Bouncing back on Rubber Soul

Aug. 24, 2005

It’s the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ legendary Rubber Soul album, and Razor & Tie Records has put together the perfect tribute - namely, This Bird Has Flown - A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. Fourteen tracks in all present a variety of artists covering the entire tracklisting of The Beatles’ album, including Ben Lee (“In My Life”), The Fiery Furnaces (“Norwegian Wood”), The Donnas (“Drive My Car”), former Radish singer Ben Kweller (“Wait”), Nellie McKay (“If I Needed Someone”) and Michigan’s Sufjan Stevens (“What Goes On”). This Bird... will be available in stores on October 25 and will
copy the sequencing of the original release of Rubber Soul...

In more retro news, September 5 will see the DVD premiere release of The Police’s Synchronicity Concert, the live set taped in Melbourne, Australia at The Police’s final concert ever in 1984. Remixed in 5.1 Surround Sound and including three different audio soundtracks, the concert footage, directed and edited by Godley and Creme, includes The Police performing some of their biggest hits, from “Roxanne” and “Every Breath You Take” to “So Lonely,” “Walking in Your Footsteps,” “De Do Do Do De Da Da Da,” and “King of Pain,” which was recently covered live by Alanis Morissette. The DVD is also set to include a rare interview with The Police, also filmed in Australia, and plenty of DVD extras and multi-angle tracks...

Fiona Apple, whose long-awaited third album was scuttled by a record label not confident in her “hitmaking” abilities, is finally making plans to have that album - first recorded back in 2002 - see the light of day. She’s been spending time revamping the disc, with some new recordings as produced by studioman Mike Elizondo, and the CD - still titled Extraordinary Machine, is now slated for release this fall. The album will contain twelve tracks - two Jon-Brion-produced tunes from the original album, nine new recordings of previous Extraordinary Machine songs, and a brand-new track called “Parting Gift.” Myspace.com will be streaming the disc’s first single, “O’ Sailor,” this week, itunes is offering a two-song download of “O’ Sailor” backed with “Parting Gift,” and the entire Fiona Apple album will hit stores on October 4...

Bright Eyes is back, too - but his eyes are focused on the road, not the studio. Kicking off on October 22 in Santa Barbara, California, Bright Eyes, aka Conor Oberst, will hit the stage with a traditional band lineup (as opposed to his electronica-focused outing this past spring). Stops on Oberst’s tour will include stops in Seattle (11/4), Iowa City (11/10), Bloomington, Indiana (11/13), and Philadelphia (11/19). Bright Eyes will also make an appearance at Neil Young’s Annual Bridge School Benefit, a hot ticket that this year will occur on October 29-30 in Mountain View, California...

MINI BUZZ:
Another small step for man, a groovy step for U2 - the Space Shuttle Discovery crew got a rockin’ wake-up call when U2’s single “Vertigo” was piped by request through their spaceship while they were in orbit, making that the first time that U2’s been played in space (well, that we know of, aliens excluded)...
The first single from Madonna’s upcoming album, Confessions on a Dancefloor, is set to be “Hung Up,” which will hit radio soon; there’s also a video on the way that will be shot later this month in London...
A new East Coast set of festivals are in the preparation stages - the Across The
Pond series will feature dual shows being hosted simultaneously in Brooklyn, NY and on Staten Island - acts tapped so far for the shows include Oasis, Beck, The Pixies, Belle + Sebastian, Jet, The New York Dolls, and The Killers...
The Killers, who also recently performed at the Soaring Eagle Arena in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, are the latest act confirmed to perform at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, joining fellow performers Green Day, Kelly Clarkson, and Mariah Carey; Green Day also leads with the most nominations, along with Gwen Stefani, U2, and My Chemical Romance...
Liz Phair is due to release her next album, Somebody’s Miracle, on October 4 on Capitol Records; she’s also planning a full North American tour around the release date...
And The Strokes have almost completed work on
their third album, which is being produced by David Khane instead of long-time Strokes producer Gordon Raphael;
the band, who say that their “musical canvas has expanded,” have so far confirmed tracks “Vision of Division,” “Razor Blade,” and “Ask Me Anything” for the new disc...

Exciting and brand new this week are these new releases... ON CD: Richard Thompson’s Front Parlor Ballads... Orange Juice’s The Glasgow Project... 311’s Don’t Tread On Me... Milk Inc.’s Closer... Amadou & Mariam’s Dimache a Bamako... and White Stripes’ tourmates The Greenhornes’ East Grand Blues EP... ON DVD: Suzanne Vega’s Retrospective: The Videos of Suzanne Vega... Beulah’s A Good Band Is Easy To Kill... Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie... and Poets in Hip Hop... 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!*