Back from Hawaii...what a place. Highly recommend it! I'm surprised we decided to come back, even as great as Nashville is!

I come back to Nashville immersed in new music. Lets get to it:

Coldplay - "X&Y." Brilliant new album that changes the core of Coldplay's sound they've developed over the past two albums...much less piano and much more guitar. The result is a grandiose, atmospheric masterpiece. "Fix You" - best song they've ever done?

Seal - "Live in Paris" CD/DVD. The CD is one thing...great sounding live stuff. But the DVD is really what I had been waiting for...I haven't seen Seal perform live before (with the exception of the 1996 Grammys (?) where he performed Kiss From A Rose) and he really knows how to put on a show. His backing musicians are excellent and his music really comes alive...fun to see.

White Stripes - "Get Behind Me Satan." This CD could simply have "Blue Orchid" on it and it would be great. This is a band that's been pushing the musical envelope from Day 1, and the latest result is a really good new album that's unlike anything I've ever heard.

Foo Fighters - "In Your Honor" double-album. Unbelievable...they hit a huge home run with this new double-album. Every single song is good, and it really reminds me of what I felt like when listening to "The Colour and the Shape" for the first time. Dave Grohl said a few months ago that he hoped "In Your Honor" would become the defining Foo Fighters work, and it looks like he might have actually been onto something.


Headed to Birmingham this weekend for City Stages, and then to Arlington toward the end of June to visit Lori's family...and still many thank-you notes left to write, as well as a variety of iTest-related tasks. And I've started tutoring an 8th-grader out in Franklin in Algebra I, for some nice extra cash...so as busy as ever around here. Until next time...