3 posts tagged “4ad”
Granted, I've loved everything Tanya has done since her days back in the Throwing Muses, from her first album offering Green through The Real Ramona's Not Too Soon, her work with Kim Deal in both Breeders and This Mortal Coil, and her own projects including Belly and her self-titled albums, but 'Vanilla" is really a rare gem, one of those hard-to-find songs that are worth every minute and penny of your searching, because the reward of getting your hands on the tune is SO heart warming, catchy, full of Tanya Donelly goodness.
Just the other day I was telling my friend Gerg that I consider Tanya one of the finest songwriters out of that whole Alt/Rock movement, in MY opinion , anyway!
The pic on the side isn't the cover for Vanilla, by the way, as most fans will recognize it as the cover to "The Bright Light", but the blurry cover of the Pretty Deep 7" isn't so great, and Tanya looks just fantastic on this cover, so I opted for this one instead!
I first heard of of Lush when their album Spooky conquered the College Radio charts. I remember being impressed because that album sat at the top of the college chart for weeks! But there was so much great new music coming out around that time, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard any of their songs on the radio yet. It wasn’t until months later when a friend brought over the Spooky LP that I discovered I already DID like a song of theirs, the awesome For Love, which had been in rotation while that album was dominating the college airwaves.
About a half a year later, I started working nights at an Art Studio with this really cool guy named Steve, who became my alternative music guru. One night we were talking about musical groups we were fans of, and he asked me, “Do you like 4AD Groups?” I had to pause and think before asking, “Wha…what ‘s 4AD?”
He explained that 4AD was a music label ,a pretty eclectic music label, at that, and he was an absolute fan of the groups in the roster. He was especially appreciative of 4AD’s unique artistic covers, featuring moody dreamlike designs by Vaughan Oliver.
He then proceeded to run down the list of some of his favorite artists on the label, and there were a few that I actually DID like, such as Cocteau Twins, Clan Of Xymox, Pixies, and his favorite group at the time: LUSH!
I mentioned that I DID get to hear the album Spooky, and I did like that song of theirs “For Love”, but didn’t really know too much more about them. He asked if I’d ever seen how the group looked, in particular the lead singer, to which I answered a polite, “No.”.
He smiled and said, “O.K…I’m gonna make you a VHS tape of some of their videos.”
Well, Steve was true to his word, and the very next week, he gave me a videotape with maybe six or seven LUSH videos, and quite frankly, yes, I was blown away! The songs were just terrific, the group looked cool, and the two girl vocalist / guitarists, well…what can I say? They were just beautiful!
The VHS tape Steve made for me had a the PV for “For Love”, as well as a few other videos for songs I only vaguely remembered hearing from Spooky, “Superblast!”, and the ultra-gorgeous “Nothing Natural” vid. He also included earlier songs from the band that I just fell in love with as soon as I heard them, “Sweetness and Light”, and a beautiful video for what has become my favorite clip of Lush, the incredible “De-Luxe”. From that point on, I was hooked! The two LPs that were out, GALA and SPOOKY, became some of our most-played discs at that studio late at night!
When I started working at Tower Records, I met a couple of really cool chicks named Christl and Leigh, and boy, these were some MAJOR Lush fans…I remember their lockers were covered with Lush pics, and as I recall, Christl was even in the Lush fan club, or at least had access to the fan club letters (which printed LYRICS, a must for the burgeoning Lush Fan!), and she really widened my scope of the world of Miki and Emma! (Christl also was a big TORI AMOS fan along with me, and she even introduced me to the band IVY, as mentioned in a previous post!) It was a wonderful time, because I made friends with these big fans just as Lush was set to release their NEW album, SPLIT! There was a LOT of excitement that year, I tell you!
Not only was there new LUSH music to listen to and learn, but there also was a whole slew of new Lush VIDEOS to get and love! Then the crowning present that year came when my friend Herb visited a Music store in Pennsylvania and bought me a COMPLETE Bootleg LUSH CONCERT! This was the famous Texas show, and I was simply blown away. To see them performing an entire concert was incredible, the quality was A+ perfect, and Oh My did Miki look just GORGEOUS! What a Gift!
It’s probably around this point that I morphed into a manic “must have it all” Lush fan, and I soon discovered there were TONS of Lush songs out there, tucked onto flip-sides, One-off compilations and EP bonus tracks, that needed to be acquired! Soon I was picking up different 4AD single variations, collections like “Alvin Lives in Leeds” and those terrific “Volume” series for collectible Lush stuff!
There were these three cool musicians I knew (Ray, Jon and Misti, by name!), who loved Lush as much as I did, and they invited me to play in a side-band project they had which did very Miki Berinyi-ish shoegazer music! I happily agreed, and for a while there, we were rockin some pretty nice tunes! We even did out version of “I wanna Be Your Girlfriend”! Ah, happy times!
In 1996, one of my dreams came true when LUSH announced they were coming to Hawaii to play in a little venue called “Nimitz Hall” to promote their brand new CD, LOVELIFE! Me and my friend Larry made our way down to that gig, and MAN, we were not disappointed. We got choice viewing positions on a balcony that looked right above the club stage, the scene couldn’t have been better if we were sitting front row!!!!
Miki and the gang started the show with “Heavenly Nobodies”, and I immediately started laughing, for this was their way of saying to the adoring crowd, “Don’t worship us-We may not live up to your standards!”
They ran through their catalog of hits, but the song that really knocked our socks off was their blistering performance of “Runaway”…the song was just POUNDING!, Miki and Emma’s soaring vocals never more spot-on! And of course I don’t have to say how great those two gals looked!
Miki had this habit of putting her guitar pick in her mouth whenever she changed guitars, and a lucky friend of mine managed to catch the pick when she flicked it into the audience. The next day, he showed it off, and I was in awe as I examined the pick – Miki’s pink lipstick was smudged into all the cracks of the “Fender” relief logo!!!
Sadly, as everyone knows, Chris would take his life a few weeks after this gig, and the wonderful group of LUSH would separate for good. When I think about it, I feel so blessed that I got to see them, because a few weeks difference and the concert I saw would never have happened. That makes me savor my memories even more. And even though the group is gone, I’m still collecting their stuff, only now instead of looking forward to the new releases, It’s acquiring those old/rare/unreleased/bootleg stuff still waiting to be discovered! Every time I acquire a new collectible or song (boy, ya shoulda been there when I finally got a copy of “Sweetie”!), it takes me back and reminds me what a fine group Lush was, and still is!
An uplifting and encouraging song, telling you that everything's gonna work out alright, with its infectious "Groovin" Young Rascals vibe!
"One day, things won't seem the same way, I know!"
While the “newer” version of Thoughtforms became (to me) the ‘real” version of said song, Scarlet’s two versions both had different things to offer for me. The newer version was more polished and dreamy (and bears a slight resemblance to “Monochrome”) while the ealier one was more “raw” in sound, almost live. It was THIS version that I slowly found myself attached to, especially during the choruses where Emma’s Guitar chords sound positively sonic following the lines “But What’d you say” and “When nothing’s meant? ”, “What’d You Do” and “When all is Spent?”.The tone of the guitars have this “british” feel to it and I for some reason, it reminds me of “Sparks” by The Who,,,
In fact, the huge, dreamy guitar washes during the lines “No one to fall…in love” and the subsequent spirally guitar picking behind the lines “Facless, faithless night…vanity’s delight” all have decidedly Townshend-ish flavouring, at least in my opinion, and that’s a major Who fan talking here!
Youtube-ing around for old Tanya Donelly Belly PVs like Feed the Tree and Gepetto (the original PV with Belly as a trio, not the slick remake with Gail Greenwood), I came across a wonderful treasure-trove of old Throwing Muses performances from 1987, 1988 and 1991 and spent the night reliving the glory days of Tanya and her original partner (and half sister) Kristen Hersh. These were performances from the Hunkpapa and Real Ramona era, and I just drank them up! It made me sad to think that the two sisters weren't working together anymore.
Imagine my surprise when I came across clips of a semi-unplugged concert taken only a few months ago (last October) featuring Tanya and Kristen together, performing their old Throwing Muses hits! WTF?! HOLY CRAP, I was just taken aback! A real dream concert appearance!
Some kind soul had uploaded maybe ten to twelve clips of this incredible concert featuring songs like Sinkhole, Rabbit's Dying,and Pandora's Box, but the one clip I watched over and over again was their performance of Red Shoes, one of my favorite tunes from my favorite Throwing Muses record, The Real Ramona.
The two sisters have always had a real dynamic approach to guitar playing, with each girl "overlapping" over the other one to create this very intricate sound (that they dubbed "Math Rock"), and I think this song is a really great example, with Tanya's very 4AD flavoured slide guitar gracing Kristen's guitar picking...
A terrific performance... when are these gals gonna get together and make a new Throwing Muses album proper?
(Yes, I know that Tanya guested on the Muses last album, but that doesn't count! Let's get a Tanya/Kristen co-written album and get either Fred Abong or Leslie Langston back into the studio with them! Of course, David Narcizo's gonna be in the mix as well!
Crossing Fingers....
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