Music vs. TV? Music Wins.

I often have this little exercise with myself. “If I could keep only music or TV in my life, which would I choose?” Takes about a New York second to answer “Music.”

In the spirit of that, there are two two albums lately that are occupying a lot of playtime on my iPod. The first is Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Music Hall. It's an acoustic performance full of emotion and raw instrumental talent. Dave collaborates with Tim on a lot of his solo work and while they still play lots of Dave Matthews Band material, I’ve found that his solo stuff with Tim has a different flavor to it. On this, they play a number of songs that I’d not heard from Dave before and they instantly hooked me. Songs such as Oh and Eh Hee and The Maker. I love it when that happens.

Moving me even more than Dave’s latest is the soundtrack to the movie Into the Wild, comprised of songs primarily written and performed by Eddie Vedder, frontman for Pearl Jam. He’s never sounded better and it’s a CD worth picking up, even if you have no interest in the movie or book, which are both worth watching and reading, while you’re at it. Trust me, listen to Long Nights or Hard Sun and tell me those songs had no impact on you. I dare you. . .

You can have my TV. Take it, in fact. But you’ll get my iPod when you pry it from my cold, dead hand. . .