U2 rock about leaving one's home in "Invisible"

After teaming up with RED and Bank of America to debut new song "Invisible" as a free charitable download with a high-profile spot during Super Bowl XLVIII, Irish rockers U2 have released the song's black and white performance music video. This anthemic number about leaving one's hometown, is typical of the band's joyous, soaring and inspiring anthems. Goosed by a motorik beat and piled high with Edge's otherworldly guitar spasms, the tune functions as both a love song and a universal call for harmony as the rock band's charismatic frontman, Bono soulfully intones, "There is no them, there's only us."
"Invisible" is an electro-tinged rock anthem with features lyrics harnessing notions of self-respect, both the personal kind and the universal-struggle kind. According to Bono, "Invisible" is a song about him "leaving home with just enough rage to see it through and this feeling of arriving in London, sleeping in the station and coming out into the punk rock explosion that was happening." In an interview with BBC Radio 1, he explained that "there were really wild extraordinary people and then you feel deeply not extraordinary. You feel invisible and you're screaming to be seen and you've got your band and this is your whole life. It's that feeling of getting out of town."
While Bono has claimed recently that "Invisible," is not the first single from U2's upcoming Danger Mouse-produced 13th studio album (tentatively scheduled for a summer release), "We have another song we're excited about to kick off the album, ('Invisible') is just sort of a sneak preview - to remind people we exist," adding that "it's the first one we finished" and that the group will continue working on the full-length "for a couple of months." The song has received all of the trappings of a single, like this splashy black and white performance video.
Shot in a Santa Monica airport hangar over three days last month, the Mark Romanek-directed visual clip - a dynamic live performance - finds the Irish quartet performing the new tune against a massive tri-panel screen with multiple video effects in front of a captive audience of exuberant fans, Bono crooning the song from a circular hangdown microphone while the rest of the band riffs away in front of a screen of multiple video effects. It's no "Where The Streets Have No Name," but it's better than "Red Hill Mining Town." Bono crowdsurfs in it.

Reeve Carney Debuts "Rise Above 1" Feat. U2

"Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" star Reeve Carney was already a film actor and singer-songwriter when he took on the stage role of Peter Parker in the Broadway musical. Now the 28-year-old has just released video features U2's Bono and The Edge for "Rise Above 1," the lead single from the spider-ific Broadway production soundtrack, and while the video itself is not as mind-blowing as the trailer for the new upcoming big screen adaptation, we give U2 and the "Spider-Man" cast brownie points for trying to keep this musical afloat and in the press.
Directed by Aaron Platt and Joseph Toma and shot in New York City, the video gives fans a peek into the making of the Broadway musical, as Carney also is seen rehearsing with cast members and flying from the rafters of the Foxwoods Theatre. As expected, Carney and "Spider-Man" composers Bono share vocals with the Edge on guitar, while we get splices of behind-the-scenes footage of dance rehearsals, fighting scenes, and studio appearances mixed in with skyscraper shots and what appears to be a igloo makeshift with punctured holes emitting sunlight. The video was a bit sentimental, but that's about it.
With music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge and a book by Glen Berger, Julie Taymor and Glen Berger, the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" is inspired by over 40 years of Marvel comic books. It follows the story of teenager Peter Parker (Carney), whose unremarkable life is turned upside-down when he's bitten by a genetically altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to his bedroom ceiling. This bullied science-geek suddenly endowed with incredible powers soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility as villains put both his physical strength and strength of character to the test.
One of the most striking things about "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," is the visual punch it packs into every corner of the stage. Critics have written about the show's "stunning costumes" and called it a hybrid of a circus, pop concert and video game. The $75-million musical, which holds the record as one of the most ambitious projects - both in cost and creativity - ever to arrive on Broadway, is still hanging in there, with box office grosses from last week totaling about $1.8 million. The Broadway musical got a music video, which you can admit doesn't ever really happen these days. Maybe they will set a new trend?