Oh and also the ringing endorsement of Jay-Z for being "next in line for the biggest band in the world, period." Most of that info we gleaned from a little profile on the band in this Sunday's New York Times. The confetti part is the fruit of my unfortunately spent Sunday evening. Between the two we don't learn much more that we didn't already know: Coldplay worked with Brian Eno and Markus Dravs on their forthcoming album, EMI is presently fucked and needs Viva La Vida to be a hit, and Chris Martin's voice live is shaky but he still has the ability to make you feel you might be watching something important (video below). Maybe the most interesting bit about the NYT piece had more to do with Eno's process than the band (although that's probably fair to say of the project overall):
"Brian would get us all in a circle in a tiny room, and we'd just play and play and play," Mr. Martin said. "Then he'd go through and listen and start to find these little mine-able bits, and he'd hone in on those."
In an e-mail message Mr. Dravs said, "Brian made it a rule to start each day with improvising, with people using different instruments. We might think we had a direction for a particular song, but then the band would come up with something that we'd end up incorporating into the album."
Now, that's cool. How fun would listening to those tapes from the Remain In Light or Joshua Tree sessions be? So fun. That's the answer. The profile also has a fleeting recognition of the shifting definition of success in this leaky digital world:
It is unclear what constitutes commercial success in a world of vanishing CD sales. "X&Y" sold three million copies in the United States and 10 million worldwide. Even in an ideal situation what is a realistic expectation for "Viva la Vida"?
To which camp Coldplay says unequivocally they would be pleased with half the sales of X&Y. For the rest of the $$$ Guy Hands needs to rectify EMI's standing in the hands of his Citi creditors? Chris oughta have a sit down with Santi -- she's doing it right. As for how Coldplay has changed, aside from supplemental studio-genius support?
In addition to being the frontman and primary songwriter, Mr. Martin is a tabloid fixture thanks to his marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow (they have two children: a daughter, Apple, 4, and a son, Moses, 2), which has only amplified the sense that the group's other three, less visible members (Jonny Buckland is the guitarist and Will Champion is the drummer) are little more than sidemen.
Mr. Martin said the band sat down about two years ago, after a lengthy tour behind "X&Y," and said, "If we carry on like this, it's going to appear like a one-man show, and it's going to get very boring very quickly." So, he explained, "everybody felt like they had to rip it up and start again."
Until last night happened when they played the song we like and Chris walked 50 ft in front of the band and ended the performance with the group's other three members being, literally, less visible. But hey, confetti!
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