How to Have a Modern Rockin’ Halloween
With Halloween right around the corner, music fans as well as “regular” folk are pondering just what to be for this year’s festivities. It’s Modern Rock to the rescue - how can you lose with any of the great looks put forth by this year’s colorful crop of performers? The frontrunner, of course, is Lady Gaga - choose any one of her bordering-on-insane combos (bubbles, orbits, or, uh, meat, anyone?) and pop fans will have no problem knowing who you are. But popular rockin’ costumes this year can also be had by approximating the looks of Kanye West (just think shutter shades), Justin Bieber (you’ll need a blow-dried wig), Devo (one word: flowerpot), the modern-punk sensibilities of Green Day, or the country-pop-glam of Carrie Underwood. And, hey, if you can sing like any of ‘em, all the better...
Speaking of great singers, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has been working away at his side project, Tired Pony, which has turned into a supergroup of sorts. The band/project’s debut album, The Place We Ran From, out just last month, features songs that were all recorded in first or second takes, with Snow Patrol/Bloc Party producer Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee at the helm. And on those songs are contributions from the likes of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Editors singer Tom Smith, Belle and Sebastian drummer Richard Colburn, and Snow Patrol collaborators Troy Stewart and Iain Archer; the band’s first live show took place in London this past July, but we’re still awaiting news of any American concert dates other than their October 1 one-off show in NY...
Speaking of Snow Patrol, they’re among the performers who will appear on an upcoming tribute album for the late John Martyn, along with Beck, Devandra Banhart, Blackships, Vetiver, and David Gray. Martyn, who passed away in 2009, was an accomplished folk-rock/folk-jazz singer-songwriter and guitarist who crafted many critically-acclaimed albums and also won the favor of musical colleagues from Phil Collins to Eric Clapton to Keane...
And in other tribute album news, the previously-mentioned tribute set in honor of The Kinks is now set for release on November 1 on Universal Records, with The Kinks very own Ray Davies appearing on every track of the set in collaboration with a wide variety of musicians. Several retroactive tunes will also make the tracklist. The album, titled See My Friends, will include Kinks tunes “Waterlook Sunset” (featuring Jackson Browne), the title track (featuring Spoon), “Tired of Waiting” (with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody), and “All Day and All of the Night” (with Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan)...
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
A new online literary magazine called Five Dials is publishing a series of short stories, poetry, and anecdotes by the likes of Iggy Pop, British Sea Power, Ryan Adams, and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. The mag, which is available as a PDF file, has released the special “Festival Issue” edition for free, so go snag your copy at fivedials.com...
MINI BUZZ:
Boomtown Rats singer/Live Aid head honcho Bob Geldof will be having a film made about his journey to put Live Aid together; the film, currently being shot in Ireland, will feature Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson as Geldof...
The Smiths/The Cribs guitarist Johnny Marr recently wrote and recorded what will be the theme song for the UK’s Channel 4 sitcom The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret...
The Bees will release their fourth album, Every Step’s a Yes, later this year; the Isle of Wight band will precede the set with a new single dubbed “I Really Need Love”...
HBO’s Bruce Springsteen documentary, The Promise: The Making of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,’” recently debuted on the cable channel and is running now...
London folk-rock band Mumford and Sons have just embarked on a North American tour that will include stops in Minneapolis (10/29), Chicago (10/31), Atlanta GA (11/7), Philly (11/9), and Toronto (11/13)... And is it just us, or is it a little bit of a sad statement on the status of the current music scene that the cast of the TV show Glee - who, while talented, mostly perform cover versions of other peoples’ songs - have beaten The Beatles’ record for most appearances in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart by a non-solo act?...
This week’s new CD releases are all set to join your collection, most of them with Original Music Included... ON CD: Darius Rucker’s Charleston SC 1966... Deluka’s You Are the Night... Bryan Ferry’s Olympia... Athlete’s Singles 01-10... and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now... 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
With Halloween right around the corner, music fans as well as “regular” folk are pondering just what to be for this year’s festivities. It’s Modern Rock to the rescue - how can you lose with any of the great looks put forth by this year’s colorful crop of performers? The frontrunner, of course, is Lady Gaga - choose any one of her bordering-on-insane combos (bubbles, orbits, or, uh, meat, anyone?) and pop fans will have no problem knowing who you are. But popular rockin’ costumes this year can also be had by approximating the looks of Kanye West (just think shutter shades), Justin Bieber (you’ll need a blow-dried wig), Devo (one word: flowerpot), the modern-punk sensibilities of Green Day, or the country-pop-glam of Carrie Underwood. And, hey, if you can sing like any of ‘em, all the better...
Speaking of great singers, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has been working away at his side project, Tired Pony, which has turned into a supergroup of sorts. The band/project’s debut album, The Place We Ran From, out just last month, features songs that were all recorded in first or second takes, with Snow Patrol/Bloc Party producer Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee at the helm. And on those songs are contributions from the likes of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Editors singer Tom Smith, Belle and Sebastian drummer Richard Colburn, and Snow Patrol collaborators Troy Stewart and Iain Archer; the band’s first live show took place in London this past July, but we’re still awaiting news of any American concert dates other than their October 1 one-off show in NY...
Speaking of Snow Patrol, they’re among the performers who will appear on an upcoming tribute album for the late John Martyn, along with Beck, Devandra Banhart, Blackships, Vetiver, and David Gray. Martyn, who passed away in 2009, was an accomplished folk-rock/folk-jazz singer-songwriter and guitarist who crafted many critically-acclaimed albums and also won the favor of musical colleagues from Phil Collins to Eric Clapton to Keane...
And in other tribute album news, the previously-mentioned tribute set in honor of The Kinks is now set for release on November 1 on Universal Records, with The Kinks very own Ray Davies appearing on every track of the set in collaboration with a wide variety of musicians. Several retroactive tunes will also make the tracklist. The album, titled See My Friends, will include Kinks tunes “Waterlook Sunset” (featuring Jackson Browne), the title track (featuring Spoon), “Tired of Waiting” (with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody), and “All Day and All of the Night” (with Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan)...
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
A new online literary magazine called Five Dials is publishing a series of short stories, poetry, and anecdotes by the likes of Iggy Pop, British Sea Power, Ryan Adams, and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. The mag, which is available as a PDF file, has released the special “Festival Issue” edition for free, so go snag your copy at fivedials.com...
MINI BUZZ:
Boomtown Rats singer/Live Aid head honcho Bob Geldof will be having a film made about his journey to put Live Aid together; the film, currently being shot in Ireland, will feature Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson as Geldof...
The Smiths/The Cribs guitarist Johnny Marr recently wrote and recorded what will be the theme song for the UK’s Channel 4 sitcom The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret...
The Bees will release their fourth album, Every Step’s a Yes, later this year; the Isle of Wight band will precede the set with a new single dubbed “I Really Need Love”...
HBO’s Bruce Springsteen documentary, The Promise: The Making of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,’” recently debuted on the cable channel and is running now...
London folk-rock band Mumford and Sons have just embarked on a North American tour that will include stops in Minneapolis (10/29), Chicago (10/31), Atlanta GA (11/7), Philly (11/9), and Toronto (11/13)... And is it just us, or is it a little bit of a sad statement on the status of the current music scene that the cast of the TV show Glee - who, while talented, mostly perform cover versions of other peoples’ songs - have beaten The Beatles’ record for most appearances in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart by a non-solo act?...
This week’s new CD releases are all set to join your collection, most of them with Original Music Included... ON CD: Darius Rucker’s Charleston SC 1966... Deluka’s You Are the Night... Bryan Ferry’s Olympia... Athlete’s Singles 01-10... and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now... 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