Everything That Happens Is Terrific

It's been very quiet here at the lab today. I've been doing morphology stuff and, since I found a recycled pair of miniature computer speakers for $1.99, I've been listening to the new Byrne/Eno album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

It's hard to slap a musical label on this. Pop? Alternative? Whatever. It's Brian Eno's music and David Byrne's lyrics. It's brilliantly introspective. It sounds like David Byrne looking back over his long and illustrious and productive career and just accepting it all. It's the human condition through Byrne's eyes which, he seems to know, aren't as young as they used to be... and that's all right. It's all OK in the end. This is a man looking through the years and into the future and embracing every bit of it.

It's beautiful, it's honest, and it's entirely unpretentious.

One sad day I will fly away,
and one sad day I will tiptoe away.

— "The River"

Not anytime soon, I hope. This is great music at every level.

What are you waiting for? Go listen to the free stream. You can hear the entirety of every song on the album free of charge. Don't take my word for it.

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Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

David Byrne and Brian Eno's new album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, has been released. It can be streamed for free as well as purchased in a number of formats: MP3's with digital lyrics booklet and art ($8.99), a CD plus digital material ($11.99), or in a limited edition package with all sorts of bonus material ($69.99).

I'm just going with the first option. Seventy bucks is a bit steep for me these days. I've listened to the single "Strange Overtones," which has proven to be an infectious one indeed, and "Home," which reminds me in some ways of the material from very early on (More Songs About Buildings and Food in particular) but also a little of Speaking in Tongues.

Anyhow, it's great to have a new Byrne/Eno album after all these years and I can't wait for the show in Boston on Halloween! It's nice to start the morning off with something this pleasant.

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David Byrne Tour Dates Announced, Free Song Available

The dates for David Byrne's tour in support of the forthcoming album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, have been announced. Click here for the dates!

I'm surprised to see that there's only one date scheduled for New England, but it's at the Wang Center in Boston on Halloween! I've been to at least 25 David Byrne shows and this will be my first Halloween concert. It should be a blast!

The song "Strange Overtones" is also available today to download for free. When you sign up to get the free song, you'll also be put on a mailing list for news and info about the album and tour.

In his blog, Byrne writes:

I'm also wondering whether the web-curious will allow news of the album to spread more or less by itself. In the past, I might have undertaken all kinds of expensive marketing plans to prepare for a record release: there would be a teaser, live shows, posters, magazine ads, interviews, and advance CDs sent to writers and reviewers. We've done a few interviews, but that's about it. It will be interesting to see if audiences find out about this song — and the record — without all those marketing techniques, and solely through Internet word-of-mouth.

Heck yeah!

Spread the word; the new song is definitely different from Byrne and Eno's previous collaboration (it's not a thing like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts material, for instance). It's got a sort of laid-back funky feeling that reminds me more of some of the stuff on Look into the Eyeball, but it's not exactly like anything on that album, either. I like what I'm hearing and I'm psyched for a show! I haven't seen David Byrne since I left California... and that's far too long.

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David Byrne and Brian Eno Announce New Album and Tour

David Byrne and Brian Eno have just finished their first collaboration in nearly 30 years. Entitled Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, the new album is being self-released and the first single from the album, "Strange Overtones," will be available for free at everythingthathappens.com next week. You can sign up now to receive a reminder when it's ready for download.

Tour dates are to be announced soon; it will begin in September. More info at David Byrne's Journal.

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Artifact

As much as I've moved around in my life and as much stuff as I've acquired and subsequently gotten rid of over the years, there are a very few things I would never consider disposing of. This is one of them:


I bought this at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton, New York in 1983 when Talking Heads played there in support of their album, Speaking in Tongues. I was a freshman in college for the first time and had just begun dating a woman named Emma. The show, in fact, was our very first date, if I recall correctly. It's been awhile. I do have one other reminder of Emma, though — a deformed left collarbone that resulted from its having been broken when I rolled off the hood of her car at 30 mph. We'd had a fight, I didn't want her to leave angry, I was young and rash, and I thought that if I sat on the hood of her car that she wouldn't drive away with me on it. I was very, very wrong.

I had already seen Talking Heads several times before this tour, but nothing I'd seen previously of them was comparable to the amazing production of that concert.

I have worn this shirt all of a half dozen times in the 25 years I've owned it. It has traveled with me from New York to Pennsylvania to California to Florida to Massachusetts. I'm sure it doesn't fit anymore; the 17-year old who bought it is now a 42-year old and, to put it kindly, my body has been through a few changes since I shelled out the $10 to buy this. It's so old and the fabric so thin and cheaply made that I wouldn't even venture to try wearing it now. I'd be too concerned that it would disintegrate and I could never replace it.

Unless that happens, I'll be holding onto this souvenir until I myself disintegrate.

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Get Well Wishes for David Byrne

David Byrne took a spill from his bicycle a few days ago and is currently recovering from two broken ribs. He tells of how it happened in this entry in David Byrne Journal. Since his journal doesn't allow comments and I don't know his email address, I'll note my hopes that his recovery is speedy here where he probably won't ever see them.

I got to meet David in San Francisco seven years ago, at which time he signed a copy of a book for me:

Seven years later, I get to return the comment he wrote at the bottom.

Watch Yourself, David! There's only one of you, and we can't have you broken!

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Adrian Belew Tonight

LL and I are headed out in a bit to see the Adrian Belew Power Trio at the Natick Center for the Arts with my adviser. It turns out that he and I have very similar tastes in music.

This is the first concert we've been to since we saw Marcel Khalife back in November and only the second one since waaaaay back when we saw The Cramps in St. Petersburg, Florida. That's when we were living in Tampa — somewhere around four years ago, I guess.

That's kind of pathetic. When we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, we used to see a lot of shows. Of course, we had a lot more money back then and there was a lot more music in which we were interested. There wasn't much in Tampa Bay and nothing at all while we were in Tallahassee. One good things about living where we do now is that it's close to Boston, a big city and major market, so it gets a lot more of the kind of music we're into. Then again, we're still relatively broke students, too.

Last time I saw Adrian Belew, he was playing live with the Talking Heads while they toured for Remain in Light, or maybe it was Speaking in Tongues. Yes, it's been a very long time!

I wonder if David Byrne will be in the audience tonight. It's possible...

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David Byrne Visits Ikea

While I'm plugging other people's blogs today, I should mention that one of my favorites is that written by David Byrne, aptly entitled David Byrne's Journal. As some people who know me will tell you, I'm a huge fan of Byrne's work, musically and otherwise, and consider him to be one of the artistic geniuses of our time. I've been reading his journal for at least five years now, long enough to remember when he used to allow comments.

In a recent entry, Byrne recounts his experience of a visit to an IKEA store in New York. His take on the place is witty and unique, a joy to read about... and you should already be reading it. A voyage to Planet Sweden with Byrne is far too much fun to miss out upon!

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Byrne's Brilliant

I've been reading David Byrne's blog almost since he started it, but today he wrote what I thought was one of the most insightful things I've seen from him. Here's a link to his entry, which has to do with religious belief and how it can be used to propagandize whole societies. He draws a very sharp link between the radicalized Muslim views of the west encountered along the Afghanistan—Pakistan border and the kinds of charges the American religious right like to level against those who don't agree with them here.

Anyone reading this really ought to click over there now. I wish he allowed comments; I'd like to compliment him on what he's written, but barring that, this is the best I can do.

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