Longtime readers of this site will already be accustomed to my undying, uncool devotion to the British “rock” band Coldplay.
But it is due to this broadcasting of affection that people end up being so generous whenever the band rolls into town.

Waiting to head into the Ed Sullivan Theater

Thanks to the unbelievable kindness of Product Shop NYC, last night I was lucky enough to attend Coldplay’s Live on Letterman webcast taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater right here in NYC.

It was basically 50 minutes of pure joy for me. The band played a handful of new songs off their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto — “Major Minus,” “Hurts Like Heaven,” “Charlie Brown,” and my personal favorite, “Paradise” — as well as all the greatest hits (“Yellow,” “The Scientist,” “Viva la Vida,” “Fix You,” etc.).

As always, Chris, Jonny, Will, and Guy were the consummate professionals, pounding out song after song with an unfaltering level of energy and passion.

Performing “Us Against The World”

There were two encores, both new songs. For the very last song, “Us Against The World,” the mic setup was not working for Chris’s guitar so with some urging from a dude in the crowd, he went acoustic, singing the first quarter of the song sitting on a stool, by himself in the center of the stage, with the rest of the guys quietly creeping behind to then join him in the song.

Fan video of “Us Against the World”:

After I got out of the show I read a text from my mom saying that she saw me on the webcast. MY MOM STILL LOVES COLDPLAY!

OH HAI, CHRIS MARTIN!

You can read an excellent summary of the night over at the CP Roadie Blog.

Songs played, according to my mom’s email:

Yellow
In My Place
Major Minus
Paradise
Viva La Vida
Charlie Brown
The Scientist
Clocks
Fix Me
Every Tear Is A Waterfall
Us Against The World

Printed setlist

I love Christmas music! And today Coldplay added to their Christmas canon (see Mince Spies) with the release of a new Yuletide tune, “Christmas Lights.”

The video, directed by Mat Whitecross and filmed in London on November 25th, features the band in a charming children’s Xmas panto-type setting, then opens up onto a Baz Lurhman-esque city of Christmas lights.

Happy holidays!

I’ve recently taken on the task of going through and tagging all my old photos, and it’s pretty hysterical the things I end up finding.

I’ve probably told the story about a very surreal Romeo and Juliet moment that all of Bowery Ballroom witnessed in August 2002, during an impossibly hard to get into “secret” show that Coldplay was playing at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom, about a billion times.

The setting was a packed Bowery Ballroom. Both Gallagher brothers were in the audience (Oasis was playing a few gigs at Roseland that week). The audience was PUMPED. And then towards the end of the set Chris Martin sang “In My Place.” The room was pitch black, except for one lone spotlight on Chris, who seemed to be singing to the folks in the balcony.

Then someone standing next to me motioned to the balcony, where future wife Gwyneth Paltrow was sitting, and we all realized that by some happenstance she was ALSO illuminated by the light — so basically the only two people in the entire venue that had lights on them were Chris and Gwyneth. It was a little awwwkkwaaarrrddd… it seemed like Chris was singing directly to her.

Well little did I remember, apparently I had snapped a photo while all this was happening. Here’s a never before seen picture of Gwyneth Paltrow swaying her hands to sound of Chris Martin singing circa 2002:

Why I never posted this photo I have NO IDEA, but I’m so glad I found it. It also calls into question the fact that on Wikipedia it says Gwynie met Chris in October of 2002, when she was at the show in August 2002. Who knows, maybe she didn’t actually get to meet him that night…but we all know what happened!

If you’ve recently been perusing Curbed.com, you may have seen an item about some a blog post about a 2008 job done by hotter than hot interior design team Roman & Williams for “an actress, her musician husband, and their children.” Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s none other than Coldplay’s Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Although the original post has since been removed, thanks to the internetz the pictures remain!

And if there was any doubt that this home was in fact the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Martin, egle-eyed readers will recognize the kitchen as the “set” of Gwynie’s most recent photo shoot with Mario Testino for the August 2010 issue of Vogue to promote her new…cookbook. Oh yeah…

Master bedroom:

Living room:

Kitchen:

The decor is aggressively pastel-y and soft. Not sure if I would choose to live in this kind of space — but for the Martins it might be a nice change from the decor of some of their other, full-time homes in England.

Could you live in such a space?

More at The Happy Home.

…don’t ever make me watch the Jonas Brothers perform with Stevie Wonder ever again. It’s just too painful.

…watching a uber pregnant M.I.A. perform alongside T.I., Jay-Z, and Lil’ Wayne, was awesome. She is possibly the coolest woman in music EVER.

…make all of Coldplay wear the same purple outfits that Will Champion was wearing.

…keep giving Jennifer Hudson awards for her amazing singing, but make it a stipulation that she’s not allowed to wear outfits that cover her face anymore. (Luckily her makeup was gorgeous.)

…Katy Perry should not be allowed to perform anywhere, let alone as Chiquita Banana.

…Alison Krauss and Robert Plant doing “Rich Woman” = fantastic. It kinda was like this:

…don’t ever allow Gwyneth Paltrow to present again dressed up as a gold disco ball. Especially when she’s wearing some throwaway shiny tights from some high school cheerleader conference. Especially when she’s salivating over Radiohead. (Are you trying to make her British-obsessed lady boner explode? Granted, it’s hard to say who was more excited, her or her Radiohead-worshiping husband.)

…thank you for making Zooey Deschanel the obligatory actress/singer/songwriter presenter of the night instead of Scarlert Johansson, even if she had the laborious task of explaining about 50 times to reporters that she’s NOT Katy Perry.

…even though I think the Beatles are amazing, I don’t think Paul McCartney is amazing. And I’m insulted that he only did a Beatles song. John Lennon is turning over in his grave.

…thanks for giving Taylor Swift to redeem herself from that awful SNL performance by allowing her to perform with a simple arrangement and no dance moves. However, I still preferred Miley Cyrus, because despite what anyone says, she can actually sing.

There are only about 2 and 1/2 weeks until. This makes me sad because there are only 2 and 1/2 more weeks for me to totally indulge in Christmas music. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I became totally obsessed with listening to Christmas music. This year I started listening to yuletide tunes well before Thanksgiving.

Here are the top ten Christmas tracks I’ve been spinning this year:

10. “Christmas Duel” by The Hives and Cyndi Lauper

The Most Attractive Man Alive (aka Pele from the Hives) and Cyndi Effing Lauper did a duet this year in which they list all the naughty, nasty things they’ve done over the last year: Example, sleeping with each other’s sister/brother, marrying drunk, hiring hit men, etc. Chalk another one up for the not safe for kids/family Christmas song play list.

9. “Christmas Song” by The Raveonettes


8. “Candy Cane Children” by the White Stripes

7. “12 Days of Christmas” by Taking Back Sunday

6. “2000 Miles” by The Pretenders

5. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Coldplay from Mince Spies

4. “Last Christmas” by Wham!

3. “All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey

2. “Christmas Song” by Weezer

Yes, the song is a bit pessimistic and sad, but the melody can’t be beat.

1. “Spotlight on Christmas” by Rufus Wainwright

I love this song so much. I think it puts everything in perspective. Great uptempo song…definitely the one ditty I play the most this season.

Before I head off to sleepy land, I had to share this with the rest of the world. Methinks this video is just BEGGING for some kind of video remix action. Seriously… does Chris have ants in his pants? Taken at tonight’s Coldplay show at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ:

Nothing Earth-shattering happened at the show… typical set list, although for some reason “Speed of Sound” really spoke to me today. The entire STADIUM was scary shaking during “Viva La Vida.” Seriously SHAKING because everyone was flipping out over the song. One encore song (“Yellow”, of course).

This press release just in:

Jonas Bjerre of Mew, Guy Berryman of Coldplay and Magne Furholmen of A-Ha have teamed up, under the guise of Apparatjik, to right the theme track for Bruce Parry’s BBC2 new series Amazon.

The series, which debuted on September 22nd, has a soundtrack to accompany it’s debut. Amazon / Tribe: Songs for Survival is out digitally in the UK now, and Kensaltown Records will the two-disc CD in the UK on October 6.

Preview the song in the trailer:

Coldplay have released two videos for “Viva La Vida” today, one is the “official” version, directed by Hype Williams:

The other is a “cover” version made by the band, which features Chris Martin wandering around a town and grassy hill wearing a comical king hat and robe, carrying a print of “Liberty Leading the People,” which is featured on the cover of “…Death and All of His Friends.”:

The band describes it as their homage to Depeche Mode and Anton Corbijn, as the “cover” is a direct rip-off of Anton Corbijn’s video for “Enjoy the Silence”:

Which do you like better? “Viva la Vida” official, “cover,” or neither–you prefer “Enjoy the Silence.”

Today Aussie drum and bass band Pendulum were on Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge (er… minus Jo, who was ill today) and as is tradition, they performed a cover version of a current popular song. Which did they choose? “Violet Hill” by Coldplay!

It wasn’t really my style of music, but it was definitely a re-imagining of the song, so I give them props for that.

You can listen to it on the BBC site, or download it below.

DOWNLOAD: “Violet Hill” by Pendulum (Coldplay cover) [mp3] (Link from Coldplaying.com)
Do you like it, Y/N?