The Jesus and Mary Chain
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| The Jesus and Mary Chain | |
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 Jesus and Mary Chain live @ The Wiltern, Los Angeles, California, 23 October, 2007
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Genre(s) | Noise Pop Post-Punk Alternative Rock |
| Years active | 1984–1999, 2007–present |
| Label(s) | Creation Records Blanco y Negro Sub Pop |
| Associated acts | Freeheat Lazycame Black Box Recorder Primal Scream |
| Website | www.thejesusandmarychain.org |
| Members | |
| Jim Reid William Reid Loz Colbert Mark Crozer Phil King |
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| Former members | |
| Murray Dalglish Dave Evans Douglas Hart Bobby Gillespie Ben Lurie Steve Monti John Moore Nick Sanderson Richard Thomas |
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The Jesus and Mary Chain are an alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Scotland in 1984. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. They released a constant string of albums, singles and EPs from their formation in 1984 until their breakup in 1999. In 2007 the band reunited and began work on a new album.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
The Jesus and Mary Chain originally revolved around the songwriting partnership of its two main members, plus third founder member, bass player Douglas Hart. The band recorded their debut single, "Upside Down", released in October 1984 on Creation Records. The melody, structure and lyrics ("Inside I feel so bad/So low I feel so sad/Feels like I'm going mad/Best friend I've ever had.") are reminiscent of 1960s 'wall of sound' pop music of the like created by the Brill Building or Phil Spector, but "Upside Down" gives the material a noisy post-punk treatment, with brutally simple drums and one guitar playing shrill feedback throughout most of the song.
Dalglish was replaced shortly afterwards by Bobby Gillespie (who would go on to front Primal Scream), and William Reid subsequently claimed that he had played the drums on the debut single himself because of Dalglish's lack of ability[1]. Though the single received universal critical acclaim from the British music press, and the band was championed fanatically by the NME, it was their riotous live shows that drew them the most attention.
[edit] Notoriety
The Jesus and Mary Chain's early gigs have become somewhat legendary in indie circles. Playing in front of small audiences, the Mary Chain earned their notoriety by playing very short gigs, some lasting no more than 10 minutes and consisting of a constant wall of feedback and distortion, as well as playing with their backs to the audience and refusing to speak to them. Many shows culminated with the Reids trashing their equipment, which was often followed by the audience rioting. All of this delighted manager and Creation Records boss Alan McGee, who obviously found it very easy to get attention for the band. He would simply make sure people from the music press were present while these events occurred, which ensured blanket coverage in the music papers.
The violence that followed the band's every action culminated in an event that is now a part of indie folklore. On March 15, 1985, the Jesus and Mary Chain played a gig at the North London Polytechnic in front of one of their largest crowds up to that point. Support band Meat Whiplash had stirred up violence before the Mary Chain even set foot onto the stage by throwing back into the audience a bottle thrown at them. By the time the Mary Chain started their short set, the audience was already in the mood for violence, and because of its size (the venue was oversold), the riot that occurred was far bigger and wilder than any other that had occurred at a Jesus and Mary Chain gig. The fans trashed the venue and the band's equipment, resulting in four people being taken to hospital. An estimated £8000 of damage was caused. The music press were present at the show, and this event subsequently became known as "The Jesus and Mary Chain Riot".
[edit] Psychocandy
The same year, the band signed to Blanco y Negro and released the singles "You Trip Me Up" and "Never Understand", which were soon followed by their debut album Psychocandy. The album fused together the Reids' two primary influences, the guitar noise of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground with the '60s pop leanings of The Beach Boys, The Shangri-Las and Phil Spector -- in fact, the album's opening song, "Just Like Honey," borrows Hal Blaine's famous drum intro from The Ronnettes 1963 classic, "Be My Baby", produced and co-written by Spector. It has been noted that the band was very fond of drugs such as LSD and amphetamines and that the drugs influenced the ear-piercing, screeching feedback, which immediately became their trademark. The record received unanimously positive reviews and is now considered a landmark recording.
Not a group to stay out of trouble, the Mary Chain were thrown out of their record company's offices after a fight broke out, and Reid was arrested for possession of amphetamines in Germany. This earned them the now infamous comparisons to The Sex Pistols by the U.K press and led to numerous appearances in the infamous UK tabloids. Like the Pistols' "Anarchy" tour, the Mary Chain were banned from Plymouth, Birmingham, Sheffield, and removed from a Glasgow concert for swearing onstage. The final date in Brighton was attended by 600 fans and an impressive army of police, but the band and the crowd behaved themselves.
Two months later, the WEA pressing plant refused to handle the Mary Chain's third single, "You Trip Me Up", because some of its staff considered the B-side, "Jesus Suck" (originally titled "Jesus Fuck"), to be blasphemous. They were forced to replace the cut with "Just Out of Reach."
[edit] Darklands and Kisses
After Psychocandy, the band recorded and released the single "Some Candy Talking", which is commonly misunderstood as being about heroin use. In a 2005 interview with Jim Reid featured in Filter Magazine, Reid noted that: '"Some Candy Talking" had nothing to do with drugs, actually. It was just something a radio DJ picked up on, and it was banned in all the major radio stations in the UK.' It should be noted though that images of poppy flowers are featured in the video for the single, seeming to imply that the song is indeed about heroin. Furthermore it wasn't banned by the only UK radio station likely to play it, BBC Radio 1, being voted at no. 9 in that year's John Peel Festive fifty [1]. The song was included in the soundtrack to the 1986 film Modern Girls.
Following the release of "Some Candy Talking", Bobby Gillespie left to front Primal Scream on a full time basis. The band's second album, Darklands, was released in September 1987. Featuring a more melodic sound, the album was recorded almost entirely by the Reids themselves, replacing live drums with a drum machine, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews by the British music press.
The band's live shows, at one time considered the most exciting element of the band and the reason for most of their success, were now overshadowed by their records. In 1987 they toured without a drummer, instead employing a roadie to play a tape of drum tracks through the PA system. The gigs were very poorly received and they quickly reverted back to live drums, drafting in John Moore , then Dave Evans, former Mary Chain soundman and bass player with Biff Bang Pow! (which also featured Alan McGee and Dick Green of Creation Records), Richard Thomas for two years, subsequently replaced by Steve Monti in 1990. Moore went on to form John Moore and the Expressway, and released a solo album before forming Black Box Recorder with Luke Haines. Douglas Hart also left in 1990. The fluid nature of the Mary Chain's line up continued throughout their entire career, with a revolving door of drummers, bassists and guitarists being recruited for TV appearances and gigs whenever they were required, the only constants being the Reid brothers.
The band's dangerous reputation culminated at a gig at the RPM club in Toronto in November 1987, when Jim Reid allegedly hit two fans with a microphone stand for spitting on him. Jim was arrested and spent a night in jail. He was subsequently given absolute discharge after agreeing to give £500 to charity.
Following the odds-and-sods collection Barbed Wire Kisses (1988) and constant touring, the album Automatic was released in September 1989. Boasting heavy use of synthesized bass and keyboards, the album was not received quite as well as its predecessors. It contained the singles "Head On" and the Dylan ode, "Blues From A Gun". By this time, the violence that was originally associated with the band was practically non-existent and the Reid brothers were less antagonistic and aggressive in general.
[edit] The 1990s
After cooling down, the band proved their detractors wrong with their next single, "Reverence". Spitting feedback and punk rock bile in every direction, the track was banned from radio and the video was banned from being broadcast on television (outside the United States), due to its potentially offensive lyrics ('I wanna die just like JFK, I wanna die in the USA'...'I wanna die just like Jesus Christ, I wanna die on a bed of spikes'). The single was followed by the release of the album Honey's Dead (1992), which was considered a return to form; keeping their distinctive ear-piercing noise, whilst also drawing in influences from the huge British dance scene at the time. Following the tour to support the album and the release of another compilation of odds-and-sods, The Sound of Speed, they returned to the studio to record their fifth album proper, the largely acoustic Stoned & Dethroned which would see release in 1994.
[edit] Munki (1998)
Following the final album in their odds-and-sods trilogy, 1995's Hate Rock N' Roll, the Mary Chain parted ways with Blanco y Negro, their record label of over a decade, and re-signed to their original label Creation Records, and Sub Pop in America. They then recorded 1998's Munki album, which would turn out to be their last before splitting the following year. The album is often thought of as sounding "divided" due to the Reids' crumbling relationship, Jim Reid recalls: "Me and William weren't really getting along at all. That last year we barely even spoke. Munki is one of my favorite albums, but it was really divided. William would go into the studio with the rest of the band and record while I wasn't there, and then I'd go in with them when William wasn't there."
Though it was not until October 1999 that the split was made official, on September 12, 1998, William had a falling out in the tour bus with guitarist Ben Lurie before they were to play a sold out gig at the famous Los Angeles House of Blues. Jim appeared onstage apparently drunk and barely able to stand or sing. William walked offstage about 15 minutes into their set, and the show ended. The audience was later refunded the price of their tickets. The band finished up their U.S. and Japanese dates without William, but from that point, it was clear that the band was at its end.
[edit] Post-split
Immediately after the split, William Reid went solo as Lazycame and Jim Reid founded Freeheat, although neither act received much attention or found any success. In October 2005, it was announced that the Reids were reunited; Jim Reid's track "Song For A Secret" was released as a single, paired up with Sister Vanilla's "Cannot Stop The Rock", which was written and produced by William Reid and the brothers' younger sibling, Linda. The single was released by Transistor Records on October 17. Jim Reid promoted his side of the single with a very rare solo gig at London's Sonic Cathedral club on John Peel Day , Thursday October 13, 2005. He finished this rare live appearance with a performance of the early Mary Chain classic "Never Understand". More recently Jim Reid has been performing new material at low-key gigs with a new band comprising Phil King (Lush, Felt, Jesus and Mary Chain) on guitar, Loz Colbert (Ride) on drums and bassist Mark Crozer (International Jetsetters).
In 2006 five albums were reissued through Rhino Records: Psychocandy, Darklands, Automatic, Honey's Dead and Stoned & Dethroned on July 11, 2006. Each album was released with a DVD containing three promo videos from that particular album.[2]
[edit] Reunion
On January 22, 2007, the band was confirmed as one of the acts for Coachella 2007.[3] They were joined on stage by actress Scarlett Johansson for their April 27, 2007 main-stage performance. At warm up gig on April 26, 2007, in Pomona, California, they were instead joined by Annie Hardy of Giant Drag[4]. On May 21, 2007, the band performed the song "All Things Must Pass" on The Late Show with David Letterman. They also appeared at the Boadilla del Monte (July 13, Madrid, Spain) and Parc del Fòrum (July 14, Barcelona, Spain)[5]. On July 5, they played at Super Bock Super Rock Festival in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Jesus and Mary Chain were confirmed to play at the Connect Music Festival in Inveraray, Argyll, Scotland, appearing on the main stage on August 31, at Electric Picnic in Ireland on the same weekend, at the Rock en Seine music festival in Paris, France, on August the 24th and at the M'era Luna Festival in Germany, and at Summer Sonic held in Japan on the August 9-10 weekend. The band also played on September 7 at the Brixton Carling Academy.[6]
In an interview to Uncut Magazine, Jim Reid announced that a new album by the band is in the works.[7]
The band also plan to release a 4 CD box set entitled "The Power Of Negative Thinking: B-Sides and Rarities" consisting of rarities from throughout their career; including early performances, unheard demos, B-sides and bootleg recordings. Originally reported as having a release date of 11th February 2008 on Rhino Records [8], the set remains unreleased.
The Jesus and Chain's support band of choice for their reunion tour was UK band The Rakes
On 18 March 2008, the band released a studio recording of "All Things Must Pass" on the soundtrack album to the NBC television drama Heroes. It is the first new song to be released by the Jesus and Mary Chain since 1998.
In late March and early April 2008, the band took their reunion tour to Australia, joining the local version of the V Festival with performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
[edit] Cultural references
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- In the film High Fidelity, Jack Black's character berates a customer at Rob's record store for not owning Psychocandy; a similar event takes place in the novel.
- Sofia Coppola used the Mary Chain’s "Just Like Honey" in the closing sequence of her critically acclaimed 2003 film Lost in Translation.
- The film The Crow featured "SnakeDriver" in the soundtrack.
- The John Hughes film "Some Kind of Wonderful" (c.1987) featured the track "The Hardest Walk" from the JAMC.
- In 2005, some six years after the Mary Chain split up, their track "Heat", taken from the Sound of Speed compilation, was used in a television advertising campaign for Coors Beer in the UK.
- Independent filmmaker Gregg Araki is a big fan of the band and their music: he named his movie The Living End after the Mary Chain song of the same name; "Head On" is used in his subsequent film, Totally Fucked Up; "Sometimes Always" and "Penetration" are used in The Doom Generation; and "In The Black" appears in Nowhere.
- The Death Cab for Cutie song "We Looked Like Giants" contains the line, "Do you remember the JAMC" in reference to the Jesus and Mary Chain.
- The Jimmy Eat World song "Authority Song" contains the line "The DJ never has it, JAMC Automatic."
- The Cornelius song "God Only Knows" mentions "Just Like Honey", along with using the song's chorus as the backing vocals during the outro.
- Pixies covered the song "Head On" on their 1991 album Trompe Le Monde.
- Brazillian band Legião Urbana covered the song "Head On" on their MTV Unplugged
- Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields stated that he intended to "sound more like the Jesus and Mary Chain than the Jesus and Mary Chain" on the band's 2008 album Distortion.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
- Psychocandy (1985)
- Darklands (1987)
- Barbed Wire Kisses (1988)
- Automatic (1989)
- Honey's Dead (1992)
- Stoned & Dethroned (1994)
- Munki (1998)
[edit] References
- ^ April Skies - JAMC fansite
- ^ NME - Jesus and Mary Chain
- ^ Pitchfork Media: JAMC to play Coachella
- ^ http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/42857806
- ^ http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/41396/Jesus_and_Mary_Chain_Join_Sis_as_Sister_Vanilla
- ^ The Jesus And Mary Chain to play one-off gig | News | NME.COM
- ^ The Jesus And Mary Chain plan new album | News | NME.COM
- ^ Pitchfork: Rhino Compiling Jesus and Mary Chain Rarities Box
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Discography at Discogs.com
- The Jesus and Mary Chain at MySpace
- The Jesus and Mary Chain at Allmusic
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