Brandon Flowers Breathes New Life Into Forgotten U2 Track

I'm generally against covers of U2 songs (the reasons for which I articulate here), but holy freaking crap. This particular song, from U2's album Pop, is lyrically and structurally beautiful, but I think one could argue that U2's original recording left much to be desired and does not inject into the song the same amount of feeling and conviction as does Mr. Flowers in this performance. The result: through Flowers, the song experiences a kind of rebirth during this performance, and it leaves one hoping that an audio track might be available for purchase someday.

Andrew Bird Playlist

Whistling. Violing plucking. Obscure one-word song titles. Personally, I love it. Check out this collection of live Andrew Bird performances I put together after I heard a few songs from his latest album, Noble Beast.

Two-fer: Alpha Rev

This band kind of reminds me of Coldplay. Below is a music video of the song "New Morning" from the album of the same name and a live performance of "Phoenix Burn"

Arcade Fire on SNL

I can't stop listening to the song "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" ever since I saw Arcade Fire's performance on SNL last Saturday. True, the vocals on the recorded version are much better, the dancing was a bit distracting, and (as one blogger put it), the outfits look like something from a Tron wedding, but even if they seem a bit awkward and nerdy in appearances, these nerds can rock.



And perhaps most impressive is that these nerds can write. The lyric from this song that most haunts me: "Living in the sprawl/ the dead shopping malls rise/ like mountains beyond mountains/ and there's no end in sight,/ I need the darkness, someone please cut the lights!"

Hump Day Blues: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

Come on, now. I know you're feeling it. Here's some blues to inject a bit of soul into your week, whether you are one of the lucky few who will be enjoying a four-day weekend, or whether you will be plugging away straight on through without a break.

This track can be found on the album Standing My Ground.

Tuesday Two-fer: The National

One live performance and one music video from The National, featuring songs from their latest album High Violet. Below is a clip of the band performing "Afraid of Everyone" on Letterman:

Next is the music video for "Bloodbuzz Ohio." Most intriguing/perplexing lyric: "I was carried to Ohio on a swarm of bees."

Monday Motivational Music: "Devotion" by Viva Voce

Sometimes we need a little music to get ourselves going on Monday mornings, especially now that the clocks have been turned back and it is just a tad bit darker outside when we finally drag ourselves out of bed. My pick to start off the week is "Devotion" by Viva Voce, from their latest album (released last year), Rose City.

Sunday Morning Soundtrack: Morcheeba, "Blood Like Lemonade"

With its mellow vibe and somewhat dark, spiritual themes, Morcheeba's "Blood Like Lemonade," from their album of the same name, proves a worthy addition to my Sunday Morning Soundtrack:

Best Catch from the Mainstream: Kings of Leon "Radioactive"

Every Saturday I'll be posting a song from the "mainstream" worth a listen. This week it is "Radioactive" from the latest Kings of Leon album Come Around Sundown.

Daily Video: Darker My Love

I'm back! The blog's not dead, I've just been busy with an out-of-state move and I have not had much free time to scour the web for interesting music. I did, however, listen to AccuRadio the other day and discovered the L.A.-based band Darker My Love. They've been compared to the Grateful Dead, and I can also detect a hint of The Rolling Stones when I listen to the tracks on their latest album, Alive As You Are. Here's an acoustic performance of "Backseat" I am really digging:

Daily Video: Jewel performs songs from "Sweet and Wild" on HSN

Honestly, I am not in cahoots with HSN to get you to purchase Jewel's latest album from them. I recently watched an episode of GAC "Origins" where Jewel discusses her album Sweet and Wild and performs acoustic versions of some of the songs (recordings of which are also available on the CD itself). I've always wanted to like Jewel, but I was never terribly impressed by her material up to this point (maybe the melodies were too mellow, or the singing too breathy - I don't really know what it was). So while the clips from "Origins" are not available online, the ones from this HSN special are, and I have included a few of the best ones below. Suffice it to say I was completely blown away by these acoustic performances, and the songs have been swirling around in my brain for the past week or so. I've already purchased this CD - if you decide to do the same, I think you will agree that this is probably her best songwriting so far. And if you purchase it from HSN, I wonder if they might cut me in on a little commission?

Update: my original videos were removed, so I uploaded some new, non-HSN ones. I found a good (though oddly-edited) video of an acoustic performance of "Ten," and I also included the music video for "No Good in Goodbye."

Daily Video: "Sick Muse" by Metric

It's Monday morning. Time to wake up!

Sunday Morning Soundtrack: "A Town Called Amen" by Jim White

I like to listen to this song while driving to church on Sunday mornings:

"Flamingo" Preview Hits the Web

I may be a bit behind the times on this, but to my exceeding delight, when I checked brandonflowersmusic.com this week, I discovered that the site had been updated to feature one of the tracks from Brandon Flowers' upcoming solo album Flamingo. You can hear the entire track, entitled "Crossfire," both at the site and here:


None of your business. by TPBSecretLeaks

Also, I found a recorded interview from BBC Radio 1, where Brandon discusses the upcoming album, as well as addresses rumors that The Killers are breaking up (he claims, to my great hope, that the rumors are false):

Pop Detour: Why I Voted For Crystal Bowersox

Typically, I wait until I hear the singles the producers have selected for the final two contestants on American Idol before I decide who to vote for. This was especially true for this season, where my preference had been pretty much evenly split between Lee Dewyze and Crystal Bowersox. They were my favorite contestants throughout this season, and I was glad to see them both make it to the finale.

What tipped the scales in favor of Crystal, in my opinion, were the producers' song choices for both contestants. Whereas Lee was forced to cover two iconic songs, "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. and "Beautiful Day" by U2, Crystal was given songs whose original arrangements had become a bit more stale, a quality which allows for the possibility of the cover to sound better than the original version: "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles and "Up To The Mountain" by Patty Griffin. Because I had never heard the song before, Crystal's acoustic rendition of "Up to the Mountain" felt fresh, in an alterna-blues kind of way, and I would have been content to hear her live performance played on the radio without any editing whatsoever.

Lee's song choices, however, left me utterly puzzled. To cover a U2 song is a bold move. The performance needs to be either really innovative or really bizarre for it to work. It needs to sound better than U2, folks. And personally, when it comes to U2 songs, I am not sure if "better than U2" exists. In fact, I cannot think of a single successful U2 cover other than the recent version of "One" with Mary J. Blige, a remake that succeeds only because Ms. Blige appears as a "guest" vocal with the band.

The same could be said for songs by R.E.M. This is a group with a distinct, iconic sound. One could argue that the success of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" (a song that is not, structurally-speaking, very melodically compelling or complex) depends entirely on the genius of the arrangement - what Peter Buck contributes on guitar and what Michael Stipe contributes on vocals. In this case, a successful cover would depend heavily upon the arrangement itself; it would need to out-R.E.M. R.E.M. Can this even be done?

While I certainly like Lee Dewyze as an artist - I look forward to hearing what he will produce himself, without the bizarre input of the American Idol producers - the outcome of this season proves that the majority of people who watch American Idol will vote for who they like best (yes, folks, it is a popularity contest), rather than consider which outcome is, ultimately, in better taste (remember - the finale is all about which producer-chosen song you want to hear on the radio!). And as talented as Lee is, I'm afraid his cover of "Beautiful Day" will flood the airwaves like an unnecessary redundancy - like a giant moot point -because (except for the 12- and 13-year old girls who voted for Lee because he is so dreamy and who only vaguely acknowledge the existence of U2) who, when given the option, would choose to listen to a cover of a great song when he or she, in this era of music-on-demand, could listen to the original?

I have embedded some clips of the two performances below, plus a clip of a very young, and still very talented, Crystal Bowersox.








(Seriously, folks, am I deaf? Every time I hear Crystal's performance from the finale, it amazes me.)

Daily Video: Tilly and The Wall, "Rainbows in the Dark"

Tap dancing provides the percussion for this song. Brilliant!

Daily Video: Mumford & Sons

London quartet Mumford & Sons performing "The Cave" in a book store in London. (I wanted to post the clip of their recent performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, but it was removed from YouTube. You can watch the full episode, though, on Hulu.)