What’s new in music? The team and I are featured in Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine September/October issue.
“Michelle Lee, better known as DeeJay Shelly, spent many years in the corporate world where she learned that successful events require team work and professional skill. As the owner of Michelle Lee Entertainment she provides that important team approach. One of the only female DJs on the east coast, Shelly grew her company from tune spinning to event services.”
-Susan Shiber, Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine.
(Pages 31 & 32 Read about Sounds By Shelly and Beats By Barta’s new DJ & Drums. Page 35 the Team hosts “Opa!” with Christine Angeline on camera and Bertos on Video!)
And now, find out what Scott Rossi heard is going on with U2! In his Manic Monday Music News…
TOP 40/POP NEWS: U2 Make Big Splash on iTunes With Surprise Free Album Give Away!!
U2 took the world by surprise on September 9th when they released their brand new album, Songs of Innocence, their first in five years, as a free giveaway by Apple who made it available to anyone with iTunes. The news was announced by the band the band at a Cupertino press conference with Apple CEO Tim Cook in conjunction with the arrival of the new iPhone 6. The band ended the event with a performance of the first single off their new album, “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone).” U2 got a standing ovation, when Cook said, “Wasn’t that the most incredible single you ever heard? We would love a whole album of that.”
“The question is now, how do we get it to as many people as possible, because that’s what our band is all about,” Bono said. “I do believe you have over half a billion subscribers to iTunes, so — could you get this to them?” “If we gave it away for free,” Cook replied. And five seconds later, the album was unleashed in the largest album release of all time.
“We wanted to make a very personal album,” Bono told Rolling Stone’s Gus Wenner the day before the press conference in an exclusive interview. “Let’s try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys — first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that’s hard. But we went there.”
It took the band two years to work on their new album, Songs of Innocence, with producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), at which point U2 brought in some extra help: Flood, their collaborator since 1987’s The Joshua Tree, plus the producers of the amazing alb um by Adele, Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder. “I think having them around really helped,” says Bono, “Some of the music out there now that people call pop, it’s not pop – it’s just truly great. And we wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Sixties, when you had real songs. There’s nowhere to hide in them: clear thoughts, clear melodies.”
The new album also has a personal song about Bono’s mother, Iris Hewson. She passed away when he was just 14. “Forty years ago, my mother fell at her own father’s funeral, and I never spoke with her again,” he says. “Rage always follows grief, and I had a lot of it, and I still have, but I channeled it into music and I still do. I have very few memories of my mother, and I put a few of them in a song called ‘Iris.'”
Bono says, “I don’t want it to be a concept album, but the songs come from a place. Edge laughed and said this is our Quadrophenia. We could be so lucky.”
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/u2-surprise-album-songs-of-innocence-apple-itunes-free-20140909#ixzz3CybLEq9F
Every Monday look forward to the “Manic Monday Music News”, run by yours truly, Scott Rossi! Music is the Universal language which brings the world together, something we can all agree on, so I will always try to find some cool weekly news for you to hear about, here on the MLE Blog. Thanks go out to Deejay Shelly, for this opportunity. Enjoy!
Let us know what you thought of our new 35th edition in the comments section below. Or, let us know if you’ve heard any music news we missed! Thanks! Scott Rossi & DeeJay Shelly!