I’ve been a bit behind on Interpol lately but just found the video for Lights from their forthcoming self titled album due out on September 11. As everyone has been saying, this album is expected to be a return to much of the sounds and atmosphere of Turn On The Bright Lights. The video for Lights and the song itself are hopefully a good clue into what will likely be one of the best albums of the year.
All my favorite bands combined probably don’t have the place in my musical heart that The Cure do. As a highly influenced 5th grader around 1988, I was lucky to have a sister 10 years older than me, as well as some older neighbors who were into everything the UK had to throw at the music world. My sister made a mix cassette for me that I still have to this day that included most of The Cure’s album Standing On A Beach / Staring At The Sea, and from the very first guitar riff in Killing An Arab, I was hooked. The intro to Jumping Someone Else’s Train to this day is still probably my favorite guitar part ever.
The Cure are releasing an incredible deluxe version of Disintegration on June 8th, and fans who consider this their finest album will no doubt be pleased with it. A web site dedicated to the album is up and features a ton of instrumental demos and live songs from the album. Disintegration might actually be the first tape I bought - it may have been a Christmas gift, and it was also the Christmas I got my first stereo. I remember hours and hours of going to bed with headphones on playing that tape over and over. I don’t know why I find it strange these days to look back and think of a 6th grade kid obsessing over music at all, but I just didn’t know that many kids who were into anything like I was listening to at the time, like The Smiths, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, etc. In a pre-Internet world, I have to say it’s awesome to think any of that stuff was even accessible to me. Again, thanks to my sister and neighbors!
The Cure have had far more influence on my songwriting and guitar playing than anyone else as well. When I got my first guitar in 1992, after slowly getting the hang of it, the only thing that came natural to my ears were minor notes and depressing chord structures. Anyone who I’ve played or written music with over the years will tell you what a struggle it often is for me to write anything upbeat or cheerful. Thankfully, I’ve come around here and there, but I gladly go back to the late 80’s and the influence The Cure had on me as the reason why my guitar style is what it is.
If you are a huge Cure fan, I highly suggest heading over to the Disintegration web site and checking it out. The music section is a must and the Prayers For Rain Instrumental Home Demo is absolutely chilling. The full three-disc set will be released on June 8 in the US for $40, or $20 for digital download. There’s also a double-disc vinyl of the original album for $25. Full track listing after the jump.
I’m currently watching a really great documentary on synthesizers in Britain that is an incredible look at the early days of synth-pop. As a kid I was hugely into Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, The Cure, and plenty of other UK bands that were using synths in their music, so this video is pretty much taking me down memory lane.
From the BBC web site:
In the late Seventies small pockets of electronic artists such as The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle were inspired by Kraftwerk and J G Ballard to dream of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
Gary Numan’s 1979 appearance on Top Of The Pops heralded the invention of synthpop, which would provide the soundtrack as Britain entered a new, ruthless era in the Eighties.
Depeche Mode, four lads from Basildon, came to embody the new sound, while post-punk bands such as Ultravox, Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Yazoo took the synth from the pages of the NME and onto the front cover of Smash Hits.
By 1983 the Pet Shop Boys and New Order were pointing to where the future of electronic music lay – in dance.
Contributors to Synth Britannia include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
For more information visit the BBC web site here.
