They‘ve got the power, man

June 15, 2005

Powerman 5000, whose current (and ever-evolving) membership currently includes frontman Spider One, drummer Adrian Ost, bass player Siggy Siursen, and new guitarists Terry Corson and Johnny Rock, are both working on a new studio album and covering a series of live shows on the road this summer. The band hit Northern Michigan last week at Streeters’ Ground Zero in TC. May saw the band playing plenty of shows in the Pacific Northwest, while June and July will see them play the Midwest and East Coast, including stops in Detroit (6/11), Cambridge, MA (7/10), Norfolk, VA (7/13), and NYC (7/17). Last October, Powerman 5000 released a collection of B-sides and rarities called The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Vol.1 - no release date for the new studio album has been announced...
Death Cab For Cutie’s new documentary DVD, which follows the band on the road, is being released by Plexifilm and just premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 10. Titled Drive Well, Sleep Carefully - On the Road with Death Cab For Cutie, the DVD, entirely shot on 16mm film during Death Cab’s 2004 tour, features 13 live performances of songs and also includes interviews and some previously unreleased music; it’ll hit US stores on July 26...
Las Vegas alt-wave-rockers The Killers, who are in the middle of their spring tour, are also planning to continue their roadwork with a set of summer dates that will see the band hit a range of clubs and theater venues. So far, their summer tour dates include stops in Boston (6/7), Atlanta, GA (6/11), St. Paul, MN (8/9), Tulsa, OK (8/14), Houston, TX (8/19), and at Mt. Pleasant, Michigan’s Soaring Eagle Casino on July 23...
And former Blur member Graham Coxon is finishing up a new solo album, his follow up to his 2004 effort, Happiness in Magazines, and calls the new tunes “psycha-sentimental-adelic.” Produced by former Blur producer Stephen Street, tracks expected to make the cut on the album (which is still untitled) include “Just a State of Mind,” “You and I,” “Tell It Like It Is,” and “Don’t Believe Anything I Say.” Coxon’s disc is expected out this fall...

MINI BUZZ:
Speaking of Blur, Damon Albarn’s side project Gorillaz, whose newest album, Demon Days, is just out, are planning out how their cartoon selves can interpret their latest material in a live show format; they may do a “silhouette” theme much like the current ipod commercial that their song is part of - keep an eye out for tour dates, coming soon...
The opening act for the last leg of Sting’s current tour has been Sting’s son Joe Sumner’s band, Fiction Plane; Fiction Plane will be releasing a new EP, Bitter Forces and Lame Race Horses, later this summer...
OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” has officially been named as Britain’s Most Used Track of 2004...
Australia’s Splendour in the Grass Festival, which will feature the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Moby, Interpol, Finn Brothers, Bloc Party, Ryan Adams, and more, will take place on July 23 and 24 and is already nearly sold out...
Duran Duran are planning to get back into the studio next January, with plans to release a new disc early in the summer of 2006...
And congrats going out this week to Michigan’s own White Stripe Jack White, who reportedly married model Karen Elson (who appears in the Stripes’ new video for “Blue Orchid”) in Brazil last week...
New ON CD:
Coldplay’s much-anticipated X... The White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan... The Walkmen’s Bows + Arrows... songstress Pat Benetar’s Greatest Hits... and the Black Eyed Peas’ funky Monkey Business... ON DVD: Seal - Live In Paris... Paul McCartney’s Live in Red Square... INXS - What You Need - The Video Hits Collection... and The Eagles - Farewell 1 Tour - Live From Melbourne... 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!