Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Robert talks about The Jesus and Mary Chain

This is nothing new for those of us who have the excellent 'Beautiful Noise' documentary, but for those who don't, Dangerous Minds has a story about The Jesus and Mary Chain's 'Psychocandy', and they include the clip of Robert, Trent Reznor, and Billy Corgan talking about the band and the album.

A Cure / Michael McDonald mashup

From CoS:

"Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! was recently asked by the good folks at AV Undercover to deliver a cover in the run-up to its 2015 season. Turns out she had just the thing. She’d been working on a drum loop based on The Cure’s 1985 song “Close to Me”, and was just waiting for the right place to use it. That place revealed itself when the great Michael McDonald came on the radio with his classic love song “I Keep Forgettin'”.

The two songs come from completely different planets, but in Grace’s hands, they’re more like twin stars in a binary system. Instead of sappy yacht rock, “I Keep Forgettin'” becomes a heartbreaking acoustic number that wouldn’t be too far out of Against Me!’s catalog given Grace’s despairing vocal take. Take a listen."

Sunday, April 26, 2015

More on Robert's Twilight Sad cover

From Daily Record (Thanks Perfect.Murder):

Twilight Sad reveal the legend in their new single as they collaborate with The Cure's Robert Smith

06:00, 26 April 2015
By John Dingwall

TWILIGHT Sad singer James Graham reveals how a chance conversation led to The Cure superstar doing a cover of their song There's A Girl In The Corner. Listen to it here.

THE Twilight Sad have revealed their delight after rock legend Robert Smith of The Cure teamed up with them for his latest single.

Legendary frontman Robert is a huge fan of the Scots indie group and revealed to Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite he had been impressed by them when the two rocks bands toured together.

After Stuart told them about the admission, The Twilight Sad sent Robert a personalised copy of their most recent album – the critically acclaimed Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave – and a correspondence ensued.

That led to the incredible collaboration and stunning version of the song There’s A Girl In The Corner.

The Twilight Sad frontman James Graham, who is also the quintet’s main songwriter, said: “Mogwai had toured with The Cure and later Stuart from Mogwai emailed Robert.

“He told him to check out this band The Twilight Sad and that he might like them. Robert got back to him, saying, ‘I’ve already got all their albums. I’m a massive fan’.

“Stuart told us about it and we were all astonished he had even heard of us. He’s a global icon.

“We got Robert’s contact details and sent him some records, including the new album – before it was released.

“That he was a fan was amazing to us because The Cure are one of the reasons we started the band.

“He got back to us to say he loved it and we were all over the moon.”

 The Twilight Sad’s guitarist Andy MacFarlane decided to go a step further by asking Robert to guest on one of their songs and the band admit they were gobsmacked when he agreed.

James said: “We were thinking what to do about our new single and Andy chanced his arm by contacting Robert to ask if he would be interested in doing one of our songs.

“The band had just finished an acoustic set at Mono in Glasgow and were driving back when Andy showed us an email from Robert saying he would like to cover a song.

“We’d asked him to cover the single It Never Was The Same but he asked if he could do There’s A Girl In My Corner. We said he could do whatever he wanted.

“We were in a state of disbelief the whole time because we never thought it was possible that it could happen.”

If The Twilight Sad – who recently performed an exclusive Live At Dingwall’s at-home session – thought
the collaboration might fall through, they needn’t have as Robert kept to his world.

James said: “Andy and Robert kept emailing back and forth. The email of the song came through when we were in San Francisco. We sat in our van and listened to him singing our song. Hearing Robert sing the words I wrote in my bedroom is something I’ll never forget. I can’t believe it has happened.

“I’ve been listening to it every day – it is an amazing feeling to hear him sing our song.”

 The track, which you can hear online, is a limited edition double A-sided single and will be released as a digital download on June 15.