Grab a thick red marker and start making your summer plans to attend one (or several!) of America's premiere alternative-music festivals. Lollapalooza has signed a five-year deal with the city of Chicago, expanding the Grant Park lakeside location for the festival. This year it will be held the weekend of August 3 through 5. If getting back to the country better floats your boat, sunshine-baked Manchester, Tennessee, will host the sixth annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival from June 14 to 17.
With Cleveland, Ohio's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hosting the Revolution Rock: The Story of the Clash exhibit until mid-April, I've found the perfect CD to accompany my road trip, an import worth looking for. Clash bassist Paul Simonon has co-compiled Revolution Rock: A Clash Jukebox for the Trojan label, collecting 22 original versions of songs eventually covered by the band in its career, either live or in the studio. Tracks include Jonathan Richman & Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," Mose Allison's "Look Here," The Rulers' "Wrong Em Boyo," Vince Taylor & the Playboys' "Brand New Cadillac," and Willie Williams' "Armagideon Time."
Anti Records recently announced that it has signed another unusual but major artist to its loving stable, with an upcoming new CD from Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Porter Wagoner. Produced by Marty Stuart, the new project promises one cover: Johnny Cash's "Committed to Parkview." And with Tompkins Square Records' upcoming new CD from another hall of famer, Charlie Louvin of The Louvin Brothers, gray hair might never be hipper than this coming year. The set features special guests Elvis Costello, Will Oldham, and Jeff Tweedy.
More weird stuff is leaking out next week from the mad, genre-melting laboratories of CMH Records. If the aptly titled Something You've Never Heard Before: The Bluegrass Tribute to Modest Mouse isn't strange enough, the label's Baby Rock Records imprint is issuing two more titles in its "Rockabye Baby!" series, with cradle-friendly "lullaby" CDs of the music of The Eagles and Queens of the Stone Age. Later this month on the label, Led Zeppelin goes blarney in a Celtic tribute, and U2 and The Ramones get the nap-time treatment.
Is your turntable feeling lonely? Later this month, wax is where it's at with three sweet slabs to keep things spinning. Bearing one of the most beautiful album covers of last year, Malajube's Tromp-L'Oeil is being released by Ninja Tune Records in a special pink marbled-vinyl edition. Also hearing the call of 331/3 RPM is the Arts & Crafts label, reissuing Broken Social Scene's rarities collection, Bee Hives, and its debut, Feel Good Lost, on audiophile LP.
Television Alert:
The Late Show with David Letterman welcomes Switchfoot on Thursday and Jennifer Hudson on Monday; Late Night with Conan O'Brien hosts Mos Def on Tuesday overnight; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson features Shawn Colvin on Monday overnight; and Jimmy Kimmel Live boasts The Twilight Singers this evening overnight and Lindsey Buckingham on Thursday overnight.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, January 9:
... and like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to change.
Arthur & the Invisibles - original motion picture soundtrack (Atlantic) with new songs from Elijah, Jewel, and Snoop Dogg
Complicated Shirt - Compromising Compositions (Alone) newly sophisticated with cello, violin, and woodwinds
The Delmore Brothers - Volume Two: 1933-1952 (JSP) featuring 97 songs over four CDs, this box set is pure Appalachian freight-train-boogie bliss
Grateful Dead - Live at the Cow Palace: New Years Eve 1976 (Grateful Dead) featuring a cover of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried"
Green Day - 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hour and Kerplunk (Reprise) CD reissues from 1991 and 1992
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life & Death (Sanctuary) limited-edition two-LP picture disc
Mario - Go! (J Records) with guests Alicia Keys, Nelly, and Akon
Erin McKeown - Sing You Sinners (Nettwerk) collection of standards and other lost gems, featuring covers of Fats Waller's "If You a Viper" and Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things," as well as songs made popular by Tony Bennett, Anita O'Day, Nat King Cole, and Rosemary Clooney
Notes on a Scandal - original motion picture soundtrack (Rounder) score by Philip Glass
onethousandpictures - onethousandpictures (Velvet Hammer/Columbia) recently touring with Mew and Kasabian
Rick Schroder - Your Kind Words (Anova) nice solo debut from this clever, storytelling singer/songwriter from Boston, featuring a cover of "In Spite of Me" by Mark Sandman of Morphine
Self Against City - Telling Secrets to Strangers (Drive-Thru/Rushmore)
Ron Sexsmith - Time Being (Ironworks)
Sloan - Never Hear the End of It (Yep Roc) new CD featuring 30 songs, also available as a two-LP set
P.F. Sloan - Measure of Pleasure (Collectors' Choice) CD reissue of this 1968 album produced by Tom Dowd
Spanic Boys - Sunshine (Cinaps) backed by the rhythm section of Brad Elvis of the Elvis Brothers and bassist T-Bone Wolk
Special Beat - Enjoy Yourself (Cherry Red) 1992-tour-of-Japan DVD from Ranking Roger of the English Beat and rude boys Lynval Golding and Neville Stapes, featuring 2-Tone classics "Mirror in the Bathroom" and "A Message to You Rudy"
Trashlight Vision - Alibis & Ammunition (EVO) hot off touring with Michale Graves of the Misfits
Ultramagnetic MC's - The Best Kept Secret (Oglio) with Kool Keith's original lineup and new member Grafiq Malachi Sebek
John Waite - Downtown ... Journey of a Heart (Rounder) one of the greatest pop vocalists of the 1980s is back with new recordings of his past hits with The Babys and Bad English, including a new take on "Missing You," in duet with Alison Krauss, and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61"
various artists - At the Crossroads: A Benefit for Homeless Youth (Three Ring) featuring a cool cover of The Smiths' "Please, Let Me Get What I Want" by the Scattered Pages and 21 other rare and previously unreleased tracks from Rogue Wave, Boyskout, Calexico, Bettie Serveert, Pink Mountaintops, Minmae, and more
various artists - Hyphy Hitz (TVT) the Bay Area's answer to Crunk and the devil's answer to spelling tests, with Keak Da Sneak, Sky Balla, Da Muzicianz, and Den Hoodstarz
various artists - Mercury Rev: Back to Mine (DMC) sitting behind the selector's seat in this cool mix-CD series, the handpicked play list includes their own "Cecilia's Lunar Expose" alongside Billie Holiday, Galaxie 500, David Bowie, Spacemen 3, Nicolai Dunger, and the ultimate AM-radio teen tearjerker, Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun"
