TIME ILLUSTRATED

Time magazine does the ubiquitous debt relief/Bono article which is all fine and dandy, but we would like to draw attention to their, frankly scary, Bono illustration.

Congratulations are in order for U2.com for winning the ‘Online Pioneer’ prize at the UK Online Music Awards: ‘for the work of U2.Com in supporting the bands efforts in the campaign to cancel the debts of the worlds poorest countries.’

HE NEEDS TO DO HIS

Which, apparently, is ‘work’. Salon sketchily reports on the recording of What’s going on, with a mood piece on the role of the hardest working man in music, who, according to Leigh Blake, who initiated the project, is ‘the real deal’.

NEW-RELEASE ROUNDUP

The swag just keeps coming. U2SwissHome give us the tracklists for all of the new European ‘Walk On’ singles, as well as the European ELEVATION LIVE DVD. (We presume it’ll keep the same content in other territories). ‘Walk On’ gets a DVD single, as well as the usual two-disc three-tracks set and a two-track version, the highlights of which singles include the “Nigel Godrich Mix” of ‘Walk On’ as well as several new live recordings from Boston and Toronto, plus the official release of the acoustic ‘Stuck…’ The big news on the DVD front is that it does NOT contain the full Boston concert — ‘Mysterious Ways’, ‘Pride’, and ‘One’ have all gone missing (!) — though it does have a bevy of special features, including a video of ‘Elevation’ live from the tour opener in Miami. Anyway, for more details, go check out U2SwissHome‘s News section, though we warn you that everything except the information you’re looking for is in German.

A LOVE SUPREME

And in ‘vaguely related’ news, today is the 75th anniversary of jazz man John Coltrane‘s birth. [NY Times link, registration required]: Musicians far removed from [ Coltrane ] stylistically and likely to define their own music in the most secular terms have embraced him as a role model, or at least have recognized the high seriousness they can claim for themselves by dropping his name. He has come to stand for a disciplined mind-set, a desire for spiritual ecstasy, a vision of music as ritual and of performance as a holy rite.

Birdland on fifty-three
The street sounds like a symphony
We got John Coltrane and a love supreme
Miles says she’s got to be an angel

– Angel of Harlem

More about A Love Supreme.

WHAT’S GOIN’ ON

The Bono-organized AIDS/WTC Disaster benefit single, the remake of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” featuring such artists as Britney Spears, N’Sync, Alicia Keys, Destiny’s Child, Nelly, Ja Rule, Fred Durst, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Michael Stipe, ?uestlove, Nelly Furtado, The Backstreet Boys, P. Diddy, and Jermaine Dupri (among others), has had its video premiere on MTV’s TRL and on several US radio stations today.

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