The case against:
The Indie Eurythmics - mates of Dave Stewart's; singer Toni Halliday had less than credible past as big-haired pouting 'rock' wannabe; guitarist Dean Garcia as a session guitarist. Gained attention by tapping their music biz connections and got lucky by surfing the 'shoegaze' zeitgeist. Waned along with it, though continued to release records no-one bought. Inspired Garbage. Despised by NME.
The case for:
Fused big brutal hardcore beats (and sometimes even rap) with My Bloody Valentine/post-grunge/industrial noise, angsty neo-goth lyrical content and infectious melodic hooks. Frequently brilliant live (Reading 1991, Glastonbury 1992). First two (pre-LP) EPs flawless and still sought after. Made big siren noises! Inspired Garbage. Despised by NME.
The evidence before the court:
From the Blindfold EP (1991)
Curve - 'Ten Little Girls'
Curve - 'I Speak Your Every Word'
Curve - 'No Escape From Heaven'
From the Frozen EP (1991)
Curve - 'Coast Is Clear'
Curve - 'Frozen'
The verdict 16 years on - yours.
Have taken you up on that kind offer JC, thanks hugely.
ReplyDeleteAm planning more Shoegaze Memories over the coming weeks.
I know! The suspense!
HI Davy, thanks for your comment on my blog! Yours is no slouch either...some fantastic stuff I've never heard. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteCheers Steve!
ReplyDeleteI agree - their cover of I Feel Love rocks out (in a heavy eye-liner kind of way). Cool band, but lost the plot.
ReplyDeleteHey Anon, good post idea...'Cool Bands That Lost The Plot'...
ReplyDeletecount me in the FOR camp. love that shoegaze guitar sound
ReplyDeleteKind of 'drenched' isn't it Brent? Thanks for dropping by and stay tuned - will be posting more shoegazey stuff soon...
ReplyDeleteCurve was brilliant IMO. Nobody else ever melded hard, heavy beats and shoegaze as successfully -- this was a whole new, aggressive world of sound compared to other shoegazers. I never thought they lost the plot except for parts of the Come Clean album -- they recovered later and put out some great material on the albums "Gift" and "The New Adventures of Curve."
ReplyDeleteI confess I don't know the later Curve stuff at all Ike - one thing about them though, they were always interesting weren't they? Thanks for dropping in here and trawling the post archive!!
ReplyDelete