U2 video receives MTV Video Awards nominations

The “Original of the Species” video has received two MTV Video Award nominations in the categories of Special Effects and Editing. The awards ceremony, which will air live on MTV, takes place on August 31 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Cohen-head: The Edge speaks

The Edge, attending the Sundance Film Festival to promote Lian Lunsen’s ‘Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man’ talks to MTV’s Benjamin Wagner about Cohen, quiet places and his favourite phase of making an album.

We haven¹t really got to the point where we¹re thinking seriously about the next record. We¹re at that wonderful place where we¹re just experimenting, and trying things, just really letting our imaginations go.

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• Lunsen on the festival screening

Bloc Party – Banquet E.P.

The music people listen to when they are teenagers is just the best evah, they think. Nothing can top it — especially not anything that’s current. It is balls, basically. We just are more jaded as we grow older. To help 40+ curmudgeons such as myself get in touch with contemporary music, we now have the new new wave. Back comb your hair and squeeze your body into those bondage pants. The arrival of Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Interpol, The Dears, The Stills and The Rapture, has made you want to dig out your The Cure, Smiths and Joy Division albums. Bloc Party , described by MTV as South London art-punkers, and who am I to argue, take their influences and run with ‘em: the best of The Cure with the punchiest Joy Division/New Order, and the choppiest Gang of Four. Bloc Party are blessed with a singer who has a voice that carries beautifully, especially on the phones disco edit of ‘Banquet’. ‘I’m on fire, I’m on fire,’ he proclaims. They are. This excellent E.P. is a good introduction to the band and will carry you over to the street release of their album ‘Silent Alarm’ next year.

Banquet E.P (USA) // Banquet E.P. (U.K.)

Bono and Edge Attend Rally

While U2 fans enjoyed the MTV/VH1 broadcast of the 46664 concert on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1), Bono and Edge attended an AIDS Day rally organized by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in Cape Town, South Africa, where Bono addressed a small audience comprised of HIV-positive people and AIDS activists. The U2 singer acknowledged the inititatives that TAC has taken on, saying he was “overwhelmed” by the organization’s work, and paid tribute to the true heroes of the fight–those living with AIDS/HIV.

The sun always shines on MTV

THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON MTV

We’ve got U2s performance at the MTV European Music Awards in Stockholm for you in Real Video: Hi and Lo bandwidth (both streaming)

Or if you prefer, download first.

Over at U2 Greece, they made an mp3 of the song (Beautiful Day).