― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
On the Sleeper/Echobelly mistake: they were kind of contemporaries but Emma and Miki had been contemporaries of MBV too, I guess
― Arantxa, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Winkelmann, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ron (ron), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 04:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 04:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ron (ron), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 04:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ron (ron), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 04:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 21 April 2005 08:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 21 April 2005 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 21 April 2005 12:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 21 April 2005 12:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Thursday, 21 April 2005 13:08 (eighteen years ago) link
My statement? Well, the bit about falling completely asleep on my feet in front of Sonic Youth is entirely true. I'm not saying Lush blew a new part in my hair and set the room on fire, but they were visually more engaging than Sonic Youth. But, y'know, I've never been a member of Sonic Youth's hallelujah choir, so ya might factor that into your assessment.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 April 2005 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link
The idea of getting paperwork or voicemail from Miki Berenyi seems really strange to me. It would be like having Kevin Sheilds fix your plumbing or something. You would sit there thinking "oh my god, oh my god, Kevin from MBV is snaking my toilet."
― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 21 April 2005 20:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 21 April 2005 21:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Johnny Badlees (crispssssss), Thursday, 21 April 2005 21:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:47 (eighteen years ago) link
But as the others upthread note, "De Luxe" = winner.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 May 2005 16:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 8 May 2005 16:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 8 May 2005 16:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 May 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 8 May 2005 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 May 2005 17:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― BeeOK (boo radley), Sunday, 8 May 2005 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― vanessa novaeris (novaeris), Monday, 9 May 2005 03:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Monday, 9 May 2005 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 9 May 2005 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link
Replace Spooky and Loveless with At War with Satan and What's THIS for...!, replace bubble bath and glass of wine with 40 oz of Crazy Horse and eliminate the reading material entirely and you have my solution.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 May 2005 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 03:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 13 April 2006 07:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― daavid (daavid), Thursday, 13 April 2006 21:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― paulhw, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 00:30 (sixteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 00:38 (sixteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 00:48 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 00:51 (sixteen years ago) link
― Bill in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 01:08 (sixteen years ago) link
― BATTAGS, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 02:52 (sixteen years ago) link
― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 03:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Ooh I wish it was them. Possibly I came late and missed the opening act. I had to drive across the state of Florida to get there.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:36 (eight months ago) link
I just looked deeply into this and apparently Flaming Lips opened in April 1992. Definitely missed them, or they made no impression whatsoever.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:45 (eight months ago) link
“the UK-specific shoegaze of Spooky”.
I didn’t see them live around this time, but a lot of reviewers of Spooky were disappointed that it had been Cocteau-d to death by Robin Guthrie and did not reflect the energy of the live versions.
― Chewshabadoo, Sunday, 23 July 2023 07:57 (eight months ago) link
yes I interviewed Emma after Split and she described being treated like “lab rats” for the Spooky sessions, apparently Chis had to play a Simmons kit and was quantised to death.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 23 July 2023 08:38 (eight months ago) link
Only saw Lush once, that was in Manchester in 1989 around the time that Scar came out. Can't find any confirmation of this online but my memory says they were supporting Galaxie 500 who were touring off the back of On Fire
― NickB, Sunday, 23 July 2023 08:54 (eight months ago) link
I swear that I read back in the 1990s or early 2000s that Acland did not actually know how to play the drums that well, so Guthrie’s click-track interventions on Spooky were actually helpful. But Berenyi’s biography claims Acland already had years of drumming experience before joining Lush. Now I don’t know what to believe.
― Melomane, Sunday, 23 July 2023 11:53 (eight months ago) link
well, they sounded pretty great on the Sweetness and Light EP, Guthrie had nothing to do with that. Scar isn’t exactly virtuoso performances but they were all pretty undercooked when the hype hit.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 23 July 2023 12:29 (eight months ago) link
At a guess, they may have been playing to a click-track to get the effects/delays to sync up perfectly?
Did not realise this had been recorded this way though, will try some beatmatching next time I‘m on my decks to test it out.
― Chewshabadoo, Sunday, 23 July 2023 12:30 (eight months ago) link
Yep that’s exactly it, the timing/phase on the delays and modulations required regular time since Guthrie usually worked with drum machines.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 23 July 2023 12:41 (eight months ago) link
My sense of Lush of the four times I saw them first time through was: 1990 — tentative; 1991 — more settled; 1992 twice — much more of a solid live band. Sadly didn’t catch them again until the reunion which was nice but obviously its own vibe.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 23 July 2023 14:10 (eight months ago) link
ha, I was on 4ad-l too. With time a lot of these criticisms seem absurd; Spooky is frankly as good as Gala and Split and the differences in production and approach are are fairly slight to me now. I'm still not really a fan of the last album though.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 23 July 2023 16:04 (eight months ago) link
Berenyi’s autobiography claims Rippon was the weak link in the band.
It used to be a bit of fan lore that when Rippon left the band, he hawked his fictionalized memoir about touring with Lush (under the title Cold Turkey Sandwich) to publishers, but none accepted it. Berenyi mentions nothing about this, and I wonder why. But if interest in Lush remains high enough that Berenyi got to publish a memoir, I’m surprised that Rippon hasn’t just put his old manuscript up on Amazon or another self-publishing channel.
― Melomane, Sunday, 23 July 2023 23:33 (eight months ago) link
I remember seeing a live performance of Covert on Paul King’s 120 Minutes, and being absolutely blown away, and really excited for Spooky. Then I came out, all slathered in worst Guthrie f/x — it frankly sounded like he didn’t have faith in the band and gilded them to death.There’s a superb remix of Superblast! by Gil Norton, and shows what Spooky could’ve been with more sympathetic mixing. That version is also on the video, peels the skin right off my face every time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uU5DU7P83E
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Monday, 24 July 2023 00:08 (eight months ago) link
“Then it came out,” brb I got Dr Freud on the phone
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Monday, 24 July 2023 00:11 (eight months ago) link
I think Guthrie's production is what makes the best bits of Spooky so good (and much prefer it to Sweetness And Light). One of my favourite bits is the swirling guitar sound in Ocean that jumps between your left and right ears when you listen with headphones.
― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Friday, 28 July 2023 22:48 (eight months ago) link
I am anti-Guthrie on this. much prefer everything else they did apart from the Lovelife album to Spooky
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:28 (eight months ago) link
completely love the Guthrieness
― brimstead, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:31 (eight months ago) link
Her twitter follows are abysmal
― PaulTMA, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:36 (eight months ago) link
I think this has been noted itt
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:38 (eight months ago) link
tbh Emma wasn't much better, wall-to-wall FBPE, but maybe less TERFs
cool. binning them asap nothing was lost really
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:15 (eight months ago) link
what does "wall-to-wall FBPE" mean
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:17 (eight months ago) link
FBPE = follow back pro-europe. basically a Twitter siren for centrists for whom nothing matters but Brexit. NB I did not vote for Brexit just tbc. basically a load of "sensible" twats who "hate the Tories" but want to replace them with people who will enact policies that are almost exactly the same as the Tories but they might grimace a bit and say sorry before they do it.
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:20 (eight months ago) link
wonder if a 'Glasgow' label will reissue them next
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:33 (eight months ago) link
ah see I keep seeing references to this but I don't know which label this refers to
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:34 (eight months ago) link
I appreciate Guthrie’s contributions. I’m not sure that Lush themselves were capable of making a great album 100% all on their lonesome. Guthrie’s production is no different than, say, the strings on Split that give that album the extra edge.
― Melomane, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:40 (eight months ago) link
I dislike both Guthrie’s Christmas tree production and how weak 60% of Spooky’s songs are. Found Emma’s twitter tedious but hadn’t realised Miki was a reactionary as well.
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 29 July 2023 12:08 (eight months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-qPHoqr74This film on the criterion streaming?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 00:44 (two weeks ago) link
Yep, in the US anyway
― brimstead, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 00:56 (two weeks ago) link