2010 – U2′s new producer… Over the past six years, producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton has compiled one of the most impressive lists of collaborators in recent music history. From Gorillaz to the Black Keys and Beck to his bands with Cee-Lo (Gnarls Barkley), the Shins’ James Mercer (Broken Bells) and members of Blur and the Clash (The Good, the Bad & the Queen), Danger has dipped his toes in a wide and impressive variety of creative pools.
But, as cool as that résumé is, for his latest trick the onetime mash-up master has landed one of the premier gigs in all of music. According to Bono, Danger has produced songs for the upcoming album from the Irish rock gods, which the frontman told The Age is slated for release early next year.
“We have about 12 songs with him,” Bono said of the tentatively titled Songs of Ascent, just one of three albums the group is working on. “At the moment, that looks like the album we will put out next, because it’s just happening so easily.” While Bono did not reveal much about how those songs came together or what they will sound like, he did say the group is also working on a “club” record that will feature tracks created with Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne, as well as will.i.am and David Guetta.
“U2′s remixes in the 1990s were a real treasure,” Bono explained. “So we wanted to make a club-sounding record. We have a pile of songs.”
While a return to the Achtung Baby era of big beats and dance-floor-worthy tunes seems like an odd detour for the act after a string of albums that brought them back to their anthemic rock roots with a few slight detours into world-music-inspired melodies, the third album in the works is perhaps the most unusual.
Bono said he would like to record some of the nearly 2 dozen songs he and guitarist The Edge have written for the “Spider-Man” Broadway musical they are scoring, but selling the other two members of the group on the project has been tough so far. “We haven’t convinced the rest of the band to do that yet,” he said. “[Drummer] Larry [Mullen Jr.] definitely has a raised eyebrow.”
2010 – Quick Hits: Coldplay, U2, Rob Zombie/Alice Cooper, Justin Bieber, Billy Corgan, Deftones, STP
February 22, 2010
Coldplay
Chris Martin says Coldplay will release their next studio album by the end of 2010. In a video interview with Globo.com, Martin says he hopes the band’s next record will be out “hopefully this Christmas.” Coldplay is also being extra careful to prevent any material from leaking. “There’s only two people in the whole building who know how to open all the recording files,” Martin said. “Even we don’t know how to do it. We couldn’t even steal our own music at the moment. You would have to be a computer genius and a great burglar to get into the building, and download it, and mix it.” However, BBC 6 Music News reported today that EMI has said “reports the band are releasing their fifth studio album by the end of 2010 are not true.”
U2 has announced the opening acts for their upcoming North American U2 360 Tour dates. Lenny Kravitz will open in Salt Lake City, Anaheim and Denver, with The Fray opening in Oakland, Seattle and Edmonton. Interpol, who will release a new album later this year, will open for U2 in Minneapolis, East Lansing, Toronto, Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia. Openers for Montreal and New York City have yet to be announced.
Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper will team up for the brief Gruesome Twosome tour, a limited run of North American dates beginning April 26 in Winnipeg, MB. The trek runs through May 4 in Casper, WY. Zombie commented, “The dream or the nightmare comes true! Me and The Coop have been talking about touring together for the last 15 years and finally the moment is here. This will be without a doubt a Rock ‘N’ Roll Spooktacular for all the Cool Ghouls.” Cooper added, “I’m looking forward to these concerts with Rob. It’s sort of like Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. We’re like this generation’s classic monsters. When we’re not onstage frightening audiences, we’ll be backstage trying to scare each other.”
Teen sensation Justin Bieber will appear on Saturday Night Live as the show’s musical guest on April 10. Bieber has already stated that he would love to do one of the show’s digital shorts, a la Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. He wrote on Twitter, “Shoutout to @BieberOnSNL and all the other fans who support me. It’s happening! SNL in APRIL!! Digital Short Music Vid?” Bieber’s SNL appearance comes shortly after the March 23 release of My World 2.0, the follow-up to his 2009 album My World.
Billy Corgan has finally commented on rumors about his relationship with Jessica Simpson. The Smashing Pumpkins main man told the Chicago Tribune, “She asked me to help her out on the theme song for her new TV show [a VH1 reality series titled The Price Of Beauty].” He added, “(The show) has an interesting concept. She goes around the world to show how different people perceive beauty. I ended up writing part of (the theme song). It has a little bit of an alternative rock edge, but it’s still very poppy.” Corgan is still in the midst of writing and recording his 44-song Pumpkins project Teargarden By Kaleidyscope and says he just completed the sixth song in the series.
The Deftones will unleash their sixth album, Diamond Eyes, on May 18. The first track to be released is called “Rocket Skates,” and will be available for free download at deftones.com starting Tuesday, February 23. Diamond Eyes will be the first Deftones release to feature stand-in bass player Sergio Vega in place of Chi Cheng, who was severely injured in a car accident in 2008 and fell into a coma. The record was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush). So far Deftones have announced a handful of festival dates for the summer, including Columbus, OH’s Rock On The Range on May 22. The festival also boasts Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Three Days Grace, Limp Bizkit and many more.
Stone Temple Pilots have completed their comeback album, the Rockers’ first since 2001. Scott Weiland tells Spinner that STP just finished mastering the record and revealed “we’ll be playing SXSW in March, with a few more dates. And then we go to Europe to play all the big festivals in the early summer. [Then we'll] come back with our own festival we’re putting together.”
2009 – To celebrate the release of U2’s twelfth studio album and their appearance every night for a week on The Late Show with David Letterman, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg temporarily renamed part of 53rd street in Midtown Manhattan U2 Way.
2007 – Bono and The Edge from U2 made a surprise appearance at a charity gig, playing four songs before 250 people. The London gig at the Union Chapel was held as part of the Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions.
2007 – U2 singer Bono accepted an honorary knighthood at a ceremony in Dublin. Fellow band members The Edge and Adam Clayton joined the frontman’s wife and four children at the British ambassador David Reddaway’s official residence. The rock star and campaigner, 46, was not entitled to be called “Sir” because he is not a British citizen. The U2 singer’s new title is Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE).
2006 – it was reported that U2 singer Bono was to given an honorary knighthood in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music and humanitarian work.
2006 – a line from U2′s 1992 hit ‘One’ was voted the UK’s favourite song lyric after in a poll of 13,000 people by music channel VH1. The line “One life, with each other, sisters, brothers” came top. The Smiths lyric “So you go, and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry, and you want to die” from the song ‘How Soon is Now?’ came second in the poll, followed by “I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us”, from Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ which was voted into third place.
2006 – U2′s The Edge donated his favourite guitar a 1975 Gibson Les Paul to a charity he co-founded to replace instruments lost or destroyed when Hurricane Katrina hit the US.
2005 – U2 had the top-grossing tour of 2005, according to an end-of-year chart compiled by US magazine Billboard. More than three million people watched the band’s sell-out 90-date Vertigo tour which grossed $260m (£146.6m). The Eagles, took $117m (£66m) from 77 shows and Neil Diamond grossed more than $71m (£40m). Kenny Chesney was fourth with $63m (£35.5m), Paul McCartney $60m (£33.8m), Rod Stewart with $49m (£27m), Elton John with $45.5m (£25.6m), Dave Matthews Band with $45m (£25.3m), Jimmy Buffett with $41m (£23m) and Green Day with $36.5m (£20.5m).
2005 – U2: After playing a warm-up date the night before at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, U2 kicked off their Vertigo tour at the iPay One Center in San Diego, California. The 131 date world tour would see the band playing in North America, Europe, South America and Japan. By the time it finished, the Vertigo Tour had sold 4,619,021 tickets, grossing $389 million; the second-highest figure ever for a world tour.
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