Month: May 2014

The Cure’s Robert Smith “secrets of his guitar sound”

Robert Smith of The Cure at Leeds festivalIf you’re into guitars and FX, then you may well like this article on the evolution of the guitar style of the Cure’s Robert Smith.  (You may also like this diagram of Geordie’s [Killing Joke] guitar sound.)

This post is about the guitar sound of Robert Smith of The Cure, a sound that involves a Roland Jazz Chorus amp, Boss pedals and much more, and we’ll get into the specifics in a bit, but the quest for that sound for me started with a local star from my hometown… Adrian S. is a legend in certain circles, and one of the few guitar players I’ve known to pay proper respect to The Cure. When I was in a band called Match Party with Adrian S. (check out footage of him at the bottom of the post), he would not begin the show until whoever was within ear shot answered a series of trick questions about the sound of his American Special Fender Stratocaster as he was setting up. (Disclaimer: he no longer does this, by the way.)

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Nick Cave’s performs “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)” for Mark Ryden’s LP “The Gay Nineties” (and video)

old_tyme_music1A cover of ‘Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)’ by Nick Cave features on a new charity album compiled by artist Mark Ryden.

The LP ‘The Gay Nineties Old Tyme Music: Daisy Bell’, which also features covers of the same song by Tyler the Creator, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Katy Perry, will be released on May 13th here as part of Ryden’s new exhibit at Kohn Gallery in LA, ‘The Gay 90s”. The album will be pressed on 180-gram red vinyl and costs $99.99, with the proceeds going to Little Kids Rock.

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“His Catastrophic Plan” Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ “Let Love In”

Nick+Cave+-+Let+Love+In+-+CD+ALBUM-515835Yet another beautifully written article from the Quietus, this time about Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds‘ LP “Let Love In”.  I’m not sure about the conclusions though – I think this is a long way from being the best Bad Seeds’ LP.

The title of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ eighth studio album was not, as some may have expected, ironic or sarcastic. He may sometimes be theatrical, he may sometimes be hyperbolic, but the Black Crow King is never one to make light of what he knows to be the biggest governing force in his life. At the beginning of 1993, Cave was recently married, reveling in fatherhood and was by his own account a happier human being than he’d been in some time. He had just returned to London after spending three years with his young family in Brazil and, after a few extra jaunts about Europe with the Bad Seeds hot off the success of Henry’s Dream, Cave holed up in a little pub on Portobello Road and began writing his next album. And while death still pervades and darkness still penetrates its lines, domestic bliss made Let Love In a comparatively positive record.

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The Jesus and Mary Chain to perform “Psychocandy” live

psychocandyThe Jesus and Mary Chain is set to perform its landmark 1985 debut Psychocandy in its entirety at three U.K. concerts this November ahead of the record’s 30th anniversary next year, the NME is reporting today. The shows will be the band’s first in the U.K. since 2008.

According to the music publication, the Mary Chain will perform the album, and more, in London, Manchester and Glasgow on Nov. 19, 20 and 21. Tickets are set to go on sale 9 a.m. Friday in the U.K.

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The Quietus on Coldplay’s new LP – “from its arse to its f***ing elbow, one, long stagnant f***ing pool of premium grade f***ing cockwash”

ColdplayBest. Review. Ever.

Two years in the making, alternative rock band Coldplay’s new album, essentially a concept piece about Chris Martin’s break-up with Gwyneth Paltrow, has certainly garnered a number of extremely favourable reviews. In today’s harsh critical climate when major groups can expect to be torn to pieces by a fearless music press regardless of the consequences, that’s remarkable indeed. It’s all the more remarkable given that all things considered, Ghost Stories is from its arse to its f***ing elbow, one, long stagnant f***ing pool of premium grade f***ing cockwash! I would rather chew off my f***ing scrotum than ever listen again to this boneless f***ing melange of morose f***ing piss-shit! I would rather eat an entire f***ing yurt, washed down with f***ing beige paint recently shat out of an incontinent yak’s anus! Put it this way; so remorselessly insubstantial is this album that if it were submitted to the f***ing British Homeopathic Association as a f***ing potential remedy, they’d f***ing knock it back, saying: “No good, mate. You’ve over-diluted it, you silly twat!”

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