New Release Tuesday: 8/25/09

 

The biggest release today, of course, is the Arctic Monkeys' Humbug, which I reviewed. 

There are quite a few other notable albums in stores, though.  My favorite is Dolores O'Riordan's solo record.  You may know O'Riordan from her time with The Cranberries ("Zombie!  Zombie!  Zombie! Eh! Eh! Eh!").  Then there's "Bubbly" herself, Colbie Caillat.  And, of course, Imogen Heap, who composed the song heard 'round the world, first on The OC and later on the SNL skit, "Dear Sister," that spoofed the episode.

Arctic Monkeys  -  Humbug
The Casualties  -  We Are All We Have
Colbie Caillat  -  Breakthrough
Collective Soul  -  Rabbit
David Guetta  -  One Love
Imogen Heap  -  Ellipse
Tamar Kaprelian  -  Delicate Soul
Matisyahu  -  Light
Mellowdrone  -  Angry Bear
Mew  -  No More Stories
Ingrid Michealson  -  Everybody
Willie Nelson  -  American Classic
The Pinx  -  Look What You Made Me Do
Dolores O'Riordan [Cranberries]  -  No Baggage
Smile Empty Soul  -  Consciousness
Smokey Robinson  -  Time Flies When You're Having Fun
Roy Hargrove Big Band  -  Emergence
Shonen Knife  -  Super Group
Subnoize Souljaz  -  Blast From The Past
Trey Songz  -  Ready
Victims Of Circumstance  -  Roll The Dice
Wildbirds & Peacedrums  -  The Snake
Zechs Marquise  -  Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare

Trailers premiere at Comic-Con to fanboys' delight

Tron Legacy
This must have led to some serious salivation at Comic-Con.
The anticipated sequel to TRON, entitled Tron Legacy, starring Jeff Bridges, is heading for theaters in Disney 3D in 2010 or 2011. The Wachowski brothers tried to make their own TRON with last summer’s eye candy overload, Speed Racer, and that flop might have only amplified fanboys’ desire for a new
Unnecessary sequels come and go every few weeks, most of them unsurprising disappointments. But in returns Tron, a franchise that might fit in with today’s level of geekdom than it could before. The 1982 original is canonized in certain social circles, and though I’m not in that circle, I can respect that. The effects look terrific in this riveting teaser.



Hot Tub Time Machine
Its Snakes on a Plane title tells us all we need to know. The first trailer for the brilliantly titled comedy, due out February 26, 2010, premiered at Comic-Con. The redband is not particularly good, but the cast certainly helps preserve that so-bad-it’s-good feeling. Cusack’s F-bomb lacks snap.
It seems like a concept some hack writer pitched to a studio 25 years ago to capitalize on the Back to the Future frenzy and the script was discarded.
Co-writer Josh Heald defended his screenplay on Cinematical last year.
After a night of drinking red bull and vodka, four friends - John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke (random age gap) – travel back to 1986 in the magic hot tub. Cusack is just there to ensure everyone knows he still reigns over his most prolific and fun-filled decade.
Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover (BATF!) are also in the film.

Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch to undergo cancer treatment

The Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch (accompanied by Adam Horovitz) announced via YouTube that he has a cancerous tumor in his neck and will be starting treatment, pushing back the release of Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1. Though it's concerning news, Yauch says in the video that the cancer is treatable.

New Coldplay Video: Strawberry Swing

Coldplay just released its eccentric new music video for "Strawberry Swing," from Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. It has Chris Martin in a cape, a chalkboard/pavement background and a giant squirrel.

Apollo Approved: Dave Carroll

Dave Carroll, member of Canadian group Sons of Maxwell, was on a United Airlines flight to Nebraska with his band. On the plane with him, in the cargo hold, was his $3,500 Taylor acoustic guitar.

Only one of them disembarked intact.

It was the guitar that didn't survive the flight. The Taylor's neck was broken somewhere along the way.

The guitar cost $1,200 to repair, but it never played the same again.

Carroll tried to use the normal routes of filing a complaint with the company, but he was rebuked. United denied any responsibility for the damage to the guitar.

So he did what any musician worth his salt would do: he wrote a song. The resulting track, "United Breaks Guitars," cuts right to the chase with its title and doesn't let up. It became an Internet sensation and United has changed its tune.



The video was a big enough deal that CNN picked up on it.



After realizing what a public relations disaster this song was, United contacted Carroll and also said his music video would be used internally to prevent future cases of damaged luggage. Unfortunately for United, the damage to its image had already been done.