Tag: "Bono"

Today is kind of a slow news day. And so, today, you get… rock stars in drag: the superlatives.

Most natural: Bowie

Most disturbing: Queen

Most frequent: Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones

Best homage: Blur (as Blondie)

Most dudes: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

Best pout: Ozzy Osbourne

Most confusing to high school jocks in 1994: Kurt Cobain

Most committed: New York Dolls

Best looking: Bono

• Lana Del Rey better watch herself, less she gets a face full of crazy Courtney Love.
• After getting cut from The Muppets, Lady Gaga’s going with her second choice.
• Seeing Adele bide her time with newly fixed vocal chords is actually kind of terrifying.
• Granted she wasn’t even alive at the height of Led Zeppelin’s career, but C’MON.
• More like a high-pitched girly scream, according to Bono, but hey, who are we to judge?
• Glad to see Trent Renzor can go back to being a dark, moody, and misjudged artist again.
• Just announced: we’ve found Jay-Z and Kanye. They’re in this mysterious place called the zone.
• So, iTunes UK is panning out pretty much exactly the same as the rest of the world then.

• Clearly, the only reason Kayne didn’t get nominated is because his works are so awesome that they offset each other.
• Bono, if you want to stop sounding like a girl, you might want to take off those sunglasses.
• Can’t really blame him. Carl Barat does have a very punchable face.
• Nice to get the official odds for the office’s back-alley GRAMMY betting ring.
• When Will Smith’s daughter decides to step in, you know that it’s been too long since the last Will Smith album.
• Damon Albarn reveals himself to have been the Wizard of Gorillaz all along. Munchkins everywhere are shocked.
• Did Sleigh Bells turn into a metalcore band when we weren’t looking?
• Bieb’s just trying to show that teen heartthrobs gotta stick together. Undersized fist bump.

• Might want to work on that, Bono, less you end up in the pit of irrelevance. (See: the 90′s.)
• Anybody else get the feeling Paul Stanley is trying to get autotuned vocals in completely the wrong way?
• Mark Hoppus’ analogy kind of makes Blink-182 sound like the best housewife ever.
• If Johnny Marr accepted payment in Noel Gallagher’s narcissism, he’d be a rich man.
• We can hear James Brown’s ghost singing “The Payback” in the background to this.
• If Pink Floyd taught anyone anything, it’s that you shouldn’t be held responsible for drug-induced stupors. Guess this jury didn’t get that.
• Radio’s response: Wait, who’s Gym Class Heroes? Oh, those guys in that Fall Out Boy song? Been a while.
• Lana Del Rey squashing any ideas that she’s an indie artist.
• Michael Stipe wants to be an artiste, not an artist.

• U2 playing the will-they-won’t-they game. You’d think you’d get some straight answers from The Edge.
• Boyz II Men is back again.
• Besides tragedy, the only real information we got out of this was that “shambolic” is a fun word.
• Not really hiding it well with an album name like Mylo Xyloto.
• We were hoping for a Flaming Lips “Helter Skelter”, but we’ll take this.
• Billboard is really running out of things to do if they legitimately want to run a feature of Soulja Boy’s Instagram pictures.
• Still find it quite funny how getting the words right is a personal accomplishment for singing the National Anthem.
• Not really sure how great it is to be a headlining a pre-GRAMMY show, but okay.

Using your voice to sing is one thing, using your voice to bring an important issue to light is quite another. While it seems pretty common for artists to be involved in all sorts of charitable causes—from volunteerism and activism to foundations and benefit shows—celebrity involvement isn’t always a clear case of best intentions. Some artists get involved simply to increase their popularity and fan base while others hope a healthy dose of charity can help negate some bad publicity.  So, it’s always nice to see a standout in the sea of fair weather philanthropists—someone who is not only donating money, but who speaking about things he or she believes in, and is not afraid to ruffle some feathers.

Historically, there have been many different artists who have been vocal proponents of change. John Lennon is a great example of one of these standouts. Lennon actively made his political views known, and truly cared about the impact of not only his music, but his voice when he wasn’t performing. For example, he and Yoko Ono‘s famously staged Bed-ins for Peace, where they were filmed in bed in their pajamas speaking out against the Vietnam War and taking a stand for world peace, during their honeymoon.

Continue reading ‘Vocal Points: Voice For A Cause’

• We get the feeling Peter Hook is mad he didn’t get a Google front page video.
• This would probably be the best wedding ever. Not sure about the honeymoon though.
• And we stand by telling you to shut up, dude.
• Only Noel Gallagher would have the gall to call Shakespeare gibberish.
• Finally, we get to know the story behind Bono’s shades.
• Proof that the can is a go-to source for inspiration.
• Friendly Fires and SBTKRT, oh this should be good.
• So that makes Lonely Island his baguette…?

Having shelved her career as a recording artist in favor of family life, Lily Allen recently revealed to Elle magazine that she has “nearly finished a musical.” The musical in question being the stage adaptation of 2001′s loveably painful chick flick Bridget Jones’s Diary, for which little has been said since last summer. On paper, Allen appears to have all the right reasons for this career shift—a new husband and baby on the way, and a blood line that lends itself to the stage (dad is British actor/musician Keith Allen, who’s credits include two Harold Pinter plays at the Almeida Theatre). However, the singer is hardly the first musician making the jump from the Billboard charts to Broadway.

Headlines have been monopolized in the past months by the drama surrounding U2‘s scored Spider-Man musical. After a series of setbacks including financial problems, injured cast members and scathing write ups, original director Julie Taymor threw her hands up in what we would imagine an exasperated manner and called it quits. Production was shut down for three weeks in March and given a serious face lift by new director Philip William McKinley and went on to rake in $1.7 million in its first week, qualifying it as a “hit.” While Spider-Man certainly lends itself to the powerful anthems and epic ballads found in U2′s discography, Bono was quoted as saying scoring the show was ”harder than we ever thought”.

They should probably update the press materials

David Albarn and Jamie Hewlett of alt hip hop/rock group Gorillaz have also lent their talents to the stage, creating a musical adaptation of the Chinese story Journey to the West in 2007 which saw several runs over the next two years under the billing Monkey: Journey to the West. After further adaptation of some characters and music for inclusion in BBC’s coverage of the 2008 Bejing Olympics was met with criticism, Hewlett went on the defense, tagging negative reviews as hypocritical.

This all begs the question, why are these perfectly successful recording artists putting themselves through the theatrics (literally) of transitioning their talent to the stage? Some could argue ego, Broadway being just another feather in the hat of self-centered stars. Or maybe its the next step on the ladder of conquering the music industry as a whole. We’re hoping it boils down to the talent part. Chances are the Bonos and Lily Allens of the world are just incredibly talented human beings always seeking new creative outlets. But while a record is a neatly packaged representation of that talent, Broadway is an entirely different beast with more than one flair for the dramatic that requires its participants have the right amount of screws loose to partake. While Allen may be writing the music for Bridget Jones, we can’t really picture the new mom as the star, sliding down a fire pole ass first. Then again, she has been known for her own moments of quirk.