1. The sum of 2008's Antidotes and 2010's Total Life Forever equals validation for anybody who thought the '00s D.C. nerd-funk of Q And Not U and The Dismemberment Plan still had more places to go. Foals kick it back at us with English niceties and Glastonbury-sized sonics—i.e. the mass appeal it might've had eventually.

2. Those Total Life Forever songs obviously have more breathing room and bigger emotions than the tightened-up jams on Antidotes. And although the new things don't fully scratch the math-rock itch, they're still full of note-by-note purpose. Maybe that's why the live set left me yearning—in a connect-the-dots way—for some O.G. Eno/Lanois U2*, especially this song:

* Of course, any Unforgettable Fire reference is not a completely original thought, but I did not know it then.

Morning, all. Here at the Washington City Paper, it seems like everybody's got their eye on the upcoming election. And it's still August, so a lot of people in town won't be waking up from their end-of-summer second gear mode 'til after Labor Day weekend. But there are still glints of culture–you just have to look a little harder.

The producer that’s behind the phenomenon that is “Jersey Shore” is eyeing a Southern spin-off, with the working title “Party Down South.” Sally Ann Salsano’s 495 Prods. already as two spin-offs in the works, the Los Angeles-based “Persian Version” (a bunch of Kim Kardashian wannabes?) and “Wicked Summer.” I’ll give you three guesses as to the location of the latter. What’s next–taking the “Jersey Shore” concept to Iowa?

If you're in a band and you're headed to Barcelona on tour, beware: don't play your music too late or too long, or else pay the consequences. U2 has been fined $22,000 for rehearsing two hours after their scheduled time and for exceeding city-approved decibel levels prior to their concert in the Spanish city last year. But if you're Bono and crew, you probably don't care too much. They made $109 million last year, topping Billboard's list of money makers.

"Top Chef D.C." time! We're getting near the end–can you feel the excitement in the air? The six remaining cheftestants packed their knives and headed to Nationals Park, where they ran a concession stand. Kelly made an open-faced crab cake BLT, Angelo made a sweet pork roll, Kenny made a chicken skewer, Ed made shrimp and corn fritter, Amanda made tuna tartare, and Tiffany made an Italian sausage meatball sandwich. A few Nats ballplayers, including Adam Dunn and John Lannan, showed up to sample the fare. They had seconds of the meatball sandwich and compared the shrimp and corn fritter to a "chewed up caterpillar that burst in your mouth." Call me crazy, but I think that's actually pretty accurate description for the texture of shrimp in general.

At any rate, it's a good think they're baseball players and not food critics, 'cause Ed ended up winning for his fritter, winning props for his ability to keep the outside crispy and the inside hot. For his efforts he took home one of guest judge Rick Moonen's cookbooks... and a trip to Australia. Amanda booked a long-overdue ticket home for her gray tartare. Her time was definitely up, but everybody actually seemed to like the taste of the tartare–they were just put off by its appearance. In this instance, I think Kenny should have gone home for his uninspired chicken topped with soggy French fries. Next week: last show before the finals!

2,160: The number of wheels on which the 2009 U2 360 tour is currently rolling across this great nation. Divided by 18, that’s 120 trucks, carrying only the lights and stage for the tour. Who knows how many tour buses it takes to cart around Bono’s Prada support team.

7,400: A rough, and conservative, estimate of the number of miles the North American portion of the tour will have traveled when it stops in Vancouver on October 28.

126,857: At an average of 7 miles per gallon, this is the number of gallons of diesel U2 will have sucked down by the end of the month just to transport its stage from venue to venue. This isn’t even counting the 24 European dates earlier this summer, which I had to leave out of this calculation because the whole metric conversion thing just made me even angrier. NASA can’t even figure that shit out.

0: The number of times the New York Times editorial board should let Bono, that smug Irish twat, even mention, without an asterisk*, the fact that severe climate change, along with extremist ideology and extreme poverty, is one of the three biggest threats this planet faces right now.

*Carbon offsets be damned. The damage is done, dude.

Photo by Brandon Wu

If ever there were a band that needs no introduction, that band is pictured in this post. Enjoy the photos—more after the jump and at the full gallery.

Muse opened:

Full gallery here.

Dirty Projectors w/ David Byrne: "Knotty Pine"
Dirty Projectors perfectly replicate the sound of the early Talking Heads with jittery acoustic guitars and oblique lyrics that sound as if theywere cribbed directly from David Byrne's notebooks circa '76 (note: further inspection of my Talking Heads box set reveals that the line quoted below was actually borrowed from one of Bryne's notebooks). It also helps that the man himself steps in to deliver a few lines. "Here is the sound that photographs make/when I see them/when I hear them," sing Byrne and David Longstreth.

Lady Sovereign: "I got you dancing (medasyn dub remix)"
Medasyn, who produced the original version of this song for Lady Sovereign's upcoming second album, twiddles the knobs on "I Got You Dancing" resulting in, well, way less of the diminutive English rapper. Sovereign's vocals are almost completely knocked out, leaving only buzzing machine funk.

Ciara: "I Don’t Remember"
This song, supposedly drawn from the sessions for Ciara's upcoming record Fantasy Ride, finds the singer feeling busted after a night spent modeling lampshades, possibly for Wilhemina. "Got the same clothes on today that I had on yesterday, what did I do? what did I say?," asks the penitent singer. Ciara may not recall how she pissed off her boyfriend, but the song's fuzzy synths imply that at the very least, she can still remember Kraftwerk.

Garth Brooks on "American Pie":

John Cougar Mellencamp on "Ain't That America Pink Houses":

U2 on "Pride (In the Name of Love)":

Also dug U2 more than I'd expected and found Pete Seeger a welcome presence.

First batch below.  More in a bit, plus a rundown of last night's Mike Errico/Alfonso Velez/Sketches show at Jammin' Java.

Springsteen, with gospel choir, on "The Rising":

National anthem:

Lavette & Bon Jovi on "A Change Is Gonna Come":

James Taylor & John Legend on "Shower the People":