Where ya Byrne?

So my friend Aaron was riding his bike the other day just over the Hudson in a park on the Jersey side and who does he run into, cruising on a single speed road bike, sporting plaid shirt, shorts and a straw hat, but David Byrne. Apparently he’s a big bike guru now, and led a workshop called “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” at the New Yorker Festival last fall. And I always figured Byrne would ride a Seque. When not riding his bike or recording with Brian Eno, he’s been designing public bike racks for New York City DOT and writing a book about biking. His latest collaboration with Eno, Everything That Happens will Happen Today will be released August 18th and will be available here, and will be supported by a 37 show tour through the US and Canada beginning in September. features “Strange Overtones” which is available as a free download.

For any of you that may have lost track of Byrne’s prolific post-Talking Heads recordings, (Look into the Eyeball, Grown Backwards, etc) be sure to check out the recent re-release of The Knee Plays, an assortment of previously unreleased instrumentals and a score to the Robert Wilson epic play/opera the CIVIL warS which was commisioned for the 1984 Olympics in L.A, but never performed. Bizarre, minimalist instrumentals, plus quirky spoken word songs reminiscent of the film True Stories.

Byrne’s soundtrack to the HBO series, Big Love (about the love life of a Utah polygamist), called Big Love: Hymnal will be released the day after Everything That Happens will Happen Today on 8/19.