Niki N. Phaser

           For all of you interested in the iconic all-girl punk-glam pioneers, The Runways, you should clear your schedule for next spring. March 2010 will see the premiere of Floria Sigismondi’s biopic about the rise and fall of the short-lived phenomenon which was The Runaways. If you know what I’m talking about, you also probably know that Kristen Stewart will be playing Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning, Cherrie Currie, with Michael Shannon as the controversial manager of the band, Kim Fowley. The film is directed and written by Italian multi-dimensional artist, Floria Sigismondi. She knows her way around the music world, being the author of music videos for acts like The Cure (remember The End of the World), Sigur Ros, Marylin Manson, and plenty of others. She’s also responsible for the cool video for Bowie’s Little Wonder. Here’s a taste of how her unique vision fits a biopic:

RUNAWAY here

               The Cure are known for doing things a bit differently than everyone else and this time they are breaking the -0/-5 anniversary cliché. They are choosing to celebrate the 21st birthday of their 1989 tour de force, Disintegration, by releasing a remastered anniversary edition. It will hit stores in the spring of 2010.

              Of course, the new edition will come with additional gifts, meaning the new Deluxe Disintegration will be a 3 cd affair, even though, truth be told, the bonus material is really just for avid collectors. It includes a cd of rarities from the 88-89 period (intrumental demos, home demos, rough mixes, etc.) and a second cd of a remixed live performance at the Wembley Arena from 1989. Also, 2010 promises more remastered goodies from The Cure, including a Mixed Up 2 album. There is also a hint of a DVD with their In Orange gig, which was released as a VHS by PolyGram in 1988 and begins with a dramatic unveiling of Robert Smith’s trimmed haircut at the time. Classic.

I am sad to say and maybe some of you are sad to admit that The Cure’s previous album, The Cure (2004), should have been their last. It was one of those rare cases when a collection of new material is as good as the band’s best of. It had everything, from catchy poppy singles, like The End of the World and Taking Off to pain-filled poems like Lost and The Promise. The agent of their ever present dark side is a track called Anniversary and it could be described as One Hundred Years in slow-motion. It’s filled with the Cure-like phaser effects and delayed piano keys and echoes in some apocaliptic distance. It grows and grows and you just get tangled in all the sounds as if in a spider web (you get the reference, right?). We could almost call it music as a fit of some disease that causes amnesia. The lyrics are as ambiguous as ever when Robert Smith is in his dark moods. You never really know if the woman he’s talking to is alive or dead. The beginning of each verse with the line “A year ago today/tonight” doesn’t offer to much hope for the first option. The end, “I never let you go”, suggests a feeling of not moving on… Anyway, it’s not really about words with this one, it’s about the atmosphere. The music is uplifting, yes, but more in the “my spirit is going to Heaven because I’m dead” sense of the word.

LISTEN TO LIVE VERSION HERE