Friday, November 06, 2009

Jay-Z and U2 in Berlin

From Stereogum:
In conjunction with yesterday's 16th annual European Music Awards, MTV set up a special, free U2 concert at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of tearing down the Berlin Wall.
...

[T]hose that were lucky enough to be on the right side of the wall were treated to a six-song set of U2's classics, kicking off with Bono yelling "Berlin, Du bist wunderbar!" (Berlin, you are wonderful!)(better than calling yourself a jelly donut) and highlighting with Jay-Z joining the band on "Sunday Bloody Sunday."
They certainly dressed correctly for the occasion.

2 comments:

Aaron Pope said...

This admittedly has nothing to do with the Jay-Z and U2 post, but because I am illiterate in the world of blogs I knew no other way to post some questions to you. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that I learned of Advance Theory in Chuck Klosterman's book and have made no true study of it. That being said I know of 2 current artist that I think have made potentiality advanced decisions, and I would like input.

The first of which is Tom York. He is seems like an obvious candidate for advancement, because it is widely recognized he is a genius. I also think that he has made a decision more recently that may in fact prove it though and that it the choice to appear on the New Moon soundtrack. I think the decision of an artist most commonly known for making overly intelligent experimental rock to make a song for a movie that caters mainly to teen girls that have never herd of Radiohead. There are flaws of that I acknowledge such as the fact that the album is littered with popular indie music, but I still feel the fact that Tom York entered the project so early on (even before Grizzly Bear and, and Lykke Li) illustrates a something differently entirely and may hint at advancement.

The 2nd artist that I think has serious possibility of advancement is Rivers Cuomo, because of the Weezer collaboration with Lil Wayne. This idea is one of the single most hated ideas in recent music history. The Lil Wayne fans I know hate the idea and there disgust is doubled by the Weezer fans I know that claim things such as "selling out". This is a notion I do not subscribe to. I believe either A. Rivers Cuomo understands things the average music listener cannot hope to comprehend, or B. Rivers Sumo greatly enjoys mocking popular music and did the collaboration mainly as joke that few will understand beyond himself and his band members. If you have any comment on either of my theories feel free to email me. If my ideas are completely off base, I would appreciate if you tell me so and help explain

Advanced Genius Theory said...

Sounds like you're on to something. I had to give Radiohead a long thought while preparing for my book, and I think there is still insufficient data. But I think that it's possible. As for Cuomo, he seems to be just a bit too ironic, but I have to confess that I don't know a whole lot about him or his band. I know some people who say that he is Advanced, so it's certainly possible. I like to be the only person who decides who is and isn't, but ultimately if you believe it, it's true.