expect delay
This probably ad-libbed birthday song from The Cure’s May 1980 show at Scala in Herford, West Germany was directed to bassist Simon Gallup on the eve of his 20th birthday, but we’ll turn it around today to wish Robert Smith a happy 62nd birthday today.
Thanks to Cocteau Twins Simon Raymonde for taking care of doing all the background on this post, via the band’s Facebook page. It’s also cool to note that in addition to their official website being an active, living archive of everything about the band, their socials are also being kept active by a member of […]
I launched this blog with some Swervedriver content – a shot of Adam Franklin’s pedalboard from their October 2019 show at The Horseshoe – but haven’t actually talked about the band since then, so let’s rectify that, starting with some guitar-centric material since you can’t like Swervedriver and not care about guitars. I actually don’t […]
Which is more classic? This song, the first single from Roxy Music’s final album – 1982’s Avalon – or Bryan Ferry’s leather jacket tux look from the video. Honestly, it’s a coin toss but for our purposes let’s just say it comes up “song” and move on. This “performance” on German television programme Na sowas! […]
While any live band performance television footage from yesteryear is kind of a gift, most of it is pretty low-res, VHS rip quality and while it may be period-correct but not necessarily a lot of fun to watch. So this recently-surfaced high-quality (well, 480p) clip of Ride tearing up British programme The Happening (not to […]
Sonic Cathedral turned the UK’s first COVID lockdown into content last year, soliciting quarantine listening selections from dreampop and shoegaze artists for their Isolationism series. Slowdive drummer Simon Scott chose the 1986 collaboration between The Moon and The Melodies between minimalist composer Harold Budd and Cocteau Twins, describing how its soothing blend of ambience and […]
A little more Creation Records content to close out the week, from one of the label’s simultaneously bigger yet under-appreciated acts, The Boo Radleys. Their 1993 opus Giant Steps bridged 1991’s fuzz-drenched Everything’s Alright Forever and the chart-topping sunshine of 1995’s Wake Up!, and is often slotted as either shoegaze or Britpop. Both of which […]
It’s been an unofficial kind of My Bloody Valentine week, what with the band’s catalog returning to streaming services globally and coming back into print, albeit with some confusion around what versions are available in what form and where. Basically, you can’t buy the Domino versions of Isn’t Anything or Loveless – in other words, […]
I can’t say I was too invested in the artistic success of Creation Stories, the film adaptation of Creation Records honcho Alan McGee’s 2013 memoir Creation Stories: Riots, Raves, and Running a Label, but was at least hoping it would be a decent ’90s companion piece of sorts to 24 Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom’s […]
Quick one for today, taken from the Bills & Aches & Blues compilation that pairs artists from 4AD’s current roster with songs from the label’s past. Obviously pretty much anything the label has ever put out would fall under the mandate of this site, but I’m particularly partial to this one that pairs Daughter frontwoman […]
