ian mccullough - provocateur or gobsh***

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has anyone seen the ian mccullough interview on music 365? [ http://www.music365.com/Rock/Interviews/page_57_610.shtml ]

he's always done his best to be the outspoken, 'tell-it-like-it-is' controversy merchant, but isn't the following a little alarming..?

[answering the question

'Which Spice Girl could/would you be and why?',

he says

"I'd probably say Mel B. She's probably got more attitude. I've got a touch of the tarbrush in me. No, I'm kind of related in there somewhere, hence the big lips and eyeballs"]

or am i just an uptight middle class pseudo-liberal?

― the real life of sebastian knight, Sunday, 29 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For a start, it's McCullOCH, not mccullough. Yes, he's pretentious as the day is long, but Echo & the Bunnymen have been responsible for some moments of utter sonic majesty in the past, so I personally let it slide.

― alex in nyc, Monday, 30 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"For a start, it's McCullOCH, not mccullough"

good to see we're focusing on the essentials, here...

"Yes, he's pretentious as the day is long""

I know, and I'm all in favour of pretension in pop, but would you really call the 'tarbrush' remark pretentious? I don't normally see 'racist' and 'pretentious' as synonyms..

"Echo & the Bunnymen have been responsible for some moments of utter sonic majesty in the past".

I agree entirely with the 'majesty', but doesn't that just make comments like this even more disappointing?

― the real life of sebastian knight, Monday, 30 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fair enough....it's a deplorable comment. I agree.

― alex in nyc, Friday, 4 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hang on: it's exceptionally vulgar, likely (calculated) to offend (liberals, anyway — how much wd it rankle with Mel B?), and sure doesn't raise my (never high) opinion of him any, but he was asked which did he want to BE, and he replied (my translation): "Mel B, because she's black — and I sort of am too, to look at." How's this RACIST? He's opting FOR the identification, not turning AWAY from it. He's saying — to put it in John Townend terminology — "Me and her, her and me, two of a kind: yay Bolshy Mongrels": which is the opposite of Townend attitude. (Isn't it?)

The either/or doesn't work: provocateur AND gobshite.

Guess what I'm saying is that Giving Offence and Racism are two things, sometimes actually separate. And policing the first isn't NECESSARILY containing the second.

(Hmmm. Or is this just another episode in my pointless campaign to defend total tossers against the charge that they're also irredeemable wankers?)

― mark s, Friday, 4 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yr not just an uptight middle-class etc...that was a pretty stupid thing to say. Time was that I thought Mac was pretty rad, but I dunno, after that goddamn-awful football rekord he made w/spice grrlz & ocean colour scene (!) the scales fell from my eyes somewhat. Now I think (whisper it ) he's a bit thick. Which would explain the above quote, perhaps?

x0x0

― norman fay, Friday, 4 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eight years pass...

Only thread I could find for Solo Ian McCulloch talk so i'll revive.

I've been completely hooked on Ian's solo work from Candleland to Mysterio. Proud To Fall, Honeydrip, the Leonard Cohen covers, the Robin Guthrie b-sides etc. How did I never notice Faith & Healing sounded like New Order? Anyway, I love the music he made on those two albums and have been tempted to get Slidling or whatever it's called. Anyone else have a soft spot for his early 90s solo material and what else should I be looking for to satiate this current obsession?

― brotherlovesdub, Friday, 2 April 2010 16:10 (fifteen years ago)

I loved "Candleland" and the singles at the time though they haven't aged all that well. It's time for me to revisit them, good revive.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 2 April 2010 16:35 (fifteen years ago)

I really wish the tracks he did with Johnny Marr in 93 would surface.

― brotherlovesdub, Friday, 2 April 2010 16:50 (fifteen years ago)

Isn't Electrafixion's "Zephyr" EP from those sessions?

So I listened to "Candleland" for the first time in ages - the drum sound is bad now - but frankly it's a logical continuation of the self-titled album. Love the title track (though the re-recorded single version is better), "Proud To Fall" sounds autobiographical, "Horse's Head" is great and you get Mac fronting New Order with "Faith And Healing".

What's better, Candleland or the s/t Echo album?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 5 April 2010 02:27 (fifteen years ago)

three years pass...

I'd definitely vote for the s/t Echo being better, but after finally hearing Candieland for the first time, it certainly has its charms. The drums so sound awful now, that's for sure, Boris Williams deserves better sound than this.

― an enormous bolus of flatulence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 21:55 (eleven years ago)

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