U2 is SPIN's 2001 Band of the Year

[U2ITNOL]

Very cool! Although I think U2 should have also received Spin's Best Live Act award as well. Radiohead got that one.

From PRNewswire:

Spin Names U2 Band of the Year in January Year in Music Issue

Story Filed: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 10:01 AM EST

NEW YORK, Dec 4, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- After many hours
of deliberation the editors at Spin, the nation's leading music and youth
culture magazine, will name Ireland's finest, U2, punk metal standouts
System of a Down, and hip-hop marvel Missy Elliott, as the year's best in
its January "Year in Music" issue, on newsstands December 11.

As U2's Elevation tour progressed through 2001, their music became the
perfect soundtrack to a tumultuous year. After more than two decades, and
their tenth album -- the multiplatinum "All That You Can't Leave Behind" --
U2 became more relevant than ever. In the wake of the attacks on New
York City and the Pentagon, even people who hadn't thought about the
band in years began to rediscover the power of U2. In a horrible flash, the
depth and substance of the band's work shone in vivid contrast to the
superficial gloss and thud of the last decade of pop music.

"I always believed that music is a transcendent thing," U2 frontman Bono
tells Spin editor-in-chief Alan Light, "I just didn't think that I would have to
depend on it as much as I did this year." Light was granted rare and intimate
access in his interview with Spin's 2001 Band of the Year. "Whenever you
see this kind of darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to
burn brighter," Bono tells Spin. "I think in the history books this will be seen
as the end of America as an island -- the isolationism and the sense that
you didn't actually need the rest of the world ... you were an island entirely
unto yourselves, and now that's no longer the case. You need to be able to
get on with the rest of the world because your might is so powerless against
this kind of hatred -- it's a whole new thing. There are some very smart people
who have already figured out that the only resolution here is to deal with the
root of this, which is abject poverty. So the hard questions that have be asked
and answered are going to bring in a new era, a good karma for this country,
and I'm really excited about that."

System of a Down's "Toxicity" (American Recordings), Spin's 2001 Album of
the Year, was the biggest record in America on September 11, an accident of
fate that somehow seemed perfectly timed. Using noise to navigate the gray
area of our screwed up minds and emotions, Toxicity is punk metal at its best.

As the get-sprung song of the spring spiraled into summer and on and on it
was clear that Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On," Spin's 2001 Single of the Year,
was the gift that kept on giving.

Other awards include Best Rapper Jay-Z; Best New Band Gorillaz; Best Live
Act Radiohead; and more!


[This message has been edited by U2ITNOL (edited 12-04-2001).]

[sulawesigirl4]

sounds like a great interview. Bono as always manages to be articulate, intelligent, and self-effacing all at the same time. Can't wait to pick it up!

-sula

[tiny dancer]

Just picked up the magazine yesterday. Good article and questions asked of the band. i agree U2ITNOL they should be the best Live Act of 2001.