U2, bloody U2.
At this rate, don’t be alarmed if you see Bono selling the band’s new album door to door.
The album’s release is today, but Bono and crew already have been everywhere.
The whirlwind promotional campaign for “How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” ramped up furiously in recent weeks, catapulting the band’s new project past “buzz,” past “hot” into full-fledged “HYPE.” TV tie-ins, an opportune leak on the Internet and a spate of media appearances all pushed U2 further into the spotlight.
Did you catch one of their songs on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” recently? Don’t worry there’s another one in Thursday’s episode and also on “The OC.” Maybe you saw them on “Saturday Night Live”? Get ready for more live shows when their concert tour kicks off in the spring.
By now you can probably sing along to U2’s new single, “Vertigo,” the soundtrack to the Apple ad featuring the band and its special-edition iPod.
Sensory overload? Too much U2?
“I could deal with a little more, even,” said Greg Flamm, 39, who performs with the Chicago-based U2 tribute band Elevation.
“As a fan, I can’t get enough of them anyway–although I can understand a casual fan being fed up.”
As musicians, too, Flamm and Elevation are pleased. U2’s hype for the new album has translated into more gigs.
“Our phone is ringing off the hook,” Flamm said. “We’ve been playing every weekend for the last year or so, but we’re more on the tip of the tongue. Promoters who wouldn’t normally think about it are calling us.”
Elevation performed on the WGN-Ch. 9 morning show Monday and at a CD-release party at Fado Irish Pub on Monday night.
When “Vertigo” hit the radio in September, Flamm says the group picked it up, and now they’re learning other songs from the album.
Meanwhile, with all the media saturation, and the iPod campaign in particular, some critics say the band has sold its soul.
The Apple deal reportedly calls for U2 and its recording label, Interscope Records, to receive royalties and an upfront licensing fee while the iTunes Music Store gets exclusive rights to the band’s new songs during their first weeks in release.
By allying itself with a cutting-edge music product, U2 has largely dodged the “sell-out” label applied to performers who pimp their songs for cars, computers and other products.
The band says that hooking up with Apple is more about progressive technology than commercial greed.
“There were about three people in the universe who shouted sellout,” Bono told USA Today. “Selling out is when you do something you don’t want to for cash. We really wanted to do this. What could be cooler than having our own iPod and exploring new digital formats?”
U2 may be lending its cool to Apple, but the iPod campaign is really about the band and selling the band’s music. U2’s entire catalog of more than 400 songs will be available as a digital box set at the iTunes Music Store starting Tuesday.
Besides the Apple ad, “Vertigo” has garnered heavy airplay from classic rock’s WLUP-FM 97.9 (The Loop), adult rockers WXRT-FM 93.1 and alternative station WKQX-FM 101.1 (Q101).
WKQX program director Mike Stern said the ad exposure made “Vertigo” more attractive to the station because the song could reach beyond the “insular” alternative audience. “If they can bridge the gap between having credibility with true alternative fans and appealing to a broader audience, that helps the radio station,” Stern said.
WXRT played the album continuously for 12 hours Thursday in an effort to “defy the hype,” said the station’s program director Norm Winer.
“Instead of being deluged in hype and media coverage of the new album, we wanted people to be able to listen for themselves. No editorial. Does it suck? Is it hype? It’s up to you,” he said.
Most listeners responded positively, Winer said, but he was concerned that U2 wouldn’t be pleased that the station played the record early. XRT has maintained a relationship with the band from its early days. No need to worry–the day after the broadcast, U2’s manager sent over flowers and a thank-you.
Isn’t that just more evidence that the band is in bed with its promoters?
“There is that sense that, ‘Here is the purest band known to mankind and now they’re prostituting themselves.’ Well, time will tell,” Winer said. “There aren’t many bands that would generate that kind of excitement.”
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asneumer@tribune.com
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SNAP JUDGMENT
U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
U2 officially sounds too much like itself. “Vertigo,” the stand-out track on “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” is a brutish, rip-roaring rocker that invites high expectations, but will we ever be able to hear it again without thinking of iPod? Other choice moments come from Adam Clayton’s seductive bass line on “A Man and a Woman” and menacing soundscapes on “Love and Peace or Else.” However, even Bono’s tribute to his late father, “One Step Closer,” like too many songs on “Atomic Bomb,” seem to recycle the same shimmering Edge melody that originated around “Bad.” U2’s latest is neither bad ,or a bomb, but it is bland.
Take away: Not worth the wait
–Blair R. Fischer, RedEye special contributor
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Promotion road
Today
The new album drops. Record stores started ringing up sales at midnight. Apple begins selling the digital boxed set, “The Complete U2”–all of the bands songs–for $150 (you save $50 if you own a U2 iPod).
Monday
From the back of a moving flatbed truck, U2 rocks New York with “It’s All Because of You.” The free, roving concert, footage of which will be used in the song’s video, culminates with an hourlong musicfest at a Brooklyn park.
“The O.C.” fans can tune in for Bono’s ballad “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.”
Saturday
U2 performs on “Saturday Night Live.”
Thursday
Bono and the Edge perform at the rainy opening to Bill Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.
“CSI” features a remix of “Vertigo.”
Nov. 16
U2 decides to counter illegal file-sharing of the new album by offering free streaming previews on mtv.com and vh1.com
Mid-November
Apple Stores and apple.com start selling special edition U2 iPods for $350.
Nov. 11
WXRT-FM 93.1 plays the new album for 12 hours.
Hit TV show “CSI” includes a sample of “Vertigo” in the week’s episode, the first of several tracks from the new album to appear on the program.
Early November
File-sharers start circulating pirated copies of the new album, possibly an unfinished version pilfered in July from a recording studio in France.
Oct. 26
Bono and the Edge appear with Apple’s Steve Jobs to announce a special edition black and red iPod, inscribed with the band members’ autographs. They also unveil a digital box set of more than 400 U2 tracks to be available on Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
October
Apple rolls out an iTunes commercial featuring the band’s new single “Vertigo.”
