[kj] OT: Pirating of new U2 release

[Alex Smith]

Hey man, to each their own. I don't think there was ever any credibility involved with listening to U2, but when I first heard them (probably "Gloria" courtesy of the video on Empty V), they were certainly a lot more refreshing than what was passing for the mainstream at the time (Michael Jackson's THRILLER et al.) And while not exactly "punk," they certainly had a bit more fire and aggression (or at least through WAR) than your average, workaday band on the radio at the time (Flock of Seagulls, etc.). I don't think I was really put off by their puffy-chested bluster and sermonizing until later on. That all said, while they don't come close to the Joke (nor some of their less celebrated peers like the Bunnymen), they did develop their own sound (if the Edge lifted a bit from Keith Levene and Andy Gill and countless other less wealthy-today guitarists). There were and are worse bands than U2, that's all I'm sayin', really.

Alex in NYC


-----Original Message-----
From: iPat <pmdavies at gmail.com>
Sent: Nov 9, 2004 9:41 AM
To: "A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)" <gathering at misera.net>
Subject: Re: [kj] OT: Pirating of new U2 release

had to look up the discography on that one. Achtung Baby was 91, which
was 10 years after i had stopped listening to them. The scene here was
killing joke, pTv through to ToH/SoD. Bands like the redskins etc were
not to be found on the middle class student jukeboxes and the nation
was in conflict with Thatcherwith the miners strike breaking the back
of poular uprising.

while the likes of U2 with their music industry funding went to fill
rock stadiums, there was a consious decision to go more to squat gigs
or free raves in fields. Achtung Baby was missed thanks to Spiral
Tribe (i have a youth remix somewhere), <<tune in turn on drop in>>
the only use for the joshua tree was to burn it on the pyre so
everyone could dance around it! ; ))

im only kidding alex, we all have our own journies. Its not a competition.


On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 08:54:54 -0500, Alexander Smith
<vassifer at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I think U2 stopped being "relevant" (whatever that means) after ACHTUNG
> BABY (an at-the-time refreshing image overhaul they've still not
> recovered from). Apart from the odd track here and there, it strikes me
> that they've long since stopped making music that "mattered". That
> said, I've always liked them despite their elephantine pretension
> (although since when is humility a staple of great music? I ask you --
> are Killing Joke humble? No, and nor should they be!) As the kids here
> in the States say, U2 have "jumped the shark", and are now as old, out
> of it and fuddy-duddy as Emerson Lake & Palmer were in 1977.
> 
> REM, as far as I'm concerned, probably should have called it quits
> after CHRONIC TOWN, but to continue since Billy Berry's departure earns
> them a death warrant, I'd say. And Michael Stipe is nine-times as much
> of a jackass as Bono can  be.
> 
> Alex in NYC
> 

-- 
iPat
live for today, live for tomorrow
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