U2 Reportedly Reissuing a Remastered and Gussied-Up Achtung Baby

Long been one of my favorite records, Achtung Baby by U2 is apparently getting the remastered and expanded reissue treatment. No word on the "when" will be though. Wonder if we get a free Trabant with each proof of purchase? Lord knows they must have quite a few lying around after that tour...

And that Charles, he's such a card ...

The U2 camp is apparently plotting its next round of remastered and expanded reissues. But word that the band's 1991 classic Achtung Baby is being sonically tweaked came from an unlikely source: singer-songwriter and indie producer John Vanderslice.

"They're remastering Achtung Baby in next room!!" Vanderlice tweeted from a Los Angeles recording studio, where he was putting the finishing touches on his forthcoming album with the Magik*Magik Orchestra. According to Slicing Up Eyeballs, Vanderslice subsequently added, "Any suggestions for witty opening salvos to drop on U2 crew when I barge in on Achtung Baby remastering session?"

Wrens frontman Charles Bissell, of all folks, jumped in on the fun to write, "At some point say, 'that sounds even better than the real thing.'"

While there's no word when Achtung Baby will be reborn, the 20th anniversary of its release is just 14 months away. There's currently no expectation of a similar treatment for Rattle & Hum, but it wouldn't be the first time the group reissued its back catalog out of sequence. Fans will recall that expanded version of 1987's The Joshua Tree was released in 2007, preceding 1984's deluxe treatment of The Unforgettable Fire, which dropped in October 2009.

A treasure trove of rare material exists from this era, including original B-sides like 'Lady With the Spinning Head,' 'Where Did It All Go Wrong' and covers of Cole Porter's 'Night and Day,' Elvis Presley's 'Can't Help Falling in Love,' Lou Reed's 'Satellite of Love,' the Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black,' plus material that leaked in advance of the album as 'The Trashcan Bootlegs' in April 1991. The previously unreleased guitar track 'In Cold Blood,' which was kept off of Zooropa because it didn't fit the dance-rock formula of that set, might also be a strong candidate for inclusion.(Source)

U2's North American tour cancelled

130_U2 with Muse, FedEx Field, Upper Marlboro, MD (9-29-09), originally uploaded by BetweenLoveandLike.

Reuters reported today U2's entire North American leg of their world tour and their Glastonbury Festival appearance has been cancelled to allow lead singer Bono to recuperate from the emergency back surgery he had last week in Germany.

Bono has been told to recuperate for at least eight weeks and band manager Paul McGuinness, speaking to Reuters outside the Munich hospital where the operation was performed on Friday, said the 50-year-old singer "feels awful" about the tour changes, which will affect over a million fans. "Clearly this is a serious injury and the recuperation time necessary to rehabilitate Bono is a big problem for the U2 tour and has unfortunately necessitated the postponement of 16 shows in North America," he said. "Those shows were to occur between June 3 in Salt Lake City and July 19 in Meadowlands Stadium."

The earliest possible date for Bono's return, according to the band's website, would be August 6 in Turin, Italy. U2 were to have been the headline act on the main stage at Glastonbury on June 25.

"I'm heartbroken," Bono said in a statement posted on the festival's website. "We really wanted to be there to do something really special -- we even wrote a song especially for the festival."

As well as the band and fans, the injury will also hit Live Nation, the music concert company which signed a 12-year deal to handle merchandising, digital and branding rights and touring for one of the world's most successful bands. "Obviously Bono feels terrible about missing these shows and we are working as fast as we can with Live Nation to reinstate them and reschedule them for next year," McGuinness said. "For a performer like him to miss shows is a terrible thing and he feels awful about it. He shouldn't. The most important thing is for him to get better and return to his full power as a performer."

Joerg Tonn, the neurosurgeon treating the star, described Bono's condition as a "sudden onset disease" which caused temporary partial paralysis. The injury happened while the singer was training in preparation for the tour. "He was already in severe pain with partial paralysis of the lower leg. The ligaments surrounding the disc had an eight millimeter tear and during surgery we discovered fragments of the disc had travelled into the spine canal. The surgery was the only cause of treatment for full recovery and to avoid further paralysis. Bono is now much better with complete recovery of his motor-deficit.
"His prognosis is excellent but to obtain a sustainable result he must now enter a period of rehabilitation."

The 2009 part of the tour helped the band earn $109 million last year, according to music journal Billboard. The U2 360 Tour, so-called because fans surround a giant circular platform, was predicted to become the highest-grossing tour in history.

U2s Rose Bowl Show Available in Full on Youtube

135_U2 with Muse, FedEx Field, Upper Marlboro, MD (9-29-09), originally uploaded by BetweenLoveandLike.

U2 played the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA a few days ago to 96,000 people....and another 7 million computers across the globe. The Irish Times said that this was the first time a major international act had streamed an entire show on a site like Youtube.

The show is still being streamed on U2's Youtube channel (here). The quality is stunning and you should definitely check it out, if only to see their incredible stage setup. See if you can get a glimpse of the people doing lights who are lodged in the arms of that claw thing...

Six Degrees of Separation: Bono and...The Airborne Toxic Event?

Weird...

Awhile back, I posted about how I'd been hearing The Airborne Toxic Event songs in the strangest places: Buick commercials, over the din in a loud Starbucks....

Today, I was doing some digging around for some recent footage to add to a quick post on U2's 25th anniversary release of The Unforgettable Fire and came across a snippet of an interview with Bono on French tv. And what did I hear in it? Yup, you got it.

Weird. But also pretty damn cool.

Lights That Flash in the Evening: U2, with Muse @ FedEx Field, Upper Marlboro, MD (9-29-09)

U2 is not now nor were they ever my favorite band; in fact, I think the last record of theirs I own might be Zooropa. However, U2 is the reason I am a music dork today.

Up until the 8th grade, I was pretty much listening to "whatever was on the radio.” It wasn’t like fading mill towns in upstate NY were lush with record stores or indie radio stations then (or now for that matter). Up there, you got classic rock (Dylan, Hendrix) and Top 40 (Poison, Tiffany). One day, I was trying to tune in the big Top 40 station in the area and I unknowingly turned the knob a tad too far to the left.

Instead of the Top 40 station, I tuned in a college radio station (91.5, WRPI) and heard a heavy and intense guitar riff, and one hell of an impassioned 'YAHHHHHHHH’...and I felt every single neuron in my body fire all at once.

What I had heard were the opening chords to U2’s "New Year’s Day." It was so raw...so bare...so strong...so...real. I always liked to listen to music but never had a song hit my entire nervous system quite so completely before. It was through that banshee yell that I discovered a whole new world.

The Joshua Tree and U2's explosion into the mainstream was still three years away, so U2 was only being played on college-radio at this point. "New Year's Day" started my music nerd conversion, but it was discovering The Unforgettable Fire shortly thereafter that sealed the deal-what an amazing record. I realized that there was great music being made out there that was an alternative from the mainstream of hair metal, overproduced and plastic sounds, and formulaic lyrics. Music could be smart as well as catchy, and it wasn't all from 1967, it was happening right then. And I wanted to hear it all.

That's why I was so excited at the chance to combine my latest new world, photography, with, ostensibly, the reason that this site even exists today. So I give you photos from Tuesday's U2 show here in Washington, DC at FedEx Field.






(Bono is shorter than a drum cymbal, who knew?)



(Go here for the rest of the photos from this show, and for those of the opening band Muse.)