Cure on Sky Arts 1

Sky Arts 1 are showing:

Sun 24th 19:30 Video Killed the Radio Star – The Cure

[Rpt: Mon 25th 01:15, Fri 29th 07:00]

Sun 24th 20:00 The Cure Live at Hurricane Festival 

[Rpt: Mon 25th 01:45, Thu 28th 12:30, Fri 29th 07:30] 

UK times. (Thanks Warren)

Chicago Riot Fest map & more attractions

"In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are incredibly excited to reveal our new festival grounds in the north section of Humboldt Park. With the fest now operating between W. North Ave. and W. Division St. as the north and south boundaries, and within N. Kedzie Ave. and N. California Ave. as the west and east boundaries, there will be lots of room for our 7 stages, over a dozen carnival rides, custom 9-hole mini-golf course, haunted house brought to you by Zombie Army Productions, Lucha Libre wrestling, Gospel For The Guilty burlesque show, Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow Revue, chainsaw sculpting, a classic 20-game arcade with all proceeds going to Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and a wine bar. There will even be an additional 8th stage on Friday to house the special interactive panel with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina of Pussy Riot.

1, 2, and 3-day passes, as well as all-you-can-ride carnival passes are still available but are going fast. 3-Day passes are nearly sold out and select single-day passes are gone now too. Don’t wait, get your tickets while they’re still available!" Festival Passes / Carnival & Haunted House Passes"

More from Riot Fest: "And yes, we will have a dedicated taxi stand and a shit ton more CTA buses this year." Also, printed schedules, not just digital.


There's going to be a freaking haunted house attraction! And a classic arcade. I swear it's like they are building this just for me and my interests! :) Really wishing I was going 2 days now. This is going to be a blast!

Win tickets to the Riot Fest of your choice

Consequence of Sound has a contest to win tickets to the Riot Fest of your choice. And if you use this link (http://ptab.it/3SRzC) to enter, you'll give me 5 extra entries. Thanks!

Final day to enter for this one.

Denver Riot Fest aftershows

Riot Fest passes have arrived!

Will be my first time seeing The Cure in Colorado, and my first time seeing them play in a football stadium parking lot. Or any type of parking lot, for that matter. :) Should be fun!

Update (08/16/14): And my Chicago pass arrived today! 2nd time seeing them in Illinois, though first time in Chicago proper. Dream Tour was in Tinley Park, IL. My favorite show on that tour, and Top 5 of all time.
Also my 2nd time seeing them in a city park, and at a festival. Voodoo 2013 was the first for both of those.

Now to hope for no schedule conflicts, so that I can see some combination of The Cure, Billy Bragg, Tegan & Sara, Cheap Trick, and Weezer. But if I can just see The Cure & Billy Bragg, I'll be happy.

Sorry for the useless post, just a bit excited about this. :)

Cure in Sept. Record Collector

Record Collector will be running a Cure feature in next month's issue, which will be on sale June 19th. (Thanks Lars)

Update (06/18/14): From Record Collector on Facebook: "Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances - the upcoming CURE feature previously advertised will now run at a later date."

Update (07/14/14): "Just got the new July Record Collector (UK). There is an ad for the August edition, on sale Aug 14 in UK, and it says, “Next Month in Record Collector: The Cure (Honest!)”  (Thanks artwwweb)

Update (08/05/14): Here's the cover. Unfortunately, it's just an "Early Years" article, nothing new.

Update (08/12/14): From artwwweb - "10 page article, inc. listings of UK collectables 1978-1982, Top 11 Memorabilia and Top 21 Worldwide Rarities." 

Update (08/14/14): Out today in shops & online, or buy a digital copy on iTunes. Subscribers can read the article here. 

Reeves with Earl Slick & Lisa Ronson

Had a great day making music with friends: Earl Slick, Lisa Ronson, Reeves Gabrels. Photo by @WilcoxTommy. http://t.co/TZkZQLPl6U
— reeves gabrels (@reevesgabrels) August 13, 2014

A.V. Club on 'Let's Go To Bed'

From The A.V. Club:

The Cure ditched the wallowing and tried to get laid
By Josh Modell  Aug. 12th, 2014  1:00 PM

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week, with Let’s Be Cops coming to theaters, we’re picking our favorite songs with “let’s” in the title.

By many accounts, the members of The Cure were in relatively terrible mental shape around 1982, which makes sense considering they sang about death and dying for three albums in a row (that’d be the classic platters of misery Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography). Robert Smith seemed fairly sure he didn’t even want to continue the band, so he figured it’d be fine to take a sharp turn, which took the form of the 1982 single “Let’s Go To Bed.” Smith called the song “stupid,” “rubbish,” and “a joke,” saying it was “everything I hated about music at the time.” It was, of course, a massive hit, and it led Smith down a poppy path that would produce some of his finest work in the ensuing years. Even by modern pop standards, “Let’s Go To Bed” doesn’t sound particularly pandering; sure, it has some “doo-doo”s and a friendly-enough keyboard sound, but it’s far from high gloss. (The biggest hits of 1982 were by Olivia Newton-John and Survivor, to provide some reference point.) No, “Let’s Go To Bed” seemed like something almost entirely new, a pop subgenre inspired by the dour goth from whence it came, but with an odd self-assurance. And as much as Smith liked to shit-talk the song at the time, it clearly inspired him to make more like it: “The Walk” and “The Lovecats” followed, complete with a raft of B-sides that signaled The Cure Version 3.0. (Version 1.0 was the differently poppy “Boys Don’t Cry” era.) And ultimately it led to The Cure’s finest hour, 1985’s The Head On The Door. (Thanks @TacchinoGigante)

Slowdive loves The Cure - Part 2

Under The Radar has an interview with Rachael & Neil of Slowdive, where the band once again mentions their love for The Cure:

"Rachel had a slight goth leaning that I certainly didn't share. I really hated all that stuff," Halstead says, laughing. "But then Nick kind of liked that stuff as well, and we all really liked The Cure."

"I used to love The Smiths—I still do—and The Cure," says Goswell. "Nick would probably say his bass playing was inspired in part by Simon Gallup and in part by Hooky [Peter Hook] from New Order. I think those two are bass guitar gods in his eyes. Neil was more indie, like The Primitives and Talulah Gosh and stuff, in the early days." (Thanks John)

Win passes to Toronto Riot Fest

Village Voice is giving away a pair of VIP passes.

And another chance to win some at Riff You.

3 more chances to win passes from Aesthetic Magazine, Thirty Four Flavours & The Drake.

"I grew up listening to a lot of The Cure"

In this interview (7 minutes in) with Consequence of Sound, the awesome Jenny Lee Lindberg from Warpaint (also awesome) once again mentions her love of The Cure.

'Beautiful Noise' screening in Sweden tonight

There will be a screening of 'Beautiful Noise' in Sweden on Aug. 8th at the Way Out West Music & Film Festival.

NME's 100 Most Influential Artists

The Cure are #99 on NME's 100 Most Influential Artists list:

99. The Cure. “Goth band” – but were they? Alright, so Robert has worn his best Krusty slap since year zero, but much more than being mardy, he will be remembered as one of the greatest texture-makers in British music. Atmospheric was his middle name, whether that was upbeat or down, hence why he is a godfather to Mogwai and The Shins as much as Warpaint and The Horrors. (Thanks Vincent)

Minnie Driver covers 'Close To Me'

Original story (08/06/13): On a tip from @ttocsremmus, I'm watching The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight, and he & Minnie Driver are talking about The Cure quite a bit. Both saying how much they love The Cure. Minnie is talking about her upcoming covers album and will be doing her cover of 'Close To Me' tonight. Craig asks Minnie if she's ever met Robert, she says no, but Craig says he has (and here's proof, Robert & Craig on Jukebox Jury - Thanks Aaron). Lots of really nice talk about the band and Robert. So for those of you on the west coast, tune in to The Late, Late Show tonight.

Update: The episode has been added to their website. Watch here (segment starts at the 20:00 mark). And here's video of Minnie covering it at a club in Hollywood 2 months ago.

Update (08/07/14): It's been a year, but now that album is coming out on Oct. 7th. Here's the Amazon US link, and a brief article at the AV Club. (Thanks David)

'Trilogy' on ARTE tonight

From Le Blog TV News: Three for the price of one! Time to a mythical concert, post-punk group THE CURE interpreter entirety Pornography and Disintegration Bloodflowers albums.

Different in shape, this trilogy of albums have in common their melancholy and introspective focus. Them together in a big hypnotic celebration seemed obvious.

It was in Berlin at Tempodrom, the idea came to fruition in 2002 the program:. Unforgettable three-hour show, punctuated by the deep and soulful voice of Robert Smith.

Do not miss the night from Saturday to Sunday 2 August 3. From 00:40 on ARTE. (Thanks David) 

Update (08/01/14): Just bumping this to the top so you don't forget. Here's the page on ARTE with videos and photos previewing the broadcast. (Thanks Thomas & Sylvain)

Reeves plays Nashville tonight

From Reeves on Facebook: "time for one more gig with tim carroll ( and steve latanation & bones hillman) at the 5 Spot tonight before i get on the plane.
tim carroll (and midnight orange machine)
friday august 1st.
6 to 8:30 pm."

That Andy Vella is pretty good at scribbling!

its been such an exciting week, and i'm scribbling! @foruli.forulicodex.com/catalogue pic.twitter.com/zf4H4WTLda pic.twitter.com/px6yWJx2o5
— Andy Vella (@andyvelladesign) August 1, 2014

'Beautiful Noise' NYC screening on July 31st

Eric Green's 'Beautiful Noise' documentary will open the 2nd annual Sound & Vision series in NYC on July 31st at 7 PM. Get tickets here.

A couple of reports from last night's screening: 

Peter - "Eric was there last night and he said that he had some great footage of Robert talking backwards that he hopes will be released some day soon."

pvox - "I was also there last night. It's well worth it if you like a lot of the bands who were profiled. I was hoping for more Lush, but it was quite good overall.

Robert actually gets a lot of screen time in the first part and has some really good quotes. In the Q&A after, the filmmaker also said he has about 10 minutes of footage of Robert describing the making of Pornography."

Robert Smith night light

Always wanted a night light that sort of looks like Robert? Then this is for you.
(Thanks Mike)

New Andy Anderson Interview

Expose Online has a new interview with Andy.