The Cult

[Falcon]

More LOVE/LIVE hijinks from Croatia:

She Sells Sanctuary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkToVB-dpdE
Electric Ocean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGN79r3XgLc
Wild Flower http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKTc2V6pnWo
Rise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGL2T0azxds
Dirty Little Rockstar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=756aYpaLQtw
Sun King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9SGGxWz79g
Fire Woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woxQVpJC1yI
Love Removal Machine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLrsfE8GCOQ

[FunkyMonkey]

The Lowdown: Chris Wyse of OWL

September 25, 2009

Altsounds: How did you learn how to play the bass?

Chris Wyse: Ummm... by worshiping Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. [laughs] Then I got into Black Sabbath. But really it was all about Steve Harris. I only met him once, actually, just a couple of years ago.

So did you teach yourself?

Yeah, I taught myself, but later on I went to school for music. I just did community college in upstate NY. I was already teaching before I started in school so I was way deep into theory. School was a good experience for me. It made me get into the upright a little heavier and playing classical pieces. I thought about going into teaching, but I was already teaching and already playing live. So, I just did a 2 year thing. It was great.

So you've been experimenting with your instrument and creating new sounds for many years. The work you've done with The Cult is great, but the new work you're doing in OWL is in another orbit. How do you determine what is appropriate for what project?

Well, thank you for recognizing the difference. It really is it's own orbit. In my own project, it's whatever feels good between me and Dan [Dinsmore] and Jason [Mezilis]. The fortunate thing for the group I got is, I just put it out there and they're with it. Nobody says to pull it back in. There are many sections where we just let it fly like Zeppelin or Pink Floyd.

Was there ever a time in The Cult where they DID tell you to pull it back?

Oh yeah! When I was first working with them, I was kind of just thrown into the situation. I made all kinds of suggestions. I brought in my upright and was like, "Check it out!" If you go out on a limb sometimes, it's gonna break sometimes. I learned a lot in those 10 years. It's kind of like being an actor, I think. You play the part. You don't start writing all of your lines and making up a new part unless you're asked. And to their credit though, my sound is well documented on their work. The Cult has quite a bit of range so I've been able to put my stamp on it. They did let me play upright bass on one of the ballads. They gave me some freedom. I think if you check the last two records, you'll hear distinctive bass parts. The Cult is always growing and always changing. They're always open, so it's a great group to be in. We're actually about to head to Europe again.

You also produced this album for Owl... I know you've spent a lot of time in studios, but have you ever produced a record before?

I've produced stuff before, yeah. There was this Nine Inch Nails tribute record. I produced a version of "March of The Pigs" that was so tweaked out it almost sounded like a different song. I did a thing with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Then Owl. Then Behind The Sun. I produced a couple little things when I was still getting started. I've worked with a lot of great producers- the best of the best. I knew what I wanted and I didn't want anyone to pull me along on their schedule or push their vision on me. I didn't want anyone telling me how I was going to sound. I didn't want to ASK anyone what I should look like or sound like. I want to tell people what's going on. If they're into it, they can follow.

That's how it's supposed to be, you know? It's all supposed to happen around the artist. The industry side should come in later. Now it's the other way. Everything is backwards. It should be all about the artist. It was a big task to produce the Owl record and be in The Cult and write songs. I really spun myself out hard. When you're producing, you just have to know when it's done. It doesn't matter if you can play it cleaner or better. It just has to be right. You have to feel the vibe and you have to be able to call it right there and then. I'm really psyched with the way it came out. I was a little unnerved there for a while. By the time it was all done and all put together, I really think it was worth all of the work. A year and a half of touring and recording and finishing up songs... it's nice to hold the actual product in my hands.

There are a lot of layers to your songs, but you perform live as a trio. What do you think the biggest difference is between the album and the live performance?

It's funny that you ask that. There are some layers on the record, but like where I am drawing the bow, I'm not JUST drawing the bow. I'm using a wah wah and a delay or some other effect, so some of those things are there live. Sometimes there will be a 2 part harmony with me and Jason, but it's a 3 part harmony on the record. The audience forgives us. I believe it's all about the energy and the intent behind the parts. Like if a song can be stripped down to acoustic and still sound great, then that's a real song. We tweak and we do things live. If you ever see Dan play it's like bombs going off. He's really like no other drummer I've ever played with. Our sound is really raw live, but I think that's better. We're already thinking about doing a live record. The melodies are good and you can really hear the songwriting. Some of it may be even better live. There are little things that obviously we can't do on stage with just the 3 of us, but as long as we bring the energy, people will forget about it. They're looking for a crazy sled ride down a hill where they don't know if it's going to break or not. The live show is a ride because it's a totally different energy.

Your music has a very dark cinematic scope. Are you a fan of film?

Yeah, naturally so. I was very attracted to comic books and art as a kid. I'll be honest, I love superhero movies. I know it's cliche. Like when I hear they're working on a new Batman, I get so excited. I loved Watchmen. Just the way things look in those films, it's like an immediate attraction. I think about those things when I'm writing... the colors and the visions. But I keep the lyrics vague enough that you can make up your own story. The songs have strong visual content. Like 'Violent Center' really takes the listener on a journey using the music. I love when a great producer makes things sound right or when a film director makes it look right, and that's what I am trying to do.

When I went to school for marketing, I learned something like 80% of what grabs people is the visual aspect. Looking good is important. That's why we got into the video... well 'looking good' like looking interesting. The video has great coloring. It's kind of a modern comic, animated vibe. You'll see it in the live performance too.

Have you ever considered composing for film?

Being a string player, definitely. I see the Owl music as being perfect for film or games. I think the strings at the end of 'Alive' could be a beautiful intro or outro to any movie. I am already kind of there, mentally, so hopefully these things will come along in my future. I may want to do that later on in life when I'm tired and don't want to travel so much. I would love being a part of bringing a movie to life.

So, I'm a fan of ghost stories and I heard that you've had some experiences...

I have a love for the metaphysical and supernatural. Look at the record- there is definitely a belied in more. 'Ghost in the Starlight' gets into eastern concepts and music and is based on a supernatural experience. I live in a house in the Hollywood Hills and I was doing this development stuff for Owl. While we were there working on the songs, you could hear someone muttering and the lights kept flashing. I was seeing lots of weird things. A lot of people experienced this presence there. When we had women in the studio, they would comment. Women, I think, are more in tune with that side of things, but really everyone picked up on it. We don't really know WHO she is, we just know she's there. I felt so bad for her when we were in the studio, which is what inspired the song. It's about feeling empathy and compassion for someone you don't know and can't touch. It's a very fleeting thing.

She reacted to the music all the time, knocking on the door or just making sounds. Maybe it was the pitch or the key that would make her react. It was very wild. She seemed sad and we speculated about these different Hollywood actresses that might be haunting the building. There are a lot of stories about her up on Wonderland Avenue and you can't help but feel bad for her. I just wanted to give her a hug and ask what's wrong. 'Ghost in the Starlight' ended up being one of those songs where every time you play it, it's different. Oh, when I wrote 'War on Drugs' I was working on the demo. I was alone with the engineer and we were working on the song and then out of nowhere there was this pounding on the door. Like loud pounding on the inside door. Meaning someone would have to be in the building to knock on it and we were literally the only ones there. I told the engineer about the ghost while we were on the road, so he got to witness it first hand. It really scared him, so I felt validated.

http://hangout.altsounds.com/features/111278-the-lowdown-chris-wyse-of-owl.html

[Falcon]

A couple of cool reviews of The Cult's "Omnibus" LOVE record boxset..

http://thequietus.com/articles/02806-the-cult-love-reissue-review

With the benefit of hindsight, it's with a sense of amusement that one considers the howls of derisory laughter that met the release of The Cult's second album, Love, in 1985. In the eyes of a music press that had regarded heavy metal as the idiot half-brother of all that was supposedly hip and tasteful, The Cult had made the verboten move of stepping backwards into the world of classic rock in order to move forward.

But it wasn't just the music press that recoiled in revulsion at The Cult's calculated repositioning. In much the same way that New Order lost the support of a sizeable number of the overcoat brigade in the wake of the sleek electronic beats of 'Blue Monday', so The Cult were rejected by those who'd backed singer Ian Astbury from the off in his darker previous incarnation fronting Southern Death Cult. Yet, looking back after a gap of 24 years, Love is more of a transitory album than the quantum leap it was perceived as at the time.

While not quite swan-diving into the decadent swamp of unfettered plank-spanking pleasures, The Cult nonetheless looked to the then-unfashionable spectre of Led Zeppelin and any number of British blues-based rock bands from the (to early-80s eyes) terminally unhip period of the late 1960s. Not that The Cult gave a shit. Like The Sisters of Mercy before them, they knew the value of hanging a guitar suggestively around the hips rather than using it to keep the nipples warm. Rock was something to be celebrated, a form of communion that arrived with all the force of a liberating army for those who'd been forced to hide their Led Zep albums down the back of the sofa since the last days of the punk wars.

The funny thing about hearing the first chimed shards of 'Big Neon Glitter' tumble from the speakers almost a quarter of a century after they first offended post-punk sensibilities is that they sound more akin to the delayed pluckings of U2's The Edge than the riffing of Jimmy Page. Indeed, The Cult themselves had attempted to secure the services of the Dubliners' erstwhile producer Steve Lillywhite, but instead found themselves under the auspices of one-time Wham! knob-twiddler Steve Brown. It proved to an astute pairing. Brown gave The Cult a muscularity that had been missing from their previous long-player, Dreamtime, and in doing so plotted a new course for a band hungry for success on a worldwide scale. Within seconds of the needle hitting the groove, The Cult had drawn a deep line in the sand. Inevitably, they ostracised a large part of their constituency by marking themselves out as patchouli-stinking hippies embracing the glorious pomp of something called 'Nirvana'. This was nothing short of sacrilege in the battlefields of Thatcher's Britain, to a generation raised to believe that hippydom was little more than pot-smoking, flares and lentils thanks to Nigel Planer's portrayal of Neil in the seminal comedy The Young Ones.

But there was more to The Cult than dreams of hitting the hippy trail and speaking to elders from a distant race. In Ian Astbury they possessed a frontman who revelled in the ludicrous nature of rock, providing a preening, ****-thrusting alternative to the pretty boy ponces who'd happily to bought into the materialistic bullshit of the day. At his side was Billy Duffy, a guitarist who knew the value of drones and eastern scales as well as the killer riff; he had enough hooks to reel in the ears of those hungry for something with power but unwilling to compromise with the spandex brigade. That's why 'She Sells Sanctuary' proved to be such a floor-filler then and remains so to this day. Only a churl would complain that 'Rain' was the same song but played slower; The Cult had a hit a groove and they were going to go deeper. The passage of time also reveals the wah-wahed, plank spanking 'Phoenix' to be a slinky little mover of the finest calibre.

This omnibus edition tells the tale of Love in great detail ? it's a lavish and lovingly packaged box-set including extra discs of 12? singles, B-sides and pre-production demos ? and may prove to be something of a shaggy dog story for some. But the remastering of the original album gives the songs a hefty dose of bollocks, showing where The Cult where headed to next. Indeed, the fourth disc, a live recording of The Cult from the Hammersmith Odeon in late 1985, finds the band already chomping at the bit in their desire to increase their ? ahem ? heaviosity. It wasn't long before The Cult abandoned work on Love's follow-up with Steve Brown and teamed up for the truly magical pairing with Rick Rubin on Electric . . . but that's another story for another day http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fzgb

The ultimate version of one of the greatest British rock records of the 80s.

Greg Moffitt 2009-09-24

Despite the heady heights of success scaled by The Cult during the arena rock years from 1987 until their break-up in 1995, their second album Love is by far their best. Originally released in 1985, there simply isn?t a bad song on here, and evergreen rock anthems such as Rain and the iconic She Sells Sanctuary are probably their best known and best loved tracks.

Love could arguably be called a transitional album. The band?s first effort, 1984?s Dreamtime, was rooted in the emerging post-punk and goth-rock underground scene. Love represented a quantum leap forward, but their sound had yet to be distilled into the pure hard rock of 1987?s Electric. Ian Astbury?s soaring vocals remained much the same, but Love introduced some Led Zeppelin-sized ambition and sonic scope.

Big Neon Glitter and Hollow Man are typical of the album?s outright gothic moments, and the band?s core audience accepted The Cult?s new-found rockist tendencies with good grace ? there was still plenty of reassuringly brooding atmosphere to keep them happy. Although the title track and the psychedelia-drenched Phoenix were a heavy hint at things to come, overall Love straddles the rock/goth divide with peerless skill.

Black Angel and the exquisite Brother Wolf, Sister Moon show the band to be equally adept at ballads. The sheer variety on display also highlights just how mature their writing was. After all, Astbury and Duffy had yet to hit 25 when Love was released. To the public at large, Love may be all about the big hit singles Rain and She Sells Sanctuary, but write off the rest at your peril.

Re-mastered from the original studio analogue tapes, this four-disc box set is a feast for fans. Aside from the original album, there?s a disc of remixes and non-album B sides, a disc of previously unreleased early demos and a disc recorded live in 1985 on the Love tour. Add a 48-page book with unseen contact sheets from the album photo session and a mass of other material assembled by Astbury and Duffy and you have the ultimate version of one of the greatest British rock records of the 80s.

[mrlee]

does the boxset feature b-sides and/or previously unreleased recordings.

booklets with cool photos?

[Falcon]

does the boxset feature b-sides and/or previously unreleased recordings.

booklets with cool photos?

See last paragraph of post directly above.

More info here:

http://archive.beggars.com/releases/4/the-cult-love-omnibus-edition

[mrlee]

does the boxset feature b-sides and/or previously unreleased recordings.

booklets with cool photos?

See last paragraph of post directly above.

More info here:

http://archive.beggars.com/releases/4/the-cult-love-omnibus-edition

That looks really really cool.

I think im up for buying it. Im not usually into huge boxset releases, but this is The Cult we are talkinga bout!!! Problem is im very, very low on .... Wheres the cheapest place online i could buy this from?

[mrlee]

yo. just bought it off play.com for ?13.99

[Falcon]

A bit of Cult history happened last night as original Cult bassisit Jamie Stewart and LOVE era studio drummer Mark Brzezicki (Big Country) joined Billy and Ian on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall for The Phoenix" and "She Sells Sanctuary"

Take a look here:

http://www.sacredsoul.us/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=2

[mrlee]

Awesome! Jamie was a huge part of The Cult back in the day and hes very much a character like Ian and Billy. So great to see him back!

[Falcon]

"Rain" from Royal Albert Hall

http://www.youtube.com/user/CormacHeron#p/a/u/0/kSx0PfjGA-c

[mrlee]

Slightly out of the way of the reunion.

But i love rare properly filmed footage

Ceremony Era. 1991

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bABIHrSzkjk&feature=PlayList&p=63405F0D0A85D279&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=35

Is it possible to get the whole show?

[Falcon]

Slightly out of the way of the reunion.

But i love rare properly filmed footage

Ceremony Era. 1991

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bABIHrSzkjk&feature=PlayList&p=63405F0D0A85D279&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=35

Is it possible to get the whole show?

Youtube/ebay - the usual places I suspect.

[Falcon]

Sanctuary from last night in Amsterdam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY3nFZWWtFI&feature=email

Good camera work and sound, crowd going crazy...

[Falcon]

Additional encore at extra London gig (intimate Shepherds Bush Empire) tonight consisted of Spiritwalker and Horse Nation, pretty cool way to end the Euro leg.

Off for a couple weeks then the following US dates to end the LOVE/LIVE Tour.

Nov 6/2009 - Detroit, Michigan, The Fillmore
Nov 7/2009 - Rochester, New York, Main Street Armory
Nov 9/2009 - Cleveland, Ohio, House Of Blues
Nov 10/2009 - Montclair, New Jersey, Wellmont Theater
Nov 11/2009 - Richmond, Virginia, The National
Nov 13/2009 - Raleigh, North Carolina, Lincoln Theater
Nov 14/2009 - Orlando, Florida, Hard Rock Live
Nov 15/2009 - Atlanta, Georgia, The Tabernacle

I expect them to go away for a while so catch 'em at the above if ya can...

Thanks to woodz and www.cultcentral.com for the info

[FunkyMonkey]

From Andy Copping's Twitter (Download Festival booker/promoter)...

# The Cult rocked it up last night...should I look at them for Download?

4 minutes ago from web

The Cult are playing @ Shepherd's Bush Empire on Sunday & I'm going to see them again! There are still a few tickets left, don't miss out!

The Cult were amazing & Billy Duffy is a guitar God...Papa Roach rocked and Jacoby is a great great frontman...two killer gigs in one night!

[Falcon]

Partial vids from Shepherds..

NIrvana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQtUxir-hpU

Rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb83HGFa37A&NR=1

Thanks to youtube user staceygroves for the above

[FunkyMonkey]

CHRIS WYSE OF THE CULT SOARS WITH OWL

October 17, 2009

Bassist Chris Wyse of The Cult talks about his latest project, Owl and finally getting the opportunity to record his own album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc1e_Wh03-Q&feature=player_profilepage

[Falcon]

"Spiritwalker" closes out the LOVE/LIVE Tour Euro leg, pure adrenaline.

Vid here:

 http://www.youtube.com/user/WarPonyDestroyer#p/u/2/9RYsKOjvGJA

Thanks to youtuber warponydestroyer

[Falcon]

Nice quality vid of "Horse Nation" from Sheperds Bush can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5kr5nVVUr4

Johnny Tempesta's just a monster on this song..

[Falcon]

According to the official "Musink Festival" myspace The Cult will be headlining the Feb 19-21 2010 Orange County show..

http://www.myspace.com/musink