Morning Music Notes – Bono Continues to Invest in Technology Companies He’s Likely Never Used
LCD Soundsystem Documentary: Coming to a Theatre Near You
The LCD Soundsystem documentary, Shut Up and Play the Hits, which documents their final show at NYC’s Madison Square Gardens, will be coming to North American and UK cinemas this summer, or shortly thereafter (via NME). Perhaps strangely, the distribution rights were bought by Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys and his company, Oscilloscope Laboratories. The status of the movie was unknown, as it originally was only shown at the Sundance Film Festival and then SXSW.
Adam Yauch commented on the LCD Soundsystem film (but didn’t have the other Beastie Boys to join in on the last word of every SENTENCE), “Perhaps having grown up in a band for most of my life – a band that formed when I was 16 years old – and having released our first record when I was still in high school, this film addresses so many questions. For instance, it can be pretty clear when a band starts, but perhaps less so when it ends, or how it should end. In that sense, it’s brilliant of James [Murphy] to end it in such a definitive way.”
Another Investment from U2’s Bono: First Facebook, Now Dropbox
I initially thought it was weird that Bono invested in Facebook. It turns out the move will make him very, very rich (to the tune of just under $1 BILLION). Not one to rest on his laurels (ignoring the fact U2 have done that for the past decade), Bono and fellow band member, The Edge have helped fund online storage service, Dropbox (via Guardian).
Dropbox tweeted a picture of the Edge and Bono with Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, and announced they were investors. Dropbox has “edged” over 50 million users, and is used for transferring or storing large files on the Internet. The pair’s investment wasn’t made public, but the company’s revenue hit $240 million. This is considered high, as an estimated 96% of the users only use the free service associated with Dropbox.
Jay-Z Stars in New Rocawear Ad, Brags About How Awesome He Is
Jay-Z’s Rocawear clothing line has a new spokesman – Jay-Z. In a clip called “From Marcy to Barclays” (meaning from the Marcy projects in Brooklyn to UK Barclays Banks), Jay-Z speaks about how he rose from the projects to gold record after gold record. While he talks about his impressive CV, his early hit, Coming of Age, plays in the background. I guess you don’t need to pay royalties on your own song. Maybe this commercial appearance will help atone for the horrible miscue during the Occupy Wall Street cash-in they tried to pull. If you add Beyonce into the ad, you have a sure fire hit – I’d buy any dress she’s marketing.
Jay-Z Rocawear Ad
Listen to a snippet of the Lana Del Rey and ASAP Rocky collaboration, Ridin’
Brooklyn production team, The KickDrums have a new mixtape, Follow the Leader, coming out. Wait, why do we still call them mixtapes? For one of the tracks, they recruited 2 buzz artists – Ms Lana Del Rey, and ASAP Rocky.
You can download the mixtape here later today (or right now, depending when you are reading this), or you can preview a minute of the Lana / Rocky collaboration below, and watch some guys smoking and laughing.
