Trains On Bridges now available

From Roger's Twitter update (I will not say tweet!): "Just finished the packaging for my limited edition EP release Charlie Crow - Trains on Bridges. Limited to 250 CDRS burnt from the master!"
Get it now. I just did. Twice. : )

4Play in Charlotte repeat on HDNet

HDNet will be repeating The Cure - 4Play in Charlotte on Aug. 16th at 9:05 pm eastern. And if you missed them the first time, you can get the video from Dime or Megaupload, watch most of it on YouTube, and get the MP3s from Piratebay.

Curse of the Universe strikes again

Update: Tonight's show in San Diego has also been canceled. : ( And if the tour is too much for Dave, why not let Martin have more songs in the set? Let Dave rest his body and voice, and make us Martin fans happy. It's a win-win situation. : )

DM have been forced to cancel their show in Mountain View, Ca. on Aug. 12th. Get well soon, Dave.

Curespotting

Robert mention in a NY Times article on Hairstyles. (Thanks Kate)
Cure mention in 4Y-Records. (Thanks The_Vacancy_Smiles)
Robert photo, and 100 Years mention at NME. (Thanks Pietro)
Billboard's This Week In Charts 1989 remembers the debut of Lovesong. (Thanks Heron)
Remembering the 1979 Reading Rock Festival. (Thanks ML68)
Mention of Robert in this New Humans review. (Thanks Claudio)

COF Metro DC Area Get Together?

"I am contemplating a gathering for local COF peeps here in the metropolitan Washington DC area. Since DC was the first date of last Summer's 4Tour, the wonderful "COF get-together" momentum had not yet begun. I would love to meet other peeps nearby.
But before I go through all of the trouble planning something, I want to see if there is any interest. The gathering would most likely be during a weekend day. It would be located in the Northern Virginia area, just outside the DC beltway (2 walking miles from Metrorail). Interested folks should e-mail me no later than Friday, August 21." (Thanks Kate)

Curespotting

"Last Weekend on Virgin 17, there were 2 cure mentions in 2 documentaries: The first one was called "The hidden side of the 80's" and had a 10 sec. snippet of Killing an arab live in Paris in 1979. The second one was "the Punk heritage": it showed a short extract of the Other Voices video, and introduced the Cure as part of the post-punk bands that emerged in the late 70's, along with Joy division and Siouxsie and the Banshees."
(Thanks Sylvain)

"I was on Youtube today and I somehow stumbled across this video. It seems to be an awful MTV commercial with someone in a Robert Smith mask." (Thanks Emily)

"Houston Press' Rocks Off blog mentions The Cure's Seventeen Seconds in a list about "Albums that went darker", and a flashback review of Mecha-Streisand." (Thanks Heron)

"On current affairs show Newsnight on the BBC here in the UK tonight there was a piece about Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi who was found guilty of the bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie. Pictures of the crash site were accompanied by 'A Reflection'. Mighty odd." (Thanks Adam)

Cure photos for sale

"I have a couple of unique Cure items on eBay at the moment, including a photo set from the 1979 Reading Festival (with a 20-year old Robert!) and a photo set from backstage during the Prayer Tour with a fantastic shot of the entire group and their wives/girlfriends at the time." (Thanks Peter)

New Cure shirt at Everything English

The Cure are this month's featured artist at Everything English, and they have a new (to me) 4:13 Dream shirt. And if you buy a shirt, be sure to add your free sticker or free badges to your order. (Thanks AndytheCurefan)

Update: Also available at Interpunk and Corpse Clothing. They also have a white version. (Thanks RyanAlien and Aaron)

New EP from Roger/Charlie Crow

From Roger's website: "Finally after a couple of years in the making I am releasing my Jazz/Electro project Charlie Crow. Its coming out September 1st initially only on iTunes but with a very limited edition CDR which I will burn myself and put together a nice little package. So look out for it....You can read about it and hear some samples here."
If that doesn't work, try listening to the title track on his MySpace. Love the Moog, but with Roger back on the piano, can it be anything less than brilliant? I already love it.

Vote for Simon

NME has another one of their endless Greatest/Best polls up, and this time Simon is up for Greatest Bass Player. Click here to automatically rate him a 10/Genius. If you don't think he rates that, and have something wrong with you : ), go here and rate him whatever you'd like. (Thanks Chris White)

Britt Daniel on Seventeen Seconds

"There was a nice piece on Texas Music Matters yesterday. Britt Daniel of Spoon talks about Seventeen Seconds and how it influenced him. Here's the streaming audio (it's about half way through the show." (Thanks Dana)

Cure covers

"Gaz and Danny from Supergrass as Hot Rats covering The Love Cats at Glastonbury." (Thanks Adam)

"Last night on French/German TV channel Arte, there was a show called "Nighting eighties : the 80's in 15 hits". This is a collection of 80's songs, covered live (and in studio) by a group of artists, including quite-well-known-in-France Albin de la Simone, and even very-famous-in-France Dave. They played Inbetween Days with Krystle Warren on vocals. Other covers include Depeche Mode's People are People. The show will be repeated on August 9 at 1:45 AM on Arte." (Thanks Sylvain)

"The commercial for the new perfume by Cacharel "Scarlett" features a cover of "Close to Me" by Stina Daag."
(Thanks JupiterMain)

Fletch mentions Robert again

From Phillyburbs.com: "It's hard to make everyone happy. We could if we played three-hour sets like Robert Smith (of the Cure) plays. But the difference is that Robert just stands there and sings and plays guitar. Dave gives everything he has and you can't do that and play for three hours. Dave is all over the stage. He puts everything out there until he's dead."

Update: And the DM setlists just get shorter and shorter. Started at 22 in Toronto, dropped to 21 in Montreal, 20 in Boston, and hit a new low of 18 in NJ tonight. Who says DM doesn't change their setlists? : P And back up to 21 at NYC 1.

Cure/Glove covers

Amanda Palmer - Inbetween Days. (Thanks Jeff)
Black Sugar Transmission - Mouth To Mouth. (Thanks Andee)

Update: Robert interview in new documentary

"French TV channel Virgin 17 is going to show a documentary called "Sympathy for the Brit Rock" on Thursday July 30th at 6:05 PM (Paris Time). They mention that this film has interviews with Radiohead, Robert Plant and Robert Smith. Maybe worth a look!" (Thanks Sylvain)

Update: Watch the interview here (YT has blocked the audio) and download it here. (Thanks Paris)
And here's a transcript: "Here is my attempt at transcribing the (very short) RS interview. I am sure this was shot backstage at the Vieilles Charrues Festivals in France in 2002 (other interviews filmed there aired on French TV at the time)
"The fact is that you stop asking questions when you get older you know, for a variety of reasons. Usually because you get a family and your perception changes. I haven't got any children and I think in that way, on a very fundamental level my perception of my place in the world has remained the same since I was a teenager so in that, I think there's a connection between what I write and people over a certain age who are probably starting to question their own existence. I mean I still do, that sounds absurd and I realize that's actually part of the problem you know."
"It's really nice how they appreciate, even if they don't really like The Cure that much, most of the other bands at the festivals appreciate(?) for us to still be doing this so there's a certain respect there. Because (?) still a certain amount of integrity. We kind of do thing because we want to do them." (Thanks Sylvain)

Maybe if Dave stopped the ass shaking...

Fletch tells The Washington Post why Depeche Mode shows can't be as long as Cure shows: "The hardest thing about our set list is actually compiling it. It's so difficult with so many songs. We can't do a Robert Smith and play for three-and-a-half hours. I don't think Dave can run around and dance for that long. The problem with the Cure is they did it a couple of times and then when they went back to a normal set people complained." (Thanks Heron)

So, how about less dancing & ass shaking, and more songs? : P

The Curse celebrates 30 years of The Cure

Set 1 - Out Of This World, 10:15 Saturday Night, Play For Today, The Walk, The Caterpillar, In Between Days, The Exploding Boy, 2 Late, Club America, The Real Snow White, The Only One, Wrong Number, A Foolish Arrangement, Open, Friday I'm In Love, The End Of The World, Three Imaginary Boys
Set 2 - Underneath The Stars, The Reasons Why, Close To Me, Catch, A Letter To Elise, Lovesong, The Perfect Boy, Let's Go To Bed, The Lovecats, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Boys Don't Cry, Just Like Heaven, Killing An Arab, Shiver And Shake, It's Over
Encore 1 - All Cats Are Grey, Cold, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Disintegration
Encore 2 - A Forest. (Thanks Brian, Andy, and Carl)
Photos (Thanks Debi)

More info at Thecurseband.com. (Thanks Brian)

DM Tour of the Universe hits North America

Depeche Mode's Tour of the Universe: Earth - North America starts tonight in Toronto. Good luck to Martin, Dave, Fletch, Peter, and Christian, and here's hoping for no more troubles on this leg of the tour. For those of you heading to the Toronto and Montreal shows, I hope you have safe trips and a fantastic time at the shows!
Update: Looks like a great show and successful kickoff to the NA tour. And they made a change in the setlist. Minor, but for DM, that's huge. : )

Cure covers

Magnet Magazine asks who's version of JLH is better, The Cure's or Dinosaur Jr.'s? (Thanks Peter)

Close to Me by Why? (Thanks Andrew)
Plastic Passion by Eva. (Thanks Thomas)
Faith by NADJA. (Thanks Deadboycraved)

New interview with Roger

Side-line has a new interview with Roger, and Twentyfourbit offers their take on it. (Thanks Monghi and Kate)

Come on, Roger, you know you're just dying to "goth out". : P

Update: Side-line also catches up with the news about the possible split with Universal, the Live in Paris broadcast, and the JLH digital 45. (Thanks Mad Bob)