“Did you think to try to warn them, or were you working on something new?” This may not come as a surprise to many folks, but apparently U2 recently made the business decision to screw over their biggest fans, from forcing fan sites to remove lyric postings to misorganizing a botched online ticket presale that turned into a seriously Dirty Day. I’ve never been much more than a casual U2 fan, really — I have all their studio albums, love the A-side of The Joshua Tree like the rest of the Western World, and was most intrigued by them during their more experimental Achtung–Zooropa–Pop phase (To be honest, I haven’t had much use for their “Instant Classic Rock” incarnation since.) Still, while Bono’s continuing work for Third World debt relief is obviously a very worthy cause, it’s sad to see the band turn their backs on their hardcore following like this…and in such patently dumb ways.
Tag: Music
Moods for Moderns.
“I don’t give a f**k about being a rock ‘n’ roll star. I just want to do the things that interest me.” The Guardian looks into Elvis Costello’s next fanciful side project, an opera on the life of Hans Christian Andersen.
Wandering Stars.
Via Quiddity, the third Portishead album is at last on its way, their first since 1997 (notwithstanding the live album or the Beth Gibbons-Rustin Man side project.) As Dubya might say, bring it on.
The King of the Boudoir.
“Part of the advantage of being hideously, cripplingly self-conscious is that I feel free to use cliches, rather than feeling compelled to seek out original expression.” (Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty cliched.) The AP talks briefly with Stephin Merritt, the prodigious musical mind behind The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and the Future Bible Heroes.
Uprising.
“‘Cause we’re moving right out of Babylon, and we’re going to our father’s land.” On what would be his 60th birthday, the late, great Bob Marley will be exhumed and reburied in Ethiopia, his “forefather cornerstone” and spiritual home of the Rastafari. Said his widow, Rita Marley, of the move, “How can you give up a continent for an island? He has a right for his remains to be where he would love them to be. This was his mission. Ethiopia is his spiritual resting place.”
He’s Lost Control Again.
The long-rumored Ian Curtis biopic, Control, is now a go, with none other than U2/REM/Depeche Mode rock photographer Anton Corbijn at the helm. I still think it’ll be hard to do this any better than 24 Hour Party People, but at least with Corbijn running the show, it should look nice.
Infinity goes up on trial.
Sent to me by way of All About George, the Washington Post rambles through “Bob Dylan: American Journey 1956-66,” a new exhibit at the EMP in Seattle. Now there’s something for y’all historians out there attending this week’s annual AHA meeting to peruse, should the presentations wear thin and the job hunting grow disconsolate.
You say I let you down.
“It was like being in an Edgar Allan Poe story and you’re just not that person everybody thinks you are, though they call you that all the time.” In his first TV interview in 19 years (60 Minutes this Sunday), Bob Dylan tries once again to shake the burdens of expectation. “‘You’re the prophet. You’re the savior.’ I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior. Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No.”
Power and the Passion.
Call him King of the Mountain….via the newly reconstituted JJG, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett (who suffered a fainting spell over the weekend) was recently elected to the Australian Parliament. I saw the Oils ten years ago during their WOMAD tour with Peter Gabriel, and Garrett was an electric presence, offering what is still far and away the best stage banter I’ve ever heard. (And, whatsmore, it wasn’t canned…I remember him riffing on their Letterman appearance only a few days earlier.) The people of Kingsford Smith are lucky — in this day and age, you could do a lot worse for an elected rep than Garrett.
Toyz in the Hood.
Damn, it feels good to be a scoundrel…By way of the slightly relocated Lots of Co., and because the world demanded it, here’s an amateur Geto Boys video (“Mind Playin’ Tricks on Me”) done with Star Wars figures. As you’d probably expect, some harsh language herein, so keep the sound down in your workplace.