The Roots return with brand new album

May 23, 2010

The Roots Return With Brand New Album
The Roots new album is slated to hit stores in June - June 8, to be exact. The latest studio effort from the band, dubbed How I Got Over, will be the first since their 2008 set, Rising Down. In addition to How I Got Over and their current gig as house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Roots have also started tracking with Booker T of Booker T and the MGs for another new album, this one expected to feature a plethora of guest vocalists in addition to The Roots’ contributions...
After what is slated to be yet another big-time touring summer for Dave Matthews Band - who are set to headline both Bonnaroo and the Mile High Festival in Denver, Colorado, among other stops - the busy musicians have announced that they’ll take a break from the road in 2011. This will mark 20 years of non-stop touring that has solidified them as one of the most successful touring bands in musical history, during which they’ve sold an impressive over 11,000,000 tickets between the years 2000 and 2009 - and this doesn’t even count DMB’s festival appearances or Dave Matthews’ solo shows...
The Black Keys, perhaps hoping that they can live up to the touring record of DMB someday, have announced their own North American live dates for this summer in support of their newest album, which they’ve dubbed Brothers. The Black Keys dates will take them through Minneapolis (6/8), Cleveland (7/24), Washington DC (7/26), Toronto (8/3), Chicago (8/6, at the Lollapalooza fest), Detroit’s Fillmore on August 14, and Indianapolis (9/3) before wrapping the trek with a performance in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 10...
And, in this week’s wacky news, the Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed and his wife, experimental musician Laurie Anderson, will be staging a special concert in Sydney, Australia, on June 5 as part of the month-long Vivid Live Festival, which will also feature shows from Rickie Lee Jones and Metric. Nothing unusual there so far, right? Oh, just wait. This particular Reed/Anderson concert - dubbed “Music for Dogs” - won’t be for humans; the show will be performed in such high frequencies that only dogs will be able to hear it, in order to “treat (our) canine friends to a glorious cacophony of sound.” The show itself will also be only 20 minutes long, “due to the canine audience’s short attention span”...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Though not originally about a Volkswagen bus, The Who’s song “Magic Bus” has become an anthem of sorts for VW bus owners and fans of the band alike. Now, a “real” The Who magic bus - as donated by Volkswagen - is being auctioned by car auction specialists Coys Sale in England, so place your bids now (if you can afford the big bucks - and hurry, the auction ends Sunday) or just view the pics and proceedings at www.pistonheads.com/sales/1701732.htm...

MINI BUZZ:
Canadian psychedelic-rockers Caribou are hitting the road in support of their newest album; their tour stops will include Winnipeg, Manitoba (6/3), Minneapolis (6/4), and Cleveland (6/8)...
Classic rocker Peter Frampton has a new album just out (Thank You Mr. Churchill) and will be promoting that new set with a tour set to kick off on June 16 in Connecticut; other stops on Frampton’s tour will include Pennsylvania, Las Vegas (of course), Ohio, and L.A....
Former Razorlight member Andy Burrow has begun playing live shows with his new solo-project band, I Am Arrows; the band’s eponymous debut disc will hit stores this summer...
Jack White has served as producer on the debut album from Karen Elson - who also happens to be his wife - Elson’s The Ghost Who Walks will be released later this year on XL Recordings...
Jill Scott has teamed up with Maxwell for a co-headlining arena tour that starts this week and will wrap the end of June at Madison Square Garden in New York...
In other Jill Scott news, the soul/R&B singer will also release her newest album, The Light of the Sun, later this summer...

ON CD: Nelly Furtado’s Lifestyle... Stone Temple Pilots’ Stone Temple Pilots... and The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, Standard, Deluxe, and Super Deluxe Editions... 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