u2 are recording in fez

that's what this usa today article says.

whose brilliant idea was that (bono)? is the sound gonna be any good in there?!?!

~ ps: maybe click here, too. pretty please.

rather than WHAAT!?

seen on sunday. stonington, connecticut.

bono at the meteors (how did i miss this?)

does this rate as a top 10 dorkiest bono moment? ever? i think so. it is from february, 2007. clannad were picking up a lifetime achievement award at the meteor irish music awards and bono, from his den (?) is featured reading a fairytale story off of his laptop screen. with a very odd accent. he is on at a few different points throughout the video...



related:

[mp3]
clannad & bono - in a lifetime

[youtube] clannad & bono - in a lifetime (video)

[buy] clannad music

~ peace

there are spots of saltwater on my lens

flag

also, my hair is very messy.

no kooks

no kooks

this bench overlooks a surf spot. if you don't know what a kook is, then you probably are one.

neck = sunburned. me = unskilled sunblock applier.

EDGE: The Future in Retail

EDGEnyNOHO, originally uploaded by caravox.

Crosby and Bleecker, NYC.

EDGE*nyNOHO is a unique venture developed to promote designs and concepts by fresh, cutting edge talent. A design mecca with the most innovative ideas to come out of New York, it is "THE" destination for individuals seeking creativity, individuality and exclusivity.

EDGE*nyNOHO showcases more than 65 fashion, product and accessory designers, all under one roof. Customers can purchase items and interact directly with each designer which is the most essential part of the EDGE*nyNOHO experience. EDGE*nyNOHO is located on the ground level of the landmark Louis Sullivan building at 65 Bleecker Street.

more info

u2: instant karma (clip)

[mp3]
u2 - instant karma (30 second clip)

from the upcoming amnesty international benefit cd, instant karma, save darfur. dig that guitar. and the drums. singer. bass. melody.

hear more audio clips here. the cd comes out june 12. lots of john lennon covers. lots of artists. you can see more details and pre-order the 2 cd set on amazon (usa) for $14.99.

green day covers john lennon's working class hero on the cd. they played it live on american idol (ha ha suckers!) you can find an mp3 of that green day performance here.

imagine you're in a space station off the planet earth and earth has died

i enjoyed reading this article about fran healy from travis.
interesting article, even if you don't like travis. (i do.) several chris martin and bono references included in the above story. plus, a very awesome anecdote about travis trying to record with brian eno:

Eno's methods have been politely described as unusual. Healy laughs at the memories.

"Eno would say, 'Write a descriptive word to describe music'. We'd write 60 cards, he'd pull two out from a bag and say, 'Dark, metallic. Go and play an instrument you don't usually play in that style'.

"One time he said, 'Imagine you're in a space station off the planet Earth and Earth has died and you have to write a song about being homesick for your planet'. We sat there going 'Er ...' It was an experience."

another funny thing fran said was that coldplay could deal with eno because they have songs written already. then fran turns around and says if travis could find songs in their jams, like u2, this would have also helped the travis-eno situation. he is sort of contradicting himself. honestly, i think fran's seemingly throw-away remarks are a prophecy: chris martin and eno are going to have a blowout and break up. in a violent ugly mess. and then coldplay will have to start from scratch and won't release an album until, i don't know, a long time (?) or something. (informed prediction.) baby.

travis has a new album out called the boy with no name [buy]. i like this tune off the new one:

[mp3]
selfish jean - travis

find more travis mp3s here.

~ peace

is this legal?

[mp3]
the lord henry - is this legal?
these guys are sort of in the line of guitary dancey franz ferdinand-ish, but rockier. and from austin.
visit: the lord henry on myspace

i've been listening to the new ryan adams tunes. i need to get my mom's opinion, but she doesn't want to share. she doesn't want to be on the blog thing. i will try again in a few days. but my mom is an ER nurse. so if i try too hard, she might, like, kill me.

also: i have a totally fake post over here today.

~ latez

pearl jam, arcade fire, secret machines, and imogen heap

those are the artists the edge name-checked in a recent article posted on spinner.com. sayeth edge:

"Seeing Arcade Fire in this little venue called the Olympia Theater in Dublin, was definitely one of those events where you just go, 'Yeah, this is what it's all about. This why I do what I do,'" he says. "Or the Secret Machines, who came with us for part of our American tour. Another recent moment was seeing Pearl Jam—totally on fire. I'm a big fan but to see them in full flight was amazing. It's not that it happens rarely but it's always great when you have one of those moments when you just go, 'Wow. I'm one of the luckiest people alive. This is what I get to do.'"

While live shows certainly invigorate the veteran rocker, recordings aren't out of the question. Enter British chanteuse Imogen Heap. "'Hide and Seek' freaked me out when I heard it, it's so beautiful," Edge says. "I've known her work for a long time, but this song is just spine-chilling. There are certain songs that when you're driving in your car and you hear them for the first time, you have to pull over. You can't believe what you're hearing. That song is one of those."

hmmmm.....sidenotes:

*bono supposedly recorded a version of the beatles' i am the walrus with secret machines for inclusion in the movie across the universe. greater powers have so far prevented us from hearing it. bastards.

*i would really love it if edge would drag u2 back to sci-fi soul universe for a little while in the recording studio. last visited circa 1993. imogen heap's aforementioned song hide and seek, which edge clearly adores, definitely exists there. it is a very manipulated techy wonder that somehow still delivers raw emotion. check it out:

[mp3] imogen heap - hide and seek

listen to more imogen on myspace

also:
pearl jam / the arcade fire / secret machines

finally: live u2 audio
(from saturday night in cannes)
[mp3] vertigo
[mp3] where the streets have no name

holy sonny crockett, b-man

where did you get this suit!? and why didn't you wear that to the u23d screening? you need to wear it again. immediately.

fake steve jobs blogs about fake bono and fake edge kicking arse in cannes

fake steve jobs is mad funny [click it].
he blogs about bono a lot. apparently bono's existence is easy to blog about. who freaking knew!?

sample - fake u2 in cannes

"The Edge flew in Friday, and last night he and Bono beat the shit out of some English guy in a bar. Something about soccer teams. We were in an Irish bar and the Brit and his pals started singing songs and doing these taunts and saying the guys in U2 are a bunch of rockstar fairies. The main guy was this big scary dude with chains on his neck and a shaved head, singing about Manchester or something. Next thing I know The Edge goes over the table and he's into this guy like a mad dog, using his teeth and smashing a bottle over the guy's head. Bono leapt in with his boots and kicked in the guy's ribs. Ugly. Cops were called, but we split in time. And nobody saw nuffing. Bono says it's an Irish thing. Nobody squeals."

the person behind the fake steve jobs blog just got a book deal.

(thanx) for the tip.

u2 in cannes (videos): bono mistakenly wears activist outfit to rock star job

vertigo, streets, funny glasses, bad headwear, no speeches. u2 showed up with their sound crew and played two songs from the "palais steps" on the way into a 12:30 a.m. screening of the u23d movie last night.

view videos:
part 1 / youtube (red carpet)
part 2 / youtube (vertigo)
part 3/ youtube (where the streets have no name)

photo credit + [click for more]

reviews out of cannes for the u23d movie have been fab and have mostly focused on its revolutionary visual technology.

i wonder if u2 has a financial stake in this new type of 3d technology. i wonder if they will make lots of dollars if it takes off in other forms beyond their movie. i wonder. i wonder. i wonder.

the killers (try to) play red rocks

don't quite make same impression as u2

f*ck yeah.

u2.com is giving away tickets to the u23d movie in cannes, but we only care about the part in the post that includes guitars
the site says that "blah. blah. blah. all four band members will attend the special advance screening of 'U23D' tomorrow in cannes. blah blah blah. at midnight the band and invited guests will attend the first screening of U23D and, who knows, maybe someone will persuade them to bring a guitar or two?

also: the guardian has a roundup of reviews for anton corbijn's new movie control, which screened in cannes last night. this article says that bono disappointed photogs with a no-show.

~ latez

new song written on bono's piano

too bad the song is by ash. listen to it here.

view from my head, part 1

subway drummer, monday night, 42nd street subway station. this was at about 11:30 at night after we saw arcade fire last week.

this video is totally boring. nothing happens. but dude has an entire kit set up. and that's something.

please do not vote for u2 (thank you)

vote for smash mouth

oh, and please don't vote for the temptations, either.

~ latez

i'm in charge at work this week. it's going really well ...

bbc video: bono and bob

youtube: from tuesday. discussing whether they've been taken for a ride by the g8 politicians. interesting bit at the end about climate change vs. extreme poverty.

i've also got a post over here today. you'll never guess who it is about. NEVER.

~ peace

please note that our obsession with the haircut is just a ploy (thank you)

The G8 have delivered on multilateral debt relief and have increased funding on HIV/AIDS, but they are way off track with their promise to increase development assistance to Africa. This in turn means that, collectively, they are off track with the overall commitments they made in key sectors such as health, education and water and sanitation.

Meanwhile, stalled trade talks have failed to deliver the promise to make trade work for Africa. The message for Germany’s G8 Summit in June 2007 is clear and stark: unless the G8 recognise that this is an emergency and act immediately, they will fall short of their promises to Africa. After small increases in development assistance in 2005 and 2006, the G8 urgently need to agree to a step-change in development assistance from 2007 through to 2010, and doing this will require immediate budget commitments. It is not too late – but, if this call goes unanswered, by the time the 2008 DATA Report is published, it will almost certainly be too late.

If Gleneagles was about promises, then Heiligendamm must be about delivery. We urge Chancellor Merkel to show leadership and ensure that the 2007 G8 summit is remembered as the moment when the G8 finally agreed to deliver their promises to Africa, to help save millions of lives in Africa and to help save the G8’s and the West’s reputations in the eyes of the world.

above text is from the "conclusion" portion of the just-released data report, which you can read in full on data.org.

the graphic is from an article in today's new york times

i can't believe i haven't posted this song before ...

[mp3]
the rakes - the world was a mess but his hair was perfect
title of song of *utmost* importance. but, yeah, i just am a 10-year old who likes NME-style straight-ahead, catchy, guitary-punkish brits. off their new album ten new messages [buy].

also:

pitchfork interviews arcade fire's win butler
this question gets answered:
Pitchfork: The Arcade Fire have opened for U2—did seeing success on that kind of colossal level change anything? What did you learn from that?

new spoon song: the ghost of you lingers
i like them but i don't think i like this tune. then again, i am a 10-year old, so my taste is not the best. YET!

wilco beg of you to buy their record
good news: 10 year olds love meandering tuneless songs ending with bwa-nee guitar solos. yeah? yeah.

~ latez

bono travels to germany for photo-op; vows to find a cure for this man's haircut

bono in germany today with social democrats party leader kurt beck at the spd headquarters in berlin.

germany, you are so hot right now.



[photo via].

three cheers ...

geldof to gore: wtf?
heh.

arctic monkey alex turner: won't do ipod ads
double heh.

recommended read: arcade fire in nyc (u2-related)

~ peace

dr. the edge to you

photo via yahoo [click for more]

the edge received an honorary doctorate from berklee college of music in boston on saturday. gloria estefan delivered the graduation address. past recipients of honorary degrees from berklee include duke ellington, dizzy gillespie, aretha franklin, david bowie and bonnie raitt.

i want to make a sarcastic comment poking fun at the edge, but he is so supercool and awesome that i can't even think of one.

according to the boston globe, dr. the edge urged students to work with other talented musicians rather than going it alone.

he told 800 graduating students at the school's commencement ceremony that ensembles can make music that will "shine as you could never shine on your own."

"collaborating with talented people is not easy, but it's the way to really shine," he said. "the important thing in the end is not that you are proved right every time. the important thing is that the music is the best that it can be."

doctor? they should have made him freaking president. of the world. or something.

oh, and also, in addition to his supercool awesomeness, the other reason i don't want to make fun of dr. the edge: i am sort of afraid of his fan girl posse.

~ peace

larry mullen jr. & adam clayton sighting

photos: in their cars, outside the studio, last week, hanover quay. all four members of u2 were in the studio last week according to that post, and adam said "album in 2008." obviously the most important news here is: drummer's haircut, unchanged.

~ thanks to heather for helping me pretend to understand italian.

photos: bono in dublin

showbiz ireland has some newish photos online such as ...

where do we go to draw the line

peep these: a few adorable pics of hewson(s)

chris martin vs. mark ronson (cheekyboy mashup). the new mark ronson album has a remix of "God put a smile upon your face" with a ska/hip-hop feel, sans chris martin's vocals. this mashup uses ronson's vocal-less version and adds back in chris's original vocals.

download the arctic monkeys live and acoustic set on the current. thanks for the arctic monkeys link go to steve, who is kicking my bum in the concert video taking department. i can't take videos or photos at concerts. i hate doing it. and i am bad at it. i need to look directly at the performers.

arcade fire this week (for me) was pretty good. although it is tempting to add another drop in the pond of hyperbole, pretty good is as accurate as i can be about monday's show. i've seen them twice and will go see them many more times. but i'm just "in like" and not "in love." thankfully it was pretty easy to get tickets this week, especially for the uptown shows. i will say that both times i've seen them, the energy coming off the stage (uniquely strong and awesome) far outweighed the level of energy radiating back to them from the crowd.

~ that's all

it's a bird, it's a plane, it's ...

more of the superhero on flickr. apparently there is a bar in hoi an, vietnam with several paintings depicting this bespectacled, caped crusader. (it's his birthday today). we like what they've done with his pecs.

~ peace

soccer star haircut update

david beckham's haircut got a haircut.

~ act like you care

there's something in the air

looks like last night's arcade fire show was a bit crazier than monday's.

also: i read a sweet story about bono in this month's vogue magazine and i wrote a post about it on the atu2 blog.


~ peace

rock 'n' roll! (nerds)

arcade fire, windowsill, united palace theater, may 7.

blah blah blah. it was pretty good.

~ peace

when you finally disappear, we'll just say you were never here

a few weeks ago i was at mercury lounge. the band let's go sailing was playing. their music has been featured on grey's anatomy, like twice. it was boring.

i had a "what the freak?!" moment that night.

i realized that the room was full of nerds. including me. on the stage, off the stage, everywhere. when did i become a complete freaking nerd? i asked some people near me and they didn't know the answer.

i never wore a night brace to school. and i didn't play the french horn in band class. where did it all go wrong?

this needs to stop. i am only listening to rock 'n' roll for the rest of the year. (except for tonight when i go see arcade fire. NERDS.)

(live on saturday night live)
[mp3] arcade fire - intervention
[mp3] arcade fire - keep the car running

the national are opening tonight.
(nerd factor still up for debate.)
[mp3] the national - fake empire

~ peace

the joshua chimp

super-awesome best photoshop job ever. or is it real? don't act like it doesn't look seamlessly perfectly real. do not.

~ latez

conversation with grandma

so how is school?

grandma, you know i'm not in school anymore.

how is your boyfriend?

yeah, i don't think i have one.

why not? at your age, you should already be married. don't you want to have kids?

you don't need to be married to have kids, grandma.

oh dear.

don't worry, i'm not pregnant or anything.

of course you're not. how could you be? you're not even married.

found on flickr

uploaded by shortys29. details are here.

don't forget the bono, darling

view video:

frontline report

youtube video: bono presenting human rights award. this is from a tuesday, may, 1 bbc tv broadcast.

on that same day, our awesome irish musical cognoscenti type peep emailed to report that "bono was on irish tv on a program called Xposé... they asked if he is doing anything with U2 at the moment... and he replied that he had to escape out of a window this morning and crawl down the drainpipe, as he is supposed to be with Edge today working on some songs."

we're not lying about that. (seriously). but bono probably is.

~ peace

we like real stories

the above clip is of diego luna discussing his documentary chavez, which i went to see this week. it is a documentary about the mexican boxing champion julio cesar chavez. (yeah, i'm the girl who goes to the tribeca film festival to watch the sports movies.)

diego says he wanted to make this film to show the young people in mexico that once there was a man from mexico who was the best. in the world. the champ. (and not the golden boy). but it goes a lot deeper than that.

verdict: in addition to being a hottie, diego luna is also a wonderful storyteller. given the hype-filled nature of the sport and the political climate in mexico during the era in which chavez's legend was built, this movie tackles things way beyond boxing— political, sociological, cult of celebrity, whatever. but for the most part, it is just a straight ahead look at reality. (the clif notes: chavez was the champ. and now he's not.)

it is exceedingly real, which is impressive considering that luna (see above video) holds chavez up as such a heroic figure.

the most powerful aspect, especially given the visual element, is watching this one-of-a-kind athlete's physical gifts disappear with time. it's not flowery or sentimental or deifying. at all. but it is a little heartbreaking. i don't think you need to be a fan of sports or boxing to appreciate this. just someone who appreciates the vicissitudes of life.

~ peace

examining the merkel's flowery gaze

the look bono got last month compares nicely with the ones bush and barroso got yesterday. we might need to start a blog about the chancellor.

the chancellor's (pretend) boyfriend bono was in the news back in dublin yesterday. view video from rte news here. if that link doesn't work, search for the bono headline in the tuesday, may 1 section here.

i've also got a post over here.

~ peace

radio rips

around the blogs: new interpol / new editors


also: bono in dublin today / plus, he's on the phone


~ peace