The Cure face into 2019 with what may be their most exciting year of recent times whilst giving the fans everything they have wished for.
“I think people admire us, even if they don’t particularly get the music”.-Robert Smith
On the back of this year’s successful fortieth-anniversary show with the very well received Hyde Park concert in London, which presented the band with a new leash of life as they blasted through a twenty-nine song set.
At the time however news slowly filtered through surrounding the band booking studio time, which has now been confirmed, The Cure will release their first album in over a decade in 2019.Since the start of October with the string of European dates were announced by The Cure to peak excitement, some, including the Dublin show at Malahide castle sold out within three-hours, showing the fan base for the band which is still as strong as ever.
This month though things took a twist as all Cure fans got an early Christmas present. It was announced on December-13th that the band are being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for 2019 in March.
With this announcement, frontman Robert Smith used it as the launch pad to break the news that The Cure are returning to the studio in six-weeks to put the finishing touches to album number fourteen, the follow up to 2008’s “4:13 Dream”. Of course there is another factor to get excited about, this will be the first album to feature Bowie-sideman Reeves Gabrels who will bring his unique, ambient-blast of screaming guitar to proceedings. The pairing of Gabrels and Smith should make for a very interesting album indeed.
To wet your appetite, the 40th anniversary show set list from the eight-of-July;
“Plainsong”
“Pictures of You”
“High”
“A Night Like This”
“The Walk”
“The End of the World”
“Lovesong”
“Push”
“In Between Days”
“Just Like Heaven”
“If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”
“Play for Today”
“A Forest”
“Shake Dog Shake”
“Burn”
“Fascination Street”
“Never Enough”
“From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
“Disintegration”
Encore:
“Lullaby”
“The Caterpillar”
“Friday I’m in Love”
“Close to Me”
“Why Can’t I Be You?”
“Boys Don’t Cry”
“Jumping Someone Else’s Train”
“Grinding Halt”
“10:15 Saturday Night”
“Killing an Arab”
Check out the below clip which shows Gabrels in full feedback mode.
Kevin Burke Dec 2018
If you had some doubts, now it is sure: The Arch is back on a roll! Quick reminder: early 2018 the band from Breendonk started to release each month a new song along with a video, which should then form around the end of the year a new album with 12 tracks. It seemed a bit ambitious. The intervals between songs got longer, but the quality has been impressive. The last single 'Yoga Noise' was released early November, and look: one month later we're surprised again with 'Joan's In Prison'. Again you'll hear a nice combination of guitars and electronics, and again there's a beautiful video where the band asked some common friends and acquaintances to sing the song in front of the camera. (xk)
Last week The Arch also proved to be in great shape live at our Dark Entries Night. Anyone who wants to see the band live in the coming months can do so at the following locations:
- 19/01/2019: met Clan of Xymox, Garagesound, Bari, Italië
- 19/04/2019: Wol'n Bak Festival, Jeugdhuis De Schakel, Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, België
- 27/04/2019: met Clan of Xymox, De Cacaofabriek, Helmond, Nederland
- 28/04/2019: Wavefest, Baroeg, Rotterdam, Nederland
- 18/05/2019: New Waves Day, Oberhausen, Duitsland
Read our interview where The Arch speaks about the first six singles of 2018
Zevende single op rij van The Arch: Joan's In Prison
Er was even twijfel, maar nu is het zeker: The Arch is terug op dreef! Ter herinnering: begin 2018 nam de groep uit Breendonk zich voor om maandelijks een nummer met video uit te brengen, die dan tegen het eind van het jaar een nieuwe plaat met 12 nummers moesten vormen. Het bleek wat hooggegrepen. De intervallen tussen de nummers werd langer, ook al was de kwaliteit indrukwekkend. De laatste single 'Yoga Noise' verscheen begin november, en zie: een maand later worden we alweer verrast met 'Joan's In Prison'. Opnieuw horen we een knappe combinatie van gitaren en elektronica, en opnieuw is er een knappe video waarin de groep aan een resem vrienden en kennissen gevraagd heeft om het nummer mee te zingen voor de camera. (xk)
Verleden week bewees The Arch op onze Dark Entries Night ook liev in topvorm te verkeren. Wie de groep de komende maanden aan het werk wil zien kan dat op de volgende plaatsen:
- 19/01/2019: met Clan of Xymox, Garagesound, Bari, Italië
- 19/04/2019: Wol'n Bak Festival, Jeugdhuis De Schakel, Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, België
- 27/04/2019: met Clan of Xymox, De Cacaofabriek, Helmond, Nederland
- 28/04/2019: Wavefest, Baroeg, Rotterdam, Nederland
- 18/05/2019: New Waves Day, Oberhausen, Duitsland
Lees ons interview waarin The Arch tekst en uitleg geeft bij de eerste zes singles uit 2018
PiL used to sing back then 'This is not a lovesong'. Now guess who's imitating them... Before Rammstein there was Oomph, the pioneers of what was later called the Neue Deutsche Härte. This mix of electro and guitars has not gone unnoticed and the band experienced one success after the other in the 90's. They've kept being active and will come back early 2019 with their 13th album. It will be released on January18th but a first extract is already available. And so let's get back to 'This is not a lovesong', as the song is called 'Kein Liebeslied'. The song's not about love, but about the evolution of mankind and the question about what we have already achieved after all this 'progress'. The new album promises Oomph grand cru! (xk, Dark Entries Magazine)
'This is not a lovesong', zong PiL destijds, en raad eens wie hen dat nu nadoet... Voor Rammstein was er reeds Oomph, de pioniers van wat later de Neue Deutsche Härte zou worden genoemd. De mix tussen electro en gitaren sloeg vonken en de jaren 90 vloog de groep van het ene succes naar het andere. De groep is nooit gestopt en komt begin 2019 terug met hun dertiende studioplaat. Die komt op 18 januari uit, maar er is nu reeds een eerste nummer vrijgegeven. En dan komen we terug bij 'This is not a lovesong', want het nummer heet 'Kein Liebeslied'. Het nummer gaat niet over liefde, maar over de evolutie van de mensheid en de vraag wat we na al die 'vooruitgang' reeds bereikt hebben. De nieuwe plaat belooft Oomph grand cru te worden! (xk, Dark Entries Magazine)
Today, forty-seven years ago the late David Bowie released his first masterwork, Hunky Dory.
“Look out, you rock & rollers."
Following on from the garage-rock of “The Man Who Sold The World” the formula was now in place for Bowie to push the boundaries that bit further and make the world sit up and take notice, his travels to America had inspired the writing of his first masterpiece, the culture and the music soaked into his songs, from the Velvet Underground to Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol, all would play a role in the dynamic of David Bowie’s creativity.
From the infectious opener “Changes”, an instant pop-classic with the catchy chorus which would foretell Bowie’s career, the path he would take and the warning to the music world of his arrival.
“Oh! You Pretty Things”, this was “Starman” part-one, the full lineup of the Spiders coming into their own for the first time with the aid of Rick Wakeman on piano.
As “Life On Mars?” became the pivotal Bowie track of the day, the transcendent chorus, the uplifting piano working in partnership with the guitar solos, images of America and childhood dreams:
“It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again”.
On “Quicksand” he went shoulder to shoulder with the songwriting greats of the day in this tale which dealt with the occult, the Second World War and most surprisingly Aleister Crowley and The Golden Dawn. Bowie was at his darkest, pulling images and characters from the abyss and casting them in his latest play;
“I'm the twisted name on Garbo's eyes,Living proof of Churchill's lies, I'm destiny. I'm torn between the light and dark, Where others see their targets, divine symmetry”
The driving acoustic guitar of “Andy Warhol”, a psychedelic-ballad, an ode to art and it’s creator, though being able to sum up Bob Dylan in one line is an accomplishment all of its own, in his tribute to the folk-troubadour Bowie nailed it perfectly on “Song For Dylan”;
“With a voice like sand and glue”
“Queen Bitch”, was the template for the following albums, Bowie on acoustic guitar, Ronson tearing up a riff similar to The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane”, the melodic bass-run by Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey hammering out the drums, Bowie went at a sonic pace into area of a Glam-Rock.
The sinister folk of “The Bewlay Brothers”, a nightmare which would have fit in on the “The Man Who Sold The World”, the schizophrenic lyrics are terrifying, closing the album in a weirdness, to leave fans and critics warped;
“With our backs on the arch
And if the Devil may be here
But he can't sing about that
Oh, and we were gone”.
The songs were refined so well the album only took two-weeks to record at Trident Studios, he always worked at a frantic speed, creating the cabaret melodrama set the course for his career, his partnership with The Spiders and a world ready for the name Bowie.
A year later the glamrock-alien Ziggy Stardust would land to earth, taking the guitar driven elements of ‘Hunky Dory’ and releasing an album which would change music forever.
Tracklist:
01 “Changes”
02 “Oh! You Pretty Things”
03 “Eight Line Poem”
04 “Life on Mars?”
05 “Kooks”
06 “Quicksand”
07 “Fill Your Heart”
08 “Andy Warhol”
09 “Song for Bob Dylan”
10 “Queen Bitch”
11 “The Bewlay Brothers”
Kevin Burke Dec18
Blutengel are on the hunt and the hunt promises to be a victory because the band concentrates on its strengths for Vampire to create a new hit and a potential classic.
Vampire is the second single from the upcoming album Un:Gott. It has a bombastic arrangement in the tradition of songs such as Black or Walk Away. Promising, when looking forward to the new album...
In addition Pseudokrupp Project and Six Faces have both contributed a remix. The first very danceable, the second one rockin'.
