There's a lot to see and hear this week, yet one band, U2, manages to dominate the landscape. They're not only playing Letterman an unprecedented five nights, but are also playing daytime TV (ABC's GMA on Friday) for the first time in their career. This is after pulling an award show trifecta opening the Grammys, the Brit Awards (UK), and the Echo Awards (Germany) with their first single "Get on Your Boots." All this to help promote their first album in nearly five years, No Line On The Horizon, an album which sees the band reaching back to the kind of experimentation we haven't heard from the Irishmen since Achtung Baby.
You know times are tough for the record industry when even a band as bankable as U2 has to sell itself this hard, but at least it can be said they're not mailing it in this time out. With five nights, I suppose we might expect more interaction with their host, and perhaps an outdoor performance or two (on the fire escape a la TV On The Radio, or, more appropriately, via the rooftop). Heck, maybe Dave can even get Joaquin Phoenix to join the band to rap a verse or two?
Meanwhile, we can't forget that this week marks the debut of Jimmy Fallon as Conan's replacement. The SNL vet has not only lined up some quality music this week (Van Morrison, Santogold, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Ludacris) but he also managed to hire The Roots as the Late Night band. One of his first guests, though, is good friend Justin Timberlake, which means we just might get a little "Barry Gibb Talk Show" (scroll down for video,) which I guess qualifies as Fallon's prior talk show experience.
Besides U2, another noteworthy new music release this week comes from the alt-country chanteuse Neko Case, with her enchanting Middle Cyclone. On Wednesday she'll unleash her haunting voice on Jay Leno, singing "People Got A Lotta Nerve." And finally, it'd be criminal of me not to mention that David Byrne will be on Monday's edition of The Colbert Report, which has been welcoming a lot of music of late. I wonder what Papa Bear would make of this trend?
Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
