Though they’re now exactly a year away, the 2008 presidential campaigns are already well on their way. And a big part of them, at least here in the U.S., is the theme song, which, at this point in time, serves more as a hackneyed catchphrase than as the vehicle for an actual thematic message to be digested and discussed (unlike, for example, the definitive and on-point “Wilson — That’s All” from 1912, which helped lead Woodrow successfully to the newly created Oval Office). But who cares about these insignificant details! What’s most important is that these songs provide the appropriately optimistically triumphant background for the 30 seconds it takes the candidate to walk to the microphone, beaming and pumping his (or her) fist in the air. And honestly, they’re about ready for an update. We’re all sick of John Fogerty or Motown or Fleetwood Mac being played to death on the campaign trail. If the candidates want to invigorate their voters, especially the younger, apathetic generations, they’re going to need to play some music that’s a little more exciting, and a little less heartland rock.

Here are some suggestions to bring the campaigns out of the 1970s and into the 2000s, along with insight into what choosing that song reveals about a particular candidate, or at least what he or she would like it to reveal.

Rihanna — “Umbrella” (sample)
With this selection, the candidate is saying that he’s not only in touch with the youth, but that he knows a catchy song when he hears one. He knew that Jay-Z was bluffing when he said he was going to retire, and but he also promises to save the country by letting everyone stand under his administration’s protective umbrella, ella, ella, ay, ay. Hip and secure. Keep this in mind, kids.

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In Detroit circa 1971, jazz musicians Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison created a self-funded enterprise known as Tribe. Tribe was simultaneously a record label, a band, a magazine, and a clearinghouse for community information in the Motor City. Other members of the creative community joined and read like a who’s who of jazz in the city at the time: Doug Hammond, Harold McKinney, Marcus Belgrave, Roy Brooks, Kenny Cox, Charles Eubanks, David Durrah, Charles Moore (a co-founder of the City’s legendary Artist’s Workshop in the early 1960s with John Sinclair and poet George Tysh), Daryl Dybka, Buddy Budson, Ron Jackson, R.J. “Bud” Spangler, Will Austin, Jeamel Lee, the poetry group the Black Messengers, Billy Turner, Ron Brooks, Lopez Leon, and Ed Pickens, among others. These musicians played on one another’s albums. It was a collective and cultural organization in the same way the AACM was in Chicago, the Underground Musician’s Association was in Los Angeles, and the Black Artist’s Group was in St. Louis. In other words, this was a creative organization to be reckoned with.

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This past weekend, Bowling Green State University, in conjunction with the Eastman School of Music and its director of Early Music, renowned lutenist Paul O’Dette, mounted the first staged performances of Venetian composer Francesco Cavalli’s opera La virtù de’ strali d’Amore (The Power of Love’s Arrows) since 1642. Aside from rescuing a groundbreaking, funny, and musically appealing work from total obscurity, the production was a refreshing example of creative risk-taking and collaboration in a university setting. Musicologist Vincent Corrigan prepared the new performing edition, Ronald Shields directed, O’Dette conducted from the lute, and harpsichordist Kevin Bylsma prepared the more than 30 solo singers.

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Twenty-five years ago this month in November 1982, by way of People magazine, was the first public acknowledgment that singer Karen Carpenter was in Lenox Hill Hospital battling the effects of anorexia nervosa. Under normal circumstances, this event would merely be remembered as a chapter in the turbulent career of the Carpenters, a California-based brother-and-sister pop duo whose work dominated the charts of the Nixon era and whose personal lives were as tormented as their public personae were squeaky-clean — fodder for VH-1’s Behind the Music. However, reflecting on the initial shock of the announcement of such news 25 years on, what makes this a painful observance is that Karen didn’t come back to us — just 34 days into 1983, with a seemingly encouraging appearance at the Grammy Awards in between, Karen Carpenter was dead.

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Just going by the band’s name, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Cryptacize plays elaborate, cerebral music. While there are clever and unexpected twists and turns to songs such as “Cosmic Sing Along” — which runs the gamut of loopy riffs, playful percussion and vocal harmonies oddly reminiscent of ’50s and ’60s pop in just under two minutes — the most striking thing about Cryptacize’s music is how the band’s sweet melodies contrast with their artfully spare surroundings. The band’s puzzle-pop actually makes perfect sense, considering it’s the project of Chris Cohen (Curtains, ex-Deerhoof), Nedelle, and music teacher Michael Carreira. The two tracks currently on Cryptacize’s MySpace page suggest that the band’s upcoming debut album Dig That Treasure will be just as charming and mischievous.

On November 20th, a documentary of Sigur Rós‘ 2006 summer tour titled Heima will be released on DVD. Directed by Dean DeBlois, whose credits include Disney films Lilo & Stitch and The Banshee and Fin Magee, it promises to be as cinematic as the music.

Here’s a trailer:

To keep you busy ’til that comes out, here’s a review of Hfvarf/Heim (their new CD with music from the film) and two older Sigur Rós vids:

A video about being young: Glósóli

A video about being young at heart: Hoppipolla