Pete The Chop
U2 News Aggregator
Imagine If You’d Never Heard The Joshua Tree…
NPR recently had one of its interns — a young guy, but they don’t say exactly how young — listen to The Joshua Tree for the first time.
Yep, for the first time. It sounds strange, but I have to confess that there are a lot of classic rock albums from the ’60s and ’70s that I’ve never heard in their entirety … albums by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Doors, etc. I wonder how I would’ve reviewed one of those albums as a U2/The Police/The Cars/Van Halen-loving young man in the 1980s?
Well, the NPR intern ends up with a pretty favorable feeling about The Joshua Tree, but he has some interesting things to say along the way: “Streets” sounds like The Arcade Fire; Bono doesn’t sound sincere; “With or Without You” is too “syrupy,” and so forth.
You can read the full review on NPR.org.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Imagine If You’d Never Heard The Joshua Tree…
Square Dancing May Give Some “Vertigo”
A 28-year-old dance instructor in my hometown of Portland, Ore. now teaches a modernized form of square dancing to attract younger participants.
What do they dance to? Michael Jackson, Tag Team and…U2.
Paul Silveria creates a “hoedown mosh pit” from the moves he choreographs, and sometimes teaches in unconventional spaces (warehouses, for example). That’s great for young folks, but purists aren’t apparently happy about it, seeing it as a threat to the classic pastime.
Read more about it (and find out where you can go square-dancing) here.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Square Dancing May Give Some “Vertigo”
Stupidest Pop Lyric?
The Huffington Post has a list of The Stupidest Pop Lyrics of All Time. On the list? “I’ve got no self control/ Been living like a mole now/ Going down, excavation/ I and I in the sky/ You make me feel like I can fly/ So high/ Elevation.”
I can think of some other U2 lyrics that have made me think, WTF? Is that the best you could come up with? I just realized there seems to be an animal theme:
– “Sometimes you can’t stand the sight of a puppy”
– “I wasn’t gonna buy just anyone’s cockatoo”
– An intellectual tortoise (my friend Melodie’s choice for worse)
I do, however, still love “Who’s Going to Ride Your Wild Horses.” Especially the video with the black-and-white Bono!
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Stupidest Pop Lyric?
‘Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)’ will be available soon for iTunes download.
In case you nodded off before they did their superstar thing together early this morning, here’s the ‘Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)’ song that U2 have recorded with Jay-Z and Rihanna to help Haiti’s earthquake victims.
Premiered in London as part of George Clooney’s Hope For Haiti telethon it will be available for iTunes download here on January 25, with 100% of the money going to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners In Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, and Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Haiti Foundation.
“Sitting in the studio and watching Haiti hurting, I knew immediately I had to do something,” says producer Swizz Beatz who’s co-ordinated the ‘Stranded…’ project. “I reached out to my friends Bono and Jay-Z and asked for their help. Jay and Rihanna sent their vocals and that same night Bono and I went into the studio. It’s important we as a global community all come together to help. Haiti needs us right now.”
There will also be a Hope For Haiti download album featuring the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson who all participated in the global TV event, which aired in Ireland on MTV.
U2’s Edge calls new album ‘really special’
The Edge talks about new album progress and reveals it could be premiered before the band begin touring again.
U2’s new album is well underway and could be released this year. At the recent Golden Globe Awards, which U2 were nominated for Best Soundtrack, The Edge told Entertainment Weekly:
‘We are working on a lot of new songs. Some of them are really, really happy. We’re convinced that we have something really special”.
The guitarist also mentioned the album could be released earlier than expected.
‘It’s like deciding whether we are going to release the album before the tour starts or leave it for a while, we don’t really know yet. Literally, within a day of getting off the road, Bono and I were working on new songs’.
The Edge revealed that the album’s sound was also still to be decided.
‘We are experimenting with a lot of different arrangements, and electronic is one of the things we are playing with. But there are other songs that are very traditional, almost folk. In some ways, that’s the thing we haven’t figured out yet, is where this album is going to end up’.
Zurich, 2010
Just received news that the 360° Tour will stop in Zurich, this September. Presales for our subscribers begin early next week.
‘Stranded’
'So me and Bono started going back and forth with ideas, and he was like, 'You know this word 'stranded' keeps standing out to me.' Producer Swizz on how 'Stranded' came together.
‘Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)’ raising funds for Haiti
Jay-Z, Bono, Edge and Rihanna have recorded a track called 'Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)' to raise funds for earthquake relief in Haiti. Buy it through iTunes later tonight.
‘Not Gonna Leave You Stranded…’
Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge and Rihanna debuted 'Stranded' in London tonight, one of the highlights of a powerful two-hour global telethon raising funds for the people of Haiti. Watch it now and download the track.
Bono & My-Ex
This short film was produced for the Irish Film Board’s Virtual Cinema Scheme last year. The premise of this entertaining video is “just when you thought you’d closed the book on that relationship, a rockstar comes and stirs it all up….”
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Bono & My-Ex
U2 and Jay-Z team up for Haiti charity single
The Irish stadium rockers and the hip-hop heavyweight are to release a charity single in aid of victims of the Haiti earthquake.
U2 have teamed up with Jay-Z to release a charity single in aid of victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Speaking to Irish radio station 2FM, U2 guitarist the Edge said the song was [...]