Archive for the 2007 tag

Editors: Lullaby

It seems like I've been posting a lot of covers lately. I hope you don't mind, but here's another, a bit inspired by Nocturna this evening. If you've somehow managed to not hear Editors before, go check them out; this may be a cover, but it's an excellent example of their style.

In a statement about their most recent album and criticism of its tone, Tom Smith wrote, "dark is interesting, dark is exciting, dark can be funny, there’s real life in the dark, real life IS dark...I am so fucking bored of people asking us why we’re so “dark”, or worse questioning our integrity for being this way, this is how we do it, it excites us to express ourselves like this, to be honest we don't even understand what the alternative is and the alternatives we can imagine are too boring for us to even consider". Did he just write the Grufti Manifesto?*

Who better to rework a Cure song, then, than Editors? Smith invokes Ian Curtis to make Robert Smith's lyrics a little more paranoid, but I'm still not buying that he's really afraid of "the spider man". In fact, I suspect that he might just be inviting him over for dinner.

This track is taken from the BBC Radio 1 Established 1967 2 disc compilation, released in 2007 and bizarrely listed as being a Kaiser Chiefs album (they contributed the first track). It chronicles 40 years of the legendary radio show with 40 artists doing a cover for each year. Editors were assigned 1989; they certainly did right to choose a song off of Disintegration.

official website
Buy Editors on Amazon.com

*I prefer the word "grufti" because it's much more inclusive than "goth". I encourage you to use it as well!

Maethelvin: Plan B

I've been hanging out with the local disco crew lately (see events at right), and it's starting to rub off, I think, because I keep playing Maethelvin on Thursdays. You'd never believe this song is only a couple of years old; if I didn't know better, I might have guessed it was from a Miami Vice soundtrack. Probably the least known act from the Valerie Collective, Maethelvin has been quietly producing great analog synth drenched music in France for a few years now, but we'll have to keep waiting for a full length. In the meantime, listen to "Plan B" and check out the fantastic new exclusive Flashworx remix of "Delight" available over at Random Trax, too.

Maethelvin on Myspace
Buy Maethelvin from the Valerie Collective

theSTART: Wartime! (It’s Time 2 Go Now)

This is theSTART...

Kissing their metal & art-rock bands goodbye in the late 90's, vocalist Aimee Echo (Human Waste Project) and swiss army knife multi-instrumentalist Jamie Miller (Snot) bonded over a mutual love for 80's New Wave, ranging from the Cure to Missing Persons to Depeche Mode. They formed a new band together in Los Angeles soon after, encouraging their fans to "rise up & dance to a different beat" on their debut album Shakedown!. The couple provided a soundtrack for the future with memories of the past - new wave for now people.

With three albums and an EP under their belts, theSTART's latest release Ciao, Baby was issued under Metropolis Records. Echo's unique sprite-like delivery recalls the squeaks & squeals of a modern day Lene Lovich or Dale Bozzio, while in the next breath morphing into a howling Siouxsie Sioux or Exene Cervenka. Miller's guitar soundscapes are reminiscent of the early 4AD roster or bands like Bauhaus & the Chameleons. His lush keyboards shimmer, the perfect accent to Echo's pop melodies to create a sound of their own.

Featured here is Ciao, Baby's opening track "Wartime! (It's Time 2 Go Now)" as well as a cover of one of the band's favorite songs, "Cities in Dust" by Siouxsie & the Banshees.

theSTART on Myspace
theSTART website

theSTART are still active & are currently focusing on a new experimental project Normandie. And no, my love for theSTART isn't simply because Echo & I share the same hair stylist & both know the Marilyn Monroe secret! Enjoy & dance. The circle is ever larger...