Yet even as other bands mine U2’s catalog, the band defies its past. After two albums of comparatively straightforward guitar-driven rock, “No Line on the Horizon,” U2’s head-spinning 12th studio album, takes new experimental tangents and redefines the band yet again. 

How do you reinvent yourself as U2?

Bono had been invited to the annual ecumenical Festival of Sacred Music in Fez, Morocco. He asked the other band members to join him and perhaps do some recording there during a two-week stay. To his surprise they all agreed, as did Mr. Eno and Mr. Lanois

They rented a house and set up equipment in a courtyard open to the sky and started making music with no deadline or goal. “This was far from back to basics,” the Edge said. “This was exploring the fringes.” While hints of triple-time trance rhythms and Arabic vocal inflections occasionally surface, U2 avoided what band members call “musical tourism.”

(via)

Etown is an exciting weekly radio broadcast heard from coast to coast on NPR, public and commercial stations. Every etown show is taped in front of a live audience and features performances from many of today’s top musical artists as well as conversations and information about the world around us. At Etown, we build community through music.

They usually record the show in the small Boulder Theatre but moved to Denver this week to participate in the DNC. The musicians in attendance for last night’s show included Irma Thomas, Ani DiFranco, Tom Morello, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and James Taylor. This was my first etown show and I’ve gotta say: I loved every minute.

The best half-hour was the interview with the weekly “e-chievement award” recipient. The host, Nick Forester, presented the award to Bobby Kennedy, Jr. This guy looks exactly like his late father, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been so flat-out floored listening to someone talk. Named one of Time’s “Heroes for the Planet” a few years back, Bobby told us about the environment and his super-active role in protecting it. From Riverkeepers to the Arctic, from the farce that is “clean coal” to Iceland’s already-complete 3 year transformation to energy independence.

Sidebar: This last piece is fascinating. Iceland has taken every fossil fuel-burning car off the road, shut down all their coal and nuke plants, and are now so energy rich, they’re the third wealthiest nation on Earth. And they did it in just 3 years. Kennedy also told us Denmark, the UK and Brazil have signed on to make their own transformations as well.

We were awed. And we also had no idea this guy is a master falconer.

As for the music, Irma sang “Time is on my side” — a song she recorded well before the Stones. Ani told us about the church she’s renovating in downtown Buffalo and sang a few tunes, including “Evolving.” Tom Morello had only his acoustic guitar (and no other Rage Against the Machine bandmates) and sang a few songs. I never knew he went to Harvard. Crosby and Nash were, err, dare I say… boring. And James Taylor, who everyone wanted to see the most, wrapped up the taping. He did only two songs by himself — tunes from his upcoming “Covers” record to be released later this fall — then “When I’m Gone” with Crosby & Nash before inviting everyone back out for the grand finale: “This Land Is My Land.” Show started at 9 and wrapped up at midnight. I’m tired. Etown has a Flickr account, but there aren’t many photos there from last night. The show is set to be broadcast on the radio “sometime in October.”

Oh, on Larimer Street walking to dinner a few hours before the show, we bumped into a few hundred people, a dozen Secret Service SUVs and one rather well-known politician: Hillary Clinton. She was coming out dinner herself and raced off to the Pepsi Center for her “no way, no how” speech.

“We were ring-around-the-rosy children
They were circles around the sun
Never give up, never slow down
Never grow old, never ever die young”

Always good advice. From Never Die Young on James Taylor’s One Man Band DVD I’m watching now.

Dave Matthews’ “Eh he” video @ iTunes (free download for limited time).

“I don’t know much of his music,” James Blunt admitted to us before the show started, “but I’m looking forward to it.” So no favorite songs, then? “I’ll have to get back to you at the end of the night,” he said.

I’m a huge James Taylor fan and have been for as long as I can remember. And I’m not even a musician. How could you possibly not know any of James’ tunes? The guy has been singing songs for five decades. He’s sold 40 million records. He has 40 gold, platinum and multi-platinum records, 5 Grammys, and was inducted in to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Oh, he’s in the prestigious Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, too. If that wasn’t enough, the biography on his website reads:

James Taylor’s music embodies the art of songwriting in its most fundamental form. He has been at it for decades: transforming introspective meditations into lyrics, melodies and harmonies that comfort and reassure the listener with the sense that these sometimes painful, sometimes celebratory moments are a part of life, shared by us all.

A part of life. Exactly. To Blunt, Barton, Brinkley: go to iTunes, there’s lots to listen to.

The New York Magazine has more in its Party Lines.

This is the second web app in as many days that’s wowed me. Indeed, a good week!