Cheap Trick is back at the top of its game with an all-new CD
this coming Tuesday, Rockford, named for the group’s Illinois hometown.
The Big3 Records release features a handful of songs recorded by
post-punk champion Steve Albini, and the first single, “Perfect Stranger,” was co-written and produced by star-making songwriter Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes.
Guitar-heads should find plenty to get between their teeth, as Rick
Nielsen, the man of a thousand fretboards, lets it all soar, squeal,
and stroll to my complete wide-eyed satisfaction. … The Way of the
Peaceful Warrior, a favorite new-age book of the mystical 1980s,
becomes a new movie next month, starring Nick Nolte as the mysterious
Socrates that meets a reluctant young athlete at a gas station. This
week’s soundtrack CD release of Peaceful Warrior bears the Lakeshore
imprint and features a new song from David Gray, and spoken word passages by the book’s author, Dan Millman.
• The student-run radio station of the Henry Ford Community College in
Dearborn, Michigan, has produced a new fundraising CD box set
collecting more than 50 electronic, experimental, and noise-rock
artists from across the state in Mitten (State) Transmissions. A bonus
DVD filmed at 2004’s Ear Candy Festival rounds out the set, which
features Black Egg, Wolf Eyes, Cotton Museum, Electric Bear, and many more.
• Do your ears prick up at the mention of Robert Fripp and
his distinctive “cubic” guitar work, known affectionately as
Frippertronics? Two cool new CD reissues from the 1970s are due next
week: an expanded issue of his 1977 masterpiece Exposure, and his guest
spot on an obscure, folky gem by Colin Scot. The Inside Out Records imprint serves up the long-lost 1971 self-titled album from Scot, packed with guests from Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel to Brinsley Schwartz and Rick Wakeman.
On Fripp’s own Global Discipline label, the first CD of Exposure finds
the original vinyl version now on CD for the first time, and the second
CD illuminates a previously shelved 1983/1985 remix of the album and
three never-before-released tracks with vocalist Daryl Hall.
Television Alert:
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno welcomes Kane West on Friday and Bruce Springsteen on Monday; The Late Show with David Letterman hosts Elvis Costello on Tuesday; Late Night with Conan O’Brien boasts Alanis Morissette this evening overnight, Magic Numbers on Thursday overnight, Neil Young on Monday overnight, and Drive-by Truckers on Tuesday overnight; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson gets a whiff of that New Cars smell on Tuesday overnight; Last Call with Carson Daly sits down with Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders this evening overnight; and Jimmy Kimmel Live cracks
Ice Cube on Tuesday overnight.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, June 6:
... and like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to change.
Artimus Pyledriver – Artimus Pyledriver (DRT) with a tip of the John Deere hat to the Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – 40th Anniversary Celebration (49 North) DVD with original members and special guests
The Bottle Rockets – Zoysia (Bloodshot) the return of this blue-collar snarling guitar quartet from St. Louis, with new bassist Keith Voegele
Cars – original motion picture soundtrack (Disney) with new
songs by James Taylor and Sheryl Crow, and a cover of “Route 66” from
John Mayer
Cheap Sex – Written in Blood (Punk Core) also available on colored vinyl in a gatefold sleeve
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – The River in Reverse (Verve Forecast) featuring five new songs written collaboratively
Cracker – Greenland (Cooking Vinyl) featuring the creepy “I’m So
Glad She Ain’t Never Coming Back,” and guests Mark Linkous of
Sparklehorse and David Immergluck of Counting Crows
The Cure – Lost in the Labyrinth (Locomotive) behind-the-scenes DVD with interviews and an extensive discography
Rick Derringer – Collection: The Blues Bureau Years (Blues Bureau) featuring a cover of Johnny Winter’s “Meantown Blues”
DJ Khaled – Listennn ... The Album (Koch) with guests Christina Milian, the Game, and Trick Daddy
Drag the River – It’s Crazy (Suburban Home) country-music side project from former members of All and Armchair Martian
Evangelicals – So Gone (Misra) madhouse indie pop sipping from the same dosed well water that fed fellow Oklahomans the Flaming Lips
Carter Falco – If It Ain’t One Thing (CMH) with guest Shooter Jennings, and a song written for this CD by Tom Morello of Audioslave
Flash.Bat – Laud Baud (JIB/Locust) tinker-bot electronica rocking those blips and beeps like a vintage Atari 2600 game system
Freeheat – Back on the Water (Planting Seeds) new from Jim Reid of Jesus & Mary Chain
Ghost Machine – Hypersensitive (Corporate Punishment) new from Ivan Moody and Chris Binns of Motograter
(hed) p.e. – Back to Base X (Suburban Noize) featuring
frontman Jared Gomes getting’ philosophical on matters of New World
Order and Freemasonry
Mary Karlzen – The Wanderlust Diaries (Dualtone) featuring a cover of The Replacements’ “Skyway”
Alexis Korner – Kornerstoned: Anthology 1954-1983 (Castle)
two-CD set from the “Godfather of the British Blues,” with guests Keith
Richards, Robert Plant, Eric Clapton, and more
Kottonmouth Kings – Koast II Koast (Suburban Noize)
Kraak & Smaak – Boogie Angst (Quango Music) infectious Dutch
hip-hop with a jazzy, funky, old-school edge and an overflow of
percolating breaks
Les Aus – Haranna Hanne (Simple Social Graces Discos) recently touring with Ted Leo
Maximo Park – Found on Film (Warp) CD/DVD featuring live
performances, a documentary, videos, BBC sessions, and a cover of
Natalie Imbruglia’s “Shiver”
Metallic Falcons – Desert Doughnuts (Voodoo-Eros) with
guests from Antony & the Johnsons and Tarantula A.D., this dark
experimentation strangely samples Nico of the Velvet Underground
The New Cars – It’s Alive (Eleven Seven) with only two original
members, Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes, this new resurrection is led by
Todd Rundgren with Utopia’s Kasim Sulton on bass
Paul Oakenfold – A Lively Mind (Maverick) with guests Pharrell
Williams and Grandmaster Flash, featuring Brittany Murphy on “Faster
Kill Pussycat”
The Ohsees – The Cool Death of Island Raiders (Narnack) sunny, trippy, summer-lawn psychedelia from John Dwyer of The Coachwhips
Rampage – Have You Seen ... ? (Sure Shot) new from the Flipmode
Squad member, with guests Sean Paul, Rah Digga, DJ Kool, and Busta
Rhymes
Speed Kill Hate – Acts of Insanity (Escapi Music) side project from members of Overkill
The Wailin’ Jennys – Firecracker (Red House) Canadian trio appearing frequently on A Prairie Home Companion
TW Walsh – The Soft Drugs in Moderation (Tower of Song)
five-song CD EP from the former member of Pedro the Lion, on his own
artist-controlled label
Katharine Whalen – Dirty Little Secret (M.C. Records) new from the former frontwoman of Squirrel Nut Zippers
Who Loves the Sun – original motion picture soundtrack (Merge) instrumental score by Portastatic
various artists – Bastards of Young (Image) two-DVD documentary
featuring Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, Thursday,
and more
various artists – No Depression: What It Sounds Like, Vol. 2 (Dualtone)
with the Resentments, Jay Farrar, Drive-by Truckers, Roseanne Cash, and
a cover of Bill Monroe’s “The One I Love Is Gone” by Hazel Dickins and
Alice Gerrard
