Sinead goes reggae

Ireland’s controversial modern rock diva Sinead O’Connor, who is reportedly hard at work on an album of reggae cover songs that is expected to hit stores later this summer, is scheduled to appear at the Fifth Annual Jammy Awards in New York on April 26, where she’ll sing with legendary reggae artist Burning Spear. Also appearing at the Jammy Awards this year will be Ryan Adams, Bruce Hornsby, The North Mississippi Allstars, and Disco Biscuits; The Jammy Awards were put together as an “alternative” to the mainstream awards shows, and to honor improvisational music, including pop, jazz, reggae, and gospel...

In other Irish news, this year’s Oxegen Festival is shaping up nicely, with a top-notch roster of talent set to snag your ticket money. The Bravery is set to perform, marking their first ever performance in Ireland, and The Tears and Super Furry Animals are scheduled to headline the New Bands tent. Also appearing at Oxegen this year are Bloc Party, Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age, Ian Brown, Kasabian, Foo Fighters, Keane, The Killers, The Streets, LCD Sound System, Doves, and Audioslave; the Oxegen Fest will take place at Punchestown Racecourse in Naas on July 9 and 10...

And, in other festival news, here’s one a little closer to home - Toronto, to be exact, where this year’s Edgefest has settled on most of their lineup for the summer’s premier concert event. Once again slated to be held at the Molson Amphitheatre, the festivities will provide music from the likes of Billy Talent, Good Charlotte, Boy, Jakalope, Coheed and Cambria, and The Tragically Hip, among others. There will also be a “Next Big Things” stage, that will feature the likes of The Reason, The Waking Eyes, Social Code, and The Junction, and an “Underground Operations” Stage that will include sets from Hostage Life, The Flatliners, Dead Letter Department, and Brat Attack. Road trip time - tickets are
on sale now for this July 1 event at ticketmaster.com...

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, along with singer Ronan Keating and actors Vanessa Redgrave and Pete Postlethwaite, took part in an all-night vigil held in London last weekend, of which the purpose was to demand fair trade for the world’s poor countries. Over 25,000 people participated in the event, which ended with a march to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s HQ - during the vigil, participants were entertained at Westminster Abbey by live solo sets from Yorke and Keating...

MINI BUZZ:
For those of you who missed Keane’s terrific show when they passed through Ann Arbor in February, here’s your chance to see them live again - they’re embarking on another set of U.S. dates, including stops at Detroit’s Fox Theatre (5/30) as well as in Minneapolis (5/17), Chicago (5/19), Indianapolis (5/25), and Toronto (5/28)...
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt has announced that he’ll team up with British Sea Power to play a one-off show in London on May 25...
Alanis Morissette’s acoustic summer tour, on which she’s slated to play an entirely acoustic version of her landmark Jagged Little Pill album, will include stops in Detroit (6/8), Minneapolis (6/10), Chicago (6/11), Nashville (6/21), Denver (7/5), and L.A. (7/13)...
Tommy Ramone, better known as the first Ramones drummer, is reportedly putting together a country-slash-bluegrass-slash-punk act called Uncle Monk...
Nearly the entire Australian leg - May 19 through June 8 - of Kylie Minogue’s current Showgirl tour has been sold out...
And Chicago Indie-poppers Missile have announced that they are headed up to Madison, Wisconsin to play a show at the wacky yet esteemed Slipper Club on April 29...

Slipping into an esteemed CD store near you this week are these new releases... ON CD: Ray Davies’ Return to Waterloo... Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas’ Something To Be... former Lone Justice singer Maria McKee’s Peddlin’ Dreams... Will Smith’s Lost and Found... Porcupine Tree’s Deadwing... and the John Williams soundtrack to Star Wars Episode III... ON DVD: Haack: King of Techno... Muse: Manic Depression... Magic Moments - The Best of ’50s Pop... and Inside Roxy Music: 1972-1974 A Critical
Review... 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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