Catherine Wheel: Search and Destroy

The Catherine Wheel started off as a shoegazig also-ran; a seemingly pale imitation of the more "significant" bands of the "genre," like Lush and Ride. Who'dathunk ten years later, it'd be the Cathering Wheel that was still around. Britain's answer to the Stone Temple Pilots. Yawn. Interesting fact (sorta): Lead Wheel'r Rob Dickinson is cousin to Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. Wonder what their family cookouts are like.

Though for some strange reason I didn't include it on my 136 list, _Chrome_ is actually my favorite -- arguably "Pain" is "Black Metallic" redux, but I enjoy it more. _Ferment_ and _Adam and Eve_ are equally worthy, and while _Happy Days_ is an odd goof, it actually has some good songs lurking here and there. There's all sorts of fun uncollected B-sides lurking out there as well...

"Black Metallic" never did a damn thing for me. But I never heard _Ferment_ in its entirety. _Chrome_'s a good 'un (from what I recall). "Judy Staring at the Sun" isn't too bad (for it being an alterna-rock duet, which is a scary notion).

And Jack Rabid eats up most anything Britpop - his enthusiasm is boundless (and grating, depending on what side of the bed one wakes up on, and what side of the fence you're painting).

I do believe the Wheel have a NEW album out. Somewhere. Albania, perchance?

Can't believe they're the last shoegazer band standing. Whither Moose?

Scroll down about ten or so entries to see Rob's Bahama Yellow car.

About six photos down to see Rob and his current girlfriend relaxing with their fellow car fiends.

As for the band, looks to be on permanent hiatus/long dead. Official website hasn't been updated in forever, while this bemusingly illustrated fan page has a link to a new project guitarist Brian Futter and drummer Neil Sims have called 50 Ft. Monster...

I still stand by my Swervedriver statement upthread.

I must admit Jack's Rabid has grated on my nerves at times over the years. There are just a lot of bands he seems to take seriously that I can't.

I was crazy about Catherine Wheel until a particualarly bad show I saw of them. I think Chrome had come out just prior. I never cared for that album much. After Ferment, that was it. I was more enamoured with their singles prior to Ferment's release, anyway. There was one particular B-side (to "I Wanna Touch You") called "Half Life" that has actually continued to come back into my memory since then despite me mostly ignoring the idea that CW ever existed. I give thanks to this thread, though for making me realize that I desperately need to hear "Black Metallic" again.

The porsches are cool. But they can't touch Minis.

Artwork, pillows, love letters, clothes, journals, photos ...

The mood you're in is as important as the music itself in deciding what you'll think of this band, I feel. I'm less charitible towards them when I'm in a good mood, but when there's storm clouds on my horizon, I _adore_ them. Especially "Chrome".

I accidentally met Dave, the bassist, via E-bay. He was selling some Talk Talk ephemera, and I was buying same. (Go figure). When I saw his tag-name, I just thought he was a fan of the band. But when he told me who he really was, and when he found out that I was a fan of the Wheel as well as TT, he sent me an autograph also. Sweet guy! Hope things are better for him now.

they always looked old.

Anyway, there's reason for the revive -- it looks like Rob Dickinson is releasing a solo album on the 13th! Fresh Wine for the Horses is the title, and considering what I've heard people say about Wishville (as I haven't heard it myself), the three songs I've heard are a most likely marked improvement -- they're lighter and with even more of a pop sensibility than I'm accustomed to on initial listen, a sort of matured CW with orchestra, but I imagine I'm going to like the songs more with each listen (as is par for the course with my reactions to Catherine Wheel -- I never really sink into anything of theirs until the second listen).

There's a Warren Zevon cover (Mutineer), Marty Willson-Piper (of The Church) pops in for a guitar solo (Oceans), and two tracks (The Storm, Towering and Flowering) are de-facto Catherine Wheel reunions (Futter, Sims, & Friese-Greene).

Nah, it still sounds great, and I actually like it more than Chrome.

Ferment is peerless, a hands down classic.

Chrome is fucking fantastic.

Happy Days is less so, but has its standouts.

Like Cats and Dogs is lush and beautiful.

Adam and Eve is a career high, their masterpiece.

And hey, Wishville isn't half bad.

Phrasing on "Black Metallic" is the bomb.

i like chrome

the opening track on chrome is a very assured, scorching number. i'm a little bit afraid of the the STP comparison way upthread :/... thankfully i don't really hear it, and the guitars are a-wash enough to qualify this as shoegazey.

Refusing to believe that Wishville is as bad as everyone says it is, I'm listening to it now. It's frustratingly close to being good, while being pretty damn half-assed. The power is out, the fannydangle is in.

...but, weirdly, no track has flat-out offended me yet, unlike Happy Days, where pretty much every track offended me.

"Mad Dog" is kinda offending me

LOVED Chrome as a high school kid. Are the Catherine Wheel's first two LPs tough to find on vinyl? what if i started buying second-tier shoegaze records?? egads.

LIKE CATS AND DOGS IS THE ONLY ALBUM I'VE HEARD OF THEIRS AND IT BORED ME
DO I NEED TO GIVE IT ANOTHER TRY?

Chrome rules. i never liked anything before or after it as much. Chrome just has that amazing friggin' rock production and that crunch and the coolest songs.

sheesh, folks on gemm want $100+ for chrome & ferment :(

I will try this Chrome

play it loud.

I'm breaking my no downloading rule for this

one morning in high school, i was hung over with my friend phil. we ate at denny's then drove down to the beach and listened to CHROME and the butthole surfers "pychic, powerless." a special memory.

and i mean a rocky, ugly new england beach. not some socal shit.

Weird career trajectory. Their last three albums veered from awful to utterly brilliant to insipid. Fanboyish thread of praise for the astounding "Adam & Eve": Catherine Wheel's 'Adam And Eve' is a pretty astounding record

You really are advised to give that record a go.

Am listening to Chrome for the first time now - halfway through
ok, this is very enjoyable
I Confess is the best so far
Not an album i could find myself falling in love with but one I see myself listening to quite a few more times.
Will try Adam and Eve next and then try Cats and Dogs again

Really enjoyed listening to the Swervedriver reissues and saw the reunion tour last year. I think it's Catherine Wheel's turn now. A nice double-deluxe remaster of Ferment with all the B-sides, pretty please. I remember when "Black Metallic" was first played on 120 min, hosted by Dave Kendall, because I was recording it, as a friend's band was also debuting that night. I don't know why this is a fond memory, as I was living in a creepy dark basement of a mansion just out of college, with a deeply strange older shoe salesman as a roommate. I guess most memories easily gauze over to nostalgia when it's got a good soundtrack.

I had most of the albums, but some reason never got around to picking up Chrome until this week. Damn good album.

Oh yeah, and they also remind me of a woman I dated with an identical twin sister (I swear I could only tell them apart by the slight difference in size of their chests). They were both huge fans of the band, and they got to meet them, right around the time Cats And Dogs with the twins-themed cover art came out.

Partial revive due to all the shoegaze poll talk but what's heartening to see is that for all that "Black Metallic" was the breakout song it was Chrome rather than Ferment which most people love the best on this thread. Rightly so. Just listened to "Crank" for the first time in forever and that's actually a pretty damn tricky lead-off single for a sophomore album with high commercial expectations for it.

I think I still have a 'chrome' (well, silver) promotional version of the CD, and the deep blue tour shirt with the cover art is still a favorite of mine.

i've suddenly decided i really dislike this band. previously i found them inoffensive at most, but the fact that people champion them as one of the more pivotal shoegaze acts renders me clueless to the point of vexation. as i've said previously, they're not far removed from bush in my eyes, and seem wilfully content to huff and puff their way through a chest-beating belated british take on grunge.

'crank' is utter garbage frankly.

reminds me of 'glycerine', seriously.

http://vimeo.com/76496410

catherine wheel singer dude now does hyper-expensive Porsche restorations

Myodesign 2 months ago
Good day Singer,
The paint colour is stunning. Would you please tell me if this is a stock Porsche colour? And if so, would you disclose the colour code?
Thank you.

There's a fairly obvious joke to be made here

Yeah a friend had discovered that a few years ago, apparently he's pretty active in that circuit. And why not?

it's not like he never referenced cars or driving in his lyrics tbf

outro of 'for dreaming' still one of the greatest moments in rock history obv

Catherine Wheel seems to be more disliked than I would have thought on ILM, but I suppose there are always winners and losers. This band I really heard tangentially once on TV and found that CD used and then liked it enough to eventually get some more as I would run into other ones by them CDs for a buck or two. I think Catherine Wheel had quite a good of atmosphere at times, I kind of hear it Pink Floyd as much as shoegaze. Maybe it's because I have put them together on 90s CDR comps, they seem a bit like a UK Afghan Whigs without the soul fetish.

This track "Saccharine" I thought was really good 90s psychedelic rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKMYooP2vZc

yeah that's cool

they were definitely going for Pink Floyd

one of these days i'll have every catherine wheel b-side downloaded

also i always loved adam & eve but the ilx pro-a&e contingent made me love it more

Not only going for Pink Floyd to the point of covering "Wish You Were Here," Storm Thorgerson designed some of the album covers. What more do you need, really.

The sidelong suite? You could make a case for the second half of A&E

one of these days i'll have every catherine wheel b-side downloaded

i actually own all Catherine Wheel singles.

i should do a poll, hmm.

Always kind of liked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTyFyQCq5KY

dude has a seriously unearthly voice and sense of phrasing. it seems like he chooses particular lyrics to sort of tweak the melody, maximizing its power? voice is a gift from god for real

and he's bruce dickinson's cousin but you probably knew that already!

yeah like doi tbh! but it is amazing that one fam could produce two such different and amazing voices

amazing, amazing

repeating the word "amazing" is such a high thing to do

Which recordings in particular have you been listening to?

ferment and chrome ONLY

its my fall music

i never checked out much beyond their first two albums tbh but those two albums were my early '90s jam

i wouldnt venture much farther out tbh

adam & eve adam & eve adam & eve

wait: happy days is ok too. but only chrome and ferment are covered by the stuff i said earlier. i havent given adam and eve its due time, maybe, but it didnt really reach me when i listened to it before. the things i like about CW are missing from it

it's not shoegazey at all but it's their best songwriting imo

but basically the things i like about cw: unbelievable melodies

and the precise guitar harmonics in "delicious" fuck with my head at least as much as the vivid blurs on ferment

melodies, layers of guitar, awesome voice, naked emotions lol

same

and the words. even when they look stupid on paper, the words always sound great.

will say that the words on adam and eve are particularly stupid

haha well, maybe that's why i hated it

i'll commit to revisiting it tonight and seeing. also the solo album (s? is there more than one?) stunk imo. his shit just doesn't work for me without all the loud guitars.

"Delicious" is sooooo good. The singing is good, but the song maxes out going into the last chorus when the guitars and drums all explode together.

The duet with Tanya Donelly, "Judy Staring At The Sun" on "Happy Days" is great.

Peaked with chrome. Adam and Eve has some nice too but awful cringy vocals/lyrics

"Phantom of the america mother" is so horrible, it's like the worst coldplay song that never existed.

Wishville is atrocious

They were fantastic live

Adam & Eve is like a Pink Floyd that actually rock it's phenomenal, I'm drunk too

For Dreaming is such an astonishing song

i just realized (doi) that both iron maiden and catherine wheel are the names of medieval torture devices

oh shit

The first two albums and "Heal"/"Heal 2" are my personal CW canon. Everything else is superfluous (and/or plain bad).

I did/do love Catherine wheel, but things did seem to get progressively less interesting from album to album. "Black Metallic" is one of my all-time jams though.

I still love the first two albums, especially Chrome. I haven't heard the rest in a while but the more they moved away from vaguely shoegaze-y stuff, the less I liked them.

dude's solo album - lord no

"crank" is such a good song, the video on the other hand is really funny but kind of perfect in its 90s-ness

he lives in l.a. now and restores porsches.

not as cool as cousin bruce flying an iron maiden passenger jet around the world tbqh

yep. hes such a corny person but i kind of love him for it

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dickinson-with-Porsche-911.jpg

would drive

would annoy

i can't drive stick tho so back to the honda

[wtf you cant drive a stick?!!]

i've been thinking abut it a lot, that rob's way of writing lyrics is so talk talk-esque
like, reading the lyrics as a poem on a page, they're so cringey
but they're great, moving even, when combined with their respective tunes
sometimes it seems obvious that hes just making up things that sound cool and have so real meaning, or contorting words for seemingly no reason other than it sounds nice (like when he says "supeer" in crank when he could have easily just said another word like surreal or ideal or whatever)
i keep wondering if this is purposeful on his part, and thinking about how someone could go about writing lyrics that way
its so different from how i've ever operated, or heard songwriters describe their process
idk

i mean clearly its purposeful, i just dont know if thats his particular purpose

i really should learn to drive stick if i want to fulfill my vintage car dream.

yeah like:

there's a shark
shaped
fin
in the
water
of my dreams
an alli
gator screams
from the depths there

"call me crank"

what

lmao

it like hes just saying "fuck it, im going to write the words that make the melody sound the most powerful," idk

I love to steal this living steam
My head in someone's dream
I'm tired of sleeping

ok

^^^exactly!!

that song is like A+ example of what im talking about. i dont think hes just BSing lyrics, i suspect something else is going on

thats the same song where he says "supere" to rhyme with "ideal" and it is really, really weird

i like the corny lyrics he drops too:

Let's take a rocket ship to Mars
And anchor off the satellite for lonely hearts
Such a special place
In outer space

the corniest! i have to imagine that the song is written from a kid's perspective or something, i have no idea.

oh i should also say im def only talking about the lyrics on ferment and chrome

i saw this interview with him once where someone asked what kept him going and he said "at risk of sounding american, its fear"

superboy:

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
you up there on the screen
I'd be your future boy
my big eyed bird in the movies
I'd be your future boy
because if that is what you need
a cinematic boy like me
who'll come along and set you free
don't fear, superboy is here
and it feels good to me

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
as the wisdom runs
a boy should know his limitations
but I've talked myself through less
can I be your future pest
because if that is what you need
a sycophantic boy like me
who'll tell you things you really don't need
oh joy, I'm your boy
and it feels good to me
don't fear, superboy is here
it feels good to me

yes, they were great live

yeah but thats from adam and eve when the lyrics became less vague and less of a tool or whatever
like however hilarious those lyrics are, and they are, i do think hes trying to sing about a thing

i get what you're saying. yeah i mean chrome is one of my favorite early '90s albums and i will sing every lyric but i'm not sure i know what any single line really means but they sound great and "i get" what he's doing in the moment, even if i don't really get it.

from a p recent interview w rob

"I’m ashamed to say this was an interesting example of what happens when you come up with a melody line that can only be sung with certain words (because of how the words are constructed and how they affect the tone). As you can probably tell, the above lyrics do little to strengthen the focus of what the song is obviously about and are there purely as a supporting melodic device."
“Flower To Hide was another song where the lyric was very much dictated by the initial vocal gibberish that come up when coming up with the melody lines. It’s funny when this happens in songs because you feel almost guilty about not constructing a 'focused lyric' that nails in a witty, metaphorical, ironic way a particular slice of life. Songs often are born as an apparent compromise of melody and lyrical straightforwardness. This of course can yield some fantastic results. Flower To Hide is about something but I dare not say what because it might jinx it."

so "born from gibberish" seems otm

Chrome is definitely still the album of theirs for me. It's like they built up, got the fluke American breakthrough and then doubled down.

*checks upthread* Man I was talking about Rob's Porsche fascination ten years ago, who knew.

do you like anything after?

not after porsche obsession but after chrome? lol

Chrome is the only one of the first four that I don't really get :/

I mean, Happy Days is half rubbish, half great, but Chrome escapes me somehow - not rubbish, but not really for me. Maybe I should give it a listen

thats because its as american as a pizza without figs

surely Happy Days and A&E are even more US alt-rock

not after porsche obsession but after chrome? lol

There's life after Porsche obsession? Never! (My dad had a 911.)

The first four are all good in separate ways. Wishville kinda falls away.

i clearly need to revisit A&E and happy days

i was jk imago. obv its def less american sounding than happy days but its still p damn american alt rock sounding

I'll relisten.

Happy Days...I reckon there's a brilliant 8-or-9-track album in there

ferment is my fave tho, the farther they get from that the less im into it

embarrassing but true story:

i first heard of catherine wheel on Q101, which was sort of the KROQ equivalent in chicago, and for awhile at least it was the best station i'd ever heard. they were playing the most amazing '80s alt-rock and college rock and new (at the time) music from the the and sugar and other acts like that. they were advertising some rock festival and talked about CATHERINE WHEEL and i was thinking, hmm well i do like that name i think i'll go buy her CD without even reading up on it.

lots of revelations after that, good ones mostly.

When you bumped the other CW thread I listened to "the nude", and then again, and again, totally got stuck

Waydown
Heal
Empty Head
Eat My Dust
Shocking
Kill My Soul

^would be my preferred edit, maybe rearranged so like

Shocking
Waydown
Eat My Dust
Empty Head
Heal
Kill My Soul

great mini-album right there

it sounds like he is singing 'corncrake' during the chorus of crank. i wish he was

ohhh 'broken head' yeah i love this one, always have. that chorus! wish the whole album brought it like this but it's been fun so far

would boldly state that on 'adam and eve', more or less every track has a melodic hook more or less up there with this one

I met Rob once, top bloke, very down to earth.

There's an acoustic EP that includes "The Nude". Stunning.

They were an excellent and prolific B- sides band.

ok "corncrake" just made me actual lol

"Corncrake"? The Wicker Man?

"call me crank"

what

― jello my future biafriend (roxymuzak), Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:37 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think about this post whenever i listen to "Crank"

mmmm corncrake

:D

i posted in the thread almost 12 years ago? it has been a wild ride and maybe i need to move on too?

have not thought about Catherine Wheel in a very long time. i think i saw them four time total. they were great live.

It's interesting how pretty much all the original shoegaze crew as such has hit the reunion phase but this bunch didn't. (Other non-returnees off the top of my head: Boo Radleys, Pale Saints.) And yes granted CW weren't exactly shoegaze but they were of that generation, had a greater amount of success over here at the time compared to a lot of them, etc.

Ferment is getting a vinyl reissue at the end of June. hope Chrome follows suit quickly thereafter...

My favorite Catherine wheel is the one-two punch of "strange fruit" and "chrome"

and then "the nude" so it's really like three punches

re: the first punch, no song has ever punched me more

and now CHROME is getting a proper reissue via Music on Vinyl in September!

So…something’s up

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160083830801136&id=545041135&_rdr#!/story.php

There's never been expanded reissues, and lord knows there's material aplenty...

New material would be welcome, of course, if a bit trepidatious about the potential.

Seems like it was just announcement of Adam and Eve streaming (hadn't realize it hadn't been?)

Well, specific dates in this one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYs7e6NzIf/

What does this mean? Is there new stuff or is this for reissues? I would like to see them live again as it was always great. I think I saw them around seven times.

Guess we'll find out! After last year's tease that wasn't much, I'm suspicious, but the fact that there are two dates mentioned is intriguing.

probably the only band I'd spend all my money and fly anywhere to see

maybe they can hire a graphic designer with it

lol

What does this mean? Is there new stuff or is this for reissues?

I think it ended up being their early EPs going to streaming or something. However! Renewed hope:

https://www.stereogum.com/2280544/catherine-wheel-frontman-hasnt-seen-his-former-bandmates-in-24-years-but-does-think-theyll-eventually-reunite/news/