Archive for the 1992 tag

Recoil: Faith Healer

Tuesday. Tuesday...I never thought next Tuesday would ever happen. Way back in the wee days of the internet, I was on the Recoil official mailing list--back when that meant daily emails of conversing with other fans, and sometimes Alan Wilder himself, who is surprisingly approachable for someone who used to be a very key member in one of the most important electronic bands ever.

We begged, and begged, but he said it couldn't be done. Recoil could never tour, could never even do a live show... there were just too many people involved. We couldn't expect him to actually pack Douglas McCarthy, Toni Halliday, Moby, Maggie Estep, Siobhan Lynch, Nicole Blackman, Samantha Coerbell, Hildia Cambell, and Diamanda Galás all on a tour bus. Oh come on, we could dream, right?

I guess Alan changed his mind, because he's on tour, and he's coming to The Metro on Tuesday night with Gary Numan. After a LOT of digging around, I was able to discern that he actually accomplished this by bringing no vocalists at all; in their place is film, with imagery chosen specifically for each piece. It's not Diamanda Galás and Douglas McCarthy hanging out on a bus, but I'll take what I can get.

Though nearly impossible given all the options, I choose Recoil's first single and most well-known track, a cover of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "Faith Healer" featuring Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) from Bloodline*. I can't say it's a good representation of Recoil, because each album and even each song is a work of art that stands on its own, ranging from vintage Bukka White placed over minimal electro and Maggie Estep's hilarious spoken words to Diamanda Galás screeching in tongues and Toni Halliday screaming hate over industrial like nothing you'd ever imagine listening to her spacerocky Curve albums. And I'm not even touching on the whole plane-crash-as-concept-album thing...

official website
buy Bloodline on Amazon.com

*trivia: Foetus also covered this song on Rife, ergo this track is often mistaken for a Foetus cover, not to say that Thirwell's version didn't influence this one.

30 Years of The Cure

Robert Smith's tips to sustaining a long career:

• Write good songs: "I could write songs as bad as Wham's if I really felt the urge to, but what's the point?"

• Don't worry about status: "I'm not going to worry about the Cure slipping down into the second division; it doesn't bother me because I never expected to be in the first division anyway."

• Don't do it for the money: "I've never wanted a group to ever fall out about money. It's not important. We earn far more than we should anyway."

• Be inspired and love what you do: "I do a job I really, really love and I kind of have fun with. People think you can't be grown up unless you're moaning about your job."

• Do things in moderation: “I think the rock'n'roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap.”

• Don't worry about what people say or think about you: " Most of the time I'm a professional idiot. I really don't care about what other people think, which can be a bad thing."

• Know when to quit: "If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately."

The Cure on Amazon.com
band website: www.thecure.com