February 13, 2008 11:00 PM
C&L's Late Nite Music Club with The Cocteau Twins
The Cocteau Twins were an arty Scottish band all through the 80s and 90s-- Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie. In some ways they were the chief attraction of U.K. indie label 4AD and their 1990 release, Heaven or Las Vegas was their musical peak, their last album for the label (and their last as an indie). "I Wear Your Ring" was one of the most commercially-successful songs on the record, as well as a great way to get into this enigmatic band's sound.
I love love love them!!!
...and her crazy fun bad diction.
One of my all-time favourite bands -- from Robin Guthrie's wall-of-sound guitars to Elizabeth's quasi-nonsense vocals...it was just a sound you could swim in. (Slight nitpick -- Will Heggie was quickly replaced by Simon Raymonde, who was the main third member through the run of the band.)
by far the best album is Treasure
She also performed a few tracks on the LOTR trilogy
sugar hiccup my cheerios, sugar hiccup!
Iceblink Luck - from Heaven Or Las Vegas
With their own video production ;D
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wl5EqjtRuGU&feature=related
eh.
The Cocteau Twins were one of the bigger bands on the label but not the only one. Dead Can Dance, The This Mortal Coil records, The Pixies were just as big, in the U.S. at least. I worked in a record store in the late 80's and at one point the label had such a following that some people would actually just ask if 4AD had anything new out and they would buy it. That didn't last, of course, but it goes to show you what kind of status they had.
Ex-Republican Chafee considers voting for Obama in R.I. primary
By Mark Arsenault
Providence Journal Staff Writer
01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 8, 2008
Driven by his strong opposition to the war in Iraq, former Republican U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee may do something radical, at least for him: cast a vote in a Democratic primary. Chafee, who lost his reelection race in 2006, left the GOP last summer and joined the ranks of Rhode Island’s unaffiliated voters, who can participate in either party’s primary on March 4. In his deliberative manner, the former senator says he is considering a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. “It’s a big decision to go into the Democratic primary,” Chafee said in an interview yesterday...
No issue isolated Chafee among national Republicans more starkly than the war in Iraq. He was the only Republican senator to oppose it. “It was such a critical time in our history, when we needed the Congress to act responsibly,” he said....
In his upcoming book, Against the Tide [due April 1 from St. Martin’s Press], Chafee excoriates congressional Democrats who voted in 2002 to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq. He writes: “Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill.” Some leading Democrats “argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment.”
http://www.projo.com/news/politics/content/chafee_vote_02-08-08_A88UCGM_...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=C98jVRYpp7k another band from Scotland,All the Things She Said,Simple Minds.
The CT's were always EF, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymond. I first heard the This Mortal Coil version of Song to the Siren Back in '85 and followed the CTs through the 90s and I have no idea who this Will Higgy or Heggie guy is. And I must say that Treasure is one of the best, but my favorite during those years was an EP called Echoes in a Shallow Bay featuring a # called Great Spangled Frittillary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAR_SU4xdQA
This is what the pregoths contemplated suicide to.
Are we suppose to figure out which two are twins?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uuyaii37kCc&feature=related more Simple Minds.
One of my favorite bands of all time. Robin Guthrie still makes amazing music...lately some great collaborations with Harold Budd. btw, it's "Cocteau Twins"....not "The Cocteau Twins".
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oFIMJxV2tjI&feature=related ok last one,Belfast Child, Simple Minds.
you would have had to of been there.
Now here is a Scott for you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKWiwfOhI6U
From a later EP, where Elizabeth sang her introspective lyrics coherently.
Rilkean Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei1YzLbotiI&feature=related
Scott @ 8:
I also worked in an indie record store around that time and had the same experience. Other labels people would ask for: SST, Sub Pop.
Really dug This Mortal Coil for a while. Good stuff.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9YNdOhOYIcM&feature=related ,heheh
Will Heggie left after the first three years (1983.) All those pics in the vid are of Simone Raymonde – plus he’s the one performing on this song.
At the start of the vid, that poster of girl doing a handstand looks like a Calla Lily from afar. I have “Cocteau Twins” in the font from Treasure tattooed on me, and have often thought of enhancing it with the gymnast/flower.
Some other fantastic vocalists, mostly in the “trance” genre, are:
Kristy Thirsk,
Kirsty Hawkshaw,
Jan Johnston, and
Jody Quine.
Lastly, all of Liz’s non-Cocteau Twins stuff (This Mortal Coil, etc.) at iTunes can be found here.
"...intamacy's when we're in the same place at the same time
dealing honestly with how we feel and who we really are..."
from Half Gifts
2nd part of video at 17:
i dunno, howie. heaven or las vegas may have been their commercial peak. it was also when liz starting singing in actual english. honestly, i preferred them when i had no idea what she was singing. for my money, their musical peak was blue bell knoll, a fantastic record. and let's not forget garlands. just gorgeous.
regardless, thanks for posting this.
Ok, ok. I usually crtiticize the choices on here but it's nice to get a pleasant surprise once in a while. Thanks, guys!
Doh! I previewed ans everything and still messed it up!
Lastly, all of Liz’s non-Cocteau Twins stuff (This Mortal Coil, etc) at iTunes can be found here.
The Cocteau Twins' bassist has his own record label and signed Midlake. Their music is achingly good. They should be on LNMC! Check them out. "The Trials of Van Occupanther" is a effing great album.
Midlake - Roscoe
This is from their website:
"Midlake formed in the small, quirky Texas town of Denton. There the five diligent musicians toiled to create a sound that was pleasing, as well as their own. Soon enough they were discovered by Bella Union Records owner and Cocteau Twins bassist, Simon Raymonde. Simon fell deeply in love with the band, and together they began to cultivate a relationship built upon sharing Midlake’s music to the world."
I was always partial to "Ribbed and Veined" from their 1985 EP Tiny Dynamite, after that I lost interest, but that disc was great, (at least I thought)
Who else was on 4AD? PIL? Bauhaus? Time (and other orces) have kind of melted those memories together for me. I was into it back then, though.
yeah, definitely Bauhaus (who I would argue holds the title of "Most Important Artists" for the Label. Both are tip grade, tho
great band. yummy vid.
Thanks for posting this. I loved this song.
Pearly-Dewdrop's Drops, The Itchy Glowbo Blow, Wax and Wane, Ivo
“War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.”
-Benito Mussolini
“Fascism is capitalism in decay”
-Vladimir Lenin
oops!
*my humble apologies. 32 & 33 were meant for the open thread*
I'm going through my folder on Technohippie for the FIRST time in quite awhile, man I got alot of great music there IMHO -
http://technohippie.com/geeklog/public_html/mediagallery/album.php?aid=4...
I remember that early 4AD was a whole lot more like the Garlands era of the Cocteaus -- a lot more murky, gothy-tinged, dissonant. I remember really liking Clan of Xymox at the time, though I never got quite so much into Wolfgang Press or Dif Juz. Of course, This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance were amazing and still are to this day...only other band from those early days that I know still holds up is the Throwing Muses. Pixies is kinda mid-period I guess.
The thing I used to really like about the early days was the label's "signature sound"...you could often peg a 4AD album just by the production. (Though it didn't always work...Let's not even talk about how they 4AD-ified Lisa Germano's album Happiness, which was already brilliant before they got their mitts on it.) When Colourbox spawned MARRS and had a huge hit single with a decided un-4AD-ish cut, I'm not sure the label was the same after that point...it just seemed like they started reaching out in a zillion directions.
I'm not in tune with the label like I used to be. They're still doing things that are really out there, like Scott Walker, and then they're releasing thing that shun over-the-top artiness...like the Mountain Goats, which I love too. But then there all this stuff on the label that I just don't have a clue about any more. In the old days when I was label fetishist, I would have at least known what they were about...even if I didn't like it. Ah well.
scottish bands? i'd walk a thousand miles for this scottish band.
Spirit: Fresh Garbage -
http://technohippie.com/geeklog/public_html/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&s...
I had more mystical adolescent intergender encounters to the album Head Over Heels and the chronologically close Sunburst and Snowblind that what I call "La La" singing is my kind of Proustian cookie. I have almost everything they ever recorded and love nearly all of it.
I had such a crush on Ms Fraser back in my college days.
Still one of my favorite bands to relax or fall asleep to
Supertramp: No Inbetween -
http://technohippie.com/geeklog/public_html/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&s...
Cocteau Twins are one of my all-time favorite groups, and one of only two from whom I'm proud to say I have *everything* ever put out. (The other is Bob Marley and the Wailers.)
Their music brings you into the deepest, most haunted places within you.
Wishbone Ash: The Pilgrim -
http://technohippie.com/geeklog/public_html/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&s...
If you like Cocteau Twins, try listening to Dead Can Dance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Can_Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do5vj3D-OD4
This is dedicated to KPHX radio in Arizona -
Wishbone Ash: Phoenix -
http://technohippie.com/geeklog/public_html/mediagallery/media.php?s=200...
Yeah, Will Heggie only appeared on one album which sounded pretty different from the subsequent ones they recorded with Simon Raymonde. Both Robin Guthrie (Liz Fraser's husband) and Simon Raymone contributed the bulk of the music to the This Mortal Coil album's. Will Heggie did form a fantastic, virtually unheard of darkwave band called 'Lowlife' that recorded several albums up until 2000 and beyond, though their earlier releases, which are compiled in a great CD called 'From A Scream to a Whisper', I thought were their best.
Good choice though!
Howie,
Funny, I had just done a post about them too, though mine is a little more comical
i got to see the cocteau twins perform a couple of times, they put on a fantastic show. i saw dead can dance perform once too. oooh the memories.
Thank you! I have been racking my brain for 2 days about the name of this band, and voila, here it is. A friend of mine gave me a cassette eons ago, listened to it like crazy, and of course since lost it. The music crossed my mind so I thought I'd just get some online: but what was the name of the band ???? It was maddening!!!
Thank you!
Cocteau Twins! I'm one of the nuts that owns every single CT release (and with EP's and singles ... they take up a lot of space!)
"A friend of mine gave me a cassette eons ago"
a cassette ... Cocteau Twins ...
I'm getting nostalgic.
Deighved H Stern MD @ 27:
I forgot about Bauhaus, who I really like, I guess because they split up in 1983.
Who else was on 4AD? PIL? Bauhaus? Time (and other orces) have kind of melted those memories together for me. I was into it back then, though.
4AD, before they opened up a shop here in the States, arguably signed some of the most influential alt and indie bands of the 20th century. There was Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Throwing Muses (some of them are now The Breeders), Clan of Xymox, The Wolfgang Press, Dead Can Dance, Lush (who were actually their first signed band on their US division), even MARRS, who had that single 'Pump Up The Volume', were on 4AD. Ivo Watts and the others who ran this label were definitely visionaries. Oh the memories of an industry that used to actually thrive on real musical talent as opposed to being pretty much the pimps they are now.
Scott @ 51:
Bauhaus are still around with the original lineup (they all had pretty much successful careers on their own as well with vocalist Peter Murphy putting out some fantastic solo albums and the other three members enjoying pretty big success as 'Love and Rockets'). After doing so well with their reunion tour they are releasing a new album next month called 'Go Away White'.
Just for the record, only first Bauhaus singles & first album were on 4AD proper. All subsequent releases by Bauhaus and its members including Peter Murphy (solo), Daniel Ash (solo), David J (solo), Tones on Tail ("Go!") and Love & Rockets were all moved to mother label Martin Mill's Beggars Banquet.
-AF
Ivo Watts Russell - Cocteau Twins and 23 Envelope - what a great package! From production, music to visuals, these folks defined indie.
The first release on 4AD was Richenel's "most dramatic song in the world" L’Esclave Endormi (the Ivo mix, obviously.) What a way to start a company!
The original 12” Mix is awesome as well.
I wouldn’t buy anything else by Richenel though – it’s inexplicably horrible.
What is this itunes crap? Is this something from Apple? Ug!
Well, I need more coffee. After reviewing www.4ad.com again, I realize it was the first release of 1986, not of 4AD itself.
Moral of this little story? Don't believe ever-ting you read on the internet: "I read it on the Internet is the same as 'It must be true, I heard it on the phone'".
Zoinks!
I've always thought Four-Calendar Cafe was their best album, but to each his own.
Let me second "Four-Calendar" as their best album!
The HK singer Faye Wong covered a slew of CT songs during her career (including "Bluebeard" and "Know Who You Are" off of "Four Calendar"). They even collaborated on songs in the mid-90s. Here's a resource of Wong/CT covers/collabos.
Also, Lush was another awesome 4AD band. (I even met Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson when they played Va Beach back in 96.)
This Mortal Coil It'll End In Tears = best 80's college sex music ever.
Oh yes, they were the best... Luscious, immaculate music. 4-Calendar and Heaven are my 2 favourites.
What was the matter with " Bluebell Knoll" ?
Nice ethnic sound, great vocals.
I'm basically obsessed with the Cocteau Twins, thanks so much for putting this up. They're one of the best groups I've ever listened to.
great band. GREAT band.
We've got some similar Shoegazer music up on our new blog right now. Spacemen 3, The Verve, and more scattered amongst political and cultural news.
Please check it out.
http://www.medicineagency.com/blog/
c&r still rules.
I never got into Four Calendar Cafe as much as others seemed to. I was a Heaven or Las Vegas kinda guy, with Victorialand close behind. But I gotta admit that I liked Milk and Kisses quite a bit too. Hell of a way to go out.
This Mortal Coil--a brilliant idea that spanned three LPs, some of which featured the Cocteaus. Their rendition of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren is still one of the most beautiful things ever recorded.
Victoria Land is imho the Cocteau Twins at their peak.
I got the chance to see them in San Francisco in 96 and go backstage. I was awed that they sounded exactly alike in concert. Beautiful.
I'm a huge fan of the Cocteau Twins. Heaven or Las Vegas is my favorite, especially the B side of the cassette.
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