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Looper's Delight
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Mark Francombe wrote, about My Bloody Valentine: "To be fair.. that IS EXACTLY what My Bloody Valentine sound like live... and always have.. I saw them maybe 25 times in the late 80īs and it didnt matter where i saw them or what PA they were thru.. the sound was BAD. After a while I accepted it.. and started to "GET INTO IT". Then THAT ALBUM... came a long (they recorded it in the same studio as I was recording at the time, just a different room, we got hints at what they were up to... We recorded an album (Wings of Joy) and they recorded a hi hat pattern - in the toilet) THAT ALBUM was so distorted and muffled and.. wait a minute.. is it wobbly? That alot of people took it back to the shop (including my girlfriend at the time)... but after a while... "YOU GOT INTO IT!" And now of course its one of the more important albums of the 90īs. In about 93 just before they split up, I saw them in San Francisco... big and famous... packed audience... sounded the same... There are just some bands that dont seem to be able to get their tricky sound out over a PA... and thats OK with me." I can appreciate that, Mark, but I had the opposite experience. I never saw that band in the day and I was so blown away by the music on those brilliant and quirky records. There, of course, have been bands that never got it right live and I can respect that. I had a very popular regional new wave band in the 80's and we just never could capture what we did live on vinyl so it can go both ways. but what I loved about MBV was the fact that not only did Shields achieve this amazing guitar sound that had the sonic energy of punk and yet had nothing to do with it's form but also had real pristine and soft energy as well, with the melodies created in the interplay of the guitar and the vocals. It was the interplay between those two elements that made them have an enormous impact on me (and also a delight in trying to figure out just how the fuck he had achieved that sound----was it the manipulation of samples of his guitar playing or judicious and incredible use of a whammy bar-- --was it hundreds of overdubs or just the production manipulation of a few..........all these things not only intrigued me, but they sent me scurrying around trying to duplicate it or, better yet, to try experiments in my own head that would be as exciting just for being exposed to them. I've heard a lot of bands work with the sheer sonic energy of loud volume, noise, feedback , etc. as their primary mode of expression (Sonic Youth certainly comes to mind but any number of other and less famous noise projects. What made MBV stand out in my mind was that he had this experimental , dissonant noise sensibility married to a beautiful lyricism............that was what was rare and to me , so sublime about the band. So, unfortunately (and lucky you that you had the chance) i just don't have the luxury to go see them a dozen times to 'get use to his live aesthetic'. Also, the crowd in London was NOT getting it either from everything I could see and for the number of people I talked with outside of the venue. The sound was crap and it was very, very painfully loud (and I'm no wuss when it comes to volume.......I'm a really loud drummer when I want to be---people have complained <blush>) I guess my point is, if that's what he wanted, it would have been more honest to say, We're going to play with two incredibly loud guitarists and an even louder bassist..........fuck the singers and the drummer.........fuck trying to reproduce the 'hits' of twenty years before. At least I could have taken it on his terms. As it was, we did something we never thought we'd see ourselves do (that is, Chris, my wife who is also a fan, and I) we walked out and enjoyed the balmy London, England evening and took in the local goth club.