Xp Well I wasn't talking about tours but simply that DM post-peak albums >>> Cure albums (and I consider myself first and foremost a hardcore Cure fan)
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 3 February 2014 19:18 (ten years ago) link
I'm probably in the minority thinking that DM's last 5 albums or so are pretty much on par with the rest of their albums (Playing the Angel being a career highlight IMO) but beyond that - DM just seems to have maintained a pretty steady path, releasing a decent album ever 4 years and touring behind it. I don't see them doing trilogy shows or festival tours for the time being
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 3 February 2014 19:24 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, they've pretty well spent this century working on becoming a great goddamn live band through and through, with one standout album in Playing and good albums in general otherwise. I get a sense Dave really takes his second chance at life very seriously but also from I can tell exuberantly, and the fact he seems to have gotten better as a singer/performer is helping as Martin's voice, originally a key saving grace when Dave ran himself too ragged, is starting to audibly give ground. Handy, really.
But to turn back to the subject at hand -- Robert and the band, in whatever formation, seem to just keep on keeping on. That Lollapalooza live set last year was A+.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 3 February 2014 19:27 (ten years ago) link
Jesus H, this setlist!
Shake Dog ShakeKyoto Song (First time since 2008)A Night Like Thisalt.endWailing Wall (First time since 1984)BananafishbonesThe CaterpillarThe WalkA Man Inside My Mouth (Live debut)Close to MeLullabyHighBirdmad GirlJust Like HeavenPictures of YouBefore ThreeLovesongLike Cockatoos (First time since 2004)From the Edge of the Deep Green SeaWantThe Hungry GhostOne Hundred YearsGive Me ItEncore:The Empty World (First time since 1984)Charlotte SometimesPrimaryThe TopEncore 2:Dressing UpPiggy in the Mirror (First time since 1997)Never EnoughWrong NumberEncore 3:Three Imaginary BoysMPlay for TodayA ForestEncore 4:The LovecatsLet’s Go to BedWhy Can’t I Be You?Boys Don’t CryHey You! (First time since 2004)
Encore:The Empty World (First time since 1984)Charlotte SometimesPrimaryThe Top
Encore 2:Dressing UpPiggy in the Mirror (First time since 1997)Never EnoughWrong Number
Encore 3:Three Imaginary BoysMPlay for TodayA Forest
Encore 4:The LovecatsLet’s Go to BedWhy Can’t I Be You?Boys Don’t CryHey You! (First time since 2004)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 22 December 2014 02:59 (nine years ago) link
A Man Inside My Mouth (Live debut)
wau
― Gland Of Horses (sic), Monday, 22 December 2014 03:18 (nine years ago) link
oh man
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Monday, 22 December 2014 03:47 (nine years ago) link
Everything about that set list is great.
― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 22 December 2014 03:57 (nine years ago) link
is Lol back?? seems weird doing the Lol n Bob album without him.
― piscesx, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:07 (nine years ago) link
The Top is pretty much Robert solo, he wrote and played everything exept for the drumms.
"Wailing Wall" !!
― LeRooLeRoo, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:09 (nine years ago) link
So it looks like 4:14 Scream hasn't appeared yet!
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Monday, 22 December 2014 05:31 (nine years ago) link
Knew those shows would be great. Gutted...
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 22 December 2014 07:47 (nine years ago) link
I'm looking for the 3-bluray box already. They ARE recording this, right?
― StanM, Monday, 22 December 2014 10:07 (nine years ago) link
whoa.
― how's life, Monday, 22 December 2014 10:11 (nine years ago) link
― ArchCarrier, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 12:43 (nine years ago) link
i would have loved to have been at that show, wow what a set-list!
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 16:40 (nine years ago) link
The only album that doesn't seem to be represented is Bloodflowers
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Tuesday, 23 December 2014 16:53 (nine years ago) link
I do like how "The Hungry Ghost" seems to be becoming a standard choice for them.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 17:28 (nine years ago) link
Always thought that The Hungry Ghost sounded like it should've been on the Head on the Door. It would've fitted in well.
― Flowersdie, Sunday, 28 December 2014 12:40 (nine years ago) link
London gigs up on d1m3 now
― MaresNest, Sunday, 28 December 2014 12:46 (nine years ago) link
Not a member. Will this trickle down to other places?
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 28 December 2014 13:33 (nine years ago) link
"So it looks like 4:14 Scream hasn't appeared yet!"
I'm happy not hearing anything new from them frankly.
― akm, Sunday, 28 December 2014 17:20 (nine years ago) link
Grinch
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Sunday, 28 December 2014 17:26 (nine years ago) link
Yeah despite all the disillusions I will never not be excited about prospects of new Cure music
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 28 December 2014 19:07 (nine years ago) link
"Hungry Ghost" was a good one and I thought the last album was generally fun, so I'm looking forward to the next album. I think Smith said he wasn't that bothered about creating new music, so I doubt there will be much more.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 28 December 2014 19:42 (nine years ago) link
So I was watching this documentary on YouTube, and it was interviews with British Cure fans talking about why the Cure are so "important", "influential", etc. I think that to their millions of fans they are canonical, but there just seems to be something about them that irks rock canon types. Part of me thinks perhaps it is their diverse fan base and the way they reached American suburbia in a way that "important" groups didn't. And what is so WRONG about suburban mopey kids anyway? There will always be that personality that will never be accepted by cynical critic types. But why is cynicism / drug addiction / urban street cred so necessary to be regarded as "important"? Are music critics really fantasists, and being a suburban fanboy or fangirl just not part of that?
Any thoughts / writings on this would be appreciated.
― SCOTTISH PEOPLE ONLY (I M Losted), Sunday, 18 January 2015 16:40 (nine years ago) link
there just seems to be something about them that irks rock canon types
The lipstick.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 18 January 2015 16:46 (nine years ago) link
It is weird that so many bands that were dismissed by the hetero macho rock crew back in the day have been completely embraced, but not the Cure. It's kind of a cool thing about them that they remain so divisive even as they are becoming the Grateful Dead of their era.
― stop torturing me ethel (broom air), Sunday, 18 January 2015 21:00 (nine years ago) link
I like it when grandmothers drop the Cure's name or when I hear them at the drug store.
At 2x speed, this reads like affectionate parody. Live the dancing:
http://youtu.be/v4osvtUlrEc
― SCOTTISH PEOPLE ONLY (I M Losted), Sunday, 18 January 2015 23:29 (nine years ago) link
Anyone see this silhouette and think robert smith looked like some weird monster with an elephant dicknose?
http://www.8ball.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/700x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/T/h/The_cure_-_robert_silhouette_-_wht_girls_cu.jpg
Still not sure exactly what's going on with his hands here. They look so weird an big.
― how's life, Friday, 6 February 2015 13:31 (nine years ago) link
I always liked that photo in the earlier versions.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 13:47 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, this is a newer version. I couldn't dig up any old versions (didn't look all that hard though). Had it in much more sharp contrast on a yellow bumpersticker when I was a kid.
― how's life, Friday, 6 February 2015 13:53 (nine years ago) link
http://www.thecure.com/discography/1289/boys_dont_cry_(new_voice_new_mix)http://www.thecure.com/discography/1307/join_the_dots:_b-sides_and_rarities_1978-2001
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 6 February 2015 14:03 (nine years ago) link
Oh, it was a single sleeve? Mine looked more like this:
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/12/121633/1685202-l_575b2bfdbd899a9e25e9943569727f5c.gif
― how's life, Friday, 6 February 2015 14:09 (nine years ago) link
Was just wondering: when the Cure debuted, were they compared to anyone in particular? There's something weirdly insular and sui generis about the band, and that's sort of true for all its eras. Especially the pop era, maybe. Something like "In Between Days," or "Just Like Heaven," they're instantly familiar yer kind of rootless in a way. No one would hear those songs and say, "hey, that sounds a lot like ..." Or would they?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:18 (eight years ago) link
I suspect they got a fair amount of initial Jam comparisons given the Chris Parry association, but also the tight three-piece arrangements etc.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
Maybe really early on, but that seems an outlier, doesn't it? Because of all the things the Cure doesn't resemble, its the Jam.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
The Trouser Press Record Guide said that "Inbetween Days" sounded "exactly like New Order", which doesn't seem that far wrong.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 8 January 2016 16:43 (eight years ago) link
I suspect that they were seen as just another post-punk band at the beginning, really... progressing from that to being accused of ripping of Joy Division/New Order and Siouxsie & The Banshees.
― Turrican, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:45 (eight years ago) link
In 10 Imaginary Years, Chris Parry even says he was initially trying to duplicate his success with the Jam by finding a group that sounded like the Jam. Those early demos (disc two of Three Imaginary Boys deluxe edition) seem to indicate that this was true.
― Austin, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:50 (eight years ago) link
I think I heard they were described as a Southern Buzzcocks in the music press in their early days. They were certainly quite punky then but even then they seemed a bit out of sync with the rest.
― lynshrooom, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:52 (eight years ago) link
I still chuckle about the fact that The Cure were originally signed to Hansa... they were part of the same competition that Japan entered to get a record deal. The Cure won, but Hansa signed Japan anyway. The Cure, of course, left for Fiction without releasing anything on Hansa, and Japan managed three albums before ending up on Virgin.
― Turrican, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:53 (eight years ago) link
Didn't they get weird comparisons to Pink Floyd circa 17 Seconds?
― MaresNest, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
https://youtu.be/MDXAIerOQSk?t=1m38s
― MaresNest, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:57 (eight years ago) link
I remember seeing a review for the remaster/deluxe edition of Seventeen Seconds that called it "Pink Floyd for stoners that didn't have anyone to smoke with."
― Austin, Friday, 8 January 2016 16:58 (eight years ago) link
he has the exact air of Ronnie O'Sullivan in that interview :D
― sounding like a silly Iain Banks on a track (imago), Friday, 8 January 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
Gah, no, I don't hear the Jam in them at all. Joy Division is a better comparison for early to mid-career Cure, due to the relative foregrounding of the guitar. Even at their synthiest (e.g., "Prayers for Rain") they didn't sound all that New Orderish. I agree with Josh that they mostly sounded like themselves. The poppier Cure records with horns (e.g., "Close to Me") sounded like nothing else at the time.
I grant that something like "The Walk" may have a vibe in common with pop songs by other bands that incorporated keyboards into a basic rock-band framework, but in my mind many of those songs postdate similar Cure tyoons or simply share precursors.
Maybe the sound of "Just Like Heaven" or "Letter to Elise" doesn't sound that far off from the Church or the Furs or Roxette or Dead or Alive or EMF or whatever. But none of those bands could also have coughed up anything like "Carnage Visors."
― it takes the village people (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 8 January 2016 17:06 (eight years ago) link
Pornography is one of the most singular records any band has ever made or will ever make
― sounding like a silly Iain Banks on a track (imago), Friday, 8 January 2016 17:13 (eight years ago) link
Pornography is just Joy Division's 'Atrocity Exhibition' stretched out over an entire album, but recorded with all the levels in the red and with a superior singer. Still a good record, though.
― Turrican, Friday, 8 January 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
I think a lot of people are missing the original question -- not what happened a little bit later, but at the start, when they 'debuted.' Bringing in later work is an irrelevancy. To quote Austin earlier:
No, it's not the only thing, obviously. But it's a clear ghost hanging over the era, and Parry was extremely well known/influential in music industry circles, the Jam connection was incredibly clear to make when he started up Fiction. Imagine if the band had done nothing more BUT that if that'll help.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 January 2016 17:26 (eight years ago) link
It's hard to say what kind of profile The Cure would have had if they'd done the first album and only the first album, and then split up... for all we know they could have just ended up being a post-punk era curio or, I dunno, at least a band with the profile of The Comsat Angels or something.
― Turrican, Friday, 8 January 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link