So today, in twenty-eight States, is Juneteenth. It celebrates the day of announcement that slavery was abolished. For those unfamiliar with it, you can brush up on your history a bit over here.

I saw OneRepublic in concert a week and a half ago. Wow. I figured they would be good, but they blew me away. Even with the lead singer having to come out on crutches and not move around too much, they still put on a great show. They made me enjoy their music even more, perhaps putting them up there as one of my favorites. I’ll definitely be seeing them again next time they come to Toronto… I recommend them to anyone…

Next concert? On July 30th, I’ll be seeing Coldplay at the Air Canada Centre. Unfortunately, they are the “worst” seats I’ve had at the ACC to date, but that’s not saying much since I’ve lucked out with all of my past shows there (within the first 10 rows every time). ha. I’m about halfway back in the lower bowl (section 120). Not too bad. Either way, the place sold out in about 5 minutes, so I’m just glad to be going…

Speaking of Coldplay, has anyone picked up their new album, Viva La Vida? I’m really, really digging it… Very impressive record. It’s going to be one of my favorites of the year for sure… Pick it up if you haven’t already. You can even buy it in LP format…

Firefox 3 debuted on Tuesday and I like it a lot. It has some new features that are cool, it seems to be even more stable, and basically it reaffirms my belief that Firefox is the best web browser out there right now. You can also watch a real-time counter to see how many downloads it has received. So far it is sitting at over 11 million. Impressive.

I’m trying to decide what my next BlackBerry should be… I have the silver Pearl now and I love it, but I could do more with a more powerful unit since I have unlimited data. Out of the ones available, the only other one I’d get is the Blackberry Curve. But there is also the Blackberry Bold and Blackberry Thunder coming later this year… The Thunder doesn’t interest me too much because I don’t want a full blown touch screen phone. But I’m holding out to see what the Bold ends up looking like, because right now I think it may end up being my replacement…

I finally got around to putting my entire Beatles collection onto my computer and, in turn, my iPod yesterday. ha. It took quite a while…. Twenty albums later (three of which are double discs)…

Anyway, off to work… The two days off were definitely nice but it is time to head back, unfortunately…

So Mute Math is in the studio working on their next album… I’m very excited. I have a feeling this next album is going to be a big one for them.

As they record in the “studio” (it’s more like equipment simply set up inside a house), they are updating their YouTube account with vlogs. Check it out here.

In other news, U2 is also in the studio and apparently their upcoming release is a lot more artsy than their last couple of records. According to Daniel Lanois, it’s just about done. Here’s a quote he recently said in a newspaper in Europe:

… Again the content is very much driven by the aspirations and dreams people have. At the core it is the same U2 but the tones and textures sometimes take a slight different turn sonically to provide a slant on the song and a complexity that listeners will keep coming back to. That’s what we as human beings appreciate in art, the hidden corners that reveal themselves over time.

Complexity that listeners keep coming back to? Hidden corners that reveal themselves over time? I’m pumped already. Sounds like it could be one of their best ones in a while…

Both Mute Math and U2 are hoping for albums around the September time frame.