Bands who sound like U2

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Actually... there are times that Radiohead does sound a bit like U2. Not in overall sound. More in the way of moments. Listen to "House of Cards" from In Rainbows. It sounds like the song that Brian Eno would LIKE U2 to make. Anyway. Portions of the song resemble Grace. Anyway. Listen. You've got to hear a little U2 in there. Some Edge-like harmony in "Weird Fishies/Arpeggi." But no. Radiohead are nothing like U2. I personally love Radiohead. I wish U2 would get back to some things they used to do. Not to repeat themselves. It seems the structure of their songs have changed. Much less time in the song for the music. It's now all Bono, all the time.

Coldplay. I think Coldplay just wants to be U2 having nothing to do with sound.
 
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Kitsch

Kitsch, much of the time, sounds a LOT like U2, and it's on purpose. Their singer/guitarist/songwriter does tons of recordings in the U2 recording forum at Yahoo Groups. Nobody has heard of them, but they're pretty decent. www.kitsch-music.com. Listen to "let the show begin" and wait for the end. Edge power solo! Probably 1/2 of theirs songs have some recognizable "U2 sound" in them.


And if you ever want to hear what some U2 songs would sound like without any Bono in them, go to This website. Look for the recordings from Edi (the guy from Kitsch) on recordings page 1, and from Trabant on page 2. Those two especially are like 95% of the way to sounding like the real thing.

-Mike
 
Enation

They are a band fronted by actor Jonathan Jackson and have released 3 albums under that name (plus a couple of others under Scarlet Road & Scarlet River).

Check out their first album "Identity Theft" particularly the tracks 'Ride' and 'Eyes of Grace'.
On their second album "Where the Fire Starts" check out tracks 'Shout', 'Let the Beauty Out', 'Heaven Knows' and the awesome 'Burst Wide Open'.

You can hear snippets of the album Identiy Theft at http://cdbaby.com/cd/enation
and the full track 'Burst Wide Open' at http://www.myspace.com/enationmusic
 
Dredg sounds kinda like U2, especially their album Catch Without Arms... they're good at that big, uplifting sound

I love, love Dredg :drool:

YouTube - Dredg - Same Ol' Road

YouTube - Dredg - Bug Eyes

YouTube - Dredg - Catch Without Arms Los Angeles 24 June 2005

http://search.playlist.com/tracks/Matroshka this song reminds me a lot of Walk On...the solo is very Edgey

some Bloc Party reminds me of U2

YouTube - bloc party sunday

YouTube - Bloc Party - Tulips

also there's this band on myspace called Finding Mercury, they're very U2/Coldplay

MySpace.com - FINDING MERCURY - Bay Area, California - Rock / Alternative / Pop - www.myspace.com/findingmercury
 
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gluey said:
There is a huge Kiwi band called OpShop and the lead singer, Jason Kerrison, has often been commented on for sounding similar to Bono.....they have great music too! :yes:
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i checked out Opshop. they kinda sound like em a little, but its great stuff. i recommend checking them out.
 
toscano said:
close your eyes and listen to this

YouTube - This Picture "Naked Rain"
Click to expand...


:lol: I used to own this album back in the early 90s. Eventually I thought it too much of a U2 rip-off and swapped it with a friend for some Rachmaninoff.

There was actually one pretty cool, slow song on that album called "Death's Sweet Religion" . . . pretentious as hell, but a good tune.
 
Arcade Fire sound a little bit like U2 with some of there songs...they only have two albums at the moment which are Funeral and Neon Bible. They are a good band.
 
I like a group called VAST--they remind me alot of u2....
and a band from Canada called Pilate (but I think they changed their name recently...)
 
partygirl43 said:
I like a group called VAST--they remind me alot of u2....
and a band from Canada called Pilate (but I think they changed their name recently...)
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To Pilot Speed as there was a US based band called Pilate. Both of their albums are awesome- the first is quite U2-ish, and their second dabbles closer to Radiohead
 
Visiongfx said:
Angel's and Airwaves especially. The delay guitars are on a bunch of tracks on the new album I-Empire, but the song the adventure (on their first album) sounds alot like a streets type. But i'm sure most of you would hate the voice but meh.... i like em.


And radiohead doesn't really sound like them, they just went heavily experimental like U2 did...
Click to expand...

silkensky said:
Angels and Airwaves is okay I guess, but if anyone could be called guilty of ripping off the style, techniques and sound of somebody else, it'd be them, or at least their guitarist. They should start paying Edge royalties for crying out loud. Emo'fied U2 is what they're trying to be, IMHO.
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Yeah, Tom cited U2 as an influence when he started A&A for both their sound, and the path he wanted their career to follow (as if). Well, at least they got the sound part right...
 
TV On The Radio's vocalists, Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe, sound a lot like Bono at times on their last album Return to Cookie Mountain, and the music can sound like an edgier, rawer, U2 (if they had taken a different turn after Achtung Baby for example). They also have a song from their Young Liars EP called 'Staring at the Sun' but that sounds absolutely nothing like U2.

Fantastic band, by the way. Return to Cookie Mountain is one of the best albums I've heard in the last 5 years.
 
PookaMacP said:
TV On The Radio's vocalists, Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe, sound a lot like Bono at times on their last album Return to Cookie Mountain, and the music can sound like an edgier, rawer, U2 (if they had taken a different turn after Achtung Baby for example). They also have a song from their Young Liars EP called 'Staring at the Sun' but that sounds absolutely nothing like U2.

Fantastic band, by the way. Return to Cookie Mountain is one of the best albums I've heard in the last 5 years.
Click to expand...


:huh: :eyebrow:

Wow. To each his own, but I don't think TV On The Radio, Kyp or Tunde sound anything like U2. You must be hearing a completely different band than me.

(BTW-- totally agree with you on the awesomeness of TV On The Radio. :wink: )
 
gluey said:
There is a huge Kiwi band called OpShop and the lead singer, Jason Kerrison, has often been commented on for sounding similar to Bono.....they have great music too! :yes:
Click to expand...

I would like to sincerely thank you for opening my eyes to this band. They have some really good songs (particularly "No Ordinary Thing" from their first album), so thank you very much.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
Check it out, it's pretty good but much more stripped down than his previous work...

I'm amazed how no one has heard of him (other than Touched), highly underrated imo.

I saw him live a couple of months back and he was awesome.
Click to expand...

I loved his first two albums but didn't listen to Nude that much - I liked it, just wasn't really what I was into when I got it. Also I talked to him on AIM once.

I'll have to go on a lookout for April.
 
Sorry for bumping this thread up again, but i just thought id recommend two bands to check out. Both are irish bands and both are, in my opinion, great.

Anything by the flaws rocks but this is probably their most U2 sounding song (they also so more U2ish live): YouTube - The Flaws - Sixteen

There's also a band from Belfast called 9lies that are really good, but their song blind is probably the most U2 sounding song they've done:

9Lies Blind - Song - MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
 
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