My article on design of The Cure by @andyvelladesign in latest @ClassicPopMag in UK shops + online now. @CraigatCoF pic.twitter.com/t5UJnFxBOT
— Andrew Dineley (@disheedee) September 22, 2015
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Andy Vella Cure album art article in Classic Pop
Phil Thornalley interview
Part of a very nice interview with Phil at Song Facts:
The Cure's 1982 Pornography album was a turning point for the English rockers, who were nearing the brink of collapse with increasing in-fighting fueled by near-constant drug use. Produced by Phil Thornalley, the dark record reflected frontman Robert Smith's depression and the promotional tour introduced their trademark goth look.
The album is now considered a proto-goth rock classic by fans and critics alike, but its production has inspired larger-than-life tales, from the Cure barricading themselves in their record label's offices and building trash heaps and beer can pyramids in RAK studios to refusing to work until they snorted ample amounts of coke or dropped acid. Smith claims he barely remembers making the album, but calls it one of the group's best.
Songfacts: You also went on to produce The Cure's Pornography album. Has the experience of making that album been mythologized to some degree?
Phil: Totally. I actually produced that very early in my career. I was like 21 and it was before I'd worked with Alex. Robert has gone on record saying that it's one of his three favorite albums. At the time, it was just another album that was made along with The Psychedelic Furs or Hot Chocolate, but with that one I think because I was at the same age as the guys in The Cure, we were more like contemporaries and all the nutty stories you've read about the making of the record, they're all true. It was just over the top.
In the end there was no hit single, but there was this great legacy of this album that you put on and you go: "That's something different." So I'm very proud of that, but the mythologizing, I guess maybe it has got something special about it: it's so different, it's so not what anybody was doing then or not what anybody's doing now. So, long may the myths continue!
Songfacts: I read how you guys stumbled upon the pornography debate between Graham Chapman and Germaine Greer that is sampled at the beginning of "Pornography." But was that track already written when that happened?
Phil: Yes it was. It was just one of those freaky things that has happened in my career in the studio where we tried this approach that Brian Eno and David Byrne from Talking Heads were doing. They called it "Found Music." You turned on the radio or the TV and tried to find some disparate elements and sometimes it just worked.
I suppose in this case it was very literal. You know, I don't know what the song was about, but the title was "Pornography." But we happened to try this experiment coincidentally just as this highbrow program was discussing the subject. So it's just weird. (Thanks Carl)
The Cure's 1982 Pornography album was a turning point for the English rockers, who were nearing the brink of collapse with increasing in-fighting fueled by near-constant drug use. Produced by Phil Thornalley, the dark record reflected frontman Robert Smith's depression and the promotional tour introduced their trademark goth look.
The album is now considered a proto-goth rock classic by fans and critics alike, but its production has inspired larger-than-life tales, from the Cure barricading themselves in their record label's offices and building trash heaps and beer can pyramids in RAK studios to refusing to work until they snorted ample amounts of coke or dropped acid. Smith claims he barely remembers making the album, but calls it one of the group's best.
Songfacts: You also went on to produce The Cure's Pornography album. Has the experience of making that album been mythologized to some degree?
Phil: Totally. I actually produced that very early in my career. I was like 21 and it was before I'd worked with Alex. Robert has gone on record saying that it's one of his three favorite albums. At the time, it was just another album that was made along with The Psychedelic Furs or Hot Chocolate, but with that one I think because I was at the same age as the guys in The Cure, we were more like contemporaries and all the nutty stories you've read about the making of the record, they're all true. It was just over the top.
In the end there was no hit single, but there was this great legacy of this album that you put on and you go: "That's something different." So I'm very proud of that, but the mythologizing, I guess maybe it has got something special about it: it's so different, it's so not what anybody was doing then or not what anybody's doing now. So, long may the myths continue!
Songfacts: I read how you guys stumbled upon the pornography debate between Graham Chapman and Germaine Greer that is sampled at the beginning of "Pornography." But was that track already written when that happened?
Phil: Yes it was. It was just one of those freaky things that has happened in my career in the studio where we tried this approach that Brian Eno and David Byrne from Talking Heads were doing. They called it "Found Music." You turned on the radio or the TV and tried to find some disparate elements and sometimes it just worked.
I suppose in this case it was very literal. You know, I don't know what the song was about, but the title was "Pornography." But we happened to try this experiment coincidentally just as this highbrow program was discussing the subject. So it's just weird. (Thanks Carl)
New Reeves interviews
New interviews with Reeves at The Mouth Magazine, St. Albans Review, and The Yorkshire Evening Post.
Andy Bell’s Top 5 Pre-‘Nowhere’ Influences
From Classic Album Sundays:
Ahead of our next event with Guardian Live: Classic Album Sundays presents ‘Nowhere’ with special guests Ride, we caught up with Andy Bell who shared with us his Top Five Pre Nowhere Influences.
Alongside his work in Ride, Andy also played bass in Oasis, guitar in Beady Eye and Hurricane #1.
The Beatles – Revolver
You can hear echoes of Revolver throughout Nowhere. Seagull is the track with the closest links, obviously the bassline is quite similar to Taxman and there is also a lot of backwards guitar which is something the Beatles pioneered.
Spacemen Three – Perfect Prescription
My most played record during the short time I was an art student. I loved the stretched out long songs, the guitar sounds, the clearly signposted influences. They got me into Suicide, The Red Crayola, 13th Floor Elevators, but more importantly this is a great album.
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
There was a huge side of Ride that was influenced by American guitar rock, at the time the UK indie music often had quite a twee, tame sound, and the US had a lot of bands with a lot more bite, like Dinosaur Junior, Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney etc.
The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
This was the record that kick started my friendship with Mark Gardener. We bonded over him wanting to learn the chords from Bigmouth Strikes Again, and me knowing them. We were two Smiths fans and this album was the soundtrack to us dreaming of starting a band one day.
The Cure – Disintegration
Like the Smiths, The Cure were a constant soundtrack at school, and they carried on putting out excellent albums throughout Rides existence. Disintegration was a band favourite.
We will be hosting a special event with Ride in conjunction with Guardian Live in London on October 7th.
Full details can be found on the Guardian website:
Tickets: £15 in advance with free Guardian Friend membership and £12 for Guardian Partners and Patrons here. (scroll down to become Guardian Friend for Free to purchase tickets)
Note: I just saw Ride in Chicago a week ago, and they were incredible! If they are playing near you (or even if they're not), go see them! Worth it for 'Drive Blind' alone.
Ahead of our next event with Guardian Live: Classic Album Sundays presents ‘Nowhere’ with special guests Ride, we caught up with Andy Bell who shared with us his Top Five Pre Nowhere Influences.
Alongside his work in Ride, Andy also played bass in Oasis, guitar in Beady Eye and Hurricane #1.
The Beatles – Revolver
You can hear echoes of Revolver throughout Nowhere. Seagull is the track with the closest links, obviously the bassline is quite similar to Taxman and there is also a lot of backwards guitar which is something the Beatles pioneered.
Spacemen Three – Perfect Prescription
My most played record during the short time I was an art student. I loved the stretched out long songs, the guitar sounds, the clearly signposted influences. They got me into Suicide, The Red Crayola, 13th Floor Elevators, but more importantly this is a great album.
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
There was a huge side of Ride that was influenced by American guitar rock, at the time the UK indie music often had quite a twee, tame sound, and the US had a lot of bands with a lot more bite, like Dinosaur Junior, Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney etc.
The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
This was the record that kick started my friendship with Mark Gardener. We bonded over him wanting to learn the chords from Bigmouth Strikes Again, and me knowing them. We were two Smiths fans and this album was the soundtrack to us dreaming of starting a band one day.
The Cure – Disintegration
Like the Smiths, The Cure were a constant soundtrack at school, and they carried on putting out excellent albums throughout Rides existence. Disintegration was a band favourite.
We will be hosting a special event with Ride in conjunction with Guardian Live in London on October 7th.
Full details can be found on the Guardian website:
Tickets: £15 in advance with free Guardian Friend membership and £12 for Guardian Partners and Patrons here. (scroll down to become Guardian Friend for Free to purchase tickets)
Note: I just saw Ride in Chicago a week ago, and they were incredible! If they are playing near you (or even if they're not), go see them! Worth it for 'Drive Blind' alone.
Roger remixes Sister Mystery
A remix for my friend Jennifers band @sistermystery and YOU can listen to it here. Its all @moogmusicinc Voyager! https://t.co/9ZAGHxkz4p
— Roger O'Donnell (@RogerODonnell) October 2, 2015
New song from Reeves
SURPRISE SINGLE! Just released a new song, "Try" -- to kick off UK tour by Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friends: http://t.co/wawNSbb4rP
— reeves gabrels (@reevesgabrels) October 1, 2015100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s
From Pop Matters:
8. The Cure - “A Forest” (1980)
The Cure’s debut Three Imaginary Boys (1979) is a collection of melodic but slightly kooky power-pop. For their next album Seventeen Seconds (1980), the band went in a much more austere and emotional direction, inspired by the icy ambient soundscapes of David Bowie’s Low. The first single is their epic achievement “A Forest.” Opening with keyboard that sounds like a beam from an alien starship, a stately and simple guitar pattern emerges, followed by a rumbling bass and taut rhythm. It’s a stark atmosphere of tension that builds for a full 1:47 before Robert Smith begins his echoey, dreamy vocal about a man haunted by the vision of an imaginary girl who is lost in a forest. Much in “A Forest” is left to the imagination. There is so much space in the recording, every sound so perfectly placed. When “A Forest” is performed live, it becomes a behemoth often stretching well past its studio length, building to an immense climax with Smith restlessly calling out the song’s final vocal line “again and again and again and again and again…” with manic intensity, leading the band into a protracted full-throttle ending that slowly collapses one instrument at a time. First the drums give out, while the guitar squalls continue over the thumping bass. Then finally the guitar peters away, and only the solitary bass survives for ten more seconds. “A Forest” is a powerful recording, emanating unease, isolation, and dark wonder. It became the Cure’s first Top 40 hit in the UK, reaching #31, and was the first proof that the Cure was more than just an awkward power-pop trio. “A Forest” laid the groundwork upon which all future Cure songs were built.
8. The Cure - “A Forest” (1980)
The Cure’s debut Three Imaginary Boys (1979) is a collection of melodic but slightly kooky power-pop. For their next album Seventeen Seconds (1980), the band went in a much more austere and emotional direction, inspired by the icy ambient soundscapes of David Bowie’s Low. The first single is their epic achievement “A Forest.” Opening with keyboard that sounds like a beam from an alien starship, a stately and simple guitar pattern emerges, followed by a rumbling bass and taut rhythm. It’s a stark atmosphere of tension that builds for a full 1:47 before Robert Smith begins his echoey, dreamy vocal about a man haunted by the vision of an imaginary girl who is lost in a forest. Much in “A Forest” is left to the imagination. There is so much space in the recording, every sound so perfectly placed. When “A Forest” is performed live, it becomes a behemoth often stretching well past its studio length, building to an immense climax with Smith restlessly calling out the song’s final vocal line “again and again and again and again and again…” with manic intensity, leading the band into a protracted full-throttle ending that slowly collapses one instrument at a time. First the drums give out, while the guitar squalls continue over the thumping bass. Then finally the guitar peters away, and only the solitary bass survives for ten more seconds. “A Forest” is a powerful recording, emanating unease, isolation, and dark wonder. It became the Cure’s first Top 40 hit in the UK, reaching #31, and was the first proof that the Cure was more than just an awkward power-pop trio. “A Forest” laid the groundwork upon which all future Cure songs were built.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Updates
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Will get this updated over the weekend, though honestly, there's not much to post. No actual news, but some stuff that you might be interested in.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Roger writes music for 'Ascenders' book trailer
The story from MTV:
‘Ascenders’ Is Supernatural Teen Angst Like You’ve Never Seen It Before
The Cure's Roger O'Donnell shares his inspiration for the book trailer's score.
by Kase Wickman
The afterlife has always been a great big question mark: where do we go when we die? Do we go anywhere?
As the new book “Ascenders: High School for the Recently Departed” by C.L. Gaber sees it, those whose lives are cut extremely short — think in the teen years — go to an adolescent in-between known as The Academy. The human brain isn’t fully formed until age 24, so even if a person is dead, their formative years aren’t necessarily over.
There are no rules at The Academy — you’re already dead, so what’s the worst that could happen?
MTV News is exclusively debuting the book trailer, featuring music by Roger O’Donnell of The Cure. O’Donnell told MTV News that it was “Ascenders” fresh take on the supernatural teen genre that inspired him to write a score for the trailer.
“It just sounded like a really intriguing take on the all these kind of zombie and vampire and ghost stories; a new take on it,” he said. “I thought it was really interesting, and it inspired me to write music.”
That’s not just lip service, either.
“I’m not a craft composer, it has to be a real feeling or inspiration thing. If I wasn’t feeling it I’d have to say ’I’m sorry, I can’t do this,'” he said.
He began with a piano throughline, then added cello, choral and various instrumentals to flesh out his score, which he said came from “a place of uneasiness and sadness.”
“A kind of desperation, a kind of loss, when a life is cut short. It’s like the loss of what should come from that,” he said of his score’s tone.
Plus, it’s not like unease and sadness are unfamiliar themes for him: “Those kinds of emotions come easily to me, I’ve been in The Cure for 30 years, I can do sad,” he said, laughing.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Yo La Tengo cover 'Friday I'm in Love'
Update (08/30/15): The band performed a live version of their cover on CBS This Morning's Saturday Sessions.
Update (July 14th, 2015): And here's the video for it, via Pitchfork. (Thanks @virgonomiroku)
Pitchfork reports that Yo La Tengo will be covering 'Friday I'm in Love' on their upcoming album, 'Stuff Like That There', which will be released on Aug. 28th.
Helpful note to bands thinking about covering The Cure in the future, you do know that they have more than 4 songs, right? Look deep into the catalog. Tons of great songs to pick from. :)
Update (06/11/15): From Newsweek:
Ira Kaplan, who plays in the trio with his wife Georgia Hubley (drums, vocals) and James McNew (bass), called Newsweek to discuss Yo La Tengo's relationship with the songs, artists and spirals of influence that make up the new record.
Ira Kaplan: "Years ago, the year that The Onion wrote that article about us with the collapse at the club killing people, they asked us to perform at their Christmas party in New York. They started telling us the money they had available to pay us and we said the money is less important—what we really want is if you'll help us reenact that article. It took some convincing. The difference was we wanted to be killed instead of people in the audience. So they ended up getting very enthusiastic, setting up fake rigging on the stage and at a certain point the lights flickered and the equipment went off and all these fake speakers fell from the rafters and landed on us, killing us, and we were carried off on stretchers.
"I loved when [The Cure] first started, those initial singles. Not quite 'Killing an Arab' as much as 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Jumping Someone Else's Train.' I loved those songs and I loved the Three Imaginary Boys record. I kind of quickly stopped listening to them when the singles got less poppy. When the singles got poppy again, I became a fan of all those songs." (Thanks Dave)
I don't like, or agree with, Ira Kaplan. :)
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
The 25 Best Rock Acts with Unique Setlists
From CoS:
The Cure can play for a very long time. (Just ask our contributing photographer Debi Del Grande, a diehard fan who’ll tell you the number of hours she’s dedicated to Robert Smith and co.) That’s a good thing, though, because their rich, expansive, and wildly diverse catalog demands such extended play. Each night, you’ll hear juicy bits and pieces from the band’s most celebrated works — so, Disintegration, Boys Don’t Cry, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Wish, et al. — and a medley of B-sides or neck-high deep cuts that will floor you.
On average, Smith will juggle something like 67 tracks each tour, which is understandable considering they’re known to knock out 45-song setlists on special occasions. They also tend to capitalize on particular albums for each jaunt; for example, last year’s tour was heavy on The Top and Disintegration, both 2012 and 2013 focused on Disintegration and Wish, while 2011 was dedicated to Three Imaginary Boys and Seventeen Seconds. All in all, they’re the type of band whose old setlists you hate looking at for fear of seeing something you missed. Hell, I’m still kicking myself for missing their performance of “Burn” at 2013’s Voodoo Experience. Days after Halloween, no less. Blargh. –Michael Roffman
The Cure can play for a very long time. (Just ask our contributing photographer Debi Del Grande, a diehard fan who’ll tell you the number of hours she’s dedicated to Robert Smith and co.) That’s a good thing, though, because their rich, expansive, and wildly diverse catalog demands such extended play. Each night, you’ll hear juicy bits and pieces from the band’s most celebrated works — so, Disintegration, Boys Don’t Cry, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Wish, et al. — and a medley of B-sides or neck-high deep cuts that will floor you.
On average, Smith will juggle something like 67 tracks each tour, which is understandable considering they’re known to knock out 45-song setlists on special occasions. They also tend to capitalize on particular albums for each jaunt; for example, last year’s tour was heavy on The Top and Disintegration, both 2012 and 2013 focused on Disintegration and Wish, while 2011 was dedicated to Three Imaginary Boys and Seventeen Seconds. All in all, they’re the type of band whose old setlists you hate looking at for fear of seeing something you missed. Hell, I’m still kicking myself for missing their performance of “Burn” at 2013’s Voodoo Experience. Days after Halloween, no less. Blargh. –Michael Roffman
Monday, August 24, 2015
'Head on the Door' revisted
From The Quietus: Ned Raggett looks back three decades to when Robert Smith's newly formed quintet version of The Cure were poised for global recognition. (Thanks Jörg)
Pitchfork's 200 Best Songs of the 80s
3 Cure songs on Pitchfork's 200 Best Songs of the 80s list:
#12 - Just Like Heaven
Few bands have a back catalog as deep—or as truly kaleidoscopic—as the Cure. Their discography, which now stretches back nearly 40 years, is a study in extremes—from the most abjectly bleak and funereal goth dirges to the giddiest of Technicolor pop. "Just Like Heaven" is gleefully the latter, three minutes of the most immaculate musical confectionary Robert Smith ever concocted. The third single from 1987’s willfully schizophrenic Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, "Just Like Heaven" was the first Cure song to crack the U.S. top 40, immediately serving as a kind of gateway drug for a generation of "120 Minutes"-watching teen misanthropes eager to lap up the band’s black-eyelined majesty. It also cemented Smith’s genius as a songwriter, proving his uncanny dexterity for articulating not only all-consuming melancholy but pure romantic joy as well.
The track’s signature drumrolled intro and cascading guitar line—alongside Smith’s opening plea to "Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick"—is the sound of a million hopeful mixtapes and new wave dance parties springing wistfully to life—a twisting, twirling bit of post-punk wonder that Smith himself once perfectly described as "a song about hyperventilating—kissing and fainting to the floor."
In short, it’s just like a dream. —T. Cole Rachel
See also: The Cure: "In Between Days"
#40 - Close To Me
Robert Smith spent the first few years of the Cure gazing and then plunging into the abyss of existential horror, and the next few clawing his way back out of that abyss, with a grin on his face drawn on with lipstick. "Close to Me" is the peak of the latter period: a festive love song caught in the middle of a panic attack, a song about happiness and erotic bliss sung from the point of view of somebody who's still convinced that it's all about to be ripped away ("if only I was sure that my head on the door was a dre-he-heam," Smith hiccup-moans). Smith's voice is right up in your face, with the arrangement's handclaps and heavy breathing almost indistinguishable from the sound of someone leaning in to confide something in confidence. He rolls his words around his mouth, as if he's figuring out if they're delicious or disgusting or both; his lyrics incorporate some of the most freighted words from the first few Cure albums ("sick," "faith," "clean"—remember, this is a man who three years earlier had made "I will never be clean again" the hook of a song).
The Cure made a point of adjusting their identity on a regular basis—that was the prerogative of new wave—and the big difference here from the band's earlier work is that the arrangement of "Close to Me" is straight-up pleasure music. There's no murk, no foreboding, not even guitar, just a rhythm track with a wiggle in its hips and Porl Thompson and Lol Tolhurst's keyboards cooing and plinking at each other. At least, that's all there is on the recording on The Head on the Door: the magnificent single version, released a few weeks later, ramps up the fun by means of a brass band that wanders into the mix halfway through, sounding like they're on their way back from a New Orleans funeral (including a trombone player who, hilariously, doesn't catch on that the song has ended until a moment too late). —Douglas Wolk
See also: The Cure: "A Forest"
#105 - Pictures of You
The liner notes of the Cure’s Disintegration made one simple demand: turn it up, loud. This request actually asked lot of the listener. Disintegration’s fourth single "Pictures of You" is overwhelming, even for a fanbase that prides itself on feeling way too much. "I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you/ That I almost believe that they’re real," Robert Smith wails as guitars layer infinity pools over him for seven minutes—by the end, you might actually believe that "we kissed as the sky fell in," "[screaming] at the make believe" and "crying for the death of your heart" are real things couples go through. Tally the time Robert Smith has pined for a lost love over the past 40 years and you’ll have hours, if not entire days worth of music. But "Pictures of You" is the logical extreme of Smith’s thwarted desires—to completely submerge in the memory of someone else. —Ian Cohen
See also: The Cure: "Fascination Street" / The Cure: "Lovesong"
(Thanks Sylvain)
#12 - Just Like Heaven
Few bands have a back catalog as deep—or as truly kaleidoscopic—as the Cure. Their discography, which now stretches back nearly 40 years, is a study in extremes—from the most abjectly bleak and funereal goth dirges to the giddiest of Technicolor pop. "Just Like Heaven" is gleefully the latter, three minutes of the most immaculate musical confectionary Robert Smith ever concocted. The third single from 1987’s willfully schizophrenic Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, "Just Like Heaven" was the first Cure song to crack the U.S. top 40, immediately serving as a kind of gateway drug for a generation of "120 Minutes"-watching teen misanthropes eager to lap up the band’s black-eyelined majesty. It also cemented Smith’s genius as a songwriter, proving his uncanny dexterity for articulating not only all-consuming melancholy but pure romantic joy as well.
The track’s signature drumrolled intro and cascading guitar line—alongside Smith’s opening plea to "Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick"—is the sound of a million hopeful mixtapes and new wave dance parties springing wistfully to life—a twisting, twirling bit of post-punk wonder that Smith himself once perfectly described as "a song about hyperventilating—kissing and fainting to the floor."
In short, it’s just like a dream. —T. Cole Rachel
See also: The Cure: "In Between Days"
#40 - Close To Me
Robert Smith spent the first few years of the Cure gazing and then plunging into the abyss of existential horror, and the next few clawing his way back out of that abyss, with a grin on his face drawn on with lipstick. "Close to Me" is the peak of the latter period: a festive love song caught in the middle of a panic attack, a song about happiness and erotic bliss sung from the point of view of somebody who's still convinced that it's all about to be ripped away ("if only I was sure that my head on the door was a dre-he-heam," Smith hiccup-moans). Smith's voice is right up in your face, with the arrangement's handclaps and heavy breathing almost indistinguishable from the sound of someone leaning in to confide something in confidence. He rolls his words around his mouth, as if he's figuring out if they're delicious or disgusting or both; his lyrics incorporate some of the most freighted words from the first few Cure albums ("sick," "faith," "clean"—remember, this is a man who three years earlier had made "I will never be clean again" the hook of a song).
The Cure made a point of adjusting their identity on a regular basis—that was the prerogative of new wave—and the big difference here from the band's earlier work is that the arrangement of "Close to Me" is straight-up pleasure music. There's no murk, no foreboding, not even guitar, just a rhythm track with a wiggle in its hips and Porl Thompson and Lol Tolhurst's keyboards cooing and plinking at each other. At least, that's all there is on the recording on The Head on the Door: the magnificent single version, released a few weeks later, ramps up the fun by means of a brass band that wanders into the mix halfway through, sounding like they're on their way back from a New Orleans funeral (including a trombone player who, hilariously, doesn't catch on that the song has ended until a moment too late). —Douglas Wolk
See also: The Cure: "A Forest"
#105 - Pictures of You
The liner notes of the Cure’s Disintegration made one simple demand: turn it up, loud. This request actually asked lot of the listener. Disintegration’s fourth single "Pictures of You" is overwhelming, even for a fanbase that prides itself on feeling way too much. "I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you/ That I almost believe that they’re real," Robert Smith wails as guitars layer infinity pools over him for seven minutes—by the end, you might actually believe that "we kissed as the sky fell in," "[screaming] at the make believe" and "crying for the death of your heart" are real things couples go through. Tally the time Robert Smith has pined for a lost love over the past 40 years and you’ll have hours, if not entire days worth of music. But "Pictures of You" is the logical extreme of Smith’s thwarted desires—to completely submerge in the memory of someone else. —Ian Cohen
See also: The Cure: "Fascination Street" / The Cure: "Lovesong"
(Thanks Sylvain)
Friday, August 21, 2015
Natalie Imbruglia covers 'Friday I'm in Love'
As reported back in March, Natalie Imbruglia's new covers album, 'Male', includes her take on 'Friday I'm in Love'. She was on The One Show tonight and said it's her favorite cover on the album.
And from Digital Spy:
Then there's that iconic Cure song you've covered, 'Friday I'm In Love'...
"Risky right?"
Yeah, but you've turned it into your own song with that barnyard vibe and it really works.
"It's so much fun to do live. We did it at a couple of festivals and the crowds were going crazy for it."
When someone comes to you and says, 'Right we're going to take this really famous track and do it like this', are you just like, 'Crap - what am I doing?'
"I think that was the only one - 'Friday I'm In Love' - where I was a bit like, 'Oh I don't know how I feel about this'. But it's one of my favorites now. I mean, you can't please everyone. I'm sure there are going to be some diehard fans who won't want to hear any other version of any song, but if you're going to do a covers album, you have to be prepared for that."
(Thanks @AaronLaw92)
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Tigers Jaw & Kevin Devine cover The Cure
From Brooklyn Vegan: "Tigers Jaw, who recently released an acoustic LP and went on an acoustic tour, are contributing to the third installment of Kevin Devine's split 7" series, Devinyl Splits (following Perfect Pussy's Meredith Graves and Nada Surf's Matthew Caws). This installment has both artists covering The Cure, with Tigers Jaw taking on "In Between Days" and Kevin doing "Lovesong." Tigers Jaw's cover is out now and can be streamed above."
Chris Parry profile
Audio Culture has a profile of Chris Parry, along with some photos of him with The Cure. (Thanks Andre)
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Lol on the Mortified podcast
"The diaries of a teenager from the South Bronx who feels like an outcast when she falls in love with goth music. Featuring Special Guest Host, Lol Tolhurst, founding member of The Cure."
From Lol on Facebook: "So a few weeks ago the wonderful people at Mortified asked if I would host an episode of their podcast! Mortified is simultaneously comedic genius and angst filled drama so of course I accepted!"
Roger to DJ at Queen Kwong show
It appears, through every fault of my own, I will be DJing the @QueenKwong album release show at the Old Blue Last on Bank Holiday Monday!
— Roger O'Donnell (@RogerODonnell) August 18, 2015Roger O'Donnell of The Cure (me) will be DJing at @theoldbluelast for the @QueenKwong debut album release party. Its FREE come!!! I hate DJs
— Roger O'Donnell (@RogerODonnell) August 18, 2015If you can name 1 song I will play we will send you a @QueenKwong album!!!!!
— Roger O'Donnell (@RogerODonnell) August 18, 2015Thursday, August 6, 2015
Cure on 'Mr. Robot' last night
From @WendyCure: "Season 1 episode 7 of Mr. Robot - Pictures Of You plays/is discussed by the main characters in the first five minutes." (Thanks also to @lament and @e2ccd6b9d125464)
If you're in the US, and have cable, you can watch the episode here. If not, here's a description from For The Win (which contains a major spoiler, so fair warning if you plan to watch the show later, or haven't seen last week's episode):
"It’s a flashback; the first time Shayla and Elliot meet, and she gives him the fish you might remember as the one who talked during episode four’s insane dream sequence (and showed up on the windowsill, where he requested to be, in episode six). They sit out on their stoop while The Cure’s “Pictures of You” plays all tinny from a speaker. It’s a sunny day, and Elliot, despite himself, is enjoying her company. He asks her for drugs, and she tells him she knows a hookup who can get Suboxone. The only catch — the connect is a psychopath.
“You might be worth a psychopath, though,” she says, and you can’t help but think back to Fernando, his eyes bloodshot and alight, tossing him the keys the episode before. Elliot brought Shayla to her death. He finds himself responsible.
Flash forward to 30 days after the prison break, and Elliot is putting all of his files on Shayla and burning it to a CD marked “Cure – Disintegration.” Then he wipes down his computer and fries the memory again. The man has a process. But he isn’t fixed."
If you're in the US, and have cable, you can watch the episode here. If not, here's a description from For The Win (which contains a major spoiler, so fair warning if you plan to watch the show later, or haven't seen last week's episode):
"It’s a flashback; the first time Shayla and Elliot meet, and she gives him the fish you might remember as the one who talked during episode four’s insane dream sequence (and showed up on the windowsill, where he requested to be, in episode six). They sit out on their stoop while The Cure’s “Pictures of You” plays all tinny from a speaker. It’s a sunny day, and Elliot, despite himself, is enjoying her company. He asks her for drugs, and she tells him she knows a hookup who can get Suboxone. The only catch — the connect is a psychopath.
“You might be worth a psychopath, though,” she says, and you can’t help but think back to Fernando, his eyes bloodshot and alight, tossing him the keys the episode before. Elliot brought Shayla to her death. He finds himself responsible.
Flash forward to 30 days after the prison break, and Elliot is putting all of his files on Shayla and burning it to a CD marked “Cure – Disintegration.” Then he wipes down his computer and fries the memory again. The man has a process. But he isn’t fixed."
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