The Cult

[Falcon]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/25/cults-ian-astbury-still-opening-doors/?page=3#article
 
The Cult's Ian Astbury still opening doors

From Alice Cooper and Doors? guitarist Robby Krieger to Lou Reed and No Doubt drummer Adrian Young, golf is a favorite sport of many a rock star. Ian Astbury, the lead singer with The Cult and erstwhile singer with the reconstituted Doors, is avowedly not one of them.
 
?I hate it!? said Astbury, who kicks off a national tour with The Cult tonight, Friday, with a nearly sold-out show at Humphrey?s Concerts by the Bay. The tour is in support of ?Choice of Weapon,? the hard-rocking band?s new album and one of its most potent and assured works to date.
 
?My father used to take me caddying when I was a kid. I had to carry the golf bag and hated it. It was one of those things you got roped into doing and I remember it being a big drag.?
 
Fair enough. But why does he think golf is so popular with so many prominent rockers?
 
?It?s just a way of unwinding,? Astbury replied. ?I know Iggy Pop loves it, and so does Alice Cooper. But I?m sure they have their own caddies.?
 
How, then, does this veteran singer ? who has co-led The Cult with guitarist Billy Duffy for nearly 30 years and has lived in California for the past quarter-century ? unwind?
 
?Good question,? replied Astbury, who turned 50 on May 14.

?One way I like to unwind is to travel, going to regions of the world that are complete wilderness. The Himalayas is one of my favorites. I?ve been there on two occasions and hope to get back sometime soon. I like working out. I was in a period of debilitation (after) I trashed my left hip in a motorcycle accident. I had my hip resurfaced. They put in titanium.?
 
Does that mean the dark-haired singer sets off the metal detectors in airports?

?I go off every time,? he said. ?My hip injury affected my mobility, where I packed on a lot of weight that was hard to lose. I?ve had a long love affair of martial arts. I?ve always been pretty active. I was playing soccer until I was 44 at a high level. I?m a veteran middle distance runner as well, and I like boxing.?
 
An engaging conversationalist, Astbury is happy to take a topic and run with it at length. Accordingly, what was to have been a 20-minute phone interview stretched to 80 minutes as he discussed his childhood, his musical passions, the implosion and subsequent rebirth of The Cult, his work with The Doors, his desire to collaborate with Kanye West, and much more. Here?s what Astbury had to say about?
 
His favorite music as a kid:

?One of our big albums for us was ?The Idiot? by Iggy Pop and I liked some progressive music ? King Crimson, tangerine dream, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. My No. 1 all-time favorite was David Bowie. I had every Bowie album from the age of on. We (The Cult) got to open for him 10 times. But the real turning point for me was going back to England (from Canada) in 1977 and hearing (the Sex Pistols?) ?God Save the Queen.? I was done in as soon as I heard it. I had shoulder-length hair and then it all came off. It was gone. And that was until 1983, when i grew my hair long. My hair is below my shoulders now.?
 
Whether succeeding or failing was a bigger motivation for him as a young, fledgling singer:
 
?That wasn?t even a consideration. I was homeless. I was desperate to find shelter, never mind success. ?Success? then was just eating for a week. I was living in (Margaret) Thatcher?s Britain.,on 14 pounds of unemployment a week. That was gone very quickly. My rent was 8-10 pounds. We used to buy a lot of potatoes, because they lasted longer. Sometimes, we?d go into a supermarket with a cardboard box and walk out with it filled up (without paying), very discreetly.?
 
The Cult?s 1995 disintegration:

?I just couldn?t continue. We were so polarized. Billy and I just had completely different visions of what it should be. I was anxious to deconstruct. ?Sonic Temple? had become this monolithic, MTV moment. I wanted it to be more like (Cream?s) ?Disraeli Gears and I struggled in the studio. I was becoming more and more detached from the songwriting team, and I had my own personal mission to get the band back to the garage musically speaking). But by that time, just the sheer weight of 14 years built up and it imploded. Everything that could happen, did happen.
 
"I just couldn?t continue. We were so polarized. Billy and I just had completely different visions of what it should be. I was anxious to deconstruct. ?Sonic Temple? had become this monolithic, MTV moment. I wanted it to be more like (Cream?s) ?Disraeli Gears and I struggled in the studio. I was becoming more and more detached from the songwriting team and had my own personal mission to get the band back to the garage. But that time just the sheer weight of 14 years and it imploded. Everything that could happen did happen. We had a body count: Nigel Preston, one of our drummers, passed away. We had to kick him out; he had a bad drug habit. I grew up on the road.
 
"By 14 I was changing my (cancer-stricken) mother?s bed sheets. At 15, my mother got more sick, and my father needed more help. So I didn?t really get a chance to have a teenage life and I grew up (later0 through the band ? that was my family. So, for me, it was never a career. It was just on to the next thing and the next evolution of what we were doing. For many years, it was: tour/album, tour/album."
 
Becoming a Doors? fan:

?I?d grown up a blue-collar, died-in-the-wool, glam-rock kid, and then got into-punk rock. My musical education didn?t begin until my late teens and early 20s. When punk rolled down, it was like: ?What do we do now?? And you had Joy Divsion and Ian Curtis, with this baritone croon, talking about The Doors, and Echo and The Bunnymen talking about The Doors, and The Doors? music was in (the film) ?Apocalypse Now.? It hooked you into the whole period."
 
Becoming the singer in The Doors, later The Doors of the 21st Century:

?I was very grateful (to be asked). I was in my early forties and had done dome growing. If I had joined The Doors in my twenties, my head would have taken over and you probably couldn?t have kept me still. They waited 30 years (to re-launch The Doors) and the courtship was quiet a long while. I was introduced to Ray (Manzarek), Robby (Krieger) John (Densmore) when ?The Doors? movie was being made (by Oliver Stone) in 1990. I was invited to a party in the Hollywood Hills. Michael Talbot, this famous metaphysical writer was there. Timothy Leary and his partner was there, and this Russian woman, who was supposed to be a spiritualist, was there. And these were the only other people there. It was like I was being vetted in some way!
 
?Twelve or 13 years later, I got the gig. It was like a kid getting to fly a jet fighter. All of a sudden, here I am at the helm of this incredible machine. That was one of the most incredible things I?d ever experience. It was funny: I?d just shaved my head and denounced materialism for the 39 the time. I could not have looked more different than Jim Morrison. The Doors knocked on my door, to do one show. Ray said: ?If not now, then when?? So that was that. They said: ?Are you in?? I said: ?Absolutely.? I was sweating. It was terrifying and exhilarating, all at the same time
 
?After 30 shows with Ray and Robbie, they never said anything; they just gave gestures. If Ray looked up at you, you knew you did something wrong. If he was nodding his head, you were doing something right. And that?s how they brought me through it. It was one of the most incredible music educations I?ve ever had. I did 150 shows with them.?
 
The Cult today:

"I think that, over the years, The Cult has developed into something a little more evolved. Here we are, in 2012, with our ninth album, and it?s one of the best records we?ve made in our entire lives. It all happened so fast!?

[BurningHills]

Man, you gotta love Ian.

I'd love to just have a conversation with that dude.

[Falcon]

Choice of Weapon merch:

http://thecult.shop.livenation.com/Dept.aspx?cp=21286_24042

[BurningHills]

Choice of Weapon merch:

http://thecult.shop.livenation.com/Dept.aspx?cp=21286_24042

Nice!

I have that Sonic Temple shirt. It's awesome.

[Falcon]

A replay of The Cult on Rockline can be heard here:

http://www.rocklineradio.com/replay/replay.php

[Falcon]

http://digitaljournal.com/article/325505

The Cult's Ian Astbury chooses his weapons

[BurningHills]

Any word on where the album might debut on Billboard next week?

[Falcon]

Any word on where the album might debut on Billboard next week?

No idea really, maybe Top 50 - I'd suspect maybe 20k in sales tops.

It was Top 10 in UK mid week, Top 5 Canada - Ian did a shitload of press in the Great White North for it...

[Falcon]

Setlist from opening night in San Diego, not sure of the accuracy..


1.Honey from a Knife *New*
2. Lil' Devil
3. Rain
4. Lucifer *New*
5. Nirvana
6. Embers
7. Fire Woman
8. Phoenix
9. The Wolf *New*
10.Wild Flower
11. For the Animals *New*
12.Spiritwalker
13.She Sells Sanctuary

Encore:
14. Love Removal Machine

[Falcon]

Rumor has it Ian married girlfriend Aimee Nash (of The Black Ryder) last night in Vegas.

Well done IA, well done.

[BurningHills]

Setlist from opening night in San Diego, not sure of the accuracy..


1.Honey from a Knife *New*
2. Lil' Devil
3. Rain
4. Lucifer *New*
5. Nirvana
6. Embers
7. Fire Woman
8. Phoenix
9. The Wolf *New*
10.Wild Flower
11. For the Animals *New*
12.Spiritwalker
13.She Sells Sanctuary

Encore:
14. Love Removal Machine

Seems like a short set. Hopefully they add a few more tunes as the tour rolls along.

[Falcon]

Seems like a short set. Hopefully they add a few more tunes as the tour rolls along.

It's unconfirmed, I think there maybe a couple missing although maybe not.

If anything is added, it'll likely be from Choice Of Weapon, Electric or Love.

the plan is to do nothing in between (beyond Fire Woman) Electric and Choice Of Weapon.

[BurningHills]

Seems like a short set. Hopefully they add a few more tunes as the tour rolls along.

It's unconfirmed, I think there maybe a couple missing although maybe not.

If anything is added, it'll likely be from Choice Of Weapon, Electric or Love.

the plan is to do nothing in between (beyond Fire Woman) Electric and Choice Of Weapon.

No Sweet Soul Sister? Bummer.

[Falcon]

Seems like a short set. Hopefully they add a few more tunes as the tour rolls along.

It's unconfirmed, I think there maybe a couple missing although maybe not.

If anything is added, it'll likely be from Choice Of Weapon, Electric or Love.

the plan is to do nothing in between (beyond Fire Woman) Electric and Choice Of Weapon.

No Sweet Soul Sister? Bummer.

Nope, not for now at least.

I expect by the time you see them the set will be rounding into shape, hopefully an addition or 2.

[Axlfanatic]

Setlist from opening night in San Diego, not sure of the accuracy..


1.Honey from a Knife *New*
2. Lil' Devil
3. Rain
4. Lucifer *New*
5. Nirvana
6. Embers
7. Fire Woman
8. Phoenix
9. The Wolf *New*
10.Wild Flower
11. For the Animals *New*
12.Spiritwalker
13.She Sells Sanctuary

Encore:
14. Love Removal Machine

Seems like a short set. Hopefully they add a few more tunes as the tour rolls along.

Nah-this is norml- they always fly thru their set & dont say a word- but its always a blazing 75 min set that will blow ur mind!! 

[Falcon]

Full show The M Resort in Vegas 5/26 can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL2_Di_NXu0

Lil' Devil
Honey from a Knife
Rain
Lucifer
Nirvana
Embers
Fire Woman
The Wolf
The Phoenix
For the Animals
Wild Flower
Spiritwalker
She Sells Sanctuary

Encore:
I Can't Explain (The Who) snippet
Love Removal Machine

[Falcon]

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2012/05/28/qa-with-the-cults-ian-astbury/

Ian Astbury is so much funnier than we imagined. Rather than be elusive where his past is concerned (goth progenitors Southern Death Cult) and the scene that spawned him, Astbury is chatty and playful. Rather than present the Cult, his mighty metal-crunching band with guitarist Billy Duffy, as rock gods, he places them at the center of a continuum, from Cream to the Clash. He talks about playing Puerto Rican party nights at Danceteria, getting turned on to T.Rex on Radio Luxembourg and hanging out with Rick Rubin before Def Jam hit hard. Mostly, though, Astbury takes down those who make themselves authoritarian without merit?music journalists, politicians?in a fashion similar to his highly personal lyrical outlook on Choice Of Weapon (Cooking Vinyl), the newest and best Cult album since 1994?s The Cult. Astbury will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
 
MAGNET: Is there anything left of the kid who started Southern Death Cult in you?
 Astbury: Very much so. [Laughs] The drive, the striving to connect, the integrity, for sure. What do you know about the Southern Death Cult anyway? Honestly?
 
I lived in London during the year you guys started, hung at the Batcave in Leicester Square and had the pleasure of seeing you guys.
 OK, so you?re not a kid just coming up with no idea of what was going on back then. Great. So many people who try to have a perspective now simply can?t have one because they weren?t there. I appreciate that you were there and got it. People thought of that Batcave as an all-goth music scene, but you could go in there on any given night and members of the Clash would be there, or Jimmy Page would stop in. It was a real hangout for the lot of us. A lot of us came up there.
 
It was a good time for sure. David Sylvian was my neighbor when he was still wearing makeup. Is the U.K. still part of your life? Have you given up on England? I know you were born in Canada, but it was England where you made your bones.
 Not really. I mean there are periods. I keep an apartment there, but I continuously found myself heading east after the Cult made it?like to New York. Growing up, I was only 14 miles from the U.S. border, so everything cultural that came through America from the ages of 11 to 16 affected me. It was same things that affected kids in New York City: radio stations, fashions, Don Kirshner?s Rock Concert, The Midnight Special. No matter where I lived, I always gravitate toward outside things and other outsiders, most so in London.
 
Have you been around for the Occupy things? I get a sense throughout several parts of the new album that there is a brand of insurgence you?re espousing that has awful lot to do with the movement. Weapon is ripe with the joy of anarchism.
 Well, I didn?t just arrive at my conclusions or observations because of what was going on with the Occupy movement. Some of the content of the songs can be reflected in the symbols of Occupy. There are aspects of the culture that now have a place, have congregated themselves in the Occupy moment. There is, though, that criticism that Occupy has no real agenda. But part of their response is that everything is their agenda. It?s not just about railing against capitalism. People are stepping forward and sharing their despondence. People are waking up. That?s what Weapon reflects. I grew up in a family of workers. I lived in factory towns like Glasgow. I have seen a world of people pushed aside before the notion of profit margins. Using that as a backdrop, some of our new songs like ?Life>Death? and ?This Night In The City Forever? make even more sense. Then again, the latter was written the evening that Obama won the election and we were all out there feeling the energy of the city, the anticipation of the possible. I remember people running down the street. So animated, so completely mental, such connection. So many possibilities. We wanted that night to never stop.
 
I get that a song like ?Night In The City? can speak to the power of Occupy as well as the power of Obama. Would you agree then that parts of the album face the possibility of the party having ended?
 Every great party ends, and what do you have left? Introspection. There?s spirituality, too, at work: ?If I pray, I?ll get the girl.? ?If I pray, my bank account will rise.? ?If I pray, everything will be OK.? That?s fine to think about, but the hard work begins after the victory celebrations.
 
To say nothing of the hangover. You guys have split apart, come together, split apart, reconfigured. You can look at 1995 and say maybe that was the one time you guys broke up, but was there ever true fissure or disconnect between you and Billy? Ever a moment where you believe you wouldn?t be the Cult again?
 I don?t think so, no. The Cult has always been in life since its inception, and I suspect it always will be. It?s the collaboration between Billy and I, the connection. I?ve been lucky in that I can pick and choose the best of what he has to offer for the Cult?s own. He has that vision as well, I trust. There are moments where it?s been more in the back or toward the recesses, of course, but in my mind I am always the Cult. It?s as if it?s been thrust upon me since Southern Death Cult. They were looking for a singer and liked the way I looked. I was sort of looking for a band and liked the way they looked. [Laughs] That was it. It was, ?Yeah, sure, why not?? and from there I never looked back. It wasn?t a career choice. I hadn?t really considered such before that. It just happened. It?s strange the choices you make.
 
Do you think that you?ve made the most of each Cult opportunity?especially, say, in the last 10 years and (2007?s) Born Into This?
 Born Into This came out fully realized. Amazing scope that album has. We had the framework. Great songs. Threw it up, batted it out, but the skies didn?t open. It was a contractual obligation. The pressure to have perfect weather conditions every time is often hard. Sometimes it rains during the big game. This new album, we took our time and wrote and recorded it when we were ready, with no consideration other than just creating what was in our heads, in our focus, at that moment. You also don?t want to be too focused. You want to make room for all possibilities.
 
For all your personal and lyrical complexities, you?ve chosen a very direct form of music in which to explain yourself.
 There are albums of ours, like Electric, where there is a cinematic scope to the melodies. But I totally get what you?re driving at, and even agree. We made a creative choice. I mean, I was there in 1977, amongst the Never Mind The Bollocks, where the patriarchs got torn down, the classic-rock gods. But there were some whose music was untouchable?the heaviness of the Doors or Iggy Pop, for example. Even Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were OK. We were going against the grain of that grain, the punk grain, and by the time we hit 1985 and Love, we didn?t care about the snide indie public discourse of papers like the NME, who told you what you had to like. We wanted to rail against all that; not to be contradictory to them, but to be contradictory to everything. We hated that sort of elitism, that posturing. What better than big rock to show that level of anti-elitism, that fight against art-for-art?s sake.
 
I wouldn?t assume what lyrics mean what, but there?s a moment on ?Amnesia? where I can?t tell who you?re taking down: politicos, spiritualists or fellow rock bands for not taking risks. Who you talking ?bout, Ian?
 I?m against any self-imposed gatekeepers of the culture, anyone who believes they have some sort of authority that they?re not qualified to have. The internet does this, lends credibility to anyone without question. This might seem like an old-fashioned complaint, but what happened to questioning authority? Where I come from?punk rock?that was the point. I?m surprised that whole generations in our wake have turned the other cheek. That same sort of pious authoritarian quality is what ruled the ?80s?like the NME, where they felt as if they were the true and only source for cultural education. But with that comes responsibility, and the question then becomes, ?Do they have the goods and the history and the knowledge to make it count?? Never set yourself up as an authority figure if you can?t back yourself up.

[Falcon]

http://agitreader.com/features/the_cult-05.28.html

The Cult
Riders on the Storm
by Stephen Slaybaugh

Since dropping the ?death? from their moniker nearly 30 years ago and replacing the gothic tones of their psychedelic brew with ever increasing amounts of heavy metal thunder, The Cult has been treading upon uncommon ground. It is not every band that has just as much in common with Bauhaus as AC/DC. With singer Ian Astbury calling on a bevy mystical imagery with his booming voice and guitarist Billy Duffy creating a backing swirled with haunting notes and bombastic surges, records like the breakthrough Love and the Rick Rubin?produced Electric firmly established the band?s unique sound and won them a diverse fanbase.
 
After six albums, the band split up in 1995, only to reform in 1999. The Cult?s activity has been sporadic in the new millennium, but after a couple records and line-up changes, they have seemingly finally gotten it together for their latest, Choice of Weapon, released last week by Cooking Vinyl. The record has some of the demon fire of old, with Astbury and Duffy tapping into that untangible shaman magic that has fueled them for so long. I caught up with Duffy on the phone to discuss the new record and how things have changed over the years.
 
It?s been about five years since your last album and six years between records before that. Is it just a matter of not needing to make a record as frequently or is there always a question of whether there will be another Cult album?
 
Billy Duffy:

It?s a bit of both. It?s a collaborative endeavor?a Cult album is Ian and I writing together?so you have to get two guys lined up to get together and want to do it. Then we have to feel that we have enough material and be on the same page emotionally and psychologically.
 
We did the Capsules, so it?s been five years between albums, but we released the Capsules with new music two years ago. And we?ve toured every year, so it?s not like we?ve been hiding. We?ve been moderately active. It?s just a question of wanting to have enough good songs, like all bands. We don?t really give it that much thought, it just kind of happened that way and has taken a couple years to get this album together. I wish we could do it more spontaneously like in the ?80s, when we were constantly on the road with the band and lived it 24 hours a day. It?s harder when you come off the road and you?re an adult and have responsibilities. It?s harder to get down to the business of musical creativity. Hopefully, we can break that cycle. I?d like to get into something new fairly soon.
 
I read something where Ian said you bring ideas in on your iPhone. Is that indicative of you capturing ideas whenever the inspiration takes you?
 
BD:

Yeah, if I get a riff in my head or whatnot, I record it on my iPhone. Then we get together and make some demos with a drum machine and construct the songs that way. I just don?t have the energy to knock things around in soundchecks. My ears need a rest, so I don?t necessarily want to spend a lot of my day hammering away onstage when I have a gig that night. Once in awhile we do, but it?s just a different way of doing things. I used to record on a cassette recorder and now my iPhone is handy.
 
Going into this album, did you have any big ideas in terms of concept or sound?

BD:

Not really, but I wanted to assert myself again as a guitar player. On Born Into This, I took a passive role and didn?t really fight as hard as I have in the past for guitarmageddon. So this time, I made sure I pushed to get a lot of guitar on the record, which I think was lacking a little bit on Born Into This. I might be wrong, but it seems like we got the balance right this time between all the elements.
 
Yeah, I don?t know if numbers-wise there are more guitars, but the sound is bigger.
 
BD:

Born Into This was almost like demos that had been enhanced. We did a bunch of demos in Los Angeles early in 2007 and by the summer we got Youth to produce the album in England. We had been sending him files over, and we only had 20 days of recording, then it was mixed while we were on the road. That was classic?we?d listen to mixes after we?d been onstage. I?d get to the hotel room and my ears would be bleeding and I?d be asked to listen to a mix. It was very stupid, really, to do that.
 
You said you were fighting for more guitars this time around. On the other side, as far as lyrics go, do you give Ian carte blanche to say whatever he wants or have there been times when you?ve forced him to edit something because you didn?t like the the sentiment or the idea?
 
BD:

No, I?ve been lucky because I dig what he does. My personal peccadillo?I wouldn?t swear if I was a singer. Occasionally he feels the need to swear, but other than that, he does his thing and thankfully I dig it. I encourage him to sing in a higher register. I know he?s more comfortable with a baritone and he has a lot of character in his voice, but he?s still got a lot of range and I always encourage him to go up there because he can and not many singers can when they get to his age. Not that he?s ancient?he?s 50?but he?s got a great gift. I personally like the timbre of his voice in the high register. For example, if you listen to the track ?The Wolf,? he starts low then he kicks in halfway through the verse with the supercharger. He?s got that capability in terms of his delivery. I?m not so concerned about what he?s saying these days as much as the emotion. Obviously, a lot of it is my music, so it?s the icing on the cake I made, and I want it to be a certain way. You don?t want the wrong frosting, you know what I mean? But I?ve been lucky that I dig it.

You mentioned the Capsules earlier, and the bonus disk to the record has songs from those releases. Do you see a particular relationship between those songs and the new album?
 
BD:

They?re the first songs that we came up with during this writing session that ultimately culminated with the record as you know it. Right up until we finished the 10 tracks that became Choice of Weapon, we were still debating if we should include songs from the Capsules in the album. We listened to what we had and the consensus was that the 10 songs that we had were strong enough as an album and diverse enough that we didn?t need to integrate songs from the Capsules. So what do we do with the Capsules? We decided to make it a bonus disc because I want people to hear those songs. They?re not in any way lesser songs. I like them just as much?I like some of them more?but they happen to have been recorded earlier. I didn?t want those songs to get lost.
 
Have you abandoned the idea of the Capsules?

BD:

No, not at all. I keep pushing to get in the studio sooner. You get so bogged down with promoting the record you made, but we should be engaged with getting some new music together in the next six months. There?s a caveat to that, which is Capsules don?t make business sense. They?re not cost effective, so you have to find a way to put them out there so people can buy them, without losing the house over it. Making an album isn?t a profitable enterprise, and that?s a bit of an understatement, so you can imagine making a Capsule that can only sell for a few bucks. It doesn?t make a lot of financial sense, but that?s not the only reason for getting music out there. So if we can navigate around that and find a way, then it would be important to do some more songs.
 
Did going out and doing the Love Live Tour have any influence on making this album?
 
BD:

Yeah, maybe. It was one of my favorite tours. I really enjoyed the format and playing that record. That album is very special to me. It put us in a mindset of what established us. Playing it repeatedly and putting us in that zone helped as a first step creatively. It?s not easy to go back 25 years, but it was much more pleasurable than I?d ever imagine. But we?re fortunate that we?ve got a great new album, and in the five or so shows that we?ve done, it?s gone down pretty well. Now, the only question is what to leave out of the set.
 
With the changes with the band over the years musically, was that just indicative of where your interests were at the time?
 
BD:

Yeah, absolutely. You go forward and backwards and sidewards, and then there?s what going on around you. The greatest artists always reflect their environment. Commercial success doesn?t necessarily mean you?ve made a great record, and you can make a great record that isn?t commercially successful. Hopefully, we have a bit of both with this record.
 
Well, I think you can crack the Top 100 selling like 3,000 records.

BD:

Yeah, because it?s impossible for people to actually buy them. I?d be scratching my head to know where to go and buy my own record in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the trickle-down effect to that is you can?t afford to spend as much time or money on making records because they may not sell and someone has to write the check.
 
I read an interview where you said you thought the band hasn?t gotten the respect it deserves. I was thinking about how Guns N? Roses, a band that opened for you, just got inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Is that how you hope to be recognized some day?
 
BD:

I don?t know. I think I was just getting to the fact that certain bands always remain underground. We?ve mostly been on independent labels and we?ve never had much of the old boys club behind us. A lot of that Grammy nomination and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is about who your manager knows. Obviously, you have to have had some kind of career, but a lot of it comes down to the relationships within the music business and how well connected you are. I?m okay with that. I?ve had plenty of respect from other artists who have been influenced by The Cult?s music, and I?m pretty happy with that, so whatever comes down the pike, great.

[Ali]

Full show The M Resort in Vegas 5/26 can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL2_Di_NXu0

Lil' Devil
Honey from a Knife
Rain
Lucifer
Nirvana
Embers
Fire Woman
The Wolf
The Phoenix
For the Animals
Wild Flower
Spiritwalker
She Sells Sanctuary

Encore:
I Can't Explain (The Who) snippet
Love Removal Machine

That was the set from last night's great show in SF!

Ali

[Falcon]

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/05/28/ian-astbury-takes-dead-aim-at-critics-of-the-cult-on-choice-of-weapon/
 
Ian Astbury takes dead aim at critics of The Cult on Choice of Weapon

Ben Kaplan May 28, 2012 ? 4:42 PM ET

Known as the ?Wolf Child,? Ian Astbury, leader of The Cult, says his band?s new record, Choice of Weapon, is meant to be a dagger to the heart of the hipster press who prematurely celebrated his group?s demise.
 
?It?s not like I?m coming back solely for revenge. I?m not coming back straight with a knife to go [stabbing noise], ?That?s for you,? ? says Astbury, 50, decked out in pants of his own design, black boots and a black hooded sweatshirt. ?I was this beautiful kid getting love letters from Madonna and the press, they wanted to destroy me ? I was the Antichrist.?
 
Astbury retired from music, had children and got sober. He calls his comeback a ?voyage.?
 
?I went away to some very deep places ? a monastery in Tibet, an ashram in India, a private facility in Arizona ? and lived as a monastic in New York,? he says. ?I had a nervous breakdown in public, but found I had to burn everything in order to put it all back together again, find my place and come out on the other side.?
 
Asked to name his contemporaries, the singer mentions Robert Smith of The Cure, another influential British mid-?80s rock band. But while The Cure were making goth music for pop fans, The Cult were cut from the same Union Jack cloth as The Sex Pistols and The Clash.
 
?I was a jump-off-the-PA kind of kid. I saw Iggy Pop perform and said: ?I want to do that,? ? says Astbury, who began his group, then known as The Southern Death Cult, while squatting in Liverpool in 1981. ?I could call Slash and Axl contemporaries, but those guys are decimated. A lot of the names of the people I came up with are on tombstones.?
 
The Cult broke out in 1987 with the album Electric, produced by Rick Rubin, which helped the group cement their arena rock sound. In 1989, the band released Sonic Temple, featuring Fire Woman and Edie (Ciao Baby), and the band played stadiums with Metallica and Guns N? Roses.
 
?You become like The Picture of Dorian Gray until the portrait catches up with the person,? says Astbury, who played 63 shows with Metallica on the ?And Justice for All tour after his band performed 185 headlining concerts. In 1994, The Cult released a poorly received alternative album and, in 1995, broke up. From the ashes, Astbury started The Holy Barbarians, a group that he says was more about a lifestyle than songs.
 
?I was walking around the Phoenix Festival in 1996 in a dress with no shoes on, standing in a crowd with 30,000 people, covered in mud watching The Sex Pistols perform as the sky turned purple,? says
 
Astbury, who punctuates his interview with verses from Allen Ginsberg?s Howl. ?Of course, the U.K. media says, ?Your mom must?ve been sniffing glue,? but they couldn?t comprehend the dark places it came from. I have the perfect CV to be that self-destructive, narcissistic young rock ?n? roll star that?s going to be dead by 27.?
 
Astbury has since spoken out about the sexual abuse he suffered as a 15-year-old while working at a restaurant and the ensuing alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide attempts that have been his shadow. The new song Embers first attempted to address this reality and it helped the singer reform his band and steer the group into another direction. In 2002, Astbury became the singer of a new incarnation of The Doors with Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, but he says Choice of Weapon is his storm that?s been brewing for the past 10 years.
 
?I could no longer hide behind the veneer of being a rock star, we didn?t have that place anymore and the only thing left for me was to be real,? says Astbury, who, if ever arrested for killing a music critic, will be sent away for premeditated murder due to the lyrics of almost every one of his new songs. Indeed, Choice of Weapon, produced by Chris Goss and Bob Rock, is angry, ribald and frequently punctuated by the sound of Billy Duffy?s famous blues-based lead guitar. Astbury may have studied in Tibet and India, but he maintains the wildness of his Liverpudlian youth.
 
?I will piss all over the rock collection of some hipster who gives my album two out of 10 because the difference between them and me is I didn?t Wikipedia ?punk rock? ? I lived through it,? he says. ?I?m part of that generation who laid down their lives and their sanity to build this thing.?
 
Choice of Weapon by The Cult is out now on Cooking Vinyl. The band will perform at The Great Canadian Beaver Festival in Windsor, Ont., June 2. For more information, visit thecult.us.