The Creatures: Difference between revisions
Carliertwo (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 16: | Line 16: | ||
| Past_members = |
| Past_members = |
||
}} |
}} |
||
'''The Creatures''' were |
'''The Creatures''' were a musical act formed in 1981 as a side-project for [[Siouxsie & the Banshees]] members [[Siouxsie Sioux]] and [[Budgie (drummer)|Budgie]]. They recorded music more based on percussion. |
||
With the dissolution of Siouxsie & the Banshees in 1996, The Creatures graduated from an occasional side project to a full-time concern. They disbanded in 2005. |
With the dissolution of Siouxsie & the Banshees in 1996, The Creatures graduated from an occasional side project to a full-time concern. They disbanded in 2005. |
||
Revision as of 06:04, 28 September 2009
The Creatures |
|---|
The Creatures were a musical act formed in 1981 as a side-project for Siouxsie & the Banshees members Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie. They recorded music more based on percussion.
With the dissolution of Siouxsie & the Banshees in 1996, The Creatures graduated from an occasional side project to a full-time concern. They disbanded in 2005.
The duo released four studio albums : Feast in 1983, Boomerang in 1989, Anima Animus in 1999 and Hai! in 2003.
Their music had been hailed by Jeff Buckley[1] and PJ Harvey.[2]
Biography
Wild Things era (1981)
Singer Siouxsie and drummer Budgie had the idea to create the Creatures while recording the Banshees' Juju album. During one session, they discovered by accident that the association of just the voice and the drums suited to the track "But Not Them". A recording session was organized in the aim to record five songs. This musical project was released under the form of a EP titled Wild Things. Musically, it introduced a much more primitive and drum-driven Banshee sound. The title track was a reworking of a hit by The Troggs and the other numbers were Creatures compositions. The ep reached number 21 in the UK Singles chart and the pair performed "Mad Eyed-Screamer" on Top Of The Pops.
Feast era (1983)
In 1983, The Creatures recorded and released their first full length album Feast. To conceive it, the band decided to determine where to record the album by randomly placing a pin on a map of the world. The result was Hawaii, which led to the featuring of The Lamalani Hula Academy Hawaiian Chanters on some tracks. At the week of its release, the band was on the front cover of both the Melody Maker and the NME.[3] The Melody Maker described Feast as "an album of filtered brilliance, fertile, sensual and erotic"[4] and the NME accentuated "The humours of Sioux's frosty larynx are nakedly outlined against skins of sometimes fabulous quality"[5] The album was also a commercial success, reaching number 17 in the UK Albums Chart. The hit-single "Miss the Girl" took its inspiration from the book Crash by J. G. Ballard. Shortly after its exit from the charts, a follow-up "Right Now" was recorded: it was originally composed by Mel Tormé. The Creatures revamped it by adding a brass section: that became their most successful single, reaching the top fifteen.
Boomerang era (1989)
After a string of successful albums with the Banshees, The Creatures came back six years later. Siouxsie and Budgie went in a stone barn in Jerez, Andalucia, Spain to record Boomerang. Brass arrangements were used on some tracks and Anton Corbijn came to visit them to take pictures in color for the sleeve. The record was critically acclaimed[6] and widely regarded as Siouxsie and Budgie's crowning achievement as The Creatures. NME wrote : "it's a rich and unsettling landscape of exotica".[7] One of the most languorous songs of Boomerang, "Killing Time", was covered live by Jeff Buckley a few years later.[8] The Creatures did their live debut appearance on U.K television and went on tour shortly after for the first time at the beginning of 1990.
Collaboration with John Cale and Eraser-Cut'EP (1997-1998)
A year after Siouxsie & the Banshees disbanded in 1996, the long-time out-of-print Wild Things EP and Feast album were remastered and re-released through the compilation A Bestiary Of.
In February 1998, John Cale was the organizer of the "With A Little Help From My Friends" festival that took place at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. The concert was shown on german national television and featured a song of Siouxsie (made for The Creatures) especially composed for the event and still unreleased, "Murdering Mouth" sung in duet with John Cale. They also premiered a live orchestra version of "I Was Me". During the summer, The Creatures toured with John Cale in the U.S, revealing yet un-released material to their audience.
During that period, Sioux & Budgie created their own label Sioux Records and became an independent act. TheEraser Cut (an anagram of The Creatures) EP, was released in July followed in October by the single "2nd Floor".
Anima Animus era (1999-2002)
Early in 1999, The Creatures released their long awaited Anima Animus, the first studio album in just under a decade. Its urban sound was an important departure from Boomerang 's very organic atmosphere. The record pleased to a strong core of people. The Times wrote : "It's entrancing, hypnotic and inventive".[9] and PJ Harvey selected Anima Animus in her ten favourite albums released in 1999.[10] Other singles "Say" (dedicated to Billy Mackenzie) and "Prettiest Thing" accompanied the release of the album. The song "Another Planet" was included on the soundtrack to the film Lost In Space in a version radically reworked by Juno Reactor. Live albums Zulu (London'98) and Sequins in the Sun (Glastonbury'99) were also released on limited editions via The Creatures website.
In June, The Creatures appeared on Marc Almond's Open All Night : Sioux sang in duet on the track "Threat Of Love". Late 1999 saw the remix album Hybrids, which featured remixes of tracks from Anima Animus and the Eraser Cut EP reworked by a string of artists including The Beloved. During the same period, a compilation of unreleased Anima Animus-era tracks was released as U.S. Retrace. Three one-track CDs ("Murdering Mouth (live)", "Rocket Ship" and "Red Wrapping Paper") were later released to fan club members.
Hai! era (2003-2004)
Siouxsie and Budgie returned with a full-length album Hai! in 2003. The drums sessions were recorded in Japan less than 24 hours after the Banshees had completed their reunion tour Seven Year Itch. Budgie got to fulfill a lifelong ambition to work with the Japanese drummer Leonard Eto, the basis of the album being a spontaneous drum duet between the two. The rest of the sessions were later done at the home studio recording of the Creatures over a period of several months. The single "Godzilla!" was described as "spookily brilliant" by the NME[11] and the reviews were favourable for Hai!.[12] The single "Godzilla!" included the B side "Attack Of the Super Vixens", inspired by Russ Meyer's film Super Vixens.
That same year, Siouxsie pursued collaborations with other musicians. She was asked to be the guest vocalist on the Basement Jaxx's "Cish Cash": she wrote the lyrics and the electronic musicians composed the music for the track. This record was crowned at the 47th Grammy Awards[13]
In 2004, Siouxsie toured for the first time as a solo act but Budgie was still on her sides as drummer and musical arranger. The setlists combined Banshees and Creatures songs. A live DVD called Dreamshow captured the last London concert of September 2004 performed with the Millennia Ensemble. Released in August 2005, this DVD reached the number one position in the UK music DVD charts.
This was the last release made by the pair as Siouxsie announced publicly during an interview with The Sunday Times in 2007 that she and Budgie had divorced.[14] Their musical partnership has been discontinued for the foreseeable future, and thus the Creatures have been formally disbanded.
Siouxsie celebrated her 50th birthday in May 2007, and released the first solo album of her career, MantaRay, to critical acclaim in October 2007.[15]
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album | UK | U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Feast | 17 | — |
| 1990 | Boomerang | — | 197 |
| 1997 | A Bestiary Of (compilation of the 1981-1983 recordings) | — | — |
| 1999 | Anima Animus | 79 | — |
| 1999 | Zulu (live album London'98) (limited edition) | — | — |
| 1999 | Hybrids (remix album) | — | — |
| 2000 | U.S. Retrace (compilation with the "Eraser-Cut" Ep and several B-sides) | — | — |
| 2000 | Sequins in the Sun (live album Glastonbury'99) (limited edition) | — | — |
| 2003 | Hai! | 153 | — |
| 2004 | Tokyo Drum Sessions (Hai! instrumental early version) (limited edition) | — | — |
| 2004 | Hai! (2004 version with 2 B-sides) | — | — |
EPs
| Year | Album | UK | U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Wild Things | 24 | — |
| 1998 | Eraser Cut | — | — |
Singles
| Year | Song | UK singles | U.S. Modern Rock | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | "Mad Eyed Screamer" | 24 | — | Wild Things EP |
| 1983 | "Miss the Girl" | 21 | — | Feast |
| "Right Now" | 14 | — | - | |
| 1989 | "Standing There" | 53 | 4 | Boomerang |
| 1990 | "Fury Eyes" | 81 | 12 | |
| 1998 | "Sad Cunt" | — | — | - |
| "2nd Floor" | 119 | — | Anima Animus | |
| 1999 | "Exterminating Angel" | — | — | |
| "Say" | 72 | — | ||
| "Prettiest Thing" | 91 | — | ||
| 2003 | "Godzilla!" | 53 | — | Hai! |
Sources of the citations
- ^ list of songs covered by jeff buckley. Buckley covered "killing Time"
- ^ Pj Harvey.net entry : 7th January 2000 - PJ selects her Top 10 Albums of 1999. featuring The Creatures with the Lp Anima Animus
- ^ the creatures on the cover of the NME and the Melody Maker in the week of 14/5/83
- ^ Melody Maker, "Steve Sutherland 14/05/83
- ^ NME, Richard Cook, "All Creatures Great And Small,14/05/83
- ^ NME and Melody Maker reviews of Boomerang
- ^ NME 11/11/89 Roger Morton
- ^ list of songs covered by jeff buckley
- ^ The Times, 2 February 1999, The Creatures, Anima Animus review
- ^ Pj Harvey.net entry : 7th January 2000 - PJ selects her Top 10 Albums of 1999
- ^ The Creatures Godzilla NME comment
- ^ Hai! review
- ^ BillBorad.com "Kish Kash" won at the 47th Grammy Awards in the category Dance /electronic
- ^ Siouxsie Sioux is back in bloom
- ^ : Metacritic - Siouxsie - Mantaray (2007) - Reviews
