One of rock and roll's great achievements is helping to bridge the racial divide. Rock made it acceptable for white people to listen music created by African-Americans (or why the term "race record" is now outmoded) and for blacks and whites to socialize to hear music together. Which is why I kept shuddering watching the profile of Lyrnyrd Skynyrd on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The Confederate flag was a ubiquitous presence at their performances; they might as well have hung a huge sign, "Black people not welcome."

I was never a fan of Black Sabbath, but at this point I must acknowledge that they have been hugely influential on an entire genre of music. The Sex Pistols recorded only one studio album, but its impact was utterly cataclysmic. I'm not convinced that Miles Davis is rock and roll, but he was one of the greatest innovators in music. Blondie has it all going in spades. But Lynard Skynyrd is a two-hit-wonder that did little to advance rock and roll, and they had a habit of endorsing racial segregation.

Concert Recommendation: Billy Bragg and Jill Sobule, Double Door, March 20

Especially after hearing that Jill Sobule is opening, I was crushed that I won't be able to attend this show. For those who have somehow missed him over the years, Billy Bragg is the world's leading punk-inspired romantic, socialist folkie. While his music and his shows are filled with leftist opinion, his humor, approachability, genuine concern for others and self-deprecation make him palatable whatever one's political leanings. I've never come across another artist who makes a habit of emerging after his shows just to chat with fans. Billy is touring in support of a new box set that collects much of his early work.

Casual observers might dismiss Jill Sobule as a one-hit novelty act for "I Kissed a Girl," but she is a wry songwriter with a gift for catchy melodies and an eye for unexpected subject matter. For example, her last album, Underdog Victorious, offered a sympathetic ode to '60s sex symbol Joey Heatherton.

Billy Bragg and Jill Sobule play the Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, Chicago, 773.489.3160, at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, March 20.

Concert Review: The Wedding Present, Double Door, March 12

As David Gedge wrapped up the Wedding Present's set last night at the Double Door, he commented that it was past their bedtimes and probably the same for some of the audience, too. Amen. I was conflicted all evening, wanting them to play forever but also needing to get home and to sleep. And praying that I wouldn't go into labor in the middle of the concert because I'm incredibly pregnant, was enjoying the show so much and it would be a logistical nightmare to get home.

This wasn't only joke about the age of the band. He introduced, "Go Out And Get 'Em Boy!" their first single from 1985, by noting that the song was older than their current drummer. Judging by the drummer's (Charlie Layton?) youthful appearance, Gedge may not have been facetious. The set list drew songs from throughout the band's history, including a few Cinerama numbers since Gedge pointed out that the line-up for the two bands is now the same. While it was a blast to hear "Brassneck" and "Click Click," the latter enabled by female bass player's Terry de Castro providing backing vocals, it was an unexpected disappointment for them to exclude "Interstate 5," the haunting lead single off their latest album, Take Fountain.

All in all, the band were in fine form, starting with opening number "Corduroy," since Gedge dove in trying to saw his guitar in half with just his bare hands and a guitar pick. No wonder I still love this band.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to create a 120-song playlist for my iPod Shuffle to celebrate my upcoming 40th birthday. I wanted to include favorite songs and artists from throughout my life. After doing some fun "research" to help trigger memories (rifling through my LPs, reviewing my database of all the bands I've covered for publication, studying the track listings on Rhino's 1970s and new wave series), I came up with about 130 artists, sometimes with specific albums and songs in mind, which I then winnowed down to 120. The hardest part was choosing a single song by some artists. I used the following criteria in making the picks:

1. Only one song by any artist.
2. I didn't bother to note the album if it didn't matter to me, especially if I knew I'd be copying it from a compilation.
3. No songs that I'd included on previous mix tapes or CDs that I'd made for myself.
4. When in doubt, choose a song that evokes memories of a particular person or event.
5. Remember that there is no one, perfect answer. For example, I couldn't go wrong with either "London Calling" or "Police on My Back" in lieu of "The Magnificent Seven," my ultimate Clash selection.

While it may be outside the implied rule of blogging to engage in self-centered blathering, I'll skip the stories behind my choices because, in many cases, it would bore even the other people connected to the memories. But I did notice a few trends:

• I picked songs that reminded me of the deaths of both my grandmothers but neither of my grandfathers.
• I started to develop taste in music in about 1979 or 1980. Anything on the list from 1979 or earlier that's cool is probably something I discovered after the fact. Anything cheesy is probably what I loved at the time, and there's no point in being embarrassed about it now.
• A bunch of musicians made the list twice:
• Joe Strummer - Clash and solo
• Mick Jones - Clash and Big Audio Dynamite
• Pete Townshend - The Who and solo
• Karl Wallinger - The Waterboys and World Party
• David Gedge - The Wedding Present and Cinerama
• Most of the members of the Undertones and That Petrol Emotion
• Justin Harwood just missed on making the list twice; although a member of both the Chills and Luna, he wasn't in the frequently-shifting Chills line-up when they recorded "Pink Frost."
• I don't even want to think about how much of my favorite music is now out of print, so I'm glad to own what I do.

It's been a fun process selecting and assembling the playlist. I highly recommend it.

The selections:
A, You're Adorable
An Emotional Fish – An Emotional Fish - Celebrate
Animotion - Obsession
Armstrong, Louis - What A Wonderful World
Babes in Toyland – Fontenelle - Bluebell
Badly Drawn Boy – About a Boy – A Peak You Reach
Bats – Silverbeet – Sighting the Sound
Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty - Intergalactic
Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister – Me and the Major
Big Audio Dynamite – Rush
Blondie – Rapture
Bowie, David – Ziggy Stardust – Suffragette City
Bragg, Billy – Workers Playtime – Valentine’s Day Is Over
Buzzcocks – Operators Manual – What Do I Get?
Cars – Cars – You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
Catherine Wheel – Ferment – I Want to Touch You
Cave, Nick & the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey – The Mercy Seat
Chameleons - Strange Times - Swamp Thing
Chicago – 25 or 6 to 4
Chills – Kaleidoscope World - Pink Frost
Church – Starfish - Reptile
Cinerama – Disco Volante - Wow
Clash – Sandanista! – The Magnificent Seven
Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head – The Scientist
Cope, Julian – 20 Mothers – Greedhead Detector
Costello, Elvis – (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
Culture Club - Karma Chameleon
Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me – Why Can’t I Be You?
Cynics – Living Is the Best Revenge – Revenge
Dead Milkmen – Big Lizard in My Back Yard – Bitchin’ Camaro
Deee-Lite – World Clique - Groove Is in the Heart
Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell – Just Can’t Get Enough
Detroit Cobras – Hey Sailor
Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain – The Killing Moon
Ernie – A Sesame Street Celebration – Rubber Duckie
Fall - I Am Curious Orange - New Big Prinz
Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry - Going Out of My Head
Fatima Mansions – Viva Dead Ponies – Blues for Ceauseseu
Fine Young Cannibals – Fine Young Cannibals – Johnny, Come Home
Folds, Ben, Five – Ben Folds Five - Underground
Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers - Little Red Light
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax
Gang of Four – Damaged Goods
Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death – Birth, School, Work, Death
Grease – Summer Nights
Hitchcock, Robyn & the Egyptians – Respect – Wafflehead
Hives - Vene, Vidi, Vicious - Declare Guerre Nucleaire
Hoodoo Gurus – Stoneage Romeos – I Want You Back
Hunters & Collectors - Human Frailty – Throw Your Arms Around Me
Imperial Teen – What Is Not to Love – Yoo Hoo
Inspiral Carpets – Life – Commercial Rain
Interpol – Antics - Evil
INXS – Shabooh Shoobah – Don’t Change
Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy – Just Like Honey
Joel, Billy - Just the Way You Are
John, Elton – Philadelphia Freedom
King and I - Getting to Know You
Love & Rockets – Lift – R.I.P 20 C.
Luna – Bewitched – Friendly Advice
Lush – Lovelife - Ladykillers
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs – Papa Was a Rodeo
McLean, Don – American Pie
Ministry – A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste – Burning Inside
Moby – Play – Honey
Mooney Suzuki - Electric Sweat - In a Young Man's Mind
Mudhoney – Mudhoney – You Got It
Muppet Movie – Rainbow Connection
Nena – 99 Luftballons
New Order – Temptation
Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral – I Do Not Want This
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Numan, Gary – Pleasure Principle - Cars
Ocean Blue – Ocean Blue – Drifting, Falling
O'Day, Alan - Undercover Angel
Partridge Family – Partridge Family Album – Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque
Pixies – Doolittle – Debaser
Police – Reggatta de Blanc – The Bed’s Too Big Without You
Pop Will Eat Itself – Cure for Sanity – Dance of the Mad Bastards
Pop, Iggy – Lust for Life
Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
Push Kings - Macy, Macy
R.E.M. – Document – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Radiohead – Kid A – Optimistic
Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away
Reed, Lou – Magic and Loss – No Change
Replacements – Tim – Kiss Me on the Bus
Reunion – Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)
Romantics – What I Like About You
Salt-n-Pepa - Push It
Screaming Blue Messiahs – Bikini Red – Big Brother Muscle
Siouxsie & the Banshees – Peepshow – Peek-AYBoo
Smiths – Meat Is Murder - How Soon Is Now
Sobule, Jill – Pink Pearl – One of These Days
Sonic Youth – Goo – Kool Thing
Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom – Down To It
Springsteen, Bruce – The River - Cadillac Ranch
Stone Roses – Stone Roses – This Is the One
Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free - Fit But You Know It
Strokes – Is This It – Barely Legal
Strummer, Joe – Streetcore – All in a Day
Talking Heads – Fear of Music - Life During Wartime
Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair - Shout
That Petrol Emotion – Babble – Swamp
The The - Infected
Therapy? – Troublegum - The Knives
Townshend, Pete – Slit Skirts
U2 – War – New Year’s Day
UB40 – Labour of Love – Red Red Wine
Undertones – Teenage Kicks
Vaughn, Ben – M- Motor Vehicle
Village People - YMCA
Violet Femmes – Violet Femmes – Add It Up
Waits, Tom - Bone Machine - I Don't Want to Grow Up
Waterboys – This Is the Sea - Whole of the Moon
Wedding Present – Bizarro - Brassneck
Who - Quadrophenia - Love Reign O'er Me
Wonder Stuff – Eight-Legged Groove Machine - Unbearable
Wonder, Stevie - Songs in the Key of Life - Sir Duke
World Party – Egyptology – Love Is Best

I've liked plenty of bands with a single leader and ever-changing line-up, i.e. the Chills and the Wedding Present, but I had not previously realized just how much turnover the Fall had experienced, the only constant being Mark E. Smith. The Guardian ran a piece, "Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall?" in which writer Dave Simpson attempted to track down more than 40 former band members, many of  whom told fascinating tales of being recruited and/or fired abruptly. It's the second time I've read recently that Smith constantly shakes up the line-up as an intended strategy to keep the music fresh, that it is not an inadvertent effect of his cantankerous personality. It also reaffirms my perception that there is no such thing as a mediocre Fall show: "'Smith doesn't do average,' says bassist Steve Hanley, who met me in a Manchester pub. 'He'd rather do 10 great gigs and 10 rubbish gigs than anything in the middle.'"

Make your own Fall Out Boy jokes.

When the Wedding Present announced a few months ago that they were planning a North American tour for 2006, I feared that they would hit Chicago shortly after my new baby is born and I'd have to miss them again. But the new year is off to a great start: they are scheduled to play the Double Door on March 12, almost two weeks before my due date. Considering that I made it to the Fall and the Strokes three weeks before my due date with my first child and Fountains of Wayne three days before, I'll certainly buy advance tickets and hope the baby doesn't arrive early.

However, I'll hold off on the Wedding Present baby t-shirt for the new kid since my son has never had a strong reaction to the band's CDs, not the way he has with the Ramones, which warranted the purchase of his Ramones shirt.

WXRT is finally showing Little Steven the love he deserves. Little Steven's Underground Garage was ostensibly airing on WCKG, but good luck finding it. Who knows what obscure hours they had shunted it off to, especially since they couldn't be bothered to list its correctly scheduled time on their web site. (If I had enough free time and spite, I'd check for how long it takes them to finally remove it from their site.)

Not only will the show now air on WXRT 93.1 FM, possibly the only commercial radio station left in Chicago where DJs have any say over their playlists, but they're giving it a proper kick-off. Lin Brehmer will be interviewing Little Steven on Monday morning. The show will air Monday nights from 10 p.m. to midnight.

I attended a 40th birthday party recently. Most of the music was by the Who and Led Zeppelin, which left me thinking about the fact that my music taste continued to evolve well after high school and college. Since I'll be turning 40 myself next year, I started contemplating the perfect birthday mix. Starting from the premise that my iPod Shuffle holds about 120 songs, I figured I should come up with three songs from each year of my life. Then my mind started spinning with all the ways I could interpret this concept: my favorite songs at each age versus music that I've discovered after the fact, i.e. is "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day a better representative song for 1977 than the Ramones' "Teenage Lobotomy"? Should I include songs which aren't necessarily my favorites but I so strongly associate with specific times in my life, such as how "Relax:" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and "Push It" by Salt-N-Pepa were the party staples that bookended my college years. Should "Head Like a Hole" be classified as 1989, the year Pretty Hate Machine was released, or 1990, when I first saw Nine Inch Nails and went on to see them twice more in just a few months? How do I narrow down to one favorite song by the Clash, the Police or the Cars?

I have about four months to work on this project, but I've already reached two conclusions. One is that I'll finally need to get software to digitize my vinyl, if only because it would be more convenient to have "Macy, Macy" by the Push Kings on something other than a single. The other is to not fret over making the perfect mix that strictly adheres to a precise set of self-imposed rules and just assemble 120 songs that will make me happy.

I hope to post the complete playlist in the future.

The Tribune ran a round-up of reunions and comebacks, including joking about how hardly anyone remembered New Zealand's Straitjacket Fits well enough to have noticed that they reunited in April. Fellow Flying Nun labelmates the Bats are so far off the radar that they didn't even warrant mention, despite releasing their first studio album in a decade, The Bats at the National Grid. Fortunately, WLUW is all over it, playing a track every time I turn on the radio, it seems. Ah, cozy, jangly New Zealand pop at its finest!

Concert Recommendation: Seu Jorge, Empty Bottle, Tuesday, September 20

I didn't get a chance in advance to mention Seu Jorge's show last night at the Logan Square Auditorium, but it sold out, so plenty of people heard about it anyway. Due to some customs issues for the artist originally scheduled to appear at the Empty Bottle on Tuesday night, Jorge is filling in for another Chicago appearance.

Don't know who he is? Check out The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. On the whole, the movie was too arch, but it had lots of cool and funny moments. The Brazilian Jorge provided many of the cool ones, singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese, accompanied on acoustic guitar. Should make for an intriguing evening of entertainment.

Seu Jorge plays at the Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave., Chicago, 773.276.3600 on Tuesday, September 20 at 9:45 p.m.

The members of the Music Library Association are doing their best to destroy the image of librarians as stodgy. To illustrate this point, I present the following, with contact information removed for the sake of privacy, especially since only MLA members can enter. I'm already composing my entry, which I may post here after the deadline.

MLA 75th ANNIVERSARY BLUES LYRIC COMPETITION

The Ad hoc Committee on MLA's 75th Anniversary is pleased to announce the MLA 75th ANNIVERSARY BLUES LYRIC COMPETITION. The competition, which feeds off of--and, we hope, honors--anniversary host city Memphis's valid claim as the "Birthplace of the Blues," is open to all individual members-in-good-standing of MLA with the exception of a) the panel of judges; b) the Ad hoc Committee on MLA's 75th Anniversary; and c) MLA's Board of Directors.

The contest begins as soon as you see either this notice on MLA-L or its counterpart, soon to appear in the Sept./Oct. MLA Newsletter--in other words, now!

Winners will have their blues performed by members of the MLA Big Band during the pre-banquet cocktail hour in Memphis. Our first-prize winner will take home a 4-CD set from JSP Records entitled Masters of Memphis Blues, which has generously been donated by ...

CONTEST RULES

1. Lyrics must somehow reflect or involve music librarians and/or music librarianship.

2. Lyrics must be humorous.

3. Lyrics must fit a standard, 12-bar blues of one type or another.

4. A submission may contain lyrics for one, two, or three 12-bar blues chorus stanzas. (Contestants need not submit three stanzas; three is just the maximum.)

5. Contestants should be prepared to offer an example of an existing, recorded blues to which their lyrics could be performed, to assist the Big Band in preparation. "To be sung to the tune of 'Move It On Over' as recorded by George Thorogood" is an acceptable direction. Contestants should also be prepared to clarify by phone any rhythmic ambiguities or "text underlay issues."

6. Only one entry per person.

7. Entries may be sent either via postal mail, postmarked 13 January 2006 at the latest, to . . .

8. The decisions of the judges (subject to approval by the MLA Board) are final.

9. A maximum of three entries will be selected for performance during the pre-MLA-banquet cocktail hour, with the 1st-prize winner to be featured last.

BLUES LYRIC TIPS, AND SOME CULTURAL GUIDELINES

To get contestants in the spirit, the following points are suggested, though none should be considered a hard-and-fast rule:

1. A standard blues chorus usually consists of two lines (the first lne, the first line repeated once, and the second line).

a. A lyric in active first-person tense is a good way to begin. "Woke up this morning" is a standard first phrase. "Took the bus downtown" is unusual, but much bluesier than "Drove my car uptown."

b. To complete your first blues line, allow a rest of two beats, then add a second clause: "Took the bus downtown (rest, rest), to get my fortune read."

c. Usually the first line is repeated to serve as the second line of a blues, so make it good, and leave your listeners hanging for the next new line.

d. The third line of a blues is the punch line--you are telling jokes, in a way. And make it rhyme with your first line. "I got off at the Peabody, to find the gypsy Fred." (On seeing this lowbrow example from the judges, contestants should feel encouraged to submit better lyrics.)

e. Contestants are welcome to take an existing blues and base their lyrics on the tune. After all, that is what many blues musicians do. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" is a good example of a blues. "Rock Around the Clock" and "Move It On Over" are in a different, but very acceptable verse-and-refrain blues form. "Blue Hawaii" is not a blues, even if it was sung by Elvis Presley.


2. The blues is a feeling. The following are some cultural bases for libraries:

a. You don't find the blues, the blues find you. Anyone looking for trouble usually deserves it. That is especially true for patrons with overdue books.

b. To have the blues, it helps more to be too hot than to be too cold. No one ever heard of a bluesman named Blind Joe Eskimo.

c. Dark, shaded areas like jails and juke joints are good places for the blues. In libraries, good dark places for the blues would be the stacks, or the storage room for book sale donations. So would the staff lounge, if at least one bulb is burned out. Technical services areas are generally too bright for the blues.

d. It helps to have a sense of ironic humor to sing the blues. That's why library administrators are not known to have the blues.

e. Blues is about doing with what you have. A library booktruck with over 15 years of use is as blues as a dented Chevy station wagon. A brand-new Pentium with a DVD burner and surround-sound speakers is not blues at all.

Finally got around to listening to Waiting for the Sirens' Call, New Order's latest album. The most accurate assessment is that it sounds like a New Order album. At its best is "Krafty," with a Stephen Morris's danceable beat, Peter Hook's bass in the forefront, synthesizer swashes from whoever has replaced Gillian Gilbert (now home with her and Stephen's kids), all topped off guitar riffs and vocals from Bernard Sumner. And it has a stereotypical New Order song title: concise and with no obvious relationship to the lyrics. The disc bottoms out towards the end with "Jetstream" and "Guilt Is a Useless Emotion," mainly because of the cloying female backing vocals, making it similar to the remixed versions of their hits on 1987's Substance compilation. At the time, it is just made the songs monotonous; now it sounds dated, a cheesy '80s production value that inspires no nostalgia.

Despite the inconceivable amount of destruction and despair in Katrina's wake, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield expressed some beautiful, eloquent thoughts on the symbolism of jazz and New Orleans on NPR's Morning Edition today:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4829486

On the other hand, New York City is in fine shape these days except for one legendary music spot on the Bowery.  CBGB's, the birthplace of punk, has lost its lease, and its landlord has refused to renew it despite pleas from the music community and many members of the city council.  The Village Voice has the story.
http://villagevoice.com/music/0536,sotc1,67478,22.html

Interesting interview with Echo & the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch on RollingStone.com, particularly because it bodes well for their upcoming album Siberia. McCulloch acknowledges what has been my complaint with the band's recent work, that it's essentially a McCulloch solo effort on which guitarist Will Sergeant happens to appear. But the new disc finds them working as a band again. I'll believe when I hear it, but to hear McCulloch describe it, you might actually be able to tell that Sergeant is playing on this album.

The band hits the Metro in Chicago on Friday, November 25.

I had previously defended the Mooney Suzuki for working with trendy producers the Matrix, figuring there was only so much that the producers could do to fuck up a great band's sound. I was wrong. I bought Alive & Amplified on an impulse, discounting the poor reviews I'd glanced at. On their previous '60s-influenced disc, Electric Sweat, they gave shout-outs to Pete Townshend by name on "In a Young Man's Mind" and with reverential power chords on "I Woke Up This Mornin'" (currently on display in the Mitchum Man series of commercials). But the new album embraces the '80s in bad ways. We can blame the production team for the histrionic female back-up singers, but there's no excuse for a hair metal band-worthy tune about getting it in with groupies.

Although I lived in Philadelphia in 1985, I made no attempt to get tickets to Live Aid and even skipped town the day of the show, heading to New York for the weekend. Although I was, and still am, a huge music fan, my taste at the time was heavily Anglophilic. So all of the acts I would have been interested in seeing were playing in London, not Philly.

Likewise, I paid little attention to Live 8, even though I could have gotten to the Philly show without much inconvenience. By now, my taste in music is just too obscure to devote my time to such mainstream acts. I wish Bob Geldolf et al. the best of luck in their noble goals, but I was just as happy to watch live Tour de France coverage on Saturday.

Good news for the Double Door. The owners of the Wicker Park music venue and its landlord struck a deal to keep the place open. Throngs turned up in court today in support of the club as they were about to start the trial over the lease dispute. The Double Door web site has more details, but the short version is that the landlord claimed that the tenants didn't provide proper notice to renew their lease. The Double Door claimed that they had done so and that the landlord was just trying to force them out to replace them with a chain retail store. The Tribune has the full story.

Others will trot out names like Liz Phair, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Rolling Stones as proof of what an important institution it is, but my own list of highlights for the club skews more towards the obscure, which is why it's important to have clubs with capacity for a few hundred. Some life-affirming performances I've seen there:

New Bomb Turks
Magnetic Fields
Idlewild
Detroit Cobras
You Am I
Cynics
Therapy?

It was also one of the locations in High Fidelity, a movie about obsessive love of music. Lounge Ax, where another scene was filmed, has closed since the movie was shot six years ago. I'd hate to see the list of closed venues grow.

It's time for another post-WLUW-fund-drive CD review round-up. As much as I love the station, I still don't like to listen to the fund-raising blather, which in some cases is even more boring than the usual DJ blather.

The Kaiser Chiefs are another '80s post-punk influenced band, sounding vaguely like Gang of Four, XTC, etc. Their debut Employment gets off to a raucous start with "Every Day I Love You Less and Less." But there's so much filler that it doesn't bode well for a long-term career.

When I reviewed Madeline Peyroux's debut Dreamland in 1996, I commented that a chanteuse was a welcome change of pace after too many divas.  These days, Celine is too busy working Vegas and Whitney is too busy working rehab for either to be dominating the charts, but in the American Idol era, vocal subtlety is still an underappreciated art. Peyroux's new disc Careless Love mines the same Billie Holiday territory as Dreamland, to the point that I really wonder why she needed eight years to issue a follow-up. I can only guess that it took the popularity of Norah Jones to resuscitate label interest in genre, which makes the album feel like more of a lifestyle accessory than music.

The best thing I've heard lately is Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out.  The title says exactly what it is, but it must be heard to be believed. Recorded over several years on an 8-track deck, Haden sings the album in its entirety a cappella, including the instrumental parts. She even recreates the original album art, replicating the scenes of each of the band members. The results are amusing, fascinating and beautiful. The arrangement makes the lyrics more distinct. Haden's concept draws attention to what an ambitious, original and half-ludicrous idea the original was: an album that includes commercials. The highlight is "I Can See For Miles," which, along with the Police's "Every Breath You Take," is one of the loveliest songs about stalking ever written.

I've been troubled by the widespread suppression of dissent that has become so commonplace under the current President. It's bad enough when it is carried out by the government, but its even worse when nongovernmental bodies do the same out of fear of backlash. I'm a big enough Nine Inch Nails fan to have seen them about 10 times, to still cling to my well-worn Pretty Hate Machine tour t-shirt and to buy their new albums the week of release. Until now, I've never known anything about Trent's political opinions, so obviously he's not one to really wear them on his sleeve. But MTV was so alarmed that they would have an image of George W. Bush as a backdrop while playing "The Hand That Feeds," that NIN decided to pull out of the MTV awards rather than ditch the photo.

The full statement is on the band's official web site, and I was surprised that MTV.com actually covered this in their news section.  MTV's official statement in response says they were "uncomfortable with their performance being built around a partisan political statement." As political statements go, it's a rather vague one. Therefore, the situation is all that more disturbing, that MTV is afraid of a single artist who merely hints at disagreeing with the current administration.

Concert Review: Gang of Four, Radio 4, Metro, Chicago, Wednesday, May 11

If a decade or two ago I had ever seen New Order, the Pixies or Wire put on as great a show as Gang of Four did on Wednesday night, I would have had second thoughts about skipping their recent reunion tours. While those other bands certainly recorded a bunch of great songs over the years, there was little point in going to their concerts. For all their charisma and stage presence, one could be just as entertained putting all their CDs on shuffle and spending the night on the sofa.

Not so Gang of Four. Dave Allen, Andy Gill and John King prowled, pranced and pounced on the stage, even if Hugo Burnham was a tad detached behind his drum kit. It was hard to decide what was best about "To Hell with Poverty," that is was instantly recognizable from the first searing guitar chord or that the lyrics were still so relevant in the current era of Republican callousness.

Dave Allen and I were both laid off by the same company when the dot com bubble burst. While I'm glad that, like me, he other skills to fall back on, I can't help but be jealous that his new job is lots cooler than mine as a librarian, even if I do get to spend the taxpayers' money on Gang of Four CDs.

Even if Radio 4 haven't carved a more unique identity than "Gang of Four admirers with more complex percussion," they have written some good songs in their own right. I finally figured out why they haven't connected as a live act. Especially after seeing the hyperactive Gang of Four, I realized that part of the problem is that, with all their gear, Radio 4 have nowhere to move around on stage even if they wanted to. But the bigger problem is simply the sound mix. The bass is cranked so high it drowns out all the other instruments, particularly the scratchy guitar.