Modern Rock

June 26, 2015

Jack White Brings Third Man to Detroit

Jack White may have defected to Nashville several years ago, but he still keeps his hometown in mind. His label, Third Man Records, is working on opening a new record store in Detroit (the label already operates a store in Nashville). White recently purchased Detroit’s Cass Corridor building and expects to open the Third Man outlet there by Thanksgiving weekend, marking the beginning of the holiday shopping season and continuing to support Detroit’s garage rock scene…

Luna will be dropping a box set that brings together all five of their albums from the ‘90s. Luna: Long Players (92-99) will also include a sixth record of rarities that will add some B-sides and band demos. A booklet with a Dean Wareham interview (by director Noah Baumbach) will be included too. The whole thing will arrive this fall on Captured Tracks…

The Wombats are hitting the road, hoping to increase interest in their third album. The trek will include several summer festival appearances and a string of fall headlining dates with stops in Southampton, U.K. (9/30), London (10/1) and Manchester (10/21). The band’s London show at the Alexandra Palace will mark their first gig with more than 10,000 seats — their biggest show to date…

Jack Antonoff of fun. is taking his Bleachers side project on the road with Charli XCX. The lengthy tour will also include guests Robert DeLong and Billy Joel on select stops. The trek kicked off a few weeks ago in Indianapolis and will include several stops in Western Europe before returning stateside for shows in Seattle (7/25), Minneapolis (8/4), Milwaukee (8/5), Detroit (8/11 at The Fillmore) and Columbus, Ohio (8/12)…

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:

Blur has dropped the music video for their new single, “Ong Ong,” a clip inspired by classic videogames. Members of the band dress up as gaming characters, including frontman Damon Albarn who’s a giant ice cream cone. Watch it at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=A0qA38h9w3o

MINI BUZZ:

Pop-rockers The 1975 recently scared their fans with rumors of a breakup, but the contrary is true. They’re actually working on a new album, plus a U.K. tour this coming fall…

Brandon Flowers, currently promoting his solo album, said in a recent interview that he’s sure his band The Killers will make another album because their last one, Battle Born, “wasn’t good enough”…

Train and The Fray are bringing their melodic rock to the DTE Energy Music Theater near Detroit on 7/1…

Kings of Leon will be joining Alt-J, Interpol, Jungle, The Maccabees and others at this year’s 2015 Sziget Festival in Hungary…

Superchunk will reissue their classic 1999 album, Come Pick Me Up, July 10 on Merge Records…

Mocky has brought in Feist, Jamie Lidell, Chilly Gonzales and Kelela for his new album, Key Change, out next week…

And you won’t have to wait for these new releases because they’re out this week… Matt Pond PA’s The State of Gold… Failure’s The Heart is a Monster… and Amos Lee’s Live at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony… and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

Comments, questions, rants, raves, suggestions on this column? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com.