Help me to 'get' the Jesus & Mary Chain...

But so many other bands have done stuff like it since, I can see why someone might shrug now.

I agree w/nordic about "Darklands" though. Whats hard to get? Its a gorgeous album.

And this is why I need help to love them ;)

Did you blossom in college?

But did people consider them goth? When I went to shows in the mid-late 80s, I was always annoyed about the goth attendees.

thank god. Some oouchebags in Jr. High thought I was goth, but I calmly explained: "Oh no no, I just like Ronette's songs played LOUD" and then they just thought I was crazy.

When in fact it is obviously quieter.

Hahahaha

bllx. Sit in a room with William Reid playing his guitar and singing and tell me afterwards he shouldn't have done it. A good song is a good song, fedback or not. You think he wrote those songs with feedback?

Next you'll be telling me Nirvana doing MTV Unplugged was a shameless cash-in! er..hang on...

How are these guys lately?

I remember an interview where William said that "I Wanna Be Your Dog" would be the perfect song if it weren't for that "f*cking solo" at the end.

haha Feedbackism in full effect!

Lately, to answer the question, they're pretty fine. Saw them last year at Brixton and was fairly blown away, although admittedly I nearly walked out after one song, so shambolic was the opening. Glad I stuck arounf though, even if I had hit the silly juice a little too hard and can't quite remember what they played. All I do remember is mmmmmnnnnnnnnoooooooiisssssssseeeeeeeeeeeessssssskkkkkreeeeeeeoowwwwwwww, and 'Far Gone & Out', appearing on the horizon like a St Bernard with a tot of Scotch.

i was kinda disappointed by the chain. which is a bummer, because i love so much of the later stuff that i wasn't going to be disappointed that it wasn't darklands all over again. they play with a couple of muso ex indie band players, and a drummer with a really big drum kit (i was expecting like, two drums). and i don't know, it wasn't really as noise as everyone expected?, i thought. i think that was the dominant internet-criticiser criticism; the feedback was all sort of kept in line. jim reid's still really badass, but it wasn't perfect.

all of that said: one of the best things they played was a new song. so there's something.

yeah, I only watched half their set (at a big open-air festival, in front of a crowd who were holding their spots all day for QOTSA & Smashed Pumpkins, and avoiding Robyn/Roisin/Presets/Cut Copy/Air/Glass Candy/CSS on the other side of a wee glade), but All Things Must Pass was the highlight. extra guitarist was a surprise, added an unnecessary note of road-band professionalism. but maybe he's there every night just in case William cracks the shits and walks out.

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/7177106/a/My+Little+Underground.htm

http://cover7.cduniverse.com/CDUCoverArt/Music/06/7177106.jpg

'My Little Underground', is a 10 song tribute album to the Jesus and Mary Chain. Without question, it's a "must have" for any Jesus and Mary Chain fan. As well, if you love Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie or Lou Reed, you will definitely love Buddy Greenbloom's, 'My Little Underground'. My Little Underground is a magical collaboration between folk-singer Buddy Greenbloom and artist/producer Ralph Michael Brekan. That collaboration exploded into a collection of famously post-punk songs rearranged into bluesy, western-folk standards.

Listening to this on Spotify. It's, uh, wrong.

Really, all you need is 21 Singles. I got Automatic two weeks ago and was so disappointed there weren't more "Blues From a Gun"s or "Head On"s that I resold it.

Yeeeah, I wouldn't start with "Automatic" really.

I certainly didn't start with it, but now I've ended.

Automatic is a terrible record

Most of their record are.

*records

"Honey's Dead" has a bit of every part of them.

I'd suggest "Darklands" and persevere with it.

If you don't love "Psychocandy" on first listen, chances are it will never happen.

"Munki" I don't know, I think I've only played it once (and I'm not sure it was all the way through)

Most of their record are.

nah I love Pyschocandy/Barbed Wire Kisses/Darklands - really great progression. And Stoned & Dethroned is about 2/3rds of a good record. But Automatic is seriously lacking somehow. I saw them on that tour (primarily because Spiritualized was opening while promoting Lazer Guided Melodies) and they were just really embarassing, they had these silly films that would loop an image of a gun, and then a star, and then a pretty girl or whatever, just terrible.

"Progression"? really? They were singing about rivers of disease, chaotic souls, and the states of their hair their whole careers!

ok now you're just trolling

I've seen them a number of times, "Psychocandy" and "Darklands" days they were great.

As you say, "Automatic" they had their machines to fall back on, and they did.

"Honey's Dead" I didn't see them but they got their mojo back (oh dear sorry)

I did see them on TV around the "Munki" time, a festival during the day, Jim wore a lacoste top, it all looked wrong.

They were singing about rivers of disease, chaotic souls, and the states of their hair their whole careers!

Yep, they quite often sang "Darklands" throughout their live career...

(Oh, the "Hair" line was "Blues from a gun" but hey)

Shakey - you must have seen them on the Honey's Dead tour (was that the Rollercoaster thing?); both that and Lazer Guided Melodies are from spring '92; Automatic was fall of '89. Though I saw them with NIN in 1990 on the Automatic tour and they did suck.

I saw them on the Lollapalooza tour, during which they came on unspeakably early and looked quite pissed about it. They did an ear-shredding version of "Far Gone and Out" to compensate, which I've always rather liked, but, hey, that was another single (yet another to argue that 21 Singles is all the essentials you need).

*yet another reason.

I'm not saying they suck, but suggesting they're one of the immortals instead of a really good minor band is a stretch. They're like the Psychedelic Furs -- except the Furs made two good to great albums.

ah yr right it was Honey's Dead (Automatic came out when I was still in high school)

eh, they get a lot of credit for being a little ahead of the curve in British music. for what that's worth (I don't particularly care, but that's why they get the GODHEAD status, esp from Britishes). I just appreciate the way they synthesized stuff - Velvets' noise plus Phil Spector, etc. and they had a way with a hook. I certainly rate them higher than the Furs, whose sound is fairly indistinct by comparison. From a production standpoint the J&MCs first years are pretty unique/innovative.

Not being a churl here, but since I wasn't around the first time I don't get how introducing feedback to surf music was so mindblowing. At least with the P-Furs you had several things going on at once in their chaotic souls.

I like how he sings "I'm television sick and I'm television crazy".

well for awhile there some young britishes thought densely layered guitar noise + sweet melodies was going to be the pop music of the future (cf. MBV, countless shoegaze bands, etc.) Which is totally ridiculous given the primal role that rhythm plays in music with mass appeal but hey it made for an interesting detour.

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barbed wire kisses is all you need.

and yes appreciating this band is more about appreciating minimalism than virtuosity (re: the Furs as a point of comparison). They had one fairly ingenious idea that involved a previously unknown combination of a small number of elements - similar to the Stooges, or the Ramones, or AC/DC - and if you don't appreciate that particular mixture, then yeah give up and turn back...

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Automatic is a fantastic album! You are all on drugs.

Jesus...Power of Negative Thinking was just amazing. They got a *ton* of mileage out of their schtick. I can't think off the top of my head of any other bands who have like 80 b-sides that I want to hear. Also can't think of many bands who may arguably have improved on songs by Syd Barret and Can...

sort of a mistake imo to boil the j&mc down to the easily-stated "feedback + ronettes" formula. though inconsistent, they were ace pop songwriters and cranked out tons of memorable (if not exactly original) tunes. this is true at most every point of their career, and shakey's ramones & ac/dc comparisons are totally otm in that sense.

and psychocandy is a genuinely remarkable record. though it's easy to compare it to the vu or the stooges, it doesn't really sound like either, or like anything that existed prior, certainly not in pop. and i don't know that anyone since has generated real hits out of something so thoroughly noise-addled and abrasive. not even mbv or nin. in that sense, it isn't so easily subsumed into "that kind of thing", and i know lots of people who were hugely impressed with it (and/or repulsed by it) on first listen, even 10 or 20 years down the road from its release.

Is this thread bump like the complete opposite of where we pick an old hated band and breathe new life into them?

We come to bury these Caesars not praise them.

It just seems like a dogpile on these guys since the revive, which is weird to me since I recently (like last year when the B-sides box came out) became a huge fan after kind of hating on them for awhile.

Automatic is a fantastic album! You are all on drugs.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, November 30, 2009 8:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I've been listening to it a lot the last couple days actually and love it to pieces. U all crazy. And probably on drugs.

barbed wire kisses is all you need.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, December 9, 2003 4:51 PM (5 years ago)

I can't think off the top of my head of any other bands who have like 80 b-sides that I want to hear.

..oh! there must be some good threads on just this subject (bands w/ incredible b-sides)..

I put "Between Planets" from Automatic on all the time, it is great for so many situations.

yes "Between Planets" is the best song on Automatic. Cf. JAMC Automatic Poll

If you're expecting "immortals" here then yeah, you're going to be disappointed, because they don't have the broadness of vision I expect from the greats. But they did a couple of things extremely well (i.e surf music + feedback, and Velvets third album folk rock). And their bleakness was always funnier and more self-deprecating than the Velvets at least pulled off (Reed has been somewhat better about this on his own, as has Cale).

listened to Munki the other day and thought it was pretty great! But I realized while listening to it that blasts of ugly feedback about 1/3 through an o/w straightforward pop song = happy me. Yay for formulas!

Just for the interested parties:

The "Barbed wire kisses" Book is available for Kindle/devices on Amazon for £0.99

I just watched the Creation Records documentary, and Jim Reid comes across there as a relative voice of reason and sanity. Though he may have just had time to outgrow his youthful stroppiness.

http://www.gigwise.com/news/91210/jesus-&-mary-chain-add-extra-psychocandy-live-shows---tickets

barbed wire kisses is all you need.
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, December 9, 2003 4:51 PM (10 years ago)

I have come around to this viewpoint although I still have a soft spot for Psycho Candy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQr7P4CZVgE

Picking up this album and throwing it on for the first time I was amazed that I could sing along with lyrics to a song with apparently none. Then realised that it was a cover. Felt a bit stupid, I did.

Also I'm somewhat sure they only reformed to get close to Scarlett Johansson.
I can see no artistic reason for letting her on stage with them.

Yeah they seemed cool in Creation doc which was a super entertaining flick

These guys were really cool looking, talk about dudes that knew how to wear a pair of sunglasses