On NPR, Terry Gross' Fresh Air chat with director John Waters on Wednesday was one of the more entertaining interviews I've heard in a long while. Waters has just released a CD, A Date With John Waters, that compiles some of his favorite love songs, and his selections are interesting to say the least. (And don't get me wrong, some of them are wonderful.) Waters also guest-hosted NPR's All Songs Considered program on the 8th, and you can hear some selections from the CD there as well.
This Saturday night, NPR will also webcast the final night of Arcade Fire's run of five sold-out shows at Judson Memorial Church in NYC, the first U.S. dates of the tour in support of their forthcoming record, Neon Bible. Although there have been complaints all week about the acoustics in the old church, the band's new songs are magnificent, they literally are among the best live bands I've ever seen, and hopefully a feed from the soundboard will sound fantastic.Also well worth your time is this week's New Yorker piece on Arcade Fire by chief music writer (and seasoned blogger) Sasha Frere-Jones. The print version of the article features a portrait of the band by music photographer extraordinaire Anton Corbijn. When the man responsible for artwork on The Joshua Tree and Automatic For The People is taking your picture, you know things are going well for your band.
