bono + haircut sitting in a car

our resident car expert tells us this is a tesla, a very expensive electric car ($100k).

more here.

coldplay: violet hill

chris martin and jonny buckland premiering violet hill on bbc radio with jo whiley

(i just need to point out that i had originally embedded a youtube video in this post, but it got removed from youtube. it was the one i found on jo whiley's bbc blog. and it included chris taking a dig at his record label's shareholders. and it was removed from jo whiley's youtube channel with this youtube message: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by EMI Music.")

**i mean are you kidding? that video did not even include the song. it was just an interview of chris and jonny talking about the new single with jo whiley on the bbc. EMI = ridiculous.**

the song itself has a 40 second heard-it-before ambient noise intro and a 40-second heard-it-before classic coldplay falsetto piano outro. in between are about two minutes of coldplay being slightly stompy. but it is not exactly dark or heavy. please. i really feel like some of these guitars sound like they came off the backing layers on rumours. not that i think that's bad. note the one lyric about banks and cathedrals. you can listen to it on their myspace or get download link here.

new mammal discovered in ireland

i am not lying. [read]
Two post-graduate students have discovered a type of shrew never before seen in Ireland. It is the first time in 44 years that a new mammal species has been found in the country.

The two were investigating the diet of barn owls in Tipperary and Limerick and found skulls belonging to the greater white-toothed shrew in the birds' pellets.

They noticed that the skulls were unusually large for Ireland's native pygmy shrew.

The find led scientists to trap seven of the shrews alive at four locations in Tipperary last month.

...





i am not on drugs.

free

coldplay will be giving away their new single on their website beginning tomorrow.

they are also playing two free shows, one at brixton academy and one at madison square garden. you can't buy tickets, you have to win them.

unless you hate coldplay, then you shouldn't be trying to win them.

either way, from a marketing standpoint, this selling process will be interesting to watch. the album release date is not until june 17.

click below for info:




did you know that brian eno has already worked with coldplay before this new record? he played synthesizer on this x&y track. before i even knew that, i always felt like at the 4:00 minute mark on, when chris martin sings i feel LOW, it had a similar vibe to someone else singing i feel NUMB.

boom boom zzzzzz

u2.com posted a video of larry drumming in the studio /(subscribers only) or click below:



so blah blah blah - this gibson explorer guitar is going to be on the auction block as part of edge's music rising auction:



interestingly, the press release for the auction was written by a monkey, so it's hard to tell WHICH explorer this is. we think we can reasonably assume this is AN explorer and not THE explorer. when edge starts replying to my text messages, we'll find out exactly how many explorers his mommy bought him.

also:


[listen]
pork and beans - weezer
i just realized that this new weezer song is produced by jacknife lee. they also worked with rick rubin on their new album.

the epochs

these guys opened for foals at bowery on thursday. foals were really sweaty and into it. to be expected. the epochs were less dynamic, but they have a unique sound.

[listen]
mouths to feed - the epochs

listening back on the album version without the force of the live presence, i almost can't believe i really like it. but i do. indietronica, slightly quirky, guitary and layered, yes, but, also ... pop. oh well. the deal breaker will be that falsetto. you like it or you don't. the bee gees are the easy reference point on the mouths to feed falsettos, but it's evoking someone else i can't place at the moment. (do NOT say adam levine). the epochs have two brothers (as in, siblings), hays and ryan, on vocals. (better than one). kotchy on drums. kevin on bass.

[listen]
head in the fire (hays remix) - the epochs

more on these guys here.

damien hirst (red) t-shirts

above are just a few samples from the series of (red) t-shirts currently available to purchase on damien hirst's website. (wait for page to load, select "clothing" and scroll through a few pages to find the (red) shirts.) they cost about $60 (£30) and feature artwork from the product (red) sotheby's auction. all proceeds from sales of the t-shirts go to the global fund.

kanye west approved

yelping

[video] red socks pugie - foals



dig the ambient guitar effects on that song.

[mp3] balloons - foals

both songs are off the new album antidotes [buy]



i am going to see these guys tonight. i missed foals when they were here in february. maybe if i saw them back then, i wouldn't be bothering to see them again. will find out:

this is from the ny times in february
Suffice it to say that Foals inspires stronger feelings across the ocean, where it’s possible for a band specializing in taut, knotty, danceable post-punk to be considered the next big thing. Foals appeared on a recent cover of the excitable music magazine NME, given pride of place on a list of “new bands that will define the year”; inside the keyboardist Edwin Congreave was quoted saying: “Hype is like a fever. It makes you feel ill.” On the band’s MySpace page there is a sarcastic and defensive self-description: “SNOTTY ART SCHOOL DROPOUTS HUNGRY FOR THE DOLLAR.”

In America no band with a yelping singer and a jittery sound is likely to be considered money-hungry or definitive of 2008. Still, it’s not hard to figure out why the Brits are so worked up. This music is rigorous enough and weird enough to separate Foals from the dance-punk explosion of a few years ago. Bands like Bloc Party and Battles are common reference points, but Foals also evokes — perhaps unintentionally — 1990s American post-hardcore bands like Clikatat Ikatowi and All Scars. Or maybe they just evoke that mythical, ever-recurring moment when young noisemakers hike up their guitar straps and start playing dance music ...

rock star activist

you guys need to read this article right now because it is AWESOME
but what is with the cover photo on that book? no no no!

discipline

trent reznor is giving away a new nine inch nails song: get it here

r.e.m. unveiled their new video for hollow man: watch it here
i think this song is halfway between good and lame. sorry.

coldplay is playing the today show summer concert series on june 27: they told us via ilike
i think we should move this concert to a different, better location. please. thank you. oh wait, i think i'll be out of town anyway. never mind. bye bye.

door

"40"

a freaky freezy tour would be truly revolutionary

my nephew has a glow in the dark t-shirt. his sister thinks it is beyond ridiculous cool. this is maybe because she is six.

pondering glow in the dark ...


opinion 1:
This was supposed to be the tour that launched Kanye West out of the orbit of mere hip-hop stars and up to the level of arena masters such as U2.

And why not? He's got three hot albums to draw from, three first-rate acts to support him, a more-than-ample budget, endless ambition and fans so fired up they gave Warriors star Baron Davis a standing O just for walking to his seat.

Everything was set up for an out-of-this-world night. Instead, on Saturday at San Jose's HP Pavilion, the third stop on his "Glow in the Dark" tour, Kanye West crashed ...


opinion 2:
This was pure comic-book adventure, obvious at times. But the real message came through those unstoppable images. Glow in the Dark raises the bar for arena tours as no show has since U2's 1992 Zoo TV breakthrough. It's that innovative and galvanizing.

Unlike most highly staged concerts since U2's meditation on rock in the media age, West's show isn't literary at heart. It's imagistic. West is a conceptual artist who works in visuals as well as sound, and his inspiration comes from fine artists such as Takashi Murakami and haute couture designers like Hedi Slimane. In this show, he's imagining not so much how a hero's story unfolds but what a hero might say if he were to rap -- and how he might appear onstage...

and:
this article has more in-depth details on the glow in the dark shizz
General consensus: West is taking himself awfully seriously with this show, and the hubris borders on the ludicrous — and yet the whole thing manages to be fairly galvanizing anyway, thanks to his being fully committed at every step of the way.

image via kanye's shilltastic blog.

just typing the word yawn makes me yawn

snippet from this article:
Meanwhile, White Lies' show is so packed that the bouncers have stopped letting people in. What those outside are missing is a set by a group who only signed a record deal a month ago but already sound full-figured enough to step into U2's shoes.

sample mp3 and info on this band called white lies is here.

brian eno

is busy

inside the clarence

debbi v has some rad photos from the clarence hotel penthouse suite that she took on a trip to dublin last spring. i posted some on the atu2 blog.

she also took this photo below. it is a rare photo of the mysterious, shy, reticent, committed solely to his art, famously anti-commerce, punk rock guy known as bono. hair today, more or less hair tomorrow. poor bono's hair. seriously.



unrelated:

[mp3]
the age of the understatement - the last shadow puppets (live/acoustic)

[mp3]
my mistakes were made for you - the last shadow puppets (live/acoustic)

i love me some arctic monkeys, but still not sure about this project. it's monkey alex turner and his pal miles kane from the rascals. the upcoming last shadow puppets album the age of the understatement apparently involves an orchestra. they have no hair issues. yet! more info on the band is here.

later peeps

money-losing hotelier speaks

watch rte news video here

article: doubts cast over clarence hotel's future

do not listen to poopie mcpooperson

[listen] cheap and cheerful - the kills

itunes has the above tune from the kills as a free download. the reviews are smashing!



also:

mp3 of new wolf parade song: go download it.


pondering ...



via

muse: royal albert hall

hey look, it's the musies posing with roger daltrey at royal albert hall on april 12. it looks like they are being reflected in a carnival fun house mirror. we need bono in here to show the two short guys how to pose. (via)



[mp3] fury - muse (live @ RAH, April 12, 2008)
[mp3] bliss - muse (live @ RAH, April 12, 2008)
recordings via

muse just put out a live dvd/cd called haarp and if i was a fan who cared at all, i'd be amused that the super-limited edition dvd versions that got shipped to the u.s. are the wrong region code. or that they went and put up a free ipod download link on their site and then deactivated it with no explanation. perhaps (?) because itunes was SELLING ipod videos of the dvd while the band's official website was giving them away. i would say, wow, no wonder this band is ginormous everywhere but the u.s. whoever is marketing them in the u.s is clearly RETARDED brilliant!

clip from the haarp dvd:

tan, the video

let tony blair teach you how to pronounce taoiseach.

previously: bono is tan (or is he?)

unrelated: nice. our goalie's last name is MUSE and our best player is a midget. how rad is that?

bono is tan

bono was at dublin castle on april 11, to mark the 10th anniversary of the good friday agreement.

article: debt of gratitude
The Belfast Agreement would not have happened without the personal effort and leadership of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and former British prime minister Tony Blair, it was claimed tonight.

what, no hillary? heh.

video preview of the most important sporting event in the history of forever and ever amen

here:

bono on american idol (video)

bono on american idol from wednesday. videos:

make sure you watch until the last second of this clip.




bono will be on again on thursday.

dear joey from new kids on the block

please give bono his suit back.



wtfotb

apparently

bono was at a pro-tibet rally in san francisco today
deceptive and ugly fake bono was at a rally. faking out reporters.

An earlier report that Irish rock star Bono attended one of the protests and spoke to AFP was wrong, as the singer was not in the city, a spokesman said.

and

the one blog has the below photo and more info about bono's appearance on american idol tomorrow.




Bono meets with Deloy, a 14-year-old boy living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania who lost both of his parents to HIV/AIDS. Deloy, shared with Bono his “memory box,” a small cardboard box decorated in wrapping paper in which he keeps mementos from his mother and father. Deloy receives help from a wonderful health care facility in Dar es Salaam called PASADA, which is funded in part by America via contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and PEPFAR.

delete

i just realized ryan adams deleted the wilson and barnabus video i posted. shocker. freeak! oh well. he has some other interesting (this is admittedly subjective) vids on his vimeo channel. more interesting than my vimeo, at least.

belated stalking update:

this article says bono was on vacation for 10 days last month in kenya. and he stayed here.

... and a song:

[listen] manhattan - sean morrissey
a straightforward folksy type melody with i'm-not-so-sure-what-he means-at-all lyrics. [myspace]

jay-z (is a dub)

live video footage from inside jay-z and beyoncé 's wedding!!

or not ...

it's just maximum hotness bono introducing jay-z at the point in dublin back in 2006. video:



fuzzier, but you can feel the energy way more in this one:





thanks emmett

wilson and barnabus rule

i think the striped doggy might be related to paul mcguinness.


CROSSED-OUT NAME from Ryan Adams on Vimeo.

ryan rules.

d.r. adams films inc.

contretemps

mp3s of radiohead's live bbc show on april 1

photos of bono and edge drinking in dalkey

audio of bono on bbc radio special about public enemy
bono talks for just under four minutes, his part starts about 18-19 minutes in, when the audio player is at 19:19 or so. he called in from kenya, where he said he was on a beach on the east coast of africa. who wants to bet bono's segment on that american idol gives back thing this coming week was taped from there?

anyway, on the bbc - public enemy thing, bono has some interesting things to say, including recounting a "contretemps" he had with chuck d in a recording studio hallway, discussing black separatism. apparently chuck d won bono over during this conversation.


photo by bp fallon.

related: go here to programme 1 (at the bottom) for some of bp fallon's zoo tv audio with public enemy and u2.

stipe talks about u2, jacknife lee & the edge's role in the new r.e.m. album

video:



you KNOW that watching that makes you want to watch this (right?)

r.e.m. on the colbert report

people are calling this your comeback album. when you hear people say that do you want to tell those people to go f**k themselves?

u2 must appear on colbert. must.

videos below or click here.





the new r.e.m. album is available as a digital download on amazon. you can buy the album (including 5 bonus tracks) for $8.99, drm free. (u.s. only) that's a good deal.

hilarity ...

brooklyn vegan: u2 signs 12 year deal with live nation
nothing like finding random photos on flickr and making fun of the people in them!

stereogum: stephen malkmus on u2-arcade fire
i like how he implies u2 "hung out" with arcade fire because they were a "threat"

rap

[mp3] patience - damien dempsey

[mp3] factories - damien dempsey

if you watched bono speaking on the late late show, about the ballad of ronnie drew, you heard him say that when damien dempsey opens his "gob" on the track "it's like the end of the world." oh, bono, ye of generous compliments. but i think he kinda meant it. the mullen jr. likes "damo", too. as does shane macgowan, sinead and well, a lot of people. even frickin' morrissey.

damien's self-described northside dublin bob marley elvis presley irish traditional everyman vibe is unique, but i can't say it really connects with me. the folksy and traditional parts do, but then the reggae and rap parts lose me a little.

live, his fans sing every word like they wrote them themselves. they seem to really adore who he is. he represents something meaningful to them. it's impressive. i went to see him live once just to make sure i am not into him. confirmed.

check out more tunes on his myspace.

africa celebrates u2: cd giveaway

heather has an mp3 of pride by the soweto gospel choir and a cd giveaway contest going on

edge rte interview from march 31 (video)

watch the rte interview here.

nice to watch, but not very revealing if you want to know when the album is coming out. here's a few things he said:

currently they are just making music without having any sense of where it’s going to go. they haven’t set an agenda for what is gonna happen with the work. they've never had that luxury really, he claims. they'll see what they want to do with it. they are more free in that sense than they’ve ever been, he says. they don’t want to deal with the pressure that this is an album that has to go to number 1. (right)

brainiac edge doesn't think the industry's problems are as simple as 'the internet is killing music', but he thinks it certainly isn’t helping that major structures are losing money and firing people every week. (also, still oddly obsessed with kings of leon.)

edge tries not to noodle if at all possible.

the members of u2 are all social democrats.

brian eno is the edge's favorite keyboard player in the world.

the album could be made pretty quickly, but brainy says he doesn't know the date. he claims they don’t want to spend a lot of time messing with it.

also, the edge has deep respect and love for his bandmates, and no, the edge doesn't really want to wrap a guitar around the bono's neck ...

for members of the edge's book club: evolution of cooperation by robert axelrod