Catherine Wheel: Search and Destroy

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

yeah that's cool

they were definitely going for Pink Floyd

one of these days i'll have every catherine wheel b-side downloaded

also i always loved adam & eve but the ilx pro-a&e contingent made me love it more

Not only going for Pink Floyd to the point of covering "Wish You Were Here," Storm Thorgerson designed some of the album covers. What more do you need, really.

The sidelong suite? You could make a case for the second half of A&E

one of these days i'll have every catherine wheel b-side downloaded

i actually own all Catherine Wheel singles.

i should do a poll, hmm.

Always kind of liked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTyFyQCq5KY

dude has a seriously unearthly voice and sense of phrasing. it seems like he chooses particular lyrics to sort of tweak the melody, maximizing its power? voice is a gift from god for real

and he's bruce dickinson's cousin but you probably knew that already!

yeah like doi tbh! but it is amazing that one fam could produce two such different and amazing voices

amazing, amazing

repeating the word "amazing" is such a high thing to do

Which recordings in particular have you been listening to?

ferment and chrome ONLY

its my fall music

i never checked out much beyond their first two albums tbh but those two albums were my early '90s jam

i wouldnt venture much farther out tbh

adam & eve adam & eve adam & eve

wait: happy days is ok too. but only chrome and ferment are covered by the stuff i said earlier. i havent given adam and eve its due time, maybe, but it didnt really reach me when i listened to it before. the things i like about CW are missing from it

it's not shoegazey at all but it's their best songwriting imo

but basically the things i like about cw: unbelievable melodies

and the precise guitar harmonics in "delicious" fuck with my head at least as much as the vivid blurs on ferment

melodies, layers of guitar, awesome voice, naked emotions lol

same

and the words. even when they look stupid on paper, the words always sound great.

will say that the words on adam and eve are particularly stupid

haha well, maybe that's why i hated it

i'll commit to revisiting it tonight and seeing. also the solo album (s? is there more than one?) stunk imo. his shit just doesn't work for me without all the loud guitars.

"Delicious" is sooooo good. The singing is good, but the song maxes out going into the last chorus when the guitars and drums all explode together.

The duet with Tanya Donelly, "Judy Staring At The Sun" on "Happy Days" is great.

Peaked with chrome. Adam and Eve has some nice too but awful cringy vocals/lyrics

"Phantom of the america mother" is so horrible, it's like the worst coldplay song that never existed.

Wishville is atrocious

They were fantastic live

Adam & Eve is like a Pink Floyd that actually rock it's phenomenal, I'm drunk too

lol

What does this mean? Is there new stuff or is this for reissues?

I think it ended up being their early EPs going to streaming or something. However! Renewed hope:

https://www.stereogum.com/2280544/catherine-wheel-frontman-hasnt-seen-his-former-bandmates-in-24-years-but-does-think-theyll-eventually-reunite/news/