Television Marquee Moon & Interpol

I’m a huge fan of Interpol’s, especially their first release Turn on the Bright Lights.  Great album by a great band who is heavily influenced by Television.  Television is a band from the late 70s that released only one CD called Marquee Moon which influenced dozens of artists but I think most noticeable Interpol.

Television Marquee Moon

Interpol Obstacle 1

Jolene – Ray LaMontagne

Ray is amazing and Jolene is one of my favorites.

Fragile by Sting

I’m not a huge Sting fan.  I love The Police but The Police are much much more than just Sting.  I tend to like Sting’s first couple of solo albums much better than his later work.  One early and beautiful song is Fragile – another song about terrorism.  Considering the current state of the world “how fragile we are” rings so true. 

Please

One of the greatest thing about YouTube is that I can finally see all the videos that I missed years ago when MTV was for music.  U2 is not known for the greatest of videos but I do like the video for Please.  It my opinion Please is one of the best songs U2 has ever written – especially when considering the very poignant and direct lyrics.  The song was written about terrorism in Northern Ireland but it has a lot of significance to terrorism around the world
 

U2 Mercy

Mercy is a U2 tune from the Atomic Bomb sessions that somehow was leaked but is still supposed to be on the next U2 CD.  Great tune that sounds finished but I’m sure it will take a different sound when and if it’s released.  At over 6 minutes it will likely be trimmed – not since Bad and A Sort of Homecoming have they recorded songs much longer than 4 minutes. 

New Years Day

Happy New Years [Day]

  

David Ford

One of my favorite new (to me) artists of 2007 is David Ford.  Two standouts for me are:

I Don’t Care What You Call Me

and

State of the Union

 

Fairytale of New York – KT Tunstall

 As I wrote previously, Fairytale in New York is my favorite Christmas song and apparently KT Tunstall sings a version of it that I would love to hear.  KT’s version is on a Christmas compilation called “The KT Tunstall Holiday Collection” which is apparently available at Target Stores??!  The only listing (and place selling copies) that I have been able to find of the CD is at Amazon.com.  As of yet I haven’t been able to find anything else about the CD.  - Tom @ www.tokibiz.net

Springsteen Tours Boston College

According to the Boston Globe Bruce Springsteen, wife Patti Scialfa and their son Evan toured Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA on Friday.  Like every good rock ‘n roll family the Springsteens went to the admissions office and walked the campus on their scheduled tour. 

The Iraq War & Music

Since the Iraq War began in March 2003 there have been a number of songs penned in response to the invasion – mostly negative.  Over the next few weeks I’ll be highlighting some of my favorites.  My first favorite is from blues great Robert Cray who wrote a song called “Twenty” about an Iraq War veteran returning home and trying to adjust to life back in the United States while many of his friends had died.  

“The video, directed by Robert Cray’s wife, Susan Turner-Cray stars Aidan Delgado, a 23-year-old Iraq-war veteran who served in Nasiriyah and at Abu Ghraib prison, before securing conscientious objector status and returning to the U.S.”  Source:  AFSC.org   

The most poignant scene in the video is when Aidan stands in field among the boots of Eyes Wide Open - An Exhibition on the Human Cost of the Iraq War.