A Little David Bowie To Tide You Over

These days, one doesn't see very much of David Bowie. Aside from a live performance with Arcade Fire, the Thin White Duke hasn't been out and about since the Reality tour got cut short in Germany for emergency heart surgery.

That being said, the Bowie camp is hard at work making sure that fans, if they can't get the real thing, are at least getting fresh new content on a fairly regular basis. Case in point, two new items that emerged this spring.

The first is a pair of Bowie "remix" apps, created by EMI, based around the tracks "Space Oddity" and "Golden Years". Targeted at the iPhone, the two apps allow you to literally remix the multitrack tapes of each song, in real time, using faders for each track. It sounds trite, but it's actually quite fascinating. Getting to make your own mix is satisfying and revealing, and you can save it to boot!

The second is a book published by Genesis, the high end "limited" book dealer. It focuses on the photographs of Bowie by Japanese photographer Sukita, and is currently in the final phases of production. Given that Sukita's photos are some of our favorite Bowie content ('Heroes' cover, anyone?), and that Genesis makes some of the finest books around, our only barrier to entry here is going to be pricetag.

David Byrne Delivers Audio Book and Wall Street 2 Soundtrack

David Byrne's apparently been keeping busy over the summer, and this week finds the fruits of his labor delivered for all to see. You may remember we gave mention to Byrne's Bicycle Diaries a while back. Well now Byrne has outdone himself by delivering an audio book version of the volume, which he's narrated himself.

Not only does the audio book contain music to help with the transitions, but it also has Byrne finding his own unique voice in a confessional and inviting tone. Given the nature of the book: diary, confessional, and commentary, the presence of the author (particularly one as clever as this) is a welcome and inviting enhancement to the book's already awesome content.

In addition to this lovely bit of audio-literature, Byrne has also delivered the soundtrack to Oliver Stone's latest venture, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. We have yet to hear the tunes for ourselves, but they've become available in wide release today. Given Byrne's solid history of scoring film, and the fact that he was intimately involved with the use of the music in context ("Stone was super accommodating - inviting me numerous times to view rough assemblies to be sure I was OK with how the music was being used"), we're more than a little excited to hear what he came up with.

mp3: David Byrne - Bicycle Diaries Introduction

Neal Casal Delivers Book Of Ryan Adams Photos

Neal Casal, the other half of Ryan Adams' guitar onslaught, is also something of a photographer. As such, the man has taken it upon himself to document his time with The Cardinals, and release it in a book which dropped upon the consumer world yesterday (cover above). While we have yet to get our hands on a copy, we have to say we're pretty excited to see some personal documentation of The Cards on tour. Given the lack of recent musical activity from the happily married Adams, we're hoping maybe it'll inspire him to get back in the saddle. We can always dream, right?

mp3: Ryan Adams - If I Am A Stranger (7" Version)

Andy Summers: I'll Be Watching You - Inside The Police 1980-83

So much of our visual perception of The Police is based in guitarist Andy Summers' photographs. They're the source of many of the band's most candid photo moments, and they also adorn the sleeves of both Zenyatta Mondatta and Synchronicity. That being said, we were psyched to stumble upon a massive tome of Summers' work entitled I'll Be Watching You.

The book, which is takes on the vibe of a journal, is actually in a large coffee table format. All of the narratives appear in English, German, and French, and they very literally narrate three years in the life of the band, from Summers' perspective. In it, the band travels the entire world, makes their way through recording sessions, and spends more than a little time dawdling in hotels. It seems all the assumptions one could make about the rock star lifestyle are, largely, correct.

Looking over the photos is a voyeuristic adventure, as the reader gets to delve into private moments for both the band and Summers. What's more, it's nice to see the band living it up before tensions ran high and everything fell apart. The Police are a band that became so big, so quickly, and then fell apart, that having this intense documentation of that rapid period is really a treat and a rarity. Imagine, if you will, George Harrison religiously documenting the Beatles from 1965-1969. Awesome, right? Well, with The Police, that's not a fantasy, and this book is the proof.

Perhaps the best part about stumbling upon the book was that we did so in the sale rack of our local book shop, and in doing so managed to snag it for the pretty price of $15. For a massive, beautiful, heavy stock book like this? We couldn't be happier. If you have a vested interest in Police history, we'd definitely encourage you to pick it up when you see it. And, frankly, at $15, it's really a solid buy for anyone even remotely interested in rock and roll.