(*It’s definitive until something changes, and something changes every ten minutes with this stuff.)

The Fordham campus in the Bronx is awash with black-clad roadies, big trucks, cables and tables, and that lovely crowd-control fencing seen above.  If you haven’t heard, U2 is coming to campus tomorrow morning to play on Good Morning America.  Fordham officially confirmed the gig yesterday.  So here’s the deal:

• U2 will be playing live in the 8 o’clock hour, and since it’s literally on our doorstep, you can bet that FUV will be all over it.  You’ll hear reports from Claudia Marshall on the morning show, plus our whole crew on the air and on our blogs.
• The event is for Fordham students and staff only, and not open to the general public.  Sorry FUV members, alumni, assorted friends and family we haven’t heard from in years but who decided to surface this week — we can’t help you get in!  But we’ll do our best to bring you all the excitement on the radio tomorrow morning.
• Want to actually hear the new album that all this hubbub is about?  Tune in tonight at 8 on 90.7 FM when Corny O’Connell spins the whole thing, without interruption, on the WFUV CD of the Week.
• But wait!  There’s more!  Join us next week for three special broadcasts, when WFUV brings you U2 live from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston.  (Look at U2 racking up the frequent flier miles!)  Listen in Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at 9 on 90.7 FM and wfuv.org.
• And a big congrats to Thomas from the Bronx, who’ll be at that private Boston show on Wednesday, along with a friend.  (I’ll bet Thomas has a lot of new friends right about now…)  Thomas is the winner in our “U2 and You, Too” contest.

That’s all the news from U2-Land — or at least, our little corner of it.  We’ll keep you up-to-date, here and on the air, whenever we know more.  (Check out Jeff Kuprycz’s pics here and here.)

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We’ve got your chance to be in the audience this Saturday night — Valentine’s Day — when Paul Simon re-opens the newly renovated Beacon Theater.  We’ve got one pair of tickets for this sold-out show, and everyone who participates in the WFUV Question of the Day will be entered to win!

Listen for the WFUV Question of the Day each weekday in the 9am hour, and email your song ideas to the morning crew.  (The cutoff time on Friday morning is 9:30am.)  We’ll notify the winner on Friday!

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If you could send a musical message to Barack Obama on Inauguration Day, what would it be?

Help, I need somebody, not just anybody…

Career opportunities are the ones that never knock…

I’m so in love with you, whatever you want to do is alright with me…

Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call…

We’d like to know what song YOU would choose as a message to the new President.  Put your choice (and why you picked it, if you like) in the comments below, and we’ll play some of your suggestions on January 20.

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Max Raabe

Rich Conaty, this one’s for you: I recently came across this recording of Berliners Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester taking on Britney Spears’ “classic” Oops! I Did It Again.  As long as the stock market looks like 1929, why shouldn’t our music sound like it? 

I think the goofy video here is distracting, but close your eyes and you’re in Weimar Germany — except for the oh-too-familiar tune.  Raabe and his band aren’t just a novelty act, though — they performed at Carnegie Hall last year and are currently on a US tour.  (And they played at Marilyn Manson’s wedding!) 

If you want to see the band in action, here’s a video of another one of their modern covers.  The cool, detached expression on Raabe’s face as he sings “you’re my sex bomb” is priceless.

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Rita Houston’s having a few technical problems and asked me to post her latest dispatch from Bonnaroo…

Team FUV piled in to a rented RV and hit the road! I’m happy to report that 700 miles, 2 RV camps, 1 RV repair shop, and 1 Taco Bell later we arrived on site at Bonnaroo in Manchester Tennessee. BTW, Taco Bell pizza is really good.

This is my 5th Bonnaroo, which apparently makes me quite cool. I return each year in spite of mud, heat, and hippies because it’s fun and fills my musical soul to the brim. About 100,000 music lovers gather here at what is simply one of the best American festivals. It’s so much more than music too with comedy tents, movies, art everywhere, riding bulls, silent discos, karoke, shopping, ferris wheel, you can even get a haircut here!

Musically, i caught FUV faves Vampire Weekend, Felice Brothers, and Nicole Atkins last nite. All good. Nicole Atkins did Patti Smith proud with a version of Pissing in A River-wow. Caught a set by a new band, Battles, so cool that i don’t even know how i’d describe them–it was booty shaking tho. Lez Zeppelin (!) did a set at midnite that was packed! I didn’t dig it tho but it was a clever booking since early rumours had Led Zeppelin reuniting to appear here.

It’s not allll fun for me though, i’m working too! I’ll be broadcasting The Whole Wide World live from backstage at Bonnaroo tonite starting at 7p. Raconteurs, Rilo Kiley, Nicole Atkins and Felice Brothers are all scheduled to drop by. Come too!

FInd out more at bonnaroo.com

more later….

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Just came across a new(ish) blog on the New York Times website and I had to share it with you — it’s called “Measure for Measure,” and it’s all about songwriting (and other mysteries, according to its subtitle).  Andrew Bird, Rosanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, and a Nashville songwriter named Darrell Brown (who I don’t know, but I know some of his songs) are all contributing to this series about how songs are germinated, nurtured, grown, and maybe — just maybe — recorded for posterity.  Rosanne Cash, especially, has so much insight into her own process and is a deliciously readable writer.  There are some audio demos included, too.  Speaking as someone who hates to let anybody in on a work-in-process, I applaud these four artists for opening the door and letting us all see how it happens for them. 

Measure for Measure blog

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Did you watch the Oscars last night?  I was basically staying awake to see if Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova won for their song “Falling Slowly” from “Once.”  They were going up against three — three! — songs from the Disney film “Enchanted” and a gospel-esque number from “August Rush” that was classic “uplifting” film fare.  It was terrific to see Glen & Marketa going up on stage to accept their award just because they seemed so stunned and happy and grateful.  The orchestra conductor got a little ahead of himself and Marketa missed her chance to say a few words.  Jon Stewart brought her back on after the commercial, though, and she got her moment in the spotlight.  See it all below.

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I know, I thought it was Harlan Jacobson in the full-length mink too.  But on closer examination, it turns out this is Randy Quaid.  You go, Randy!

Harlan’s out at the Sundance Film Festival, seeing movies from morning till night.  His eyeballs are about to fall out and the popcorn levels in his bloodstream are alarmingly high, but he made time to chat with Claudia Marshall about everything he’s seen — and what we can expect to see in theatres in the coming months.  You won’t hear this conversation on the radio today (due to fundraising — have you joined WFUV yet?) but we’ve got it for you right here, in podcast form.

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Music fans — real music fans — often make pilgrimages to important sites associated with their favorite artists.  (Witness all the sad-eyed pot-smokers hanging around Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris.)  I recently made an accidental pilgrimage to a place I’d never heard of before this year: Cassadaga, Florida.

My brother lives in Daytona Beach, and my family gathered there the week before Christmas for his college graduation.  We were all in the car together, headed to Blue Spring State Park, a gorgeous riverside park that used to be an orange grove and ferry landing, and is now mainly a winter refuge for manatees.  We passed a road sign with an arrow pointing the way to Cassadaga and I gasped.  The Bright Eyes album Cassadaga was one of my favorites of 2007, and I had no idea that the town it was named for was right down the road.

So after we said hello to the manatees, I convinced my family to take a detour through Cassadaga on our way back to Daytona.  As we drove down the two-lane highway, passing through scrubby flatlands, I told them about the album, and what I knew about the town: most of the inhabitants are psychics, and supposedly Conor Oberst spent some time there before making the album.  The region is said to be a center of psychic energy, so we were all curious to see if we “felt something.”

The center of town was small but bustling on that Saturday afternoon.  There’s a gracious hotel, a bookstore and a welcome center, a building that looks like a school but is called the Colby Memorial Temple, and signs outside of nearly every house offering psychic readings. 

The whole town has a ramshackle, slightly worn feel, but friendly and warm.  It’s a huge contrast to the strip-mall-and-spring-break atmosphere of Daytona, just 20 minutes down the road.  According to the official town website, Cassadaga was settled in 1895, and the town still feels like a frontier in some ways — when going to Florida and starting a new spiritual community in the wilderness was truly pioneering. 

We didn’t stop for a reading, but later we wished we had.  Every medium who works in Cassadaga is certified by the Spiritualist Camp, so quality is assured!  For my part, I kept hearing the words to “Four Winds,” the second track from the album, in my head:

Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, “You’d better look alive”

In the end, the visit to Cassadaga didn’t make the lyrics any less inscrutable (a quick web search shows that amateur interpretation of Bright Eyes lyrics is approaching Dylanological levels) but it was a fun interlude on a visit otherwise full of lousy fried-fish sandwiches and t-shirt shops half-closed in the off-season.  And I know that the next time I visit my brother, I’ll have to drag him back to Cassadaga and find out what the future holds.

Check out Rita Houston’s visit with Bright Eyes on Words & Music from Studio A, Thursday night at 9pm, or anytime in the WFUV Archives.  

Have you ever made a rock pilgrimage that actually illuminated an artist or a song?  Tell us about it in the comments!

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Our Corny O’Connell and family went all-out for Halloween yesterday.  I was in my office when I heard screams from the conference room down the hall, and I rushed out to see what all the commotion was about.  And there they were: Corny, his wife Amy, and baby Leo, making a surprise appearance, all decked out.  (For most of us, this was the first time meeting Leo.)  Baby vampire was definitely the best costume I saw all day long.  (Although Alisa Ali’s Miss Cleo costume was pretty awesome too.)

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