Ben Harper and Relentless 7's new video, 'Fly One Time,' has a very simple but pointed message: "It's about taking a risk -- not allowing complacency to step in as a daily ritual," Harper tells Spinner. "It's really about stepping out of your life and stepping to it."

To illustrate the song's theme, Harper turns to footage of some of his favorite extreme and non-extreme athletes, such as surfer Laird Hamilton and cycling champ Lance Armstrong. "It was both friends of mine and people who've inspired me over the years and inspired me day to day," he says.

Here at Spinner, we receive more CDs than we can possibly listen to. Sadly, many of them, whether good or bad, get consigned to The Crap Stack, where they languish until they're eventually carted off to become shiny silver landfill somewhere. However, in our version of Musical Lotto, we've decided to rescue -- completely at random -- three discs from the pile and give them a proper and fair reviewing. Will the chosen CD be crap-tastic -- or just plain crap? Let's find out, shall we?

Bell X1: 'Blue Lights on the Runway' (album): Showing themselves to be an eclectic bunch, this Irish three-piece claims to be influenced by "Mick Fleetwood's drums, Brian Eno's head, Gillian Welch's soul, Napoleon Dynamite's delicious bass." A heady mix, indeed. The deliciously titled opener, 'The Ribs of a Broken Umbrella,' sounds like a modern-day Roxy Music, crafting lush soundscapes with an insistent and booming backbeat accompanying singer Paul Noonan's Bryan Ferry-esque vocal. It's fair to say that Noonan's voice has something of a chameleonic quality to it -- during those moments when he really belts on 'One Stringed Harp' and, in particular, 'The Great Defector,' he sounds like a David Byrne of days past.

BANGALORE, India -- The bells started with the first light of dawn, maybe around 5:30, as people came to the Hindu temple next door to make offerings, each signaling the spiritual presence with a peal or two, just a little ting. Then a couple more a few minutes later. Then a string of eight or nine a minute after that, the clear sound mixing with a wide spectrum of waking birds' trills and the gradually increasing noises of two-stroke auto-rickshaw engines and horns and squealing truck breaks, combining in a surprisingly invigorating yet oddly soothing wake-up symphony. (Hear an audio clip of the scene, made with a portable digital recorder, below.)

Bangalore Morning


Odds are good that you've spoken with someone in Bangalore more recently than you have with some of your closest relatives and friends, thanks to it having become the call center for the world - which is to blame for the rapidly growing city having gained a somewhat accurate reputation as having an ultra-modern tech-world heartbeat. But if the catalog agent or IT consultant on the other end could have strolled outside while chatting, you might well have heard something as described above in the background. It's amid this distinctive, perhaps contradictory combination of cultures in which Prakash Sontakke, introduced to Around the World by Canadian musician Jonathan Bernard of the Orchid Ensemble, has been developing a fittingly singular approach to music that arguably reflects the surroundings.

Ben Harper returned to school in triumph last Saturday, as he and friends Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal headlined the Claremont Folk Festival at Harper's childhood alma mater, Claremont Elementary School.

Browne, who Harper called a "friend and a hero," opened with a stunning version of 'The Barricades of Heaven,' and continued with an acoustic set that mixed old classics such as 'For Everyman' and 'These Days,' with the rare 'Drums of War.' Browne also performed a new song, which he introduced as having written for his girlfriend. "It doesn't have a title and it might could use another verse," he told the crowd. He then dedicated the final song, an achingly beautiful rendition of 'Something Fine' to Alma, a little girl seated on the bales of hay that provided the makeshift barricade to the stage.

The backdrop brought up nostalgia for Harper as the festival, now in its 28th year, was started by his grandparents, Dorothy and Charles Chase. Before his opening 'Pleasure and Pain,' he spoke of getting his grandmother's approval. "This is the first song I wrote where my grandmother Dot said, 'You might be able to make something of this.'" Grandma and grandpa would've been more than proud that day.

A celebration marking a half century since the opening of the seminal Los Angeles folk/blues/world club the Ash Grove brought something home: The roots of American roots music is in rootlessness.

All night long, in the first of two evening concerts marking this milestone, artists who in more recent years shaped modern American roots music -- Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Dave Alvin -- reminisced warmly on the stage at UCLA's Royce Hall about teenage journeys to the Melrose Ave. music spot to worship and learn at the feet of the masters: bluesmen including Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Rev. Gary Davis, such mountain music mainstays as the Stanley Brothers, plains balladeers such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott, even Eastern European folk music revived under the direction of musicologist Mike Janusz.

"The Ash Grove," noted Alvin this night in a scorching electric blues song he wrote in tribute to the old club he and his brother Phil made regular pilgrimages to from nearby Downey, "that's where I come from."

• Heath Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday. He was 28. The Academy Award-nominated actor recently served as one of six portrayals of Bob Dylan in the Todd Haynes-directed film 'I'm Not There.' Ledger also co-founded the record label Music Masses Co with Ben Harper, as well as directed the music video for Harper's 'Morning Yearning.' An autopsy will be performed today to determine the cause of death.

• Ringo Starr walked off the set of 'Live With Regis and Kelly' on Tuesday, after he was told that the song he was to perform -- 'Liverpool 8' -- was to be cut from its four-minute, 15-seconds to under two-and-a-half minutes. A spokeswoman for the show told the AP that the producers tried to work with the former Beatle, and the song's time requirement had been repeatedly expressed since he was booked in November.

• Blur bassist Alex James and KT Tunstall are among the celebrities teaming to write a children's book for British charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Each star will write ten lines of the story before passing it off to the next individual.

• Lil' Kim has ended her relationship with Atlantic Records -- the label she called home for more than 10 years. The rapper plans to release her forthcoming project through another outlet. According to rumors, Kim may sign a deal with Imperial Records, which is under Capitol Music Group.

Academy Award-nominated actor Heath Ledger was found dead in New York today from an apparent drug overdose. He was 28.

Though he was most well-known for roles in 'Brokeback Mountain,' 'Monster's Ball' and his hotly anticipated turn as the Joker in the upcoming Batman film 'The Dark Knight,' Ledger was also a music lover. He founded his own record label with singer-songwriter Ben Harper and played one of the many faces of Bob Dylan in 2007's 'I'm Not There.'

Watch Harper's 'Morning Yearning' video, directed by the late Ledger.