The Cult

[Axlfanatic]

i like the new songs a lot. i think out of the four, "until the light takes us" is my favourite.

I like it alot as well, right there with "Everyman and Woman is a Star" as the strongest of the four new songs. 

It's PURE CULT for sure - riff driven, groove laden, melodic and catchy.

Agree. Just saw it live- loved it first listen & already sounds like a classic live 

[Falcon]

Listen to all 4 new Cult tracks here:

http://www.iheartradio.com/cc-common/ondemand/music.html?apid=6994

[FunkyMonkey]

Listen to all 4 new Cult tracks here:

http://www.iheartradio.com/cc-common/ondemand/music.html?apid=6994

Thanks for the link.  I'd have to say "Every Man And Woman Is A Star" is my favorite.

I remember seeing them back in '95, he played a Strat on "Edie" and "Black Sun" live - I was mortified.  

I thought he was kind of known for playing the Falcon -- is he just mixing things up?

[Bansidhe]

I thought he was kind of known for playing the Falcon -- is he just mixing things up?

He tends to use the Falcon for Death Cult, Dreamtime, Love era material as it has that chimey, jangly quality which was so distinctive on those records. He uses Les Paul Customs for the majority of the set for most of the stuff from Electric onwards. He only uses Fenders live rarely if a particular song requires that type of tone. I agree though the Falcon is the iconic guitar which people picture him playing and rightly so. Fantastic and unique sounding guitar.

[Falcon]

Billy talking about his history with the Gretsch White Falcon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_f-VJdAzwA

[FunkyMonkey]

Billy talking about his history with the Gretsch White Falcon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_f-VJdAzwA

It's interesting to see how he talks about the guitar -- I'm guessing he doesn't do the same for the others you mentioned.

[Falcon]

It's interesting to see how he talks about the guitar -- I'm guessing he doesn't do the same for the others you mentioned.

He'll talk about the Les Pauls, referencing Steve Jones, Mick Ronson and a few others with reverance.

Let's not forget the "SONIC TEMPLE" cover, Billy throwing the iconic shape - black Les Paul hanging low.

[Bansidhe]

He'll talk about the Les Pauls, referencing Steve Jones, Mick Ronson and a few others with reverance.

Although I know he wasn't known for playing a Les Paul, another player I believe was an influence on Billy was the late Stuart Adamson of The Skids/Big Country. He was one of the first guys who used drones/pedal tone type riffs in a punk/rock context. He had a uniquely Celtic sound which I sometimes here elements of in some of Williams's licks. Great player.

[Falcon]

A new Duffy interview can be read here:

http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Billy+Duffy:+The+Cult/

Interesting as always...

[FunkyMonkey]

THE CULT Frontman Interviewed On WRIF 101.1 FM (Audio) - Nov. 26, 2010

Meltdown of Detroit, Michigan's WRIF 101.1 FM radio station conducted an interview with vocalist Ian Astbury of the legendary rock band THE CULT. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=150015

[FunkyMonkey]

An interview with Ian Astbury:

Hard rockers of The Cult have struggled to find their niche

Published: Friday, November 12, 2010

Singer Ian Astbury doesn't consider himself an expert on music, but he does believe his band The Cult hasn't received proper respect over the years.

To be fair, he may have a point. The post-punk group, which started out in the mid-'80s English rock scene, merged a hard sound with a raw approach. While the band eventually would gain mainstream attention from its 1988 album "Sonic Temple," which included hit singles "Fire Woman" and "Sweet Soul Sister;" the early '90s were hard on The Cult as the alternative nation seemingly locked the group out of its mainstream fun.

Too metal for Cobain's grunge, Astbury and bandmate Billy Duffy were left on the outside looking in at a flourishing scene that arguably they helped sow nearly a decade prior.

"There's a point where it gets so painful you have to let it go," said Astbury, calling from New York City. "I had to let it go. It used to eat at me pretty hard, especially when that community turned its back on us. Certain promoters around the country turned their back on the band. That legacy is something we built. We were around at a time when to be in a post-punk band or a punk band was a dangerous occupation in the sense as soon as you walked out of the building you were a target. You couldn't go to the mall. We watched the subculture become sort of homogenized. Alternative music has become homogenized."

Continually seeking to eschew redundancy and reinvent itself, The Cult is taking a different approach to how it releases new music. After the band's last effort, 2007's "Born Into This," came and went without much notice, Astbury and company decided on releasing EP-like projects called capsules. Its latest is titled "Capsule 2: New Blood Deep Cuts," which is available as vinyl, digital, USB, CD and DVD and features new songs "Embers" and "Until The Light Takes Us," live recordings and even abstract film shorts produced by Astbury.

"We were being courted by a few labels, and they all want albums and they want it a certain way," Astbury said. "The days of big advances are gone unless you're 15 years old and belong to Disney. So as much as we'd like to make an album, we decided this time to be DIY, and what we came up with was releasing music as we go. It's much fresher and the audience gets access to it a lot quicker."

Fresher is exactly what Astbury said he's been feeling since returning to The Cult after assuming the Jim Morrison vocal duties with The Doors' survivors Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger for 150 shows in the early '00s. The 48-year-old singer hasn't ruled out touring again with the classic rockers, but in the meantime his focus is on The Cult, which returns to the Rock Hall City Monday at the House of Blues in Cleveland.

Speaking of the Rock Hall, there's always the obligatory question for eligible bands about one day being inducted into the institution.

Always feeling on the outside, Astbury doesn't quite know how to quantify the notion of the establishment opening its doors for the "She Sells Sanctuary" band.

"I kind of have mixed feelings about it," Astbury said. "When you start opening up museums, it's almost like a dead culture. I think it's great that it's celebrated, but by the same token I'd like to see more done by the Rock Hall community coming out and supporting younger artists and artists who are out there right now. Having a dinner and a function is fine but it seems to end right there. (The Cult) should be Rock Hall-worthy, but it's subjective to whoever is passing the judgment."

He added, "I'm probably not the right person to ask. Go ask an expert, find an expert and ask them. There are plenty around."

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/11/12/life/nh3239786.txt?viewmode=fullstory

[Falcon]

Cult drummer Johnny Tempesta with some Christmas cheer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHW6dNuogxo

[mrlee]

wow

yknow

I never listened to the song "All Souls Avenue". Absolutely knocked me out, amazing, beautiful song.



THE CULT!!!!!!

[Falcon]

Interesting stuff from Ian Astbury:

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/ian-astbury-writes-for-clash

Ramble, rant or reminisce, this is an artist?s opportunity to pen their own Clash article. This issue, The Cult?s Ian Astbury presents a piece entitled 'The Never Ending Road: Dispatches From A Heathen Child'.

?While driving back from New Orleans after another night of sweat-drenched guitar violence and amplifier worship, it?s Monday 4th October, about 6am. I?m at the wheel of The Black Ryder?s trusty 1996 heathen dodge van, resplendent with captain?s seats, fairy lights and voodoo talisman. The passengers like children sleeping.

I began to contemplate a subject to share with Clash dreamers, usually I am full of ideas to write about. On this occasion I was stumped. I thought of sharing my experience of seeing The Clash in ?the day? and meeting the band after the show, being offered my first ?hit? on a Jazz Cigarette by Simo, to later going on to open for The Clash but that all seemed nostalgic. Then I considered what I?m doing now: making films, recording and performing with BXI (Boris) in Tokyo, the recent Cult ?Capsules? and L?America dates, as well as The Cult?s upcoming UK tour, but no, that seemed too conventional.

FLASHBACK: I recently read in a Nick Cave biography that I was unceremoniously thrown out of The Birthday Party?s dressing room for being wasted. I remember screaming like a banshee and having the arms ripped off my favourite nineteenth century Salvation Army coat, feathers in my Huron savage hair, while The Birthday Party mesmerized the Camden faithful. Taken backstage by a label rep after the performance (we were label mates of sorts), I remember bowing or laying at Nick Cave?s feet and paying an inebriated homage to an absolute demon of a performer. Old Nick himself could not have entertained us more. I was a drunk and earnest nineteen-year-old and my head was spinning from Suicide Death Cult?s meteoric rise as the new indie darlings, harshly critiqued as na?ve (I was nineteen for fuck?s sake).

Struck by a sudden reflective glare from an animal?s eyes I am back in my body - one moment I was contemplating this article, the next keeping an eye out for deer, who love to jump in front of vehicles racing through the night. Many unfortunates lay silent beside the road.

It?s amazing what begins to flash through the mind while you?re tired and fixed on the highway. Reciting a mantra for the white tara - she who forgives before you even ask - then an echoing thunder and lightning, the original heathens. Howlin? Wolf and Muddy Waters fast-forward through the doors, Patti Smith, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division and PIL, to David Bowie?s ?Electric Heathen? and the true wizards that are Sunn O))) and Boris. Savages running wild and untamed; no masters, no gods. The long hairs revealing their barbarian hearts, poetry in action.

It takes courage and a calm to channel the wilderness. A balance, as you go at it with knives. I am a green-eyed heathen child still laying waste to hearts and minds... these are the sounds that vibrate and vistas I view in my crazy monkey mind at the wheel. Then there is the road weaving through swamps, fields and desert back to Cali and my nomadic encampment. A place to strike out from and destroy the night.?

[Falcon]

A cool recent interview with IA can be read here:

http://www.detroitrockblog.blogspot.com/

[mrlee]

^^ Suicide Death Cult?


I thought it was Southern Death Cult

[Falcon]

^^ Suicide Death Cult?


I thought it was Southern Death Cult

It was Southern Death Cult, just a play on words by IA meaning if he hadn't left the band
in the middle of their meteoric rise it would've been absolute suicide.

That band was poised to take over the post punk European musical landscape - the heir to The Clash throne..

[FunkyMonkey]

A cool recent interview with IA can be read here:

http://www.detroitrockblog.blogspot.com/

It's a good interview:

Does the advent of the Capsule format mean an end to Cult albums? Going forward, will The Cult only release singles ?

I think those formats, those terms, 'single', 'album', 'EP' really belong in the 20th century. They describe a specific arcane format, and the industry is still holding on to some of that 20th century pre-internet communication, really traditional way of doing things. It's up for debate if there's still an audience who are quite happy to indulge in those formats.

When you hear the back and forth banter between Keith and Mick, after all those years together, does it give you a good feeling in regards to the kind of relationship you have with Billy?

Well, ultimately at the end of the day we're very different people, but we have a mutual respect. There's a underlying respect and we're able to travel and work in the same environment. If we've got something to say to each other we say it. Even though we may have completely different perspectives, under The Cult umbrella, we work it out. Sometimes that can be very uncomfortable, it can be very heated, but there's no lack of passion there. Over the past a few years we've been making the best possible music we can make and whether or not we're (achieving) that, it's definitely our intention.

At the time, The Cult had been lumped in with the hair metal movement. 

I think everybody had long hair, but the thing was, I had the best long hair. Nobody had better hair than me. And they were all try to mimic it. I mean, Axl Road was wearing MY bandana that my girlfriend at the time put on him. Straightened his hair out, put my bandana on him for a Queen photo shoot, that was MY look.

[mrlee]

Glad Astbury didnt rip into the scene.

[Falcon]

More IA from MTV....

http://blog.mtvmusic.com/2010/12/07/mtv-music-book-club-the-cults-ian-astbury-talks-cutting-through-spiritual-materialism/#more-5066

MTV Music Book Club: The Cult's Ian Astbury Talks Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Sometimes a book doesn?t just affect a musician?s art; it transforms their life. Ian Astbury, the frontman of influential British band The Cult, has a strong connection to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche?s spiritual text Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, a contemporary Buddhist work that reflects on one?s spiritual journey. Here Astbury discusses the book, how it?s impacted him and how literary works generally inspire music.

Describe this book in one sentence.
The dissolution of ego's attachment and perceived control.

How did you first come across this book?
It was introduced to me by an enlightened elder over 20 years ago.

How many times have you read it?
Countless times. It's a well I return to again and again.

Have you passed it on to anyone else?
Absolutely.
Can you accurately judge this book by its cover?
No, it has to be experienced.

What emotion do you associate with this book?
Serenity, strength, courage.

Why should this book become required reading in high school English classes?
I believe this would be a perfect introduction that the true nature of life is about the acquisition of experience and spiritual knowledge over materialism and destructive behavior.

Is this the sort of book you typically read?
I tend to read more than one book at a time and am currently reading five or six books at once-- including the David Abram book mentioned above, Just Kids by Patti Smith and Seven Days In the Art World by Sarah Thornton and also various works by Osho.

How has it influenced your music?
I feel the book helped ground me more as a human being helping to contribute to better self-awareness.

Any specific songs?
I'm always dropping Buddhist references.

Do you find that books generally influence your music?
Books can certainly help open me to a space or area or sentiment I may not have previously considered.

Who should read this book?
Anyone who is a seeker.

Is there any book you must have on tour with you no matter what?
I have an iPad so with Kindle and Books apps, I can pretty much carry a library with me, which is amazing. Regardless, I always manage to bring home a ton of books I pick up on the road as well as vinyl recordings. I currently have The Essential Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche on my iPad and books by Allen Ginsberg. Can you imagine a world without the lyrical genius of Bob Dylan, who was hugely influenced by Ginsberg, who, as well as being a poet, was a Buddhist scholar?

Is there a musician you would consider more of an author than a songwriter?
Leonard Cohen.

What is your favorite piece of music based on a literary work?
David Bowie has always had great literary influences. Perhaps ?Sympathy For the Devil? by The Rolling Stones that was influenced by The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Do you think a song or album can tell a story in the same way a book does?
A song can certainly tell a story but a book usually takes you on a longer deeper journey. Songs tend to get to the main emotional intention a lot quicker... although there are always exceptions and no hard fast rules. It's truly an individual experience.