U2: New Album to be produced by Rick Rubin
 

U2 Back In The Studio With Rick Rubin, Green Day

U2 is working on material for its next studio album with producer Rick Rubin, according to the band's Web site. The group has been at work on the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2004's "How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" since last month. While in the studio, U2 will be joined by Green Day to record a cover of Scottish punk band the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming."

Proceeds from the track will benefit Music Rising, an instrument replacement fund co-founded by U2 guitarist the Edge last summer in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"One year later, the devastation is still fresh in our minds, and we'd like to keep it in yours," Green Day said in a post on its Web site. "New Orleans has always been a special city to us, being a hotbed of music and creativity, and it's hard to believe parts of the Gulf region still remain devastated. We feel that it's important to continue to raise awareness."

Meanwhile, a DVD chronicling U2's Zoo TV tour will arrive Sept. 19 via Island/UME.

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Who doesn't Rick Rubin produce these days? The dude gets around.

And they are playing at Genentech's 30th anniversary party in SF on September 18th. I'm trying to get there, but I don't know how uncouth it would be to email the guy who rear-ended my car 2 months ago and ask could I be his Significant Other!

I kind of miss the Rick Rubin that would produce albums for newer and lesser known bands and maybe discover a real gem, rather than just working with the megastars.

I know it would probally never happen but I would love to see him make another record with the Beastie Boys.

I think this will probably be great but I don't find it too terribly exciting.

Rubin is known for bringing artists back to their roots and I don't know if that's necessary.

Unlike acts like Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash and Metallica, U2 seems to be riding high in their current style and the producers closely associated with their previous styles (Steve Lillywhite, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois) are all viable options themselves when it comes to producing a U2 album.

Basically, what I'm saying is that U2 doesn't really need the Rick Rubin magic. I'm sure it'll be a solid disc though.

Okaaaay, so my all-time favorite group is recording a song with the band I currently hate more passionately than any other...greeeeaaaattt...

As far as the Rick Rubin thing, I'm intrigued, but I don't put too much stock in the status of U2 things in their early origination moments--they were really stoked to be working with Chris Thomas on HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB, only to part ways a couple of months later and return to the "known quantity" of Steve Lillywhite, so it's not clear yet if what U2 is after will click with what Rubin hopes to bring. If it does work out, though, I'm game--Rubin has made even artists I despise palatable.

Rubin can get as rootsy as he wants, but if he tries to take the Edge's digital delay pedal away, things could get ugly.

U2 are my favorite band by far, and they never let me down but you never believe a thing you hear about a work in progress U2 record. They change producers, drop songs, change directions at the last minute. Bono will talk about it being a rock album and it will come out the opposite.

U2 doesn't need Rubin, they are still at the top of their game but it could be interesting. U2 albums are always very layered and Rubin has been all about the strip down lately. I can't imagine a U2 record with just guitar, bass, and drums but if they go that direction I'm sure it will be great.

[complete article: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/154...eadlines=true]

And U2 will continue working on their new record, the follow-up to 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, with Rubin. There is no clear date for the album's release.

"We've been doing a lot of work with Rick, and at this point, it seems to be going very well, so my guess would be yes, he's going to be producing our new record," Edge said. "We're still in the early stages, so it's difficult to say what will happen or what it will be like, but we've really been enjoying the sessions, and I don't see any reason why they should stop."

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U2 needs Lanois and Eno

WAR and HTDAAB proved otherwise; having said that, I do hope U2 hasn't left that duo permanently behind.

Come on. U2 isn't that bad.

Cute. No, they're not, but Green Day is a whole new paranormal level of shite.

Rick Rubin is way over-rated in my view. U2 needs to get back to Ireland and gain their inspiration from the sources that originally inspired them. A penthouse in Los Angeles is hardly the basis for making good music.

Oh, thank God, "The Saints Are Coming" doesn't suck...

Argueably, U2's greatest albums (JT and AB) were inspired by America and Berlin.

Well, War did, anyway. And you could have fooled me that HTDAAB wasn't produced by Eno/Lanois, as it sounded just like All That You Can't Leave Behind to me.

Disagreed; HTDAAB is a much stronger, more consistent album than ATYCLB (which was a great album in its own right), and sounds more "stripped down".

Definitely disagreed on the first part.

Bono Itching To Take U2 To The 'Next Level'

With its monster-selling Vertigo tour complete, U2 is ready to reinvent itself, frontman Bono said during a BBC Radio interview earlier this week. "Our band has certainly reached the end of where we've been at for the last couple of albums," he said. "I want to see what else we can do with it, take it to the next level; I think that's what we've got to do."

Asked by interviewer Jo Whalley if that might mean a move away from rock'n'roll, Bono replied, "We're gonna continue to be a band, but maybe the rock will have to go; maybe the rock has to get a lot harder. But whatever it is, it's not gonna stay where it is."

He went on to reveal he'd like U2 to explore compositions featuring just voice and acoustic guitar. "I would like to do a couple of tunes in that direction, with just a lot of space around the voice," he said. "I'd like to strip things down; that's something I'd be very interested in at the moment."

U2 is expected to get busy in the studio after the New Year, with an eye on releasing a new album before the end of 2007. Bono said casual fans were the target for the recently released compilation "U218 Singles," which also includes two new songs.

"We've never been much of a singles band," he admitted. "But we did it because we have a very young audience coming through, and we wanted to, you know, just be very available for people who want to check us out, you know? We wanted to have something they could check us out very easy on."

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"Or, at least, that's what Rick Rubin said I should be interested in."

;)

On the "take the rock away or rock harder" question, I come down squarely on "rock harder"; "Love and Peace or Else", the rockingest song on HTDAAB, was my favorite track from that album.

I would also be interested to hear a 'stripped down' U2 with just 4 instruments. Heavy on the vocal sounds good too.

that'd be too weird, dude.

U2 Recording New Songs In Morocco With Eno, Lanois

U2 is in the midst of an extended songwriting and recording session in Fez, Morocco, with longtime collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Sources say the band has already flashed out a number of ideas, but, writing on U2.com, Bono claims it's still too early to tell whether any of them will appear on U2's next studio album.

"We have no plans for the music yet," he said. "We're just going to make it until we can't not put it out!"

Although Eno and Lanois have respectively worked with the band on some of its most classic material, they have never previously teamed with U2 in a "purely songwriting capacity," according to drummer Larry Mullen Jr. "So it's very different, quite experimental and kind of liberating because of that."

U2.com is promising an insider's look at the sessions throughout June. Meanwhile, the band recently previewed its upcoming concert film, "U23D," at the Cannes Film Festival in France.


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