Catherine Wheel: Search and Destroy

Scroll down about ten or so entries to see Rob's Bahama Yellow car.

About six photos down to see Rob and his current girlfriend relaxing with their fellow car fiends.

As for the band, looks to be on permanent hiatus/long dead. Official website hasn't been updated in forever, while this bemusingly illustrated fan page has a link to a new project guitarist Brian Futter and drummer Neil Sims have called 50 Ft. Monster...

I still stand by my Swervedriver statement upthread.

I must admit Jack's Rabid has grated on my nerves at times over the years. There are just a lot of bands he seems to take seriously that I can't.

I was crazy about Catherine Wheel until a particualarly bad show I saw of them. I think Chrome had come out just prior. I never cared for that album much. After Ferment, that was it. I was more enamoured with their singles prior to Ferment's release, anyway. There was one particular B-side (to "I Wanna Touch You") called "Half Life" that has actually continued to come back into my memory since then despite me mostly ignoring the idea that CW ever existed. I give thanks to this thread, though for making me realize that I desperately need to hear "Black Metallic" again.

The porsches are cool. But they can't touch Minis.

Artwork, pillows, love letters, clothes, journals, photos ...

The mood you're in is as important as the music itself in deciding what you'll think of this band, I feel. I'm less charitible towards them when I'm in a good mood, but when there's storm clouds on my horizon, I _adore_ them. Especially "Chrome".

I accidentally met Dave, the bassist, via E-bay. He was selling some Talk Talk ephemera, and I was buying same. (Go figure). When I saw his tag-name, I just thought he was a fan of the band. But when he told me who he really was, and when he found out that I was a fan of the Wheel as well as TT, he sent me an autograph also. Sweet guy! Hope things are better for him now.

they always looked old.

Anyway, there's reason for the revive -- it looks like Rob Dickinson is releasing a solo album on the 13th! Fresh Wine for the Horses is the title, and considering what I've heard people say about Wishville (as I haven't heard it myself), the three songs I've heard are a most likely marked improvement -- they're lighter and with even more of a pop sensibility than I'm accustomed to on initial listen, a sort of matured CW with orchestra, but I imagine I'm going to like the songs more with each listen (as is par for the course with my reactions to Catherine Wheel -- I never really sink into anything of theirs until the second listen).

There's a Warren Zevon cover (Mutineer), Marty Willson-Piper (of The Church) pops in for a guitar solo (Oceans), and two tracks (The Storm, Towering and Flowering) are de-facto Catherine Wheel reunions (Futter, Sims, & Friese-Greene).

Nah, it still sounds great, and I actually like it more than Chrome.

Ferment is peerless, a hands down classic.

Chrome is fucking fantastic.

Happy Days is less so, but has its standouts.

Like Cats and Dogs is lush and beautiful.

Adam and Eve is a career high, their masterpiece.

And hey, Wishville isn't half bad.

Phrasing on "Black Metallic" is the bomb.

i like chrome

the opening track on chrome is a very assured, scorching number. i'm a little bit afraid of the the STP comparison way upthread :/... thankfully i don't really hear it, and the guitars are a-wash enough to qualify this as shoegazey.

Refusing to believe that Wishville is as bad as everyone says it is, I'm listening to it now. It's frustratingly close to being good, while being pretty damn half-assed. The power is out, the fannydangle is in.

...but, weirdly, no track has flat-out offended me yet, unlike Happy Days, where pretty much every track offended me.

"Mad Dog" is kinda offending me

LOVED Chrome as a high school kid. Are the Catherine Wheel's first two LPs tough to find on vinyl? what if i started buying second-tier shoegaze records?? egads.

LIKE CATS AND DOGS IS THE ONLY ALBUM I'VE HEARD OF THEIRS AND IT BORED ME
DO I NEED TO GIVE IT ANOTHER TRY?

Chrome rules. i never liked anything before or after it as much. Chrome just has that amazing friggin' rock production and that crunch and the coolest songs.

sheesh, folks on gemm want $100+ for chrome & ferment :(

I will try this Chrome

play it loud.

I'm breaking my no downloading rule for this

one morning in high school, i was hung over with my friend phil. we ate at denny's then drove down to the beach and listened to CHROME and the butthole surfers "pychic, powerless." a special memory.

and i mean a rocky, ugly new england beach. not some socal shit.

Weird career trajectory. Their last three albums veered from awful to utterly brilliant to insipid. Fanboyish thread of praise for the astounding "Adam & Eve": Catherine Wheel's 'Adam And Eve' is a pretty astounding record

You really are advised to give that record a go.

Am listening to Chrome for the first time now - halfway through
ok, this is very enjoyable
I Confess is the best so far
Not an album i could find myself falling in love with but one I see myself listening to quite a few more times.
Will try Adam and Eve next and then try Cats and Dogs again

Really enjoyed listening to the Swervedriver reissues and saw the reunion tour last year. I think it's Catherine Wheel's turn now. A nice double-deluxe remaster of Ferment with all the B-sides, pretty please. I remember when "Black Metallic" was first played on 120 min, hosted by Dave Kendall, because I was recording it, as a friend's band was also debuting that night. I don't know why this is a fond memory, as I was living in a creepy dark basement of a mansion just out of college, with a deeply strange older shoe salesman as a roommate. I guess most memories easily gauze over to nostalgia when it's got a good soundtrack.

I had most of the albums, but some reason never got around to picking up Chrome until this week. Damn good album.

Oh yeah, and they also remind me of a woman I dated with an identical twin sister (I swear I could only tell them apart by the slight difference in size of their chests). They were both huge fans of the band, and they got to meet them, right around the time Cats And Dogs with the twins-themed cover art came out.

Partial revive due to all the shoegaze poll talk but what's heartening to see is that for all that "Black Metallic" was the breakout song it was Chrome rather than Ferment which most people love the best on this thread. Rightly so. Just listened to "Crank" for the first time in forever and that's actually a pretty damn tricky lead-off single for a sophomore album with high commercial expectations for it.

I think I still have a 'chrome' (well, silver) promotional version of the CD, and the deep blue tour shirt with the cover art is still a favorite of mine.

i've suddenly decided i really dislike this band. previously i found them inoffensive at most, but the fact that people champion them as one of the more pivotal shoegaze acts renders me clueless to the point of vexation. as i've said previously, they're not far removed from bush in my eyes, and seem wilfully content to huff and puff their way through a chest-beating belated british take on grunge.

'crank' is utter garbage frankly.

reminds me of 'glycerine', seriously.

http://vimeo.com/76496410

catherine wheel singer dude now does hyper-expensive Porsche restorations

Myodesign 2 months ago
Good day Singer,
The paint colour is stunning. Would you please tell me if this is a stock Porsche colour? And if so, would you disclose the colour code?
Thank you.

There's a fairly obvious joke to be made here

Yeah a friend had discovered that a few years ago, apparently he's pretty active in that circuit. And why not?

it's not like he never referenced cars or driving in his lyrics tbf

outro of 'for dreaming' still one of the greatest moments in rock history obv

Catherine Wheel seems to be more disliked than I would have thought on ILM, but I suppose there are always winners and losers. This band I really heard tangentially once on TV and found that CD used and then liked it enough to eventually get some more as I would run into other ones by them CDs for a buck or two. I think Catherine Wheel had quite a good of atmosphere at times, I kind of hear it Pink Floyd as much as shoegaze. Maybe it's because I have put them together on 90s CDR comps, they seem a bit like a UK Afghan Whigs without the soul fetish.

This track "Saccharine" I thought was really good 90s psychedelic rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKMYooP2vZc

i clearly need to revisit A&E and happy days

i was jk imago. obv its def less american sounding than happy days but its still p damn american alt rock sounding

I'll relisten.

Happy Days...I reckon there's a brilliant 8-or-9-track album in there

ferment is my fave tho, the farther they get from that the less im into it

embarrassing but true story:

i first heard of catherine wheel on Q101, which was sort of the KROQ equivalent in chicago, and for awhile at least it was the best station i'd ever heard. they were playing the most amazing '80s alt-rock and college rock and new (at the time) music from the the and sugar and other acts like that. they were advertising some rock festival and talked about CATHERINE WHEEL and i was thinking, hmm well i do like that name i think i'll go buy her CD without even reading up on it.

lots of revelations after that, good ones mostly.

When you bumped the other CW thread I listened to "the nude", and then again, and again, totally got stuck

Waydown
Heal
Empty Head
Eat My Dust
Shocking
Kill My Soul

^would be my preferred edit, maybe rearranged so like

Shocking
Waydown
Eat My Dust
Empty Head
Heal
Kill My Soul

great mini-album right there

it sounds like he is singing 'corncrake' during the chorus of crank. i wish he was

ohhh 'broken head' yeah i love this one, always have. that chorus! wish the whole album brought it like this but it's been fun so far

would boldly state that on 'adam and eve', more or less every track has a melodic hook more or less up there with this one

I met Rob once, top bloke, very down to earth.

There's an acoustic EP that includes "The Nude". Stunning.

They were an excellent and prolific B- sides band.

ok "corncrake" just made me actual lol

"Corncrake"? The Wicker Man?

"call me crank"

what

― jello my future biafriend (roxymuzak), Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:37 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think about this post whenever i listen to "Crank"

mmmm corncrake

:D

i posted in the thread almost 12 years ago? it has been a wild ride and maybe i need to move on too?

have not thought about Catherine Wheel in a very long time. i think i saw them four time total. they were great live.

It's interesting how pretty much all the original shoegaze crew as such has hit the reunion phase but this bunch didn't. (Other non-returnees off the top of my head: Boo Radleys, Pale Saints.) And yes granted CW weren't exactly shoegaze but they were of that generation, had a greater amount of success over here at the time compared to a lot of them, etc.

Ferment is getting a vinyl reissue at the end of June. hope Chrome follows suit quickly thereafter...

My favorite Catherine wheel is the one-two punch of "strange fruit" and "chrome"

and then "the nude" so it's really like three punches

re: the first punch, no song has ever punched me more

and now CHROME is getting a proper reissue via Music on Vinyl in September!

So…something’s up

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160083830801136&id=545041135&_rdr#!/story.php

There's never been expanded reissues, and lord knows there's material aplenty...

New material would be welcome, of course, if a bit trepidatious about the potential.

Seems like it was just announcement of Adam and Eve streaming (hadn't realize it hadn't been?)

Well, specific dates in this one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYs7e6NzIf/

What does this mean? Is there new stuff or is this for reissues? I would like to see them live again as it was always great. I think I saw them around seven times.

Guess we'll find out! After last year's tease that wasn't much, I'm suspicious, but the fact that there are two dates mentioned is intriguing.

probably the only band I'd spend all my money and fly anywhere to see

maybe they can hire a graphic designer with it

lol