Now, granted, his reply is noncommittal. But on paper, reading his recent quotes, and then watching this video, it’s hard to tell if Edge’s “We’re not really sure” “I can’t really say” replies mean that HE really isn’t sure or that he just doesn’t want US to know if he is sure. Is he bluffing or does he really have no clue?

If you need a recap, the other most recent quote from Edge about what’s next came just a few days before the Globes: “We don’t really know yet. We’re working on material here, and it’s sounding amazing, but we’re far from being certain about what we’re gonna do with it.”

(Many more new album-related quotes from the band over the past year are compiled here on our New U2 Album Information Page.)

This video below is basically just for anyone who ever wanted a closer look at the Edge’s chin:

And in the most important news: in case you thought Edge might have been wearing his Converse sneakers at the Golden Globes - wrong!

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Scattered Thoughts: Edge’s Poker Face

Mick Jagger joining U2 for Stuck In a Moment (video):

Note: If his dancing is throwing you off, try and get over it. He’s Mick Jagger. I advise closing your eyes, if that helps. Ha. From 1:59 on, for me, it is pretty much gold, especially the part where he sings to Bono “You are such a fool …”.

U2 with Mick Jagger and Fergie (from the Black Eyed Peas) covering the Rolling Stones song Gimme Shelter (video):

Note: Sorry there is a gap at the 0:56 mark. I had turned my camera off (in protest, ha!) when I mistakenly thought this was going to be a song with just the Black Eyed Peas.

Before Jagger (and the Black Eyed Peas) came out, U2 had opened their set with Vertigo and Magnificent. Then on song three, Bono called out Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith and, joined by Roy Bittan (E Street Band keyboardist), they all went into a sort of classically U2-ish “oh crap, we’re screwing up this song” moment. They butchered the beginning of Because the Night (video):

Note: The screw up was not that big of a deal in the end. You see Patti’s microphone give feedback (at 1:07) and then she starts the verse late, and then woah, the timing for all of the musicians goes off (it gets pretty ugly starting at 1:40 in). And then Bono does his “Everyone be quiet on stage and I’m going to fix it by making the crowd sing” move right before the 2:00 in mark and then they are off. They then played it again to make sure the HBO cameras captured them doing it right.

U2 also played I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For with Springsteen accompanying them. Bruce and Bono traded verses. The song ended with Bruce singing the line “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” on repeat and Bono simultaneously singing words to Bruce’s song The Promised Land “Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man, and I believe in the promised land.”

After Bruce left the stage, U2 played a version of Mysterious Ways that segued into Where Is the Love by the Black Eyed Peas. They were joined on stage by all of the Black Eyed Peas. This pairing did not appeal to me or make sense to me in this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame type setting. At all. But much of the crowd in the arena was going WILD with glee. Bono sang a brief snippet of One during Where is The Love. Then some of the Peas left to make room for the next guest (Jagger).

Oh, to be able to cause an entire arena to erupt with screams just by slithering out onto a stage. Mick Jagger is that guy. Or one of them. He’s a ROCK STAR. And that’s what this night was all about. I loved every silly second of his performance up there.

U2 ended their set with a one-song encore, Beautiful Day. This fan would have appreciated it if U2 had played a few more songs and represented their catalog’s depth a bit more. (Full setlist details are here.) However, I’m not going to complain about seeing U2, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Mick Jagger in one night. Together. (I might add, the act preceding U2, Metallica, with guests Ozzy Osbourne, Ray Davies and Lou Reed, was also pretty phenomenal.) And the U2-Jagger moment alone was worth the price of admission, for me. (Then again, I was in the cheap seats.)

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Scattered Thoughts and Videos from the Rock Hall Concert

In case you missed it, or, like me, didn’t get an invite to the party, here’s a photo via purepeople.com that the caption says was taken at The Edge’s 48th birthday party on August 8th at Club 55 in St. Tropez. For those keeping score, The Edge appears to be wearing a Gucci t-shirt. (And a Bono).

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Scattered Thoughts: Belated B-Day Pic

What it doesn’t look like, exactly, is the claw graphic on U2.com. That sketch has a much more futuristic, sci-fi vibe than the mega hunk of metal being reported on by fans in Werchter. We are definitely still in the “sausage making” stage, if that makes sense. The claw is in progress, but you know that on opening night there will be some aspect to this finished product that we haven’t quite seen yet. I *really* can’t wait to see how The Bono weaves this crazy claw into being a symbol of this tour’s theme. (Whatever that theme might be).

Maybe because I am not as kind and gentle as others (or because I still have Star Trek 2009 on the brain), I am hoping the Claw Tour’s theme involves magnificent… lasers. And possibly a space ship. That blows things up

Yeah?

For example, on select North American tour stops, I would like the U2 Claw to utilize its lasers to shoot at the Black Eyed Peas. Do you think they are listed as an opening act for real? Or are they being set up for the laser claw to destroy them? Boom Boom POW!

I’d like the claw to showcase the evil, more menacing side of U2. The one I always read about in the Daily Mail and the Irish Independent. Come on, evil U2. Inhabit your alternate reality. On opening night, let your claw hone in on the members of the British tabloid media in attendance and  blast their asses bums with a laser beam.

Hey inattentive people in the crowd, no bathroom breaks during Fez-Being Born or you.get.BLOWED.UP.

Eye shadow hating, lyric berating enemies of The Bono be gone. The laser will destroy you.

Crazy? (Me?) Probably

But … really:

Claw photo via running74 on Flickr.

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Scattered Thoughts: Boom Boom POW!

And … for good measure, here’s U2’s version live from Somerville Theatre in Massachusetts.

The Magnificent single will officially be released on May 4. The band recently shot an as yet unseen video for the song in Fez, with Alex Courtes. (Related: U2.com – Magnificent Morocco)

I can’t wait to see where U2 decides to place this song in the setlist for the live shows.

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Scattered Thoughts: Magnificent Covers

With U2 in New York this week for five appearances on the David Letterman Show and a Good Morning America concert (and who knows what else), plus the Boston club gig on March 11, I am wondering what else they might play from the new album. (If anything).

What songs do you think they’ll play this week? What would you like them to play? Do you think they’ll play more than one song per night on Letterman? Will we hear anything a bit more vintage than Beautiful Day and Vertigo? Can we please have Larry Mullen Jr. doing a Top Ten list?

I am hoping they play Breathe (because it is AWESOME), on night one on Letterman.

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Scattered Thoughts: So Far … and Next?

More: Showbiz Ireland snapped the band on the way out of the studios after “rehearsals” last week.

Some really scattered thoughts …

The NFL commercial that U2’s music was in during the Super Bowl yesterday (see our post about it here) was oddly subtle. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I doubt many non U2 geeks noticed the commercial let alone the song (which was not identified, only heard in the background). There were many other silly commercials to grab people’s attention, not to mention the down-to-the-wire game and that hamtastic guy that played at halftime.

There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said about the whole “Get On Your Boots” video leak/non-release event from last Friday (see previous post and comments here). It seems like a fumble on someone’s part, but on the bright side, the video leak generated so much buzz in the fan community with people finding it on their own and a large majority of people really loving what they found, it could end up in some weird way being a happy accident of viral marketing in the long run. (Is that too optimistic?)

Their marketing strategy for the album so far has been a little, um… hard to get a handle on. While I found the NFL commercial with U2 to be oddly subtle, I also have to admit that I am happy that U2 aren’t force feeding the lead single to people (a la the iTunes commercial for Vertigo). And the fact that U2 are playing the Grammys, the Brits and the Echo Awards in the next few weeks leads one to believe that maybe they are going to try and sell this thing the old fashioned way – with the power of their live performances. (And really disorganized video launches and leaks.)

Of course, I am probably jumping the gun and an organized, perfectly choreographed in your face marketing push could be around the corner. We’ll see!

In the meantime, I’m trying hard to avoid taking all the album reviews popping up everyday too seriously. Most of these writers have heard the album only one or two times! They are not to be trusted, people But seriously, OMG, this one in particular has me salivating.

That’s all.

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Scattered Thoughts: Thoughts Scattered

As the anticipation for the moment when we actually get to hear the first single builds, it’s sort of amusing to me how tempting it is to decide whether or not the song is any good based solely on a few lyrics we’ve seen and the descriptions we’ve read. The above is from Q magazine about Get On Your Boots.

Also from Q about Get On Your Boots: 

“Among other instantly striking tracks are Get Your Boots On, a heaving electro-rocker that may mark the destination point the band had been seeking on Pop”

Note: (not sure if the fact that Q alternately calls the song Get On your Boots and Get Your Boots On says more about Q’s editing ability or U2’s song-naming ability)

And from Rolling Stone, about Get On Your Boots:

“Get On Your Boots”
The likely first single, this blazing, fuzzed-out rocker picks up where “Vertigo” left off. “It started just with me playing and Larry drumming,” the Edge recalls. “And we took it from there.”

My first hope was that I would avoid reading these types of descriptions altogether. To make the album a surprise out of nowhere. Yeah, right. That lasted about zero seconds. Once the information is out there, it’s hard not to read it. But even after reading the above, I still have no clue what to expect even from just this one song. (Are we even *sure* that this song is the first single? Like, 99 percent sure?)

I would guess that not everyone who reads the above descriptions will be struck by the same words. For me, the most powerful description used in the above snippets is the word “demented.” But what my imagination expects from demented U2 is probably a lot different than what this writer expects, I’m guessing. I mean, some fans seem to think eyeliner is demented! WTF? My demented is a lot more “out there” than that. Plus, the description of Boots taking off where Vertigo left off? Well that sounds possibly not so great to me. But who knows if that’s what I’ll think when I hear it.

When the heck will we hear it, anyway? (Bono?)

In the meantime … for comparison’s sake, here is what Q magazine wrote about the last lead-off single, Vertigo, in a similar preview article from October, 2004:

Vertigo
U2 as garage band. Over power chords, Bono sings about boys who play rock ‘n’ roll. Adam Clayton: “It was originally called Native Son and had a very different feel. Bono and Edge rewrote it when we started work with Steve Lillywhite. The bass and drums have a little bit of Echo & the Bunnymen in there — a nice wink to where we came from.”

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Scattered Thoughts: Get On Your …

Disregard the caption that says this is Bono in Dublin. This photo was obviously taken at Slane Castle and NOT in Dublin. Out of my price range, but I love the shot.

It’s part of a display and sale on now at The Morrison Hotel Gallery in the Bowery in New York City featuring a collection of photographs by Danny Clinch. The show and sale will continue through the new year.

Thanx for the tip …

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Scattered Thoughts: Bono, by Danny Clinch

I believe I have watched that video more than 100 times since yesterday. I believe there is not a whole lot to it, but still I quite like it.

I believe I am now actually believing a new album is not that far away. (The Edge wouldn’t lie to his mom, would he?)

I believe the lyrics to the above tune are interesting. I believe Bono changed them a little.

I believe U2’s version of this song is mostly just made up of simple Edgeness, but I believe I like Larry’s little flourish near the end.

I believe Adam was not too busy during the recording of this song. I believe he didn’t mind.

I believe Bono stole Brandon Flowers’ eyeliner. I believe he needs some help applying it more deftly next time. I believe I volunteer.

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Scattered Thoughts: I Believe …