Say this for the Black Eyed Peas: Their party-down chants might be the epitome of lowest-common-denominator brain viruses; but they sure do aim high, nevertheless.

"We went into this knowing we want to be a group like U2, to have that kind of longevity," said Jaime "Taboo" Gomez in a recent interview. "Bono can step out and do his own thing, Edge can step out -- but they always come back and give the world that U2 experience. The rest of our career, whether we're branching out into movies or clothing lines, shoes, books, whatever, whether it's Black Eyed Peas as a whole or individual expressions of ourselves, so be it."

For lots more, and details about the Peas' Raleigh show, see the story in Friday's paper.

ADDENDUM (2/20/10): See this very nice photo gallery from the show, and here's a review.