single “Magnificent,” onto their website for premiere viewing; the clip utilizes the city of Fez, Morocco (where the band spent some time recording tracks for their latest album, No Line on the Horizon) for the video, which can be seen now at
http://www.u2.com/stream/article/display/id/4692...

MINI BUZZ:
Ex-Detroiter and White Stripe Jack White has joined Emmylou Harris to be part of the 46-member Music Business Council in Nashville, which gives advice to Nashville’s mayor in order to contribute ideas and help preserve Nashville’s name as “Music City”...
R&B singer Maxwell is returning with his long-delayed fourth album, BLACKsummer’snight, which will be in-stores on July 7th on Columbia Records...
Caribou’s Dan Snaith has been hard at work on the follow-up to his 2008 set, Andorra, but will still take a few breaks this summer to play a few band and DJ sets...
Parachute recently snagged the #1 position on the iTunes album chart with their debut disc, Losing Sleep, which boasts John Fields, Chris Keup, and Dan Wilson among its producers...
And this year’s Bonnaroo Festival is set for next weekend in Manchester, Tennesse, with sets on the way from Phish, Snoop Dogg, Ben Harper, and consecutive sets from Nine Inch Nails and Bruce Springsteen..
And believe it or not, they’re back with amps poised at 11 - Spinal Tap is releasing a new album on June 15th; dubbed Back from the Dead, the set will feature cameos from Steve Vai, Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and John Mayer, and will include ST’s infamous original “Hell Hole” as well as a reggae version of “(Listen to the) Flower People,” and a track simply called “Jazz Odyssey”...
Elsewhere (and presumably less humorously) are the rest of this week’s new releases... ON CD: Eels’ Hombre Lobo... Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D.... Rhett Miller’s Rhett Miller... and The Dead Weather’s (Jack White) Horehound... ON DVD: Porcupine Tree’s Arriving Somewhere... and 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol Screen Tests... 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