Some Gotta‘ Win....

Feb. 23, 2005

This year’s Grammy Awards are done and gone, with top honors going to the late Ray Charles in recognition of his final album, Genius Loves Company, and his collaboration with Norah Jones. Additional winners include Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Green Day (who won for Best Rock Album), Rod Stewart, Maroon 5 (Best New Artist), Brian Wilson, Prince, U2 (who won three awards for “Vertigo”: Best Rock Song, Best Short Form Video, and Best Rock Performance, Duo or Group With Vocal), Brian Wilson (Best Rock Instrumental Performance) and Loretta Lynn, who was awarded her first Grammy in 33 years for Van Lear Rose, which was named Country Album of the Year and which was produced by the White Stripes’ Jack White. Performers at the event included Gwen Stefani, the Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Los Lonely Boys, and Franz Ferdinand...
Oasis have announced that they’ll be playing a very limited number of shows in order to help promote the release of their long-awaited new album (hitting stores this summer). Show tix went on sale last week, and all shows will feature an opening set from Oasis’ support act, Aussie rockers Jet. Oasis’ tour stops will include June 18 at Detroit’s Meadowbrook Theatre, June 20 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, June 22 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and June 25 at Philadelphia’s Festival Pier; snag your tickets now via Ticketmaster online...
Swedish retro-rockers The Soundtrack of our Lives have a pretty decent tour schedule ahead of them, too - with a new album also on its way to stores (TSOOL’s Origin Volume 1, which will be on shelves on March 15), the band has hooked up with the likes of the Black Crowes, Kings of Leon, and Robert Plant for various live events, and will also be making an appearance at the prestigious SXSW music conference in Texas. Hopping on the tour bus in Oklahoma on March 11, TSOOL’s schedule will include stops in Dallas, Texas (3/14 with Robert Plant), Houston, Texas (3/15 with Kings of Leon), New York City (3/25 with the Black Crowes), Detroit (3/27), Chicago (3/28), and Los Angeles (4/2); some dates will see buzz band The Dears opening for The Soundtrack...
Fellow Scandinavians The Raveonettes (hailing from neighboring Denmark) will be back in CD stores, too, when May 3 sees the release of Pretty in Black, their next upcoming full-length album. Preceded to radio by the single “Love in a Trashcan,” which should hit the airwaves on March 15, Raveonettes fans can also pre-download the single exclusively from Apple’s iTunes Music Store - the full album will also include tracks “Uncertain Times,” “Red Tan,” “Somewhere in Texas,” among others. To help generate interest in the new disc, the duo will begin a North American tour in New York on April 26, with additional dates in San Francisco (5/3), Chicago (5/11), Indianapolis (5/13), Cleveland (6/6), and Detroit (6/8). L.A. newbies Autolux will support on all dates, and both bands will also be making stops at the upcoming Coachella Valley Music Festival on April 30-May 1 in California...
MINI BUZZ:
It’s been almost two months since the tsunami disaster struck the Indian Ocean region, but the music community hasn’t forgotten - a host of artists, including No Doubt, Ozzy Osbourne, Blink-182, Jurassic 5, and the Crystal Method just performed at the Music for Relief Concert on February 18 in Anaheim, California, where monies were donated to UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity programs in the countries affected...
Aussie popsters Frente are working hard on their first album in eight years - singer Angie Hart and a reunited Frente expect the disc to be out in early 2006...
Indie rockers Spoon are set to drop their fifth album, Gimmie Fiction, on May 10; the disc will include 11 new Spoon tracks, including “My Mathematical Mind”...
Sleater-Kinney will release their first album through their new Sub Pop label deal on May 24; The Woods was produced by the band with Dave Fridmann and includes 11 tunes...
And Russian folk-pop singer Regina Spektor has teamed up with Strokes producer Gordon Raphael to produce her new album, Soviet Kitsch, which hits stores on March 1...

Hitting stores this very week are these new releases... ON CD: Goldfinger’s Disconnection Notice... Wonderful Smith’s Hello It’s Wonderful... The Golden Republic’s The Golden Republic... Dalek’s Absence... Frame’s Burn the Maps... and They Might Be Giants’ Here Come the ABCs... ON DVD: The Roots Present... Bobby Darin: Behind the Song... TSA’s Live 1982... and Pink Floyd’s The Wall 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition... 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 modernrocker@gmail.com!