U2howtodismantleanatomicbomb.tk
U2Blog
30.11.04
NY Times studio picture
The NY Times of nov. 14 is carrying a great studio pic of the band:
The article, titled "U2: The Catharsis in the Cathedral" concludes: "Every song is memorable"
Read more here
28.11.04
Digital box set analysis
U2wanderer, well known for it's extensive and complete U2 discography, have posted a new column in which they analyse the ITunes digital box set "The complete U2".
iTUNES COMPLETE TRACK LISTING
Conclusion: 48 duplicates and some missed chances...
23.11.04
ITunes digital box set!!!
@U2 has the full monty on the digital boxset...
All hits, all records and ...
- HTDAAB outtakes: Xanax and wine (pre-version of Fast Cars), Smile
- ATYCLB outtakes: Levitate, Love You Like Mad, Flower Child
- Joshua Tree outtakes: Beautiful Ghost
- Live shows: Boston 1981 & Dublin 1989
- Demo's: Street missions, The Fool
etc etc etc etc
Some are individually downloadable, some aren't:
@U2:
Work Only
"Work Only" is the term given to those two tracks which are only included when you buy the full work. And there are a couple others only available by purchasing the entire set:
- "Lemon (Bad Yard Club Mix)"
- "Discotheque (DM Deep Extended Club Mix)"
- "Bad / 40 / Streets medley (Live from Boston)" (from the "Electrical Storm" single)
- "Street Missions" (1st demo version)
- "Shadows and Tall Trees" (1st demo version)
- "The Fool" (1st demo version)
The first three in that list are "work only" because each lasts more than 10 minutes long, and iTunes rarely offers such lengthy, bandwidth-hogging downloads for just 99 cents. The three demos are "work only" because, well, they want to sell the full set to as many people as they can.
23.11.04
U2 rock NYC
Picture: One louder blog
U2 rocked New York City yesterday from a flatbed truck and with a 30 minute show filmed for MTV-Jam. (To be shown december 10th)
** UPDATE: MTV has some video up at MTV News
Luckily there's lots of hip New Yorkers who maintain weblogs and put their pictures up!
Here's my favourite: JukeboxGraduate.com
Other blogs with pictures:
BlancoBlog
One louder blog
Stereogum
22.11.04
HTDAAB boxset dvd extra
On the dvd that's put out with the boxset an extra lyric sheet can be found in the menu.
It's part of the lyrics to Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own....
Anyone else feel slightly uncomfortable by this flickering counter at howtodismantleanatomicbomb.com?
17.11.04
U2 ITunes plans !!!!
@U2.com has a sneak-peak at a spin interview with Bono, in which he states that the shows of the next will be featured in ther Itunes Music Store!
@U2:
In the December issue of SPIN magazine, Bono says U2 and Apple will team up next year to allow fans to download concerts after U2 shows. Here's the full quote of Bono discussing the U2-Apple relationship:
"We will do a commercial with Apple for our album, and no money will change hands, which is important, because we have been offered boatloads of money from many other people. But we will make an Apple commercial that's as good as any video. And next year, you will be able to go to a U2 show and download the concert onto your iPod. We're going to make a digital box set, where you can get every U2 album and every U2 B-side and every U2 lyric, all at once. We want to do this because we like their company."
17.11.04
Ipod pictures
Ipodlounge.com has set up a gallery of the new U2 Ipod and its package....
Gallery
16.11.04
Ballroom Blitz
Our boys played a kick-ass show tonight in their own headquarters at Dublin's Hannover Quay...
The tracklist:
- Vertigo
- All because of you
- Miracle drug
- Sometimes you can't make it on your own
- Beautiful day
At the end of ABOY Bono quoted his own line from the HTDAAB book "I'm alive, I'm at the door of the place I started out from and I want back inside...".
The recordings are surfacing around the different forums, but you might also listen it back (including interviews and a LOT of radio host babble) here.
16.11.04
HTDAAB stream
NME.co.uk direct high stream of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb:
(Windows media format / high)
- Vertigo
- Miracle Drug
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
- Love And Peace Or Else
- City of blinding lights
- All because of you
- A man and a woman
- Crumbs from your table
- One step closer
- Original Of The Species
- Yahweh
- Fast Cars
Fast cars reminds me of some War-era songs (Takes a second to say goodbye?)
16.11.04
DVD edit stream
MuchMusic.com is streaming a 2:13 minute edit of a video taken from the DVD which will accompany the deluxe editions of HTDAAB.
Video stream (Real audio)
Included a little bit of the 'couch'version of SYCMIOYO and the acoustic riff of Vertigo!
16.11.04
How to build a bellow ground home fallout shelter...
Take a look inside the head's of our boys in these scans of the HTDAAB Ltd Edt Book:
16.11.04
HTDAAB scans
U2Wanderer.org has scans of the US-release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb!
16.11.04
Mysterious Ways
A great article in Time magazine about The Bomb and the recording of it!
Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004
Mysterious Ways
Making records has always been misery for U2. But on 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,' they rediscovered the secret: fusion
By JOSH TYRANGIEL/DUBLIN
U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. realize that much of the world thinks they are criminally lucky. The Edge works out most of U2's melodies on his guitar and Bono writes the bulk of the lyrics, leaving bassist Clayton and drummer Mullen Jr. just a few empty bars to fill and plenty of leisure time. But U2's less famous members are hardly dead weight. In fact, their job is to be live weight — or at least ballast. They are steady, difficult to impress and maddeningly unromantic. "If we're in the studio trying to build the rocket," says Bono, "Edge is under the hood with his slide rule, I'm trying to become fuel, Larry is pointing out the reasons it'll never fly, and Adam's asking, 'Do we really want to go there?' They're always reasonable and usually correct — and I hate them for it."
The indispensable wisdom of the rhythm section was proved most recently during the making of U2's new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. For all its success, U2 has never enjoyed making records, largely because the force and diversity of the band members' personalities, combined with their politeness and respect for one another, turns the process into something slow, sloppy and complicated — like democracy. There was hope, though, in October 2003, when the group gathered in Dublin to give a close listen to songs that Bono, 44, and the Edge, 43, believed were ready for release. "All we needed was the assent of the politburo and the record would have been out for Christmas," says Bono. Clayton, 44, and Mullen Jr., 43, focused on each track and then voted decisively that the songs were simply not good enough. "When it comes to signing off on a project," says Clayton, "you ask questions like, 'Have we got a first single to open the campaign?' Frankly, we were missing more than just a first single." Says Mullen Jr.: "It was awkward, but it had to be said."
With 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind — an album that sold 4 million copies, spawned a $110 million — grossing North American tour and earned the band a Super Bowl half-time-show slot — U2 appeared to regain the coveted title of biggest and best band in rock 'n' roll. But neither Clayton nor Mullen Jr. could shake the feeling that the record had been overpraised by a public relieved to see aging rockers not thoroughly embarrassing themselves. "On the last album there was lots of good feeling," says Clayton, "but only Beautiful Day was a hit. I felt that, if our goal is still to be the biggest band in the world, the new record had to have three or four songs that would bring in new people. Three or four hits."
When it became clear that Clayton and Mullen Jr. were not going to budge, producer Steve Lillywhite was brought in to break the deadlock. "They played me the record," says Lillywhite, "and it was, well, it had the weight of the world on its shoulders. It certainly wasn't any fun." After several lengthy meetings, Bono and the Edge caved. "The songs were good," says Bono, "but good won't bring you to tears or make you want to leave your house and tour for a year. The bastards were right."
Acceptance of that, however, ushered in a typical U2 mini-depression. The not-good-enough songs had taken a year to make, largely because the members of U2 long ago convinced themselves that they're unskilled musicians who, as the Edge says, must "wait for God to walk through the room" before they can write a good song. The humility is charming, but it also provides a convenient excuse for working slowly. "They operate in total chaos," says Lillywhite. "They work slowly, get frustrated and then hold these epic meetings to bemoan how slowly they're working and how frustrated they are. I love them, but sometimes they just need to put one foot in front of the other."
Knowing that a strong first single was U2's greatest concern, Lillywhite, 49, who has produced the band on and off since 1980, decided to re-record a promising track called Native Son. He set the group up in a Dublin warehouse to get a martial drum sound reminiscent of its early days and persuaded the Edge to "stop worrying about the fine line between White Stripes and Whitesnake"--or between art rock and arena rock — and just let loose. When the music started to smolder, Bono grabbed a microphone. "He was awful," says Lillywhite. "The song was all about gun control — an extension of his political beliefs. Bono doesn't try that kind of thing much anymore, but when he does, you can feel the ambivalence from the band, and so can he. They want the rock star." Native Son was rewritten, stripped of politics and retitled Vertigo. Gradually, it emerged as the most rousing — and ironically, seemingly effortless — opener of U2's career.
Despite Lillywhite's success with Vertigo, the process didn't get any easier. U2 continued to work in moments of epiphany followed by days of wallowing. The Edge obsessed over his guitar sound, Clayton and Mullen Jr. hung around to offer criticism, encouragement and rhythm, and Bono checked in via cell phone during breaks from his various attempts to save the world. "He really wasn't around a hell of a lot," says Lillywhite. Nevertheless, his lyrics were the only thing flowing with relative ease. "It's all done in the morning now," says Bono cheerfully. "I used to stay out late and try to walk the muse home. Now I get up fresh-faced at 7 a.m. and take advantage of her while she's passing out."
In another band, Bono's absences to lobby world leaders for African debt relief and AIDS assistance might have been corrosive, but while Mullen Jr. still refers to the singer as the "little fella" in moments of annoyance, those moments are increasingly rare. "Part of it is all of us being past 40," says Mullen Jr. "But the truth is, it's better for Bono not to be here. He gets frustrated and feels like he can be doing more important things, which I think he's proven is true." When he returns, the band is actually eager to talk politics. "I really didn't like the idea of him appearing in a photograph with George Bush," says the Edge. "Larry didn't like seeing him with [Vladimir] Putin. But Bono felt that in the end, even though he agreed on some level, the benefits [of such photo ops] far outweigh the negatives. We're always discussing it, but then we discuss everything."
After 10 months of endless talking and recording-studio drudgery, U2 held another meeting and finally reached something approaching unanimity on the new album. "I do believe we have the hits now," says Clayton — and he's right. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is the catchiest album U2 has ever made, though it is neither political — the titular bomb refers to Bono's tempestuous father, who died in 2001--nor, as Vertigo suggests, a garage rocker. Mostly it's perfectly rendered grandiose pop, enormous in sound and theme. Bono sings about salvation (Yahweh), love (A Man and a Woman), doubt (One Step Closer) and, on All Because of You, himself ("I like the sound of my own voice, I didn't give anyone else a choice") in vocals crisper and more confident than those on All That You Can't Leave Behind. The rhythm section supports him with typically selfless precision during the verses and controlled fury during the breaks.
But the real star of Bomb is the Edge. On the up-tempo tracks, his guitar swaggers with a grimy, lo-fi elegance. On the half a dozen ballads, he doesn't hesitate to sample the clean, echoing minimalism he created on U2's earlier records. The result is an album that references old sounds for the devoted, integrates fuzzy new ones for the kids and delivers a staggering number of indelible hooks. The only notable weakness is that the pursuit of those hooks keeps Bomb rooted in the thrill-delivering formula of verse-chorus-verse-pedal-steel solo, depriving it of the mood-altering qualities of Achtung Baby or The Joshua Tree. Listening to Bomb straight through a few times is a bit like staring into a closetful of sequins. But depth is not what this album is after. It's a statement of competitiveness and relevance, and the best example of intelligent pop hitmaking this year.
Having gone through the agony of making hits, U2 wants to make sure its songs will be heard. Radio has been unfriendly to the band for years (its last Top 10 hit was 1997's Discotheque, which peaked at No. 10), so the group decided to cooperate with Apple on a customized black iPod and the now ubiquitous Vertigo silhouette ads, though they didn't do it solely for a payday. "A big car company once offered us $25 million for one of our songs," says Bono, "and we turned them down. No money changed hands in this deal. Downloading is the future, and we want to be King Canute. Let's get on the surfboard and ride the wave." As of last week, Vertigo had ruled the iTunes download chart for most of the past month. "We shall not go gently," says Bono.
U2 will start yet another world tour in March 2005, right after its members turn up for their presumed induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. None of them are particularly pleased to be reminded that they released their first record 25 years ago, as the hall requires for inductees, but Bono admits he can't wait to join his idols the Beatles and Bob Marley. Clayton and Mullen Jr., naturally, have a different take. "I suppose if people want to shower you with honors, the only reasonable thing to do is accept them," says Clayton. "But it does feel premature," says Mullen Jr. "We're trying to stay focused on the big prize." Someone has to.
13.11.04
Bono's view on bootlegs...
From XFM:
"Bootlegs are fine if you're making a few of them for your friends, I've no problem with that, but if it's big business, bad ass crime, I don't think you want to be a part of that – and that's what this is. We're dealing with some nasty people and I don't think you should be paying for their summer holiday in Ibiza."
So i'd say please publicly allow taping of your shows or, even better, publish the shows shows through ITMS.....
U2wanderer.org has published the lyrics of an unrelased track called Mercy...
Mercy - written by U2/Bono
I was drinking some wine... and it turned to blood
What's the use of religion... if you're any good
I know I'm weedkiller honey... and you're sugar
If you're the prosecution... I get away with murder
If you were ice... I'm water
And with your telescope... I can see further
We're binary code... a one and a zero
You wanted violins... and you got Nero
You're gravity... searching for the ground
You're silence... searching for a sound
Your heart is aching... your heart is my home
It's fascinating... I know I'll never be alone
I'm rippin' the stitches
You got two hands to rub
I'm in the ditches
Of someone else's love
Love is when I lie
Love puts the blue back in my eye
Love will come again
I'll be gone again... again
If you're hunger... baby let me feed it
If your heart is full... baby let me bleed it
And happiness is for... those who don't really need it
You love me... too much
You always loved me... too much
When I was rippin' the stitches
You got two fists to rub
I'm in the ditches
Of someone else's luck
Love is when I lie
Love puts the blue back in my eye
Love has come again
I am gone again
Love's got to be with a wink
Only then love gets a chance to speak
Love will come again
I'll be gone again... again
I... I can't escape myself
I hear you talk
Feeling nothing
I fear nothing
Feel....
I can hear so much
Fear nothing
I feel so much
Fear... nothing
Love has come again
I am gone again
Love is the end of history
The enemy of misery
Love has come again
I am gone again
Love is justice, a charity
Love brings with it a clarity
Love has come again
I'm alive again
Alive...
I am alive, baby I'm born again and again
And again, and again and again and again
Again
9.11.04
Theo van Gogh
On the day of the cremation of Dutch cineast/columnist Theo van Gogh:
Love And Peace Or Else
Lay down
Lay down
Lay your sweet lovely on the ground
Lay your love on the track
We're gonna break the monster's back
Yes we are...
Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother
You don't have time
For a jealous lover
As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart
I don't know if I can take it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart you can break it
I need some release, release, release
We need
Love and peace
Love and peace
Lay down
Lay down your guns
All your daughters of Zion
All your Abraham sons
I don't know if I can make it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart and you can break it
I need some release, release, release
We need
Love and peace
Love and peace
Baby don't fight
We can talk this thing through
It's not a big problem
It's just me and you
You can call or I'll phone
The TV is still on
But the sound is turned down
And the troops on the ground
Are about to dig in
And I wonder where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Love and peace
Theo van Gogh was a "political fanatic", who was brutally butchered by a "Religious nut" on november 4th.
Never a man to keep his mouth shut he used his movies and columns to express his thoughts about Dutch society and the way it developped.
He wore his heart on his sleeve and that's what got him killed in the end.....
9.11.04
ITMS live show sales?
According to this article in newsweek U2's probably going to sell recordings of their live shows through Itunes...
...Down the road, Bono and Jobs both envision new opportunities to sell songs and build fan communities, like offering concert recordings at the iTunes store. "We're getting ready to do it," says Jobs. "Wouldn't it be great if the morning after the concert, you can buy it on iTunes, and anyone in the world can listen to it the next day?..."
And what did Bono & Edge say about downloading songs a couple of years ago?
As ATYCLB came out, Bono told Billboard, "The Edge is actually very pro-Napster. He thinks that as long as people are using their computers for music, and not playing mindless games, that's good. My feeling is that it's cool for people to share our music - as long as no one is making money from the process. We tell people who come to our concerts that they can tape the show if they want. I think it's cool that people are so passionate about our music ..."
Also around that time, The Edge told New Musical Express that he is tickled to hear their new album has already found it's way on to the 'Net, weeks before official release: "It's new, it's out there, let's see where it goes; figure out how to get paid later."
8.11.04
Live Aid video **UPDATE**
Bought the Live Aid DVD boxset today.
Seeing Bono wander of stage during this excellent performance of Bad made me cry just a liitle bit again ....
And the best thing is, it's charity all over again, so get your butts of the couch and buy this brilliant 4-DVD boxset.
US
UK
Netherlands
**UPDATE**
Dutch television program "Nova" aired an interview with Bob Geldof on monday...(Realplayer / partly Dutch)
But who's the guy with all the hair playing the guitar????
8.11.04
TOTP insise performance
Dutch Top Of The Pops have apparantly aired the inside take of Vertigo yesterday.
The show will be repeated on Dutch channel BNN friday at 16.00.
TOTP site
7.11.04
U2 fans don't have to wait forever...
So it's out there...
The atomic bomb has burst into a mayhem of messages around U2-forums world-wide. Don't expect to find any links on this site, but it shouldn't be difficult for those who want to find themselves a 'copy'...
But I stil can't help getting the itchy feeling that this might all be prearranged (again)...imagine U2 being all over the worldwide-news tomorrow ...
And what about the album?
On first listen? A record with a great mood and some great musical ideas....but I suggest you get it yourself, preferably through some retailer who gives some of the profit to our boys as well....Itunes Music Store in the near future?
Favourite tracks at the moment? City of Blinding Lights....Love and Peace or Else....Yahweh....Crumbs From Your Table....
There's a whole lot of influences going back the U2-catalogue on first listen (AB-outtakes). The Yahweh chorus reminds of the way Bono lifts up Lemon ('Midnight...') on the Sydney video for instance....
5.11.04
Are you gonna wait forever
Major spoiler!!!!
The b-side of the new Vertigo single:
Are you gonna wait forever
3.11.04
I can't believe the news ...
Global stability is taking a big punch today as the people in the US seem to have chosen
to keep their President in office for another four years.
To emphasise once more that GWB is a president who has irresponsebly thrown his country (and the rest of the world) in an unfounded and illegal war I've put up the link to his version of Sunday Bloody Sunday again ...
2.11.04
How to dismantle an album
Co-fans from u2tour.de have been invited to a pre-listening party of the new album. And what might be a consequence of high expectations an media-hype?
Disappointment...
U2tour.de
"I am currently very disappointed by this album. I did expect something bad after all the current media hype. For if the product is bad, one needs to advertise even more. The bomb to me sounds very "incomplete" and has been put into action quite badly. Did I thus hear something bad? Well, time will tell."
1.11.04
With Or Without Stew!
Multi-millionaire U2 man Adam works in kitchen of Jamie's jobless
The People, October 31, 2004
Simon Byrne
U2 star Adam Clayton spent a secret week in the kitchen of top celebrity chef Jamie Oliver - in a bid to improve his cooking skills!
The millionaire musician washed pots and took orders from other chefs after he enrolled to join Oliver's Fifteen restaurant.
The idea behind the restaurant is to take kids off the street and give them top tuition in how to become a chef.
The spin-off TV show, Jamie's Kitchen, was a huge TV hit. The restaurant, which is based in London, is a frequent haunt of dozens of celebrities including Ronan Keating, Madonna and Tony Blair.
However, so taken by the idea was mild-mannered rock star Clayton that he asked to work there for a week.
Oliver revealed that Clayton mucked in like everyone else and turned out to be a top chef.
"He was a good bloke. He was just like "Can I come and work in the kitchen? Yeah, of course. He wore the same whites as everyone else, he got changed with the students and he got told and briefed like everyone else.
"And I'll tell you by the end of the week he was making the best cannelloni," revealed Oliver.
The 29-year-old 'geezer' said he was completely refreshed by the U2 star's down-to-earth attitude.
"I was totally refreshed by Adam and the students just treated him like anyone else and he was the same to them.
"He can make a whole selection of things on the tour bus now for Bono and the boys," laughed Oliver.
Friends of the U2 star say that Adam is a very private person and didn't talk about what he did outside of the supergroup.
"Adam is always going off and doings bizarre things. He really likes his own space when the group are not on tour.
"He might go on long treks and you wouldn't hear from him for weeks on end and then he'd pop up again.
"He's a very cool individual and the most unlikely of pop stars," said the friend.
Meanwhile, spending a few quid on ingredients certainly won't be a problem for Adam and his fellow U2 megastars.
The band's deal with computer giants Apple for their new iPod has netted them another fortune.
With U2's backing the computer giant's shares have jumped to an all time high.
(c) The People 2004
