Music on TV - Week of 10.25.11: U2, Beirut, Allen Stone

"First you saddle me with electric drums loops and now this?" U2 RockDoc From the Sky Down premieres on Showtime, Saturday, October 29

Is 2011 the year of the rock documentary? Well, maybe it's just (R)October as three out of the last four weeks of this month have been highlighted by rock documentaries (Living in the Material World -- Scorsese's take on George Harrison, and Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam Twenty). This week is marked by the Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud) directed documentary From the Sky Down, which looks at U2's recording of Achtung Baby (1991) and premieres on Showtime, this Saturday night.

To commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the band's sort of rebirth, (and to coincide with their massive reissue undertaking -- pictured right, out November 1) U2 handed over a plethora of footage from the time of the recording Achtung Baby to the Oscar winning director and gave him six months to make the movie he wanted to make. The result is a fascinating look at a band trying to reinvent themselves while holed up in Berlin. Bono describes the album as “the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree," as the group was trying to distance themselves from the earnestness of their previous two endeavors, The Joshua Tree and (especially) the American roots vanity project Rattle & Hum.

Elsewhere, blue-eyed soul purveyor Allen Stone makes his national television debut on Conan Wednesday, and if his multiple sets at this past weekend's City Arts Fest in Seattle are any indication, he'll be blowing the doors off the place (with, I suspect, an electrifying version of "Unaware"). The Chewelah, WA native has been getting major buzz in the past year, and his self-titled sophomore release is a full realization of the promise of his self-released debut, Last to Speak. Stone is still without a label, but after he blows away Conan, a bidding war is bound to be in full swing.

Finally, Zach Condon's Beirut makes it out to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday night, in support of his latest stellar release, The Rip Tide (reviewed here).

Picks for the week
Monday, October 24
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Primus
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Jane's Addiction
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Amos Lee
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Death Set
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Chris Isaak
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Beirut
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Wye Oak (REPEAT)
Tuesday, October 25
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Strange Boys
NBC: The Today Show: Kelly Clarkson, 50 Cent
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Yo Yo Ma
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Blitzen Trapper
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Airborne Toxic Event, Action Bronson
Wednesday, October 26
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Frank Turner
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Civil Wars
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Waters
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Cyndi Lauper
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Mona
TBS: Conan: Allen Stone
Thursday, October 27
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Fray
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Foster the People
FUEL: The Daily Habit: AWOLNATION
NBC: The Today Show: Kelly Clarkson
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: The Original 7ven
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Delta Spirit, Cee Lo Green
Friday, October 28
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Head & the Heart
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Duran Duran
FUEL: The Daily Habit: AWOLNATION
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Anamanaguchi, Goldheart Assembly
Saturday, October 29
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Noah and the Whale
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Foster the People (REPEAT)
PBS: Austin City Limits: Steve Miller Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band
SHOWTIME: From the Sky Down: U2