theo|digital

Even though I love music and even do some reviewing when I get the chance, I haven’t ever really been pushed towards the music blog.  They can be sorta pretentious and difficult to engage with anyway.  Later, I’ll have to write on why the universal but awkward, “What bands do you like?” question is going to take a back seat in popular culture as it becomes less useful in an information society.

But for now, I just wanted to mention that U2 stopped by over on Clark St. a few days ago, not to play a show, but to answer questions from an in-person audience for a live internet stream to the U2 fan network.  They were at the Chicago Metro , and I wish I had been there, because it would have been awesome to hear them play “DJ”—each picking a couple favorite (not their own) songs and spinning them for listeners.  Their picks?

The Trib reported on their picks:

U2′s DJ picks:


Larry Mullen: Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (“We wouldn’t be around without the Ramones”); Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies)” (“It gave me incredible hope … and made me extremely jealous”).


The Edge: Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl” (“the first Irish rock ‘n’ roll star”); the Waterboys’ “The Whole of the Moon” (“Three shows changed my life: The Clash in 1978, Bruce Springsteen, and the Waterboys”).


Adam Clayton: Airborne Toxic Event’s “Sometime Around Midnight” (“I don’t like listening to that old stuff”); the Klaxons’ “Golden Skans” (the bass lines “gave me inspiration and energy”).


Bono: Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” (“Rage is at the heart of every great rock ‘n’ roll band”); Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (“It’s about King David, the first blues man”).

Bono is awesome: Hallelujah is one of the best songs ever.   I also love that the Edge is unpretentious enough to love Brown Eyed Girl.  A more detailed description of a similar event in LA is fun.  The interviewer in both places (and others?) was the Scottish Shirley Manson , best known as the lead singer of Garbage.