RFI: Sisters of Mercy Comps.

Yup.

gothlock=on

1. Though I don't remember where and when I made my stance on the SoM from First & Last & Always public, Ned's right: I think it's less distance from the lip of the Grand Canyon to the river at the bottom than it is from the wonderful, wonderful EPs to the flat, lifeless padding of F&L&Always. They were an interesting band before that: uniformly designed EP's that seemed to surface out of nowhere, U.S. tours that consisted solely of playing Danceteria in NYC for a night or two, really triffic lyrics. F&L&Always comes out, the lyrics have almost completely tanked & the album's best song ("On the Wire") isn't on the album but is a B-side to "Walk Away"; they make wretched videos; they stop picking out new and interesting in-concert cover versions (Hot Chocolate's "Emma" having been a longtime favorite) and just do a turgid version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" instead; all the air seems to go out of them.

2. Which doesn't mean that the Eldritch/Morrison incarnation didn't knock out a good song or two; they did. But knocking out a good song or two is a far cry from working up and sustaining a really interesting public persona and stubbornly releasing only EPs instead of albums for as long as they had.

gothlock=off

SOMEDAY SOMEDAY SOMEDAY DOMINION
COME A TIME

(I wonder what I did with my copy of A Slight Case Of Overbombing?)

If you sold it back or something you are crazy.

I still maintain that the dropoff after the early EPs is a huge drag. I like Dominion pretty good and all but for about two years they were the biggest badasses, EPs with no band pics on 'em all consistently designed and cryptic and weird and a fuckin cover of "1969" with the drum machine of all things, and then actually coming over the NY & doin shows at Dancefuckingteria in support of EPs that weren't even widely available...and then, boom, label deal, videos, they're still a good band but they're no longer inscrutable. They're just some dudes with a contract.

haha whoops looks like I said all that six years ago

I guess I might feel that way if my first exposure to them hadn't been seeing a ten-second clip of the middle of "This Corrosion" on a countdown show. As it stands, I feel like they got glossier as time went on but the seam of bombast they decided to inhabit was really gonzo-awesome.

(lol and yet I still think Some Girls Wander By Mistake is my favorite thing of theirs that I own)

My starting point was hearing about Floodland in some year end review of 1988 in a magazine with a photo of the cover and going, "Hm." But I think the first thing I heard was a couple of months later when I played "Temple of Love" at my radio show and went, "Oh RIGHT."

A friend of mine made a conscious decision at the age of 23 or so to go through a goth phase and got a Sisters Of Mercy tattoo. I hadn't heard them at that time and since haven't been able to bring myself to give them an honest chance. Should I?

Back up to the story of your friend here.

Oh lord, I wouldn't know where to start.

Any other conscious decisions of interest/amusement?

"I am 24 now. I do believe I will engage in dipsomania. At 25, I shall embrace rehabiliation."

(And yes, give the Sisters an honest chance.)

Did your friend get the Merciful Release logo? I'd get the FALAA logo, m'self, but am far too much of a girly man to get a tattoo.

You're on the right trail. He hasn't got to the rehabilitation phase yet, though sometimes when he's drinking weird Brittany Spears concoctions I urge him to do so (gastric bypass, not safe). But he's always pulling this stuff. For a while he wouldn't stop talking about his denim cape. Then it was his kilt. Then it was "all my friends' wives and girlfriends want to fuck me." He still brings an animal horn of some kind to the bars to drink from instead of the little plastic cups.

Just months before the goth phase he was telling me "I could never get into the Cure because they invented goth! Like six months or a year later he was dumped and listening to the Cure really loud in our living room. Awk-ward!
And yes it was the Merciful Release one.

There should be an end-quote there after the bold type...should I be telling these on the internet?

The Cure did not "invent goth".

His words, not mine.

should I be telling these on the internet?

I'm starting to think this needs a dedicated thread!

Believe me, I know...but he's a good friend, just constantly being ridiculous, and I feel a bit bad saying these things.

DON'T

WHAT HE SAID

I WANT MORE

I would enjoy "More" a lot more w/o the backup singers

What, don't you need all the love that you can't get?

The Cure did not "invent goth".

I know rite I mean how pissed would Jaz be if heard ppl were spreading lies like this LOL

http://rofl.wheresthebeef.co.uk/Pelican%20Oh%20Snap.JPG

Okay okay, one more: He's drunk and in the recording studio doing vocal tracks for a rock opera about a chick who dumped him after like three months (good album if you can deal with the lyrical content). He turns the lights out (sure Jim Morrison) and insists he have his whiskey with him. He does take after take after take ad nauseum, and despite nailing it every time he's insisting on more. Somewhere in all this he claims it got too emotional, makes a big production out of it, and has to step outside to have a private moment, regain composure. But the real kicker is that just before going into the vocal booth he fucking goes on myspace to look at pictures of his ex girlfriend in some attempt to get himself in the proper state of mind to sing. That night after recording the vocal tracks he's telling my friend he could never listen to that song again because it's "SO. FUCKING. SAADDD!" He listened to it the next day.

I gotta go to bed now, I've got a graveyard to work tonight.

ysi?

What?

(ok, not QUITE yet)

Better and better.

I really really really want to hear a song that is SO. FUCKING. SAADDD!

a rock opera about a chick who dumped him after like three months (good album if you can deal with the lyrical content)

Vole Out of Heck