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Back with (p)Rick Rubin
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I was talking about Astbury tonight in the pub. In all my years of going to gigs I think I've only ever seen someone manage to make an audience go from loving you to hating you just by saying stupid shit in between songs twice. Once was that dickhead mediocre power chord hack ex guitarist Jim what ever the fuck from Faith No More and the other was Ian Astbury.
It's like anti charisma. Saw him again earlier this year and not quite as bad but not good. He should just not speak that would be better for everyone. -
[The Cult] never really broke that big in the States.
They had their commercial moment with Sonic Temple. Never followed it up...or by the time they did nobody cared.
Last I heard of the guy he was fronting the 'new' Doors twenty years ago. Seemed a bit odd in that he was sort of derided during the Cult years of being a second-rate Morrison, so he decided to confirm it by fronting the Doors, I suppose.
My enduring memory of him was a gal I knew used to play the fuck out of Sonic Temple when we driving around during the summer of 1989, and she would especially play that Edie Ciao Baby song over and over and over and over and over and over until I was sick of the fucking Cult for the rest of my life.
I dunno...maybe the Cult were bigger in Europe, but I've read a bunch of online stuff over the last several years about how 'The Cult Saved Rock In The 1980's'...honestly, prior to Sonic Temple, I don't recall hearing much buzz in America about The Cult.Scramby eggs and bacon.Comment
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Out of curiosity Sesh, what kind of things would he say?Comment
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I have a bootleg probably from the early 90's when they started to wane after the Sonic Temple era. In the intro to Fire Woman the (presumably British) crowd starts chanting "you fat bastard! you fat bastard!..." Ian just gasps then goes into the song....Comment
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They had a solid run the 80's with Love having a cult following. Problem with them is that they wanted to be an American-sounding Gun N' Roses lite so they hired (p)Rick Rubin to destroy any credibility they had. Sonic Temple ironically enough was the most original album they ever did but became they most copied Bob Rock blueprint for plagiarist like Metsucklica and Aerosmith which in turn buried them. Ian fucked off to Mexico to do his Doors cover act for insane ticket prices, claimed he Cult was no more until he started to run out of money and relinked himself back with Duffy to record some of the most horrid albums of the 2000s only to make another one in 2022.
New album or not they are just another touring nostalgia act with their setlist heavy on Love, Electric and Sonic Temple. Love is a great record. Why they wanted to commit commercial suicide by hooking up with a hack like Rubin is beyond me.Comment
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I...I...just can't get into this. Sounds like My Chemical Romance
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I do recall hearing The Cult prior to Sonic Temple. Probably it was via the singles for Love Removal Machine and She Sells Sanctuary.
They had a couple of name producers with Rubin and Rock. As you say, doubtless those two producers assisted in streamlining and commercializing the approach to the material. And again as you mentioned, The Cult wanted to take that standard major-label approach. Who can say if they would have been more commercially successful with a producer other than Rubin? Perhaps.
They were alright. Once Sonic Temple came and went, I can't say as I ever wondered what happened to them or thought it was a shame they weren't together anymore or had any reaction at all when Astbury hooked up with Duffy again.Scramby eggs and bacon.Comment
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Electric was the anti-overproduced album. Very dry, minimal effects, loud, big riffs. Cult opened for Billy Idol that year, saw the show here. Whiplash Smile tour.Writing In All Proper Case Takes Extra Time, Is Confusing To Read, And Is Completely Pointless.Comment
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Electric is their masterpiece IMO.
I've grown sick of Sonic Temple because of its pompous ambience.
Ceremony contains some great stuff too.
The only two tracks I managed to listen to online are a fucking bore. It's been one of my fave bands for a long time, but I wouldn't purchase an album I couldn't throw an ear into.
Billy Duffy is a hell of a great guitar player, he still delivers live, but it seems that composition-wise the well is dry.
Ian Astbury used to be a hell of great singer, but over the last twenty years he's been butchering his vocals on stage.
In this excerpt from a gig in June 1987 I think they were at their best musically. Electric had been released for two months.
posted by Ellyllions Men say, "I'll never understand women." That's a very lonely place to be if you're a woman because we don't understand half of what we do either.posted by ALinChainz Katy, Pipe down, pump off, and fly back to your cave you old bat.Comment
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Ian's best singing was not with the Cult but with The Fuzztones blasting a Stooges cover
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Or even singing with Steve Jones & AxHole Rose on a remake of Steve's Sex Pistols song "Did U No Wrong"
Eat Us And Smile
Cenk For America 2024!!
Justice Democrats
"If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992Comment
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Ian and Billy can still bring it...
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