ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance

don't worry, it's not the bono.

mcguinness speech

brings dismay, confusion and little (online) support.

heh

via

mcguinness

blah blah blah

concentrate

how did i forget that airport bars are closed at night at the salt lake city airport? grrrr. i sat waiting with an ex co-worker of mine near our gate for a delayed flight. as we got closer to midnight, we counted little children in the waiting area. we were fading, but little ones were getting wider and wider awake. i may have said slightly too loud what is with all these fucking babies on a red eye? and then the hanging tv played larry king live. loud. ringo starr was singing. live. oy. that should be illegal. i announced that i would like daniel day-lewis to be president of the usa. received annoyed-bewildered response. but if dude can turn from english to irish, then turning american should be a breeze. his earrings should be vice prez.

it's six o'clock

in the morning? or night? need to know.

usa today's anthony breznican mentions another new u2 song on his blog

Bono explains that numbers are significant in each of the new songs, and slips in another CD that may be the first track on the album. Its opening lyric is, “It’s six o’clock …”

... Bono blasts the volume on the jangling guitar intro, just in time for the “Six o’clock” lyric. Bono sings along with himself for a moment, then turns the sound down again...

the link above is one of five outtakes posted on breznican's blog to supplement the initial article he wrote about his car ride with bono and edge in utah. that article included a description of a new song called no line on the horizon.

click the numbers below to see his four other outtakes:


4
talking about the song for ronnie drew.

3
christmas presents from pavarotti.

2
bono and edge answer the question: "if you're riding in a car at the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what would happen?" edge knows.

1
bono and edge chatter about visiting robert redford, who has an old restored bar that was supposedly commissioned from ireland by butch cassidy... the bono is quite proud of the bono and thinks the bono is all tough because the bono ordered whiskey at said bar during the day... oooh.

ring

r.e.m. was busy filming a video in nyc last week for their not-yet-released lead single off their not-yet-released new album. you can download an mp3 of a "working rehearsals version" of this song, supernatural superserious, here. and of course, even though none of this is released yet, you can already buy the ringtone. here. as if. yo. and then your phone would ring and people would be all what's that and you'd be it's the new not-yet released r.em. song from the not-yet released album. but the ringtone is out. now! and they'd be all, r.em. is still alive? and you'd be, yeah, their new album is produced by jacknife freakin' lee. he produced part of u2's last album. and they'd be all, ugh, urgh, ungh and ergh.

anyway, later ...

3 videos from the past week

the sundance film fest produced the video below from the premier of u23d, talking to bono, adam, edge and catherine owens:



also:


[watch] cnn video: bono, bill gates, michael dell discuss red

also:

some video from davos (below). beginning about 20:30 in, bono speaks during the world economic forum's "call to action on the millennium development goals."

bono returns to form

with proper sunglasses and our favorite scarf and a very nice ending line, so watch the whole thing

i'm buried in swag (not schwag), covered in snow...

~peace

we didn't start the fire

wednesday night in salt lake city. noticed the drama on our travels. i'm here for this and this. not that.

dell, microsoft, red

dell and microsoft are going to be selling computers for product (red)

bono says he is putting some funk in the machines. der. the rumors say brad pitt is starring in a dell super bowl ad for (red).

according to reuters, bono says (red) lost some potential partners after a critical article in advertising age questioned the effectiveness of the campaign, but bill gates says (red) is "a creative use of capitalism."

they will make a bigger announcement at davos

car ride with bono and edge in utah

this is a good article. you should read it. bono played this reporter demos of a new song. snippet:

... A wide, frozen lake spreads out next to the salt-whitened Utah freeway, and Bono points out the gauzy sundown, the sun slipping beneath white clouds that blend with snowy mountaintops in the distance.

"Can I interrupt this broadcast?" he says. "There's an amazing moment in Ireland, where we live, when the sea and the sky can have the same color and the line of the horizon disappears. And I look at these mountains, and it's just about to happen here."

He reaches beneath the seat and pulls out a CD case, withdrawing a hand-labeled disc. "I have just the right song for it … if I can find it."

He slips the CD into the player and heavy distortion fills the car. It's a song called No Line on the Horizon, which the band is developing for their next album. "It came out of a new distortion box that my guitar tech got," The Edge says.

"This is a little full on!" Bono shouts. "But it's worth it, just to get a flavor of this. It's only a demo."

The song is rough, weaving between brutal guitar blasts underscoring the mellow title refrain. "These are just first drafts," Bono explains...

i just want to big up octopus's garden

"Daniel Lanois is about the ancient," Bono said. "And Brian Eno is about the modern, the future, the things that haven't happened. And where they join - [a place] where something feels like it's always existed but you've never heard before - that's what those two seem to bring out in us. Daniel Lanois has this tradition and respect for folk music and respect for black music and gospel and blues. And Brian is still trying to make music for if the band had formed on Venus. Somewhere between that is our next album."

that quote is from this vh1 article

also:

here's partial video of bono answering a question about the u2 3d movie not having the narrative ambitions of the beatles movies:



awesome.

more here.

video: u2 interview from sundance

cnn video:

u2 at sundance: wearing glasses, posing for photos, answering questions, etc.

youtube: bono introducing the movie

youtube: Q&A after the movie

article: u2 in 3D 1 big hit at sundance festival






this ny times blog says: "There was a massive crush outside the Eccles Theater at Park High for “U23D,” a movie using the latest in three dimensional film technologies to capture a concert in Buenos Aires. The guys next to the Bagger said that he had heard of offers of $1,000 for a $15 ticket. To a movie. The keening and posturing that went on as people tried to make their way inside brought to mind plenty of painful high school lessons about who the cool kids were. Robert Redford was there. Al Gore was there. U2? All four members were there. They entered to a huge, rock concert roar.

...People at the Eccles responded in very rock fashion: In one scene where phones were held aloft in the concert, the people watching the movie did the same thing. It was hard, visually, to tell where the movie ended and the people watching the movie began....

In a short Q & A afterward, women took the occasional silence to profess their ardor for Bono. But one guy sniffed that it was, after all, just a concert movie with none of the narrative ambitions of say, the Beatles movies. “X$%@ off!” Bono said, before gathering himself and saying, “You are telling me that Yellow Submarine has a narrative arc?”

photos

jerks

once he had the guy on the ground, i really wish chris would have kicked the slimey fucker in the teeth.

coldplay's chris martin manhandles a paparazzo

rad

bono and edge wrote a song with robert hunter. cool.

alex kapranos wants to stab you in the heart.

you can get audio of last night's "intimate" radiohead gig here.

u2 3d mania type stuff here.

~ later

wowie

rolling stone: sundance preview
as usual, there will be a lot of music-related movies at the fest. (not just u2's wowie zowie 3d thing.)

this article says that there is a sequence in the u2 3d film where bono mimics an intimate telephone call and the empty space in front of him becomes animation: a globe emerges, a baby develops inside it and the umbilical cord becomes the line of the phone. director catherine owens calls it "a psychological experience in the back of your brain."

do you think it will be as realistic and entertaining as the visuals below? cause nobody makes quality movies like ryan adams.




also: diane keaton said the f word on gma (watch it). remember when bono said "fucking brilliant" at the golden globes award ceremony? (watch it. do it!) remember when the golden globes award ceremony existed?!?

> mclovin

so 50 cent had his illegal steroids mailed to him under the name michael jordan. this is semi-amusing to me. nowhere near as awesome as when my then-in-high-school and very white older brother had a fake ID that said his name was johnny newman:

stare

[mp3] we won't remember - aster
these guys are from austin, tx and there are just two of them but they have a lot of things going on, mostly synths and piano and beats and guitars and indie boy layered vocals floating and soaring around. their new album some things seldom heard of is out on january 22. aster on myspace.

today there was NO SNOW at my locale. weatherliars.

bono's right hand (it works wonders)

seen in paris, jan. 8:

guffaw

vox magazine hq sign. main street. amagansett, ny.

[mp3] keep your eyes ahead - the helio sequence
guitar bass drum. check check check. atmospheric. check. echo. check. we like. check. it's the title track from the helio sequence's forthcoming lp [buy].

also: if this is true, hmmm, say spiderman and tyler durden had a fist fight, who would win?

all the pictures

as you *may* know, matt mcgee, our man in charge at atu2.com, is working on a book called u2 - a diary. he's been chronicling the writing process on u2diary.com and is currently accepting u2 photo submissions. if you've got some u2 photos of your own you'd like to share with matt, let him know.

unrelatedly ...

[mp3] fish - all the pictures
[mp3] the deaf boy's dad - all the pictures

those pretty and poppy songs are from a self-released album called i have a brother! by the folk/electronica act all the pictures. more of these tunes can be downloaded here.

joe snape is all the pictures. himself. he's 18, and in his last year of secondary school in birmingham, england. joe lives a five-minute walk from the first cadbury chocolate factory, in bournville. he says it's all very pretty, and full of shutter-happy tourists pottering about...

joe is below.




who would you list as influences?
Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Four Tet, Beirut, Dosh, and Jens Lekman are all major ones, but lately I've been listening to some other stuff; Tortoise, Do Say Make Think, The American Analogue Set, Caribou, Broken Social Scene... Without slipping into a pit of name-droppingness, lots and lots!

My musical background is mostly classical; I started playing piano first, and then began to learn other instruments... I play concerts most as an orchestral percussionist - marimbas, xylophones, timpani, that kind of thing. But I listen mainly to 'pop' music, and I've been writing and recording poppy stuff for a few years. To varying degrees of success!

how do you do your recording?
I record everything in my bedroom, with blankets and egg-boxes hanging all over the walls to try to deaden the sound. I have quite a simple set-up - I can't afford anything better! It's often a beg-and-borrow thing: someone has a lead I can use; someone else will lend me their electric guitar, or I can get the orchestra glockenspiel over the week. I record and edit in Logic on my mac, which is the one really nice piece of kit I have. And... that's sort of it.

all the pictures on myspace

the fog has rolled in

[mp3]
waving flags - british sea power
decent single off the upcoming lp do you like rock music? u2/arcade fire references, etc.

also:

how far are you from the place where the streets have no name?


here's video of monsieur le freakin awesome with his fans in paris after his meeting with don juan sarkozy yesterday:

bono + sarkozy = our first nausea-inducing photo-op of 2008 has arrived!

photo via.

related reading.

i was thinking of going snowboarding this week, but i'm at the beach instead

boing boing: hardware hacker reviews the one laptop per child xo laptop. some interesting comments. you will recall that the edge is involved with this charitable effort.

here are links to some articles and discussions about the use of u2 music by more than a few of the u.s. presidential candidates.

later on ...

bill gates: last day (video)

bono's appearance starts about 3:20 in. the whole thing is pretty funny. the matthew mcconaughey part might be my favorite. and not because of matthew.



here's an article explaining the above.

i posted more here.

this is totally related. have you guys seen david beckham in those armani underwear ads? is he for real? come on guy, why should i be impressed with your armani-ness when you are selling your own signature cologne at frickin cvs? der.

anyway, i still suggest that you all look really closely and intently below. you may notice something.



did you notice? becks and bono have the same haircut!

that is what you noticed, right?

~ later

goodtimes goodtimes: sunshine sunshine

i wore these white shoes yesterday to my grandma's and i thought they were sweet, but she told me they look like roller skates. my grandma is so cold, man. for real.

[mp3]
goodtimes goodtimes - sunshine sunshine
goodtimes goodtimes is the alt/folk solo project of franc cinelli. that tune is from his album glue [buy]. you can get more free mp3s here.

franc answered two super-relevant questions for me.

what do you do when you are not making music?
When I’m not making music? Um...i don’t think I’ve ever been there. When I’m not sticking chords together I’m thinking about sticking chords together. Making music is pretty addictive. I cant help comparing anything I write to songs in my record collection. Not in that I worry if they’re any good , but is this gonna make anyone feel really good, put a smile on someone’s face on a dreary Tuesday afternoon. That for me is the point of making music. And that’s my day, everyday. Whatever else I might be up to; even if the day requires slacks and a pretty shirt. Yeah, it happens.

if bruce springsteen, bob dylan and van morrison got into a fist fight, who would win?
I’d like to think that the only fight bruce bob and van would have is one of wit. Who would win? I’ve no idea, probably bob as no one would have the faintest idea what he was on about so they’d presume it was some deep meaningful message from the messiah. Ha! (It does rhyme pretty well though). And where’s Steve Earle in your supposed fist fight? He’d win hands down.


goodtimes goodtimes on youtube

sweet

brrr

holy fuck is it cold here. people. i just went to the store looking for this, but couldn't find it, so i bought one of these instead. really. the one i bought has an awesome haircut. der.

[mp3] avatar furr - canon blue
canon blue is daniel james. i think he makes icey music. worth a listen. if you like that, the 4-song halcyon ep from canon blue is available as a free download [click].

later

if fish can fly ...

for a limited time, hard rock cafe is selling edun t-shirts adorned with bono art as part of its signature series. proceeds from the t-shirt sales will benefit wildlife conservation society's conservation cotton initiative, which helps lift african farmers out of poverty by providing education on proper land management, organic cotton growing techniques and wildlife conservation. the shirt, below, has the words "fish can fly" on it, along with a bono drawing. you can buy the shirts online [buy]. the black is $26 and the white (junior) is $28 (u.s.)




also:

r.e.m. is putting out their new album on april 1. is it possible they made a great album with jacknife freakin lee? is it? hmmm.

michael stipe recently spoke with uncut magazine.
As for the new album as a whole, well, we spent less time making this record than we have in 20 years. I was in Vancouver for two weeks, Dublin for three weeks, and Athens for two weeks. We started working with [producer] Jacknife Lee, the first thing I asked was “What do you want to hear from R.E.M., and what do you want this record to be?” and he said: “I want it to be thrilling.”

if you are an r.e.m. fan, obviously the most important thing to do right now is pre-judge the album based on its title, "accelerate".

also, do you remember michael's photo site, the one that, among many other things, even had the u2 guys in those glasses? well, now there's this video site, ninetynights, which will count down to the album's release with videos by vincent moon.

finally, thom yorke on the big fat quiz of the year: not sure what's funnier, thom yorke's performance or lily allen getting told.

~ peace

each of these videos gives me about the same level of joy (high)

if the guys in video 1 got into video 2 and started banging into thom, that would rule.