So I chose last week to completely omit the fact that I have indeed acquired two tickets for U2’s show at Soldier Field here in Chicago on Sept. 12.

I can remain silent no longer…after 18 long, impatient years of waiting, my U2 tickets have arrived.  Behold, the most beautiful thing I’ve witnessed to date:

Well, tonight is just an eve of excitement now isn’t it?  I’m supposed to technically keep my mouth shut about a particular event that happened today…at least until tomorrow.  I promised my boss I wouldn’t blog or tweet about it until after the fact, so I’ll keep my word as intended, but expect more tomorrow.

already satirizing our sweet VIA display

In other news, VIVA LA VIA!  Yeah, I said it.  I helped to a very minor degree on our store set for  tomorrow’s launch of Starbucks VIA Ready Brew instant coffee.  I honestly hate to admit, Howie was right, it’s relatively delicious.  Generally speaking, instant coffee is absolutely awful, unless you get the good stuff from Europa; considering we’re Americans, we have little to no concept of how to properly enjoy coffee.  At any rate, the convenience and surprisingly palatable flavor of VIA has led me to keep my mouth shut and my criticisms to a bare minimum…it’s good stuff, and I’m quite thrilled to have Chicago as one of only three test markets for the product, with Seattle and London being the only others.

Also, I got my hot little hands on the new U2 album; no worries to my

happiness is new U2

managers who read this blog, I promise you I did NOT take a copy tonight.  Besides, we’re not selling the $100 deluxe version, so no worries there…just took shameless photos of myself practically eating the packaging.  I’ve got a bit of a rebuttal to make against the New York Times regarding the loss of U2’s relevance in the world.  Look for that tomorrow or Wednesday.  I was, however, very pleased to see that $1 from the sale of each copy of “No Line On the Horizon” would be donated to the Global Fund.  Not an incredibly huge donation, but pending the response from customers, it could lead to something. 

Enough Starbucks news, I’ve got some sad personal affairs that I’d very much like to address for the sake of my distress and discontent and the illusion that my posts are actively read by the world.  As I may have mentioned not too long ago, I received the CEIA National Two-Year Student Internship Award.  The award presentation is going to be – as it always is – at CEIA’s National Conference, which happens to be in Portland, OR this year.  Originally, I was supposed to attend the event.  Obviously, the economy keeps spiraling further into the abysmal depths of depression, there was the slim chance I wouldn’t be able to attend.

karole, casey, and myself in the ad the CEIP dept. took out in the feb. 20 edition of the courier

Well, that slim chance became far more likely when I went for the SFE Award as presented by COD.  Today, I got a very apologetic email from the Co-op director.  In very few words, she regretfully announced to me that the school wouldn’t cover the expenses to send me to Portland even for a day to just fly in, accept my award, and go home.  Now to me, there’s something incredibly wrong with this. 

I understand the slump we’re all in, but when the institution boasts about the amount of awards its students receive, how much attendance is up, and all the grants and scholarships that are being given out to students, departments, and just to the institution itself, I begin to wonder what the real reason is.  So, instead of accepting my award in person, I have to wait until May to attend the Board of Trustees meeting and accept it there, where I know no one, no one knows me, and where all relevance will have been stripped from the original significance.

I’m incredibly disappointed, but I’m still the national winner in my category, however, by matters of principle, I’m very surprised that this was the road the institution preferred to travel.  Again, I’m not ungrateful, just surprised, but what can you do?  My Manifest Destiny’s just gonna have to wait.  Besides, the Co-op department took out that nifty ad in the Feb. 20 issue of the Courier, so I can’t gripe too much.

At any rate, it’s been an interesting day.  This week’s going to be absolutely insane with PRSSA elections coming up fast, four papers and a speech due by Thursday as well as my obligation to play my horn for a Taize prayer service at St. Vincent DePaul, I’m guaranteed to be a ball of nerves.  Spring break, get here a bit faster please…

once again, many thanks to getmusic in australia for “unintentionally” leaking the new U2 album.  i’ll tell you all right now, for those of you that only marginally like or casually listen to U2, you’re likely not going to enjoy “no line on the horizon” very much.  for the U2 purists, especially those like myself who find the best era to be early 90s U2, this album is truly a gem…

no line on the horizon-

immediately, tonally, this song echoes the airiness best defined by zooropa.  the bass line retains a pedal quality and drums are fairly subdued.  bono’s vocals are hard to distinguish; not quite able to put my finger on it, but the overexaggeration is unmistakably similar to much of what we’ve heard in the joshua tree.  edge brings us back to achtung baby with his incredibly simple riffs and when we reach the bridge, we’re thrown into a wail similar to “with or without you” crossed with that from “electrical storm”.  a strange track that i can’t quite place, let alone discern how i feel about it.  it’s very constant and flowing, but not to much of a crescendo like we’re used to, just steady and galloping,

magnificent-

undoubtedly the BEST song on the album.  all you hear in the first few seconds are a pounding bass drum and powerchord 10 times over, slowly layering a bassline, synthesizers, and a snare that brings the whole thing to a head in a burst of melodic delay that makes you feel like you’re running while standing still.  after the intro, we hear a clap track and congas…yes!  congas!  definitely influenced by the riad in morocco.  the song persists between lulls in the verses, climbing and clawing, running away ahead of you with the words of “only love could leave such a scar”.  likely a song devoted to god, (“my first cry, it was a joyful noise”) and the difficulties of understanding the ways of the world therein; thankfully, U2’s lyrics always leave open ends and interpretation.  the edge’s solo near the end is so incredibly similar to those on achtung baby, and again, i think that’s just the effect of morocco on the band’s creative dynamic.

moment of surrender-

very slow to start, almost dreamy and again, similar to the synthesized ambient music associated with achtung baby and zooropa.  it takes on a new personality when adam’s bass and a clap track come in to mirror the pedal of the keyboard.  bono’s vocals are incredibly harsh when they arrive (“i tied myself with wire to let the horses run free/playing with fire ’til the fire played with me”) both in content and in delivery.  relatively distinguishable about a relationship gone horribly wrong, leaving an open wound an a lament to either the other person as well as god…again, god theme, but that’s U2.  the song is a reminder of the inner struggle we all go through at some point and try like hell to find our way back, as futile as the fight may seem.  incredibly heavy song, and chillingly suited for the times most of us are having – in the US at least.

unknown caller-

my least favorite song on the album, reminding me strangely of pink floyd mixed with seargent pepper – there’s french horns…yes, you heard me – however, innovative in it’s own right.  the chorus is a bit stiff and incredibly awkward chanting praises to put yourself out there and respect yourself.  the combination of organs, synthesizers, french horns, and U2 make for an odd duck.  but then again, this entire album is an odd duck.

i’ll go crazy if i don’t go crazy tonight-

quite possibly the sweetest song on the album.  another of those semi-psychotic stalkerish themes meshed with social awareness and begging for change.  the lyrics literally pull you in every direction, and i think that’s exactly what it was going for.  definitely one for further analysis of it’s ambiguity.  the edge’s use of pinging delay and melodic arpeggios are familiar from “how to dismantle an atomic bomb” and they suit the song well.

get on your boots-

i know my initial assertions of this song were incredibly negative, but take away the somewhat ridiculous 60s groove and “candy floss/ice cream” and you have an incredibly anxious and socially concerned song.  once again, definitely one to be analyzed further.  it’s like unwillingly looking into a mirror and how everything fits in the world; what comes first and will we all make it out alive.  “let me in the sound” is most definitely a reference to drowning, and take that as you will…the bridge is the ballsiest part of the song and echoes the theme more than the rest of the track.  listen to it three times…once to hate it, twice to tolerate it, thrice to interpret it.  you’ll be surprised.

stand up comedy-

my favorite song on the album…funky as hell and bono’s begging you to stand up is infectious.  i can see this being incredible live.  in all my years, i’ve never heard U2 bring the funk and they’ve done it here.  edge definitely echoes tomo morello and you’ll hear some nuances similar to rage against the machine.  best verse overall, “i could stand up for hope, faith, love, and while i’m getting over certainty, stop helping god cross the road like a little old lady/come on people, stand up for your love”.  more religious allusion, but it works incredibly well.  to put it simply, this song kicks ass.

white as snow-

the album takes on a more somber and – for lack of a better word – hopeless turn at this song.  hauntingly crafted and beautiful, it’s another reflection (notice a trend) and reminds me of this album’s version of “sometimes you can’t make it on your own” but a bit more elusive.  “love” is a central theme, and it flows like a prayer.  the french horns show up again.  it starts to take on a quality similar to “love is blindness”.  incredibly strange and unnerving.  provides an awkward shift to the album, but the theme fits.

FEZ – being born- 

heavily echoing zooropa in the beginning, it will bring back fond, but suspicious memories of the zootv tour when bono was switching through all the different tv stations.  the band bursts in with an equally paranoid and anxious entrance with the edge playing single notes, chiming with his signature delay, building to bono literally screaming his guts out like a dying man.  even when the wails ease into words, they’re frantic and terrified.  anyone that has heard the sountrack for “million dollar hotel” will find a lot of similarities.  absolutely brilliant, and in need of further investigation.  this one’s relatively unique while maintaining qualities from both the 80s and 90s.

breathe-

another awkward one, bono seems to be channeling both dylan and lennon simultaneously while edge is hard up on the ramones without the speed.  very assertive, but i lost interest when bono refers to a “cockatoo”…i just laughed.  however, socially aware and religiously-based, aside from the opening verse, it’s an effective song in bringing out a rebellious attitude from the listener.  it has it’s charm, and i’m still in search of it…

cedars of lebanon-

incredibly heart-wrenching and if this song doesn’t tear you down before building you back up, then you have no human emotion.  i can’t fully review this one for the simple fact that it echoes different emotions and experiences for each person.  i don’t think this will ever be a big hit, but it’s another one of those hidden treasures in U2’s catalog that will be cherished, though reverently, for the true fans…

so there it is, i’ll post a list of songs to listen to beforehand as a guide for what i hear being taken from old stuff and incorporated in a new way…this one’s a winner, and definitely worth the wait, although 5 years was a bit much

i managed to get my hands on a leak of “no line on the horizon” last night…i’ll post a full review later in the day, track by track.

this is a goodie kids…my thanks to getmusic in australia for the slip-up.

to be continued…

it’s nearly time!  whether or not q101 was correct tonight when i heard the plug, the news is that u2’s next studio album has been tagged with a march 2nd or 3rd release date!  altough i’m a bit miffed that it got pushed so far from it’s original october 2008 release, i suppose better late than never is always the best rule of thumb.  either way, i’m thrilled to have a somewhat concrete release date.

so although it’s not a new song, it’s something fresh from u2.  (red)wire officially launched yesterday for world aids day and acts as an online music magazine, showcasing artists who have teamed up with (red).  you’ll find u2, john legend, elvis costello, death cab for cutie, and keith urban just to name a few.  i’ve signed up for it just to take it for a spin, so expect a post or two relatively soon regarding impressions, pros, and cons of the project.  until then, do as i did, and enjoy the song for its simplicity beyond the edge’s angelic arpeggiations throughout…

* so far, i’ve gotten a message saying that i’m unable to purchase a subscription to (red)wire because “the servers are overloaded today”…i’m surprised the development team didn’t consider this sooner.  this may have already turned me off to the service…

i don’t care what anyone says…*POP* was a masterpiece. focus on the social awareness of the lyrics rather than the electronica…

“The Playboy Mansion”

If Coke is a mystery
And Micheal Jackson, history
If beauty is truth and
Surgery, the fountain of youth
What am I to do
Have I got the gifts to get me through
The gates of that mansion

If O.J. is more than a drink
And a big mac bigger than we think
If perfume is an obsession
And talk shows, confessions
What have we got to lose
Another push and we’ll be through
The gates of that mansion

I never bought a lotto ticket
I never parked in anyone’s space
The banks, they’re like chathedrals
I guess casinos took their place
Love “come on down”
Don’t wake her, she’ll come around
Chance is a kind of religion
Where you’re damned for plain hard luck
I never did see that movie
Never did read that book
Love come on down
Let my numbers come around

Don’t know if I can hold on
Don’t know if I’m that strong
Don’t know if I can wait that long
Till the colours come flashing
And the lights go on

Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
And though I can’t say why
I know I’ve got to believe
We’ll go driving in that pool
It’s who you know that gets you through
The gates of the Playboy Mansion
But they don’t mention the pain

Then will there be no time of sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
Then will there be no time of sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame