Covers Courageous #9: The Cure - "World in My Eyes" (1998)

With Robert Smith's birthday just coming this week, and my radio show's semi-annual covers show coming up next week, I was inspired to write about this week's cover, The Cure covering Depeche Mode.

In music, some rivalries come about inexplicably, like sports rivalries. Oilers fans hate Flames fans and vice versa. Leafs and Habs fans. White Sox and Cubs fans. You get the idea. Music rivalries seem just as intense, but a bit shorter lived, due to the nature of musical groups. So, in the late 80s, you had Metallica and Megadeth. If you liked one, you couldn't like the other. Or, beefs in hip-hop like LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee, who's musical rivalry lasted over their whole careers and several songs dissing each other. The biggest one in the new wave scene was The Cure vs. Depeche Mode.

The two bands were similar, both from the UK, both part of the new wave scene and both catering to a sort of disenfranchised, bored, suburban youth at the time. The Cure were more cerebral, more dense, more arty. Depeche Mode were more poppy, more dancy and prettier to look at. If you liked the Cure, then you hated DM. If you liked Depeche, you didn't listen to the Cure. Ideally that is.

I wonder sometimes how much these rivalries carry over to the bands themselves. As comical as a rumble (or a glare fight) between fans of the two bands, I just can't see Robert Smith grumbling under his breath about that damned pretty boy Dave Gahan. It seems too ridiculous to me.

I'll admit, when I first saw the compilation, For the Masses, which came out in 1998, I was a bit shocked to see The Cure covering Depeche Mode's "World in My Eyes". I guess I still had it in the back of my mind that these bands hated each other. I was on the Depeche Mode side of that argument, I never really clicked into what The Cure were doing, and I still have trouble accessing exactly why they're considered so brilliant. I like The Cure, but I never loved them as slavishly as many of their fans.

The Cure's take on "World in Your Eyes" is an intriguing one. "World in My Eyes" is from Depeche Mode's most successful album Violator (1990), an album that merges crisp synth-pop with angular guitar. The guitar stuff works great with The Cure's esthetic. Robert Smith adds a muddy and noisy guitar and synth-mess on top of the DM groove. The crisp pop of the original is almost entirely gone, save for a synth bridge between verses. Otherwise, the poppier parts of the song are smeared with obscure lyrics, fuzzed out guitars and foggy production. It's a great melding of what made both bands great.

DNTTA Playlist for August 12, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Away Ri'o! - Only Bad Can Come of This* - All Things Shining (Aaaaargh!)
Brave Radar - Castle Mixer* - Lion Head (Fixture)
Ghost Vines - Fall* - Ghost Vines (Independent)
Bummer Club - Sleep on Me* - Bleeding Fingers and Dying Uncles (Independent)
Casket Girls - Sixteen Forever - The Night Machines (Graveface)
The Stargazer Lillies - Personal Autumn - Door to the Sun (Graveface)
Bob Mould - Black Confetti - Patch the Sky (Merge)
Summering - Careful Creators* - Summering (Independent)
Astral Gunk - Lightnin' Bones* - Shake! Fest 3 (Shake!)
Lab Coast - Wish We Were Anywhere* - Remember the Moon (Wyatt)
Fossil Cliffs - Set You Free* - Enter the Realm (Independent)
Loving - She Refused to Say* - Loving (Independent)

Indie Band Round Up for August 2016

Focusing on some great new electronic artists this time around

An Ant and an Atom

An Ant and an Atom are an expansive, droning electronic project from Lethbridge, AB. They've been around for about three years. They're recorded music for art installations and produce their own visual art too. Their latest is a sprawling 25 minute pieces called "Entropy"


Villas

An electro-pop duo from Toronto, Villas just released a 5 song EP called Medicine this past spring. They sound a lot like Metric with a more electronic focus.

Icicle

Montreal's Icicle already have three albums under their name. Like their band's name, the music they create is cold and distant, evoking sparse electro-pop soundscapes.

Concert Review: Derina Harvey at Music in the Park

Traditional Celtic folk has a beautiful balance between soaring joy and heart-wrenching sorrow. The best Celtic folk hits you right in the pit of your stomach. Derina Harvey and her band definitely hit that spot for me during their concert last night (August 9th).

Derina Harvey is originally from out of the Maritimes, as are her band, but they currently make Edmonton, Alberta their home. As with all the Kamloops Music in the Park shows, they played outside in the Riverside Park Bandshell to a wide range of concert goers, from kids to seniors, in a family friendly environment. Derina's voice propelled the band, and as all good Celtic singers, she has the power of a blues belter combined with the sweet lilt of a Irish folk singer. Her voice was alternately bruising and hauntingly calming. The fiddle player (sorry, I missed his name and it doesn't seem to be on the website) is a very talented musician as well, playing with power and subtlety. With an electric guitar and bass in the band, they were able to slide between traditional folk tunes to upbeat rock styles easily.

As for the music, they played a mix of traditional Celtic tunes, from "What Should We Do with the Drunken Sailor", to Steve Earle's sublime "Galway Girl" and Michael Considine's sad "Spancil Hill". They also peppered their set with original material from their two albums, the highlight being the title track from their latest, "Rove and Go". They also brought out some more mainstream country and folk, covering Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".

If you get a chance, see this band!

DNTTA Playlist for August 5, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Lex Plexus and Nix Nihil - Path of the Lightning Caster* - Sleepcaster EP (Ulusulu)
Carole Pope - World of One* - Transcend (True North)
Programm - Underneath* - A Torrid Marriage of Logic and Emotion (Independent)
Girl Meets Bear - Ignore* - Flight Path EP (Independent)
FDLER - Hubert's Story* - FDLER (Linus)
Mich Cota - Something Impossible* - Sapphic (Port Vanderlay)
Methyl Ethel - Shadowboxing - Oh Inhuman Spectacle (4AD)
The Art of Noise - Opus for Four - In No Sense? Nonsense! (Chrysalis)
Animalia - Against Nature* - Dissonance (Independent)
Year of Glad - Lifetrap* - Oh Hi No. 2 (Oh Hi)
Amplified - Orange Crush* - Black Bear (Independent)

Video Playlist #7: Ride Your Pony

This month's playlists, bands and songs about horses and ponies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSGZ60ZHVmU&list=PL0QOmyo1JgZdYGUcooeCgzrix7ASRT0vF

1) The Fleshtones - Ride Your Pony
2) The Ass Ponys - Astronaut
3) Band of Horses - Casual Party
4) HORSE the Band - Shapeshift
5) Horse Lords - Truthers
6) Horse Feathers - Violently Wild
7) Sparklehorse - Eyepennies
8) Iron Horse - Float On
9) Pale Horse - Finding Solace
10) Acid Horse - No Name, No Slogan
11) The Seahorses - Blinded by the Sun
12) Pony Up!* - The Truth About Cats and Dogs
13) Ponies in the Surf - White Caribou
14) The Oxygen Ponies - Fevered Cyclone
15) Laid Back - White Horse

DNTTA Playlist for July 29, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Beauts - Ether* - Waves/Wash EP (Independent)
Supermoon - Battle Ships* - Playland (Mint)
Jay Arner - Street Freaks* - Jay II (Mint)
The New Pornographers - Letter from an Occupant* - Team Mint 2 (Mint)
Tough Age - Open it Up* - Tough Age (Mint)
Nothing - Vertigo Flowers - Tired of Tomorrow (Relapse)
Frightened Rabbit - Woke Up Hurting - Painting of a Panic Attack
The World Provider - Always* - Always (Independent)
Traitrs - Gallows Hill* - Rites and Ritual (Pleasance)
Motherhood - No Please* - Baby Teeth (Independent)
Towanda - Hedonism* - Plaything (Independent)
Pinner - Pool* - Demo (Independent)
Dri Hiev - Coward Is* - Place to Live (Craft Singles)
Onfiilm - Terror* - Onfiilm (Independent)