What U2 is Listening to Now

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Joey788

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U2.com recently posted what each band member is currently listening to, plus thoughts on the band as a whole. No clue if it's for subscribers only or not. Pretty eclectic from everyone but I like a lot of the selections they made. Adam's would have to be my favorite.

Adam Clayton


Yeasayer - Old Blood
The Heavy -The House that Dirt Built
Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker
Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
Earth, Wind and Fire - Greatest Hits
Gap Band - Ultimate Collection
The Black Keys - Brothers
The xx - XX
Elbow - 'One Day Like This'
The Drums -The Drums
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul

On our 1st ever gig: '... it was one of the most amazing buzzes, a huge shot of adrenaline. In that ten minutes a world opened up of how things could be. I had a great sense of power, being in front of an audience and seeing that there was a relationship, there was something that went off, an energy. At the time I thought maybe a riot had taken place - and maybe it had.'


Larry Mullen Jr.


Eminem - 'Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna)'
The Stranglers - 'No More Heroes'
Talking Heads - The Best of Talking Heads
Fleetwood Mac - 'Tusk'
B.o.B (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) - 'Airplanes'
Leonard Cohen - The Essential Leonard Cohen
The Clash - London Calling
Franz Schubert - anything
Sandy Nelson - 'Let There Be Drums'
La Roux - 'Bulletproof'

About the band: 'If there is something special about U2, it has nothing to do with us as individuals. It's what happens when we get together on stage or in the studio. It's very hard to describe and even harder to explain. However, it's the only reason we are still doing this. When we play music together, something happens.'


Bono

Nowhere Boy - movie by Sam Taylor Wood
Florence and The Machine - Lungs
MT. Desolation - MT. Desolation
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Villagers - Becoming a Jackal
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young
Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From
Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

About the band: 'We were still at school but in my head Mt Temple had become a rehearsal room. I have great feelings of affection for it as a place that helped shape me, myself, my friends and my band, a real sense of pride that we were part of something progressive. I really believed U2 were capable of becoming something extraordinary, I am not sure why.'


The Edge

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
TV On the Radio - Dear Science
The National - High Violet
Eminem - Recovery
Florence and The Machine - Lungs
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Broken Bells - Broken Bells
The Black Keys - Attack & Release
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
The xx - XX

About the band: 'It seems impossible now to even contemplate an existence outside of music but I honestly don't know if I would have even become a professional musician if U2 hadn't made me believe it was possible. We have been together all of our adult lives, which demonstrates an incredible level of commitment and solidarity between four people who decided to form a band... all the reasons why it was a great idea at the time still hold true. On our day we can still make great music together, come up with original ideas and perform emotional, exciting, spiritual shows bursting with the possibility that anything might happen.'
 
Haha, the thought of Larry listening to Hayley Williams cracks me up. That's fuckin awesome.

Nice to see the Suburbs and High Violet show up there. Those are my two favorite albums of 2010, so far. Fleet Foxes and Elbow are two great recent picks.

Also happy to see Bono reppin the Julian Casablancas solo record. It's pretty damn good, and I feel that it was a bit overlooked.
 
Surprisingly cool picks from everyone. Nice to see they're staying current...

Broken Bells opening in 2011, please?
 
Larry seems to have a very eclectic taste in music :lol:


Cool, I can definitely relate to that :up:


Good choices by everyone, and some I haven't heard before. I guess I have to check some of those.
 
Larry's choices seem the most traditional but who'd have guessed he was a franz schubert fan!
 
I like their taste in music. I hope we see some of those bands open next year. :pray:

Oh and Larry gets bonus points from me for liking Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. (*gotta rep the USC Trojan Marching Band).

I knew the instant that I read 'Tusk' on Larry's list that you'd approve. :up: :wink:
 
Yay for The Suburbs and High Violet getting some love. :up:
Very much agreed. I almost wanted to post something about wanting Arcade Fire to open earlier, but I don't want to get my hopes too high.
That being said, it would be awesome and you know it.
 
Suburbs = best album of the year.

Nice to see The XX get some love from the band. Perhaps they'll take note of their subtlety. :wink:
 

Larry Mullen Jr.


Eminem - 'Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna)'

For some reason I find that rather surprising. I'm trying to imagine Larry listening to either of those artists...it just strikes me funny :p. But that's cool, 'cause I do like stuff from both artists, so... And I love that he likes "Airplanes", I rather like that song as well.

Bono's picks don't surprise me at all, that totally seems like the kind of stuff he'd be into, based on what I've read and heard about his musical tastes. Adam seems to be into a bit of funk music, which seems right for him.

And Bono and Edge liking the Fleet Foxes :up:. I've only heard a couple songs by them, but those songs flat out rule.

Great lists. I always like it when I hear my favorite bands talk about music they're listening to, it's nice to see if they share your tastes and I always wind up getting an urge to want to hang out with the band and listen to music with them :D. I just think that'd be fun. Thanks for sharing this, nice read.

Angela
 
Meh. Suburbs does nothing for me, like Arcade Fire in general. I really tried to like it, but it just doesn't work, I cannot get into their music, though I liked some stuff from Funeral.

And the new Interpol is nowhere as good as Love to Admire, which I really love. I'll get to see them in Rome when they open for U2 and I'm really curious about their performance, but I think their new album is boring.

But if Bono (or anyone else here) likes it, that's just fine.
 
Very much agreed. I almost wanted to post something about wanting Arcade Fire to open earlier, but I don't want to get my hopes too high.
That being said, it would be awesome and you know it.
Arcade Fire would be INSANE as an opener for more than Montreal. I'm also angry that they're not playing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this year...
As if they didn't have enough love. :wink:

It's impossible to give them enough love. :heart:
 
Meh. Suburbs does nothing for me, like Arcade Fire in general. I really tried to like it, but it just doesn't work, I cannot get into their music, though I liked some stuff from Funeral.

I'll never understand this logic. Either your ears like the music they're listening to or they don't. It's very hard, at least to me, to "try" to like something. Either you like it right away or it happens organically over time.
 
That's right. But I always "try" to get into music that most other people I know like. I always think something's wrong with me if I don't like it, but on the other hand I find myself liking stuff that other people can't stand. Everyone's telling me Arcade Fire's so great, but their music just doesn't appeal to me. I don't even like Wake Up if I listen to it as an Arcade Fire song. I only like it if I listen to it as a U2 into song :lol:
 
Some people say "I tried," some people say "I gave it another chance to grow on me" (i.e., "happening organically over time").

Potato, po-tah-to.
 
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