I'm listening to the Cocteau Twins right now and...

[skypilot]

...my heart is breaking. I can't accept the fact the they disbanded. I am jonesing for another Cocteau Twins CD. Life just isn't the same without a new Cocteau Twins CD to look forward to.:-(

[Loonman]

1. "Garlands" is the bomb

I remember when Liz Frazier sang a duet with Ian McCulloch a while ago.

It was when they were both (allegedly)using heroin at the time, so it was pretty amusing. Great song, too.

[skypilot]

2. Right now I'm listening to...

..."Milk and Kisses" which was their last CD:-( . I tend to like their later stuff when they'd mellowed quite a bit and Liz was singing more in her upper register. I have a lot of their earlier works on vinyl, including "Garlands" but I am currently wearing out "Milk and Kisses".

By, the way I never knew that they had been heroin addicts.

[Loonman]

4. Nothing proven

Mostly rumors in the British music press.

[a_random_joel]

3. I really like them...

Good stuff.

Heaven or Las Vegas especially.

[redqueen]

5. I'll second that

I didn't know they'd disbanded. :(

[skypilot]

6. Yeah

I think Elizabeth had a baby too.

[stepnw1f]

7. I'm so glad...

to see people here like Cocteau Twins. I have most of their stuff. Pearly Dew Drops was the very first Cocteau song I remember hearing. Sad to see hear that they just disbanded. Bummer.

[skypilot]

8. They were one of the few bands..

...whose music I'd buy without hearing it first. I was rarely disappointed. I think I've bought everything of theirs that is available in the US.

[sendero]

40. And who else...

... could sing about a BJ and make it sound so romantic :)

[a_random_joel]

47. Which song?

Just curious...

[sendero]

48. I believe ...

... that Pearly Dewdrops Drops is. Its easier to 'get' if you hear the vinyl version which has a prelude. But it's one of the few (until Heaven or Las Vegas) where there were some actual lyrics.

But I realize that the interpretation of any CT song is iffy at best so it could be my own prurient thoughts at work :evilgrin:

[no name no slogan]

45. Actually, they broke up a few years ago

but still unfortunate :(.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. Treasure is one of the few absolutely perfect records.

[no name no slogan]

44. Hear Hear!

That's my all-time favorite. Side one (first five songs) is one of the most perfect progressions of music ever, IMHO.

[Lexingtonian]

10. Victorialand

excellent for those late special evenings back then.... Blue Bell Knoll is still on my wishlist. Elizabeth Fraser's voice was just amazing.

[girl gone mad]

11. I love Cocteau Twins.

My husband got me hooked on them. He still wears his CT concert t-shirt with lots of holes in it from the laundry.

I remember playing them in the car one day and my girlfriends were asking me "what is she singing?" LOL

[skypilot]

13. "What is she singing?"

When I first heard them I thought she was singing in Japanese. When a friend told me it was English I didn't believe him. A couple years ago I came upon a website where some brave and persistent soul had put together a lyric sheet simply by listening to the songs over and over again and deciphering what she was saying. I printed out the lyrics for "Milk and Kisses" and they seem to be spot on. I don't think the site is still there though.

[redqueen]

21. That's too bad

I never cared about what she was singing, because the sound was so beautiful anyway. I even thought sometimes that if I found out and didn't like the lyrics it would be disappointing, so I never tried to find out.

I would have liked to have seen that site though.

[skypilot]

23. D'Oh!!!

I just remembered. It wasn't the lyrics to "Milk and Kisses" it was the lyrics to "Four Calendar Cafe". And you know what, I only looked at the lyrics to ONE song. They weren't terrible. I remember them being kind of romantic. But I think deep down I don't want to press my luck so I haven't even read the rest of the lyrics. I do still have them lying around though.

[MercutioATC]

24. I thought it was Celtic....

...shows what I know.

[skypilot]

27. Some of it might be.

But incredibly enough some of it is actually English.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

29. It's not Celtic, it's Gaelic, and Liz can't speak a word of it.

There's only about 0.1% of Scottish people who can.

[MercutioATC]

31. Thanks for the clarification...I knew "Celtic" didn't look right.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

33. It's actually e-mail spam language

here's some examples from my in-box. Tell me these aren't Cocteaus lyrics.

battle downwind calligraph hammerhead conceive

bootes example mammalian objet anglican

burlesque phthalate clip centrist

gigabit hiroshima hyperbola

[skypilot]

34. Could it be Elizabeth???

Please oh please!!! Speak to us Liz!!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

35. gigabit hiroshima hyperbola

can't you just hear her singing that?

[skypilot]

36. You know what?

I CAN!! If I were a musician I think I could even come up with the music for her.

[a_random_joel]

46. NO! That sounds more like Skinny Puppy

Get your abstract lyrical sources straight, will ya?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

26. Liz just made stuff up, it's like little kid language,

she chooses words that sound good, irrespective of connotation.

[sendero]

38. Exactly...

... just phonetic sounds. And few singers in any language can convery what her gibberish did.

[bif]

12. They're just another...

...incredible 4AD band. I've yet to hear a 4AD band I didn't like. The Red House Painters are another of my favorite bands. Puse This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance.

[skypilot]

14. 4AD

Wasn't Bauhaus on the 4AD label for awhile?

[Loonman]

15. Yes

Oddly enough, the 4AD label was formed to scout obscure bands, get them recorded, and when they got rolling to move them onto the Beggar's Banquet label(which owns 4AD).

Bauhaus was the only band to actually do this, and BB decided 4AD could stand on it's own, so they let it.

[a_random_joel]

17. Haha Loony

Posted at the same time.

[Loonman]

28. Synchronicity

n/t

[a_random_joel]

16. Yes

Beggars Banquet was a subsidiary.

[a_random_joel]

18. 4AD is great

I also like Wolfgang Press and Xymox. Newer stuff like Thievery Corporation is good too.

And even the old dance tune Pump up the Volume was originally released on 4AD!

[SnowGoose]

22. And don't forget the Pixies and Modern English (melt w/ you).

eom

[redqueen]

25. I feel so stupid

I never noticed all these bands were connected.

Thanks for starting Modern English in my mental jukebox, btw. :)

[a_random_joel]

42. Lyrics info here

http://www.etherweave.com/cocteautwins/lyrics/index.html

FYI

[redqueen]

19. OMG Dead Can Dance

I thought I was the only person who knew who they were. :)

[sendero]

39. I'm a huge DCD fan also..

... there is no way to describe how incredible most of their music is.

[redqueen]

41. I'm not alone!

:7

yay!

[SnowGoose]

20. How about His Name Is Alive?

Here's the thing about them, they're every bit as enigmatic and "etherial" as any other 4AD band, but also just plain nice (friendly to fans, approachable, etc).

BTW, I waited behind the venue for the Cocteau Twins after a concert, and they were all extremely personable as well, and spent a lot of time signing things and chatting with fans. Come to think of it, DCD were pretty friendly too. They actually gave a friend of mine a ride on their tour bus because he didn't have a way back to Michigan from Boston. Can you believe that? I wouldn't, except that I saw it myself.

Ahhh the heady days of early 4AD.

Anybody have that first set of 23-Envelope artwork posters?

[Loonman]

30. 4AD also had an office in NYC for a while

They might have one still, but when they opened their first office in the US they had one staffer, and one of the first American bands they signed was Throwing Muses.


I had the luxury of seeing Throwing Muses back in the 80s, it was the last show with their original line up, the bass player, Leslie, was leaving the band to get married.

Tanya Donnelly is so hot when you're 12 inches away from her.

Very short, too.

[underpants]

32. No sex threads

:bounce:

[sendero]

37. The Cocteau Twins...

... were easily my favorite band of the eighties. But, by the time they hit Four Calendar Cafe, they were over IMHO.

But, up until that time, every record they did was at least very good, and some are just sublimely great. They started in 1981 I believe, so their reign lasted over 10 years. Few recording acts pull that off.

Liz is still singing, with Massive Attack and others. Robin released a record not long ago. But the truth is, they were greater than the sum of their parts and Robin's and Liz's other works are not compelling to me.

Anyway, listen to Garlands, Treasure, Blue Bell Knoll, Victorialand, Heaven or Las Vegas or that funky compilation called the Pink Opaque. And if you don't have the EP box set, get it :)

They really did a lot of great stuff in those 10 years!

[no name no slogan]

43. Hey, we could try to get them on VH1's "Bands Reunited"

There's a fairly decent new show on VH1 I've been following called "Bands Reunited". They seek out the members of bands from the 80s, and try to reunite them for a one-off gig in LA or London. So far, they've succeeded with Berlin, A Flock of Seagulls, Romeo Void, Kajagoogoo, and a couple more. They've only bombed on three(Extreme, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Squeeze-- who were ALMOST reunited).

IIRC, they're polling for other bands to reunite on their website (VH1.com). I know that Robin and Liz are probably on at least speaking terms (they have a child together I think), and Simon (the bass player) I would guess is still around. Hey, it may be worth a shot!

I spent a large part of the late 80s/early 90s playing guitar in the "Cocteau Style" with a couple different bands and I'm still a huge fan. "Treasure" is the record that got me through my freshman year of college. Also, big props for the "Tiny Dynamite" and "Echoes in a Shallow Bay" discs as well.

:D

[sendero]

49. One more thing...

... there was a short-lived artist on 4ad named Swallow. It was a male-female duo. They put out 1 album of excellent noise pop slightly reminiscent of CT (and later an album of remixes of the same songs) and then disappeared.

I loved the record, called "Blow" (yeah, pretty cheesy) and it is a gem in my noise-pop collection. Get some on Kazaa or something :)