One of the pioneers of the emo-rock genre, it is probably fair to call Jeremy Engik (melo)dramatic. His 2006 album World Waits is has a huge, sweeping sound that can only be described as drama in instrumental form. With rumors of Sunny Day Real Estate once again getting the band back together (this time with Nate Mendell peeling himself away from the Foo Fighters to make it a complete reunion) and another solo studio album dropping, Engik is keeping the drama rolling.

NEW UPDATED (time sensitive) INFO (at bottom of post)

It's still a secret, so keep your voice low... but Derek Webb has found a "loophole." We're still trying to piece it all together, but Webb seems to have had some dispute with his record label over a song on the album he is currently working on, "Stockholm Syndrome." Over the past few years Webb (the former front man of the Christian band Caedmon's Call) has grown increasingly controversial (at least in the circles where Caedmon's Call traveled) writing scathing songs about the marriage of Christianity and the Republican party, the marriage of Christianity and material wealth, the marriage of Christianity and... well, you get the picture.

When it comes to bands from the other side of the pond, everyone knows the likes of U2, Oasis and Coldplay, but not enough are engaging with a band that has now released their fourth quality studio album: Doves.

Taking flight in 1998, Jez Williams, Andy Williams and Jimi Goodwin have moved from an indie rock band playing pubs in England to opening for everyone of the aforementioned British mainstays. Their sound continues to have a much edgier, gritty, indie feel than any of the “big boys,” but it is no less filled with feeling, thought and ‘let me hear that again!’ hooks.

This weekend rednoW will be hanging out at Calvin College's Festival of Faith & Music. We're pumped for the David Bazan show tonight & Lupe Fiasco tomorrow. We'll be sharing some thoughts here on the shows and workshops as the weekend goes on . Feel free to share your thoughts and comments as well [let us know how The Hold Steady show went!]. You can follow us on our twitter feed at twitter.com/rednow. We'll let you know where we are grabing beers after the shows if you want to come and talk about what is going down.

My wife and I once spent a week in Ireland.  After days full of hiking and exploring we'd spend our evenings in warm neighborhood pubs sipping from pint glasses, making small talk and waiting for the music to begin.  At some point during the evening a few men and women would set down their glasses, pick up instruments, and begin playing.  The musicians and singers were ordinary seeming people whose beautiful and sad songs helped us understand more about the country we were visiting.  Having spent a few weeks listening to Lisa Hannigan's new album, Sea Sew, I have to imagine that she grew up listening to this same music, perhaps playing her first songs at the local pub.

While the merit of things done in the name of social justice are debated elsewhere on rednoW, allow us to point towards another example of it. Dark Was The Night is a two disc compilation that boasts a jaw dropping list of contributors [see below]. Compiled by RedHot, an international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture, DWTN is brimming with great sounds. What is so captivating about DWTN is the overall tone and quality of the album(s). The  vibe of introspection, pain and hope is consistent through out the entire compilatioin. What makes this more than just an AIDS fundraiser is the sense that this music was truly affected by the cause for which is was created. The reality of the AIDS pandemic around our globe is infused in the sounds of DWTN. Those infected affected the art profoundly.

Every time U2 releases a new album, the rumors begin of it being another "throw-back" Joshua Tree. Fortunately, No Line of the Horizon continues the tradition of squashing such rumors.  Sure, don't get me wrong, The Joshua Tree was one of the more redeeming aspects of 80's music scene, but who wants to follow a band that continually remakes the same album?  Here is where U2 earns their bigger-than-their-own-ego status.  Whether it is the distorted sounds of Achtung Baby!, the experimental project of Passengers, or the identity crisis of Pop, U2 has continually pushed their own creative bounds.    No Line for the Horizon is no different.   With their unique play on post-Irish punk, songs such as Magnificent, Unknown Caller, and Breathe only suggest that U2's progressive nature has yet to reach its conclusion.

What happened to the pissed-off punksters from Dublin who were writing songs with titles like "I Threw a Brick Through a Window," "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Bullet in a Blue Sky"? U2's latest album seems to carry with it a sense of (rocking) freedom. The rage of the past seems to have been spit out and burned up and with it has come lines like:

"Every day I have to find the courage to walk out into the street with arms out. Got a love you can't defeat. Neither down or out, there's nothing you have that I need, I can breathe. Breathe now." 

Bono admits the fear and defeat of the world exists, but screams that it doesn't have anything that he needs, now he can breathe.

Bono used to be the subject. "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." But for the track "Moment of surrender" from U2's newly released album, No Line on the Horizon, Bono flips that around, singing "It's not if I believe in love, if love believes in me." Before the "I" was the subject, but now "love" is the subject (here's a link if you need to brush on your grammar). The rest of the song seems to be getting at some watershed moment in the life of the speaker (I'm not sure how autobiographical this is, though most of Bono's song lean heavily that way), though what that exact moment is or how it comes about isn't exactly clear. But this much seems to be clear, Bono (who maybe speaking for the rest of the band as well) seems to have given up control, apparently to something represented by, or like, "love."