Modern Rock
More Goo on the wayThe Goo Goo Dolls are set to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band by - what else? Making more music - namely, their ninth album, which they’ll record in L.A. with producer Glen Ballard (DMB, Alanis, No Doubt). No word yet on the disc’s release date, but at least Goo bassist Robbie Takac will be staying busy while waiting for the recording sessions to start - he’s planning out a “Music Is Art” tour of high schools to raise awareness of and support of the arts in schools...
Yellowcard, who recently performed a cover of the Simple Minds song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” during the surprise reunion of the cast of the classic ‘80s movie The Breakfast Club at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, are getting back to basics with the recording of their latest album, which they began writing back in January of this year. After recovering from a huge world tour in support of their last album, Ocean Avenue, the band took some time off and then met back up in Los Angeles to polish up the tunes and start recording. The new Yellowcard disc is expected to be completed at the end of this summer, with the band also planning to hop back on the tour bus for a few club dates in September or October, followed by another full tour of the U.S. in January, 2006...
Singer-producer Ric Ocasek - who used to head up a band in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s called The Cars (“Let’s Go,” “Shake It Up,” and “Magic,” which can be heard in the upcoming big-screen movie Bewitched), is set to make another bid for the charts with his first solo album in eight years, which will be out this fall. Including such songs as “I’m Thinking,” “Don’t Lose Me,” and “In a Little Bit,” Ocasek has named the album Nexterday,” and will release the effort on Sanctuary Records; Ocasek signed with Sanctuary after serving as a senior VP of A&R at Elektra Records. Nexterday will hit stores on September 27...
Music festivals, in general, tend to wind down at the end of the summer, but if you’re willing to hop a plane to a chillier climate, you can catch another great event that’s not even due until October. The Iceland Airwaves Festival 2005 will take place in - you guessed it - Reykjavik, Iceland October 19 - 23. Now in its seventh year, the festival will feature a host of DJs - a hot commodity in the island nation - as well as bands The Fiery Furnaces, Leaves, Noise Conspiracy, Mitchell Brothers, Jose Gonzalez, and Icelandic natives Gus Gus, who actually originated the festival back in 1998. For tix, check out www.icelandairwaves.com, or www.icelandair.co.uk
MINI BUZZ:
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Singer-slash-actress Mandy Moore has not one, but two films coming up - John Turturro’s “Romance and Cigarettes” in mid-August, and Paul Weitz’ “American Dreamz,” in which she’ll co-star with Hugh Grant and Willem Dafoe...
Former Phish singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio has signed up to open The Rolling Stones special October 6 show in Charlottesville, Virginia...
Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace will release their latest album, Healthy in Paranoid Times, on August 30; the album will be released both as a conventional CD and as a DualDisc, which will feature an in-depth look at the making of the album...
This year’s Newport Folk Festival is set for August 4-7, with the likes of Bright Eyes, The Pixies, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James all scheduled to perform...
Butch Walker is set to hop on the tour bus once again, this time with Avril Lavigne and Gavin DeGraw for a tour that will start up on July 17 in Detroit...
And hopping into CD stores near you are this week’s new releases... ON CD: Dwight Yoakum’s Blame the Vain... Rick Springfield’s The Day After Yesterday... Son Volt’s Okemah and the Melody of Riot... Carly Simon’s Moonlight Serenade... Frank Black’s Honeycomb... and The Hollies’ Air That I Breathe box set... ON DVD: the reissue of Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Live... Chris DeBurgh’s Live in Concert: The Road to Freedom... Amp Video Archive For the Ages - Vol. 1... and Mayor of the Sunset Strip, which tells the story of influential and quirky L.A. DJ Rodney Bingenheimer... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.
Questions, comments, rants, raves about this column or your fave musicians? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com!
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