Farm Aid‘s Growing Season

Aug. 3, 2005

Our neighbors in Chicago will be the ones playing host to the 20th Anniversary Farm Aid concert this year, as co-founded by Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. Scheduled for September 18th at the Tweeter Center, tickets for the event will go on sale July 30, and will go towards bulking up the already extensive $27 million that Farm Aid has raised over its history as an event to help support family farming. For the 20th Anniversary event, the concert itself will be preceded by a week’s worth of music and food events in Chicago in order to further draw attention to both Farm Aid and to the city’s efforts to help support homegrown foods. And, in addition to Nelson and Mellencamp, both Neil Young and Dave Matthews are also scheduled to appear...
 
Still-struggling NYC 31-year-old landmark nightclub CBGB - in danger of being closed down due to financial reasons - still ain’t giving up without a fight, and nor should they. The launchpad for such bands as Talking Heads and The Ramones, the club is still pushing ahead with their “Save CBGB” campaign, which will include a series of benefit concerts that will take place from now through August 31, featuring performances from the likes of Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, Living Colour, Gorilla Biscuits, and Liars; for those of you not able to attend any of those shows, you can still help by logging on to www.savecbgb.org ...

The upcoming Foo Fighters/Weezer fall tour - as if it could get much better than that - has just managed to take things up yet another notch. The bands have selected hot UK rockers Kaiser Chiefs, currently on tour in the U.S., as their opening act. Exact dates are still TBA, but Kaiser Chiefs will stick with the dynamic duo for over a month, and then have a schedule of headlining dates booked through early September in Europe. In other Kaiser Chiefs news, their new double A-side single, “I Predict A Riot,” backed with “Sink That Ship,” is due out as an import on August 22, complete with the “I Predict A Riot” video and yet another new track...
 
Bloc Party are in the process of recording their second album with producer Paul Epworth, who is holed up with the band at Jacobs Studios in Surrey, England. The art-rockers apparently already have over two dozen new tunes to sort through and choose from for their sophomore effort, including favorites-to-date “Hero,” “Into the Blue,” and “Two More Years.”  While fans wait for the new full-length to arrive (it’s expected early next year), they can check out Bloc Party’s new single, “The Pioneers,” which was just released last week...
 
MINI BUZZ:
Secret Machines have just wrapped work on their latest album, letting fans know that they can expect the band’s as-yet-untitled newest effort in stores early next year...
Sigur Ros are hard at work on their next disc, too, which is set for a September 12 release date - they’ve titled it Takk (the Icelandic word for “thanks”), and it’ll include tunes “Gong,” “Andvari,” “Svo Hljott,” and the title track...
Ford Motors and Sony have teamed up to present Fusion Flash Concerts, a free, “unannounced until the last minute” series of events that will feature the likes of Yellowcard, Pete Yorn, and The Roots - in order to access the secret locations and tix, fans just have to register online at www.fusionflashconcerts.com ...
Faithless are set to release both a greatest hits album and a DVD, both dubbed Forever Faithless, this week;  the album will include a new single called “Why Go?”...
Actor Wilmer Valderrama will host the upcoming G4 Video Game Awards Show this week on G4/TechTV; The Bravery and the Black Eyed Peas are both scheduled to perform...
Michigan’s own White Stripes have chosen “My Doorbell” as their next radio single...
 
And next up this week, here are your new releases... ON CD:  Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (finally set free from Starbucks)... Jason Mraz’ Mr. A-Z... former Stray Cat Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot Vol. 1: A Tribute to Sun Records... Royksopp’s The Understanding... and Now That’s What I Call Music Volume 19, complete with songs from the likes of Gwen Stefani, Coldplay, The Killers, Three Doors Down, and more... ON DVD:  The History of Green Day... Drive Well, Sleep Carefully - On The Road With Death Cab For Cutie... Yes - Greatest Video Hits... and The Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film... 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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