Peas inspire with music video academies

May 30, 2011

Peas Inspire With Music-Video Academies
The Black Eyed Peas are utilizing their charity, the Peapod Foundation, to open a music school in New York City to teach youth music and video production. They’ve teamed up with the Adobe Foundation to make their school plans happen, with the New York academy set to begin offering classes this July. The Peas, Peapod, and Adobe have already opened up several of their “Youth Voices” academies in California…
The 3rd Annual Rock on the Range Canada Fest has solidified a good chunk of their lineup so far, and in addition to Evanescence (in their first live show of 2011), the roster will include sets from Anberlin, Volbeat, Hinder, and Sum 41, among others. The event, which will include 14 bands on two stages, will take place on Saturday, August 20 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with tix already on sale at www.mtsrockontherange.ca…
A live album recorded by Neil Young and The International Harvesters back in the mid-’80s has been dug up and will hit stores in just a couple of weeks (June 14, to be exact.) The live tracks were recorded while Young and crew were on a U.S. tour in 1984 and 1985, and the album itself will arrive both on CD and as a limited-edition vinyl album, 12 tracks in all. “Grey Riders” will be the first tune to hit radio; the rest will be released on June 7…
Al Yankovic, more popularly known as “Weird Al,” is releasing a new album, Alpocalypse, late this June on Jive Records, with the tracklisting set to include one of Al’s parodies, this one of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” which he’s retitled and revamped as “Perform This Way.” Al was put through the music biz wringer to get the song included on his album, though; he reportedly was told he had to send a complete version of the song for approval, so he recorded it and was then told a big fat “no” by Gaga’s people. Once Al dropped the song from his album plans and decided to release it online for free, Gaga herself listened to the song and told Al to go ahead and make it his album’s first single; Al’s done just that, and earmarked all proceeds for the song to go to the Human Rights Campaign…

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
‘80s rockers The Cult, often hailed as being one of the dark-pop groundbreakers of their day, have signed a new record deal with Cooking Vinyl, and are recording a new album as you read this with producer Chris Goss. Get all the details at www.thecult.us…

MINI MODERN BUZZ:
Michelle Branch and Parachute will both be touring this summer as special guests of the Goo Goo Dolls, whose American tour will run through late August…
Dave Matthews Band are booking their own DMB Caravan of summer festival events, with the first stop being Atlantic City, NJ (June 24-26), and the second in Chicago (July 8-10)…
Phish have extended their summer tour dates, too, which will now include the band’s first-ever appearance at the famed Hollywood Bowl…
Indie-comedy “band” The Lonely Island (spawned via Saturday Night Live) are releasing their second album, Turtleneck and Chain, this month, which will feature guest spots from Justin Timberlake, Beck, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Michael Bolton (huh?) and Rihanna…
Alicia Keys will release a 10th anniversary edition of her debut album, Songs in A Minor, on June 28, complete with a plethora of previously unreleased bonus material…
Taking Back Sunday have a new album on the way, too - their eponymous set on Warner Brothers records will hit stores on June 28…

And hitting stores this week are these new album releases… Death Cab for Cutie’s Codes and Keys… Art Brut’s Brilliant! Tragic… Friendly Fires’ Pala… Thurston Moore’s Demolished Thoughts… and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

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