Curve: C or D?

To go back to a point David R raised:

Appreciation for Curve shot up 100 fold once my feeble mind FINALLY made the connection between them & Garbage, especially since Curve rocks MUCH harder than Shirley & Co

Quite. And it's not just in terms of loud feedback but rhythms -- Garbage were far more cleaner and more pallid. Both Shirley Manson and Toni Halliday were/are Siouxsie-obsessed singers with dodgy end-of-eighties careers they'd like us all to forget a la Tori Amos, and on that front they did pretty well, but if the choice is between Dean Garcia and his beatboxes versus Butch Vig and his nonentities, no contest.

Hold the phazizzlone, I didn't know that.

I haven't picked up anything of theirs after Come Clean (and sold same to SecondSpin.Com, actually). I'll stick with their early stuff, but Gift does now sound promising.

Curve are stone cold CLASSIC.

CD 1 The Way Of Curve

1 Ten Little Girls
2 Coast Is Clear
3 Clipped
4 Die Like A Dog
5 Horror Head
6 Fait Accompli
7 Missing Link
8 Superblaster
9 Pink Girl With The Blues
10 Recovery
11 Chinese Burn
12 Coming Up Roses
13 Hell Above Water
14 Want More Need Less
15 Perish
16 Nice and Easy

CD 2 Rare and unreleased

1 On The Wheel
2 Triumph
3 Arms Out
4 Sigh
5 Mission From God
6 Today Is Not The Day
7 Low And Behold
8 Nothing Without Me
9 What A Waste with Ian Dury
10 Falling Free Aphex Twin mix
11 Chinese Burn Lunatic Calm mix
12 Coming Up Roses Kevin Shields Mix
13 I Feel Love
14 In Disguise
15 Sinner

Good choices? Bad choices? I've only heard one or two Curve tracks ever, and I don't even remember what they were.

I didn't realize Kevin Shields was on Gift, either.

The first EPs were absolutely classic. Doppelganger just took that sound and spread it, rather thinly, over an album, though 'Ice That Melts the Tips', 'Already Yours', and 'Think and Act' are standout album tracks. Cuckoo is where it's at for me. The album is well-sequenced too, building up to a great finish. It's the best heavy wall of goutar album I know from that period, but there's tons of variety throughout at the same time. Come Clean worked out for me, though it's the one I listen to least. I think it sounds louder and dirtier than most of the 'rock band goes electronic' albums, and besides, they were using samplers and drum machines from day one; the technology just got a lot more sophisticated in their downtime.

SEARCH SEARCH SEARCH the 'Coming Up Roses' B-sides: 'Habit and 'Midnight and Royal'. They're some of the best material from that period. Really tense and spooky without relying on conventional big guitars or noise.
I like Gift a lot, esp. the Shields tracks plus 'My Tiled White Floor'. There was very solid material on their internet-only album in 2000, Open Day at the Hatefest, but nothing really standout. I'll probably track down the new compilation, though there are only a couple of tracks I don't have in hard form. I think they got Flat Earth back for the cover, which is good.

Oh yeah; Cuckoo had a wonderful sleeve, as did the surrounding EPs. Only the Come Clean sleeve wasn't wholly interesting.

trivia: Debbie Smith last appeared playing with Luke Sutherland in Bows, which is such an improvement over Echobelly or the totally dire Snowpony. I'm going to go revive a Bows thread now.

xpost: Ned, yes oh yes Mission From God is glorious.

Ned, what is this cover of Overground you speak of? You mean the Siouxsie track? I def. should check that out

This is deeply ludicrous, of course. The thing that initially attracted me to Curve was the juxtaposition of Toni's great melodic lines against the feedback/dance beat. Plus there are always those huge bass lines...

Damn right.

this is true. live they seemed pretty dull, it was all a bit thick and blurry. their love for swervedriver was always offputting too.

http://www.curve.co.uk/news.htm

So, speaking of Curve, is there any way to get all those recent (and out of print) EPs besides sending a check to Dean?

"Perish" is beyond awesome. It's also the saddest noise-rock track ever.

anyways .. i definitely side on the CLASSIC. that cold hearted drum machine pounding away while the noise shreds the paintwork and toni does her echoed goth thing is just wonderful and fits in perfectly with my current moods.

but more to the point .. did all cd copies of the album come with doubled up inner sleeves as a spin off from the album name .. or is that just me being a little too nerdy ?

its not just me .. (have images of ilmers dashing off to archives to check .. )

but ta for the love anyways ned .. backatcha gorgeous.

13 years after the albums release we all finally get the bands 'joke'.

happy 30th to cuckoo

Claaaaaaaasssssssssic (imagine this word said with tons of fuzz and overdrive and reverb and flanger and the like)

I wish I knew what the mad vocal sample at the start of Clipped is all about, I've been wondering that for 30+ years.

That Cuckoo tour was a hell of a thing to experience.

xp the absolute zenith of Curve for me (shout out to “Turkey Crossing”) - I remember Cherry coming out and thinking, well, this hits every mark dead-on.

also Cuckoo is their best album by an order of magnitude

To each his own. Never much cared for Cuckoo despite some good moments. But then again all their albums were flawed. Pubic Fruit all the way

well yeah the EPs were the real high point.

Curve is one of those bands where I kinda liked them, picked up Cuckoo at a record store on a whim, it became one of my favorite albums of all time, and I never really bothered finding any of their other music. Now, my curiosity is piqued and I'm finally listening to the E.P.s that comprised Pubic Fruit after all these years. Might be doing some Bandcamping today.

Physical box set coming in February:

Unreadable Communication: Anxious Recordings 1991-1993

The two albums, four EPs, some remixes and some live stuff. Does not include Peel Sessions, which are supposed to be very good.

I'm not a fan, but if you want remastered CDs, here you go.

so, remember this from a while back :

"but more to the point .. did all cd copies of the album come with doubled up inner sleeves as a spin off from the album name .. or is that just me being a little too nerdy ?

― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, August 23, 2005 1:53 PM (eighteen years ago)
"

well, a twitter account posted this weekend re the album, so i asked the question re the doubling up.

and look what happened :

𝘾𝙐𝙍𝙑𝙀
liked your reply
question : was i only the person who bought this on cd to find the inner booklet doubled up ?
i assumed it was a play on the album name ..

!!!

really deeply sorry to everyone on ilm that assumed i was a massive curve-head this whole time. tbh i had only heard a few tracks. anyway. turns out cuckoo is the greatest album of all time

Haha it is!

Salut to a proper and correct reaction. (Also this gives me the chance to mention I had a review of the Curve box set covering that era a couple of issues ago in The Wire.)

I picked up doppelganger, cuckoo, and pubic fruit on CD recently, I've been having them in heavy rotation in the car. This band has some great tunes, but even more crucially they've got such great atmosphere, they're just one of the coolest sounding bands I've ever heard. Everything comes together.

And boy did that era deliver live too. Only caught 'em twice but both times they were on it.

yup, same. At the Palladium and the Palace, right?
Having said that, I never really warmed that much to Cuckoo. Some great stuff here and there... but they seemed to try to go for a more organic soulful sound, whereas I wanted more of the badass iciness.

The very same!

Cuckoo is the best. Esp. the back to back punch of “Unreadable Communication” and “Turkey Crossing”.

The latest SPC ECO is especially good:

https://spceco.bandcamp.com/album/broken

Between this and Curve, looks like Dean is dead set against putting his music on any traditional streaming service.

I do wonder why the later Curve albums fewer people care about are on Spotify. Rights thing?

Must be, right? I found this old interview exchange:

What are your thoughts on streaming services like Spotify and Pandora? Lately there’s been a lot of controversy over Spotify. Some artists won’t let them use their music because they feel that the small amount of money they pay them is insulting or otherwise too little. I’ve heard other artists say that getting paid a tiny amount is better than getting paid nothing if people download stuff without paying for it. What are your thoughts on all of this?

All a bunch of leaching cunts. I loath them all. I only like Bandcamp because it’s for the bands and no-one else. I didn’t want to release anything to the leaches but have been persuaded otherwise. I’m still twisted about it. I’d rather give it away than give it to them, but let’s be honest here, does anyone actually pay for music anymore ? As soon as you release something it’s available within 24 hours online, if it’s not then you’ve failed.

Anyway, Curve might objectively be the coolest band of all time.

Boy is there a lot of SPC ECO.

Toni Halliday resurfaces! In a way! She's happily retired but in the best way:

https://thecitizenantiguabarbuda.com/new-citizens-toni-halliday-alan-moulder/

I'm happy for them, but there were a few things from Toni that popped out at me as to why they moved:

Firstly, our beloved whippet died, and we were devastated.

I was brought up in the Mediterranean on a boat as a child.

This second one made me google, and assuming she's telling the truth, I found this old, odd nugget:

Toni Halliday, now 27-years-old, was born in Fulham, West London. Between the ages of 4 and 8 she cruised the Mediterranean with her father, mother and sister. Her father was a hippy crook who supported his family by ransacking yachts of the rich and famous. "we'd dock in somewhere" remembers Toni "and my dad would choose the flashiest yacht in port. Then he'd take the owners to the bar, get them drunk and go back and raid their yacht. We'd be gone before they had time to get a hangover".

Eventually Toni's father dumped his family in Greece, declaring to his wife in tones Toni still remembers as bizarrely matter-of-fact that he no longer loved her. Mother and daughters returned to England moving from London to Sunderland in the industrially-depressed North East. Toni has not seen her father since.

"I think he's in jail in Spain". she says.

Anyway. They clearly moved for the apparent tax benefits of the Antigua Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program:

No Worldwide Tax: No taxes are imposed on foreign-sourced income, capital gains, or inheritance.
0% Income Tax: There is no personal income tax on income earned within or outside the country.
Corporate Tax Exemptions: International Business Corporations (IBCs) can enjoy 0% tax on profits.
Property Tax: A low real property tax of 0.1%–0.5% applies to the assessed market value.

Tempting, lol!

This band rules.