I can't see much of a Pumpkins/MBV comparison myself...

Gas are one who I think might be 'related' to MBV in the great Venn diagram of things. I doubt if he (Gas aka Wolfgang Voigt) was influenced by MBV per se, but I imagine they just independently came to the same destination: that of hazy, hallucinatory pop ...albeit of rather different kinds.

No-one had an answer re my question about Kevin Shields and Mark Clifford collaborating, so I must assume they didn't. I think I'd better ease off on the coffee.

Long after all the cool kids I know, but I saw MBV play last night.

A couple of thoughts:

The 'holocaust' section of "You Made Me Realise" is strangely calming. I was pretty close to the front, earplugs stuffed in as far as they would go. But after a few minutes of adjustment I could have easily curled up in a corner and fallen asleep.

The immense volume makes the air seem much 'thicker' than usual. I saw MBV a number of times back in the day but this was a totally different experience. I remember they had a flute player (flautist?) on the Loveless tour. That wouldn't work here, I can't imagine how she would have been heard.

The vocals were a touch too quiet. I know MBV are all about buried vocals but you couldn't hear then at all sometimes. Presumably it just wasn't possible to get them any louder.

Bilinda has not aged a day since the late '80s.

My left ear feels very numb this morning.

Squid Ink wrote:

QUOTE:
I remember they had a flute player (flautist?) on the Loveless tour. That wouldn't work here, I can't imagine how she would have been heard.

I'm pretty sure there was a flautist at the date I went to. In fact, wasn't it one of the main pieces of fuel for the fire of those who thought that they were miming alot of it?

Personally, I don't think excessive volume would necessarily interfere with a flute (...unless it was fitted with some kind of contact mic). After all, it functions in a similar way to a human voice and yet the vocal mics were working just fine, it seemed.

No flautist in NYC, unless he/she was off-stage. The vocals were barely audible, which is what made me think a flute might not work. There were definitely backing tracks being used, but I think most of it was live. Colm even fluffed a few of his drum parts. And (more importantly) Bilinda has got short hair now, but still looks lovely.

Excellent news: MBV to complete (and add to) abandoned 90s work.

I cannot wait to hear the sort-of-junglist stuff they've been sitting on for so long.

Looking back, I was slightly talking balls in July. I guess they might just have been listening to Sonic Youth, but I do think 'Cigarette In Your Bed' from the You Made Me Realise EP is pretty much the blueprint for Smashing Pumpkins' sound.