Modern Rock

Sept. 29, 2004

Those of you counting the days until Beck’s new album hits stores on October 26 will have to add a few more waiting days to your abacus - with the disc itself (along with the artwork, videos, and remixes - yup, everything’s behind schedule) not ready for release, Beck has pushed back the drop date for the album until 2005. Several of the tracks have been completed (although not enough for the full album), and advance info shows that the singer’s latest recollects his work on his earlier albums Odelay and Mutations, combining catchy beats with the more melodic and acoustic sounds of his 1998 effort. The first single, once the album is finally ready to rock, is likely to be “E-Pro,” a hip-hop charmer with a “na-na-na” chorus. Other songs expected to be included in the final edit are “Gospel,” “Brazilica,” “Guero,” “Earthquake Weather” (complete with Dust Brothers production), and several other tunes that are only tentatively-titled as of press time; The White Stripes’ Jack White even makes an appearance, although that song is untitled so far, as well...

Beverly Hills 90210’s modern counterpart, Fox TV’s The O.C., will kick off the show’s second season on November 4, and will accompany the show’s return with two more volumes of the show’s musical soundtrack series. On October 26, Music From The O.C.: Mix 2 hits stores, complete with exclusive tracks from Nada Surf and Jem and additional tunes from Interpol, Keane, The Eels, Super Furry Animals, The Thrills, Johnathan Rice, and Beulah. The second of the two discs, which has been dubbed Music From The O.C.: Mix 3: Have A Very Merry Chrismukkah (taking its name from the half-Christian, half-Jewish pseudo-holiday that is celebrated on the show), will include such songs as Low’s “Just Like Christmas” and Ron Sexsmith’s “Maybe This Christmas,” among others; the holiday disc tracklist has yet to be finalized...
U2 have just wrapped work on the music video for their next single, “Vertigo,” the premiere single from their upcoming album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb; directed by Martin Fougerol and Alex Courtes (who also did the job for The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” vid), the U2 clip was shot on the Spanish coast in the Delta de L’Ebre, where the band played their tune while standing in the center of a giant granite target that was placed in the sand of a remote river basin. The shoot wasn’t without its problems, however - high winds churning up miniature sandstorms and rain causing additional stress made for a bit of a rough time for the band. But with a 60-person team working on the shoot in addition to the directors, the clip got done and should begin airing in late October/early November...

R.E.M. staged a secret gig in a Piccadilly, London church last week (well, not too terribly secret, as it was recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 2) to unveil some of the songs from their up-coming WB album, Around the Sun. Opening with the tune Animal, from R.E.M.’s 2003 best-of disc, the night primarily featured tracks from the new disc, and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke even showed up to sing a guest vocal on R.E.M.’s 1996 hit “E-Bow the Letter.” The show will air on BBC Radio 2 on October 23 (check online for Internet listening opportunities), and R.E.M. are still planning to hit the road in 2005 for a European tour that will kick off on January 7...

MINI BUZZ:
In other Thom Yorke news, the singer, along with actress Kate Hudson and other pop culture well-knowns are participating in a protest against George Bush’s so-called “Star Wars” program (which takes advantage of a legal loophole that will allow anti-satellite weaponry and lasers to be tested in our atmosphere) on Saturday, September 25 at the Fylingdales base in England...
Neil Young, Randy Bachman, and Bachman’s pop-rocker son, Tal Bachman, played live sets at a clean-air benefit on Vancouver Island last week...
NYC punk icons Patti Smith and Television will play a show on October 2 at NY’s Roseland Ballroom; it’ll mark the first time the artists have shared a stage since 1977...
Australia’s version of the Grammys, the ARIAs, will be held on October 17 at Sydney’s SuperDome; among those up for ARIA honors are singer-songwriter Pete Murray, the John Butler Trio, The Little River Band, producer Paul McKercher, and Jet, who lead the pack with seven nomination nods...
A live album
that The Strokes were planning to drop this fall has been scrapped due to the recording not having lived up to Strokes standards; the band will still spend the rest of this year working on demos for their upcoming third studio album...
While Collective Soul, four years after their last studio effort, will return to CD store shelves on November 16 with Youth, their first album on the group’s new label, El Music Group...

And popping up on those same shelves this week are these new releases... ON CD: The Velvet Underground’s Live at Max’s Kansas City... Alter Bridge’s One Day Remains... the CD debut of Talking Heads’ The Name of This Band is Talking Heads (with bonus tracks)... Tommy Stinson’s Village Gorilla Head... Interpol’s much-anticipated Antics... and Mark Knopfler’s Shangri La... ON DVD: Music for Montserrat... The Who - Live in Boston... Soul to Soul (the 1971 African concert with sets from the likes of Tina Turner, Santana, and Wilson Pickett) ...and Prince’s Graffiti Bridge... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.
Questions, comments, rants, raves about this column or your fave artists? Send ‘em to Kristi at
expressmodernrock@hotmail.com!