Downloads of the week
By David Smyth, Evening Standard 03.11.06
Keeping track: MIA offers a free download
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Two of the world's biggest bands unite for Music Rising, cult Eighties music show The Tube returns in barely recognisable guise and MIA is offering the first fruits of her next album as a free download...
TRACK OF THE WEEK
U2 and Green Day - The Saints are Coming
Two of the world's biggest bands unite for Music Rising, the charity set up by U2's Edge to help bring musical instruments back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They're covering a track by Scottish punks The Skids, whose lyrics are eerily appropriate despite being written in 1978. It's in download stores this week.
IN THE NEWS
The Tube
The cult Eighties music show returns in barely recognisable guise as an online radio show, with new presenters Emily Rose, Konnie Huq and Blur's Alex James. They're promising to "mix a whole bucket of music show with a tablespoon of contemporary art, a teaspoon of rocket science and a pinch of bottom". Download it from 6pm today at
www.channel4radio.com
THE BUZZ
Ross Copperman
For more than two years the iTunes store has been giving away a Single of the Week. This unknown pianist from Virginia is the most downloaded to date, his bombastic song As I Choke having been picked up some 36,000 times. It's still available there, though now it costs 79p.
THE SITE
The Filter
Technology evangelist Peter Gabriel's latest venture is this neat piece of software, which rifles through your iPod's contents and automatically creates playlists to suit your mood. That means never again accidentally putting on Radiohead while jogging.
www.thefilter.com
SNEAK PREVIEW
MIA
The Sri Lankan rapper and former Mercury nominee is offering the first fruits of her next album as a free download. XR2 is a characteristically spare, brutal sonic assault, with frantic horns and a mumbled rap about the good old days.
www.myspace. com/mia



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