2 Years

It was two years ago last week that Hurricane Katrina hit Lousiana, causing some of the worst damages that the US has ever seen from a hurricane, at least in recent memory. Almost 2,000 people died as a result of the storm, and thousands more had to relocate. And two years on, the area still hasn't recovered. New Orleans still has massive problems with healthcare, crime and housing.

The Saints Are Coming (Live at New Orleans) - U2 / Green Day

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C&O

This week's Cover and Original is of one song that I like quite a bit, and by two bands that I like (One more than the other, but they're both fantastic bands) The song is Time, originally by Pink Floyd, off the brilliant Dark Side of the Moon. Covering the song this week is Carbon Leaf, with their own live version. While I'm a huge fan of Carbon Leaf's, this cover's faithful, but doesn't quite capture the sound and feel of the original one. It's a faithful version though, and one that's quite well done.

Time - Pink Floyd
Time - Carbon Leaf

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Elvis to Eminem: Quantifying the Price of Fame

This is interesting - Researchers at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University have come up with a study that shows exactly how rock stars face their mortality by showing that they're more likely to die than any other average joe. Duh. But the fact that it's quantifiable is interesting. They go through and look at people's backgrounds and causes of death, as well as their track record and was focused on over a thousand artists between the United States and Europe. Average age of death? 42 for those from North America and 35 for European Artists. And, the first five years of fame are the most dangerous.

Read the full study here: http://jech.bmj.com/preprint/bellis.pdf

New Bruce Springsteen Video - Radio Nowhere

Lots of videos this week. Bruce Springsteen has also released the video for his latest single, Radio Nowhere:

Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen

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New Foo Fighters Video: The Pretender

This just hit the Youtube airwaves last night - a new Foo Fighters video for their latest single, The Pretender. Its' s a fantastic one, really good camera work and angles, and it's really in step with the song:

The Pretender - Foo Fighters

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Military History

I went to a military college as a civilian, and now work at the school's graduate school, in the military history department. I'm liking the fact that I have a) just graduated and now have a regular job and b) get to work in the field that I majored in. It's pretty cool. Yesterday, we started our latest set of classes, and to commemorate this, a couple of songs about military history.

The War Was In Color is a fantastic Carbon Leaf song, really dark and a really moving story about the Second World War. Yankee Bayonet is a fantastic Decemberists song about the American Civil War. Third up is Fortunate Son, by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a Vietnam War era protest song about the military conscription. Bom Bom Bom is a song out of this current conflict by a band called Living Things, and really embodies the mentality of a typical 18 year old soldier going out to war in the Middle East, at least with Gulf War 1 or 2. And to end this list, Ashokan Farewell, which sounds like a period piece, but it was the main theme in the fantastic Ken Burns series, The Civil War, and is generally associated with the conflict. If you're interested at all in World War 2, I'd recommend checking out Ken Burn's upcoming documentary, called The War, which will be released later this month on PBS. If his earlier works have been any indication, this one's going to be fantastic.

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) - The Decemberists
The War Was In Color - Carbon Leaf
Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bom Bom Bom - Living Things
Ashokan Farewell - Jay Unger

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New Dave Matthew's Video - Free!

iTunes hasn't uploaded their songs for this week, but to tide you over, here's a new Dave Matthew's Video, Eh Hee. If you've listened to Live at Radio City, you'll have heard this one. It's pretty cool, although very weird.

Eh Hee Video - Dave Matthews

EDIT:

Here's the rest of the songs for the week:

Out of Control (State of Emotion) - Kenna

Red Earth (Massane Cisse) - Dee Dee Bridgewater

Me Pones Mal - Magnate