siouxsie and the banshees: classic or dud? search and destroy

I was just thinking of Siouxsie the other day -- I saw the 4CD box set used the other day, wondered if i shouldn't go ahead and pick it up. i have all but maybe two of the studio albums. is this worth my money?

Yeah, I think it's well worth it. It's got a lot of totally classic b-sides I remember, sprinkled with plenty of other stuff that wasn't quite as good but almost always interesting. It's also got a lot less of the earliest punk-style stuff than I suspected, which I was glad about.

I was thinking of them just the other day too! Some lyric came into my head..."you're not seeing/what meant to believe in/your non-excuse for a human being..." I think that was it.

i wonder if the rest of the remasters will ever come out.

Hah, I was thinking that the other day.

Box set is totally worth it for the B-sides.

Given that I've just really started getting into Siouxsie and The Banshees recently I thought I'd ressurect this thread.

I had 'Hyena' for a while which I'd bought because of the Robert Smith collection. I recently picked up 'Nocturne' on the basis of Ned's recommendation. Since then I've been super hooked. Bought "Kaleidoscope", "Juju" and "A Kiss in the Dreamhouse" which are all great as well. Will pick up "The Scream" and "Join Hands" this weekend. Given that I've started with live stuff I'm thinking about getting the BBC box when I get paid. What about the remaining albums? What should I prioritise?

I quite like the b-sides boxset: full of oddities and "experiments", but it is great great fun.

I'd pick up the remainder as they get reissued.

I think Severin confirmed somewhere that the rest of the reissues have been cancelled.

WAHT

oh that is BULLSHIT

http://stevenseverin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=557&sid=e7a3abfd7462317614a72f1d472f348e

Unacceptable.

this sucks a lot

Siouxsie and the Banshees Benched Reissues-ees?

i'm not sure those records really need to be remastered. they sound fine. it would be nice to have a full set of the whole catalogue and some other bonus tracks, but I think the critical albums were done. whether you like the mastering job on them is another thing entirely I suppose.

I was using the reissues as an excuse to build up my Banshee catalogue; before now, I had cassette copies of Hyaena, Tinderbox and Peepshow and a copy of Superstition on CD. Now I have them all up through Kiss in the Dreamhouse.

Just buy the damn things, Dan, they are super cheap used at a ton of stores.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Apopular%2Ck%3Asiouxsie&keywords=siouxsie&ie=UTF8&qid=1266439875

http://www.secondspin.com/search.jsp?page=1&type=music.keyword.buy&query=siouxsie

Through The Looking Glass... great covers album or the greatest covers album?

It's the covers album that, when I was 14, turned me on to lots of bands by virtue of making me look for them. Back before the internet, that took a certain amount of work...and they didn't make it easy, not listing the original artists in the liner notes and all.

it was years before I knew that "wheel's on fire" was a cover. siouxsie's still sounds like the right one to me.

Hello. So a few weeks back there was that photo of Siouxsie, Steve Severin and Marc Almond at the _Hannibal_ season premiere event in the UK, and that was cool and all. Apparently it's just been announced that's there's a whole new Siouxsie and the Banshees track for the season finale!

https://twitter.com/TVKevLance/status/620028442172481536

I would certainly be up for some new Siouxsie with Banshees in tow!

Been playing a lot of Siouxsie lately. I don't know why this stuff never really clicked for me sixteen or seventeen years ago when I was really getting into the Cure for the first time. I certainly gave them a chance around that time — guess I just kind of glossed it all over. I was possibly wanting more of a melodic sound similar to the Cure. But, the guitar work has revealed itself on those early records to be, yes a bit more atonal, but ultimately just fantastic throughout.

And such a solid run up through and including Peepshow.

Think my fav banshees atm is a kiss in the dreamhouse

That one has some truly great material on it ('Cascade', 'Painted Bird' and especially 'Slowdive'), but it kind of feels second tier to me when surrounded by Juju and Hyæna.

Curiously, I too admire them more now than I did then. A top twenty-five.

Awesome list! Cool to see "Dazzle" on here - particularly like the "Baby Piano" version

yes!

Good summary. Their best overlooked song is "Fireworks". And "The Thorn EP" is their hidden gem.

<3 "Slowdive", it really is a disorienting listen. Agreed about the peak 3 albums, they were a big deal to me in the 80's.

Um. Where is "Night Shift"? Also, "Suburban Relapse", "Icon", "Playground Twist", "Monitor", "92 Degrees", "Land's End", "Voodoo Dolly"

For that matter, where is "Nightshift"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs

they could've covered "Nightshift" in the style of Peepshow.

I'm 100% behind that list.

A, LS: your essay, along with the latest Prince developments, got it in my head that S&TB and Prince were walking oddly parallel paths through the 80s, if you exchange punk roots with funk roots. 1980-1990, both had a nearly perfect run of singles that toyed with new wave, pop, psychedelia and dance music in equal measures. They were juggling kink and camp and high art, and I see a lot of matches between the mood and production on their big singles. Like, the opening to this "Dazzle" remix could easily break into "Take Me With You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAOOUR2KCpg

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

Some of it is just the gated snare and polyrhythms that were standard in 1984, but both artists were very good at balancing the gaudy and the raw and feeling like outsiders when they were right in the middle of everything.

then it all comes apart after 1988?

Fascinating analysis – thanks!

Yeah, 88 is where it gets shaky. Their respective landscapes get taken over by sample-heavy hip hop and shoegaze, trends that owed a lot to them but they were too established to comfortably capitalize upon. 3 Feet High and Rising, Isn't Anything owe them tons.

"Night Shift" is my all-time Siouxsie track

It's totally alien to me -- the omission of The Lord's Prayer from any list or overarching discussion about this band's history

I think "The Lord's Prayer" is more interesting as an artifact than it is enjoyable to listen to. I feel that way about large sections of Join Hands actually, unless I happen to be super pissed off and hating everything in which case the whole album slides into focus and is perfect.

^^^ otm

That said, "Playground Twist" and "Icon" rule

I think "The Lord's Prayer" is more interesting as an artifact than it is enjoyable to listen to.

totally disagree, but it's one of those things like tunafish sandwiches, where I acknowledge and respect the popularity of the opposite viewpoint, even though I'm shaking my head dolefully as I type.

is "The Lord's Prayer" the tuna fish sandwich

the opposite.

Jake Tapper ‏@jaketapper
A friend of Harward's says he was reluctant to take NSA job bc the WH seems so chaotic; says Harward called the offer a "shit sandwich."

Do wish there was a decent recording of their original take on Lord's Prayer from the 100 Club. Different line up improvising on the spot. May have been a better idea than execution but seems archetypal.
Marco Pirroni on guitar, was it Sid on drums?

iirc yes

Jake Tapper ‏@jaketapper
A friend of Harward's says he was reluctant to take NSA job bc the WH seems so chaotic; says Harward called the offer a "shit sandwich."

― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.),

is this what "This Wheel's On Fire" is about

Icons falling from the spiiiiiirrrrrrrres