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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Tuesday Rock Roundup

Today is the 78th Anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner becoming our official national anthem.

U2 releases their 12th studio album today, No Line on the Horizon. It was recorded in Morocco, Dublin, London and New York, and the 11-song album took two years to record. So much material was recorded that they plan to release another disc sometime in the next year. U2 will do their second of five nights tonight on The Late Show With David Letterman. The band is being honored by the city during their stint as a piece of West 53rd Street...which runs alongside the Ed Sullivan Theater, where The Late Show is taped...is being temporarily renamed U2 Way. Mayor Michael Bloomberg will do those honors today.

Rush is back in stores today with Retrospective Three (1989-2008), the third volume in their compilation series. It is available as both an individual CD and a CD/DVD set, and features tracks taken from their two decades with Atlantic Records. Geddy Lee tells us, "This is kind of a collection of songs that were kind of the more popular songs from their given albums during the times they were released." The CD also contains an unreleased live version of "Ghost of a Chance," recorded in Atlanta during Rush's 2008 Snakes and Arrows tour, as well as re-mixes of "One Little Victory" and "Earthshine." The DVD boasts 10 music videos made during the Atlantic years, and their recent performance of "Tom Sawyer" on The Colbert Report.

When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour Europe this summer, they may have a new drummer for some of the shows. N-B-C has confirmed that Max Weinberg will be with Conan O'Brien when he takes over The Tonight Show on June 1st. In an interview with Rolling Stone, E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt says, "I think Max will be there for most of it." No names have been mentioned yet as possible fill-ins.

Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie This Is Spinal Tap, and the actors who played the hapless British metal band -- Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest -- marked the occasion by holding a press conference at L-A's House of Blues to announce their Unwigged and Unplugged tour. The six week, 30 city acoustic tour, which kicks off April 17th in Vancouver, Canada, will see the trio performing songs from the repertoires of both Spinal Tap and The Folksman, the group they played in the 2003 film, A Mighty Wind. They also revealed that they are currently putting the finishing touches on a studio version of the first Spinal Tap album, which was recorded live for its original 1984 release. The new album, which will contain a number of bonus tracks, will hit stores May 26th. The Tap will play The Chicago Theatre May 30th.

NEW RELEASES TODAY:

  • The aforementioned U2 and Rush
  • Music From The Motion Picture Watchmen CD (My Chemical Romance, plus classic hits by Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, & more)
  • Thin Lizzy Still Dangerous: Live At The Tower Theater Philadelphia 1977 CD previously unreleased
  • Australia is on DVD and Blu-Ray w/Nicole Kidman & noted song and dance man Hugh Jackman. The nearly three-hour-long film now includes deleted scenes.
  • Beverly Hills Chihuahua DVD
  • Before the live-action version hits theaters on Friday, you can get the animated version of Watchmen. The six-hour, 12-episode Watchmen: Complete Motion Comic pack is a panel-for-panel re-imagining of the graphic novel.
  • And TV that's gone digital this week includes the first season of My Two Dads, the second season of Nash Bridges, the fourth season of The Hills, the eighth season of Seventh Heaven and the 10th season of ER.