Stars on the Edge of Reason

Oct. 27, 2004

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is the title for the sequel to the first Bridget movie, Bridget Jones’ Diary, which is due out on November 12 in theatres. This time around, Bridget will be accompanied by a cool selection of songs that will make up the film’s official soundtrack - on the tracklisting so far are new recordings from Sting with Annie Lennox (who will offer up a re-recording of Sting’s “We’ll Be Together” reconfigured as a duet); Dido and Rufus Wainwright (who will team up for the tune “I Eat Dinner”); Will Young (who covers Sade’s “Your Love Is King”); and Jamie Cullum, who sings his own take on the classic “Everlasting Love.” A new tune from Robbie Williams, “Misunderstood,” will also be included on the soundtrack, as will previously released songs from Kylie Minogue, Carly Simon, and The Darkness;  the disc is due out on November 19...

Seal is set to release a “best of” album this November, with the album’s contents covering selections from all of Seal’s four albums plus a newly recorded cover of the oldie “Walk On By” as produced by Trevor Horn. Included on the disc, which has been dubbed Seal Best 1991-2004, will be the tunes “Crazy,” “Prayer For The Dying,” “Don’t Cry,” “Love’s Divine,” “Human Being,” and his 1996 Grammy-winning song (for Record of the Year and Song of the Year) “Kiss From A Rose.” An all-acoustic bonus CD will also be included with the best of album...
’60s go-go singer Nancy Sinatra, daughter of - yes - the legendary Frank - has just released a brand new album, titled simply Nancy Sinatra, on which she sings songs written for her by quite a host of modern rockers, including Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, U2’s Bono and The Edge, Pete Yorn, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Jon Spencer, and Morrissey;  Morrissey even helped hook Nancy up with his label, Sanctuary Records. A song that Bono and The Edge wrote in tribute to Frank Sinatra (“Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad”), which originally had Bono on vocals, wound up, due to some technical difficulties that involved removing Bono’s voice, as a very Frank-sounding tune for Nancy, complete with a piano-lounge feel; the first single, “Let Me Kiss You” (penned by Morrissey), is out now, and “Two Shots...” can be heard on NPR...
Wish you didn’t have to wait unti next year for Warped Tour to return? Well, Warped creator Kevin Lyman has a cool idea - literally - that might make that wait a little shorter. In February, Lyman is planning to launch Taste of Chaos, an arena tour scheduled to criss-cross North America that is said to be a kind of winter version of Warped. Lyman, in a statement, said that in addition to music, there will be “plenty to do, see and hear - fans should expect some surprises.” For the tour’s first trek, The Used have already signed on as headliners, with more bands and the tour’s dates expected to be announced soon...

MINI BUZZ:
Australia’s Grammy equivalent, the ARIAs, were held last week at Sydney’s Superdome, with Melbourne modern rockers Jet winning six awards, including Album of the Year, Single of the Year, Best Group, and Breakthrough Artist Album; other winners at the event included Kasey Chambers (Best Female Artist), John Butler (Best Male Artist), and Infusion (Best Dance Release)...
Lansing band American Cosmos are releasing a brand new EP, Right Down To Nothing, this week; they’ll be playing the “Twang The Vote” voter registration show in East Lansing on October 23, and have shows coming up at Memphis Smoke and Mac’s Bar in November...
Hot Hot Heat guitarist Dante DeCaro has quit the band, although he did stay through to finish work on the band’s sophomore album before deciding to depart; the split was an amicable one, and no decision has yet been made as to who will fill DeCaro’s position...
Franz Ferdinand will drop the tune “This Fire” as the fifth single from their hit debut disc, Franz Ferdinand - it’s a new version of the song that will hit radio, as re-recorded with producer Rich Costey, and a video will arrive with, courtesy of Swedish vid producers Style War...
Musician and aspiring concert promotor Kendall Francis has put together a multi-band Northern Michigan concert event set to take place at Petoskey’s YMCA on October 26 at 6:00 pm; for the bargain ticket price of $5 bucks, concertgoers will hear sets from My Mona Lisa, Odious Aura, A Perfect Kiss, Letters in Binary, and Blessed By A Broken Heart...

And the new Nirvana boxed set has been dubbed With the Lights Out, and will hit stores on November 23; the three-CD, one-DVD set will include 81 tracks and plenty of live, studio, and rehearsal footage...
New this week on CD: Duran Duran’s Astronaut... No Doubt’s Everything In Time... Entrance’s Wandering Stranger... Pinback’s Summer in Abbadon... Celine Dion’s Miracle... and Elliott Smith’s long-awaited posthumous From a Basement on the Hill... ON DVD: Blur - Starshaped... Bob Dylan - Tales From A Golden Age 1941-1966... and David Bowie’s A Reality Tour... 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
expressmodernrock@hotmail.com!