U2 Cancel Glastonbury Appearance and Postpone US Shows

• Bono, lead singer of u2, recently suffered a severe back injury and medical advisers have suggested he not perform for 8 weeks.  Bono suffered a severe compression of the sciatic nerve and emergency spine surgery was recommended.  This injury requires an 8 week recovery period which has forced the band to cancel its headlining gig at this years Glastonbury Festival.  This hiatus also has large ramifications for US fans because16 shows of the U2360° US tour will be postponed until 2011.  U2 and management are very disappointed by the news and have apologized to disappointed U2 fans for this unforeseen postponement.  more info

• Wish Bono the best and sign the Triple M Get Well card!  click here

Paul McCartney to Receive Gershwin Prize from President Obama

• Paul McCartney will be honored June 2 at a special concert and ceremony at the White House as he is awarded the Gershwin Prize.  The Gershwin Prize is a lifetime achievement award for contributions to pop music.  McCartney is the third Prize recipient following Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder in previous years.  The June 2 ceremony will include performances by Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jack White, Dave Grohl, Emmylou Harris, Corrine Bailey Rae, Herbie Hancock, and Jerry Seinfeld.  PBS will air the special July 28.  more info

David Byrne sues Charlie Christ

• Talking Heads front-man David Byrne is suing Florida Senatorial candidate Charlie Crist for unauthorized use of the Talking Heads song “Road to Nowhere.”  The Crist campaign used the song in a campaign ad attacking GOP primary opponent Marco Rubio.  Byrne is seeking one million dollars in damages and says the lawsuit has nothing to do with politics, but instead strictly based on copyright law.  The Crist campaign removed the ad immediately after being contacted by Warner Bros.   more info

Final Jay Bennett Solo Album Available Later this Summer

• Jay Bennett, the multi-instrumentalist and member of Wilco, died last May of a painkiller overdose.  His family and friends have set up a foundation in Bennett’s memory and will be releasing his final solo work as a free/donations appreciated download this July.  For more information and streaming tracks, follow this link.

New Jack Johnson Album Details and Interview

• Jack Johnson is preparing for the release of his sixth studio album and bringing a new sound to the release.  Johnson’s soon to be released album To The Sea (May 31 release date) contains new-to-Johnson arrangements including more electric guitar sounds and more rock inspired songs .  Jack discusses his new album in a Rollingstone interview which contains a handful of in studio videos of Johnson.  Here is the Rollingstone article.

Mellencamp Finalizing New Album with Help of T-Bone Burnett

• John Mellencamp is releasing his 25th album No Better Than This later this summer on August 3.  The album was recorded using 55 year old reel to reel Amex tape recorder along with the help of legendary producer T-Bone Burnett.  Mellencamp wrote over 30 songs for the album while on tour last summer with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.  Mellencamp purchased the Amex recorder on eBay for $175 and, according to Mellencamp, decided to record the album using the reel to reel recorder to flip “180 degrees away from the prefabbed place where pop music is now.”  more info

Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam are Joined by Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses to cover “Hunger Strike”

• During the New York date of their tour together, Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses joined Eddie Vedder and the rest of Pearl Jam to perform a cover of Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike.”  The song orginally featured a duet with Vedder and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell.

• Here is the video of the duet.

A thunderstorm rolled through southern Wisconsin today…and that got me thinking about some of my favorite songs about rain.

And no–one of them is NOT “And The Thunder Rolled” by Garth Brooks.

Kitty’s Top Five Rain Songs

1) The Doors: Riders on the Storm Gets extra bonus points for the rain and thunder sound effects!

2) R.E.O Speedwagon: Ridin’ the Storm Out This might actually be about a snowstorm, but for today’s purposes it’s about rain.

3) Beatles: Rain The flipside of Paperback Writer and one of my favorite Beatles songs

4) R.E.M: So. Central Rain Okay, this isn ‘t about rain at all. It’s the one that keeps repeating I’m sorry I’m sorry over and over again. But it’s a cool song. Early, classic R.E.M.

5)Buddy Guy: Feels Like Rain: John Hiatt wrote it, Buddy Guy made it a classic. The weather metaphor’s been used for love before, but it works here.

David Byrne is suing Florida governor Charlie Crist for $1 million in a lawsuit filed Monday.  In January Crist reportedly used the Talking Heads song “Road To Nowhere” during his senatorial campaign on a website and in a youtube ad.  The Florida governor has since dropped out of the race.

If Crist would have just used an appropriate Talking Heads song like “Life During Wartime” or “Love For Sale” he might still be in the race.  Of course, obtaining the required licensing wouldn’t hurt either.

Last indoor swim class of the season- we’re off next week and then hit the open water the following week!  About once per session our instructor does a test set, so we can see our progress- and there has been progress!  We do that test by swimming 100 yards, 10 times straight, with 10 seconds rest between each- he then subtracts 90 seconds (the nine 10 second rest periods) off the total time and divides by 10 to get our average speed per 100.

After class I sat down with the instructor and looked at the last few sessions and the progress I made. The earliest records he had on me had me doing a little over 2:10 per hundred (I think it was 2:14), last time we tested I was at 2:04 per hundred and this time- because of a screw-up on my part (I swam an extra 50 by accident), he didn’t have my 100 time figured out yet, but I did do the whole set- including that extra 50- faster than I did last time (without the extra 50)!

I clearly remember getting Head On The Door on vinyl for Christmas one year. That was the peak of my Cure-mania. Listened to it incessantly. What was that like ‘85 or something?

Anyway, Disintegration was a solid release years later. Check out this live version of “Love Song” included on the reissue out tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan..who turns 69 today. Instead of launching into a discussion of his political significance or his singing ability (or lack thereof), I’d like to delve into Bob’s sillier side.

Even people who don’t like the sound of Dylan’s voice generally applaud his songwriting skills (didn’t he win a Pulitzer prize after all?). I enjoy  many of Bob’s lyrics because…they’re funny.

Consider this (from Subterranean Homesick Blues):

Walk on your tiptoes
Don’t Try No-Doz
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose.

Or from Visions of Johanna:

See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say “Jeeze
I can’t find my knees.”

But this might be my favorite:

How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before its afternoon.
December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

Oh wait..that’s a poem written by Dr. Seuss.

Well, he was pretty cool too. But I have no idea if was much of a singer.

Today is the birthday of a person who has made a huge impact on American culture and has guided us through some rough times in our nation’s history.  Some have questioned his methods.  I’ve heard people say they can’t really understand what he’s saying or what he is trying to tell us.   No, I’m not talking about Bob Dylan.  I’m speaking of Tommy Chong. 

Okay, I’m not really a big fan of either Dylan or Chong.  However, I thought Chong should get a little coverage today because most everyone else will be talking about Dylan.

Stone Temple Pilots’ highly anticipated, nine-years-in-the-making self-titled album doesn’t come out until May 25, but you can stream the entire album right here, right now, only on Billboard.com.

The 12-track set has already spawned a Rock Songs chart No. 1 single, “Between the Lines.” The album’s producer, Don Was, “had us come in together and play live as a band,” frontman Scott Weiland said in the recent Billboard cover story. “That’s really when things started taking off.”

Weiland calls the new collection of tunes a “straightforward STP rock’n'roll record. There’s a lot of blues to it, a lot of R&B to it and a little Louisiana Purchase to it. But at the core, it’s a rock album.”

Here is the tracklist for “Stone Temple Pilots”:
Between The Lines
Take A Load Off
Huckleberry Crumble
Hickory Dichotomy
Dare If You Dare
Cinnamon
Hazy Daze
Bagman
Peacoat
Fast As I Can
First Kiss On Mars
Maver

This morning when I went to Google something I noticed the word Google was actually a game of Pac-Man.  Google often changes its logo to celebrate the birth anniversary of a famous person or an historic day.  Today they created a Pac-Man game to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this classic arcade game.

You could actually play a game of Pac-Man right there on the Google homepage.  Yes, I played a game or two or three.  It’s amazing to me that the game was right there and ready to be played.  I remember being a just a kid when the game came out and begging my parents for a quarter so I could go play this new, super cool and advance game called Pac-Man.  It was so much better than a game of Space Invaders.  Pac-Man was in color and Space Invaders was in black and white!  There were even little “skits” the Pac-Man and the ghosts would perform after you completed a few rounds.

It’s amazing how things we were introduced to us as kids are still fun when we’re older.  I’m sure kids today would be bored stiff playing a game of Pac-Man.  I can hear the complaints.

“Why isn’t this in 3D?”

“What kind of crappy music is this in the background?”

“This is boring!  Don’t you blow anything up?!”

I guess it’s the same as my reaction to Ball and Cup.  I’m sure there were millions of kids who played with this simple device.  It’s a ball on a string and you try to get it in the cup.  So stupid.   However, there are probably a lot of older people out there who would actually enjoy going a couple of rounds with that feisty ball.

It’s also amazing to me that a game my friends and I thought was so advanced can now be so easily recreated on a search engine’s homepage.

I wonder what will happen 30 years from now.  Will there be some type of  invention we don’t even know about yet where the 30th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 5 is easily displayed and played as a novelty?

Despite the fact that I had fun playing Pac-Man on the Google page, I now realize my Pac-Man Fever from childhood has now been reduced to a mild cold.