Madonna Plans One Big Dance Floor
April 12, 2006
Michigans favorite musical daughter, Madonna, has announced the dates for her upcoming Confessions Tour, which will begin on May 21 in Los Angeles. Promising to ...turn the world into one big dance floor, Maddies making plans for lots of disco balls and mostly songs from her newest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, as opposed to more retro Madonna hits. Tour dates so far (more are said to be in the planning stages) will include stops in Las Vegas (5/27), Montreal (6/21), and, of course, New York City (6/28 and 6/29), before she moves on to a final U.S. stop in Miami (7/22) and European shows in London, Rome, several stops in Germany, and Denmark. No Detroit show is scheduled as of yet - so far, it looks like the closest shell be is in Chicago on June 14...Fellow female musician Aimee Mann is also prepping for her upcoming tour, backing her latest album, The Forgotten Arm - but Mann will be getting a boost from The Boston Pops Orchestra on two of her live dates. The orchestra will bring their full symphony in to back up Mann during her two shows at Bostons Symphony Hall on June 28 and 29. The rest of Manns tour, in contrast, will feature just the singer and her guitar, making stops in Los Angeles (4/19), Denver, CO (6/20), Minneapolis (6/23), and Alexandria, VA (7/1 and 7/2)...
This years Lollapalooza event has been announced, and it will take place August 4 through the 6 at Grant Park in Chicago. Eight stages will be available at this years show, with tix available now for 130 bucks, which gets you 130 bands - yep, you read that right. Among the bands set for the 2006 lineup are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eels, The Shins, Ryan Adams, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, Aqualung, The Redwalls, Queens of the Stone Age, The Secret Machines, Thievery Corporation, and Matisyahu - and, if that wasnt enough of a draw, festival chairman Perry Farrell is bringing back the Mindfield game, making the entire festival grounds into a giant text-messaging scavenger hunt game...
The Goo Goo Dolls are back this month with their first album since their 2002 release, Gutterflower. Titled Let Love In, the new disc will hit stores on April 25, and the first single, Stay With You, is already streaming at the bands website and should hit radio soon. In addition to the new album, the Goos will also be taking the tour trail this summer, teaming up with Counting Crows for a series of live summer shows - and, speaking of Counting Crows, theyre also apparently in the pre-album stages, reportedly writing and making preparations for a new disc, although no target release date has been chosen...
MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK: Not one, but two great links this week! Irish supergroup Danu performed in Harbor Springs, MI, last week to a sold-out crowd, fresh from their appearance on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. Brought to town by the Blissfest Organization, the show was taped for future broadcast on NPRs Our Front Porch show, with the talented (and funny!) six-member group performing a mix of Irish ballads and rollicking jigs, bringing one of their crew members out partway through the show to do a little Irish footwork right on stage. You can find out more about Danu at www.danu.net, and you might also want to check out www.blissfest.org, where you can get the latest news on more upcoming shows (including Kiyoshi Nagata and the Michigan SongFest), plus a jump-start on this years Blissfest, which is set for July 7 through the 9...
MINI BUZZ:
French buzz indie rockers Phoenix will play a few U.S. dates in support of their third album, Its Never Been Like That, which will hit stores on May 23; Phoenix tour dates will include Washington DC (5/6), Philadelphia (5/7), and NYC (5/10)...
Jason Mraz upcoming May tour will include stops in Fort Myers, FL (5/9), Atlanta, GA (5/11), Indianapolis (5/14), and Royal Oak, Michigan, where hell play at the Royal Oak Music Theater...
Pearl Jam will appear as musical guest on Saturday Night Live on tax day, April 15...
Lifehouse will begin an East Coast tour this week that will run to the end of the month, and theyre bringing along Matt White as opening act...
Foo Fighters will begin rehearsing in a few weeks for their upcoming acoustic tour in support of their new double album, In Your Honour...
And rumor has it that The Replacements may be reuniting - well keep you updated...
In the meantime, here are this weeks new releases... ON CD: the long-awaited new release from The Vines, Vision Valley... Rainer Marias Catastrophe Keeps Us Together... The Alarms The Best of the Alarm... Blue Octobers Foiled... Placebos Meds... and Massive Attacks Collected... ON DVD: the also much-anticipated Gorillaz: Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House... and The Whos Music in Review: The Essential Music of the Who - The Moon Years... Death Cab for Cuties Directions... and Pink Floyds Reflections and Echoes... and thats the buzz for this weeks Modern Rock.
Questions, comments, rants, raves, suggestions? Send em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com!