The Cult

[Falcon]

This is really cool news.

As first heard at SXSW, The Cult will be heavily involved in the next Terrence Malick film.

4 songs from Choice Of Weapon on the soundtrack, footage from SXSW and scenes with Billy and Ian already in the can with additional scenes to be filmed with Christian Bale to be shot.

This is serious "A" list stuff, very cool indeed.

Here's the lowdown from Billy:

Duffy also dropped information regarding The Cult?s involvement in the current project from elusive filmmaker Terrnec Malick. The film, titled Lawless, will be set in the music scene of Austin, Texas, and is set to star big names such as Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman and Australia?s own Cate Blanchett. ?[Malick] is using four songs off of the new album for the soundtrack and he has already filmed at SXSW with Rooney Mara, me and Ian backstage,? reveals Duffy. ?We are apparently supposed to do some more shooting with Christian Bale, who is the other dude in it. So that is a little bit of interesting film trivia? we are pretty honoured to be involved; it is a pretty classy project.?

Full article here:

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/features/interviews/166329/cult.htm

[Falcon]

Billy Duffy interview with Unrated Mag, good stuff:

http://www.unratedmagazine.com/Document.cfm?Page=Articles/index.cfm&Article_ID=792

On a personal note, BD gives a nice shout out to my friend and our web designer/artistic director at www.thecult.us in the above article.

She is indeed a "Hip, art, NYC chick"!

[Falcon]

Duffy interview from Bravewords:

THE CULT?s Billy Duffy Talks Choice Of Weapon - ? I Think It?s An Album A Lot Of Our Fans Wanted Us To Make?
 
http://www.bravewords.com/news/184930

By Matt O'Shaughnessy from WVOX.com

Born out of the ashes of the UK post-punk scene, THE CULT evolved to become one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the late 20th century, selling millions of albums, headlining arenas and stadiums around the world, infusing innovative possibilities into the worlds of music and art, and quickly ascending through the ranks of the indie music world to achieve global status. As early as its first American tour in 1984, The Cult became one of the handful of important bands in the hard rock community. Now in 2012, some 29 years later since the bands inception, the band return in full force with a new album and tour.
 
The Cult?s master guitarist and long-time original serving member (with vocalist Ian Astbury), Billy Duffy is phoning in from Los Angeles, California sounding very stoked to say the least about the band?s latest release, Choice Of Weapon. Choice Of Weapon was written by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy, recorded in New York, Los Angeles, and the band?s Witch Mountain studio between July and December 2011. The new release from the iconic outfit also features drummer John Tempesta and bassist Chris Wyse.
 
WVOX.com: You and Ian and The Cult have a lot to be happy about these days. Choice Of Weapon has been finally unleashed. What are your thoughts on the album?
 
Billy Duffy: "We?re happy with it! It took a while. It?s been five years between albums. But I mean, we?ve toured pretty much every year. And we also released these capsule EP things that are going to be included in certain versions of Choice Of Weapon. Obviously The Cult is a collaborative process between me and Ian. They?re not Ian?s songs and Billy?s songs. They?re Ian and Billy?s songs and we write them together and so we?re kind of halves on everything and we have been since 1983. It?s a little different than some bands. It?s very collaborative with The Cult."
 
WVOX.com: I understand going into this album the band really had no agenda, there was no set destination, no place to be and no chart position to aim for. Meaning, you took your time ? went in and stayed focused on keeping everything fresh and raw as possible.
 
Billy Duffy: "Absolutely, that?s very well put. We just wanted it to feel right. I think we got the balance right. I think it?s the Cult album a lot of our fans wanted us to make."
 
WVOX.com: You brought in Bob Rock to finish up the album. But you also used Chris Goss.
 
Billy Duffy: "Actually, half the album was done by Chris Goss who?s a son of upstate New York I believe. Chris produced a lot of it and did the capsules. But we kind of reached a point where we just kind of hit a wall and we couldn?t finish the album - it didn?t seem finished. We were spending more and more time and achieveing less and less. So me and Ian made the decision to bring in Bob Rock who kind of really brought in a fresh perspective and he has a lot of history working with us. He came in and kind of pushed us through the finish line of the record. But Chris Goss? input should not be underestimated. So, it was a collaborative thing and we were blessed to work with two great producers. So, we got lucky in that respect."
 
WVOX.com: The new album seems to reflect the current discontent and destruction of our eco systems, the search for individual meaning against a tide of rampant materialism, narcissism and disconnected lives. Choice Of Weapon is your ninth studio album. What has kept the Cult marching forward always?
 
Billy Duffy: "Good question. I think, ultimately, me and Ian like writing music together even though that process can be a painful journey, sort of like going to the dentist at times. I think the challenge of that is good. And I think that?s what keeps drawing us back together. The same thing that drew us together in 1983 was the desire to write together and create this sound and try and do our own little unique take on rock and roll. These days, there aren?t really many bands around like The Cult doing what we do. I?m pushed to find any that are making new music of this nature. It?s a pretty short list. We also want to keep rocking out! And making sure we can still make valid, important, meaningful and exciting rock music when you get into your fifties. We?ve kind of also been a little bit of an outsider band. We?ve been very difficult to categorize. We?ve never really fit into any one box. We?ve always kind of moved around, explored and tried to really push the boundaries of what you can do with a essentially a guitar oriented rock band. There?s been several different musical movements and changes around us. And we keep going."
 
WVOX.com: The fact that The Cult has never been able to be put into any one category I think is the genius of this band. A great testimony to you and Ian.
 
Billy Duffy: "We just try to be ourselves. For better or worse. And I think ultimately we?ve always made our own decisions and we?ve got more of them right than wrong. Someone once said to me very, very early on when I first came to America with The Cult and we started getting a little bit of attention by the big mainstream music business, ?Do you want to do this for your life? Are you here to make music for your life? Are you a lifer?? And we?re kind of lifers, we?re rock and roll lifers! This is all I ever wanted since I was a kid in high school. Have some fun. Make people happy, you know. I luckily found a partner in a lead singer who, you know, we have more things in common and more things that we share and agree on than we disagree on?and that?s why we are still around I suppose."
 
WVOX.com: The Cult is currently on tour supporting Choice Of Weapon. You?ve got such a rich and deep catalogue of music. How will you and the band comprise the set-list while on the road?
 
Billy Duffy: "It?s pretty high intensity rock and roll music. The general consensus of opinion is that we are going to play early stuff and the new stuff . We are going to try to play a song from the Electric album we?ve never played before. So we always like to dig up a little nugget for the fans. We do have a really good new album, and so far in the shows that we?ve played the audience response has been really good to the new songs."
 
WVOX.com: Ian Astbury has said: 'This is going to be a very intense, high-energy tour and the band is really looking forward to the time it spends on stage connected to our music and our audience. That?s our purpose'!
 
Billy Duffy: "Well said, indeed. The challenge is to keep the standards up. You just have to take a point of view with your set and what feels right to me and Ian. From The Cult?s point of view rock and roll is entertainment. I think people need to come out and have a few drinks and a great night out. That?s an important part of life ? a celebration."
 

[Falcon]

Ian on live in NYC - NOW:

http://www.eastvillageradio.com/

Player:

http://www.eastvillageradio.com/evrplayer/liveplayer.html

[Falcon]

New Duffy interview from Loudwire:

http://loudwire.com/the-cult-billy-duffy-talks-choice-of-weapon-touring-around-the-world-more/?utm_medium=twitter

The Cult?s Billy Duffy Talks ?Choice of Weapon,? Touring Around the World + More

Billy Duffy of the Cult will be a guest on Loudwire Radio this weekend. The guitarist talks to host Mike ?Sandman? Sanders about the band?s new album, ?Choice of Weapon,? touring around the world, and much more. Catch Loudwire Radio for the full interview, but in the meantime, here?s a preview of the interview with the Cult?s Billy Duffy:
 
It is excellent to talk to you and I got to tell you I?m a big fan for a long time and one of the things I like most about you and your guitar playing, and I hope this is in no way an insult to you, but you?re such a riff master, you know? You?re like a Keith Richards or, like, The Edge from U2. You?re a guy that just comes up with the most awesome riffs and that is such a big part of The Cults sound, I think.
 
Well, thanks. I?ll take that; I?ll take The Edge and Keith Richards. I?d much rather that than some heavy medal shredders I could think of, that?s never really been my cup of tea, you know, sitting at home practicing guitar scales. I?m more about getting out there and living life and, you know, maybe copping a few decent riffs. Well, yeah, yeah, that?s been my kind of my role in the song writing partnership between me and Ian, is coming up with those riffs you know and a lot of the times, you know, the riff ? the vast majority of our songs the riff comes first and they kind of suggest a certain feeling or modality to Ian and then he, luckily, we found each other, and his vocal style and his tone of his voice and everything seems to just fit, you know.
 
I mean, I think that?s just it, in a very simple form, that?s the essence of The Cult and I think all of those, you know, the legendary bands who?ve lasted, there?s that two-guy core songwriting partnership that keep constantly coming up with material that fuels the band. ?Cause, you know, it?s great, new material is great, it?s the kind of new blood that invigorates the bands creative process. If you just keep going on playing old songs forever?whilst that can be sort of fun?it?s a bit of a kind of a grind, in some respects and as writers I?m sure everybody in a band would enjoy the challenge of creating new music and, you know, not trying to compare it to the past cause, you know, that?s kind of a ridiculous fool?s errand, but that?s kind of where we?re at with The Cult, you know, we?re invigorated by the new album and the response to it. You know, it makes us want to play the old stuff even more, you know, in conjunction with the new stuff.
 
The band has been off and on a little bit. You guys are back together, you and Ian and some new cats and you?re on tour I know you?re in Chicago tonight and I was looking at the tour dates and it?s just amazing that you guys on June 23 go from Hollywood, California to June 28 in Belgrade [Serbia].
 
Yeah, yeah, it?s far out, man. It?s going to be quite damaging, physically.That?s a pretty brutal?you know but that?s kind of indicative to the nature of being a touring real live act. You know, we don?t posses our own private jets, sadly, so that?s kind of it, man. It?s a bit of a beating but hopefully we?ll make it through. Yeah, yeah, you know, all the bands go out there. We did quite a short gap, that one, when you consider to get to Belgrade and play on the 28th, we have to leave the West Coast on the 26th.
 
You guys, obviously, have a worldwide following and I noticed all the tour dates in Europe. Is there much of a difference between rock fans in North American and in Europe?
 
I think the most obvious difference is that they?ve been a bit more starved over there, you know, I mean, several of the shows are in Eastern Europe but in general I think the fans can be a little more crazy over there sometimes. I think some of the venues that we tend to play in America tend to be a little conservative in their nature and the way their built and their kind of a little polite and, you know, whatnot and I think we?re all spoiled over here, you know? I think we have a very comfortable lifestyle, you know, and there?s nothing wrong with that. But I think that certainly you can see in countries that are slightly less privileged than that the fans can go a little more mental, you know? I?m happy that anybody shows up I have no judgments about it. I just see that they?re different and you?re right I get to play to people from Argentina to Romania to whatever, you know?
 
A lot of guys in bands do that and we have those experiences and I?m sure they all would say the same, we love everybody but anybody that spends some hard earned cash to come and see The Cult is more than welcome, you know? You still want to sit down and go to sleep, I?m quite happy too, as long as they bought a ticket. I am aware that there is a recession on, it kind of reaches everybody pretty much in any way shape or form. So, I think everybody knows now with the music business that we?ve really been beaten because nobody really buys CDs anymore, so we have a massive amount of money that used to come in from selling records that don?t sell anymore. You know, so most other industries, with that amount of revenue disappearing would be reaching out to the government for a bailout but we muddle through regardless.
 
I noticed on your tour itinerary, one of the last dates on the tour, that?s posted anyway, is at Wembley Stadium.
 
Yeah, well, it?s not the soccer stadium, don?t get the idea that we?re out there playing the soccer stadium, as much as I?d probably like to. It?s just an arena. [Laughs]
 
But I?m sure you guys have played some pretty huge festivals and things like that over the years.
 
Yeah, I mean a lot of the one?s you?re referring to?I mean that gig in Serbia, for example?it was supposed to be us and Black Sabbath but because of the illness to Tony Iommi is now Ozzy & Friends, but, it?s essentially, you know, the same thing and that will be in some sort of small soccer stadium thingy. There?s a bunch of those and you just do whatever, I mean, the tour we?re on right now in the USA is all our venues and we?re on the road with Against Me! and Icarus Line which are a really good night out, some great rock and roll music that spans a few generations. But in Europe it?s definitely?we pick up whatever shows. There?s a mixture of our own shows and festivals with all different line-ups, you know.

[Falcon]

con't..

For you, personally, is it more enjoyable to play an intimate setting or a large venue, a stadium type show?
 
It really depends, man, it really depends. I?m not a great fan of playing outdoors in the daytime. I never saw myself doing, like, being entertainment for sunny summer barbeque types, you know, I?m just ?even if that barbeque is attended by a hundred thousand people, it doesn?t do it for me. I never feel it; it just doesn?t enhance the magic. However, you know, I really don?t have preference.
 
I know for a period when we were playing a lot of the bigger arenas it?s kind of a little soul destroying, that. I don?t think it?s a great experience for the fans. I don?t know. Never felt really a thousand percent comfortable as much as my ego would like to do those places. I love, like, a ballroom, like, a good theatre or ballroom with, say, four or five thousand people crammed into it, you know. That, to me, really creates great energy for the fans and the band and, obviously, ?the louder they scream the faster we go? kind of situation.
 
So, some sterile cold arena where you?re really trying to put on some kind of visual smorgasbord, you know. That?s what happens is you have to, in arenas, kind of create some fake excitement, you have to create this, like, visual Disneyland of stuff and bangs and explosions to make people connect. Whereas, The Cult?s really more of a kind of an honest, you know?we?re probably a little dark and twisted but?you know, a rock and roll band and for us we try and keep the gimmicks to a minimum.
 
We do some visual stuff occasionally but we don?t want it to become like a sort of special effects circus. So those are the kind of reasons so?I mean, I?ll play for anybody who shows up, but, those are my preferences, I love to play kind of a ballroom. To me they are the best venues for rock and roll and those are the ones that connected to me when I was a kid growing up going to see bands in Manchester in England, that?s when I felt the energy the most.
 
When you were growing up and starting to get involved in music, who can you cite as some influences that you maybe listened to as a young man?
 
I grew up very much as a little music obsessed fan in Manchester in England and we were very fortunate that, being one of the major town?s in the UK, everybody came and played. I just got into the habit of going to see concerts and kind of sneaking my way into venues with some of my friends ?cause, you know, we kind of had to do what we had to do to get where we needed to get. And we really didn?t have any money ?cause we were still in high school. So we just kind of evolved a system of teamwork to kind of sneak into shows.
 
Personally, the music I kind of liked was glam rock. I loved David Bowie. I mean, I was watching TV last night and there was a Spiders From Mars concert on, David Bowie and Mick Ronson playing, it was just incredible, I watched the whole thing last night. I?d forgotten how good it was, from 1973. So, I would say the background for me is that mixed with a little bit of, um, I very much like the British band Free and they kind of morphed into Bad Company and I used to like Mott the Hoople?a bunch of other stuff, I like Thin Lizzie, apparently I liked early Queen, I pretty much stopped at ?Sheer Heart Attack.? I like Queen?s first three records. That kind of music, and I know this from like, I found all my old clippings and scrap books from when I was a kid in Manchester at my parents house and I looked at what I, you know? I went to see The Who on Keith Moon?s last tour, I mean, a bunch of stuff.
 
So that kind of rock, rock and roll, glam rock, and then I kind of got into punk, ?cause punk kind of happened in the UK right when I left high school and that was a massive influence on me and is a big part of my DNA. It?s what made me think what was a hobby, which was playing guitar, could become a job. And I did see The Sex Pistols in Manchester in 1976 and have the tickets and poster to prove it, ?cause they did two shows in Manchester in, I think, July or June in ?76 and everybody claims to have been there from Morrissey to New Order, you know, the guy from Simply Red, I mean, a bunch of Manchester musicians, everybody was there and they?re probably all telling the truth.
 
Well your band certainly has appeal across the board as far as radio play you appeal to alternative formats and hard rock and even the metal crowd to an extent. And I?m curious as you?re on tour now, you touched on it a little bit earlier, how much do you balance the stuff from the new album ?Choice of Weapon? versus the library material.
 
Yeah, I agree with you, we?re one of those bands that?s dependent on what kind of songs we play and what attitude we kind of adopt. We?ve done gigs with Metallica, we?ve done gigs with Lenny Kravitz, gigs in Europe with Franz Ferdinand and Keane, you know, it depends, it?s interesting that we straddle a few genres just by being us and doing what?s felt natural. But on the other hand, you can confuse people a little bit, and there?s a tendency to want to categorize bands and I think that, if anything, we?ve never really been genre specific in terms of that. But in terms of the set list for this tour, we?re so excited with the new album and the fact that it goes down so well we?re playing a fair bit of new material and we?ve just decided to pretty much do early Cult which is basically, I think we do one from ?Sonic Temple?, but we?re really doing early Cult and the new album.
 
How about ?Wildflower??
 
Yeah, we do that one.
 
That?s one of my favorites, for sure.
 
Well, there you go! You won?t be disappointed then! We do that one, that?s one of the one?s we can?t really not do because it?s such an effective song to play live. There?s a couple of songs in our catalogue that we never tire of playing live and ?Wildflower? is one and ?She Sells Sanctuary? is another. We?ll play ?em at the drop of a hat. Be happy to do it. It makes my job a lot easier, but not all our songs are like that. I?m not going to tell you which one?s I don?t like playing but some of them are more hard work to play than others, you know?
 
[Laughs] If you won?t tell me, I won?t ask you.
 
No, I can?t tell you ?cause I don?t want to ruin it?it might be somebody?s favorite tune out there. ?Duffy just said he doesn?t like playing that one live!

[BurningHills]

Less than 48 hours to go. 

[Falcon]

A very cool moment at tonights show in NYC just happened..

Joan Jett got up with Against Me! and did The Replacements "Androgyness".

As most know by now, Against Me! singer Tommy Gabel/Laura Jane Grace is a transgender and is in the process of transitioning from Tommy to Laura.

[Falcon]

Audio interview with Billy from Rock 103

http://103gbfrocks.com/my-interview-with-billy-duffy-of-the-cult/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Falcon]

Ian's interview with East Village Radio yesterday in NYC, no holds barred:

http://www.eastvillageradio.com/shows/player/main.php?p=0002&f=East_Village_Radio_and_The_Devil_and_Me_Presents_Ian_Astbury

[Falcon]

Review of last nights gig in NYC from the Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/cult-new-york-city-concert-ian-astbury-335517?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=ny+yahoo+search&utm_term=ny&utm_content=new+york+headlines

The Cult in New York City: Concert Review



3:40 PM PDT 6/9/2012 by Mick Stingley

The double bill of Against Me! and The Cult brings the heat.

Venue
Terminal 5,
New York City
Friday, June 8

The veteran quintet mixes new songs from 'Choice of Weapon' with fiery oldies after an opening set by Against Me!

It?s been three years since The Cult played New York City, and Friday night they returned with a vengeance. Of the many area venues the band has played over the years, Terminal 5 is a good fit; with a large wide stage, a sweeping floor and tiers of balconies wrapping around the room, it recalls the former Limelight, invoking the spirit of New York when rock music was a staple of nightlife.

The Cult always draws a diverse audience, and this night was no different as a capacity crowd of goths, rockers and hipsters gathered in communion for rock ?n? roll church.
 
Rap music blasted over the PA, incongruously, as people stared upward, curiously listening to Kanye West?s ?Power.? The band hit the stage at 10:30 as Billy Duffy clutched his signature Gretsch White Falcon and tore into the blistering riff of "Lil' Devil" to the cheering delight of the crowd. The room swelled, as people on the floor surged forward when Ian Astbury appeared and started singing. Up in the VIP section, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Paz de la Huerta, Yul Vasquez and David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick looked on.
 
A menacing tyrant of cool, Astbury glowered at the crowd as he moved around the stage. He was in excellent voice all night; whatever vices he might have indulged in, which troubled him in the past, were well behind him Friday. Duffy held fast, with the ?lan of a John Woo killer, all spiked-hair and dressed in black.
 
Promoting the new album Choice of Weapon (Cooking Vinyl), The Cult called in ?Honey From a Knife,? which kept the energy strong with a welcome punk thunder that the band hasn?t brought in years. The group moved between old and new material, mixing in new stuff with almost every other song.
 
One thing particularly notable about Choice of Weapon is that Astbury no longer writes songs about women and fire, eschewing carnal indulgences for poetic reflections on life and the state of the world.  Which is not to suggest that the band has lost its swagger. New single ?For the Animals? is a scorcher, and the crowd felt the heat.
 
A big part of The Cult?s energy can be attributed to the fact that this is the first steady lineup they?ve had in years. The Cult has pretty much been Astbury/Duffy and various heroes for hire. With drummer John Tempesta, bassist Chris Wyse and touring guitarist Mike Dimkich, The Cult has been a fully realized band for over six years now, and it shows in the enthusiastic way they interact onstage.
 
The Cult closed with the mandatory ?She Sells Sanctuary? before returning with the 1984 gem, ?Horse Nation? (from Dreamtime) and finishing with ?Love Removal Machine.? While the set list might not have satisfied die-hards (no ?Sweet Soul Sister??), they conspicuously did not play a favorite that many people expected: ?New York City.?
 
Against Me! Opened the night and set the tone with a slew of high-energy punk that raised temperatures in the club. Drummer Jay Weinberg, son of legendary Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg, was furious monster of instrument abuse that could not be stopped. Singer Tom Gabel?s recent news-making decision to come out as a transgender, now to be known as Laura Jane Grace, might have cocked a few eyebrows, but in New York City, no one really cares.

The crowd just wanted them to rock -- and from the new Transgender Dysphoria Blues, to the old, ?I Was a Teenage Anarchist,? Laura and company did just that. The night was made extra-special with the guest appearance of Joan Jett, who joined Grace for a cover of The Replacements? ?Androgynous.?
 
The Cult set list:
 
Lil Devil
Honey From a Knife
Rain
Lucifer
Nirvana
Embers
Fire Woman
The Wolf
Wildflower
Phoenix
For the Animals
Spirit Walker
She Sells Sanctuary
 
Encore:
Horse Nation
Love Removal Machine

[Falcon]

Setlist in Hampton Beach last night, looks like "Rise" took the place of "horse Nation" in the encore.

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

Encore:
RISE
Love Removal Machine

[FunkyMonkey]

THE CULT Guitarist Talks About Band's Involvement In 'Lawless' Film - June 10, 2012

In a recent interview with Australia's ToneDeaf, THE CULT guitarist Billy Duffy dropped information regarding the band's involvement in the current project from elusive filmmaker Terrence Malick. The film, titled "Lawless", will be set in the music scene of Austin, Texas, and is set to star big names such as Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett. "[Malick] is using four songs off of the new album for the soundtrack and he has already filmed at SXSW with Rooney Mara, me and Ian backstage," reveals Duffy. "We are apparently supposed to do some more shooting with Christian Bale, who is the other dude in it. So that is a little bit of interesting film trivia? we are pretty honored to be involved; it is a pretty classy project."

Concert and backstage footage was shot in March at THE CULT's 25,000-capacity SXSW (South By Southwest) concert at Auditorium Shores in Austin, Texas for Terrence Malick's upcoming feature. Rooney Mara, one of the stars of the film, was at the Auditorium Shores show and shot onstage footage as well as improvised scenes backstage with members of THE CULT.

Left to right in photo below: Rooney Mara, Matthew McConaughy (who played congas on two of THE CULT's songs), THE CULT's Ian Astbury

THE CULT's new album, "Choice Of Weapon", sold around 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 34 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was made available on May 22 via THE CULT's new label Cooking Vinyl.

"Choice Of Weapon" is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed 2007 release "Born Into This", which opened with 12,600 units to debut at No. 70. Longtime THE CULT collaborator and producer Bob Rock (METALLICA, BUSH), who produced one of THE CULT's most successful albums, the platinum-certified "Sonic Temple", put the finishing touches on the foundations that were laid by co-producer Chris Goss (QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, U.N.K.L.E., MASTERS OF REALITY).

http://legacy.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=175208

[BurningHills]

Phenomenal show. Wow. Mind = blown!

The band was on fire - Ian sounded great, Billy is Billy, and the rhythm section is one of the tightest that I've ever heard.

"Horse Nation" was in the encore instead of "Rise."

Met Billy, Chris, and John after the show - would have met Ian as well, but security ruined that...

Ian got off of the bus after the show, and he said "Give me 10 minutes guys, I'll be right back" - and as we were waiting, security made us vacate the premises. I don't understand this as they let us wait for Axl in the exact same spot until 4:30 AM after the Philly UCAP show. Sounds like security was just in the mood to throw their weight around for a bit.

Can't wait until my second show!

[Falcon]

Phenomenal show. Wow. Mind = blown!

The band was on fire - Ian sounded great, Billy is Billy, and the rhythm section is one of the tightest that I've ever heard.

"Horse Nation" was in the encore instead of "Rise."

Met Billy, Chris, and John after the show - would have met Ian as well, but security ruined that...

Ian got off of the bus after the show, and he said "Give me 10 minutes guys, I'll be right back" - and as we were waiting, security made us vacate the premises. I don't understand this as they let us wait for Axl in the exact same spot until 4:30 AM after the Philly UCAP show. Sounds like security was just in the mood to throw their weight around for a bit.

Can't wait until my second show!

Awesome, happy it worked out for you.

How are the ears doing this morning?

[Falcon]

Another NYC review from PowerLine Mag:

The Cult Energizes New York Stage
 
Opening with ?Lil? Devil? and closing the encore with ?Love Removal Machine,? the Electric album was well represented, to the fans? delight.  ?Wild Flower? was even introduced by Astbury as a song for all the ?headbangers? in attendance. However, Sonic Temple?s ?Fire Woman,? the most polished of all Cult songs, was by far the most well-received. The inclusion of early hits ?Spiritwalker? and ?Horse Nation? was a very pleasant surprise for the die-hards, and Love favorites, ?Rain? and ?Nirvana,? were nearly as fresh as ever.
 
The new songs, the best of the bunch from Choice of Weapon, were primitive beasts ? ?For the Animals,? ?The Wolf? and ?Lucifer.? And the live, raw performance of ?Honey from a Knife? ? with its distinct chants ? had a better presence than the studio version.
 
Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy are always the epitome of cool. There was nothing different on this night. Astbury in dark shades and Shaman fur uniform, howled magically and twirled and attacked his tambourine with graceful anger, while Duffy?s stature ? dressed in all-black attire, hair-tufted, guitar as big as his torso ? was at its rockin? best.
 
Wrapping up, ?The Phoenix? was the best song of the night. With its swirling, gothic drive and dynamic guitar leads throughout, the song is an overlooked masterpiece on the Love album. Performed live in 2012, it was practically transcendent.
 
It?s pretty simple for Cult fans. Don?t miss your chance to see the band on this tour.
 
Notes: Ian Astbury told the audience the story of first coming to America in 1984, and playing the legendary Danceteria in New York City that July. Booked by famed music promoter Ruth Polsky, Astbury mentioned, sadly, that she was killed outside the Limelight discotheque in Chelsea by a runaway cab two years later in 1986.

[BurningHills]

Phenomenal show. Wow. Mind = blown!

The band was on fire - Ian sounded great, Billy is Billy, and the rhythm section is one of the tightest that I've ever heard.

"Horse Nation" was in the encore instead of "Rise."

Met Billy, Chris, and John after the show - would have met Ian as well, but security ruined that...

Ian got off of the bus after the show, and he said "Give me 10 minutes guys, I'll be right back" - and as we were waiting, security made us vacate the premises. I don't understand this as they let us wait for Axl in the exact same spot until 4:30 AM after the Philly UCAP show. Sounds like security was just in the mood to throw their weight around for a bit.

Can't wait until my second show!

Awesome, happy it worked out for you.

How are the ears doing this morning?

Ringing a bit..haha. My air shift should be interesting today!

[Falcon]

Time to relive some memories of last night in Philly BH, here ya go:

Thanks to CultinMD and cultcentral for the vids

Lil' Devil  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5v4nggwbFw
Honey from a Knife  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBUtP-YsyoA, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_EJZGmlpdw
Rain  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_EJZGmlpdw
Lucifer  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVNt0tMpqFk
Nirvana
Embers
Fire Woman  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6Q4XzxG-M
The Wolf
Wild Flower  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmf71HRqh2o
The Phoenix
For the Animals  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_71YgfVHXC8
Spiritwalker  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIlaNjNcpeg
She Sells Sanctuary  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-vWMaNQN0, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZHgE-iiKKQ
Encore:
Horse Nation
Love Removal Machine  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r97bFfiE0cE

[Falcon]

Looks like IA's film may debut at Sundance next year, very intense subject matter for sure:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1Xtypl/samaritanmag.com/1225/ian-astbury-doc-examines-untold-massive-injustice


Ian Astbury Doc Examines 'Untold Massive Injustice'

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

Photo credit: Delissa SantosRock singer Ian Astbury has shed light on various aspects of indigenous culture throughout his 30-year career fronting The Cult and now he's zeroed in even more on a specific plight - the horrific history of Native American women.

"How can you look away?" says Astbury, sitting in a downtown Toronto suite when he was in town to promote The Cult's new album,Choice of Weapon.  "I've had an affinity for indigenous culture since I came to Canada [from England in the 70s] because they embraced me.

"When I came here, I felt ostracized and the main white Anglo-European culture and the indigenous kids were cool and just took me for who I was. Then, learning about their culture, it was always a love affair with the indigenous culture and the indigenous people. So that's an area I find myself drawn to."

Astbury is one of the producers of a documentary called Conquest, based on Nobel Peace Prize nominee, scholar and activist Andrea Smith's book Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. It won the 2005 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, presented to works which help shed light on bigotry in America.

"It's to do with women's experiences over the past 500 years in the Americas and, more recently, what indigenous women's experiences have been predominantly on reservations  - with the healthcare that they have and forced sterilizations," Astbury says of the book.

"Then, when a community becomes closed, the energy goes inwards. What the women's experiences have been in the community - which have for all intents and purposes had the heart ripped out of it - how things like violence and sexual abuse [occur]."

The 90-minute documentary investigates and exposes "an untold massive injustice carried out by white America on its indigenous people," the web page for the film states. It is directed by Lorna Love (The Man From Unkle), and co-produced by Astbury's Nous Defion, Simon Egan's Bedlam (The King's Speech) and Sasha Stone. 

"There's a possibility it might get to Sundance in 2013 - there are a few companies interested in putting it out," Astbury says.

Love turned her attention to the creation of this documentary after Astbury read Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide and passed the book on to her. The pair met when she was making a film about the British electronic music group Unkle, which her then-husband James Lavelle co-founded and with whom Astbury has collaborated.

Love wanted to bring Smith's findings to a documentary - and have Astbury involved.

"There are some very very powerful interviews in it. I was present for the principle interviews," says Astbury. "I only have a role as a producer. I'm a male; it's got to be the women as director."

Astbury has directed before, though. He made his directorial debut in 2010 with the 3-minute, 44-second Prelude2Ruins (available on The Cult's Capsule 1 EP, which he describes as "a montage of images taken from a longer yet to be released film that's about the struggle between the pressures of reservation life, and spiritual vs. material beliefs, and a young woman who's torn between both worlds and the choices she must make."  It was shot in South Dakota at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

"When you're at Pine Ridge Reservation, the young people, they're bright; they're beautiful. You can tell in their eyes. Those communities, they know who they are; they're still very proud of their culture and their language and traditions," says Astbury. "I keep saying this to people when they say, 'Well, what can we do to help?' I'm like, 'No no no, you don't get it - we have to ask for their help.'

"They have a sense of purpose and we do need to go to them. They're like the canary in the coalmines. If they go, we're definitely going. You've got Inuit elders coming to you going, 'We just want to share with you that our women can't breast feed their children anymore because there's so much mercury in the water. Just to let you know, it's coming for you.'"

"I've been to a few reservations in South Dakota and Arizona. Arizona is a tiny bit better, but you get to Pine Ridge and that needs to be fixed. You say, 'What's the solution?' The solution, personally, I think the women are the real key, the matriarchs. The stoic matriarchs in some of these communities are really holding it together.

"That, in essence, is where the energy and the real essence needs to be done - is working with these women and having them guide and determine what needs to be done in their communities because they're the ones that actually look after the kids. Grandmothers are looking after generations of children."

"I consider myself North American now," he adds. "Indigenous communities, there's knowledge there that we have to access - pretty soon. We gotta go in there and plug the gap and help these communities become vibrant again because it's a resource we need."

[BurningHills]

Time to relive some memories of last night in Philly BH, here ya go:

Thanks to CultinMD and cultcentral for the vids

Lil' Devil  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5v4nggwbFw
Honey from a Knife  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBUtP-YsyoA, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_EJZGmlpdw
Rain  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_EJZGmlpdw
Lucifer  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVNt0tMpqFk
Nirvana
Embers
Fire Woman  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6Q4XzxG-M
The Wolf
Wild Flower  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmf71HRqh2o
The Phoenix
For the Animals  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_71YgfVHXC8
Spiritwalker  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIlaNjNcpeg
She Sells Sanctuary  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-vWMaNQN0, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZHgE-iiKKQ
Encore:
Horse Nation
Love Removal Machine  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r97bFfiE0cE

Nice! Thanks!