[kj] OT: The Cure

[Janean Lancaster]

Bit late replying to this one - been away.

Anyway...

<<<I went and saw The Cure last night, which is
an extrememly rare treat in NZ, the last time they visited was 15 years
ago.>>>

I'm so jealous!  One of my favourite bands and still love them.  

<<< Fucking brilliant concert, sigh...I grew up on those guys. You lot
in the
UK, Europe and the 'States are fucking lucky to have bands like that
playing every bloody Tuesday or whatever.>>>

The Cure haven't played the UK since 2004, which was a paltry 90 minute
set at a festival (paltry seeing as they are known for their 3 hour
performances - I still loved it though), which is why I'm so jealous!  

They just don't seem to want to play at home anymore - probably because
they can't pull large numbers into the arenas anymore.  Such a shame.

No doubt when I'm over in NZ visiting my dad, The Cure will play the UK
and I will be mortified...

Cheers,
Janean

-----Original Message-----
From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]
On Behalf Of Brendan
Sent: 14 August 2007 23:48
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: Re: [kj] My Facebook

Speaking about goths, haha, I went and saw The Cure last night, which is
an extrememly rare treat in NZ, the last time they visited was 15 years
ago.

Fucking brilliant concert, sigh...I grew up on those guys. You lot in
the
UK, Europe and the 'States are fucking lucky to have bands like that
playing every bloody Tuesday or whatever.

Except when Armageddon comes me, Bongo and Jaz are all gonna be fine and
you're all fucked, so get down here now, and bring Tool, Killing Joke,
and
all the other decent bands with you! And don't buy real estate below 50M
above sea level...

;p


> Here are the 5 paragraphs that deal with Killing Joke in --

>

> Simon Reynolds' 402 page _Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1979 -

> 1984_ (Penguin Books, 2005).

>

> The five paragraphs are in the section on goth near the end of the

book:

>

>

>

> "If Bauhaus, the Banshees, and the Birthday Party were the crucial

> groups that bridged postpunk and Goth, Killing Joke was the fourth

> cornerstone of the Goth sound and sensibility. Like the other three

> bands, they started out as postpunk experimentalists. In Killing

Joke's

> case, that meant following PiL's lead. In 1980, singer/keyboardist Jaz

> Coleman talked of wanting to keep the funk but strip away disco's

> 'sugarshit' sheen, replacing it 'with mangled, distorted, searing

> noise.' This element came from guitarist Geordie, who transformed

Kieth

> Levene's sound into something sulphuric, inhumane, practically

inhuman.

> Coleman added jabs of atonal synth and electronic hums, along with the

> barked menace of his vocals, which sounded like he was choking on his

> own fury. 'Tension music,' the group called it.

>

> "Initially, Killing Joke seemed vaguely political. Their striking

> seven-inch sleeves and micro-ads in the U.K. music press grabbed the

eye

> with images of the pope receiving a Nazi salute from German troops or

a

> top-hatted Fred Astaire tap dancing over a trench full of World War I

> corpses. The name Killing Joke, explained Coleman, condensed their

whole

> worldview into a single phrase, 'the feeling of a guy in the First

World

> War who's just about to run out the trenches ... and he knows his life

> is going to be gone in ten minutes and he thinks of that fucker back

in

> Westminster who put him in tha position. That's the feeling that we're

> trying to project -- the Killing Joke.'

>

> "Jaz Coleman was an unlikely protest singer, though. A high-caste

> Brahman Indian on his mother's side, Coleman was wealthy, well

educated,

> and musically trained (after Killing Joke he became a classical

> composer). In almost pointed contrast to Coleman's accomplishment,

> Killing Joke was conceived as a barbarian entity. Paul Ferguson's

beats

> were tribal and turbulent. Starting with their second album, _What's

> THIS For...!_ and reaching fruition on 1982's awesome _Revelations_,

> Killing Joke shook off the PiL influence (all the dub and death disco

> trappings) and emerged as something closer to Black Sabbath: doomy,

> tribalistic rock that exulted in its visions of darkness and the

> apocalypse.

>

> "Coleman saw Killing Joke's music as 'warning sounds for an age of

> self-destruction.' The end was nigh ('I'll give it eighteen months,'

he

> said in 1981), but Coleman was glad. The aftermath was 'the period of

> time I'm looking towards at the moment,' he said, when a new, brutally

> instinct-attuned _un_civilization would emerge phoenixlike from the

> smoking ruins. Coleman told NME, 'I see a more savage world ahead,

> right? It's music that inflames the heart.' Fire was Killing Jokes

> favorite of the four elements. They even recruited a fire eater, Dave

> the Wizard, to do his act on stage with the band. 'Fire to me is

> symbolic of the will power,' declared Jaz. 'I think the power of the

> individual is really underestimated.' Yet it seemed more the case that

> Killing Joke's music exalted the power of the mob.

>

> "Goth's appeal to the irrational and primal could sometimes stray into

> troubling territory, something Killing Joke exemplified. Coleman's

> rhetoric -- reveling in male energy, describing war as the natural

state

> of the world, jubilantly heralding Armageddon -- veered unnervingly

> close to that dodgy zone between Nietzschean and Nazi. 'The violence

> that is Killing Joke is about is not violence on the immediate level

but

> the _mass_ violence, the violence bubbling up underneath your feet,

the

> violence of nature throwing up,' Coleman solemnly proclaimed. 'And we

> _become_ that violence.' Even some Goths felt there was a faintly

> fascistic aura to the vibe catalyzed by Killing Joke at their gigs."

>

>

> [from July 7, 2007 post to list]

>

>

>

>

>

>

> B. Oliver Sheppard wrote:

>> Actually, 5 paragraphs devoted to Killing Joke in Simon Reynolds bok,

>> near the back, in the section on goth. And they're not very

flattering

>> paragraphs, really.

>>

>> (I posted all 5 paragraphs fromt he book to the list maybe a month

>> ago. Reynolds said the Killing Joke -- and he spoke of them in the

>> past tense, too -- were somewhere between Nietzschean and Nazi. No

>> kidding.)

>>

>> -Oliver

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>>>

>>>> PS: I had another interview a day earlier with the culture editor

of

>>>> a reputable media outlet, and we similarly ended up talking about

>>>> music. Turns out her husband is none other than Simon Reynolds, the

>>>> celebrated music critic who wrote the arguably authoritative

>>>> post-punk tome, "Rip It Up And Start Again" (75 pages devoted to

>>>> Scritti Politti, 9 pages devoted to Killing Joke).

>>>>

>>>>

>>>

>>

>

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