What happened to LUSH?

Early singles are obviously terrific, but Split is easily their best full-length - and one of my favorite records period.

(to elaborate on that) Split straddles the middle ground between Spooky and Lovelife and combines the strengths of both: buzzy power-pop & Cocteau/shoegaze dreaminess, whereas the other two LPs lean a bit too far in either direction.

ah but Split transcends the sum of its parts no? I'm with you in saying its one of my favourite records ever.

pillbox sort of otm, but to me those slow tracks in the last 2/3rds of split kind of kill its momentum. "lovelife" is my favorite lush song, though, and "kiss chase" might be #2

this was my favorite band in high school. it's been too long. those guitars + miki and emma's voices together was such a rush..

Winston, I'll give you "Never-Never" on you observation (though I still really like that song, I can see how it would drag for others), but if you're referring to "Desire Lines" or "When I Die," you're nuts.

oh no i loooove "when i die"! "desire lines" i would probably be more ok with if it didn't follow "lovelife" (let alone the previous 4 tracks)

You know, my mate put on "Spooky" one evening and I really liked it until I found out it was the same band that recorded "Single Girl".

you're weird

At some shows during Lollapalooza '92, Miki and Emma would join Ministry onstage when they played "Supernaut". I always thought that was pretty cool. I can't imagine the boys from the Jesus and Mary Chain doing the same thing.

The latest from Miki

Thanks for that, Jack.

for some reason, that interview made me sad.

i saw miki throwing herself at some kid younger than i was at a black box recorder show in the camden underworld in 2000. she was sideways and her skin was grotesque. goodbye teenage lust...

that said, i'll still support a good chunk of gala, spooky, and split. i haven't hear lovelife in ages, but recall being pretty fond of the silly duet with jarvis cocker. thnking of "ladykiller" now, i'm guessing it would play out much like songs from blur's the great escape. cute and fun, but sounds from a world i cannot imagine having been excited in.

she was sideways

What does that mean?

Anyway, Lush wasalways one of the few shoegaze bands that never did it for me. I spent a lot of time with 'Spooky' when it came out but it always sounded so lifeless and tinny.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6075/1290/320/lush_mikigameboy.jpg

she was rather tipsy...err, entirely hammered...practically falling down..dean martin sort of routine..

Lush sounds nice and moody still, but it reminds me of watching 120 Minutes in 1992 ... the production is very much of its time. To me, Telescopes - Flying begins and ends this whole "shoegzing'" thing.

To me, Telescopes - Flying begins and ends this whole "shoegzing'" thing. - yeah, the genre sure could have used more banjo pickin'

No problem, Alex.

Now I'm imagining Miki as totally hammered in that gameboy pic. lol

xpost

that is the greatest photo

It is incredingbly hard to find even "Lovelife" these days, not to say any of the earlier albums.

news just in from 4ad, following a totally made-up email i sent saying "are the rumours of a raft of Lush repackages/re-releases this year correct?":

"someone is either a psychic or shagging the band. All is to be discussed next Monday with Emma and Miki, but yes, it's on the cards..."

nb. i am neither psychic nor shagging the band. just teh clevah.

AWESOME.

I think I have pretty much everything they ever released! So probably not going to bother with deluxe reissues, but still good that they're coming out.

i would be interested in any unreleased (not live) material from the pre-spooky period

Is there any, that you know? Demos etc?

i know that there was a demo of stuff floating about before they signed to 4ad, though i don't know how much/if any of it ended up on the first ep..

I found out relatively recently that Miki & Emma did a fanzine about bands like Lack Of Knowledge before they formed Lush. I guess that explains the Zounds cover!

I wonder if they recorded anything when whatserface from Pale Saints was in the band.

it's all about "Scarlet" (if I've got the right song...)

-- Paul, Tuesday, August 13, 2002 12:00 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

you have, and it is.

They did a fanzine about bands like Lack of Knowledge? What!?

Goodness, Colonel, I nearly forgot I had that CDR!

"Nothing Natural" is my favorite of theirs. I also remember having a bit of a crush on Emma at the time.

Joke from my schooldays:

What's Louise Woodward's favourite tune?

oh snap.

I think I have pretty much everything they ever released! So probably not going to bother with deluxe reissues, but still good that they're coming out.

see, no matter what i already own, for sure my copy of gala would benefit from replacement by a remastered and less muddy version...

http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/sweetness-and-light-the-miki-berenyi-interview-2008/

tl;dr

"De-Luxe" will be in Rock Band 2.

Miki resurfaces and sings this time
http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/seinking-ships-miki-berenyi/

This news makes me so so so happy!

I was just reading an interview with her yesterday (well, a "let's chase down old shoegazers" article posted on Sonic Cathedral") and thinking "wow, she was so cool and so mouthy, where is she?"

Going to listen now...

Whole back catalogue; singles, albums, EPs and b.sides - all on Spotify fyi.

Oh, that's made my day.

And your message has made mine!

Got Gala on now. For an tape I played nearly a thousand times until the actual tape gave out, I have forgotten great swathes of it.

For all the "sonic cathedrals of sound" it's the incredibly simple stuff that's most effective. Big drums, big booming bass and this spangly wash over the top. I had forgotten how *catchy* they were. Pop songs drenched in reverb.

Yeah they were mad catchy weren't they? Sheer pop. Perfect for the 16 year old me, who on discovering the Melody Maker in 1990 just couldn't .. get with all this noisy manly grim looking American rock and the po faced guitar bands of the era. Then i heard Lush and the whole world of bands that only the music press seemed to like made sense.
Pop but a bit noisy! Of course! I think i owe Lush a lot.

Amazing thing rediscovered thru Spotify: Starlust was originally on the 1992 For Love e.p. and was brilliant and very Lush Mk 1; way better than the slightly weedy slick version on Split, 2 years after. They had this weird thing where they would do B sides/offcuts then polish them for the albums. They also did that with The Childcatcher. But yes.. Starlust Version 1! Where have you been these last 18 years?

It all seems such a shame the way they ended.

Superblast! just came on and I was bouncing about in my seat.

But I mean, that was kind of said at the time - that they would have these bouncy pop songs that would be great live, and then they'd get in the studio and Robin Guthrie would produce the f*ck out of them and make them all shiny and smooth when it was the spiky poppiness that was so appealing about them in the first place.

They're just one of those bands that I think history has misserved, and when I listen to them I hear so many missed opportunities.

And I wish I lived in a different universe, one where Lush had survived and been rediscovered and lionised the way excreble bands like Slowdive eventually did in the critical evaluation of shoegaze. :-(

But of course they're the one band that *can't* reform, and never will, so we'll never see that.

Lush matters so much more to me than Slowdive. Sorry everyone else who likes shoegazer.

(and high-five Masonic Boom)

::high five back::

They were one of those bands that I did actually see quite a bit back in the day - they made a habit of slogging through second tier markets in the States to actually play loads of gigs in a way that so many workshy shoegazers just didn't. Saw them on some hideously inappropriate bills, though - supporting Janes Addiction (at the cusp of their jock-rock success), on Lollapollooza...

I know this is probably HERESY to some, but I really just wanna see them get in there and remaster or remix Spooky and take off all the Robin Guthrie over-processing and put the rough edges back in.

Actually, I think Lush was on the second Lollapalooza with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Ministry. I don't think of Jane's as jock-rock. They would have been a pretty good match-up for Lush, considering how jangly they both are.

1991
Location: North America

Main Stage: Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails, Living Colour, Ice-T & Body Count, Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes, Fishbone, Emergency Broadcast Network

1992
Location: North America

Main Stage: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush

They were two different tours. They toured as the support act with Janes Addiction during the Ritual de lo Habitual tour - just as "Been Caught Stealin'" was breaking on MTV and that gig was CHOCK A BLOCK full of horrible horrible jock-rock types. I was right up front for Lush as I loved them, and kept getting beer poured on my head by awful idiots who kept just shouting SHOW US YR TITS through the whole set. I wanted to cry.

The music might well have been really compatible, but the crowds were SO not.

Then Lollapolooza was the year after that. You have to admire Lush for getting back up and going back into that kind of scene after the treatment that they got on that JA tour.