U2's New Album: â??In The Home Straightâ??

[vansmack]

'There's only one reason for U2 to put an album out right now,' Bono tells The Sun. 'It has to be a monster, a dragon, and this is.'
 
 Speaking at the Dublin unveiling of his paintings for Peter and the Wolf, Bono said that the band's work on the new album is 'nearly finished.'
 
 "We are getting closer to making the music we have always wanted to make.â?? says Bono, in an interview with Irelandâ??s Sunday Independent.
 
 â??There is a difference between the music that you hear in your head and what you put on a CD. Your grasp is sometimes further than your reach, and right now this band is on fire and about to do its best work. That excites me.â??
 
 You can find the entire interview - once you have registered - here
 http://www.unison.ie
 
 ---------------------
 
 Speaking to Xfm Online in London, Edge expressed delight at the way the recording is going.
 
 "It's going really well," he said, speaking at the Ivor Novellos, where the band picked up the award for 'Outstanding Song collection'. "And we're writing some of the best songs we've ever written. It's encouraging to get an award like this, it's encouraging to kick even harder and make sure that the next batch of songs are as good as anything we've ever done."
 
 "It's hard to describe it, other than it's just a very raw rock n' roll album," he continued. "A band in its primary colours of guitar, bass, drums, voice and a lot of vitality and energy... so far anyway. By the time it comes out it could be a country and western album."
 
 "For me the last record and tour was just a return to the basic sound of the electric guitar and how amazing that can sound," he explained, "The simplicity of it. And this new record follows on from that, but even more extreme."
 
 "We'll probably spend the rest of the year finishing it and we'll maybe have it out early next year."
 
 Full article here http://www.xfm.co.uk

[markie]

U2 is really a bad 80s band that never should have become as popular as they did.  But they were easy to market, after all they made poppy little diddies that sent college kids into a tizzy and gave pseudo-intellectuals a new hero to rave about.  Quite frankly, Henry Rollins was dead-on when he said, "The Clash is what U2 really wanted to be."  They were a pseudo-political band who ultimately gave in to smart business sense.
 
  Case in point: U2, the supposed band of integrity and protest, recently decided to screw over independent record retailers, by signing an exclusive contract with the Best Buy, the 1,900-store consumer electronics and appliance monolith.  According to the terms of the agreement, Best Buy would have a two-week exclusive to sell a brand new U2 live DVD for $18 and also get the rights to sell an out-of-print U2 Greatest Hits Album.  In exchange Best Buy will help to promote a broadcast of the concert on DirectTV's Freeview Event series for paying customers and spend up to $10 million promoting U2 through transit bus and newspaper advertising.
 
  So while Bono was all over CNN talking about helping to restore the economies in Africa, he and his mates had already screwed thousands of small music retailers who would lose revenue and customers to a large chain that is expected to rack up $20 billion in 2002.   In 2000, Best Buy bought out the Musicland Chain, which runs Sam Goody here in the States, and more recently bought the 83-store Future Shop chain in Canada.  For all intents and purposes, they are quickly becoming the Starbucks of the consumer electronics world - a store in every town, sometimes even two or three if necessary.  
 
  To make matters worse, Best Buy expanded in the music distribution business by creating Redline Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary that acts like any other record label.  One catch, by silently owning Redline, other chains and music retailers are padding Best Buy's pockets by selling CD's from Redline's artists.   To quote Best Buy's CEO from a brief article in Forbes (about the only publication to cover the story): "Consumers are telling us they want to depend increasingly on one guy."  The Babbitizing of America continuesâ?¦
 
  Not unexpectedly, this little bit of news was missing from the pages of Rolling Stone or VH-1 broadcasts.  And meanwhile, the fabulous images from the photo-op of Bono and US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill travelling to Africa still flood the airwaves.
 
  Hmmâ?¦why isn't that surprising.

[lily1]

just give us another tour that was the calibar of the elevation tour and i'll be set. or an even higher calibar that was the joshua tree tour.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by BLANK:
 
  Hmmâ?¦why isn't that surprising.

Hmmm, Markie, I didn't hear you speak out against Bono last week for this little diddy, now did I?
 
   <img src="http://www.u2.com/images/news_201003_itune.jpg" alt=" - " />
 
 Bono, Dr Dre and Mick Jagger were on hand as Steve Jobs launched the iTunes music download service for PC-using fans - in the US.
 
 The software, which offers tracks for 99 cents, had previously only been available to users of Apple Mac computers - who bought 13 million tracks in six months. Now it is also available to PC users - but still only in the US. A European version is expected early next year.
 
 'It's like the Pope of software meeting up with the Dalai Lama of integration,' said Bono, referring to the meeting of Microsoft and Apple.
 
 U2 have made available three exclusive tracks, an acoustic version of 'Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of' and live versions of 'I Will Follow' and 'Beautiful Day', both from the Elevation 2001 shows in Boston. They have already proved amongst the most popular downloads from iTunes.
 
 Bono was speaking to Apple boss Steve Jobs from Dublin. You can watch what he had to say, along with the rest of the launch here
 http://www.apple.com

[Jaguär]

It is known by many in Ireland that U2 only continue to reside in Ireland now because of some tax law that favors artists. They have made it known that they stay there only long enough to enjoy the tax benefits, ie, they don't pay any taxes! This from the band that actively supports a Global tax, especially on the American tax payer, to support Africa. What a fucking load of hypocrites!    :mad:

[ggw]

Hey Markie,
 
 Do you have a source for that?

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Jaguär:
  It is known by many in Ireland that U2 only continue to reside in Ireland now because of some tax law that favors artists. They have made it known that they stay there only long enough to enjoy the tax benefits, ie, they don't pay any taxes! This from the band that actively supports a Global tax, especially on the American tax payer, to support Africa. What a fucking load of hypocrites!      :mad:  

Hmm, at the Slane show he didn't mention taxes as the reason:
 
 'I asked my father for £500,' Bono explained at the second show. 'The Edge asked his father for £500. Larry asked his Dad and Adam asked his mother for £500. But we didnâ??t choose to stay in London or in New York when we made it. We came back to Dublin. This is our city and you are our tribe.'
 
 'And by now youâ??ve all paid about £500. You have given us a great life and this is our thank you,' he told fans.

[Jaguär]

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  Hey Markie,
 
 Do you have a source for that?

Got the info from someone I know who lives in Ireland and works in the banking industry. Supposedly, the entire town she lives in knows about it and they all hate them for it. Go check Irish tax laws if you want.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Jaguär:
  Got the info from someone I know who lives in Ireland and works in the banking industry. Supposedly, the entire town she lives in knows about it and they all hate them for it. Go check Irish tax laws if you want.

Irish Tax law has a top rates are 48% which are significantly lower than the UK (60%) and the US rate is actually lower than Ireland's rate at about 39.8% (with deductions and credits included).  There is no tax exemption for artists in Ireland.  They pay 48% of all earned income.  
 
 Where there is no tax and where they benefit significantly is that there is no capital gains tax in Ireland.  That is for everyone Irish citizen, not just artists.  
 
 But what I don't understand about your argument is that you think U2 should leave Ireland because they make a lot of money?  Why should they leave their country, where they were raised and where they raise their kids and support their communities?  And why do you fault U2 for the Irish tax scheme, which has been in place since 1949, long before the members of U2 were even born?
   
 And what makes you think that U2 are not putting that extra saved tax money back into the Irish community through works of philanthropy and donations, let alone business development in Ireland?
 
 For all the reasons to not like U2, this is the worst I've ever heard.

[Jaguär]

That's not why I personally don't like U2. I just can't stand their music and pompous attitudes. But I do dislike that they are trying to promote a Global taxation on Americans. What I posted above is why a lot of people in Ireland don't like them. Search around. I bet you will find something about Ireland and artists. It's not my thing. I can't even understand American tax laws. The woman I know is pretty good with some of this stuff and knows about it and has mentioned it a couple times before.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Jaguär:
  The woman I know is pretty good with some of this stuff and knows about it and has mentioned it a couple times before.

Sorry Jag, I love you but this data is inaccurate.  
 
 There are a lot of reasons (tax policy wise) to have lower rates for Capital Gains (usually it's to stimulate investment in the business infrastructure) and if U2 take advantage of those laws, it can only benefit the Irish ecomony through their investment, but the two band members with kids raise their kids in Ireland and their kids attend Irish schools so to say that they only remain Irish citizens long enough to be enjoy tax benefits and would leave at the first instance is just wrong.  When they opened their club, did they do it in London, New York or LA?  No, the Kitchen is in the Temple Bar area of Dublin.
 
 And to accuse them of being hypocrites when they pay 48% of all income earned over £9,900 is also wrong.  That's a very low threashold for the top tax bracket (for example England is around £30,000 and the US is around $125,000).  Every developed country allows deductions against income tax for charitable donations, so if the members of U2 get out of paying taxes by making chartiable donations, then all the power to them.  I wish more Americans would off set their income taxes with charitable donations.
 
 About the only disparraging word U2 have ever said about Ireland was when discussing the troubles, and Bono was very involved in the Good Friday peace accords.  If the Irish hate U2 (and I don't mean hating their music because everyone's entitled to their own taste), its for making their small quiet country visable on a global music scale and if it weren't U2 it would have been someone else.

[lily1]

jag, what about the music turns you off so much? will you agree that they are, at minimum, important to the rock scene in the 80's or do you think that they made little artistic contribution to music?

[lily1]

btw, anyone agree or disagree that u2 has done little to promote their own homegrown talent?
 
 considering the popularity of prayerboat (before they split) and the frames (in ireland, and partly in the uk), for example, those bands were never asked to tour with them, even in ireland proper.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by lily1:
  btw, anyone agree or disagree that u2 has done little to promote their own homegrown talent?  

There was the Boyzone merger for Sweetest Thing. (yes, I'm laughing the whole time I typed that)

[Jaguär]

Lily, their music does nothing for me. There's a lot of music out there that I like a lot less but they've always sounded too mainstream or something for me. Can't really put my finger on it other than that they have just never done it for me. There were maybe 2 or 3 songs of their's that I kind of liked as long as I didn't hear them that much. The rest just bored me. This was true for me ever since the early 80s when I liked them a little more than I do now. Still never thought much of them then either.
 
 Don't know what they've done for hometown bands. Never thought of it but can't say that I've heard of them doing much, which doesn't mean they haven't done anything. I have no idea really who they select and why.