Video Of The Week: Whip Your Hair

The Straight Lines video of the week this week comes to us from the stages of late night television. Upon Bruce Springsteen's release of the The Promise, he hit Jimmy Fallon's show for a few performances and interview. The real surprise though was his duet with Neil Young. Well, if you could look closely, you will see in the video that it isn't really Neil playing with Bruce, but a damn good impersonator. Some really funny stuff. Enjoy!

Foo Fighters Move To Garage?

In a recent interview with Q Magazine, Foo Fighter front-man, Dave Grohl, stated that he and the band recorded their upcoming new album in his garage. In the magazine, Grohl says, "Rather than just record the album in the most expensive studio with the most state-of-the-art equipment, what if Butch and I were to get back together after 20 years and dust off the tape machines and put them in my garage?' I literally backed the minivan out of the garage, pulled the lawnmower out, put a drum set in it and set up mics. We soundproofed the garage door so that my neighbors wouldn't call the f*****g cops."

On the new album, Grohl reunites with former Nirvana producer, Butch Vig, and also does a song with longtime friend and former Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic.

The new Foo Fighter record does not currently have a specific release date, but should hit stores sometime next year.

Video Of The Week: Billie Joe Headed For Broadway

Billie Joe Armstrong is headed back to Broadway. After making a guest appearance and starring as St. Jimmy in the Broadway production of American Idiot in September, Armstrong has now signed on for 50 more performances. In September when Armstrong was starring, the production made over one million dollars.

Armstrong will reprise the St. Jimmy role starting in January and ending on February 27th.

With this breaking news, this week's video of the week will give you a taste of what to expect with Billie leading the charge on Broadway. The video of the week comes to you from the stage of American Idiot starring Billie Joe of Green Day. It's only a taste, but it surely will give you a new found reason to go New York City. Enjoy!!

Chicago Weekend Concert Info 11/26-11/28

Here is this weekend's Chicago concert information. Enjoy!

Schubas
11/26 - Bear Hands, Netherfriends, Team Band
11/27 - Michael Tolcher, Nomo, In Tall Buildings
11/28 - Stornoway, Franz Nicoly and Major General

Lincoln Hall
11/26 - The Flavor Savers, The Sweeps, Meagon Hickman
11/27 - The Sea and Cake, Brighton MA

Bottom Lounge
11/26 - Matt Skiba, Brendan Kelly
11/27 - Bruno Mars, Davenport Ed, Tim Cali

Cubby Bear
11/26 - Jip Jop, Mama Dempsey
11/27 - Rod Tuffcurls and The Bench Press

Elbo Room
11/26 - The Northern Skies, S. Joel Normon, The Spectral Folk
11/27 - Moon Rook, Circus Bear, Coyote Camaro, OnYourMarx
11/28 - Michael Liuzza Band, Tom Fuller Band, Bridges Of Koenigsberg

Smashing Pumpkins Add To Teargarden by Kaleidyscope

The Smashing Pumpkins have released volume two of their Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project. Teargarden by Kaleidyscope is a 44 song project that is being released one song at a time. As the project has progressed, when the band has enough songs for a legitimate EP, they have bundled up four to five songs and moved ahead with a release. Volume two is titled The Solstice Bare and contains the songs "Freak," "The Fellowship," "Tom Tom" and "Spangled," along with "Cottonwood Symphony," which is an unreleased B-side track.

Many of these songs can be downloaded for free from their individual releases but it surely is nice to see the band actually putting out CD's again. The volume one release, Songs For A Sailor, was very well received and is becoming increasingly hard to find worldwide.

Bush Confuses Bono for Bono

George W. Bush is at it again. This time reeking havoc in the music world. In his new autobiography, Decision Points, Bush admits that he mistook U2's Bono for Sonny Bono. According to the book, when his advisers asked if he knew who the legendary rocker was after meeting him, Bush responded saying he thought Bono was the man who "used to be married to Cher."

The guy never ceases to amaze...

Beatles, iTunes...What's the Big Deal?

The Beatles' music is finally available on iTunes...so what? It's not like they are U2, signing on at the cutting edge and using a new single to promote a new technology. And it's not like the Beatles' music has been unavailable, making iTunes a savior for long-lost treasures.

It's just that the Beatles and Apple finally settled their score so the Beatles' music is available for $1.29 per song or $12.99 per entire album (with double albums at $19.99). Again, what's the big deal? For a few bucks more (and keep an eye out for online sales aiming to compete with iTunes) you can own the remastered CD.

And the fact is that most fans, casual or not, already own LPs and/or some generation of CD whether it be original 1987 CD issues, the recent stereo or mono remasters, or even the way cool little green apple with music and videos stored at an ultra-high-performance level USB stick. So why would anyone buy these digital downloads from iTunes? You can copy from CD to computer and iPod and any sound you get that way is going to be no worse (and probably better) than the sound quality of anything you can download from iTunes. Plus, iTunes is focused on downloading single songs where the Beatles, especially from 1965's Rubber Soul on, were all about albums - longer pieces of music made up of single songs that belong together. Sgt. Pepper might be considered the first concept album, and though the concept itself might be elusive the songs do hold together: "A Day in the Life" is a great piece of songwriting that stands on its own, but it's the perfect ending and stands even stronger as the coda to that record.

So if you already own the Beatles' music there's little reason for you to buy from iTunes; if for some reason you don't own it, head to your local music store (do those exist anymore?) or go to Amazon or Music Direct and pay for the CDs. You get the packaging, liner notes, something to hold in your hand, better sound, the individual songs in order -- the complete package as the Beatles intended. Plus, you'll always have them to upload to whatever new piece of technology comes along when the iPod has run its course.