The Cure‘s Robert Smith curated this year’s lineup for the Teenage Cancer Trust Benefit shows in London and, so far, the performances have been stellar. (Acts have included My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai and Chvrches among others.) Continue reading »
You sort of know where you are with Portland’s Dandy Warhols. Their grungy fug of elemental electronica and gritty guitars rarely disappoints, nor does it stray far from their narrowly defined template. Applying a sheen of intelligent and informed dumb to everything they touch, cover versions have always proven sure ground for the quartet, making Pin Ups, their second set devoted thereto, something to relish. Given, too, the influences in their original songs are never that hard to spot, they nail more personality into the songs of others than you might reasonably expect, making this so much more than swoozy re-runs.
It is easy to imagine the discussions leading to this set of 17 songs were as much fun as the making of it. Some songs and some bands were just screaming out for inclusion–witness the Cramps and the Runaways–but I can’t say Dylan and the Beatles were expected to be featured, let alone the particular songs chosen. Of course, this isn’t the first airing for all of these songs, some collated and curated from previous forays into tribute discs and similar. Overall, there is also a stronger UK goth presence than might have been expected, with a song from the Cure and two by the Cult. Any obtusely perceived debt to UK punk is likewise mined through assaults on the songbooks of both the Clash and the Damned. Intrigued? I am.
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You might know Peter Capaldi from TV shows such as his role as the twelfth doctor in Doctor Who or the thriller Devil’s Hour. But the Scottish actor and director is now dipping back into the music world. Accompanied by Franz Ferdinand, he performed The Cure’s iconic track “Friday I’m In Love” on Glastonbury’s Other Stage. Continue reading »
“A Forest” is originally by The Cure, and is a classic piece of goth-rock. It was originally released in 1980 on the band’s second album, Seventeen Seconds. This tune had more production/polishing than any of the other songs on the album. It is also decidedly darker more ornate.
Whiskey Daredevils is a Cleveland, Ohio-based rock band. Self-described as being “America’s finest country punkabilly band,” this 4-piece outfit has both the gusto and the sound. So what did the punkabilly quartet do with this compositional masterpiece? Reinvent it. Continue reading »
Screamo Oasis? That’s sure to piss some people off! Can’t wait for the Gallagher brothers to weigh in. This reminds me of Biffy Clyro’s highly divisive “Modern Love” a few years back. Not generally my genre of music, but I do love when a band takes a swing like this.
For a couple weeks this months, my Google Alerts were taken over by some TV-performance show called Chefsache ESC 2025. Which I’d never heard of, and still only vaguely understand what it is (some sort of Germany-only Eurovision?). It produced some wild covers though. The Feuerschwanz medieval-metal version of “Dragostea Din Tei” must be seen to be believed. But we’ve written about that song before—they released it on an album a couple years ago—so, instead, here’s a group called The Great Leslie performing Coldplay like they’re Franz Ferdinand. Continue reading »
Though not their biggest hit when it came out – topping out at 24 – “Close to Me” became one of The Cure’s biggest hits over time. It’s one of only four of their singles to go platinum in the UK and is their 4th most streamed song. It’s pretty distinct in their catalogue for lacking guitar and featuring toy keyboards and a horn section (and an even more prominent horn section in the popular 1990 remix, which actually reached higher on the UK singles chart). Continue reading »